diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3606-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 384313 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3606-h/3606-h.htm | 21234 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3606.txt | 17436 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3606.zip | bin | 0 -> 379124 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/ntnna10.txt | 17087 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/ntnna10.zip | bin | 0 -> 378267 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/ntnna11.txt | 17176 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/ntnna11.zip | bin | 0 -> 385327 bytes |
11 files changed, 72949 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3606-h.zip b/3606-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c939e3f --- /dev/null +++ b/3606-h.zip diff --git a/3606-h/3606-h.htm b/3606-h/3606-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fdf815a --- /dev/null +++ b/3606-h/3606-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,21234 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins + +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: Antonina + +Author: Wilkie Collins + +Posting Date: April 21, 2009 [EBook #3606] +Release Date: February 26, 2007 +First Posted: June 12, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTONINA *** + + + + +Produced by Bronwyn Margaret Evans. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +ANTONINA +</H1> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +OR, THE FALL OF ROME +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +WILKIE COLLINS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREFACE +</H3> + +<P> +In preparing to compose a fiction founded on history, the writer of +these pages thought it no necessary requisite of such a work that the +principal characters appearing in it should be drawn from the +historical personages of the period. On the contrary, he felt that +some very weighty objections attached to this plan of composition. He +knew well that it obliged a writer to add largely from invention to +what was actually known—to fill in with the colouring of romantic +fancy the bare outline of historic fact—and thus to place the +novelist's fiction in what he could not but consider most unfavourable +contrast to the historian's truth. He was further by no means +convinced that any story in which historical characters supplied the +main agents, could be preserved in its fit unity of design and +restrained within its due limits of development, without some +falsification or confusion of historical dates—a species of poetical +licence of which he felt no disposition to avail himself, as it was his +main anxiety to make his plot invariably arise and proceed out of the +great events of the era exactly in the order in which they occurred. +</P> + +<P> +Influenced, therefore, by these considerations, he thought that by +forming all his principal characters from imagination, he should be +able to mould them as he pleased to the main necessities of the story; +to display them, without any impropriety, as influenced in whatever +manner appeared most strikingly interesting by its minor incidents; and +further, to make them, on all occasions, without trammel or hindrance, +the practical exponents of the spirit of the age, of all the various +historical illustrations of the period, which the Author's researches +among conflicting but equally important authorities had enabled him to +garner up, while, at the same time, the appearance of verisimilitude +necessary to an historical romance might, he imagined, be successfully +preserved by the occasional introduction of the living characters of +the era, in those portions of the plot comprising events with which +they had been remarkably connected. +</P> + +<P> +On this plan the recent work has been produced. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +To the fictitious characters alone is committed the task of +representing the spirit of the age. The Roman emperor, Honorius, and +the Gothic king, Alaric, mix but little personally in the business of +the story—only appearing in such events, and acting under such +circumstances, as the records of history strictly authorise; but exact +truth in respect to time, place, and circumstance is observed in every +historical event introduced in the plot, from the period of the march +of the Gothic invaders over the Alps to the close of the first +barbarian blockade of Rome. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS. +</H2> + +<H4> +CHAPTER 1. <A HREF="#chap01">GOISVINTHA.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 2. <A HREF="#chap02">THE COURT.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 3. <A HREF="#chap03">ROME.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 4. <A HREF="#chap04">THE CHURCH.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 5. <A HREF="#chap05">ANTONINA.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 6. <A HREF="#chap06">AN APPRENTICESHIP TO THE TEMPLE.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 7. <A HREF="#chap07">THE BED-CHAMBER.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 8. <A HREF="#chap08">THE GOTHS.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 9. <A HREF="#chap09">THE TWO INTERVIEWS.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 10. <A HREF="#chap10">THE RIFT IN THE WALL.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 11. <A HREF="#chap11">GOISVINTHA'S RETURN.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 12. <A HREF="#chap12">THE PASSAGE OF THE WALL.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 13. <A HREF="#chap13">THE HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 14. <A HREF="#chap14">THE FAMINE.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 15. <A HREF="#chap15">THE CITY AND THE GODS.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 16. <A HREF="#chap16">LOVE MEETINGS.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 17. <A HREF="#chap17">THE HUNS.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 18. <A HREF="#chap18">THE FARM-HOUSE.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 19. <A HREF="#chap19">THE GUARDIAN RESTORED.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 20. <A HREF="#chap20">THE BREACH REPASSED.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 21. <A HREF="#chap21">FATHER AND CHILD.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 22. <A HREF="#chap22">THE BANQUET OF FAMINE.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 23. <A HREF="#chap23">THE LAST EFFORTS OF THE BESIEGED.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 24. <A HREF="#chap24">THE GRAVE AND THE CAMP.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 25. <A HREF="#chap25">THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 26. <A HREF="#chap26">RETRIBUTION.</A> +<BR> +CHAPTER 27. <A HREF="#chap27">THE VIGIL OF HOPE.</A> +<BR> +THE CONCLUSION. <A HREF="#chap28">'UBI THESAURUS IBI COR.'</A> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 1. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +GOISVINTHA. +</H3> + +<P> +The mountains forming the range of Alps which border on the +north-eastern confines of Italy, were, in the autumn of the year 408, +already furrowed in numerous directions by the tracks of the invading +forces of those northern nations generally comprised under the +appellation of Goths. +</P> + +<P> +In some places these tracks were denoted on either side by fallen +trees, and occasionally assumed, when half obliterated by the ravages +of storms, the appearance of desolate and irregular marshes. In other +places they were less palpable. Here, the temporary path was entirely +hidden by the incursions of a swollen torrent; there, it was faintly +perceptible in occasional patches of soft ground, or partly traceable +by fragments of abandoned armour, skeletons of horses and men, and +remnants of the rude bridges which had once served for passage across a +river or transit over a precipice. +</P> + +<P> +Among the rocks of the topmost of the range of mountains immediately +overhanging the plains of Italy, and presenting the last barrier to the +exertions of a traveller or the march of an invader, there lay, at the +beginning of the fifth century, a little lake. Bounded on three sides +by precipices, its narrow banks barren of verdure or habitations, and +its dark and stagnant waters brightened but rarely by the presence of +the lively sunlight, this solitary spot—at all times +mournful—presented, on the autumn of the day when our story commences, +an aspect of desolation at once dismal to the eye and oppressive to the +heart. +</P> + +<P> +It was near noon; but no sun appeared in the heaven. The dull clouds, +monotonous in colour and form, hid all beauty in the firmament, and +shed heavy darkness on the earth. Dense, stagnant vapours clung to the +mountain summits; from the drooping trees dead leaves and rotten +branches sunk, at intervals, on the oozy soil, or whirled over the +gloomy precipice; and a small steady rain fell, slow and +unintermitting, upon the deserts around. Standing upon the path which +armies had once trodden, and which armies were still destined to tread, +and looking towards the solitary lake, you heard, at first, no sound +but the regular dripping of the rain-drops from rock to rock; you saw +no prospect but the motionless waters at your feet, and the dusky crags +which shadowed them from above. When, however, impressed by the +mysterious loneliness of the place, the eye grew more penetrating and +the ear more attentive, a cavern became apparent in the precipices +round the lake; and, in the intervals of the heavy rain-drops, were +faintly perceptible the sounds of a human voice. +</P> + +<P> +The mouth of the cavern was partly concealed by a large stone, on which +were piled some masses of rotten brushwood, as if for the purpose of +protecting any inhabitant it might contain from the coldness of the +atmosphere without. Placed at the eastward boundary of the lake, this +strange place of refuge commanded a view not only of the rugged path +immediately below it, but of a large plot of level ground at a short +distance to the west, which overhung a second and lower range of rocks. +From this spot might be seen far beneath, on days when the atmosphere +was clear, the olive grounds that clothed the mountain's base, and +beyond, stretching away to the distant horizon, the plains of fated +Italy, whose destiny of defeat and shame was now hastening to its dark +and fearful accomplishment. +</P> + +<P> +The cavern, within, was low and irregular in form. From its rugged +walls the damp oozed forth upon its floor of decayed moss. Lizards and +noisome animals had tenanted its comfortless recesses undisturbed, +until the period we have just described, when their miserable rights +were infringed on for the first time by human intruders. +</P> + +<P> +A woman crouched near the entrance of the place. More within, on the +driest part of the ground, lay a child asleep. Between them were +scattered some withered branches and decayed leaves, which were +arranged as if to form a fire. In many parts this scanty collection of +fuel was slightly blackened; but, wetted as it was by the rain, all +efforts to light it permanently had evidently been fruitless. +</P> + +<P> +The woman's head was bent forwards, and her face, hid in her hands, +rested on her knees. At intervals she muttered to herself in a hoarse, +moaning voice. A portion of her scanty clothing had been removed to +cover the child. What remained on her was composed, partly of skins of +animals, partly of coarse cotton cloth. In many places this miserable +dress was marked with blood, and her long, flaxen hair bore upon its +dishevelled locks the same ominous and repulsive stain. +</P> + +<P> +The child seemed scarcely four years of age, and showed on his pale, +thin face all the peculiarities of his Gothic origin. His features +seemed to have been once beautiful, both in expression and form; but a +deep wound, extending the whole length of his cheek, had now deformed +him for ever. He shivered and trembled in his sleep, and every now and +then mechanically stretched forth his little arms towards the dead cold +branches that were scattered before him. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly a large stone became detached from the rock in a distant part +of the cavern, and fell noisily to the ground. At this sound he woke +with a scream—raised himself—endeavoured to advance towards the +woman, and staggered backward against the side of the cave. A second +wound in the leg had wreaked that destruction on his vigour which the +first had effected on his beauty. He was a cripple. +</P> + +<P> +At the instant of his awakening the woman had started up. She now +raised him from the ground, and taking some herbs from her bosom, +applied them to his wounded cheek. By this action her dress became +discomposed: it was stiff at the top with coagulated blood, which had +evidently flowed from a cut in her neck. +</P> + +<P> +All her attempts to compose the child were in vain; he moaned and wept +piteously, muttering at intervals his disjointed exclamations of +impatience at the coldness of the place and the agony of his recent +wounds. Speechless and tearless the wretched woman looked vacantly +down on his face. There was little difficulty in discerning from that +fixed, distracted gaze the nature of the tie that bound the mourning +woman to the suffering boy. The expression of rigid and awful despair +that lowered in her fixed, gloomy eyes, the livid paleness that +discoloured her compressed lips, the spasms that shook her firm, +commanding form, mutely expressing in the divine eloquence of human +emotion that between the solitary pair there existed the most intimate +of earth's relationships—the connection of mother and child. +</P> + +<P> +For some time no change occurred in the woman's demeanour. At last, as +if struck by some sudden suspicion, she rose, and clasping the child in +one arm, displaced with the other the brushwood at the entrance of her +place of refuge, cautiously looking forth on all that the mists left +visible of the western landscape. After a short survey she drew back +as if reassured by the unbroken solitude of the place, and turning +towards the lake, looked down upon the black waters at her feet. +</P> + +<P> +'Night has succeeded to night,' she muttered gloomily, 'and has brought +no succour to my body, and no hope to my heart! Mile on mile have I +journeyed, and danger is still behind, and loneliness for ever before. +The shadow of death deepens over the boy; the burden of anguish grows +weightier than I can bear. For me, friends are murdered, defenders are +distant, possessions are lost. The God of the Christian priests has +abandoned us to danger and deserted us in woe. It is for me to end the +struggle for us both. Our last refuge has been in this place—our +sepulchre shall be here as well!' +</P> + +<P> +With one last look at the cold and comfortless sky, she advanced to the +very edge of the lake's precipitous bank. Already the child was raised +in her arms, and her body bent to accomplish successfully the fatal +spring, when a sound in the east—faint, distant, and fugitive—caught +her ear. In an instant her eye brightened, her chest heaved, her cheek +flushed. She exerted the last relics of her wasted strength to gain a +prominent position upon a ledge of the rocks behind her, and waited in +an agony of expectation for a repetition of that magic sound. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In a moment more she heard it again—for the child, stupefied with +terror at the action that had accompanied her determination to plunge +with him into the lake, now kept silence, and she could listen +undisturbed. To unpractised ears the sound that so entranced her would +have been scarcely audible. Even the experienced traveller would have +thought it nothing more than the echo of a fallen stone among the rocks +in the eastward distance. But to her it was no unimportant sound, for +it gave the welcome signal of deliverance and delight. +</P> + +<P> +As the hour wore on, it came nearer and nearer, tossed about by the +sportive echoes, and now clearly betraying that its origin was, as she +had at first divined, the note of the Gothic trumpet. Soon the distant +music ceased, and was succeeded by another sound, low and rumbling, as +of an earthquake afar off or a rising thunderstorm, and changing, ere +long, to a harsh confused noise, like the rustling of a mighty wind +through whole forests of brushwood. +</P> + +<P> +At this instant the woman lost all command over herself; her former +patience and caution deserted her; reckless of danger, she placed the +child upon the ledge on which she had been standing; and, though +trembling in every limb, succeeded in mounting so much higher on the +crag as to gain a fissure near the top of the rock, which commanded an +uninterrupted view of the vast tracts of uneven ground leading in an +easterly direction to the next range of precipices and ravines. +</P> + +<P> +One after another the long minutes glided on, and, though much was +still audible, nothing was yet to be seen. At length the shrill sound +of the trumpet again rang through the dull, misty air, and the next +instant the advance guard of an army of Goths emerged from the distant +woods. +</P> + +<P> +Then, after an interval, the multitudes of the main body thronged +through every outlet in the trees, and spread in dusky masses over the +desert ground that lay between the woods and the rocks about the +borders of the lake. The front ranks halted, as if to communicate with +the crowds of the rearguard and the stragglers among the baggage +waggons, who still poured forth, apparently in interminable hosts, from +the concealment of the distant trees. The advanced troops, evidently +with the intention of examining the roads, still marched rapidly on, +until they gained the foot of the ascent leading to the crags to which +the woman still clung, and from which, with eager attention, she still +watched their movements. +</P> + +<P> +Placed in a situation of the extremest peril, her strength was her only +preservative against the danger of slipping from her high and narrow +elevation. Hitherto the moral excitement of expectation had given her +the physical power necessary to maintain her position; but just as the +leaders of the guard arrived at the cavern, her over-wrought energies +suddenly deserted her; her hands relaxed their grasp; she tottered, and +would have sunk backwards to instant destruction, had not the skins +wrapped about her bosom and waist become entangled with a point of one +of the jagged rocks immediately around her. Fortunately—for she could +utter no cry—the troops halted at this instant to enable their horses +to gain breath. Two among them at once perceived her position and +detected her nation. They mounted the rocks; and, while one possessed +himself of the child, the other succeeded in rescuing the mother and +bearing her safely to the ground. +</P> + +<P> +The snorting of horses, the clashing of weapons, the confusion of loud, +rough voices, which now startled the native silence of the solitary +lake, and which would have bewildered and overwhelmed most persons in +the woman's exhausted condition, seemed, on the contrary, to reassure +her feelings and reanimate her powers. She disengaged herself from her +preserver's support, and taking her child in her arms, advanced towards +a man of gigantic stature, whose rich armour sufficiently announced +that his position in the army was one of command. +</P> + +<P> +'I am Goisvintha,' said she, in a firm, calm voice—'sister to +Hermanric. I have escaped from the massacre of the hostages of +Aquileia with one child. Is my brother with the army of the king?' +</P> + +<P> +This declaration produced a marked change in the bystanders. The looks +of indifference or curiosity which they had at first cast on the +fugitive, changed to the liveliest expression of wonder and respect. +The chieftain whom she had addressed raised the visor of his helmet so +as to uncover his face, answered her question in the affirmative, and +ordered two soldiers to conduct her to the temporary encampment of the +main army in the rear. As she turned to depart, an old man advanced, +leaning on his long, heavy sword, and accosted her thus— +</P> + +<P> +'I am Withimer, whose daughter was left hostage with the Romans in +Aquileia. Is she of the slain or of the escaped?' +</P> + +<P> +'Her bones rot under the city walls,' was the answer. 'The Romans made +of her a feast for the dogs.' +</P> + +<P> +No word or tear escaped the old warrior. He turned in the direction of +Italy; but, as he looked downwards towards the plains, his brow +lowered, and his hands tightened mechanically round the hilt of his +enormous weapon. +</P> + +<P> +The same gloomy question was propounded to Goisvintha by the two men +who guided her to the army that had been asked by their aged comrade. +It received the same terrible answer, which was borne with the same +stern composure, and followed by the same ominous glance in the +direction of Italy, as in the instance of the veteran Withimer. +</P> + +<P> +Leading the horse that carried the exhausted woman with the utmost +care, and yet with wonderful rapidity, down the paths which they had so +recently ascended, the men in a short space of time reached the place +where the army had halted, and displayed to Goisvintha, in all the +majesty of numbers and repose, the vast martial assemblage of the +warriors of the North. +</P> + +<P> +No brightness gleamed from their armour; no banners waved over their +heads; no music sounded among their ranks. Backed by the dreary woods, +which still disgorged unceasing additions to the warlike multitude +already encamped; surrounded by the desolate crags which showed dim, +wild, and majestic through the darkness of the mist; covered with the +dusky clouds which hovered motionless over the barren mountain tops, +and poured their stormy waters on the uncultivated plains—all that the +appearance of the Goths had of solemnity in itself was in awful harmony +with the cold and mournful aspect that the face of Nature had assumed. +Silent—menacing—dark,—the army looked the fit embodiment of its +leader's tremendous purpose—the subjugation of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +Conducting Goisvintha quickly through the front files of warriors, her +guides, pausing at a spot of ground which shelved upwards at right +angles with the main road from the woods, desired her to dismount; and +pointing to the group that occupied the place, said, 'Yonder is Alaric +the king, and with him is Hermanric thy brother.' +</P> + +<P> +At whatever point of view it could have been regarded, the assemblage +of persons thus indicated to Goisvintha must have arrested inattention +itself. Near a confused mass of weapons, scattered on the ground, +reclined a group of warriors apparently listening to the low, muttered +conversation of three men of great age, who rose above them, seated on +pieces of rock, and whose long white hair, rough skin dresses, and lean +tottering forms appeared in strong contrast with the iron-clad and +gigantic figures of their auditors beneath. Above the old men, on the +highroad, was one of Alaric's waggons; and on the heaps of baggage +piled against its clumsy wheels had been chosen resting-place of the +future conqueror of Rome. The top of the vehicle seemed absolutely +teeming with a living burden. Perched in every available nook and +corner were women and children of all ages, and weapons and live stock +of all varieties. Now, a child—lively, mischievous, +inquisitive—peered forth over the head of a battering-ram. Now, a +lean, hungry sheep advanced his inquiring nostrils sadly to the open +air, and displayed by the movement the head of a withered old woman +pillowed on his woolly flanks. Here, appeared a young girl struggling, +half entombed in shields. There, gasped an emaciated camp-follower, +nearly suffocated in heaps of furs. The whole scene, with its +background of great woods, drenched in a vapour of misty rain, with its +striking contrasts at one point and its solemn harmonies at another, +presented a vast combination of objects that either startled or awed—a +gloomy conjunction of the menacing and the sublime. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Bidding Goisvintha wait near the waggon, one of her conductors +approached and motioned aside a young man standing near the king. As +the warrior rose to obey the demand, he displayed, with all the +physical advantages of his race, and ease and elasticity of movement +unusual among the men of his nation. At the instant when he joined the +soldier who had accosted him, his face was partially concealed by an +immense helmet, crowned with a boar's head, the mouth of which, forced +open at death, gaped wide, as if still raging for prey. But the man +had scarcely stated his errand, when he started violently, removed the +grim appendage of war, and hastened bare-headed to the side of the +waggon where Goisvintha awaited his approach. +</P> + +<P> +The instant he was beheld by the woman, she hastened to meet him; +placed the wounded child in his arms, and greeted him with these +words:— +</P> + +<P> +'Your brother served in the armies of Rome when our people were at +peace with the Empire. Of his household and his possessions this is all +that the Romans have left!' +</P> + +<P> +She ceased, and for an instant the brother and sister regarded each +other in touching and expressive silence. Though, in addition to the +general characteristics of country, the countenances of the two +naturally bore the more particular evidences of community of blood, all +resemblance between them at this instant—so wonderful is the power of +expression over feature—had utterly vanished. The face and manner of +the young man (he had numbered only twenty years) expressed a deep +sorrow, manly in its stern tranquility, sincere in its perfect +innocence of display. As he looked on the child, his blue +eyes—bright, piercing, and lively—softened like a woman's; his lips, +hardly hidden by his short beard, closed and quivered; and his chest +heaved under the armour that lay upon its noble proportions. There was +in this simple, speechless, tearless melancholy—this exquisite +consideration of triumphant strength for suffering weakness—something +almost sublime; opposed as it was to the emotions of malignity and +despair that appeared in Goisvintha's features. The ferocity that +gleamed from her dilated, glaring eyes, the sinister markings that +appeared round her pale and parted lips, the swelling of the large +veins, drawn to their extremest point of tension on her lofty forehead, +so distorted her countenance, that the brother and sister, as they +stood together, seemed in expression to have changed sexes for the +moment. From the warrior came pity for the sufferer; from the mother, +indignation for the offence. +</P> + +<P> +Arousing himself from his melancholy contemplation of the child, and as +yet answering not a word to Goisvintha, Hermanric mounted the waggon, +and placing the last of his sister's offspring in the arms of a +decrepid old woman, who sat brooding over some bundles of herbs spread +out upon her lap, addressed her thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'These wounds are from the Romans. Revive the child, and you shall be +rewarded from the spoils of Rome.' +</P> + +<P> +'Ha! ha! ha!' chuckled the crone; 'Hermanric is an illustrious warrior, +and shall be obeyed. Hermanric is great, for his arm can slay; but +Brunechild is greater than he, for her cunning can cure!' +</P> + +<P> +As if anxious to verify this boast before the warrior's eyes, the old +woman immediately began the preparation of the necessary dressings from +her store of herbs; but Hermanric waited not to be a witness of her +skill. With one final look at the pale, exhausted child, he slowly +descended from the waggon, and approaching Goisvintha, drew her towards +a sheltered position near the ponderous vehicle. Here he seated +himself by her side, prepared to listen with the deepest attention to +her recital of the scenes of terror and suffering through which she had +so recently passed. +</P> + +<P> +'You,' she began, 'born while our nation was at peace; transported from +the field of war to those distant provinces where tranquility still +prevailed; preserved throughout your childhood from the chances of +battle; advanced to the army in your youth, only when its toils are +past and its triumphs are already at hand—you alone have escaped the +miseries of our people, to partake in the glory of their approaching +revenge. +</P> + +<P> +'Hardly had a year passed since you had been removed from the +settlements of the Goths when I wedded Priulf. The race of triflers to +whom he was then allied, spite of their Roman haughtiness, deferred to +him in their councils, and confessed among their legions that he was +brave. I saw myself with joy the wife of a warrior of renown; I +believed, in my pride, that I was destined to be the mother of a race +of heroes; when suddenly there came news to us that the Emperor +Theodosius was dead. Then followed anarchy among the people of the +soil, and outrages on the liberties of their allies, the Goths. Ere +long the call to arms arose among our nation. Soon our waggons of war +were rolled across the frozen Danube; our soldiers quitted the Roman +camp; our husbandmen took their weapons from their cottage walls; we +that were women prepared with our children to follow our husbands to +the field; and Alaric, the king, came forth as the leader of our hosts. +</P> + +<P> +'We marched upon the territories of the Greeks. But how shall I tell +you of the events of those years of war that followed our invasion; of +the glory of our victories; of the hardships of our defences; of the +miseries of our retreats; of the hunger that we vanquished; of the +diseases that we endured; of the shameful peace that was finally +ratified, against the wishes of our king! How shall I tell of all +this, when my thoughts are on the massacre from which I have just +escaped—when these first evils, though once remembered in anguish, +are, even now, forgotten in the superior horrors that ensued! +</P> + +<P> +'The truce was made. Alaric departed with the remnant of his army, and +encamped at AEmona, on the confines of that land which he had already +invaded, and which he is now prepared to conquer. Between our king and +Stilicho, the general of the Romans, passed many messages, for the +leaders disputed on the terms of the peace that should be finally +ordained. Meanwhile, as an earnest of the Gothic faith, bands of our +warriors, and among them Priulf, were despatched into Italy to be +allies once more of the legions of Rome, and with them they took their +wives and their children, to be detained as hostages in the cities +throughout the land. +</P> + +<P> +'I and my children were conducted to Aquileia. In a dwelling within +the city we were lodged with our possessions. It was night when I took +leave of Priulf, my husband, at the gates. I watched him as he +departed with the army, and, when the darkness hid him from my eyes, I +re-entered the town; from which I am the only woman of our nation who +has escaped alive.' +</P> + +<P> +As she pronounced these last words, Goisvintha's manner, which had +hitherto been calm and collected, began to change: she paused abruptly +in her narrative, her head sunk upon her breast, her frame quivered as +if convulsed with violent agony. When she turned towards Hermanric +after an interval of silence to address him again, the same malignant +expression lowered over her countenance that had appeared on it when +she presented to him her wounded child; her voice became broken, +hoarse, and unfeminine; and pressing closely to the young man's side, +she laid her trembling fingers on his arm, as if to bespeak his most +undivided attention. +</P> + +<P> +'Time grew on,' she continued, 'and still there came no tidings that +the peace was finally secured. We, that were hostages, lived separate +from the people of the town; for we felt enmity towards each other even +then. In my captivity there was no employment for me but patience—no +pursuit but hope. Alone with my children, I was wont to look forth +over the sea towards the camp of our king; but day succeeded to day, +and his warriors appeared not on the plains; nor did Priulf return with +the legions to encamp before the gates of the town. So I mourned in my +loneliness; for my heart yearned towards the homes of my people; I +longed once more to look upon my husband's face, and to behold again +the ranks of our warriors, and the majesty of their battle array. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'But already, when the great day of despair was quickly drawing near, a +bitter outrage was preparing for me alone. The men who had hitherto +watched us were changed, and of the number of the new guards was one +who cast on me the eyes of lust. Night after night he poured his +entreaties into my unwilling ear; for, in his vanity and shamelessness, +he believed that I, who was Gothic and the wife of a Goth, might be won +by him whose parentage was but Roman! Soon from prayers he rose to +threats; and one night, appearing before me with smiles, he cried out +that Stilicho, whose desire was to make peace with the Goths, had +suffered, for his devotion to our people, the penalty of death; that a +time of ruin was approaching for us all, and that he alone—whom I +despised—could preserve me from the anger of Rome. As he ceased he +approached me; but I, who had been in many battle-fields, felt no dread +at the prospect of war, and I spurned him with laughter from my +presence. +</P> + +<P> +'Then, for a few nights more, my enemy approached me not again. Until +one evening, as I sat on the terrace before the house, with the child +that you have beheld, a helmet-crest suddenly fell at my feet, and a +voice cried to me from the garden beneath: 'Priulf thy husband has +been slain in a quarrel by the soldiers of Rome! Already the legions +with whom he served are on their way to the town; for a massacre of the +hostages is ordained. Speak but the word, and I can save thee even +yet!' +</P> + +<P> +'I looked on the crest. It was bloody, and it was his! For an instant +my heart writhed within me as I thought on my warrior whom I had loved! +Then, as I heard the messenger of death retire, cursing, from his +lurking-place in the garden, I recollected that now my children had +none but their mother to defend them, and that peril was preparing for +them from the enemies of their race. Besides the little one in my +arms, I had two that were sleeping in the house. As I looked round, +bewildered and in despair, to see if a chance were left us to escape, +there rang through the evening stillness the sound of a trumpet, and +the tramp of armed men was audible in the street beneath. Then, from +all quarters of the town rose, as one sudden sound, the shrieks of +women and the yells of men. Already, as I rushed towards my children's +beds, the fiends of Rome had mounted the stairs, and waved in bloody +triumph their reeking swords! I gained the steps; and, as I looked up, +they flung down at me the body of my youngest child. O Hermanric! +Hermanric! it was the most beautiful and the most beloved! What the +priests say that God should be to us, that, the fairest one of my +offspring, was to me! As I saw it mutilated and dead—I, who but an +hour before had hushed it on my bosom to rest!—my courage forsook me, +and when the murderers advanced on me I staggered and fell. I felt the +sword-point enter my neck; I saw the dagger gleam over the child in my +arms; I heard the death-shriek of the last victim above; and then my +senses failed me, and I could listen and move no more! +</P> + +<P> +'Long must I have lain motionless at the foot of those fatal stairs; +for when I awoke from my trance the noises in the city were hushed, and +from her place in the firmament the moon shone softly into the deserted +house. I listened, to be certain that I was alone with my murdered +children. No sound was in the dwelling; the assassins had departed, +believing that their labour of blood was ended when I fell beneath +their swords; and I was able to crawl forth in security, and to look my +last upon my offspring that the Romans had slain. The child that I +held to my breast still breathed. I stanched with some fragments of my +garment the wounds that he had received, and laying him gently by the +stairs—in the moonlight, so that I might see him when he moved—I +groped in the shadow of the wall for my first murdered and my last +born; for that youngest and fairest one of my offspring whom they had +slaughtered before my eyes! When I touched the corpse, it was wet with +blood; I felt its face, and it was cold beneath my hands; I raised its +body in my arms, and its limbs already were rigid in death! Then I +thought of the eldest child, who lay dead in the chamber above. But my +strength was failing me fast. I had an infant who might yet be +preserved; and I knew that if morning dawned on me in the house, all +chances of escape were lost for ever. So, though my heart was cold +within me at leaving my child's corpse to the mercy of the Romans, I +took up the dead and the wounded one in my arms, and went forth into +the garden, and thence towards the seaward quarter of the town. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'I passed through the forsaken streets. Sometimes I stumbled against +the body of a child—sometimes the moonlight showed me the death-pale +face of some woman of my nation whom I had loved, stretched upward to +the sky; but I still advanced until I gained the wall of the town, and +heard on the other side the waters of the river running onward to the +Port of Aquileia and the sea. +</P> + +<P> +'I looked around. The gates I knew were guarded and closed. By the +wall was the only prospect of escape; but its top was high and its +sides were smooth when I felt them with my hands. Despairing and +wearied, I laid my burdens down where they were hidden by the shade, +and walked forward a few paces, for to remain still was a torment that +I could not endure. At a short distance I saw a soldier sleeping +against the wall of a house. By his side was a ladder placed against +the window. As I looked up I beheld the head of a corpse resting on +its top. The victim must have been lately slain, for her blood still +dripped slowly down into an empty wine-pot that stood within the +soldier's reach. When I saw the ladder, hope revived within me. I +removed it to the wall—I mounted, and laid my dead child on the great +stones at its top—I returned, and placed my wounded boy by the corpse. +Slowly, and with many efforts, I dragged the ladder upwards, until from +its own weight one end fell to the ground on the other side. As I had +risen so I descended. In the sand of the river-bank I scraped a hole, +and buried there the corpse of the infant; for I could carry the weight +of two no longer. Then with my wounded child I reached some caverns +that lay onward near the seashore. There throughout the next day I lay +hidden—alone with my sufferings of body and my affliction of +heart—until the night came on, when I set forth on my journey to the +mountains; for I knew that at AEmona, in the camp of the warriors of my +people, lay the only refuge that was left to me on earth. Feebly and +slowly, hiding by day and travelling by night, I kept on my way until I +gained that lake among the rocks, where the guards of the army came +forward and rescued me from death.' +</P> + +<P> +She ceased. Throughout the latter portion of her narrative her +demeanour had been calm and sad; and as she dwelt, with the painful +industry of grief, over each minute circumstance connected with the +bereavements she had sustained, her voice softened to those accents of +quiet mournfulness, which make impressive the most simple words, and +render musical the most unsteady tones. It seemed as if those tenderer +and kinder emotions, which the attractions of her offspring had once +generated in her character, had at the bidding of memory become +revivified in her manner while she lingered over the recital of their +deaths. For a brief space of time she looked fixedly and anxiously +upon the countenance of Hermanric, which was half averted from her, and +expressed a fierce and revengeful gloom that sat unnaturally on it +noble lineaments. Then turning from him, she buried her face in her +hands, and made no effort more to attract him to attention or incite +him to reply. +</P> + +<P> +This solemn silence kept by the bereaved woman and the brooding man had +lasted but a few minutes, when a harsh, trembling voice was heard from +the top of the waggon, calling at intervals, 'Hermanric! Hermanric!' +</P> + +<P> +At first the young man remained unmoved by those discordant and +repulsive tones. They repeated his name, however, so often and so +perseveringly, that he noticed them ere long; and rising suddenly, as +if impatient of the interruption, advanced towards the side of the +waggon from which the mysterious summons appeared to come. +</P> + +<P> +As he looked up towards the vehicle the voice ceased, and he saw that +the old woman to whom he had confided the child was the person who had +called him so hurriedly but a few moments before. Her tottering body, +clothed in bear-skins, was bent forward over a large triangular shield +of polished brass, on which she leant her lank, shrivelled arms. Her +head shook with a tremulous, palsied action; a leer, half smile, half +grimace, distended her withered lips and lightened her sunken eyes. +Sinister, cringing, repulsive; her face livid with the reflection from +the weapon that was her support, and her figure scarcely human in the +rugged garments that encompassed its gaunt proportions, she seemed a +deformity set up by evil spirits to mock the majesty of the human +form—an embodied satire on all that is most deplorable in infirmity +and most disgusting in age. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The instant she discerned Hermanric, she stretched her body out still +farther over the shield; and pointing to the interior of the waggon, +muttered softly that one fearful and expressive word—dead! +</P> + +<P> +Without waiting for any further explanation, the young Goth mounted the +vehicle, and gaining the old woman's side, saw stretched on her +collection of herbs—beautiful in the sublime and melancholy stillness +of death—the corpse of Goisvintha's last child. +</P> + +<P> +'Is Hermanric wroth?' whined the hag, quailing before the steady, +rebuking glance of the young man. 'When I said that Brunechild was +greater than Hermanric, I lied. It is Hermanric that is most powerful! +See, the dressings were placed on the wounds; and, though the child has +died, shall not the treasures that were promised me be mine? I have +done what I could, but my cunning begins to desert me, for I am +old—old—old! I have seen my generation pass away! Aha! I am old, +Hermanric, I am old!' +</P> + +<P> +When the young warrior looked on the child, he saw that the hag had +spoken truth, and that the victim had died from no fault of hers. Pale +and serene, the countenance of the boy showed how tranquil had been his +death. The dressings had been skilfully composed and carefully applied +to his wounds, but suffering and privation had annihilated the +feebleness of human resistance in their march toward the last dread +goal, and the treachery of Imperial Rome had once more triumphed as was +its wont, and triumphed over a child! +</P> + +<P> +As Hermanric descended with the corpse Goisvintha was the first object +that met his eyes when he alighted on the ground. The mother received +from him the lifeless burden without an exclamation or a tear. That +emanation from her former and kinder self which had been produced by +the closing recital of her sufferings was henceforth, at the signal of +her last child's death, extinguished in her for ever! +</P> + +<P> +'His wounds had crippled him,' said the young man gloomily. 'He could +never have fought with the warriors! Our ancestors slew themselves +when they were no longer vigorous for the fight. It is better that he +has died!' +</P> + +<P> +'Vengeance!' gasped Goisvintha, pressing up closely to his side. 'We +will have vengeance for the massacre of Aquileia! When blood is +streaming in the palaces of Rome, remember my murdered children, and +hasten not to sheathe thy sword!' +</P> + +<P> +At this instant, as if to rouse still further the fierce determination +that appeared already in the face of the young Goth, the voice of +Alaric was heard commanding the army to advance. Hermanric started, and +drew the panting woman after him to the resting-place of the king. +There, armed at all points, and rising, by his superior stature, high +above the throng around him, stood the dreaded captain of the Gothic +hosts. His helmet was raised so as to display his clear blue eyes +gleaming over the multitude around him; he pointed with his sword in +the direction of Italy; and as rank by rank the men started to their +arms, and prepared exultingly for the march, his lips parted with a +smile of triumph, and ere he moved to accompany them he spoke thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'Warriors of the Goths, our halt is a short one among the mountains; +but let not the weary repine, for the glorious resting-place that +awaits our labours is the city of Rome! The curse of Odin, when in the +infancy of our nation he retired before the myriads of the Empire, it +is our privilege to fulfil! That future destruction which he denounced +against Rome, it is ours to effect! Remember your hostages that the +Romans have slain; your possessions that the Romans have seized; your +trust that the Romans have betrayed! Remember that I, your king, have +within me that supernatural impulse which never deceives, and which +calls to me in a voice of encouragement—Advance, and the Empire is +thine! Assemble the warriors, and the City of the World shall be +delivered to the conquering Goths! Let us onward without delay! Our +prey awaits us! Our triumph is near! Our vengeance is at hand!' +</P> + +<P> +He paused; and at that moment the trumpet gave signal for the march. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Up! up!' cried Hermanric, seizing Goisvintha by the arm, and pointing +to the waggon which had already begun to move; 'make ready for the +journey! I will charge myself with the burial of the child. Yet a few +days and our encampment may be before Aquileia. Be patient, and I will +avenge thee in the palaces of Rome!' +</P> + +<P> +The mighty mass moved. The multitude stretched forth over the barren +ground; and even now the warriors in front of the army might be seen by +those in the rear mounting the last range of passes that lay between +the plains of Italy and the Goths. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 2. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE COURT. +</H3> + +<P> +The traveller who so far departs from the ordinary track of tourists in +modern Italy as to visit the city of Ravenna, remembers with +astonishment, as he treads its silent and melancholy streets, and +beholds vineyards and marshes spread over an extent of four miles +between the Adriatic and the town, that this place, now half deserted, +was once the most populous of Roman fortresses; and that where fields +and woods now present themselves to his eyes the fleets of the Empire +once rode securely at anchor, and the merchant of Rome disembarked his +precious cargoes at his warehouse door. +</P> + +<P> +As the power of Rome declined, the Adriatic, by a strange fatality, +began to desert the fortress whose defence it had hitherto secured. +Coeval with the gradual degeneracy of the people was the gradual +withdrawal of the ocean from the city walls; until, at the beginning of +the sixth century, a grove of pines already appeared where the port of +Augustus once existed. +</P> + +<P> +At the period of our story—though the sea had even then receded +perceptibly—the ditches round the walls were yet filled, and the +canals still ran through the city in much the same manner as they +intersect Venice at the present time. +</P> + +<P> +On the morning that we are about to describe, the autumn had advanced +some days since the events mentioned in the preceding chapter. +Although the sun was now high in the eastern horizon, the restlessness +produced by the heat emboldened a few idlers of Ravenna to brave the +sultriness of the atmosphere, in the vain hope of being greeted by a +breeze from the Adriatic as they mounted the seaward ramparts of the +town. On attaining their destined elevation, these sanguine citizens +turned their faces with fruitless and despairing industry towards every +point of the compass, but no breath of air came to reward their +perseverance. Nothing could be more thoroughly suggestive of the +undiminished universality of the heat than the view, in every +direction, from the position they then occupied. The stone houses of +the city behind them glowed with a vivid brightness overpowering to the +strongest eyes. The light curtains hung motionless over the lonely +windows. No shadows varied the brilliant monotony of the walls, or +softened the lively glitter on the waters of the fountains beneath. Not +a ripple stirred the surface of the broad channel, that now replaced +the ancient harbour. Not a breath of wind unfolded the scorching sails +of the deserted vessels at the quay. Over the marshes in the distance +hung a hot, quivering mist; and in the vineyards, near the town, not a +leaf waved upon its slender stem. On the seaward side lay, vast and +level, the prospect of the burning sand; and beyond it the main +ocean—waveless, torpid, and suffused in a flood of fierce +brightness—stretched out to the cloudless horizon that closed the +sunbright view. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Within the town, in those streets where the tall houses cast a deep +shadow on the flagstones of the road, the figures of a few slaves might +here and there be seen sleeping against the walls, or gossiping +languidly on the faults of their respective lords. Sometimes an old +beggar might be observed hunting on the well-stocked preserves of his +own body the lively vermin of the South. Sometimes a restless child +crawled from a doorstep to paddle in the stagnant waters of a kennel; +but, with the exception of these doubtful evidences of human industry, +the prevailing characteristic of the few groups of the lowest orders of +the people which appeared in the streets was the most listless and +utter indolence. All that gave splendour to the city at other hours of +the day was at this period hidden from the eye. The elegant courtiers +reclined in their lofty chambers; the guards on duty ensconced +themselves in angles of walls and recesses of porticoes; the graceful +ladies slumbered on perfumed couches in darkened rooms; the gilded +chariots were shut into the carriage-houses; the prancing horses were +confined in the stables; and even the wares in the market-places were +removed from exposure to the sun. It was clear that the luxurious +inhabitants of Ravenna recognised no duties of sufficient importance, +and no pleasures of sufficient attraction, to necessitate the exposure +of their susceptible bodies to the noontide heat. +</P> + +<P> +To give the reader some idea of the manner in which the indolent +patricians of the Court loitered away their noon, and to satisfy, at +the same time, the exigencies attaching to the conduct of this story, +it is requisite to quit the lounging-places of the plebeians in the +streets for the couches of the nobles in the Emperor's palace. +</P> + +<P> +Passing through the massive entrance gates, crossing the vast hall of +the Imperial abode, with its statues, its marbles, and its guards in +attendance, and thence ascending the noble staircase, the first object +that might on this occasion have attracted the observer, when he gained +the approaches to the private apartments, was a door at an extremity of +the corridor, richly carved and standing half open. At this spot were +grouped some fifteen or twenty individuals, who conversed by signs, and +maintained in all their movements the most decorous and complete +silence. Sometimes one of the party stole on tiptoe to the door, and +looked cautiously through, returning almost instantaneously, and +expressing to his next neighbour, by various grimaces, his immense +interest in the sight he had just beheld. Occasionally there came from +this mysterious chamber sounds resembling the cackling of poultry, +varied now and then by a noise like the falling of a shower of small, +light substances upon a hard floor. Whenever these sounds were +audible, the members of the party outside the door looked round upon +each other and smiled—some sarcastically, some triumphantly. A few +among these patient expectants grasped rolls of vellum in their hands; +the rest held nosegays of rare flowers, or supported in their arms +small statues and pictures in mosaic. Of their number, some were +painters and poets, some orators and philosophers, and some statuaries +and musicians. Among such a motley assemblage of professions, +remarkable in all ages of the world for fostering in their votaries the +vice of irritability, it may seem strange that so quiet and orderly a +behaviour should exist as that just described. But it is to be +observed that in attending at the palace, these men of genius made sure +at least of outward unanimity among their ranks, by coming equally +prepared with one accomplishment, and equally animated by one hope: +they waited to employ a common agent—flattery; to attain a common +end—gain. +</P> + +<P> +The chamber thus sacred, even from the intrusion of intellectual +inspiration, although richly ornamented, was of no remarkable extent. +At other times the eye might have wandered with delight on the +exquisite plants and flowers, scattered profusely over a noble terrace, +to which a second door in the apartment conducted; but, at the present +moment, the employment of the occupant of the room was of so +extraordinary a nature, that the most attentive observation must have +missed all the inferior characteristics of the place, to settle +immediately on its inhabitant alone. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In the midst of a large flock of poultry, which seemed strangely +misplaced on a floor of marble and under a gilded roof, stood a pale, +thin, debilitated youth, magnificently clothed, and holding in his hand +a silver vase filled with grain, which he ever and anon distributed to +the cackling multitude at his feet. Nothing could be more pitiably +effeminate than the appearance of this young man. His eyes were heavy +and vacant, his forehead low and retiring, his cheeks sallow, and his +form curved as if with a premature old age. An unmeaning smile dilated +his thin, colourless lips; and as he looked down on his strange +favourites, he occasionally whispered to them a few broken expressions +of endearment, almost infantine in their simplicity. His whole soul +seemed to be engrossed by the labour of distributing his grain, and he +followed the different movements of the poultry with an earnestness of +attention which seemed almost idiotic in its ridiculous intensity. If +it be asked, why a person so contemptible as this solitary youth has +been introduced with so much care, and described with so much +minuteness, it must be answered, that, though destined to form no +important figure in this work, he played, from his position, a +remarkable part in the great drama on which it is founded—for this +feeder of chickens was no less a person than Honorius, Emperor of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +It is the very imbecility of this man, at such a time as that we now +write on, which invests his character with a fearful interest in the +eye of posterity. In himself the impersonation of the meanest vices +inherent in the vicious civilisation of his period, to his feebleness +was accorded the terrible responsibility of liberating the +long-prisoned storm whose elements we have attempted to describe in the +preceding chapter. With just intellect enough to be capricious, and +just determination enough to be mischievous, he was an instrument +fitted for the uses of every ambitious villain who could succeed in +gaining his ear. To flatter his puerile tyranny, the infatuated +intriguers of the Court rewarded the heroic Stilicho for the rescue of +his country with the penalty of death, and defrauded Alaric of the +moderate concessions that they had solemnly pledged themselves to +perform. To gratify his vanity, he was paraded in triumph through the +streets of Rome for a victory that others had gained. To pander to his +arrogance, by an exhibition of the vilest privilege of that power which +had been intrusted to him for good, the massacre of the helpless +hostages, confided by Gothic honour to Roman treachery, was +unhesitatingly ordained; and, finally, to soothe the turbulence of his +unmanly fears, the last act of his unscrupulous councillors, ere the +Empire fell, was to authorise his abandoning his people in the hour of +peril, careless who suffered in defenceless Rome, while he was secure +in fortified Ravenna. Such was the man under whom the mightiest of the +world's structures was doomed to totter to its fall! Such was the +figure destined to close a scene which Time and Glory had united to +hallow and adorn! Raised and supported by a superhuman daring, that +invested the nauseous horrors of incessant bloodshed with a rude and +appalling magnificence, the mistress of nations was now fated to sink +by the most ignoble of defeats, under the most abject of tremblers. +For this had the rough old kingdom shaken off its enemies by swarms +from its vigorous arms! For this had the doubtful virtues of the +Republic, and the perilous magnificence of the Empire, perplexed and +astonished the world! In such a conclusion as Honorius ended the +dignified barbarities of a Brutus, the polished splendours of an +Augustus, the unearthly atrocities of a Nero, and the immortal virtues +of a Trajan! Vainly, through the toiling ages, over the ruin of her +noblest hearts, and the prostitution of her grandest intellects, had +Rome striven pitilessly onward, grasping at the shadow—Glory; the fiat +had now gone forth that doomed her to possess herself finally of the +substance—Shame! +</P> + +<P> +When the imperial trifler had exhausted his store of grain, and +satisfied the cravings of his voracious favourites, he was relieved of +his silver vase by two attendants. The flock of poultry was then +ushered out at one door, while the flock of geniuses was ushered in at +the other. +</P> + +<P> +Leaving the emperor to cast his languid eyes over objects of art for +which he had no admiration, and to open his unwilling ears to +panegyrical orations for which he had no comprehension, we proceed to +introduce the reader to an apartment on the opposite side of the +palace, in which are congregated all the beauty and elegance of his +Court. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Imagine a room two hundred feet long and proportionably broad. Its +floor is mosaic, wrought into the loveliest patterns. Its sides are +decorated with immense pillars of variegated marble, the recesses +formed by which are occupied by statues, all arranged in exquisite +variety of attitude, so as to appear to be offering to whoever +approaches them the rare flowers which it is the duty of the attendants +to place in their hands. The ceiling is painted in fresco, in patterns +and colours harmonising with those on the mosaic floor. The cornices +are of silver, and decorated with mottoes from the amatory poets of the +day, the letters of which are formed by precious stones. In the middle +of the room is a fountain throwing up streams of perfumed water, and +surrounded by golden aviaries containing birds of all sizes and +nations. Three large windows, placed at the eastern extremity of the +apartment, look out upon the Adriatic, but are covered at this hour, +from the outside, with silk curtains of a delicate green shade, which +cast a soft, luxurious light over every object, but are so thinly woven +and so skilfully arranged that the slightest breath of air which moves +without finds its way immediately to the languid occupants of the Court +waiting-room. The number of these individuals amounts to about fifty +or sixty persons. By far the larger half of the assemblage are women. +Their black hair tastefully braided into various forms, and adorned +with flowers or precious stones, contrasts elegantly with the brilliant +whiteness of the robes in which they are for the most part clothed. +Some of them are occupied in listlessly watching the movements of the +birds in the aviaries; others hold a languid and whispered conversation +with such of the courtiers as happen to be placed near them. The men +exhibit in their dresses a greater variety of colour, and in their +occupations a greater fertility of resource, than the women. Their +garments, of the lightest rose, violet, or yellow tints, diversify +fantastically the monotonous white robes of their gentle companions. +Of their employments, the most conspicuous are playing on the lute, +gaming with dice, teasing their lapdogs, and insulting their parasites. +Whatever their occupation, it is performed with little attention, and +less enthusiasm. Some recline on their couches with closed eyes, as if +the heat made the labour of using their organs of vision too much for +them; others, in the midst of a conversation, suddenly leave a sentence +unfinished, apparently incapacitated by lassitude from giving +expression to the simplest ideas. Every sight in the apartment that +attracts the eye, every sound that gains the ear, expresses a luxurious +repose. No brilliant light mars the pervading softness of the +atmosphere; no violent colour materialises the light, ethereal hues of +the dresses; no sudden noises interrupt the fitful and plaintive notes +of the lute, jar with the soft twittering of the birds in the aviaries, +or drown the still, regular melody of the ladies' voices. All objects, +animate and inanimate, are in harmony with each other. It is a scene +of spiritualised indolence—a picture of dreamy beatitude in the inmost +sanctuary of unruffled repose. +</P> + +<P> +Amid this assemblage of beauty and nobility, the members of which were +rather to be generally noticed than particularly observed, there was, +however, one individual who, both by the solitary occupation he had +chosen and his accidental position in the room, was personally +remarkable among the listless patricians around him. +</P> + +<P> +His couch was placed nearer the window than that of any other occupant +of the chamber. Some of his indolent neighbours—especially those of +the gentler sex—occasionally regarded him with mingled looks of +admiration and curiosity; but no one approached him, or attempted to +engage him in conversation. A piece of vellum lay by his side, on +which, from time to time, he traced a few words, and then resumed his +reclining position, apparently absorbed in reflection, and utterly +regardless of all the occupants, male and female, of the imperial +apartment. Judging from his general appearance, he could scarcely be +twenty-five years of age. The conformation of the upper part of his +face was thoroughly intellectual—the forehead high, broad, and +upright; the eyes clear, penetrating, and thoughtful;—but the lower +part was, on the other hand, undeniably sensual. The lips, full and +thick, formed a disagreeable contrast to the delicate chiselling of the +straight Grecian nose; while the fleshiness of the chin, and the jovial +redundancy of the cheeks, were, in their turn, utterly at variance with +the character of the pale, noble forehead, and the expression of the +quick, intelligent eyes. In stature he was barely of the middle size; +but every part of his body was so perfectly proportioned that he +appeared, in any position, taller than he really was. The upper part +of his dress, thrown open from the heat, partly disclosed the fine +statuesque formation of his neck and chest. His ears, hands, and feet +were of that smallness and delicacy which is held to denote the +aristocracy of birth; and there was in his manner that indescribable +combination of unobtrusive dignity and unaffected elegance, which in +all ages and countries, and through all changes of manners and customs, +has rendered the demeanour of its few favoured possessors the +instantaneous interpreter of their social rank. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +While the patrician was still occupied over his vellum, the following +conversation took place in whispers between two ladies placed near the +situation he occupied. +</P> + +<P> +'Tell me, Camilla,' said the eldest and stateliest of the two, 'who is +the courtier so occupied in composition? I have endeavoured, I know +not how often, to catch his eye; but the man will look at nothing but +his roll of vellum or the corners of the room.' +</P> + +<P> +'What, are you so great a stranger in Italy as not to know him!' +replied the other, a lively girl of small delicate form, who fidgeted +with persevering restlessness on her couch, and seemed incapable of +giving an instant's steady attention to any of the objects around her. +'By all the saints, martyrs, and relics of my uncle the bishop!' +</P> + +<P> +'Hush! You should not swear!' +</P> + +<P> +'Not swear! Why, I am making a new collection of oaths, intended +solely for ladies' use! I intend to set the fashion of swearing by +them myself!' +</P> + +<P> +'But answer my question, I beseech you! Will you never learn to talk +on one subject at a time?' +</P> + +<P> +'Your question—ah, your question! It was about the Goths?' +</P> + +<P> +'No, no! It was about that man who is incessantly writing, and will +look at nobody. He is almost as provoking as Camilla herself!' +</P> + +<P> +'Don't frown so! That man, as you call him, is the senator Vetranio.' +</P> + +<P> +The lady started. It was evident that Vetranio had a reputation. +</P> + +<P> +'Yes!' continued the lively Camilla, 'that is the accomplished +Vetranio; but he will be no favourite of yours, for he sometimes +swears—swears by the ancient gods, too, which is forbidden!' +</P> + +<P> +'He is handsome.' +</P> + +<P> +'Handsome! he is beautiful! Not a woman in Italy but is languishing +for him!' +</P> + +<P> +'I have heard that he is clever.' +</P> + +<P> +'Who has not? He is the author of some of the most celebrated sauces +of the age. Cooks of all nations worship him as an oracle. Then he +writes poetry, and composes music, and paints pictures! And as for +philosophy—he talks it better than my uncle the bishop!' +</P> + +<P> +'Is he rich?' +</P> + +<P> +'Ah! my uncle the bishop!—I must tell you how I helped Vetranio to +make a satire on him! When I was staying with him at Rome, I used often +to see a woman in a veil taken across the garden to his study; so, to +perplex him, I asked him who she was. And he frowned and stammered, +and said at first that I was disrespectful; but he told me afterwards +that she was an Arian whom he was labouring to convert. So I thought I +should like to see how this conversion went on, and I hid myself behind +a bookcase. But it is a profound secret; I tell it you in confidence.' +</P> + +<P> +'I don't care to know it. Tell me about Vetranio.' +</P> + +<P> +'How ill-natured you are! Oh! I shall never forget how we laughed when +I told Vetranio what I had seen. He took up his writing materials, and +made the satire immediately. The next day all Rome heard of it. My +uncle was speechless with rage! I believe he suspected me; but he gave +up converting the Arian lady, and—' +</P> + +<P> +'I ask you again—Is Vetranio rich?' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Half Sicily is his. He has immense estates in Africa, olive-grounds +in Syria, and corn-fields in Gaul. I was present at an entertainment +he gave at his villa in Sicily. He fitted up one of his vessels from +the descriptions of the furnishing of Cleopatra's galley, and made his +slaves swim after us as attendant Tritons. Oh! it was magnificent!' +</P> + +<P> +'I should like to know him.' +</P> + +<P> +'You should see his cats! He has a perfect legion of them at his +villa. Twelve slaves are employed to attend on them. He is mad about +cats, and declares that the old Egyptians were right to worship them. +He told me yesterday, that when his largest cat is dead he will +canonise her, in spite of the Christians! And then he is so kind to +his slaves! They are never whipped or punished, except when they +neglect or disfigure themselves; for Vetranio will allow nothing that +is ugly or dirty to come near him. You must visit his banqueting-hall +in Rome. It is perfection!' +</P> + +<P> +'But why is he here?' +</P> + +<P> +'He has come to Ravenna, charged with some secret message from the +Senate, and has presented a rare breed of chickens to that foolish—' +</P> + +<P> +'Hush! you may be overheard!' +</P> + +<P> +'Well!—to that wise emperor of ours! Ah! the palace has been so +pleasant since he has been here!' +</P> + +<P> +At this instant the above dialogue—from the frivolity of which the +universally-learned readers of modern times will, we fear, recoil with +contempt—was interrupted by a movement on the part of its hero which +showed that his occupation was at an end. With the elaborate +deliberation of a man who disdains to exhibit himself as liable to be +hurried by any mortal affair, Vetranio slowly folded up the vellum he +had now filled with writing, and depositing it in his bosom, made a +sign to a slave who happened to be then passing near him with a dish of +fruit. +</P> + +<P> +Having received his message, the slave retired to the entrance of the +apartment, and beckoning to a man who stood outside the door, motioned +him to approach Vetranio's couch. +</P> + +<P> +This individual immediately hurried across the room to the window where +the elegant Roman awaited him. Not the slightest description of him is +needed; for he belonged to a class with which moderns are as well +acquainted as ancients—a class which has survived all changes of +nations and manners—a class which came in with the first rich man in +the world, and will only go out with the last. In a word, he was a +parasite. +</P> + +<P> +He enjoyed, however, one great superiority over his modern successors: +in his day flattery was a profession—in ours it has sunk to a pursuit. +</P> + +<P> +'I shall leave Ravenna this evening,' said Vetranio. +</P> + +<P> +The parasite made three low bows and smiled ecstatically. +</P> + +<P> +'You will order my travelling equipage to be at the palace gates an +hour before sunset.' +</P> + +<P> +The parasite declared he should never forget the honour of the +commission, and left the room. +</P> + +<P> +The sprightly Camilla, who had overheard Vetranio's command, jumped off +her couch, as soon as the parasite's back was turned, and running up to +the senator, began to reproach him for the determination he had just +formed. +</P> + +<P> +'Have you no compunction at leaving me to the dulness of this horrible +palace, to satisfy your idle fancy for going to Rome,' said she, +pouting her pretty lip, and playing with a lock of the dark brown hair +that clustered over Vetranio's brow. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Has the senator Vetranio so little regard for his friends as to leave +them to the mercy of the Goths?' said another lady, advancing with a +winning smile to Camilla's side. +</P> + +<P> +'Ah, those Goths!' exclaimed Vetranio, turning to the last speaker. +'Tell me, Julia, is it not reported that the barbarians are really +marching into Italy?' +</P> + +<P> +'Everybody has heard of it. The emperor is so discomposed by the +rumour, that he has forbidden the very name of the Goths to be +mentioned in his presence again.' +</P> + +<P> +'For my part,' continued Vetranio, drawing Camilla towards him, and +playfully tapping her little dimpled hand, 'I am in anxious expectation +of the Goths, for I have designed a statue of Minerva, for which I can +find no model so fit as a woman of that troublesome nation. I am +informed upon good authority, that their limbs are colossal, and their +sense of propriety most obediently pliable under the discipline of the +purse.' +</P> + +<P> +'If the Goths supply you with a model for anything,' said a courtier +who had joined the group while Vetranio was speaking, 'it will be with +a representation of the burning of your palace at Rome, which they will +enable you to paint from the inexhaustible reservoir of your own +wounds.' +</P> + +<P> +The individual who uttered this last observation was remarkable among +the brilliant circle around him by his excessive ugliness. Urged by +his personal disadvantages, and the loss of all his property at the +gaming-table, he had latterly personated a character, the +accomplishments attached to which rescued him, by their disagreeable +originality in that frivolous age, from oblivion or contempt. He was a +Cynic philosopher. +</P> + +<P> +His remark, however, produced no other effect on his hearers' serenity +than to excite their merriment. Vetranio laughed, Camilla laughed, +Julia laughed. The idea of a troop of barbarians ever being able to +burn a palace at Rome was too wildly ridiculous for any one's gravity; +and as the speech was repeated in other parts of the room, in spite of +their dulness and lassitude the whole Court laughed. +</P> + +<P> +'I know not why I should be amused by that man's nonsense,' said +Camilla, suddenly becoming grave at the very crisis of a most +attractive smile, 'when I am so melancholy at the thought of Vetranio's +departure. What will become of me when he is gone? Alas! who will be +left in the palace to compose songs to my beauty and music for my lute? +Who will paint me as Venus, and tell me stories about the ancient +Egyptians and their cats? Who at the banquet will direct what dishes I +am to choose, and what I am to reject? Who?'—and poor little Camilla +stopped suddenly in her enumeration of the pleasures she was about to +lose, and seemed on the point of weeping as piteously as she had been +laughing rapturously but the instant before. +</P> + +<P> +Vetranio was touched—not by the compliment to his more intellectual +powers, but by the admission of his convivial supremacy as a guide to +the banquet, contained in the latter part of Camilla's remonstrance. +The sex were then, as now, culpably deficient in gastronomic +enthusiasm. It was, therefore, a perfect triumph to have made a convert +to the science of the youngest and loveliest of the ladies of the Court. +</P> + +<P> +'If she can gain leave of absence,' said the gratified senator, +'Camilla shall accompany me to Rome, and shall be present at the first +celebration of my recent discovery of a Nightingale Sauce.' +</P> + +<P> +Camilla was in ecstasies. She seized Vetranio's cheeks between her +rosy little fingers, kissed him as enthusiastically as a child kisses a +new toy, and darted gaily off to prepare for her departure. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Vetranio would be better employed,' sneered the Cynic, 'in inventing +new salves for future wounds than new sauces for future nightingales! +His carcase will be carved by Gothic swords as a feast for the worms +before his birds are spitted with Roman skewers as a feast for his +guests! Is this a time for cutting statues and concocting sauces? Fie +on the senators who abandon themselves to such pursuits as Vetranio's!' +</P> + +<P> +'I have other designs,' replied the object of all this moral +indignation, looking with insulting indifference on the Cynic's +repulsive countenance, 'which, from their immense importance to the +world, must meet with universal approval. The labour that I have just +achieved forms one of a series of three projects which I have for some +time held in contemplation. The first is an analysis of the new +priesthood; the second, a true personification, both by painting and +sculpture, of Venus; the third, a discovery of what has been hitherto +uninvented—a nightingale sauce. By the inscrutable wisdom of Fate, it +has been so willed that the last of the objects I proposed to myself +has been the first attained. The sauce is composed, and I have just +concluded on this vellum the ode that is to introduce it at my table. +The analysation will be my next labour. It will take the form of a +treatise, in which, making the experience of past years the groundwork +of prophecy for the future, I shall show the precise number of +additional dissensions, controversies, and quarrels that will be +required to enable the new priesthood to be themselves the destroyers +of their own worship. I shall ascertain by an exact computation the +year in which this destruction will be consummated; and I have by me as +the materials for my work an historical summary of Christian schisms +and disputes in Rome for the last hundred years. As for my second +design, the personification of Venus, it is of appalling difficulty. +It demands an investigation of the women of every nation under the sun; +a comparison of the relative excellences and peculiarities of their +several charms; and a combination of all that is loveliest in the +infinite variety of their most prominent attractions, under one form. +To forward the execution of this arduous project, my tenants at home +and my slave-merchants abroad have orders to send to my villa in Sicily +all women who are born most beautiful in the Empire, or can be brought +most beautiful from the nations around. I will have them displayed +before me, of every shade in complexion and of every peculiarity in +form! At the fitting period I shall commence my investigations, +undismayed by difficulty, and determined on success. Never yet has the +true Venus been personified! Should I accomplish the task, how +exquisite will be my triumph! My work will be the altar at which +thousands will offer up the softest emotions of the heart. It will +free the prisoned imagination of youth, and freshen the fading +recollections on the memory of age!' +</P> + +<P> +Vetranio paused. The Cynic was struck dumb with indignation. A +solitary zealot for the Church, who happened to be by, frowned at the +analysation. The ladies tittered at the personification. The +gastronomists chuckled at the nightingale sauce; but for the first few +minutes no one spoke. During this temporary embarrassment, Vetranio +whispered a few words in Julia's ear; and—just as the Cynic was +sufficiently recovered to retort—accompanied by the lady, he quitted +the room. +</P> + +<P> +Never was popularity more unalloyed than Vetranio's. Gifted with a +disposition the pliability of which adapted itself to all emergencies, +his generosity disarmed enemies, while his affability made friends. +Munificent without assumption, successful without pride, he obliged +with grace and shone with safety. People enjoyed his hospitality, for +they knew that it was disinterested; and admired his acquirements, for +they felt that they were unobtrusive. Sometimes (as in his dialogue +with the Cynic) the whim of the moment, or the sting of a sarcasm, drew +from him a hint at his station, or a display of his eccentricities; +but, as he was always the first soon afterwards to lead the laugh at +his own outbreak, his credit as a noble suffered nothing by his +infirmity as a man. Gaily and attractively he moved in all grades of +the society of his age, winning his social laurels in every rank, +without making a rival to dispute their possession, or an enemy to +detract from their value. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +On quitting the Court waiting-room, Vetranio and Julia descended the +palace stairs and passed into the emperor's garden. Used generally as +an evening lounge, this place was now untenanted, save by the few +attendants engaged in cultivating the flower-beds and watering the +smooth, shady lawns. Entering one of the most retired of the numerous +summer-houses among the trees, Vetranio motioned his companion to take +a seat, and then abruptly addressed her in the following words:— +</P> + +<P> +'I have heard that you are about to depart for Rome—is it true?' +</P> + +<P> +He asked this question in a low voice, and with a manner in its +earnestness strangely at variance with the volatile gaiety which had +characterised him, but a few moments before, among the nobles of the +Court. As Julia answered him in the affirmative, his countenance +expressed a lively satisfaction; and seating himself by her side, he +continued the conversation thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'If I thought that you intended to stay for any length of time in the +city, I should venture upon a fresh extortion from your friendship by +asking you to lend me your little villa at Aricia!' +</P> + +<P> +'You shall take with you to Rome an order on my steward to place +everything there at your entire disposal.' +</P> + +<P> +'My generous Julia! You are of the gifted few who really know how to +confer a favour! Another woman would have asked me why I wanted the +villa—you give it unreservedly. So delicate an unwillingness to +intrude on a secret reminds me that the secret should now be yours!' +</P> + +<P> +To explain the easy confidence that existed between Vetranio and Julia, +it is necessary to inform the reader that the lady—although still +attractive in appearance—was of an age to muse on her past, rather +than to meditate on her future conquests. She had known her eccentric +companion from his boyhood, had been once flattered in his verses, and +was sensible enough—now that her charms were on the wane—to be as +content with the friendship of the senator as she had formerly been +enraptured with the adoration of the youth. +</P> + +<P> +'You are too penetrating,' resumed Vetranio, after a short pause, 'not +to have already suspected that I only require your villa to assist me +in the concealment of an intrigue. So peculiar is my adventure in its +different circumstances, that to make use of my palace as the scene of +its development would be to risk a discovery which might produce the +immediate subversion of all my designs. But I fear the length of my +confession will exceed the duration of your patience!' +</P> + +<P> +'You have aroused my curiosity. I could listen to you for ever!' +</P> + +<P> +'A short time before I took my departure from Rome for this place,' +continued Vetranio, 'I encountered an adventure of the most +extraordinary nature, which has haunted me with the most extraordinary +perseverance, and which will have, I feel assured, the most +extraordinary results. I was sitting one evening in the garden of my +palace on the Pincian Mount, occupied in trying a new composition on my +lute. In one of the pauses of the melody, which was tender and +plaintive, I heard sounds that resembled the sobbing of some one in +distress among the trees behind me. I looked cautiously round, and +discerned, half-hidden by the verdure, the figure of a young girl, who +appeared to be listening to the music with the most entranced +attention. Flattered by such a testimony to my skill, and anxious to +gain a nearer view of my mysterious visitant, I advanced towards her +hiding-place, forgetting in my haste to continue playing on the lute. +The instant the music ceased, she discerned me and disappeared. +Determined to behold her, I again struck the chords, and in a few +minutes I saw her white robe once more among the trees. I redoubled my +efforts. I played with the utmost expression the most pathetic parts +of the melody. As if under the influence of a charm, she began to +advance towards me, now hesitating, now moving back a few steps, now +approaching, half-reluctantly, half willingly, until, utterly +vanquished by the long trembling close of the last cadence of the air, +she ran suddenly up to me, and falling at my feet, raised her hands as +if to implore my pardon.' +</P> + +<P> +'Truly this was no common tribute to your skill! Did she speak to you?' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'She uttered not a word,' continued Vetranio. 'Her large soft eyes, +bright with tears, looked piteously up in my face; her delicate lips +trembled, as if she wished to speak, but dared not; her smooth round +arms were the very perfection of beauty. Child as she seemed in years +and emotions, she looked a woman in loveliness and form. For the +moment I was too much astonished by the suddenness of her supplicating +action to move or speak. As soon as I recovered myself I attempted to +fondle and console her, but she shrunk from my embrace, and seemed +inclined to escape from me again; until I touched once more the strings +of the lute, and then she uttered a subdued exclamation of delight, +nestled close up to me, and looked into my face with such a strange +expression of mingled adoration and rapture, that I declare to you, +Julia, I felt as bashful before her as a boy.' +</P> + +<P> +'You bashful! The Senator Vetranio bashful!' exclaimed Julia, looking +up with an expression of the most unfeigned incredulity and +astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +'The lute,' pursued Vetranio gravely, without heeding the interruption, +'was my sole means of procuring any communication with her. If I +ceased playing, we were as strangers; if I resumed, we were as friends. +So, subduing the notes of the instrument while she spoke to me in a +soft tremulous musical voice, I still continued to play. By this plan +I discovered at our first interview that she was the daughter of one +Numerian, that she was on the point of completing her fourteenth year, +and that she was called Antonina. I had only succeeded in gaining this +mere outline of her story, when, as if struck by some sudden +apprehension, she tore herself from me with a look of the utmost +terror, and entreating me not to follow her if I ever desired to see +her again, she disappeared rapidly among the trees.' +</P> + +<P> +'More and more wonderful! And, in your new character of a bashful man, +you doubtless obeyed her injunctions?' +</P> + +<P> +'I did,' replied the senator; 'but the next evening I revisited the +garden grove, and, as soon as I struck the chords, as if by magic, she +again approached. At this second interview I learned the reason of her +mysterious appearances and departures. Her father, she told me, was +one of a new sect, who imagine—with what reason it is impossible to +comprehend—that they recommend themselves to their Deity by making +their lives one perpetual round of bodily suffering and mental anguish. +Not content with distorting all his own feelings and faculties, this +tyrant perpetrated his insane austerities upon the poor child as well. +He forbade her to enter a theatre, to look on sculpture, to read +poetry, to listen to music. He made her learn long prayers, and attend +to interminable sermons. He allowed her no companions of her own +age—not even girls like herself. The only recreation that she could +obtain was the permission—granted with much reluctance and many +rebukes—to cultivate a little garden which belonged to the house they +lived in, and joined at one point the groves round my palace. There, +while she was engaged over her flowers, she first heard the sound of my +lute for many months before I had discovered her, she had been in the +habit of climbing the enclosure that bounded her garden, and hiding +herself among the trees to listen to the music, whenever her father's +concerns took him abroad. She had been discovered in this occupation +by an old man appointed to watch her in his master's absence. The +attendant, however, on hearing her confession, not only promised to +keep her secret, but permitted her to continue her visits to my grove +whenever I chanced to be playing there on the lute. Now the most +mysterious part of this matter is, that the girl seemed—in spite of +his severity towards her—to have a great affection for her surly; for, +when I offered to deliver her from his custody, she declared that +nothing could induce her to desert him—not even the attraction of +living among fine pictures and hearing beautiful music every hour in +the day. But I see I weary you; and, indeed, it is evident from the +length of the shadows that the hour of my departure is at hand. Let me +then pass from my introductory interviews with Antonina, to the +consequences that had resulted from them when I set forth on my journey +to Ravenna.' +</P> + +<P> +'I think I can imagine the consequences already!' said Julia, smiling +maliciously. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Begin then,' retorted Vetranio, 'by imagining that the strangeness of +this girl's situation, and the originality of her ideas, invested her +with an attraction for me, which the charms of her person and age +contributed immensely to heighten. She delighted my faculties as a +poet, as much as she fired my feelings as a man; and I determined to +lure her from the tyrannical protection of her father by the employment +of every artifice that my ingenuity could suggest. I began by teaching +her to exercise for herself the talent which had so attracted her in +another. By the familiarity engendered on both sides by such an +occupation, I hoped to gain as much in affection from her as she +acquired in skill from me; but to my astonishment, I still found her as +indifferent towards the master, and as tender towards the music, as she +had appeared at our first interview. If she had repelled my advances, +if they had overwhelmed her with confusion, I could have adapted myself +to her humour, I should have felt the encouragement of hope; but the +coldness, the carelessness, the unnatural, incomprehensible ease with +which she received even my caresses, utterly disconcerted me. It +seemed as if she could only regard me as a moving statue, as a mere +impersonation, immaterial as the science I was teaching her. If I +spoke, she hardly looked on me; if I moved, she scarcely noticed the +action. I could not consider it dislike; she seemed to gentle to +nourish such a feeling for any creature on earth. I could not believe +it coldness; she was all life, all agitation, if she heard only a few +notes of music. When she touched the chords of the instrument, her +whole frame trembled. Her eyes, mild, serious, and thoughtful when she +looked on me, now brightened with delight, now softened with tears, +when she listened to the lute. As day by day her skill in music +increased, so her manner towards me grew more inexplicably indifferent. +At length, weary of the constant disappointments that I experienced, +and determined to make a last effort to touch her heart by awakening +her gratitude, I presented her with the very lute which she had at +first heard, and on which she had now learned to play. Never have I +seen any human being so rapturously delighted as this incomprehensible +girl when she received the instrument from my hands. She alternately +wept and laughed over it, she kissed it, fondled it, spoke to it, as if +it had been a living thing. But when I approached to suppress the +expressions of thankfulness that she poured on me for the gift, she +suddenly hid the lute in her robe, as if afraid that I should deprive +her of it, and hurried rapidly from my sight. The next day I waited +for her at our accustomed meeting-place, but she never appeared. I +sent a slave to her father's house, but she would hold no communication +with him. It was evident that, now she had gained her end, she cared +no more to behold me. In my first moments of irritation, I determined +to make her feel my power, if she despised my kindness; but reflection +convinced me, from my acquaintance with her character, that in such a +matter force was impolitic, that I should risk my popularity in Rome, +and engage myself in an unworthy quarrel to no purpose. Dissatisfied +with myself, and disappointed in the girl, I obeyed the first dictates +of my impatience, and seizing the opportunity afforded by my duties in +the senate of escaping from the scene of defeated hopes, I departed +angrily for Ravenna.' +</P> + +<P> +'Departed for Ravenna!' cried Julia, laughing outright. 'Oh, what a +conclusion to the adventure! I confess it, Vetranio, such consequences +as these are beyond all imagination!' +</P> + +<P> +'You laugh, Julia,' returned the senator, a little piqued; 'but hear me +to the end, and you will find that I have not yet resigned myself to +defeat. For the few days that I have remained here, Antonina's image +has incessantly troubled my thoughts. I perceive that my inclination, +as well as my reputation, is concerned in subduing her ungrateful +aversion. I suspect that my anxiety to gain her will, if unremoved, so +far influence my character, that from Vetranio the Serene, I shall be +changed into Vetranio the Sardonic. Pride, honour, curiosity, and love +all urge me to her conquest. To prepare for my banquet is an excuse to +the Court for my sudden departure from this place; the real object of +my journey is Antonina alone.' +</P> + +<P> +'Ah, now I recognise my friend again in his own character,' remarked +the lady approvingly. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'You will ask me how I purpose to obtain another interview with her?' +continued Vetranio. 'I answer, that the girl's attendant has +voluntarily offered himself as an instrument for the prosecution of my +plans. The very day before I departed from Rome, he suddenly presented +himself to my in my garden, and proposed to introduce me into +Numerian's house—having first demanded, with the air more of an equal +than an inferior, whether the report that I was still a secret adherent +of the old religion, of the worship of the gods, was true. Suspicious +of the fellow's motives (for he abjured all recompense as the reward of +his treachery), and irritated by the girl's recent ingratitude, I +treated his offer with contempt. Now, however, that my dissatisfaction +is calmed and my anxiety aroused, I am determined, at all hazards, to +trust myself to this man, be his motives for aiding me what they may. +If my efforts at my expected interview—and I will not spare them—are +rewarded with success, it will be necessary to obtain some refuge for +Antonina that will neither be suspected nor searched. For such a +hiding-place, nothing can be more admirably adapted than your Arician +villa. Do you—now that you know for what use it is intended—repent +of your generous disposal of it in aid of my design?' +</P> + +<P> +'I am delighted to have had it to bestow on you,' replied the liberal +Julia, pressing Vetranio's hand. 'Your adventure is indeed uncommon—I +burn with impatience to hear how it will end. Whatever happens, you may +depend on my secrecy and count on my assistance. But see, the sun is +already verging towards the west; and yonder comes one of your slaves +to inform you, I doubt not, that your equipage is prepared. Return +with me to the palace, and I will supply you with the letter necessary +to introduce you as master to my country abode.' +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +The worthy citizens of Ravenna assembled in the square before the +palace to behold the senator's departure, had entirely exhausted such +innocent materials for amusement as consisted in staring at the guards, +catching the clouds of gnats that hovered about their ears, and +quarrelling with each other; and were now reduced to a state of very +noisy and unanimous impatience, when their discontent was suddenly and +most effectually appeased by the appearance of the travelling equipage +with Vetranio and Camilla outside the palace gates. +</P> + +<P> +Uproarious shouts greeted the appearance of the senator and his +magnificent retinue; but they were increased a hundred-fold when the +chief slaves, by their master's command, each scattered a handful of +small coin among the poorer classes of the spectators. Every man among +that heterogeneous assemblage of rogues, fools, and idlers roared his +loudest and capered his highest, in honour of the generous patrician. +Gradually and carefully the illustrious travellers moved through the +crowd around them to the city gate; and thence, amid incessant shouts +of applause, raised with imposing unanimity of lung, and wrought up to +the most distracting discordancy of noise, Vetranio and his lively +companion departed in triumph for Rome. +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +A few days after this event the citizens were again assembled at the +same place and hour—probably to witness another patrician +departure—when their ears were assailed by the unexpected sound +produced by the call to arms, which was followed immediately by the +closing of the city gates. They had scarcely asked each other the +meaning of these unusual occurrences, when a peasant, half frantic with +terror, rushed into the square, shouting out the terrible intelligence +that the Goths were in sight! +</P> + +<P> +The courtiers heard the news, and starting from a luxurious repast, +hurried to the palace windows to behold the portentous spectacle. For +the remainder of the evening the banqueting tables were unapproached by +the guests. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The wretched emperor was surprised among his poultry by that dreaded +intelligence. He, too, hastened to the windows, and looking forth, saw +the army of avengers passing in contempt his solitary fortress, and +moving swiftly onward towards defenceless Rome. Long after the +darkness had hidden the masses of that mighty multitude from his eyes, +did he remain staring helplessly upon the fading landscape, in a stupor +of astonishment and dread; and, for the first time since he had +possessed them, his flocks of fowls were left for that night unattended +by their master's hand. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 3. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ROME. +</H3> + +<P> +The perusal of the title to this chapter will, we fear, excite emotions +of apprehension, rather than of curiosity, in the breasts of +experienced readers. They will doubtless imagine that it is portentous +of long rhapsodies on those wonders of antiquity, the description of +which has long become absolutely nauseous to them by incessant +iteration. They will foresee wailings over the Palace of the Caesars, +and meditations among the arches of the Colosseum, loading a long +series of weary paragraphs to the very chapter's end; and, +considerately anxious to spare their attention a task from which it +recoils, they will unanimously hurry past the dreaded desert of +conventional reflection, to alight on the first oasis that may present +itself, whether it be formed by a new division of the story, or +suddenly indicated by the appearance of a dialogue. Animated, +therefore, by apprehensions such as these, we hasten to assure them +that in no instance will the localities of our story trench upon the +limits of the well-worn Forum, or mount the arches of the exhausted +Colosseum. It is with the beings, and not the buildings of old Rome, +that their attention is to be occupied. We desire to present them with +a picture of the inmost emotions of the times—of the living, breathing +actions and passions of the people of the doomed Empire. Antiquarian +topography and classical architecture we leave to abler pens, and +resign to other readers. +</P> + +<P> +It is, however, necessary that the sphere in which the personages of +our story are about to act should be in some measure indicated, in +order to facilitate the comprehension of their respective movements. +That portion of the extinct city which we design to revive has left few +traces of its existence in the modern town. Its sites are +traditionary—its buildings are dust. The church rises where the temple +once stood, and the wine-shop now lures the passing idler where the +bath invited his ancestor of old. +</P> + +<P> +The walls of Rome are in extent, at the present day, the same as they +were at the period of which we now write. But here all analogy between +the ancient and modern city ends. The houses that those walls were +once scarcely wide enough to enclose have long since vanished, and +their modern successors occupy but a third of the space once allotted +to the capital of the Empire. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond the walls immense suburbs stretched forth in the days of old. +Gorgeous villas, luxurious groves, temples, theatres, +baths—interspersed by colonies of dwellings belonging to the lower +orders of the people—surrounded the mighty city. Of these innumerable +abodes hardly a trace remains. The modern traveller, as he looks forth +over the site of the famous suburbs, beholds, here and there, a ruined +aqueduct, or a crumbling tomb, tottering on the surface of a +pestilential marsh. +</P> + +<P> +The present entrance to Rome by the Porta del Popolo occupies the same +site as the ancient Flaminian Gate. Three great streets now lead from +it towards the southern extremity of the city, and form with their +tributaries the principal portion of modern Rome. On one side they are +bounded by the Pincian Hill, on the other by the Tiber. Of these +streets, those nearest the river occupy the position of the famous +Campus Martius; those on the other side, the ancient approaches to the +gardens of Sallust and Lucullus, on the Pincian Mount. +</P> + +<P> +On the opposite bank of the Tiber (gained by the Ponte St. Angelo, +formerly the Pons Elius), two streets pierced through an irregular and +populous neighbourhood, conduct to the modern Church of St. Peter. At +the period of our story this part of the city was of much greater +consequence, both in size and appearance, than it is at present, and +led directly to the ancient Basilica of St. Peter, which stood on the +same site as that now occupied by the modern edifice. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The events about to be narrated occur entirely in the parts of the city +just described. From the Pincian Hill, across the Campus Martius, over +the Pons Elius, and on to the Basilica of St. Peter, the reader may be +often invited to accompany us, but he will be spared all necessity of +penetrating familiar ruins, or mourning over the sepulchres of departed +patriots. +</P> + +<P> +Ere, however, we revert to former actors or proceed to new characters, +it will be requisite to people the streets that we here attempt to +rebuild. By this process it is hoped that the reader will gain that +familiarity with the manners and customs of the Romans of the fifth +century on which the influence of this story mainly depends, and which +we despair of being able to instil by a philosophical disquisition on +the features of the age. A few pages of illustration will serve our +purpose better, perhaps, than volumes of historical description. There +is no more unerring index to the character of a people than the streets +of their cities. +</P> + +<P> +It is near evening. In the widest part of the Campus Martius crowds of +people are assembled before the gates of a palace. They are +congregated to receive several baskets of provisions, distributed with +ostentatious charity by the owner of the mansion. The incessant +clamour and agitation of the impatient multitude form a strange +contrast to the stately serenity of the natural and artificial objects +by which they are enclosed on all sides. +</P> + +<P> +The space they occupy is oblong in shape and of great extent in size. +Part of it is formed by a turf walk shaded with trees, part by the +paved approaches to the palace and the public baths which stand in its +immediate neighbourhood. These two edifices are remarkable by their +magnificent outward adornments of statues, and the elegance and number +of the flights of steps by which they are respectively entered. With +the inferior buildings, the market-places and the gardens attached to +them, they are sufficiently extensive to form the boundary of one side +of the immediate view. The appearance of monotony which might at other +times be remarked in the vastness and regularity of their white fronts, +is at this moment agreeably broken by several gaily-coloured awnings +stretched over their doors and balconies. The sun is now shining on +them with overpowering brightness; the metallic ornaments on their +windows glitter like gems of fire; even the trees which form their +groves partake of the universal flow of light, and fail, like the +objects around them, to offer to the weary eye either refreshment or +repose. +</P> + +<P> +Towards the north, the Mausoleum of Augustus, towering proudly up into +the brilliant sky, at once attracts the attention. From its position, +parts of this noble building are already in shade. Not a human being is +visible on any part of its mighty galleries—it stands solitary and +sublime, an impressive embodiment of the emotions which it was raised +to represent. +</P> + +<P> +On the side opposite the palace and the baths is the turf walk already +mentioned. Trees, thickly planted and interlaced by vines, cast a +luxurious shade over this spot. In their interstices, viewed from a +distance, appear glimpses of gay dresses, groups of figures in repose, +stands loaded with fruit and flowers, and innumerable white marble +statues of fauns and wood-nymphs. From this delicious retreat the +rippling of fountains is to be heard, occasionally interrupted by the +rustling of leaves, or the plaintive cadences of the Roman flute. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Southward two pagan temples stand in lonely grandeur among a host of +monuments and trophies. The symmetry of their first construction still +remains unimpaired, their white marble pillars shine in the sunlight +brightly as of old, yet they now present to the eye an aspect of +strange desolation, of unnatural mysterious gloom. Although the laws +forbid the worship for which they were built, the hand of reform has as +yet not ventured to doom them to ruin or adapt them to Christian +purposes. None venture to tread their once-crowded colonnades. No +priest appears to give the oracles from their doors; no sacrifices reek +upon their naked altars. Under their roofs, visited only by the light +that steals through their narrow entrances, stand unnoticed, +unworshipped, unmoved, the mighty idols of old Rome. Human emotion, +which made them Omnipotence once, has left them but stone now. The +'Star in the East' has already dimmed the fearful halo which the +devotion of bloodshed once wreathed round their forms. Forsaken and +alone, they stand but as the gloomy monuments of the greatest delusion +ever organised by the ingenuity of man. +</P> + +<P> +We have now, so to express it, exhibited the frame surrounding the +moving picture, which we shall next attempt to present to the reader by +mixing with the multitude before the palace gates. +</P> + +<P> +This assembly resolved itself into three divisions: that collected +before the palace steps, that loitering about the public baths, and +that reposing in the shade of the groves. The first was of the most +consequence in numbers, and of the greatest variety in appearance. +Composed of rogues of the worst order from every quarter of the world, +it might be said to present, in its general aspect of numerical +importance, the very sublime of degradation. Confident in their rude +union of common avidity, these worthy citizens vented their insolence +on all objects, and in every direction, with a careless impartiality +which would have shamed the most victorious efforts of modern mobs. +The hubbub of voices was perfectly fearful. The coarse execrations of +drunken Gauls, the licentious witticisms of effeminate Greeks, the +noisy satisfaction of native Romans, the clamorous indignation of +irritable Jews—all sounded together in one incessant chorus of +discordant noises. Nor were the senses of sight and smell more +agreeably assailed than the faculty of hearing, by this anomalous +congregation. Immodest youth and irreverent age; woman savage, man +cowardly; the swarthy Ethiopian beslabbered with stinking oil; the +stolid Briton begrimed with dirt—these, and a hundred other varying +combinations, to be imagined rather than expressed, met the attention +in every direction. To describe the odours exhaled by the heat from +this seething mixture of many pollutions, would be to force the reader +to close the book; we prefer to return to the distribution which was +the cause of this degrading tumult, and which consisted of small +baskets of roasted meat packed with common fruits and vegetables, and +handed, or rather flung down, to the mob by the servants of the +nobleman who gave the feast. The people revelled in the abundance thus +presented to them. They threw themselves upon it like wild beasts; they +devoured it like hogs, or bore it off like plunderers; while, secure in +the eminence on which they were placed, the purveyors of this public +banquet expressed their contempt for its noisy recipients, by holding +their noses, stopping their ears, turning their backs, and other +pantomimic demonstrations of lofty and excessive disgust. These +actions did not escape the attention of those members of the assembly +who, having eaten their fill, were at leisure to make use of their +tongues, and who showered an incessant storm of abuse on the heads of +their benefactor's retainers. +</P> + +<P> +'See those fellows!' cried one; 'they are the waiters at our feast, and +they mock us to our faces! Down with the filthy kitchen thieves!' +</P> + +<P> +'Excellently well said, Davus!—but who is to approach them? They +stink at this distance!' +</P> + +<P> +'The rotten-bodied knaves have the noses of dogs and the carcases of +goats.' +</P> + +<P> +Then came a chorus of voices—'Down with them! Down with them!' In +the midst of which an indignant freedman advanced to rebuke the mob, +receiving, as the reward of his temerity, a shower of missiles and a +volley of curses; after which he was thus addressed by a huge, greasy +butcher, hoisted on his companions' shoulders:— +</P> + +<P> +'By the soul of the emperor, could I get near you, you rogue, I would +quarter you with my fingers alone!—A grinning scoundrel that jeers at +others! A filthy flatterer that dirts the very ground he walks on! By +the blood of the martyrs, should I fling the sweepings of the +slaughter-house at him, he knows not where to get himself dried!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Thou rag of a man,' roared a neighbour of the indignant butcher's, +'dost thou frown upon the guests of thy master, the very scrapings of +whose skin are worth more than thy whole carcase! It is easier to make +a drinking-vessel of the skull of a flea than to make an honest man of +such a villainous night-walker as thou art!' +</P> + +<P> +'Health and prosperity to our noble entertainer!' shouted one section +of the grateful crowd as the last speaker paused for breath. +</P> + +<P> +'Death to all knaves of parasites!' chimed in another. +</P> + +<P> +'Honour to the citizens of Rome!' roared a third party with modest +enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +'Give that freedman our bones to pick!' screamed an urchin from the +outskirts of the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +This ingenious piece of advice was immediately followed; and the +populace gave vent to a shout of triumph as the unfortunate freedman, +scared by a new volley of missiles, retreated with ignominious +expedition to the shelter of his patron's halls. +</P> + +<P> +In the slight and purified specimen of the 'table talk' of a Roman mob +which we have here ventured to exhibit, the reader will perceive that +extraordinary mixture of servility and insolence which characterised +not only the conversation but the actions of the lower orders of +society at the period of which we write. Oppressed and degraded, on +the one hand, to a point of misery scarcely conceivable to the public +of the present day, the poorer classes in Rome were, on the other, +invested with such a degree of moral license, and permitted such an +extent of political privilege, as flattered their vanity into blinding +their sense of indignation. Slaves in their season of servitude, +masters in their hours of recreation, they presented, as a class, one +of the most amazing social anomalies ever existing in any nation; and +formed, in their dangerous and artificial position, one of the most +important of the internal causes of the downfall of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +The steps of the public baths were almost as crowded as the space +before the neighbouring building. Incessant streams of people, either +entering or departing, poured over the broad flagstones of its marble +colonnades. This concourse, although composed in some parts of the same +class of people as that assembled before the palace, presented a +certain appearance of respectability. Here and there—chequering the +dusky monotony of masses of dirty tunics—might be discerned the +refreshing vision of a clean robe, or the grateful indication of a +handsome person. Little groups, removed as far as possible from the +neighbourhood of the noisy plebeians, were scattered about, either +engaged in animated conversation, or listlessly succumbing to the +lassitude induced by a recent bath. An instant's attention to the +subject of discourse among the more active of these individuals will +aid us in pursuing our social revelations. +</P> + +<P> +The loudest voice among the speakers at this particular moment +proceeded from a tall, thin, sinister-looking man, who was haranguing a +little group of listeners with great vehemence and fluency. +</P> + +<P> +'I tell you, Socius,' said he, turning suddenly upon one of his +companions, 'that, unless new slave-laws are made, my calling is at an +end. My patron's estate requires incessant supplies of these wretches. +I do my best to satisfy the demand, and the only result of my labour +is, that the miscreants either endanger my life, or fly with impunity +to join the gangs of robbers infesting our woods.' +</P> + +<P> +'Truly I am sorry for you; but what alteration would you have made in +the slave-laws?' +</P> + +<P> +'I would empower bailiffs to slay upon the spot all slaves whom they +thought disorderly, as an example to the rest!' +</P> + +<P> +'What would such a permission avail you? These creatures are +necessary, and such a law would exterminate them in a few months. Can +you not break their spirit with labour, bind their strength with +chains, and vanquish their obstinacy with dungeons?' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'All this I have done, but they die under the discipline, or escape +from their prisons. I have now three hundred slaves on my patron's +estates. Against those born on our lands I have little to urge. Many +of them, it is true, begin the day with weeping and end it with death; +but for the most part, thanks to their diurnal allowance of stripes, +they are tolerably submissive. It is with the wretches that I have +been obliged to purchase from prisoners of war and the people of +revolted towns that I am so dissatisfied. Punishments have no effect +on them, they are incessantly indolent, sulky, desperate. It was but +the other day that ten of them poisoned themselves while at work in the +fields, and fifty more, after setting fire to a farm-house while my +back was turned, escaped to join a gang of their companions, who are +now robbers in the woods. These fellows, however, are the last of the +troop who will perpetrate such offences. With the concurrence of my +patron, I have adopted a plan that will henceforth tame them +efficiently!' +</P> + +<P> +'Are you at liberty to communicate it?' +</P> + +<P> +'By the keys of St. Peter, I wish I could see it practised on every +estate in the land! It is this:—Near a sulphur lake at some distance +from my farm-house is a tract of marshy ground, overspread here and +there by the ruins of an ancient slaughter-house. I propose to dig in +this place several subterranean caverns, each of which shall be capable +of holding twenty men. Here my mutinous slaves shall sleep after their +day's labour. The entrances shall be closed until morning with a large +stone, on which I will have engraven this inscription: 'These are the +dormitories invented by Gordian, bailiff of Saturninus, a nobleman, for +the reception of refractory slaves.' +</P> + +<P> +'Your plan is ingenious; but I suspect your slaves (so insensible to +hardships are the brutal herd) will sleep as unconcernedly in their new +dormitories as in their old.' +</P> + +<P> +'Sleep! It will be a most original species of repose that they will +taste there! The stench of the sulphur lake will breathe Sabian odours +for them over a couch of mud! Their anointing oil will be the slime of +attendant reptiles! Their liquid perfumes will be the stagnant oozings +from their chamber roof! Their music will be the croaking of frogs and +the humming of gnats; and as for their adornments, why, they will be +decked forth with head-garlands of twining worms, and movable brooches +of cockchafers and toads! Tell me now, most sagacious Socius, do you +still think that amidst such luxuries as these my slaves will sleep?' +</P> + +<P> +'No; they will die.' +</P> + +<P> +'You are again wrong. They will curse and rave perhaps, but that is of +no consequence. They will work the longer above ground to shorten the +term of their repose beneath. They will wake at an instant's notice, +and come forth at a moment's signal. I have no fear of their dying!' +</P> + +<P> +'Do you leave Rome soon?' +</P> + +<P> +'I go this evening, taking with me such a supply of trustworthy +assistants as will enable me to execute my plan without delay. +Farewell, Socius!' +</P> + +<P> +'Most ingenious of bailiffs, I bid you farewell!' +</P> + +<P> +As the worthy Gordian stalked off, big with the dignity of his new +projects, the gestures and tones of a man who formed one of a little +group collected in a remote part of the portico he was about to quit +attracted his attention. Curiosity formed as conspicuous an ingredient +in this man's character as cruelty. He stole behind the base of a +neighbouring pillar; and, as the frequent repetition of the word +'Goths' struck his ear (the report of that nation's impending invasion +having by this time reached Rome), he carefully disposed himself to +listen with the most implicit attention to the speaker's voice. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Goths!' cried the man, in the stern, concentrated accents of despair. +'Is there one among us to whom this report of their advance upon Rome +does not speak of hope rather than of dread? Have we a chance of rising +from the degradation forced on us by our superiors until this den of +heartless triflers and shameless cowards is swept from the very earth +that it pollutes!' +</P> + +<P> +'Your sentiments on the evils of our condition are undoubtedly most +just,' observed a fat, pompous man, to whom the preceding remarks had +been addressed, 'but I cannot desire the reform you so ardently hope +for. Think of the degradation of being conquered by barbarians!' +</P> + +<P> +'I am the exile of my country's privileges. What interest have I in +upholding her honour—if honour she really has!' replied the first +speaker. +</P> + +<P> +'Nay! Your expressions are too severe. You are too discontented to be +just.' +</P> + +<P> +'Am I! Hear me for a moment, and you will change your opinion. You +see me now by my bearing and appearance superior to yonder plebeian +herd. You doubtless think that I live at my ease in the world, that I +can feel no anxiety for the future about my bodily necessities. What +would you say were I to tell you that if I want another meal, a lodging +for to-night, a fresh robe for tomorrow, I must rob or flatter some +great man to gain them? Yet so it is. I am hopeless, friendless, +destitute. In the whole of the Empire there is not an honest calling +in which I can take refuge. I must become a pander or a parasite—a +hired tyrant over slaves, or a chartered groveller beneath nobles—if I +would not starve miserably in the streets, or rob openly in the woods! +This is what I am. Now listen to what I was. I was born free. I +inherited from my father a farm which he had successfully defended from +the encroachments of the rich, at the expense of his comfort, his +health, and his life. When I succeeded to his lands, I determined to +protect them in my time as studiously as he had defended them in his. +I worked unintermittingly: I enlarged my house, I improved my fields, +I increased my flocks. One after another I despised the threats and +defeated the wiles of my noble neighbours, who desired possession of my +estate to swell their own territorial grandeur. In process of time I +married and had a child. I believed that I was picked out from my race +as a fortunate man—when one night I was attacked by robbers: slaves +made desperate by the cruelty of their wealthy masters. They ravaged +my cornfields, they deprived me of my flocks. When I demanded redress, +I was told to sell my lands to those who could defend them—to those +rich nobles whose tyranny had organised the band of wretches who had +spoiled me of my possessions, and to whose fraud-gotten treasures the +government were well pleased to grant that protection which they had +denied to my honest hoards. In my pride I determined that I would +still be independent. I planted new crops. With the little remnant of +my money I hired fresh servants and bought more flocks. I had just +recovered from my first disaster when I became the victim of a second. +I was again attacked. This time we had arms, and we attempted to +defend ourselves. My wife was slain before my eyes; my house was burnt +to the ground; I myself only escaped, mutilated with wounds; my child +soon afterwards pined and died. I had no wife, no offspring, no house, +no money. My fields still stretched round me, but I had none to +cultivate them. My walls still tottered at my feet, but I had none to +rear them again, none to inhabit them if they were reared. My father's +lands were now become a wilderness to me. I was too proud to sell them +to my rich neighbour; I preferred to leave them before I saw them the +prey of a tyrant, whose rank had triumphed over my industry, and who is +now able to boast that he can travel over ten leagues of senatorial +property untainted by the propinquity of a husbandman's farm. +Houseless, homeless, friendless, I have come to Rome alone in my +affliction, helpless in my degradation! Do you wonder now that I am +careless about the honour of my country? I would have served her with +my life and my possessions when she was worthy of my service; but she +has cast me off, and I care not who conquers her. I say to the +Goths—with thousands who suffer the same tribulation that I now +undergo—"Enter our gates! Level our palaces to the ground! Confound, +if you will, in one common slaughter, we that are victims with those +that are tyrants! Your invasion will bring new lords to the land. +They cannot crush it more—they may oppress it less. Our posterity may +gain their rights by the sacrifice of lives that our country has made +worthless. Romans though we are, we are ready to suffer and submit!"' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He stopped; for by this time he had lashed himself into fury. His eyes +glared, his cheeks flushed, his voice rose. Could he then have seen +the faintest vision of the destiny that future ages had in store for +the posterity of the race that now suffered throughout civilised +Europe, like him—could he have imagined how, in after years, the +'middle class', despised in his day, was to rise to privilege and +power; to hold in its just hands the balance of the prosperity of +nations; to crush oppression and regulate rule; to soar in its mighty +flight above thrones and principalities, and rank and riches, +apparently obedient, but really commanding;—could he but have +foreboded this, what a light must have burst upon his gloom, what a +hope must have soothed him in his despair! +</P> + +<P> +To what further extremities his anger might have carried him, to what +proceedings the indignant Gordian, who still listened from his +concealment, might have had recourse, it is difficult to say; for the +complaints of the ill-fated landholder and the cogitations of the +authoritative bailiff were alike suddenly suspended by an uproar raging +at this moment round a carriage which had just emerged from the palace +we have elsewhere described. +</P> + +<P> +This vehicle looked one mass of silver. Embroidered silk curtains +fluttered all around it, gold ornaments studded its polished sides, and +it held no less a person than the nobleman who had feasted the people +with baskets of meat. This fact had become known to the rabble before +the palace gates. Such an opportunity of showing their exultation in +their bondage, their real servility in their imaginary independence, +was not to be lost; and accordingly they let loose such a torrent of +clamorous gratitude on their entertainer's appearance, that a stranger +in Rome would have thought the city in revolt. They leapt, they ran, +they danced round the prancing horses, they flung their empty baskets +into the air, and patted approvingly their 'fair round bellies'. From +every side, as the carriage moved on, they gained fresh recruits and +acquired new importance. The timid fled before them, the noisy shouted +with them, the bold plunged into their ranks; and the constant burden +of their rejoicing chorus was—'Health to the noble Pomponius! +Prosperity to the senators of Rome, who feast us with their food and +give us the freedom of their theatres! Glory to Pomponius! Glory to +the senators!' +</P> + +<P> +Fate seemed on this day to take pleasure in pampering the insatiable +curiosity of Gordian, the bailiff. The cries of the multitude had +scarcely died away in the distance, as they followed the departing +carriage, when the voices of two men, pitched to a low, confidential +tone, reached his ear from the opposite side of the pillar. He peeped +cautiously round, and saw that they were priests. +</P> + +<P> +'What an eternal jester is that Pomponius!' said one voice. 'He is +going to receive absolution, and he journeys in his chariot of state, +as if he were preparing to celebrate his triumph, instead of to confess +his sins!' +</P> + +<P> +'Has he committed, then, a fresh imprudence?' +</P> + +<P> +'Alas, yes! For a senator he is dreadfully wanting in caution! A few +days since, in a fit of passion, he flung a drinking-cup at one of his +female slaves. The girl died on the spot, and her brother, who is also +in his service, threatened immediate vengeance. To prevent +disagreeable consequences to his body, Pomponius has sent the fellow to +his estates in Egypt; and now, from the same precaution for the welfare +of his soul, he goes to demand absolution from our holy and beneficent +Church.' +</P> + +<P> +'I am afraid these incessant absolutions, granted to men who are too +careless even to make a show of repentance for their crimes, will +prejudice us with the people at large.' +</P> + +<P> +'Of what consequence are the sentiments of the people while we have +their rulers on our side! Absolution is the sorcery that binds these +libertines of Rome to our will. We know what converted +Constantine—politic flattery and ready absolution; the people will +tell you it was the sign of the Cross.' +</P> + +<P> +'It is true this Pomponius is rich, and may increase our revenues, but +still I fear the indignation of the people.' +</P> + +<P> +'Fear nothing: think how long their old institutions imposed on them, +and then doubt, if you can, that we may shape them to our wishes as we +will. Any deceptions will be successful with a mob, if the instrument +employed to forward them be a religion.' +</P> + +<P> +The voices ceased. Gordian, who still cherished a vague intention of +denouncing the fugitive landholder to the senatorial authorities, +employed the liberty afforded to his attention by the silence of the +priests in turning to look after his intended victim. To his surprise +he saw that the man had left the auditors to whom he had before +addressed himself, and was engaged in earnest conversation in another +part of the portico, with an individual who seemed to have recently +joined him, and whose appearance was so remarkable that the bailiff had +moved a few steps forwards to gain a nearer view of him, when he was +once more arrested by the voices of the priests. +</P> + +<P> +Irresolute for an instant to which party to devote his unscrupulous +attention, he returned mechanically to his old position. Ere long, +however, his anxiety to hear the mysterious communications proceeding +between the landholder and his friend overbalanced his delight in +penetrating the theological secrets of the priests. He turned once +more, but to his astonishment the objects of his curiosity had +disappeared. He stepped to the outside of the portico and looked for +them in every direction, but they were nowhere to be seen. Peevish and +disappointed, he returned as a last resource to the pillar where he had +left the priests, but the time consumed in his investigations after one +party had been fatal to his reunion with the other. The churchmen were +gone. +</P> + +<P> +Sufficiently punished for his curiosity by his disappointment, the +bailiff walked doggedly off towards the Pincian Hill. Had he turned in +the contrary direction, towards the Basilica of St. Peter, he would +have found himself once more in the neighbourhood of the landholder and +his remarkable friend, and would have gained that acquaintance with the +subjects of their conversation, which we intend that the reader shall +acquire in the course of the next chapter. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 4. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CHURCH. +</H3> + +<P> +In the year 324, on the locality assigned by rumour to the martyrdom of +St. Peter, and over the ruins of the Circus of Nero, Constantine +erected the church called the Basilica of St. Peter. +</P> + +<P> +For twelve centuries, this building, raised by a man infamous for his +murders and his tyrannies, stood uninjured amid the shocks which during +that long period devastated the rest of the city. After that time it +was removed, tottering to its base from its own reverend and +illustrious age, by Pope Julius II, to make way for the foundations of +the modern church. +</P> + +<P> +It is towards this structure of twelve hundred years' duration, erected +by hands stained with blood, and yet preserved as a star of peace in +the midst of stormy centuries of war, that we would direct the reader's +attention. What art has done for the modern church, time has effected +for the ancient. If the one is majestic to the eye by its grandeur, +the other is hallowed to the memory by its age. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As this church by its rise commemorated the triumphant establishment of +Christianity as the religion of Rome, so in its progress it reflected +every change wrought in the spirit of the new worship by the ambition, +the prodigality, or the frivolity of the priests. At first it stood +awful and imposing, beautiful in all its parts as the religion for +whose glory it was built. Vast porphyry colonnades decorated its +approaches, and surrounded a fountain whose waters issued from the +representation of a gigantic pine-tree in bronze. Its double rows of +aisles were each supported by forty-eight columns of precious marble. +Its flat ceiling was adorned with beams of gilt metal, rescued from the +pollution of heathen temples. Its walls were decorated with large +paintings of religious subjects, and its tribunal was studded with +elegant mosaics. Thus it rose, simple and yet sublime, awful and yet +alluring; in this its beginning, a type of the dawn of the worship +which it was elevated to represent. But when, flushed with success, +the priests seized on Christianity as their path to politics and their +introduction to power, the aspect of the church gradually began to +change. As, slowly and insensibly, ambitious man heaped the garbage of +his mysteries, his doctrines, and his disputes, about the pristine +purity of the structure given him by God, so, one by one, gaudy +adornments and meretricious alterations arose to sully the once +majestic basilica, until the threatening and reproving apparition of +the pagan Julian, when both Church and churchmen received in their +corrupt progress a sudden and impressive check. +</P> + +<P> +The short period of the revival of idolatry once passed over, the +priests, unmoved by the warning they had received, returned with +renewed vigour to confuse that which both in their Gospel and their +Church had been once simple. Day by day they put forth fresh +treatises, aroused fierce controversies, subsided into new sects; and +day by day they altered more and more the once noble aspect of the +ancient basilica. They hung their nauseous relics on its mighty walls, +they stuck their tiny tapers about its glorious pillars, they wreathed +their tawdry fringes around its massive altars. Here they polished, +there they embroidered. Wherever there was a window, they curtained it +with gaudy cloths; wherever there was a statue, they bedizened it with +artificial flowers; wherever there was a solemn recess, they outraged +its religious gloom with intruding light; until (arriving at the period +we write of) they succeeded so completely in changing the aspect of the +building, that it looked, within, more like a vast pagan toyshop than a +Christian church. Here and there, it is true, a pillar or an altar +rose unencumbered as of old, appearing as much at variance with the +frippery that surrounded it as a text of Scripture quoted in a sermon +of the time. But as regarded the general aspect of the basilica, the +decent glories of its earlier days seemed irrevocably departed and +destroyed. +</P> + +<P> +After what has been said of the edifice, the reader will have little +difficulty in imagining that the square in which it stood lost whatever +elevation of character it might once have possessed, with even greater +rapidity than the church itself. If the cathedral now looked like an +immense toyshop, assuredly its attendant colonnades had the appearance +of the booths of an enormous fair. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The day, whose decline we have hinted at in the preceding chapter, was +fast verging towards its close, as the inhabitants of the streets on +the western bank of the Tiber prepared to join the crowds that they +beheld passing by their windows in the direction of the Basilica of St. +Peter. The cause of this sudden confluence of the popular current in +once common direction was made sufficiently apparent to all inquirers +who happened to be near a church or a public building, by the +appearance in such situations of a large sheet of vellum elaborately +illuminated, raised on a high pole, and guarded from contact with the +inquisitive rabble by two armed soldiers. The announcements set forth +in these strange placards were all of the same nature and directed to +the same end. In each of them the Bishop of Rome informed his 'pious +and honourable brethren', the inhabitants of the city, that, as the +next days was the anniversary of the Martyrdom of St. Luke, the vigil +would necessarily be held on that evening in the Basilica of St. Peter; +and that, in consideration of the importance of the occasion, there +would be exhibited, before the commencement of the ceremony, those +precious relics connected with the death of the saint, which had become +the inestimable inheritance of the Church; and which consisted of a +branch of the olive-tree to which St. Luke was hung, a piece of the +noose—including the knot—which had been passed round his neck, and a +picture of the Apotheosis of the Virgin painted by his own hand. After +some sentences expressive of lamentation for the sufferings of the +saint, which nobody read, and which it is unnecessary to reproduce +here, the proclamation went on to state that a sermon would be preached +in the course of the vigil, and that at a later hour the great +chandelier, containing two thousand four hundred lamps, would be lit to +illuminate the church. Finally, the worthy bishop called upon all +members of his flock, in consideration of the solemnity of the day, to +abstain from sensual pleasures, in order that they might the more +piously and worthily contemplate the sacred objects submitted to their +view, and digest the spiritual nourishment to be offered to their +understandings. +</P> + +<P> +From the specimen we have already given of the character of the +populace of Rome, it will perhaps be unnecessary to say that the great +attractions presented by this theological bill of fare were the relics +and the chandelier. Pulpit eloquence and vigil solemnities alone must +have long exhibited their more sober allurements, before they could +have drawn into the streets a fiftieth part of the immense crowd that +now hurried towards the desecrated basilica. Indeed, so vast was the +assemblage soon congregated, that the advanced ranks of sightseers had +already filled the church to overflowing, before those in the rear had +come within view of the colonnades. +</P> + +<P> +However dissatisfied the unsuccessful portion of the citizens might +feel at their exclusion from the church, they found a powerful +counter-attraction in the amusements going forward in the Place, the +occupants of which seemed thoroughly regardless of the bishop's +admonitions upon the sobriety of behaviour due to the solemnity of the +day. As if in utter defiance of the decency and order recommended by +the clergy, popular exhibitions of all sorts were set up on the broad +flagstones of the great space before the church. Street dancing-girls +exercised at every available spot those 'gliding gyrations' so +eloquently condemned by the worthy Ammianus Marcellinus of orderly and +historical memory. Booths crammed with relics of doubtful authenticity, +baskets filled with neat manuscript abstracts of furiously +controversial pamphlets, pagan images regenerated into portraits of +saints, pictorial representations of Arians writhing in damnation, and +martyrs basking in haloes of celestial light, tempted, in every +direction, the more pious among the spectators. Cooks perambulated +with their shops on their backs; rival slave-merchants shouted +petitions for patronage; wine-sellers taught Bacchanalian philosophy +from the tops of their casks; poets recited compositions for sale; +sophisters held arguments destined to convert the wavering and perplex +the ignorant. +</P> + +<P> +Incessant motion and incessant noise seemed to be the sole +compensations sought by the multitude for the disappointment of +exclusion from the church. If a stranger, after reading the +proclamation of the day, had proceeded to the basilica, to feast his +eyes on the contemplation of the illustrious aggregate of humanity, +entitled by the bishop 'his pious and honourable brethren,' he must, on +mixing at this moment with the assemblage, have either doubted the +truth of the episcopal appellation, or have given the citizens credit +for that refinement of intrinsic worth which is of too elevated a +nature to influence the character of the outward man. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At the time when the sun set, nothing could be more picturesque than +the distant view of this joyous scene. The deep red rays of the +departing luminary cast their radiance, partly from behind the church, +over the vast multitude in the Place. Brightly and rapidly the rich +light roved over the waters that leaped towards it from the fountain in +all the loveliness of natural and evanescent form. Bathed in that +brilliant glow, the smooth porphyry colonnades reflected, chameleon +like, ethereal and varying hues; the white marble statues became +suffused in a delicate rose-colour, and the sober-tinted trees gleamed +in the innermost of their leafy depths as if steeped in the exhalations +of a golden mist. While, contrasting strangely with the wondrous +radiance around them, the huge bronze pine-tree in the middle of the +Place, and the wide front of the basilica, rose up in gloomy shadow, +indefinite and exaggerated, lowering like evil spirits over the joyous +beauty of the rest of the scene, and casting their great depths of +shade into the midst of the light whose dominion they despised. Beheld +from a distance, this wild combination of vivid brightness and solemn +gloom; these buildings, at one place darkened till they looked +gigantic, at another lightened till they appeared ethereal; these +crowded groups, seeming one great moving mass gleaming at this point in +radiant light, obscured at that in thick shadow, made up a whole so +incongruous and yet so beautiful, so grotesque and yet so sublime, that +the scene looked, for the moment, more like some inhabited meteor, half +eclipsed by its propinquity to earth, than a mortal and material +prospect. +</P> + +<P> +The beauties of this atmospheric effect were of far too serious and +sublime a nature to interest the multitude in the Place. Out of the +whole assemblage, but two men watched that glorious sunset with even an +appearance of the admiration and attention which it deserved. One was +the landholder whose wrongs were related in the preceding chapter—the +other his remarkable friend. +</P> + +<P> +These two men formed a singular contrast to each other, both in +demeanour and appearance, as they gazed forth upon the crimson heaven. +The landholder was an under-sized, restless-looking man, whose +features, naturally sharp, were now distorted by a fixed expression of +misery and discontent. His quick, penetrating glance wandered +incessantly from place to place, perceiving all things, but resting on +none. In his attention to the scene before him, he appeared to have +been led more by the influence of example than by his own spontaneous +feelings; for ever and anon he looked impatiently round upon his friend +as if expecting him to speak—but no word or movement escaped his +thoughtful companion. Occupied exclusively in his own contemplations, +he appeared wholly insensible to any ordinary outward appeal. +</P> + +<P> +In age and appearance this individual was in the decline of life; for +he had numbered sixty years, his hair was completely grey, and his face +was covered with deep wrinkles. Yet, in spite of these disadvantages, +he was in the highest sense of the word a handsome man. Though worn +and thin, his features were still bold and regular; and there was an +elevation about the habitual mournfulness of his expression, and an +intelligence about his somewhat severe and earnest eyes, that bore +eloquent testimony to the superiority of his intellectual powers. As +he now stood gazing fixedly out into the glowing sky, his tall, meagre +figure half supported upon his staff, his lips firmly compressed, his +brow slightly frowning, and his attitude firm and motionless, the most +superficial observer must have felt immediately that he looked on no +ordinary being. The history of a life of deep thought—perhaps of long +sorrow—seemed written in every lineament of his meditative +countenance; and there was a natural dignity in his manner, which +evidently restrained his restless companion from offering any +determined interruption to the course of his reflections. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly and gorgeously the sun had continued to wane in the horizon +until he was now lost to view. As his last rays sunk behind the +distant hills, the stranger started from his reverie and approached the +landholder, pointing with his staff towards the fast-fading brightness +of the western sky. +</P> + +<P> +'Probus,' said he, in a low, melancholy voice, 'as I looked on that +sunset I thought on the condition of the Church.' +</P> + +<P> +'I see little in the Church to think of, or in the sunset to observe,' +replied his companion. +</P> + +<P> +'How pure, how vivid,' murmured the other, scarcely heeding the +landholder's remark, 'was the light which that sun cast upon this earth +at our feet! How nobly for a time its brightness triumphed over the +shadows around; and yet, in spite of the promise of that radiance, how +swiftly did it fade ere long in its conflict with the gloom—how +thoroughly, even now, has it departed from the earth, and withdrawn the +beauty of its glory from the heavens! Already the shadows are +lengthening around us, and shrouding in their darkness every object in +the Place. But a short hour hence, and—should no moon arise—the +gloom of night will stretch unresisted over Rome!' +</P> + +<P> +'To what purpose do you tell me this?' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Are you not reminded, by what we have observed, of the course of the +worship which it is our privilege to profess? Does not that first +beautiful light denote its pure and perfect rise; that short conflict +between the radiance and the gloom, its successful preservation, by the +Apostles and the Fathers; that rapid fading of the radiance, its +desecration in later times; and the gloom which now surrounds us, the +destruction which has encompassed it in this age we live in?—a +destruction which nothing can avert but a return to that pure first +faith that should now be the hope of our religion, as the moon is the +hope of night!' +</P> + +<P> +'How should we reform? Do people who have no liberties care about a +religion? Who is to teach them?' +</P> + +<P> +'I have—I will. It is the purpose of my life to restore to them the +holiness of the ancient Church; to rescue them from the snare of +traitors to the faith, whom men call priests. They shall learn through +me that the Church knew no adornment once, but the presence of the +pure; that the priest craved no finer vestment than his holiness; that +the Gospel, which once taught humility and now raises dispute, was in +former days the rule of faith—sufficient for all wants, powerful over +all difficulties. Through me they shall know that in times past it was +the guardian of the heart; through me they shall see that in times +present it is the plaything of the proud; through me they shall fear +that in times future it may become the exile of the Church! To this +task I have vowed myself; to overthrow this idolatry—which, like +another paganism, rises among us with its images, its relics, its +jewels, and its gold—I will devote my child, my life, my energies, and +my possessions. From this attempt I will never turn aside—from this +determination I will never flinch. While I have a breath of life in +me, I will persevere in restoring to this abandoned city the true +worship of the Most High!' +</P> + +<P> +He ceased abruptly. The intensity of his agitation seemed suddenly to +deny to him the faculty of speech. Every muscle in the frame of that +stern, melancholy man quivered at the immortal promptings of the soul +within him. There was something almost feminine in his universal +susceptibility to the influence of one solitary emotion. Even the +rough, desperate landholder felt awed by the enthusiasm of the being +before him, and forgot his wrongs, terrible as they were—and his +misery, poignant as it was—as he gazed upon his companion's face. +</P> + +<P> +For some minutes neither of the men said more. Soon, however, the last +speaker calmed his agitation with the facility of a man accustomed to +stifle the emotions that he cannot crush, and advancing to the +landholder, took him sorrowfully by the hand. +</P> + +<P> +'I see, Probus, that I have amazed you,' said he; 'but the Church is +the only subject on which I have no discretion. In all other matters I +have conquered the rashness of my early manhood; in this I have to +wrestle with my hastier nature still. When I look on the mockeries +that are acting around us; when I behold a priesthood deceivers, a +people deluded, a religion defiled, then, I confess it, my indignation +overpowers my patience, and I burn to destroy, where I ought only to +hope to reform.' +</P> + +<P> +'I knew you always violent of imagination; but when I last saw you your +enthusiasm was love. Your wife—' +</P> + +<P> +'Peace! She deceived me!' +</P> + +<P> +'Your child—' +</P> + +<P> +'Lives with me at Rome.' +</P> + +<P> +'I remember her an infant, when, fourteen years since, I was your +neighbour in Gaul. On my departure from the province, you had just +returned from a journey into Italy, unsuccessful in your attempts to +discover there a trace either of your parents, or of that elder brother +whose absence you were wont so continually to lament. Tell me, have +you, since that period, discovered the members of your ancient +household? Hitherto you have been so occupied in listening to the +history of my wrongs that you have scarcely spoken of the changes in +your life since we last met.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'If, Probus, I have been silent to you concerning myself, it is because +for me retrospection has little that attracts. While yet it was in my +power to return to those parents whom I deserted in my boyhood, I +thought not of repentance; and now that they must be but too surely +lost to me, my yearning towards them is of no avail. Of my brother, +from whom I parted in a moment of childish jealousy and anger, and +whose pardon and love I would give up even my ambition to acquire, I +have never yet discovered a trace. Atonement to those whom I injured +in early life is a privilege denied to the prayers of my age. From my +parents and my brother I departed unblest, and unforgiven by them I +feel that I am doomed to die! My life has been careless, useless, +godless, passing from rapine and violence to luxury and indolence, and +leading me to the marriage which I exulted in when I last saw you, but +which I now feel was unworthy alike in its motives and its results. +But blessed and thrice blessed by that last calamity of my wicked +existence, for it opened my eyes to the truth—it made a Christian of +me while I was yet alive!' +</P> + +<P> +'Is it thus that the Christian can view his afflictions? I would, +then, that I were a Christian like you!' murmured the landholder, in +low, earnest tones. +</P> + +<P> +'It was in those first days, Probus,' continued the other, 'when I +found myself deserted and dishonoured, left alone to be the guardian of +my helpless child, exiled for ever from a home that I had myself +forsaken, that I repented me in earnest of my misdeeds, that I sought +wisdom from the book of salvation, and the conduct of life from the +Fathers of the Church. It was at that time that I determined to devote +my child, like Samuel of old, to the service of heaven, and myself to +the reformation of our degraded worship. As I have already told you, I +forsook my abode and changed my name (remember it is as 'Numerian' that +you must henceforth address me), that of my former self no remains +might be left, that of my former companions not one might ever discover +and tempt me again. With incessant care have I shielded my daughter +from the contamination of the world. As a precious jewel in a miser's +hands she has been watched and guarded in her father's house. Her +destiny is to soothe the afflicted, to watch the sick, to succour the +forlorn, when I, her teacher, have restored to the land the dominion of +its ancient faith and the guidance of its faultless Gospel. We have +neither of us an affection or a hope that can bind us to the things of +earth. Our hearts look both towards heaven; our expectations are only +from on high!' +</P> + +<P> +'Do not set your hopes too firmly on your child. Remember how the +nobles of Rome have destroyed the household I once had, and tremble for +your own.' +</P> + +<P> +'I have no fear for my daughter; she is cared for in my absence by one +who is vowed to aid me in my labours for the Church. It is now nearly +a year since I first met Ulpius, and from that time forth he has +devoted himself to my service and watched over my child.' +</P> + +<P> +'Who is this Ulpius, that you should put such faith in him?' +</P> + +<P> +'He is a man of age like mine. I found him, like me, worn down by the +calamities of his early life, and abandoned, as I had once been, to the +delusions of the pagan gods. He was desolate, suffering, forlorn, and +I had pity on him in his misery. I proved to him that the worship he +still professed was banished for its iniquities from the land; that the +religion which had succeeded it had become defiled by man, and that +there remained but one faith for him to choose, if he would be +saved—the faith of the early Church. He heard me and was converted. +From that moment he has served me patiently and helped me willingly. +Under the roof where I assemble the few who as yet are true believers, +he is always the first to come and the last to remain. No word of +anger has ever crossed his lips—no look of impatience has ever +appeared in his eyes. Though sorrowful, he is gentle; though suffering, +he is industrious. I have trusted him with all I possess, and I glory +in my credulity! Ulpius is incorruptible!' +</P> + +<P> +'And your daughter?—is Ulpius reverenced by her as he is respected by +you?' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'She knows that her duty is to love whom I love, and to avoid whom I +avoid. Can you imagine that a Christian virgin has any feelings +disobedient to her father's wishes? Come to my house; judge with your +own eyes of my daughter and my companion. You, whose misfortunes have +left you no home, shall find one, if you will, with me. Come then and +labour with me in my great undertaking! You will withdraw your mind +from the contemplation of your woes, and merit by your devotion the +favour of the Most High.' +</P> + +<P> +'No, Numerian, I will still be independent, even of my friends! Nor +Rome nor Italy are abiding-places for me. I go to another land to +abide among another people, until the arms of a conqueror shall have +restored freedom to the brave and protection to the honest throughout +the countries of the Empire.' +</P> + +<P> +'Probus, I implore you stay!' +</P> + +<P> +'Never! My determination is taken, Numerian—farewell!' +</P> + +<P> +For a few minutes Numerian stood motionless, gazing wistfully in the +direction taken by his companion on his departure. At first an +expression of grief and pity softened the austerity which seemed the +habitual characteristic of his countenance when in repose, but soon +these milder and tenderer feelings appeared to vanish from his heart as +suddenly as they had arisen; his features reassumed their customary +sternness, and he muttered to himself as he mixed with the crowd +struggling onwards in the direction of the basilica: 'Let him depart +unregretted; he has denied himself to the service of his Maker. He +should no longer be my friend.' +</P> + +<P> +In this sentence lay the index to the character of the man. His +existence was one vast sacrifice, one scene of intrepid +self-immolation. Although, in the brief hints at the events of his life +which he had communicated to his friend, he had exaggerated the extent +of his errors, he had by no means done justice to the fervour of his +penitence—a penitence which outstripped the usual boundaries of +repentance, and only began in despair to terminate in fanaticism. His +desertion of his father's house (into the motives of which it is not +our present intention to enter), and his long subsequent existence of +violence and excess, indisposed his naturally strong passions to submit +to the slightest restraint. In obedience to their first impulses, he +contracted, at a mature age, a marriage with a woman thoroughly +unworthy of the ardent admiration that she had inspired. When he found +himself deceived and dishonoured by her, the shock of such an +affliction thrilled through his whole being—crushed all his +energies—struck him prostrate, heart and mind, at one blow. The +errors of his youth, committed in his prosperity with moral impunity, +reacted upon him in his adversity with an influence fatal to his future +peace. His repentance was darkened by despondency; his resolutions +were unbrightened by hope. He flew to religion as the suicide flies to +the knife—in despair. +</P> + +<P> +Leaving all remaining peculiarities in Numerian's character to be +discussed at a future opportunity, we will now follow him in his +passage through the crowd, to the entrance of the basilica—continuing +to designate him, here and elsewhere, by the name which he had assumed +on his conversion, and by which he had insisted on being addressed +during his interview with the fugitive landholder. +</P> + +<P> +Although at the commencement of his progress towards the church, our +enthusiast found himself placed among the hindermost of the members of +the advancing throng, he soon contrived so thoroughly to outstrip his +dilatory and discursive neighbours as to gain, with little delay, the +steps of the sacred building. Here, in common with many others, he was +compelled to stop, while those nearest the basilica squeezed their way +through its stately doors. In such a situation his remarkable figure +could not fail to be noticed, and he was silently recognised by many of +the bystanders, some of whom looked on him with wonder, and some with +aversion. Nobody, however, approached or spoke to him. Every one felt +the necessity of shunning a man whose bold and daily exposures of the +abuses of the Church placed in incessant peril his liberty, and even +his life. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Among the bystanders who surrounded Numerian, there were nevertheless +two who did not remain content with carelessly avoiding any +communication with the intrepid and suspected reformer. These two men +belonged to the lowest order of the clergy, and appeared to be occupied +in cautiously watching the actions and listening to the conversation of +the individuals immediately around them. The instant they beheld +Numerian they moved so as to elude his observation, taking care at the +same time to occupy such a position as enabled them to keep in view the +object of their evident distrust. +</P> + +<P> +'Look, Osius,' said one, 'that man is here again!' +</P> + +<P> +'And doubtless with the same motives which brought him here yesterday,' +replied the other. 'You will see that he will again enter the church, +listen to the service, retire to his little chapel near the Pincian +Mount, and there, before his ragged mob of adherents, attack the +doctrines which our brethren have preached, as we know he did last +night, and as we suspect he will continue to do until the authorities +think proper to give the signal for his imprisonment.' +</P> + +<P> +'I marvel that he should have been permitted to persist so long a time +as he has in his course of contumacy towards the Church. Have we not +evidence enough in his writings alone to convict him of heresy? The +carelessness of the bishop upon such a matter as this is quite +inexplicable!' +</P> + +<P> +'You should consider, Numerian not being a priest, that the +carelessness about our interests lies more with the senate than the +bishop. What time our nobles can spare from their debaucheries has +been lately given to discussions on the conduct of the Emperor in +retiring to Ravenna, and will now be dedicated to penetrating the basis +of this rumour about the Goths. Besides, even were they at liberty, +what care the senate about theological disputes? They only know this +Numerian as a citizen of Rome, a man of some influence and possessions, +and, consequently, a person of political importance as a member of the +population. In addition to which, it would be no easy task for us at +the present moment to impugn the doctrines broached by our assailant; +for the fellow has a troublesome facility of supporting what he says by +the Bible. Believe me, in this matter, our only way of righting +ourselves will be to convict him of scandal against the highest +dignitaries of the Church.' +</P> + +<P> +'The order that we have lately received to track his movements and +listen to his discourses, leads me to believe that our superiors are of +your opinion.' +</P> + +<P> +'Whether my convictions are correct or not, of this I feel +assured—that his days of liberty are numbered. It was but a few hours +ago that I saw the bishop's chamberlain's head-assistant, and he told +me that he had heard, through the crevice of a door—' +</P> + +<P> +'Hush! he moves; he is pressing forward to enter the church. You can +tell me what you were about to say as we follow him. Quick! let us mix +with the crowd.' +</P> + +<P> +Ever enthusiastic in the performance of their loathsome duties, these +two discreet pastors of a Christian flock followed Numerian with the +most elaborate caution into the interior of the sacred building. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Although the sun still left a faint streak of red in the western sky, +and the moon had as yet scarcely risen, the great chandelier of two +thousand four hundred lamps, mentioned by the bishop in his address to +the people, was already alight. In the days of its severe and sacred +beauty, the appearance of the church would have suffered fatally by +this blaze of artificial brilliancy; but now that the ancient character +of the basilica was completely changed, now that from a solemn temple +it had been altered to the semblance of a luxurious palace, it gained +immensely by its gaudy illumination. Not an ornament along the vast +extent of its glorious nave but glittered in vivid distinctness in the +dazzling light that poured downwards from the roof. The gilded +rafters, the smooth inlaid marble pillars, the rich hangings of the +windows, the jewelled candlesticks on the altars, the pictures, the +statues, the bronzes, the mosaics, each and all glowed with a steady +and luxurious transparency absolutely intoxicating to the eye. Not a +trace of wear, not a vestige of tarnish now appeared on any object. +Each portion of the nave to which the attention was directed appeared +too finely, spotlessly radiant, ever to have been touched by mortal +hands. Entranced and bewildered, the observation roamed over the +surface of the brilliant scene, until, wearied by the unbroken +embellishment of the prospect, it wandered for repose upon the dimly +lighted aisles, and dwelt with delight upon the soft shadows that +hovered about their distant pillars, and the gliding forms that peopled +their dusky recesses, or loitered past their lofty walls. +</P> + +<P> +At the moment when Numerian entered the basilica, a part of the service +had just concluded. The last faint echo from the voices of the choir +still hung upon the incense-laden air, and the vast masses of the +spectators were still grouped in their listening and various attitudes, +as the devoted reformer looked forth upon the church. Even he, stern +as he was, seemed for a moment subdued by the ineffable enchantment of +the scene; but ere long, as if displeased with his own involuntary +emotions of admiration, his brow contracted, and he sighed heavily, as +(still followed by the attentive spies) he sought the comparative +seclusion of the aisles. +</P> + +<P> +During the interval between the divisions of the service, the +congregation occupied themselves in staring at the relics, which were +enclosed in a silver cabinet with crystal doors, and placed on the top +of the high altar. Although it was impossible to obtain a satisfactory +view of these ecclesiastical treasures, they nevertheless employed the +attention of every one until the appearance of a priest in the pulpit +gave signal of the commencement of the sermon, and admonished all those +who had seats to secure them without delay. +</P> + +<P> +Passing through the ranks of the auditors of the sermon—some of whom +were engaged in counting the lights in the chandelier, to be certain +that the bishop had not defrauded them of one out of the two thousand +four hundred lamps; others in holding whispered conversations, and +opening small boxes of sweetmeats—we again conduct the reader to the +outside of the church. +</P> + +<P> +The assemblage here had by this time much diminished; the shadows flung +over the ground by the lofty colonnades had deepened and increased; and +in many of the more remote recesses of the Place hardly a human being +was to be observed. At one of these extremities, where the pillars +terminated in the street and the obscurity was most intense, stood a +solitary old man keeping himself cautiously concealed in the darkness, +and looking out anxiously upon the public way immediately before him. +</P> + +<P> +He had waited but a short time when a handsome chariot, preceded by a +body-guard of gaily-attired slaves, stopped within a few paces of his +lurking-place, and the voice of the person it contained pronounced +audibly the following words:— +</P> + +<P> +'No! no! Drive on—we are later than I thought. If I stay to see this +illumination of the basilica, I shall not be in time to receive my +guests for to-night's banquet. Besides, this inestimable kitten of the +breed most worshipped by the ancient Egyptians has already taken cold, +and I would not for the world expose the susceptible animal any longer +than is necessary to the dampness of the night-air. Drive on, good +Carrio, drive on!' +</P> + +<P> +The old man scarcely waited for the conclusion of this speech before he +ran up to the chariot, where he was immediately confronted by two +heads—one that of Vetranio the senator, the other that of a glossy +black kitten adorned with a collar of rubies, and half enveloped in its +master's ample robes. Before the astonished noble could articulate a +word, the man whispered in hoarse, hurried accents, 'I am +Ulpius—dismiss your servants—I have something important to say!' +</P> + +<P> +'Ha! my worthy Ulpius! You have a most unhappy faculty of delivering a +message with the manner of an assassin! But I must pardon your +unpleasant abruptness in consideration of your diligence. My excellent +Carrio, If you value my approbation, remove your companions and +yourself out of hearing!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The freedman yielded instant obedience to his master's mandate. The +following conversation then took place, the strange man opening it +thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'You remember your promise?' +</P> + +<P> +'I do.' +</P> + +<P> +'Upon your honour, as a nobleman and a senator, you are prepared to +abide by it whenever it is necessary?' +</P> + +<P> +'I am.' +</P> + +<P> +'Then at the dawn of morning meet me at the private gate of your palace +garden, and I will conduct you to Antonina's bedchamber.' +</P> + +<P> +'The time will suit me. But why at the dawn of morning?' +</P> + +<P> +'Because the Christian dotard will keep a vigil until midnight, which +the girl will most probably attend. I wished to tell you this at your +palace, but I heard there that you had gone to Aricia, and would return +by way of the basilica; so I posted myself to intercept you thus.' +</P> + +<P> +'Industrious Ulpius!' +</P> + +<P> +'Remember your promise!' +</P> + +<P> +Vetranio leaned forward to reply, but Ulpius was gone. +</P> + +<P> +As the senator again commanded his equipage to move on, he looked +anxiously around him, as if once more expecting to see his strange +adherent still lurking near the chariot. He only perceived, however, a +man whom he did not know, followed by two other, walking rapidly past +him. They were Numerian and the spies. +</P> + +<P> +'At last, my projects are approaching consummation,' exclaimed Vetranio +to himself, as he and his kitten rolled off in the chariot. 'It is +well that I thought of securing possession of Julia's villa to-day, for +I shall now, assuredly, want to use it to-morrow. Jupiter! What a +mass of dangers, contradictions, and mysteries encompass this affair! +When I think that I, who pride myself on my philosophy, have quitted +Ravenna, borrowed a private villa, leagued myself with an uncultivated +plebeian, and all for the sake of a girl who has already deceived my +expectations by gaining me as a music-master without admitting me as a +lover, I am positively astonished at my own weakness! Still it must be +owned that the complexion my adventure has lately assumed renders it of +some interest in itself. The mere pleasure of penetrating the secrets +of this Numerian's household is by no means the least among the +numerous attraction of my design. How has he gained his influence over +the girl? Why does he keep her in such strict seclusion? Who is this +old half-frantic, unceremonious man-monster calling himself Ulpius; +refusing all reward for his villainy; raving about a return to the old +religion of the gods; and exulting in the promise he has extorted from +me, as a good pagan, to support the first restoration of the ancient +worship that may be attempted in Rome? Where does he come from? Why +does he outwardly profess himself a Christian? What sent him into +Numerian's service? By the girdle of Venus! everything connected with +the girl is as incomprehensible as herself! But patience—patience! A +few hours more, and these mysteries will be revealed. In the meantime, +let me think of my banquet, and of its presiding deity, the Nightingale +Sauce!' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 5. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ANTONINA. +</H3> + +<P> +Who that has been at Rome does not remember with delight the +attractions of the Pincian Hill? Who, after toiling through the +wonders of the dark, melancholy city, has not been revived by a visit +to its shady walks, and by breathing its fragrant breezes? Amid the +solemn mournfulness that reigns over declining Rome, this delightful +elevation rises light, airy, and inviting, at once a refreshment to the +body and a solace to the spirit. From its smooth summit the city is +seen in its utmost majesty, and the surrounding country in its +brightest aspect. The crimes and miseries of Rome seem deterred from +approaching its favoured soil; it impresses the mind as a place set +apart by common consent for the presence of the innocent and the +joyful—as a scene that rest and recreation keep sacred from the +intrusion of tumult and toil. +</P> + +<P> +Its appearance in modern days is the picture of its character for ages +past. Successive wars might dull its beauties for a time, but peace +invariably restored them in all their pristine loveliness. The old +Romans called it 'The Mount of Gardens'. Throughout the disasters of +the Empire and the convulsions of the Middle Ages, it continued to +merit its ancient appellation, and a 'Mount of Gardens' it still +triumphantly remains to the present day. +</P> + +<P> +At the commencement of the fifth century the magnificence of the +Pincian Hill was at its zenith. Were it consistent with the conduct of +our story to dwell upon the glories of its palaces and its groves, its +temples and its theatres, such a glowing prospect of artificial +splendour, aided by natural beauty, might be spread before the reader +as would tax his credulity, while it excited his astonishment. This +task, however, it is here unnecessary to attempt. It is not for the +wonders of ancient luxury and taste, but for the abode of the zealous +and religious Numerian, that we find it now requisite to arouse +interest and engage attention. +</P> + +<P> +At the back of the Flaminian extremity of the Pincian Hill, and +immediately overlooking the city wall, stood, at the period of which we +write, a small but elegantly built house, surrounded by a little garden +of its own, and protected at the back by the lofty groves and +outbuildings of the palace of Vetranio the senator. This abode had +been at one time a sort of summer-house belonging to the former +proprietor of a neighbouring mansion. +</P> + +<P> +Profligate necessities, however, had obliged the owner to part with +this portion of his possessions, which was purchased by a merchant well +known to Numerian, who received it as a legacy at his friend's death. +Disgusted, as soon as his reforming projects took possession of his +mind, at the bare idea of propinquity to the ennobled libertines of +Rome, the austere Christian determined to abandon his inheritance, and +to sell it to another; but, at the repeated entreaties of his daughter, +he at length consented to change his purpose, and sacrifice his +antipathy to his luxurious neighbours to his child's youthful +attachment to the beauties of Nature as displayed in his legacy on the +Pincian Mount. In this instance only did the natural affection of the +father prevail over the acquired severity of the reformer. Here he +condescended, for the first and the last time, to the sweet +trivialities of youth. Here, indulgent in spite of himself, he fixed +his little household, and permitted to his daughter her sole +recreations of tending the flowers in the garden and luxuriating in the +loveliness of the distant view. +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +The night has advanced an hour since the occurrence mentioned in the +preceding chapter. The clear and brilliant moonlight of Italy now +pervades every district of the glorious city, and bathes in its pure +effulgence the groves and palaces on the Pincian Mount. From the +garden of Numerian the irregular buildings of the great suburbs of +Rome, the rich undulating country beyond, and the long ranges of +mountains in the distance, are now all visible in the soft and +luxurious light. Near the spot which commands this view, not a living +creature is to be seen on a first examination; but on a more +industrious and patient observation, you are subsequently able to +detect at one of the windows of Numerian's house, half hidden by a +curtain, the figure of a young girl. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Soon this solitary form approaches nearer to the eye. The moonbeams, +that have hitherto shone only upon the window, now illuminate other +objects. First they display a small, white arm; then a light, simple +robe; then a fair, graceful neck; and finally a bright, youthful, +innocent face, directed steadfastly towards the wide moon-brightened +prospect of the distant mountains. +</P> + +<P> +For some time the girl remains in contemplation at her window. Then +she leaves her post, and almost immediately reappears at a door leading +into the garden. Her figure, as she advances towards the lawn before +her, is light and small—a natural grace and propriety appear in her +movements—she holds pressed to her bosom and half concealed by her +robe, a gilt lute. When she reaches a turf bank commanding the same +view as the window, she arranges her instrument upon her knees, and +with something of restraint in her manner gently touches the chords. +Then, as if alarmed at the sound she has produced, she glances +anxiously around her, apparently fearful of being overheard. Her +large, dark, lustrous eyes have in them an expression of apprehension; +her delicate lips are half parted; a sudden flush rises in her soft, +olive complexion as she examines every corner of the garden. Having +completed her survey without discovering any cause for the suspicions +she seems to entertain, she again employs herself over her instrument. +Once more she strikes the chords, and now with a bolder hand. The +notes she produces resolve themselves into a wild, plaintive, irregular +melody, alternately rising and sinking, as if swayed by the fickle +influence of a summer wind. These sounds are soon harmoniously +augmented by the young minstrel's voice, which is calm, still, and +mellow, and adapts itself with exquisite ingenuity to every arbitrary +variation in the tone of the accompaniment. The song that she has +chosen is one of the fanciful odes of the day. Its chief merit to her +lies in its alliance to the strange Eastern air which she heard at her +first interview with the senator who presented her with the lute. +Paraphrased in English, the words of the composition would run thus:— +</P> + +<H4 STYLE="text-indent: 10%"> +THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC +</H4> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +I. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Spirit, whose dominion reigns<BR> + Over Music's thrilling strains,<BR> + Whence may be thy distant birth?<BR> + Say what tempted thee to earth?<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Mortal, listen: I was born<BR> + In Creation's early years,<BR> + Singing, 'mid the stars of morn,<BR> + To the music of the spheres.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Once as, within the realms of space,<BR> + I view'd this mortal planet roll,<BR> + A yearning towards they hapless race,<BR> + Unbidden, filled my seraph soul!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Angels, who had watched my birth,<BR> + Heard me sigh to sing to earth;<BR> + 'Twas transgression ne'er forgiv'n<BR> + To forget my native Heav'n;<BR> + So they sternly bade me go—<BR> + Banish'd to the world below.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +II. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Exil'd here, I knew no fears;<BR> + For, though darkness round me clung,<BR> + Though none heard me in the spheres,<BR> + Earth had listeners while I sung.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Young spirits of the Spring sweet breeze<BR> + Came thronging round me, soft and coy,<BR> + Light wood-nymphs sported in the trees,<BR> + And laughing Echo leapt for joy!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Brooding Woe and writhing Pain<BR> + Soften'd at my gentle strain;<BR> + Bounding Joy, with footstep fleet,<BR> + Ran to nestle at my feet;<BR> + While, aroused, delighted Love<BR> + Softly kiss'd me from above!<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +III. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Since those years of early time,<BR> + Faithful still to earth I've sung;<BR> + Flying through each distant clime,<BR> + Ever welcome, ever young!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Still pleas'd, my solace I impart<BR> + Where brightest hopes are scattered dead;<BR> + 'Tis mine—sweet gift!—to charm the heart,<BR> + Though all its other joys have fled!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Time, that withers all beside,<BR> + Harmless past me loves to glide;<BR> + Change, that mortals must obey,<BR> + Ne'er shall shake my gentle sway;<BR> + Still 'tis mine all hearts to move<BR> + In eternity of love.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +As the last sounds of her voice and her lute died softly away upon the +still night air, an indescribable elevation appeared in the girl's +countenance. She looked up rapturously into the far, star-bright sky; +her lip quivered, her dark eyes filled with tears, and her bosom heaved +with the excess of the emotions that the music and the scene inspired. +Then she gazed slowly around her, dwelling tenderly upon the fragrant +flower-beds that were the work of her own hands, and looking forth with +an expression half reverential, half ecstatic over the long, smooth, +shining plains, and the still, glorious mountains, that had so long +been the inspiration of her most cherished thoughts, and that now +glowed before her eyes, soft and beautiful as her dreams on her virgin +couch. Then, overpowered by the artless thoughts and innocent +recollections which on the magic wings of Nature and Night came wafted +over her mind, she bent down her head upon her lute, pressed her round, +dimpled cheek against its smooth frame, and drawing her fingers +mechanically over its strings, abandoned herself unreservedly to the +reveries of maidenhood and youth. +</P> + +<P> +Such was the being devoted by her father's fatal ambition to a lifelong +banishment from all that is attractive in human art and beautiful in +human intellect! Such was the daughter whose existence was to be one +long acquaintance with mortal woe, one unvaried refusal of mortal +pleasure, whose thoughts were to be only of sermons and fasts, whose +action were to be confined to the binding up of strangers' wounds and +the drying of strangers' tears; whose life, in brief, was doomed to be +the embodiment of her father's austere ideal of the austere virgins of +the ancient Church! +</P> + +<P> +Deprived of her mother, exiled from the companionship of others of her +age, permitted no familiarity with any living being, no sympathies with +any other heart, commanded but never indulged, rebuked but never +applauded, she must have sunk beneath the severities imposed on her by +her father, but for the venial disobedience committed in the pursuit of +the solitary pleasure procured for her by her lute. Vainly, in her +hours of study, did she read the fierce anathemas against love, +liberty, and pleasure, poetry, painting, and music, gold, silver, and +precious stones, which the ancient fathers had composed for the benefit +of the submissive congregations of former days; vainly did she imagine, +during those long hours of theological instruction, that her heart's +forbidden longings were banished and destroyed—that her patient and +childlike disposition was bowed in complete subserviency to the most +rigorous of her father's commands. No sooner were her interviews with +Numerian concluded than the promptings of that nature within us, which +artifice may warp but can never destroy, lured her into a forgetfulness +of all that she had heard and a longing for much that was forbidden. +We live, in this existence, but by the companionship of some sympathy, +aspiration, or pursuit, which serves us as our habitual refuge from the +tribulations we inherit from the outer world. The same feeling which +led Antonina in her childhood to beg for a flower-garden, in her +girlhood induced her to gain possession of a lute. +</P> + +<P> +The passion for music which prompted her visit to Vetranio, which alone +saved her affections from pining in the solitude imposed on them, and +which occupied her leisure hours in the manner we have already +described, was an inheritance of her birth. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Her Spanish mother had sung to her, hour after hour, in her cradle, for +the short time during which she was permitted to watch over her child. +The impression thus made on the dawning faculties of the infant, +nothing ever effaced. Though her earliest perception were greeted only +by the sight of her father's misery; though the form which his +despairing penitence soon assumed doomed her to a life of seclusion and +an education of admonition, the passionate attachment to the melody of +sound, inspired by her mother's voice—almost imbibed at her mother's +breast—lived through all neglect, and survived all opposition. It +found its nourishment in childish recollections, in snatches of street +minstrelsy heard through her window, in the passage of the night winds +of winter through the groves on the Pincian Mount, and received its +rapturous gratification in the first audible sounds from the Roman +senator's lute. How her possession of an instrument, and her skill in +playing, were subsequently gained, the reader already knows from +Vetranio's narrative at Ravenna. Could the frivolous senator have +discovered the real intensity of the emotions his art was raising in +his pupil's bosom while he taught her; could he have imagined how +incessantly, during their lessons, her sense of duty struggled with her +love for music—how completely she was absorbed, one moment by an agony +of doubt and fear, another by an ecstasy of enjoyment and hope—he +would have felt little of that astonishment at her coldness towards +himself which he so warmly expressed at his interview with Julia in the +gardens of the Court. In truth, nothing could be more complete than +Antonina's childish unconsciousness of the feelings with which Vetranio +regarded her. In entering his presence, whatever remnant of her +affections remained unwithered by her fears was solely attracted and +engrossed by the beloved and beautiful lute. In receiving the +instrument, she almost forgot the giver in the triumph of possession; +or, if she thought of him at all, it was to be grateful for having +escaped uninjured from a member of that class, for whom her father's +reiterated admonitions had inspired her with a vague feeling of dread +and distrust, and to determine that, now she had acknowledged his +kindness and departed from his domains, nothing should ever induce her +to risk discovery by her father and peril to herself by ever entering +them again. +</P> + +<P> +Innocent in her isolation, almost infantine in her natural simplicity, +a single enjoyment was sufficient to satisfy all the passions of her +age. Father, mother, lover, and companion; liberties, amusements, and +adornments—they were all summed up for her in that simple lute. The +archness, the liveliness, and the gentleness of her disposition; the +poetry of her nature, and the affection of her heart; the happy bloom +of youth, which seclusion could not all wither nor distorted precept +taint, were now entirely nourished, expanded, and freshened—such is +the creative power of human emotion—by that inestimable possession. +She could speak to it, smile on it, caress it, and believe, in the +ecstasy of her delight, in the carelessness of her self-delusion, that +it sympathised with her joy. During her long solitudes, when she was +silently watched in her father's absence by the brooding, melancholy +stranger whom he had set over her, it became a companion dearer than +the flower-garden, dearer even that the plains and mountains which +formed her favourite view. When her father returned, and she was led +forth to sit in a dark place among strange, silent people, and to +listen to interminable declamations, it was a solace to think of the +instrument as it lay hidden securely in her chamber, and to ponder +delightedly on what new music of her own she could play upon it next. +And then, when evening arrived, and she was left alone in her +garden—then came the hour of moonlight and song; the moment of rapture +and melody that drew her out of herself, elevated her she felt not how, +and transported her she knew not whither. +</P> + +<P> +But, while we thus linger over reflection on motives and examinations +into character, we are called back to the outer world of passing +interests and events by the appearances of another figure on the scene. +We left Antonina in the garden thinking over her lute. She still +remains in her meditative position, but she is now no longer alone. +</P> + +<P> +From the same steps by which she had descended, a man now advances into +the garden, and walks towards the place she occupies. His gait is +limping, his stature crooked, his proportions distorted. His large, +angular features stand out in gaunt contrast to his shrivelled cheeks. +His dry, matted hair has been burnt by the sun into a strange tawny +brown. His expression is one of fixed, stern, mournful thought. As he +steps stealthily along, advancing towards Antonina, he mutters to +himself, and clutches mechanically at his garments with his lank, +shapeless fingers. The radiant moonlight, falling fully upon his +countenance, invests it with a livid, mysterious, spectral appearance: +seen by a stranger at the present moment, he would have been almost +awful to look upon. +</P> + +<P> +This was the man who had intercepted Vetranio on his journey home, and +who had now hurried back so as to regain his accustomed post before his +master's return, for he was the same individual mentioned by Numerian +as his aged convert, Ulpius, in his interview with the landholder at +the Basilica of St. Peter. +</P> + +<P> +When Ulpius had arrived within a few paces of the girl he stopped, +saying in a hoarse, thick voice— +</P> + +<P> +'Hide your toy—Numerian is at the gates!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Antonina started violently as she listened to those repulsive accents. +The blood rushed into her cheeks; she hastily covered the lute with her +robe; paused an instant, as if intending to speak to the man, then +shuddered violently, and hurried towards the house. +</P> + +<P> +As she mounted the steps Numerian met her in the hall. There was now +no chance of hiding the lute in its accustomed place. +</P> + +<P> +'You stay too late in the garden,' said the father, looking proudly, in +spite of all his austerity, upon his beautiful daughter as she stood by +his side. 'But what affects you?' he added, noticing her confusion. +'You tremble; your colour comes and goes; your lips quiver. Give me +your hand!' +</P> + +<P> +As Antonina obeyed him, a fold of the treacherous robe slipped aside, +and discovered a part of the frame of the lute. Numerian's quick eye +discovered it immediately. He snatched the instrument from her feeble +grasp. His astonishment on beholding it was too great for words, and +for an instant he confronted the poor girl, whose pale face looked +rigid with terror, in ominous and expressive silence. +</P> + +<P> +'This thing,' said he at length, 'this invention of libertines in my +house—in my daughter's possession!' and he dashed the lute into +fragments on the floor. +</P> + +<P> +For one moment Antonina looked incredulously on the ruins of the +beloved companion, which was the centre of all her happiest +expectations for future days. Then, as she began to estimate the +reality of her deprivation, her eyes lost all their heaven-born +brightness, and filled to overflowing with the tears of earth. +</P> + +<P> +'To your chamber!' thundered Numerian, as she knelt, sobbing +convulsively, over those hapless fragments. 'To your chamber! +Tomorrow shall bring this mystery of iniquity to light!' +</P> + +<P> +She rose humbly to obey him, for indignation had no part in the +emotions that shook her gentle and affectionate nature. As she moved +towards the room that no lute was henceforth to occupy, as she thought +on the morrow that no lute was henceforth to enliven, her grief almost +overpowered her. She turned back and looked imploringly at her father, +as if entreating permission to pick up even the smallest of the +fragments at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +'To your chamber!' he reiterated sternly. 'Am I to be disobeyed to my +face?' +</P> + +<P> +Without any repetition of her silent remonstrance, she instantly +retired. As soon as she was out of sight, Ulpius ascended the steps +and stood before the angered father. +</P> + +<P> +'Look, Ulpius,' cried Numerian, 'my daughter, whom I have so carefully +cherished, whom I intended for an example to the world, has deceived +me, even thus!' +</P> + +<P> +He pointed, as he spoke, to the ruins of the unfortunate lute; but +Ulpius did not address to him a word in reply, and he hastily +continued:— +</P> + +<P> +'I will not sully the solemn offices of tonight by interrupting them +with my worldly affairs. To-morrow I will interrogate my disobedient +child. In the meantime, do not imagine, Ulpius, that I connect you in +any way with this wicked and unworthy deception! In you I have every +confidence, in your faithfulness I have every hope.' +</P> + +<P> +Again he paused, and again Ulpius kept silence. Any one less agitated, +less confiding, than his unsuspicious master, would have remarked that +a faint sinister smile was breaking forth upon his haggard countenance. +But Numerian's indignation was still too violent to permit him to +observed, and, spite of his efforts to control himself, he again broke +forth in complaint. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'On this night too, of all others,' cried he, 'when I had hoped to lead +her among my little assembly of the faithful, to join in their prayers, +and to listen to my exhortations—on this night I am doomed to find her +a player on a pagan lute, a possessor of the most wanton of the world's +vanities! God give me patience to worship this night with unwandering +thoughts, for my heart is vexed at the transgression of my child, as +the heart of Eli of old at the iniquities of his sons!' +</P> + +<P> +He was moving rapidly away, when, as if struck with a sudden +recollection, he stopped abruptly, and again addressed his gloomy +companion. +</P> + +<P> +'I will go by myself to the chapel to-night,' said he. 'You, Ulpius, +will stay to keep watch over my disobedient child. Be vigilant, good +friend, over my house; for even now, on my return, I thought that two +strangers were following my steps, and I forebode some evil in store +for me as the chastisement for my sins, even greater than this misery +of my daughter's transgression. Be watchful, good Ulpius—be watchful!' +</P> + +<P> +And, as he hurried away, the stern, serious man felt as overwhelmed at +the outrage that had been offered to his gloomy fanaticism, as the +weak, timid girl at the destruction that had been wreaked upon her +harmless lute. +</P> + +<P> +After Numerian had departed, the sinister smile again appeared on the +countenance of Ulpius. He stood for a short time fixed in thought, and +then began slowly to descend a staircase near him which led to some +subterranean apartments. He had not gone far when a slight noise +became audible at an extremity of the corridor above. As he listened +for a repetition of the sound, he heard a sob, and looking cautiously +up, discovered, by the moonlight, Antonina stepping cautiously along +the marble pavement of the hall. +</P> + +<P> +She held in her hand a little lamp; her small, rosy feet were +uncovered; the tears still streamed over her cheeks. She advanced with +the greatest caution (as if fearful of being overheard) until she +gained the part of the floor still strewn with the ruins of the broken +lute. Here she knelt down, and pressed each fragment that lay before +her separately to her lips. Then hurriedly concealing a single piece +in her bosom, she arose and stole quickly away in the direction by +which she had come. +</P> + +<P> +'Be patient till the dawn,' muttered her faithless guardian, gazing +after her from his concealment as she disappeared; 'it will bring to +thy lute a restorer, and to Ulpius an ally!' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 6. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AN APPRENTICESHIP TO THE TEMPLE. +</H3> + +<P> +The action of our characters during the night included in the last two +chapters has now come to a pause. Vetranio is awaiting his guests for +the banquet; Numerian is in the chapel, preparing for the discourse +that he is to deliver to his friends; Ulpius is meditating in his +master's house; Antonina is stretched upon her couch, caressing the +precious fragment that she had saved from the ruins of her lute. All +the immediate agents of our story are, for the present, in repose. +</P> + +<P> +It is our purpose to take advantage of this interval of inaction, and +direct the reader's attention to a different country from that selected +as the scene of our romance, and to such historical events of past +years as connect themselves remarkably with the early life of +Numerian's perfidious convert. This man will be found a person of +great importance in the future conduct of our story. It is necessary +to the comprehension of his character, and the penetration of such of +his purposes as have been already hinted at, and may subsequently +appear, that the long course of his existence should be traced upwards +to its source. +</P> + +<P> +It was in the reign of Julian, when the gods of the Pagan achieved +their last victory over the Gospel of the Christian, that a decently +attired man, leading by the hand a handsome boy of fifteen years of +age, entered the gates of Alexandria, and proceeded hastily towards the +high priest's dwelling in the Temple of Serapis. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +After a stay of some hours at his destination, the man left the city +alone as hastily as he entered it, and was never after seen at +Alexandria. The boy remained in the abode of the high priest until the +next day, when he was solemnly devoted to the service of the temple. +</P> + +<P> +The boy was the young Emilius, afterwards called Ulpius. He was nephew +to the high priest, to whom he had been confided by his father, a +merchant of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +Ambition was the ruling passion of the father of Emilius. It had +prompted him to aspire to every distinction granted to the successful +by the state, but it had not gifted him with the powers requisite to +turn his aspirations in any instance into acquisitions. He passed +through existence a disappointed man, planning but never performing, +seeing his more fortunate brother rising to the highest distinction in +the priesthood, and finding himself irretrievably condemned to exist in +the affluent obscurity ensured to him by his mercantile pursuits. +</P> + +<P> +When his brother Macrinus, on Julian's accession to the imperial +throne, arrived at the pinnacle of power and celebrity as high priest +of the Temple of Serapis, the unsuccessful merchant lost all hope of +rivalling his relative in the pursuit of distinction. His insatiable +ambition, discarded from himself, now settled on one of his infant +sons. He determined that his child should be successful where he had +failed. Now that his brother had secured the highest elevation in the +temple, no calling could offer more direct advantages to a member of +his household that the priesthood. His family had been from their +earliest origin rigid Pagans. One of them had already attained to the +most distinguished honours of his gorgeous worship. He determined that +another should rival his kinsman, and that that other should be his +eldest son. +</P> + +<P> +Firm in this resolution, he at once devoted his child to the great +design which he now held continually in view. He knew well that +Paganism, revived though it was, was not the universal worship that it +had been; that it was now secretly resisted, and might soon be openly +opposed, by the persecuted Christians throughout the Empire; and that +if the young generation were to guard it successfully from all future +encroachments, and to rise securely to its highest honours, more must +be exacted from them than the easy attachment to the ancient religion +require from the votaries of former days. Then, the performance of the +most important offices in the priesthood was compatible with the +possession of military or political rank. Now, it was to the temple, +and to the temple only, that the future servant of the gods should be +devoted. Resolving thus, the father took care that all the son's +occupations and rewards should, from his earliest years, be in some way +connected with the career for which he was intended. His childish +pleasures were to be conducted to sacrifices and auguries; his childish +playthings and prizes were images of the deities. No opposition was +offered on the boy's part to this plan of education. Far different +from his younger brother, whose turbulent disposition defied all +authority, he was naturally docile; and his imagination, vivid beyond +his years, was easily led captive by any remarkable object presented to +it. With such encouragement, his father became thoroughly engrossed by +the occupation of forming him for his future existence. His mother's +influence over him was jealously watched; the secret expression of her +love, of her sorrow, at the prospect of parting with him, was +ruthlessly suppressed whenever it was discovered; and his younger +brother was neglected, almost forgotten, in order that the parental +watchfulness might be entirely and invariably devoted to the eldest son. +</P> + +<P> +When Emilius had numbered fifteen years, his father saw with delight +that the time had come when he could witness the commencement of the +realisation of all his projects. The boy was removed from home, taken +to Alexandria, and gladly left, by his proud and triumphant father, +under the especial guardianship of Macrinus, the high priest. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The chief of the temple full sympathised in his brother's designs for +the young Emilius. As soon as the boy had entered on his new +occupations, he was told that he must forget all that he had left +behind him at Rome; that he must look upon the high priest as his +father, and upon the temple, henceforth, as his home; and that the sole +object of his present labours and future ambition must be to rise in +the service of the gods. Nor did Macrinus stop here. So thoroughly +anxious was he to stand to his pupil in the place of a parent, and to +secure his allegiance by withdrawing him in every way from the world in +which he had hitherto lived, that he even changed his name, giving to +him one of his own appellations, and describing it as a privilege to +stimulate him to future exertions. From the boy Emilius, he was now +permanently transformed to the student Ulpius. +</P> + +<P> +With such a natural disposition as we have already described, and under +such guardianship as that of the high priest, there was little danger +that Ulpius would disappoint the unusual expectations which had been +formed of him. His attention to his new duties never relaxed; his +obedience to his new masters never wavered. Whatever Macrinus demanded +of him he was sure to perform. Whatever longings he might feel to +return to home, he never discovered them; he never sought to gratify +the tastes naturally peculiar to his age. The high priest and his +colleagues were astonished at the extraordinary readiness with which +the boy himself forwarded their intentions for him. Had they known how +elaborately he had been prepared for his future employments at his +father's house, they would have been less astonished at their pupil's +unusual docility. Trained as he had been, he must have shown a more +than human perversity had he displayed any opposition to his uncle's +wishes. He had been permitted no childhood either of thought or +action. His natural precocity had been seized as the engine to force +his faculties into a perilous and unwholesome maturity; and when his +new duties demanded his attention, he entered on them with the same +sincerity of enthusiasm which his boyish coevals would have exhibited +towards a new sport. His gradual initiation into the mysteries of his +religion created a strange, voluptuous sensation of fear and interest +in his mind. He heard the oracles, and he trembled; he attended the +sacrifices and the auguries, and he wondered. All the poetry of the +bold and beautiful superstition to which he was devoted flowed +overwhelmingly into his young heart, absorbing the service of his fresh +imagination, and transporting him incessantly from the vital realities +of the outer world to the shadowy regions of aspiration and thought. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +But his duties did not entirely occupy the attention of Ulpius. The +boy had his peculiar pleasures as well as his peculiar occupations. +When his employments were over for the day, it was a strange, +unearthly, vital enjoyment to him to wander softly in the shade of the +temple porticoes, looking down from his great mysterious eminence upon +the populous and sun-brightened city at his feet; watching the +brilliant expanse of the waters of the Nile glittering joyfully in the +dazzling and pervading light; raising his eyes from the fields and +woods, the palaces and garden, that stretched out before him below, to +the lovely and cloudless sky that watched round him afar and above, and +that awoke all that his new duties had left of the joyfulness, the +affectionate sensibility, which his rare intervals of uninterrupted +intercourse with his mother had implanted in his heart. Then, when the +daylight began to wane, and the moon and stars already grew beautiful +in their places in the firmament, he would pass into the subterranean +vaults of the edifice, trembling as his little taper scarcely dispelled +the dull, solemn gloom, and listening with breathless attention for the +voices of those guardian spirits whose fabled habitation was made in +the apartments of the sacred place. Or, when the multitude had +departed for their amusements and their homes, he would steal into the +lofty halls and wander round the pedestals of the mighty statues, +breathing fearfully the still atmosphere of the temple, and watching +the passage of the cold, melancholy moonbeams through the openings in +the roof, and over the colossal limbs and features of the images of the +pagan gods. Sometimes, when the services of Serapis and the cares +attendant on his communications with the Emperor were concluded, +Macrinus would lead his pupil into the garden of the priests, and +praise him for his docility till his heart throbbed with gratitude and +pride. Sometimes he would convey him cautiously outside the precincts +of the sacred place, and show him, in the suburbs of the city, silent, +pale, melancholy men, gliding suspiciously through the gay, crowded +streets. Those fugitive figures, he would declare, were the enemies of +the temple and all that it contained; conspirators against the Emperor +and the gods; wretches who were to be driven forth as outcasts from +humanity; whose appellation was 'Christian'; and whose impious worship, +if tolerated, would deprive him of the uncle whom he loved, of the +temple that he reverenced, and of the priestly dignity and renown which +it should be his life's ambition to acquire. +</P> + +<P> +Thus tutored in his duties by his guardian, and in his recreations by +himself, as time wore on, the boy gradually lost every remaining +characteristic of his age. Even the remembrance of his mother and his +mother's love grew faint on his memory. Serious, solitary, thoughtful, +he lived but to succeed in the temple; he laboured but to emulate the +high priest. All his feelings and faculties were now enslaved by an +ambition, at once unnatural at his present age, and ominous of +affliction for his future life. The design that Macrinus had +contemplated as the work of years was perfected in a few months. The +hope that his father had scarce dared to entertain for his manhood was +already accomplished in his youth. +</P> + +<P> +In these preparations for future success passed three years of the life +of Ulpius. At the expiration of that period the death of Julian +darkened the brilliant prospects of the Pagan world. Scarcely had the +priests of Serapis recovered the first shock of astonishment and grief +consequent upon the fatal news of the vacancy in the imperial throne, +when the edict of toleration issued by Jovian, the new Emperor, reached +the city of Alexandria, and was elevated on the walls of the temple. +</P> + +<P> +The first sight of this proclamation (permitting freedom of worship to +the Christians) aroused in the highly wrought disposition of Ulpius the +most violent emotions of anger and contempt. The enthusiasm of his +character and age, guided invariably in the one direction of his +worship, took the character of the wildest fanaticism when he +discovered the Emperor's careless infringement of the supremacy of the +temple. He volunteered in the first moments of his fury to tear down +the edict from the walls, to lead an attack on the meetings of the +triumphant Christians, or to travel to the imperial abode and exhort +Jovian to withdraw his act of perilous leniency ere it was too late. +With difficulty did his more cautious confederates restrain him from +the execution of his impetuous designs. For two days he withdrew +himself from his companions, and brooded in solitude over the injury +offered to his beloved superstition, and the prospective augmentation +of the influence of the Christian sect. +</P> + +<P> +But the despair of the young enthusiast was destined to be further +augmented by a private calamity, at once mysterious in its cause and +overwhelming in its effect. Two days after the publication of the +edict the high priest Macrinus, in the prime of vigour and manhood, +suddenly died. +</P> + +<P> +To narrate the confusion and horror within and without the temple on +the discovery of this fatal even; to describe the execrations and +tumults of the priests and the populace, who at once suspected the +favoured and ambitious Christians of causing, by poison, the death of +their spiritual ruler, might be interesting as a history of the manners +of the times, but is immaterial to the object of this chapter. We +prefer rather to trace the effect on the mind of Ulpius of his personal +and private bereavement; of this loss—irretrievable to him—of the +master whom he loved and the guardian whom it was his privilege to +revere. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +An illness of some months, during the latter part of which his +attendants trembled for his life and reason, sufficiently attested the +sincerity of the grief of Ulpius for the loss of his protector. During +his paroxysms of delirium the priests who watched round his bed drew +from his ravings many wise conclusions as to the effects that his +seizure and its causes were likely to produce on his future character; +but, in spite of all their penetration, they were still far from +appreciating to a tithe of its extent the revolution that his +bereavement had wrought in his disposition. The boy himself, until the +moment of the high priest's death, had never been aware of the depth of +his devotion to his second father. Warped as they had been by his +natural parent, the affectionate qualities that were the mainspring of +his nature had never been entirely destroyed; and they seized on every +kind word and gentle action of Macrinus as food which had been grudged +them since their birth. Morally and intellectually, Macrinus had been +to him the beacon that pointed the direction of his course, the judge +that regulated his conduct, the Muse that he looked to for inspiration. +And now, when this link which had connected every ramification of his +most cherished and governing ideas was suddenly snapped asunder, a +desolation sunk down upon his mind which at once paralysed its +elasticity and withered its freshness. He glanced back, and saw +nothing but a home from whose pleasures and affections his father's +ambition had exiled him for ever. He looked forward, and as he thought +of his unfitness, both from character and education, to mix in the +world as others mixed in it, he saw no guiding star of social happiness +for the conduct of his existence to come. There was now no resource +left for him but entirely to deliver himself up to those pursuits which +had made his home as a strange place to him, which were hallowed by +their connection with the lost object of his attachment, and which +would confer the sole happiness and distinction that he could hope for +in the wide world on his future life. +</P> + +<P> +In addition to this motive for labour in his vocation, there existed in +the mind of Ulpius a deep and settled feeling that animated him with +unceasing ardour for the prosecution of his cherished occupations. +This governing principle was detestation of the Christian sect. The +suspicion that others had entertained regarding the death of the high +priest was to his mind a certainty. He rejected every idea which +opposed his determined persuasion that the jealousy of the Christians +had prompted them to the murder, by poison, of the most powerful and +zealous of the Pagan priests. To labour incessantly until he attained +the influence and position formerly enjoyed by his relative, and to use +that influence and position, when once acquired, as the means of +avenging Macrinus, by sweeping every vestige of the Christian faith +from the face of the earth, were now the settled purposes of his heart. +Inspired by his determination with the deliberate wisdom which is in +most men the result only of the experience of years, he employed the +first days of his convalescence in cautiously maturing his future +plans, and impartially calculating his chances of success. This +self-examination completed, he devoted himself at once and for ever to +his life's great design. Nothing wearied, nothing discouraged, nothing +impeded him. Outward events passed by him unnoticed; the city's +afflictions and the city's triumphs spoke no longer to his heart. Year +succeeded to year, but Time had no tongue for him. Paganism gradually +sank, and Christianity imperceptibly rose, but change spread no picture +before his eyes. The whole outward world was a void to him, until the +moment arrived that beheld him successful in his designs. His +preparations for the future absorbed every faculty of his nature, and +left him, as to the present, a mere automaton, reflecting no principle, +and animated by no event—a machine that moved, but did not perceive—a +body that acted, without a mind that thought. +</P> + +<P> +Returning for a moment to the outward world, we find that on the death +of Jovian, in 364, Valentinian, the new Emperor, continued the system +of toleration adopted by his predecessor. On his death, in 375, +Gratian, the successor to the imperial throne, so far improved on the +example of the two former potentates as to range himself boldly on the +side of the partisans of the new faith. Not content with merely +encouraging, both by precept and by example, the growth of +Christianity, the Emperor further testified to his zeal for the rising +religion by inflicting incessant persecutions upon the rapidly +decreasing advocates of the ancient worship; serving, by these acts of +his reign, as pioneer to his successor, Theodosius the Great, in the +religious revolution which that illustrious opponent of Paganism was +destined to effect. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The death of Gratian, in 383, saw Ulpius enrolled among the chief +priests of the temple, and pointed out as the next inheritor of the +important office once held by the powerful and active Macrinus. +Beholding himself thus secure of the distinction for which he had +laboured, the aspiring priest found leisure, at length, to look forth +upon the affairs of the passing day. From every side desolation +darkened the prospect that he beheld. Already, throughout many +provinces of the Empire, the temples of the gods had been overthrown by +the destructive zeal of the triumphant Christians. Already hosts of +the terrified people, fearing that the fate of their idols might +ultimately be their own, finding themselves deserted by their disbanded +priests, and surrounded by the implacable enemies of the ancient faith, +had renounced their worship for the sake of saving their lives and +securing their property. On the wide field of Pagan ruin there now +rose but one structure entirely unimpaired. The Temple of Serapis +still reared its head—unshaken, unbending, unpolluted. Here the +sacrifice still prospered and the people still bowed in worship. Before +this monument of the religious glories of ages, even the rising power +of Christian supremacy quailed in dismay. Though the ranks of its once +multitudinous congregations were now perceptibly thinned, though the +new churches swarmed with converts, though the edicts from Rome +denounced it as a blot on the face of the earth, its gloomy and +solitary grandeur was still preserved. No unhallowed foot trod its +secret recesses; no destroying hand was raised as yet against its +ancient and glorious walls. +</P> + +<P> +Indignation, but not despondency, filled the heart of Ulpius as he +surveyed the situation of the Pagan world. A determination nourished +as his had been by the reflections of years, and matured by incessant +industry of deliberation, is above all those shocks which affect a +hasty decision or destroy a wavering intention. Impervious to failure, +disasters urge it into action, but never depress it to repose. Its +existence is the air that preserves the vitality of the mind—the +spring that moves the action of the thoughts. Never for a moment did +Ulpius waver in his devotion to his great design, or despair of its +ultimate execution and success. Though every succeeding day brought +the news of fresh misfortunes for the Pagans and fresh triumphs for the +Christians, still, with a few of his more zealous comrades, he +persisted in expecting the advent of another Julian, and a day of +restoration for the dismantled shrines of the deities that he served. +While the Temple of Serapis stood uninjured, to give encouragement to +his labours and refuge to his persecuted brethren, there existed for +him such an earnest of success as would spur him to any exertion, and +nerve him against any peril. +</P> + +<P> +And now, to the astonishment of priests and congregations, the silent, +thoughtful, solitary Ulpius suddenly started from his long repose, and +stood forth the fiery advocate of the rights of his invaded worship. +In a few days the fame of his addresses to the Pagans who still +attended the rites of Serapis spread throughout the whole city. The +boldest among the Christians, as they passed the temple walls, +involuntarily trembled when they heard the vehemence of the applause +which arose from the audience of the inspired priest. Addressed to all +varieties of age and character, these harangues woke an echo in every +breast they reached. To the young they were clothed in all the poetry +of the worship for which they pleaded. They dwelt on the altars of +Venus that the Christians would lay waste; on the woodlands that the +Christians would disenchant of their Dryads; on the hallowed Arts that +the Christians would arise and destroy. To the aged they called up +remembrances of the glories of the past achieved through the favour of +the gods; of ancestors who had died in their service; of old forgotten +loves, and joys, and successes that had grown and prospered under the +gentle guardianship of the deities of old—while the unvarying burden +of their conclusion to all was the reiterated assertion that the +illustrious Macrinus had died a victim to the toleration of the +Christian sect. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +But the efforts of Ulpius were not confined to the delivery of +orations. Every moment of his leisure time was dedicated to secret +pilgrimages into Alexandria. Careless of peril, regardless of threats, +the undaunted enthusiast penetrated into the most private +meeting-places of the Christians; reclaiming on every side apostates to +the Pagan creed, and defying the hostility of half the city from the +stronghold of the temple walls. Day after day fresh recruits arrived +to swell the ranks of the worshippers of Serapis. The few members of +the scattered congregations of the provinces who still remained +faithful to the ancient worship were gathered together in Alexandria by +the private messengers of the unwearied Ulpius. Already tumults began +to take place between the Pagans and the Christians; and even now the +priest of Serapis prepared to address a protest to the new Emperor in +behalf of the ancient religion of the land. At this moment it seemed +probable that the heroic attempts of one man to prop the structure of +superstition, whose foundations were undermined throughout, and whose +walls were attacked by brigands, might actually be crowned with success. +</P> + +<P> +But Time rolled on; and with him came inexorable change, trampling over +the little barriers set up against it by human opposition, and erecting +its strange and transitory fabrics triumphantly in their stead. In +vain did the devoted priest exert all his powers to augment and combine +his scattered band; in vain did the mighty temple display its ancient +majesty, its gorgeous sacrifices, its mysterious auguries. The spirit +of Christianity was forth for triumph on the earth—the last destinies +of Paganism were fast accomplishing. Yet a few seasons more of +unavailing resistance passed by, and then the Archbishop of Alexandria +issued his decree that the Temple of Serapis should be destroyed. +</P> + +<P> +At the rumour of their Primate's determination, the Christian fanatics +rose by swarms from every corner of Egypt, and hurried into Alexandria +to be present at the work of demolition. From the arid solitudes of the +desert, from their convents on rocks and their caverns in the earth, +hosts of rejoicing monks flew to the city gates, and ranged themselves +with the soldiery and the citizens, impatient for the assault. At the +dawn of morning this assembly of destroyers was convened, and as the +sun rose over Alexandria they arrived before the temple walls. +</P> + +<P> +The gates of the glorious structure were barred; the walls were crowded +with their Pagan defenders. A still, dead, mysterious silence reigned +over the whole edifice; and, of all the men who thronged it, one only +moved from his appointed place—one only wandered incessantly from +point to point, wherever the building was open to assault. Those among +the besiegers who were nearest the temple saw in this presiding genius +of the preparations for defence the object at once of their most +malignant hatred and their most ungovernable dread—Ulpius the priest. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as the Archbishop gave the signal for the assault, a band of +monks—their harsh, discordant voices screaming fragments of psalms, +their tattered garments waving in the air, their cadaverous faces +gleaming with ferocious joy—led the way, placed the first ladders +against the walls, and began the attack. From all sides the temple was +assailed by the infuriated besiegers, and on all sides it was +successfully defended by the resolute besieged. Shock after shock fell +upon the massive gates without forcing them to recede; missile after +missile was hurled at the building, but no breach was made in its solid +surface. Multitudes scaled the walls, gained the outer porticoes, and +slaughtered their Pagan defenders, but were incessantly repulsed in +their turn ere they could make their advantage good. Over and over +again did the assailants seem on the point of storming the temple +successfully, but the figure of Ulpius, invariably appearing at the +critical moment among his disheartened followers, acted like a fatality +in destroying the effect of the most daring exertions and the most +important triumphs. Wherever there was danger, wherever there was +carnage, wherever there was despair, thither strode the undaunted +priest, inspiring the bold, succouring the wounded, reanimating the +feeble. Blinded by no stratagem, wearied by no fatigue, there was +something almost demoniac in his activity for destruction, in his +determination under defeat. The besiegers marked his course round the +temple by the calamities that befell them at his every step. If the +bodies of slaughtered Christians were flung down upon them from the +walls, they felt that Ulpius was there. If the bravest of the soldiery +hesitated at mounting the ladders, it was known that Ulpius was +directing the defeat of their comrades above. If a sally from the +temple drove back the advanced guard upon the reserves in the rear, it +was pleaded as their excuse that Ulpius was fighting at the head of his +Pagan bands. Crowd on crowd of Christian warriors still pressed +forward to the attack; but though the ranks of the unbelievers were +perceptibly thinned, though the gates that defended them at last began +to quiver before the reiterated blows by which they were assailed, +every court of the sacred edifice yet remained in the possession of the +besieged, and was at the disposal of the unconquered captain who +organised the defence. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Depressed by the failure of his efforts, and horrified at the carnage +already perpetrated among his adherents, the Archbishop suddenly +commanded a cessation of hostilities, and proposed to the defenders of +the temple a short and favourable truce. After some delay, and +apparently at the expense of some discord among their ranks, the Pagans +sent to the Primate an assurance of their acceptance of his terms, +which were that both parties should abstain from any further struggle +for the ascendancy until an edict from Theodosius determining the +ultimate fate of the temple should be applied for and obtained. +</P> + +<P> +The truce once agreed on, the wide space before the respited edifice +was gradually cleared of its occupants. Slowly and sadly the +Archbishop and his followers departed from the ancient walls whose +summits they had assaulted in vain; and when the sun went down, of the +great multitude congregated in the morning a few corpses were all that +remained. Within the sacred building, Death and Repose ruled with the +night, where morning had brightly glittered on Life and Action. The +wounded, the wearied, and the cold, all now lay hushed alike, fanned by +the night breezes that wandered through the lofty porticoes, or soothed +by the obscurity that reigned over the silent halls. Among the ranks +of the Pagan devotees but one man still toiled and thought. Round and +round the temple, restless as a wild beast that is threatened in his +lair, watchful as a lonely spirit in a city of strange tombs, wandered +the solitary and brooding Ulpius. For him there was no rest of +body—no tranquility of mind. On the events of the next few days +hovered the fearful chance that was soon, either for misery or +happiness, to influence irretrievably the years of his future life. +Round and round the mighty walls he watched with mechanical and useless +anxiety. Every stone in the building was eloquent to his lonely +heart—beautiful to his wild imagination. On those barren structures +stretched for him the loved and fertile home; there was the shrine for +whose glory his intellect had been enslaved, for whose honour his youth +had been sacrificed! Round and round the secret recesses and sacred +courts he paced with hurried footstep, cleansing with gentle and +industrious hand the stains of blood and the defilements of warfare +from the statues at his side. Sad, solitary, thoughtful, as in the +first days of his apprenticeship to the gods, he now roved in the same +moonlit recesses where Macrinus had taught him in his youth. As the +menacing tumults of the day had aroused his fierceness, so the +stillness of the quiet night awakened his gentleness. He had combated +for the temple in the morning as a son for a parent, and he now watched +over it at night as a miser over his treasure, as a lover over his +mistress, as a mother over her child! +</P> + +<P> +The days passed on; and at length the memorable morning arrived which +was to determine the fate of the last temple that Christian fanaticism +had spared to the admiration of the world. At an early hour of the +morning the diminished numbers of the Pagan zealots met their +reinforced and determined opponents—both sides being alike unarmed—in +the great square of Alexandria. The imperial prescript was then +publicly read. It began by assuring the Pagans that their priest's plea +for protection for the temple had received the same consideration which +had been bestowed on the petition against the gods presented by the +Christian Archbishop, and ended by proclaiming the commands of the +Emperor that Serapis and all other idols in Alexandria should +immediately be destroyed. +</P> + +<P> +The shout of triumph which followed the conclusion of the imperial +edict still rose from the Christian ranks when the advanced guard of +the soldiers appointed to ensure the execution of the Emperor's designs +appeared in the square. For a few minutes the forsaken Pagans stood +rooted to the spot where they had assembled, gazing at the warlike +preparations around them in a stupor of bewilderment and despair. Then +as they recollected how diminished were their numbers, how arduous had +been their first defence against a few, and how impossible would be a +second defence against many—from the boldest to the feeblest, a panic +seized on them; and, regardless of Ulpius, regardless of honour, +regardless of the gods, they turned with one accord and fled from the +place. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +With the flight of the Pagans the work of demolition began. Even women +and children hurried to join in the welcome task of indiscriminate +destruction. No defenders on this occasion barred the gates of the +temple to the Christian hosts. The sublime solitude of the tenantless +building was outraged and invaded in an instant. Statues were broken, +gold was carried off, doors were splintered into fragments; but here +for a while the progress of demolition was delayed. Those to whom the +labour of ruining the outward structure had been confided were less +successful than their neighbours who had pillaged its contents. The +ponderous stones of the pillars, the massive surfaces of the walls, +resisted the most vigorous of their puny efforts, and forced them to +remain contented with mutilating that which they could not +destroy—with tearing off roofs, defacing marbles, and demolishing +capitals. The rest of the buildings remained uninjured, and grander +even now in the wildness of ruin than ever it had been in the +stateliness of perfection and strength. +</P> + +<P> +But the most important achievement still remained, the death-wound of +Paganism was yet to be struck—the idol Serapis, which had ruled the +hearts of millions, and was renowned in the remotest corners of the +Empire, was to be destroyed! A breathless silence pervaded the +Christian ranks as they filled the hall of the god. A superstitious +dread, to which they had hitherto thought themselves superior, overcame +their hearts, as a single soldier, bolder than his fellows, mounted by +a ladder to the head of the colossal statue, and struck at its cheek +with an axe. The blow had scarcely been dealt when a deep groan was +heard from the opposite wall of the apartment, succeeded by a noise of +retreating footsteps, and then all was silent again. For a few minutes +this incident stayed the feet of those who were about to join their +companion in the mutilation of the idol; but after an interval their +hesitation vanished, they dealt blow after blow at the statue, and no +more groans followed—no more sounds were heard, save the wild echoes +of the stroke of hammer, crowbar, and club, resounding through the +lofty hall. In an incredibly short space of time the image of Serapis +lay in great fragments on the marble floor. The multitude seized on +the limbs of the idol and ran forth to drag them in triumph through the +streets. Yet a few minutes more, and the ruins were untenanted, the +temple was silent—Paganism was destroyed! +</P> + +<P> +Throughout the ravaging course of the Christians over the temple, they +had been followed with dogged perseverance, and at the same time with +the most perfect impunity, by the only Pagan of all his brethren who +had not sought safety by flight. This man, being acquainted with every +private passage and staircase in the sacred building, was enabled to be +secretly present at each fresh act of demolition, in whatever part of +the edifice it might be perpetrated. From hall to hall, and from room +to room, he tracked with noiseless step and glaring eye the movements +of the Christian mob—now hiding himself behind a pillar, now passing +into concealed cavities in the walls, now looking down from +imperceptible fissures in the roof; but, whatever his situation, +invariably watching from it, with the same industry of attention and +the same silence of emotion, the minutest acts of spoliation committed +by the most humble follower of the Christian ranks. It was only when +he entered with the victorious ravagers into the vast apartment +occupied by the idol Serapis that the man's countenance began to give +evidence of the agony under which his heart was writhing within him. +He mounted a private staircase cut in the hollow of the massive wall of +the room, and gaining a passage that ran round the extremities of the +ceiling, looked through a sort of lattice concealed in the ornaments of +the cornice. As he gazed down and saw the soldier mounting, axe in +hand, to the idol's head, great drops of perspiration trickled from his +forehead. His hot, thick breath hissed through his closed teeth, and +his hands strained at the strong metal supports of the lattice until +they bent beneath his grasp. When the stroke descended on the image, +he closed his eyes. When the fragment detached by the blow fell on the +floor, a groan burst from his quivering lips. For one moment more he +glared down with a gaze of horror upon the multitude at his feet, and +then with frantic speed he descended the steep stairs by which he had +mounted to the roof, and fled from the temple. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The same night this man was again seen by some shepherds whom curiosity +led to visit the desecrated building, weeping bitterly in its ruined +and deserted porticoes. As they approached to address him, he raised +his head, and with a supplicating action signed to them to leave the +place. For the few moments during which he confronted them, the +moonlight shone full upon his countenance, and the shepherds, who had +in former days attended the ceremonies of the temple, saw with +astonishment that the solitary mourner whose meditations they had +disturbed was no other than Ulpius the priest. +</P> + +<P> +At the dawn of day these shepherds had again occasion to pass the walls +of the pillaged temple. Throughout the hours of the night the +remembrance of the scene of unsolaced, unpartaken grief that they had +beheld—of the awful loneliness of misery in which they had seen the +heart-broken and forsaken man, whose lightest words they had once +delighted to revere—inspired them with a feeling of pity for the +deserted Pagan, widely at variance with the spirit of persecution which +the spurious Christianity of their day would fain have instilled in the +bosoms of its humblest votaries. Bent on consolation, anxious to +afford help, these men, like the Samaritan of old, went up at their own +peril to succour a brother in affliction. They searched every portion +of the empty building, but the object of their sympathy was nowhere to +be seen. They called, but heard no answering sound, save the dirging of +the winds of early morning through the ruined halls, which but a short +time since had resounded with the eloquence of the once illustrious +priest. Except a few night-birds, already sheltered by the deserted +edifice, not a living being moved in what was once the temple of the +Eastern world. Ulpius was gone. +</P> + +<P> +These events took place in the year 389. In 390, Pagan ceremonies were +made treason by the laws throughout the whole Roman Empire. +</P> + +<P> +From that period the scattered few who still adhered to the ancient +faith became divided into three parties; each alike insignificant, +whether considered as openly or secretly inimical to the new religion +of the State at large. +</P> + +<P> +The first party unsuccessfully endeavoured to elude the laws +prohibitory of sacrifices and divinations by concealing their religious +ceremonies under the form of convivial meetings. +</P> + +<P> +The second preserved their ancient respect for the theory of Paganism, +but abandoned all hope and intention of ever again accomplishing its +practice. By such timely concessions many were enabled to +preserve—and some even to attain—high and lucrative employments as +officers of the State. +</P> + +<P> +The third retired to their homes, the voluntary exiles of every +religion; resigning the practice of their old worship as a necessity, +and shunning the communion of Christians as a matter of choice. +</P> + +<P> +Such were the unimportant divisions into which the last remnants of the +once powerful Pagan community now subsided; but to none of them was the +ruined and degraded Ulpius ever attached. +</P> + +<P> +For five weary years—dating from the epoch of the prohibition of +Paganism—he wandered through the Empire, visiting in every country the +ruined shrines of his deserted worship—a friendless, hopeless, +solitary man! +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Throughout the whole of Europe, and all of Asia and the East that still +belonged to Rome, he bent his slow and toilsome course. In the fertile +valleys of Gaul, over the burning sands of Africa, through the +sun-bright cities of Spain, he travelled—unfriended as a man under a +curse, lonely as a second Cain. Never for an instant did the +remembrance of his ruined projects desert his memory, or his mad +determination to revive his worship abandon his mind. At every relic +of Paganism, however slight, that he encountered on his way, he found a +nourishment for his fierce anguish, and employment for his vengeful +thoughts. Often, in the little villages, children were frightened from +their sports in a deserted temple by the apparition of his gaunt, rigid +figure among the tottering pillars, or the sound of his hollow voice as +he muttered to himself among the ruins of the Pagan tombs. Often, in +crowded cities, groups of men, congregated to talk over the fall of +Paganism, found him listening at their sides, and comforting them, when +they carelessly regretted their ancient faith, with a smiling and +whispered assurance that a time of restitution would yet come. By all +opinions and in all places he was regarded as a harmless madman, whose +strange delusions and predilections were not to be combated, but to be +indulged. Thus he wandered through the Christian world; regardless +alike of lapse of time and change of climate; living within himself; +mourning, as a luxury, over the fall of his worship; patient of wrongs, +insults, and disappointments; watching for the opportunity that he +still persisted in believing was yet to arrive; holding by his fatal +determination with all the recklessness of ambition and all the +perseverance of revenge. +</P> + +<P> +The five years passed away unheeded, uncalculated, unregretted by +Ulpius. For him, living but in the past, hoping but for the future, +space held no obstacles—time was an oblivion. Years pass as days, +hours as moments, when the varying emotions which mark their existence +on the memory, and distinguish their succession on the dial of the +heart, exist no longer either for happiness or woe. Dead to all +freshness of feeling, the mind of Ulpius, during the whole term of his +wanderings, lay numbed beneath the one idea that possessed it. It was +only at the expiration of those unheeded years, when the chances of +travel turned his footsteps towards Alexandria, that his faculties +burst from the long bondage which had oppressed them. Then—when he +passed through those gates which he had entered in former years a +proud, ambitious boy, when he walked ungreeted through the ruined +temple where he had once lived illustrious and revered—his dull, cold +thoughts arose strong and vital within him. The spectacle of the scene +of his former glories, which might have awakened despair in others, +aroused the dormant passions, emancipated the stifled energies in him. +The projects of vengeance and the visions of restoration which he had +brooded over for five long years, now rose before him as realised +already under the vivid influence of the desecrated scenes around. As +he stood beneath the shattered porticoes of the sacred place, not a +stone crumbling at his feet but rebuked him for his past inaction, and +strengthened him for daring, for conspiracy, for revenge, in the +service of the outraged gods. The ruined temples he had visited in his +gloomy pilgrimages now became revived by his fancy, as one by one they +rose on his toiling memory. Broken pillars soared from the ground; +desecrated idols reoccupied their vacant pedestals; and he, the exile +and the mourner, stood forth once again the ruler, the teacher, and the +priest. The time of restitution was come; though his understanding +supplied him with no distinct projects, his heart urged him to rush +blindly on the execution of his reform. The moment had +arrived—Macrinus should yet be avenged; the temple should at last be +restored. +</P> + +<P> +He descended into the city; he hurried—neither welcomed nor +recognised—through the crowded streets; he entered the house of a man +who had once been his friend and colleague in the days that were past, +and poured forth to him his wild determinations and disjointed plans, +entreating his assistance, and promising him a glorious success. But +his old companion had become, by a timely conversion to Christianity, a +man of property and reputation in Alexandria, and he turned from the +friendless enthusiast with indignation and contempt. Repulsed, but not +disheartened, Ulpius sought others who he had known in his prosperity +and renown. They had all renounced their ancient worship—they all +received him with studied coldness or careless disdain; but he still +persisted in his useless efforts. He blinded his eyes to their +contemptuous looks; he shut his ears to their derisive words. +Persevering in his self-delusion, he appointed them messengers to their +brethren in other countries, captains of the conspiracy that was to +commence in Alexandria, orators before the people when the memorable +revolution had once begun. It was in vain that they refused all +participation in his designs; he left them as the expressions of +refusal rose to their lips, and hurried elsewhere, as industrious in +his efforts, as devoted to his unwelcome mission, as if half the +population of the city had vowed themselves joyfully to aid him in his +frantic attempt. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Thus during the whole day he continued his labour of useless persuasion +among those in the city who had once been his friends. When the +evening came, he repaired, weary but not despondent, to the earthly +paradise that he was determined to regain—to the temple where he had +once taught, and where he still imagined that he was again destined to +preside. Here he proceeded, ignorant of the new laws, careless of +discovery and danger, to ascertain by divination, as in the days of +old, whether failure or success awaited him ultimately in his great +design. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the friends whose assistance Ulpius had determined to extort +were far from remaining inactive on their parts after the departure of +the aspiring priest. They remembered with terror that the laws +affected as severely those concealing their knowledge of a Pagan +intrigue as those actually engaged in directing a Pagan conspiracy; and +their anxiety for their personal safety overcoming every consideration +of the dues of honour or the claims of ancient friendship, they +repaired in a body to the Prefect of the city, and informed him, with +all the eagerness of apprehension, of the presence of Ulpius in +Alexandria, and of the culpability of the schemes that he had proposed. +</P> + +<P> +A search after the devoted Pagan was immediately commenced. He was +found the same night before a ruined altar, brooding over the entrails +of an animal that he had just sacrificed. Further proof of his guilt +could not be required. He was taken prisoner; led forth the next +morning to be judged, amid the execrations of the very people who had +almost adored him once; and condemned the following day to suffer the +penalty of death. +</P> + +<P> +At the appointed hour the populace assembled to behold the execution. +To their indignation and disappointment, however, when the officers of +the city appeared before the prison, it was only to inform the +spectators that the performance of the fatal ceremony had been +adjourned. After a mysterious delay of some weeks, they were again +convened, not to witness the execution, but to receive the +extraordinary announcement that the culprit's life had been spared, and +that his amended sentence now condemned him to labour as a slave for +life in the copper-mines of Spain. +</P> + +<P> +What powerful influence induced the Prefect to risk the odium of +reprieving a prisoner whose guilt was so satisfactorily ascertained as +that of Ulpius never was disclosed. Some declared that the city +magistrate was still at heart a Pagan, and that he consequently shrunk +from authorising the death of a man who had once been the most +illustrious among the professors of the ancient creed. Others reported +that Ulpius had secured the leniency of his judges by acquainting them +with the position of one of those secret repositories of enormous +treasure supposed to exist beneath the foundations of the dismantled +Temple of Serapis. But the truth of either of these rumours could +never be satisfactorily proved. Nothing more was accurately discovered +than that Ulpius was removed from Alexandria to the place of earthly +torment set apart for him by the zealous authorities, at the dead of +night; and that the sentry at the gate through which he departed heard +him mutter to himself, as he was hurried onward, that his divinations +had prepared him for defeat, but that the great day of Pagan +restoration would yet arrive. +</P> + +<P> +In the year 407, twelve years after the events above narrated, Ulpius +entered the city of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +He had not advanced far, before the gaiety and confusion in the streets +appeared completely to bewilder him. He hastened to the nearest public +garden that he could perceive, and avoiding the frequented paths, flung +himself down, apparently fainting with exhaustion, at the foot of a +tree. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +For some time he lay on the shady resting-place which he had chosen, +gasping painfully for breath, his frame ever and anon shaken to its +centre by sudden spasms, and his lips quivering with an agitation which +he vainly endeavoured to suppress. So changed was his aspect, that the +guards who had removed him from Alexandria, wretched as was his +appearance even then, would have found it impossible to recognise him +now as the same man whom they had formerly abandoned to slavery in the +mines of Spain. The effluvia exhaled from the copper ore in which he +had been buried for twelve years had not only withered the flesh upon +his bones, but had imparted to its surface a livid hue, almost +death-like in its dulness. His limbs, wasted by age and distorted by +suffering, bent and trembled beneath him; and his form, once so +majestic in its noble proportions, was now so crooked and misshapen, +that whoever beheld him could only have imagined that he must have been +deformed from his birth. Of the former man no characteristic remained +but the expression of the stern, mournful eyes; and these, the truthful +interpreters of the indomitable mind whose emotions they seemed created +to express, preserved, unaltered by suffering and unimpaired by time, +the same look, partly of reflection, partly of defiance, and partly of +despair, which had marked them in those past days when the temple was +destroyed and the congregations of the Pagans dispersed. +</P> + +<P> +But the repose at this moment demanded by his worn-out body was even +yet denied to it by his untamed, unwearied mind, and, as the voice of +his old delusion spoke within him again, the devoted priest rose from +his solitary resting-place, and looked forth upon the great city, whose +new worship he was vowed to overthrow. +</P> + +<P> +'By years of patient watchfulness,' he whispered to himself, 'have I +succeeded in escaping successfully from my dungeon among the mines. +Yet a little more cunning, a little more endurance, a little more +vigilance, and I shall still live to people, by my own exertions, the +deserted temples of Rome.' +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke he emerged from the grove into the street. The joyous +sunlight—a stranger to him for years—shone warmly down upon his face, +as if to welcome him to liberty and the world. The sounds of gay +laughter rang in his ears, as if to woo him back to the blest +enjoyments and amenities of life; but Nature's influence and man's +example were now silent alike to his lonely heart. Over its dreary +wastes still reigned the ruthless ambition which had exiled love from +his youth, and friendship from his manhood, and which was destined to +end its mission of destruction by banishing tranquility from his age. +Scowling fiercely at all around and above him, he sought the loneliest +and shadiest streets. Solitude had now become a necessity to his +heart. The 'great gulph' of his unshared aspirations had long since +socially separated him for ever from his fellow-men. He thought, +laboured, and suffered for himself alone. +</P> + +<P> +To describe the years of unrewarded labour and unalleviated hardship +endured by Ulpius in the place of his punishment; to dwell on the day +that brought with it—whatever the season in the world above—the same +unwearying inheritance of exertion and fatigue; to chronicle the +history of night after night of broken slumber one hour, of wearying +thought the next, would be to produce a picture from the mournful +monotony of which the attention of the reader would recoil with +disgust. It will be here sufficient to observe, that the influence of +the same infatuation which had nerved him to the defence of the +assaulted temple, and encouraged him to attempt his ill-planned +restoration of Paganism, had preserved him through sufferings under +which stronger and younger men would have sunk for ever; had prompted +his determination to escape from his slavery, and had now brought him +to Rome—old, forsaken, and feeble as he was—to risk new perils and +suffer new afflictions for the cause to which, body and soul, he had +ruthlessly devoted himself for ever. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Urged, therefore, by his miserable delusion, he had now entered a city +where even his name was unknown, faithful to his frantic project of +opposing himself, as a helpless, solitary man, against the people and +government of an Empire. During his term of slavery, regardless of his +advanced years, he had arranged a series of projects, the gradual +execution of which would have demanded the advantages of a long and +vigorous life. He no more desired, as in his former attempt at +Alexandria, to precipitate at all hazards the success of his designs. +He was now prepared to watch, wait, plot, and contrive for years on +years; he was resigned to be contented with the poorest and slowest +advancement—to be encouraged by the smallest prospect of ultimate +triumph. Acting under this determination, he started his project by +devoting all that remained of his enfeebled energies to cautiously +informing himself, by every means in his power, of the private, +political, and religious sentiments of all men of influence in Rome. +Wherever there was a popular assemblage, he attended it to gather the +scandalous gossip of the day; wherever there was a chance of +overhearing a private conversation, he contrived to listen to it +unobserved. About the doors of taverns and the haunts of discharged +servants he lurked noiseless as a shadow, attentive alike to the +careless revelations of intoxication or the scurrility of malignant +slaves. Day after day passed on, and still saw him devoted to his +occupation (which, servile as it was in itself, was to his eyes +ennobled by its lofty end), until at the expiration of some months he +found himself in possession of a vague and inaccurate fund of +information, which he stored up as a priceless treasure in his mind. +He next discovered the name and abode of every nobleman in Rome +suspected even of the most careless attachment to the ancient form of +worship. He attended Christian churches, mastered the intricacies of +different sects, and estimated the importance of contending schisms; +gaining this collection of heterogeneous facts under the combined +disadvantages of poverty, solitude, and age; dependent for support on +the poorest public charities, and for shelter on the meanest public +asylums. Every conclusion that he drew from all he learned partook of +the sanguine character of the fatal self-deception which had embittered +his whole life. He believed that the dissensions which he saw raging +in the Church would speedily effect the destruction of Christianity +itself; that, when such a period should arrive, the public mind would +require but the guidance of some superior intellect to return to its +old religious predilections; and that to lay the foundation for +effecting in such a manner the desired revolution, it was necessary for +him—impossible though it might seem in his present degraded +condition—to gain access to the disaffected nobles of Rome, and +discover the secret of acquiring such an influence over them as would +enable him to infect them with his enthusiasm, and fire them with his +determination. Greater difficulties even than these had been overcome +by other men. Solitary individuals had, ere this, originated +revolutions. The gods would favour him; his own cunning would protect +him. Yet a little more patience, a little more determination, and he +might still, after all his misfortunes, be assured of success. +</P> + +<P> +It was about this period that he first heard, while pursuing his +investigations, of an obscure man who had suddenly arisen to undertake +a reformation in the Christian Church, whose declared aim was to rescue +the new worship from that very degeneracy on the fatal progress of +which rested all his hopes of triumph. It was reported that this man +had been for some time devoted to his reforming labours, but that the +difficulties attendant on the task that he had appointed for himself +had hitherto prevented him from attaining all the notoriety essential +to the satisfactory prosecution of his plans. On hearing this rumour, +Ulpius immediately joined the few who attended the new orator's +discourses, and there heard enough to convince him that he listened to +the most determined zealot for Christianity in the city of Rome. To +gain this man's confidence, to frustrate every effort that he might +make in his new vocation, to ruin his credit with his hearers, and to +threaten his personal safety by betraying his inmost secrets to his +powerful enemies in the Church, were determinations instantly adopted +by the Pagan as duties demanded by the exigencies of his creed. From +that moment he seized every opportunity of favourably attracting the +new reformer's attention to himself, and, as the reader already knows, +he was at length rewarded for his cunning and perseverance by being +received into the household of the charitable and unsuspicious Numerian +as a pious convert to the Christianity of the early Church. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Once installed under Numerian's roof, the treacherous Pagan saw in the +Christian's daughter an instrument admirably adapted, in his +unscrupulous hands, for forwarding his wild project of obtaining the +ear of a Roman of power and station who was disaffected to the +established worship. Among the patricians of whose anti-Christian +predilections report had informed him, was Numerian's neighbour, +Vetranio the senator. To such a man, renowned for his life of luxury, a +girl so beautiful as Antonina would be a bribe rich enough to enable +him to extort any promise required as a reward for betraying her while +under the protection of her father's house. In addition to this +advantage to be drawn from her ruin, was the certainty that her loss +would so affect Numerian as to render him, for a time at least, +incapable of pursuing his labours in the cause of Christianity. Fixed +then in his detestable purpose, the ruthless priest patiently awaited +the opportunity of commencing his machinations. Nor did he watch in +vain. The victim innocently fell into the very trap that he had +prepared for her when she first listened to the music of Vetranio's +lute, and permitted her treacherous guardian to become the friend who +concealed her disobedience from her father's ear. After that first +fatal step every day brought the projects of Ulpius nearer to success. +The long-sought interview with the senator was at length obtained; the +engagement imperatively demanded on the one side was, as we have +already related, carelessly accepted on the other; the day that was to +bring success to the schemes of the betrayer, and degradation to the +honour of the betrayed, was appointed; and once more the cold heart of +the fanatic warmed to the touch of joy. No doubts upon the validity of +his engagement with Vetranio ever entered his mind. He never imagined +that powerful senator could with perfect impunity deny him the +impracticable assistance he had demanded as his reward, and thrust him +as an ignorant madman from his palace gates. Firmly and sincerely he +believed that Vetranio was so satisfied with his readiness in pandering +to his profligate designs, and so dazzled by the prospect of the glory +which would attend success in the great enterprise, that he would +gladly hold to the performance of his promise whenever it should be +required of him. In the meantime the work was begun. Numerian was +already, through his agency, watched by the spies of a jealous and +unscrupulous Church. Feuds, schisms, treacheries, and dissensions +marched bravely onward through the Christian ranks. All things +combined to make it certain that the time was near at hand when, +through his exertions and the friendly senator's help, the restoration +of Paganism might be assured. +</P> + +<P> +With the widest diversity of pursuit and difference of design, there +was still a strange and mysterious analogy between the temporary +positions of Ulpius and Numerian. One was prepared to be a martyr for +the temple; the other to be a martyr for the Church. Both were +enthusiasts in an unwelcome cause; both had suffered more than a life's +wonted share of affliction; and both were old, passing irretrievably +from their fading present on earth to the eternal future awaiting them +in the unknown spheres beyond. +</P> + +<P> +But here—with their position—the comparison between them ends. The +Christian's principle of action, drawn from the Divinity he served, was +love; the Pagan's, born of the superstition that was destroying him, +was hate. The one laboured for mankind; the other for himself. And +thus the aspirations of Numerian, founded on the general good, +nourished by offices of kindness, and nobly directed to a generous end, +might lead him into indiscretion, but could never degrade him into +crime—might trouble the serenity of his life, but could never deprive +him of the consolation of hope. While, on the contrary, the ambition +of Ulpius, originating in revenge and directed to destruction, exacted +cruelty from his heart and duplicity from his mind; and, as the reward +for his service, mocked him alternately throughout his whole life with +delusion and despair. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 7. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BED-CHAMBER. +</H3> + +<P> +It is now time to resume our chronicle of the eventful night which +marked the destruction of Antonina's lute and the conspiracy against +Antonina's honour. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The gates of Vetranio's palace were closed, and the noises in it were +all hushed; the banquet was over, the triumph of the Nightingale Sauce +had been achieved, and the daybreak was already glimmering in the +eastern sky, when the senator's favoured servant, the freedman Carrio, +drew back the shutter of the porter's lodge, where he had been dozing +since the conclusion of the feast, and looked out lazily into the +street. The dull, faint light of dawn was now strengthening slowly +over the lonely roadway and on the walls of the lofty houses. Of the +groups of idlers of the lowest class who had assembled during the +evening in the street to snuff the fragrant odours which steamed afar +from Vetranio's kitchens, not one remained; men, women, and children +had long since departed to seek shelter wherever they could find it, +and to fatten their lean bodies on what had been charitable bestowed on +them of the coarser relics of the banquet. The mysterious solitude and +tranquility of daybreak in a great city prevailed over all things. +Nothing impressed, however, by the peculiar and solemn attraction of +the scene at this moment, the freedman apostrophised the fresh morning +air, as it blew over him, in strong terms of disgust, and even ventured +in lowered tones to rail against his master's uncomfortable fancy for +being awakened after a feast at the approach of dawn. Far too well +aware, nevertheless, of the necessity of yielding the most implicit +obedience to the commands he had received to resign himself any longer +to the pleasant temptations of repose, Carrio, after yawning, rubbing +his eyes, and indulging for a few moments more in the luxury of +complaint, set forth in earnest to follow the corridors leading to the +interior of the palace, and to awaken Vetranio without further delay. +</P> + +<P> +He had not advanced more than a few steps when a proclamation, written +in letters of gold on a blue-coloured board, and hung against the wall +at his side, attracted his attention. This public notice, which +delayed his progress at the very outset, and which was intended for the +special edification of all the inhabitants of Rome, was thus +expressed:— +</P> + +<P> +'ON THIS DAY, AND FOR TEN DAYS FOLLOWING, THE AFFAIRS OF OUR PATRON +OBLIGE HIM TO BE ABSENT FROM ROME.' +</P> + +<P> +Here the proclamation ended, without descending to particulars. It had +been put forth, in accordance with the easy fashion of the age, to +answer at once all applications at Vetranio's palace during the +senator's absence. Although the colouring of the board, the writing of +the letters, and the composition of the sentence were the work of his +own ingenuity, the worthy Carrio could not prevail upon himself to pass +the proclamation without contemplating its magnificence anew. For some +time he stood regarding it with the same expression of lofty and +complacent approbation which we see in these modern days illuminating +the countenance of a connoisseur before one of his own old pictures +which he has bought as a great bargain, or dawning over the bland +features of a linen-draper as he surveys from the pavement his +morning's arrangement of the window of the shop. All things, however, +have their limits, even a man's approval of an effort of his own skill. +Accordingly, after a prolonged review of the proclamation, some faint +ideas of the necessity of immediately obeying his master's commands +revived in the mind of the judicious Carrio, and counselled him to turn +his steps at once in the direction of the palace sleeping apartments. +</P> + +<P> +Greatly wondering what new caprice had induced the senator to +contemplate leaving Rome at the dawn of day—for Vetranio had divulged +to no one the object of his departure—the freedman cautiously entered +his master's bed-chamber. He drew aside the ample silken curtains +suspended around and over the sleeping couch, from the hands of Graces +and Cupids sculptured in marble; but the statues surrounded an empty +bed. Vetranio was not there. Carrio next entered the bathroom; the +perfumed water was steaming in its long marble basin, and the soft +wrapping-cloths lay ready for use; the attendant slave, with his +instruments of ablution, waited, half asleep, in his accustomed place; +but here also no signs of the master's presence appeared. Somewhat +perplexed, the freedman examined several other apartments. He found +guests, dancing girls, parasites, poets, painters—a motley +crew—occupying every kind of dormitory, and all peacefully engaged in +sleeping off the effects of the wine they had drunk at the banquet; but +the great object of his search still eluded him as before. At last it +occurred to him that the senator, in an excess of convivial enthusiasm +and jovial hospitality, might yet be detaining some favoured guest at +the table of the feast. +</P> + +<P> +Pausing, therefore, at some carved doors which stood ajar at one +extremity of a spacious hall, he pushed them open, and hurriedly +entered the banqueting-room beyond. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +A soft, dim, luxurious light reigned over this apartment, which now +presented, as far as the eye could discern, an aspect of confusion that +was at once graceful and picturesque. Of the various lamps, of every +variety of pattern, hanging from the ceiling, but few remained alight. +From those, however, which were still unextinguished there shone a mild +brightness, admirably adapted to display the objects immediately around +them. The golden garlands and the alabaster pots of sweet ointment +which had been suspended before the guests during the banquet, still +hung from the painted ceiling. On the massive table, composed partly +of ebony and partly of silver, yet lay, in the wildest confusion, +fragments of gastronomic delicacies, grotesque dinner services, vases +of flowers, musical instruments, and crystal dice; while towering over +all rose the glittering dish which had contained the nightingales +consumed by the feasters, with the four golden Cupids which had spouted +over them that illustrious invention—the Nightingale Sauce. Around +the couches, of violet and rose colour, ranged along the table, the +perfumed and gaily-tinted powders that had been strewn in patterns over +the marble floor were perceptible for a few yards; but beyond this +point nothing more was plainly distinguishable. The eye roved down the +sides of the glorious chamber, catching dim glimpses of gorgeous +draperies, crowded statues, and marble columns, but discerning nothing +accurately, until it reached the half-opened windows, and rested upon +the fresh dewy verdure now faintly visible in the shady gardens +without. There—waving in the morning breezes, charged on every leaf +with their burden of pure and welcome moisture—rose the lofty +pine-trees, basking in the recurrence of the new day's beautiful and +undying youth, and rising in reproving contrast before the exhausted +allurements of luxury and the perverted creations of art which burdened +the tables of the hall within. +</P> + +<P> +After a hasty survey of the apartment, the freedman appeared to be on +the point of quitting it in despair, when the noise of a falling dish, +followed by several partly suppressed and wholly confused exclamations +of affright, caught his ear. He once more approached the +banqueting-table, retrimmed a lamp that hung near him, and taking it in +his hand, passed to the side of the room whence the disturbance +proceeded. A hideous little negro, staring in ludicrous terror at a +silver oven, half filled with bread, which had just fallen beside him, +was the first object he discovered. A few paces beyond the negro +reposed a beautiful boy, crowned with vine leaves and ivy, still +sleeping by the side of his lyre; and farther yet, stretched in an +uneasy slumber on a silken couch, lay the identical object of the +freedman's search—the illustrious author of the Nightingale Sauce. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately above the sleeping senator hung his portrait, in which he +was modestly represented as rising by the assistance of Minerva to the +top of Parnassus, the nine Muses standing round him rejoicing. At his +feet reposed a magnificent white cat, whose head rested in all the +luxurious laziness of satiety on the edge of a golden saucer half +filled with dormice stewed in milk. The most indubitable evidences of +the night's debauch appeared in Vetranio's disordered dress and flushed +countenance as the freedman regarded him. For some minutes the worthy +Carrio stood uncertain whether to awaken his master or not, deciding +finally, however, on obeying the commands he had received, and +disturbing the slumbers of the wearied voluptuary before him. To effect +this purpose, it was necessary to call in the aid of the singing-boy; +for, by a refinement of luxury, Vetranio had forbidden his attendants +to awaken him by any other method than the agency of musical sounds. +</P> + +<P> +With some difficulty the boy was sufficiently aroused to comprehend the +service that was required of him. For a short time the notes of the +lyre sounded in vain. At last, when the melody took a louder and more +martial character, the sleeping patrician slowly opened his eyes and +stared vacantly around him. +</P> + +<P> +'My respected patron,' said the polite Carrio in apologetic tones, +'commanded that I should awaken him with the dawn; the daybreak has +already appeared.' +</P> + +<P> +When the freedman had ceased speaking, Vetranio sat up on the couch, +called for a basin of water, dipped his fingers in the refreshing +liquid, dried them abstractedly on the long silky curls of the +singing-boy who stood beside him, gazed about him once more, repeated +interrogatively the word 'daybreak', and sunk gently back upon his +couch. We are grieved to confess it—but the author of the Nightingale +Sauce was moderately inebriated. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +A short pause followed, during which the freedman and the singing-boy +stared upon each other in mutual perplexity. At length the one resumed +his address of apology, and the other resumed his efforts on the lyre. +Once more, after an interval, the eyes of Vetranio lazily unclosed, and +this time he began to speak; but his thoughts—if thoughts they could +be called—were as yet wholly occupied by the 'table-talk' at the past +night's banquet. +</P> + +<P> +'The ancient Egyptians—oh, sprightly and enchanting Camilla—were a +wise nation!' murmured the senator drowsily. 'I am myself descended +from the ancient Egyptians; and, therefore, I hold in high veneration +that cat in your lap, and all cats besides. Herodotus—an historian +whose works I feel a certain gratification in publicly mentioning as +good—informs us, that when a cat died in the dwelling of an ancient +Egyptian, the owner shaved his eyebrows as a mark of grief, embalmed +the defunct animal in a consecrated house, and carried it to be +interred in a considerable city of Lower Egypt, called 'Bubastis'—an +Egyptian word which I have discovered to mean The Sepulchre of all the +Cats; whence it is scarcely erroneous to infer—' +</P> + +<P> +At this point the speaker's power of recollection and articulation +suddenly failed him, and Carrio—who had listened with perfect gravity +to his master's oration upon cats—took immediate advantage of the +opportunity now afforded him to speak again. +</P> + +<P> +'The equipage which my patron was pleased to command to carry him to +Aricia,' said he, with a strong emphasis on the last word, 'now stands +in readiness at the private gate of the palace gardens.' +</P> + +<P> +As he heard the word 'Aricia', the senator's powers of recollection and +perception seemed suddenly to return to him. Among that high order of +drinkers who can imbibe to the point of perfect enjoyment, and stop +short scientifically before the point of perfect oblivion, Vetranio +occupied an exalted rank. The wine he had swallowed during the night +had disordered his memory and slightly troubled his self-possession, +but had not deprived him of his understanding. There was nothing +plebeian even in his debauchery; there was an art and a refinement in +his very excesses. +</P> + +<P> +'Aricia—Aricia!' he repeated to himself, 'ah! the villa that Julia +lent to me at Ravenna! The pleasures of the table must have obscured +for a moment the image of my beautiful pupil of other days, which now +revives before me again as Love resumes the dominion that Bacchus +usurped! My excellent Carrio,' he continued, speaking to the freedman, +'you have done perfectly right in awakening me; delay not a moment more +in ordering my bath to be prepared, or my man-monster Ulpius, the king +of conspirators and high priest of all that is mysterious, will wait +for me in vain! And you, Glyco,' he pursued, when Carrio had departed, +addressing the singing-boy, 'array yourself for a journey, and wait +with my equipage at the garden-gate. I shall require you to accompany +me in my expedition to Aricia. But first, oh! gifted and valued +songster, let me reward you for the harmonious symphony that has just +awakened me. Of what rank of my musicians are you at present, Glyco?' +</P> + +<P> +'Of the fifth,' replied the boy. +</P> + +<P> +'Were you bought, or born in my house?' asked Vetranio. +</P> + +<P> +'Neither; but bequeathed to you by Geta's testament,' rejoined the +gratified Glyco. +</P> + +<P> +'I advance you,' continued Vetranio, 'to the privileges and the pay of +the first rank of my musicians; and I give you, as a proof of my +continued favour, this ring. In return for these obligations, I desire +to keep secret whatever concerns my approaching expedition; to employ +your softest music in soothing the ear of a young girl who will +accompany us—in calming her terrors if she is afraid, in drying her +tears if she weeps; and finally, to exercise your voice and your lute +incessantly in uniting the name 'Antonina' to the sweetest harmonies of +sound that your imagination can suggest.' +</P> + +<P> +Pronouncing these words with an easy and benevolent smile, and looking +round complacently on the display of luxurious confusion about him, +Vetranio retired to the bath that was to prepare him for his +approaching triumph. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Meanwhile a scene of a very different nature was proceeding without, at +Numerian's garden-gate. Here were no singing-boys, no freedmen, no +profusion of rich treasures—here appeared only the solitary and +deformed figure of Ulpius, half hidden among surrounding trees, while +he waited at his appointed post. As time wore on, and still Vetranio +did not appear, the Pagan's self-possession began to desert him. He +moved restlessly backwards and forwards over the soft dewy grass, +sometimes in low tones calling upon his gods to hasten the tardy +footsteps of the libertine patrician, who was to be made the instrument +of restoring to the temples the worship of other days—sometimes +cursing the reckless delay of the senator, or exulting in the treachery +by which he madly believed his ambition was at last to be fulfilled; +but still, whatever his words or thoughts, wrought up to the same pitch +of fierce, fanatic enthusiasm which had strengthened him for the +defence of his idols at Alexandria, and had nerved him against the +torment and misery of years in his slavery in the copper mines of Spain. +</P> + +<P> +The precious moments were speeding irrevocably onwards. His impatience +was rapidly changing to rage and despair as he strained his eyes for +the last time in the direction of the palace gardens, and now at length +discerned a white robe among the distant trees. Vetranio was rapidly +approaching him. +</P> + +<P> +Restored by his bath, no effect of the night's festivity but its +exhilaration remained in the senator's brain. But for a slight +uncertainty in his gait, and an unusual vacancy in his smile, the +elegant gastronome might now have appeared to the closest observer +guiltless of the influence of intoxicating drinks. He advanced, +radiant with exultation, prepared for conquest, to the place where +Ulpius awaited him, and was about to address the Pagan with that +satirical familiarity so fashionable among the nobles of Rome in their +communications with the people, when the object of his intended +pleasantries sternly interrupted him, saying, in tones more of command +than of advice, 'Be silent! If you would succeed in your purpose, +follow me without uttering a word!' +</P> + +<P> +There was something so fierce and determined in the tones of the old +man's voice—low, tremulous, and husky though they were—as he uttered +those words, that the bold, confident senator instinctively held his +peace as he followed his stern guide into Numerian's house. Avoiding +the regular entrance, which at that early hour of the morning was +necessarily closed, Ulpius conducted the patrician through a small +wicket into the subterranean apartment, or rather outhouse, which was +his customary, though comfortless, retreat in his leisure hours, and +which was hardly ever entered by the other members of the Christian's +household. +</P> + +<P> +From the low, arched brick ceiling of this place hung an earthenware +lamp, whose light, small and tremulous, left all the corners of the +apartment in perfect obscurity. The thick buttresses that projected +inwards from the walls, made visible by their prominence, displayed on +their surfaces rude representations of idols and temples drawn in +chalk, and covered with strange, mysterious hieroglyphics. On a block +of stone which served as a table lay some fragments of small statues, +which Vetranio recognised as having belonged to the old, accredited +representations of Pagan idols. Over the sides of the table itself +were scrawled in Latin characters these two words, 'Serapis', +'Macrinus'; and about its base lay some pieces of torn, soiled linen, +which still retained enough of their former character, both in shape, +size, and colour, to convince Vetranio that they had once served as the +vestments of a Pagan priest. Further than this the senator's +observation did not carry him, for the close, almost mephitic +atmosphere of the place already began to affect him unfavourably. He +felt a suffocating sensation in his throat and a dizziness in his head. +The restorative influence of his recent bath declined rapidly. The +fumes of the wine he had drunk in the night, far from having been, as +he imagined, permanently dispersed, again mounted to his head. He was +obliged to lean against the stone table to preserved his equilibrium as +he faintly desired the Pagan to shorten their sojourn in his miserable +retreat. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Without even noticing the request, Ulpius hurriedly proceeded to erase +the drawings on the buttresses and the inscriptions on the table. Then +collecting the fragments of statues and the pieces of linen, he +deposited them in a hiding-place in the corner of the apartment. This +done, he returned to the stone against which Vetranio supported +himself, and for a few minutes silently regarded the senator with a +firm, earnest, and penetrating gaze. +</P> + +<P> +A dark suspicion that he had betrayed himself into the hands of a +villain, who was then plotting some atrocious project connected with +his safety or honour, began to rise on the senator's bewildered brain +as he unwillingly submitted to the penetrating examination of the +Pagan's glance. At that moment, however, the withered lips of the old +man slowly parted, and he began to speak. Whether as he looked on +Vetranio's disturbed countenance, and marked his unsteady gait, the +heart of Ulpius, for the first time since his introduction to the +senator, misgave him when he thought of their monstrous engagement; or +whether the near approach of the moment that was henceforth, as he +wildly imagined, to fix Vetranio as his assistant and ally, so +powerfully affected his mind that it instinctively sought to vent its +agitation through the natural medium of words, it is useless to +inquire. Whatever his motives for speech, the impressive earnestness +of his manner gave evidence of the depth and intensity of his emotions +as he addressed the senator thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'I have submitted to servitude in a Christian's house, I have suffered +the contamination of a Christian's prayers, to gain the use of your +power and station when the time to employ them should arrive. The hour +has now come when my part of the conditions of our engagement is to be +performed; the hour will yet come when your part shall be exacted from +you in turn! Do you wonder at what I have done and what I will do? Do +you marvel that a household drudge should speak thus to a nobleman of +Rome? Are you astonished that I risk so much as to venture on +enlisting you—by the sacrifice of the girl who now slumbers above—in +the cause whose end is the restoration of our fathers' gods, and in +whose service I have suffered and grown old? Listen, and you shall +hear from what I have fallen—you shall know what I once was!' +</P> + +<P> +'I adjure you by all the gods and goddesses of our ancient worship, let +me hear you where I can breathe—in the garden, on the housetop, +anywhere but in this dungeon!' murmured the senator in entreating +accents. +</P> + +<P> +'My birth, my parents, my education, my ancient abode—these I will not +disclose,' interrupted the Pagan, raising one arm authoritatively, as +if to obstruct Vetranio from approaching the door. 'I have sworn by my +gods, that until the day of restitution these secrets of my past life +shall remain unrevealed to strangers' ears. Unknown I entered Rome, +and unknown I will labour in Rome until the projects I have lived for +are crowned with success! It is enough that I confess to you that with +those sacred images whose fragments you have just beheld, I was once +lodged; that those sacred vestments whose remains you discerned at your +feet, I once wore. To attain the glories of the priesthood there was +nothing that I did not resign, to preserve them there was nothing I did +not perform, to recover them there is nothing that I will not attempt! +I was once illustrious, prosperous, beloved; of my glory, my happiness, +my popularity, the Christians have robbed me, and I will yet live to +requite it heavily at their hands! I had a guardian who loved me in my +youth; the Christians murdered him! A temple was under the rule of my +manhood; the Christians destroyed it! The people of a whole nation +once listened to my voice; the Christians have dispersed them! The +wise, the great, the beautiful, the good, were once devoted to me; the +Christians have made me a stranger at their doors, and outcast of their +affections and thoughts! For all this shall I take no vengeance? Shall +I not plot to rebuild my ruined temple, and win back, in my age, the +honours that adorned me in my youth?' +</P> + +<P> +'Assuredly!—at once—without delay!' stammered Vetranio, returning the +stern and inquiring gaze of the Pagan with a bewildered, uneasy stare. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'To mount over the bodies of the Christian slain,' continued the old +man, his sinister eyes dilating in anticipated triumph as he whispered +close at the senator's ear, 'to rebuild the altars that the Christians +have overthrown, is the ambition that has made light to me the +sufferings of my whole life. I have battled, and it has sustained me +in the midst of carnage; I have wandered, and it has been my home in +the desert; I have failed, and it has supported me; I have been +threatened with death, and it has preserved me from fear; I have been +cast into slavery, and it has made my fetters light. You see me now, +old, degraded, lonely—believe that I long neither for wife, children, +tranquility, nor possessions; that I desire no companion but my +cherished and exalted purpose! Remember, then, in the hour of +performance the promise you have now made to aid me in the achievement +of that purpose! Remember that you are a Pagan yourself! Feast, +laugh, carouse with your compeers; be still the airy jester, the gay +companion; but never forget the end to which you are vowed—the destiny +of glory that the restoration of our deities has in store for us both!' +</P> + +<P> +He ceased. Though his voice, while he spoke, never rose beyond a +hoarse, monotonous, half-whispering tone, all the ferocity of his +abused and degraded nature was for the instant thoroughly aroused by +his recapitulation of his wrongs. Had Vetranio at this moment shown +any symptoms of indecision, or spoken any words of discouragement, he +would have murdered him on the spot where they stood. Every feature in +the Pagan's seared and livid countenance expressed the stormy emotions +that were rushing over his heart as he now confronted his bewildered +yet attentive listener. His firm, menacing position; his poor and +scanty garments; his wild, shaggy hair; his crooked, distorted form; +his stern, solemn, unwavering gaze—opposed as they were (under the +fitful illumination of the expiring lamp and the advancing daylight) to +the unsteady gait, the vacant countenance, the rich robes, the youthful +grace of form and delicacy of feature of the object of his steady +contemplation, made so wild and strange a contrast between his +patrician ally and himself that they scarcely looked like beings of the +same race. Nothing could be more immense than the difference, more wild +than the incongruity between them. It was sickness hand-in-hand with +health; pain marshalled face to face with enjoyment; darkness ranged in +monstrous discordance by the very side of light. +</P> + +<P> +The next instant—just as the astonished senator was endeavouring to +frame a suitable answer to the solemn adjuration that had been +addressed to him—Ulpius seized his arm, and opening a door at the +inner extremity of the apartment, led him up some stairs that conducted +to the interior of the house. +</P> + +<P> +They passed the hall, on the floor of which still lay the fragments of +the broken lute, dimly distinguishable in the soft light of daybreak; +and ascending another staircase, paused at a little door at the top, +which Ulpius cautiously opened, and in a moment afterwards Vetranio was +admitted into Antonina's bed-chamber. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The room was of no great extent; its scanty furniture was of the most +ordinary description; no ornaments glittered on its walls; no frescoes +adorned its ceiling; and yet there was a simple elegance in its +appearance, an unobtrusive propriety in its minutest details, which +made it at once interesting and attractive to the eye. From the white +curtains at the window to the vase of flowers standing by the bedside, +the same natural refinement of taste appeared in the arrangement of all +that the apartment contained. No sound broke the deep silence of the +place, save the low, soft breathing, occasionally interrupted by a +long, trembling sigh, of its sleeping occupant. The sole light in the +room consisted of a little lamp, so placed in the middle of the flowers +round the sides of the vase that no extended or steady illumination was +cast upon any object. There was something in the decent propriety of +all that was visible in the bed-chamber; in the soft obscurity of its +atmosphere; in the gentle and musical sound that alone interrupted its +magical stillness, impressive enough, it might have been imagined, to +have awakened some hesitation in the bosom of the boldest libertine ere +he deliberately proceeded to intrude on the unprotected slumbers of its +occupant. No such feeling of indecision, however, troubled the +thoughts of Vetranio as he cast a rapid glance round the apartment +which he had ventured so treacherously to invade. The fumes of the +wine he had imbibed at the banquet had been so thoroughly resuscitated +by the oppressive atmosphere of the subterranean retreat he had just +quitted, as to have left him nothing of his more refined nature. All +that was honourable or intellectual in his character had now completely +ceded to all that was base and animal. He looked round, and perceiving +that Ulpius had silently quitted him, softly closed the door. Then +advancing to the bedside with the utmost caution compatible with the +involuntary unsteadiness of an intoxicated man, he took the lamp from +the vase in which it was half concealed, and earnestly surveyed by its +light the figure of the sleeping girl. +</P> + +<P> +The head of Antonina was thrown back and rested rather over than on her +pillow. Her light linen dress had become so disordered during the +night that it displayed her throat and part of her bosom, in all the +dawning beauties of their youthful formation, to the gaze of the +licentious Roman. One hand half supported her head, and was almost +entirely hidden in the locks of her long black hair, which had escaped +from the white cincture intended to confine it, and now streamed over +the pillow in dazzling contrast to the light bed-furniture around it. +The other hand held tightly clasped to her bosom the precious fragment +of her broken lute. The deep repose expressed in her position had not +thoroughly communicated itself to her face. Now and then her slightly +parted lips moved and trembled, and ever and anon a change, so faint +and fugitive that it was hardly perceptible, appeared in her +complexion, breathing on the soft olive that was its natural hue, the +light rosy flush which the emotions of the past night had impressed on +it ere she slept. Her position, in its voluptuous negligence, seemed +the very type of Oriental loveliness; while her face, calm and +sorrowful in its expression, displayed the more refined and sober +graces of the European model. And thus these two characteristics of +two different orders of beauty, appearing conjointly under one form, +produced a whole so various and yet so harmonious, so impressive and +yet so attractive, that the senator, as he bent over the couch, though +the warm, soft breath of the young girl played on his cheeks and waved +the tips of his perfumed locks, could hardly imagine that the scene +before him was more than a bright, delusive dream. +</P> + +<P> +While Vetranio was yet absorbed in admiration of her charms, Antonina's +form slightly moved, as if agitated by the influence of a passing +dream. The change thus accomplished in her position broke the spell +that its former stillness and beauty had unconsciously wrought to +restrain the unhallowed ardour of the profligate Roman. He now passed +his arm round her warm, slender figure, and gently raising her till her +head rested on his shoulder as he sat by the bed, imprinted kiss after +kiss on the pure lips that sleep had innocently abandoned to him. +</P> + +<P> +As he had foreseen, Antonina instantly awoke, but, to his unmeasured +astonishment, neither started nor shrieked. The moment she had opened +her eyes she had recognised the person of Vetranio; and that +overwhelming terror which suspends in its victims the use of every +faculty, whether of the body or the mind, had immediately possessed +itself of her heart. Too innocent to imagine the real motive that +prompted the senator's intrusion on her slumbers, where others of her +sex would have foreboded dishonour, she feared death. All her father's +vague denunciations against the enormities of the nobles of Rome rushed +in an instant over her mind, and her childish imagination pictured +Vetranio as armed with some terrible and mysterious vengeance to be +wreaked on her for having avoided all communication with him as soon as +she had gained possession of her lute. Prostrate beneath the +petrifying influence of her fears, motionless and powerless before him +as its prey before the serpent, she made no effort to move or speak; +but looked up steadfastly into the senator's face, her large eyes fixed +and dilated in a gaze of overpowering terror. +</P> + +<P> +Intoxicated though he was, the affrighted expression of the poor girl's +pale, rigid countenance did not escape Vetranio's notice; and he taxed +his bewildered brain for such soothing and reassuring expressions as +would enable him to introduce his profligate proposals with some chance +that they would be listened to and understood. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Dearest pupil! Most beautiful of Roman maidens,' he began in the +husky, monotonous tones of inebriety, 'abandon your fears! I come +hither, wafted by the breath of love, to restore the worship of the—I +would say to bear you on my bosom to a villa—the name of which has for +the moment escaped my remembrance. You cannot have forgotten that it +was I who taught you to compose the Nightingale Sauce—or, no—let me +rather say to play upon the lute. Love, music, pleasure, all await you +in the arms of your attached Vetranio. Your eloquent silence speaks +encouragement to my heart. Beloved Anto—' +</P> + +<P> +Here the senator suddenly paused; for the eyes of the girl, which had +hitherto been fixed on him with the same expression of blank dismay +that had characterised them from the first, slowly moved in the +direction of the door. The instant afterwards a slight noise caught +Vetranio's ear, and Antonina shuddered so violently as he pressed her +to his side that he felt it through his whole frame. Slowly and +unwillingly he withdrew his gaze from the pale yet lovely countenance +on which it had been fixed, and looked up. +</P> + +<P> +At the open door, pale, silent, motionless, stood the master of the +house. +</P> + +<P> +Incapable, from the confusion of his ideas, of any other feeling than +the animal instinct of self-defence, Vetranio no sooner beheld +Numerian's figure than he rose, and drawing a small dagger from his +bosom, attempted to advance on the intruder. He found himself, +however, restrained by Antonina, who had fallen on her knees before +him, and grasped his robe with a strength which seemed utterly +incompatible with the slenderness of her form and the feebleness of her +sex and age. +</P> + +<P> +The first voice that broke the silence which ensued was Numerian's. He +advanced, his face ghastly with anguish, his lip quivering with +suppressed emotions, to the senator's side, and addressed him thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'Put up your weapon; I come but to ask a favour at your hands.' +</P> + +<P> +Vetranio mechanically obeyed him. There was something in the stern +calmness, frightful at such a moment, of the Christian's manner that +awed him in spite of himself. +</P> + +<P> +'The favour I would petition for,' continued Numerian, in low, steady, +bitter tones, 'is that you would remove your harlot there, to your own +abode. Here are no singing-boys, no banqueting-halls, no perfumed +couches. The retreat of a solitary old man is no place for such an one +as she. I beseech you, remove her to a more congenial home. She is +well fitted for her trade; her mother was a harlot before her!' +</P> + +<P> +He laughed scornfully, and pointed, as he spoke, to the figure of the +unhappy girl kneeling with outstretched arms at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +'Father, father!' she cried, in accents bereft of their native softness +and melody, 'have you forgotten me?' +</P> + +<P> +'I know you not!' he replied, thrusting her from him. 'Return to his +bosom; you shall never more be pressed to mine. Go to his palace; my +house is yours no longer! You are his harlot, not my daughter! I +command you—go!' +</P> + +<P> +As he advanced towards her with fierce glance and threatening +demeanour, she suddenly rose up. Her reason seemed crushed within her +as she looked with frantic earnestness from Vetranio to her father, and +then back again from her father to Vetranio. On one side she saw an +enemy who had ruined her she knew not how, and who threatened her with +she knew not what; on the other, a parent who had cast her off. For +one instant she directed a final look on the room, that, sad and lonely +though it was, had still been a home to her; and then, without a word +or a sigh, she turned, and crouching like a beaten dog, fled from the +house. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +During the whole of the scene Vetranio had stood so fixed in the +helpless astonishment of intoxication as to be incapable of moving or +uttering a word. All that took place during the short and terrible +interview between father and child utterly perplexed him. He heard no +loud, violent anger on one side, no clamorous petitioning for +forgiveness on the other. The stern old man whom Antonina had called +father, and who had been pointed out to him as the most austere +Christian in Rome, far from avenging his intrusion on Antonina's +slumber, had voluntarily abandoned his daughter to his licentious will. +That the anger or irony of so severe a man should inspire such an +action as this, or that Numerian, like his servant, was plotting to +obtain some strange mysterious favour from him by using Antonina as a +bribe, seemed perfectly impossible. All that passed before the senator +was, to his bewildered imagination, thoroughly incomprehensible. +Frivolous, thoughtless, profligate as he might be, his nature was not +radically base, and when the scene of which he had been the astounded +witness was abruptly terminated by the flight of Antonina, the look of +frantic misery fixed on him by the unfortunate girl at the moment of +her departure, almost sobered him for the instant, as he stood before +the now solitary father gazing vacantly around him with emotions of +uncontrollable confusion and dismay. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile a third person was now approaching to join the two occupants +of the bedchamber abandoned by its ill-fated mistress. Although in the +subterranean retreat to which he had retired on leaving Vetranio, +Ulpius had not noticed the silent entrance of the master of the house, +he had heard through the open doors the sound, low though it was, of +the Christian's voice. As he rose, suspecting all things and prepared +for every emergency, to ascend to the bedchamber, he saw, while he +mounted the lowest range of stairs, a figure in white pass rapidly +through the hall and disappear by the principal entrance of the house. +He hesitated for an instant and looked after it, but the fugitive +figure had passed so swiftly in the uncertain light of early morning +that he was unable to identify it, and he determined to ascertain the +progress of events, now that Numerian must have discovered a portion at +least of the plot against his daughter and himself, by ascending +immediately to Antonina's apartment, whatever might be the consequences +of his intrusion at such an hour on her father's wrath. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as the Pagan appeared before him, a sensible change took place +in Vetranio. The presence of Ulpius in the chamber was a positive +relief to the senator's perturbed faculties, after the mysterious, +overpowering influence that the moral command expressed in the mere +presence of the father and the master of the house, at such an hour, +had exercised over them. Over Ulpius he had an absolute right, Ulpius +was his dependant; and he determined, therefore, to extort from the +servant whom he despised an explanation of the mysteries in the conduct +of the master whom he feared, and the daughter whom he began to doubt. +</P> + +<P> +'Where is Antonina?' he cried, starting as if from a trance, and +advancing fiercely towards the treacherous Pagan. 'She has left the +room—she must have taken refuge with you.' +</P> + +<P> +With a slow and penetrating gaze Ulpius looked round the apartment. A +faint agitation was perceptible in his livid countenance, but he +uttered not a word. +</P> + +<P> +The senator's face became pale and red with alternate emotions of +apprehension and rage. He seized the Pagan by the throat, his eyes +sparkled, his blood boiled, he began to suspect even then that Antonina +was lost to him for ever. +</P> + +<P> +'I ask you again where is she?' he shouted in a voice of fury. 'If +through this night's work she is lost or harmed, I will revenge it on +you. Is this the performance of your promise? Do you think that I +will direct your desired restoration of the gods of old for this? If +evil comes to Antonina through your treachery, sooner than assist in +your secret projects, I would see you and your accursed deities all +burning together in the Christians' hell! Where is the girl, you +slave? Villain, where was your vigilance, when you let that man +surprise us at our first interview?' +</P> + +<P> +He turned towards Numerian as he spoke. Trouble and emergency gift the +faculties with a more than mortal penetration. Every word that he had +uttered had eaten its burning way into the father's heart. Hours of +narrative could not have convinced him how fatally he had been +deceived, more thoroughly than the few hasty expressions he had just +heard. No word passed his lips—no action betrayed his misery. He +stood before the spoilers of his home, changed in an instant from the +courageous enthusiast to the feeble, helpless, heart-broken man. +</P> + +<P> +Though all the ferocity of his old Roman blood had been roused in +Vetranio, as he threatened Ulpius, the father's look of cold, silent, +frightful despair froze it in his young veins in an instant. His heart +was still the impressible heart of youth; and, struck for the first +time in his life with emotions of horror and remorse, he advanced a +step to offer such explanation and atonement as he best might, when the +voice of Ulpius suspended his intentions, and made him pause to listen. +</P> + +<P> +'She passed me in the hall,' muttered the Pagan, doggedly. 'I did my +part in betraying her into your power—it was for you to hinder her in +her flight. Why did you not strike him to the earth,' he continued, +pointing with a mocking smile to Numerian, 'when he surprised you? You +are wealthy and a noble of Rome; murder would have been no crime in +you!' +</P> + +<P> +'Stand back!' cried the senator, thrusting him from the position he had +hitherto occupied in the door-way. 'She may be recovered even yet! +All Rome shall be searched for her!' +</P> + +<P> +The next instant he disappeared from the room, and the master and +servant were left together alone. +</P> + +<P> +The silence that now reigned in the apartment was broken by distant +sounds of uproar and confusion in the streets of the city beneath. +These ominous noises had arisen with the dawn of day, but the different +emotions of the occupants of Numerian's abode had so engrossed them, +that the turmoil in the outer world had passed unheeded by all. No +sooner, however, had Vetranio departed than it caught the attention of +Ulpius, and he advanced to the window. What he there saw and heard was +of no ordinary importance, for it at once fixed him to the spot where +he stood in mute and ungovernable surprise. +</P> + +<P> +While Ulpius was occupied at the window, Numerian had staggered to the +side of the bed which his ill-timed severity had made vacant, perhaps +for ever. The power of action, the capacity to go forth and seek his +child himself, was entirely suspended in the agony of her loss, as the +miserable man fell on his knees, and in the anguish of his heart +endeavoured to find solace in prayer. In the positions they severally +occupied the servant and the master long remained—the betrayer +watching at the window, the betrayed mourning at his lost daughter's +bed—both alike silent, both alike unconscious of the lapse of time. +</P> + +<P> +At length, apparently unaware at first that he was not alone in the +room, Numerian spoke. In his low, broken, tremulous accents, none of +his adherents would have recognised the voice of the eloquent +preacher—the bold chastiser of the vices of the Church. The whole +nature of the man—moral, intellectual, physical—seemed fatally and +completely changed. +</P> + +<P> +'She was innocent, she was innocent!' he whispered to himself. 'And +even had she been guilty, was it for me to drive her from my doors! My +part, like my Redeemer's, was to teach repentance, and to show mercy! +Accursed be the pride and anger that drove justice and patience from my +heart, when I beheld her, as I thought, submitting herself without a +struggle or a cry, to my dishonour, and hers! Could I not have +imagined her terror, could I not have remembered her purity? Alas, my +beloved, if I myself have been the dupe of the wicked, what marvel is +it that you should have been betrayed as well! And I have driven you +from me, you, from whose mouth no word of anger ever dropped! I have +thrust you from my bosom, you, who were the adornment of my age! My +death approaches, and you will not be by to pardon my heavy offence, to +close my weary eyes, to mourn by my solitary tomb! God—oh God! If I +am left thus lonely on the earth, thou hast punished me beyond what I +can bear!' +</P> + +<P> +He paused—his emotions for the instant bereft him of speech. After an +interval, he muttered to himself in a low, moaning voice—'I called her +harlot! My pure, innocent child! I called her harlot—I called her +harlot!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In a paroxysm of despair, he started up and looked distractedly around +him. Ulpius still stood motionless at the window. At the sight of the +ruthless Pagan he trembled in every limb. All those infirmities of age +that had been hitherto spared him, seemed to overwhelm him in an +instant. He feebly advanced to his betrayer's side, and addressed him +thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'I have lodged you, taught you, cared for you; I have never intruded on +your secrets, never doubted your word, and for all this, you have +repaid me by plotting against my daughter and deceiving me! If your +end was to harm me by assailing my child's happiness and honour you +have succeeded! If you would banish me from Rome, if you would plunge +me into obscurity, to serve some mysterious ambition of your own, you +may dispose of me as you will! I bow before the terrible power of your +treachery! I will renounce whatever you command, if you will restore +me to my child! I am helpless and miserable; I have neither heart nor +strength to seek her myself! You, who know all things and can dare all +dangers, may restore her to pardon and bless me, if you will! +Remember, whoever you really are, that you were once helpless and +alone, and that you are still old, like me! Remember that I have +promised to abandon to you whatever you desire! Remember that no +woman's voice can cheer me, no woman's heart feel for me, now that I am +old and lonely, but my daughter's! I have guessed from the words of +the nobleman whom you serve, what are the designs you cherish and the +faith you profess; I will neither betray the one nor assault the other! +I thought that my labours for the Church were more to me than anything +on earth, but now, that through my fault, my daughter is driven from +her father's roof, I know that she is dearer to me than the greatest of +my designs; I must gain her pardon; I must win back her affection +before I die! You are powerful and can recover her! Ulpius! Ulpius!' +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke, the Christian knelt at the Pagan's feet. It was terrible +to see the man of affection and integrity thus humbled before the man +of heartlessness and crime. +</P> + +<P> +Ulpius turned to behold him, then without a word he raised him from the +ground, and thrusting him to the window, pointed with flashing eyes to +the wide view without. +</P> + +<P> +The sun had arisen high in the heaven and beamed in dazzling brilliancy +over Rome and the suburbs. A vague, fearful, mysterious desolation +seemed to have suddenly overwhelmed the whole range of dwellings beyond +the walls. No sounds rose from the gardens, no population idled in the +streets. The ramparts on the other hand were crowded at every visible +point with people of all ranks, and the distant squares and +amphitheatres of the city itself, swarmed like ant-hills to the eye +with the crowds that struggled within them. Confused cries and strange +wild noises rose at all points from these masses of human beings. The +whole of Rome seemed the prey of a vast and universal revolt. +</P> + +<P> +Extraordinary and affrighting as was the scene at the moment when he +beheld it, it passed unheeded before the eyes of the scarce conscious +father. He was blind to all sights but his daughter's form, deaf to +all sounds but her voice; and he murmured as he looked vacantly forth +upon the wild view before him, 'Where is my child!—where is my child!' +</P> + +<P> +'What is your child to me? What are the fortunes of affections of man +or woman, at such an hour as this?' cried the Pagan, as he stood by +Numerian, with features horribly animated by the emotions of fierce +delight and triumph that were raging within him at the prospect he +beheld. 'Dotard, look from this window! Listen to those voices! The +gods whom I serve, the god whom you and your worship would fain have +destroyed, have risen to avenge themselves at last! Behold those +suburbs, they are left desolate! Hear those cries—they are from Roman +lips! While your household's puny troubles have run their course, this +city of apostates has been doomed! In the world's annals this morning +will never be forgotten! THE GOTHS ARE AT THE GATES OF ROME!' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 8. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE GOTHS. +</H3> + +<P> +It was no false rumour that had driven the populace of the suburbs to +fly to the security of the city walls. It was no ill-founded cry of +terror that struck the ear of Ulpius, as he stood at Numerian's window. +The name of Rome had really lost its pristine terrors; the walls of +Rome, those walls which had morally guarded the Empire by their renown, +as they had actually guarded its capital by their strength, were +deprived at length of their ancient inviolability. An army of +barbarians had indeed penetrated for conquest and for vengeance to the +City of the World! The achievement which the invasions of six hundred +years had hitherto attempted in vain, was now accomplished, and +accomplished by the men whose forefathers had once fled like hunted +beasts to their native fastnesses, before the legions of the +Caesars—'The Goths were at the gates of Rome!' +</P> + +<P> +And now, as his warriors encamped around him, as he saw the arrayed +hosts whom his summons had gathered together, and his energy led on, +threatening at their doors the corrupt senate who had deceived, and the +boastful populace who had despised him, what emotions stirred within +the heart of Alaric! As the words of martial command fell from his +lips, and his eyes watched the movements of the multitudes around him, +what exalted aspirations, what daring resolves, grew and strengthened +in the mind of the man who was the pioneer of that mighty revolution, +which swept from one quarter of the world the sway, the civilisation, +the very life and spirit of centuries of ancient rule! High thoughts +gathered fast in his mind; a daring ambition expanded within him—the +ambition, not of the barbarian plunderer, but of the avenger who had +come to punish; not of the warrior who combated for combat's sake, but +of the hero who was vowed to conquer and to sway. From the far-distant +days when Odin was driven from his territories by the romans, to the +night polluted by the massacre of the hostages in Aquileia, the hour of +just and terrible retribution for Gothic wrongs had been delayed +through the weary lapse of years, and the warning convulsion of bitter +strifes, to approach at last under him. He looked on the towering +walls before him, the only invader since Hannibal by whom they had been +beheld; and he felt as he looked, that his new aspirations did not +deceive him, that his dreams of dominion were brightening into proud +reality, that his destiny was gloriously linked with the overthrow of +Imperial Rome! +</P> + +<P> +But even in the moment of approaching triumph, the leader of the Goths +was still wily in purpose and moderate in action. His impatient +warriors waited but the word to commence the assault, to pillage the +city, and to slaughter the inhabitants; but he withheld it. Scarcely +had the army halted before the gates of Rome, when the news was +promulgated among their ranks, that Alaric, for purposes of his own, +had determined to reduce the city by a blockade. +</P> + +<P> +The numbers of his forces, increased during his march by the accession +of thirty thousand auxiliaries, were now divided into battalions, +varying in strength according to the service that was required of them. +These divisions stretched round the city walls, and though occupying +separate posts, and devoted to separate duties, were so arranged as to +be capable of uniting at a signal in any numbers, on any given point. +Each body of men was commanded by a tried and veteran warrior, in whose +fidelity Alaric could place the most implicit trust, and to whom he +committed the duty of enforcing the strictest military discipline that +had ever prevailed among the Gothic ranks. Before each of the twelve +principal gates a separate encampment was raised. Multitudes watched +the navigation of the Tiber in every possible direction, with untiring +vigilance; and not one of the ordinary inlets to Rome, however +apparently unimportant, was overlooked. By these means, every mode of +communication between the beleaguered city and the wide and fertile +tracts of land around it, was effectually prevented. When it is +remembered that this elaborate plan of blockade was enforced against a +place containing, at the lowest possible computation, twelve hundred +thousand inhabitants, destitute of magazines for food within its walls, +dependent for supplies on its regular contributions from the country +without, governed by an irresolute senate, and defended by an enervated +army, the horrors that now impended over the besieged Romans are as +easily imagined as described. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Among the ranks of the army that now surrounded the doomed city, the +division appointed to guard the Pincian Gate will be found, at this +juncture, most worthy of the reader's attention: for one of the +warriors appointed to its subordinate command was the young chieftain +Hermanric, who had been accompanied by Goisvintha through all the toils +and dangers of the march, since the time when we left him at the +Italian Alps. +</P> + +<P> +The watch had been set, the tents had been pitched, the defences had +been raised on the portion of ground selected to occupy every possible +approach to the Pincian Gate, as Hermanric retired to await by +Goisvintha's side, whatever further commands he might yet be entrusted +with, by his superiors in the Gothic camp. The spot occupied by the +young warrior's simple tent was on a slight eminence, apart from the +positions chosen by his comrades, eastward of the city gate, and +overlooking at some distance the deserted gardens of the suburbs, and +the stately palaces of the Pincian Hill. Behind his temporary dwelling +was the open country, reduced to a fertile solitude by the flight of +its terrified inhabitants; and at each side lay one unvarying prospect +of military strength and preparation, stretching out its animated +confusion of soldiers, tents, and engines of warfare, as far as the +sight could reach. It was now evening. The walls of Rome, enshrouded +in a rising mist, showed dim and majestic to the eyes of the Goths. +The noises in the beleaguered city softened and deepened, seeming to be +muffled in the growing darkness of the autumn night, and becoming less +and less audible as the vigilant besiegers listened to them from their +respective posts. One by one, lights broke wildly forth at irregular +distances, in the Gothic camp. Harshly and fitfully the shrill call of +the signal trumpets rang from rank to rank; and through the dim thick +air rose, in the intervals of the more important noises, the clash of +heavy hammers and the shout of martial command. Wherever the +preparations for the blockade were still incomplete, neither the +approach of night nor the pretext of weariness were suffered for an +instant to hinder their continued progress. Alaric's indomitable will +conquered every obstacle of nature, and every deficiency of man. +Darkness had no obscurity that forced him to repose, and lassitude no +eloquence that lured him to delay. +</P> + +<P> +In no part of the army had the commands of the Gothic king been so +quickly and intelligently executed, as in that appointed to watch the +Pincian Gate. The interview of Hermanric and Goisvintha in the young +chieftain's tent, was, consequently, uninterrupted for a considerable +space of time by any fresh mandate from the head-quarters of the camp. +</P> + +<P> +In outward appearance, both the brother and sister had undergone a +change remarkable enough to be visible, even by the uncertain light of +the torch which now shone on them as they stood together at the door of +the tent. The features of Goisvintha—which at the period when we +first beheld her on the shores of the mountain lake, retained, in spite +of her poignant sufferings, much of the lofty and imposing beauty that +had been their natural characteristic in her happier days—now +preserved not the slightest traces of their former attractions. Its +freshness had withered from her complexion, its fulness had departed +from her form. Her eyes had contracted an unvarying sinister expression +of malignant despair, and her manner had become sullen, repulsive, and +distrustful. This alteration in her outward aspect, was but the result +of a more perilous change in the disposition of her heart. The death +of her last child at the very moment when her flight had successfully +directed her to the protection of her people, had affected her more +fatally than all the losses she had previously sustained. The +difficulties and dangers that she had encountered in saving her +offspring from the massacre; the dismal certainty that the child was +the only one, out of all the former objects of her affection, left to +her to love; the wild sense of triumph that she experienced in +remembering, that in this single instance her solitary efforts had +thwarted the savage treachery of the Court of Rome, had inspired her +with feelings of devotion towards the last of her household which +almost bordered on insanity. And, now that her beloved charge, her +innocent victim, her future warrior, had, after all her struggles for +his preservation, pined and died; now that she was childless indeed; +now that Roman cruelty had won its end in spite of all her patience, +all her courage, all her endurance; every noble feeling within her +sunk, annihilated at the shock. Her sorrow took the fatal form which +irretrievable destroys, in women, all the softer and better +emotions;—it changed to the despair that asks no sympathy, to the +grief that holds no communion with tears. +</P> + +<P> +Less elevated in intellect and less susceptible in disposition, the +change to sullenness of expression and abruptness of manner now visible +in Hermanric, resulted rather from his constant contemplation of +Goisvintha's gloomy despair, than from any actual revolution in his own +character. In truth, however many might be the points of outward +resemblance now discernible between the brother and sister, the +difference in degree of their moral positions, implied of itself the +difference in degree of the inward sorrow of each. Whatever the trials +and afflictions that might assail him, Hermanric possessed the +healthful elasticity of youth and the martial occupations of manhood to +support them. Goisvintha could repose on neither. With no employment +but bitter remembrance to engage her thoughts, with no kindly +aspiration, no soothing hope to fill her heart, she was abandoned +irrevocably to the influence of unpartaken sorrow and vindictive +despair. +</P> + +<P> +Both the woman and the warrior stood together in silence for some time. +At length, without taking his eyes from the dusky, irregular mass +before him, which was all that night now left visible of the ill-fated +city, Hermanric addressed Goisvintha thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'Have you no words of triumph, as you look on the ramparts that your +people have fought for generations to behold at their mercy, as we now +behold them? Can a woman of the Goths be silent when she stands before +the city of Rome?' +</P> + +<P> +'I came hither to behold Rome pillaged, and Romans slaughtered; what is +Rome blockaded to me?' replied Goisvintha fiercely. 'The treasures +within that city will buy its safety from our King, as soon as the +tremblers on the ramparts gain heart enough to penetrate a Gothic camp. +Where is the vengeance that you promised me among those distant +palaces? Do I behold you carrying that destruction through the +dwellings of Rome, which the soldiers of yonder city carried through +the dwellings of the Goths? Is it for plunder or for glory that the +army is here? I thought, in my woman's delusion, that it was for +revenge!' +</P> + +<P> +'Dishonour will avenge you—Famine will avenge you—Pestilence will +avenge you!' +</P> + +<P> +'They will avenge my nation; they will not avenge me. I have seen the +blood of Gothic women spilt around me—I have looked on my children's +corpses bleeding at my feet! Will a famine that I cannot see, and a +pestilence that I cannot watch, give me vengeance for this? Look! +Here is the helmet-crest of my husband and your brother—the +helmet-crest that was flung to me as a witness that the Romans had +slain him! Since the massacre of Aquileia it has never quitted my +bosom. I have sworn that the blood which stains and darkens it, shall +be washed off in the blood of the people of Rome. Though I should +perish under those accursed walls; though you in your soulless patience +should refuse me protection and aid; I, widowed, weakened, forsaken as +I am, will hold to the fulfilment of my oath!' +</P> + +<P> +As she ceased she folded the crest in her mantle, and turned abruptly +from Hermanric in bitter and undissembled scorn. All the attributes of +her sex, in thought, expression, and manner, seemed to have deserted +her. The very tones she spoke in were harsh and unwomanly. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Every word she had uttered, every action she had displayed, had sunk +into the inmost heart, had stirred the fiercest passions of the young +warrior whom she addressed. The first national sentiment discoverable +in the day-spring of the ages of Gothic history, is the love of war; +but the second is the reverence of woman. This latter +feeling—especially remarkable among so fierce and unsusceptible a +people as the ancient Scandinavians—was entirely unconnected with +those strong attaching ties, which are the natural consequence of the +warm temperaments of more southern nations; for love was numbered with +the base inferior passions, in the frigid and hardy composition of the +warrior of the north. It was the offspring of reasoning and +observation, not of instinctive sentiment and momentary impulse. In +the wild, poetical code of the old Gothic superstition was one axiom, +closely and strangely approximating to an important theory in the +Christian scheme—the watchfulness of an omnipotent Creator over a +finite creature. Every action of the body, every impulse of the mind, +was the immediate result, in the system of worship among the Goths of +the direct, though invisible interference of the divinities they +adored. When, therefore, they observed that women were more submitted +in body to the mysterious laws of nature and temperament, and more +swayed in mind by the native and universal instincts of humanity than +themselves, they inferred as an inevitable conclusion, that the female +sex was more incessantly regarded, and more constantly and remarkably +influenced by the gods of their worship, than the male. Acting under +this persuasion, they committed the study of medicine, the +interpretation of dreams, and in many instances, the mysteries of +communication with the invisible world, to the care of their women. +The gentler sex became their counsellors in difficulty, and their +physicians in sickness—their companions rather than their +mistresses,—the objects of their veneration rather than the purveyors +of their pleasures. Although in after years, the national migrations +of the Goths changed the national temperament, although their ancient +mythology was exchanged for the worship of Christ, this prevailing +sentiment of their earliest existence as a people never entirely +deserted them; but, with different modifications and in different +forms, maintained much of its old supremacy through all changes of +manners and varieties of customs, descending finally to their posterity +among the present nations of Europe, in the shape of that established +code of universal courtesy to women, which is admitted to be one great +distinguishing mark between the social systems of the inhabitants of +civilised and uncivilised lands. +</P> + +<P> +This powerful and remarkable ascendancy of the woman over the man, +among the Goths, could hardly be more strikingly displayed than in the +instance of Hermanric. It appeared, not only in the deteriorating +effect of the constant companionship of Goisvintha on his naturally +manly character, but also in the strong influence over his mind of the +last words of fury and disdain that she had spoken. His eyes gleamed +with anger, his cheeks flushed with shame, as he listened to those +passages in her wrathful remonstrance which reflected most bitterly on +himself. She had scarcely ceased, and turned to retire into the tent, +when he arrested her progress, and replied, in heightened and accusing +tones:— +</P> + +<P> +'You wrong me by your words! When I saw you among the Alps, did I +refuse you protection? When the child was wounded, did I leave him to +suffer unaided? When he died, did I forsake him to rot upon the earth, +or abandon to his mother the digging of his grave? When we approached +Aquileia, and marched past Ravenna, did I forget that the sword hung at +my shoulder? Was it at my will that it remained sheathed, or that I +entered not the gates of the Roman towns, but passed by them in haste? +Was it not the command of the king that withheld me? and could I, his +warrior, disobey? I swear it to you, the vengeance that I promised, I +yearn to perform,—but is it for me to alter the counsels of Alaric? +Can I alone assault the city which it is his command that we should +blockade? What would you have of me?' +</P> + +<P> +'I would have you remember,' retorted Goisvintha, indignantly, 'that +Romans slew your brother, and made me childless! I would have you +remember that a public warfare of years on years, is powerless to stay +one hour's craving of private vengeance! I would have you less +submitted to your general's wisdom, and more devoted to your own +wrongs! I would have you—like me—thirst for the blood of the first +inhabitant of yonder den of traitors, who—whether for peace or for +war—passes the precincts of its sheltering walls!' +</P> + +<P> +She paused abruptly for an answer, but Hermanric uttered not a word. +The courageous heart of the young chieftain recoiled at the deliberate +act of assassination, pressed upon him in Goisvintha's veiled yet +expressive speech. To act with his comrades in taking the city by +assault, to outdo in the heat of battle the worst horrors of the +massacre of Aquileia, would have been achievements in harmony with his +wild disposition and warlike education; but, to submit himself to +Goisvintha's projects, was a sacrifice, that the very peculiarities of +his martial character made repugnant to his thoughts. Emotions such as +these he would have communicated to his companion, as they passed +through his mind; but there was something in the fearful and ominous +change that had occurred in her disposition since he had met her among +the Alps,—in her frantic, unnatural craving for bloodshed and revenge, +that gave her a mysterious and powerful influence over his thoughts, +his words, and even his actions. He hesitated and was silent. +</P> + +<P> +'Have I not been patient?' continued Goisvintha, lowering her voice to +tones of earnest, agitated entreaty, which jarred upon Hermanric's ear, +as he thought who was the petitioner, and what would be the object of +the petition,—' Have I not been patient throughout the weary journey +from the Alps? Have I not waited for the hour of retribution, even +before the defenceless cities that we passed on the march? Have I not +at your instigation governed my yearning for vengeance, until the day +that should see you mounting those walls with the warriors of the +Goths, to scourge with fire and sword the haughty traitors of Rome? +Has that day come? Is it by this blockade that the requital you +promised me over the corpse of my murdered child, is to be performed? +Remember the perils I dared, to preserve the life of that last one of +my household,—and will you risk nothing to avenge his death? His +sepulchre is untended and solitary. Far from the dwellings of his +people, lost in the dawn of his beauty, slaughtered in the beginning of +his strength, lies the offspring of your brother's blood. And the +rest—the two children, who were yet infants; the father, who was brave +in battle and wise in council—where are they? Their bones whiten on +the shelterless plain, or rot unburied by the ocean shore! Think—had +they lived—how happily your days would have passed with them in the +time of peace! how gladly your brother would have gone forth with you +to the chase! how joyfully his boys would have nestled at your knees, +to gather from your lips the first lessons that should form them for +the warrior's life! Think of such enjoyments as these, and then think +that Roman swords have deprived you of them all!' +</P> + +<P> +Her voice trembled, she ceased for a moment, and looked mournfully up +into Hermanric's averted face. Every feature in the young chieftain's +countenance expressed the tumult that her words had aroused within him. +He attempted to reply, but his voice was powerless in that trying +moment. His head drooped upon his heaving breast, and he sighed +heavily as, without speaking, he grasped Goisvintha by the hand. The +object she had pleaded for was nearly attained;—he was fast sinking +beneath the tempter's well-spread toils! +</P> + +<P> +'Are you silent still?' she gloomily resumed. 'Do you wonder at this +longing for vengeance, at this craving for Roman blood? I tell you +that my desire has arisen within me, at promptings from the voices of +an unknown world. They urge me to seek requital on the nation who have +widowed and bereaved me—yonder, in their vaunted city, from their +pampered citizens, among their cherished homes—in the spot where their +shameful counsels take root, and whence their ruthless treacheries +derive their bloody source! In the book that our teachers worship, I +have heard it read, that "the voice of blood crieth from the ground!" +This is the voice—Hermanric, this is the voice that I have heard! I +have dreamed that I walked on a shore of corpses, by a sea of blood—I +have seen, arising from that sea, my husband's and my children's +bodies, gashed throughout with Roman wounds! They have called to me +through the vapour of carnage that was around them;—'Are we yet +unavenged? Is the sword of Hermanric yet sheathed?' Night after night +have I seen this vision and heard those voice, and hoped for no respite +until the day that saw the army encamped beneath the walls of Rome, and +raising the scaling ladders for the assault! And now, after all my +endurance, how has that day arrived? Accursed be the lust of treasure! +It is more to the warriors, and to you, than the justice of revenge!' +</P> + +<P> +'Listen! listen!' cried Hermanric entreatingly. +</P> + +<P> +'I listen no longer!' interrupted Goisvintha. 'The tongue of my people +is as a strange language in my ears; for it talks but of plunder and of +peace, of obedience, of patience, and of hope! I listen no longer; for +the kindred are gone that I loved to listen to—they are all slain by +the Romans but you—and you I renounce!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Deprived of all power of consideration by the violence of the emotions +awakened in his heart by Goisvintha's wild revelations of the evil +passion that consumed her, the young Goth, shuddering throughout his +whole frame, and still averting his face, murmured in hoarse, unsteady +accents: 'Ask of me what you will. I have no words to deny, no power +to rebuke you—ask of me what you will!' +</P> + +<P> +'Promise me,' cried Goisvintha, seizing the hand of Hermanric, and +gazing with a look of fierce triumph on his disordered countenance, +'that this blockade of the city shall not hinder my vengeance! Promise +me that the first victim of our righteous revenge, shall be the first +one that appears before you—whether in war or peace—of the +inhabitants of Rome!' +</P> + +<P> +'I promise,' cried the Goth. And those two words sealed the destiny of +his future life. +</P> + +<P> +During the silence that now ensued between Goisvintha and Hermanric, +and while each stood absorbed in deep meditation, the dark prospect +spread around them began to brighten slowly under a soft, clear light. +The moon, whose dull broad disk had risen among the evening mists +arrayed in gloomy red, had now topped the highest of the exhalations of +earth, and beamed in the wide heaven, adorned once more in her pale, +accustomed hue. Gradually, yet perceptibly, the vapour rolled,—layer +by layer,—from the lofty summits of the palaces of Rome, and the high +places of the mighty city began to dawn, as it were, in the soft, +peaceful, mysterious light; while the lower divisions of the walls, the +desolate suburbs, and parts of the Gothic camp, lay still plunged in +the dusky obscurity of the mist, in grand and gloomy contrast to the +prospect of glowing brightness, that almost appeared to hover about +them from above and around. Patches of ground behind the tent of +Hermanric, began to grow partially visible in raised and open +positions; and the song of the nightingale was now faintly audible at +intervals, among the solitary and distant trees. In whatever direction +it was observed, the aspect of nature gave promise of the cloudless, +tranquil night, of the autumnal climate of ancient Italy. +</P> + +<P> +Hermanric was the first to return to the contemplation of the outward +world. Perceiving that the torch which still burnt by the side of his +tent, had become useless, now that the moon had arisen and dispelled +the mists, he advanced and extinguished it; pausing afterwards to look +forth over the plains, as they brightened slowly before him. He had +been thus occupied but a short time, when he thought he discerned a +human figure moving slowly over a spot of partially lightened and hilly +ground, at a short distance from him. It was impossible that this +wandering form could be one of his own people;—they were all collected +at their respective posts, and his tent he knew was on the outermost +boundary of the encampment before the Pincian Gate. +</P> + +<P> +He looked again. The figure still advanced, but at too great a +distance to allow him a chance of discovering, in the uncertain light +around him, either its nation, its sex, or its age. His heart misgave +him as he remembered his promise to Goisvintha, and contemplated the +possibility that it was some miserable slave, abandoned by the +fugitives who had quitted the suburbs in the morning, who now +approached as a last resource, to ask mercy and protection from his +enemies in the camp. He turned towards Goisvintha as the idea crossed +his mind, and observed that she was still occupied in meditation. +Assured by the sight, that she had not yet observed the fugitive +figure, he again directed his attention—with an excess of anxiety +which he could hardly account for—in the direction where he had first +beheld it, but it was no more to be seen. It had either retired to +concealment, or was now still advancing towards his tent through a +clump of trees that clothed the descent of the hill. +</P> + +<P> +Silently and patiently he continued to look forth over the landscape; +and still no living thing was to be seen. At length, just as he began +to doubt whether his senses had not deceived him, the fugitive figure +suddenly appeared from the trees, hurried with wavering gait over the +patch of low, damp ground that still separated it from the young Goth, +gained his tent, and then with a feeble cry fell helplessly upon the +earth at his feet. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +That cry, faint as it was, attracted Goisvintha's attention. She +turned in an instant, thrust Hermanric aside, and raised the stranger +in her arms. The light, slender form, the fair hand and arm hanging +motionless towards the ground, the long locks of deep black hair, heavy +with the moisture of the night atmosphere, betrayed the wanderer's sex +and age in an instant. The solitary fugitive was a young girl. +</P> + +<P> +Signing to Hermanric to kindle the extinguished torch at a neighbouring +watch-fire, Goisvintha carried the still insensible girl into the tent. +As the Goth silently proceeded to obey her, a vague, horrid suspicion, +that he shrunk from embodying, passed across his mind. His hand shook +so that he could hardly light the torch, and bold and vigorous as he +was, his limbs trembled beneath him as he slowly returned to the tent. +</P> + +<P> +When he had gained the interior of his temporary abode, the light of +his torch illuminated a strange and impressive scene. +</P> + +<P> +Goisvintha was seated on a rude oaken chest, supporting on her knees +the form of the young girl, and gazing with an expression of the most +intense and enthralling interest upon her pale, wasted countenance. +The tattered robe that had hitherto enveloped the fugitive had fallen +back, and disclosed the white dress, which was the only other garment +she wore. Her face, throat, and arms, had been turned, by exposure to +the cold, to the pure whiteness of marble. Her eyes were closed, and +her small, delicate features were locked in a rigid repose. But for +her deep black hair, which heightened the ghastly aspect of her face, +she might have been mistaken, as she lay in the woman's arms, for an +exquisitely chiseled statue of youth in death! +</P> + +<P> +When the figure of the young warrior, arrayed in his martial +habiliments, and standing near the insensible girl with evident +emotions of wonder and anxiety, was added to the group thus +produced,—when Goisvintha's tall, powerful frame, clothed in dark +garments, and bent over the fragile form and white dress of the +fugitive, was illuminated by the wild, fitful glare of the torch,—when +the heightened colour, worn features, and eager expression of the woman +were beheld, here shadowed, there brightened, in close opposition to +the pale, youthful, reposing countenance of the girl, such an +assemblage of violent lights and deep shades was produced, as gave the +whole scene a character at once mysterious and sublime. It presented +an harmonious variety of solemn colours, united by the exquisite +artifice of Nature to a grand, yet simple disposition of form. It was +a picture executed by the hand of Rembrandt, and imagined by the mind +of Raphael. +</P> + +<P> +Starting abruptly from her long, earnest examination of the fugitive, +Goisvintha proceeded to employ herself in restoring animation to her +insensible charge. While thus occupied, she preserved unbroken +silence. A breathless expectation, that absorbed all her senses in one +direction, seemed to have possessed itself of her heart. She laboured +at her task with the mechanical, unwavering energy of those, whose +attention is occupied by their thoughts rather than their actions. +Slowly and unwillingly the first faint flush of returning animation +dawned, in the tenderest delicacy of hue, upon the girl's colourless +cheek. Gradually and softly, her quickening respiration fluttered a +thin lock of hair that had fallen over her face. A little interval +more, and then the closed, peaceful eyes suddenly opened, and glance +quickly round the tent with a wild expression of bewilderment and +terror. Then, as Goisvintha rose, and attempted to place her on a +seat, she tore herself from her grasp, looked on her for a moment with +fearful intentness, and then falling on her knees, murmured, in a +plaintive voice,— +</P> + +<P> +'Have mercy upon me. I am forsaken by my father,—I know not why. The +gates of the city are shut against me. My habitation in Rome is closed +to me for ever!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +She had scarcely spoken these few words, before an ominous change +appeared in Goisvintha's countenance. Its former expression of ardent +curiosity changed to a look of malignant triumph. Her eyes fixed +themselves on the girl's upturned face, in glaring, steady, spell-bound +contemplation. She gloated over the helpless creature before her, as +the wild beast gloats over the prey that it has secured. Her form +dilated, a scornful smile appeared on her lips, a hot flush rose on her +cheeks, and ever and anon she whispered softly to herself, 'I knew she +was Roman! Aha! I knew she was Roman!' +</P> + +<P> +During this space of time Hermanric was silent. His breath came short +and thick, his face grew pale, and his glance, after resting for an +instant on the woman and the girl, travelled slowly and anxiously round +the tent. In one corner of it lay a heavy battle-axe. He looked for a +moment from the weapon to Goisvintha, with a vivid expression of +horror, and then moving slowly across the tent, with a firm, yet +trembling grasp, he possessed himself of the arm. +</P> + +<P> +As he looked up, Goisvintha approached him. In one hand she held the +bloody helmet-crest, while she pointed with the other to the crouching +form of the girl. Her lips were still parted with their unnatural +smile, and she whispered softly to the Goth—'Remember your +promise!—remember your kindred!—remember the massacre of Aquileia!' +</P> + +<P> +The young warrior made no answer. He moved rapidly forward a few +steps, and signed hurriedly to the young girl to fly by the door; but +her terror had by this time divested her of all her ordinary powers of +perception and comprehension. She looked up vacantly at Hermanric, and +then shuddering violently, crept into a corner of the tent. During the +short silence that now ensued, the Goth could hear her shiver and sigh, +as he stood watching, with all the anxiety of apprehension, +Goisvintha's darkening brow. +</P> + +<P> +'She is Roman—she is the first dweller in the city who has appeared +before you!—remember your promise!—remember your kindred!—remember +the massacre of Aquileia!' said the woman in fierce, quick, +concentrated tones. +</P> + +<P> +'I remember that I am a warrior and a Goth,' replied Hermanric, +disdainfully. 'I have promised to avenge you, but it must be on a man +that my promise must be fulfilled—an armed man, who can come forth +with weapons in his hand—a strong man of courage whom I will slay in +single combat before your eyes! The girl is too young to die, too weak +to be assailed!' +</P> + +<P> +Not a syllable that he had spoken had passed unheeded by the fugitive, +every word seemed to revive her torpid faculties. As he ceased she +arose, and with the quick instinct of terror, ran up to the side of the +young Goth. Then seizing his hand—the hand that still grasped the +battle-axe—she knelt down and kissed it, uttering hurried broken +ejaculations, as she clasped it to her bosom, which the tremulousness +of her voice rendered completely unintelligible. +</P> + +<P> +'Did the Romans think my children too young to die, or too weak to be +assailed?' cried Goisvintha. 'By the Lord God of Heaven, they murdered +them the more willingly because they were young, and wounded them the +more fiercely because they were weak! My heart leaps within me as I +look on the girl! I am doubly avenged, if I am avenged on the innocent +and the youthful! Her bones shall rot on the plains of Rome, as the +bones of my offspring rot on the plains of Aquileia! Shed me her +blood!—Remember your promise!—Shed me her blood!' +</P> + +<P> +She advanced with extended arms and gleaming eyes towards the fugitive. +She gasped for breath, her face turned suddenly to a livid paleness, +the torchlight fell upon her distorted features, she looked unearthly +at that fearful moment; but the divinity of mercy had now braced the +determination of the young Goth to meet all emergencies. His bright +steady eye quailed not for an instant, as he encountered the frantic +glance of the fury before him. With one hand he barred Goisvintha from +advancing another step; the other, he could not disengage from the +girl, who now clasped and kissed it more eagerly than before. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'You do this but to tempt me to anger,' said Goisvintha, altering her +manner with sudden and palpable cunning, more ominous of peril to the +fugitive than the fury she had hitherto displayed. 'You jest at me, +because I have failed in patience, like a child! But you will shed her +blood—you are honourable and will hold to your promise—you will shed +her blood! And I,' she continued, exultingly, seating herself on the +oaken chest that she had previously occupied, and resting her clenched +hands on her knees; 'I will wait to see it!' +</P> + +<P> +At this moment voices and steps were heard outside the tent. Hermanric +instantly raised the trembling girl from the ground, and supporting her +by his arm, advanced to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. He was +confronted the next instant by an old warrior of superior rank, +attached to the person of Alaric, who was followed by a small party of +the ordinary soldiery of the camp. +</P> + +<P> +'Among the women appointed by the king to the office of tending, for +this night, those sick and wounded on the march, is Goisvintha, sister +of Hermanric. If she is here, let her approach and follow me;' said +the chief of the party in authoritative tones, pausing at the door of +the tent. +</P> + +<P> +Goisvintha rose. For an instant she stood irresolute. To quit +Hermanric at such a time as this, was a sacrifice that wrung her savage +heart;—but she remembered the severity of Alaric's discipline, she saw +the armed men awaiting her, and yielded after a struggle to the +imperious necessity of obedience to the king's commands. Trembling +with suppressed anger and bitter disappointment, she whispered to +Hermanric as she passed him:— +</P> + +<P> +'You cannot save her if you would! You dare not commit her to the +charge of your companions, she is too young and too fair to be +abandoned to their doubtful protection. You cannot escape with her, +for you must remain here on the watch at your post. You will not let +her depart by herself, for you know that she would perish with cold and +privation before the morning rises. When I return on the morrow I shall +see her in the tent. You cannot escape from your promise;—you cannot +forget it,—you must shed her blood!' +</P> + +<P> +'The commands of the king,' said the old warrior, signing to his party +to depart with Goisvintha, who now stood with forced calmness awaiting +their guidance: 'will be communicated to the chieftain Hermanric on +the morrow. Remember,' he continued in a lower tone, pointing +contemptuously to the trembling girl; 'that the vigilance you have +shown in setting the watch before yonder gate, will not excuse any +negligence your prize there may now cause you to commit! Consult your +youthful pleasures as you please, but remember your duties! Farewell!' +</P> + +<P> +Uttering these words in a stern, serious tone, the veteran departed. +Soon the last sound of the footsteps of his escort died away, and +Hermanric and the fugitive were left alone in the tent. +</P> + +<P> +During the address of the old warrior to the chieftain, the girl had +silently detached herself from her protector's support, and retired +hastily to the interior of the tent. When she saw that they were left +together again, she advanced hesitatingly towards the young Goth, and +looked up with an expression of mute inquiry into his face. +</P> + +<P> +'I am very miserable,' said she, after an interval of silence, in soft, +clear, melancholy accents. 'If you forsake me now, I must die—and I +have lived so short a time on the earth, I have known so little +happiness and so little love, that I am not fit to die! But you will +protect me! You are good and brave, strong with weapons in your hands, +and full of pity. You have defended me, and spoken kindly of me—I +love you for the compassion you have shown me.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Her language and actions, simple as they were, were yet so new to +Hermanric, whose experience of her sex had been almost entirely limited +to the women of his own stern impassive nation, that he could only +reply by a brief assurance of protection, when the suppliant awaited +his answer. A new page in the history of humanity was opening before +his eyes, and he scanned it in wondering silence. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'If that woman should return,' pursued the girl, fixing her dark, +eloquent eyes intently upon the Goth's countenance, 'take me quickly +where she cannot come. My heart grows cold as I look on her! She will +kill me if she can approach me again! My father's anger is very +fearful, but hers is horrible—horrible—horrible! Hush! already I +hear her coming back—let us go—I will follow you wherever you +please—but let us not delay while there is time to depart! She will +destroy me if she sees me now, and I cannot die yet! Oh my preserver, +my compassionate defender, I cannot die yet!' +</P> + +<P> +'No one shall harm you—no on shall approach you to-night—you are +secure from all dangers in this tent,' said the Goth, gazing on her +with undissembled astonishment and admiration. +</P> + +<P> +'I will tell you why death is so dreadful to me,' she continued, and +her voice deepened as she spoke, to tones of mournful solemnity, +strangely impressive in a creature so young. 'I have lived much alone, +and have had no companions but my thoughts, and the sky that I could +look up to, and the things on the earth that I could watch. As I have +seen the clear heaven and the soft fields, and smelt the perfume of +flowers, and heard the voices of singing-birds afar off, I have +wondered why the same God who made all this, and made me, should have +made grief and pain and hell—the dread eternal hell that my father +speaks of in his church. I never looked at the sun-light, or woke from +my sleep to look on and to think of the distant stars, but I longed to +love something that might listen to my joy. But my father forbade me +to be happy! He frowned even when he gave me my flower-garden—though +God made flowers. He destroyed my lute—though God made music. My +life has been a longing in loneliness for the voices of friends! My +heart has swelled and trembled within me, because when I walked in the +garden and looked on the plains and woods and high, bright mountains +that were round me, I knew that I loved them alone! Do you know now +why I dare not die? It is because I must find first the happiness +which I feel God has made for me. It is because I must live to praise +this wonderful, beautiful world with others who enjoy it as I could! +It is because my home has been among those who sigh, and never among +those who smile! It is for this that I fear to die! I must find +companions whose prayers are in singing and in happiness, before I go +to the terrible hereafter that all dread. I dare not die! I dare not +die!' +</P> + +<P> +As she uttered these last words she began to weep bitterly. Between +amazement and compassion the young Goth was speechless. He looked down +upon the small, soft hand that she had placed on his arm while she +spoke, and saw that it trembled; he pressed it, and felt that it was +cold; and in the first impulse of pity produced by the action, he found +the readiness of speech which he had hitherto striven for in vain. +</P> + +<P> +'You shiver and look pale,' said he; 'a fire shall be kindled at the +door of the tent. I will bring you garments that will warm you, and +food that will give you strength; you shall sleep, and I will watch +that no one harms you.' +</P> + +<P> +The girl hastily looked up. An expression of ineffable gratitude +overspread her sorrowful countenance. She murmured in a broken voice, +'Oh, how merciful, how merciful you are!' And then, after an evident +struggle with herself, she covered her face with her hands, and again +burst into tears. +</P> + +<P> +More and more embarrassed, Hermanric mechanically busied himself in +procuring from such of his attendants as the necessities of the +blockade left free, the supplies of fire, food and raiment, which he +had promised. She received the coverings, approached the blazing fuel, +and partook of the simple refreshment, which the young warrior offered +her, with eagerness. After that she sat for some time silent, absorbed +in deep meditation, and cowering over the fire, apparently unconscious +of the curiosity with which she was still regarded by the Goth. At +length she suddenly looked up, and observing his eyes fixed on her, +arose and beckoned him to the seat that she occupied. +</P> + +<P> +'Did you know how utterly forsaken I am,' said she, 'you would not +wonder as you do, that I, a stranger and a Roman, have sought you thus. +I have told you how lonely was my home; but yet that home was a refuge +and a protection to me until the morning of this long day that is past, +when I was expelled from it for ever! I was suddenly awakened in my +bed by—my father entered in anger—he called me—' +</P> + +<P> +She hesitated, blushed, and then paused at the very outset of her +narrative. Innocent as she was, the natural instincts of her sex +spoke, though in a mysterious yet in a warning tone, within her heart, +abruptly imposing on her motives for silence that she could neither +penetrate nor explain. She clasped her trembling hands over her bosom +as if to repress its heaving, and casting down her eyes, continued in a +lower tone:— +</P> + +<P> +'I cannot tell you why my father drove me from his doors. He has +always been silent and sorrowful to me; setting me long tasks in +mournful books; commanding that I should not quit the precincts of his +abode, and forbidding me to speak to him when I have sometimes asked +him to tell me of my mother whom I have lost. Yet he never threatened +me or drove me from his side, until the morning of which I have told +you. Then his wrath was terrible; his eyes were fierce; his voice was +threatening! He bade me begone, and I obeyed him in affright, for I +thought he would have slain me if I stayed! I fled from the house, +knowing not where I went, and ran through yonder gate, which is hard by +our abode. As I entered the suburbs, I met great crowds, all hurrying +into Rome. I was bewildered by my fears and the confusion all around, +yet I remember that they called loudly to me to fly to the city, ere +the gates were closed against the assault of the Goths. And others +jostled and scoffed at me, as they passed by and saw me in the thin +night garments in which I was banished from my home!' +</P> + +<P> +Here she paused and listened intently for a few moments. Every +accidental noise that she heard still awakened in her the apprehension +of Goisvintha's return. Reassured by Hermanric and by her own +observation of all that was passing outside the tent, she resumed her +narrative after an interval, speaking now in a steadier voice. +</P> + +<P> +'I thought my heart would burst within me,' she continued, 'as I tried +to escape them. All things whirled before my eyes. I could not +speak—I could not stop—I could not weep. I fled and fled I knew not +whither, until I sank down exhausted at the door of a small house on +the outskirts of the suburbs. Then I called for aid, but no one was by +to hear me. I crept—for I could stand no longer—into the house. It +was empty. I looked from the windows: no human figure passed through +the silent streets. The roar of a mighty confusion still rose from the +walls of the city, but I was left to listen to it alone. In the house +I saw scattered on the floor some fragments of bread and an old +garment. I took them both, and then rose and departed; for the silence +of the place was horrible to me, and I remembered the fields and the +plains that I had once loved to look on, and I thought that I might +find there the refuge that had been denied to me at Rome! So I set +forth once more; and when I gained the soft grass, and sat down beside +the shady trees, and saw the sunlight brightening over the earth, my +heart grew sad, and I wept as I thought on my loneliness and remembered +my father's anger. +</P> + +<P> +'I had not long remained in my resting-place, when I heard a sound of +trumpets in the distance, and looking forth, I saw far off, advancing +over the plains, a mighty multitude with arms that glittered in the +sun. I strove, as I beheld them, to arise and return even to those +suburbs whose solitude had affrighted me. But my limbs failed me. I +saw a little hollow hidden among the trees around. I entered it, and +there throughout the lonely day I lay concealed. I heard the long +tramp of footsteps, as your army passed me on the roads beneath; and +then, after those hours of fear came the weary hours of solitude! +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Oh, those—lonely—lonely—lonely hours! I have lived without +companions, but those hours were more terrible to me than all the years +of my former life! I dared not venture to leave my hiding-place—I +dared not call! Alone in the world, I crouched in my refuge till the +sun went down! Then came the mist, and the darkness, and the cold. +The bitter winds of night thrilled through and through me! The lonely +obscurity around me seemed filled with phantoms whom I could not +behold, who touched me and rustled over the surface of my skin! They +half maddened me! I rose to depart; to meet my wrathful father, or the +army that had passed me, or solitude in the cold, bright meadows—I +cared not which!—when I discerned the light of your torch, the moment +ere it was extinguished. Dark though it then was, I found your tent. +And now I know that I have found yet more—a companion and a friend!' +</P> + +<P> +She looked up at the young Goth as she pronounced these words with the +same grateful expression that had appeared on her countenance before; +but this time her eyes were not dimmed by tears. Already her +disposition—poor as was the prospect of happiness which now lay before +it—had begun to return, with an almost infantine facility of change, +to the restoring influences of the brighter emotions. Already the short +tranquilities of the present began to exert for her their effacing +charm over the long agitations of the past. Despair was unnumbered +among the emotions that grew round that child-like heart; shame, fear, +and grief, however they might overshadow it for a time, left no taint +of their presence on its bright, fine surface. Tender, perilously alive +to sensation, strangely retentive of kindness as she was by nature, the +very solitude to which she had been condemned had gifted her, young as +she was, with a martyr's endurance of ill, and with a stoic's patience +under pain. +</P> + +<P> +'Do not mourn for me now,' she pursued, gently interrupting some broken +expressions of compassion which fell from the lips of the young Goth. +'If you are merciful to me, I shall forget all that I have suffered! +Though your nation is at enmity with mine, while you remain my friend, +I fear nothing! I can look on your great stature, and heavy sword, and +bright armour now without trembling! You are not like the soldiers of +Rome;—you are taller, stronger, more gloriously arrayed! You are like +a statue I once saw by chance of a warrior of the Greeks! You have a +look of conquest and a presence of command!' +</P> + +<P> +She gazed on the manly and powerful frame of the young warrior, clothed +as it was in the accoutrements of his warlike nation, with an +expression of childish interest and astonishment, asking him the +appellation and use of each part of his equipment, as it attracted her +attention, and ending her inquiries by eagerly demanding his name. +</P> + +<P> +'Hermanric,' she repeated, as he answered her, pronouncing with some +difficulty the harsh Gothic syllables—'Hermanric!—that is a stern, +solemn name—a name fit for a warrior and a man! Mine sounds +worthless, after such a name as that! It is only Antonina!' +</P> + +<P> +Deeply as he was interested in every word uttered by the girl, +Hermanric could no longer fail to perceive the evident traces of +exhaustion that now appeared in the slightest of her actions. +Producing some furs from a corner of the tent, he made a sort of rude +couch by the side of the fire, heaped fresh fuel on the flames, and +then gently counselled her to recruit her wasted energies by repose. +There was something so candid in his manner, so sincere in the tones of +his voice, as he made his simple offer of hospitality to the stranger +who had taken refuge with him, that the most distrustful woman would +have accepted with as little hesitation as Antonina; who, gratefully +and unhesitatingly, laid down on the bed that he had been spreading for +her at her feet. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as he had carefully covered her with a cloak, and rearranged +her couch in the position best calculated to insure her all the warmth +of the burning fuel, Hermanric retired to the other side of the fire; +and, leaning on his sword, abandoned himself to the new and absorbing +reflections which the presence of the girl naturally aroused. +</P> + +<P> +He thought not on the duties demanded of him by the blockade; he +remembered neither the scene of rage and ferocity that had followed his +evasion of his reckless promise; nor the fierce determination that +Goisvintha had expressed as she quitted him for the night. The cares +and toils to come with the new morning, which would oblige him to +expose the fugitive to the malignity of her revengeful enemy; the +thousand contingencies that the difference of their sexes, their +nations, and their lives, might create to oppose the continuance of the +permanent protection that he had promised to her, caused him no +forebodings. Antonina, and Antonina alone, occupied every faculty of +his mind, and every feeling of his heart. There was a softness and a +melody to his ear in her very name! +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +His early life had made him well acquainted with the Latin tongue, but +he had never discovered all its native smoothness of sound, and +elegance of structure, until he had heard it spoken by Antonina. Word +by word, he passed over in his mind her varied, natural, and happy +turns of expression; recalling, as he was thus employed, the eloquent +looks, the rapid gesticulations, the changing tones which had +accompanied those words, and thinking how wide was the difference +between this young daughter of Rome, and the cold and taciturn women of +his own nation. The very mystery enveloping her story, which would have +excited the suspicion or contempt of more civilised men, aroused in him +no other emotions than those of wonder and compassion. No feelings of +a lower nature than these entered his heart towards the girl. She was +safe under the protection of the enemy and the barbarian, after having +been lost through the interference of the Roman and the senator. +</P> + +<P> +To the simple perceptions of the Goth, the discovery of so much +intelligence united to such extreme youth, of so much beauty doomed to +such utter loneliness, was the discovery of an apparition that dazzled, +and not of a woman who charmed him. He could not even have touched the +hand of the helpless creature, who now reposed under his tent, unless +she had extended it to him of her own accord. He could only +think—with a delight whose excess he was far from estimating +himself—on this solitary mysterious being who had come to him for +shelter and for aid; who had awakened in him already new sources of +sensation; and who seemed to his startled imagination to have suddenly +twined herself for ever about the destinies of his future life. +</P> + +<P> +He was still deep in meditation, when he was startled by a hand +suddenly laid on his arm. He looked up and saw that Antonina, whom he +had imagined to be slumbering on her couch, was standing by his side. +</P> + +<P> +'I cannot sleep,' said the girl in a low, awe-struck voice, 'until I +have asked you to spare my father when you enter Rome. I know that you +are here to ravage the city; and, for aught I can tell, you may assault +and destroy it to-night. Will you promise to warn me before the walls +are assailed? I will then tell you my father's name and abode, and you +will spare him as you have mercifully spared me? He has denied me his +protection, but he is my father still; and I remember that I disobeyed +him once, when I possessed myself of a lute! Will you promise me to +spare him? My mother, whom I have never seen and who must therefore be +dead, may love me in another world for pleading for my father's life!' +</P> + +<P> +In a few words, Hermanric quieted her agitation by explaining to her +the nature and intention of the Gothic blockade, and she silently +returned to the couch. After a short interval, her slow, regular +breathing announced to the young warrior, as he watched by the side of +the fire, that she had at length forgotten the day's heritage of +misfortune in the welcome oblivion of sleep. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 9. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE TWO INTERVIEWS. +</H3> + +<P> +The time, is the evening of the first day of the Gothic blockade; the +place, is Vetranio's palace at Rome. In one of the private apartments +of his mansion is seated its all-accomplished owner, released at length +from the long sitting convened by the Senate on the occasion of the +unexpected siege of the city. Although the same complete discipline, +the same elegant regularity, and the same luxurious pomp, which +distinguished the senator's abode in times of security, still prevail +over it in the time of imminent danger which now threatens rich and +poor alike in Rome, Vetranio himself appears far from partaking the +tranquility of his patrician household. His manner displays an unusual +sternness, and his face an unwonted displeasure, as he sits, occupied +by his silent reflections and thoroughly unregardful of whatever occurs +around him. Two ladies who are his companions in the apartment, exert +all their blandishments to win him back to hilarity, but in vain. The +services of his expectant musicians are not put into requisition, the +delicacies on his table remain untouched, and even 'the inestimable +kitten of the breed most worshipped by the ancient Egyptians' gambols +unnoticed and unapplauded at his feet. All its wonted philosophical +equanimity has evidently departed, for the time at least, from the +senator's mind. +</P> + +<P> +Silence—hitherto a stranger to the palace apartments—had reigned +uninterruptedly over them for some time, when the freedman Carrio +dissipated Vetranio's meditations, and put the ladies who were with him +to flight, by announcing in an important voice, that the Prefect +Pompeianus desired a private interview with the Senator Vetranio. +</P> + +<P> +The next instant the chief magistrate of Rome entered the apartment. +He was a short, fat, undignified man. Indolence and vacillation were +legibly impressed on his appearance and expression. You saw, in a +moment, that his mind, like a shuttlecock, might be urged in any +direction by the efforts of others, but was utterly incapable of +volition by itself. But once in his life had the Prefect Pompeianus +been known to arrive unaided at a positive determination, and that was +in deciding a fierce argument between a bishop and a general, regarding +the relative merits of two rival rope-dancers of equal renown. +</P> + +<P> +'I have come, my beloved friend,' said the Prefect in agitated tones, +'to ask your opinion, at this period of awful responsibility for us +all, on the plan of operations proposed by the Senate at the sitting of +to-day! But first,' he hastily continued, perceiving with the unerring +instinct of an old gastronome, that the inviting refreshments on +Vetranio's table had remained untouched, 'permit me to fortify my +exhausted energies by a visit to your ever-luxurious board. Alas, my +friend, when I consider the present fearful scarcity of our provision +stores in the city, and the length of time that this accursed blockade +may be expected to last, I am inclined to think that the gods alone +know (I mean St. Peter) how much longer we may be enabled to give +occupation to our digestions and employment to our cooks. +</P> + +<P> +'I have observed,' pursued the Prefect, after an interval, speaking +with his mouth full of stewed peacock; 'I have observed, oh esteemed +colleague! the melancholy of your manner and your absolute silence +during your attendance to-day at our deliberations. Have we, in your +opinion, decided erroneously? It is not impossible! Our confusion at +this unexpected appearance of the barbarians may have blinded our usual +penetration! If by any chance you dissent from our plans, I beseech +you communicate your objections to me without reserve!' +</P> + +<P> +'I dissent from nothing, because I have heard nothing,' replied +Vetranio sullenly. 'I was so occupied by a private matter of +importance during my attendance at the sitting of the Senate, that I +was deaf to their deliberations. I know that we are besieged by the +Goths—why are they not driven from before the walls?' +</P> + +<P> +'Deaf to our deliberations! Drive the Goths from the walls!' repeated +the Prefect faintly. 'Can you think of any private matter at such a +moment as this? Do you know our danger? Do you know that our friends +are so astonished at this frightful calamity, that they move about like +men half awakened from a dream? Have you not seen the streets filled +with terrified and indignant crowds? Have you not mounted the ramparts +and beheld the innumerable multitudes of pitiless Goths surrounding us +on all sides, intercepting our supplies of provisions from the country, +and menacing us with a speedy famine, unless our hoped-for auxiliaries +arrive from Ravenna?' +</P> + +<P> +'I have neither mounted the ramparts, nor viewed with any attention the +crowds in the streets,' replied Vetranio, carelessly. +</P> + +<P> +'But if you have seen nothing yourself, you must have heard what others +saw,' persisted the Prefect; 'you must know at least that the legions +we have in the city are not sufficient to guard more than half the +circuit of the walls. Has no one informed you that if it should please +the leader of the barbarians to change his blockade into an assault, it +is more than probable that we should be unable to repulse him +successfully? Are you still deaf to our deliberations, when your palace +may to-morrow be burnt over your head, when we may be staved to death, +when we may be doomed to eternal dishonour by being driven to conclude +a peace? Deaf to our deliberations, when such an unimaginable calamity +as this invasion has fallen like a thunderbolt under our very walls! +You amaze me! You overwhelm me! You horrify me!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +And in the excess of his astonishment the bewildered Prefect actually +abandoned his stewed peacock, and advanced, wine-cup in hand, to obtain +a nearer view of the features of his imperturbable host. +</P> + +<P> +'If we are not strong enough to drive the Goths out of Italy,' rejoined +Vetranio coolly, 'you and the Senate know that we are rich enough to +bribe them to depart to the remotest confines of the empire. If we +have not swords enough to fight, we have gold and silver enough to pay.' +</P> + +<P> +'You are jesting! Remember our honour and the auxiliaries we still +hope for from Ravenna,' said the Prefect reprovingly. +</P> + +<P> +'Honour has lost the signification now, that it had in the time of the +Caesars,' retorted the Senator. 'Our fighting days are over. We have +had heroes enough for our reputation. As for the auxiliaries you still +hope for, you will have none! While the Emperor is safe in Ravenna, he +will care nothing for the worst extremities that can be suffered by the +people of Rome.' +</P> + +<P> +'But you forget your duties,' urged the astonished Pompeianus, turning +from rebuke to expostulation. 'You forget that it is a time when all +private interests must be abandoned! You forget that I have come here +to ask your advice, that I am bewildered by a thousand projects, forced +on me from all sides, for ruling the city successfully during the +blockade; that I look to you, as a friend and a man of reputation, to +aid me in deciding on a choice out of the varied counsels submitted to +me in the Senate to-day.' +</P> + +<P> +'Write down the advice of each senator on a separate strip of vellum; +shake all the strips together in an urn; and then, let the first you +take out by chance, be your guide to govern by in the present condition +of the city!' said Vetranio with a sneer. +</P> + +<P> +'Oh friend, friend! it is cruel to jest with me thus!' cried the +Prefect, in tones of lament; 'Would you really persuade me that you are +ignorant that what sentinels we have, are doubled already on the walls? +Would you attempt to declare seriously to me, that you never heard the +project of Saturninus for reducing imperceptibly the diurnal allowance +of provisions? Or the recommendation of Emilianus, that the people +should be kept from thinking on the dangers and extremities which now +threaten them, by being provided incessantly with public amusements at +the theatres and hippodromes? Do you really mean that you are +indifferent to the horrors of our present situation? By the souls of +the Apostles, Vetranio, I begin to think that you do not believe in the +Goths!' +</P> + +<P> +'I have already told you that private affairs occupy me at present, to +the exclusion of public,' said Vetranio impatiently. 'Debate as you +choose—approve what projects you will—I withdraw myself from +interference in your deliberations!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'This,' murmured the repulsed Prefect in soliloquy, as he mechanically +resumed his place at the refreshment table, 'this is the very end and +climax of all calamities! Now, when advice and assistance are more +precious than jewels in my estimation, I receive neither! I gain from +none, the wise and saving counsels which, as chief magistrate of this +Imperial City, it is my right to demand from all; and the man on whom I +most depended is the man who fails me most! Yet hear me, oh Vetranio, +once again,' he continued, addressing the Senator, 'if our perils +beyond the walls affect you not, there is a weighty matter that has +been settled within them, which must move you. After you had quitted +the Senate, Serena, the widow of Stilicho, was accused, as her husband +was accused before her, of secret and treasonable correspondence with +the Goths; and has been condemned, as her husband was condemned, to +suffer the penalty of death. I myself discerned no evidence to convict +her; but the populace cried out, in universal frenzy, that she was +guilty, that she should die; and that the barbarians, when they heard +of the punishment inflicted on their secret adherent, would retire in +dismay from Rome. This also was a moot point of argument, on which I +vainly endeavoured to decide; but the Senate and the people were wiser +than I; and Serena was condemned to be strangled to-morrow by the +public executioner. She was a woman of good report before this time, +and is the adopted mother of the Emperor. It is now doubted by many +whether Stilicho, her husband, was ever guilty of the correspondence +with the Goths, of which he was accused; and I, on my part, doubt much +that Serena has deserved the punishment of death at our hands. I +beseech you, Vetranio, let me be enlightened by your opinion on this +one point at least!' +</P> + +<P> +The Prefect waited anxiously for an answer, but Vetranio neither looked +at him nor replied. It was evident that the Senator had not listened +to a word that he had said! +</P> + +<P> +This reception of his final appeal for assistance, produced the effect +on the petitioner, which it was perhaps designed to convey—the Prefect +Pompeianus quitted the room in despair. +</P> + +<P> +He had not long departed, when Carrio again entered the apartment, and +addressed his master thus: +</P> + +<P> +'It is grievous for me, revered patron, to disclose it to you, but your +slaves have returned unsuccessful from the search!' +</P> + +<P> +'Give the description of the girl to a fresh division of them, and let +them continue their efforts throughout the night, not only in the +streets, but in all the houses of public entertainment in the city. +She must be in Rome, and she must be found!' said the senator gloomily. +</P> + +<P> +Carrio bowed profoundly, and was about to depart, when he was arrested +at the door by his master's voice. +</P> + +<P> +'If an old man, calling himself Numerian, should desire to see me,' +said Vetranio, 'admit him instantly.' +</P> + +<P> +'She had quitted the room but a short time when I attempted to reclaim +her,' pursued the senator, speaking to himself; 'and yet when I gained +the open air, she was nowhere to be seen! She must have mingled +unintentionally with the crowds whom the Goths drove into the city, and +thus have eluded my observation! So young and so innocent! She must +be found! She must be found!' +</P> + +<P> +He paused, once more engrossed in deep and melancholy thought. After a +long interval, he was roused from his abstraction by the sound of +footsteps on the marble floor. He looked up. The door had been opened +without his perceiving it, and an old man was advancing with slow and +trembling steps towards his silken couch. It was the bereaved and +broken-hearted Numerian. +</P> + +<P> +'Where is she? Is she found?' asked the father, gazing anxiously round +the room, as if he had expected to see his daughter there. +</P> + +<P> +'My slaves still search for her,' said Vetranio, mournfully. +</P> + +<P> +'Ah, woe—woe—woe! How I wronged her! How I wronged her!' cried the +old man, turning to depart. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Listen to me ere you go,' said Vetranio, gently detaining him. 'I +have done you a great wrong, but I will yet atone for it by finding for +you your child! While there were women who would have triumphed in my +admiration, I should not have attempted to deprive you of your +daughter! Remember when you recover her—and you shall recover +her—that from the time when I first decoyed her into listening to my +lute, to the night when your traitorous servant led me to her +bed-chamber, she has been innocent in this ill-considered matter. I +alone have been guilty! She was scarcely awakened when you discovered +her in my arms, and my entry into her chamber, was as little expected +by her, as it was by you. I was bewildered by the fumes of wine and +the astonishment of your sudden appearance, or I should have rescued +her from your anger, ere it was too late! The events which have passed +this morning, confused though they were, have yet convinced me that I +had mistaken you both. I now know that your child was too pure to be +an object fitted for my pursuit; and I believe that in secluding her as +you did, however ill-advised you might appear, you were honest in your +design! Never in my pursuit of pleasure did I commit so fatal an +error, as when I entered the doors of your house!' +</P> + +<P> +In pronouncing these words, Vetranio but gave expression to the +sentiments by which they were really inspired. As we have before +observed, profligate as he was by thoughtlessness of character and +license of social position, he was neither heartless nor criminal by +nature. Fathers had stormed, but his generosity had hitherto +invariably pacified them. Daughters had wept, but had found +consolation on all previous occasions in the splendour of his palace +and the amiability of his disposition. In attempting, therefore, the +abduction of Antonina, though he had prepared for unusual obstacles, he +had expected no worse results of his new conquest, than those that had +followed, as yet, his gallantries that were past. But, when—in the +solitude of his own home, and in the complete possession of his +faculties—he recalled all the circumstances of his attempt, from the +time when he had stolen on the girl's slumbers, to the moment when she +had fled from the house; when he remembered the stern concentrated +anger of Numerian, and the agony and despair of Antonina; when he +thought on the spirit-broken repentance of the deceived father, and the +fatal departure of the injured daughter, he felt as a man who had not +merely committed an indiscretion, but had been guilty of a crime; he +became convinced that he had incurred the fearful responsibility of +destroying the happiness of a parent who was really virtuous, and a +child who was truly innocent. To a man, the business of whose whole +life was to procure for himself a heritage of unalloyed pleasure, whose +sole occupation was to pamper that refined sensuality which the habits +of a life had made the very material of his heart, by diffusing luxury +and awakening smiles wherever he turned his steps, the mere mental +disquietude attending the ill-success of his intrusion into Numerian's +dwelling, was as painful in its influence, as the bitterest remorse +that could have afflicted a more highly-principled mind. He now, +therefore, instituted the search after Antonina, and expressed his +contrition to her father, from a genuine persuasion that nothing but +the completest atonement for the error he had committed, could restore +to him that luxurious tranquility, the loss of which had, as he had +himself expressed it, rendered him deaf to the deliberations of the +Senate, and regardless of the invasion of the Goths. +</P> + +<P> +'Tell me,' he continued, after a pause, 'whither has Ulpius betaken +himself? It is necessary that he should be discovered. He may +enlighten us upon the place of Antonina's retreat. He shall be secured +and questioned.' +</P> + +<P> +'He left me suddenly; I saw him as I stood at the window, mix with the +multitude in the street, but I know not whither he is gone,' replied +Numerian; and a tremor passed over his whole frame as he spoke of the +remorseless Pagan. +</P> + +<P> +Again there was a short silence. The grief of the broken-spirited +father, possessed in its humility and despair, a voice of rebuke, +before which the senator, careless and profligate as he was, +instinctively quailed. For some time he endeavoured in vain to combat +the silencing and reproving influence, exerted over him by the very +presence of the sorrowing man whom he had so fatally wronged. At +length, after an interval, he recovered self-possession enough to +address to Numerian some further expressions of consolation and hope; +but he spoke to ears that listened not. The father had relapsed into +his mournful abstraction; and when the senator paused, he merely +muttered to himself—'She is lost! Alas, she is lost for ever!' +</P> + +<P> +'No, she is not lost for ever,' cried Vetranio, warmly. 'I have wealth +and power enough to cause her to be sought for to the ends of the +earth! Ulpius shall be secured and questioned—imprisoned, tortured, if +it is necessary. Your daughter shall be recovered. Nothing is +impossible to a senator of Rome!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'I knew not that I loved her, until the morning when I wronged and +banished her!' continued the old man, still speaking to himself. 'I +have lost all traces of my parents and my brother—my wife is parted +from me for ever—I have nothing left but Antonina; and now too she is +gone! Even my ambition, that I once thought my all in all, is no +comfort to my soul; for I loved it—alas! unconsciously loved +it—through the being of my child! I destroyed her lute—I thought her +shameless—I drove her from my doors! Oh, how I wronged her!—how I +wronged her!' +</P> + +<P> +'Remain here, and repose yourself in one of the sleeping apartments, +until my slaves return in the morning. You will then hear without +delay of the result of their search to-night,' said Vetranio, in kindly +and compassionate tones. +</P> + +<P> +'It grows dark—dark!' groaned the father, tottering towards the door; +'but that is nothing; daylight itself now looks darkness to me! I must +go: I have duties at the chapel to perform. Night is repose for +you—for me, it is tribulation and prayer!' +</P> + +<P> +He departed as he spoke. Slowly he paced along the streets that led to +his chapel, glancing with penetrating eye at each inhabitant of the +besieged city who passed him on his way. With some difficulty he +arrived at his destination; for Rome was still thronged with armed men +hurrying backwards and forwards, and with crowds of disorderly citizens +pouring forth, wherever there was space enough for them to assemble. +The report of the affliction that had befallen him had already gone +abroad among his hearers, and they whispered anxiously to each other as +he entered the plain, dimly-lighted chapel, and slowly mounted the +pulpit to open the service, by reading the chapter in the Bible which +had been appointed for perusal that night, and which happened to be the +fifth of the Gospel of St. Mark. His voice trembled, his face was +ghastly pale, and his hands shook perceptibly as he began; but he read +on, in low, broken tones, and with evident pain and difficulty, until +he came to the verse containing these words: 'My little daughter lieth +at the point of death.' Here he stopped suddenly, endeavoured vainly +for a few minutes to proceed, and then, covering his face with his +hands, sank down in the pulpit and sobbed aloud. His sorrowing and +startled audience immediately gathered round him, raised him in their +arms, and prepared to conduct him to his own abode. When, however, +they had gained the door of the chapel, he desired them gently, to +leave him and return to the performance of the service among +themselves. Ever implicitly obedient to his slightest wishes, the +persons of his little assembly, moved to tears by the sight of their +teacher's suffering, obeyed him, by retiring silently to their former +places. As soon as he found that he was alone, he passed the door; and +whispering to himself, 'I must join those who seek her! I must aid +them myself in the search!'—he mingled once more with the disorderly +citizens who thronged the darkened streets. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 10. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE RIFT IN THE WALL. +</H3> + +<P> +When Ulpius suddenly departed from Numerian's house on the morning of +the siege, it was with no distinct intention of betaking himself to any +particular place, or devoting himself to any immediate employment. It +was to give vent to his joy—to the ecstacy that now filled his heart +to bursting—that he sought the open streets. His whole moral being +was exalted by that overwhelming sense of triumph, which urges the +physical nature into action. He hurried into the free air, as a child +runs on a bright day in the wide fields; his delight was too wild to +expand under a roof; his excess of bliss swelled irrepressibly beyond +all artificial limits of space. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The Goths were in sight! A few hours more, and their scaling ladders +would be planted against the walls. On a city so weakly guarded as +Rome, their assault must be almost instantaneously successful. +Thirsting for plunder, they would descend in infuriated multitudes on +the defenceless streets. Christians though they were, the restraints +of religion would, in that moment of fierce triumph, be powerless with +such a nation of marauders against the temptations to pillage. +Churches would be ravaged and destroyed; priests would be murdered in +attempting the defence of their ecclesiastical treasures; fire and +sword would waste to its remotest confines the stronghold of +Christianity, and overwhelm in death and oblivion the boldest of +Christianity's devotees! Then, when the hurricane of ruin and crime had +passed over the city, when a new people were ripe for another +government and another religion—then would be the time to invest the +banished gods of old Rome with their former rule; to bid the survivors +of the stricken multitude remember the judgment that their apostacy to +their ancient faith had demanded and incurred; to strike the very +remembrance of the Cross out of the memory of man; and to reinstate +Paganism on her throne of sacrifices, and under her roof of gold, more +powerful from her past persecutions; more universal in her sudden +restoration, than in all the glories of her ancient rule! +</P> + +<P> +Such thoughts as these passed through the Pagan's toiling mind as, +unobservant of all outward events, he paced through the streets of the +beleaguered city. Already he beheld the array of the Goths preparing +the way, as the unconscious pioneers of the returning gods, for the +march of that mighty revolution which he was determined to lead. The +warmth of his past eloquence, the glow of his old courage, thrilled +through his heart, as he figured to himself the prospect that would +soon stretch before him—a city laid waste, a people terrified, a +government distracted, a religion destroyed. Then, arising amid this +darkness and ruin; amid this solitude, desolation, and decay, it would +be his glorious privilege to summon an unfaithful people to return to +the mistress of their ancient love; to rise from prostration beneath a +dismantled Church; and to seek prosperity in temples repeopled and at +shrines restored! +</P> + +<P> +All remembrance of late events now entirely vanished from his mind. +Numerian, Vetranio, Antonina, they were all forgotten in this memorable +advent of the Goths! His slavery in the mines, his last visit to +Alexandria, his earlier wanderings—even these, so present to his +memory until the morning of the siege, were swept from its very surface +now. Age, solitude, infirmity—hitherto the mournful sensations which +were proofs to him that he still continued to exist—suddenly vanished +from his perceptions, as things that were not; and now at length he +forgot that he was an outcast, and remembered triumphantly that he was +still a priest. He felt animated by the same hopes, elevated by the +same aspirations, as in those early days when he had harangued the +wavering Pagans in the Temple, and first plotted the overthrow of the +Christian Church. +</P> + +<P> +It was a terrible and warning proof of the omnipotent influence that a +single idea may exercise over a whole life, to see that old man +wandering among the crowds around him, still enslaved, after years of +suffering and solitude, degradation, and crime, by the same ruling +ambition, which had crushed the promise of his early youth! It was an +awful testimony to the eternal and mysterious nature of thought, to +behold that wasted and weakened frame; and then to observe how the +unassailable mind within still swayed the wreck of body yet left to +it—how faithfully the last exhausted resources of failing vigour +rallied into action at its fierce command—how quickly, at its mocking +voice, the sunken eye lightened again with a gleam of hope, and the +pale, thin lips parted mechanically with an exulting smile! +</P> + +<P> +The hours passed, but he still walked on—whither or among whom he +neither knew nor cared. No remorse touched his heart for the +destruction that he had wreaked on the Christian who had sheltered him; +no terror appalled his soul at the contemplation of the miseries that +he believed to be in preparation for the city from the enemy at its +gates. The end that had hallowed to him the long series of his former +offences and former sufferings, now obliterated iniquities just passed, +and stripped of all their horrors, atrocities immediately to come. +</P> + +<P> +The Goths might be destroyers to others, but they were benefactors to +him; for they were harbingers of the ruin which would be the material +of his reform, and the source of his triumph. It never entered his +imagination that, as an inhabitant of Rome, he shared the approaching +perils of the citizens, and in the moment of the assault might share +their doom. He beheld only the new and gorgeous prospect that war and +rapine were opening before him. He thought only of the time that must +elapse ere his new efforts could be commenced—of the orders of the +people among whom he should successively make his voice heard—of the +temples which he should select for restoration—of the quarter of Rome +which should first be chosen for the reception of his daring reform. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At length he paused; his exhausted energies yielded under the exertions +imposed on them, and obliged him to bethink himself of refreshment and +repose. It was now noon. The course of his wanderings had insensibly +conducted him again to the precincts of his old, familiar +dwelling-place; he found himself at the back of the Pincian Mount, and +only separated by a strip of uneven woody ground, from the base of the +city wall. The place was very solitary. It was divided from the +streets and mansions above by thick groves and extensive gardens, which +stretched along the undulating descent of the hill. A short distance +to the westward lay the Pincian Gate, but an abrupt turn in the wall +and some olive trees which grew near it, shut out all view of objects +in that direction. On the other side, towards the eastward, the +ramparts were discernible, running in a straight line of some length, +until they suddenly turned inwards at a right angle and were concealed +from further observation by the walls of a distant palace and the pine +trees of a public garden. The only living figure discernible near this +lonely spot, was that of a sentinel, who occasionally passed over the +ramparts above, which—situated as they were between two stations of +soldiery, one at the Pincian Gate and the other where the wall made the +angle already described—were untenanted, save by the guard within the +limits of whose watch they happened to be placed. Here, for a short +space of time, the Pagan rested his weary frame, and aroused himself +insensibly from the enthralling meditations which had hitherto blinded +him to the troubled aspect of the world around him. +</P> + +<P> +He now for the first time heard on all sides distinctly, the confused +noises which still rose from every quarter of Rome. The same incessant +strife of struggling voices and hurrying footsteps, which had caught +his ear in the early morning, attracted his attention now; but no +shrieks of distress, no clash of weapons, no shouts of fury and +defiance, were mingled with them; although, as he perceived by the +position of the sun, the day had sufficiently advanced to have brought +the Gothic army long since to the foot of the walls. What could be the +cause of this delay in the assault; of this ominous tranquillity on the +ramparts above him? Had the impetuosity of the Goths suddenly vanished +at the sight of Rome? Had negotiations for peace been organised with +the first appearance of the invaders? He listened again. No sounds +caught his ear differing in character from those he had just heard. +Though besieged, the city was evidently—from some mysterious +cause—not even threatened by an assault. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly there appeared from a little pathway near him, which led round +the base of the wall, a woman preceded by a child, who called to her +impatiently, as he ran on, 'Hasten, mother, hasten! There is no crowd +here. Yonder is the Gate. We shall have a noble view of the Goths!' +</P> + +<P> +There was something in the address of the child to the woman that gave +Ulpius a suspicion, even then, of the discovery that flushed upon him +soon after. He rose and followed them. They passed onward by the +wall, through the olive trees beyond, and then gained the open space +before the Pincian Gate. Here a great concourse of people had +assembled, and were suffered, in their proper turn, to ascend the +ramparts in divisions, by some soldiers who guarded the steps by which +they were approached. After a short delay, Ulpius and those around him +were permitted to gratify their curiosity, as others had done before +them. They mounted the walls, and beheld, stretched over the ground +within and beyond the suburbs, the vast circumference of the Gothic +lines. +</P> + +<P> +Terrible and almost sublime as was the prospect of that immense +multitude, seen under the brilliant illumination of the noontide sun, +it was not impressive enough to silence the turbulent loquacity rooted +in the dispositions of the people of Rome. Men, women, and children, +all made their noisy and conflicting observations on the sight before +them, in every variety of tone, from the tremulous accents of terror, +to the loud vociferations of bravado. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Some spoke boastfully of the achievements that would be performed by +the Romans, when their expected auxiliaries arrived from Ravenna. +Others foreboded, in undissembled terror, an assault under cover of the +night. Here, a group abused, in low confidential tones, the policy of +the government in its relations with the Goths. There, a company of +ragged vagabonds amused themselves by pompously confiding to each other +their positive conviction, that at that very moment the barbarians must +be trembling in their camp, at the mere sight of the all-powerful +Capital of the World. In one direction, people were heard noisily +speculating whether the Goths would be driven from the walls by the +soldiers of Rome, or be honoured by an invitation to conclude a peace +with the august Empire, which they had so treasonably ventured to +invade. In another, the more sober and reputable among the spectators +audibly expressed their apprehensions of starvation, dishonour, and +defeat, should the authorities of the city be foolhardy enough to +venture a resistance to Alaric and his barbarian hosts. But wide as +was the difference of the particular opinions hazarded among the +citizens, they all agreed in one unavoidable conviction, that Rome had +escaped the immediate horrors of an assault, to be threatened—if +unaided by the legions at Ravenna—by the prospective miseries of a +blockade. +</P> + +<P> +Amid the confusion of voices around him, that word 'blockade' alone +reached the Pagan's ear. It brought with it a flood of emotions that +overwhelmed him. All that he saw, all that he heard, connected itself +imperceptibly with that expression. A sudden darkness, neither to be +dissipated nor escaped, seemed to obscure his faculties in an instant. +He struggled mechanically through the crowd, descended the steps of the +ramparts, and returned to the solitary spot where he had first beheld +the woman and the child. +</P> + +<P> +The city was blockaded! The Goths were bent then, on obtaining a peace +and not on achieving a conquest! The city was blockaded! It was no +error of the ignorant multitude—he had seen with his own eyes the +tents and positions of the enemy, he had heard the soldiers on the wall +discoursing on the admirable disposition of Alaric's forces, on the +impossibility of obtaining the smallest communication with the +surrounding country, on the vigilant watch that had been set over the +navigation of the Tiber. There was no doubt on the matter—the +barbarians had determined on a blockade! +</P> + +<P> +There was even less uncertainty upon the results which would be +produced by this unimaginable policy of the Goths—the city would be +saved! Rome had not scrupled in former years to purchase the +withdrawal of all enemies from her distant provinces; and now that the +very centre of her glory, the very pinnacle of her declining power, was +threatened with sudden and unexpected ruin, she would lavish on the +Goths the treasures of the whole empire, to bribe them to peace and to +tempt them to retreat. The Senate might possibly delay the necessary +concessions, from hopes of assistance that would never be realised; but +sooner or later the hour of negotiation would arrive; northern rapacity +would be satisfied with southern wealth; and in the very moment when it +seemed inevitable, the ruin from which the Pagan revolution was to +derive its vigorous source, would be diverted from the churches of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +Could the old renown of the Roman name have retained so much of its +ancient influence as to daunt the hardy Goths, after they had so +successfully penetrated the empire as to have reached the walls of its +vaunted capital? Could Alaric have conceived so exaggerated an idea of +the strength of the forces in the city as to despair, with all his +multitudes, of storming it with success? It could not be otherwise! No +other consideration could have induced the barbarian general to abandon +such an achievement as the destruction of Rome. With the chance of an +assault the prospects of Paganism had brightened—with the certainty of +a blockade, they sunk immediately into disheartening gloom! +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Filled with these thoughts, Ulpius paced backwards and forwards in his +solitary retreat, utterly abandoned by the exaltation of feeling which +had restored to his faculties in the morning, the long-lost vigour of +their former youth. Once more, he experienced the infirmities of his +age; once more he remembered the miseries that had made his existence +one unending martyrdom; once more he felt the presence of his ambition +within him, like a judgment that he was doomed to welcome, like a curse +that he was created to cherish. To say that his sensations at this +moment were those of the culprit who hears the order for his execution +when he had been assured of a reprieve, is to convey but a faint idea +of the fierce emotions of rage, grief, and despair, that now united to +rend the Pagan's heart. +</P> + +<P> +Overpowered with weariness both of body and mind, he flung himself down +under the shade of some bushes that clothed the base of the wall above +him. As he lay there—so still in his heavy lassitude that life itself +seemed to have left him—one of the long green lizards, common to +Italy, crawled over his shoulder. He seized the animal—doubtful for +the moment whether it might not be of the poisonous species—and +examined it. At the first glance he discovered that it was of the +harmless order of its race, and would have flung it carelessly from +him, but for something in its appearance which, in the wayward +irritability of his present mood, he felt a strange and sudden pleasure +in contemplating. +</P> + +<P> +Through its exquisitely marked and transparent skin he could perceive +the action of the creature's heart, and saw that it was beating +violently, in the agony of fear caused to the animal by its +imprisonment in his hand. As he looked on it, and thought how +continually a being so timid must be thwarted in its humble anxieties, +in its small efforts, in its little journeys from one patch of grass to +another, by a hundred obstacles, which, trifles though they might be to +animals of a higher species, were yet of fatal importance to creatures +constituted like itself, he began to find an imperfect, yet remarkable +analogy between his own destiny and that of this small unit of +creation. He felt that, in its petty sphere, the short life of the +humble animal before him must have been the prey of crosses and +disappointments, as serious to it, as the more severed and destructive +afflictions of which he, in his existence, had been the victim; and, as +he watched the shadow-like movement of the little fluttering heart of +the lizard, he experienced a cruel pleasure in perceiving that there +were other beings in the creation, even down to the most insignificant, +who inherited a part of his misery, and suffered a portion of his +despair. +</P> + +<P> +Ere long, however, his emotions took a sterner and a darker hue. The +sight of the animal wearied him, and he flung it contemptuously aside. +It disappeared in the direction of the ramparts; and almost at the same +moment he heard a slight sound, resembling the falling of several +minute particles of brick or light stone, which seemed to come from the +wall behind him. +</P> + +<P> +That such a noise should proceed from so massive a structure appeared +unaccountable. He rose, and, parting the bushes before him, advanced +close to the surface of the lofty wall. To his astonishment, he found +that the brickwork had in many places so completely mouldered away, +that he could move it easily with his fingers. The cause of the +trifling noise that he had heard was now fully explained: hundreds of +lizards had made their homes between the fissures of the bricks; the +animal that he had permitted to escape had taken refuge in one of these +cavities, and in the hurry of its flight had detached several of the +loose crumbling fragments that surrounded its hiding-place. +</P> + +<P> +Not content, however, with the discovery he had already made, he +retired a little, and, looking stedfastly up through some trees which +in this particular place grew at the foot of the wall, he saw that its +surface was pierced in many places by great irregular rifts, some of +which extended nearly to its whole height. In addition to this, he +perceived that the mass of the structure at one particular point, +leaned considerably out of the perpendicular. Astounded at what he +beheld, he took a stick from the ground, and inserting it in one of the +lowest and smallest of the cracks, easily succeeded in forcing it +entirely into the wall, part of which seemed to be hollow, and part +composed of the same rotten brickwork which had at first attracted his +attention. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was now evident that the whole structure, over a breadth of several +yards, had been either weakly and carelessly built, or had at some +former period suffered a sudden and violent shock. He left the stick in +the wall to mark the place; and was about to retire, when he heard the +footstep of the sentinel on the rampart immediately above. Suddenly +cautious, though from what motive he would have been at that moment +hardly able to explain, he remained in the concealment of the trees and +bushes, until the guard had passed onward; then he cautiously emerged +from the place; and, retiring to some distance, fell into a train of +earnest and absorbing thought. +</P> + +<P> +To account to the reader for the phenomenon which now engrossed the +Pagan's attention, it will be necessary to make a brief digression to +the history of the walls of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +The circumference of the first fortifications of the city, built by +Romulus, was thirteen miles. The greater part, however, of this large +area was occupied by fields and gardens, which it was the object of the +founder of the empire to preserve for arable purposes, from the +incursions of the different enemies by whom he was threatened from +without. As Rome gradually increased in size, its walls were +progressively enlarged and altered by subsequent rulers. But it was +not until the reign of the Emperor Aurelian (A.D. 270), that any +extraordinary or important change was effected in the defences of the +city. That potentate commenced the erection of walls, twenty-one miles +in circumference, which were finally completed in the reign of Probus +(A.D. 276), were restored by Belisarius (A.D. 537), and are to be seen +in detached portions, in the fortifications of the modern city, to the +present day. +</P> + +<P> +At the date of our story, then (A.D. 408), the walls remained precisely +as they had been constructed in the reigns of Aurelian and Probus. +They were for the most part made of brick; and in a few places, +probably, a sort of soft sandstone might have been added to the +pervading material. At several points in their circumference, and +particularly in the part behind the Pincian Hill, these walls were +built in arches, forming deep recesses, and occasionally disposed in +double rows. The method of building employed in their erection, was +generally that mentioned by Vitruvius, in whose time it originated, as +'opus reticulatum'. +</P> + +<P> +The 'opus reticulatum' was composed of small bricks (or stones) set +together on their angles, instead of horizontally, and giving the +surface of a wall the appearance of a sort of solid network. This was +considered by some architects of antiquity a perishable mode of +construction; and Vitruvius asserts that some buildings where he had +seen it used, had fallen down. From the imperfect specimens of it +which remain in modern times, it would be difficult to decide upon its +merits. That it was assuredly insufficient to support the weight of the +bank of the Pincian Mount, which rose immediately behind it, in the +solitary spot described some pages back, is still made evident by the +appearance of the wall at that part of the city, which remains in +modern times bent out of the perpendicular, and cracked in some places +almost from top to bottom. This ruin is now known to the present race +of Italians, under the expressive title of 'Il Muro Torto' or, The +Crooked Wall. +</P> + +<P> +We may here observe that it is extremely improbable that the existence +of this natural breach in the fortifications of Rome was noticed, or if +noticed, regarded with the slightest anxiety or attention by the +majority of the careless and indolent inhabitants, at the period of the +present romance. It is supposed to have been visible as early as the +time of Aurelian, but is only particularly mentioned by Procopius, an +historian of the sixth century, who relates that Belisarius, in +strengthening the city against a siege of the Goths, attempted to +repair this weak point in the wall, but was hindered in his intended +labour by the devout populace, who declared that it was under the +peculiar protection of St. Peter, and that it would be consequently +impious to meddle with it. The general submitted without remonstrance +to the decision of the inhabitants, and found no cause afterwards to +repent of his facility of compliance; for, to use the translated words +of the writer above-mentioned, 'During the siege neither the enemy nor +the Romans regarded this place.' It is to be supposed that so +extraordinary an event as this, gave the wall that sacred character, +which deterred subsequent rulers from attempting its repair; which +permitted it to remain crooked and rent through the convulsions of the +middle ages; and which still preserves it, to attest the veracity of +historians, by appealing to the antiquarian curiosity of the traveller +of modern times. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +We now return to Ulpius. It is a peculiarity observable in the +characters of men living under the ascendancy of one ruling idea, that +they intuitively distort whatever attracts their attention in the outer +world, into a connection more or less intimate with the single object +of their mental contemplation. Since the time when he had been exiled +from the Temple, the Pagan's faculties had, unconsciously to himself, +acted solely in reference to the daring design which it was the +business of his whole existence to entertain. Influenced, therefore, +by this obliquity of moral feeling, he had scarcely reflected on the +discovery that he had just made at the base of the city wall, ere his +mind instantly reverted to the ambitious meditations which had occupied +it in the morning; and the next moment, the first dawning conception of +a bold and perilous project began to absorb his restless thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +He reflected on the peculiarities and position of the wall before him. +Although the widest and most important of the rents which he had +observed in it, existed too near the rampart to be reached without the +assistance of a ladder, there were others as low as the ground, which +he knew, by the result of the trial he had already made, might be +successfully and immensely widened by the most ordinary exertion and +perseverance. The interior of the wall, if judged by the condition of +the surface, could offer no insuperable obstacles to an attempt at +penetration so partial as to be limited to a height and width of a few +feet. The ramparts, from their position between two guard-houses, +would be unencumbered by an inquisitive populace. The sentinel, within +the limits of whose allotted watch it happened to fall, would, when +night came on, be the only human being likely to pass the spot; and at +such an hour his attention must necessarily be fixed—in the +circumstances under which the city was now placed—on the prospect +beyond, rather than on the ground below and behind him. It seemed, +therefore, almost a matter of certainty, that a cautious man, labouring +under cover of the night, might pursue whatever investigations he +pleased at the base of the wall. +</P> + +<P> +He examined the ground where he now stood. Nothing could be more +lonely than its present appearance. The private gardens on the hill +above it shut out all communication from that quarter. It could only +be approached by the foot-path that ran round the Pincian Mount, and +along the base of the walls. In the state of affairs now existing in +the city, it was not probable that any one would seek this solitary +place, whence nothing could be seen, and where little could be heard, +in preference to mixing with the spirit-stirring confusion in the +streets, or observing the Gothic encampment from such positions on the +ramparts as were easily attainable to all. In addition to the secresy +offered by the loneliness of this patch of ground to whatever +employments were undertaken on it, was the further advantage afforded +by the trees and thickets which covered its lower end, and which would +effectually screen an intruder, during the darkness of night, from the +most penetrating observation directed from the wall above. +</P> + +<P> +Reflecting thus, he doubted not that a cunning and determined man might +with impunity so far widen any one of the inferior breaches in the +lower part of the wall as to make a cavity (large enough to admit a +human figure) that should pierce to its outer surface, and afford that +liberty of departing from the city and penetrating the Gothic camp +which the closed gates now denied to all the inhabitants alike. To +discover the practicability of such an attempt as this was, to a mind +filled with such aspirations as the Pagan's, to determine irrevocably +on its immediate execution. He resolved as soon as night approached to +begin his labours on the wall; to seek—if the breach were made good, +and the darkness favoured him—the tent of Alaric; and once arrived +there, to acquaint the Gothic King with the weakness of the materials +for defence within the city, and dilapidated condition of the +fortifications below the Pincian Mount, insisting, as the condition of +his treachery, on an assurance from the barbarian leader (which he +doubted not would be gladly and instantly accorded) of the destruction +of the Christian churches, the pillage of the Christian possessions, +and the massacre of the Christian priests. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He retired cautiously from the lonely place that had now become the +centre of his new hopes; and entering the streets of the city, +proceeded to provide himself with an instrument that would facilitate +his approaching labours, and food that would give him strength to +prosecute his intended efforts, unthreatened by the hindrance of +fatigue. As he thought on the daring treachery of his project, his +morning's exultation began to return to him again. All his previous +attempts to organise the restoration of Paganism sunk into sudden +insignificance before his present design. His defence of the Temple of +Serapis, his conspiracy at Alexandria, his intrigue with Vetranio, were +the efforts of a man; but this projected destruction of the priests, +the churches, and the treasures of a whole city, through the agency of +a mighty army, moved by the unaided machinations of a single +individual, would be the dazzling achievement of a god! +</P> + +<P> +The hours loitered slowly onward. The sun waned in the gorgeous +heaven, and set, surrounded by red and murky clouds. Then came silence +and darkness. The Gothic watch-fires flamed one by one into the dusky +air. The guards were doubled at the different posts. The populace were +driven from the ramparts, and the fortifications of the great city +echoed to no sound now but the tramp of the restless sentinel, or the +clash of arms from the distant guard-houses that dotted the long line +of the lofty walls. +</P> + +<P> +It was then that Ulpius, passing cautiously along the least-frequented +streets, gained unnoticed the place of his destination. A thick vapour +lay over the lonely and marshy spot. Nothing was now visible from it +but the dim, uncertain outline of the palaces above, and the mass, so +sunk in obscurity that it looked like a dark layer of mist itself, of +the rifted fortifications. A smile of exultation passed over the +Pagan's countenance, as he perceived the shrouding and welcome +thickness of the atmosphere. Groping his way softly through the +thickets, he arrived at the base of the wall. For some time he passed +slowly along it, feeling the width of the different rents wherever he +could stretch his hand. At length he paused at one more extensive than +the rest, drew from its concealment in his garments a thick bar of iron +sharpened at one end, and began to labour at the breach. +</P> + +<P> +Chance had led him to the place best adapted to his purpose. The +ground he stood on was only encumbered close to the wall by rank weeds +and low thickets, and was principally composed of damp, soft turf. The +bricks, therefore, as he carefully detached them, made no greater noise +in falling than the slight rustling caused by their sudden contact with +the boughs through which they descended. Insignificant as this sound +was, it aroused the apprehension of the wary Pagan. He laid down his +iron bar, and removed the thickets by dragging them up, or breaking +them at the roots, until he had cleared a space of some feet in extent +before the base of the wall. He then returned to his toilsome task, +and with hands bleeding from the wounds inflicted by the thorns he had +grasped in removing the thickets continued his labour at the +brick-work. He pursued his employment with perfect impunity; the +darkness covered him from observation; no one disturbed him by +approaching the solitary scene of his operations; and of the two +sentinels who were placed near the part of the wall which was the +centre of all his exertions, one remained motionless at the most +distant extremity of his post, and the other paced restlessly backwards +and forwards on the rampart, singing a wild, rambling song about war, +and women, and wine, which, whatever liberty it might allow to his +organs of perception, effectually hindered the vigilant exercise of his +faculties of hearing. +</P> + +<P> +Brick after brick yielded to the vigorous and well-timed efforts of +Ulpius. He had already made a cavity, in an oblique direction, large +enough to creep through, and was preparing to penetrate still further, +when a portion of the rotten material of the interior of the wall +suddenly yielded in a mass to a chance pressure of his iron bar, and +slowly sunk down inwards into a bed which, judging by such faint sounds +as were audible at the moment, must have been partly water, and partly +marshy earth and rotten brick-work. After having first listened, to be +sure that the slight noise caused by this event had not reached the +ears or excited the suspicions of the careless sentinels, Ulpius crept +into the cavity he had made, groping his way with his bar, until he +reached the brink of a chasm, the depth of which he could not probe, +and the breadth of which he could not ascertain. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He lingered irresolute; the darkness around him was impenetrable; he +could feel toads and noisome animals crawling over his limbs. The damp +atmosphere of the place began to thrill through him to his very bones; +his whole frame trembled under the excess of his past exertions. +Without light, he could neither attempt to proceed, nor hope to +discover the size and extent of the chasm which he had partially laid +open. The mist was fast vanishing as the night advanced: it was +necessary to arrive at a resolution ere it would be too late. +</P> + +<P> +He crept out of the cavity. Just as he had gained the open air, the +sentinel halted over the very spot where the Pagan stood, and paused +suddenly in his song. There was an instant's interval of silence, +during which the inmost soul of Ulpius quailed beneath an apprehension +as vivid, as that which had throbbed in the heart of the despised +lizard, whose flight had guided him to his discovery at the wall. +Soon, however, he heard the voice of the soldier calling cheerfully to +his fellow sentinel, 'Comrade, do you see the moon? She is rising to +cheer our watch!' +</P> + +<P> +Nothing had been discovered!—he was still safe! But if he stayed at +the cavity till the mists faded before the moonlight, could he be +certain of preserving his security? He felt that he could not! +</P> + +<P> +What mattered a night more or a night less, to such a project as his? +Months might elapse before the Goths retired from the walls. It was +better to suffer delay than to risk discovery. He determined to leave +the place, and to return on the following night provided with a +lantern, the light of which he would conceal until he entered the +cavity. Once there, it could not be perceived by the sentinels +above—it would guide him through all obstacles, preserve him through +all dangers. Massive as it was, he felt convinced that the interior of +the wall was in as ruinous a condition as the outside. Caution and +perseverance were sufficient of themselves to insure to his efforts the +speediest and completest success. +</P> + +<P> +He waited until the sentinel had again betaken himself to the furthest +limits of his watch, and then softly gathering up the brushwood that +lay round him, he concealed with it the mouth of the cavity in the +outer wall, and the fragments of brick-work that had fallen on the turf +beneath. This done, he again listened, to assure himself that he had +been unobserved; then, stepping with the utmost caution, he departed by +the path that led round the slope of the Pincian Hill. +</P> + +<P> +'Strength—patience—and to-morrow night!' muttered the Pagan to +himself, as he entered the streets, and congregated once more with the +citizens of Rome. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 11. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +GOISVINTHA'S RETURN. +</H3> + +<P> +It was morning. The sun had risen, but his beams were partially +obscured by thick heavy clouds, which scowled already over the +struggling brightness of the eastern horizon. The bustle and animation +of the new day gradually overspread the Gothic encampment in all +directions. The only tent whose curtain remained still closed, and +round which no busy crowds congregated in discussion or mingled in +labour, was that of Hermanric. By the dying embers of his watchfire +stood the young chieftain, with two warriors, to whom he appeared to be +giving some hurried directions. His countenance expressed emotions of +anxiety and discontent, which, though partially repressed while he was +in the presence of his companions, became thoroughly visible, not only +in his features, but in his manner, when they left him to watch alone +before his tent. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +For some time he walked regularly backwards and forwards, looking +anxiously down the westward lines of the encampment, and occasionally +whispering to himself a hasty exclamation of doubt and impatience. +With the first breath of the new morning, the delighting meditations +which had occupied him by his watchfire during the darkness of the +night had begun to subside. And now, as the hour of her expected return +gradually approached, the image of Goisvintha banished from his mind +whatever remained of those peaceful and happy contemplation in which he +had hitherto been absorbed. The more he thought on his fatal +promise—on the nation of Antonina—on his duties to the army and the +people to whom he belonged, the more doubtful appeared to him his +chance of permanently protecting the young Roman without risking his +degradation as a Goth, and his ruin as a warrior; and the more sternly +and ominously ran in his ears the unassailable truth of Goisvintha's +parting taunt—'You must remember your promise, you cannot save her if +you would!' +</P> + +<P> +Wearied of persisting in deliberations which only deepened his +melancholy and increased his doubts; bent on sinking in a temporary and +delusive oblivion the boding reflections that overcame him in spite of +himself, by seeking—while its enjoyment was yet left to him—the +society of his ill-fated charge, he turned towards his tent, drew aside +the thick, heavy curtains of skins which closed its opening, and +approached the rude couch on which Antonina was still sleeping. +</P> + +<P> +A ray of sunlight, fitful and struggling, burst at this moment through +the heavy clouds, and stole into the opening of the tent as he +contemplated the slumbering girl. It ran its flowing course up her +uncovered hand and arm, flew over her bosom and neck, and bathed in a +bright fresh glow, her still and reposing features. Gradually her +limbs began to move, her lips parted gently and half smiled, as if in +welcome to the greeting of the light; her eyes slightly opened, then +dazzled by the brightness that flowed through their raised lids, +tremblingly closed again. At length thoroughly awakened, she shaded +her face with her hands, and sitting up on the couch, met the gaze of +Hermanric fixed on her in sorrowful examination. +</P> + +<P> +'Your bright armour, and your glorious name, and your merciful words, +have remained with me even in my sleep,' said she, wonderingly; 'and +now, when I awake, I see you before me again! It is a happiness to be +aroused by the sun which has gladdened me all my life, to look upon you +who have given me shelter in my distress! But why,' she continued, in +altered and enquiring tones, 'why do you gaze upon me with doubting and +mournful eyes?' +</P> + +<P> +'You have slept well and safely,' said Hermanric, evasively, 'I closed +the opening of the tent to preserve you from the night-damps, but I +have raised it now, for the air is warming under the rising sun—' +</P> + +<P> +'Are you wearied with watching?' she interrupted, rising to her feet, +and looking anxiously into his face. But he spoke not in reply. His +head was turned towards the door of the tent. He seemed to be +listening for some expected sound. It was evident that he had not +heard her question. She followed the direction of his eyes. The sight +of the great city, half brightened, half darkened, as its myriad +buildings reflected the light of the sun, or retained the shadows of +the clouds, brought back to her remembrance her last night's petition +for her father's safety. She laid her hand upon her companion's arm to +awaken his attention, and hastily resumed:— +</P> + +<P> +'You have not forgotten what I said to you last night? My father's +name is Numerian. He lives on the Pincian Mount. You will save him, +Hermanric—you will save him! You will remember your promise!' +</P> + +<P> +The young warrior's eyes fell as she spoke, and an irrepressible +shudder shook his whole frame. The last part of Antonina's address to +him, was expressed in the same terms as a past appeal from other lips, +and in other accents, which still clung to his memory. The same +demand, 'Remember your promise,' which had been advanced to urge him to +bloodshed, by Goisvintha, was now proffered by Antonina, to lure him to +pity. The petition of affection was concluded in the same terms as the +petition of revenge. As he thought on both, the human pity of the one, +and the fiend-like cruelty of the other, rose in sinister and +significant contrast on the mind of the Goth, realising in all its +perils the struggle that was to come when Goisvintha returned, and +dispelling instantaneously the last hopes that he had yet ventured to +cherish for the fugitive at his side. +</P> + +<P> +'No assault of the city is commanded—no assault is intended. Your +father's life is safe from the swords of the Goths,' he gloomily +replied, in answer to Antonina's last words. +</P> + +<P> +The girl moved back from him a few steps as he spoke, and looked +thoughtfully round the tent. The battle-axe that Hermanric had secured +during the scene of the past evening, still lay on the ground, in a +corner. The sight of it brought back a flood of terrible recollections +to her mind. She started violently; a sudden change overspread her +features, and when she again addressed Hermanric, it was with quivering +lips and in almost inarticulate words. +</P> + +<P> +'I know now why you look on me so gloomily,' said she; 'that woman is +coming back! I was so occupied by my dreams and my thoughts of my +father and of you, and my hopes for days to come, that I had forgotten +her when I awoke! But I remember all now! She is coming back—I see +it in your sorrowful eyes—she is coming back to murder me! I shall +die at the moment when I had such hope in my life! There is no +happiness for me! None!—none!' +</P> + +<P> +The Goth's countenance began to darken. He whispered to himself +several times, 'How can I save her?' For a few minutes there was a +deep silence, broken only by the sobs of Antonina. He looked round at +her after an interval. She held her hands clasped over her eyes. The +tears were streaming through her parted fingers; her bosom heaved as if +her emotions would burst their way through it in some palpable form; +and her limbs trembled so, that she could scarcely support herself. +Unconsciously, as he looked on her, he passed his arm round her slender +form, drew her hands gently from her face, and said to her, though his +heart belied his words as he spoke, 'Do not be afraid—trust in me!' +</P> + +<P> +'How can I be calm?' she cried, looking up at him entreatingly; 'I was +so happy last night, so sure that you could preserve me, so hopeful +about to-morrow—and now I see by your mournful looks, I know by your +doubting voice, that to soothe my anguish you have promised me more +than you can perform! The woman who is your companion, has a power +over us both, that it is terrible even to think of! She will return, +she will withdraw all mercy from your heart, she will glare upon me +with her fearful eyes, she will kill me at your feet! I shall die +after all I have suffered and all I have hoped! Oh, Hermanric, while +there is yet time let us escape! You were not made to shed blood—you +are too merciful! God never made you to destroy! You cannot yearn +towards cruelty and woe, for you have aided and protected me! Let us +escape! I will follow you wherever you wish! I will do whatever you +ask! I will go with you beyond those far, bright mountains behind us, +to any strange and distant land; for there is beauty everywhere; there +are woods that may be dwelt in, and valleys that may be loved, on all +the surface of this wide great earth!' +</P> + +<P> +The Goth looked sadly on her as she paused; but he gave her no +answer—the gloom was deepening over his heart—the false words of +consolation were silenced on his lips. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Think how many pleasures we should enjoy, how much we might see!' +continued the girl, in soft, appealing tones. 'We should be free to +wander wherever we pleased; we should never be lonely; never be +mournful; never be wearied! I could listen to you day after day, while +you told me of the country where your people were born! I could sing +you sweet songs that I have learned upon the lute! Oh, how I have wept +in my loneliness to lead such a life as this! How I have longed that +such freedom and joy might be mine! How I have thought of the distant +lands that I would visit, of the happy nations that I would discover, +of the mountain breezes that I would breathe, of the shady places that +I would repose in, of the rivers that I would follow in their course, +of the flowers I would plant, and the fruits I would gather! How I +have hoped for such an existence as this! How I have longed for a +companion who might enjoy it as I should! Have you never felt this joy +that I have imagined to myself, you who have been free to wander +wherever you pleased? Let us leave this place, and I will teach it to +you if you have not. I will be so patient, so obedient, so happy! I +will never be sorrowful; never repining—but let us escape—Oh, +Hermanric, let us escape while there is yet time! Will you keep me +here to be slain? Can you drive me forth into the world alone? +Remember that the gates of the city and the doors of my home are now +closed to me! Remember that I have no mother, and that my father has +forsaken me! Remember that I am a stranger on the earth which was made +for me to be joyful in! Think how soon the woman who has vowed that +she will murder me will return; think how terrible it is to be in the +fear of death; and while there is time let us depart—Hermanric, +Hermanric, if you have pity for me, let us depart!' +</P> + +<P> +She clasped her hands, and looked up in his face imploringly. The +manner of Hermanric had expressed more to her senses, sharpened as they +were by peril, than his words could have conveyed, even had he +confessed to her the cause of the emotions of doubt and apprehension +that oppressed his mind. Nothing could more strikingly testify to the +innocence of her character and the seclusion of her life, than her +attempt to combine with her escape from Goisvintha's fury, the +acquisition of such a companion as the Goth. But to the forlorn and +affectionate girl who saw herself—a stranger to the laws of the social +existence of her fellow creatures—suddenly thrust forth friendless +into the unfriendly world, could the heart have naturally prompted any +other desire, than anxiety to secure the companion after having +discovered the protector? In the guilelessness of her character, in +her absolute ignorance of humanity, of the influence of custom, of the +adaptation of difference of feeling to difference of sex, she vainly +imagined that the tranquil existence she had urged on Hermanric, would +suffice for the attainment of her end, by presenting the same +allurements to him, a warrior and a Goth, that it contained for her—a +lonely, thoughtful, visionary girl! And yet, so wonderful was the +ascendancy that she had acquired by the magic of her presence, the +freshness of her beauty, and the novelty of her manner, over the heart +of the young chieftain, that he, who would have spurned from him with +contempt any other woman who might have addressed to him such a +petition as Antonina's, looked down sorrowfully at the girl as she +ceased speaking, and for an instant hesitated in his choice. +</P> + +<P> +At that moment, when the attention of each was fixed on the other, a +third person stealthily approached the opening of the tent, and +beholding them together thus, burst into a bitter, taunting laugh. +Hermanric raised his eyes instantly; but the sound of that harsh +unwomanly voice was all-eloquent to Antonina's senses. She hid her +face against the Goth's breast, and murmured breathlessly—'She has +returned! I must die! I must die!' +</P> + +<P> +She had returned! She perceived Hermanric and Antonina in a position, +which left no doubt that a stronger feeling than the mere wish to +protect the victim of her intended revenge, had arisen, during her +absence, in the heart of her kinsman. Hour after hour, while she had +fulfilled her duties by the beds of Alaric's invalided soldiery, had +she brooded over her projects of vengeance and blood. Neither the +sickness nor the death which she had beheld around her, had possessed +an influence powerful enough over the stubborn ferocity which now alone +animated her nature, to lure it to mercy or awe it to repentance. +Invigorated by delay, and enlarged by disappointment, the evil passion +that consumed her had strengthened its power, and aroused the most +latent of its energies, during the silent vigil that she had just held. +She had detested the girl on the evening before, for her nation; she +now hated her for herself. +</P> + +<P> +'What have you to do with the trappings of a Gothic warrior?' she +cried, in mocking accents, pointing at Hermanric with a long +hunting-knife which she held in her hand. 'Why are you here in a +Gothic encampment? Go, knock at the gates of Rome, implore her guards +on your knees to admit you among the citizens, and when they ask you +why—show them the girl there! Tell them that you love her, that you +would wed her, that it is nothing to you that her people have murdered +your brother and his children! And then, when you yourself have +begotten sons, Gothic bastards infected with Roman blood, be a Roman at +heart yourself, send your children forth to complete what your wife's +people left undone at Aquileia—by murdering me!' +</P> + +<P> +She paused and laughed scornfully. Then her humour suddenly changed, +she advanced a few steps, and continued in a louder and sterner tone:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'You have broken your faith; you have lied to me; you have forgotten +your wrongs and mine; but you have not yet forgotten my parting words +when I left you last night! I told you that she should be slain, and +now that you have refused to avenge me, I will make good my words by +killing her with my own hand! If you would defend her, you must murder +me. You must shed her blood or mine!' +</P> + +<P> +She stepped forward, her towering form was stretched to its highest +stature, the muscles started into action on her bare arms as she raised +them above her head. For one instant, she fixed her glaring eyes +steadily on the girl's shrinking form—the next, she rushed up and +struck furiously with the knife at her bare neck. As the weapon +descended, Hermanric caught her wrist. She struggled violently to +disengage herself from his grasp, but in vain. +</P> + +<P> +The countenance of the young warrior grew deadly pale, as he held her. +For a few minutes he glanced eagerly round the tent, in an agony of +bewilderment and despair. The conflicting interests of his duty +towards his sister, and his anxiety for Antonina's preservation, filled +his heart to distraction. A moment more he hesitated, and during that +short delay, the despotism of custom had yet power enough to prevail +over the promptings of pity. He called to the girl—withdrawing his +arm which had hitherto been her support,—'Go, have mercy on me, go!' +</P> + +<P> +But she neither heeded nor heard him. She fell on her knees at the +woman's feet, and in a low moaning voice faltered out:— +</P> + +<P> +'What have I done that I deserve to be slain? I never murdered your +children; I never yet saw a child but I loved it; if I had seen your +children, I should have loved them!' +</P> + +<P> +'If I had preserved to this time the child that I saved from the +massacre, and you had approached him,' returned the woman fiercely, 'I +would have taught him to strike at you with his little hands! When you +spoke to him, he should have spat upon you for answer—even thus!' +</P> + +<P> +Trembling, exhausted, terrified as she was, the girl's Roman blood +rushed over her pale cheeks as she felt the insult. She turned towards +Hermanric, looked up at him appealingly, attempted to speak, and then +sinking lower upon the ground, wept bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +'Why do you weep and pray and mouth it at him?' shrieked Goisvintha, +pointing to Hermanric with her disengaged hand. 'He has neither +courage to protect you, nor honour to aid me. Do you think that I am +to be moved by your tears and entreaties? I tell you that your people +have slain my husband and my children, and that I hate you for that. I +tell you that you have lured Hermanric into love for a Roman and +unfaithfulness to me, and I will slay you for doing it! I tell you +that there is not a living thing of the blood of your country, or the +name of your nation, throughout the length and breadth of this empire, +that I would not destroy if I had the power! If the very trees on the +road hither could have had feeling, I would have torn the bark from +their stems with my own hands! If a bird, native of your skies, had +flown into my bosom from very tameness and sport, I would have crushed +it dead at my feet! And do you think that you shall escape? Do you +think that I will not avenge the deaths of my husband and my children +upon you, after this?' +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke, she mechanically unclenched her hands. The knife dropped +to the ground. Hermanric instantly stooped and secured it. For a +moment she stood before him released from his grasp, motionless and +speechless. Then, starting as if struck by a sudden idea, she moved +towards the opening of the tent, and, in tones of malignant triumph, +addressed him thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'You shall not save her yet! You are unworthy of your nation and your +name! I will betray your cowardice and treachery to your brethren in +the camp!' And she ran to the outside of the tent, calling in a loud +voice to a group of young warriors who happened to be passing at a +short distance. 'Stay, stay! +Fritigern—Athanaric—Colias—Suerid—Witheric—Fravitta! Hasten +hitherward! Hermanric has a captive in his tent—a prisoner whom it +will rejoice to see! Hitherward! hitherward!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The group she addressed contained some of the most turbulent and +careless spirits of the whole Gothic army. They had just been released +from their duties of the past night, and were at leisure to comply with +Goisvintha's request. She had scarcely concluded her address before +they turned and hurried eagerly up to the tent, shouting to Hermanric, +as they advanced, to make his prisoner visible to them in the open air. +</P> + +<P> +They had probably expected to be regaled by the ludicrous terror of +some Roman slave whom their comrade had discovered lurking in the empty +suburbs; for when they entered the tent, and saw nothing but the +shrinking figure of the unhappy girl, as she crouched on the earth at +Hermanric's feet, they all paused with one accord, and looked round on +each other in speechless astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +'Behold her!' cried Goisvintha, breaking the momentary silence. 'She +is the Roman prisoner that your man of valour there has secured for +himself! For that trembling child he has forgotten the enmities of his +people! She is more to him already than army, general, or companions. +You have watched before the city during the night; but he has stood +sentinel by the maiden of Rome! Hope not that he will share in your +toils, or mix in your pleasures more. Alaric and the warriors have +lost his services—his future king cringes there at his feet!' +</P> + +<P> +She had expected to arouse the anger and excite the jealousy of the +rough audience she addressed; but the result of her envenomed jeers +disappointed her hopes. The humour of the moment prompted the Goths to +ridicule, a course infinitely more inimical to Antonina's interests +with Hermanric than menaces or recrimination. Recovered from their +first astonishment, they burst into a loud and universal laugh. +</P> + +<P> +'Mars and Venus caught together! But, by St. Peter, I see not Vulcan +and the net!' cried Fravitta, who having served in the armies of Rome, +and acquired a vague knowledge there of the ancient mythology, and the +modern politics of the Empire, was considered by his companions as the +wit of the battalion to which he was attached. +</P> + +<P> +'I like her figure,' growled Fritigern, a heavy, phlegmatic giant, +renowned for his imperturbable good humour and his prowess in drinking. +'What little there is of it looks so limp that Hermanric might pack her +into his light baggage and carry her about with him on his shoulders +wherever he goes!' +</P> + +<P> +'By which process you would say, old sucker of wine-skins, that he will +attain the double advantage of always keeping her to himself, and +always keeping her warm,' interrupted Colias, a ruddy, reckless boy of +sixteen, privileged to be impertinent in consideration of his years. +</P> + +<P> +'Is she Orthodox or Arian?' gravely demanded Athanaric, who piqued +himself on his theological accomplishments and his extraordinary piety. +</P> + +<P> +'What hair she has!' exclaimed Suerid, sarcastically. 'It is as black +as the horse-hides of a squadron of Huns!' +</P> + +<P> +'Show us her face! Whose tent will she visit next?' cried Witheric, +with an insolent laugh. +</P> + +<P> +'Mine!' replied Fritigern, complacently. 'What says the chorus of the +song? +</P> + +<P> +'Money and wine Make beauty mine! +</P> + +<P> +I have more of both than any of you. She will come to my tent!' +</P> + +<P> +During the delivery of these clumsy jests, which followed one upon +another with instantaneous rapidity, the scorn at first expressed in +Hermanric's countenance became gradually replaced by a look of +irrepressible anger. As Fritigern spoke, he lost all command over +himself, and seizing his sword, advanced threateningly towards the +easy-tempered giant, who made no attempt to recede or defend himself, +but called out soothingly, 'Patience, man! patience! Would you kill an +old comrade for jesting? I envy you your good luck as a friend, not as +an enemy!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Yielding to the necessity of lowering his sword before a defenceless +man, Hermanric was about to reply angrily to Fritigern, when his voice +was drowned in the blast of a trumpet, sounding close by the tent. The +signal that it gave was understood at once by the group of jesters +still surrounding the young Goth. They turned, and retired without an +instant's delay. The last of their number had scarcely disappeared, +when the same veteran who had spoken with Hermanric, on the departure +of Goisvintha the evening before, entered and thus addressed him:— +</P> + +<P> +'You are commanded to post yourself with the division that now awaits +you, at a place eastward of your present position, which will be shown +you by a guide. Make ready at once—you have not an instant to delay.' +</P> + +<P> +As the words passed the old man's lips, Hermanric turned and looked on +Goisvintha. During the presence of the Goths in the tent, she had sat +listening to their rough jeers in suppressed wrath and speechless +disdain; now she rose and advanced a few steps. But there suddenly +appeared an unwonted hesitation in her gait; her face was pale; she +breathed fast and heavily. 'Where will you shelter her now?' she +cried, addressing Hermanric, and threatening the girl with her +outstretched hands. 'Abandon her to your companions, or leave her to +me; she is lost either way! I shall triumph—triumph!'— +</P> + +<P> +At this moment her voice sank to an unintelligible murmur; she tottered +where she stood. It was evident that the long strife of passions +during her past night of watching, and the fierce and varying emotions +of the morning, suddenly brought to a crisis, as they had been, by her +exultation when she heard the old warrior's fatal message, had at +length overtasked the energies even of her powerful frame. Yet one +moment more she endeavoured to advance, to speak, to snatch the hunting +knife from Hermanric's hand; the next she fell insensible at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +Goaded almost to madness by the successive trials that he had +undergone; Goisvintha's furious determination to thwart him, still +present to his mind; the scornful words of his companions yet ringing +in his ears; his inexorable duties demanding his attention without +reserve or delay; Hermanric succumbed at last under the difficulties of +his position, and despairingly abandoned all further hope of effecting +the girl's preservation. Pointing to some food that lay in a corner of +the tent, and to the country behind, he said to her, in broken and +gloomy accents, 'Furnish yourself with those provisions, and fly, while +Goisvintha is yet unable to pursue you. I can protect you no longer!' +</P> + +<P> +Until this moment, Antonina had kept her face hidden, and had remained +still crouching on the ground; motionless, save when a shudder ran +through her frame as she listened to the loud, coarse jesting of the +Goths; and speechless, except that when Goisvintha sank senseless to +the earth, she uttered an exclamation of terror. But now, when she +heard the sentence of her banishment proclaimed by the very lips which +but the evening before had assured her of shelter and protection, she +rose up instantly, cast on the young Goth a glance of such speechless +misery and despair, that he involuntarily quailed before it; and then, +without a tear or a sigh, without a look of reproach, or a word of +entreaty, petrified and bowed down beneath a perfect trance of terror +and grief, she left the tent. +</P> + +<P> +Hurrying his actions with the reckless energy of a man determined on +banishing his thoughts by his employments, Hermanric placed himself at +the head of his troop, and marched quickly onwards in an eastward +direction past the Pincian Gate. Two of his attendants who happened to +enter the tent after his departure, observing Goisvintha still extended +on the earth, proceeded to transport her to part of the camp occupied +by the women who were attached to the army; and then, the little +sheltering canopy which made the abode of the Goth, and which had +witnessed so large a share of human misery and so fierce a war of human +contention in so few hours, was left as silent and lonely as the +deserted country in which Antonina was now fated to seek a refuge and a +home. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 12. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE PASSAGE OF THE WALL. +</H3> + +<P> +'A fair night this, Balbus! All moonlight and no mist! I was posted +last evening at the Ostian Gate, and was half choked by the fog.' +</P> + +<P> +'If you were posted last night at the Ostian Gate, you were better +placed than you are now. The ramparts here are as lonely as a ruin in +the provinces. Nothing behind us but the back of the Pincian Mount; +nothing before us but the empty suburbs; nothing at each side of us but +brick and stone; nothing at our posts but ourselves. May I be +crucified like St. Peter, if I believe that there is another place on +the whole round of the walls possessed of such solitary dulness as +this!' +</P> + +<P> +'You are a man to find something to complain of, if you were lodged in +one of the palaces yonder. The place is solitary enough, it is true; +but whether it is dull or not depends on ourselves, its most honourable +occupants. I, for one, am determined to promote its joviality by the +very praiseworthy exertion of obliging you, my discontented friend, +with an inexhaustible series of those stories for which, I may say, +without arrogance, I am celebrated throughout the length and breadth of +all the barracks of Rome.' +</P> + +<P> +'You may tell as many stories as you please, but do not imagine that I +will make one of your audience.' +</P> + +<P> +'You are welcome to attend to me or not, as you choose. Though you do +not listen, I shall still relate my stories by way of practice. I will +address them to the walls, or to the air, or to the defunct gods and +goddesses of antiquity, should they happen at this moment to be +hovering over the city in a rage, as some of the unconverted would have +us believe; or to our neighbours the Goths, if they are seized with a +sudden desire to quite their encampments, and obtain a near view of the +fortifications that they are so discreetly unwilling to assault. Or, +these materials for a fit and decent auditory failing me, I will tell +my stories to the most attentive of all listeners—myself.' +</P> + +<P> +And the sentinel, without further delay, opened his budget of +anecdotes, with the easy fluency of of a man who possessed a +well-placed confidence in the perfection of his capacities for +narration. Determined that his saturnine colleague should hear him, +though he would not give him his attention, he talked in a raised +voice, pacing briskly backwards and forwards over the space of his +allotted limits, and laughing with ludicrous regularity and complacency +at every jest that he happened to make in the course of his +ill-rewarded narrative. He little thought, as he continued to proceed +in his tale that its commencement had been welcomed by an unseen +hearer, with emotions widely different from those which had dictated +the observations of the unfriendly companion of his watch. +</P> + +<P> +True to his determination, Ulpius, with part of the wages which he had +hoarded in Numerian's service, had procured a small lantern from a shop +in one of the distant quarters of Rome; and veiling its light in a +piece of coarse, thick cloth, had proceeded by the solitary pathway to +his second night's labour at the wall. He arrived at the breach, at +the commencement of the dialogue above related, and heard with delight +the sentinel's noisy resolution to amuse his companion in spite of +himself. The louder and the longer the man talked, the less probable +was the chance that the Pagan's labours in the interior of the wall +would be suspected or overheard. +</P> + +<P> +Softly clearing away the brushwood at the entrance of the hole that he +had made the night before, Ulpius crept in as far as he had penetrated +on that occasion; and then, with mingled emotions of expectation and +apprehension which affected him so powerfully, that he was for the +moment hardly master of his actions, he slowly and cautiously uncovered +his light. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +His first glance was intuitively directed to the cavity that opened +beneath him. He saw immediately that it was less important, both in +size and depth, than he had imagined it to be. The earth at this +particular place had given way beneath the foundations of the wall, +which had sunk down, deepening the chasm by their weight, into the +yielding ground beneath them. A small spring of water (probably the +first cause of the sinking in the earth) had bubbled up into the space +in the brick-work, which bit by bit, and year by year, it had gradually +undermined. Nor did it remain stagnant at this place. It trickled +merrily and quietly onward—a tiny rivulet, emancipated from one prison +in the ground only to enter another in the wall, bounded by no grassy +banks, brightened by no cheerful light, admired by no human eye, +followed in its small course through the inner fissures in the brick by +no living thing but a bloated toad, or a solitary lizard: yet wending +as happily on its way through darkness and ruin, as its sisters who +were basking in the sunlight of the meadows, or leaping in the fresh +breezes of the open mountain side. +</P> + +<P> +Raising his eyes from the little spring, Ulpius next directed his +attention to the prospect above him. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately over his head, the material of the interior of the wall +presented a smooth, flat, hard surface, which seemed capable of +resisting the most vigorous attempts at its destruction; but on looking +round, he perceived at one side of him and further inwards, an +appearance of dark, dimly-defined irregularity, which promised +encouragingly for his intended efforts. He descended into the chasm of +the rivulet, crawled up on a heap of crumbling brick-work, and gained a +hole above it, which he immediately began to widen, to admit of his +passage through. Inch by inch, he enlarged the rift, crept into it, +and found himself on a fragment of the bow of one of the foundation +arches, which, though partly destroyed, still supported itself, +isolated from all connection with the part of the upper wall which it +had once sustained, and which had gradually crumbled away into the +cavities below. +</P> + +<P> +He looked up. An immense rift soared above him, stretching its +tortuous ramifications, at different points, into every part of the +wall that was immediately visible. The whole structure seemed, at this +place, to have received a sudden and tremendous wrench. But for the +support of the sounder fortifications at each side of it, it could not +have sustained itself after the shock. The Pagan gazed aloft, into the +fearful breaches which yawned above him, with ungovernable awe. His +small, fitful light was not sufficient to show him any of their +terminations. They looked, as he beheld them in dark relief against +the rest of the hollow part of the wall, like mighty serpents twining +their desolating path right upward to the ramparts above; and he, +himself, as he crouched on his pinnacle with his little light by his +side, was reduced by the wild grandeur, the vast, solemn gloom of the +obscure, dusky, and fantastic objects around him, to the stature of a +pigmy. Could he have been seen from the ramparts high overhead, as he +now peered down behind his lantern into the cavities and irregularities +below him, he would have looked, with his flickering light, like a mole +led by a glow-worm. +</P> + +<P> +He paused to consider his next movements. In a stationary position, +the damp coldness of the atmosphere was almost insupportable, but he +attained a great advantage by his present stillness: he could listen +undisturbed by the noises made by the bricks which crumbled from under +him, if he advanced. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Ere long, he heard a thin, winding, long-drawn sound, now louder, now +softer; now approaching, now retreating; now verging towards +shrillness, now quickly returning to a faint, gentle swell. Suddenly +this strange unearthly music was interrupted by a succession of long, +deep, rolling sounds, which travelled grandly about the fissures above, +like prisoned thunderbolts striving to escape. Utterly ignorant that +the first of these noises was occasioned by the night wind winding +through the rents in the brick of the outer wall beyond him; and the +second, by the echoes produced in the irregular cavities above, by the +footfall of the sentries overhead—roused by the influence of the +place, and the mystery of his employment, to a pitch of fanatic +exaltation, which for the moment absolutely unsteadied his +reason—filled with the frantic enthusiasm of his designs, and the +fearful legends of invisible beings and worlds which made the +foundation of his worship, Ulpius conceived, as he listened to the +sounds around and above, that the gods of antiquity were now in +viewless congregation hovering about him, and calling to him in +unearthly voices and in an unknown tongue, to proceed upon his daring +enterprise, in the full assurance of its near and glorious success. +</P> + +<P> +'Roar and mutter, and make your hurricane music in my ears!' exclaimed +the Pagan, raising his withered hands, and addressing in a savage +ecstacy his imagined deities. 'Your servant Ulpius stops not on the +journey that leads him to your repeopled shrines! Blood, crime, +danger, pain—pride and honour, joy and rest, have I strewn like +sacrifices at your altars' feet! Time has whirled past me; youth and +manhood have lain long since buried in the hidden Lethe which is the +portion of life; age has wreathed his coils over my body's strength, +but still I watch by your temples and serve your mighty cause! Your +vengeance is near! Monarchs of the world, your triumph is at hand!' +</P> + +<P> +He remained for some time in the same position, looking fixedly up into +the trackless darkness above him, drinking in the sounds +which—alternately rising and sinking—still floated round him. The +trembling gleam of his lantern fell red and wild upon his livid +countenance. His shaggy hair floated in the cold breezes that blew by +him. At this moment he would have appeared from a distance, like a +phantom of fire perishing in a mist of darkness; like a Gnome in +adoration in the bowels of the earth; like a forsaken spirit in a +solitary purgatory, watching for the advent of a glimpse of beauty, or +a breath of air. +</P> + +<P> +At length he aroused himself from his trance, trimmed with careful hand +his guiding lantern, and set forward to penetrate the breadth of the +great rift he had just entered. +</P> + +<P> +He moved on in an oblique direction several feet, now creeping over the +tops of the foundation arches, now skirting the extremities of +protrusions in the ruined brick-work, now descending into dark slimy +rubbish-choked chasms, until the rift suddenly diminished in all +directions. +</P> + +<P> +The atmosphere was warmer in the place he now occupied; he could +faintly distinguish patches of dark moss, dotted here and there over +the uneven surface of the wall; and once or twice, some blades of long +flat grass, that grew from a prominence immediately above his head, +were waved in his face by the wind, which he could now feel blowing +through the narrow fissure that he was preparing to enlarge. It was +evident that he had by this time advanced to within a few feet of the +outer extremity of the wall. +</P> + +<P> +'Numerian wanders after his child through the streets,' muttered the +Pagan, as he deposited his lantern by his side, bared his trembling +arms, and raised his iron bar, 'the slaves of his neighbour the senator +are forth to pursue me. On all sides my enemies are out after me; but, +posted here, I mock their strictest search! If they would track me to +my hiding-place, they must penetrate the walls of Rome! If they would +hunt me down in my lair, they must assail me to-night in the camp of +the Goths! Fools! let them look to themselves! I seal the doom of +their city, with the last brick that I tear from their defenceless +walls!' +</P> + +<P> +He laughed to himself as he thrust his bar boldly into the crevice +before him. In some places the bricks yielded easily to his efforts; +in others, their resistance was only to be overcome by the exertion of +his utmost strength. Resolutely and unceasingly he continued his +labours; now wounding his hands against the jagged surfaces presented +by the widening fissure; now involuntarily dropping his instrument from +ungovernable exhaustion; but, still working bravely on, in defiance of +every hindrance that opposed him, until he gained the interior of the +new rift. +</P> + +<P> +As he drew his lantern after him into the cavity that he had made, he +perceived that, unless it was heightened immediately over him, he could +proceed no further, even in a creeping position. Irritated at this +unexpected necessity for more violent exertion, desperate in his +determination to get through the wall at all hazards on that very +night, he recklessly struck his bar upwards with all his strength, +instead of gradually and softly loosening the material of the surface +that opposed him, as he had done before. +</P> + +<P> +A few moments of this labour had scarcely elapsed, when a considerable +portion of the brick-work, consolidated into one firm mass, fell with +lightning suddenness from above. It hurled him under it, prostrate on +the foundation arch which had been his support; crushed and dislocated +his right shoulder; and shivered his lantern into fragments. A groan +of irrepressible anguish burst from his lips. He was left in +impenetrable darkness. +</P> + +<P> +The mass of brick-work, after it had struck him, rolled a little to one +side. By a desperate exertion he extricated himself from under +it—only to swoon from the fresh anguish caused to him by the effort. +</P> + +<P> +For a short time he lay insensible in his cold dark solitude. Then, +reviving after this first shock, he began to experience in all their +severity, the fierce spasms, the dull gnawings, the throbbing torments, +that were the miserable consequences of the injury he received. His +arm lay motionless by his side—he had neither strength nor resolution +to move any one of the other sound limbs in his body. At one moment +his deep, sobbing, stifled respirations, syllabled horrible and +half-formed curses—at another, his panting breaths suddenly died away +within him; and then he could hear the blood dripping slowly from his +shoulder, with dismal regularity, into a little pool that it had formed +already by his side. +</P> + +<P> +The shrill breezes which wound through the crevices in the wall before +him, were now felt only on his wounded limb. They touched its surface +like innumerable splinters of thin, sharp ice; they penetrated his +flesh like rushing sparks struck out of a sea of molten lead. There +were moments, during the first pangs of this agony, when if he had been +possessed of a weapon and of the strength to use it, he would have +sacrificed his ambition for ever by depriving himself of life. +</P> + +<P> +But this desire to end his torments with his existence lasted not long. +Gradually, the anguish in his body awakened a wilder and stronger +distemper in his mind, and then the two agonies, physical and mental, +rioted over him together in fierce rivalry, divesting him of all +thoughts but such as were by their own agency created or aroused. +</P> + +<P> +For some time he lay helpless in his misery, alternately venting by +stifled groans the unalleviated torment of his wounds, and lamenting +with curses the failure of his enterprise, at the very moment of its +apparent success. At length, the pangs that struck through him seemed +to grow gradually less frequent; he hardly knew now from what part of +his frame they more immediately proceeded. Insensibly, his faculties of +thinking and feeling grew blunted; then he remained a little while in a +mysterious unrefreshing repose of body and mind; and then his +disordered senses, left unguided and unrestrained, became the victims +of a sudden and terrible delusion. +</P> + +<P> +The blank darkness around him appeared, after an interval, to be +gradually dawning into a dull light, thick and misty, like the +reflections on clouds which threaten a thunderstorm at the close of +evening. Soon, this atmosphere seemed to be crossed and streaked with +a fantastic trellis-work of white, seething vapour. Then the mass of +brick-work which had struck him down, grew visible at his side, +enlarged to an enormous bulk, and endued with a power of self-motion, +by which it mysteriously swelled and shrank, and raised and depressed +itself, without quitting for a moment its position near him. And then, +from its dark and toiling surface there rose a long stream of dusky +shapes, which twined themselves about the misty trellis-work above, and +took the prominent and palpable form of human countenances, marked by +every difference of age and distorted by every variety of suffering. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +There were infantine faces, wreathed about with grave-worms that hung +round them like locks of filthy hair; aged faces, dabbled with gore and +slashed with wounds; youthful faces, seamed with livid channels, along +which ran unceasing tears; lovely faces, distorted into fixed +expressions of raging pain, wild malignity, and despairing gloom. Not +one of these countenances exactly resembled the other. Each was +distinguished by a revolting character of its own. Yet, however +deformed might be their other features, the eyes of all were preserved +unimpaired. Speechless and bodiless, they floated in unceasing myriads +up to the fantastic trellis-work, which seemed to swell its wild +proportions to receive them. There they clustered, in their goblin +amphitheatre, and fixed and silently they all glared down, without one +exception, on the Pagan's face! +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the walls at the side began to gleam out with a light of +their own, making jagged boundaries to the midway scene of phantom +faces. Then the rifts in their surfaces widened, and disgorged +misshapen figures of priests and idols of the old time, which came +forth in every hideous deformity of aspect, mocking at the faces on the +trellis-work; while behind and over the whole, soared shapes of +gigantic darkness, robed in grim cloudy resemblances of skins such as +were worn by the Goths, and wielding through the quivering vapour, +mighty and shadow-like weapons of war. From the whole of this ghastly +assemblage there rose not the slightest sound. A stillness, as of a +dead and ruined world, possessed in all its quarters the appalling +scene. The deep echoes of the sentries' footsteps and the faint +dirging of the melancholy winds were no more. The blood that had as +yet dripped from his wound, made no sound now in the Pagan's ear; even +his own agony of terror was as silent as were the visionary demons who +had aroused it. Days, years, centuries, seemed to pass, as he lay +gazing up, in a trance of horror, into his realm of peopled and ghostly +darkness. At last nature yielded under the trial; the phantom prospect +suddenly whirled round him with fearful velocity, and his senses sought +refuge from the thraldom of their own creation in a deep and welcome +swoon. +</P> + +<P> +Time had moved wearily onward, the chiding winds had many times waved +the dry locks of his hair to and fro about his brow, as if to bid him +awaken and arise, ere he again recovered his consciousness. Once more +aroused to the knowledge of his position and the sensation of his +wound, he slowly raised himself upon his uninjured arm, and looked +wildly around for the faintest appearance of a gleam of light. But the +winding and uneven nature of the track which he had formed to lead him +through the wall, effectually prevented the moonbeams, then floating +into the outermost of the cavities that he had made, from reaching the +place where he now lay. Not a single object was even faintly +distinguishable around him. Darkness hemmed him in, in rayless and +triumphant obscurity, on every side. +</P> + +<P> +The first agonies of the injury he had received had resolved themselves +into one dull, heavy, unchanging sensation of pain. The vision that +had overwhelmed his senses was now, in a vast and shadowy form, present +only to his memory, filling the darkness with fearful recollections, +and not with dismal forms; and urging on him a restless, headlong +yearning to effect his escape from the lonely and unhallowed sepulchre, +the prison of solitude and death, that his own fatal exertions +threatened him with, should he linger much longer in the caverns of the +wall. +</P> + +<P> +'I must pass from this darkness into light—I must breathe the air of +the sky, or I shall perish in the damps of this vault,' he exclaimed in +a hoarse, moaning voice, as he raised himself gradually and painfully +into a creeping position; and turning round slowly, commenced his +meditated retreat. +</P> + +<P> +His brain still whirled with the emotions that had so lately +overwhelmed his mind; his right hand hung helplessly by his side, +dragged after him like a prisoner's chain, and lacerated by the uneven +surface of the ground over which it was slowly drawn, as—supporting +himself on his left arm, and creeping forward a few inches at a +time—he set forth on his toilsome journey. +</P> + +<P> +Here, he paused bewildered in the darkness; there, he either checked +himself by a convulsive effort from falling headlong into the unknown +deeps beneath him, or lost the little ground he had gained in labour +and agony, by retracing his way at the bidding of some unexpected +obstacle. Now he gnashed his teeth in anguish, now he cursed in +despair, now he was breathless with exhaustion; but still, with an +obstinacy that had in it something of the heroic, he never failed in +his fierce resolution to effect his escape. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Slowly and painfully, moving with the pace and the perseverance of the +tortoise, hopeless yet determined as a navigator in a strange sea, he +writhed onward and onward upon his unguided course, until he reaped at +length the reward of his long suffering, by the sudden discovery of a +thin ray of moonlight toiling through a crevice in the murky brickwork +before him. Hardly did the hearts of the Magi when the vision of 'the +star in the East' first dawned on their eyes, leap within them with a +more vivid transport, than that which animated the heart of Ulpius at +the moment when he beheld the inspiring and guiding light. +</P> + +<P> +Yet a little more exertion, a little more patience, a little more +anguish; and he stood once again, a ghastly and crippled figure, before +the outer cavity in the wall. +</P> + +<P> +It was near daybreak; the moon shone faintly in the dull, grey heaven; +a small, vaporous rain was sinking from the shapeless clouds; the +waning night showed bleak and cheerless to the earth, but cast no +mournful or reproving influence over the Pagan's mind. He looked round +on his solitary lurking place, and beheld no human figure in its lonely +recesses. He looked up at the ramparts, and saw that the sentinels +stood silent and apart, wrapped in their heavy watch-cloaks, and +supported on their trusty weapons. It was perfectly apparent that the +events of his night of suffering and despair had passed unheeded by the +outer world. +</P> + +<P> +He glanced back with a shudder upon his wounded and helpless limb; then +his eyes fixed themselves upon the wall. After surveying it with an +earnest and defiant gaze, he slowly moved the brushwood with his foot, +against the small cavity in its outer surface. +</P> + +<P> +'Days pass, wounds heal, chances change,' muttered the old man, +departing from his haunt with slow and uncertain steps. 'In the mines +I have borne lashes without a murmur—I have felt my chains widening, +with each succeeding day, the ulcers that their teeth of iron first +gnawed in my flesh, and have yet lived to loosen my fetters, and to +close my sores! Shall this new agony have a power to conquer me +greater than the others that are past? I will even yet return in time +to overcome the resistance of the wall! My arm is crushed, but my +purpose is whole!' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 13. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS. +</H3> + +<P> +Retracing some hours, we turn from the rifted wall to the suburbs and +the country which its ramparts overlook; abandoning the footsteps of +the maimed and darkly-plotting Ulpius, our attention now fixes itself +on the fortunes of Hermanric, and the fate of Antonina. +</P> + +<P> +Although the evening had as yet scarcely closed, the Goth had allotted +to the warriors under his command their different stations for the +night in the lonely suburbs of the city. This duty performed, he was +left to the unbroken solitude of the deserted tenement which now served +him as a temporary abode. +</P> + +<P> +The house he occupied was the last of the wide and irregular street in +which it stood; it looked towards the wall beneath the Pincian Mount, +from which it was separated by a public garden about half a mile in +extent. This once well-thronged place of recreation was now totally +unoccupied. Its dull groves were brightened by no human forms; the +chambers of its gay summer houses were dark and desolate; the booths of +its fruit and flower-sellers stood vacant on its untrodden lawns. +Melancholy and forsaken, it stretched forth as a fertile solitude under +the very walls of a crowded city. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +And yet there was a charm inexpressibly solemn and soothing in the +prospect of loneliness that it presented, as its flower-beds and trees +were now gradually obscured to the eye in the shadows of the advancing +night. It gained in its present refinement as much as it had lost of +its former gaiety; it had its own simple attraction still, though it +failed to sparkle to the eye with its accustomed illuminations, or to +please the ear by the music and laughter, which rose from it in times +of peace. As he looked forth over the view from the terrace of his new +abode, the remembrance of the employments of his past and busy hours +deserted the memory of the young Goth, leaving his faculties free to +welcome the reflections which night began insensibly to awaken and +create. +</P> + +<P> +Employed under such auspices, whither would the thoughts of Hermanric +naturally stray? +</P> + +<P> +From the moonlight that already began to ripple over the topmost +trembling leaves of the trees beyond him, to the delicate and shadowy +flowers that twined up the pillars of the deserted terrace where he now +stood, every object he beheld connected itself, to his vivid and +uncultured imagination, with the one being of whom all that was +beautiful in nature, seemed to him the eloquent and befitting type. He +thought of Antonina whom he had once protected; of Antonina whom he had +afterwards abandoned; of Antonina whom he had now lost! +</P> + +<P> +Strong in the imaginative and weak in the reasoning faculties; gifted +with large moral perception and little moral firmness; too easy to be +influenced and too difficult to be resolved, Hermanric had deserted the +girl's interests from an infirmity of disposition, rather than from a +determination of will. Now, therefore, when the employments of the day +had ceased to absorb his attention; now when silence and solitude led +his memory back to his morning's abandonment of his helpless charge, +that act of fatal impatience and irresolution inspired him with the +strongest emotions of sorrow and remorse. If during her sojourn under +his care, Antonina had insensibly influenced his heart, her image, now +that he reflected on his guilty share in their parting scene, filled +all his thoughts, at once saddening and shaming him, as he remembered +her banishment from the shelter of his tent. +</P> + +<P> +Every feeling which had animated his reflections on Antonina on the +previous night, was doubled in intensity as he thought on her now. +Again he recalled her eloquent words, and remembered the charm of her +gentle and innocent manner; again he dwelt on the beauties of her +outward form. Each warm expression; each varying intonation of voice +that had accompanied her petition to him for safety and companionship; +every persuasion that she had used to melt him, now revived in his +memory and moved in his heart with steady influence and increasing +power. All the hurried and imperfect pictures of happiness which she +had drawn to allure him, now expanded and brightened, until his mind +began to figure to him visions that had been hitherto unknown to +faculties occupied by no other images than those of rivalry, +turbulence, and strife. Scenes called into being by Antonina's +lightest and hastiest expressions, now rose vague and shadowy before +his brooding spirit. Lovely places of earth that he had visited and +forgotten now returned to his recollection, idealised and refined as he +thought of her. She appeared to his mind in every allurement of +action, fulfilling all the duties and enjoying all the pleasures that +she had proposed to him. He imagined her happy and healthful, +journeying gaily by his side in the fresh morning, with rosy cheek and +elastic step; he imagined her delighting him by her promised songs, +enlivening him by her eloquent words, in the mellow stillness of +evening; he imagined her sleeping, soft and warm and still, in his +protecting arms—ever happy and ever gentle; girl in years, and woman +in capacities; at once lover and companion, teacher and pupil, follower +and guide! +</P> + +<P> +Such she might have been once! What was she now? +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Was she sinking under her loneliness, perishing from exposure and +fatigue, repulsed by the cruel, or mocked by the unthinking? To all +these perils and miseries had he exposed her; and to what end? To +maintain the uncertain favour, to preserve the unwelcome friendship, of +a woman abandoned even by the most common and intuitive virtues of her +sex; whose frantic craving for revenge, confounded justice with +treachery, innocence with guilt, helplessness with tyranny; whose +claims of nation and relationship should have been forfeited in his +estimation, by the openly-confessed malignity of her designs, at the +fatal moment when she had communicated them to him in all their +atrocity, before the walls of Rome. He groaned in despair, as he +thought on this, the most unworthy of the necessities, to which the +forsaken girl had been sacrificed. +</P> + +<P> +Soon, however, his mind reverted from such reflections as these, to his +own duties and his own renown; and here his remorse became partially +lightened, though his sorrow remained unchanged. +</P> + +<P> +Wonderful as had been the influence of Antonina's presence and +Antonina's words over the Goth, they had not yet acquired power enough +to smother in him entirely the warlike instincts of his sex and nation, +or to vanquish the strong and hostile promptings of education and +custom. She had gifted him with new emotions, and awakened him to new +thought; she had aroused all the dormant gentleness of his disposition +to war against the rugged indifference, the reckless energy, that +teaching and example had hitherto made a second nature to his heart. +She had wound her way into his mind, brightening its dark places, +enlarging its narrow recesses, beautifying its unpolished treasures. +She had created, she had refined, during her short hours of +communication with him, but she had not lured his disposition entirely +from its old habits and its old attachments; she had not yet stripped +off the false glitter from barbarian strife, or the pomp from martial +renown; she had not elevated the inferior intellectual, to the height +of the superior moral faculties, in his inward composition. Submitted +almost impartially to the alternate and conflicting dominion of the two +masters, Love and Duty, he at once regretted Antonina, and yet clung +mechanically to his old obedience to those tyrannic requirements of +nation and name, which had occasioned her loss. +</P> + +<P> +Oppressed by his varying emotions, destitute alike of consolation and +advice, the very inaction of his present position sensibly depressed +him. He rose impatiently, and buckling on his weapons, sought to +escape from his thoughts, by abandoning the scene under the influence +of which they had been first aroused. Turning his back upon the city, +he directed his steps at random, through the complicated labyrinth of +streets, composing the extent of the deserted suburbs. +</P> + +<P> +After he had passed through the dwellings comprised in the occupation +of the Gothic lines, and had gained those situated nearer to the +desolate country beyond, the scene around him became impressive enough +to have absorbed the attention of any man not wholly occupied by other +and more important objects of contemplation. +</P> + +<P> +The loneliness he now beheld on all sides, was not the loneliness of +ruin—the buildings near him were in perfect repair; it was not the +loneliness of pestilence—there were no corpses strewn over the +untrodden pavements of the streets; it was not the loneliness of +seclusion—there were no barred windows, and few closed doors; it was a +solitude of human annihilation. The open halls were unapproached; the +benches before the wine-shops were unoccupied; remains of gaudy +household wares still stood on the counters of the street booths, +watched by none, bought by none; particles of bread and meat +(treasures, fated to become soon of greater value than silver and gold, +to beleaguered Rome) rotted here in the open air, like garbage upon +dunghills; children's toys, women's ornaments, purses, money, +love-tokens, precious manuscripts, lay scattered hither and thither in +the public ways, dropped and abandoned by their different owners, in +the hurry of their sudden and universal flight. Every deserted street +was eloquent of darling projects desperately resigned, of valued +labours miserably deserted, of delighting enjoyments irretrievably +lost. The place was forsaken even by those household gods of rich and +poor, its domestic animals. They had either followed their owners into +the city, or strayed, unhindered and unwatched, into the country +beyond. Mansion, bath, and circus, displayed their gaudy pomp and +luxurious comfort in vain; not even a wandering Goth was to be seen +near their empty halls. For, with such a prospect before them as the +subjugation of Rome, the army had caught the infection of its leader's +enthusiasm for his exalted task, and willingly obeyed his commands for +suspending the pillage of the suburbs, disdaining the comparatively +worthless treasures around them, attainable at any time, when they felt +that the rich coffers of Rome herself were now fast opening to their +eager hands. Voiceless and noiseless, unpeopled and unravaged, lay the +far-famed suburbs of the greatest city of the universe, sunk alike in +the night of Nature, the night of Fortune, and the night of Glory! +</P> + +<P> +Saddening and impressive as was the prospect thus presented to the eyes +of the young Goth, it failed to weaken the powerful influence that his +evening's meditations yet held over his mind. As, during the hours +that were passed, the image of the forsaken girl had dissipated the +remembrance of the duties he had performed, and opposed the +contemplation of the commands he was yet to fulfil, so it now denied to +his faculties any impressions from the lonely scene, beheld, yet +unnoticed, which spread around him. Still, as he passed through the +gloomy streets, his vain regrets and self-accusations, his natural +predilections and acquired attachments, ruled over him and contended +within him, as sternly and as unceasingly as in the first moments when +they had arisen with the evening, during his sojourn in the terrace of +the deserted house. +</P> + +<P> +He had now arrived at the extremest boundary of the buildings in the +suburbs. Before him lay an uninterrupted prospect of smooth, shining +fields, and soft, hazy, indefinable woods. At one side of him were +some vineyards and cottage gardens; at the other was a solitary house, +the outermost of all the abodes in his immediate vicinity. Dark and +cheerless as it was, he regarded it for some time with the mechanical +attention of a man more occupied in thought than +observation,—gradually advancing towards it in the moody abstraction +of his reflections, until he unconsciously paused before the low range +of irregular steps which led to its entrance door. +</P> + +<P> +Startled from its meditations by his sudden propinquity to the object +that he had unwittingly approached, he now, for the first time, +examined the lonely abode before him with real attention. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing remarkable about the house, save the extreme +desolateness of its appearance, which seemed to arise partly from its +isolated position, and partly from the unusual absence of all +decoration on its external front. It was too extensive to have been +the dwelling of a poor man, too void of pomp and ornament to have been +a mansion of the rich. It might, perhaps, have belonged to some +citizen, or foreigner, or the middle class—some moody Northman, some +solitary Egyptian, some scheming Jew. Yet, though it was not +possessed, in itself, of any remarkable or decided character, the Goth +experienced a mysterious, almost an eager curiosity to examine its +interior. He could assign no cause, discover no excuse for the act, as +he slowly mounted the steps before him. Some invisible and +incomprehensible magnet attracted him to the dwelling. If his return +had been suddenly commanded by Alaric himself; if evidences of +indubitable treachery had lurked about the solitary place, at the +moment when he thrust open its unbarred door, he felt that he must +still have proceeded upon his onward course. The next instant he +entered the house. The light streamed through the open entrance into +the gloomy hall; the night-wind, rushing upon its track, blew shrill +and dreary among the stone pillars, and in the hidden crevices and +untenanted chambers above. Not a sign of life appeared, not a sound of +a footstep was audible, not even an article of household use was to be +seen. The deserted suburbs rose without, like a wilderness; and this +empty house looked within, like a sepulchre—void of corpses, and yet +eloquent of death! +</P> + +<P> +There was an inexplicable fascination to the eyes of the Goth about +this vault-like, solitary hall. He stood motionless at its entrance, +gazing dreamily at the gloomy prospect before him, until a strong gust +of wind suddenly forced the outer door further backwards, and at the +same moment admitted a larger stream of light. +</P> + +<P> +The place was not empty. In a corner of the hall, hitherto sunk in +darkness, crouched a shadowy form. It was enveloped in a dark garment, +and huddled up into an indefinable and unfamiliar shape. Nothing +appeared on it, as a denoting sign of humanity, but one pale hand, +holding the black drapery together, and relieved against it in almost +ghastly contrast under the cold light of the moon. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Vague remembrances of the awful superstitions of his nation's ancient +worship, hurried over the memory of the young Goth, at the first moment +of his discovery of the ghost-like occupant of the hall. As he stood +in fixed attention before the motionless figure, it soon began to be +endowed with the same strange influence over his will, that the lonely +house had already exerted. He advanced slowly towards the crouching +form. +</P> + +<P> +It never stirred at the noise of his approach. The pale hand still +held the mantle over the compressed figure, with the same rigid +immobility of grasp. Brave as he was, Hermanric shuddered as he bent +down and touched the bloodless, icy fingers. At that action, as if +endowed with instant vitality from contact with a living being, the +figure suddenly started up. +</P> + +<P> +Then, the folds of the dark mantle fell back, disclosing a face as pale +in hue as the stone pillars around it; and the voice of the solitary +being became audible, uttering in faint, monotonous accents, these +words:— +</P> + +<P> +'He has forgotten and abandoned me!—slay me if you will!—I am ready +to die!' +</P> + +<P> +Broken, untuned as it was, there yet lurked in that voice a tone of its +old music, there beamed in that vacant and heavy eye a ray of its +native gentleness. With a sudden exclamation of compassion and +surprise, the Goth stepped forward, raised the trembling outcast in his +arms; and, in the impulse of the moment quitting the solitary house, +stood the next instant on the firm earth, and under the starry sky, +once more united to the charge that he had abandoned—to Antonina whom +he had lost. +</P> + +<P> +He spoke to her, caressed her, entreated her pardon, assured her of his +future care; but she neither answered nor recognised him. She never +looked in his face, never moved in his arms, never petitioned for +mercy. She gave no sign of life or being, saving that she moaned at +regular intervals in piteous accents:—'He has forgotten and abandoned +me!' as if that one simple expression comprised in itself, her +acknowledgment of the uselessness of her life, and her dirge for her +expected death. +</P> + +<P> +The Goth's countenance whitened to his very lips. He began to fear +that her faculties had sunk under her trials. He hurried on with her +with trembling steps towards the open country, for he nourished a +dreamy, intuitive hope, that the sight of those woods and fields and +mountains which she had extolled to him, in her morning's entreaty for +protection, might aid in restoring her suspended consciousness, if she +now looked on them. +</P> + +<P> +He ran forward, until he had left the suburbs at least half a mile +behind him, and had reached an eminence, bounded on each side by high +grass banks and clustering woods, and commanding a narrow, yet various +prospect, of the valley ground beneath, and the fertile plains that +extended beyond. +</P> + +<P> +Here the warrior paused with his burden; and, seating himself on the +bank, once more attempted to calm the girl's continued bewilderment and +terror. He thought not on his sentinels, whom he had abandoned—on his +absence from the suburbs, which might be perceived and punished by an +unexpected visit, at his deserted quarters, from his superiors in the +camp. The social influence that sways the world; the fragile idol at +whose shrine pride learns to bow, and insensibility to feel; the soft, +grateful influence of yielding nature yet eternal rule—the influence +of woman, source alike of virtues and crimes, of earthly glories and +earthly disasters—had, in this moment of anguish and expectation, +silenced in him every appeal of duty, and overthrown every obstacle of +selfish doubt. He now spoke to Antonina as alluringly as a woman, as +gently as a child. He caressed her as warmly as a lover, as cheerfully +as a brother, as kindly as a father. He—the rough, northern warrior, +whose education had been of arms, and whose youthful aspirations had +been taught to point towards strife and bloodshed and glory—even he +was now endowed with the tender eloquence of pity and love—with +untiring, skilful care—with calm, enduring patience. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Gently and unceasingly he plied his soothing task; and soon, to his joy +and triumph, he beheld the approaching reward of his efforts, in the +slow changes that became gradually perceptible in the girl's face and +manner. She raised herself in his arms, looked up fixedly and vacantly +into his face, then round upon the bright, quiet landscape, then back +again more stedfastly upon her companion; and at length, trembling +violently, she whispered softly and several times the young Goth's +name, glancing at him anxiously and apprehensively, as if she feared +and doubted while she recognised him. +</P> + +<P> +'You are bearing me to my death,'—said she suddenly. 'You, who once +protected me—you, who forsook me!—You are luring me into the power of +the woman who thirsts for my blood!—Oh, it is horrible—horrible!' +</P> + +<P> +She paused, averted her face, and shuddering violently, disengaged +herself from his arms. After an interval, she continued:— +</P> + +<P> +'Through the long day, and in the beginning of the cold night, I have +waited in one solitary place for the death that is in store for me! I +have suffered all the loneliness of my hours of expectation, without +complaint; I have listened with little dread, and no grief, for the +approach of my enemy who has sworn that she will shed my blood! Having +none to love me, and being a stranger in the land of my own nation, I +have nothing to live for! But it is a bitter misery to me to behold in +you the fulfiller of my doom; to be snatched by the hand of Hermanric +from the heritage of life that I have so long struggled to preserve!' +</P> + +<P> +Her voice had altered, as she pronounced these words, to an impressive +lowness and mournfulness of tone. Its quiet, saddened accents were +expressive of an almost divine resignation and sorrow; they seemed to +be attuned to a mysterious and untraceable harmony with the melancholy +stillness of the night-landscape. As she now stood looking up with +pale, calm countenance, and gentle, tearless eyes, into the sky whose +moonlight brightness shone softly over her form, the Virgin watching +the approach of her angel messenger could hardly have been adorned with +a more pure and simple loveliness, than now dwelt over the features of +Numerian's forsaken child. +</P> + +<P> +No longer master of his agitation; filled with awe, grief, and despair, +as he looked on the victim of his heartless impatience; Hermanric bowed +himself at the girl's feet, and, in the passionate utterance of real +remorse, offered up his supplications for pardon and his assurances of +protection and love. All that the reader has already learned—the +bitter self-upbraidings of his evening, the sorrowful wanderings of his +night, the mysterious attraction that led him to the solitary house, +his joy at once more discovering his lost charge—all these confessions +he now poured forth in the simple yet powerful eloquence of strong +emotion and true regret. +</P> + +<P> +Gradually and amazedly, as she listened to his words, Antonina awoke +from her abstraction. Even the expression of his countenance and the +earnestness of his manner, viewed by the intuitive penetration of her +sex, wrought with kind and healing influence on her mind. She started +suddenly, a bright flush flew over her colourless cheeks; she bent +down, and looked earnestly and wistfully into the Goth's face. Her +lips moved, but her quick convulsive breathing stifled the words that +she vainly endeavoured to form. +</P> + +<P> +'Yes,' continued Hermanric, rising and drawing her towards him again, +'you shall never mourn, never fear, never weep more! Though you have +lost your father, and the people of your nation are as strangers to +you, though you have been threatened and forsaken, you shall still be +beautiful—still be happy; for I will watch you, and you shall never be +harmed; I will labour for you, and you shall never want! People and +kindred—fame and duty, I will abandon them all to make atonement to +you!' +</P> + +<P> +Its youthful freshness and hope returned to the girl's heart, as water +to the long-parched spring, when the young warrior ceased. The tears +stood in her eyes, but she neither sighed nor spoke. Her frame trembled +all over with the excess of her astonishment and delight, as she still +steadfastly looked on him and still listened intently as he proceeded:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Fear, then, no longer for your safety—Goisvintha, whom you dread, is +far from us; she knows not that we are here; she cannot track our +footsteps now, to threaten or to harm you! Remember no more how you +have suffered and I have sinned! Think only how bitterly I have +repented our morning's separation, and how gladly I welcome our meeting +of to-night! Oh, Antonina! you are beautiful with a wondrous +loveliness, you are young with a perfected and unchildlike youth, your +words fall upon my ear with the music of a song of the olden time; it +is like a dream of the spirits that my fathers worshipped, when I look +up and behold you at my side!' +</P> + +<P> +An expression of mingled confusion, pleasure, and surprise, flushed the +girl's half-averted countenance as she listened to the Goth. She rose +with a smile of ineffable gratitude and delight, and pointed to the +prospect beyond, as she softly rejoined:— +</P> + +<P> +'Let us go a little further onward, where the moonlight shines over the +meadow below. My heart is bursting in this shadowy place! Let us seek +the light that is yonder; it seems happy like me!' +</P> + +<P> +They walked forward; and as they went, she told him again of the +sorrows of her past day; of her lonely and despairing progress from his +tent to the solitary house where he had found her in the night, and +where she had resigned herself from the first to meet a death that had +little horror for her then. There was no thought of reproach, no +utterance of complaint, in this renewal of her melancholy narration. +It was solely that she might luxuriate afresh in those delighting +expressions of repentance and devotion, which she knew that it would +call forth from the lips of Hermanric, that she now thought of +addressing him once more with the tale of her grief. +</P> + +<P> +As they still went onward; as she listened to the rude fervent +eloquence of the language of the Goth; as she looked on the deep repose +of the landscape, and the soft transparency of the night sky; her mind, +ever elastic under the shock of the most violent emotions, ever ready +to regain its wonted healthfulness and hope—now recovered its old +tone, and re-assumed its accustomed balance. Again her memory began to +store itself with its beloved remembrances, and her heart to rejoice in +its artless longings and visionary thoughts. In spite of all her fears +and all her sufferings, she now walked on blest in a disposition that +woe had no shadow to darken long, and neglect no influence to warp; +still as happy in herself; even yet as forgetful of her past, as +hopeful for her future, as on that first evening when we beheld her in +her father's garden, singing to the music of her lute. +</P> + +<P> +Insensibly as they proceeded, they had diverged from the road, had +entered a bye-path, and now stood before a gate which led to a small +farm house, surrounded by its gardens and vineyards, and, like the +suburbs that they had quitted, deserted by its inhabitants on the +approach of the Goths. They passed through the gate, and arriving at +the plot of ground in front of the house, paused for a moment to look +around them. +</P> + +<P> +The meadows had been already stripped of their grass, and the young +trees of their branches by the foragers of the invading army, but here +the destruction of the little property had been stayed. The house with +its neat thatched roof and shutters of variegated wood, the garden with +its small stock of fruit and its carefully tended beds of rare flowers, +designed probably to grace the feast of a nobleman or the statue of a +martyr, had presented no allurements to the rough tastes of Alaric's +soldiery. Not a mark of a footstep appeared on the turf before the +house door; the ivy crept in its wonted luxuriance about the pillars of +the lowly porch; and as Hermanric and Antonina walked towards the +fish-pond at the extremity of the garden, the few water-fowl placed +there by the owners of the cottage, came swimming towards the bank, as +if to welcome in their solitude the appearance of a human form. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Far from being melancholy, there was something soothing and attractive +about the loneliness of the deserted farm. Its ravaged outhouses and +plundered meadows, which might have appeared desolate by day, were so +distanced, softened, and obscured, by the atmosphere of night, that +they presented no harsh contrast to the prevailing smoothness and +luxuriance of the landscape around. As Antonina beheld the brightened +fields and the shadowed woods, here mingled, there succeeding each +other, stretched far onward and onward until they joined the distant +mountains, that eloquent voice of nature, whose audience is the human +heart, and whose theme is eternal love, spoke inspiringly to her +attentive senses. She stretched out her arms as she looked with steady +and enraptured gaze upon the bright view before her, as if she longed +to see its beauties resolved into a single and living form—into a +spirit human enough to be addressed, and visible enough to be adored. +</P> + +<P> +'Beautiful earth!' she murmured softly to herself, 'Thy mountains are +the watch-towers of angels, thy moonlight is the shadow of God!' +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes filled with bright, happy tears; she turned to Hermanric, who +stood watching her, and continued:— +</P> + +<P> +'Have you never thought that light, and air, and the perfume of +flowers, might contain some relics of the beauties of Eden that escaped +with Eve, when she wandered into the lonely world? They glowed and +breathed for her, and she lived and was beautiful in them! They were +united to one another, as the sunbeam is united to the earth that it +warms; and could the sword of the cherubim have sundered them at once? +When Eve went forth, did the closed gates shut back in the empty +Paradise, all the beauty that had clung, and grown, and shone round +her? Did no ray of her native light steal forth after her into the +desolateness of the world? Did no print of her lost flowers remain on +the bosom they must once have pressed? It cannot be! A part of her +possessions of Eden must have been spared to her with a part of her +life. She must have refined the void air of the earth when she entered +it, with a breath of the fragrant breezes, and gleam of the truant +sunshine of her lost Paradise! They must have strengthened and +brightened, and must now be strengthening and brightening with the slow +lapse of mortal years, until, in the time when earth itself will be an +Eden, they shall be made one again with the hidden world of perfection, +from which they are yet separated. So that, even now, as I look forth +over the landscape, the light that I behold has in it a glow of +Paradise, and this flower that I gather a breath of the fragrance that +once stole over the senses of my first mother, Eve!' +</P> + +<P> +Though she paused here, as if in expectation of an answer, the Goth +preserved an unbroken silence. Neither by nature nor position was he +capable of partaking the wild fancies and aspiring thoughts, drawn by +the influences of the external world from their concealment in +Antonina's heart. +</P> + +<P> +The mystery of his present situation; his vague remembrance of the +duties he had abandoned; the uncertainty of his future fortunes and +future fate; the presence of the lonely being so inseparably connected +with his past emotions and his existence to come, so strangely +attractive by her sex, her age, her person, her misfortunes, and her +endowments; all contributed to bewilder his faculties. Goisvintha, the +army, the besieged city, the abandoned suburbs, seemed to hem him in +like a circle of shadowy and threatening judgments; and in the midst of +them stood the young denizen of Rome, with her eloquent countenance and +her inspiring words, ready to hurry him, he knew not whither, and able +to influence him, he felt not how. +</P> + +<P> +Unconsciously interpreting her companion's silence into a wish to +change the scene and the discourse, Antonina, after lingering over the +view from the garden for a moment longer, led the way back towards the +untenanted house. They removed the wooden padlock from the door of the +dwelling, and guided by the brilliant moonlight, entered its principal +apartment. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The homely adornments of the little room had remained undisturbed, and +dimly distinguishable though they now were, gave it to the eyes of the +two strangers, the same aspect of humble comfort which had probably +once endeared it to its exiled occupants. As Hermanric seated himself +by Antonina's side on the simple couch which made the principal piece +of furniture in the place, and looked forth from the window over the +same view that they had beheld in the garden, the magic stillness and +novelty of the scene now began to affect his slow perceptions, as they +had already influenced the finer and more sensitive faculties of the +thoughtful girl. New hopes and tranquil ideas arose in his young mind, +and communicated an unusual gentleness to his expression, an unusual +softness to his voice, as he thus addressed his silent companion:— +</P> + +<P> +'With such a home as this, with this garden, with that country beyond, +with no warfare, no stern teachers, no enemy to threaten you; with +companions and occupations that you loved—tell me, Antonina, would not +your happiness be complete?' +</P> + +<P> +As he looked round at the girl to listen to her reply, he saw that her +countenance had changed. Their past expression of deep grief had again +returned to her features. Her eyes were fixed on the short dagger that +hung over the Goth's breast, which seemed to have suddenly aroused in +her a train of melancholy and unwelcome thoughts. When she at length +spoke, it was in a mournful and altered voice, and with a mingled +expression of resignation and despair. +</P> + +<P> +'You must leave me—we must be parted again,' said she; 'the sight of +your weapons has reminded me of all that until now I had forgotten, of +all that I have left in Rome, of all that you have abandoned before the +city walls. Once I thought we might have escaped together from the +turmoil and the danger around us, but now I know that it is better that +you should depart! Alas! for my hopes and my happiness, I must be left +alone once more!' +</P> + +<P> +She paused for an instant, struggling to retain her self-possession, +and then continued:— +</P> + +<P> +'Yes, you must quit me, and return to your post before the city; for in +the day of assault there will be none to care for my father but you! +Until I know that he is safe, until I can see him once more, and ask +him for pardon, and entreat him for love, I dare not remove from the +perilous precincts of Rome! Return, then, to your duties, and your +companions, and your occupations of martial renown; and do not forget +Numerian when the city is assailed, nor Antonina, who is left to think +on you in the solitary plains!' +</P> + +<P> +She rose from her place, as if to set the example of departing; but her +strength and resolution both failed her, and she sank down again on the +couch, incapable of making another movement, or uttering another word. +</P> + +<P> +Strong and conflicting emotions passed over the heart of the Goth. The +language of the girl had quickened the remembrance of his +half-forgotten duties, and strengthened the failing influence of his +old predilections of education and race. Both conscience and +inclination now opposed his disputing her urgent and unselfish request. +For a few minutes he remained in deep reflection; then he rose and +looked earnestly from the window; then back again upon Antonina and the +room they occupied. At length, as if animated by a sudden +determination, he again approached his companion, and thus addressed +her:— +</P> + +<P> +'It is right that I should return. I will do your bidding, and depart +for the camp (but not till the break of day), while you, Antonina, +remain in concealment and in safety here. None can come hither to +disturb you. The Goths will not revisit the fields they have already +stripped; the husbandman who owns this dwelling is imprisoned in the +beleaguered city; the peasants from the country beyond dare not +approach so near to the invading hosts; and Goisvintha, whom you dread, +knows not even of the existence of such a refuge as this. Here, though +lonely, you will be secure; here you can await my return, when each +succeeding night gives me the opportunity of departing from the camp; +and here I will warn you beforehand, if the city is devoted to an +assault. Though solitary, you will not be abandoned—we shall not be +parted one from the other. Often and often I shall return to look on +you, and to listen to you, and to love you! You will be happier here, +even in this lonely place, than in the former home that you have lost +through your father's wrath!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Oh! I will willingly remain—I will joyfully await you!' cried the +girl, raising her beaming eyes to Hermanric's face. 'I will never +speak mournfully to you again; I will never remind you more of all that +I have suffered, and all that I have lost! How merciful you were to +me, when I first saw you in your tent—how doubly merciful you are to +me here! I am proud when I look on your stature, and your strength, +and your heavy weapons, and know that you are happy in remaining with +me; that you will succour my father; that you will return from your +glittering encampments to this farm-house, where I am left to await +you! Already I have forgotten all that has happened to me of woe; +already I am more joyful than ever I was in my life before! See, I am +no longer weeping in sorrow! If there are any tears still on my +cheeks, they are the tears of gladness that every one welcomes—tears +to sing and rejoice in!' +</P> + +<P> +She ceased abruptly, as if words failed to give expression to her new +delight. All the gloomy emotions that had oppressed her but a short +time before had now completely vanished; and the young, fresh heart, +superior still to despair and woe, basked as happily again in its +native atmosphere of joy as a bird in the sunlight of morning and +spring. +</P> + +<P> +Then, when after an interval of delay their former tranquility had +returned to them, how softly and lightly the quiet hours of the +remaining night flowed onward to the two watchers in the lonely house! +How gladly the delighted girl disclosed her hidden thoughts, and poured +forth her innocent confessions, to the dweller among other nations and +the child of other impressions than her own! All the various +reflections aroused in her mind by the natural objects she had secretly +studied, by the mighty imagery of her Bible lore, by the gloomy +histories of saints' visions and martyrs' sufferings, which she had +learnt and pondered over by her father's side, were now drawn from +their treasured places in her memory, and addressed to the ear of the +Goth. As the child flies to the nurse with the story of its first toy; +as the girl resorts to the sister with the confession of her first +love; as the poet hurries to the friend with the plan of his first +composition; so did Antonina seek the attention of Hermanric with the +first outward revealings enjoyed by her faculties and the first +acknowledgment of her emotions liberated from her heart. +</P> + +<P> +The longer the Goth listened to her, the more perfect became the +enchantment of her words, half struggling into poetry, and her voice +half gliding into music. As her low, still, varying tones wound +smoothly into his ear, his thoughts suddenly and intuitively reverted +to her formerly expressed remembrances of her lost lute, inciting him +to ask her, with new interest and animation, of the manner of her +acquisition of that knowledge of song, which she had already assured +him that she possessed. +</P> + +<P> +'I have learned many odes of many poets,' said she, quickly and +confusedly avoiding the mention of Vetranio, which a direct answer to +Hermanric's question must have produced, 'but I remember none +perfectly, save those whose theme is of spirits and of other worlds, +and of the invisible beauty that we think of but cannot see. Of the +few that I know of these, there is one that I first learned and loved +most. I will sing it, that you may be assured I will not fail to you +in my promised art.' +</P> + +<P> +She hesitated for a moment. Sorrowful remembrances of the events that +had followed the utterance of the last notes she sang in her father's +garden, swelled within her, and held her speechless. Soon, however, +after a short interval of silence, she recovered her self-possession, +and began to sing, in low tremulous tones, that harmonised well with +the character of the words and the strain of the melody which she had +chosen. +</P> + +<H4 STYLE="text-indent: 10%"> +THE MISSION OF THE TEAR +</H4> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +I. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The skies were its birth-place—the TEAR was the child<BR> + Of the dark maiden SORROW, by young JOY beguil'd;<BR> + It was born in convulsion; 'twas nurtur'd in woe;<BR> + And the world was yet young when it wander'd below.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +II. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + No angel-bright guardians watch'd over its birth,<BR> + Ere yet it was suffer'd to roam upon earth;<BR> + No spirits of gladness its soft form caress'd;<BR> + SIGHS mourned round its cradle, and hush'd it to rest.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +III. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Though JOY might endeavour, with kisses and wiles,<BR> + To lure it away to his household of smiles:<BR> + From the daylight he lived in it turn'd in affright,<BR> + To nestle with SORROW in climates of night.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +IV. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + When it came upon earth, 'twas to choose a career,<BR> + The brightest and best that is left to a TEAR;<BR> + To hallow delight, and bestow the relief<BR> + Denied by despair to the fulness of grief.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +V. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Few repell'd it—some bless'd it—wherever it came;<BR> + Whether soft'ning their sorrow, or soothing their shame;<BR> + And the joyful themselves, though its name they might fear,<BR> + Oft welcom'd the calming approach of the TEAR!<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +VI. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Years on years have worn onward, as—watch'd from above—<BR> + Speeds that meek spirit yet on its labour of love;<BR> + Still the exile of Heav'n, it ne'er shall away,<BR> + Every heart has a home for it, roam where it may!<BR> +</P> + +<P> +For the first few minutes after she had concluded the ode, Hermanric +was hardly conscious that she had ceased; and when at length she looked +up at him, her mute petition for approval had an eloquence which would +have been marred to the Goth at that moment, by the utterance of single +word. A rapture, an inspiration, a new life moved within him. The hour +and the scene completed what the magic of the song had begun. His +expression now glowed with a southern warmth; his words assumed a Roman +fervour. Gradually, as they discoursed, the voice of the girl was less +frequently audible. A change was passing over her spirit; from the +teacher, she was now becoming the pupil. +</P> + +<P> +As she still listened to the Goth, as she felt the birth of new +feelings within her while he spoke, her cheeks glowed, her features +lightened up, her very form seemed to freshen and expand. No intruding +thought or awakening remembrance disturbed her rapt attention. No cold +doubt, no gloomy hesitation, appeared in her companion's words. The +one listened, the other spoke, with the whole heart, the undivided +soul. While a world-wide revolution was concentrating its hurricane +forces around them; while the city of an Empire tottered already to its +tremendous fall; while Goisvintha plotted new revenge; while Ulpius +toiled for his revolution of bloodshed and ruin; while all these dark +materials of public misery and private strife seethed and strengthened +around them, they could as completely forget the stormy outward world, +in themselves; they could think as serenely of tranquil love; the kiss +could be given as passionately and returned as tenderly, as if the lot +of their existence had been cast in the pastoral days of the shepherd +poets, and the future of their duties and enjoyments was securely +awaiting them in a land of eternal peace! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 14. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE FAMINE. +</H3> + +<P> +The end of November is approaching. Nearly a month has elapsed since +the occurrence of the events mentioned in the last chapter, yet still +the Gothic lines stretch round the city walls. Rome, that we left +haughty and luxurious even while ruin threatened her at her gates, has +now suffered a terrible and warning change. As we approach her again, +woe, horror, and desolation have already gone forth to shadow her lofty +palaces and to darken her brilliant streets. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Over Pomp that spurned it, over Pleasure that defied it, over Plenty +that scared it in its secret rounds, the spectre Hunger has now risen +triumphant at last. Day by day has the city's insufficient allowance +of food been more and more sparingly doled out; higher and higher has +risen the value of the coarsest and simplest provision; the hoarded +supplies that pity and charity have already bestowed to cheer the +sinking people have reached their utmost limits. For the rich, there +is still corn in the city—treasure of food to be bartered for treasure +of gold. For the poor, man's natural nourishment exists no more; the +season of famine's loathsome feasts, the first days of the sacrifice of +choice to necessity have darkly and irretrievably begun. +</P> + +<P> +It is morning. A sad and noiseless throng is advancing over the cold +flagstones of the great square before the Basilica of St. John Lateran. +The members of the assembly speak in whispers. The weak are +tearful—the strong are gloomy—they all move with slow and languid +gait, and hold in their arms their dogs or other domestic animals. On +the outskirts of the crowd march the enfeebled guards of the city, +grasping in their rough hands rare favourite birds of gaudy plumage and +melodious note, and followed by children and young girls vainly and +piteously entreating that their favourites may be restored. +</P> + +<P> +This strange procession pauses, at length, before a mighty caldron +slung over a great fire in the middle of the square, round which stand +the city butchers with bare knives, and the trustiest men of the Roman +legions with threatening weapons. A proclamation is then repeated, +commanding the populace who have no money left to purchase food, to +bring up their domestic animals to be boiled together over the public +furnace, for the sake of contributing to the public support. +</P> + +<P> +The next minute, in pursuance of this edict, the dumb favourites of the +crowd passed from the owner's caressing hand into the butcher's ready +grasp. The faint cries of the animals, starved like their masters, +mingled for a few moments with the sobs and lamentations of the women +and children, to whom the greater part of them belonged. For, in this +the first stage of their calamities, that severity of hunger which +extinguishes pity and estranges grief was unknown to the populace; and +though fast losing spirit, they had not yet sunk to the depths of +ferocious despair which even now were invisibly opening between them. +A thousand pangs were felt, a thousand humble tragedies were acted, in +the brief moments of separation between guardian and charge. The child +snatched its last kiss of the bird that had sung over its bed; the dog +looked its last entreaty for protection from the mistress who had once +never met it without a caress. Then came the short interval of agony +and death, then the steam rose fiercely from the greedy caldron, and +then the people for a time dispersed; the sorrowful to linger near the +confines of the fire, and the hungry to calm their impatience by a +visit to the neighbouring church. +</P> + +<P> +The marble aisles of the noble basilica held a gloomy congregation. +Three small candles were alone lighted on the high altar. No sweet +voices sang melodious anthems or exulting hymns. The monks, in hoarse +tones and monotonous harmonics, chanted the penitential psalms. Here +and there knelt a figure clothed in mourning robes, and absorbed in +secret prayer; but over the majority of the assembly either blank +despondency or sullen inattention universally prevailed. +</P> + +<P> +As the last dull notes of the last psalm died away among the lofty +recesses of the church, a procession of pious Christians appeared at +the door and advanced slowly to the altar. It was composed both of men +and women barefooted, clothed in black garments, and with ashes +scattered over their dishevelled hair. Tears flowed from their eyes, +and they beat their breasts as they bowed their foreheads on the marble +pavement of the altar steps. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This humble public expression of penitence under the calamity that had +now fallen on the city was, however, confined only to its few really +religious inhabitants, and commanded neither sympathy nor attention +from the heartless and obstinate population of Rome. Some still +cherished the delusive hope of assistance from the court at Ravenna; +others believed that the Goths would ere long impatiently abandon their +protracted blockade, to stretch their ravages over the rich and +unprotected fields of Southern Italy. But the same blind confidence in +the lost terrors of the Roman name, the same fierce and reckless +determination to defy the Goths to the very last, sustained the sinking +courage and suppressed the despondent emotions of the great mass of the +suffering people, from the beggar who prowled for garbage, to the +patrician who sighed over his new and unwelcome nourishment of simple +bread. +</P> + +<P> +While the penitents who formed the procession above described were yet +engaged in the performance of their unnoticed and unshared duties of +penance and prayer, a priest ascended the great pulpit of the basilica, +to attempt the ungrateful task of preaching patience and piety to the +hungry multitude at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +He began his sermon by retracing the principal occurrences in Rome +since the beginning of the Gothic blockade. He touched cautiously upon +the first event that stained the annals of the besieged city—the +execution of the widow of the Roman general Stilicho, on the +unauthorised suspicion that she had held treasonable communication with +Alaric and the invading army; he noticed lengthily the promises of +assistance transmitted from Ravenna, after the perpetration of that +ill-omened act. He spoke admiringly of the skill displayed by the +government in making the necessary and immediate reductions in the +daily supplies of food; he lamented the terrible scarcity which +followed, too inevitably, those seasonable reductions. He pronounced +an eloquent eulogium on the noble charity of Laeta, the widow of the +Emperor Gratian, who, with her mother, devoted the store of provisions +obtained by their imperial revenues to succouring, at that important +juncture, the starving and desponding poor: he admitted the new +scarcity, consequent on the dissipation of Laeta's stores; deplored the +present necessity of sacrificing the domestic animals of the citizens; +condemned the enormous prices now demanded for the last remnants of +wholesome food that were garnered up; announced it as the firm +persuasion of every one that a few days more would bring help from +Ravenna; and ended his address by informing his auditory that, as they +had suffered so much already, they could patiently suffer a little +more, and that if, after this, they were so ill-fated as to sink under +their calamities, they would feel it a noble consolation to die in the +cause of Catholic and Apostolic Rome, and would assuredly be canonised +as saints and martyrs by the next generation of the pious in the first +interval of fertile and restoring peace. +</P> + +<P> +Flowing as was the eloquence of this oration, it yet possessed not the +power of inducing one among those whom it addressed to forget the +sensation of his present suffering, and to fix his attention on the +vision of future advantage, spread before all listeners by the fluent +priest. With the same murmurs of querulous complaint, and the same +expressions of impotent hatred and defiance of the Goths which had +fallen from them as they entered the church, the populace now departed +from it, to receive from the city officers the stinted allowance of +repugnant food, prepared for their hunger from the caldron in the +public square. +</P> + +<P> +And see, already from other haunts in the neighbouring quarter of Rome +their fellow-citizens press onward at the given signal, to meet them +round the caldron's sides! The languid sentinel, released from duty, +turns his gaze from the sickening prospect of the Gothic camp, and +hastens to share the public meal; the baker starts from sleeping on his +empty counter, the beggar rises from his kennel in the butcher's vacant +out-house, the slave deserts his place by the smouldering +kitchen-fire—all hurry to swell the numbers of the guests that are +bidden to the wretched feast. Rapidly and confusedly, the congregation +in the basilica pours through its lofty gates; the priests and +penitents retire from the altar's foot, and in the great church, so +crowded but a few moments before, there now only remains the figure of +a solitary man. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Since the commencement of the service, neither addressed nor observed, +this lonely being has faltered round the circle of the congregation, +gazing long and wistfully over the faces that met his view. Now that +the sermon is ended, and the last lingerer has quitted the church, he +turns from the spot whence he has anxiously watched the different +members of the departing throng, and feebly crouches down on his knees +at the base of a pillar that is near him. His eyes are hollow, and his +cheeks are wan; his thin grey hairs are few and fading on his aged +head. He makes no effort to follow the crowd and partake their +sustenance; no one is left behind to urge, no one returns to lead him +to the public meal. Though weak and old, he is perfectly forsaken in +his loneliness, perfectly unsolaced in his grief; his friends have lost +all trace of him; his enemies have ceased to fear or to hate him now. +As he crouches by the pillar alone, he covers his forehead with his +pale, palsied hands, his dim eyes fill with bitter tears, and such +expressions as these are ever and anon faintly audible in the intervals +of his heavy sighs: 'Day after day! Day after day! And my lost one +is not found! my loved and wronged one is not restored! Antonina! +Antonina!' +</P> + +<P> +Some days after the public distribution of food in the square of St. +John Lateran, Vetranio's favourite freedman might have been observed +pursuing his way homeward, sadly and slowly, to his master's palace. +</P> + +<P> +It was not without cause that the pace of the intelligent Carrio was +funereal and his expression disconsolate. Even during the short period +that had elapsed since the scene in the basilica already described, the +condition of the city had altered fearfully for the worse. The famine +advanced with giant strides; every succeeding hour endued it with new +vigour, every effort to repel it served but to increase its spreading +and overwhelming influence. One after another the pleasures and +pursuits of the city declined beneath the dismal oppression of the +universal ill, until the public spirit in Rome became moved alike in +all classes by one gloomy inspiration—a despairing defiance of the +famine and the Goths. +</P> + +<P> +The freedman entered his master's palace neither saluted nor welcomed +by the once obsequious slaves in the outer lodge. Neither harps nor +singing-boys, neither woman's ringing laughter nor man's bacchanalian +glee, now woke the echoes in the lonely halls. The pulse of pleasure +seemed to have throbbed its last in the joyless being of Vetranio's +altered household. +</P> + +<P> +Hastening his steps as he entered the mansion, Carrio passed into the +chamber where the senator awaited him. +</P> + +<P> +On two couches, separated by a small table, reclined the lord of the +palace and his pupil and companion at Ravenna, the once sprightly +Camilla. Vetranio's open brow had contracted a clouded and severe +expression, and he neither regarded nor addressed his visitor, who, on +her part, remained as silent and as melancholy as himself. Every trace +of the former characteristics of the gay, elegant voluptuary and the +lively, prattling girl seemed to have completely vanished. On the table +between them stood a large bottle containing Falernian wine, and a vase +filled with a little watery soup, in the middle of which floated a +small dough cake, sparingly sprinkled with common herbs. As for the +usual accompaniments of Vetranio's luxurious privacy, they were nowhere +to be seen. Poems, pictures, trinkets, lutes, all were absent. Even +the 'inestimable kitten of the breed most worshipped by the ancient +Egyptians' appeared no more. It had been stolen, cooked, and eaten by +a runaway slave, who had already bartered its ruby collar for a lean +parrot and the unroasted half of the carcase of a dog. +</P> + +<P> +'I lament to confess it, O estimable patron, but my mission has +failed,' observed Carrio, producing from his cloak several bags of +money and boxes of jewels, which he carefully deposited on the table. +'The Prefect has himself assisted in searching the public and private +granaries, and has arrived at the conclusion that not a handful of corn +is left in the city. I offered publicly in the market-place five +thousand sestertii for a living cock and hen, but was told that the +race had long since been exterminated, and that, as money would no +longer buy food, money was no longer desired by the poorest beggar in +Rome. There is no more even of the hay I yesterday purchased to be +obtained for the most extravagant bribes. Those still possessing the +smallest supplies of provision guard and hide them with the most +jealous care. I have done nothing but obtain for the consumption of +the few slaves who yet remain faithful in the house this small store of +dogs' hides, reserved from the public distribution of some days since +in the square of the Basilica of St. John.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +And the freedman, with an air of mingled triumph and disgust, produced +as he spoke his provision of dirty skins. +</P> + +<P> +'What supplies have we still left in our possession?' demanded +Vetranio, after drinking a deep draught of the Falernian, and motioning +his servant to place his treasured burden out of sight. +</P> + +<P> +'I have hidden in a secure receptacle, for I know not how soon hunger +may drive the slaves to disobedience,' rejoined Carrio, 'seven bags of +hay, three baskets stocked with salted horse-flesh, a sweetmeat-box +filled with oats, and another with dried parsley; the rare Indian +singing birds are still preserved inviolate in their aviary; there is a +great store of spices, and some bottles of the Nightingale Sauce yet +remain.' +</P> + +<P> +'What is the present aspect of the city?' interrupted Vetranio +impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +'Rome is as gloomy as a subterranean sepulchre,' replied Carrio, with a +shudder. 'The people congregate in speechless and hungry mobs at the +doors of their houses and the corners of the streets, the sentinels at +the ramparts totter on their posts, women and children are sleeping +exhausted on the very pavements of the churches, the theatres are +emptied of actors and audience alike, the baths resound with cries for +food and curses on the Goths, thefts are already committed in the open +and unguarded shops, and the barbarians remain fixed in their +encampments, unapproached by our promised legions from Ravenna, neither +assaulting us in our weakness, nor preparing to raise the blockade! +Our situation grows more and more perilous. I have great hopes in our +store of provisions; but—' +</P> + +<P> +'Cast your hopes to the court at Ravenna, and your beasts' provender to +the howling mob!' cried Vetranio with sudden energy. 'It is now too +late to yield; if the next few days bring us no assistance, the city +will be a human shambles! And think you that I, who have already lost +in this public suspension of social joys my pleasures, my employments, +and my companions, will wait serenely for the lingering and ignoble +death that must then threaten us all? No, it shall never be said that +I died starving with the herd, like a slave that his master deserts! +Though the plates in my banqueting hall must now be empty, my vases and +wine-cups shall yet sparkle for my guests! There is still wine in the +cellar, and spices and perfumes remain in the larder stores! I will +invite my friends to a last feast; a saturnalia in a city of famine; a +banquet of death, spread by the jovial labours of Silenus and his +fauns! Though the Parcae have woven for me the destiny of a dog, it is +the hand of Bacchus that shall sever the fatal thread!' +</P> + +<P> +His cheeks were flushed, his eyes sparkled; all the mad energy of his +determination appeared in his face as he spoke. He was no longer the +light, amiable, smooth-tongued trifler, but a moody, reckless, +desperate man, careless of every obligation and pursuit which had +hitherto influenced the easy surface of his patrician life. The +startled Camilla, who had as yet preserved a melancholy silence, ran +towards him with affrighted looks and undissembled tears. Carrio +stared in vacant astonishment on his master's disordered countenance; +and, forgetting his bundle of dogskins, suffered them to drop unheeded +on the floor. A momentary silence followed, which was suddenly +interrupted by the abrupt entrance of a fourth person, pale, trembling +and breathless, who was no other than Vetranio's former visitor, the +Prefect Pompeianus. +</P> + +<P> +'I bid you welcome to my approaching feast of brimming wine-cups and +empty dishes!' cried Vetranio, pouring the sparkling Falernian into his +empty glass. 'The last banquet given in Rome, ere the city is +annihilated, will be mine! The Goths and the famine shall have no part +in my death! Pleasure shall preside at my last moments, as it has +presided at my whole life! I will die like Sardanapalus, with my loves +and my treasures around me, and the last of my guests who remains proof +against our festivity shall set fire to my palace, as the kingly +Assyrian set fire to his!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'This is no season for jesting,' exclaimed the Prefect, staring round +him with bewildered eyes and colourless cheeks. 'Our miseries are but +dawning as yet! In the next street lies the corpse of a woman, +and—horrible omen!—a coil of serpents is wreathed about her neck! We +have no burial-place to receive her, and the thousands who may die like +her, ere assistance arrives. The city sepulchres outside the walls are +in the hands of the Goths. The people stand round the body in a trance +of horror, for they have now discovered a fatal truth we would fain +have concealed from them—' Here the Prefect paused, looked round +affrightedly on his listeners, and then added in low trembling tones— +</P> + +<P> +'The citizens are lying dead from famine in the streets of Rome!' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 15. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CITY AND THE GODS. +</H3> + +<P> +We return once more to the Gothic encampment in the suburbs eastward of +the Pincian Gate, and to Hermanric and the warriors under his command, +who are still posted at that particular position on the great circle of +the blockade. +</P> + +<P> +The movements of the young chieftain from place to place expressed, in +their variety and rapidity, the restlessness that was agitating his +mind. He glanced back frequently from the warriors around him to the +remote and opposite quarter of the suburbs, occasionally directing his +eyes towards the western horizon, as if anxiously awaiting the approach +of some particular hour of the coming night. Weary at length of +pursuing occupations which evidently irritated rather than soothed his +impatience, he turned abruptly from his companions, and advancing +towards the city, paced slowly backwards and forwards over the waste +ground between the suburbs and the walls of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +At intervals he still continued to examine the scene around him. A +more dreary prospect than now met his view, whether in earth or sky, +can hardly be conceived. +</P> + +<P> +The dull sunless day was fast closing, and the portentous heaven gave +promise of a stormy night. Thick, black layers of shapeless cloud hung +over the whole firmament, save at the western point; and here lay a +streak of pale, yellow light, enclosed on all sides by the firm, +ungraduated, irregular edges of the masses of gloomy vapour around it. +A deep silence hung over the whole atmosphere. The wind was voiceless +among the steady trees. The stir and action in the being of nature and +the life of man seemed enthralled, suspended, stifled. The air was +laden with a burdensome heat; and all things on earth, animate and +inanimate, felt the oppression that weighed on them from the higher +elements. The people who lay gasping for breath in the famine-stricken +city, and the blades of grass that drooped languidly on the dry sward +beyond the walls, owned the enfeebling influence alike. +</P> + +<P> +As the hours wore on and night stealthily and gradually advanced, a +monotonous darkness overspread, one after another, the objects +discernible to Hermanric from the solitary ground he still occupied. +Soon the great city faded into one vast, impenetrable shadow, while the +suburbs and the low country around them vanished in the thick darkness +that gathered almost perceptibly over the earth. And now the sole +object distinctly visible was the figure of a weary sentinel, who stood +on the frowning rampart immediately above the rifted wall, and whose +drooping figure, propped upon his weapon, was indicated in hard relief +against the thin, solitary streak of light still shining in the cold +and cloudy wastes of the western sky. +</P> + +<P> +But as the night still deepened, this one space of light faded, +contracted, vanished, and with it disappeared the sentinel and the line +of rampart on which he was posted. The rule of the darkness now became +universal. Densely and rapidly it overspread the whole city with +startling suddenness; as if the fearful destiny now working its +fulfilment in Rome had forced the external appearances of the night +into harmony with its own woe-boding nature. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Then, as the young Goth still lingered at his post of observation, the +long, low, tremulous, absorbing roll of thunder afar off became grandly +audible. It seemed to proceed from a distance almost incalculable; to +be sounding from its cradle in the frozen north; to be journeying about +its ice-girdled chambers in the lonely poles. It deepened rather than +interrupted the dreary, mysterious stillness of the atmosphere. The +lightning, too, had a summer softness in its noiseless and frequent +gleam. It was not the fierce lightning of winter, but a warm, fitful +brightness, almost fascinating in its light, rapid recurrence, tinged +with the glow of heaven, and not with the glare of hell. +</P> + +<P> +There was no wind—no rain; and the air was as hushed as if it slept +over chaos in the infancy of a new creation. +</P> + +<P> +Among the various objects displayed, instant by instant, by the rapid +lightning to the eyes of Hermanric, the most easily and most distinctly +visible was the broad surface of the rifted wall. The large, loose +stones, scattered here and there at its base, and the overhanging lid +of its broad rampart, became plainly though fitfully apparent in the +brief moments of their illumination. The lightning had played for some +time over that structure of the fortifications, and the bare ground +that stretched immediately beyond them, when the smooth prospect which +it thus gave by glimpses to view, was suddenly chequered by a flight of +birds appearing from one of the lower divisions of the wall, and +flitting uneasily to and fro at one spot before its surface. +</P> + +<P> +As moment after moment the lightning continued to gleam, so the black +forms of the birds were visible to the practised eye of the +Goth—perceptible, yet evanescent, as sparks of fire or flakes of +snow—whirling confusedly and continually about the spot whence they +had evidently been startled by some unimaginable interruption. At +length, after a lapse of some time, they vanished as suddenly as they +had appeared, with shrill notes of affright which were audible even +above the continuous rolling of the thunder; and immediately +afterwards, when the lightning alternated with the darkness, there +appeared to Hermanric, in the part of the wall where the birds had been +first disturbed, a small red gleam, like a spark of fire lodged in the +surface of the structure. Then this was lost; a longer obscurity than +usual prevailed in the atmosphere, and when the Goth gazed eagerly +through the next succession of flashes, they showed him the momentary +and doubtful semblance of a human figure, standing erect on the stones +at the base of the wall. +</P> + +<P> +Hermanric started with astonishment. Again the lightning ceased. In +the ardour of his anxiety to behold more, he strained his eyes with the +vain hope of penetrating the obscurity around him. The darkness seemed +interminable. Once again the lightning flashed brilliantly out. He +looked eagerly towards the wall—the figure was still there. +</P> + +<P> +His heart throbbed quickly within him, as he stood irresolute on the +spot he had occupied since the first peal of thunder had struck upon +his ear. Were the light and the man—one seen but for an instant, the +other still perceptible—mere phantoms of his erring sight, dazzled by +the quick recurrence of atmospheric changes through which it had acted? +Or did he indubitably behold a human form, and had he really observed a +material light? Some strange treachery, some dangerous mystery might +be engendering in the besieged city, which it would be his duty to +observe and unmask. He drew his sword, and, at the risk of being +observed through the lightning, and heard during the pauses in the +thunder, by the sentinel on the wall, resolutely advanced to the very +foot of the fortifications of hostile Rome. +</P> + +<P> +He heard no sound, perceived no light, observed no figure, as, after +several unsuccessful attempts to reach the place where they stood, he +at length paused at the loose stones which he knew were heaped at the +base of the wall. The next moment he was so close to it, that he could +pass his sword-point over parts of its rugged surface. He had scarcely +examined thus a space of more than ten yards, before his weapon +encountered a sharp, jagged edge; and a sudden presentiment assured him +instantly that he had found the spot where he had beheld the momentary +light, and that he stood on the same stone which had been occupied by +the figure of the man. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +After an instant's hesitation, he was about to mount higher on the +loose stones, and examine more closely the irregularity he had just +discovered in the wall, when a vivid flash of lightning, unusually +prolonged, showed him, obstructing at scarcely a yard's distance his +onward path, the figure he had already distantly beheld from the plain +behind. +</P> + +<P> +There was something inexpressibly fearful in his viewless vicinity, +during the next moment of darkness, to this silent, mysterious form, so +imperfectly shown by the lightning that quivered over its half-revealed +proportions. Every pulse in the body of the Goth seemed to pause as he +stood, with ready weapon, looking into the gloomy darkness, and wafting +for the next flash. It came, and displayed to him the man's fierce +eyes glaring steadily down upon his face; another gleam, and he beheld +his haggard finger placed upon his lip in token of silence; a third, +and he saw the arm of the figure pointing towards the plain behind him; +and then in the darkness that followed, a hot breath played upon his +ear, and a voice whispered to him, through a pause in the rolling of +the thunder—'Follow me.' +</P> + +<P> +The next instant Hermanric felt the momentary contact of the man's +body, as with noiseless steps he passed him on the stones. It was no +time to deliberate or to doubt. He followed close upon the stranger's +footsteps, gaining glimpses of his dark form moving onward before, +whenever the lightning briefly illuminated the scene, until they +arrived at a clump of trees, not far distant from the houses in the +suburbs that were occupied by the Goths under his own command. +</P> + +<P> +Here the stranger paused before the trunk of a tree which stood between +the city wall and himself, and drew from beneath his ragged cloak a +small lantern, carefully covered with a piece of cloth, which he now +removed, and holding the light high above his head, regarded the Goth +with a steady and anxious scrutiny. +</P> + +<P> +Hermanric attempted to address him first, but the appearance of the +man, barely visible though it was by the feeble light of his lantern, +was so startling and repulsive, that the half-formed words died away on +his lips. The face of the stranger was of a ghastly paleness; his +hollow cheeks were seamed with deep wrinkles; and his eyes glared with +an expression of ferocious suspicion. One of his arms was covered with +old bandages, stiff with coagulated blood, and hung paralysed at his +side. The hand that held the light trembled, so that the lantern +containing it vibrated continuously in his unsteady grasp. His limbs +were lank and shrivelled almost to deformity, and it was with evident +difficulty that he stood upright on his feet. Every member of his body +seemed to be wasting with a gradual death, while his expression, ardent +and forbidding, was stamped with all the energy of manhood, and all the +daring of youth. +</P> + +<P> +It was Ulpius! The wall was passed! The breach was made good! +</P> + +<P> +After a protracted examination of Hermanric's countenance and attire, +the man, with an imperious expression, strangely at variance with his +faltering voice, thus addressed him:— +</P> + +<P> +'You are a Goth?' +</P> + +<P> +'I am,' rejoined the young chief; 'and you are—' +</P> + +<P> +'A friend of the Goths,' was the quick answer. +</P> + +<P> +An instant of silence followed. The dialogue was then again begun by +the stranger. +</P> + +<P> +'What brought you alone to the base of the ramparts?' he demanded, and +an expression of ungovernable apprehension shot from his eyes as he +spoke. +</P> + +<P> +'I saw the appearance of a man in the gleam of the lightning,' answered +Hermanric. 'I approached it, to assure myself that my eyes had not +deluded me, to discover—' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'There is but one man of your nation who shall discover whence I came +and what I would obtain,' interrupted the stranger fiercely; 'that man +is Alaric, your king.' +</P> + +<P> +Surprise, indignation, and contempt appeared in the features of the +Goth, as he listened to such a declaration from the helpless outcast +before him. The man perceived it, and motioning him to be silent, +again addressed him. +</P> + +<P> +'Listen!' cried he. 'I have that to reveal to the leader of your +forces which will stir the heart of every man in your encampment, if +you are trusted with the secret after your king has heard it from my +lips! Do you still refuse to guide me to his tent?' +</P> + +<P> +Hermanric laughed scornfully. +</P> + +<P> +'Look on me,' pursued the man, bending forward, and fixing his eyes +with savage earnestness upon his listener's face. 'I am alone, old, +wounded, weak,—a stranger to your nation,—a famished and a helpless +man! Should I venture into your camp—should I risk being slain for a +Roman by your comrades—should I dare the wrath of your imperious ruler +without a cause?' +</P> + +<P> +He paused; and then, still keeping his eyes on the Goth, continued in +lower and more agitated tones— +</P> + +<P> +'Deny me your help, I will wander through your camp till I find your +king! Imprison me, your violence will not open my lips! Slay me, you +will gain nothing by my death! But aid me, and to the latest moment of +your life you will rejoice in the deed! I have words of terrible +import for Alaric's ear,—a secret in the gaining of which I have paid +the penalty thus!' +</P> + +<P> +He pointed to his wounded arm. The solemnity of his voice, the rough +energy of his words, the stern determination of his aspect, the +darkness of the night that was round them, the rolling thunder that +seemed to join itself to their discourse, the impressive mystery of +their meeting under the city walls, all began to exert their powerful +and different influences over the mind of the Goth, changing insensibly +the sentiments at first inspired in him by the man's communications. +He hesitated, and looked round doubtfully towards the lines of the camp. +</P> + +<P> +There was a long silence, which was again interrupted by the stranger. +</P> + +<P> +'Guard me, chain me, mock at me if you will,' he cried, with raised +voice and flashing eyes, 'but lead me to Alaric's tent! I swear to you +by the thunder pealing over our heads, that the words I would speak to +him will be more precious in his eyes than the brightest jewel he could +ravish from the coffers of Rome.' +</P> + +<P> +Though visibly troubled and impressed, Hermanric still hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +'Do you yet delay?' exclaimed the man, with contemptuous impatience. +'Stand back! I will pass on by myself into the very heart of your +camp! I entered on my project alone—I will work its fulfilment without +help! Stand back!' +</P> + +<P> +And he moved past Hermanric in the direction of the suburbs, with the +same look of fierce energy on his withered features which had marked +them so strikingly at the outset of his extraordinary interview with +the young chieftain. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The daring devotion to his purpose, the reckless toiling after a +dangerous and doubtful success, manifested in the words and actions of +one so feeble and unaided as the stranger, aroused in the Goth that +sentiment of irrepressible admiration which the union of moral and +physical courage inevitably awakens. In addition to the incentive to +aid the man thus created, an ardent curiosity to discover his secret +filled the mind of Hermanric, and further powerfully inclined him to +conduct his determined companion into Alaric's presence—for by such +proceeding only could he hope, after the man's firm declaration that he +would communicate in the first instance to no one but the king, to +penetrate ultimately the object of his mysterious errand. Animated, +therefore, by such motives as these, he called to the stranger to stop, +and briefly communicated to him his willingness to conduct him +instantly to the presence of the leader of the Goths. +</P> + +<P> +The man intimated by a sign his readiness to accept the offer. His +physical powers were now evidently fast failing, but he still tottered +painfully onward as they moved to the headquarters of the camp, +muttering and gesticulating to himself almost incessantly. Once only +did he address his conductor during their progress; and then with a +startling abruptness of manner, and in tones of vehement anxiety and +suspicion, he demanded of the young Goth if he had ever examined the +surface of the city wall before that night. Hermanric replied in the +negative; and they then proceeded in perfect silence. +</P> + +<P> +Their way lay through the line of encampment to the westward, and was +imperfectly lighted by the flame of an occasional torch or the glow of +a distant watch-fire. The thunder had diminished in frequency, but had +increased in volume; faint breaths of wind soared up fitfully from the +west, and already a few raindrops fell slowly to the thirsty earth. +The warriors not actually on duty at the different posts of observation +had retired to the shelter of their tents; none of the thousand idlers +and attendants attached to the great army appeared at their usual +haunts; even the few voices that were audible sounded distant and low. +The night-scene here, among the ranks of the invaders of Italy, was as +gloomy and repelling as on the solitary plains before the walls of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +Ere long the stranger perceived that they had reached a part of the +camp more thickly peopled, more carefully illuminated, more strongly +fortified, than that through which they had already passed; and the +liquid, rushing sound of the waters of the rapid Tiber now caught his +suspicious and attentive ear. They still moved onward a few yards; and +then paused suddenly before a tent, immediately surrounded by many +others, and occupied at all its approaches by groups of richly-armed +warriors. Here Hermanric stopped an instant to parley with the +sentinel, who, after a short delay, raised the outer covering of the +entrance to the tent, and the moment after the Roman adventurer beheld +himself standing by his conductor's side in the presence of the Gothic +king. +</P> + +<P> +The interior of Alaric's tent was lined with skins, and illuminated by +one small lamp, fastened to the centre pole that supported its roof. +The only articles of furniture in the place were some bundles of furs +flung down loosely on the ground, and a large, rudely-carved wooden +chest, on which stood a polished human skull, hollowed into a sort of +clumsy wine-cup. A thoroughly Gothic ruggedness of aspect, a stately +Northern simplicity prevailed over the spacious tent, and was indicated +not merely in its thick shadows, its calm lights, and its freedom from +pomp and glitter, but even in the appearance and employment of its +remarkable occupant. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Alaric was seated alone on the wooden chest already described, +contemplating with bent brow and abstracted gaze some old Runic +characters, traced upon the carved surface of a brass and silver +shield, full five feet high, which rested against the side of the tent. +The light of the lamp falling upon the polished surface of the +weapon—rendered doubly bright by the dark skins behind it—was +reflected back upon the figure of the Goth chief. It glowed upon his +ample cuirass; it revealed his firm lips, slightly curled by an +expression of scornful triumph; it displayed the grand, muscular +formation of his arm, which rested—clothed in tightly-fitting +leather—upon his knee; it partly brightened over his short, light +hair, and glittered steadily in his fixed, thoughtful, manly eyes, +which were just perceptible beneath the partial shadow of his +contracted brow; while it left the lower part of his body and his right +hand, which was supported on the head of a huge, shaggy dog couching at +his side, shadowed almost completely by the thick skins heaped +confusedly against the sides of the wooden chest. He was so completely +absorbed in the contemplation of the Runic characters, traced among the +carved figures on his immense shield, that he did not notice the entry +of Hermanric and the stranger until the growl of the watchful dog +suddenly disturbed him in his occupation. He looked up instantly, his +quick, penetrating glance dwelling for a moment on the young chieftain, +and then resting steadily and inquiringly on his companion's feeble and +mutilated form. +</P> + +<P> +Accustomed to the military brevity and promptitude exacted by his +commander in all communications addressed to him by his inferiors, +Hermanric, without waiting to be interrogated or attempting to preface +or excuse his narrative, shortly related the conversation that had +taken place between the stranger and himself on the plain near the +Pincian Gate; and then waited respectfully to receive the commendation +or incur the rebuke of the king, as the chance of the moment might +happen to decide. +</P> + +<P> +After again fixing his eyes in severe scrutiny on the person of the +Roman, Alaric spoke to the young warrior in the Gothic language thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'Leave the man with me—return to your post, and there await whatever +commands it may be necessary that I should despatch to you to-night.' +</P> + +<P> +Hermanric immediately departed. Then, addressing the stranger for the +first time, and speaking in the Latin language, the Gothic leader +briefly and significantly intimated to his unknown visitant that they +were now alone. +</P> + +<P> +The man's parched lips moved, opened, quivered; his wild, hollow eyes +brightened till they absolutely gleamed, but he seemed incapable of +uttering a word; his features became horribly convulsed, the foam +gathered about his lips, he staggered forward and would have fallen to +the ground, had not the king instantly caught him in his strong grasp, +and placed him on the wooden chest that he had hitherto occupied +himself. +</P> + +<P> +'Can a starving Roman have escaped from the beleaguered city?' muttered +Alaric, as he took the skull cup, and poured some of the wine it +contained down the stranger's throat. +</P> + +<P> +The liquor was immediately successful in restoring composure to the +man's features and consciousness to his mind. He raised himself from +the seat, dashed off the cold perspiration that overspread his +forehead, and stood upright before the king—the solitary, powerless +old man before the vigorous lord of thousands, in the midst of his +warriors—without a tremor in his steady eye or a prayer for protection +on his haughty lip. +</P> + +<P> +'I, a Roman,' he began, 'come from Rome, against which the invader wars +with the weapon of famine, to deliver the city, her people, her +palaces, and her treasures into the hands of Alaric the Goth.' +</P> + +<P> +The king started, looked on the speaker for a moment, and then turned +from him in impatience and contempt. +</P> + +<P> +'I lie not,' pursued the enthusiast, with a calm dignity that affected +even the hardy sensibilities of the Gothic hero. 'Eye me again! Could +I come starved, shrivelled, withered thus from any place but Rome? +Since I quitted the city an hour has hardly passed, and by the way that +I left it the forces of the Goths may enter it to-night.' +</P> + +<P> +'The proof of the harvest is in the quantity of the grain, not in the +tongue of the husbandman. Show me your open gates, and I will believe +that you have spoken truth,' retorted the king, with a rough laugh. +</P> + +<P> +'I betray the city,' resumed the man sternly, 'but on one condition; +grant it me, and—' +</P> + +<P> +'I will grant you your life,' interrupted Alaric haughtily. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'My life!' cried the Roman, and his shrunken form seemed to expand, and +his tremulous voice to grow firm and steady in the very bitterness of +his contempt, as he spoke. 'My life! I ask it not of your power! The +wreck of my body is scarce strong enough to preserve it to me a single +day! I have no home, no loves, no friends, no possessions! I live in +Rome a solitary in the midst of the multitude, a pagan in a city of +apostates! What is my life to me? I cherish it but for the service of +the gods, whose instruments of vengeance against the nation that has +denied them I would make you and your hosts! If you slay me, it is a +sign to me from them that I am worthless in their cause. I shall die +content.' +</P> + +<P> +He ceased. The king's manner, as he listened to him, gradually lost +the bluntness and carelessness that had hitherto characterised it, and +assumed an attention and a seriousness more in accordance with his high +station and important responsibilities. He began to regard the +stranger as no common renegade, no ordinary spy, no shallow impostor, +who might be driven from his tent with disdain; but as a man important +enough to be heard, and ambitious enough to be distrusted. +Accordingly, he resumed the seat from which he had risen during the +interview, and calmly desired his new ally to explain the condition, on +the granting of which depended the promised betrayal of the city of +Rome. +</P> + +<P> +The pain-worn and despondent features of Ulpius became animated by a +glow of triumph as he heard the sudden mildness and moderation of the +king's demand; he raised his head proudly, and advanced a few steps, as +he thus loudly and abruptly resumed:— +</P> + +<P> +'Assure to me the overthrow of the Christian churches, the +extermination of the Christian priests, and the universal revival of +the worship of the gods, and this night shall make you master of the +chief city of the empire you are labouring to subvert!' +</P> + +<P> +The boldness, the comprehensiveness, the insanity of wickedness +displayed in such a proposition, and emanating from such a source, so +astounded the mind of Alaric, as to deprive him for the moment of +speech. The stranger, perceiving his temporary inability to answer +him, broke the silence which ensued and continued— +</P> + +<P> +'Is my condition a hard one? A conqueror is all-powerful; he can +overthrow the worship, as he can overthrow the government of a nation. +What matters it to you, while empire, renown, and treasure are yours, +what deities the people adore? Is it a great price to pay for an easy +conquest, to make a change which threatens neither your power, your +fame, nor your wealth? Do you marvel that I desire from you such a +revolution as this? I was born for the gods, in their service I +inherited rank and renown, for their cause I have suffered degradation +and woe, for their restoration I will plot, combat, die! Assure me +then by oath, that with a new rule you will erect our ancient worship, +and through my secret inlet to the city I will introduce men enough of +the Goths to murder with security the sentinels at the guard-houses, +and open the gates of Rome to the numbers of your whole invading +forces. Think not to despise the aid of a man unprotected and unknown! +The citizens will never yield to your blockade; you shrink from risking +the dangers of an assault; the legions of Ravenna are reported on their +way hitherward. Outcast as I am, I tell it to you here, in the midst +of your camp—your speediest assurance of success rests on my discovery +and on me!' +</P> + +<P> +The king started suddenly from his seat. 'What fool or madman!' he +cried, fixing his eyes in furious scorn and indignation on the +stranger's face, 'prates to me about the legions of Ravenna and the +dangers of an assault! Think you, renegade, that your city could have +resisted me had I chosen to storm it on the first day when I encamped +before its walls? Know you that your effeminate soldiery have laid +aside the armour of their ancestors, because their puny bodies are too +feeble to bear its weight, and that the half of my army here trebles +the whole number of the guards of Rome? Now, while you stand before +me, I have but to command, and the city shall be annihilated with fire +and sword, without the aid of one of the herd of traitors cowering +beneath the shelter of its ill-defended walls!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As Alaric spoke thus, some invisible agency seemed to crush, body and +mind, the lost wretch whom he addressed. The shock of such an answer +as he now heard seemed to strike him idiotic, as a flash of lightning +strikes with blindness. He regarded the king with a bewildered stare, +waving his hand tremulously backwards and forwards before his face, as +if to clear some imaginary darkness off his eyes; then his arm fell +helpless by his side, his head drooped upon his breast, and he moaned +out in low, vacant tones, 'The restoration of the gods—that is the +condition of conquest—the restoration of the gods!' +</P> + +<P> +'I come not hither to be the tool of a frantic and forgotten +priesthood,' cried Alaric disdainfully. 'Wherever I meet with your +accursed idols I will melt them down into armour for my warriors and +shoes for my horses; I will turn your temples into granaries and cut +your images of wood into billets for the watchfires of my hosts!' +</P> + +<P> +'Slay me and be silent!' groaned the man, staggering back against the +side of the tent, and shrinking under the merciless words of the Goth +like a slave under the lash. +</P> + +<P> +'I leave the shedding of such blood as yours to your fellow Romans,' +answered the king; 'they alone are worthy of the deed.' +</P> + +<P> +No syllable of reply now escaped the stranger's lips, and after an +interval of silence Alaric resumed, in tones divested of their former +fiery irritation, and marked by a solemn earnestness that conferred +irresistible dignity and force on every word that he uttered. +</P> + +<P> +'Behold the characters engraven there!' said he, pointing to the +shield; 'they trace the curse denounced by Odin against the great +oppressor, Rome! Once these words made part of the worship of our +fathers; the worship has long since vanished, but the words remain; +they seal the eternal hatred of the people of the North to the people +of the South; they contain the spirit of the great destiny that has +brought me to the walls of Rome. Citizen of a fallen empire, the +measure of your crimes is full! The voice of a new nation calls +through me for the freedom of the earth, which was made for man, and +not for Romans! The rule that your ancestors won by strength their +posterity shall no longer keep by fraud. For two hundred years, hollow +and unlasting truces have alternated with long and bloody wars between +your people and mine. Remembering this, remembering the wrongs of the +Goths in their settlements in Thrace, the murder of the Gothic youths +in the towns of Asia, the massacre of the Gothic hostages in Aquileia, +I come—chosen by the supernatural decrees of Heaven—to assure the +freedom and satisfy the wrath of my nation, by humbling at its feet the +power of tyrannic Rome! It is not for battle and bloodshed that I am +encamped before yonder walls. It is to crush to the earth, by famine +and woe, the pride of your people and the spirit of your rulers; to +tear from you your hidden wealth, and to strip you of your boasted +honour; to overthrow by oppression the oppressors of the world; to deny +you the glories of a resistance, and to impose on you the shame of a +submission. It is for this that I now abstain from storming your city, +to encircle it with an immovable blockade!' +</P> + +<P> +As the declaration of his great mission burst thus from the lips of the +Gothic king, the spirit of his lofty ambition seemed to diffuse itself +over his outward form. His noble stature, his fine proportions, his +commanding features, became invested with a simple, primeval grandeur. +Contrasted as he now was with the shrunken figure of the spirit-broken +stranger, he looked almost sublime. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +A succession of protracted shuddering ran through the Pagan's frame, +but he neither wept nor spoke. The unavailing defence of the Temple of +Serapis, the defeated revolution at Alexandria, and the abortive +intrigue with Vetranio, were now rising on his memory, to heighten the +horror of his present and worst overthrow. Every circumstance +connected with his desperate passage through the rifted wall revived, +fearfully vivid, on his mind. He remembered all the emotions of his +first night's labour in the darkness, all the miseries of his second +night's torture under the fallen brickwork, all the woe, danger, and +despondency that accompanied his subsequent toil—persevered in under +the obstructions of a famine-weakened body and a helpless arm—until he +passed, in delusive triumph, the last of the hindrances in the +long-laboured breach. One after another these banished recollections +returned to his memory as he listened to Alaric's rebuking +words—reviving past infirmities, opening old wounds, inflicting new +lacerations. But, saving the shudderings that still shook his body, no +outward witness betrayed the inward torment that assailed him. It was +too strong for human words, too terrible for human sympathy;—he +suffered it in brute silence. Monstrous as was his plot, the moral +punishment of its attempted consummation was severe enough to be worthy +of the projected crime. +</P> + +<P> +After watching the man for a few minutes more, with a glance of +pitiless disdain, Alaric summoned one of the warriors in attendance; +and, having previously commanded him to pass the word to the sentinels, +authorising the stranger's free passage through the encampment, he then +turned, and, for the last time, addressed him as follows:— +</P> + +<P> +'Return to Rome, through the hole whence, reptile-like, you +emerged!—and feed your starving citizens with the words you have heard +in the barbarian's tent!' +</P> + +<P> +The guard approached, led him from the presence of the king, issued the +necessary directions to the sentinels, and left him to himself. Once +he raised his eyes in despairing appeal to the heaven that frowned over +his head; but still, no word, or tear, or groan, escaped him. He moved +slowly on through the thick darkness; and turning his back on the city, +passed, careless whither he strayed, into the streets of the desolate +and dispeopled suburbs. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 16. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LOVE MEETINGS. +</H3> + +<P> +Who that has looked on a threatening and tempestuous sky, has not felt +the pleasure of discovering unexpectedly a small spot of serene blue, +still shining among the stormy clouds? The more unwillingly the eye +has wandered over the gloomy expanse of the rest of the firmament, the +more gladly does it finally rest on the little oasis of light which +meets at length its weary gaze, and which, when it was dispersed over +the whole heaven, was perhaps only briefly regarded with a careless +glance. Contrasted with the dark and mournful hues around it, even that +small spot of blue gradually acquires the power of investing the wider +and sadder prospect with a certain interest and animation that it did +not before possess—until the mind recognises in the surrounding +atmosphere of storm an object adding variety to the view—a spectacle +whose mournfulness may interest as well as repel. +</P> + +<P> +Was it with sensations resembling these (applied, however, rather to +the mind than to the eye) that the reader perused those pages devoted +to Hermanric and Antonina? Does the happiness there described now +appear to him to beam through the stormy progress of the narrative as +the spot of blue beams through the gathering clouds? Did that small +prospect of brightness present itself, at the time, like a garden of +repose amid the waste of fierce emotions which encompassed it? Did it +encourage him, when contrasted with what had gone before, to enter on +the field of gloomier interest which was to follow? If, indeed, it has +thus affected him, if he can still remember the scene at the farm-house +beyond the suburbs with emotions such as these, he will not now be +unwilling to turn again for a moment from the gathering clouds to the +spot of blue,—he will not deny us an instant's digression from Ulpius +and the city of famine to Antonina and the lonely plains. +</P> + +<P> +During the period that has elapsed since we left her, Antonina has +remained secure in her solitude, happy in her well-chosen concealment. +The few straggling Goths who at rare intervals appeared in the +neighbourhood of her sanctuary never intruded on its peaceful limits. +The sight of the ravaged fields and emptied granaries of the deserted +little property sufficed invariably to turn their marauding steps in +other directions. Day by day ran smoothly and swiftly onwards for the +gentle usurper of the abandoned farm-house. In the narrow round of its +gardens and protecting woods was comprised for her the whole circle of +the pleasures and occupations of her new life. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The simple stores left in the house, the fruits and vegetables to be +gathered in the garden, sufficed amply for her support. The pastoral +solitude of the place had in it a quiet, dreamy fascination, a novelty, +an unwearying charm, after the austere loneliness to which her former +existence had been subjected in Rome. And when evening came, and the +sun began to burnish the tops of the western tress, then, after the +calm emotions of the solitary day, came the hour of absorbing cares and +happy expectations—ever the same, yet ever delighting and ever new. +Then the rude shutters were carefully closed; the open door was shut +and barred; the small light—now invisible to the world without—was +joyfully kindled; and then, the mistress and author of these +preparations resigned herself to await, with pleased anxiety, the +approach of the guest for whose welcome they were designed. +</P> + +<P> +And never did she expect the arrival of that treasured companion in +vain. Hermanric remembered his promise to repair constantly to the +farm-house, and performed it with all the constancy of love and all the +enthusiasm of youth. When the sentinels under his command were +arranged in their order of watching for the night, and the trust +reposed in him by his superiors exempted his actions from +superintendence during the hours of darkness that followed, he left the +camp, passed through the desolate suburbs, and gained the dwelling +where the young Roman awaited him—returning before daybreak to receive +the communications regularly addressed to him, at that hour, by his +inferior in the command. +</P> + +<P> +Thus, false to his nation, yet true to the new Egeria of his thoughts +and actions—traitor to the requirements of vengeance and war, yet +faithful to the interests of tranquility and love—did he seek, night +after night, Antonina's presence. His passion, though it denied him to +his warrior duties, wrought not deteriorating change in his +disposition. All that it altered in him it altered nobly. It varied +and exalted his rude emotions, for it was inspired, not alone by the +beauty and youth that he saw, but by the pure thoughts, the artless +eloquence that he heard. And she—the forsaken daughter, the source +whence the Northern warrior derived those new and higher sensations +that had never animated him until now—regarded her protector, her +first friend and companion, as her first love, with a devotion which, +in its mingled and exalted nature, may be imagined by the mind, but can +be but imperfectly depicted by the pen. It was a devotion created of +innocence and gratitude, of joy and sorrow, of apprehension and hope. +It was too fresh, too unworldly to own any upbraidings of artificial +shame, any self-reproaches of artificial propriety. It resembled in +its essence, though not in its application, the devotion of the first +daughters of the Fall to their brother-lords. +</P> + +<P> +But it is now time that we return to the course of our narrative; +although, ere we again enter on the stirring and rapid present, it will +be necessary for a moment more to look back in another direction to the +eventful past. +</P> + +<P> +But it is not on peace, beauty, and pleasure that our observation now +fixes itself. It is to anger, disease, and crime—to the unappeasable +and unwomanly Goisvintha, that we now revert. +</P> + +<P> +Since the day when the violence of her conflicting emotions had +deprived her of consciousness, at the moment of her decisive triumph +over the scruples of Hermanric and the destiny of Antonina, a raging +fever had visited on her some part of those bitter sufferings that she +would fain have inflicted on others. Part of the time she lay in a +raving delirium; part of the time in helpless exhaustion; but she never +forgot, whatever the form assumed by her disease, the desperate purpose +in the pursuit of which she had first incurred it. Slowly and +doubtfully her vigour at length returned to her, and with it +strengthened and increased the fierce ambition of vengeance that +absorbed her lightest thoughts and governed her most careless actions. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Report informed her of the new position, on the line of blockade, on +which Hermanric was posted, and only enumerated as the companions of +his sojourn the warriors sent thither under his command. But, though +thus persuaded of the separation of Antonina and the Goth, her +ignorance of the girl's fate rankled unintermittingly in her savage +heart. Doubtful whether she had permanently reclaimed Hermanric to the +interests of vengeance and bloodshed; vaguely suspecting that he might +have informed himself in her absence of Antonina's place of refuge or +direction of flight; still resolutely bent on securing the death of her +victim, wherever she might have strayed, she awaited with trembling +eagerness that day of restoration to available activity and strength +which would enable her to resume her influence over the Goth, and her +machinations against the safety of the fugitive girl. The time of her +final and long-expected recovery, was the very day preceding the stormy +night we have already described, and her first employment of her +renewed energy was to send word to the young Goth of her intention of +seeking him at his encampment ere the evening closed. +</P> + +<P> +It was this intimation which caused the inquietude mentioned as +characteristic of the manner of Hermanric at the commencement of the +preceding chapter. The evening there described was the first that saw +him deprived, through the threatened visit of Goisvintha, of the +anticipation of repairing to Antonina, as had been his wont, under +cover of the night; for to slight his kinswoman's ominous message was +to risk the most fatal of discoveries. Trusting to the delusive +security of her sickness, he had hitherto banished the unwelcome +remembrance of her existence from his thoughts. But, now that she was +once more capable of exertion and of crime, he felt that if he would +preserve the secret of Antonina's hiding-place and the security of +Antonina's life, he must remain to oppose force to force and stratagem +to stratagem, when Goisvintha sought him at his post, even at the risk +of inflicting, by his absence from the farm-house, all the pangs of +anxiety and apprehension on the lonely girl. +</P> + +<P> +Absorbed in such reflections as these, longing to depart, yet +determined to remain, he impatiently awaited Goisvintha's approach, +until the rising of the storm with its mysterious and all-engrossing +train of events forced his thoughts and actions into a new channel. +When, however, his interviews with the stranger and the Gothic king +were past, and he had returned as he had been bidden to his appointed +sojourn in the camp, his old anxieties, displaced but not destroyed, +resumed their influence over him. He demanded eagerly of his comrades +if Goisvintha had arrived in his absence, and received the same answer +in the negative from each. +</P> + +<P> +As he now listened to the melancholy rising of the wind and the +increasing loudness of the thunder, to the shrill cries of the distant +night-birds hurrying to shelter, emotions of mournfulness and awe +possessed themselves of his heart. He now wondered that any events, +however startling, however appalling, should have had the power to turn +his mind for a moment from the dreary contemplations that had engaged +it at the close of day. He thought of Antonina, solitary and helpless, +listening to the tempest in affright, and watching vainly for his +long-delayed approach. His fancy arrayed before him dangers, plots, +and crimes, robed in all the horrible exaggerations of a dream. Even +the quick, monotonous dripping of the rain-drops outside aroused within +him dark and indefinable forebodings of ill. The passion that had +hitherto created for him new pleasures was now fulfilling the other +half of its earthly mission, and causing him new pains. +</P> + +<P> +As the storm strengthened, as the darkness lowered deeper and deeper, +so did his inquietude increase, until at length it mastered the last +feeble resistance of his wavering firmness. Persuading himself that, +after having delayed so long, Goisvintha would now refrain from seeking +him until the morrow, and that all communications from Alaric, had they +been despatched, would have reached him ere this; unable any longer to +combat his anxiety for the safety of Antonina; determined to risk the +worst possibilities rather than be absent at such a time of tempest and +peril from the farm-house, he made a last visit to the stations of the +watchful sentinels, and quitted the camp for the night. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 17. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HUNS. +</H3> + +<P> +More than an hour after Hermanric had left the encampment, a man +hurriedly entered the house set apart for the young chieftain's +occupation. He made no attempt to kindle either light or fire, but sat +down in the principal apartment, occasionally whispering to himself in +a strange and barbarous tongue. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He had remained but a short time in possession of his comfortless +solitude, when he was intruded on by a camp-follower, bearing a small +lamp, and followed closely by a woman, who, as he started up and +confronted her, announced herself as Hermanric's kinswoman, and eagerly +demanded an interview with the Goth. +</P> + +<P> +Haggard and ghastly though it was from recent suffering and long +agitation, the countenance of Goisvintha (for it was she) appeared +absolutely attractive as it was now opposed by the lamp-light to the +face and figure of the individual she addressed. A flat nose, a +swarthy complexion, long, coarse, tangled locks of deep black hair, a +beardless, retreating chin, and small, savage, sunken eyes, gave a +character almost bestial to this man's physiognomy. His broad, brawny +shoulders overhung a form that was as low in stature as it was athletic +in build; you looked on him and saw the sinews of a giant strung in the +body of a dwarf. And yet this deformed Hercules was no solitary error +of Nature—no extraordinary exception to his fellow-beings, but the +actual type of a whole race, stunted and repulsive as himself. He was +a Hun. +</P> + +<P> +This savage people, the terror even of their barbarous neighbours, +living without government, laws, or religion, possessed but one feeling +in common with the human race—the instinct of war. Their historical +career may be said to have begun with their early conquests in China, +and to have proceeded in their first victories over the Goths, who +regarded them as demons, and fled at their approach. The hostilities +thus commenced between the two nations were at length suspended by the +temporary alliance of the conquered people with the empire, and +subsequently ceased in the gradual fusion of the interests of each in +one animating spirit—detestation of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +By this bond of brotherhood, the Goths and the Huns became publicly +united, though still privately at enmity—for the one nation remembered +its former defeats as vividly as the other remembered its former +victories. With various disasters, dissensions, and successes, they +ran their career of battle and rapine, sometimes separate, sometimes +together, until the period of our romance, when Alaric's besieging +forces numbered among the ranks of their barbarian auxiliaries a body +of Huns, who, unwillingly admitted to the title of Gothic allies, were +dispersed about the army in subordinate stations, and of whom the +individual above described was one of those contemptuously favoured by +promotion to an inferior command, under Hermanric, as a Gothic chief. +</P> + +<P> +An expression of aversion, but not of terror, passed over Goisvintha's +worn features as she approached the barbarian, and repeated her desire +to be conducted to Hermanric's presence. For the second time, however, +the man gave her no answer. He burst into a shrill, short laugh, and +shook his huge shoulders in clumsy derision. +</P> + +<P> +The woman's cheek reddened for an instant, and then turned again to +livid paleness as she thus resumed— +</P> + +<P> +'I came not hither to be mocked by a barbarian, but to be welcomed by a +Goth! Again I ask you, where is my kinsman, Hermanric?' +</P> + +<P> +'Gone!' cried the Hun. And his laughter grew more wild and discordant +as he spoke. +</P> + +<P> +A sudden tremor ran through Goisvintha's frame as she marked the manner +of the barbarian and heard his reply. Repressing with difficulty her +anger and agitation, she continued, with apprehension in her eyes and +entreaty in her tones— +</P> + +<P> +'Whither has he gone? Wherefore has he departed? I know that the hour +I appointed for our meeting here has long passed; but I have suffered a +sickness of many weeks, and when, at evening, I prepared to set forth, +my banished infirmities seemed suddenly to return to me again. I was +borne to my bed. But, though the woman who succoured me bid me remain +and repose, I found strength in the night to escape them, and through +storm and darkness to come hither alone—for I was determined, though I +should perish for it, to seek the presence of Hermanric, as I had +promised by my messengers. You, that are the companion of his watch, +must know whither he is gone. Go to him, and tell him what I have +spoken. I will await his return!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'His business is secret,' sneered the Hun. 'He has departed, but +without telling me whither. How should I, that am a barbarian, know +the whereabouts of an illustrious Goth? It is not for me to know his +actions, but to obey his words!' +</P> + +<P> +'Jeer not about your obedience,' returned Goisvintha with breathless +eagerness. 'I say to you again, you know whither he is gone, and you +must tell me for what he has departed. You obey him—there is money to +make you obey me!' +</P> + +<P> +'When I said his business was secret, I lied not,' said the Hun, +picking up with avidity the coins she flung to him—'but he has not +kept it secret from me! The Huns are cunning! Aha, ugly and cunning!' +</P> + +<P> +Suspicion, the only refined emotion in a criminal heart, half +discovered to Goisvintha, at this moment, the intelligence that was yet +to be communicated. No word, however, escaped her, while she signed +the barbarian to proceed. +</P> + +<P> +'He has gone to a farm-house on the plains beyond the suburbs behind +us. He will not return till daybreak,' continued the Hun, tossing his +money carelessly in his great, horny hands. +</P> + +<P> +'Did you see him go?' gasped the woman. +</P> + +<P> +'I tracked him to the house,' returned the barbarian. 'For many nights +I watched and suspected him—to-night I saw him depart. It is but a +short time since I returned from following him. The darkness did not +delude me; the place is on the high-road from the suburbs—the first +by-path to the westward leads to its garden gate. I know it! I have +discovered his secret! I am more cunning than he!' +</P> + +<P> +'For what did he seek the farm-house at night?' demanded Goisvintha +after an interval, during which she appeared to be silently fixing the +man's last speech in her memory; 'are you cunning enough to tell me +that?' +</P> + +<P> +'For what do men venture their safety and their lives, their money and +their renown?' laughed the barbarian. 'They venture them for women! +There is a girl at the farm-house; I saw her at the door when the chief +went in!' +</P> + +<P> +He paused; but Goisvintha made no answer. Remembering that she was +descended from a race of women who slew their wounded husbands, +brothers, and sons with their own hands when they sought them after +battle dishonoured by a defeat; remembering that the fire of the old +ferocity of such ancestors as these still burnt at her heart; +remembering all that she had hoped from Hermanric, and had plotted +against Antonina; estimating in all its importance the shock of the +intelligence she now received, we are alike unwilling and unable to +describe her emotions at this moment. For some time the stillness in +the room was interrupted by no sounds but the rolling of the thunder +without, the quick, convulsive respiration of Goisvintha, and the +clinking of the money which the Hun still continued to toss +mechanically from hand to hand. +</P> + +<P> +'I shall reap good harvest of gold and silver after to-night's work,' +pursued the barbarian, suddenly breaking the silence. 'You have given +me money to speak—when the chief returns and hears that I have +discovered him, he will give me money to be silent. I shall drink +to-morrow with the best men in the army, Hun though I am!' +</P> + +<P> +He returned to his seat as he ceased, and began beating in monotonous +measure, with one of his pieces of money on the blade of his sword, +some chorus of a favourite drinking song; while Goisvintha, standing +pale and breathless near the door of the chamber, looked down on him +with fixed, vacant eyes. At length a deep sigh broke from her; her +hands involuntarily clenched themselves at her side; her lips moved +with a bitter smile; then, without addressing another word to the Hun, +she turned, and softly and stealthily quitted the room. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The instant she was gone, a sudden change arose in the barbarian's +manner. He started from his seat, a scowl of savage hatred and triumph +appeared on his shaggy brows, and he paced to and fro through the +chamber like a wild beast in his cage. 'I shall tear him from the +pinnacle of his power at last!' he whispered fiercely to himself. 'For +what I have told her this night, his kinswoman will hate him—I knew it +while she spoke! For his desertion of his post, Alaric may dishonour +him, may banish him, may hang him! His fate is at my mercy; I shall +rid myself nobly of him and his command! More than all the rest of his +nation I loathe this Goth! I will be by when they drag him to the +tree, and taunt him with his shame, as he has taunted me with my +deformity.' Here he paused to laugh in complacent approval of his +project, quickening his steps and hugging himself joyfully in the +barbarous exhilaration of his triumph. +</P> + +<P> +His secret meditations had thus occupied him for some time longer, when +the sound of a footstep was audible outside the door. He recognised it +instantly, and called softly to the person without to approach. At the +signal of his voice a man entered—less athletic in build, but in +deformity the very counterpart of himself. The following discourse was +then immediately held between the two Huns, the new-comer beginning it +thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'Have you tracked him to the door?' +</P> + +<P> +'To the very threshold.' +</P> + +<P> +'Then his downfall is assured! I have seen Alaric.' +</P> + +<P> +'We shall trample him under our feet!—this boy, who has been set over +us that are his elders, because he is a Goth and we are Huns! But what +of Alaric? How did you gain his ear?' +</P> + +<P> +'The Goths round his tent scoffed at me as a savage, and swore that I +was begotten between a demon and a witch. But I remembered the time +when these boasters fled from their settlements; when our tribes +mounted their black steeds and hunted them like beasts! Aha, their +very lips were pale with fear in those days.' +</P> + +<P> +'Speak of Alaric—our time is short,' interrupted the other fiercely. +</P> + +<P> +'I answered not a word to their taunts,' resumed his companion, 'but I +called out loudly that I was a Gothic ally, that I brought messages to +Alaric, and that I had the privilege of audience like the rest. My +voice reached the ears of the king: he looked forth from his tent, and +beckoned me in. I saw his hatred of my nation lowering in his eye as +we looked on one another, but I spoke with submission and in a soft +voice. I told him how his chieftain whom he had set over us secretly +deserted his post; I told him how we had seen his favoured warrior for +many nights journeying towards the suburbs; how on this night, as on +others before, he had stolen from the encampment, and how you had gone +forth to track him to his lurking-place.' +</P> + +<P> +'Was the tyrant angered?' +</P> + +<P> +'His cheeks reddened, and his eyes flashed, and his fingers trembled +round the hilt of his sword while I spoke! When I ceased he answered +me that I lied. He cursed me for an infidel Hun who had slandered a +Christian chieftain. He threatened me with hanging! I cried to him to +send messengers to our quarters to prove the truth ere he slew me. He +commanded a warrior to return hither with me. When we arrived, the +most Christian chieftain was nowhere to be beheld—none knew whither he +had gone! We turned back again to the tent of the king; his warrior, +whom he honoured, spoke the same words to him as the Hun whom he +despised. Then the wrath of Alaric rose. "This very night," he cried, +"did I with my own lips direct him to await my commands with vigilance +at his appointed post! I would visit such disobedience with punishment +on my own son! Go, take with you others of your troop—your comrade +who has tracked him will guide you to his hiding-place—bring him +prisoner into my tent!" Such were his words! Our companions wait us +without—lest he should escape let us depart without delay.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'And if he should resist us,' cried the other, leading the way eagerly +towards the door; 'what said the king if he should resist us?' +</P> + +<P> +'Slay him with your own hands.' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 18. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE FARM-HOUSE. +</H3> + +<P> +As the night still advanced, so did the storm increase. On the plains +in the open country its violence was most apparent. Here no living +voices jarred with the dreary music of the elements; no flaming torches +opposed the murky darkness or imitated the glaring lightning. The +thunder pursued uninterruptedly its tempest symphony, and the fierce +wind joined it, swelling into wild harmony when it rushed through the +trees, as if in their waving branches it struck the chords of a mighty +harp. +</P> + +<P> +In the small chamber of the farm-house sat together Hermanric and +Antonina, listening in speechless attention to the increasing tumult of +the storm. +</P> + +<P> +The room and its occupants were imperfectly illuminated by the flame of +a smouldering wood fire. The little earthenware lamp hung from its +usual place in the ceiling, but its oil was exhausted and its light was +extinct. An alabaster vase of fruit lay broken by the side of the +table, from which it had fallen unnoticed to the floor. No other +articles of ornament appeared in the apartment. Hermanric's downcast +eyes and melancholy, unchanging expressions betrayed the gloomy +abstraction in which he was absorbed. With one hand clasped in his, +and the other resting with her head on his shoulder, Antonina listened +attentively to the alternate rising and falling of the wind. Her +beauty had grown fresher and more woman-like during her sojourn at the +farm-house. Cheerfulness and hope seemed to have gained at length all +the share in her being assigned to them by nature at her birth. Even +at this moment of tempest and darkness there was more of wonder and awe +than of agitation and affright in her expression, as she sat +hearkening, with flushed cheek and brightened eye, to the progress of +the nocturnal storm. +</P> + +<P> +Thus engrossed by their thoughts, Hermanric and Antonina remained +silent in their little retreat, until the reveries of both were +suddenly interrupted by the snapping asunder of the bar of wood which +secured the door of the room, the stress of which, as it bent under the +repeated shocks of the wind, the rotten spar was too weak to sustain +any longer. There was something inexpressibly desolate in the flood of +rain, wind, and darkness that seemed instantly to pour into the chamber +through the open door, as it flew back violently on its frail hinges. +Antonina changed colour, and shuddered involuntarily, as Hermanric +hastily rose and closed the door again, by detaching its rude latch +from the sling which held it when not wanted for use. He looked round +the room as he did so for some substitute for the broken bar, but +nothing that was fit for the purpose immediately met his eye, and he +muttered to himself as he returned impatiently to his seat: 'While we +are here to watch it the latch is enough; it is new and strong.' +</P> + +<P> +He seemed on the point of again relapsing into his former gloom, when +the voice of Antonina arrested his attention, and aroused him for the +moment from his thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +'Is it in the power of the tempest to make you, a warrior of a race of +heroes, thus sorrowful and sad?' she asked, in accents of gentle +reproach. 'Even I, as I look on these walls that are so eloquent of my +happiness, and sit by you whose presence makes that happiness, can +listen to the raging storm, and feel no heaviness over my heart! What +is there to either of us in the tempest that should oppress us with +gloom? Does not the thunder come from the same heaven as the sunshine +of the summer day? You are so young, so generous, so brave,—you have +loved, and pitied, and succoured me,—why should the night language of +the sky cast such sorrow and such silence over you?' +</P> + +<P> +'It is not from sorrow that I am silent,' replied Hermanric, with a +constrained smile, 'but from weariness with much toil in the camp.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He stifled a sigh as he spoke. His head returned to its old downcast +position. The struggle between his assumed carelessness and his real +inquietude was evidently unequal. As she looked fixedly on him, with +the vigilant eye of affection, the girl's countenance saddened with +his. She nestled closer to his side and resumed the discourse in +anxious and entreating tones. +</P> + +<P> +'It is haply the strife between our two nations which has separated us +already, and may separate us again, that thus oppresses you,' said she; +'but think, as I do, of the peace that must come, and not of the +warfare that now is. Think of the pleasures of our past days, and of +the happiness of our present moments,—thus united, thus living, +loving, hoping for each other; and, like me, you will doubt not of the +future that is in preparation for us both! The season of tranquillity +may return with the season of spring. The serene heaven will then be +reflected on a serene country and a happy people; and in those days of +sunshine and peace, will any hearts among all the glad population be +more joyful than ours?' +</P> + +<P> +She paused a moment. Some sudden thought or recollection heightened +her colour and caused her to hesitate ere she proceeded. She was about +at length to continue, when a peal of thunder, louder than any which +had preceded it, burst threateningly over the house and drowned the +first accents of her voice. The wind moaned loudly, the rain splashed +against the door, the latch rattled long and sharply in its socket. +Once more Hermanric rose from his seat, and approaching the fire, +placed a fresh log of wood upon the dying embers. His dejection seemed +now to communicate itself to Antonina, and as he reseated himself by +her side, she did not address him again. +</P> + +<P> +Thoughts, dreary and appalling beyond any that had occupied it before, +were rising in the mind of the Goth. His inquietude at the encampment +in the suburbs was tranquillity itself compared to the gloom which now +oppressed him. All the evaded dues of his nation, his family, and his +calling; all the suppressed recollections of the martial occupation he +had slighted, and the martial enmities he had disowned, now revived +avengingly in his memory. Yet, vivid as these remembrances were, they +weakened none of those feelings of passionate devotion to Antonina by +which their influence within him had hitherto been overcome. They +existed with them—the old recollections with the new emotions—the +stern rebukings of the warrior's nature with the anxious forebodings of +the lover's heart. And now, his mysterious meeting with Ulpius; +Goisvintha's unexpected return to health; the dreary rising and furious +progress of the night tempest, began to impress his superstitious mind +as a train of unwonted and meaning incidents, destined to mark the +fatal return of his kinswoman's influence over his own actions and +Antonina's fate. +</P> + +<P> +One by one, his memory revived with laborious minuteness every incident +that had attended his different interviews with the Roman girl, from +the first night when she had strayed into his tent to the last happy +evening that he had spent with her at the deserted farm-house. Then +tracing further backwards the course of his existence, he figured to +himself his meeting with Goisvintha among the Italian Alps; his +presence at the death of her last child, and his solemn engagement, on +hearing her recital of the massacre at Aquileia, to avenge her on the +Romans with his own hands. Roused by these opposite pictures of the +past, his imagination peopled the future with images of Antonina again +endangered, afflicted, and forsaken; with visions of the impatient +army, spurred at length into ferocious action, making universal havoc +among the people of Rome, and forcing him back for ever into their +avenging ranks. No decision for resistance or resignation to flight +presented itself to his judgment. Doubt, despair, and apprehension +held unimpeded sway over his impressible but inactive faculties. The +night itself, as he looked forth on it, was not more dark; the wild +thunder, as he listened to it, not more gloomy; the name of Goisvintha, +as he thought on it, not more ominous of evil, than the sinister +visions that now startled his imagination and oppressed his weary mind. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +There was something indescribably simple, touching, and eloquent in the +very positions of Hermanric and Antonina as they now sat together—the +only members of their respective nations who were united in affection +and peace—in the lonely farm-house. Both the girl's hands were +clasped over Hermanric's shoulder, and her head rested on them, turned +from the door towards the interior of the room, and so displaying her +rich, black hair in all its luxuriance. The head of the Goth was still +sunk on his breast, as though he were wrapped in a deep sleep, and his +hands hung listlessly side by side over the scabbard of his sheathed +sword, which lay across his knees. The fire flamed only at intervals, +the fresh log that had been placed on it not having been thoroughly +kindled as yet. Sometimes the light played on the white folds of +Antonina's dress; sometimes over the bright surface of Hermanric's +cuirass, which he had removed and laid by his side on the ground; +sometimes over his sword, and his hands, as they rested on it; but it +was not sufficiently powerful or lasting to illuminate the room, the +walls and corners of which it left in almost complete darkness. +</P> + +<P> +The thunder still pealed from without, but the rain and wind had +partially lulled. The night hours had moved on more swiftly than our +narrative of the events that marked them. It was now midnight. +</P> + +<P> +No sound within the room reached Antonina's ear but the quick rattling +of the door-latch, shaken in its socket by the wind. As one by one the +moments journeyed slowly onward, it made its harsh music with as +monotonous a regularity as though it were moved by their progress, and +kept pace with their eternal march. Gradually the girl found herself +listening to this sharp, discordant sound, with all the attention she +could have bestowed at other times on the ripple of a distant rivulet +or the soothing harmony of a lute, when, just as it seemed adapting +itself most easily to her senses, it suddenly ceased, and the next +instant a gust of wind, like that which had rushed through the open +door on the breaking of the rotten bar, waved her hair about her face +and fluttered the folds of her light, loose dress. She raised her head +and whispered tremulously to Hermanric— +</P> + +<P> +'The door is open again—the latch has given way!' +</P> + +<P> +The Goth started from his reverie and looked up hastily. At that +instant the rattling of the latch recommenced as suddenly as it had +ceased, and the air of the room recovered its former tranquillity. +</P> + +<P> +'Calm yourself, beloved one,' said Hermanric gently; 'your fancy has +misled you—the door is safe.' +</P> + +<P> +He parted back her dishevelled hair caressingly as he spoke. Incapable +of doubting the lightest word that fell from his lips, and hearing no +suspicious or unwonted sound in the room, she never attempted to +justify her suspicions. As she again rested her head on his shoulder, +a vague misgiving oppressed her heart, and drew from her an +irrepressible sigh; but she gave her apprehensions no expression in +words. After listening for a moment more to assure himself of the +security of the latch, the Goth resumed insensibly the contemplations +from which he had been disturbed; once more his head drooped, and again +his hands returned mechanically to their old listless position, side by +side, on the scabbard of his sword. +</P> + +<P> +The faint, fickle flames still rose and fell, gleaming here and sinking +there, the latch sounded sharply in its socket, the thunder yet uttered +its surly peal, but the wind was now subsiding into fainter moans, and +the rain began to splash faintly and more faintly against the shutters +without. To the watchers in the farm-house nothing was altered to the +eye, and little to the ear. Fatal security! The last few minutes had +darkly determined their future destinies—in the loved and cherished +retreat they were now no longer alone. +</P> + +<P> +They heard no stealthy footsteps pacing round their dwelling, they saw +no fierce eyes peering into the interior of the farm-house through a +chink in the shutters, they marked no dusky figure passing through the +softly and quickly opened door, and gliding into the darkest corner of +the room. Yet, now as they sat together, communing in silence with +their young, sad hearts, the threatening figure of Goisvintha stood, +shrouded in congenial darkness, under their protecting roof and in +their beloved chamber, rising still and silent almost at their very +sides. +</P> + +<P> +Though the fire of her past fever had raged again through her veins, +and though startling visions of the murders at Aquileia had flashed +before her mind as the wild lightning before her eyes, she had traced +her way through the suburbs and along the high-road, and down the +little path to the farm-house gate, without straying, without +hesitating. Regardless of the darkness and the storm, she had prowled +about the house, had raised the latch, had waited for a loud peal of +thunder ere she passed the door, and had stolen shadow-like into the +darkest corner of the room, with a patience and a determination that +nothing could disturb. And now, when she stood at the goal of her worst +wishes, even now, when she looked down upon the two beings by whom she +had been thwarted and deceived, her fierce self-possession did not +desert her; her lips quivered over her locked teeth, her bosom heaved +beneath her drenched garments, but neither sighs nor curses, not even a +smile of triumph or a movement of anger escaped her. +</P> + +<P> +She never looked at Antonina; her eyes wandered not for a moment from +Hermanric's form. The quickest, faintest gleam of firelight that +gleamed over it was followed through its fitful course by her eager +glance, rapid and momentary as itself. Soon her attention was fixed +wholly upon his hands, as they lay over the scabbard of his sword; and +then, slowly and obscurely, a new and fatal resolution sprung up within +her. The various emotions pictured in her face became resolved into +one sinister expression, and, without removing her eyes from the Goth, +she slowly drew from the bosom-folds of her garment a long sharp knife. +</P> + +<P> +The flames alternately trembled into light and subsided into darkness +as at first; Hermanric and Antonina yet continued in their old +positions, absorbed in their thoughts and in themselves; and still +Goisvintha remained unmoved as ever, knife in hand, watchful, steady, +silent as before. +</P> + +<P> +But beneath the concealment of her outward tranquillity raged a +contention under which her mind darkened and her heart writhed. Twice +she returned the knife to its former hiding-place, and twice she drew +it forth again; her cheeks grew paler and paler, she pressed her +clenched hand convulsively over her bosom, and leant back languidly +against the wall behind her. No thought of Antonina had part in this +great strife of secret emotions; her wrath had too much of anguish in +it to be spent against a stranger and an enemy. +</P> + +<P> +After the lapse of a few moments more, her strength returned—her +firmness was aroused. The last traces of grief and despair that had +hitherto appeared in her eyes vanished from them in an instant. Rage, +vengeance, ferocity, lowered over them as she crept stealthily forward +to the very side of the Goth, and, when the next gleam of the fire +played upon him, drew the knife fiercely across the back of his hands. +The cut was true, strong, and rapid—it divided the tendons from first +to last—he was crippled for life. +</P> + +<P> +At that instant the fire touched the very heart of the log that had +been laid on it. It crackled gaily; it blazed out brilliantly. The +whole room was as brightly illuminated as if a Christmas festival of +ancient England had been preparing within its walls! +</P> + +<P> +The warm, cheerful light showed the Goth the figure of his assassin, +ere the first cry of anguish had died away on his lips, or the first +start of irrepressible horror ceased to vibrate through his frame. The +cries of his hapless companion, as the whole scene of vengeance, +treachery, and mutilation flashed in one terrible instant before her +eyes, seemed not even to reach his ears. Once he looked down upon his +helpless hands, when the sword rolled heavily from them to the floor. +Then his gaze directed itself immovably upon Goisvintha, as she stood +at a little distance from him, with her blood-stained knife, silent as +himself. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +There was no fury—no defiance—not even the passing distortion of +physical suffering in his features, as he now looked on her. Blank, +rigid horror—tearless, voiceless, helpless despair, seemed to have +petrified the expression of his face into an everlasting form, +unyouthful and unhopeful—as if he had been imprisoned from his +childhood, and a voice was now taunting him with the pleasures of +liberty, from a grating in his dungeon walls. Not even when Antonina, +recovering from her first agony of terror, pressed her convulsive +kisses on his cold cheek, entreating him to look on her, did he turn +his head, or remove his eyes from Goisvintha's form. +</P> + +<P> +At length the deep steady accents of the woman's voice were heard +through the desolate silence. +</P> + +<P> +'Traitor in word and thought you may be yet, but traitor in deed you +never more shall be!' she began, pointing to his hands with her knife. +'Those hands, that have protected a Roman life, shall never grasp a +Roman sword, shall never pollute again by their touch a Gothic weapon! +I remembered, as I watched you in the darkness, how the women of my +race once punished their recreant warriors when they fled to them from +a defeat. So have I punished you! The arm that served not the cause +of sister and sister's children—of king and king's nation—shall serve +no other! I am half avenged of the murders at Aquileia, now that I am +avenged on you! Go, fly with the Roman you have chosen to the city of +her people! Your life as a warrior is at an end!' +</P> + +<P> +He made her no answer. There are emotions, the last of a life, which +tear back from nature the strongest barriers that custom raises to +repress her, which betray the lurking existence of the first rude +social feeling of the primeval days of a great nation, in the breasts +of their most distant descendants, however widely their acquirements, +their prosperities, or their changes may seem to have morally separated +them from their ancestors of old. Such were the emotions now awakened +in the heart of the Goth. His Christianity, his love, his knowledge of +high aims, and his experience of new ideas, sank and deserted him, as +though he had never known them. He thought on his mutilated hands, and +no other spirit moved within him, but the ancient Gothic spirit of +centuries back; the inspiration of his nation's early Northern songs +and early Northern achievements—the renown of courage and the +supremacy of strength. +</P> + +<P> +Vainly did Antonina, in the midst of the despair that still possessed +her, yearn for a word from his lips or a glance from his eyes; vainly +did her trembling fingers, tearing the bandages from her robe, stanch +the blood on his wounded hands; vainly did her voice call on him to fly +and summon help from his companions in the camp! His mind was far +away, brooding over the legends of the battle-fields of his ancestors, +remembering how, even in the day of victory, they slew themselves if +they were crippled in the fray, how they scorned to exist for other +interests than the interests of strife, how they mutilated traitors as +Goisvintha had mutilated him! Such were the objects that enchained his +inward faculties, while his outward senses were still enthralled by the +horrible fascination that existed for him in the presence of the +assassin by his side. His very consciousness of his existence, though +he moved and breathed, seemed to have ceased. +</P> + +<P> +'You thought to deceive me in my sickness, you hoped to profit by my +death,' resumed Goisvintha, returning contemptuously her victim's +glance. 'You trusted in the night, and the darkness, and the storm; +you were secure in your boldness, in your strength, in the secrecy of +this lurking-place that you have chosen for your treachery, but your +stratagems and your expectations have failed you! At Aquileia I learnt +to be wily and watchful as you! I discovered your desertion of the +warriors and the camp; I penetrated the paths to your hiding-place; I +entered it as softly as I once departed from the dwelling where my +children were slain! In my just vengeance I have treated you as +treacherously as you would have treated me! Remember your murdered +brother; remember the child I put into your arms wounded and received +from them dead; remember your broken oaths and forgotten promises, and +make to your nation, to your duties, and to me, the atonement—the last +and the only one—that in my mercy I have left in your power—the +atonement of death.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Again she paused, and again no reply awaited her. Still the Goth +neither moved nor spoke, and still Antonina—kneeling unconsciously +upon the sword, now useless to him for ever—continued to stanch the +blood on his hands with a mechanical earnestness that seemed to shut +out the contemplation of every other object from her eyes. The tears +streamed incessantly down her cheeks, but she never turned towards +Goisvintha, never suspended her occupation. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the fire still blazed noisily on the cheerful hearth; but +the storm, as if disdaining the office of heightening the human horror +of the farm-house scene, was rapidly subsiding. The thunder pealed +less frequently and less loudly, the wind fell into intervals of +noiseless calm, and occasionally the moonlight streamed, in momentary +brightness, through the ragged edges of the fast breaking clouds. The +breath of the still morning was already moving upon the firmament of +the stormy night. +</P> + +<P> +'Has life its old magic for you yet?' continued Goisvintha, in tones of +pitiless reproach. 'Have you forgotten, with the spirit of your +people, the end for which your ancestors lived? Is not your sword at +your feet? Is not the knife in my hand? Do not the waters of the +Tiber, rolling yonder to the sea, offer to you the grave of oblivion +that all may seek? Die then! In your last hour be a Goth; even to the +Romans you are worthless now! Already your comrades have discovered +your desertion; will you wait till you are hung for a rebel? Will you +live to implore the mercy of your enemies, or, dishonoured and +defenceless, will you endeavour to escape? You are of the blood of my +family, but again I say it to you—die!' +</P> + +<P> +His pale lips trembled; he looked round for the first time at Antonina, +but his utterance struggled ineffectually, even yet, against unyielding +despair. He was still silent. +</P> + +<P> +Goisvintha turned from him disdainfully, and approaching the fire sat +down before it, bending her haggard features over the brilliant flames. +For a few minutes she remained absorbed in her evil thoughts, but no +articulate word escaped her; and when at length she again abruptly +broke the silence, it was not to address the Goth or to fix her eyes on +him as before. +</P> + +<P> +Still cowering over the fire, apparently as regardless of the presence +of the two beings whose happiness she had just crushed for ever as if +they had never existed, she began to recite, in solemn, measured, +chanting tones, a legend of the darkest and earliest age of Gothic +history, keeping time to herself with the knife that she still held in +her hand. The malignity in her expression, as she pursued her +employment, betrayed the heartless motive that animated it, almost as +palpably as the words of the composition she was repeating: thus she +now spoke:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'The tempest-god's pinions o'ershadow the sky,<BR> + The waves leap to welcome the storm that is nigh,<BR> + Through the hall of old Odin re-echo the shocks<BR> + That the fierce ocean hurls at his rampart of rocks,<BR> + As, alone on the crags that soar up from the sands,<BR> + With his virgin SIONA the young AGNAR stands;<BR> + Tears sprinkle their dew on the sad maiden's cheeks,<BR> + And the voice of the chieftain sinks low while he speaks:<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Crippled in the fight for ever,<BR> + Number'd with the worse than slain;<BR> + Weak, deform'd, disabled!—never<BR> + Can I join the hosts again!<BR> + With the battle that is won<BR> + AGNAR'S earthly course is run!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "When thy shatter'd frame must yield,<BR> + If thou seek'st a future field;<BR> + When thy arm, that sway'd the strife,<BR> + Fails to shield thy worthless life;<BR> + When thy hands no more afford<BR> + Full employment to the sword;<BR> + Then, preserve—respect thy name;<BR> + Meet thy death—to live is shame!<BR> + Such is Odin's mighty will;<BR> + Such commands I now fulfil!"'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +At this point in the legend, she paused and turned suddenly to observe +its effect on Hermanric. All its horrible application to himself +thrilled through his heart. His head drooped, and a low groan burst +from his lips. But even this evidence of the suffering she was +inflicting failed to melt the iron malignity of Goisvintha's +determination. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Do you remember the death of Agnar?' she cried. 'When you were a +child, I sung it to you ere you slept, and you vowed as you heard it, +that when you were a man, if you suffered his wounds you would die his +death! He was crippled in a victory, yet he slew himself on the day of +his triumph; you are crippled in your treachery, and have forgotten +your boy's honour, and will live in the darkness of your shame! Have +you lost remembrance of that ancient song? You heard it from me in the +morning of your years; listen, and you shall hear it to the end; it is +the dirge for your approaching death!' +</P> + +<P> +She continued— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "SIONA, mourn not!—where I go<BR> + The warriors feel nor pain nor woe;<BR> + They raise aloft the gleaming steel,<BR> + Their wounds, though warm, untended heal;<BR> + Their arrows bellow through the air<BR> + In showers, as they battle there;<BR> + In mighty cups their wine is pour'd,<BR> + Bright virgins throng their midnight board!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Yet think not that I die unmov'd;<BR> + I mourn the doom that sets me free,<BR> + As I think, betroth'd—belov'd,<BR> + On all the joys I lose in thee!<BR> + To form my boys to meet the fray,<BR> + Where'er the Gothic banner streams;<BR> + To guard thy night, to glad thy day,<BR> + Made all the bliss of AGNAR'S dreams—<BR> + Dreams that must now be all forgot,<BR> + Earth's joys have passed from AGNAR'S lot!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "See, athwart the face of light<BR> + Float the clouds of sullen Night!<BR> + Odin's warriors watch for me<BR> + By the earth-encircling sea!<BR> + The water's dirges howl my knell;<BR> + 'Tis time I die—Farewell-Farewell!"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'He rose with a smile to prepare for the spring,<BR> + He flew from the rock like a bird on the wing;<BR> + The sea met her prey with a leap and a roar,<BR> + And the maid stood alone by the wave-riven shore!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The winds mutter'd deep, with a woe-boding sound,<BR> + As she wept o'er the footsteps he'd left on the ground;<BR> + And the wild vultures shriek'd, for the chieftain who spread<BR> + Their battle-field banquets was laid with the dead!'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +As, with a slow and measured emphasis, Goisvintha pronounced the last +lines of the poem she again approached Hermanric. But the eyes of the +Goth sought her no longer. She had calmed the emotions that she had +hoped to irritate. Of the latter divisions of her legend, those only +which were pathetic had arrested the lost chieftain's attention, and +the blunted faculties of his heart recovered their old refinement as he +listened to them. A solemn composure of love, grief, and pity appeared +in the glance of affection that he now directed on the girl's +despairing countenance. Years of good thoughts, an existence of tender +cares, an eternity of youthful devotion spoke in that rapt, momentary, +eloquent gaze, and imprinted on his expression a character ineffably +beautiful and calm—a nobleness above the human, and approaching the +angelic and divine. +</P> + +<P> +Intuitively Goisvintha followed the direction of his eyes, and looked, +like him, on the Roman girl's face. A lowering expression of hatred +replaced the scorn that had hitherto distorted her passionate features. +Mechanically her hand again half raised the knife, and the accents of +her wrathful voice once more disturbed the sacred silence of affection +and grief. +</P> + +<P> +'Is it for the girl there that you would still live?' she cried +sternly. 'I foreboded it, coward, when I first looked on you! I +prepared for it when I wounded you! I made sure that when my anger +again threatened this new ruler of your thoughts and mover of your +actions, you should have lost the power to divert it from her again! +Think you that, because my disdain has delayed it, my vengeance on her +is abandoned? Long since I swore to you that she should die, and I will +hold to my purpose! I have punished you; I will slay her! Can you +shield her from the blow to-night, as you shielded her in your tent? +You are weaker before me than a child!' +</P> + +<P> +She ceased abruptly, for at this moment a noise of hurrying footsteps +and contending voices became suddenly audible from without. As she +heard it, a ghastly paleness chased the flush of anger from her cheeks. +With the promptitude of apprehension she snatched the sword of +Hermanric from under Antonina, and ran it through the staples intended +to hold the rude bar of the door. The next instant the footsteps +sounded on the garden path, and the next the door was assailed. +</P> + +<P> +The good sword held firm, but the frail barrier that it sustained +yielded at the second shock and fell inwards, shattered, to the floor. +Instantly the gap was darkened by human forms, and the firelight glowed +over the repulsive countenances of two Huns who headed the intruders, +habited in complete armour and furnished with naked swords. +</P> + +<P> +'Yield yourself prisoner by Alaric's command,' cried one of the +barbarians, 'or you shall be slain as a deserter where you now stand!' +</P> + +<P> +The Goth had risen to his feet as the door was burst in. The arrival +of his pursuers seemed to restore his lost energies, to deliver him at +once from an all-powerful thraldom. An expression of triumph and +defiance shone over his steady features when he heard the summons of +the Hun. For a moment he stooped towards Antonina, as she clung +fainting round him. His mouth quivered and his eye glistened as he +kissed her cold cheek. In that moment all the hopelessness of his +position, all the worthlessness of his marred existence, all the +ignominy preparing for him when he returned to the camp, rushed over +his mind. In that moment the worst horrors of departure and death, the +fiercest rackings of love and despair, assailed but did not overcome +him. In that moment he paid his final tribute to the dues of +affection, and braced for the last time the fibres of manly +dauntlessness and Spartan resolve! +</P> + +<P> +The next instant he tore himself from the girl's arms, the old +hero-spirit of his conquering nation possessed every nerve in his +frame, his eye brightened again gloriously with its lost warrior-light, +his limbs grew firm, his face was calm, he confronted the Huns with a +mien of authority and a smile of disdain, and, as he presented to them +his defenceless breast, not the faintest tremor was audible in his +voice, while he cried in accents of steady command— +</P> + +<P> +'Strike! I yield not!' +</P> + +<P> +The Huns rushed forward with fierce cries, and buried their swords in +his body. His warm young blood gushed out upon the floor of the +dwelling which had been the love-shrine of the heart that shed it. +Without a sigh from his lips or a convulsion on his features, he fell +dead at the feet of his enemies; all the valour of his disposition, all +the gentleness of his heart, all the vigour of his form, resolved in +one humble instant into a senseless and burdensome mass! +</P> + +<P> +Antonina beheld the assassination, but was spared the sight of the +death that followed it. She fell insensible by the side of her young +warrior—her dress was spotted with his blood, her form was motionless +as his own. +</P> + +<P> +'Leave him there to rot! His pride in his superiority will not serve +him now—even to a grave!' cried the Hun leader to his companions, as +he dried on the garments of the corpse his reeking sword. +</P> + +<P> +'And this woman,' demanded one of his comrades, 'is she to be liberated +or secured?' +</P> + +<P> +He pointed as he spoke to Goisvintha. During the brief scene of the +assassination, the very exercise of her faculties seemed to have been +suspended. She had never stirred a limb or uttered a word. +</P> + +<P> +The Hun recognised her as the woman who had questioned and bribed him +at the camp. 'She is the traitor's kinswoman and is absent from the +tents without leave,' he answered. 'Take her prisoner to Alaric; she +will bear us witness that we have done as he commanded us. As for the +girl,' he continued, glancing at the blood on Antonina's dress, and +stirring her figure carelessly with his foot, 'she may be dead too, for +she neither moves nor speaks, and may be left like her protector to lie +graveless where she is. For us, it is time that we depart—the king is +impatient of delay.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As they led her roughly from the house, Goisvintha shuddered, and +attempted to pause for a moment when she passed the corpse of the Goth. +Death, that can extinguish enmities as well as sunder loves, rose awful +and appealing as she looked her last at her murdered brother, and +remembered her murdered husband. No tears flowed from her eyes, no +groans broke from her bosom; but there was a pang, a last momentary +pang of grief and pity at her heart as she murmured while they forced +her away—'Aquileia! Aquileia! have I outlived thee for this!' +</P> + +<P> +The troops retired. For a few minutes silence ruled uninterruptedly +over the room where the senseless girl still lay by the side of all +that was left to her of the object of her first youthful love. But ere +long footsteps again approached the farm-house door, and two Goths, who +had formed part of the escort allotted to the Hun, approached the young +chieftain's corpse. Quickly and silently they raised it in their arms +and bore it into the garden. There they scooped a shallow hole with +their swords in the fresh, flower-laden turf, and having laid the body +there, they hastily covered it, and rapidly departed without returning +to the house. +</P> + +<P> +These men had served among the warriors committed to Hermanric's +command. By many acts of frank generosity and encouragement, the young +chieftain had won their rough attachment. They mourned his fate, but +dared not obstruct the sentence, or oppose the act that determined it. +At their own risk they had secretly quitted the advancing ranks of +their comrades, to use the last privilege and obey the last dictate of +human kindness; and they thought not of the lonely girl as they now +left her desolate, and hurried away to reassume their appointed +stations ere it was too late. +</P> + +<P> +The turf lay caressingly round the young warrior's form; its crushed +flowers pressed softly against his cold cheek; the fragrance of the new +morning wafted its pure incense gently about his simple grave! Around +him flowered the delicate plants that the hand of Antonina had raised +to please his eye. Near him stood the dwelling, sacred to the first +and last kiss that he had impressed upon her lips; and about him, on +all sides, rose the plains and woodlands that had engrossed, with her +image, the devotion of all her dearest thoughts. He lay, in his death, +in the midst of the magic circle of the best joys of his life! It was +a fitter burial-place for the earthly relics of that bright and +generous spirit than the pit in the carnage-laden battle-field, or the +desolate sepulchres of a northern land! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 19. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE GUARDIAN RESTORED. +</H3> + +<P> +Not long is the new-made grave left unwatched to the solemn +guardianship of Solitude and Night. More than a few minutes have +scarcely elapsed since it was dug, yet already human footsteps press +its yielding surface, and a human glance scans attentively its small +and homely mound. +</P> + +<P> +But it is not Antonina, whom he loved; it is not Goisvintha, through +whose vengeance he was lost, who now looks upon the earth above the +young warrior's corpse. It is a stranger, an outcast; a man lost, +dishonoured, abandoned—it is the solitary and ruined Ulpius who now +gazes with indifferent eyes upon the peaceful garden and the eloquent +grave. +</P> + +<P> +In the destinies of woe committed to the keeping of the night, the +pagan had been fatally included. The destruction that had gone forth +against the body of the young man who lay beneath the earth had +overtaken the mind of the old man who stood over his simple grave. The +frame of Ulpius, with all its infirmities, was still there, but the +soul of ferocious patience and unconquerable daring that had lighted it +grandly in its ruin was gone. Over the long anguish of that woeful +life the veil of self-oblivion had closed for ever! +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He had been dismissed by Alaric, but he had not returned to the city +whither he was bidden. Throughout the night he had wandered about the +lonely suburbs, striving in secret and horrible suffering for the +mastery of his mind. There did the overthrow of all his hopes from the +Goths expand rapidly into the overthrow of the whole intellect that had +created his aspirations. There had reason burst the bonds that had so +long chained, perverted, degraded it! At length, wandering hither and +thither, he had dragged the helpless body, possessed no longer by the +perilous mind, to the farm-house garden in which he now stood, gazing +alternately at the upturned sods of the chieftain's grave and the red +gleam of the fire as it glowed from the dreary room through the gap of +the shattered door. +</P> + +<P> +His faculties were fatally disordered rather than utterly destroyed. +His penetration, his firmness, and his cunning were gone; but a wreck +of memory, useless and unmanageable—a certain capacity for momentary +observation still remained to him. The shameful miscarriage in the +tent of Alaric, which had overthrown his faculties, had passed from him +as an event that never happened, but he remembered fragments of his +past existence—he still retained a vague consciousness of the ruling +purpose of his whole life. +</P> + +<P> +These embryo reflections, disconnected and unsustained, flitted to and +fro over his dark mind as luminous exhalations over a marsh—rising and +sinking, harmless and delusive, fitful and irregular. What he +remembered of the past he remembered carelessly, viewing it with as +vacant a curiosity as if it were the visionary spectacle of another +man's struggles and misfortunes and hopes, acting under it as under a +mysterious influence, neither the end nor the reason of which he cared +to discover. For the future, it was to his thoughts a perfect blank; +for the present, it was a jarring combination of bodily weariness and +mental repose. +</P> + +<P> +He shuddered as he stood shelterless under the open heaven. The cold, +that he had defied in the vaults of the rifted wall, pierced in the +farm-house garden; his limbs, which had resisted repose on the hard +journey from Rome to the camp of the Goths, now trembled so that he was +fain to rest them on the ground. For a short time he sat glaring with +vacant and affrighted eyes upon the open dwelling before him, as though +he longed to enter it but dare not. At length the temptation of the +ruddy firelight seemed to vanquish his irresolution; he rose with +difficulty, and slowly and hesitatingly entered the house. +</P> + +<P> +He had advanced, thief-like, but a few steps, he had felt but for a +moment the welcome warmth of the fire, when the figure of Antonina, +still extended insensible upon the floor, caught his eye; he approached +it with eager curiosity, and, raising the girl on his arm, looked at +her with a long and rigid scrutiny. +</P> + +<P> +For some moments no expression of recognition passed his lips or +appeared on his countenance, as, with a mechanical, doting gesture of +fondness, he smoothed her dishevelled hair over her forehead. While he +was thus engaged, while the remains of the gentleness of his childhood +were thus awfully revived in the insanity of his age, a musical string +wound round a small piece of gilt wood fell from its concealment in her +bosom; he snatched it from the ground—it was the fragment of her +broken lute, which had never quitted her since the night when, in her +innocent grief, she had wept over it in her maiden bed-chamber. +</P> + +<P> +Small, obscure, insignificant as it was, this little token touched the +fibre in the Pagan's shattered mind which the all-eloquent form and +presence of its hapless mistress had failed to reach; his memory flew +back instantly to the garden on the Pincian Mount, and to his past +duties in Numerian's household, but spoke not to him of the calamities +he had wreaked since that period on his confiding master. His +imagination presented to him at this moment but one image—his +servitude in the Christian's abode; and as he now looked on the girl he +could regard himself but in one light—as 'the guardian restored'. +</P> + +<P> +'What does she with her music here?' he whispered apprehensively. +'This is not her father's house, and the garden yonder looks not from +the summit of the hill!' +</P> + +<P> +As he curiously examined the room, the red spots on the floor suddenly +attracted his attention. A panic, a frantic terror seemed instantly to +overwhelm him. He rose with a cry of horror, and, still holding the +girl on his arm, hurried out into the garden trembling and breathless, +as if the weapon of an assassin had scared him from the house. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The shock of her rough removal, the sudden influence of the fresh, cold +air, restored Antonina to the consciousness of life at the moment when +Ulpius, unable to support her longer, laid her against the little heap +of turf which marked the position of the young chieftain's grave. Her +eyes opened wildly; their first glance fixed upon the shattered door +and the empty room. She rose from the ground, advanced a few steps +towards the house, then paused, rigid, breathless, silent, and, turning +slowly, faced the upturned turf. +</P> + +<P> +The grave was all-eloquent of its tenant. His cuirass, which the +soldiers had thought to bury with the body that it had defended in +former days, had been overlooked in the haste of the secret interment, +and lay partly imbedded in the broken earth, partly exposed to view—a +simple monument over a simple grave! Her tearless, dilated eyes looked +down on it as though they would number each blade of grass, each morsel +of earth by which it was surrounded! Her hair waved idly about her +cheeks, as the light wind fluttered it; but no expression passed over +her face, no gestures escaped her limbs. Her mind toiled and quivered, +as if crushed by a fiery burden; but her heart was voiceless, and her +body was still. +</P> + +<P> +Ulpius had stood unnoticed by her side. At this moment he moved so as +to confront her, and she suddenly looked up at him. A momentary +expression of bewilderment and suspicion lightened the heavy vacancy of +despair which had chased their natural and feminine tenderness from her +eyes, but it disappeared rapidly. She turned from the Pagan, knelt +down by the grave, and pressed her face and bosom against the little +mound of turf beneath her. +</P> + +<P> +No voice comforted her, no arm caressed her, as her mind now began to +penetrate the mysteries, to probe the darkest depths of the long +night's calamities! Unaided and unsolaced, while the few and waning +stars glimmered from their places in the sky, while the sublime +stillness of tranquillised Nature stretched around her, she knelt at +the altar of death, and raised her soul upward to the great heaven +above her, charged with its sacred offering of human grief! +</P> + +<P> +Long did she thus remain; and when at length she arose from the ground, +when, approaching the Pagan, she fixed on him her tearless, dreary +eyes, he quailed before her glance, as his dull faculties struggled +vainly to resume the old, informing power that they had now for ever +lost. Nothing but the remembrance aroused by his first sight of the +fragment of the lute lived within even yet, as he whispered to her in +low, entreating tones— +</P> + +<P> +'Come home—come home! Your father may return before us—come home!' +</P> + +<P> +As the words 'home' and 'father'—those household gods of the heart's +earliest existence—struck upon her ears, a change flashed with +electric suddenness over the girl's whole aspect. She raised her wan +hands to the sky; all her woman's tenderness repossessed itself of her +heart; and as she again knelt down over the grave, her sobs rose +audibly through the calmed and fragrant air. +</P> + +<P> +With Hermanric's corpse beneath her, with the blood-sprinkled room +behind her, with a hostile army and a famine-wasted city beyond her, it +was only through that flood of tears, that healing passion of gentle +emotions, that she rose superior to the multiplied horrors of her +situation at the very moment when her faculties and her life seemed +sinking under them alike. Fully, freely, bitterly she wept, on the +kindly and parent earth—the patient, friendly ground that once bore +the light footsteps of the first of a race not created for death; that +now holds in its sheltering arms the loved ones, whom, in mourning, we +lay there to sleep; that shall yet be bound to the farthermost of its +depths, when the sun-bright presence of returning spirits shines over +its renovated frame, and love is resumed in angel perfection at the +point where death suspended it in mortal frailness! +</P> + +<P> +'Come home—your father is awaiting you—come home!' repeated the Pagan +vacantly, moving slowly away as he spoke. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At the sound of his voice she started up, and clasping his arm with her +trembling fingers, to arrest his progress, looked affrightedly into his +seared and listless countenance. As she thus gazed on him she appeared +for the first time to recognise him. Fear and astonishment mingled in +her expression with grief and despair as she sunk at his feet, moaning +in tones of piercing entreaty— +</P> + +<P> +'O Ulpius!—if Ulpius you are—have pity on me and take me to my +father! My father! my father! In all the lonely world there is nothing +left to me but my father!' +</P> + +<P> +'Why do you weep to me about your broken lute?' answered Ulpius, with a +dull, unmeaning smile; 'it was not I that destroyed it!' +</P> + +<P> +'They have slain him!' she shrieked distractedly, heedless of the +Pagan's reply. 'I saw them draw their swords on him! See, his blood +is on me—me!—Antonina, whom he protected and loved! Look there; that +is a grave—his grave—I know it! I have never seen him since; he is +down—down there! under the flowers I grew to gather for him! They +slew him; and when I knew it not, they have buried him!—or you—you +have buried him! You have hidden him under the cold garden earth! He +is gone!—Ah, gone, gone—for ever gone!' +</P> + +<P> +And she flung herself again with reckless violence on the grave. After +looking steadfastly on her for a moment, Ulpius approached and raised +her from the earth. +</P> + +<P> +'Come!' he cried angrily, 'the night grows on—your father waits!' +</P> + +<P> +'The walls of Rome shut me from my father! I shall never see my father +nor Hermanric again!' she cried, in tones of bitter anguish, +remembering more perfectly all the miseries of her position, and +struggling to release herself from the Pagan's grasp. +</P> + +<P> +The walls of Rome! At those words the mind of Ulpius opened to a flow +of dark remembrances, and lost the visions that had occupied it until +that moment. He laughed triumphantly. +</P> + +<P> +'The walls of Rome bow to my arm!' he cried, in exulting tones; 'I +pierced them with my good bar of iron! I wound through them with my +bright lantern! Spirits roared on me, and struck me down, and grinned +upon me in the thick darkness, but I passed the wall! The thunder +pealed around me as I crawled along the winding rifts; but I won my way +through them! I came out conquering on the other side! Come, come, +come, come! We will return! I know the track, even in the darkness! +I can outwatch the sentinels! You shall walk in the pathway that I +have broken through the bricks! +</P> + +<P> +The girl's features lost for a moment their expression of grief, and +grew rigid with horror, as she glanced at his fiery eyes, and felt the +fearful suspicion of his insanity darkening over her mind. She stood +powerless, trembling, unresisting, in his grasp, without attempting to +delude him into departure or to appease him into delay. +</P> + +<P> +'Why did I make my passage through the wall?' muttered the Pagan in a +low, awe-struck voice, suddenly checking himself, as he was about to +step forward. 'Why did I tear down the strong brick-work and go forth +into the dark suburbs?' +</P> + +<P> +He paused, and for a few moments struggled with his purposeless and +disconnected thoughts; but a blank, a darkness, an annihilation +overwhelmed Alaric and the Gothic camp, which he vainly endeavoured to +disperse. He sighed bitterly to himself—'It is gone!' and still +grasping Antonina by the hand, drew her after him to the garden gate. +</P> + +<P> +'Leave me!' she shrieked, as he passed onward into the pathway that led +to the high-road. 'Oh, be merciful, and leave me to die where he has +died!' +</P> + +<P> +'Peace! or I will rend you limb by limb, as I rent the stones from the +wall when I passed through it!' he whispered to her in fierce accents, +as she struggled to escape him. 'You shall return with me to Rome! +You shall walk in the track that I have made in the rifted brick-work!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Terror, anguish, exhaustion, overpowered her weak efforts. Her lips +moved, partly in prayer and partly in ejaculation; but she spoke in +murmurs only, as she mechanically suffered the Pagan to lead her onward +by the hand. +</P> + +<P> +They paced on under the waning starlight, over the cold, lonely road, +and through the dreary and deserted suburbs,—a fearful and discordant +pair! Coldly, obediently, impassively, as if she were walking in a +dream, the spirit-broken girl moved by the side of her scarce-human +leader. Disjointed exclamation, alternating horribly between infantine +simplicity and fierce wickedness, poured incessantly from the Pagan's +lips, but he never addressed himself further to his terror-stricken +companion. So, wending rapidly onward, they gained the Gothic lines; +and here the madman slackened his pace, and paused, beast-like, to +glare around him, as he approached the habitations of men. +</P> + +<P> +Still not opposed by Antonina, whose faculties of observation were +petrified by her terror into perfect inaction, even here, within reach +of the doubtful aid of the enemies of her people, the Pagan crept +forward through the loneliest places of the encampment, and, guided by +the mysterious cunning of his miserable race, eluded successfully the +observation of the drowsy sentinels. Never bewildered by the +darkness—for the moon had gone down—always led by the animal instinct +co-existent with his disease, he passed over the waste ground between +the hostile encampment and the city, and arrived triumphant at the heap +of stones that marked his entrance to the rifted wall. +</P> + +<P> +For one moment he stopped, and turning towards the girl, pointed +proudly to the dark, low breach he was about to penetrate. Then, +drawing her half-fainting form closer to his side, looking up +attentively to the ramparts, and stepping as noiselessly as though turf +were beneath his feet, he entered the dusky rift with his helpless +charge. +</P> + +<P> +As they disappeared in the recesses of the wall, Night—the stormy, the +eventful, the fatal!—reached its last limit; and the famished sentinel +on the fortifications of the besieged city roused himself from his +dreary and absorbing thoughts, for he saw that the new day was dawning +in the east. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 20. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BREACH REPASSED. +</H3> + +<P> +Slowly and mournfully the sentinel at the rifted wall raised his eyes +towards the eastern clouds as they brightened before the advancing +dawn. Desolate as was the appearance of the dull, misty daybreak, it +was yet the most welcome of all the objects surrounding the starving +soldier on which he could fix his languid gaze. To look back on the +city behind him was to look back on the dreary charnel-house of famine +and death; to look down on the waste ground without the walls was to +look down on the dead body of the comrade of his watch, who, maddened +by the pangs of hunger which he had suffered during the night, had cast +himself from the rampart to meet a welcome death on the earth beneath. +Famished and despairing, the sentinel crouched on the fortifications +which he had now neither strength to pace nor care to defend, yearning +for the food that he had no hope to obtain, as he watched the grey +daybreak from his solitary post. +</P> + +<P> +While he was thus occupied, the gloomy silence of the scene was +suddenly broken by the sound of falling brick-work at the inner base of +the wall, followed by faint entreaties for mercy and deliverance, which +rose on his ear, strangely mingled with disjointed expression of +defiance and exultation from a second voice. He slowly turned his +head, and, looking down, saw on the ground beneath a young girl +struggling in the grasp of an old man, who was hurrying her onward in +the direction of the Pincian Gate. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +For one moment the girl's eye met the sentinel's vacant glance, and she +renewed, with a last effort of strength, and a greater vehemence of +supplication, her cries for help; but the soldier neither moved nor +answered. Exhausted as he was, no sight could affect him now but the +sight of food. Like the rest of the citizens, he was sunk in a heavy +stupor of starvation—selfish, reckless, brutalised. No disasters could +depress, no atrocities rouse him. Famine had torn asunder every social +tie, had withered every human sympathy among his besieged +fellow-citizens, and he was famishing like them. +</P> + +<P> +At the moment when the dawn had first appeared, could he have looked +down by some mysterious agency to the interior foundations of the wall, +from the rampart on which he kept his weary watch, such a sight must +then have presented itself as would have aroused even his sluggish +observation to rigid attention and involuntary surprise. +</P> + +<P> +Winding upward and downward among jagged masses of ruined brick-work, +now lost amid the shadows of dreary chasms, now prominent over the +elevations of rising arches, the dark irregular passages broken by +Ulpius in the rotten wall would then have presented themselves to his +eyes; not stretching forth in dismal solitude, not peopled only by the +reptiles native to the place, but traced in all their mazes by human +forms. Then he would have perceived the fierce, resolute Pagan, moving +through darkness and obstacles with a sure, solemn progress, drawing +after him, like a dog devoted to his will, the young girl whose hapless +fate had doomed her to fall into his power. Her half-fainting figure +might have been seen, sometimes prostrate on the higher places of the +breach, while her fearful guide descended before her into a chasm +beyond, and then turned to drag her after him to a darker and a lower +depth yet; sometimes bent in supplication, when her lips moved once +more with a last despairing entreaty, and her limbs trembled with a +final effort to escape from her captor's relentless grasp. While +still, through all that opposed him, the same fierce tenacity of +purpose would have been invariably visible in every action of Ulpius, +constantly confirming him in his mad resolution to make his victim the +follower of his progress through the wall, ever guiding him with a +strange instinct through every hindrance, and preserving him from every +danger in his path, until it brought him forth triumphant, with his +prisoner still in his power, again free to tread the desolate streets +and mingle with the famine-stricken citizens of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +And now when, after peril and anguish, she once more stood within the +city of her home, what hope remained to Antonina of obtaining her last +refuge under her father's roof, and deriving her solitary consolation +from the effort to regain her father's love? With the termination of +his passage through the breach in the wall had ended every recollection +associated with it in the Pagan's shattered memory. A new blank now +pervaded his lost faculties, desolate as that which had overwhelmed +them in the night when he first stood in the farm-house garden by the +young chieftain's grave. He moved onward, unobservant, unthinking, +without aim or hope, driven by a mysterious restlessness, forgetting +the very presence of Antonina as she followed him, but still +mechanically grasping her hand, and dragging her after him he knew not +whither. +</P> + +<P> +And she, on her part, made no effort more for deliverance. She had +seen the sentinel unmoved by her entreaties, she had seen the walls of +her father's house receding from her longing eyes, as Ulpius pitilessly +hurried her father and farther from its distant door; and she lost the +last faint hope of restoration, the last lingering desire of life, as +the sense of her helplessness now weighed heaviest on her mind. Her +heart was full of her young warrior, who had been slain, and of her +father, from whom she had parted in the hour of his wrath, as she now +feebly followed the Pagan's steps, and resigned herself to a speedy +exhaustion and death in her utter despair. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +They turned from the Pincian Gate and gained the Campus Martius; and +here the aspect of the besieged city and the condition of its doomed +inhabitants were fully and fearfully disclosed to view. On the surface +of the noble area, once thronged with bustling crowds passing to and +fro in every direction as their various destinations or caprices might +lead them, not twenty moving figures were now discernible. These few, +who still retained their strength or the resolution to pace the +greatest thoroughfare of Rome, stalked backwards and forwards +incessantly, their hollow eyes fixed on vacancy, their wan hands +pressed over their mouths; each separate, distrustful, and silent; +fierce as imprisoned madmen; restless as spectres disturbed in a place +of tombs. +</P> + +<P> +Such were the citizens who still moved over the Campus Martius; and, +besetting their path wherever they turned, lay the gloomy numbers of +the dying and the dead—the victims already stricken by the pestilence +which had now arisen in the infected city, and joined the famine in its +work of desolation and death. Around the public fountains, where the +water still bubbled up as freshly as in the summer-time of prosperity +and peace, the poorer population of beleaguered Rome had chiefly +congregated to expire. Some still retained strength enough to drink +greedily at the margin of the stone basins, across which others lay +dead—their heads and shoulders immersed in the water—drowned from +lack of strength to draw back after their first draught. Children +mounted over the dead bodies of their parents to raise themselves to +the fountain's brim; parents stared vacantly at the corpses of their +children alternately floating and sinking in the water, into which they +had fallen unsuccoured and unmourned. +</P> + +<P> +In other parts of the place, at the open gates of the theatres and +hippodromes, in the unguarded porticoes of the palaces and the baths +lay the discoloured bodies of those who had died ere they could reach +the fountains—of women and children especially—surrounded in +frightful contrast by the abandoned furniture of luxury and the +discarded inventions of vice—by gilded couches—by inlaid tables—by +jewelled cornices—by obscene picture and statues—by brilliantly +framed, gaudily tinted manuscripts of licentious songs, still hanging +at their accustomed places on the lofty marble walls. Farther on, in +the by-streets and the retired courts, where the corpse of the +tradesman was stretched on his empty counter; where the soldier of the +city guard dropped down overpowered ere he reached the limit of his +rounds; where the wealthy merchant lay pestilence-stricken upon the +last hoards of repulsive food which his gold had procured; the assassin +and the robber might be seen—now greedily devouring the offal that lay +around them, now falling dead upon the bodies which they had rifled but +the moment before. +</P> + +<P> +Over the whole prospect, far and near, wherever it might extend, +whatever the horrors by which it might be occupied, was spread a blank, +supernatural stillness. Not a sound arose; the living were as silent +as the dead; crime, suffering, despair, were all voiceless alike; the +trumpet was unheard in the guard-house; the bell never rang from the +church; even the thick, misty rain, that now descended from the black +and unmoving clouds, and obscured in cold shadows the outlines of +distant buildings and the pinnacle tops of mighty palaces, fell +noiseless to the ground. The sky had no wind; the earth no echoes—the +pervading desolation appalled the eye; the vast stillness weighed dull +on the ear—it was a scene as of the last-left city of an exhausted +world, decaying noiselessly into primeval chaos. +</P> + +<P> +Through this atmosphere of darkness and death, along these paths of +pestilence and famine; unregarding and unregarded, the Pagan and his +prisoner passed slowly onward towards the quarter of the city opposite +the Pincian Mount. No ray of thought, even yet, brightened the dull +faculties of Ulpius; still he walked forward vacantly, and still he was +followed wearily by the fast-failing girl. +</P> + +<P> +Sunk in her mingled stupor of bodily weakness and mental despair, she +never spoke, never raised her head, never looked forth on the one side +or the other. She had now ceased even to feel the strong, cold grasp +of the Pagan's hand. Shadowy visions of spheres beyond the world, +arrayed in enchanting beauty, and people with happy spirits in their +old earthly forms, where a long deathless existence moved smoothly and +dreamily onward, without mark of time or taint of woe, were opening +before her mind. She lost all memory of afflictions and wrongs, all +apprehension of danger from the madman at whose mercy she remained. +And thus she still moved feebly onward as the will of Ulpius guided +her, with no observation of her present peril, and no anxiety for her +impending fate. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +They passed the grand circular structure of the Pantheon, entered the +long narrow streets leading to the banks of the river, and finally +gained the margin of the Tiber—hard by the little island that still +rises in the midst of its waters. Here, for the first time, the Pagan +paused mechanically in his course, and vacantly directed his dull, +dreamy eyes on the prospect before him, where the walls, stretching +abruptly outward from their ordinary direction, enclosed the Janiculum +Hill, as it rose with its irregular mass of buildings on the opposite +bank of the river. +</P> + +<P> +At this sudden change from action to repose, the overtasked energies +which had hitherto gifted the limbs of Antonina with an unnatural power +of endurance, abruptly relaxed. She sank down helpless and silent; her +head drooped towards the hard ground, as towards a welcome pillow, but +found no support, for the Pagan's iron grasp of her hand remained +unyielding as ever. Infirm though he was, he appeared at this moment +to be unconscious that his prisoner was now hanging at his side. Every +association connected with her, every recollection of his position with +her in her father's house, had vanished from his memory. A darker +blindness seemed to have sunk over his bodily perceptions; his eyes +rolled slowly to and fro over the prospect before him, but regarded +nothing; his panting breaths came thick and fast; his shrunk chest +heaved as if some deep, dread agony were pent within it—it was evident +that a new crisis in his insanity was at hand. +</P> + +<P> +At this moment one of the bands of marauders—the desperate criminals +of famine and plague—who still prowled through the city, appeared in +the street. Their trembling hands sought their weapons, and their +haggard faces brightened, when they first discerned the Pagan and the +girl; but as they approached nearer they saw enough in the figures of +the two, at a glance, to destroy their hopes of seizing on them either +plunder or food. For an instant they stood by their intended victims, +as if debating whether to murder them only for murder's sake, when the +appearance of two women, stealthily quitting a house farther on in the +street, carrying a basket covered by some tattered garments, attracted +their attention. They turned instantly to follow the bearers of the +basket, and again Ulpius and Antonina were left alone on the river's +bank. +</P> + +<P> +The appearance of the assassins had been powerless, as every other +sight or event in the city, in arousing the faculties of Ulpius. He +had neither looked on them nor fled from them when they surrounded him; +but now when they were gone he slowly turned his head in the direction +by which they had departed. His gaze wandered over the wet flagstones +of the street, over two corpses stretched on them at a little distance, +over the figure of a female slave who lay forsaken near the wall of one +of the houses, exerting her last energies to drink from the turbid +rain-water which ran down the kennel by her side; and still his eyes +remained unregardful of all that they encountered. The next object +which by chance attracted his vacant attention was a deserted temple. +This solitary building fixed him immediately in contemplation—it was +destined to open a new and a warning scene in the dark tragedy of his +closing life. +</P> + +<P> +In his course through the city he had passed unheeded many temples far +more prominent in situation, far more imposing in structure, than this. +It was a building of no remarkable extent or extraordinary beauty. Its +narrow porticoes and dark doorway were more fitted to repel than to +invite the eye; but it had one attraction, powerful above all glories +of architecture and all grandeur of situation to arrest in him those +wandering faculties whose sterner and loftier aims were now suspended +for ever; it was dedicated to Serapis—to the idol which had been the +deity of his first worship, and the inspiration of his last struggle +for the restoration of his faith. The image of the god, with the +three-headed monster encircled by a serpent, obedient beneath his hand, +was carved over the portico. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +What flood of emotions rushed into the vacant mind of Ulpius at the +instant when he discerned the long-loved, well-known image of the +Egyptian god, there was nothing for some moments outwardly visible in +him to betray. His moral insensibility appeared but to be deepened as +his gaze was now fixed with rigid intensity on the temple portico. +Thus he continued to remain motionless, as if what he saw had petrified +him where he stood, when the clouds, which had been closing in deeper +and deeper blackness as the morning advanced, and which, still charged +with electricity, were gathering to revive the storm of the past night, +burst abruptly into a loud peal of thunder over his head. +</P> + +<P> +At that warning sound, as if it had been the supernatural signal +awaited to arouse him, as if in one brief moment it awakened every +recollection of all that he had resolutely attempted during the night +of thunder that was past, he started into instant animation. His +countenance brightened, his form expanded, he dropped the hand of +Antonina, raised his arm aloft towards the wrathful heaven in frantic +triumph, then staggering forwards, fell on his knees at the base of the +temple steps. +</P> + +<P> +Whatever the remembrances of his passage through the wall at the +Pincian Hill, and of the toil and peril succeeding it, which had +revived when the thunder first sounded in his ear, they now vanished as +rapidly as they had arisen, and left his wandering memory free to +revert to the scenes which the image of Serapis was most fitted to +recall. Recollections of his boyish enjoyments in the temple at +Alexandria, of his youth's enthusiasm, of the triumphs of his early +manhood—all disjointed and wayward, yet all bright, glorious, +intoxicating—flashed before his shattered mind. Tears, the first that +he had shed since his happy youth, flowed quickly down his withered +cheeks. He pressed his hot forehead, he beat his parched hand in +ecstasy on the cold, wet steps beneath him. He muttered breathless +ejaculations, he breathed strange murmurs of endearment, he humbled +himself in his rapturous delight beneath the walls of the temple like a +dog that has discovered his lost master and fawns affectionately at his +feet. Criminal as he was, his joy in his abasement, his glory in his +miserable isolation from humanity, was a doom of degradation pitiable +to behold. +</P> + +<P> +After an interval his mood changed. He rose to his feet, his trembling +limbs strengthened with a youthful vigour as he ascended the temple +steps and gained its doorway. He turned for a moment, and looked forth +over the street, ere he entered the hallowed domain of his distempered +imagination. To him the cloudy sky above was now shining with the +radiance of the sun-bright East. The death-laden highways of Rome, as +they stretched before him, were beautiful with lofty trees, and +populous with happy figures; and along the dark flagstones beneath, +where still lay the corpses which he had no eye to see, he beheld +already the priests of Serapis with his revered guardian, his beloved +Macrinus of former days, at their head, advancing to meet and welcome +him in the hall of the Egyptian god. Visions such as these passed +gloriously before the Pagan's eyes as he stood triumphant on the steps +of the temple, and brightened to him with a noonday light its dusky +recesses when, after his brief delay, he turned from the street and +disappeared through the doorway of the sacred place. +</P> + +<P> +The rain poured down more thickly than before; the thunder, once +aroused, now sounded in deep and frequent peals as Antonina raised +herself from the ground and looked around her, in momentary expectation +that the dreaded form of Ulpius must meet her eyes. No living creature +was visible in the street. The forsaken slave still reclined near the +wall of the house where she had first appeared when the Pagan gained +the approaches to the temple; but she now lay there dead. No fresh +bands of robbers appeared in sight. An uninterrupted solitude +prevailed in all directions as far as the eye could reach. +</P> + +<P> +At the moment when Ulpius had relinquished his grasp of her hand, +Antonina had sunk to the ground, helpless and resigned, but not +exhausted beyond all power of sensation or all capacity for thought. +While she lay on the cold pavement of the street, her mind still +pursued its visions of a speedy death, and a tranquil life-in-death to +succeed it in a future state. But, as minute after minute elapsed, and +no harsh voice sounded in her ear, no pitiless hand dragged her from +the ground, no ominous footsteps were audible around her, a change +passed gradually over her thoughts; the instinct of self-preservation +slowly revived within her, and, as she raised herself to look forth on +the gloomy prospect, the chances of uninterrupted flight and present +safety presented by the solitude of the street, aroused her like a +voice of encouragement, like an unexpected promise of help. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Her perception of outer influences returned; she felt the rain that +drenched her garments; she shuddered at the thunder sounding over her +head; she marked with horror the dead bodies lying before her on the +stones. An overpowering desire animated her to fly from the place, to +escape from the desolate scene around, even though she should sink +exhausted by the effort in the next street. Slowly she arose—her limbs +trembled with a premature infirmity; but she gained her feet. She +tottered onward, turning her back on the river, passed bewildered +between long rows of deserted houses, and arrived opposite a public +garden surrounding a little summer-house, whose deserted portico +offered both concealment and shelter. Here, therefore, she took +refuge, crouching in the darkest corner of the building, and hiding her +face in her hands, as if to shut out all view of the dreary though +altered scenes which spread before her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Woeful thoughts and recollections now moved within her in bewildering +confusion. All that she had suffered since Ulpius had dragged her from +the farm-house in the suburbs—the night pilgrimage over the plain—the +fearful passage through the wall—revived in her memory, mingled with +vague ideas, now for the first time aroused, of the plague and famine +that were desolating the city; and, with sudden apprehensions that +Goisvintha might still be following her, knife in hand, through the +lonely streets; while passively prominent over all these varying +sources of anguish and dread, the scene of the young chieftain's death +lay like a cold weight on her heavy heart. The damp turf of his grave +seemed still to press against her breast; his last kiss yet trembled on +her lips; she knew, though she dared not look down on them, that the +spots of his blood yet stained her garments. +</P> + +<P> +Whether she strove to rise and continue her flight; whether she +crouched down again under the portico, resigned for one bitter moment +to perish by the knife of Goisvintha—if Goisvintha were near; to fall +once more into the hands of Ulpius—if Ulpius were tracking her to her +retreat,—the crushing sense that she was utterly bereaved of her +beloved protector—that the friend of her brief days of happiness was +lost to her for ever—that Hermanric, who had preserved her from death, +had been murdered in his youth and his strength by her side, never +deserted her. Since the assassination in the farm-house, she was now +for the first time alone; and now for the first time she felt the full +severity of her affliction, and knew how dark was the blank which was +spread before every aspiration of her future life. +</P> + +<P> +Enduring, almost eternal, as the burden of her desolation seemed now to +have become, it was yet to be removed, ere long, by feelings of a +tenderer mournfulness and a more resigned woe. The innate and innocent +fortitude of disposition, which had made her patient under the rigour +of her youthful education, and hopeful under the trials that assailed +her on her banishment from her father's house; which had never deserted +her until the awful scenes of the past night of assassination and death +rose in triumphant horror before her eyes; and which, even then, had +been suspended but not destroyed—was now destined to regain its +healing influence over her heart. As she still cowered in her lonely +refuge, the final hope, the yearning dependence on a restoration to her +father's presence and her father's love, that had moved her over the +young chieftain's grave, and had prompted her last effort for freedom +when Ulpius had dragged her through the passage in the rifted wall, +suddenly revived. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Once more she arose, and looked forth on the desolate city and the +stormy sky, but now with mild and unshrinking eyes. Her recollections +of the past grew tender in their youthful grief; her thoughts for the +future became patient, solemn, and serene. Images of her first and her +last-left protector, of her old familiar home, of her garden solitude +on the Pincian Mount, spread beautiful before her imagination as +resting-places to her weary heart. She descended the steps of the +summer-house with no apprehension of her enemies, no doubt of her +resolution; for she knew the beacon that was now to direct her onward +course. The tears gathered full in her eyes as she passed into the +garden; but her step never faltered, her features never lost their +combined expression of tranquil sorrow and subdued hope. So she once +more entered the perilous streets, and murmuring to herself, 'My +father! my father!' as if in those simple words lay the hand that was +to guide, and the providence that was to preserved her, she began to +trace her solitary way in the direction of the Pincian Mount. +</P> + +<P> +It was a spectacle—touching, beautiful, even sublime—to see this +young girl, but a few hours freed, by perilous paths and by criminal +hands, from scenes which had begun in treachery, only to end in death, +now passing, resolute and alone, through the streets of a mighty city, +overwhelmed by all that is poignant in human anguish and hideous in +human crime. It was a noble evidence of the strong power over the +world and the world's perils, with which the simplest affection may arm +the frailest being—to behold her thus pursuing her way, superior to +every horror of desolation and death that clogged her path, +unconsciously discovering in the softly murmured name of 'father', +which still fell at intervals from her lips, the pure purpose that +sustained her—the steady heroism that ever held her in her doubtful +course. The storms of heaven poured over her head—the crimes and +sufferings of Rome darkened the paths of her pilgrimage; but she passed +firmly onward through all, like a ministering spirit, journeying along +earthly shores in the bright inviolability of its merciful mission and +its holy thoughts—like a ray of light living in the strength of its +own beauty, amid the tempest and obscurity of a stranger sphere. +</P> + +<P> +Once more she entered the Campus Martius. Again she passed the public +fountains, still unnaturally devoted to serve as beds for the dying and +as sepulchres for the dead; again she trod the dreary highways, where +the stronger among the famished populace yet paced hither and thither +in ferocious silence and unsocial separation. No word was addressed, +hardly a look was directed to her, as she pursued her solitary course. +She was desolate among the desolate; forsaken among others abandoned +like herself. +</P> + +<P> +The robber, when he passed her by, saw that she was worthless for the +interests of plunder as the poorest of the dying citizens around him. +The patrician, loitering feebly onward to the shelter of his palace +halls, avoided her as a new suppliant among the people for the charity +which he had not to bestow, and quickened his pace as she approached +him in the street. Unprotected, yet unmolested, hurrying from her +loneliness and her bitter recollections to the refuge of her father's +love, as she would have hurried when a child from her first +apprehension of ill to the refuge of her father's arms, she gained at +length the foot of the Pincian Hill—at length ascended the streets so +often trodden in the tranquil days of old! +</P> + +<P> +The portals and outer buildings of Vetranio's palace, as she passed +them, presented a striking and ominous spectacle. Within the lofty +steel railings, which protected the building, the famine-wasted slaves +of the senator appeared reeling and tottering beneath full vases of +wine which they were feebly endeavouring to carry into the interior +apartments. Gaudy hangings drooped from the balconies, garlands of ivy +were wreathed round the statues of the marble front. In the midst of +the besieged city, and in impious mockery of the famine and pestilence +which were wasting it, hut and palace, to its remotest confines, were +proceeding in this devoted dwelling the preparations for a triumphant +feast! +</P> + +<P> +Unheedful of the startling prospect presented by Vetranio's abode, her +eyes bent but in one absorbing direction, her steps hurrying faster and +faster with each succeeding instant, Antonina approached the home from +which she had been exiled in fear, and to which she was returning in +woe. Yet a moment more of strong exertion, of overpowering +anticipation, and she reached the garden gate! +</P> + +<P> +She dashed back the heavy hair matted over her brows by the rain; she +glanced rapidly around her; she beheld the window of her bed-chamber +with the old simple curtain still hanging at its accustomed place; she +saw the well-remembered trees, the carefully tended flower-beds, now +drooping mournfully beneath the gloomy sky. Her heart swelled within +her, her breath seemed suddenly arrested in her bosom, as she trod the +garden path and ascended the steps beyond. The door at the top was +ajar. With a last effort she thrust it open, and stood once +more—unaided and unwelcomed, yet hopeful of consolation, of pardon, of +love—within her first and last sanctuary, the walls of her home! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 21. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FATHER AND CHILD. +</H3> + +<P> +Forsaken as it appears on an outward view, during the morning of which +we now write, the house of Numerian is yet not tenantless. In one of +the sleeping apartments, stretched on his couch, with none to watch by +its side, lies the master of the little dwelling. We last beheld him +on the scene mingled with the famishing congregation in the Basilica of +St. John Lateran, still searching for his child amid the confusion of +the public distribution of food during the earlier stages of the +misfortunes of besieged Rome. Since that time he has toiled and +suffered much; and now the day of exhaustion, long deferred, the hours +of helpless solitude, constantly dreaded, have at length arrived. +</P> + +<P> +From the first periods of the siege, while all around him in the city +moved gloomily onward through darker and darker changes, while famine +rapidly merged into pestilence and death, while human hopes and +purposes gradually diminished and declined with each succeeding day, he +alone remained ever devoted to the same labour, ever animated by the +same object—the only one among all his fellow-citizens whom no outward +event could influence for good or evil, for hope or fear. +</P> + +<P> +In every street of Rome, at all hours, among all ranks of people, he +was still to be seen constantly pursuing the same hopeless search. +When the mob burst furiously into the public granaries to seize the +last supplies of corn hoarded for the rich, he was ready at the doors +watching them as they came out. When rows of houses were deserted by +all but the dead, he was beheld within, passing from window to window, +as he sought through each room for the treasure that he had lost. When +some few among the populace, in the first days of the pestilence, +united in the vain attempt to cast over the lofty walls the corpses +that strewed the street, he mingled with them to look on the rigid +faces of the dead. In solitary places, where the parent, not yet lost +to affection, strove to carry his dying child from the desert roadway +to the shelter of a roof; where the wife, still faithful to her duties, +received her husband's last breath in silent despair—he was seen +gliding by their sides, and for one brief instant looking on them with +attentive and mournful eyes. Wherever he went, whatever he beheld, he +asked no sympathy and sought no aid. He went his way, a pilgrim on a +solitary path, an unregarded expectant for a boon that no others would +care to partake. +</P> + +<P> +When the famine first began to be felt in the city, he seemed +unconscious of its approach—he made no effort to procure beforehand +the provision of a few days' sustenance; if he attended the first +public distributions of food, it was only to prosecute his search for +his child amid the throng around him. He must have perished with the +first feeble victims of starvation, had he not been met, during his +solitary wanderings, by some of the members of the congregation whom +his piety and eloquence had collected in former days. +</P> + +<P> +By these persons, who entreaties that he would suspend his hopeless +search he always answered with the same firm and patient denial, his +course was carefully watched and his wants anxiously provided for. Out +of every supply of food which they were enabled to collect, his share +was invariably carried to his abode. They remembered their teacher in +the hour of his dejection, as they had formerly reverenced him in the +day of his vigour; they toiled to preserve his life as anxiously as +they had laboured to profit by his instructions; they listened as his +disciples once, they served him as his children now. +</P> + +<P> +But over these, as over all other offices of human kindness, the famine +was destined gradually and surely to prevail. The provision of food +garnered up by the congregation ominously lessened with each succeeding +day. When the pestilence began darkly to appear, the numbers of those +who sought their afflicted teacher at his abode, or followed him +through the dreary streets, fatally decreased. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Then, as the nourishment which had supported, and the vigilance which +had watched him, thus diminished, so did the hard-tasked energies of +the unhappy father fail him faster and faster. Each morning as he +arose, his steps were more feeble, his heart grew heavier within him, +his wanderings through the city were less and less resolute and +prolonged. At length his powers totally deserted him; the last-left +members of his congregation, as they approached his abode with the +last-left provision of food which they possessed, found him prostrate +with exhaustion at his garden gate. They bore him to his couch, placed +their charitable offering by his side, and leaving one of their number +to protect him from the robber and the assassin, they quitted the house +in despair. +</P> + +<P> +For some days the guardian remained faithful to his post, until his +sufferings from lack of food overpowered his vigilance. Dreading that, +in his extremity, he might be tempted to take from the old man's small +store of provision what little remained, he fled from the house, to +seek sustenance, however loathsome, in the public streets; and +thenceforth Numerian was left defenceless in his solitary abode. +</P> + +<P> +He was first beheld on the scenes which these pages present, a man of +austere purpose, of unwearied energy; a valiant reformer, who defied +all difficulties that beset him in his progress; a triumphant teacher, +leading at his will whoever listened to his words; a father, proudly +contemplating the future position which he destined for his child. Far +different did he now appear. Lost to his ambition, broken in spirit, +helpless in body, separated from his daughter by his own act, he lay on +his untended couch in a death-like lethargy. The cold wind blowing +through his opened window awakened no sensations in his torpid frame; +the cup of water and the small relics of coarse food stood near his +hand, but he had no vigilance to discern them. His open eyes looked +steadfastly upward, and yet he reposed as one in a deep sleep, or as +one already devoted to the tomb; save when, at intervals, his lips +moved slowly with a long and painfully drawn breath, or a fever flush +tinged his hollow cheek with changing and momentary hues. +</P> + +<P> +While thus in outward aspect appearing to linger between life and +death, his faculties yet remained feebly vital within him. Aroused by +no external influence, and governed by no mental restraint, they now +created before him a strange waking vision, palpable as an actual event. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to him that he was reposing, not in his own chamber, but in +some mysterious world, filled with a twilight atmosphere, inexpressibly +soothing and gentle to his aching sight. Through this mild radiance he +could trace, at long intervals, shadowy representations of the scenes +through which he had passed in search of his lost child. The gloomy +streets, the lonely houses abandoned to the unburied dead, which he had +explored, alternately appeared and vanished before him in solemn +succession; and ever and anon, as one vision disappeared ere another +rose, he heard afar off a sound as of gentle, womanly voices, murmuring +in solemn accents, 'The search has been made in penitence, in patience, +in prayer, and has not been pursued in vain. The lost shall +return—the beloved shall yet be restored!' +</P> + +<P> +Thus, as it had begun, the vision long continued. Now the scenes +through which he had wandered passed slowly before his eyes, now the +soft voices murmured pityingly in his ear. At length the first +disappeared, and the last became silent; then ensued a long vacant +interval, and then the grey, tranquil light brightened slowly at one +spot, out of which he beheld advancing towards him the form of his lost +child. +</P> + +<P> +She came to his side, she bent lovingly over him; he saw her eyes, with +their old patient, childlike expression, looking sorrowfully down upon +him. His heart revived to a sense of unspeakable awe and contrition, +to emotions of yearning love and mournful hope; his speech returned; he +whispered tremulously, 'Child! child! I repented in bitter woe the +wrong that I did to thee; I sought thee, in my loneliness on earth, +through the long day and the gloomy night! And now the merciful God +has sent thee to pardon me! I loved thee; I wept for thee.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +His voice died within him, for now his outward sensations quickened. +He felt warm tears falling on his cheeks; he felt embracing arms +clasped round him; he heard tenderly repeated, 'Father! speak to me as +you were wont; love me, father, and forgive me, as you loved and +forgave me when I was a little child!' +</P> + +<P> +The sound of that well-remembered voice—which had ever spoken kindly +and reverently to him; which had last addressed him in tones of +despairing supplication; which he had hardly hoped to hear again on +earth—penetrated his whole being, like awakening music in the dead +silence of night. His eyes lost their vacant expression; he raised +himself suddenly on the couch; he saw that what had begun as a vision +had ended as a reality; that his dream had proved the immediate +fore-runner of its own fulfilment; that his daughter in her bodily +presence was indeed restored; and his head drooped forward, and he +trembled and wept upon her bosom, in the overpowering fulness of his +gratitude and delight. +</P> + +<P> +For some moments Antonina, calming with the resolute heroism of +affection her own thronging emotions of awe and affright, endeavoured +to soothe and support her fast-failing parent. Her horror almost +overwhelmed her, as she thought that now, when, through grief and +peril, she was at last restored to him, he might expire in her arms; +but even yet her resolution did not fail her. The last hope of her +brief and bitter life was now the hope of reviving her father, and she +clung to it with the tenacity of despair. +</P> + +<P> +She calmed her voice while she spoke to him; she entreated him to +remember that his daughter had returned to watch over him, to be his +obedient pupil as in days of old. Vain effort! Even while the words +passed her lips, his arms, which had been pressed over her, relaxed; +his head grew heavier on her bosom. In the despair of the moment, she +tore herself from him, and looked round to seek the help that none were +near to afford. The cup of water, the last provision of food, +attracted her eye. With quick instinct she caught them up. Hope, +success, salvation, lay in those miserable relics. She pressed the +food into his mouth; she moistened his parched lips, his dry brow, with +the water. During one moment of horrible suspense she saw him still +insensible; then the vital functions revived; his eyes opened again and +fixed famine-struck on the wretched nourishment before him. He +devoured it ravenously; he drained the cup of water to its last drop; +he sank back again on the couch. But now the torpid blood moved once +more in his veins; his heart beat less and less feebly: he was saved. +She saw it as she bent over him—saved by the lost child in the hour of +her return! It was a sensation of ecstatic triumph and gratitude which +no woeful remembrances had power to embitter in its bright, sudden +birth. She knelt down by the side of the couch, almost crushed by her +own emotions. Over the grave of the young warrior she had raised her +heart to Heaven in agony and grief, and now by her father's side she +poured forth her whole soul to her Creator in trembling ejaculations of +thankfulness and hope. +</P> + +<P> +Thus—the one slowly recovering whatever of life and vigour yet +continued in his weakened frame, the other still filled with her +all-absorbing emotions of gratitude—the father and daughter long +remained. And now, as morning waned towards noon, the storm began to +subside. Gradually and solemnly the vast thunder-clouds rolled asunder, +and the bright blue heaven beyond appeared through their fantastic +rifts. The lessening rain-drops fell light and silvery to the earth, +and breeze and sunshine were wafted at fitful intervals over the +plague-tainted atmosphere of Rome. As yet, subdued by the shadows of +the floating clouds, the dawning sunbeams glittered softly through the +windows of Numerian's chamber. They played, warm and reviving, over +his worn features, like messengers of resurrection and hope from their +native heaven. Life seemed to expand within him under their fresh and +gentle ministering. Once more he raised himself, and turned towards +his child; and now his heart throbbed with a healthful joy, and his +arms closed round her, not in the helplessness of infirmity, but in the +welcome of love. +</P> + +<P> +His words, when he spoke to her, fell at first almost inarticulately +from his lips—they were mingled together in confused phrases of +tenderness, contrition, thanksgiving. All the native enthusiasm of his +disposition, all the latent love for his child, which had for years +been suppressed by his austerity, or diverted by his ambition, now at +last burst forth. +</P> + +<P> +Trembling and silent in his arms, Antonina vainly endeavoured to return +his caresses and to answer his words of welcome. Now for the first +time she knew how deep was her father's affection for her; she felt how +foreign to his real nature had been his assumed severity in their +intercourse of former days; and in the quick flow of new feelings and +old recollections produced by the delighting surprise of the discovery, +she found herself speechless. She could only listen eagerly, +breathlessly, while he spoke. His words, faltering and confused though +they were, were words of endearment which she had never heard from him +before; they were words which no mother had ever pronounced beside her +infant bed, and they sank divinely consoling over her heart, as +messages of pardon from an angel's lips. +</P> + +<P> +Gradually Numerian's voice grew calmer. He raised his daughter in his +arms, and bent wistfully on her face his attentive and pitying eyes. +'Returned, returned!' he murmured, while he gazed on her, 'never again +to depart! Returned, beautiful and patient, kinder and more tender +than ever! Love me and pardon me, Antonina. I sought for you in +bitter loneliness and despair. Think not of me as what I was, but as +what I am! There were days when you were an infant, when I had no +thought but how to cherish and delight you, and now those days have +come again. You shall read no gloomy task-books; you shall never be +separated from me more; you shall play sweet music on the lute; you +shall be all garlanded with flowers which I will provide for you! We +will find friends and glad companions; we will bring happiness with us +wherever we are seen. God's blessing goes forth from children like +you—it has fallen upon me—it has raised me from the dead! My +Antonina shall teach me to worship, as I once taught her. She shall +pray for me in the morning, and pray for me at night; and when she +thinks not of it, when she sleeps, I shall come softly to her bedside, +and wait and watch over her, so that when she opens her eyes they shall +open on me—they are the eyes of my child who has been restored to +me—there is nothing on earth that can speak to me like them of +happiness and peace!' +</P> + +<P> +He paused for a moment, and looked rapturously on her face as it was +turned towards him. His features partially saddened while he gazed, +and taking her long hair, still wet and dishevelled from the rain, in +his hands, he pressed it over his lips, over his face, over his neck. +Then, when he saw that she was endeavouring to speak, when he beheld +the tears that were now filling her eyes, he drew her closer to him, +and hurriedly continued in lower tones— +</P> + +<P> +'Hush! hush! No more grief, no more tears! Tell me not whither you +have wandered—speak not of what you have suffered; for would not every +word be a reproach to me? And you have come to pardon and not to +reproach! Let not the recollection that it was I who cast you off be +forced on me from your lips; let us remember only that we are restored +to each other; let us think that God has accepted my penitence and +forgiven me my sin, in suffering my child to return! Or, if we must +speak of the days of separation that are past, speak to me of the days +that found you tranquil and secure; rejoice me by telling me that it +was not all danger and woe in the bitter destiny which my guilty anger +prepared for my own child! Say to me that you met protectors as well +as enemies in the hour of your flight—that all were not harsh to you +as I was—that those of whom you asked shelter and safety looked on +your face as on a petition for charity and kindness from friends whom +they loved! Tell me only of your protectors, Antonina, for in that +there will be consolation; and you have come to console!' +</P> + +<P> +As he waited for her reply he felt her tremble on his bosom, he saw the +shudder that ran over her frame. The despair in her voice, though she +only pronounced in answer to him the simple words, 'There was one'—and +then ceased, unable to proceed—penetrated coldly to his heart. +</P> + +<P> +'Is he not at hand?' he hurriedly resumed. 'Why is he not here? Let +us seek him without delay. I must humble myself before him in my +gratitude. I must show him that I was worthy that my Antonina should +be restored.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'He is dead!' she gasped, sinking down in the arms that embraced her, +as the recollections of the past night again crowded in all their +horror on her memory. 'They murdered him by my side. O father! +father! he loved me; he would have reverenced and protected you!' +</P> + +<P> +'May the merciful God receive him among the blessed angels, and honour +him among the holy martyrs!' cried the father, raising his tearful eyes +in supplication. 'May his spirit, if it can still be observant of the +things of earth, know that his name shall be written on my heart with +the name of my child; that I will think on him as on a beloved +companion, and mourn for him as a son that has been taken from me!' +</P> + +<P> +He ceased, and looked down on Antonina, whose features were still +hidden from him. Each felt that a new bond of mutual affection had +been created between them by what each had spoken; but both now +remained silent. +</P> + +<P> +During this interval the thoughts of Numerian wandered from the +reflections which had hitherto occupied him. The few mournful words +which his daughter had spoken had been sufficient to banish its fulness +of joy from his heart, and to turn him from the happy contemplation of +the present to the dark recollections of the past. Vague doubts and +fears now mingled with his gratitude and hope, and involuntarily his +thoughts reverted to what he would fain have forgotten for ever—to the +morning when he had driven Antonina from her home. +</P> + +<P> +Baseless apprehensions of the return of the treacherous Pagan and his +profligate employer, with the return of their victim—despairing +convictions of his own helplessness and infirmity rose startlingly in +his mind. His eyes wandered vacantly round the room, his hands closed +trembling over his daughter's form; then, suddenly releasing her, he +arose as one panic-stricken, and exclaiming, 'The doors must be +secured—Ulpius may be near—the senator may return!' endeavoured to +cross the room. But his strength was unequal to the effort; he leaned +back for support against the wall, and breathlessly repeating, 'Secure +the doors—Ulpius, Ulpius!' he motioned to Antonina to descend. +</P> + +<P> +She trembled as she obeyed him. Remembering her passage through the +breach in the wall, and her fearful journey through the streets of +Rome, she more than shared her father's apprehensions as she descended +the stairs. +</P> + +<P> +The door remained half open, as she had left it when she entered the +house. Ere she hurriedly closed and barred it, she cast a momentary +glance on the street beyond. The gaunt figures of the slaves still +moved wearily to and fro, amid the mockery of festal preparation in +Vetranio's palace; and here and there a few ghastly figures lay on the +ground contemplating them in languid amazement. Over all other parts of +the street the deadly tranquillity of plague and famine still prevailed. +</P> + +<P> +Hurriedly ascending the steps, Antonina hastened to assure her father +that she had obeyed his commands, and that they were now secure from +all intrusion from without. But, during her brief absence, a new and +more ominous prospect of calamity had presented itself before the old +man's mind. +</P> + +<P> +As she entered the room, she saw that he had returned to his couch, and +that he was holding before him the little wooden bowl which had +contained his last supply of food, and which was now empty. He +addressed not a word to her when he heard her enter; his features were +rigid with horror and despair as he looked down on the empty bowl; he +muttered vacantly, 'It was the last provision that remained, and it was +I that exhausted it! The beasts of the forest carry food to their +young, and I have taken the last morsel from my child!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In an instant the utter desolateness of their situation—forgotten in +the first joy of their meeting—forced itself with appalling vividness +upon Antonina's mind. She endeavoured to speak of comfort and hope to +her father; but the fearful realities of the famine in the city now +rose palpably before her, and suspended the vain words of solace on her +lips. In the midst of still populous Rome, within sight of those +surrounding plains where the creative sun ripened hour by hour the +vegetation of the teeming earth, where field and granary displayed +profusely their abundant stores, the father and daughter now looked on +each other, as helpless to replace their exhausted provision of food as +if they had been abandoned on the raft of the shipwrecked in an +unexplored sea, or banished to a lonely island whose inland products +were withered by infected winds, and around whose arid shores ran such +destroying waters as seethe over the 'Cities of the Plain'. +</P> + +<P> +The silence which had long prevailed in the room, the bitter +reflections which still held the despairing father and the patient +daughter speechless alike, were at length interrupted by a hollow and +melancholy voice from the street, pronouncing, in the form of a public +notice, these words:— +</P> + +<P> +'I, Publius Dalmatius, messenger of the Roman Senate, proclaim, that in +order to clear the streets from the dead, three thousand sestertii will +be given by the Prefect for every ten bodies that are cast over the +walls. This is the true decree of the Senate.' +</P> + +<P> +The voice ceased; but no sound of applause, no murmur of popular tumult +was heard in answer. Then, after an interval, it was once more faintly +audible as the messenger passed on and repeated the decree in another +street; and then the silence again sank down over all things more +awfully pervading than before. +</P> + +<P> +Every word of the proclamation, when repeated in the distance as when +spoken under his window, had clearly reached Numerian's ears. His +mind, already sinking in despair, was riveted on what he had heard from +the woe-boding voice of the herald, with a fascination as absorbing as +that which rivets the eye of the traveller, already giddy on the summit +of a precipice, upon the spectacle of the yawning gulfs beneath. When +all sound of the proclamation had finally died away, the unhappy father +dropped the empty bowl which he had hitherto mechanically continued to +hold before him, and glancing affrightedly at his daughter, groaned to +himself: 'The corpses are to be cast over the walls—the dead are to +be flung forth to the winds of heaven—there is no help for us in the +city. O God, God!—she may die!—her body may be cast away like the +rest, and I may live to see it!' +</P> + +<P> +He rose suddenly from the couch; his reason seemed for a moment to be +shaken as he tottered to the window, crying, 'Food! food!—I will give +my house and all it contains for a morsel of food. I have nothing to +support my own child—she will starve before me by tomorrow if I have +no food! I am a citizen of Rome—I demand help from the Senate! Food! +food!' +</P> + +<P> +In tones declining lower and lower he continued to cry thus from the +window, but no voice answered him either in sympathy or derision. Of +all the people—now increased in numbers—collected in the street +before Vetranio's palace, no one turned even to look on him. For days +and days past, such fruitless appeals as his had been heard, and heard +unconcernedly, at every hour and in every street of Rome—now ringing +through the heavy air in the shrieks of delirium; now faintly audible +in the last faltering murmurs of exhaustion and despair. +</P> + +<P> +Thus vainly entreating help and pity from a populace who had ceased to +give the one or to feel the other, Numerian might long have remained; +but now his daughter approached his side, and drawing him gently +towards his couch, said in tender and solemn accents: 'Remember, +father, that God sent the ravens to feed Elijah, and replenished the +widow's cruse! He will not desert us, for He has restored us to each +other, and has sent me hither not to perish in the famine, but to watch +over you!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'God has deserted the city and all that it contains!' he answered +distractedly. 'The angel of destruction has gone forth into our +streets, and death walks in his shadow! On this day, when hope and +happiness seemed opening before us both; our little household has been +doomed! The young and the old, the weary and the watchful, they strew +the streets alike—the famine has mastered them all—the famine will +master us—there is no help, no escape! I, who would have died +patiently for my daughter's safety, must now die despairing, leaving +her friendless in the wide, dreary, perilous world; in the dismal city +of anguish, of horror, of death—where the enemy threatens without, and +hunger and pestilence waste within! O Antonina! you have returned to +me but for a little time; the day of our second separation draws near!' +</P> + +<P> +For a few moments his head drooped, and his sobs choked his utterance; +then he once more rose painfully to his feet. Heedless of Antonina's +entreaties, he again endeavoured to cross the room, only again to find +his feeble powers unequal to sustain him. As he fell back panting upon +a seat, his eyes assumed a wild, unnatural expression—despair of mind +and weakness of body had together partially unhinged his faculties. +When his daughter affrightedly approached to soothe and succour him, he +impatiently waved her back; and began to speak in a dull, hoarse, +monotonous voice, pressing his hand firmly over his brow, and directing +his eyes backwards and forwards incessantly, on object after object, in +every part of the room. +</P> + +<P> +'Listen, child, listen!' he hastily began. 'I tell you there is no +food in the house, and no food in Rome!—we are besieged—they have +taken from us our granaries in the suburbs, and our fields on the +plains—there is a great famine in the city—those who still eat, eat +strange food which men sicken at when it is named. I would seek even +this, but I have no strength to go forth into the byways and force it +from others at the point of the sword! I am old and feeble, and +heart-broken—I shall die first, and leave fatherless my good, kind +daughter, whom I sought for so long, and whom I loved as my only child!' +</P> + +<P> +He paused for an instant, not to listen to the words of encouragement +and hope which Antonina mechanically addressed to him while he spoke, +but to collect his wandering thoughts, to rally his failing strength. +His voice acquired a quicker tone, and his features presented a sudden +energy and earnestness of expression, as if some new project had +flashed across his mind, when, after an interval, he continued thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'But though my child shall be bereaved of me, though I shall die in the +hour when I most longed to live for her, I must not leave her helpless; +I will send her among my congregation who have deserted me, but who +will repent when they hear that I am dead, and will receive Antonina +among them for my sake! Listen to this—listen, listen! You must tell +them to remember all that I once revealed to them of my brother, from +whom I parted in my boyhood—my brother, whom I have never seen since. +He may yet be alive, he may be found—they must search for him; for to +you he would be father to the fatherless, and guardian to the +unguarded—he may now be in Rome, he may be rich and powerful—he may +have food to spare, and shelter that is good against all enemies and +strangers! Attend, child, to my words: in these latter days I have +thought of him much; I have seen him in dreams as I saw him for the +last time in my father's house; he was happier and more beloved than I +was, and in envy and hatred I quitted my parents and parted from him. +You have heard nothing of this; but you must hear it now, that when I +am dead you may know you have a protector to seek! So I received in +anger my brother's farewell, and fled from my home—(those days were +well remembered by me once, but all things grow dull on my memory now). +Long years of turmoil and change passed on, and I never met him; and +men of many nations were my companions, but he was not among them; then +much affliction fell upon me, and I repented and learnt the fear of +God, and went back to my father's house. Since that, years have +passed—I know not how many. I could have told them when I spoke of my +former life to him—to my friend, when we stood near St. Peter's, ere +the city was besieged, looking on the sunset, and speaking of the early +days of our companionship; but now my very remembrance fails me; the +famine that threatens us with separation and death casts darkness over +my thoughts; yet hear me, hear me patiently—for your sake I must +continue!' +</P> + +<P> +'Not now, father—not now! At another time, on a happier day!' +murmured Antonina, in tremulous, entreating tones. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'My home, when I arrived to look on it, was gone,' pursued the old man +sadly, neither heeding nor hearing her. 'Other houses were built where +my father's house had stood; no man could tell me of my parents and my +brother; then I returned, and my former companions grew hateful in my +eyes; I left them, and they followed me with persecution and +scorn.—Listen, listen!—I set forth secretly in the night, with you, +to escape them, and to make perfect my reformation where they should +not be near to hinder it; and we travelled onward many days until we +came to Rome, and I made my abode there. But I feared that my +companions whom I abhorred might discover and persecute me again, and +in the new city of my dwelling I called myself by another name than the +name that I bore; thus I knew that all trace of me would be lost, and +that I should be kept secure from men whom I thought on only as enemies +now. Go, child! go quickly!—bring your tablets and write down the +names that I shall tell you; for so you will discover your protector +when I am gone! Say not to him that you are the child of Numerian—he +knows not the name; say that you are the daughter of Cleander, his +brother, who died longing to be restored to him. Write—write +carefully, Cleander!—that was the name my father gave to me; that was +the name I bore until I fled from my evil companions and changed it, +dreading their pursuit! Cleander! write and remember, Cleander! I +have seen in visions that my brother shall be discovered: he will not +be discovered to me, but he will be discovered to you! Your +tablets—your tablets!—write his name with mine—it is—' +</P> + +<P> +He stopped abruptly. His mental powers, fluctuating between torpor and +animation—shaken, but not overpowered by the trials which had assailed +them—suddenly rallied, and resuming somewhat of their accustomed +balance, became awakened to a sense of their own aberration. His vague +revelations of his past life (which the reader will recognise as +resembling his communications on the same subject to the fugitive +land-owner, previously related) now appeared before him in all their +incongruity and uselessness. His countenance fell—he sighed bitterly +to himself: 'My reason begins to desert me!—my judgment, which should +guide my child—my resolution, which should uphold her, both fail me! +How should my brother, since childhood lost to me, be found by her? +Against the famine that threatens us I offer but vain words! Already +her strength declines; her face, that I loved to look on grows wan +before my eyes! God have mercy upon us!—God have mercy upon us!' +</P> + +<P> +He returned feebly to his couch; his head declined on his bosom; +sometimes a low groan burst from his lips, but he spoke no more. +</P> + +<P> +Deep as was the prostration under which he had now fallen, it was yet +less painful to Antonina to behold it than to listen to the incoherent +revelations which had fallen from his lips but the moment before, and +which, in her astonishment and affright, she had dreaded might be the +awful indications of the overthrow of her father's reason. As she +again placed herself by his side, she trembled to feel that her own +weariness was fast overpowering her; but she still struggled with her +rising despair—still strove to think only of capacity for endurance +and chances of relief. +</P> + +<P> +The silence in the room was deep and dismal while they now sat +together. The faint breezes, at long intervals, drowsily rose and fell +as they floated through the open window; the fitful sunbeams +alternately appeared and vanished as the clouds rolled upward in airy +succession over the face of heaven. Time moved sternly in its destined +progress, and Nature varied tranquilly through its appointed limits of +change, and still no hopes, no saving projects, nothing but dark +recollections and woeful anticipations occupied Antonina's mind; when, +just as her weary head was drooping towards the ground, just as +sensation and fortitude and grief itself seemed declining into a +dreamless and deadly sleep, a last thought, void of discernible +connection or cause, rose suddenly within her—animating, awakening, +inspiring. She started up. 'The garden, father—the garden!' she +cried breathlessly. 'Remember the food that grows in our garden below! +Be comforted, we have provision left yet—God has not deserted us!' +</P> + +<P> +He raised his face while she spoke; his features assumed a deeper +mournfulness and hopelessness of expression; he looked upon her in +ominous silence, and laid his trembling fingers on her arm to detain +her, when she hurriedly attempted to quit the room. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Do not forbid me to depart,' she anxiously pleaded. 'To me every +corner in the garden is known; for it was my possession in our happier +days—our last hopes rest in the garden, and I must search through it +without delay! Bear with me,' she added, in low and melancholy +tones—'bear with me, dear father, in all that I would now do! I have +suffered, since we parted, a bitter affliction, which clings dark and +heavy to all my thoughts—there is no consolation for me but the +privilege of caring for your welfare—my only hope of comfort is in the +employment of aiding you!' +</P> + +<P> +The old man's hand had pressed heavier on her arm while she addressed +him; but when she ceased it dropped from her, and he bent his head in +speechless submission to her entreaty. +</P> + +<P> +For one moment she lingered, looking on him silent as himself; the +next, she left the apartment with hasty and uncertain steps. +</P> + +<P> +On reaching the garden, she unconsciously took the path leading to the +bank where she had once loved to play secretly upon her lute and to +look on the distant mountains reposing in the warm atmosphere which +summer evenings shed over their blue expanse. How eloquent was this +little plot of ground of the quiet events now for ever gone by!—of the +joys, the hopes, the happy occupations, which rise with the day that +chronicles them, and pass like that day, never to return the +same!—which the memory alone can preserve as they were, and the heart +can never resume but in a changed form, divested of the presence of the +companion of the incident of the departed moment, which formed the +charm of the past and makes the imperfection of the present. +</P> + +<P> +Tender and thronging were the remembrances which the surrounding +prospect called up, as the sad mistress of the garden looked again on +her little domain! She saw the bank where she could never more sit to +sing with a renewal of the same feelings which had once inspired her +music; she saw the drooping flowers that she could never restore with +the same childlike enjoyment of the task which had animated her in +former hours! Young though she still was, the emotions of the youthful +days that were gone could never be revived as they had once existed! +As waters they had welled up, and as waters they had flowed forth, +never to return to their source! Thoughts of these former years—of +the young warrior who lay cold beneath the heavy earth—of the +desponding father who mourned hopeless in the room above—gathered +thick at her heart as she turned from her flower-beds—not, as in other +days, to pour forth her happiness to the music of her lute, but to +search laboriously for the sustenance of life. +</P> + +<P> +At first, as she stooped over those places in the garden where she knew +that fruits and vegetables had been planted by her own hand, her tears +blinded her. She hastily dashed them away, and looked eagerly around. +</P> + +<P> +Alas! others had reaped the field from which she had hoped abundance! +In the early days of the famine Numerian's congregation had entered the +garden, and gathered for him whatever it contained; its choicest and +its homeliest products were alike exhausted; withered leaves lay on the +barren earth, and naked branches waved over them in the air. She +wandered from path to path, searching amid the briars and thistles, +which already cast an aspect of ruin over the deserted place; she +explored its most hidden corners with the painful perseverance of +despair; but the same barrenness spread around her wherever she turned. +On this once fertile spot, which she had entered with such joyful faith +in its resources, there remained but a few poor decayed roots, dropped +and forgotten amid tangled weeds and faded flowers. +</P> + +<P> +She saw that they were barely sufficient for one scanty meal as she +collected them and returned slowly to the house. No words escaped her, +no tears flowed over her cheeks when she reascended the steps—hope, +fear, thought, sensation itself had been stunned within her from the +first moment when she had discovered that, in the garden as in the +house, the inexorable famine had anticipated the last chances of relief. +</P> + +<P> +She entered the room, and, still holding the withered roots, advanced +mechanically to her father's side. During her absence his mental and +bodily faculties had both yielded to wearied nature—he lay in a deep, +heavy sleep. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Her mind experienced a faint relief when she saw that the fatal +necessity of confessing the futility of the hopes she had herself +awakened was spared her for a while. She knelt down by Numerian, and +gently smoothed the hair over his brow; then she drew the curtain +across the window, for she feared even that the breeze blowing through +it might arouse him. +</P> + +<P> +A strange, secret satisfaction at the idea of devoting to her father +every moment of the time and every particle of the strength that might +yet be reserved for her; a ready resignation to death in dying for +him—overspread her heart, and took the place of all other aspirations +and all other thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +She now moved to and fro through the room with a cautious tranquillity +which nothing could startle; she prepared her decayed roots for food +with a patient attention which nothing could divert. Lost, through the +aggravated miseries of her position, to recent grief and present +apprehension, she could still instinctively perform the simple offices +of the woman and the daughter, as she might have performed them amid a +peaceful nation and a prosperous home. Thus do the first-born +affections outlast the exhaustion of all the stormy emotions, all the +aspiring thoughts of after years, which may occupy, but which cannot +absorb, the spirit within us; thus does their friendly and familiar +voice, when the clamour of contending passions has died away in its own +fury, speak again, serene and sustaining as in the early time, when the +mind moved secure within the limits of its native simplicity, and the +heart yet lay happy in the pure tranquillity of its first repose! +</P> + +<P> +The last scanty measure of food was soon prepared; it was bitter and +unpalatable when she tasted it—life could barely be preserved, even in +the most vigorous, by provision so wretched; but she set it aside as +carefully as if it had been the most precious luxury of the most +abundant feast. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing had changed during the interval of her solitary employment—her +father yet slept; the gloomy silence yet prevailed in the street. She +placed herself at the window, and partially drew aside the curtain to +let the warm breezes from without blow over her cold brow. The same +ineffable resignation, the same unnatural quietude, which had sunk down +over her faculties since she had entered the room, overspread them +still. Surrounding objects failed to impress her attention; +recollections and forebodings stagnated in her mind. A marble +composure prevailed over her features. Sometimes her eyes wandered +mechanically from the morsels of food by her side to her sleeping +father, as her one vacant idea of watching for his service, till the +feeble pulses of life had throbbed their last, alternately revived and +declined; but no other evidences of bodily existence or mental activity +appeared in her. As she now sat in the half-darkened room, by the +couch on which her father reposed—her features pale, calm, and rigid, +her form enveloped in cold white drapery—there were moments when she +looked like one of the penitential devotees of the primitive Church, +appointed to watch in the house of mourning, and surprised in her +saintly vigil by the advent of Death. +</P> + +<P> +Time flowed on—the monotonous hours of the day waned again towards +night; and plague and famine told their lapse in the fated highways of +Rome. For father and child the sand in the glass was fast running out, +and neither marked it as it diminished. The sleeper still reposed, and +the guardian by his side still watched; but now her weary gaze was +directed on the street, unconsciously attracted by the sound of voices +which at length rose from it at intervals, and by the light of the +torches and lamps which appeared in the great palace of the senator +Vetranio, as the sun gradually declined in the horizon, and the fiery +clouds around were quenched in the vapours of the advancing night. +Steadily she looked upon the sight beneath and before her; but even yet +her limbs never moved; no expression relieved the blank, solemn +peacefulness of her features. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the soft, brief twilight glimmered over the earth, and +showed the cold moon, poised solitary in the starless heaven; then, the +stealthy darkness arose at her pale signal, and closed slowly round the +City of Death! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 22. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BANQUET OF FAMINE. +</H3> + +<P> +Of all prophecies, none are, perhaps, so frequently erroneous as those +on which we are most apt to venture in endeavouring to foretell the +effect of outward events on the characters of men. In no form of our +anticipations are we more frequently baffled than in such attempts to +estimate beforehand the influence of circumstance over conduct, not +only in others, but also even in ourselves. Let the event but happen, +and men, whom we view by the light of our previous observation of them, +act under it as the living contradictions of their own characters. The +friend of our daily social intercourse, in the progress of life, and +the favourite hero of our historic studies, in the progress of the +page, astonish, exceed, or disappoint our expectations alike. We find +it as vain to foresee a cause as to fix a limit for the arbitrary +inconsistencies in the dispositions of mankind. +</P> + +<P> +But, though to speculate upon the future conduct of others under +impending circumstances be but too often to expose the fallacy of our +wisest anticipations, to contemplate the nature of that conduct after +it has been displayed is a useful subject of curiosity, and may perhaps +be made a fruitful source of instruction. Similar events which succeed +each other at different periods are relieved from monotony, and derive +new importance from the ever-varying effects which they produce on the +human character. Thus, in the great occurrence which forms the +foundation of our narrative, we may find little in the siege of Rome, +looking at it as a mere event, to distinguish it remarkably from any +former siege of the city—the same desire for glory and vengeance, +wealth and dominion, which brought Alaric to her walls, brought other +invaders before him. But if we observed the effect of the Gothic +descent upon Italy on the inhabitants of her capital, we shall find +ample matter for novel contemplation and unbounded surprise. +</P> + +<P> +We shall perceive, as an astonishing instance of the inconsistencies of +the human character, the spectacle of a whole people resolutely defying +an overwhelming foreign invasion at their very doors, just at the +period when they had fallen most irremediably from the highest position +of national glory to the lowest depths of national degradation; +resisting an all-powerful enemy with inflexible obstinacy, for the +honour of the Roman name, which they had basely dishonoured or +carelessly forgotten for ages past. We shall behold men who have +hitherto laughed at the very name of patriotism, now starving +resolutely in their country's cause; who stopped at no villainy to +obtain wealth, now hesitating to employ their ill-gotten gains in the +purchase of the most important of all gratifications—their own +security and peace. Instances of the unimaginable effect produced by +the event of the siege of Rome on the characters of her inhabitants +might be drawn from all classes, from the lowest to the highest, from +patrician to plebeian; but to produce them here would be to admit too +long an interruption in the progress of the present narrative. If we +are to enter at all into detail on such a subject, it must be only in a +case clearly connected with the actual requirements of our story; and +such a case may be found, at this juncture, in the conduct of the +senator Vetranio, under the influence of the worst calamities attending +the blockade of Rome by the Goths. +</P> + +<P> +Who, it may be asked, knowing the previous character of this man, his +frivolity of disposition, his voluptuous anxiety for unremitting +enjoyment and ease, his horror of the slightest approaches of +affliction or pain, would have imagined him capable of rejecting in +disdain all the minor chances of present security and future prosperity +which his unbounded power and wealth might have procured for him, even +in a famine-stricken city, and rising suddenly to the sublime of +criminal desperation, in the resolution to abandon life as worthless +the moment it had ceased to run in the easy current of all former +years? Yet to this determination had he now arrived; and, still more +extraordinary, in this determination had he found others, of his own +patrician order, to join him. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The reader will remember his wild announcement of his intended orgie to +the Prefect Pompeianus during the earlier periods of the siege; that +announcement was now to be fulfilled. Vetranio had bidden his guests +to the Banquet of Famine. A chosen number of the senators of the great +city were to vindicate their daring by dying the revellers that they +had lived; by resigning in contempt all prospect of starving, like the +common herd, on a lessening daily pittance of loathsome food; by making +their triumphant exit from a fettered and ungrateful life, drowned in +floods of wine, and lighted by the fires of the wealthiest palace of +Rome! +</P> + +<P> +It had been intended to keep this frantic determination a profound +secret, to let the mighty catastrophe burst upon the remaining +inhabitants of the city like a prodigy from heaven; but the slaves +intrusted with the organisation of the suicide banquet had been bribed +to their tasks with wine, and in the carelessness of intoxication had +revealed to others whatever they heard within the palace walls. The +news passed from mouth to mouth. There was enough in the prospect of +beholding the burning palace and the drunken suicide of its desperate +guests to animate even the stagnant curiosity of a famishing mob. +</P> + +<P> +On the appointed evening the people dragged their weary limbs from all +quarters of the city towards the Pincian Hill. Many of them died on +the way; many lost their resolution to proceed to the end of their +journey, and took shelter sullenly in the empty houses on the road; +many found opportunities for plunder and crime as they proceeded, which +tempted them from their destination; but many persevered in their +purpose—the living dragging the dying along with them, the desperate +driving the cowardly before them in malignant sport, until they gained +the palace gates. It was by their voices, as they reached her ear from +the street, that the fast-sinking faculties of Antonina had been +startled, though not revived; and there, on the broad pavement, lay +these citizens of a fallen city—a congregation of pestilence and +crime—a starving and an awful band! +</P> + +<P> +The moon, brightened by the increasing darkness, now clearly +illuminated the street, and revealed, in a narrow space, a various and +impressive scene. +</P> + +<P> +One side of the roadway in which stood Vetranio's palace was occupied, +along each extremity, as far as the eye could reach at night, by the +groves and outbuildings attached to the senator's mansion. The palace +grounds, at the higher and farther end of the street—looking from the +Pincian Gate—crossed it by a wide archway, and then stretched +backward, until they joined the trees of the little garden of +Numerian's abode. In a line with this house, but separated from it by a +short space, stood a long row of buildings, let out floor by floor to +separate occupants, and towering to an unwieldy altitude; for in +ancient Rome, as in modern London, in consequence of the high price of +land in an over-populated city, builders could only secure space in a +dwelling by adding inconveniently to its height. Beyond these +habitations rose the trees surrounding another patrician abode; and +beyond that the houses took a sudden turn, and nothing more was visible +in a straight line but the dusky, indefinite objects of the distant +view. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The whole appearance of the street before Vetranio's mansion, had it +been unoccupied by the repulsive groups now formed in it, would have +been eminently beautiful at the hours of which we now write. The nobly +symmetrical frontage of the palace itself, with its graceful succession +of long porticoes and colossal statues, contrasted by the picturesquely +irregular appearance of the opposite dwelling of Numerian and the lofty +houses by its side; the soft, indistinct masses of foliage running +parallel along the upper ends of the street, terminated and connected +by the archway garden across the road, on which was planted a group of +tall pine-trees, rising in gigantic relief against the transparent sky; +the brilliant light streaming across the pavement from Vetranio's +gaily-curtained windows, immediately opposed by the tranquil moonlight +which lit the more distant view—formed altogether a prospect in which +the natural and the artificial were mingled together in the most +exquisite proportions—a prospect whose ineffable poetry and beauty +might, on any other night, have charmed the most careless eye and +exalted the most frivolous mind. But now, overspread as it was by +groups of people gaunt with famine and hideous with disease; startled +as it was, at gloomy intervals, by contending cries of supplication, +defiance, and despair—its brightest beauties of Nature and Art +appeared but to shine with an aspect of bitter mockery around the human +misery which their splendour disclosed. +</P> + +<P> +Upwards of a hundred people—mostly of the lowest orders—were +congregated before the senator's devoted dwelling. Some few among them +passed slowly to and fro in the street, their figures gliding shadowy +and solemn through the light around them; but the greater number lay on +the pavement before the wall of Numerian's dwelling and the doorways of +the lofty houses by its side. Illuminated by the full glare of the +light from the palace windows, these groups, huddled together in the +distorted attitudes of suffering and despair, assumed a fearful and +unearthly appearance. Their shrivelled faces, their tattered clothing, +their wan forms, here prostrate, there half-raised, were bathed in a +steady red glow. High above them, at the windows of the tall houses, +now tenanted in every floor by the dead, appeared a few figures (the +mercenary guardians of the dying within) bending forward to look out +upon the palace opposite—their haggard faces showing pale in the clear +moonlight. Sometimes their voices were heard calling in mockery to the +mass of people below to break down the strong steel gates of the +palace, and tear the full wine-cup from its master's lips. Sometimes +those beneath replied with execrations, which rose wildly mingled with +the wailing of women and children, the moans of the plague-stricken, +and the supplications of the famished to the slaves passing backwards +and forwards behind the palace railings for charity and help. +</P> + +<P> +In the intervals, when the tumult of weak voices was partially lulled, +there was heard a dull, regular, beating sound, produced by those who +had found dry bones on their road to the palace, and were pounding them +on the pavement, in sheltered places, for food. The wind, which had +been refreshing during the day, had changed at sunset, and now swept up +slowly over the street in hot, faint gusts, plague-laden, from the +East. Particles of the ragged clothing on some prostrate forms lying +most exposed in its course waved slowly to and fro, as it passed, like +banners planted by Death on the yielding defences of the citadel of +Life. It wound through the open windows of the palace, hot and +mephitic, as if tainted with the breath of the foul and furious words +which it bore onward into the banqueting-hall of the senator's reckless +guests. Driven over such scenes as now spread beneath it, it derived +from them a portentous significance; it seemed to blow like an +atmosphere exuded from the furnace-depths of centre earth, breathing +sinister warnings of some deadly convulsion in the whole fabric of +Nature over the thronged and dismal street. +</P> + +<P> +Such was the prospect before the palace, and such the spectators +assembled in ferocious anxiety to behold the destruction of the +senator's abode. Meanwhile, within the walls of the building, the +beginning of the fatal orgie was at hand. +</P> + +<P> +It had been covenanted by the slaves (who, during the calamities in the +besieged city, had relaxed in their accustomed implicit obedience to +their master with perfect impunity), that, as soon as the last labours +of preparation were completed, they should be free to consult their own +safety by quitting the devoted palace. Already some of the weakest and +most timid of their numbers might be seen passing out hastily into the +gardens by the back gates, like engineers who had fired a train, and +were escaping ere the explosion burst forth. Those among the menials +who still remained in the palace were for the greater part occupied in +drinking from the vases of wine which had been placed before them, to +preserve to the last moment their failing strength. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The mockery of festivity had been extended even to their dresses—green +liveries girt with cherry-coloured girdles arrayed their wasted forms. +They drank in utter silence. Not the slightest appearance of revelry +or intoxication prevailed among their ranks. Confusedly huddled +together, as if for mutual protection, they ever and anon cast quick +glances of suspicion and apprehension upon some six or eight of the +superior attendants of the palace, who walked backwards and forwards at +the outer extremity of the hall occupied by their comrades, and +occasionally advancing along the straight passages before them to the +front gates of the building, appeared to be exchanging furtive signals +with some of the people in the street. Reports had been vaguely spread +of a secret conspiracy between some of the principal of the slaves and +certain chosen ruffians of the populace, to murder all the inmates of +the palace, seize on its treasures, and, opening the city gates to the +Goths, escape with their booty during the confusion of the pillage of +Rome. Nothing had as yet been positively discovered; but the few +attendants who kept ominously apart from the rest were unanimously +suspected by their fellows, who now watched them over their wine-cups +with anxious eyes. Different as was the scene among the slaves still +left in the palace from the scene among the people dispersed in the +street, the one was nevertheless in its own degree as gloomily +suggestive of some great impending calamity as the other. +</P> + +<P> +The grand banqueting-hall of the palace, prepared though it now was for +festivity, wore a changed and melancholy aspect. +</P> + +<P> +The massive tables still ran down the whole length of the noble room, +surrounded by luxurious couches, as in former days, but not a vestige +of food appeared upon their glittering surfaces. Rich vases, flasks, +and drinking-cups, all filled with wine, alone occupied the festal +board. Above, hanging low from the ceiling, burnt ten large lamps, +corresponding to the number of guests assembled, as the only procurable +representatives of the hundreds of revellers who had feasted at +Vetranio's expense during the brilliant nights that were now passed for +ever. At the lower end of the room, beyond the grand door of entrance, +hung a thick black curtain, apparently intended to conceal mysteriously +some object behind it. Before the curtain burnt a small lamp of yellow +glass, raised upon a high gilt pole, and around and beneath it, heaped +against the side walls, and over part of the table, lay a various and +confused mass of rich objects, all of a nature more or less +inflammable, and all besprinkled with scented oils. Hundreds of yards +of gorgeously variegated hangings, rolls upon rolls of manuscripts, +gaudy dresses of all colours, toys, utensils, innumerable articles of +furniture formed in rare and beautifully inlaid woods, were carelessly +flung together against the walls of the apartment, and rose high +towards its ceiling. +</P> + +<P> +On every part of the tables not occupied by the vases of wine were laid +gold and jewelled ornaments which dazzled the eye by their brilliancy; +while, in extraordinary contrast to the magnificence thus profusely +displayed, there appeared in one of the upper corners of the hall an +old wooden stand covered by a coarse cloth, on which were placed one or +two common earthenware bowls, containing what my be termed a 'mash' of +boiled bran and salted horseflesh. Any repulsive odour which might +have arisen from this strange compound was overpowered by the various +perfumes sprinkled about the room, which, mingling with the hot breezes +wafted through the windows from the street, produced an atmosphere as +oppressive and debilitating, in spite of its artificial allurements to +the sense of smell, as the air of a dungeon or the vapours of a marsh. +</P> + +<P> +Remarkable as was the change in the present appearance of the +banqueting-hall, it was but the feeble reflection of the alteration for +the worse in the aspect of the host and his guests. Vetranio reclined +at the head of the table, dressed in a scarlet mantle. An embroidered +towel with purple tassels and fringes, connected with rings of gold, +fell over his breast, and silver and ivory bracelets were clasped round +his arms. But of the former man the habiliments were all that +remained. His head was bent forward, as if with the weakness of age; +his emaciated arms seemed barely able to support the weight of the +ornaments which glittered on them; his eyes had contracted a wild, +unsettled expression; and a deadly paleness overspread the once plump +and jovial cheeks which so many mistresses had kissed in mercenary +rapture in other days. Both in countenance and manner the elegant +voluptuary of our former acquaintance at the Court of Ravenna was +entirely and fatally changed. Of the other eight patricians who lay on +the couches around their altered host—some wild and reckless, some +gloomy and imbecile—all had suffered in the ordeal of the siege, the +famine, and the pestilence, like him. +</P> + +<P> +Such were the members of the assemblage, represented from the ceiling +by nine of the burning lamps. The tenth and last lamp indicated the +presence of one more guest who reclined a little apart from the rest. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This man was hump-backed; his gaunt, bony features were repulsively +disproportioned to his puny frame, which looked doubly contemptible, +enveloped as it was in an ample tawdry robe. Sprung from the lowest +ranks of the populace, he had gradually forced himself into the favour +of his superiors by his skill in coarse mimicry, and his readiness in +ministering to the worst vices of all who would employ him. Having +lost the greater part of his patrons during the siege, finding himself +abandoned to starvation on all sides, he had now, as a last resource, +obtained permission to participate in the Banquet of Famine, to enliven +it by a final exhibition of his buffoonery, and to die with his +masters, as he had lived with them—the slave, the parasite, and the +imitator of the lowest of their vices and the worst of their crimes. +</P> + +<P> +At the commencement of the orgie, little was audible beyond the clash +of the wine-cups, the low occasional whispering of the revellers, and +the confused voices of the people without, floating through the window +from the street. The desperate compact of the guests, now that its +execution had actually begun, awed them at first in spite of +themselves. At length, when there was a lull of all sounds—when a +temporary calm prevailed over the noises outside—when the wine-cups +were emptied, and left for a moment ere they were filled +again—Vetranio feebly rose, and, announcing with a mocking smile that +he was about to speak a funeral oration over his friends and himself, +pointed to the wall immediately behind him as to an object fitted to +awaken the astonishment or the hilarity of his moody guests. +</P> + +<P> +Against the upper part of the wall were fixed various small statues in +bronze and marble, all representing the owner of the palace, and all +hung with golden plates. Beneath these appeared the rent-roll of his +estates, written in various colours on white vellum, and beneath that, +scratched on the marble in faint irregular characters, was no less an +object than his own epitaph, composed by himself. It may be translated +thus:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Stop, Spectator!<BR> + If thou has reverently cultivated the pleasures of the taste,<BR> + pause amid these illustrious ruins of what was once<BR> + a palace,<BR> + and peruse with respect on this stone<BR> + the epitaph of VETRANIO, a senator.<BR> + He was the first man who invented a successful<BR> + nightingale sauce;<BR> + his bold and creative genius added much,<BR> + and would have added more, to<BR> + THE ART OF COOKERY;<BR> + but, alas for the interests of science!<BR> + he lived in the days when the Gothic barbarians besieged<BR> + THE IMPERIAL CITY;<BR> + famine left him no matter for gustatory experiment;<BR> + and pestilence deprived him of cooks to enlighten!<BR> + Opposed at all points by the force of adverse circumstances,<BR> + finding his life of no further use to the culinary<BR> + interests of Rome,<BR> + he called his chosen friends together to assist him,<BR> + conscientiously drank up every drop of wine remaining<BR> + in his cellars,<BR> + lit the funeral pile of himself and his guests,<BR> + in the banqueting-hall of his own palace,<BR> + and died, as he had lived,<BR> + the patriotic CATO<BR> + of his country's gastronomy!<BR> +</P> + +<P> +'Behold!' cried Vetranio, pointing triumphantly to the epitaph—'behold +in every line of those eloquent letters at once the seal of my resolute +adherence to the engagement that unites us here, and the foundation of +my just claim to the reverence of posterity on the most useful of the +arts which I exercised for the benefit of my species! Read, friends, +brethren, fellow-martyrs of glory, and, as you read, rejoice with me +over the hour of our departure from the desecrated arena, no longer +worthy the celebration of the Games of Life! Yet, ere the feast +proceeds, hear me while I speak—I make my last oration as the arbiter +of our funeral sports, as the host of the Banquet of Famine! +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Who would sink ignobly beneath the slow superiority of starvation, or +perish under the quickly glancing steel of the barbarian conqueror's +sword, when such a death as ours is offered to the choice?—when wine +flows bright, to drown sensation in oblivion, and a palace and its +treasures furnish alike the scene of the revel and the radiant funeral +pile? The mighty philosophers of India—the inspired +Gymnosophists—died as we shall die! Calanus before Alexander, Zamarus +in the presence of Augustus, lit the fires that consumed them! Let us +follow their glorious example! No worms will prey upon our bodies, no +hired mourners will howl discordant at our funerals! Purified in the +radiance of primeval fire, we shall vanish triumphant from enemies and +friends—a marvel to the earth, a vision of glory to the gods +themselves! +</P> + +<P> +'Is it a day more or a day less of life that is now of importance to +us? No; it is only towards the easiest and the noblest death that our +aspirations can turn! Among our number there is now not one whom the +care of existence can further occupy! +</P> + +<P> +'Here, at my right hand, reclines my estimable comrade of a thousand +former feasts, Furius Balburius Placidus, who, when we sailed on the +Lucrine Lake, was wont to complain of intolerable hardship if a fly +settled on the gilded folds of his umbrella; who languished for a land +of Cimmerian darkness if a sunbeam penetrated the silken awnings of his +garden-terrace; and who now wrangles for a mouthful of horseflesh with +the meanest of his slaves, and would exchange the richest of his +country villas for a basket of dirty bread! O Furius Balburius +Placidus, of what further use is life to thee? +</P> + +<P> +'There, at my left, I discern the changed though still expressive +countenance of the resolute Thascius, he who chastised a slave with a +hundred lashes if his warm water was not brought immediately at his +command; he whose serene contempt for every member of the human species +by himself once ranked him among the greatest of human philosophers; +even he now wanders through his palace unserved, and fawns upon the +plebeian who will sell him a measure of wretched bran! Oh, admired +friend, oh, rightly reasoning Thascius, say, is there anything in Rome +which should delay thee on thy journey to the Elysian Fields? +</P> + +<P> +'Farther onward at the table, drinking largely while I speak, I behold, +O Marcus Moecius Moemmius, thy once plump and jovial form!—thou, in +former days accustomed to rejoice in the length of thy name, because it +enabled thy friends to drink the more in drinking a cup to each letter +of it, tell me what banqueting-hall is now open to thee but this?—and +thus desolate in the city of thy social triumphs, what should +disincline thee to make of our festal solemnity thy last revel on earth? +</P> + +<P> +'Thou, too, facetious hunchback, prince of parasites, unscrupulous +Reburrus, where, but at this banquet of famine, will thy buffoonery now +procure for thee a draught of reviving wine? Thy masters have +abandoned thee to thy native dunghill! No more shalt thou wheedle for +them when they borrow, or bully for them when they pay! No more +charges of poisoning or magic shalt thou forge to imprison their +troublesome creditors! Oh, officious sycophant, thy occupations are no +more! Drink while thou canst, and then resign thy carcass to congenial +mire! +</P> + +<P> +'And you, my five remaining friends, whom—little desirous of further +delay—I will collectively address, think on the days when the +suspicion of an infectious malady in any one of your companions was +sufficient to separate you from the dearest of them; when the slaves +who came to you from their palaces underwent long ceremonies of +ablution before they approached your presence; and remembering this, +reflect that most, perhaps all of us, now meet here plague-tainted +already; and then say, of what advantage is it to languish for a life +which is yours no longer? +</P> + +<P> +'No, my friends, my brethren of the banquet; feeling that when life is +worthless it is folly to live, you cannot shrink from the lofty +resolution by which we are bound, you cannot pause on our joyful +journey of departure from the scenes of earth—I wrong you even by a +doubt! Let me now, rather, ask your attention for a worthier +subject—the enumeration of the festal ceremonies by which the progress +of the banquet will be marked. That task concluded, that last ceremony +of my last welcome to you these halls duly performed, I join you once +more in your final homage to the deity of our social lives—the God of +Wine! +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'It is not unknown to you—learned as you are in the jovial antiquities +of the table—that it was, among some of the ancients, a custom for a +master-spirit of philosophy to preside—the teacher as well as the +guest—at their feasts. This usage it has been my care to revive, and, +as this four meeting is unparalleled in its heroic design, so it was my +ambition to bid to it one unparalleled, either as a teacher or a guest. +Fired by an original idea, unobserved of my slaves, aided only by my +singing-boy, the faithful Glyco, I have succeeded in placing behind +that black curtain such an associate of our revels as you have never +feasted with before, whose appearance at the fitting moment must strike +you irresistibly with astonishment, and whose discourse—not of human +wisdom only—will be inspired by the midnight secrets of the tomb. By +my side, on this parchment, lies the formulary of questions to be +addressed by Reburrus, when the curtain is withdrawn, to the Oracle of +the Mysteries of other Spheres. +</P> + +<P> +'Before you, behold in those vases all that remains of my once +well-stocked cellars, and all that is provided for the palates of my +guests! We sit at the Banquet of Famine, and no coarser sustenance than +inspiring wine finds admittance at the Bacchanalian board. Yet, should +any among us, in his last moments, be feeble enough to pollute his lips +with nourishment alone worthy of the vermin of the earth, let him seek +the wretched and scanty table, type of the wretched and scanty food +that covers it, placed yonder in obscurity behind me. There will he +find (in all barely sufficient for one man's poorest meal) the last +morsels of the vilest nourishment left in the palace. For me, my +resolution is fixed—it is only the generous wine-cup that shall now +approach my lips! +</P> + +<P> +'Above me are the ten lamps, answering to the number of my friends here +assembled. One after another, as the wine overpowers us, those burning +images of life will be extinguished in succession by the guests who +remain proof against our draughts; and the last of these, lighting this +torch at the last lamp, will consummate the banquet, and celebrate its +glorious close, by firing the funeral pile of my treasures heaped +yonder against my palace walls! If my powers fail me before yours, +swear to me that whoever among you is able to lift the cup to his lips +after it has dropped from the hands of the rest, will fire the pile! +Swear it by your lost mistresses, your lost friends, your lost +treasures!—by your own lives, devoted to the pleasures of wine and the +purification of fire!' +</P> + +<P> +As, with flashing eyes and flushed countenance, Vetranio sank back on +his couch, his companions, inflamed with the wine they had already +drunk, arose cup in hand, and turned towards him. Their voices, +discordantly mingled, pronounced the oath together; then, as they +resumed their former positions, their eyes all turned towards the black +curtain in ardent expectation. +</P> + +<P> +They had observed the sinister and sarcastic expression of Vetranio's +eye as he spoke of his concealed guest; they knew that the hunchback +Reburrus possessed, among his other powers of buffoonery, the art of +ventriloquism; and they suspected the presence of some hideous or +grotesque image of a heathen god or demon in the hidden recess, which +the jugglery of the parasite was to gift with the capacity of speech. +Blasphemous comments upon life, death, and immortality were eagerly +awaited. The general impatience for the withdrawal of the curtain was +perceived by Vetranio, who, waving his hand for silence, +authoritatively exclaimed— +</P> + +<P> +'The hour has not yet arrived. More draughts must be drunk, more +libations poured out, ere the mystery of the curtain is revealed! Ho, +Glyco!' he continued, turning towards the singing-boy, who had silently +entered the room, 'the moment is yours! Tune your lyre, and recite my +last ode, which I have addressed to you! Let the charms of Poetry +preside over the feast of Death!' +</P> + +<P> +The boy advanced, trembling; his once ruddy face was colourless and +haggard; his eyes were fixed with a look of rigid terror on the black +curtain; his features palpably expressed the presence within him of +some secret and overwhelming recollection which had crushed all his +other faculties and perceptions. Steadily, almost guiltily, averting +his face from his master's countenance, he stood by Vetranio's couch, a +frail and fallen being, a mournful spectacle of perverted docility and +degraded youth. +</P> + +<P> +Still true, however, to the duties of his vocation, he ran his thin, +trembling fingers over the lyre, and mechanically preluded the +commencement of the ode. But during the silence of attention which now +prevailed, the confused noises from the people in the street penetrated +more distinctly into the banqueting-room; and at this moment, high +above them all—hoarse, raving, terrible, rose the voice of one man. +</P> + +<P> +'Tell me not,' it cried, 'of perfumes wafted from the palace!—foul +vapours flow from it!—see, they sink, suffocating over me!—they bathe +sky and earth, and men who move around us, in fierce, green light!' +</P> + +<P> +Then other voices of men and women, shrill and savage, broke forth in +interruption together:—'Peace, Davus! you awake the dead about you!' +'Hide in the darkness; you are plague-struck; your skin is shrivelled; +your gums are toothless!' 'When the palace is fired you shall be flung +into the flames to purify your rotten carcass!' +</P> + +<P> +'Sing!' cried Vetranio furiously, observing the shudders that ran over +the boy's frame and held him speechless. 'Strike the lyre, as +Timotheus struck it before Alexander! Drown in melody the barking of +the curs who wait for our offal in the street!' +</P> + +<P> +Feebly and interruptedly the terrified boy began; the wild continuous +noises of the moaning voices from without sounding their awful +accompaniment to the infidel philosophy of his song as he breathed it +forth in faint and faltering accents. It ran thus:— +</P> + +<H4 STYLE="text-indent: 10%"> +TO GLYCO +</H4> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Ah, Glyco! why in flow'rs array'd?<BR> + Those festive wreaths less quickly fade<BR> + Than briefly-blooming joy!<BR> + Those high-prized friends who share your mirth<BR> + Are counterfeits of brittle earth,<BR> + False coin'd in Death's alloy!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The bliss your notes could once inspire,<BR> + When lightly o'er the god-like lyre<BR> + Your nimble fingers pass'd,<BR> + Shall spring the same from others' skill—<BR> + When you're forgot, the music still<BR> + The player shall outlast!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The sun-touch'd cloud that mounts the sky,<BR> + That brightly glows to warm the eye,<BR> + Then fades we know not where,<BR> + Is image of the little breath<BR> + Of life—and then, the doom of Death<BR> + That you and I must share!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Helpless to make or mar our birth,<BR> + We blindly grope the ways of earth,<BR> + And live our paltry hour;<BR> + Sure, that when life has ceased to please,<BR> + To die at will, in Stoic ease,<BR> + Is yielded to our pow'r!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Who, timely wise, would meanly wait<BR> + The dull delay of tardy Fate,<BR> + When Life's delights are shorn?<BR> + No! When its outer gloss has flown,<BR> + Let's fling the tarnish'd bauble down<BR> + As lightly as 'twas worn.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +'A health to Glyco! A deep draught to a singer from heaven come down +upon earth!' cried the guests, seizing their wine-cups, as the ode was +concluded, and draining them to the last drop. But their drunken +applause fell noiseless upon the ear to which it was addressed. The +boy's voice, as he sang the final stanza of the ode, had suddenly +changed to a shrill, almost an unearthly tone, then suddenly sank again +as he breathed forth the last few notes; and now as his dissolute +audience turned towards him with approving glances, they saw him +standing before them cold, rigid, and voiceless. The next instant his +fixed features were suddenly distorted, his whole frame collapsed as if +torn by an internal spasm—he fell back heavily to the floor. Those +around approached him with unsteady feet, and raised him in their arms. +His soul had burst the bonds of vice in which others had entangled it; +the voice of Death had whispered to the slave of the great despot, +Crime—'Be free!' +</P> + +<P> +'We have heard the note of the swan singing its own funeral hymn!' said +the patrician Placidus, looking in maudlin pity from the corpse of the +boy to the face of Vetranio, which presented for the moment an +involuntary expression of grief and remorse. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Our miracle of beauty and boy-god of melody has departed before us to +the Elysian fields!' muttered the hunchback Reburrus, in harsh, +sarcastic accents. +</P> + +<P> +Then, during the short silence that ensued, the voices from the street, +joined on this occasion to a noise of approaching footsteps on the +pavement, became again distinctly audible in the banqueting-hall. +'News! news!' cried these fresh auxiliaries of the horde already +assembled before the palace. 'Keep together, you who still care for +your lives! Solitary citizens have been lured by strange men into +desolate streets, and never seen again! Jars of newly salted flesh, +which there were no beasts left in the city to supply, have been found +in a butcher's shop! Keep together! Keep together!' +</P> + +<P> +'No cannibals among the mob shall pollute the body of my poor boy!' +cried Vetranio, rousing himself from his short lethargy of grief. 'Ho! +Thascius! Marcus! you who can yet stand! let us bear him to the funeral +pile! He has died first—his ashes shall be first consumed!' +</P> + +<P> +The two patricians arose as the senator spoke, and aided him in +carrying the body to the lower end of the room, where it was laid +across the table, beneath the black curtain, and between the heaps of +drapery and furniture piled up against each of the walls. Then, as his +guests reeled back to their places, Vetranio, remaining by the side of +the corpse, and seizing in his unsteady hands a small vase of wine, +exclaimed in tones of fierce exultation: 'The hour has come—the +Banquet of Famine has ended—the Banquet of Death has begun! A health +to the guest behind the curtain! Fill—drink—behold!' +</P> + +<P> +He drank deeply from the vase as he ceased, and drew aside the black +drapery above him. A cry of terror and astonishment burst from the +intoxicated guests as they beheld in the recess now disclosed to view +the corpse of an aged woman, clothed in white, and propped up on a +high, black throne, with the face turned towards them, and the arms +(artificially supported) stretched out as if in denunciation over the +banqueting-table. The lamp of yellow glass, which burnt high above the +body, threw over it a lurid and flickering light; the eyes were open, +the jaw had fallen, the long grey tresses drooped heavily on either +side of the white hollow cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +'Behold!' cried Vetranio, pointing to the corpse—'Behold my secret +guest! Who so fit as the dead to preside at the Banquet of Death? +Compelling the aid of Glyco, shrouded by congenial night, seizing on +the first corpse exposed before me in the street, I have set up there, +unsuspected by all, the proper idol of our worship, and philosopher at +our feast! Another health to the queen of the fatal revels—to the +teacher of the mysteries of worlds unseen—rescued from rotting +unburied, to perish in the consecrated flames with the senators of +Rome! A health!—a health to the mighty mother, ere she begin the +mystic revelations! Fill—drink!' +</P> + +<P> +Fired by their host's example, recovered from their momentary awe, +already inflamed by the mad recklessness of debauchery, the guests +started from their couches, and with Bacchanalian shouts answered +Vetranio's challenge. The scene at this moment approached the +supernatural. The wild disorder of the richly laden tables; the wine +flowing over the floor from overthrown vases; the great lamps burning +bright and steady over the confusion beneath; the fierce gestures, the +disordered countenances of the revellers, as they waved their jewelled +cups over their heads in frantic triumph; and then the gloomy and +terrific prospect at the lower end of the hall—the black curtain, the +light burning solitary on its high pole, the dead boy lying across the +festal table, the living master standing by his side, and, like an evil +spirit, pointing upward in mockery to the white-robed corpse of the +woman, as it towered above all in its unnatural position, with its +skinny arms stretched forth, with its ghastly features appearing to +move as the faint and flickering light played over them,—produced +together such a combination of scarce-earthly objects as might be +painted, but cannot be described. It was an embodiment of a sorcerer's +vision—an apocalypse of sin triumphing over the world's last relics of +mortality in the vaults of death. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'To your task, Reburrus!' cried Vetranio, when the tumult was lulled; +'to your questions without delay! Behold the teacher with whom you are +to hold commune! Peruse carefully the parchment in your hand; +question, and question loudly—you speak to the apathetic dead!' +</P> + +<P> +For some time before the disclosure of the corpse, the hunchback had +been seated apart at the end of the banqueting-hall opposite the +black-curtained recess, conning over the manuscript containing the list +of questions and answers which formed the impious dialogue he was to +hold, by the aid of his powers of ventriloquism, with the violated +dead. When the curtain was withdrawn he had looked up for a moment, +and had greeted the appearance of the sight behind it with a laugh of +brutal derision, returning immediately to the study of his blasphemous +formulary which had been confided to his care. At the moment when +Vetranio's commands were addressed to him he arose, reeled down the +apartment towards the corpse, and, opening the dialogue as he +approached it, began in loud jeering tones: 'Speak, miserable relict +of decrepit mortality!' +</P> + +<P> +He paused as he uttered the last word, and gaining a point of view from +which the light of the lamp fell full upon the solemn and stony +features of the corpse, looked up defiantly at it. In an instant a +frightful change passed over him, the manuscript dropped from his hand, +his deformed frame shrank and tottered, a shrill cry of recognition +burst from his lips, more like the yell of a wild beast than the voice +of a man. +</P> + +<P> +The next moment, when the guests started up to question or deride him, +he turned slowly and faced them. Desperate and drunken as they were, +his look awed them into utter silence. His face was deathlike in hue, +as the face of the corpse above him—thick drops of perspiration +trickled down it like rain—his dry glaring eyes wandered fiercely over +the startled countenances before him, and, as he extended towards them +his clenched hands, he muttered in a deep gasping whisper: 'Who has +done this? MY MOTHER! MY MOTHER!' +</P> + +<P> +As these few words—of awful import though of simple form—fell upon +the ears of those whom he addressed, such of them as were not already +sunk in insensibility looked round on each other almost sobered for the +moment, and all speechless alike. Not even the clash of the wine-cups +was now heard at the banqueting-table—nothing was audible but the +sound, still fitfully rising and falling, of the voices of terror, +ribaldry, and anguish from the street; and the hoarse convulsive +accents of the hunchback, still uttering at intervals his fearful +identification of the dead body above him: 'MY MOTHER! MY MOTHER!' +</P> + +<P> +At length Vetranio, who was the first to recover himself, addressed the +terrified and degraded wretch before him, in tones which, in spite of +himself, betrayed, as he began, an unwonted tremulousness and +restraint. 'What, Reburrus!' he cried, 'are you already drunken to +insanity, that you call the first dead body which by chance I +encountered in the street, and by chance brought hither, your mother? +Was it to talk of your mother, whom dead or alive we neither know nor +care for, that you were admitted here? Son of obscurity and inheritor +of rags, what are your plebeian parents to us!' he continued, refilling +his cup, and lashing himself into assumed anger as he spoke. 'To your +dialogue without delay, or you shall be flung from the windows to +mingle with your rabble-equals in the street!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Neither by word nor look did the hunchback answer the senator's +menaces. For him, the voice of the living was stifled in the presence +of the dead. The retribution that had gone forth against him had +struck his moral, as a thunderbolt might have stricken his physical +being. His soul strove in agony within him, as he thought on the awful +fatality which had set the dead mother in judgment on the degraded +son—which had directed the hand of the senator unwittingly to select +the corpse of the outraged parent as the object for the infidel +buffoonery of the reckless child, at the very close of his impious +career. His past life rose before him, for the first time, like a foul +vision, like a nightmare of horror, impurity, and crime. He staggered +up the room, groping his way along the wall, as if the darkness of +midnight had closed round his eyes, and crouched down by the open +window. Beneath him rose the evil and ominous voices from the street; +around him spread the pitiless array of his masters; before him +appeared the denouncing vision of the corpse. +</P> + +<P> +He would have remained but a short time unmolested in his place of +refuge, but for an event which now diverted from him the attention of +Vetranio and his guests. Drinking furiously to drown all recollection +of the catastrophe they had just witnessed, three of the revellers had +already suffered the worst consequences of an excess, which their +weakened frames were ill-fitted to bear. One after another, at short +intervals, they fell back senseless on their couches; and one after +another, as they succumbed, the three lamps burning nearest to them +were extinguished. The same speedy termination to the debauch seemed +to be in reserve for the rest of their companions, with the exception +of Vetranio and the two patricians who reclined at his right hand and +his left. These three still preserved the appearance of +self-possession, but an ominous change had already overspread their +countenances. The expression of wild joviality, of fierce +recklessness, had departed from their wild features; they silently +watched each other with vigilant and suspicious eyes; each in turn, as +he filled his wine-cup, significantly handled the torch with which the +last drinker was to fire the funeral pile. As the numbers of their +rivals decreased, and the flame of lamp after lamp was extinguished, +the fatal contest for a suicide supremacy assumed a present and +powerful interest, in which all other purposes and objects were +forgotten. The corpse at the foot of the banqueting-table, and the +wretch cowering in his misery at the window, were now alike unheeded. +In the bewildered and brutalised minds of the guests, one sensation +alone remained—the intensity of expectation which precedes the result +of a deadly strife. +</P> + +<P> +But ere long—awakening the attention which might otherwise never have +been aroused—the voice of the hunchback was heard, as the spirit of +repentance now moved within him, uttering, in wild, moaning tones, a +strange confession of degradation and sin—addressed to none; +proceeding, independent of consciousness or will, from the depths of +his stricken soul. He half raised himself, and fixed his sunken eyes +upon the dead body, as these words dropped from his lips: 'It was the +last time that I beheld her alive, when she approached me—lonely, and +feeble, and poor—in the street, beseeching me to return to her in the +days of her old age and her solitude, and to remember how she had loved +me in my childhood for my very deformity, how she had watched me +throughout the highways of Rome, that none should oppress or deride me! +The tears ran down her cheeks, she knelt to me on the hard pavement, +and I, who had deserted her for her poverty, to make myself a slave in +palaces among the accursed rich, flung down money to her as to a beggar +who wearied me, and passed on! She died desolate; her body lay +unburied, and I knew it not! The son who had abandoned the mother +never saw her more, until she rose before him there—avenging, +horrible, lifeless—a sight of death never to leave him! Woe, woe to +the accursed in his deformity, and the accursed of his mother's corpse!' +</P> + +<P> +He paused, and fell back again to the ground, grovelling and +speechless. The tyrannic Thascius, regarding him with a scowl of +drunken wrath, seized an empty vase, and poising it in his unsteady +hand, prepared to hurl it at the hunchback's prostrate form, when again +a single cry—a woman's—rising above the increasing uproar in the +street, rang shrill and startling through the banqueting-hall. The +patrician suspended his purpose as he heard it, mechanically listening +with the half-stupid, half-cunning attention of intoxication. 'Help! +help!' shrieked the voice beneath the palace windows—'he follows me +still—he attacked my dead child in my arms! As I flung myself down +upon it on the ground, I saw him watching his opportunity to drag it by +the limbs from under me—famine and madness were in his eyes—I drove +him back—I fled—he follows me still!—save us, save us!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At this instant her voice was suddenly stifled in the sound of fierce +cries and rushing footsteps, followed by an appalling noise of heavy +blows, directed at several points, against the steel railings before +the palace doors. Between the blows, which fell slowly and together at +regular intervals, the infuriated wretches, whose last exertions of +strength were strained to the utmost to deal them, could be heard +shouting breathlessly to each other: 'Strike harder, strike harder! +the back gates are guarded against us by our comrades admitted to the +pillage of the palace instead of us. You who would share the booty, +strike firm! the stones are at your feet, the gates of entrance yield +before you.' +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile a confused sound of trampling footsteps and contending voices +became audible from the lower apartments of the palace. Doors were +violently shut and opened—shouts and execrations echoed and re-echoed +along the lofty stone passages leading from the slaves' waiting-rooms +to the grand staircase; treachery betrayed itself as openly within the +building as violence still proclaimed itself in the assault on the +gates outside. The chief slaves had not been suspected by their +fellows without a cause; the bands of pillage and murder had been +organised in the house of debauchery and death; the chosen adherents +from the street had been secretly admitted through the garden gates, +and had barred and guarded them against further intrusion—another doom +than the doom they had impiously prepared for themselves was +approaching the devoted senators, at the hands of the slaves whom they +had oppressed, and the plebeians whom they had despised. +</P> + +<P> +At the first sound of the assault without and the first intimation of +the treachery within, Vetranio, Thascius, and Marcus started from their +couches; the remainder of the guests, incapable either of thought or +action, lay, in stupid insensibility, awaiting their fate. These three +men alone comprehended the peril that threatened them, and, maddened +with drink, defied, in their ferocious desperation, the death that was +in store for them. 'Hark! they approach, the rabble revolted from our +rule,' cried Vetranio scornfully, 'to take the lives that we despise +and the treasures that we have resigned! The hour has come; I go to +fire the pile that involves in one common destruction our assassins and +ourselves!' +</P> + +<P> +'Hold!' exclaimed Thascius, snatching the torch from his hand; 'the +entrance must first be defended, or, ere the flames are kindled, the +slaves will be here! Whatever is movable—couches, tables, +corpses—let us hurl them all against the door!' +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke he rushed towards the black-curtained recess, to set the +example to his companions by seizing the corpse of the woman; but he +had not passed more than half the length of the apartment, when the +hunchback, who had followed him unheeded, sprang upon him from behind, +and, with a shrill cry, fastening his fingers on his throat, hurled him +torn and senseless to the floor. 'Who touches the body that is mine?' +shrieked the deformed wretch, rising from his victim, and threatening +with his blood-stained hands Vetranio and Marcus, as they stood +bewildered, and uncertain for the moment whether first to avenge their +comrade or to barricade the door—'The son shall rescue the mother! I +go to bury her! Atonement! Atonement!' +</P> + +<P> +He leaped upon the table as he spoke, tore asunder with resistless +strength the cords which fastened the corpse to the throne, seized it +in his arms, and the next instant gained the door. Uttering fierce, +inarticulate cries, partly of anguish and partly of defiance, he threw +it open, and stepped forward to descend, when he was met at the head of +the stairs by the band of assassins hurrying up, with drawn swords and +blazing torches, to their work of pillage and death. He stood before +them—his deformed limbs set as firmly on the ground as if he were +preparing to descend the stairs at one leap—with the corpse raised +high on his breast; its unearthly features were turned towards them, +its bare arms were still stretched forth as they had been extended over +the banqueting-table, its grey hair streamed back and mingled with his +own: under the fitful illumination of the torches, which played red and +wild over him and his fearful burden, the dead and the living looked +joined to each other in one monstrous form. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Huddled together, motionless, on the stairs, their shouts of vengeance +and fury frozen on their lips, the assassins stood for one moment, +staring mechanically, with fixed, spell-bound eyes, upon the hideous +bulwark opposing their advance on the victims whom they had expected so +easily to surprise. The next instant a superstitious panic seized +them; as the hunchback suddenly moved towards them to descend, the +corpse seemed to their terror-stricken eyes to be on the eve of +bursting its way through their ranks. Ignorant of its introduction +into the palace, imagining it, in the revival of their slavish fears, +to be the spectral offspring of the magic incantations of the senators +above, they turned with one accord and fled down the stairs. The sound +of their cries of fear grew fainter and fainter in the direction of the +garden as they hurried through the secret gates at the back of the +building. Then the heavy, regular tamp of the hunchback's footsteps, +as he paced the solitary corridors after them, bearing his burden of +death, became audible in awful distinctness; then that sound also died +away and was lost, and nothing more was heard in the banqueting-room +save the sharp clang of the blows still dealt against the steel +railings from the street. +</P> + +<P> +But now these grew rare and more rare in their recurrence; the strong +metal resisted triumphantly the utmost efforts of the exhausted rabble +who assailed it. As the minutes moved on, the blows grew rapidly +fainter and fewer; soon they diminished to three, struck at long +intervals; soon to one, followed by deep execrations of despair; and, +after that, a great silence sank down over the palace and the street, +where such strife and confusion had startled the night-echoes but a few +moments before. +</P> + +<P> +In the banqueting-hall this rapid succession of events—the marvels of +a few minutes—passed before Vetranio and Marcus as visions beheld by +their eyes, but neither contained nor comprehended by their minds. +Stolid in their obstinate recklessness, stupefied by the spectacle of +the startling perils—menacing yet harmless, terrifying though +transitory—which surrounded them, neither of the senators moved a +muscle or uttered a word, from the period when Thascius had fallen +beneath the hunchback's attack, to the period when the last blow +against the palace railings, and the last sound of voices from the +street, had ceased in silence. Then the wild current of drunken +exultation, suspended within them during this brief interval, flowed +once more, doubly fierce, in its old course. Insensible, the moment +after they had passed away, to the warning and terrific scenes they had +beheld, each now looked round on the other with a glance of triumphant +levity. 'Hark!' cried Vetranio, 'the mob without, feeble and cowardly +to the last, abandon their puny efforts to force my palace gates! +Behold our banqueting-tables still sacred from the intrusion of the +revolted menials, driven before my guest from the dead, like a flock of +sheep before a single dog! Say, O Marcus! did I not well to set the +corpse at the foot of our banqueting-table? What marvels has it not +effected, borne before us by the frantic Reburrus, as a banner of the +hosts of death, against the cowardly slaves whose fit inheritance is +oppression, and whose sole sensation is fear! See, we are free to +continue and conclude the banquet as we had designed! The gods +themselves have interfered to raise us in security above our +fellow-mortals, whom we despise! Another health, in gratitude to our +departed guest, the instrument of our deliverance, under the auspices +of omnipotent Jove!' +</P> + +<P> +As Vetranio spoke, Marcus alone, out of all the revellers, answered his +challenge. These two—the last-remaining combatants of the +strife—having drained their cups to the health proposed, passed slowly +down each side of the room, looking contemptuously on their prostrate +companions, and extinguishing every lamp but the two which burnt over +their own couches. Then returning to the upper end of the tables, they +resumed their places, not to leave them again until the fatal rivalry +was finally decided, and the moment of firing the pile had actually +arrived. +</P> + +<P> +The torch lay between them; the last vases of wine stood at their +sides. Not a word escaped the lips of either, to break the deep +stillness prevailing over the palace. Each fixed his eyes on the +other, in stern and searching scrutiny, and cup for cup, drank in slow +and regular alternation. The debauch, which had hitherto presented a +spectacle of brutal degradation and violence, now that it was +restricted to two men only—each equally unimpressed by the scenes of +horror he had beheld, each vying with the other for the attainment of +the supreme of depravity—assumed an appearance of hardly human +iniquity; it became a contest for a satanic superiority of sin. +</P> + +<P> +For some time little alteration appeared in the countenances of either +of the suicide-rivals; but they had now drunk to that final point of +excess at which wine either acts as its own antidote, or overwhelms in +fatal suffocation the pulses of life. The crisis in the strife was +approaching for both, and the first to experience it was Marcus. +Vetranio, as he watched him, observed a dark purple flush overspreading +his face, hitherto pale, almost colourless. His eyes suddenly dilated; +he panted for breath. The vase of wine, when he strove with a last +effort to fill his cup from it, rolled from his hand to the floor. The +stare of death was in his face as he half-raised himself and for one +instant looked steadily on his companion; the moment after, without +word or groan, he dropped backward over his couch. +</P> + +<P> +The contest of the night was decided! The host of the banquet and the +master of the palace had been reserved to end the one and to fire the +other! +</P> + +<P> +A smile of malignant triumph parted Vetranio's lips as he now arose and +extinguished the last lamp burning besides his own. That done, he +grasped the torch. His eyes, as he raised it, wandered dreamily over +the array of his treasures, and the forms of his dead or insensible +fellow-patricians around him, to be consumed by his act in annihilating +fire. The sensation of his solemn night-solitude in his fated palace +began to work in vivid and varying impressions on his mind, which was +partially recovering some portion of its wonted acuteness, under the +bodily reaction now produced in him by the very extravagance of the +night's excess. His memory began to retrace confusedly the scenes with +which the dwelling that he was about to destroy had been connected at +distant or at recent periods. At one moment the pomp of former +banquets, the jovial congregation of guests since departed or dead, +revived before him; at another, he seemed to be acting over again his +secret departure from his dwelling on the night before his last feast, +his stealthy return with the corpse that he had dragged from the +street, his toil in setting it up in mockery behind the black curtain, +and inventing the dialogue to be spoken before it by the hunchback. +Now his thoughts reverted to the minutest circumstances of the +confusion and dismay among the members of his household when the first +extremities of the famine began to be felt in the city; and now, +without visible connection or cause, they turned suddenly to the +morning when he had hurried through the most solitary paths in his +grounds to meet the betrayer Ulpius at Numerian's garden gate. Once +more the image of Antonina—so often present to his imagination since +the original was lost to his eyes—grew palpable before him. He +thought of her, as listening at his knees to the sound of his lute; as +awakening, bewildered and terrified, in his arms; as flying +distractedly before her father's wrath; as now too surely lying dead, +in her beauty and her innocence, amid the thousand victims of the +famine and the plague. +</P> + +<P> +These and other reflections, while they crowded in whirlwind rapidity +on his mind, wrought no alteration in the deadly purpose which they +suspended. His delay in lighting the torch was the unconscious delay +of the suicide, secure in his resolution ere he lifts the poison to his +lips—when life rises before him as a thing that is past, and he stands +for one tremendous moment in the dark gap between the present and the +future—no more the pilgrim of Time—not yet the inheritor of Eternity! +</P> + +<P> +So, in the dimly lighted hall, surrounded by the victims whom he had +hurried before him to their doom, stood the lonely master of the great +palace; and so spoke within him the mysterious voices of his last +earthly thoughts. Gradually they sank and ceased, and stillness and +vacancy closed like dark veils over his mind. Starting like one +awakened from a trance he once more felt the torch in his hand, and +once more the expression of fierce desperation appeared in his eyes as +he lit it steadily at the lamp above him. +</P> + +<P> +The dew was falling pure to the polluted earth; the light breezes sang +their low daybreak anthem among the leaves to the Power that bade them +forth; night had expired, and morning was already born of it, as +Vetranio, with the burning torch in his hand, advanced towards the +funeral pile. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He had already passed the greater part of the length of the room, when +a faint sound of footsteps ascending a private staircase which led to +the palace gardens, and communicated with the lower end of the +banqueting-hall by a small door of inlaid ivory, suddenly attracted his +attention. He hesitated in his deadly purpose, listening to the slow, +regular approaching sound, which, feeble though it was, struck +mysteriously impressive upon his ear in the dreary silence of all +things around him. Holding the torch high above his head, as the +footsteps came nearer, he fixed his eyes in intense expectation upon +the door. It opened, and the figure of a young girl clothed in white +stood before him. One moment he looked upon her with startled eyes; +the next the torch dropped from his hand, and smouldered unheeded on +the marble floor. It was Antonina! +</P> + +<P> +Her face was overspread with a strange transparent paleness; her once +soft, round cheeks had lost their girlish beauty of form; her +expression, ineffably mournful, hopeless, and subdued, threw a simple, +spiritual solemnity over her whole aspect. She was changed, awfully +changed to the profligate senator from the being of his former +admiration; but still there remained in her despairing eyes enough of +the old look of gentleness and patience, surviving through all anguish +and dread, to connect her, even as she was now, with what she had been. +She stood in the chamber of debauchery and suicide between the funeral +pile and the desperate man who was vowed to fire it, a feeble, helpless +creature, yet powerful in the influence of her presence, at such a +moment and in such a form, as a saving and reproving spirit, armed with +the omnipotence of Heaven to mould the purposes of man. +</P> + +<P> +Awed and astounded, as if he beheld an apparition from the tomb, +Vetranio looked upon this young girl—whom he had loved with the least +selfish passion that ever inspired him; whom he had lamented as long +since lost and dead with the sincerest grief he had ever felt; whom he +now saw standing before him at the very moment ere he doomed himself to +death, altered, desolate, supplicating—with emotions which held him +speechless in wonder, and even in dread. While he still gazed upon her +in silence, he heard her speaking to him in low, melancholy, imploring +accents, which fell upon his ear, after the voices of terror and +desperation that had risen around him throughout the night, like tones +never addressed to it before. +</P> + +<P> +'Numerian, my father, is sinking under the famine,' she began; 'if no +help is given to him, he may die even before sunrise! You are rich and +powerful; I have come to you, having nothing now but his life to live +for, to beg sustenance for him!' She paused, overpowered for the +moment, and bent her eyes wistfully on the senator's face. Then seeing +that he vainly endeavoured to answer her, her head drooped upon her +breast, and her voice sank lower as she continued:— +</P> + +<P> +'I have striven for patience under much sorrow and pain through the +long night that is past; my eyes were heavy and my spirit was faint; I +could have rendered up my soul willingly in my loneliness and +feebleness to God who gave it, but that it was my duty to struggle for +my life and my father's, now that I was restored to him after I had +lost all beside! I could not think, or move, or weep, as, looking +forth upon your palace, I watched and waited through the hours of +darkness. But, as morning dawned, the heaviness at my heart was +lightened; I remembered that the palace I saw before me was yours; and, +though the gates were closed, I knew that I could reach it through your +garden that joins to my father's land. I had none in Rome to ask mercy +of but you; so I set forth hastily, ere my weakness should overpower +me, remembering that I had inherited much misery at your hands, but +hoping that you might pity me for what I had suffered when you saw me +again. I came wearily through the garden; it was long before I found +my way hither; will you send me back as helpless as I came? You first +taught me to disobey my father in giving me the lute; will you refuse +to aid me in succouring him now? He is all that I have left in the +world! Have mercy upon him!—have mercy upon me!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Again she looked up in Vetranio's face. His trembling lips moved, but +still no sound came from them. The expression of confusion and awe yet +prevailed over his features as he pointed slowly towards the upper end +of the banqueting-table. To her this simple action was eloquent beyond +all power of speech; she turned her feeble steps instantly in the +direction he had indicated. +</P> + +<P> +He watched her, by the light of the single lamp that still burnt, +passing—strong in the shielding inspiration of her good purpose—amid +the bodies of his suicide companions without pausing on her way. +Having gained the upper end of the room, she took from the table a +flask of wine, and from the wooden stand behind it the bowl of offal +disdained by the guests at the fatal banquet, returning immediately to +the spot where Vetranio still stood. Here she stopped for a moment, as +if about to speak once more; but her emotions overpowered her. From +the sources which despair and suffering had dried up, the long-prisoned +tears once more flowed forth at the bidding of gratitude and hope. She +looked upon the senator, silent as himself, and her expression at that +instant was destined to remain on his memory while memory survived. +Then, with faltering and hasty steps, she departed by the way she had +come; and in the great palace, which his evil supremacy over the wills +of others had made a hideous charnel-house, he was once more left alone. +</P> + +<P> +He made no effort to follow or detain her as she left him. The torch +still smouldered beside him on the floor, but he never stooped to take +it up; he dropped down on a vacant couch, stupefied by what he had +beheld. That which no entreaties, no threats, no fierce violence of +opposition could have effected in him, the appearance of Antonina had +produced—it had forced him to pause at the very moment of the +execution of his deadly design. +</P> + +<P> +He remembered how, from the very first day when he had seen her, she +had mysteriously influenced the whole progress of his life; how his +ardour to possess her had altered his occupations, and even interrupted +his amusements; how all his energy and all his wealth had been baffled +in the attempt to discover her when she fled from her father's house; +how the first feeling of remorse that he had ever known had been +awakened within him by his knowledge of the share he had had in +producing her unhappy fate. Recalling all this; reflecting that, had +she approached him at an earlier period, she would have been driven +back affrighted by the drunken clamour of his companions; and had she +arrived at a later, would have found his palace in flames; thinking at +the same time of her sudden presence in the banqueting-hall when he had +believed her to be dead, when her appearance at the moment before he +fired the pile was most irresistible in its supernatural influence over +his actions—that vague feeling of superstitious dread which exists +intuitively in all men's minds, which had never before been aroused in +his, thrilled through him. His eyes were fixed on the door by which +she had departed, as if he expected her to return. Her destiny seemed +to be portentously mingled with his own; his life seemed to move, his +death to wait at her bidding. There was no repentance, no moral +purification in the emotions which now suspended his bodily faculties +in inaction; he was struck for the time with a mental paralysis. +</P> + +<P> +The restless moments moved onward and onward, and still he delayed the +consummation of the ruin which the night's debauch had begun. Slowly +the tender daylight grew and brightened in its beauty, warmed the cold +prostrate bodies in the silent hall, and dimmed the faint glow of the +wasting lamp; no black mist of smoke, no red glare of devouring fire +arose to quench its fair lustre; no roar of flames interrupted the +murmuring morning tranquillity of nature, or startled from their heavy +repose the exhausted outcasts stretched upon the pavement of the +street. Still the noble palace stood unshaken on its firm foundations; +still the adornments of its porticoes and its statues glittered as of +old in the rays of the rising sun; and still the hand of the master who +had sworn to destroy it, as he had sworn to destroy himself, hung idly +near the torch which lay already extinguished in harmless ashes at his +feet. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 23. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LAST EFFORTS OF THE BESIEGED. +</H3> + +<P> +We return to the street before the palace. The calamities of the siege +had fallen fiercely on those who lay there during the night. From the +turbulent and ferocious mob of a few hours since, not even the sound of +a voice was now heard. Some, surprised in a paroxysm of hunger by +exhaustion and insensibility, lay with their hands half forced into +their mouths, as if in their ravenous madness they had endeavoured to +prey upon their own flesh. Others now and then wearily opened their +languid eyes upon the street, no longer regardful, in the present +extremity of their sufferings, of the building whose destruction they +had assembled to behold, but watching for a fancied realisation of the +visions of richly spread tables and speedy relief called up before +them, as if in mockery, by the delirium of starvation and disease. +</P> + +<P> +The sun had as yet but slightly risen above the horizon, when the +attention of the few among the populace who still preserved some +perception of outward events was suddenly attracted by the appearance +of an irregular procession—composed partly of citizens and partly of +officers of the Senate, and headed by two men—which slowly approached +from the end of the street leading into the interior of the city. This +assembly of persons stopped opposite Vetranio's palace; and then such +members of the mob who watched them as were not yet entirely abandoned +by hope, heard the inspiring news that the procession they beheld was a +procession of peace, and that the two men who headed it were the +Spaniard, Basilius, a governor of a province, and Johannes, the chief +of the Imperial notaries—appointed ambassadors to conclude a treaty +with the Goths. +</P> + +<P> +As this intelligence reached them, men who had before appeared +incapable of the slightest movement now rose painfully, yet resolutely, +to their feet, and crowded round the two ambassadors as round two +angels descended to deliver them from bondage and death. Meanwhile, +some officers of the Senate, finding the front gates of the palace +closed against them, proceeded to the garden entrance at the back of +the building, to obtain admission to its owner. The absence of +Vetranio and his friends from the deliberations of the government had +been attributed to their disgust at the obstinate and unavailing +resistance offered to the Goths. Now, therefore, when submission had +been resolved upon, it had been thought both expedient and easy to +recall them peremptorily to their duties. In addition to this motive +for seeking the interior of the palace, the servants of the Senate had +another errand to perform there. The widely rumoured determination of +Vetranio and his associates to destroy themselves by fire, in the +frenzy of a last debauch—disbelieved or disregarded while the more +imminent perils of the city were under consideration—became a source +of some apprehension and anxiety to the acting members of the Roman +council, now that their minds were freed from part of the +responsibility which had weighed on them, by their resolution to treat +for peace. +</P> + +<P> +Accordingly, the persons now sent into the palace were charged with the +duty of frustrating its destruction, if such an act had been really +contemplated, as well as the duty of recalling its inmates to their +appointed places in the Senate-house. How far they were enabled, at +the time of their entrance into the banqueting-hall, to accomplish +their double mission, the reader is well able to calculate. They found +Vetranio still in the place which he had occupied since Antonina had +quitted him. Startled by their approach from the stupor which had +hitherto weighed on his faculties, the desperation of his purpose +returned; he made an effort to tear from its place the lamp which still +feebly burned, and to fire the pile in defiance of all opposition. But +his strength, already taxed to the utmost, failed him. Uttering +impotent threats of resistance and revenge, he fell, swooning and +helpless, into the arms of the officers of the Senate who held him +back. One of them was immediately dismissed, while his companions +remained in the palace, to communicate with the leaders of the assembly +outside. His report concluded, the two ambassadors moved slowly onward, +separating themselves from the procession which had accompanied them, +and followed only by a few chosen attendants—a mournful and a degraded +embassy, sent forth by the people who had once imposed their dominion, +their customs, and even their language, on the Eastern and Western +worlds, to bargain with the barbarians whom their fathers had enslaved +for the purchase of a disgraceful peace. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +On the departure of the ambassadors, all the spectators still capable +of the effort repaired to the Forum to await their return, and were +joined there by members of the populace from other parts of the city. +It was known that the first intimation of the result of the embassy +would be given from this place; and in the eagerness of their anxiety +to hear it, in the painful intensity of their final hopes of +deliverance, even death itself seemed for a while to be arrested in its +fatal progress through the ranks of the besieged. +</P> + +<P> +In silence and apprehension they counted the tardy moments of delay, +and watched with sickening gaze the shadows lessening and lessening, as +the sun gradually rose in the heavens to the meridian point. +</P> + +<P> +At length, after an absence that appeared of endless duration, the two +ambassadors re-entered Rome. Neither of them spoke as they hurriedly +passed through the ranks of the people; but their looks of terror and +despair were all-eloquent to every beholder—their mission had failed. +</P> + +<P> +For some time no member of the government appeared to have resolution +enough to come forward and harangue the people on the subject of the +unsuccessful embassy. After a long interval, however, the Prefect +Pompeianus himself, urged partly by the selfish entreaties of his +friends, and partly by the childish love of display which still adhered +to him through all his present anxieties and apprehensions, stepped +into one of the lower balconies of the Senate-house to address the +citizens beneath him. +</P> + +<P> +The chief magistrate of Rome was no longer the pompous and portly +personage whose intrusion on Vetranio's privacy during the commencement +of the siege has been described previously. The little superfluous +flesh still remaining on his face hung about it like an ill-fitting +garment; his tones had become lachrymose; the oratorical gestures, with +which he was wont to embellish profusely his former speeches, were all +abandoned; nothing remained of the original man but the bombast of his +language and the impudent complacency of his self-applause, which now +appeared in contemptible contrast to his crestfallen demeanour and his +disheartening narrative of degradation and defeat. +</P> + +<P> +'Men of Rome, let each of you exercise in his own person the heroic +virtues of a Regulus or a Cato!' the prefect began. 'A treaty with the +barbarians is out of our power. It is the scourge of the empire, +Alaric himself, who commands the invading forces! Vain were the +dignified remonstrances of the grave Basilius, futile was the +persuasive rhetoric of the astute Johannes, addressed to the +slaughtering and vainglorious Goth! On their admission to his +presence, the ambassadors, anxious to awe him into a capitulation, +enlarged, with sagacious and commendable patriotism, on the expertness +of the Romans in the use of arms, their readiness for war, and their +vast numbers within the city walls. I blush to repeat the barbarian's +reply. Laughing immoderately, he answered, "The thicker the grass, the +easier it is to cut!" +</P> + +<P> +'Still undismayed, the ambassadors, changing their tactics, talked +indulgently of their willingness to purchase a peace. At this +proposal, his insolence burst beyond all bounds of barbarous arrogance. +"I will not relinquish the siege," he cried, "until I have delivered to +me all the gold and silver in the city, all the household goods in it, +and all the slaves from the northern countries." "What then, O King, +will you leave us?" asked our amazed ambassadors. "YOUR LIVES!" +answered the implacable Goth. Hearing this, even the resolute Basilius +and the wise Johannes despaired. They asked time to communicate with +the Senate, and left the camp of the enemy without further delay. Such +was the end of the embassy; such the arrogant ferocity of the barbarian +foe!' +</P> + +<P> +Here the Prefect paused, from sheer weakness and want of breath. His +oration, however, was not concluded. He had disheartened the people by +his narrative of what had occurred to the ambassadors; he now proceeded +to console them by his relation of what had occurred to himself, when, +after an interval, he thus resumed:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'But even yet, O citizens of Rome, it is not time to despair! There is +another chance of deliverance still left to us, and that chance has +been discovered by me. It was my lot, during the absence of the +ambassadors, to meet with certain men of Tuscany, who had entered Rome +a few days before the beginning of the siege, and who spoke of a +project for relieving the city which they would communicate to the +Prefect alone. Ever anxious for the public welfare, daring all +treachery from strangers for advantage of my office, I accorded to +these men a secret interview. They told me of a startling and +miraculous event. The town of Neveia, lying, as you well know, in the +direct road of the barbarians when they marched upon Rome, was +protected from their pillaging bands by a tempest of thunder and +lightning terrible to behold. This tempest arose not, as you may +suppose, from an accidental convulsion of the elements, but was +launched over the heads of the invaders by the express interference of +the tutelary deities of the town, invocated by the inhabitants, who +returned in their danger to the practice of their ancient manner of +worship. So said the men of Tuscany; and such pious resources as those +employed by the people of Neveia did they recommend to the people of +Rome! For my part, I acknowledge to you that I have faith in their +project. The antiquity of our former worship is still venerable in my +eyes. The prayers of the priests of our new religion have wrought no +miraculous interference in our behalf: let us therefore imitate the +example of the inhabitants of Neveia, and by the force of our +invocations hurl the thunders of Jupiter on the barbarian camp! Let us +trust for deliverance to the potent interposition of the gods whom our +fathers worshipped—those gods who now, perhaps, avenge themselves for +our desertion of their temples by our present calamities. I go without +delay to propose to the Bishop Innocentius and to the Senate, the +public performance of solemn ceremonies of sacrifice at the Capitol! I +leave you in the joyful assurance that the gods, appeased by our +returning fidelity to our altars, will not refuse the supernatural +protection which they accorded to the people of a provincial town to +the citizens of Rome!' +</P> + +<P> +No sounds either of applause or disapprobation followed the Prefect's +notable proposal for delivering the city from the besiegers by the +public apostasy of the besieged. As he disappeared from their eyes, +the audience turned away speechless. An universal despair now +overpowered in them even the last energies of discord and crime; they +resigned themselves to their doom with the gloomy indifference of +beings in whom all mortal sensations, all human passions, good or evil, +were extinguished. The Prefect departed on his ill-omened expedition +to propose the practice of Paganism to the bishop of a Christian +church; but no profitable effort for relief was even suggested, either +by the government or the people. +</P> + +<P> +And so this day drew in its turn towards a close—more mournful and +more disastrous, more fraught with peril, misery, and gloom, than the +days that had preceded it. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning dawned, but no preparations for the ceremonies of the +ancient worship appeared at the Capitol. The Senate and the bishop +hesitated to incur the responsibility of authorising a public +restoration of Paganism; the citizens, hopeless of succour, heavenly or +earthly, remained unheedful as the dead of all that passed around them. +</P> + +<P> +There was one man in Rome who might have succeeded in rousing their +languid energies to apostasy; but where and how employed was he? +</P> + +<P> +Now, when the opportunity for which he had laboured resolutely, though +in vain, through a long existence of suffering, degradation, and crime, +had gratuitously presented itself more tempting and more favourable +than even he in his wildest visions of success had ever dared to +hope—where was Ulpius? Hidden from men's eyes, like a foul reptile, +in his lurking-place in the deserted temple—now raving round his idols +in the fury of madness, now prostrate before them in idiot +adoration—weaker for the interests of his worship, at the crisis of +its fate, than the weakest child crawling famished through the +streets—the victim of his own evil machinations at the very moment +when they might have led him to triumph—the object of that worst +earthly retribution, by which the wicked are at once thwarted, doomed, +and punished, here as hereafter, through the agency of their own sins. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Three more days passed. The Senate, their numbers fast diminishing in +the pestilence, occupied the time in vain deliberations or in moody +silence. Each morning the weary guards looked forth from the ramparts, +with the fruitless hope of discerning the long-promised legions from +Ravenna on their way to Rome; and each morning devastation and death +gained ground afresh among the hapless besieged. +</P> + +<P> +At length, on the fourth day, the Senate abandoned all hope of further +resistance and determined on submission, whatever might be the result. +It was resolved that another embassy, composed of the whole acting +Senate, and followed by a considerable train, should proceed to Alaric; +that one more effort should be made to induce him to abate his ruinous +demands on the conquered; and that if this failed, the gates should be +thrown open, and the city and the people abandoned to his mercy in +despair. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as the procession of this last Roman embassy was formed in the +Forum, its numbers were almost immediately swelled, in spite of +opposition, by those among the mass of the people who were still able +to move their languid and diseased bodies, and who, in the extremity of +their misery, had determined at all hazards to take advantage of the +opening of the gates, and fly from the city of pestilence in which they +were immured, careless whether they perished on the swords of the Goths +or languished unaided on the open plains. All power of enforcing order +had long since been lost; the few soldiers gathered about the senators +made one abortive effort to drive the people back, and then resigned +any further resistance to their will. +</P> + +<P> +Feebly and silently the spirit-broken assembly now moved along the +great highways, so often trodden, to the roar of martial music and the +shouts of applauding multitudes, by the triumphal processions of +victorious Rome; and from every street, as it passed on, the wasted +forms of the people stole out like spectres to join it. +</P> + +<P> +Among these, as the embassy approached the Pincian Gate, were two, +hurrying forth to herd with their fellow-sufferers, on whose fortunes +in the fallen city our more particular attention has been fixed. To +explain their presence on the scene (if such an explanation be +required) it is necessary to digress for a moment from the progress of +events during the last days of the siege to the morning when Antonina +departed from Vetranio's palace to return with her succour of food and +wine to her father's house. +</P> + +<P> +The reader is already acquainted, from her own short and simple +narrative, with the history of the closing hours of her mournful night +vigil by the side of her sinking parent, and with the motives which +prompted her to seek the palace of the senator, and entreat assistance +in despair from one whom she only remembered as the profligate +destroyer of her tranquility under her father's roof. It is now, +therefore, most fitting to follow her on her way back through the +palace gardens. No living creature but herself trod the grassy paths, +along which she hastened with faltering steps—those paths which she +dimly remembered to have first explored when in former days she +ventured forth to follow the distant sounds of Vetranio's lute. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of her vague, heavy sensations of solitude and grief, this +recollection remained painfully present to her mind, unaccountably +mingled with the dark and dreary apprehension which filled her heart as +she hurried onward, until she once more entered her father's dwelling; +and then, as she again approached his couch, every other feeling became +absorbed in a faint, overpowering fear, lest, after all her +perseverance and success in her errand of filial devotion, she might +have returned too late. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The old man still lived—his weary eyes opened gladly on her, when she +aroused him to partake of the treasured gifts from the senator's +banqueting table. The wretched food which the suicide-guests had +disdained, and the simple flask of wine which they would have +carelessly quaffed at one draught, were viewed both by parent and child +as the saving and invigorating sustenance of many days. After having +consumed as much as they dared of their precarious supply, the +remainder was carefully husbanded. It was the last sign and promise of +life to which they looked—the humble yet precious store in which alone +they beheld the earnest of their security, for a few days longer, from +the pangs of famine and the separation of death. +</P> + +<P> +And now, with their small provision of food and wine set like a beacon +of safety before their sight, a deep, dream-like serenity—the sleep of +the oppressed and wearied faculties—arose over their minds. Under its +mysterious and tranquilising influence, all impressions of the gloom +and misery in the city, of the fatal evidences around them of the +duration of the siege, faded away before their perceptions as dim +retiring objects, which the eye loses in vacancy. +</P> + +<P> +Gradually, as the day of the first unsuccessful embassy declined, their +thoughts began to flow back gently to the world of bygone events which +had crumbled into oblivion beneath the march of time. Her first +recollections of her earliest childhood revived in Antonina's memory, +and then mingled strangely with tearful remembrances of the last words +and looks of the young warrior who had expired by her side, and with +calm, solemn thoughts that the beloved spirit, emancipated from the +sphere of shadows, might now be hovering near the quiet garden-grave +where her bitterest tears of loneliness and affliction had been shed, +or moving around her—an invisible and blessed presence—as she sat at +her father's feet and mourned their earthly separation! +</P> + +<P> +In the emotions thus awakened, there was nothing of bitterness or +agony—they calmed and purified the heart through which they moved. +She could now speak to the old man, for the first time, of her days of +absence from him, of the brief joys and long sorrows of her hours of +exile, without failing in her melancholy tale. Sometimes her father +listened to her in sorrowful and speechless attention; or spoke, when +she paused, of consolation and hope, as she had heard him speak among +his congregation while he was yet strong in his resolution to sacrifice +all things for the reformation of the Church. Sometimes resigning +himself to the influence of his thoughts, as they glided back to the +times that were gone, he again revealed to her the changing events of +his past life—not as before, with unsteady accents and wandering eyes; +but now with a calmness of voice and a coherence of language which +forbade her to doubt the strange and startling narrative that she heard. +</P> + +<P> +Once more he spoke of the image of his lost brother (as he had parted +from him in his boyhood) still present to his mind; of the country that +he had quitted in after years; of the name that he had changed—from +Cleander to Numerian—to foil his former associates, if they still +pursued him; and of the ardent desire to behold again the companion of +his first home, which now, when his daughter was restored to him, when +no other earthly aspiration but this was unsatisfied, remained at the +close of his life, the last longing wish of his heart. +</P> + +<P> +Such was the communion in which father and daughter passed the hours of +their short reprieve from the judgment of famine pronounced against the +city of their sojourn; so did they live, as it were, in a quiet +interval of existence, in a tranquil pause between the toil that is +over and the toil that is to come in the hard labour of life. +</P> + +<P> +But the term to these short days of repose after long suffering and +grief was fast approaching. The little hoard of provision diminished +as rapidly as the stores that had been anxiously collected before it; +and, on the morning of the second embassy to Alaric, the flask of wine +and the bowl of food were both emptied. The brief dream of security +was over and gone; the terrible realities of the struggle for life had +begun again! +</P> + +<P> +Where or to whom could they now turn for help? The siege still +continued; the food just exhausted was the last food that had been left +on the senator's table; to seek the palace again would be to risk +refusal, perhaps insult, as the result of a second entreaty for aid, +where all power of conferring it might now but too surely be lost. +Such were the thoughts of Antonina as she returned the empty bowl to +its former place; but she gave them no expression in words. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +She saw, with horror, that the same expression of despair, almost of +frenzy, which had distorted her father's features on the day of her +restoration to him, now marked them again. Once more he tottered +towards the window, murmuring in his bitter despondency against the +delusive security and hope which had held him idle for the interests of +his child during the few days that were past. But, as he now looked +out on the beleaguered city, he saw the populace hastening along the +gloomy street beneath, as rapidly as their wearied limbs would carry +them, to join the embassy. He heard them encouraging each other to +proceed, to seize the last chance of escaping through the open gates +from the horrors of famine and plague; and caught the infection of the +recklessness and despair which had seized his fellow-sufferers from one +end of Rome to the other. +</P> + +<P> +Turning instantly, he grasped his daughter's hand and drew her from the +room, commanding her to come forth with him and join the citizens in +their flight, ere it was too late. Startled by his words and actions, +she vainly endeavoured, as she obeyed, to impress her father with the +dread of the Goths which her own bitter experience taught her to feel, +now that her only protector among them lay cold in the grave. With +Numerian, as with the rest of the people, all apprehension, all doubt, +all exercise of reason, was overpowered by the one eager idea of +escaping from the fatal precincts of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +So they mingled with the throng, herding affrightedly together in the +rear of the embassy, and followed in their ranks as best they might. +</P> + +<P> +The sun shone down brightly from the pure blue sky; the wind bore into +the city the sharp threatening notes of the trumpets from the Gothic +camp, as the Pincian Gate was opened to the ambassadors and their +train. With one accord the crowd instantly endeavoured to force their +way out after them in a mass; but they now moved in a narrow space, and +were opposed by a large reinforcement of the city guard. After a short +struggle they were overpowered, and the gates were closed. Some few of +the strongest and the foremost of their numbers succeeded in following +the ambassadors; the greater part, however, remained on the inner side +of the gate, pressing closely up to it in their impatience and despair, +like prisoners awaiting their deliverance, or preparing to force their +escape. +</P> + +<P> +Among these, feeblest amid the most feeble, were Numerian and Antonina, +hemmed in by the surrounding crowd, and shut out either from flight +from the city or a return to home. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 24. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE GRAVE AND THE CAMP. +</H3> + +<P> +While the second and last embassy from the Senate proceeds towards the +tent of the Gothic king, while the streets of Rome are deserted by all +but the dead, and the living populace crowd together in speechless +expectation behind the barrier of the Pincian Gate, an opportunity is +at length afforded of turning our attention towards a scene from which +it has been long removed. Let us now revisit the farm-house in the +suburbs, and look once more on the quiet garden and on Hermanric's +grave. +</P> + +<P> +The tranquility of the bright warm day is purest around the retired +path leading to the little dwelling. Here the fragrance of wild flowers +rises pleasantly from the waving grass; the lulling, monotonous hum of +insect life pervades the light, steady air; the sunbeams, intercepted +here and there by the clustering trees, fall in irregular patches of +brightness on the shady ground; and, saving the birds which +occasionally pass overhead, singing in their flight, no living creature +appears on the quiet scene, until, gaining the wicket-gate which leads +into the farm-house garden, we look forth upon the prospect within. +</P> + +<P> +There, following the small circular footpath which her own persevering +steps have day by day already traced, appears the form of a solitary +woman, pacing slowly about the mound of grassy earth which marks the +grave of the young Goth. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +For some time she proceeds on her circumscribed round with as much +undeviating, mechanical regularity, as if beyond that narrow space rose +a barrier which caged her from ever setting foot on the earth beyond. +At length she pauses in her course when it brings her nearest to the +wicket, advances a few steps towards it, then recedes, and recommences +her monotonous progress, and then again breaking off on her round, +finally succeeds in withdrawing herself from the confines of the grave, +passes through the gate, and following the path to the high-road, +slowly proceeds towards the eastern limits of the Gothic camp. The +fixed, ghastly, unfeminine expression on her features marks her as the +same woman whom we last beheld as the assassin at the farm-house, but +beyond this she is hardly recognisable again. Her formerly powerful +and upright frame is bent and lean; her hair waves in wild, white locks +about her shrivelled face; all the rude majesty of her form has +departed; there is nothing to show that it is still Goisvintha haunting +the scene of her crime but the savage expression debasing her +countenance and betraying the evil heart within, unsubdued as ever in +its yearning for destruction and revenge. +</P> + +<P> +Since the period when we last beheld her, removed in the custody of the +Huns from the dead body of her kinsman, the farm-house had been the +constant scene of her pilgrimage from the camp, the chosen refuge where +she brooded in solitude over her fierce desires. Scorning to punish a +woman whom he regarded as insane for an absence from the tents of the +Goths which was of no moment wither to the army or to himself, Alaric +had impatiently dismissed her from his presence when she was brought +before him. The soldiers who had returned to bury the body of their +chieftain in the garden of the farm-house, found means to inform her +secretly of the charitable act which they had performed at their own +peril, but beyond this no further intercourse was held with her by any +of her former associates. +</P> + +<P> +All her actions favoured their hasty belief that her faculties were +disordered, and others shunned her as she shunned them. Her daily +allowance of food was left for her to seek at a certain place in the +camp, as it might have been left for an animal too savage to be +cherished by the hand of man. At certain periods she returned secretly +from her wanderings to take it. Her shelter for the night was not the +shelter of her people before the walls of Rome; her thoughts were not +their thoughts. Widowed, childless, friendless, the assassin of her +last kinsman, she moved apart in her own secret world of bereavement, +desolation, and crime. +</P> + +<P> +Yet there was no madness, no remorse for her share in accomplishing the +fate of Hermanric, in the dark and solitary existence which she now +led. From the moment when the young warrior had expiated with his death +his disregard of the enmities of his nation and the wrongs of his +kindred, she thought of him only as of one more victim whose dishonour +and ruin she must live to requite on the Romans with Roman blood, and +matured her schemes of revenge with a stern resolution which time, and +solitude, and bodily infirmity were all powerless to disturb. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +She would pace for hours and hours together, in the still night and in +the broad noonday, round and round the warrior's grave, nursing her +vengeful thoughts within her, until a ferocious anticipation of triumph +quickened her steps and brightened her watchful eyes. Then she would +enter the farm-house, and, drawing the knife from its place of +concealment in her garments, would pass its point slowly backwards and +forwards over the hearth on which she had mutilated Hermanric with her +own hand, and from which he had advanced, without a tremor, to meet the +sword-points of the Huns. Sometimes, when darkness had gathered over +the earth, she would stand—a boding and menacing apparition—upon the +grave itself, and chaunt, moaning to the moaning wind, fragments of +obscure Northern legends, whose hideous burden was ever of anguish and +crime, of torture in prison vaults, and death by the annihilating +sword—mingling with them the gloomy story of the massacre at Aquileia, +and her fierce vows of vengeance against the households of Rome. The +forager, on his late return past the farm-house to the camp, heard the +harsh, droning accents of her voice, and quickened his onward step. +The venturesome peasant from the country beyond, approaching under +cover of the night to look from afar on the Gothic camp, beheld her +form, shadowy and threatening, as he neared the garden, and fled +affrighted from the place. Neither stranger nor friend intruded on her +dread solitude. The foul presence of cruelty and crime violated +undisturbed the scenes once sacred to the interests of tenderness and +love, once hallowed by the sojourn of youth and beauty! +</P> + +<P> +But now the farm-house garden is left solitary, the haunting spirit of +evil has departed from the grave, the footsteps of Goisvintha have +traced to their close the same paths from the suburbs over which the +young Goth once eagerly hastened on his night journey of love; and +already the walls of Rome rise—dark, near, and hateful—before her +eyes. Along these now useless bulwarks of the fallen city she wanders, +as she has often wandered before, watching anxiously for the first +opening of the long-closed gates. Let us follow her on her way. +</P> + +<P> +Her attention was now fixed only on the broad ramparts, while she +passed slowly along the Gothic tents towards the encampment at the +Pincian Gate. Arrived there, she was aroused for the first time from +her apathy by an unwonted stir and confusion prevailing around her. +She looked towards the tent of Alaric, and beheld before it the wasted +and crouching forms of the followers of the embassy awaiting their +sentence from the captain of the Northern hosts. In a few moments she +gathered enough from the words of the Goths congregated about this part +of the camp to assure her that it was the Pincian Gate which had given +egress to the Roman suppliants, and which would therefore, in all +probability, be the entrance again thrown open to admit their return to +the city. Remembering this, she began to calculate the numbers of the +conquered enemy grouped together before the king's tent, and then +mentally added to them those who might be present at the interview +proceeding within—mechanically withdrawing herself, while thus +occupied, nearer and nearer to the waste ground before the city walls. +</P> + +<P> +Gradually she turned her face towards Rome: she was realising a daring +purpose, a fatal resolution, long cherished during the days and nights +of her solitary wanderings. 'The ranks of the embassy,' she muttered, +in a deep, thoughtful tone, 'are thickly filled. Where there are many +there must be confusion and haste; they march together, and know not +their own numbers; they mark not one more or one less among them.' +</P> + +<P> +She stopped. Strange and dark changes of colour and expression passed +over her ghastly features. She drew from her bosom the bloody +helmet-crest of her husband, which had never quitted her since the day +of his death; her face grew livid under an awful expression of rage, +ferocity, and despair, as she gazed on it. Suddenly she looked up at +the city—fierce and defiant, as if the great walls before her were +mortal enemies against whom she stood at bay in the death-struggle. +</P> + +<P> +'The widowed and the childless shall drink of thy blood!' she cried, +stretching out her skinny hand towards Rome, 'though the armies of her +nation barter their wrongs with thy people for bags of silver and gold! +I have pondered on it in my solitude, and dreamed of it in my dreams! +I have sworn that I would enter Rome, and avenge my slaughtered +kindred, alone among thousands! Now, now, I will hold to my oath! +Thou blood-stained city of the coward and the traitor, the enemy of the +defenceless, and the murderer of the weak! thou who didst send forth to +Aquileia the slayers of my husband and the assassins of my children, I +wait no longer before thy walls! This day will I mingle, daring all +things, with thy returning citizens and penetrate, amid Romans, the +gates of Rome! Through the day will I lurk, cunning and watchful, in +thy solitary haunts, to steal forth on thee at nights, a secret +minister of death! I will watch for thy young and thy weak once in +unguarded places; I will prey, alone in the thick darkness, upon thy +unprotected lives; I will destroy thy children, as their fathers +destroyed at Aquileia the children of the Goths! Thy rabble will +discover me and arise against me; they will tear me in pieces and +trample my mangled body on the pavement of the streets; but it will be +after I have seen the blood that I have sworn to shed flowing under my +knife! My vengeance will be complete, and torments and death will be +to me as guests that I welcome, and as deliverers whom I await!' +</P> + +<P> +Again she paused—the wild triumph of the fanatic on the burning pile +was flashing in her face—suddenly her eyes fell once more upon the +stained helmet-crest; then her expression changed again to despair, and +her voice grew low and moaning, when she thus resumed:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'I am weary of my life; when the vengeance is done I shall be delivered +from this prison of the earth—in the world of shadows I shall see my +husband, and my little ones will gather round my knees again. The +living have no part in me; I yearn towards the spirits who wander in +the halls of the dead.' +</P> + +<P> +For a few minutes more she continued to fix her tearless eyes on the +helmet-crest. But soon the influence of the evil spirit revived in all +its strength; she raised her head suddenly, remained for an instant +absorbed in deep thought, then began to retrace her steps rapidly in +the direction by which she had come. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes she whispered softly, 'I must be doing ere the time fail me: +my face must be hidden and my garments changed. Yonder, among the +houses, I must search, and search quickly!' Sometimes she reiterated +her denunciations of vengeance, her ejaculations of triumph in her +frantic project. At the recapitulation of these the remembrance of +Antonina was aroused; and then a bloodthirsty superstition darkened her +thoughts, and threw a vague and dreamy character over her speech. +</P> + +<P> +When she spoke now, it was to murmur to herself that the victim who had +twice escaped her might yet be alive; that the supernatural influences +which had often guided the old Goths, on the day of retribution, might +still guide her; might still direct the stroke of her destroying +weapon—the last stroke ere she was discovered and slain—straight to +the girl's heart. +</P> + +<P> +Thoughts such as these—wandering and obscure—arose in close, quick +succession within her; but whether she gave them expression in word and +action, or whether she suppressed them in silence, she never wavered or +halted in her rapid progress. Her energies were braced to all +emergencies, and her strong will suffered them not for an instant to +relax. +</P> + +<P> +She gained a retired street in the deserted suburbs, and looking round +to see that she was unobserved, entered on of the houses abandoned by +its inhabitants on the approach of the besiegers. Passing quickly +through the outer halls, she stopped at length in one of the sleeping +apartments; and here she found, among other possessions left behind in +the flight, the store of wearing apparel belonging to the owner of the +room. +</P> + +<P> +From this she selected a Roman robe, upper mantle, and sandals—the +most common in colour and texture that she could find—and folding them +up into the smallest compass, hid them under her own garments. Then, +avoiding all those whom she met on her way, she returned in the +direction of the king's tent; but when she approached it, branched off +stealthily towards Rome, until she reached a ruined building half-way +between the city and the camp. In this concealment she clothed herself +in her disguise, drawing the mantle closely round her head and face; +and from this point—calm, vigilant, determined, her hand on the knife +beneath her robe, her lips muttering the names of her murdered husband +and children—she watched the high-road to the Pincian Gate. +</P> + +<P> +There for a short time let us leave her, and enter the tent of Alaric, +while the Senate yet plead before the Arbiter of the Empire for mercy +and peace. +</P> + +<P> +At the moment of which we write, the embassy had already exhausted its +powers of intercession, apparently without moving the leader of the +Goths from his first pitiless resolution of fixing the ransom of Rome +at the price of every possession of value which the city contained. +There was a momentary silence now in the great tent. At one extremity +of it, congregated in a close and irregular group, stood the wearied +and broken-spirited members of the Senate, supported by such of their +attendants as had been permitted to follow them; at the other appeared +the stately forms of Alaric and the warriors who surrounded him as his +council of war. The vacant space in the middle of the tent was strewn +with martial weapons, separating the representatives of the two nations +one from the other; and thus accidentally, yet palpably, typifying the +fierce hostility which had sundered in years past, and was still to +sunder for years to come, the people of the North and the people of the +South. +</P> + +<P> +The Gothic king stood a little in advance of his warriors, leaning on +his huge, heavy sword. His steady eye wandered from man to man among +the broken-spirited senators, contemplating, with cold and cruel +penetration, all that suffering and despair had altered for the worse +in their outward appearance. Their soiled robes, their wan cheeks, +their trembling limbs were each marked in turn by the cool, sarcastic +examination of the conqueror's gaze. Debased and humiliated as they +were, there were some among the ambassadors who felt the insult thus +silently and deliberately inflicted on them the more keenly for their +very helplessness. They moved uneasily in their places, and whispered +among each other in low and bitter accents. +</P> + +<P> +At length one of their number raised his downcast eyes and broke the +silence. The old Roman spirit, which long years of voluntary frivolity +and degradation had not yet entirely depraved, flushed his pale, wasted +face as he spoke thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'We have entreated, we have offered, we have promised—men can do no +more! Deserted by our Emperor and crushed by pestilence and famine, +nothing is now left to us but to perish in unavailing resistance +beneath the walls of Rome! It was in the power of Alaric to win +everlasting renown by moderation to the unfortunate of an illustrious +nation; but he has preferred to attempt the spoiling of a glorious city +and the subjugation of a suffering people! Yet let him remember, +though destruction may sate his vengeance, and pillage enrich his +hoards, the day of retribution will yet come. There are still soldiers +in the empire, and heroes who will lead them confidently to battle, +though the bodies of their countrymen lie slaughtered around them in +the streets of pillaged Rome!' +</P> + +<P> +A momentary expression of wrath and indignation appeared on Alaric's +features as he listened to this bold speech; but it was almost +immediately replaced by a scornful smile of derision. +</P> + +<P> +'What! ye have still soldiers before whom the barbarian must tremble +for his conquests!' he cried. 'Where are they? Are they on their +march, or in ambush, or hiding behind strong walls, or have they lost +their way on the road to the Gothic camp? Ha! here is one of them!' he +exclaimed, advancing towards an enfeebled and disarmed guard of the +Senate, who quailed beneath his fierce glance. 'Fight, man!' he loudly +continued; 'fight while there is yet time, for imperial Rome! Thy +sword is gone—take mine, and be a hero again!' +</P> + +<P> +With a rough laugh, echoed by the warriors behind him, he flung his +ponderous weapon as he spoke towards the wretched object of his +sarcasm. The hilt struck heavily against the man's breast; he staggered +and fell helpless to the ground. The laugh was redoubled among the +Goths; but now their leader did not join in it. His eye glowed in +triumphant scorn as he pointed to the prostrate Roman, exclaiming— +</P> + +<P> +'So does the South fall beneath the sword of the North! So shall the +empire bow before the rule of the Goth! Say, as ye look on these +Romans before us, are we not avenged of our wrongs? They die not +fighting on our swords; they live to entreat our pity, as children that +are in terror of the whip!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He paused. His massive and noble countenance gradually assumed a +thoughtful expression. The ambassadors moved forward a few +steps—perhaps to make a final entreaty, perhaps to depart in despair; +but he signed with his hand in command to them to be silent and remain +where they stood. The marauder's thirst for present plunder, and the +conqueror's lofty ambition of future glory, now stirred in strong +conflict within him. He walked to the opening of the tent, and +thrusting aside its curtain of skins, looked out upon Rome in silence. +The dazzling majesty of the temples and palaces of the mighty city, as +they towered before him, gleaming in the rays of the unclouded +sunlight, fixed him long in contemplation. Gradually, dreams of a +future dominion amid those unrivalled structures, which now waited but +his word to be pillaged and destroyed, filled his aspiring soul, and +saved the city from his wrath. He turned again toward the shrinking +ambassadors—in a voice and look superior to them as a being of a +higher sphere—and spoke thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'When the Gothic conqueror reigns in Italy, the palaces of her rulers +shall be found standing for the places of his sojourn. I will ordain a +lower ransom; I will spare Rome.' +</P> + +<P> +A murmur arose among the warriors behind him. The rapine and +destruction which they had eagerly anticipated was denied them for the +first time by their chief. As their muttered remonstrances caught his +ear, Alaric instantly and sternly fixed his eyes upon them; and, +repeating in accents of deliberate command, 'I will ordain a lower +ransom; I will spare Rome,' steadily scanned the countenances of his +ferocious followers. +</P> + +<P> +Not a word of dissent fell from their lips; not a gesture of impatience +appeared in their ranks; they preserved perfect silence as the king +again advanced towards the ambassadors and continued— +</P> + +<P> +'I fix the ransom of the city at five thousand pounds of gold; at +thirty thousand pounds of silver.' +</P> + +<P> +Here he suddenly ceased, as if pondering further on the terms he should +exact. The hearts of the Senate, lightened for a moment by Alaric's +unexpected announcement that he would moderate his demands, sank within +them again as they thought on the tribute required of them, and +remembered their exhausted treasury. But it was no time now to +remonstrate or to delay; and they answered with one accord, ignorant +though they were of the means of performing their promise, 'The ransom +shall be paid.' +</P> + +<P> +The king looked at them when they spoke, as if in astonishment that men +whom he had deprived of all freedom of choice ventured still to assert +it by intimating their acceptance of terms which they dared not +decline. The mocking spirit revived within him while he thus gazed on +the helpless and humiliated embassy; and he laughed once more as he +resumed, partly addressing himself to the silent array of the warriors +behind him— +</P> + +<P> +'The gold and silver are but the first dues of the tribute; my army +shall be rewarded with more than the wealth of the enemy. You men of +Rome have laughed at our rough bearskins and our heavy armour, you +shall clothe us with your robes of festivity! I will add to the gold +and silver of your ransom, four thousand garments of silk, and three +thousand pieces of scarlet cloth. My barbarians shall be barbarians no +longer! I will make patricians, epicures, Romans of them!' +</P> + +<P> +The members of the ill-fated embassy looked up as he paused, in mute +appeal to the mercy of the triumphant conqueror; but they were not yet +to be released from the crushing infliction of his rapacity and scorn. +</P> + +<P> +'Hold!' he cried, 'I will have more—more still! You are a nation of +feasters;—we will rival you in your banquets when we have stripped you +of your banqueting robes! To the gold, the silver, the silk, and the +cloth, I will add yet more—three thousand pounds weight of pepper, +your precious merchandise, bought from far countries with your lavish +wealth!—see that you bring it hither, with the rest of the ransom, to +the last grain! The flesh of our beasts shall be seasoned for us like +the flesh of yours!' +</P> + +<P> +He turned abruptly from the senators as he pronounced the last words, +and began to speak in jesting tones and in the Gothic language to the +council of warriors around him. Some of the ambassadors bowed their +heads in silent resignation; others, with the utter thoughtlessness of +men bewildered by all that they had seen and heard during the interview +that was now close, unhappily revived the recollection of the broken +treaties of former days, by mechanically inquiring, in the terms of +past formularies, what security the besiegers would require for the +payment of their demands. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Security!' cried Alaric fiercely, instantly relapsing as they spoke +into his sterner mood. 'Behold yonder the future security of the Goths +for the faith of Rome!' and flinging aside the curtain of the tent, he +pointed proudly to the long lines of his camp, stretching round all +that was visible of the walls of the fallen city. +</P> + +<P> +The ambassadors remembered the massacre of the hostages of Aquileia, +and the evasion of the payment of tribute-money promised in former +days, and were silent as they looked through the opening of the tent. +</P> + +<P> +'Remember the conditions of the ransom,' pursued Alaric in warning +tones, 'remember my security that the ransom shall be quickly paid! So +shall you live for a brief space in security, and feast and be merry +again while your territories yet remain to you. Go! I have spoken—it +is enough!' +</P> + +<P> +He withdrew abruptly from the senators, and the curtain of the tent +fell behind them as they passed out. The ordeal of the judgment was +over; the final sentence had been pronounced; the time had already +arrived to go forth and obey it. +</P> + +<P> +The news that terms of peace had been at last settled filled the Romans +who were waiting before the tent with emotions of delight, equally +unalloyed by reflections on the past or forebodings for the future. +Barred from their reckless project of flying to the open country by the +Goths surrounding them in the camp, shut out from retreating to Rome by +the gates through which they had rashly forced their way, exposed in +their helplessness to the brutal jeers of the enemy while they waited +in a long agony of suspense for the close of the perilous interview +between Alaric and the Senate, they had undergone every extremity of +suffering, and had yielded unanimously to despair when the intelligence +of the concluded treaty sounded like a promise of salvation in their +ears. +</P> + +<P> +None of the apprehensions aroused in the minds of their superiors by +the vastness of the exacted tribute now mingled with the unreflecting +ecstasy of their joy at the prospect of the removal of the blockade. +They arose to return to the city from which they had fled in dismay, +with cries of impatience and delight. They fawned like dogs upon the +ambassadors, and even upon the ferocious Goths. On their departure +from Rome they had mechanically preserved some regularity in their +progress, but now they hurried onward without distinction of place or +discipline of march—senators, guards, plebeians, all were huddled +together in the disorderly equality of a mob. +</P> + +<P> +Not one of them, in their new-born security, marked the ruined building +on the high-road; not one of them observed the closely-robed figure +that stole out from it to join them in their rear; and then, with +stealthy footstep and shrouded face, soon mingled in the thickest of +their ranks. The attention of the ambassadors was still engrossed by +their forebodings of failure in collecting the ransom; the eyes of the +people were fixed only on the Pincian Gate; their ears were open to no +sounds but their own ejaculations of delight. Not one disguised +stranger only, but many, might now have joined them in their tumultuous +progress, alike unquestioned and unobserved. +</P> + +<P> +So they hastily re-entered the city, where thousands of heavy eyes were +strained to look on them, and thousands of attentive ears drank in +their joyful news from the Gothic camp. Then were heard in all +directions the sounds of hysterical weeping and idiotic laughter, the +low groans of the weak who died victims of their sudden transport, and +the confused outbursts of the strong who had survived all extremities, +and at last beheld their deliverance in view. +</P> + +<P> +Still silent and serious, the ambassadors now slowly penetrated the +throng on their way back to the Forum; and as they proceeded the crowd +gradually dispersed on either side of them. Enemies, friends, and +strangers, all whom the ruthless famine had hitherto separated in +interests and sympathies, were now united together as one family, by +the expectation of speedy relief. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +But there was one among the assembly that was now separating who stood +alone in her unrevealed emotions, amid the rejoicing thousands around +her. The women and children in the throng, as, preoccupied by their +own feeling, they unheedfully passed her by, saw not the eager, +ferocious attention in her eyes, as she watched them steadily till they +were out of sight. Within their gates the stranger and the enemy +waited for the treacherous darkness of night, and waited unobserved. +Where she had first stood when the thick crowd hemmed her in, there she +still continued to stand after they slowly moved past her and space +grew free. +</P> + +<P> +Yet beneath this outward calm and silence lurked the wildest passions +that ever raged against the weak restraint of human will; even the firm +self-possession of Goisvintha was shaken when she found herself within +the walls of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +No glance of suspicion had been cast upon her; not one of the crowd had +approached to thrust her back when she passed through the gates with +the heedless citizens around her. Shielded from detection, as much by +the careless security of her enemies as by the stratagem of her +disguise, she stood on the pavement of Rome, as she had vowed to stand, +afar from the armies of her people—alone as an avenger of blood! +</P> + +<P> +It was no dream; no fleeting, deceitful vision. The knife was under +her hand; the streets stretched before her; the living beings who +thronged them were Romans; the hours of the day were already on the +wane; the approach of her vengeance was as sure as the approach of +darkness that was to let it loose. A wild exultation quickened in her +the pulses of life, while she thought on the dread projects of secret +assassination and revenge which now opposed her, a solitary woman, in +deadly enmity against the defenceless population of a whole city. +</P> + +<P> +As her eyes travelled slowly from side to side over the moving throng; +as she thought on the time that might still elapse ere the discovery +and death—the martyrdom in the cause of blood—which she expected and +defied, would overtake her, her hands trembled beneath her robe, and +she reiterated in whispers to herself: 'Husband, children, +brother—there are five deaths to avenge! Remember Aquileia! Remember +Aquileia!' +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, as she looked from group to group among the departing people, +her eyes became arrested by one object; she instantly stepped forwards, +then abruptly restrained herself and moved back where the crowd was +still thick, gazing fixedly ever in the same direction. She saw the +victim twice snatched from her hands—at the camp and in the +farm-house—a third time offered to her grasp in the streets of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +The chance of vengeance last expected was the chance that had first +arrived. A vague, oppressing sensation of awe mingled with the triumph +at her heart—a supernatural guidance seemed to be directing her with +fell rapidity, through every mortal obstacle, to the climax of her +revenge! +</P> + +<P> +She screened herself behind the people; she watched the girl from the +most distant point; but concealment was now vain—their eyes had met. +The robe had slipped aside when she suddenly stepped forward, and in +that moment Antonina had seen her. +</P> + +<P> +Numerian, moving slowly with his daughter through the crowd, felt her +hand tighten round his, and saw her features stiffen into sudden +rigidity; but the change was only for an instant. Ere he could speak, +she caught him by the arm, and drew him forward with convulsive energy. +Then, in accents hardly articulate, low, breathless, unlike her wonted +voice, he heard her exclaim, as she struggled on with him, 'She is +there—there behind us! to kill me, as she killed him! Home! home!' +</P> + +<P> +Exhausted already, through long weakness and natural infirmity, by the +rough contact of the crowd, bewildered by Antonina's looks and actions, +and by the startling intimation of unknown peril, conveyed to him in +her broken exclamations of affright, Numerian's first impulse, as he +hurried onward by her side, led him to entreat protection and help from +the surrounding populace. But even could he have pointed out to them +the object of his dread amid that motley throng of all nations, the +appeal he now made would have remained unanswered. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Of all the results of the frightful severity of privation suffered by +the besieged, none were more common than those mental aberrations which +produced visions of danger, enemies, and death, so palpable as to make +the persons beholding them implore assistance against the hideous +creation of their own delirium. Accordingly, most of those to whom the +entreaties of Numerian were addressed passed without noticing them. +Some few carelessly bid him remember that there were no enemies now; +that the days of peace were approaching; and that a meal of good food, +which he might soon expect to enjoy, was the only help for a famished +man. No one, in that period of horror and suffering, which was now +drawing to a close, saw anything extraordinary in the confusion of the +father and the terror of the child. So they pursued their feeble +flight unprotected, and the footsteps of Goisvintha followed them as +they went. +</P> + +<P> +They had already commenced the ascent of the Pincian Hill, when +Antonina stopped abruptly, and turned to look behind her. Many people +yet thronged the street below; but her eyes penetrated among them, +sharpened by peril, and instantly discerned the ample robe and the tall +form, still at the same distance from them, and pausing as they had +paused. For one moment, the girl's eyes fixed in the wild, helpless +stare of terror on her father's face; but the next, that mysterious +instinct of preservation, which is co-existent with the instinct of +fear—which gifts the weakest animal with cunning to improve its +flight, and takes the place of reason, reflection, and resolve, when +all are banished from the mind—warned her against the fatal error of +permitting the pursuer to track her to her home. +</P> + +<P> +'Not there! not there!' she gasped faintly as Numerian endeavoured to +lead her up the ascent. 'She will see us as we enter the +doors!—through the streets! Oh, father, if you would save me! we may +lose her in the streets!—the guards, the people are there! Back! +back!' +</P> + +<P> +Numerian trembled as he marked the terror in her looks and gestures; +but it was vain to question or oppose her. Nothing short of force +could restrain her,—no commands or entreaties could draw from her more +than the same breathless exclamation: 'Onward, father; onward, if you +would save me!' She was insensible to every sensation but fear, +incapable of any other exertion than flight. +</P> + +<P> +Turning and winding, hurrying forward ever at the same rapid pace, they +passed unconsciously along the intricate streets that led to the river +side; and still the avenger tracked the victim, constant as the shadow +to the substance; steady, vigilant, unwearied, as a bloodhound on a hot +scent. +</P> + +<P> +And now, even the sound of the father's voice ceased to be audible in +the daughter's ears; she no longer felt the pressure of his hand, no +longer perceived his very presence at her side. At length, frail and +shrinking, she again paused, and looked back. The street they had +reached was very tranquil and desolate: two slaves were walking at its +further extremity. While they were in sight, no living creature +appeared in the roadway behind; but as soon as they had passed away, a +shadow stole slowly forward over the pavement of a portico in the +distance, and the next moment Goisvintha appeared in the street. +</P> + +<P> +The sun glared down fiercely over her dark figure as she stopped and +for an instant looked stealthily around her. She moved to advance, and +Antonina saw no more. Again she turned to renew her hopeless flight; +and again her father—perceiving only as the mysterious cause of her +dread a solitary woman, who, though she followed, attempted not to +arrest, or even to address them—prepared to accompany her to the last, +in despair of all other chances of securing her safety. +</P> + +<P> +More and more completely did her terror now enchain her faculties, as +she still unconsciously traced her rapid way through the streets that +led to the Tiber. It was not Numerian, not Rome, not daylight in a +great city, that was before her eyes: it was the storm, the +assassination, the night at the farm-house, that she now lived through +over again. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Still the quick flight and the ceaseless pursuit were continued, as if +neither were ever to have an end; but the close of the scene was, +nevertheless, already at hand. During the interval of the passage +through the streets, Numerian's mind had gradually recovered from its +first astonishment and alarm; at length he perceived the necessity of +instant and decisive action, while there was yet time to save Antonina +from sinking under the excess of her own fears. Though a vague, awful +foreboding of disaster and death filled his heart, his resolution to +penetrate at once, at all hazards, the dark mystery of impending danger +indicated by his daughter's words and actions, did not fail him; for it +was aroused by the only motive powerful enough to revive all that +suffering and infirmity had not yet destroyed of the energy of his +former days—the preservation of his child. There was something of the +old firmness and vigour of the intrepid reformer of the Church, in his +dim eyes, as he now stopped, and enclosing Antonina in his arms, +arrested her instantly in her flight. +</P> + +<P> +She struggled to escape; but it was faintly, and only for a moment. +Her strength and consciousness were beginning to abandon her. She +never attempted to look back; she felt in her heart that Goisvintha was +still behind, and dared not to verify the frightful conviction with her +eyes. Her lips moved; but they expressed an altered and a vain +petition: 'Hermanric! O Hermanric!' was all they murmured now. +</P> + +<P> +They had arrived at the long street that ran by the banks of the Tiber. +The people had either retired to their homes or repaired to the Forum +to be informed of the period when the ransom would be paid. No one but +Goisvintha was in sight as Numerian looked around him; and she, after +having carefully viewed the empty street, was advancing towards them at +a quickened pace. +</P> + +<P> +For an instant the father looked on her steadily as she approached, and +in that instant his determination was formed. A flight of steps at his +feet led to the narrow doorway of a small temple, the nearest building +to him. +</P> + +<P> +Ignorant whether Goisvintha might not be secretly supported by +companions in her ceaseless pursuit, he resolved to secure this place +for Antonina, as a temporary refuge at least; while standing before it, +he should oblige the woman to declare her purpose, if she followed them +even there. In a moment he had begun the ascent of the steps, with the +exhausted girl by his side. Arrived at the summit, he guided her +before him into the doorway, and stopped on the threshold to look round +again. Goisvintha was nowhere to be seen. +</P> + +<P> +Not duped by the woman's sudden disappearance into the belief that she +had departed from the street—persisting in his resolution to lead his +daughter to a place of repose, where she might most immediately feel +herself secure, and might therefore most readily recover her +self-possession, Numerian drew Antonina with him into the temple. He +lingered there for a moment, ere he departed to watch the street from +the portico outside. +</P> + +<P> +The light in the building was dim,—it was admitted only from a small +aperture in the roof, and through the narrow doorway, where it was +intercepted by the overhanging bulk of the outer portico. A crooked +pile of dark heavy-looking substances on the floor, rose high towards +the ceiling in the obscure interior. Irregular in form, flung together +one over the other in strange disorder, for the most part dusky in hue, +yet here and there gleaming at points with a metallic brightness, these +objects presented a mysterious, indefinite, and startling appearance. +It was impossible, on a first view of their confused arrangement, to +discover what they were, or to guess for what purpose they could have +been pile together on the floor of a deserted temple. From the moment +when they had first attracted Numerian's observation, his attention was +fixed on them, and as he looked a faint thrill of suspicion—vague, +inexplicable, without apparent cause or object—struck chill to his +heart. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He had moved a step forward to examine the hidden space at the back of +the pile, when his further advance was instantly stopped by the +appearance of a man who walked forth from it dressed in the floating, +purple-edged robe and white fillet of the Pagan priests. Before either +father or daughter could speak, even before they could move to depart, +he stepped up to them, and, placing his hand on the shoulder of each, +confronted them in silence. +</P> + +<P> +At the moment when the stranger approached, Numerian raised his hand to +thrust him back, and, in so doing, fixed his eyes on the man's +countenance, as a ray of light from the doorway floated over it. +Instantly his arm remained outstretched and rigid, then it dropped to +his side, and the expression of horror on the face of the child became +reflected, as it were, on the face of the parent. Neither moved under +the hand of the dweller in the temple when he laid it heavily on each, +and both stood before him speechless as himself. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 25. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH. +</H3> + +<P> +It was Ulpius. The Pagan was changed in bearing and countenance as +well as in apparel. He stood more firm and upright; a dull, tawny hue +overspread his face; his eyes, so sunken and lustreless in other days, +were now distended and bright with the glare of insanity. It seemed as +if his bodily powers had renewed their vigour, while his mental +faculties had declined towards their ruin. +</P> + +<P> +No human eye had ever beheld by what foul and secret means he had +survived through the famine, on what unnatural sustenance he had +satisfied the cravings of inexorable hunger; but there, in his gloomy +shelter, the madman and the outcast had lived and moved, and suddenly +and strangely strengthened, after the people of the city had exhausted +all their united responses, lavished in vain all their united wealth, +and drooped and died by thousands around him! +</P> + +<P> +His grasp still lay heavy on the father and daughter, and still both +confronted him—silent, as if death-struck by his gaze; motionless, as +if frozen at his touch. His presence was exerting over them a fatal +fascination. The power of action, suspended in Antonina as she entered +their ill-chosen refuge, was now arrested in Numerian also; but with +him no thought of the enemy in the street had any part, at this moment, +in the resistless influence which held him helpless before the enemy in +the temple. +</P> + +<P> +It was a feeling of deeper awe and darker horror. For now, as he +looked upon the hideous features of Ulpius, as he saw the forbidden +robe of priesthood in which the Pagan was arrayed, he beheld not only +the traitor who had successfully plotted against the prosperity of his +household, but the madman as well,—the moral leper of the whole human +family—the living Body and the dead Soul—the disinherited of that +Divine Light of Life which it is the awful privilege of mortal man to +share with the angels of God. +</P> + +<P> +He still clasped Antonina to his side, but it was unconsciously. To +all outward appearance he was helpless as his helpless child, when +Ulpius slowly removed his grasp from their shoulders, separated them, +and locking the hand of each in his cold, bony fingers, began to speak. +</P> + +<P> +His voice was deep and solemn, but his accents, in their hard, +unvarying tone, seemed to express no human emotion. His eyes, far from +brightening as he spoke, relapsed into a dull, vacant insensibility. +The connection between the action of speech and the accompanying and +explaining action of look which is observable in all men, seemed lost +in him. It was fearful to behold the death-like face, and to listen at +the same moment to the living voice. +</P> + +<P> +'Lo! the votaries come to the temple!' murmured the Pagan. 'The good +servants of the mighty worship gather at the voice of the priest! In +the far provinces, where the enemies of the gods approach to profane +the sacred groves, behold the scattered people congregating by night to +journey to the shrine of Serapis! Adoring thousands kneel beneath the +lofty porticoes, while within, in the secret hall where the light is +dim, where the air quivers round the breathing deities on their +pedestals of gold, the high priest Ulpius reads the destinies of the +future, that are unrolled before his eyes like a book!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As he ceased, and, still holding the hands of his captives, looked on +them fixedly as ever, his eyes brightened and dilated again; but they +expressed not the slightest recognition either of father or daughter. +The delirium of his imagination had transported him to the temple at +Alexandria; the days were revived when his glory had risen to its +culminating point, when the Christians trembled before him as their +fiercest enemy, and the Pagans surrounded him as their last hope. The +victims of his former and forgotten treachery were but as two among the +throng of votaries allured by the fame of his eloquence, by the +triumphant notoriety of his power to protect the adherents of the +ancient creed. +</P> + +<P> +But it was not always thus that his madness declared itself: there +were moments when it rose to appalling frenzy. Then he imagined +himself to be again hurling the Christian assailants from the topmost +walls of the besieged temple, in that past time when the image of +Serapis was doomed by the Bishop of Alexandria to be destroyed. His +yells of fury, his frantic execrations of defiance were heard afar, in +the solemn silence of pestilence-stricken Rome. Those who, during the +most fatal days of the Gothic blockade, dropped famished on the +pavement before the little temple, as they endeavoured to pass it on +their onward way, presented a dread reality of death, to embody the +madman's visions of battle and slaughter. As these victims of famine +lay expiring in the street, they heard above them his raving voice +cursing them for Christians, triumphing over them as defeated enemies +destroyed by his hand, exhorting his imaginary adherents to fling the +slain above on the dead below, until the bodies of the besiegers of the +temple were piled, as barriers against their living comrades, round its +walls. Sometimes his frenzy gloried in the fancied revival of the foul +and sanguinary ceremonies of Pagan superstition. Then he bared his +arms, and shouted aloud for the sacrifice; he committed dark and +nameless atrocities—for now again the dead and the dying lay before +him, to give substance to the shadow of his evil thoughts; and Plague +and Hunger were as creatures of his will, and slew the victim for the +altar ready to his hands. +</P> + +<P> +At other times, when the raving fit had passed away, and he lay panting +in the darkest corner of the interior of the temple, his insanity +assumed another and a mournful form. His voice grew low and moaning; +the wreck of his memory—wandering and uncontrollable—floated back, +far back, on the dark waters of the past; and his tongue uttered +fragments of words and phrases that he had murmured at his father's +knees—farewell, childish wishes that he had breathed in his mother's +ear—innocent, anxious questions which he had addressed to Macrinus, +the high priest, when he first entered the service of the gods at +Alexandria. His boyish reveries—the gentleness of speech and poetry of +thought of his first youthful days, were now, by the unsearchable and +arbitrary influences of his disease, revived in his broken words, +renewed in his desolate old age of madness and crime, breathed out in +unconscious mockery by his lips, while the foam still gathered about +them, and the last flashes of frenzy yet lightened in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +This unnatural calmness of language and vividness of memory, this +treacherous appearance of thoughtful, melancholy self-possession, would +often continue through long periods, uninterrupted; but, sooner or +later, the sudden change came; the deceitful chain of thought snapped +asunder in an instant; the word was left half uttered; the wearied +limbs started convulsively into renewed action; and as the dream of +violence returned and the dream of peace vanished, the madman rioted +afresh in his fury; and journeyed as his visions led him, round and +round his temple sanctuary, and hither and thither, when the night was +dark and death was busiest in Rome, among the expiring in deserted +houses, and the lifeless in the silent streets. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +But there were other later events in his existence that never revived +within him. The old familiar image of the idol Serapis, which had +drawn him into the temple when he re-entered Rome, absorbed in itself +and in its associated remembrances all that remained active of his +paralysed faculties. His betrayal of his trust in the house of +Numerian, his passage through the rifted wall, his crushing repulse in +the tent of Alaric, never for a moment occupied his wandering thoughts. +The clouds that hung over his mind might open to him parting glimpses +of the toils and triumphs of his early career; but they descended in +impenetrable darkness on all the after-days of his dreary life. +</P> + +<P> +Such was the being to whose will, by a mysterious fatality, the father +and child were now submitted; such the existence—solitary, hopeless, +loathsome—of their stern and wily betrayer of other days! +</P> + +<P> +Since he had ceased speaking, the cold, death-like grasp of his hand +had gradually strengthened, and he had begun to look slowly and +inquiringly round him from side to side. Had this change marked the +approaching return of his raving paroxysm, the lives of Numerian and +Antonina would have been sacrificed the next moment; but all that it +now denoted was the quickening of the lofty and obscure ideas of +celebrity and success, of priestly honour and influence, of the +splendour and glory of the gods, which had prompted his last words. +</P> + +<P> +He moved suddenly, and drew the victims of his dangerous caprice a few +steps farther into the interior of the temple; then led them close up +to the lofty pile of objects which had first attracted Numerian's eyes +on entering the building. 'Kneel and adore!' cried the madman +fiercely, replacing his hands on their shoulders and pressing them to +the ground—'You stand before the gods, in the presence of their high +priest!' +</P> + +<P> +The girl's head sank forward, and she hid her face in her hands; but +her father looked up tremblingly at the pile. His eyes had insensibly +become more accustomed to the dim light of the temple, and he now saw +more distinctly the objects composing the mass that rose above him. +</P> + +<P> +Hundreds of images of the gods, in gold, silver, and wood—many in the +latter material being larger than life; canopies, vestments, furniture, +utensils, all of ancient Pagan form, were heaped together, without +order or arrangement, on the floor, to a height of full fifteen feet. +</P> + +<P> +There was something at once hideous and grotesque in the appearance of +the pile. The monstrous figures of the idols, with their rude carved +draperies and symbolic weapons, lay in every wild variety of position, +and presented every startling eccentricity of line, more especially +towards the higher portions of the mass, where they had evidently been +flung up from the ground by the hand that had raised the structure. +</P> + +<P> +The draperies mixed among the images and the furniture were here coiled +serpent-like around them, and there hung down towards the ground, +waving slow and solemn in the breezes that wound through the temple +doorway. The smaller objects of gold and silver, scattered irregularly +over the mass, shone out from it like gleaming eyes; while the pile +itself, seen in such a place under a dusky light, looked like some +vast, misshapen monster—the gloomy embodiment of the bloodiest +superstitions of Paganism, the growth of damp airs and teeming ruin, of +shadow and darkness, of accursed and infected solitude! +</P> + +<P> +Even in its position, as well as in the objects of which it was +composed, the pile wore an ominous and startling aspect; its crooked +outline, expanding towards the top, was bent over fearfully in the +direction of the doorway; it seemed as if a single hand might sway it +in its uncertain balance, and hurl it instantly in one solid mass to +the floor. +</P> + +<P> +Many toilsome hours had passed away, long secret labour had been +expended in the erection of this weird and tottering structure; but it +was all the work of one hand. Night after night had the Pagan entered +the deserted temples in the surrounding streets, and pillaged them of +their contents to enrich his favoured shrine: the removal of the idols +from their appointed places, which would have been sacrilege in any +meaner man, was in his eyes the dread privilege of the high priest +alone. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He had borne heavy burdens, and torn asunder strong fastenings, and +journeyed and journeyed again for hours together over the same gloomy +streets, without loitering in his task; he had raised treasures and +images one above another; he had strengthened the base and heightened +the summit of this precious and sacred heap; he had repaired and +rebuilt, whenever it crumbled and fell, this new Babel that he longed +to rear to the Olympus of the temple roof, with a resolute patience and +perseverance that no failure or fatigue could overcome. +</P> + +<P> +It was the dearest purpose of his dreamy superstition to surround +himself with innumerable deities, as well as to assemble innumerable +worshippers; to make the sacred place of his habitation a mighty +Pantheon, as well as a point of juncture for the scattered +congregations of the Pagan world. This was the ambition in which his +madness expanded to the fiercest fanaticism; and as he now stood erect +with his captives beneath him, his glaring eyes looked awe-struck when +he fixed them on his idols; he uplifted his arms in solemn, ecstatic +triumph, and in low tones poured forth his invocations, wild, +intermingled, and fragmentary, as the barbarous altar which his +solitary exertions had reared. +</P> + +<P> +Whatever was the effect on Numerian of his savage and confused +ejaculations, they were unnoticed, even unheard, by Antonina; for now, +while the madman's voice softened to an undertone, and while she hid +all surrounding objects from her eyes, her senses were awakened to +sounds in the temple which she had never remarked before. +</P> + +<P> +The rapid current of the Tiber washed the foundation walls of one side +of the building, within which the clear, lulling bubble of the water +was audible with singular distinctness. But besides this another and a +shriller sound caught the ear. On the summit of the temple roof still +remained several rows of little gilt bells, originally placed there, +partly with the intention of ornamenting this portion of the outer +structure, partly in order that the noise they produced, when agitated +by the wind, might scare birds from settling in their flight on the +consecrated edifice. The sounds produced by these bells were silvery +and high pitched; now, when the breeze was strong, they rang together +merrily and continuously; now, when it fell, their notes were faint, +separate, and irregular, almost plaintive in their pure metallic +softness. But, however their tone might vary under the capricious +influences of the wind, it seemed always wonderfully mingled within the +temple with the low, eternal bubbling of the river, which filled up the +slightest pauses in the pleasant chiming of the bells, and ever +preserved its gentle and monotonous harmony just audible beneath them. +</P> + +<P> +There was something in this quaint, unwonted combination of sounds, as +they were heard in the vaulted interior of the little building, +strangely simple, attractive, and spiritual; the longer they were +listened to, the more completely did the mind lose the recollection of +their real origin, and gradually shape out of them wilder and wilder +fancies, until the bells as they rang their small peal seemed like +happy voices of a heavenly stream, borne lightly onward on its airy +bubbles, and ever rejoicing over the gliding current that murmured to +them as it ran. +</P> + +<P> +Spite of the peril of her position, and of the terror which still fixed +her speechless and crouching on the ground, the effect on Antonina of +the strange mingled music of the running water and the bells was +powerful enough, when she first heard it, to suspend all her other +emotions in a momentary wonder and doubt. She withdrew her hands from +her face, and glanced round mechanically to the doorway, as if she +imagined that the sounds proceeded from the street. +</P> + +<P> +When she looked, the declining sun, gliding between two of the outer +pillars which surrounded the temple, covered with a bright glow the +smooth pavement before the entrance. A swarm of insects flew drowsily +round and round in the warm mellow light; their faint monotonous +humming deepened, rather than interrupted, the perfect silence +prevailing over all things without. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +But a change was soon destined to appear in the repose of the quiet, +vacant scene; hardly a minute had elapsed while Antonina still looked +on it before she saw stealing over the sunny pavement a dark shadow, +the same shadow that she had last beheld when she stopped in her flight +to look behind her in the empty street. At first it slowly grew and +lengthened, then it remained stationary, then it receded and vanished +as gradually as it had advanced, and then the girl heard, or fancied +that she heard, a faint sound of footsteps, retiring along the lateral +colonnades towards the river side of the building. +</P> + +<P> +A low cry of horror burst from her lips as she sank back towards her +father; but it was unheeded. The voice of Ulpius had resumed in the +interval its hollow loudness of tone; he had raised Numerian from the +ground; his strong, cold grasp, which seemed to penetrate to the old +man's heart, which held him motionless and helpless as if by a fatal +spell, was on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +'Hear it! hear it!' cried the Pagan, waving his disengaged hand as if +he were addressing a vast concourse of people—'I advance this man to +be one of the servants of the high priest! He has travelled from a far +country to the sacred shrine; he is docile and obedient before the +altar of the gods; the lot is cast for his future life; his dwelling +shall be in the temple to the day of his death! He shall minister +before me in white robes, and swing the smoking censer, and slay the +sacrifice at my feet!' +</P> + +<P> +He stopped. A dark and sinister expression appeared in his eyes as the +word 'sacrifice' passed his lips; he muttered doubtingly to +himself—'The sacrifice!—is it yet the hour of the sacrifice?'—and +looked round towards the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +The sun still shone gaily on the outer pavement; the insects still +circled slowly in the mellow light; no shadow was now visible; no +distant footsteps were heard; there was nothing audible but the happy +music of the bubbling water, and the chiming, silvery bells. +</P> + +<P> +For a few moments the madman looked out anxiously towards the street, +without uttering a word or moving a muscle. The raving fit was nearly +possessing him again, as the thought of the sacrifice flashed over his +darkened mind; but once more its approach was delayed. +</P> + +<P> +He slowly turned his head in the direction of the interior of the +temple. 'The sun is still bright in the outer courts,' he murmured in +an undertone, 'the hour of the sacrifice is not yet! Come!' he +continued in a louder voice, shaking Numerian by the arm. 'It is time +that the servant of the temple should behold the place of the +sacrifice, and sharpen the knife for the victim before sunset! Arouse +thee, bondman, and follow me!' +</P> + +<P> +As yet, Numerian had neither spoken, nor attempted to escape. The +preceding events, though some space has been occupied in describing +them, passed in so short a period of time, that he had not hitherto +recovered from the first overwhelming shock of the meeting with Ulpius. +But now, awed though he still was, he felt that the moment of the +struggle for freedom had arrived. +</P> + +<P> +'Leave me, and let us depart!—there can be no fellowship between us +again!' he exclaimed with the reckless courage of despair, taking the +hand of Antonina, and striving to free himself from the madman's grasp. +But the effort was vain; Ulpius tightened his hold and laughed in +triumph. 'What! the servant of the temple is in terror of the high +priest, and shrinks from walking in the place of the sacrifice!' he +cried. 'Fear not, bondman! The mighty one, who rules over life and +death, and time and futurity, deals kindly with the servant of his +choice! Onward! onward! to the place of darkness and doom, where I +alone am omnipotent, and all others are creatures who tremble and obey! +To thy lesson, learner! by sunset the victim must be crowned!' +</P> + +<P> +He looked round on Numerian for an instant, as he prepared to drag him +forward, and their eyes met. In the fierce command of his action, and +the savage exultation of his glance, the father saw repeated in a +wilder form the very attitude and expression which he had beheld in the +Pagan on the morning of the loss of his child. All the circumstances +of that miserable hour—the vacant bed-chamber—the banished +daughter—the triumph of the betrayer—the anguish of the +betrayed—rushed over his mind, and rose up before it vivid as a +pictured scene before his eyes. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He struggled no more; the powers of resistance in mind and body were +crushed alike. He made an effort to remove Antonina from his side, as +if, in forgetfulness of the hidden enemy without, he designed to urge +her flight through the open door, while the madman's attention was yet +distracted from her. But, beyond this last exertion of the strong +instinct of paternal love, every other active emotion seemed dead +within him. +</P> + +<P> +Vainly had he striven to disentangle the child from the fate that might +be in store for the parent. To her the dread of the dark shadow on the +pavement was superior to all other apprehensions. She now clung more +closely to her father, and tightened her clasp round his hand. So, +when the Pagan advanced into the interior of the temple, it was not +Numerian alone who followed him to the place of sacrifice, but Antonina +as well. +</P> + +<P> +They moved to the back of the pile of idols. Behind it appeared a high +partition of gilt and inlaid wood reaching to the ceiling, and +separating the outer from the inner part of the temple. A low archway +passage, protected by carved gates similar to those at the front of the +building, had been formed in the partition, and through this Ulpius and +his prisoners now passed into the recess beyond. +</P> + +<P> +This apartment was considerably smaller than the first hall of the +temple which they had just left. The ceiling and the floor both sloped +downwards together, and here the rippling of the waters of the Tiber +was more distinctly audible to them than in the outer division of the +building. At the moment when they entered it the place was very dark; +the pile of idols intercepted even the little light that could have +been admitted through its narrow entrance; but the dense obscurity was +soon dissipated. Dragging Numerian after him to the left side of the +recess, Ulpius drew back a sort of wooden shutter, and a vivid ray of +sunlight immediately streamed in through a small circular opening +pierced in this part of the temple. +</P> + +<P> +Then there became apparent, at the lower end of the apartment, a vast +yawning cavity in the wall, high enough to admit a man without +stooping, but running downwards almost perpendicularly to some lower +region which it was impossible to see, for no light shot upwards from +this precipitous artificial abyss, in the darkness of which the eye was +lost after it had penetrated to the distance of a few feet only from +the opening. At the base of the confined space thus visible appeared +the commencement of a flight of steps, evidently leading far downwards +into the cavity. On the abruptly sloping walls, which bounded it on +all sides, were painted, in the brilliant hues of ancient fresco, +representations of the deities of the mythology—all in the attitude of +descending into the vault, and all followed by figures of nymphs +bearing wreaths of flowers, beautiful birds, and other similar adjuncts +of the votive ceremonies of Paganism. The repulsive contrast between +the bright colours and graceful forms presented by the frescoes, and +the perilous and gloomy appearance of the cavity which they decorated, +increased remarkably the startling significance in the character of the +whole structure. Its past evil uses seemed ineradicably written over +every part of it, as past crime and torment remain ineradicably written +on the human face; the mind imbibed from it terrifying ideas of deadly +treachery, of secret atrocities, of frightful refinements of torture, +which no uninitiated eye had ever beheld, and no human resolution had +ever been powerful enough to resist. +</P> + +<P> +But the impressions thus received were not produced only by what was +seen in and around this strange vault, but by what was heard there +besides. The wind penetrated the cavity at some distance, and through +some opening that could not be beheld, and was apparently intercepted +in its passage, for it whistled upwards towards the entrance in shrill, +winding notes, sometimes producing another and nearer sound, resembling +the clashing of many small metallic substances violently shaken +together. The noise of the wind, as well as the bubbling of the +current of the Tiber, seemed to proceed from a greater distance than +appeared compatible with the narrow extent of the back part of the +temple, and the proximity of the river to its low foundation walls. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was evident that the vault only reached its outlet after it had +wound backwards, underneath the building, in some strange complication +of passages or labyrinth of artificial caverns, which might have been +built long since as dungeons for the living, or as sepulchres for the +dead. +</P> + +<P> +'The place of the sacrifice—aha! the place of the sacrifice!' cried +the Pagan exultingly, as he drew Numerian to the entrance of the +cavity, and solemnly pointed into the darkness beneath. +</P> + +<P> +The father gazed steadily into the chasm, never turning now to look on +Antonina, never moving to renew the struggle for freedom. Earthly +loves and earthly hopes began to fade away from his heart—he was +praying. The solemn words of Christian supplication fell in low, +murmuring sounds from his lips, in the place of idolatry and bloodshed, +and mingled with the incoherent ejaculations of the madman who kept him +captive, and who now bent his glaring eyes on the darkness of the +vault, half forgetful, in the gloomy fascination which it exercised +even over him, of the prisoners whom he held at its mouth. +</P> + +<P> +The single ray of light, admitted from the circular aperture of the +wall, fell wild and fantastic over the widely-differing figures of the +three, as they stood so strangely united together before the abyss that +opened beneath them. The shadows were above and the shadows were +around; there was no light in the ill-omened place but the one vivid +ray that streamed over the gaunt figure of Ulpius, as he still pointed +into the darkness; over the rigid features of Numerian, praying in the +bitterness of expected death; and over the frail youthful form of +Antonina as she nestled trembling at her father's side. It was an +unearthly and a solemn scene! +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the shadow which the girl had observed on the pavement before +the doorway of the temple now appeared there again, but not to retire +as before; for, the instant after, Goisvintha stealthily entered the +outer apartment of the building left vacant by its first occupants. +She passed softly around the pile of idols, looked into the inner +recess of the temple, and saw the three figures standing together in +the ray of light, gloomy and motionless, before the mouth of the +cavity. Her first glance fixed on the Pagan, whom she instinctively +doubted and dreaded, whose purpose in keeping captive the father and +daughter she could not divine; her next was directed on Antonina. +</P> + +<P> +The girl's position was a guarded one; still holding her father's hand, +she was partly protected by his body; and stood unconsciously beneath +the arm of Ulpius, as it was raised while he grasped Numerian's +shoulder. Marking this, and remembering that Antonina had twice +escaped her already, Goisvintha hesitated for a moment, and then, with +cautious step and lowering brow, began to retire again towards the +doorway of the building. 'Not yet—not yet the time!' she muttered, as +she resumed her former lurking-place; 'they stand where the light is +over them—the girl is watched and shielded—the two men are still on +either side of her! Not yet the moment of the blow; the stroke of the +knife must be sure and safe! Sure, for this time she must die by my +hand! Safe, for I have other vengeance to wreak besides the vengeance +on her! I, who have been patient and cunning since the night when I +escaped from Aquileia, will be patient and cunning still! If she +passes the door, I slay her as she goes out; if she remains in the +temple—' +</P> + +<P> +At the last word, Goisvintha paused and gazed upward; the setting sun +threw its fiery glow over her haggard face; her eye brightened fiercely +in the full light as she looked. 'The darkness is at hand!' she +continued; 'the night will be thick and black in the dim halls of the +temple; I shall see her when she shall not see me!—the darkness is +coming; the vengeance is sure!' +</P> + +<P> +She closed her lips, and with fatal perseverance continued to watch and +wait, as she had resolutely watched and waited already. The Roman and +the Goth; the opposite in sex, nation, and fate; the madman who dreamed +of the sanguinary superstitions of Paganism before the temple altar, +and the assassin who brooded over the chances of bloodshed beneath the +temple portico, were now united in a mysterious identity of +expectation, uncommunicated and unsuspected by either—the hour when +the sun vanished from the heaven was the hour of the sacrifice for both! +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +There is now a momentary pause in the progress of events. Occurrences +to be hereafter related render it necessary to take advantage of this +interval to inform the reader of the real nature and use of the vault +in the temple wall, the external appearance of which we have already +described. +</P> + +<P> +The marking peculiarity in the construction of the Pagan religion may +be most aptly compared to the marking peculiarity in the construction +of the pagan temples. Both were designed to attract the general eye by +the outward effect only, which was in both the false delusive +reflection of the inward substance. +</P> + +<P> +In the temple, the people, as they worshipped beneath the long +colonnades, or beheld the lofty porticoes from the street, were left to +imagine the corresponding majesty and symmetry of the interior of the +structure, and were not admitted to discover how grievously it +disappointed the brilliant expectations which the exterior was so well +calculated to inspire; how little the dark, narrow halls of the idols, +the secret vaults and gloomy recesses within, fulfilled the promise of +the long flights of steps, the broad extent of pavement, the massive +sun-brightened pillars without. So in the religion, the votary was +allured by the splendour of processions; by the pomp of auguries; by +the poetry of the superstition which peopled his native woods with the +sportive Dryads, and the fountains from which he drank with their +guardian Naiads; which gave to mountain and lake, to sun and moon and +stars, to all things around and above him, their fantastic allegory, or +their gracious legend of beauty and love: but beyond this, his first +acquaintance with his worship was not permitted to extend, here his +initiation concluded. He was kept in ignorance of the dark and +dangerous depths which lurked beneath this smooth and attractive +surface; he was left to imagine that what was displayed was but the +prelude to the future discovery of what was hidden of beauty in the +rites of Paganism; he was not admitted to behold the wretched +impostures, the loathsome orgies, the hideous incantations, the bloody +human sacrifices perpetrated in secret, which made the foul, real +substance of the fair exterior form. His first sight of the temple was +not less successful in deceiving his eye than his first impression of +the religion in deluding his mind. +</P> + +<P> +With these hidden and guilty mysteries of the Pagan worship, the vault +before which Ulpius now stood with his captives was intimately +connected. +</P> + +<P> +The human sacrifices offered among the Romans were of two kinds; those +publicly and those privately performed. The first were of annual +recurrence in the early years of the Republic; were prohibited at a +later date; were revived by Augustus, who sacrificed his prisoners of +war at the altar of Julius Caesar; and were afterwards—though +occasionally renewed for particular purposes under some subsequent +reigns—wholly abandoned as part of the ceremonies of Paganism during +the later periods of the empire. +</P> + +<P> +The sacrifices perpetrated in private were much longer practised. They +were connected with the most secret mysteries of the mythology; were +concealed from the supervision of government; and lasted probably until +the general extinction of heathen superstition in Italy and the +provinces. +</P> + +<P> +Many and various were the receptacles constructed for the private +immolation of human victims in different parts of the empire—in its +crowded cities as well as in its solitary woods—and among all, one of +the most remarkable and the longest preserved was the great cavity +pierced in the wall of the temple which Ulpius had chosen for his +solitary lurking-place in Rome. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was not merely as a place of concealment for the act of immolation, +and for the corpse of the victim, that the vault had been built. A +sanguinary artifice had complicated the manner of its construction, by +placing in the cavity itself the instrument of the sacrifice; by making +it, as it were, not merely the receptacle, but the devourer also of its +human prey. At the bottom of the flight of steps leading down into it +(the top of which, as we have already observed, was alone visible from +the entrance in the temple recess) was fixed the image of a dragon +formed in brass. +</P> + +<P> +The body of the monster, protruding opposite the steps almost at a +right angle from the wall, was moved in all directions by steel +springs, which communicated with one of the lower stairs, and also with +a sword placed in the throat of the image to represent the dragon's +tongue. The walls around the steps narrowed so as barely to admit the +passage of the human body when they approached the dragon. At the +slightest pressure on the stair with which the spring communicated, the +body of the monster bent forward, and the sword instantly protruded +from its throat, at such a height from the steps as ensure that it +should transfix in a vital part the person who descended. The corpse, +then dropping by its own weight off the sword, fell through a tunnelled +opening beneath the dragon, running downward in an opposite direction +to that taken by the steps above, and was deposited on an iron grating +washed by the waters of the Tiber, which ran under the arched +foundations of the temple. The grating was approached by a secret +subterranean passage leading from the front of the building, by which +the sacrificing priests were enabled to reach the dead body, to fasten +weights to it, and opening the grating, to drop it into the river, +never to be beheld again by mortal eyes. +</P> + +<P> +In the days when this engine of destruction was permitted to serve the +purpose for which the horrible ingenuity of its inventors had +constructed it, its principal victims were young girls. Crowned with +flowers, and clad in white garments, they were lured into immolating +themselves by being furnished with rich offerings, and told that the +sole object of their fatal expedition down the steps of the vault was +to realise the pictures adorning its walls (which we have described a +few pages back), by presenting their gifts at the shrine of the idol +below. +</P> + +<P> +At the period of which we write, the dragon had for many years—since +the first prohibitions of Paganism—ceased to be fed with its wonted +prey. The scales forming its body grew gradually corroded and loosened +by the damp; and when moved by the wind which penetrated to them from +beneath, whistling up in its tortuous course through the tunnel that +ran in one direction below, and the vault of the steps that ascended in +another above, produced the clashing sound which has been mentioned as +audible at intervals from the mouth of the cavity. But the springs +which moved the deadly apparatus of the whole machine being placed +within it, under cover, continued to resist the slow progress of time +and of neglect, and still remained as completely fitted as ever to +execute the fatal purpose for which they had been designed. +</P> + +<P> +The ultimate destiny of the dragon of brass was the destiny of the +religion whose bloodiest superstitions it embodied: it fell beneath +the resistless advance of Christianity. Shortly after the date of our +narrative, the interior of the building beneath which it was placed +having suffered from an accident, which will be related farther on, the +exterior was dismantled, in order that its pillars might furnish +materials for a church. The vault in the wall was explored by a monk +who had been present at the destruction of other Pagan temples, and who +volunteered to discover its contents. With a torch in one hand, and an +iron bar in the other, he descended into the cavity, sounding the walls +and the steps before him as he proceeded. For the first and the last +time the sword protruded harmless from the monster's throat when the +monk pressed the fatal stair, before stepping on it, with his iron bar. +The same day the machine was destroyed and cast into the Tiber, where +its victims had been thrown before it in former years. +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<P> +Some minutes have elapsed since we left the father and daughter +standing by the Pagan's side before the mouth of the vault; and as yet +there appears no change in the several positions of the three. But +already, while Ulpius still looks down steadfastly into the cavity at +his feet, his voice, as he continues to speak, grows louder, and his +words become more distinct. Fearful recollections associated with the +place are beginning to stir his weary memory, to lift the darkness of +oblivion from his idle thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +'They go down, far down there!' he abruptly exclaimed, pointing into +the black depths of the vault, 'and never arise again to the light of +the upper earth! The great Destroyer is watchful in his solitude +beneath, and looks through the darkness for their approach! Hark! the +hissing of his breath is like to the clash of weapons in a deadly +strife!' +</P> + +<P> +At this moment the wind moved the loose scales of the dragon. During +an instant Ulpius remained silent, listening to the noise they +produced. For the first time an expression of dread appeared on his +face. His memory was obscurely reviving the incidents of his discovery +of the deadly machinery in the vault when he first made his sojourn in +the temple, when—filled with the confused remembrance of the +mysterious rites and incantations, the secret sacrifices which he had +witnessed and performed at Alexandria—he had found and followed the +subterranean passage which led to the iron grating beneath the dragon. +As the wind lulled again, and the clashing of the metal ceased with it, +he began to give these recollections expression in words, uttering them +in slow, solemn accents to himself. +</P> + +<P> +'I have seen the Destroyer; the Invisible has revealed himself to me!' +he murmured. 'I stood on the iron bars; the restless waters toiled and +struggled beneath my feet as I looked up into the place of darkness. A +voice called to me, "Get light, and behold me from above! Get light! +get light!" Sun, and moon, and stars gave no light there! but lamps +burnt in the city, in the houses of the dead, when I walked by them in +the night-time; and the lamp gave light when sun, and moon, and stars +gave none! From the top steps I looked down, and saw the Powerful One +in his golden brightness; and approached not, but watched and listened +in fear. The voice again!—the voice was heard again!—"Sacrifice to +me in secret, as thy brethren sacrifice! Give me the living where the +living are, and the dead where the dead!" The air came up cold, and +the voice ceased, and the lamp was like sun, and moon, and stars—it +gave no light in the place of darkness!' +</P> + +<P> +While he spoke, the loose metal again clashed in the vault, for the +wind was strengthening as the evening advanced. 'Hark! the signal to +prepare the sacrifice!' cried the Pagan, turning abruptly to Numerian. +'Listen, bondman! the living and the dead are within our reach. The +breath of the Invisible strikes them in the street and in the house; +they stagger in the highways, and drop at the temple steps. When the +hour comes we shall go forth and find them. Under my hand they go down +into the cavern beneath. Whether they are hurled dead, or whether they +go down living, they fall through to the iron bars, where the water +leaps and rejoices to receive them! It is mine to sacrifice them +above, and thine to wait for them below, to lift the bars and give them +to the river to be swallowed up! The dead drop down first, the living +that are slain by the Destroyer follow after!' +</P> + +<P> +Here he paused suddenly. Now, for the first time, his eye rested on +Antonina, whose very existence he seemed hitherto to have forgotten. A +revolting smile of mingled cunning and satisfaction instantly changed +the whole character of his countenance as he gazed on her and then +looked round significantly to the vault. 'Here is one,' he whispered +to Numerian, taking her by the arm. 'Keep her captive—the hour is +near!' +</P> + +<P> +Numerian had hitherto stood unheedful while he spoke; but when he +touched Antonina the bare action was enough to arouse the father to +resistance—hopeless though it was—once more. He shook off the grasp +of Ulpius from the girl's arm, and drew back with her—breathless, +vigilant, desperate—to the side-wall behind him. +</P> + +<P> +The madman laughed in proud approval. 'My bondman obeys me and seizes +the captive!' he cried. 'He remembers that the hour is near and loosens +not his hold! Come,' he continued, 'come out into the hall beyond!—it +is time that we watch for more victims for the sacrifice till the sun +goes down. The Destroyer is mighty and must be obeyed!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He walked to the entrance leading into the first apartment of the +temple, and then waited to be followed by Numerian, who, now for the +first time separated from Ulpius, remained stationary in the position +he had last occupied, and looked eagerly around him. No chance of +escape presented itself; the mouth of the vault on one side, and the +passage through the partition on the other, were the only outlets to +the place. There was no hope but to follow the Pagan into the great +hall of the temple, to keep carefully at a distance from him, and to +watch the opportunity of flight through the doorway. The street, so +desolate when last beheld, might now afford more evidence that it was +inhabited. Citizens, guards might be passing by, and might be summoned +into the temple—help might be at hand. +</P> + +<P> +As he moved forward with Antonina, such thoughts passed rapidly through +the father's mind, unaccompanied at the moment by the recollection of +the stranger who had followed them from the Pincian Gate, or of the +apathy of the famished populace in aiding each other in any emergency. +Seeing that he was followed as he had commanded, Ulpius passed on +before them to the pile of idols; but a strange and sudden alteration +appeared in his gait. He had hitherto walked with the step of a +man—young, strong, and resolute of purpose; now he dragged one limb +after the other as slowly and painfully as if he had received a mortal +hurt. He tottered with more than the infirmity of his age, his head +dropped upon his breast, and he moaned and murmured inarticulately in +low, long-drawn cries. +</P> + +<P> +He had advanced to the side of the pile, half-way towards the doorway +of the temple, when Numerian, who had watched with searching eyes the +abrupt change in his demeanour, forgetting the dissimulation which +might still be all-important, abandoned himself to his first impulse, +and hurriedly pressing forward with Antonina, attempted to pass the +Pagan and escape. But at the moment Ulpius stopped in his slow +progress, reeled, threw out his hands convulsively, and seizing +Numerian by the arm, staggered back with him against the side-wall of +the temple. The fingers of the tortured wretch closed as if they were +never to be unlocked again—closed as if with the clutch of death, with +the last frantic grasp of a drowning man. +</P> + +<P> +For days and nights past he had toiled incessantly under the relentless +tyranny of his frenzy, building up higher and higher his altar of +idols, and pouring forth his invocations before his gods in the place +of the sacrifice; and now, at the moment when he was most triumphant in +his ferocious activity of purpose, when his fancied bondman and his +fancied victim were most helpless at his command—now, when his +strained faculties were strung to their highest pitch, the +long-deferred paroxysm had seized him, which was the precursor of his +repose, of the only repose granted by his awful fate—a change (the +mournful change already described) in the form of his insanity. For at +those rare periods when he slept, his sleep was not unconsciousness, +not rest: it was a trance of hideous dreams—his tongue spoke, his +limbs moved, when he slumbered as when he woke. It was only when his +visions of the pride, the power, the fierce conflicts, and daring +resolutions of his maturer years gave place to his dim, quiet, waking +dreams of his boyish days, that his wasted faculties reposed, and his +body rested with them in the motionless languor of perfect fatigue. +Then, if words were still uttered by his lips, they were as murmurs of +an infant—happy sleep; for the innocent phrases of his childhood which +they then revived, seemed for a time to bring with them the innocent +tranquillity of his childhood as well. +</P> + +<P> +'Go! go!—fly while you are yet free!' cried Numerian, dropping the +hand of Antonina, and pointing to the door. But for the second time +the girl refused to move forward a step. No horror, no peril in the +temple could banish for an instant her remembrance of the night at the +farm-house in the suburbs. She kept her head turned towards the vacant +entrance, fixed her eyes on it in the unintermitting watchfulness of +terror, and whispered affrightedly, 'Goisvintha! Goisvintha!' when her +father spoke. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The clasp of the Pagan's fingers remained fixed and deathlike as at +first; he leaned back against the wall, as still as if life and action +had for ever departed from him. The paroxysm had passed away; his +face, distorted but the moment before, was now in repose, but it was a +repose that was awful to look on. Tears rolled slowly from his +half-closed eyes over his seamed and wrinkled cheeks—tears which were +not the impressive expression of mental anguish (for a vacant and +unchanging smile was on his lips), but the mere mechanical outburst of +the physical weakness that the past crisis of agony had left behind it. +Not the slightest appearance of thought or observation was perceptible +in his features: his face was the face of an idiot. +</P> + +<P> +Numerian, who had looked on him for an instant, shuddered and averted +his eyes, recoiling from the sight before him. But a more overpowering +trial of his resolution was approaching, which he could not avoid. Ere +long the voice of Ulpius grew audible once more; but now its tones were +weak, piteous, almost childish, and the words they uttered were quiet +words of love and gentleness, which dropping from such lips, and +pronounced in such a place, were fearful to hear. The temple and all +that was in it vanished from his sight as from his memory. Swayed by +the dread and supernatural influences of his disease, the madman passed +back in an instant over the dark valley of life's evil pilgrimage to +the long-quitted precincts of his boyish home. While in bodily +presence he stood in the place of his last crimes, the outcast of +reason and humanity, in mental consciousness he lay in his mother's +arms, as he had lain there ere yet he had departed to the temple at +Alexandria; and his heart communed with her heart, and his eyes looked +on her as they had looked before his father's fatal ambition had +separated for ever parent and child! +</P> + +<P> +'Mother!—come back, mother!' he whispered. 'I was not asleep: I saw +you when you came in, and sat by my bedside, and wept over me when you +kissed me! Come back, and sit by me still! I am going away, far away, +and may never hear your voice again! How happy we should be, mother, +if I stayed with you always! But it is my father's will that I should +go to the temple in another country, and live there to be a priest; and +his will must be obeyed. I may never return; but we shall not forget +one another! I shall remember your words when we used to talk together +happily, and you shall still remember mine!' +</P> + +<P> +Hardly had the first sentence been uttered by Ulpius when Antonina felt +her father's whole frame suddenly tremble at her side. She turned her +eyes from the doorway, on which they had hitherto been fixed, and +looked on him. The Pagan's hand had fallen from his arm: he was free +to depart, to fly as he had longed to fly but a few minutes before, and +yet he never stirred. His daughter touched him, spoke to him, but he +neither moved nor answered. It was not merely the shock of the abrupt +transition in the language of Ulpius from the ravings of crime to the +murmurs of love—it was not merely astonishment at hearing from him, in +his madness, revelations of his early life which had never passed his +lips during his days of treacherous servitude in the house on the +Pincian Hill, that thus filled Numerian's inmost soul with awe, and +struck his limbs motionless. There was more in all that he heard than +this. The words seemed as words that had doomed him at once and for +ever. His eyes, directed full on the face of the madman, were dilated +with horror, and his deep, gasping, convulsive breathings mingled +heavily, during the moment of silence that ensued, with the chiming of +the bells above and the bubbling of the water below—the lulling music +of the temple, playing its happy evening hymn at the pleasant close of +day. +</P> + +<P> +'We shall remember, mother!—we shall remember!' continued the Pagan +softly, 'and be happy in our remembrances! My brother, who loves me +not, will love you when I am gone! You will walk in my little garden, +and think on me as you look at the flowers that we have planted and +watered together in the evening hours, when the sky was glorious to +behold, and the earth was all quiet around us! Listen, mother, and kiss +me! When I go to the far country, I will make a garden there like my +garden here, and plant the same flowers that we have planted here, and +in the evening I will go out and give them water at the hour when you +go out to give my flowers water at home; and so, though we see each +other no more, it will yet be as if we laboured together in the garden +as we labour now!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The girl still fixed her eager gaze on her father. His eyes presented +the same rigid expression of horror; but he was now wiping off with his +own hand, mechanically, as if he knew it not, the foam which the +paroxysms had left round the madman's lips, and, amid the groans that +burst from him, she could hear such words as, 'Lord God!—mercy, Lord +God! Thou, who hast thus restored him to me—thus, worse than +dead!—mercy! mercy!' +</P> + +<P> +The light on the pavement beneath the portico of the temple was fading +visibly—the sun had gone down. +</P> + +<P> +For the third time the madman spoke, but his tones were losing their +softness; they were complaining, plaintive, unutterably mournful; his +dreams of the past were already changing. 'Farewell, brother—farewell +for years and years!' he cried. 'You have not given me the love that I +gave you. The fault was not mine that our father loved me the best, +and chose me to be sent to the temple to be a priest at the altar of +the gods! The fault was not mine that I partook not in your favoured +sports, and joined not the companions whom you sought; it was our +father's will that I should not live as you lived, and I obeyed it! +You have spoken to me in anger, and turned from me in disdain; but +farewell again, Cleander—farewell in forgiveness and in love!' +</P> + +<P> +He might have spoken more, but his voice was drowned in one long shriek +of agony which burst from Numerian's lips, and echoed discordantly +through the hall of the temple, and he sank down with his face to the +ground at the Pagan's feet. The dark and terrible destiny was +fulfilled. The enthusiast for the right and the fanatic for the wrong; +the man who had toiled to reform the Church, and the man who had toiled +to restore the Temple; the master who had received and trusted the +servant in his home, and the servant who in that home had betrayed the +master's trust—the two characters, separated hitherto in the sublime +disunion of good and bad, now struck together in tremendous contact, as +brethren who had drawn their life from one source, who as children had +been sheltered under the same roof! +</P> + +<P> +Not in the hours when the good Christian succoured the then forsaken +Pagan, wandering homeless in Rome, was the secret disclosed; no chance +word of it was uttered when the deceiver told the feigned relation of +his life to the benefactor whom he was plotting to deceive, or when, on +the first morning of the siege, the machinations of the servant +triumphed over the confidence of the master: it was reserved to be +revealed in the words of delirium, at the closing years of madness, +when he who discovered it was unconscious of all that he spoke, and his +eyes were blinded to the true nature of all that he saw; when earthly +voices that might once have called him back to repentance, to +recognition, and to love, were become to him as sounds that have no +meaning; when, by a ruthless and startling fatality, it was on the +brother who had wrought for the true faith that the whole crushing +weight of the terrible disclosure fell, unpartaken by the brother who +had wrought for the false! But the judgments pronounced in Time go +forth from the tribunal of that Eternity to which the mysteries of life +tend, and in which they shall be revealed—neither waiting on human +seasons nor abiding by human justice, but speaking to the soul in the +language of immortality, which is heard in the world that is now, and +interpreted in the world that is to come. +</P> + +<P> +Lost, for an instant, even the recollection that Goisvintha might still +be watching her opportunity from without, calling despairingly on her +father, and vainly striving to raise him from the ground, Antonina +remembered not, in the overwhelming trial of the moment, the +revelations of Numerian's past life that had been disclosed to her in +the days when the famine was at its worst in Rome. The name of +'Cleander', which she had then heard her father pronounce, as the name +that he had abandoned when he separated himself from the companions of +his sinful choice, passed unheeded by her when the Pagan unconsciously +uttered it. She saw the whole scene but as a fresh menace of danger, +as a new vision of terror, more ominous of ill than all that had +preceded it. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Thick as was the darkness in which the lulling and involuntary memories +of the past had enveloped the perceptions of Ulpius, the father's +piercing cry of anguish seemed to have penetrated it with a sudden ray +of light. The madman's half-closed eyes opened instantly and fixed, +dreamily at first, on the altar of idols. He waved his hands to and +fro before him, as if he were parting back the folds of a heavy veil +that obscured his sight; but his wayward thoughts did not resume as yet +their old bias towards ferocity and crime. When he spoke again, his +speech was still inspired by the visions of his early life—but now of +his early life in the temple at Alexandria. His expressions were more +abrupt, more disjointed than before; yet they continued to display the +same evidence of the mysterious, instinctive vividness of recollection, +which was the result of the sudden change in the nature of his +insanity. His language wandered (still as if the words came from him +undesignedly and unconsciously) over the events of his boyish +introduction to the service of the gods, and, though confusing them in +order, still preserved them in substance, as they have been already +related in the history of his 'apprenticeship to the temple'. +</P> + +<P> +Now he was in imagination looking down once more from the summit of the +Temple of Serapis on the glittering expanse of the Nile and the wide +country around it; and now he was walking proudly through the streets +of Alexandria by the side of his uncle, Macrinus, the high priest. Now +he was wandering at night, in curiosity and awe, through the gloomy +vaults and subterranean corridors of the sacred place; and now he was +listening, well pleased, to the kindly greeting, the inspiring praises +of Macrinus during their first interview. But at this point, and while +dwelling on this occasion, his memory became darkened again; it vainly +endeavoured to retrace the circumstances attending the crowning +evidence of the high priest's interest in his pupil, and anxiety to +identify him completely with his new protector and his new duties, +which had been displayed when he conferred on the trembling boy the +future distinction of one of his own names. +</P> + +<P> +And here, let it be remembered, as a chief link in the mysterious chain +of fatalities which had united to keep the brothers apart as brethren +after they had met as men, that both had, from widely different causes, +abandoned in after-life the names which they bore in their father's +house; that while one, by his own act and for his own purpose, +transformed himself from Cleander, the associate of the careless and +the criminal, to Numerian, the preacher of the Gospel and reformer of +the Church, the other had (to quote the words of the fourth chapter), +'become from the boy Emilius the student Ulpius,' by the express and +encouraging command of his master, Macrinus, the high priest. +</P> + +<P> +While the Pagan still fruitlessly endeavoured to revive the events +connected with the change in his designation on his arrival in +Alexandria, and, chafing under the burden of oblivion that weighed upon +his thoughts, attempted for the first time to move from the wall +against which he had hitherto leaned; while Antonina still strove in +vain to recall her father to the recollection of the terrible +exigencies of the moment as he crouched prostrate at the madman's +feet—the doorway of the temple was darkened once more by the figure of +Goisvintha. She stood on the threshold, a gloomy and indistinct form +in the fading light, looking intently into the deeply shadowed interior +of the building. As she marked the altered positions of the father and +daughter, she uttered a suppressed ejaculation of triumph; but, while +the sound passed her lips, she heard, or thought she heard, a noise in +the street behind. Even now her vigilance and cunning, her deadly, +calculating resolution to await in immovable patience the fitting time +for striking the blow deliberately and with impunity, did not fail her. +Turning instantly, she walked to the top step of the temple, and stood +there for a few moments, watchfully surveying the open space before her. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +But in those few moments the scene in the building changed once more. +The madman, while he still wavered between relapsing into the raving +fit and continuing under the influence of the tranquil mood in which he +had been prematurely disturbed, caught sight of Goisvintha when her +approach suddenly shadowed the entrance to the temple. Her presence, +momentary though it was, was for him the presence of a figure that had +not appeared before; that had stood in a strange position between the +shade within and the faint light without; it was a new object, +presented to his eyes while they were straining to recover such +imperfect faculties of observation as had been their wont, and it +ascendancy over him was instantaneous and all-powerful. +</P> + +<P> +He started, bewildered like a deep sleeper suddenly awoke; violent +shudderings ran for a moment over his frame; then it strengthened again +with its former unnatural strength; the demon raged within him in +renewed fury as he tore his robe which Numerian held as he lay at his +feet from the feeble grasp that confined it, and, striding up to the +pile of idols, stretched out his hands in solemn deprecation. 'The +high priest has slept before the altar of the gods!' he cried loudly, +'but they have been patient with their well-beloved; their thunder has +not struck him for his crime! Now the servant returns to his +service—the rites of Serapis begin!' +</P> + +<P> +Numerian still remained prostrate, spirit-broken; he slowly clasped his +hands together on the floor, and his voice was now to be heard, still +supplicating in low and stifled accents, as if in unceasing prayer lay +his last hope of preserving his own reason. 'God! Thou art the God of +Mercy; be merciful to him!' he murmured. 'Thou acceptest of +repentance; grant repentance to him! If at any time I have served Thee +without blame, let the service be counted to him; let the vials of Thy +wrath be poured out on me!' +</P> + +<P> +'Hark! the trumpet blows for the sacrifice!' interrupted the raving +voice of the Pagan, as he turned from the altar, and extended his arms +in frenzied inspiration. 'The roar of music and the voice of +exultation soar upward from the highest mountain-tops! The incense +smokes, and in and out, and round and round, the dancers whirl about +the pillars of the temple! The ox for the sacrifice is without spot; +his horns are gilt; the crown and fillet adorn his head. The priest +stands before him naked from the waist upwards; he heaves the libation +out of the cup; the blood flows over the altar! Up! up! tear forth with +reeking hands the heart while it is yet warm, futurity is before you in +the quivering entrails, look on them and read! read!' +</P> + +<P> +While he spoke, Goisvintha had entered the temple. The street was +still desolate; no help was at hand. +</P> + +<P> +Not advancing at once, she concealed herself near the door behind a +projection in the pile of idols, watching from it until Ulpius, in the +progress of his frenzy, should turn away from Antonina, whom he stood +fronting at this instant. But she had not entered unperceived; +Antonina had seen her again. And now the bitterness of death, when the +young die unprotected in their youth, came over the girl, and she cried +in a low wailing voice, as she knelt by Numerian's side: 'I must die, +father, I must die, as Hermanric died! Look up at me, and speak to me +before I die!' +</P> + +<P> +Her father was still praying; he heard nothing, for his heart was +bleeding in atonement at the shrine of his boyish home, and his soul +still communed with its Maker. The voice that followed hers was the +voice of Ulpius. +</P> + +<P> +'Oh, beautiful are the gardens round the sacred altars, and lofty the +trees that embower the glittering shrines!' he exclaimed, rapt and +ecstatic in his new visions. 'Lo, the morning breaks, and the spirits +of light are welcomed by a sacrifice! The sun goes down behind the +mountain, and the beams of evening tremble on the victim beneath the +knife of the adoring priest! The moon and stars shine high in the +firmament, and the Genii of Nights are saluted in the still hours with +blood!' +</P> + +<P> +As he paused, the lament of Antonina was continued in lower and lower +tones: 'I must die, father, I must die!' And with it murmured the +supplicating accents of Numerian: 'God of Mercy! deliver the helpless +and forgive the afflicted! Lord of Judgment! deal gently with Thy +servants who have sinned!' While, mingling with both in discordant +combination, the strange music of the temple still poured on its +lulling sound—the rippling of the running waters and the airy chiming +of the bells! +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Worship!—emperors, armies, nations, glorify and worship me!' shouted +the madman, in thunder-tones of triumph and command, as his eye for the +first time encountered the figure of Numerian prostrate at his feet. +'Worship the demi-god who moves with the deities through spheres +unknown to man! I have heard the moans of the unburied who wander on +the shores of the Lake of the Dead—worship! I have looked on the +river whose black current roars and howls in its course through the +caves of everlasting night—worship! I have seen the furies lashed by +serpents on their wrinkled necks, and followed them as they hurled +their torches over the pining ghosts! I have stood unmoved in the +hurricane-tumult of hell—worship! worship! worship!' +</P> + +<P> +He turned round again towards the altar of idols, calling upon his gods +to proclaim his deification, and at the moment when he moved, +Goisvintha sprang forward. Antonina was kneeling with her face turned +from the door, as the assassin seized her by her long hair and drove +the knife into her neck. The moaning accents of the girl, bewailing her +approaching fate, closed in one faint groan; she stretched out her +arms, and fell forward over her father's body. +</P> + +<P> +In the ferocious triumph of the moment, Goisvintha raised her arm to +repeat the stroke; but at that instant the madman looked round. 'The +sacrifice—the sacrifice!' he shouted, leaping at one spring like a +wild beast at her throat. She struck ineffectually at him with the +knife, as he fastened his long nails in her flesh and hurled her +backwards to the floor. Then he yelled and gibbered in frantic +exultation, set his foot on her breast, and spat on her as she lay +beneath him. +</P> + +<P> +The contact of the girl's body when she fell—the short but terrible +tumult of the attack that passed almost over him—the shrill, deafening +cries of the madman, awoke Numerian from his trance of despairing +remembrance, aroused him in his agony of supplicating prayer. He +looked up. +</P> + +<P> +The scene that met his eyes was one of those scenes which crush every +faculty but the faculty of mechanical action—before which, thought +vanishes from men's minds, utterance is suspended on their lips, +expression is paralysed on their faces. The coldness of the tomb +seemed breathed over Numerian's aspect by the contemplation of the +terrible catastrophe: his eyes were glassy and vacant, his lips parted +and rigid; even the remembrance of the discovery of his brother seemed +lost to him as he stooped over his daughter and bound a fragment of her +robe round her neck. The mute, soulless, ghastly stillness of death +looked settled on his features, as, unconscious now of weakness or age, +he rose with her in his arms, stood motionless for one moment before +the doorway, and looked slowly round on Ulpius; then he moved forward +with heavy regular steps. The Pagan's foot was still on Goisvintha's +breast as the father passed him; his gaze was still fixed on her; but +his cries of triumph were calmed; he laughed and muttered incoherently +to himself. +</P> + +<P> +The moon was rising, soft, faint, and tranquil, over the quiet street +as Numerian descended the temple steps with his daughter in his arms, +and, after an instant's pause of bewilderment and doubt, instinctively +pursued his slow, funereal course along the deserted roadway in the +direction of home. Soon, as he advanced, he beheld in the moonlight, +down the long vista of the street at its termination, a little +assemblage of people walking towards him with calm and regular +progress. As they came nearer, he saw that one of them held an open +book, that another carried a crucifix, and that others followed these +two with clasped hands and drooping heads. And then, after an +interval, the fresh breezes that blew towards him bore onward these +words, slowly and reverently pronounced:— +</P> + +<P> +'Know, therefore, that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity +deserveth. +</P> + +<P> +'Canst thou, by searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the +Almighty to perfection?' +</P> + +<P> +Then the breeze fell, the words grew indistinct, but the procession +still moved forward. As it came nearer and nearer, the voice of the +reader was again plainly heard:— +</P> + +<P> +'If iniquity be in thy hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness +dwell in thy tabernacles. +</P> + +<P> +'For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be +steadfast, and shalt not fear; +</P> + +<P> +'Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that +pass away: +</P> + +<P> +And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine +forth, thou shalt be as the morning.' +</P> + +<P> +The reader stopped and closed the book; for now Numerian had met the +members of the little procession, and they looked on him standing +voiceless before them in the clear moonlight, with his daughter's head +drooping over his shoulder as he carried her in his arms. +</P> + +<P> +There were some among those who gathered round him whose features he +would have recognised at another time as the features of the surviving +adherents of his former congregation. The assembly he had met was +composed of the few sincere Christians in Rome, who had collected, on +the promulgation of the news that Alaric had ratified terms of peace, +to make a pilgrimage through the city, in the hopeless endeavour, by +reading from the Bible and passing exhortation, to awaken the reckless +populace to a feeling of contrition for their sins, and of devout +gratitude for their approaching deliverance from the horrors of the +siege. +</P> + +<P> +But now, when Numerian confronted them, neither by word nor look did he +express the slightest recognition of any who surrounded him. To all +the questions addressed to him, he replied by hurried gestures that +none could comprehend. To all the promises of help and protection +heaped upon him in the first outbreak of the grief and pity of his +adherents of other days, he answered but by the same dull, vacant +glance. It was only when they relieved him of his burden, and gently +prepared to carry the senseless girl among them back to her father's +house, that he spoke; and then, in faint entreating tones, he besought +them to let him hold her hand as they went, so that he might be the +first to feel her pulse beat—if it yet moved. +</P> + +<P> +They turned back by the way they had come—a sorrowful and slow-moving +procession! As they passed on, the reader again opened the Sacred +Book; and then these words rose through the soothing and heavenly +tranquillity of the first hours of night:— +</P> + +<P> +'Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not +thou the chastening of the Almighty: +</P> + +<P> +'For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make +whole.' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 26. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +RETRIBUTION. +</H3> + +<P> +As, in the progress of Life, each man pursues his course with the +passions, good and evil, set, as it were, on either side of him; and +viewing their results in the actions of his fellow-men, finds his +attention, while still attracted by the spectacle of what is noble and +virtuous, suddenly challenged by the opposite display of what is mean +and criminal—so, in the progress of this narrative, which aims to be +the reflection of Life, the reader who has journeyed with us thus far, +and who may now be inclined to follow the little procession of +Christian devotees, to walk by the side of the afflicted father, and to +hold with him the hand of his ill-fated child, is yet, in obedience to +the conditions of the story, required to turn back for awhile to the +contemplation of its darker passages of guilt and terror—he must enter +the temple again; but he will enter it for the last time. +</P> + +<P> +The scene before the altar of idols was fast proceeding to its fatal +climax. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The Pagan's frenzy had exhausted itself in its own fury—his insanity +was assuming a quieter and a more dangerous form; his eye grew cunning +and suspicious; a stealthy deliberation and watchfulness appeared in +all his actions. He now slowly lifted his foot from Goisvintha's +breast, and raised his hands at the same time to strike her back if she +should attempt to escape. Seeing that she lay senseless from her fall, +he left her; retired to one of the corners of the temple, took from it +a rope that lay there, and returning, bound her arms behind her at the +hands and wrists. The rope cut deep through the skin—the pain +restored her to her senses; she suffered the sharp agony in her own +body, in the same place where she had inflicted it on the young +chieftain at the farm-house beyond the suburbs. +</P> + +<P> +The minute after, she felt herself dragged along the ground, farther +into the interior of the building. The madman drew her up to the iron +gates of the passage through the partition, and fastening the end of +the rope to them, left her there. This part of the temple was +enveloped in total darkness—her assailant addressed not a word to +her—she could not obtain even a glimpse of his form, but she could +hear him still laughing to himself in hoarse, monotonous tones, that +sounded now near, and now distant again. +</P> + +<P> +She abandoned herself as lost—prematurely devoted to the torment and +death that she had anticipated; but, as yet, her masculine resolution +and energy did not decline. The very intensity of the anguish she +suffered from the bindings at her wrists, producing a fierce bodily +effort to resist it, strengthened her iron-strung nerves. She neither +cried for help nor appealed to the Pagan for pity. The gloomy fatalism +which she had inherited from her savage ancestors sustained her in a +suicide-pride. +</P> + +<P> +Ere long the laughter of Ulpius, while he moved slowly hither and +thither in the darkness of the temple, was overpowered by the sound of +her voice—deep, groaning, but yet steady—as she uttered her last +words—words poured forth like the wild dirges, the fierce death-songs +of the old Goths when they died deserted on the bloody battle-field, or +were cast bound into deep dungeons, a prey to the viper and the asp. +Thus she spoke:— 'I swore to be avenged! while I went forth from +Aquileia with the child that was killed and the child that was wounded; +while I climbed the high wall in the night-time, and heard the tumult +of the beating waves near the bank where I buried the dead; while I +wandered in the darkness over the naked heath and through the lonely +forest; while I climbed the pathless sides of the mountains, and made +my refuge in the cavern by the waters of the dark lake. +</P> + +<P> +'I swore to be avenged! while the warriors approached me on their +march, and the roaring of the trumpets and the clash of the armour +sounded in my ears; while I greeted my kinsman, Hermanric, a mighty +chieftain, at the king's side, among the invading hosts; while I looked +on my last child, dead like the rest, and knew that he was buried afar +from the land of his people, and from the others that the Romans had +slain before him. +</P> + +<P> +'I swore to be avenged! while the army encamped before Rome, and I +stood with Hermanric, looking on the great walls in the misty evening; +while the daughter of the Roman was a prisoner in our tent, and I eyed +her as she lay on my knees; while for her sake my kinsman turned +traitor, and withheld my hand from the blow; while I passed unseen into +the lonely farm-house to deal judgment on him with my knife; while I +saw him die the death of a deserter at my feet, and knew that it was a +Roman who had lured him from his people, and blinded him to the +righteousness of revenge. +</P> + +<P> +'I swore to be avenged! while I walked round the grave of the chieftain +who was the last of my race; while I stood alone out of the army of my +people in the city of the slayers of my babes; while I tracked the +footsteps of the Roman who had twice escaped me, as she fled through +the street; while I watched and was patient among the pillars of the +temple, and waited till the sun went down, and the victim was +unshielded for the moment to strike. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'I swore to be avenged! and my oath has been fulfilled—the knife that +still bleeds drops with her blood; the chief vengeance has been +wreaked! The rest that were to be slain remain for others, and not for +me! For now I go to my husband and my children; now the hour is near +at hand when I shall herd with their spirits in the Twilight World of +Shadows, and make my long-abiding place with them in the Valley of +Eternal Repose! The Destinies have willed it—it is enough!' +</P> + +<P> +Her voice trembled and grew faint as she pronounced the last words. +The anguish of the fastenings at her wrists was at last overpowering +her senses—conquering, in spite of all resistance, her stubborn +endurance. For a little while yet she spoke at intervals, but her +speech was fragmentary and incoherent. At one moment she still gloried +in her revenge, at another she exulted in the fancied contemplation of +the girl's body still lying before her, and her hands writhed beneath +their bonds in the effort to repossess themselves of the knife and +strike again. But soon all sounds ceased to proceed from her lips, +save the loud, thick, irregular breathings, which showed that she was +yet conscious and yet lived. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the madman had passed into the inner recess of the temple, +and had drawn the shutter over the opening in the wall, through which +light had been admitted into the place when Numerian and Antonina first +entered it. Even the black chasm formed by the mouth of the vault of +the dragon now disappeared, with all other objects, in the thick +darkness. But no obscurity could confuse the senses of Ulpius in the +temple, whose every corner he visited in his restless wanderings by +night and by day alike. Led as if by a mysterious penetration of +sight, he traced his way unerringly to the entrance of the vault, knelt +down before it, and placing his hands on the first of the steps by +which it was descended, listened, breathless and attentive, to the +sounds that rose from the abyss—listened, rapt and unmoving, a +formidable and unearthly figure—like a magician waiting for a voice +from the oracles of Hell—like a spirit of Night looking down into the +mid-caverns of the earth, and watching the mysteries of subterranean +creation, the giant pulses of Action and Heat, which are the +life-springs of the rolling world. +</P> + +<P> +The fitful wind whistled up, wild and plaintive; the river chafed and +bubbled through the iron grating below; the loose scales of the dragon +clashed as the night breezes reached them: and these sounds were still +to him as the language of his gods, which filled him with a fearful +rapture, and inspired him, in the terrible degradation of his being, as +with a new soul. He listened and listened yet. Fragments of wild +fancies—the vain yearnings of the disinherited mind to recover its +divine birthright of boundless thought—now thrilled through him, and +held him still and speechless where he knelt. +</P> + +<P> +But at length, through the gloomy silence of the recess, he heard the +voice of Goisvintha raised once more, and in hoarse, wild tones calling +aloud for light and help. The agony of pain and suspense, the awful +sense of darkness and stillness, of solitary bondage and slow torment, +had at last effected that which no open peril, no common menace of +violent death could have produced. She yielded to fear and +despair—sank prostrate under a paralysing, superstitious dread. The +misery that she had inflicted on others recoiled in retribution on +herself, as she now shuddered under the consciousness of the first +emotions of helpless terror that she had ever felt. +</P> + +<P> +Ulpius instantly rose from the vault, and advanced straight through the +darkness to the gates of the partition; but he passed his prisoner +without stopping for an instant, and hastening into the outer apartment +of the temple, began to grope over the floor for the knife which the +woman had dropped when he bound her. He was laughing to himself once +more, for the evil spirit was prompting him to a new project, tempting +him to a pitiless refinement of cruelty and deceit. +</P> + +<P> +He found the knife, and returning with it to Goisvintha, cut the rope +that confined her wrists. Then she became silent when the first +sharpness of her suffering was assuaged; he whispered softly in her +ear, 'Follow me, and escape!' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Bewildered and daunted by the darkness and mystery around her, she +vainly strained her eyes to look through the obscurity as Ulpius drew +her on into the recess. He placed her at the mouth of the vault, and +here she strove to speak; but low, inarticulate sounds alone proceeded +from her powerless utterance. Still there was no light; still the +burning, gnawing agony at her wrists (relieved but for an instant when +the rope was cut) continued and increased; and still she felt the +presence of the unseen being at her side, whom no darkness could blind, +and who bound and loosed at his arbitrary will. +</P> + +<P> +By nature fierce, resolute, and vindictive under injury, she was a +terrible evidence of the debasing power of crime, as she now stood, +enfeebled by the weight of her own avenging guilt, upraised to crush +her in the hour of her pride; by the agency of Darkness, whose perils +the innocent and the weak have been known to brave; by Suspense, whose +agony they have resisted; by Pain, whose infliction they have endured +in patience. +</P> + +<P> +'Go down, far down the steep steps, and escape!' whispered the madman, +in soft, beguiling tones. 'The darkness above leads to the light below! +Go down, far down!' +</P> + +<P> +He quitted his hold of her as he spoke. She hesitated, shuddered, and +drew back; but again she was urged forward, and again she heard the +whisper, 'The darkness above leads to the light below! Go down, far +down!' +</P> + +<P> +Despair gave the firmness to proceed, and dread the hope to escape. +Her wounded arms trembled as she now stretched them out and felt for +the walls of the vault on either side of her. The horror of death in +utter darkness, from unseen hands, and the last longing aspiration to +behold the light of heaven once more, were at their strongest within +her as she began slowly and cautiously to tread the fatal stairs. +</P> + +<P> +While she descended, the Pagan dropped into his former attitude at the +month of the vault, and listened breathlessly. Minutes seemed to +elapse between each step as she went lower and lower down. Suddenly he +heard her pause, as if panic-stricken in the darkness, and her voice +ascended to him, groaning, 'Light! light! oh, where is the light!' He +rose up, and stretched out his hands to hurl her back if she should +attempt to return; but she descended again. Twice he heard her heavy +footfall on the steps—then there was an interval of deep silence—then +a sharp, grinding clash of metal echoed piercingly through the vault, +followed by the noise of a dull, heavy fall, faintly audible far +beneath—and then the old familiar sounds of the place were heard +again, and were not interrupted more. The sacrifice to the Dragon was +achieved! +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +The madman stood on the steps of the sacred building, and looked out on +the street shining before him in the bright Italian moonlight. No +remembrance of Numerian and Antonina, and of the earlier events in the +temple, remained within him. He was pondering imperfectly, in vague +pride and triumph, over the sacrifice that he had offered up at the +shrine of the Dragon of brass. Thus secretly exulting, he now remained +inactive. Absorbed in his wandering meditations, he delayed to trace +the subterranean passages leading to the iron grating where the corpse +of Goisvintha lay washed by the waters, as they struggled onward +through the bars, and waiting but his hand to be cast into the river, +where all past sacrifices had been engulphed before it. +</P> + +<P> +His tall solitary figure was lit by the moonlight streaming through the +pillars of the portico; his loose robes waved slowly about him in the +wind, as he stood firm and erect before the door of the temple: he +looked more like the spectral genius of departed Paganism than a living +man. But, lifeless though he seemed, his quick eye was still on the +watch, still directed by the restless suspicion of insanity. Minute +after minute quietly elapsed, and as yet nothing was presented to his +rapid observation but the desolate roadway, and the high, gloomy houses +that bounded it on either side. It was soon, however, destined to be +attracted by objects which startled the repose of the tranquil street +with the tumult of action and life. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He was still gazing earnestly on the narrow view before him, vaguely +imagining to himself, the while, Goisvintha's fatal descent into the +vault, and thinking triumphantly of her dead body that now lay on the +grating beneath it, when a red glare of torchlight, thrown wildly on +the moon-brightened pavement, whose purity it seemed to stain, caught +his eye. +</P> + +<P> +The light appeared at the end of the street leading from the more +central portion of the city, and ere long displayed clearly a body of +forty or fifty people advancing towards the temple. The Pagan looked +eagerly on them as they came nearer and nearer. The assembly was +composed of priests, soldiers, and citizens—the priests bearing +torches, the soldiers carrying hammers, crowbars, and other similar +tools, or bending under the weight of large chests secured with iron +fastenings, close to which the populace walked, as if guarding them +with jealous care. This strange procession was preceded by two men, +who were considerably in advance of it—a priest and soldier. An +expression of impatience and exultation appeared on their pale, +famine-wasted countenances, as they approached the temple with rapid +steps. +</P> + +<P> +Ulpius never moved from his position, but fixed his piercing eyes on +them as they advanced. Not vainly did he now stand, watchful and +menacing, before the entrance of his gloomy shrine. He had seen the +first degradations heaped on fallen Paganism, and he was now to see the +last. He had immolated all his affections and all his hopes, all his +faculties of body and mind, his happiness in boyhood, his enthusiasm in +youth, his courage in manhood, his reason in old age, at the altar of +his gods; and now they were to exact from him, in their defence, lonely +criminal, maddened, as he already was in their cause, more than all +this! The decree had gone forth from the Senate which devoted to +legalised pillage the treasures in the temples of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +Rulers of a people impoverished by former exactions, and comptrollers +only of an exhausted treasury, the government of the city had searched +vainly among all ordinary resources for the means of paying the heavy +ransom exacted by Alaric as the price of peace. The one chance of +meeting the emergency that remained was to strip the Pagan temples of +the mass of jewelled ornaments and utensils, the costly robes, the +idols of gold and silver which they were known to contain, and which, +under that mysterious hereditary influence of superstition, whose power +it is the longest labour of truth to destroy, had remained untouched +and respected, alike by the people and the senate, after the worship +that they represented had been interdicted by the laws, and abandoned +by the nation. +</P> + +<P> +This last expedient for freeing Rome from the blockade was adopted +almost as soon as imagined. The impatience of the starved populace for +the immediate collection of the ransom allowed the government little +time for the tedious preliminaries of deliberation. The soldiers were +provided at once with the necessary implements for the task imposed on +them; certain chosen members of the senate and the people followed +them, to see that they honestly gathered in the public spoil; and the +priests of the Christian churches volunteered to hallow the expedition +by their presence, and led the way with their torches into every secret +apartment of the temples where treasure might be contained. At the +close of the day, immediately after it had been authorised, this +strange search for the ransom was hurriedly commenced. Already much +had been collected; votive offerings of price had been snatched from +the altars, where they had so long hung undisturbed; hidden +treasure-chests of sacred utensils had been discovered and broken open; +idols had been stripped of their precious ornaments and torn from their +massive pedestals; and now the procession of gold-seekers, proceeding +along the banks of the Tiber, had come in sight of the little temple of +Serapis, and were hastening forward to empty it, in its turn, of every +valuable that it contained. +</P> + +<P> +The priest and the soldier, calling to their companions behind to hurry +on, had now arrived opposite the temple steps, and saw confronting them +in the pale moonlight, from the eminence on which he stood, the weird +and solitary figure of Ulpius—the apparition of a Pagan in the +gorgeous robes of his priesthood, bidden back from the tombs to stay +the hand of the spoiler before the shrine of his gods. +</P> + +<P> +The soldier dropped his weapon to the ground, and, trembling in every +limb, refused to proceed. But the priest, a tall, stern, emaciated man, +went on defenceless and undaunted. He signed himself solemnly with the +cross as he slowly ascended the steps; fixed his unflinching eyes on +the madman, who glared back on him in return; and called aloud in a +harsh, steady voice: 'Man or demon! in the name of Christ, whom thou +deniest, stand back!' +</P> + +<P> +For an instant, as the priest approached him, the Pagan averted his +eyes and looked on the concourse of people and the armed soldiers +rapidly advancing. His fingers closed round the hilt of Goisvintha's +knife, which he had hitherto held loosely in his hand, as he exclaimed +in low, concentrated tones, 'Aha! the siege—the siege of Serapis!' +The priest, now standing on the same step with him, stretched out his +arm to thrust him back, and at that moment received the stroke of the +knife. He staggered, lifted his hand again to sign his forehead with +the cross, and, as he raised it, rolled back dead on the pavement of +the street. +</P> + +<P> +The soldier, standing motionless with superstitious terror a few feet +from the corpse, called to his companions for help. Hurling his bloody +weapon at them in defiance, as they ran in confusion to the base of the +temple steps, Ulpius entered the building, and locked and chained the +gates. +</P> + +<P> +Then the assembled people thronging round the corpse of the priest, +heard the madman shouting in his frenzy, as if to a great body of +adherents round him, to pour down the molten lead and the scorching +sand; to hurl back every scaling ladder planted against the walls; to +massacre each prisoner who was seized mounting the ramparts to the +assault; and as they looked up to the building from the street, they +saw at intervals, through the bars of the closed gates, the figure of +Ulpius passing swift and shadowy, his arms extended, his long grey hair +and white robes streaming behind him, as he rushed round and round the +temple reiterating his wild Pagan war-cries as he went. The enfeebled, +superstitious populace trembled while they gazed—a spectre driven on a +whirlwind would not have been more terrible to their eyes. +</P> + +<P> +But the priest among the crowd, roused to fury by the murder of one of +their own body, revived the courage of those around them. Even the +shouts of Ulpius were now overpowered by the sound of their voices, +raised to the highest pitch, promising heavenly and earthly +rewards—salvation, money, absolution, promotion—to all who would +follow them up the steps and burst their way into the temple. Animated +by the words of the priests, and growing gradually confident in their +own numbers, the boldest in the throng seized a piece of timber lying +by the river side, and using it as a battering-ram, assailed the gate. +But they were weakened with famine; they could gain little impetus, +from the necessity of ascending the temple steps to the attack; the +iron quivered as they struck it, but hinge and lock remained firm +alike. They were preparing to renew the attempt, when a tremendous +shock—a crash as if the whole heavy roof of the building had fallen +in—drove them back in terror to the street. +</P> + +<P> +Recalled by the sight of the armed men, the priests and the attendant +crowd of people who were advancing to invade his sanctuary, to the days +when he had defended the great Temple of Serapis at Alexandria, against +enemies similar in appearance, though far superior in numbers; +persuaded in the revival of these, the most sanguinary visions of his +insanity, that he was still resisting the Christian fanatics, supported +by his adherents in his sacred fortress of former years, the Pagan +displayed none of his accustomed cunning and care in moving through the +darkness around him. He hurried hither and thither, encouraging his +imaginary followers, and glorying in his dreams of slaughter and +success, forgetful in his frenzy of all that the temple contained. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As he pursued his wild course round and round the altar of idols, his +robe became entangled, and was torn by the projecting substances at one +corner of it. The whole overhanging mass tottered at the moment, but +did not yet fall. A few of the smaller idols, however, at the outside +dropped to the ground, and with them an image of Serapis, which they +happened partially to support—a heavy monstrous figure, carved +life-size in wood, and studded with gold, silver, and precious +stones—fell at the Pagan's feet. But this was all—the outer +materials of the perilous structure had been detached only at one +point; the pile itself still remained in its place. +</P> + +<P> +The madman seized the image of Serapis in his arms, and passed blindly +onward with it through the passage in the partition into the recess +beyond. At that instant the shock of the first attack on the gates +resounded through the building. Shouting, as he heard it, 'A sally! a +sally! men of the Temple, the gods and the high priest lead you on!' +and still holding the idol before him, he rushed straight forward to +the entrance, and struck in violent collision against the backward part +of the pile. +</P> + +<P> +The ill-balanced, top-heavy mass of images and furniture of many +temples swayed, parted, and fell over against the gates and the wall on +either side of them. Maimed and bleeding, struck down by the lower +part of the pile, as it was forced back against the partition when the +upper part fell, the fury of Ulpius was but increased by the crashing +ruin around him. He struggled up again into an erect position; mounted +on the top of the fallen mass—now spread out at the sides over the +floor of the building, but confined at one end by the partition, and at +the other by the opposite wall and the gates—and still clasping the +image of Serapis in his arms, called louder and louder to 'the men of +the Temple' to mount with him the highest ramparts and pour down on the +besiegers the molten lead! +</P> + +<P> +The priests were again the first men to approach the gates of the +building after the shock that had been heard within it. The struggle +for the possession of the temple had assumed to them the character of a +holy warfare against heathenism and magic—a sacred conflict to be +sustained by the Church, for the sake of her servant who had fallen a +martyr at the outset of the strife. Strong in their fanatical +boldness, they advanced with one accord close to the gates. Some of +the smaller images of the fallen pile had been forced through the bars, +behind which appeared the great idols, the broken masses of furniture, +the long robes and costly hangings, all locked together in every wild +variety of position—a chaos of distorted objects heaped up by an +earthquake! Above and further inward, the lower part of the Pagan's +robe was faintly discernible through the upper interstices in the gate, +as he stood, commanding, on the summit of his prostrate altar, with his +idol in his arms. +</P> + +<P> +The priests felt an instant conviction of certain triumph when they +discerned the cause of the shock that had been heard within the temple. +One of their number snatched up a small image that had fallen through +to the pavement where he stood, and holding it before the people below, +exclaimed exultingly— +</P> + +<P> +'Children of the Church! the mystery is revealed! Idols more precious +than this lie by hundreds on the floor of the temple! It is no demon, +but a man, one man, who still defies us within!—a robber who would +defraud the Romans of the ransom of their lives!—the pillage of many +temples is around him. Remember now, that the nearer we came to this +place the fewer were the spoils of idolatry that we gathered in; the +treasure which is yours, the treasure which is to free you from the +famine, has been seized by the assassin of our holy brother; it is +there scattered at his feet! To the gates! To the gates again! +Absolution for all their sins to the men who burst in the gates!' +</P> + +<P> +Again the mass of timber was taken up; again the gates were assailed; +and again they stood firm—they were now strengthened, barricaded by +the fallen pile. It seemed hopeless to attempt to break them down +without a reinforcement of men, without employing against them the +heaviest missiles, the strongest engines of war. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The people gave vent to a cry of fury as they heard from the temple the +hollow laughter of the madman triumphing in their defeat. The words of +the priest, in allaying their superstitious fears, had aroused the +deadly passions that superstition brings forth. A few among the throng +hurried to the nearest guard-house for assistance, but the greater part +pressed closely round the temple—some pouring forth impotent +execrations against the robber of the public spoil, some joining the +priests in calling on him to yield. But the clamour lasted not long; +it was suddenly and strangely stilled by the voice of one man in the +crowd, calling loudly to the rest to fire the temple! +</P> + +<P> +The words were hardly spoken ere they were repeated triumphantly on all +sides. 'Fire the temple!' cried the people ferociously. 'Burn it over +the robber's head! A furnace—a furnace! to melt down the gold and +silver ready to our hands! Fire the temple! Fire the temple!' +</P> + +<P> +Those who were most active among the crowd (which was now greatly +increased by stragglers from all parts of the city) entered the houses +behind them, and returned in a few minutes with every inflammable +substance that they could collect in their hands. A heap of fuel, two +or three feet in height, was raised against the gates immediately, and +soldiers and people pressed forward with torches to light it. But the +priest who had before spoken waved them back. 'Wait!' he cried; 'the +fate of his body is with the people, but the fate of his soul is with +the Church!' +</P> + +<P> +Then, turning to the temple, he called solemnly and sternly to the +madman, 'Thy hour is come! repent, confess, and save thy soul!' +</P> + +<P> +'Slay on! slay on!' answered the raving voice from within. 'Slay, till +not a Christian is left! Victory! Serapis! See, they drop from our +walls!—they writhe bleeding on the earth beneath us! There is no +worship but the worship of the gods! Slay! Slay on!' +</P> + +<P> +'Light!' cried the priest. 'His damnation be on his own head! +Anathema! Maranatha! Let him die accursed!' +</P> + +<P> +The dry fuel was fired at once at all points—it was an anticipation of +an 'Auto da Fe', a burning of a heretic, in the fifth century! As the +flames rose, the people fell back and watched their rapid progress. +The priests, standing before them in a line, stretched out their hands +in denunciation against the temple, and repeated together the awful +excommunication service of the Roman Church. +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +The fire at the gates had communicated with the idols inside. It was +no longer on his prostrate altar, but on his funeral pile that Ulpius +now stood; and the image that he clasped was the stake to which he was +bound. A red glare, dull at first, was now brightening and brightening +below him; flames, quick and noiseless, rose and fell, and rose again, +at different points, illuminating the interior of the temple with +fitful and changing light. The grim, swarthy forms of the idols seemed +to sway and writhe like living things in torment, as fire and smoke +alternately displayed and concealed them. A deadly stillness now +overspread the face and form of the Pagan, as he looked down +steadfastly on the deities of his worship engendering his destruction +beneath him. His cheek—the cheek which had rested in boyhood on his +mother's bosom—was pressed against the gilded breast of the god +Serapis, his taskmaster in life—his pillow in death! +</P> + +<P> +'I rise! I rise to the world of light, with my deities whom I have +served!' he murmured; 'the brightness of their presence is like a +flaming fire; the smoke of their breath pours forth around me like the +smoke of incense! I minister in the Temples of the Clouds; and the +glory of eternal sunlight shines round me while I adore! I rise! I +rise!' +</P> + +<P> +The smoke whirled in black volumes over his head; the fierce voice of +the fast-spreading fire roared on him; the flames leapt up at his +feet—his robes kindled, burst into radiant light, as the pile yawned +and opened under him. +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<P> +Time had passed. The strife between the Temple and the Church was +ended. The priests and the people had formed a wider circle round the +devoted building; all that was inflammable in it had been burnt; smoke +and flame now burst only at intervals through the gates, and gradually +both ceased to appear. Then the crowd approached nearer to the temple, +and felt the heat of the furnace they had kindled, as they looked in. +</P> + +<P> +The iron gates were red hot—from the great mass behind (still glowing +bright in some places, and heaving and quivering with its own heat) a +thin, transparent vapour rose slowly to the stone roof of the building, +now blackened with smoke. The priests looked eagerly for the corpse of +the Pagan; they saw two dark, charred objects closely united together, +lying in a chasm of ashes near the gate, at a spot where the fire had +already exhausted itself, but it was impossible to discern which was +the man and which was the idol. +</P> + +<P> +The necessity of providing means for entering the temple had not been +forgotten while the flames were raging. Proper implements for forcing +open the gates were now at hand, and already the mob began to dip their +buckets in the Tiber, and pour water wherever any traces of the fire +remained. Soon all obstacles were removed; the soldiers crowded into +the building with spades in their hands, trampled on the black, watery +mire of cinders which covered what had once been the altar of idols, +and throwing out into the street the refuse ashes and the stone images +which had remained unconsumed, dug in what was left, as in a new mine, +for the gold and silver which the fire could not destroy. +</P> + +<P> +The Pagan had lived with his idols, had perished with his idols!—and +now where they were cast away, there he was cast away with them. The +soldiers, as they dug into fragments the black ruins of his altar, +mingled him in fragments with it! The people, as they cast the refuse +thrown out to them into the river, cast what remained of him with what +remained of his gods! And when the temple was deserted, when the +citizens had borne off all the treasure they could collect, when +nothing but a few heaps of dust was left of all that had been burnt, +the night-wind blew away before it the ashes of Ulpius with the ashes +of the deities that Ulpius had served! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap27"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER 27. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE VIGIL OF HOPE. +</H3> + +<P> +A new prospect now opens before us. The rough paths through which we +have hitherto threaded our way grow smoother as we approach their +close. Rome, so long dark and gloomy to our view, brightens at length +like a landscape when the rain is past and the first rays of returning +sunlight stream through the parting clouds. Some days have elapsed, +and in those days the temples have yielded all their wealth; the +conquered Romans have bribed the triumphant barbarians to mercy; the +ransom of the fallen city has been paid. +</P> + +<P> +The Gothic army is still encamped round the walls, but the gates are +opened, markets for food are established in the suburbs, boats appear +on the river and waggons on the highroads, laden with provisions, and +proceeding towards Rome. All the hidden treasure kept back by the +citizens is now bartered for food; the merchants who hold the market +reap a rich harvest of spoil, but the hungry are filled, the weak are +revived, every one is content. +</P> + +<P> +It is the end of the second day since the free sale of provisions and +the liberty of egress from the city have been permitted by the Goths. +The gates are closed for the night, and the people are quietly +returning, laden with their supplies of food, to their homes. Their +eyes no longer encounter the terrible traces of the march of pestilence +and famine through every street; the corpses have been removed, and the +sick are watched and sheltered. Rome is cleansed from her pollutions, +and the virtues of household life begin to revive wherever they once +existed. Death has thinned every family, but the survivors again +assemble together in the social hall. Even the veriest criminals, the +lowest outcasts of the population, are united harmlessly for a while in +the general participation of the first benefits of peace. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +To follow the citizens to their homes; to trace in their thoughts, +words, and action the effect on them of their deliverance from the +horrors of the blockade; to contemplate in the people of a whole city, +now recovering as it were from a deep swoon, the varying forms of the +first reviving symptoms in all classes, in good and bad, rich and +poor—would afford matter enough in itself for a romance of searching +human interest, for a drama of the passions, moving absorbingly through +strange, intricate, and contrasted scenes. But another employment than +this now claims our care. It is to an individual, and not to a divided +source of interest, that our attention turns; we relinquish all +observations on the general mass of the populace to revert to Numerian +and Antonina alone—to penetrate once more into the little dwelling on +the Pincian Hill. +</P> + +<P> +The apartment where the father and daughter had suffered the pangs of +famine together during the period of the blockade, presented an +appearance far different from that which it had displayed on the +occasion when they had last occupied it. The formerly bare walls were +now covered with rich, thick hangings; and the simple couch and scanty +table of other days had been exchanged for whatever was most luxurious +and complete in the household furniture of the age. At one end of the +room three women, attended by a little girl, were engaged in preparing +some dishes of fruit and vegetables; at the other, two men were +occupied in low, earnest conversation, occasionally looking round +anxiously to a couch placed against the third side of the apartment, on +which Antonina lay extended, while Numerian watched by her in silence. +The point of Goisvintha's knife had struck deep, but, as yet, the fatal +purpose of the assassination had failed. +</P> + +<P> +The girl's eyes were closed; her lips were parted in the languor of +suffering; one of her hands lay listless on her father's knee. A +slight expression of pain, melancholy in its very slightness, appeared +on her pale face, and occasionally a long-drawn, quivering breath +escaped her—nature's last touching utterance of its own feebleness! +The old man, as he sat by her side, fixed on her a wistful, inquiring +glance. Sometimes he raised his hand, and gently and mechanically +moved to and fro the long locks of her hair, as they spread over the +head of the couch; but he never turned to communicate with the other +persons in the room—he sat as if he saw nothing save his daughter's +figure stretched before him, and heard nothing save the faint, +fluttering sound of her breathing, close at his ear. +</P> + +<P> +It was now dark, and one lamp hanging from the ceiling threw a soft +equal light over the room. The different persons occupying it +presented but little evidence of health and strength in their +countenances, to contrast them in appearance with the wounded girl; all +had undergone the wasting visitation of the famine, and all were pale +and languid, like her. A strange, indescribable harmony prevailed over +the scene. Even the calmness of absorbing expectation and trembling +hope, expressed in the demeanour of Numerian, seemed reflected in the +actions of those around him, in the quietness with which the women +pursued their employment, in the lower and lower whispers in which the +men continued their conversation. There was something pervading the +air of the whole apartment that conveyed a sense of the solemn, +unworldly stillness which we attach to the abstract idea of religion. +</P> + +<P> +Of the two men cautiously talking together, one was the patrician, +Vetranio; the other, a celebrated physician of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +Both the countenance and manner of the senator gave melancholy proof +that the orgie at his palace had altered him for the rest of his life. +He looked what he was, a man changed for ever in constitution and +character. A fixed expression of anxiety and gloom appeared in his +eyes; his emaciated face was occasionally distorted by a nervous, +involuntary contraction of the muscles; it was evident that the +paralysing effect of the debauch which had destroyed his companions +would remain with him to the end of his existence. No remnant of his +careless self-possession, his easy, patrician affability, appeared in +his manner, as he now listened to his companion's conversation; years +seemed to have been added to his life since he had headed the table at +'The Banquet of Famine'. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Yes,' said the physician, a cold, calm man, who spoke much, but +pronounced all his words with emphatic deliberation,—'Yes, as I have +already told you, the wound in itself was not mortal. If the blade of +the knife had entered near the centre of the neck, she must have died +when she was struck. But it passed outwards and backwards; the large +vessels escaped, and no vital part has been touched.' +</P> + +<P> +'And yet you persist in declaring that you doubt her recovery!' +exclaimed Vetranio, in low, mournful tones. +</P> + +<P> +'I do,' pursued the physician. 'She must have been exhausted in mind +and body when she received the blow—I have watched her carefully; I +know it! There is nothing of the natural health and strength of youth +to oppose the effects of the wound. I have seen the old die from +injuries that the young recover, because life in them was losing its +powers of resistance; she is in the position of the old!' +</P> + +<P> +'They have died before me, and she will die before me! I shall lose +all—all!' sighed Vetranio bitterly to himself. +</P> + +<P> +'The resources of our art are exhausted,' continued the other; 'nothing +remains but to watch carefully and wait patiently. The chances of life +or death will be decided in a few hours; they are equally balanced now.' +</P> + +<P> +'I shall lose all!—all!' repeated the senator mournfully, as if he +heeded not the last words. +</P> + +<P> +'If she dies,' said the physician, speaking in warmer tones, for he was +struck with pity, in spite of himself, at the spectacle of Vetranio's +utter dejection, 'if she dies, you can at least remember that all that +could be done to secure her life has been done by you. Her father, +helpless in his lethargy and his age, was fitted only to sit and watch +her, as he has sat and watched her day after day; but you have spared +nothing, forgotten nothing. Whatever I have asked for, that you have +provided; the hangings round the room, and the couch that she lies on, +are yours; the first fresh supplies of nourishment from the +newly-opened markets were brought here from you; I told you that she +was thinking incessantly of what she had suffered, that it was +necessary to preserve her against her own recollections, that the +presence of women about her might do good, that a child appearing +sometimes in the room might soothe her fancy, might make her look at +what was passing, instead of thinking of what had passed—you found +them, and sent them! I have seen parents less anxious for their +children, lovers for their mistresses, than you for this girl.' +</P> + +<P> +'My destiny is with her,' interrupted Vetranio, looking round +superstitiously to the frail form on the couch. 'I know nothing of the +mysteries that the Christians call their "Faith", but I believe now in +the soul; I believe that one soul contains the fate of another, and +that her soul contains the fate of mine!' +</P> + +<P> +The physician shook his head derisively. His calling had determined +his philosophy—he was as ardent a materialist as Epicurus himself. +</P> + +<P> +'Listen,' said Vetranio; 'since I first saw her, a change came over my +whole being; it was as if her life was mingled with mine! I had no +influence over her, save an influence for ill: I loved her, and she +was driven defenceless from her home! I sent my slaves to search Rome +night and day; I exerted all my power, I lavished my wealth to discover +her; and, for the first time in this one effort, I failed in what I had +undertaken. I felt that through me she was lost—dead! Days passed +on; life weighed weary on me; the famine came. You know in what way I +determined that my career should close; the rumour of the Banquet of +Famine reached you as it reached others!' +</P> + +<P> +'It did,' replied the physician. 'And I see before me in your face,' +he added, after a momentary pause, 'the havoc which that ill-omened +banquet has worked. My friend, be advised!—abandon for ever the +turmoil of your Roman palace, and breathe in tranquillity the air of a +country home. The strength you once had is gone never to return—if +you would yet live, husband what is still left.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Hear me,' pursued Vetranio, in low, gloomy tones. 'I stood alone in +my doomed palace; the friends whom I had tempted to their destruction +lay lifeless around me; the torch was in my hand that was to light our +funeral pile, to set us free from the loathsome world! I approached +triumphantly to kindle the annihilating flames, when she stood before +me—she, whom I had sought as lost and mourned as dead! A strong hand +seemed to wrench the torch from me; it dropped to the ground! She +departed again; but I was powerless to take it up; her look was still +before me; her face, her figure, she herself, appeared ever watching +between the torch and me!' +</P> + +<P> +'Lower!—speak lower!' interrupted the physician, looking on the +senator's agitated features with unconcealed astonishment and pity. +'You retard your own recovery,—you disturb the girl's repose by +discourse such as this.' +</P> + +<P> +'The officers of the senate,' continued Vetranio, sadly resuming his +gentler tones, 'when they entered the palace, found me still standing +on the place where we had met! Days passed on again; I stood looking +out upon the street, and thought of my companions whom I had lured to +their death, and of my oath to partake their fate, which I had never +fulfilled. I would have driven my dagger to my heart; but her face was +yet before me, my hands were bound! In that hour I saw her for the +second time; saw her carried past me—wounded, assassinated! She had +saved me once; she had saved me twice! I knew that now the chance was +offered me, after having wrought her ill, to work her good; after +failing to discover her when she was lost, to succeed in saving her +when she was dying; after having survived the deaths of my friends at +my own table, to survive to see life restored under my influence, as +well as destroyed! These were my thoughts; these are my thoughts +still—thoughts felt only since I saw her! Do you know now why I +believe that her soul contains the fate of mine? Do you see me, +weakened, shattered, old before my time; my friends lost, my fresh +feelings of youth gone for ever; and can you not now comprehend that +her life is my life?—that if she dies, the one good purpose of my +existence is blighted?—that I lose all I have henceforth to live +for?—all, all!' +</P> + +<P> +As he pronounced the concluding words, the girl's eyes half unclosed, +and turned languidly towards her father. She made an effort to lift +her hand caressingly from his knee to his neck; but her strength was +unequal even to this slight action. The hand was raised only a few +inches ere it sank back again to its old position; a tear rolled slowly +over her cheek as she closed her eyes again, but she never spoke. +</P> + +<P> +'See,' said the physician, pointing to her, 'the current of life is at +its lowest ebb! If it flows again, it must flow to-night.' +</P> + +<P> +Vetranio made no answer; he dropped down on the seat near him, and +covered his face with his robe. +</P> + +<P> +The physician, beholding the senator's situation, and reflecting on the +strange hurriedly-uttered confession which had just been addressed to +him, began to doubt whether the scenes through which his patron had +lately passed had not affected his brain. Philosopher though he was, +the man of science had never observed the outward symptoms of the first +working of good and pure influences in elevating a degraded mind; he +had never watched the denoting signs of speech and action which mark +the progress of mental revolution while the old nature is changing for +the new; such objects of contemplation existed not for him. He gently +touched Vetranio on the shoulder. 'Rise,' said he, 'and let us depart. +Those are around her who can watch her best. Nothing remains for us +but to wait and hope. With the earliest morning we will return.' +</P> + +<P> +He delivered a few farewell directions to one of the women in +attendance, and then, accompanied by the senator, who, without speaking +again, mechanically rose to follow him, quitted the room. After this, +the silence was only interrupted by the sound of an occasional whisper, +and of quick, light footsteps passing backwards and forwards. Then the +cooling, reviving draughts which had been prepared for the night were +poured ready into the cups; and the women approached Numerian, as if to +address him, but he waved his hand impatiently when he saw them; and +then they too, in their turn, departed, to wait in an adjoining +apartment until they should be summoned again. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Nothing changed in the manner of the father when he was left alone in +the chamber of sickness, which the lapse of a few hours might convert +into the chamber of death. He sat watching Antonina, and touching the +outspread locks of her hair from time to time, as had been his wont. +It was a fair, starry night; the fresh air of the soft winter climate +of the South blew gently over the earth, the great city was sinking +fast into tranquillity, calling voices were sometimes heard faintly +from the principal streets, and the distant noises of martial music +sounded cheerily from the Gothic camp as the sentinels were posted +along the line of watch; but soon these noises ceased, and the +stillness of Rome was as the stillness round the couch of the wounded +girl. +</P> + +<P> +Day after day, and night after night, since the assassination in the +temple, Numerian had kept the same place by his daughter's side. Each +hour as it passed found him still absorbed in his long vigil of hope; +his life seemed suspended in its onward course by the one influence +that now enthralled it. At the brief intervals when his bodily +weariness overpowered him on his melancholy watch, it was observed by +those around him that, even in his short dreaming clumbers, his face +remained ever turned in the same direction, towards the head of the +couch, as if drawn thither by some irresistible attraction, by some +powerful ascendancy, felt even amid the deepest repose of sensation, +the heaviest fatigue of the overlaboured mind, and worn, sinking heart. +He held no communication, save by signs, with the friends about him; he +seemed neither to hope, to doubt, nor to despair with them; all his +faculties were strung up to vibrate at one point only, and were dull +and unimpressible in every other direction. +</P> + +<P> +But twice had he been heard to speak more than the fewest, simplest +words. The first time, when Antonina uttered the name of Goisvintha, +on the recovery of her senses after her wound, he answered eagerly by +reiterated declarations that there was nothing henceforth to fear; for +he had seen the assassin dead under the Pagan's foot on leaving the +temple. The second time, when mention was incautiously made before him +of rumours circulated through Rome of the burning of an unknown Pagan +priest, hidden in the temple of Serapis, with vast treasures around +him, the old man was seen to start and shudder, and heard to pray for +the soul that was now waiting before the dread judgment-seat; to murmur +about a vain restoration and a discovery made too late; to mourn over +horror that thickened round him, over hope fruitlessly awakened, and +bereavement more terrible than mortal had ever suffered before; to +entreat that the child, the last left of all, might be spared—with +many words more, which ran on themes like these, and which were counted +by all who listened to them but as the wanderings of a mind whose +higher powers were fatally prostrated by feebleness and grief. +</P> + +<P> +One long hour of the night had already passed away since parent and +child had been left together, and neither word nor movement had been +audible in the melancholy room. But, as the second hour began, the +girl's eyes unclosed again, and she moved painfully on the couch. +Accustomed to interpret the significance of her slightest actions, +Numerian rose and brought her one of the reviving draughts that had +been left ready for use. After she had drunk, when her eyes met her +father's fixed on her in mute and mournful inquiry, her lips closed, +and formed themselves into an expression which he remembered they had +always assumed when, as a little child, she used silently to hold up +her face to him to be kissed. The miserable contrast between what she +was now and what she had been them, was beyond the passive endurance, +the patient resignation of the spirit-broken old man; the empty cup +dropped from his hands, he knelt down by the side of the couch and +groaned aloud. +</P> + +<P> +'O father! father!' cried the weak, plaintive voice above him. 'I am +dying! Let us remember that our time to be together here grows shorter +and shorter, and let us pass it as happily as we can!' +</P> + +<P> +He raised his head, and looked up at her, vacant and wistful, forlorn +already, as if the death-parting was over. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'I have tried to live humbly and gratefully,' she sighed faintly. 'I +have longed to do more good on the earth than I have done! Yet you +will forgive me now, father, as you have always forgiven me! You have +been patient with me all my life; more patient than I have ever +deserved! But I had no mother to teach me to love you as I ought, to +teach me what I know now, when my death is near, and time and +opportunity are mine no longer!' +</P> + +<P> +'Hush! hush!' whispered the old man affrightedly; 'you will live! God +is good, and knows that we have suffered enough. The curse of the last +separation is not pronounced against us! Live, live!' +</P> + +<P> +'Father,' said the girl tenderly, 'we have that within us which not +death itself can separate. In another world I shall still think of you +when you think of me! I shall see you even when I am no more here, +when you long to see me! When you go out alone, and sit under the +trees on the garden bank where I used to sit; when you look forth on +the far plains and mountains that I used to look on; when you read at +night in the Bible that we have read in together, and remember Antonina +as you lie down sorrowful to rest; then I shall see you! then you will +feel that I am looking on you! You will be calm and consoled, even by +the side of my grave; for you will think, not of the body that is +beneath, but of the spirit that is waiting for you, as I have often +waited for you here when you were away, and I knew that the approach of +the evening would bring you home again!' +</P> + +<P> +'Hush! you will live!—you will live!' repeated Numerian in the same +low, vacant tones. The strength that still upheld him was in those few +simple words; they were the food of a hope that was born in agony and +cradled in despair. +</P> + +<P> +'Oh, if I might live!' said the girl softly, 'if I might live but for a +few days yet, how much I have to live for!' She endeavoured to bend +her head towards her father as she spoke; for the words were beginning +to fall faintly and more faintly from her lips—exhaustion was +mastering her once again. She dwelt for a moment now on the name of +Hermanric, on the grave in the farm-house garden; then reverted again +to her father. The last feeble sounds she uttered were addressed to +him; and their burden was still of consolation and of love. +</P> + +<P> +Soon the old man, as he stooped over her, saw her eyes close +again—those innocent, gentle eyes which even yet preserved their old +expression while the face grew wan and pale around them—and darkness +and night sank down over his soul while he looked. 'She sleeps,' he +murmured in a voice of awe, as he resumed his watching position by the +side of the couch. 'They call death a sleep; but on her face there is +no death!' +</P> + +<P> +The night grew on. The women who were in attendance entered the room +about midnight, wondering that their assistance had not yet been +required. They beheld the solemn, unruffled composure on the girl's +wasted face; the rapt attention of Numerian, as he ever preserved the +same attitude by her side; and went out again softly without uttering a +word, even in a whisper. There was something dread and impressive in +the very appearance of this room, where Death, that destroys, was in +mortal conflict with Youth and Beauty, that adorn, while the eyes of +one old man watched in loneliness the awful progress of the strife. +</P> + +<P> +Morning came, and still there was no change. Once, when the lamp that +lit the room was fading out as the dawn appeared, Numerian had risen +and looked close on his daughter's face—he thought at that moment that +her features moved; but he saw that the flickering of the dying light +on them had deceived him; the same stillness was over her. He placed +his ear close to her lips for an instant, and then resumed his place, +not stirring from it again. The slow current of his blood seemed to +have come to a pause—he was waiting as a man waits with his head on +the block ere the axe descends—as a mother waits to hear that the +breath of life has entered her new-born child. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The sun rose bright in a cloudless sky. As the fresh, sharp air of the +early dawn warmed under its spreading rays, the women entered the +apartment again, and partly drew aside the curtain and shutter from the +window. The beams of the new light fell fair and glorifying on the +girl's face; the faint, calm breezed ruffled the lighter locks of her +hair. Once this would have awakened her; but it did not disturb her +now. +</P> + +<P> +Soon after the voice of the child who sojourned with the women in the +house was heard beneath, in the hall, through the half-opened door of +the room. The little creature was slowly ascending the stairs, singing +her faltering morning song to herself. She was preceded on her +approach by a tame dove, bought at the provision market outside the +walls, but preserved for the child as a pet and plaything by its +mother. The bird fluttered, cooing, into the room, perched upon the +head of the couch, and began dressing its feathers there. The women +had caught the infection of the old man's enthralling suspense; and +moved not to bid the child retire, or to take away the dove from its +place—they watched like him. But the soft, lulling notes of the bird +were powerless over the girl's ear, as the light sunbeam over her +face—still she never woke. +</P> + +<P> +The child entered, and pausing in her song, climbed on to the side of +the couch. She held out one little hand for the dove to perch upon, +placed the other lightly on Antonina's shoulder, and pressed her fresh, +rosy lips to girl's faded cheek. 'I and my bird have come to make +Antonina well this morning,' she said gravely. +</P> + +<P> +The still, heavily-closed eyelids moved!—they quivered, opened, +closed, then opened again. The eyes had a faint, dreaming, unconscious +look; but Antonina lived! Antonina was awakened at last to another day +on earth! +</P> + +<P> +Her father's rigid, straining gaze still remained fixed upon her as at +first, but on his countenance there was a blank, an absence of all +appearance of sensation and life. The women, as they looked on +Antonina and looked on him, began to weep; the child resumed very +softly its morning song, now addressing it to the wounded girl and now +to the dove. +</P> + +<P> +At this moment Vetranio and the physician appeared on the scene. The +latter advanced to the couch, removed the child from it, and examined +Antonina intently. At length, partly addressing Numerian, partly +speaking to himself, he said: 'She has slept long, deeply, without +moving, almost without breathing—a sleep like death to all who looked +on it.' +</P> + +<P> +The old man spoke not in reply, but the women answered eagerly in the +affirmative. +</P> + +<P> +'She is saved,' pursued the physician, leisurely quitting the side of +the couch and smiling on Vetranio; 'be careful of her for days and days +to come.' +</P> + +<P> +'Saved! saved!' echoed the child joyfully, setting the dove free in the +room, and running to Numerian to climb on his knees. The father +glanced down when the clear young voice sounded in his ear. The +springs of joy, so long dried up in his heart, welled forth again as he +saw the little hands raised towards him entreatingly; his grey head +drooped—he wept. +</P> + +<P> +At a sign from the physician the child was led from the room. The +silence of deep and solemn emotion was preserved by all who remained; +nothing was heard but the suppressed sobs of the old man, and the +faint, retiring notes of the infant voice still singing its morning +song. And now one word, joyfully reiterated again and again, made all +the burden of the music— +</P> + +<P> +'SAVED! SAVED!' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap28"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CONCLUSION. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +'UBI THESAURUS IBI COR.' +</H3> + +<P> +Shortly after the opening of the provision markets outside the gates of +Rome, the Goths broke up their camp before the city and retired to +winter quarters in Tuscany. The negotiations which ensued between +Alaric and the Court and Government at Ravenna, were conducted with +cunning moderation by the conqueror, and with infatuated audacity by +the conquered, and ultimately terminated in a resumption of +hostilities. Rome was besieged a second and a third time by 'the +barbarians'. On the latter occasion the city was sacked, its palaces +were burnt, its treasures were seized; the monuments of the Christian +religion were alone respected. +</P> + +<P> +But it is no longer with the Goths that our narrative is concerned; the +connection with them which it has hitherto maintained closes with the +end of the first siege of Rome. We can claim the reader's attention +for historical events no more—the march of our little pageant, arrayed +for his pleasure, is over. If, however, he has felt, and still +retains, some interest in Antonina, he will not refuse to follow us, +and look on her again ere we part. +</P> + +<P> +More than a month had passed since the besieging army had retired to +their winter quarters, when several of the citizens of Rome assembled +themselves on the plains beyond the walls, to enjoy one of those rustic +festivals of ancient times, which are still celebrated, under different +usages, but with the same spirit, by the Italians of modern days. +</P> + +<P> +The place was a level plot of ground beyond the Pincian Gate, backed by +a thick grove of pine trees, and looking towards the north over the +smooth extent of the country round Rome. The persons congregated were +mostly of the lower class. Their amusements were dancing, music, games +of strength and games of chance; and, above all, to people who had +lately suffered the extremities of famine, abundant eating and +drinking—long, serious, ecstatic enjoyment of the powers of +mastication and the faculties of taste. +</P> + +<P> +Among the assembly were some individuals whose dress and manner raised +them, outwardly at least, above the general mass. These persons walked +backwards and forwards together on different parts of the ground as +observers, not as partakers in the sports. One of their number, +however, in whatever direction he turned, preserved an isolated +position. He held an open letter in his hand, which he looked at from +time to time, and appeared to be wholly absorbed in his own thoughts. +This man we may advantageously particularise on his own account, as +well as on account of the peculiarity of his accidental situation; for +he was the favoured minister of Vetranio's former pleasures—'the +industrious Carrio'. +</P> + +<P> +The freedman (who was last introduced to the reader in Chapter XIV., as +exhibiting to Vetranio the store of offal which he had collected during +the famine for the consumption of the palace) had contrived of late +greatly to increase his master's confidence in him. On the +organisation of the Banquet of Famine, he had discreetly refrained from +testifying the smallest desire to save himself from the catastrophe in +which the senator and his friends had determined to involve themselves. +Securing himself in a place of safety, he awaited the end of the orgie; +and when he found that its unexpected termination left his master still +living to employ him, appeared again as a faithful servant, ready to +resume his customary occupation with undiminished zeal. +</P> + +<P> +After the dispersion of his household during the famine, and amid the +general confusion of the social system in Rome, on the raising of the +blockade, Vetranio found no one near him that he could trust but +Carrio—and he trusted him. Nor was the confidence misplaced: the man +was selfish and sordid enough; but these very qualities ensured his +fidelity to his master as long as that master retained the power to +punish and the capacity to reward. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The letter which Carrio held in his hand was addressed to him at a +villa—from which he had just returned—belonging to Vetranio, on the +shores of the Bay of Naples, and was written by the senator from Rome. +The introductory portions of this communication seemed to interest the +freedman but little: they contained praises of his diligence in +preparing the country-house for the immediate habitation of its owner, +and expressed his master's anxiety to quit Rome as speedily as +possible, for the sake of living in perfect tranquillity, and breathing +the reviving air of the sea, as the physicians had counselled. It was +the latter part of the letter that Carrio perused and re-perused, and +then meditated over with unwonted attention and labour of mind. It ran +thus:— +</P> + +<P> +'I have now to repose in you a trust, which you will execute with +perfect fidelity as you value my favour or respect the wealth from +which you may obtain your reward. When you left Rome you left the +daughter of Numerian lying in danger of death: she has since revived. +Questions that I have addressed to her during her recovery have +informed me of much in her history that I knew not before; and have +induced me to purchase, for reasons of my own, a farm-house and its +lands, beyond the suburbs. (The extent of the place and its situation +are written on the vellum that is within this.) The husbandman who +cultivated the property had survived the famine, and will continue to +cultivate it for me. But it is my desire that the garden, and all that +it contains, shall remain entirely at the disposal of Numerian and his +daughter, who may often repair to it; and who must henceforth be +regarded there as occupying my place and having my authority. You will +divide your time between overlooking the few slaves whom I leave at the +palace in my absence, and the husbandman and his labourers whom I have +installed at the farm; and you will answer to me for the due +performance of your own duties and the duties of those under you—being +assured that by well filling this office you will serve your own +interests in these, and in all things besides.' +</P> + +<P> +The letter concluded by directing the freedman to return to Rome on a +certain day, and to go to the farm-house at an appointed hour, there to +meet his master, who had further directions to give him, and who would +visit the newly acquired property before he proceeded on his journey to +Naples. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing could exceed the perplexity of Carrio as he read the passage in +his patron's letter which we have quoted above. Remembering the +incidents attending Vetranio's early connection with Antonina and her +father, the mere circumstances of a farm having been purchased to +flatter what was doubtless some accidental caprice on the part of the +girl, would have little perplexed him. But that this act should be +followed by the senator's immediate separation of himself from the +society of Numerian's daughter; that she was to gain nothing after all +from these lands which had evidently been bought at her instigation, +but the authority over a little strip of garden; and yet, the +inviolability of this valueless privilege should be insisted on in such +serious terms, and with such an imperative tone of command as the +senator had never been known to use before—these were inconsistencies +which all Carrio's ingenuity failed to reconcile. The man had been +born and reared in vice; vice had fed him, clothed him, freed him, +given him character, reputation, power in his own small way—he lived +in it as in the atmosphere that he breathed; to show him an action, +referable only to a principle of pure integrity, was to set him a +problem which it was hopeless to solve. And yet it is impossible, in +one point of view, to pronounce him utterly worthless. Ignorant of all +distinctions between good and bad, he thought wrong from sheer +inability to see right. +</P> + +<P> +However his instructions might perplex him, he followed them now—and +continued in after days to follow them—to the letter. If to serve +one's own interests be an art, of that art Carrio deserved to be head +professor. He arrived at the farm-house, not only punctually, but +before the appointed time, and calling the honest husbandman and the +labourers about him, explained to them every particular of the +authority that his patron had vested in him, with a flowing and +peremptory solemnity of speech which equally puzzled and impressed his +simple audience. He found Numerian and Antonina in the garden when he +entered it. The girl had been carried there daily in a litter since +her recovery, and her father had followed. They were never separated +now; the old man, when his first absorbing anxiety for her was calmed, +remembered again more distinctly the terrible disclosure in the temple, +and the yet more terrible catastrophe that followed it, and he sought +constant refuge from the horror of the recollection in the presence of +his child. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The freedman, during his interview with the father and daughter, +observed, for once, an involuntary and unfeigned respect; but he spoke +briefly, and left them together again almost immediately. Humble and +helpless as they were, they awed him; they looked, thought, and spoke +like beings of another nature than his; they were connected, he knew +not how, with the mystery of the grave in the garden. He would have +been self-possessed in the presence of the Emperor himself, but he was +uneasy in theirs. So he retired to the more congenial scene of the +public festival which was in the immediate neighbourhood of the +farm-house, to await the hour of his patron's arrival, and to perplex +himself afresh by a re-perusal of Vetranio's letter. +</P> + +<P> +The time was now near at hand when it was necessary for the freedman to +return to his appointed post. He carefully rolled up his note of +instructions, stood for a few minutes vacantly regarding the amusements +which had hitherto engaged so little of his attention, and then, +turning, he proceeded through the pine-grove on his way back. We will +follow him. +</P> + +<P> +On leaving the grove, a footpath conducted over some fields to the +farm-house. Arrived here, Carrio hesitated for a moment; then moved +slowly onward to await his master's approach in the lane that led to +the highroad. At this point we will part company with him, to enter +the garden by the wicket-gate. +</P> + +<P> +The trees, the flower-beds, and the patches of grass, all remained in +their former positions—nothing had been added or taken away since the +melancholy days that were past; but a change was visible in Hermanric's +grave. The turf above it had been renewed, and a border of small +evergreen shrubs was planted over the track which Goisvintha's +footsteps had traced. A white marble cross was raised at one end of +the mound; the short Latin inscription on it signified—'PRAY FOR THE +DEAD'. +</P> + +<P> +The sunlight was shining calmly over the grave, and over Numerian and +Antonina as they sat by it. Sometimes when the mirth grew louder at the +rustic festival, it reached them in faint, subdued notes; sometimes +they heard the voices of the labourers in the neighbouring fields +talking to each other at their work; but, besides these, no other +sounds were loud enough to be distinguished. There was still an +expression of the melancholy and feebleness that grief and suffering +leave behind them on the countenances of the father and daughter; but +resignation and peace appeared there as well—resignation that was +perfected by the hard teaching of woe, and peace that was purer for +being imparted from the one to the other, like the strong and deathless +love from which it grew. +</P> + +<P> +There was something now in the look and attitude of the girl, as she +sat thinking of the young warrior who had died in her defence and for +her love, and training the shrubs to grow closer round the grave, +which, changed though she was, recalled in a different form the old +poetry and tranquillity of her existence when we first saw her singing +to the music of her lute in the garden on the Pincian Hill. No thoughts +of horror and despair were suggested to her as she now looked on the +farm-house scene. Hers was not the grief which shrinks selfishly from +all that revives the remembrance of the dead: to her, their influence +over the memory was a grateful and a guardian influence that gave a +better purpose to the holiest life, and a nobler nature to the purest +thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +Thus they were sitting by the grave, sad yet content; footsore already +on the pilgrimage of life, yet patient to journey farther if they +might—when an unusual tumult, a noise of rolling wheels, mingled with +a confused sound of voices, was heard in the lane behind them. They +looked round, and saw that Vetranio was approaching them alone through +the wicket-gate. +</P> + +<P> +He came forward slowly; the stealthy poison instilled by the Banquet of +Famine palpably displayed its presence within him as the clear sunlight +fell on his pale, wasted face. He smiled kindly as he addressed +Antonina; but the bodily pain and mental agitation which that smile was +intended to conceal, betrayed themselves in his troubled voice as he +spoke. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'This is our last meeting for years—it may be our last meeting for +life,' he said; 'I linger at the outset of my journey, but to behold +you as guardian of the one spot of ground that is most precious to you +on earth—as mistress, indeed, of the little that I give you here!' He +paused a moment and pointed to the grave, then continued: 'All the +atonement that I owe to you, you can never know—I can never +tell!—think only that I bear away with me a companion in the solitude +to which I go in the remembrance of you. Be calm, good, happy still, +for my sake, and while you forgive the senator of former days, forget +not the friend who now parts from you in some sickness and sorrow, but +also in much patience and hope! Farewell!' +</P> + +<P> +His hand trembled as he held it out; a flush overspread the girl's +cheek while she murmured a few inarticulate words of gratitude, and, +bending over it, pressed it to her lips. Vetranio's heart beat quick; +the action revived an emotion that he dared not cherish; but he looked +at the wan, downcast face before him, at the grave that rose mournful +by his side, and quelled it again. Yet an instant he lingered to +exchange a farewell with the old man, then turned quickly, passed +through the gate, and they saw him no more. +</P> + +<P> +Antonina's tears fell fast on the grass beneath as she resumed her +place. When she raised her head again, and saw that her father was +looking at her, she nestled close to him and laid one of her arms round +his neck: the other gradually dropped to her side, until her hand +reached the topmost leaves of the shrubs that grew round the grave. +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +Shall we longer delay in the farm-house garden? No! For us, as for +Vetranio, it is now time to depart! While peace still watches round the +walls of Rome; while the hearts of the father and daughter still repose +together in security, after the trials that have wrung them, let us +quit the scene! Here, at last, the narrative that we have followed +over a dark and stormy track reposes on a tranquil field; and here let +us cease to pursue it! +</P> + +<P> +So the traveller who traces the course of a river wanders through the +day among the rocks and precipices that lead onward from its troubled +source; and, when the evening is at hand, pauses and rests where the +banks are grassy and the stream is smooth. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTONINA *** + +***** This file should be named 3606-h.htm or 3606-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/0/3606/ + +Produced by Bronwyn Margaret Evans. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</BODY> + +</HTML> + + diff --git a/3606.txt b/3606.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f437f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/3606.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17436 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins + +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: Antonina + +Author: Wilkie Collins + +Posting Date: April 21, 2009 [EBook #3606] +Release Date: February 26, 2007 +First Posted: June 12, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTONINA *** + + + + +Produced by Bronwyn Margaret Evans. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +ANTONINA + +OR, THE FALL OF ROME + + +by + +WILKIE COLLINS + + + + +PREFACE + +In preparing to compose a fiction founded on history, the writer of +these pages thought it no necessary requisite of such a work that the +principal characters appearing in it should be drawn from the +historical personages of the period. On the contrary, he felt that +some very weighty objections attached to this plan of composition. He +knew well that it obliged a writer to add largely from invention to +what was actually known--to fill in with the colouring of romantic +fancy the bare outline of historic fact--and thus to place the +novelist's fiction in what he could not but consider most unfavourable +contrast to the historian's truth. He was further by no means +convinced that any story in which historical characters supplied the +main agents, could be preserved in its fit unity of design and +restrained within its due limits of development, without some +falsification or confusion of historical dates--a species of poetical +licence of which he felt no disposition to avail himself, as it was his +main anxiety to make his plot invariably arise and proceed out of the +great events of the era exactly in the order in which they occurred. + +Influenced, therefore, by these considerations, he thought that by +forming all his principal characters from imagination, he should be +able to mould them as he pleased to the main necessities of the story; +to display them, without any impropriety, as influenced in whatever +manner appeared most strikingly interesting by its minor incidents; and +further, to make them, on all occasions, without trammel or hindrance, +the practical exponents of the spirit of the age, of all the various +historical illustrations of the period, which the Author's researches +among conflicting but equally important authorities had enabled him to +garner up, while, at the same time, the appearance of verisimilitude +necessary to an historical romance might, he imagined, be successfully +preserved by the occasional introduction of the living characters of +the era, in those portions of the plot comprising events with which +they had been remarkably connected. + +On this plan the recent work has been produced. + + +To the fictitious characters alone is committed the task of +representing the spirit of the age. The Roman emperor, Honorius, and +the Gothic king, Alaric, mix but little personally in the business of +the story--only appearing in such events, and acting under such +circumstances, as the records of history strictly authorise; but exact +truth in respect to time, place, and circumstance is observed in every +historical event introduced in the plot, from the period of the march +of the Gothic invaders over the Alps to the close of the first +barbarian blockade of Rome. + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER 1. GOISVINTHA. + +CHAPTER 2. THE COURT. + +CHAPTER 3. ROME. + +CHAPTER 4. THE CHURCH. + +CHAPTER 5. ANTONINA. + +CHAPTER 6. AN APPRENTICESHIP TO THE TEMPLE. + +CHAPTER 7. THE BED-CHAMBER. + +CHAPTER 8. THE GOTHS. + +CHAPTER 9. THE TWO INTERVIEWS. + +CHAPTER 10. THE RIFT IN THE WALL. + +CHAPTER 11. GOISVINTHA'S RETURN. + +CHAPTER 12. THE PASSAGE OF THE WALL. + +CHAPTER 13. THE HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS. + +CHAPTER 14. THE FAMINE. + +CHAPTER 15. THE CITY AND THE GODS. + +CHAPTER 16. LOVE MEETINGS. + +CHAPTER 17. THE HUNS. + +CHAPTER 18. THE FARM-HOUSE. + +CHAPTER 19. THE GUARDIAN RESTORED. + +CHAPTER 20. THE BREACH REPASSED. + +CHAPTER 21. FATHER AND CHILD. + +CHAPTER 22. THE BANQUET OF FAMINE. + +CHAPTER 23. THE LAST EFFORTS OF THE BESIEGED. + +CHAPTER 24. THE GRAVE AND THE CAMP. + +CHAPTER 25. THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH. + +CHAPTER 26. RETRIBUTION. + +CHAPTER 27. THE VIGIL OF HOPE. + +THE CONCLUSION. 'UBI THESAURUS IBI COR.' + + + +CHAPTER 1. + +GOISVINTHA. + +The mountains forming the range of Alps which border on the +north-eastern confines of Italy, were, in the autumn of the year 408, +already furrowed in numerous directions by the tracks of the invading +forces of those northern nations generally comprised under the +appellation of Goths. + +In some places these tracks were denoted on either side by fallen +trees, and occasionally assumed, when half obliterated by the ravages +of storms, the appearance of desolate and irregular marshes. In other +places they were less palpable. Here, the temporary path was entirely +hidden by the incursions of a swollen torrent; there, it was faintly +perceptible in occasional patches of soft ground, or partly traceable +by fragments of abandoned armour, skeletons of horses and men, and +remnants of the rude bridges which had once served for passage across a +river or transit over a precipice. + +Among the rocks of the topmost of the range of mountains immediately +overhanging the plains of Italy, and presenting the last barrier to the +exertions of a traveller or the march of an invader, there lay, at the +beginning of the fifth century, a little lake. Bounded on three sides +by precipices, its narrow banks barren of verdure or habitations, and +its dark and stagnant waters brightened but rarely by the presence of +the lively sunlight, this solitary spot--at all times +mournful--presented, on the autumn of the day when our story commences, +an aspect of desolation at once dismal to the eye and oppressive to the +heart. + +It was near noon; but no sun appeared in the heaven. The dull clouds, +monotonous in colour and form, hid all beauty in the firmament, and +shed heavy darkness on the earth. Dense, stagnant vapours clung to the +mountain summits; from the drooping trees dead leaves and rotten +branches sunk, at intervals, on the oozy soil, or whirled over the +gloomy precipice; and a small steady rain fell, slow and +unintermitting, upon the deserts around. Standing upon the path which +armies had once trodden, and which armies were still destined to tread, +and looking towards the solitary lake, you heard, at first, no sound +but the regular dripping of the rain-drops from rock to rock; you saw +no prospect but the motionless waters at your feet, and the dusky crags +which shadowed them from above. When, however, impressed by the +mysterious loneliness of the place, the eye grew more penetrating and +the ear more attentive, a cavern became apparent in the precipices +round the lake; and, in the intervals of the heavy rain-drops, were +faintly perceptible the sounds of a human voice. + +The mouth of the cavern was partly concealed by a large stone, on which +were piled some masses of rotten brushwood, as if for the purpose of +protecting any inhabitant it might contain from the coldness of the +atmosphere without. Placed at the eastward boundary of the lake, this +strange place of refuge commanded a view not only of the rugged path +immediately below it, but of a large plot of level ground at a short +distance to the west, which overhung a second and lower range of rocks. +From this spot might be seen far beneath, on days when the atmosphere +was clear, the olive grounds that clothed the mountain's base, and +beyond, stretching away to the distant horizon, the plains of fated +Italy, whose destiny of defeat and shame was now hastening to its dark +and fearful accomplishment. + +The cavern, within, was low and irregular in form. From its rugged +walls the damp oozed forth upon its floor of decayed moss. Lizards and +noisome animals had tenanted its comfortless recesses undisturbed, +until the period we have just described, when their miserable rights +were infringed on for the first time by human intruders. + +A woman crouched near the entrance of the place. More within, on the +driest part of the ground, lay a child asleep. Between them were +scattered some withered branches and decayed leaves, which were +arranged as if to form a fire. In many parts this scanty collection of +fuel was slightly blackened; but, wetted as it was by the rain, all +efforts to light it permanently had evidently been fruitless. + +The woman's head was bent forwards, and her face, hid in her hands, +rested on her knees. At intervals she muttered to herself in a hoarse, +moaning voice. A portion of her scanty clothing had been removed to +cover the child. What remained on her was composed, partly of skins of +animals, partly of coarse cotton cloth. In many places this miserable +dress was marked with blood, and her long, flaxen hair bore upon its +dishevelled locks the same ominous and repulsive stain. + +The child seemed scarcely four years of age, and showed on his pale, +thin face all the peculiarities of his Gothic origin. His features +seemed to have been once beautiful, both in expression and form; but a +deep wound, extending the whole length of his cheek, had now deformed +him for ever. He shivered and trembled in his sleep, and every now and +then mechanically stretched forth his little arms towards the dead cold +branches that were scattered before him. + +Suddenly a large stone became detached from the rock in a distant part +of the cavern, and fell noisily to the ground. At this sound he woke +with a scream--raised himself--endeavoured to advance towards the +woman, and staggered backward against the side of the cave. A second +wound in the leg had wreaked that destruction on his vigour which the +first had effected on his beauty. He was a cripple. + +At the instant of his awakening the woman had started up. She now +raised him from the ground, and taking some herbs from her bosom, +applied them to his wounded cheek. By this action her dress became +discomposed: it was stiff at the top with coagulated blood, which had +evidently flowed from a cut in her neck. + +All her attempts to compose the child were in vain; he moaned and wept +piteously, muttering at intervals his disjointed exclamations of +impatience at the coldness of the place and the agony of his recent +wounds. Speechless and tearless the wretched woman looked vacantly +down on his face. There was little difficulty in discerning from that +fixed, distracted gaze the nature of the tie that bound the mourning +woman to the suffering boy. The expression of rigid and awful despair +that lowered in her fixed, gloomy eyes, the livid paleness that +discoloured her compressed lips, the spasms that shook her firm, +commanding form, mutely expressing in the divine eloquence of human +emotion that between the solitary pair there existed the most intimate +of earth's relationships--the connection of mother and child. + +For some time no change occurred in the woman's demeanour. At last, as +if struck by some sudden suspicion, she rose, and clasping the child in +one arm, displaced with the other the brushwood at the entrance of her +place of refuge, cautiously looking forth on all that the mists left +visible of the western landscape. After a short survey she drew back +as if reassured by the unbroken solitude of the place, and turning +towards the lake, looked down upon the black waters at her feet. + +'Night has succeeded to night,' she muttered gloomily, 'and has brought +no succour to my body, and no hope to my heart! Mile on mile have I +journeyed, and danger is still behind, and loneliness for ever before. +The shadow of death deepens over the boy; the burden of anguish grows +weightier than I can bear. For me, friends are murdered, defenders are +distant, possessions are lost. The God of the Christian priests has +abandoned us to danger and deserted us in woe. It is for me to end the +struggle for us both. Our last refuge has been in this place--our +sepulchre shall be here as well!' + +With one last look at the cold and comfortless sky, she advanced to the +very edge of the lake's precipitous bank. Already the child was raised +in her arms, and her body bent to accomplish successfully the fatal +spring, when a sound in the east--faint, distant, and fugitive--caught +her ear. In an instant her eye brightened, her chest heaved, her cheek +flushed. She exerted the last relics of her wasted strength to gain a +prominent position upon a ledge of the rocks behind her, and waited in +an agony of expectation for a repetition of that magic sound. + + +In a moment more she heard it again--for the child, stupefied with +terror at the action that had accompanied her determination to plunge +with him into the lake, now kept silence, and she could listen +undisturbed. To unpractised ears the sound that so entranced her would +have been scarcely audible. Even the experienced traveller would have +thought it nothing more than the echo of a fallen stone among the rocks +in the eastward distance. But to her it was no unimportant sound, for +it gave the welcome signal of deliverance and delight. + +As the hour wore on, it came nearer and nearer, tossed about by the +sportive echoes, and now clearly betraying that its origin was, as she +had at first divined, the note of the Gothic trumpet. Soon the distant +music ceased, and was succeeded by another sound, low and rumbling, as +of an earthquake afar off or a rising thunderstorm, and changing, ere +long, to a harsh confused noise, like the rustling of a mighty wind +through whole forests of brushwood. + +At this instant the woman lost all command over herself; her former +patience and caution deserted her; reckless of danger, she placed the +child upon the ledge on which she had been standing; and, though +trembling in every limb, succeeded in mounting so much higher on the +crag as to gain a fissure near the top of the rock, which commanded an +uninterrupted view of the vast tracts of uneven ground leading in an +easterly direction to the next range of precipices and ravines. + +One after another the long minutes glided on, and, though much was +still audible, nothing was yet to be seen. At length the shrill sound +of the trumpet again rang through the dull, misty air, and the next +instant the advance guard of an army of Goths emerged from the distant +woods. + +Then, after an interval, the multitudes of the main body thronged +through every outlet in the trees, and spread in dusky masses over the +desert ground that lay between the woods and the rocks about the +borders of the lake. The front ranks halted, as if to communicate with +the crowds of the rearguard and the stragglers among the baggage +waggons, who still poured forth, apparently in interminable hosts, from +the concealment of the distant trees. The advanced troops, evidently +with the intention of examining the roads, still marched rapidly on, +until they gained the foot of the ascent leading to the crags to which +the woman still clung, and from which, with eager attention, she still +watched their movements. + +Placed in a situation of the extremest peril, her strength was her only +preservative against the danger of slipping from her high and narrow +elevation. Hitherto the moral excitement of expectation had given her +the physical power necessary to maintain her position; but just as the +leaders of the guard arrived at the cavern, her over-wrought energies +suddenly deserted her; her hands relaxed their grasp; she tottered, and +would have sunk backwards to instant destruction, had not the skins +wrapped about her bosom and waist become entangled with a point of one +of the jagged rocks immediately around her. Fortunately--for she could +utter no cry--the troops halted at this instant to enable their horses +to gain breath. Two among them at once perceived her position and +detected her nation. They mounted the rocks; and, while one possessed +himself of the child, the other succeeded in rescuing the mother and +bearing her safely to the ground. + +The snorting of horses, the clashing of weapons, the confusion of loud, +rough voices, which now startled the native silence of the solitary +lake, and which would have bewildered and overwhelmed most persons in +the woman's exhausted condition, seemed, on the contrary, to reassure +her feelings and reanimate her powers. She disengaged herself from her +preserver's support, and taking her child in her arms, advanced towards +a man of gigantic stature, whose rich armour sufficiently announced +that his position in the army was one of command. + +'I am Goisvintha,' said she, in a firm, calm voice--'sister to +Hermanric. I have escaped from the massacre of the hostages of +Aquileia with one child. Is my brother with the army of the king?' + +This declaration produced a marked change in the bystanders. The looks +of indifference or curiosity which they had at first cast on the +fugitive, changed to the liveliest expression of wonder and respect. +The chieftain whom she had addressed raised the visor of his helmet so +as to uncover his face, answered her question in the affirmative, and +ordered two soldiers to conduct her to the temporary encampment of the +main army in the rear. As she turned to depart, an old man advanced, +leaning on his long, heavy sword, and accosted her thus-- + +'I am Withimer, whose daughter was left hostage with the Romans in +Aquileia. Is she of the slain or of the escaped?' + +'Her bones rot under the city walls,' was the answer. 'The Romans made +of her a feast for the dogs.' + +No word or tear escaped the old warrior. He turned in the direction of +Italy; but, as he looked downwards towards the plains, his brow +lowered, and his hands tightened mechanically round the hilt of his +enormous weapon. + +The same gloomy question was propounded to Goisvintha by the two men +who guided her to the army that had been asked by their aged comrade. +It received the same terrible answer, which was borne with the same +stern composure, and followed by the same ominous glance in the +direction of Italy, as in the instance of the veteran Withimer. + +Leading the horse that carried the exhausted woman with the utmost +care, and yet with wonderful rapidity, down the paths which they had so +recently ascended, the men in a short space of time reached the place +where the army had halted, and displayed to Goisvintha, in all the +majesty of numbers and repose, the vast martial assemblage of the +warriors of the North. + +No brightness gleamed from their armour; no banners waved over their +heads; no music sounded among their ranks. Backed by the dreary woods, +which still disgorged unceasing additions to the warlike multitude +already encamped; surrounded by the desolate crags which showed dim, +wild, and majestic through the darkness of the mist; covered with the +dusky clouds which hovered motionless over the barren mountain tops, +and poured their stormy waters on the uncultivated plains--all that the +appearance of the Goths had of solemnity in itself was in awful harmony +with the cold and mournful aspect that the face of Nature had assumed. +Silent--menacing--dark,--the army looked the fit embodiment of its +leader's tremendous purpose--the subjugation of Rome. + +Conducting Goisvintha quickly through the front files of warriors, her +guides, pausing at a spot of ground which shelved upwards at right +angles with the main road from the woods, desired her to dismount; and +pointing to the group that occupied the place, said, 'Yonder is Alaric +the king, and with him is Hermanric thy brother.' + +At whatever point of view it could have been regarded, the assemblage +of persons thus indicated to Goisvintha must have arrested inattention +itself. Near a confused mass of weapons, scattered on the ground, +reclined a group of warriors apparently listening to the low, muttered +conversation of three men of great age, who rose above them, seated on +pieces of rock, and whose long white hair, rough skin dresses, and lean +tottering forms appeared in strong contrast with the iron-clad and +gigantic figures of their auditors beneath. Above the old men, on the +highroad, was one of Alaric's waggons; and on the heaps of baggage +piled against its clumsy wheels had been chosen resting-place of the +future conqueror of Rome. The top of the vehicle seemed absolutely +teeming with a living burden. Perched in every available nook and +corner were women and children of all ages, and weapons and live stock +of all varieties. Now, a child--lively, mischievous, +inquisitive--peered forth over the head of a battering-ram. Now, a +lean, hungry sheep advanced his inquiring nostrils sadly to the open +air, and displayed by the movement the head of a withered old woman +pillowed on his woolly flanks. Here, appeared a young girl struggling, +half entombed in shields. There, gasped an emaciated camp-follower, +nearly suffocated in heaps of furs. The whole scene, with its +background of great woods, drenched in a vapour of misty rain, with its +striking contrasts at one point and its solemn harmonies at another, +presented a vast combination of objects that either startled or awed--a +gloomy conjunction of the menacing and the sublime. + + +Bidding Goisvintha wait near the waggon, one of her conductors +approached and motioned aside a young man standing near the king. As +the warrior rose to obey the demand, he displayed, with all the +physical advantages of his race, and ease and elasticity of movement +unusual among the men of his nation. At the instant when he joined the +soldier who had accosted him, his face was partially concealed by an +immense helmet, crowned with a boar's head, the mouth of which, forced +open at death, gaped wide, as if still raging for prey. But the man +had scarcely stated his errand, when he started violently, removed the +grim appendage of war, and hastened bare-headed to the side of the +waggon where Goisvintha awaited his approach. + +The instant he was beheld by the woman, she hastened to meet him; +placed the wounded child in his arms, and greeted him with these +words:-- + +'Your brother served in the armies of Rome when our people were at +peace with the Empire. Of his household and his possessions this is all +that the Romans have left!' + +She ceased, and for an instant the brother and sister regarded each +other in touching and expressive silence. Though, in addition to the +general characteristics of country, the countenances of the two +naturally bore the more particular evidences of community of blood, all +resemblance between them at this instant--so wonderful is the power of +expression over feature--had utterly vanished. The face and manner of +the young man (he had numbered only twenty years) expressed a deep +sorrow, manly in its stern tranquility, sincere in its perfect +innocence of display. As he looked on the child, his blue +eyes--bright, piercing, and lively--softened like a woman's; his lips, +hardly hidden by his short beard, closed and quivered; and his chest +heaved under the armour that lay upon its noble proportions. There was +in this simple, speechless, tearless melancholy--this exquisite +consideration of triumphant strength for suffering weakness--something +almost sublime; opposed as it was to the emotions of malignity and +despair that appeared in Goisvintha's features. The ferocity that +gleamed from her dilated, glaring eyes, the sinister markings that +appeared round her pale and parted lips, the swelling of the large +veins, drawn to their extremest point of tension on her lofty forehead, +so distorted her countenance, that the brother and sister, as they +stood together, seemed in expression to have changed sexes for the +moment. From the warrior came pity for the sufferer; from the mother, +indignation for the offence. + +Arousing himself from his melancholy contemplation of the child, and as +yet answering not a word to Goisvintha, Hermanric mounted the waggon, +and placing the last of his sister's offspring in the arms of a +decrepid old woman, who sat brooding over some bundles of herbs spread +out upon her lap, addressed her thus:-- + +'These wounds are from the Romans. Revive the child, and you shall be +rewarded from the spoils of Rome.' + +'Ha! ha! ha!' chuckled the crone; 'Hermanric is an illustrious warrior, +and shall be obeyed. Hermanric is great, for his arm can slay; but +Brunechild is greater than he, for her cunning can cure!' + +As if anxious to verify this boast before the warrior's eyes, the old +woman immediately began the preparation of the necessary dressings from +her store of herbs; but Hermanric waited not to be a witness of her +skill. With one final look at the pale, exhausted child, he slowly +descended from the waggon, and approaching Goisvintha, drew her towards +a sheltered position near the ponderous vehicle. Here he seated +himself by her side, prepared to listen with the deepest attention to +her recital of the scenes of terror and suffering through which she had +so recently passed. + +'You,' she began, 'born while our nation was at peace; transported from +the field of war to those distant provinces where tranquility still +prevailed; preserved throughout your childhood from the chances of +battle; advanced to the army in your youth, only when its toils are +past and its triumphs are already at hand--you alone have escaped the +miseries of our people, to partake in the glory of their approaching +revenge. + +'Hardly had a year passed since you had been removed from the +settlements of the Goths when I wedded Priulf. The race of triflers to +whom he was then allied, spite of their Roman haughtiness, deferred to +him in their councils, and confessed among their legions that he was +brave. I saw myself with joy the wife of a warrior of renown; I +believed, in my pride, that I was destined to be the mother of a race +of heroes; when suddenly there came news to us that the Emperor +Theodosius was dead. Then followed anarchy among the people of the +soil, and outrages on the liberties of their allies, the Goths. Ere +long the call to arms arose among our nation. Soon our waggons of war +were rolled across the frozen Danube; our soldiers quitted the Roman +camp; our husbandmen took their weapons from their cottage walls; we +that were women prepared with our children to follow our husbands to +the field; and Alaric, the king, came forth as the leader of our hosts. + +'We marched upon the territories of the Greeks. But how shall I tell +you of the events of those years of war that followed our invasion; of +the glory of our victories; of the hardships of our defences; of the +miseries of our retreats; of the hunger that we vanquished; of the +diseases that we endured; of the shameful peace that was finally +ratified, against the wishes of our king! How shall I tell of all +this, when my thoughts are on the massacre from which I have just +escaped--when these first evils, though once remembered in anguish, +are, even now, forgotten in the superior horrors that ensued! + +'The truce was made. Alaric departed with the remnant of his army, and +encamped at AEmona, on the confines of that land which he had already +invaded, and which he is now prepared to conquer. Between our king and +Stilicho, the general of the Romans, passed many messages, for the +leaders disputed on the terms of the peace that should be finally +ordained. Meanwhile, as an earnest of the Gothic faith, bands of our +warriors, and among them Priulf, were despatched into Italy to be +allies once more of the legions of Rome, and with them they took their +wives and their children, to be detained as hostages in the cities +throughout the land. + +'I and my children were conducted to Aquileia. In a dwelling within +the city we were lodged with our possessions. It was night when I took +leave of Priulf, my husband, at the gates. I watched him as he +departed with the army, and, when the darkness hid him from my eyes, I +re-entered the town; from which I am the only woman of our nation who +has escaped alive.' + +As she pronounced these last words, Goisvintha's manner, which had +hitherto been calm and collected, began to change: she paused abruptly +in her narrative, her head sunk upon her breast, her frame quivered as +if convulsed with violent agony. When she turned towards Hermanric +after an interval of silence to address him again, the same malignant +expression lowered over her countenance that had appeared on it when +she presented to him her wounded child; her voice became broken, +hoarse, and unfeminine; and pressing closely to the young man's side, +she laid her trembling fingers on his arm, as if to bespeak his most +undivided attention. + +'Time grew on,' she continued, 'and still there came no tidings that +the peace was finally secured. We, that were hostages, lived separate +from the people of the town; for we felt enmity towards each other even +then. In my captivity there was no employment for me but patience--no +pursuit but hope. Alone with my children, I was wont to look forth +over the sea towards the camp of our king; but day succeeded to day, +and his warriors appeared not on the plains; nor did Priulf return with +the legions to encamp before the gates of the town. So I mourned in my +loneliness; for my heart yearned towards the homes of my people; I +longed once more to look upon my husband's face, and to behold again +the ranks of our warriors, and the majesty of their battle array. + + +'But already, when the great day of despair was quickly drawing near, a +bitter outrage was preparing for me alone. The men who had hitherto +watched us were changed, and of the number of the new guards was one +who cast on me the eyes of lust. Night after night he poured his +entreaties into my unwilling ear; for, in his vanity and shamelessness, +he believed that I, who was Gothic and the wife of a Goth, might be won +by him whose parentage was but Roman! Soon from prayers he rose to +threats; and one night, appearing before me with smiles, he cried out +that Stilicho, whose desire was to make peace with the Goths, had +suffered, for his devotion to our people, the penalty of death; that a +time of ruin was approaching for us all, and that he alone--whom I +despised--could preserve me from the anger of Rome. As he ceased he +approached me; but I, who had been in many battle-fields, felt no dread +at the prospect of war, and I spurned him with laughter from my +presence. + +'Then, for a few nights more, my enemy approached me not again. Until +one evening, as I sat on the terrace before the house, with the child +that you have beheld, a helmet-crest suddenly fell at my feet, and a +voice cried to me from the garden beneath: 'Priulf thy husband has +been slain in a quarrel by the soldiers of Rome! Already the legions +with whom he served are on their way to the town; for a massacre of the +hostages is ordained. Speak but the word, and I can save thee even +yet!' + +'I looked on the crest. It was bloody, and it was his! For an instant +my heart writhed within me as I thought on my warrior whom I had loved! +Then, as I heard the messenger of death retire, cursing, from his +lurking-place in the garden, I recollected that now my children had +none but their mother to defend them, and that peril was preparing for +them from the enemies of their race. Besides the little one in my +arms, I had two that were sleeping in the house. As I looked round, +bewildered and in despair, to see if a chance were left us to escape, +there rang through the evening stillness the sound of a trumpet, and +the tramp of armed men was audible in the street beneath. Then, from +all quarters of the town rose, as one sudden sound, the shrieks of +women and the yells of men. Already, as I rushed towards my children's +beds, the fiends of Rome had mounted the stairs, and waved in bloody +triumph their reeking swords! I gained the steps; and, as I looked up, +they flung down at me the body of my youngest child. O Hermanric! +Hermanric! it was the most beautiful and the most beloved! What the +priests say that God should be to us, that, the fairest one of my +offspring, was to me! As I saw it mutilated and dead--I, who but an +hour before had hushed it on my bosom to rest!--my courage forsook me, +and when the murderers advanced on me I staggered and fell. I felt the +sword-point enter my neck; I saw the dagger gleam over the child in my +arms; I heard the death-shriek of the last victim above; and then my +senses failed me, and I could listen and move no more! + +'Long must I have lain motionless at the foot of those fatal stairs; +for when I awoke from my trance the noises in the city were hushed, and +from her place in the firmament the moon shone softly into the deserted +house. I listened, to be certain that I was alone with my murdered +children. No sound was in the dwelling; the assassins had departed, +believing that their labour of blood was ended when I fell beneath +their swords; and I was able to crawl forth in security, and to look my +last upon my offspring that the Romans had slain. The child that I +held to my breast still breathed. I stanched with some fragments of my +garment the wounds that he had received, and laying him gently by the +stairs--in the moonlight, so that I might see him when he moved--I +groped in the shadow of the wall for my first murdered and my last +born; for that youngest and fairest one of my offspring whom they had +slaughtered before my eyes! When I touched the corpse, it was wet with +blood; I felt its face, and it was cold beneath my hands; I raised its +body in my arms, and its limbs already were rigid in death! Then I +thought of the eldest child, who lay dead in the chamber above. But my +strength was failing me fast. I had an infant who might yet be +preserved; and I knew that if morning dawned on me in the house, all +chances of escape were lost for ever. So, though my heart was cold +within me at leaving my child's corpse to the mercy of the Romans, I +took up the dead and the wounded one in my arms, and went forth into +the garden, and thence towards the seaward quarter of the town. + + +'I passed through the forsaken streets. Sometimes I stumbled against +the body of a child--sometimes the moonlight showed me the death-pale +face of some woman of my nation whom I had loved, stretched upward to +the sky; but I still advanced until I gained the wall of the town, and +heard on the other side the waters of the river running onward to the +Port of Aquileia and the sea. + +'I looked around. The gates I knew were guarded and closed. By the +wall was the only prospect of escape; but its top was high and its +sides were smooth when I felt them with my hands. Despairing and +wearied, I laid my burdens down where they were hidden by the shade, +and walked forward a few paces, for to remain still was a torment that +I could not endure. At a short distance I saw a soldier sleeping +against the wall of a house. By his side was a ladder placed against +the window. As I looked up I beheld the head of a corpse resting on +its top. The victim must have been lately slain, for her blood still +dripped slowly down into an empty wine-pot that stood within the +soldier's reach. When I saw the ladder, hope revived within me. I +removed it to the wall--I mounted, and laid my dead child on the great +stones at its top--I returned, and placed my wounded boy by the corpse. +Slowly, and with many efforts, I dragged the ladder upwards, until from +its own weight one end fell to the ground on the other side. As I had +risen so I descended. In the sand of the river-bank I scraped a hole, +and buried there the corpse of the infant; for I could carry the weight +of two no longer. Then with my wounded child I reached some caverns +that lay onward near the seashore. There throughout the next day I lay +hidden--alone with my sufferings of body and my affliction of +heart--until the night came on, when I set forth on my journey to the +mountains; for I knew that at AEmona, in the camp of the warriors of my +people, lay the only refuge that was left to me on earth. Feebly and +slowly, hiding by day and travelling by night, I kept on my way until I +gained that lake among the rocks, where the guards of the army came +forward and rescued me from death.' + +She ceased. Throughout the latter portion of her narrative her +demeanour had been calm and sad; and as she dwelt, with the painful +industry of grief, over each minute circumstance connected with the +bereavements she had sustained, her voice softened to those accents of +quiet mournfulness, which make impressive the most simple words, and +render musical the most unsteady tones. It seemed as if those tenderer +and kinder emotions, which the attractions of her offspring had once +generated in her character, had at the bidding of memory become +revivified in her manner while she lingered over the recital of their +deaths. For a brief space of time she looked fixedly and anxiously +upon the countenance of Hermanric, which was half averted from her, and +expressed a fierce and revengeful gloom that sat unnaturally on it +noble lineaments. Then turning from him, she buried her face in her +hands, and made no effort more to attract him to attention or incite +him to reply. + +This solemn silence kept by the bereaved woman and the brooding man had +lasted but a few minutes, when a harsh, trembling voice was heard from +the top of the waggon, calling at intervals, 'Hermanric! Hermanric!' + +At first the young man remained unmoved by those discordant and +repulsive tones. They repeated his name, however, so often and so +perseveringly, that he noticed them ere long; and rising suddenly, as +if impatient of the interruption, advanced towards the side of the +waggon from which the mysterious summons appeared to come. + +As he looked up towards the vehicle the voice ceased, and he saw that +the old woman to whom he had confided the child was the person who had +called him so hurriedly but a few moments before. Her tottering body, +clothed in bear-skins, was bent forward over a large triangular shield +of polished brass, on which she leant her lank, shrivelled arms. Her +head shook with a tremulous, palsied action; a leer, half smile, half +grimace, distended her withered lips and lightened her sunken eyes. +Sinister, cringing, repulsive; her face livid with the reflection from +the weapon that was her support, and her figure scarcely human in the +rugged garments that encompassed its gaunt proportions, she seemed a +deformity set up by evil spirits to mock the majesty of the human +form--an embodied satire on all that is most deplorable in infirmity +and most disgusting in age. + + +The instant she discerned Hermanric, she stretched her body out still +farther over the shield; and pointing to the interior of the waggon, +muttered softly that one fearful and expressive word--dead! + +Without waiting for any further explanation, the young Goth mounted the +vehicle, and gaining the old woman's side, saw stretched on her +collection of herbs--beautiful in the sublime and melancholy stillness +of death--the corpse of Goisvintha's last child. + +'Is Hermanric wroth?' whined the hag, quailing before the steady, +rebuking glance of the young man. 'When I said that Brunechild was +greater than Hermanric, I lied. It is Hermanric that is most powerful! +See, the dressings were placed on the wounds; and, though the child has +died, shall not the treasures that were promised me be mine? I have +done what I could, but my cunning begins to desert me, for I am +old--old--old! I have seen my generation pass away! Aha! I am old, +Hermanric, I am old!' + +When the young warrior looked on the child, he saw that the hag had +spoken truth, and that the victim had died from no fault of hers. Pale +and serene, the countenance of the boy showed how tranquil had been his +death. The dressings had been skilfully composed and carefully applied +to his wounds, but suffering and privation had annihilated the +feebleness of human resistance in their march toward the last dread +goal, and the treachery of Imperial Rome had once more triumphed as was +its wont, and triumphed over a child! + +As Hermanric descended with the corpse Goisvintha was the first object +that met his eyes when he alighted on the ground. The mother received +from him the lifeless burden without an exclamation or a tear. That +emanation from her former and kinder self which had been produced by +the closing recital of her sufferings was henceforth, at the signal of +her last child's death, extinguished in her for ever! + +'His wounds had crippled him,' said the young man gloomily. 'He could +never have fought with the warriors! Our ancestors slew themselves +when they were no longer vigorous for the fight. It is better that he +has died!' + +'Vengeance!' gasped Goisvintha, pressing up closely to his side. 'We +will have vengeance for the massacre of Aquileia! When blood is +streaming in the palaces of Rome, remember my murdered children, and +hasten not to sheathe thy sword!' + +At this instant, as if to rouse still further the fierce determination +that appeared already in the face of the young Goth, the voice of +Alaric was heard commanding the army to advance. Hermanric started, and +drew the panting woman after him to the resting-place of the king. +There, armed at all points, and rising, by his superior stature, high +above the throng around him, stood the dreaded captain of the Gothic +hosts. His helmet was raised so as to display his clear blue eyes +gleaming over the multitude around him; he pointed with his sword in +the direction of Italy; and as rank by rank the men started to their +arms, and prepared exultingly for the march, his lips parted with a +smile of triumph, and ere he moved to accompany them he spoke thus:-- + +'Warriors of the Goths, our halt is a short one among the mountains; +but let not the weary repine, for the glorious resting-place that +awaits our labours is the city of Rome! The curse of Odin, when in the +infancy of our nation he retired before the myriads of the Empire, it +is our privilege to fulfil! That future destruction which he denounced +against Rome, it is ours to effect! Remember your hostages that the +Romans have slain; your possessions that the Romans have seized; your +trust that the Romans have betrayed! Remember that I, your king, have +within me that supernatural impulse which never deceives, and which +calls to me in a voice of encouragement--Advance, and the Empire is +thine! Assemble the warriors, and the City of the World shall be +delivered to the conquering Goths! Let us onward without delay! Our +prey awaits us! Our triumph is near! Our vengeance is at hand!' + +He paused; and at that moment the trumpet gave signal for the march. + + +'Up! up!' cried Hermanric, seizing Goisvintha by the arm, and pointing +to the waggon which had already begun to move; 'make ready for the +journey! I will charge myself with the burial of the child. Yet a few +days and our encampment may be before Aquileia. Be patient, and I will +avenge thee in the palaces of Rome!' + +The mighty mass moved. The multitude stretched forth over the barren +ground; and even now the warriors in front of the army might be seen by +those in the rear mounting the last range of passes that lay between +the plains of Italy and the Goths. + + + +CHAPTER 2. + +THE COURT. + +The traveller who so far departs from the ordinary track of tourists in +modern Italy as to visit the city of Ravenna, remembers with +astonishment, as he treads its silent and melancholy streets, and +beholds vineyards and marshes spread over an extent of four miles +between the Adriatic and the town, that this place, now half deserted, +was once the most populous of Roman fortresses; and that where fields +and woods now present themselves to his eyes the fleets of the Empire +once rode securely at anchor, and the merchant of Rome disembarked his +precious cargoes at his warehouse door. + +As the power of Rome declined, the Adriatic, by a strange fatality, +began to desert the fortress whose defence it had hitherto secured. +Coeval with the gradual degeneracy of the people was the gradual +withdrawal of the ocean from the city walls; until, at the beginning of +the sixth century, a grove of pines already appeared where the port of +Augustus once existed. + +At the period of our story--though the sea had even then receded +perceptibly--the ditches round the walls were yet filled, and the +canals still ran through the city in much the same manner as they +intersect Venice at the present time. + +On the morning that we are about to describe, the autumn had advanced +some days since the events mentioned in the preceding chapter. +Although the sun was now high in the eastern horizon, the restlessness +produced by the heat emboldened a few idlers of Ravenna to brave the +sultriness of the atmosphere, in the vain hope of being greeted by a +breeze from the Adriatic as they mounted the seaward ramparts of the +town. On attaining their destined elevation, these sanguine citizens +turned their faces with fruitless and despairing industry towards every +point of the compass, but no breath of air came to reward their +perseverance. Nothing could be more thoroughly suggestive of the +undiminished universality of the heat than the view, in every +direction, from the position they then occupied. The stone houses of +the city behind them glowed with a vivid brightness overpowering to the +strongest eyes. The light curtains hung motionless over the lonely +windows. No shadows varied the brilliant monotony of the walls, or +softened the lively glitter on the waters of the fountains beneath. Not +a ripple stirred the surface of the broad channel, that now replaced +the ancient harbour. Not a breath of wind unfolded the scorching sails +of the deserted vessels at the quay. Over the marshes in the distance +hung a hot, quivering mist; and in the vineyards, near the town, not a +leaf waved upon its slender stem. On the seaward side lay, vast and +level, the prospect of the burning sand; and beyond it the main +ocean--waveless, torpid, and suffused in a flood of fierce +brightness--stretched out to the cloudless horizon that closed the +sunbright view. + + +Within the town, in those streets where the tall houses cast a deep +shadow on the flagstones of the road, the figures of a few slaves might +here and there be seen sleeping against the walls, or gossiping +languidly on the faults of their respective lords. Sometimes an old +beggar might be observed hunting on the well-stocked preserves of his +own body the lively vermin of the South. Sometimes a restless child +crawled from a doorstep to paddle in the stagnant waters of a kennel; +but, with the exception of these doubtful evidences of human industry, +the prevailing characteristic of the few groups of the lowest orders of +the people which appeared in the streets was the most listless and +utter indolence. All that gave splendour to the city at other hours of +the day was at this period hidden from the eye. The elegant courtiers +reclined in their lofty chambers; the guards on duty ensconced +themselves in angles of walls and recesses of porticoes; the graceful +ladies slumbered on perfumed couches in darkened rooms; the gilded +chariots were shut into the carriage-houses; the prancing horses were +confined in the stables; and even the wares in the market-places were +removed from exposure to the sun. It was clear that the luxurious +inhabitants of Ravenna recognised no duties of sufficient importance, +and no pleasures of sufficient attraction, to necessitate the exposure +of their susceptible bodies to the noontide heat. + +To give the reader some idea of the manner in which the indolent +patricians of the Court loitered away their noon, and to satisfy, at +the same time, the exigencies attaching to the conduct of this story, +it is requisite to quit the lounging-places of the plebeians in the +streets for the couches of the nobles in the Emperor's palace. + +Passing through the massive entrance gates, crossing the vast hall of +the Imperial abode, with its statues, its marbles, and its guards in +attendance, and thence ascending the noble staircase, the first object +that might on this occasion have attracted the observer, when he gained +the approaches to the private apartments, was a door at an extremity of +the corridor, richly carved and standing half open. At this spot were +grouped some fifteen or twenty individuals, who conversed by signs, and +maintained in all their movements the most decorous and complete +silence. Sometimes one of the party stole on tiptoe to the door, and +looked cautiously through, returning almost instantaneously, and +expressing to his next neighbour, by various grimaces, his immense +interest in the sight he had just beheld. Occasionally there came from +this mysterious chamber sounds resembling the cackling of poultry, +varied now and then by a noise like the falling of a shower of small, +light substances upon a hard floor. Whenever these sounds were +audible, the members of the party outside the door looked round upon +each other and smiled--some sarcastically, some triumphantly. A few +among these patient expectants grasped rolls of vellum in their hands; +the rest held nosegays of rare flowers, or supported in their arms +small statues and pictures in mosaic. Of their number, some were +painters and poets, some orators and philosophers, and some statuaries +and musicians. Among such a motley assemblage of professions, +remarkable in all ages of the world for fostering in their votaries the +vice of irritability, it may seem strange that so quiet and orderly a +behaviour should exist as that just described. But it is to be +observed that in attending at the palace, these men of genius made sure +at least of outward unanimity among their ranks, by coming equally +prepared with one accomplishment, and equally animated by one hope: +they waited to employ a common agent--flattery; to attain a common +end--gain. + +The chamber thus sacred, even from the intrusion of intellectual +inspiration, although richly ornamented, was of no remarkable extent. +At other times the eye might have wandered with delight on the +exquisite plants and flowers, scattered profusely over a noble terrace, +to which a second door in the apartment conducted; but, at the present +moment, the employment of the occupant of the room was of so +extraordinary a nature, that the most attentive observation must have +missed all the inferior characteristics of the place, to settle +immediately on its inhabitant alone. + + +In the midst of a large flock of poultry, which seemed strangely +misplaced on a floor of marble and under a gilded roof, stood a pale, +thin, debilitated youth, magnificently clothed, and holding in his hand +a silver vase filled with grain, which he ever and anon distributed to +the cackling multitude at his feet. Nothing could be more pitiably +effeminate than the appearance of this young man. His eyes were heavy +and vacant, his forehead low and retiring, his cheeks sallow, and his +form curved as if with a premature old age. An unmeaning smile dilated +his thin, colourless lips; and as he looked down on his strange +favourites, he occasionally whispered to them a few broken expressions +of endearment, almost infantine in their simplicity. His whole soul +seemed to be engrossed by the labour of distributing his grain, and he +followed the different movements of the poultry with an earnestness of +attention which seemed almost idiotic in its ridiculous intensity. If +it be asked, why a person so contemptible as this solitary youth has +been introduced with so much care, and described with so much +minuteness, it must be answered, that, though destined to form no +important figure in this work, he played, from his position, a +remarkable part in the great drama on which it is founded--for this +feeder of chickens was no less a person than Honorius, Emperor of Rome. + +It is the very imbecility of this man, at such a time as that we now +write on, which invests his character with a fearful interest in the +eye of posterity. In himself the impersonation of the meanest vices +inherent in the vicious civilisation of his period, to his feebleness +was accorded the terrible responsibility of liberating the +long-prisoned storm whose elements we have attempted to describe in the +preceding chapter. With just intellect enough to be capricious, and +just determination enough to be mischievous, he was an instrument +fitted for the uses of every ambitious villain who could succeed in +gaining his ear. To flatter his puerile tyranny, the infatuated +intriguers of the Court rewarded the heroic Stilicho for the rescue of +his country with the penalty of death, and defrauded Alaric of the +moderate concessions that they had solemnly pledged themselves to +perform. To gratify his vanity, he was paraded in triumph through the +streets of Rome for a victory that others had gained. To pander to his +arrogance, by an exhibition of the vilest privilege of that power which +had been intrusted to him for good, the massacre of the helpless +hostages, confided by Gothic honour to Roman treachery, was +unhesitatingly ordained; and, finally, to soothe the turbulence of his +unmanly fears, the last act of his unscrupulous councillors, ere the +Empire fell, was to authorise his abandoning his people in the hour of +peril, careless who suffered in defenceless Rome, while he was secure +in fortified Ravenna. Such was the man under whom the mightiest of the +world's structures was doomed to totter to its fall! Such was the +figure destined to close a scene which Time and Glory had united to +hallow and adorn! Raised and supported by a superhuman daring, that +invested the nauseous horrors of incessant bloodshed with a rude and +appalling magnificence, the mistress of nations was now fated to sink +by the most ignoble of defeats, under the most abject of tremblers. +For this had the rough old kingdom shaken off its enemies by swarms +from its vigorous arms! For this had the doubtful virtues of the +Republic, and the perilous magnificence of the Empire, perplexed and +astonished the world! In such a conclusion as Honorius ended the +dignified barbarities of a Brutus, the polished splendours of an +Augustus, the unearthly atrocities of a Nero, and the immortal virtues +of a Trajan! Vainly, through the toiling ages, over the ruin of her +noblest hearts, and the prostitution of her grandest intellects, had +Rome striven pitilessly onward, grasping at the shadow--Glory; the fiat +had now gone forth that doomed her to possess herself finally of the +substance--Shame! + +When the imperial trifler had exhausted his store of grain, and +satisfied the cravings of his voracious favourites, he was relieved of +his silver vase by two attendants. The flock of poultry was then +ushered out at one door, while the flock of geniuses was ushered in at +the other. + +Leaving the emperor to cast his languid eyes over objects of art for +which he had no admiration, and to open his unwilling ears to +panegyrical orations for which he had no comprehension, we proceed to +introduce the reader to an apartment on the opposite side of the +palace, in which are congregated all the beauty and elegance of his +Court. + + +Imagine a room two hundred feet long and proportionably broad. Its +floor is mosaic, wrought into the loveliest patterns. Its sides are +decorated with immense pillars of variegated marble, the recesses +formed by which are occupied by statues, all arranged in exquisite +variety of attitude, so as to appear to be offering to whoever +approaches them the rare flowers which it is the duty of the attendants +to place in their hands. The ceiling is painted in fresco, in patterns +and colours harmonising with those on the mosaic floor. The cornices +are of silver, and decorated with mottoes from the amatory poets of the +day, the letters of which are formed by precious stones. In the middle +of the room is a fountain throwing up streams of perfumed water, and +surrounded by golden aviaries containing birds of all sizes and +nations. Three large windows, placed at the eastern extremity of the +apartment, look out upon the Adriatic, but are covered at this hour, +from the outside, with silk curtains of a delicate green shade, which +cast a soft, luxurious light over every object, but are so thinly woven +and so skilfully arranged that the slightest breath of air which moves +without finds its way immediately to the languid occupants of the Court +waiting-room. The number of these individuals amounts to about fifty +or sixty persons. By far the larger half of the assemblage are women. +Their black hair tastefully braided into various forms, and adorned +with flowers or precious stones, contrasts elegantly with the brilliant +whiteness of the robes in which they are for the most part clothed. +Some of them are occupied in listlessly watching the movements of the +birds in the aviaries; others hold a languid and whispered conversation +with such of the courtiers as happen to be placed near them. The men +exhibit in their dresses a greater variety of colour, and in their +occupations a greater fertility of resource, than the women. Their +garments, of the lightest rose, violet, or yellow tints, diversify +fantastically the monotonous white robes of their gentle companions. +Of their employments, the most conspicuous are playing on the lute, +gaming with dice, teasing their lapdogs, and insulting their parasites. +Whatever their occupation, it is performed with little attention, and +less enthusiasm. Some recline on their couches with closed eyes, as if +the heat made the labour of using their organs of vision too much for +them; others, in the midst of a conversation, suddenly leave a sentence +unfinished, apparently incapacitated by lassitude from giving +expression to the simplest ideas. Every sight in the apartment that +attracts the eye, every sound that gains the ear, expresses a luxurious +repose. No brilliant light mars the pervading softness of the +atmosphere; no violent colour materialises the light, ethereal hues of +the dresses; no sudden noises interrupt the fitful and plaintive notes +of the lute, jar with the soft twittering of the birds in the aviaries, +or drown the still, regular melody of the ladies' voices. All objects, +animate and inanimate, are in harmony with each other. It is a scene +of spiritualised indolence--a picture of dreamy beatitude in the inmost +sanctuary of unruffled repose. + +Amid this assemblage of beauty and nobility, the members of which were +rather to be generally noticed than particularly observed, there was, +however, one individual who, both by the solitary occupation he had +chosen and his accidental position in the room, was personally +remarkable among the listless patricians around him. + +His couch was placed nearer the window than that of any other occupant +of the chamber. Some of his indolent neighbours--especially those of +the gentler sex--occasionally regarded him with mingled looks of +admiration and curiosity; but no one approached him, or attempted to +engage him in conversation. A piece of vellum lay by his side, on +which, from time to time, he traced a few words, and then resumed his +reclining position, apparently absorbed in reflection, and utterly +regardless of all the occupants, male and female, of the imperial +apartment. Judging from his general appearance, he could scarcely be +twenty-five years of age. The conformation of the upper part of his +face was thoroughly intellectual--the forehead high, broad, and +upright; the eyes clear, penetrating, and thoughtful;--but the lower +part was, on the other hand, undeniably sensual. The lips, full and +thick, formed a disagreeable contrast to the delicate chiselling of the +straight Grecian nose; while the fleshiness of the chin, and the jovial +redundancy of the cheeks, were, in their turn, utterly at variance with +the character of the pale, noble forehead, and the expression of the +quick, intelligent eyes. In stature he was barely of the middle size; +but every part of his body was so perfectly proportioned that he +appeared, in any position, taller than he really was. The upper part +of his dress, thrown open from the heat, partly disclosed the fine +statuesque formation of his neck and chest. His ears, hands, and feet +were of that smallness and delicacy which is held to denote the +aristocracy of birth; and there was in his manner that indescribable +combination of unobtrusive dignity and unaffected elegance, which in +all ages and countries, and through all changes of manners and customs, +has rendered the demeanour of its few favoured possessors the +instantaneous interpreter of their social rank. + + +While the patrician was still occupied over his vellum, the following +conversation took place in whispers between two ladies placed near the +situation he occupied. + +'Tell me, Camilla,' said the eldest and stateliest of the two, 'who is +the courtier so occupied in composition? I have endeavoured, I know +not how often, to catch his eye; but the man will look at nothing but +his roll of vellum or the corners of the room.' + +'What, are you so great a stranger in Italy as not to know him!' +replied the other, a lively girl of small delicate form, who fidgeted +with persevering restlessness on her couch, and seemed incapable of +giving an instant's steady attention to any of the objects around her. +'By all the saints, martyrs, and relics of my uncle the bishop!' + +'Hush! You should not swear!' + +'Not swear! Why, I am making a new collection of oaths, intended +solely for ladies' use! I intend to set the fashion of swearing by +them myself!' + +'But answer my question, I beseech you! Will you never learn to talk +on one subject at a time?' + +'Your question--ah, your question! It was about the Goths?' + +'No, no! It was about that man who is incessantly writing, and will +look at nobody. He is almost as provoking as Camilla herself!' + +'Don't frown so! That man, as you call him, is the senator Vetranio.' + +The lady started. It was evident that Vetranio had a reputation. + +'Yes!' continued the lively Camilla, 'that is the accomplished +Vetranio; but he will be no favourite of yours, for he sometimes +swears--swears by the ancient gods, too, which is forbidden!' + +'He is handsome.' + +'Handsome! he is beautiful! Not a woman in Italy but is languishing +for him!' + +'I have heard that he is clever.' + +'Who has not? He is the author of some of the most celebrated sauces +of the age. Cooks of all nations worship him as an oracle. Then he +writes poetry, and composes music, and paints pictures! And as for +philosophy--he talks it better than my uncle the bishop!' + +'Is he rich?' + +'Ah! my uncle the bishop!--I must tell you how I helped Vetranio to +make a satire on him! When I was staying with him at Rome, I used often +to see a woman in a veil taken across the garden to his study; so, to +perplex him, I asked him who she was. And he frowned and stammered, +and said at first that I was disrespectful; but he told me afterwards +that she was an Arian whom he was labouring to convert. So I thought I +should like to see how this conversion went on, and I hid myself behind +a bookcase. But it is a profound secret; I tell it you in confidence.' + +'I don't care to know it. Tell me about Vetranio.' + +'How ill-natured you are! Oh! I shall never forget how we laughed when +I told Vetranio what I had seen. He took up his writing materials, and +made the satire immediately. The next day all Rome heard of it. My +uncle was speechless with rage! I believe he suspected me; but he gave +up converting the Arian lady, and--' + +'I ask you again--Is Vetranio rich?' + + +'Half Sicily is his. He has immense estates in Africa, olive-grounds +in Syria, and corn-fields in Gaul. I was present at an entertainment +he gave at his villa in Sicily. He fitted up one of his vessels from +the descriptions of the furnishing of Cleopatra's galley, and made his +slaves swim after us as attendant Tritons. Oh! it was magnificent!' + +'I should like to know him.' + +'You should see his cats! He has a perfect legion of them at his +villa. Twelve slaves are employed to attend on them. He is mad about +cats, and declares that the old Egyptians were right to worship them. +He told me yesterday, that when his largest cat is dead he will +canonise her, in spite of the Christians! And then he is so kind to +his slaves! They are never whipped or punished, except when they +neglect or disfigure themselves; for Vetranio will allow nothing that +is ugly or dirty to come near him. You must visit his banqueting-hall +in Rome. It is perfection!' + +'But why is he here?' + +'He has come to Ravenna, charged with some secret message from the +Senate, and has presented a rare breed of chickens to that foolish--' + +'Hush! you may be overheard!' + +'Well!--to that wise emperor of ours! Ah! the palace has been so +pleasant since he has been here!' + +At this instant the above dialogue--from the frivolity of which the +universally-learned readers of modern times will, we fear, recoil with +contempt--was interrupted by a movement on the part of its hero which +showed that his occupation was at an end. With the elaborate +deliberation of a man who disdains to exhibit himself as liable to be +hurried by any mortal affair, Vetranio slowly folded up the vellum he +had now filled with writing, and depositing it in his bosom, made a +sign to a slave who happened to be then passing near him with a dish of +fruit. + +Having received his message, the slave retired to the entrance of the +apartment, and beckoning to a man who stood outside the door, motioned +him to approach Vetranio's couch. + +This individual immediately hurried across the room to the window where +the elegant Roman awaited him. Not the slightest description of him is +needed; for he belonged to a class with which moderns are as well +acquainted as ancients--a class which has survived all changes of +nations and manners--a class which came in with the first rich man in +the world, and will only go out with the last. In a word, he was a +parasite. + +He enjoyed, however, one great superiority over his modern successors: +in his day flattery was a profession--in ours it has sunk to a pursuit. + +'I shall leave Ravenna this evening,' said Vetranio. + +The parasite made three low bows and smiled ecstatically. + +'You will order my travelling equipage to be at the palace gates an +hour before sunset.' + +The parasite declared he should never forget the honour of the +commission, and left the room. + +The sprightly Camilla, who had overheard Vetranio's command, jumped off +her couch, as soon as the parasite's back was turned, and running up to +the senator, began to reproach him for the determination he had just +formed. + +'Have you no compunction at leaving me to the dulness of this horrible +palace, to satisfy your idle fancy for going to Rome,' said she, +pouting her pretty lip, and playing with a lock of the dark brown hair +that clustered over Vetranio's brow. + + +'Has the senator Vetranio so little regard for his friends as to leave +them to the mercy of the Goths?' said another lady, advancing with a +winning smile to Camilla's side. + +'Ah, those Goths!' exclaimed Vetranio, turning to the last speaker. +'Tell me, Julia, is it not reported that the barbarians are really +marching into Italy?' + +'Everybody has heard of it. The emperor is so discomposed by the +rumour, that he has forbidden the very name of the Goths to be +mentioned in his presence again.' + +'For my part,' continued Vetranio, drawing Camilla towards him, and +playfully tapping her little dimpled hand, 'I am in anxious expectation +of the Goths, for I have designed a statue of Minerva, for which I can +find no model so fit as a woman of that troublesome nation. I am +informed upon good authority, that their limbs are colossal, and their +sense of propriety most obediently pliable under the discipline of the +purse.' + +'If the Goths supply you with a model for anything,' said a courtier +who had joined the group while Vetranio was speaking, 'it will be with +a representation of the burning of your palace at Rome, which they will +enable you to paint from the inexhaustible reservoir of your own +wounds.' + +The individual who uttered this last observation was remarkable among +the brilliant circle around him by his excessive ugliness. Urged by +his personal disadvantages, and the loss of all his property at the +gaming-table, he had latterly personated a character, the +accomplishments attached to which rescued him, by their disagreeable +originality in that frivolous age, from oblivion or contempt. He was a +Cynic philosopher. + +His remark, however, produced no other effect on his hearers' serenity +than to excite their merriment. Vetranio laughed, Camilla laughed, +Julia laughed. The idea of a troop of barbarians ever being able to +burn a palace at Rome was too wildly ridiculous for any one's gravity; +and as the speech was repeated in other parts of the room, in spite of +their dulness and lassitude the whole Court laughed. + +'I know not why I should be amused by that man's nonsense,' said +Camilla, suddenly becoming grave at the very crisis of a most +attractive smile, 'when I am so melancholy at the thought of Vetranio's +departure. What will become of me when he is gone? Alas! who will be +left in the palace to compose songs to my beauty and music for my lute? +Who will paint me as Venus, and tell me stories about the ancient +Egyptians and their cats? Who at the banquet will direct what dishes I +am to choose, and what I am to reject? Who?'--and poor little Camilla +stopped suddenly in her enumeration of the pleasures she was about to +lose, and seemed on the point of weeping as piteously as she had been +laughing rapturously but the instant before. + +Vetranio was touched--not by the compliment to his more intellectual +powers, but by the admission of his convivial supremacy as a guide to +the banquet, contained in the latter part of Camilla's remonstrance. +The sex were then, as now, culpably deficient in gastronomic +enthusiasm. It was, therefore, a perfect triumph to have made a convert +to the science of the youngest and loveliest of the ladies of the Court. + +'If she can gain leave of absence,' said the gratified senator, +'Camilla shall accompany me to Rome, and shall be present at the first +celebration of my recent discovery of a Nightingale Sauce.' + +Camilla was in ecstasies. She seized Vetranio's cheeks between her +rosy little fingers, kissed him as enthusiastically as a child kisses a +new toy, and darted gaily off to prepare for her departure. + + +'Vetranio would be better employed,' sneered the Cynic, 'in inventing +new salves for future wounds than new sauces for future nightingales! +His carcase will be carved by Gothic swords as a feast for the worms +before his birds are spitted with Roman skewers as a feast for his +guests! Is this a time for cutting statues and concocting sauces? Fie +on the senators who abandon themselves to such pursuits as Vetranio's!' + +'I have other designs,' replied the object of all this moral +indignation, looking with insulting indifference on the Cynic's +repulsive countenance, 'which, from their immense importance to the +world, must meet with universal approval. The labour that I have just +achieved forms one of a series of three projects which I have for some +time held in contemplation. The first is an analysis of the new +priesthood; the second, a true personification, both by painting and +sculpture, of Venus; the third, a discovery of what has been hitherto +uninvented--a nightingale sauce. By the inscrutable wisdom of Fate, it +has been so willed that the last of the objects I proposed to myself +has been the first attained. The sauce is composed, and I have just +concluded on this vellum the ode that is to introduce it at my table. +The analysation will be my next labour. It will take the form of a +treatise, in which, making the experience of past years the groundwork +of prophecy for the future, I shall show the precise number of +additional dissensions, controversies, and quarrels that will be +required to enable the new priesthood to be themselves the destroyers +of their own worship. I shall ascertain by an exact computation the +year in which this destruction will be consummated; and I have by me as +the materials for my work an historical summary of Christian schisms +and disputes in Rome for the last hundred years. As for my second +design, the personification of Venus, it is of appalling difficulty. +It demands an investigation of the women of every nation under the sun; +a comparison of the relative excellences and peculiarities of their +several charms; and a combination of all that is loveliest in the +infinite variety of their most prominent attractions, under one form. +To forward the execution of this arduous project, my tenants at home +and my slave-merchants abroad have orders to send to my villa in Sicily +all women who are born most beautiful in the Empire, or can be brought +most beautiful from the nations around. I will have them displayed +before me, of every shade in complexion and of every peculiarity in +form! At the fitting period I shall commence my investigations, +undismayed by difficulty, and determined on success. Never yet has the +true Venus been personified! Should I accomplish the task, how +exquisite will be my triumph! My work will be the altar at which +thousands will offer up the softest emotions of the heart. It will +free the prisoned imagination of youth, and freshen the fading +recollections on the memory of age!' + +Vetranio paused. The Cynic was struck dumb with indignation. A +solitary zealot for the Church, who happened to be by, frowned at the +analysation. The ladies tittered at the personification. The +gastronomists chuckled at the nightingale sauce; but for the first few +minutes no one spoke. During this temporary embarrassment, Vetranio +whispered a few words in Julia's ear; and--just as the Cynic was +sufficiently recovered to retort--accompanied by the lady, he quitted +the room. + +Never was popularity more unalloyed than Vetranio's. Gifted with a +disposition the pliability of which adapted itself to all emergencies, +his generosity disarmed enemies, while his affability made friends. +Munificent without assumption, successful without pride, he obliged +with grace and shone with safety. People enjoyed his hospitality, for +they knew that it was disinterested; and admired his acquirements, for +they felt that they were unobtrusive. Sometimes (as in his dialogue +with the Cynic) the whim of the moment, or the sting of a sarcasm, drew +from him a hint at his station, or a display of his eccentricities; +but, as he was always the first soon afterwards to lead the laugh at +his own outbreak, his credit as a noble suffered nothing by his +infirmity as a man. Gaily and attractively he moved in all grades of +the society of his age, winning his social laurels in every rank, +without making a rival to dispute their possession, or an enemy to +detract from their value. + + +On quitting the Court waiting-room, Vetranio and Julia descended the +palace stairs and passed into the emperor's garden. Used generally as +an evening lounge, this place was now untenanted, save by the few +attendants engaged in cultivating the flower-beds and watering the +smooth, shady lawns. Entering one of the most retired of the numerous +summer-houses among the trees, Vetranio motioned his companion to take +a seat, and then abruptly addressed her in the following words:-- + +'I have heard that you are about to depart for Rome--is it true?' + +He asked this question in a low voice, and with a manner in its +earnestness strangely at variance with the volatile gaiety which had +characterised him, but a few moments before, among the nobles of the +Court. As Julia answered him in the affirmative, his countenance +expressed a lively satisfaction; and seating himself by her side, he +continued the conversation thus:-- + +'If I thought that you intended to stay for any length of time in the +city, I should venture upon a fresh extortion from your friendship by +asking you to lend me your little villa at Aricia!' + +'You shall take with you to Rome an order on my steward to place +everything there at your entire disposal.' + +'My generous Julia! You are of the gifted few who really know how to +confer a favour! Another woman would have asked me why I wanted the +villa--you give it unreservedly. So delicate an unwillingness to +intrude on a secret reminds me that the secret should now be yours!' + +To explain the easy confidence that existed between Vetranio and Julia, +it is necessary to inform the reader that the lady--although still +attractive in appearance--was of an age to muse on her past, rather +than to meditate on her future conquests. She had known her eccentric +companion from his boyhood, had been once flattered in his verses, and +was sensible enough--now that her charms were on the wane--to be as +content with the friendship of the senator as she had formerly been +enraptured with the adoration of the youth. + +'You are too penetrating,' resumed Vetranio, after a short pause, 'not +to have already suspected that I only require your villa to assist me +in the concealment of an intrigue. So peculiar is my adventure in its +different circumstances, that to make use of my palace as the scene of +its development would be to risk a discovery which might produce the +immediate subversion of all my designs. But I fear the length of my +confession will exceed the duration of your patience!' + +'You have aroused my curiosity. I could listen to you for ever!' + +'A short time before I took my departure from Rome for this place,' +continued Vetranio, 'I encountered an adventure of the most +extraordinary nature, which has haunted me with the most extraordinary +perseverance, and which will have, I feel assured, the most +extraordinary results. I was sitting one evening in the garden of my +palace on the Pincian Mount, occupied in trying a new composition on my +lute. In one of the pauses of the melody, which was tender and +plaintive, I heard sounds that resembled the sobbing of some one in +distress among the trees behind me. I looked cautiously round, and +discerned, half-hidden by the verdure, the figure of a young girl, who +appeared to be listening to the music with the most entranced +attention. Flattered by such a testimony to my skill, and anxious to +gain a nearer view of my mysterious visitant, I advanced towards her +hiding-place, forgetting in my haste to continue playing on the lute. +The instant the music ceased, she discerned me and disappeared. +Determined to behold her, I again struck the chords, and in a few +minutes I saw her white robe once more among the trees. I redoubled my +efforts. I played with the utmost expression the most pathetic parts +of the melody. As if under the influence of a charm, she began to +advance towards me, now hesitating, now moving back a few steps, now +approaching, half-reluctantly, half willingly, until, utterly +vanquished by the long trembling close of the last cadence of the air, +she ran suddenly up to me, and falling at my feet, raised her hands as +if to implore my pardon.' + +'Truly this was no common tribute to your skill! Did she speak to you?' + + +'She uttered not a word,' continued Vetranio. 'Her large soft eyes, +bright with tears, looked piteously up in my face; her delicate lips +trembled, as if she wished to speak, but dared not; her smooth round +arms were the very perfection of beauty. Child as she seemed in years +and emotions, she looked a woman in loveliness and form. For the +moment I was too much astonished by the suddenness of her supplicating +action to move or speak. As soon as I recovered myself I attempted to +fondle and console her, but she shrunk from my embrace, and seemed +inclined to escape from me again; until I touched once more the strings +of the lute, and then she uttered a subdued exclamation of delight, +nestled close up to me, and looked into my face with such a strange +expression of mingled adoration and rapture, that I declare to you, +Julia, I felt as bashful before her as a boy.' + +'You bashful! The Senator Vetranio bashful!' exclaimed Julia, looking +up with an expression of the most unfeigned incredulity and +astonishment. + +'The lute,' pursued Vetranio gravely, without heeding the interruption, +'was my sole means of procuring any communication with her. If I +ceased playing, we were as strangers; if I resumed, we were as friends. +So, subduing the notes of the instrument while she spoke to me in a +soft tremulous musical voice, I still continued to play. By this plan +I discovered at our first interview that she was the daughter of one +Numerian, that she was on the point of completing her fourteenth year, +and that she was called Antonina. I had only succeeded in gaining this +mere outline of her story, when, as if struck by some sudden +apprehension, she tore herself from me with a look of the utmost +terror, and entreating me not to follow her if I ever desired to see +her again, she disappeared rapidly among the trees.' + +'More and more wonderful! And, in your new character of a bashful man, +you doubtless obeyed her injunctions?' + +'I did,' replied the senator; 'but the next evening I revisited the +garden grove, and, as soon as I struck the chords, as if by magic, she +again approached. At this second interview I learned the reason of her +mysterious appearances and departures. Her father, she told me, was +one of a new sect, who imagine--with what reason it is impossible to +comprehend--that they recommend themselves to their Deity by making +their lives one perpetual round of bodily suffering and mental anguish. +Not content with distorting all his own feelings and faculties, this +tyrant perpetrated his insane austerities upon the poor child as well. +He forbade her to enter a theatre, to look on sculpture, to read +poetry, to listen to music. He made her learn long prayers, and attend +to interminable sermons. He allowed her no companions of her own +age--not even girls like herself. The only recreation that she could +obtain was the permission--granted with much reluctance and many +rebukes--to cultivate a little garden which belonged to the house they +lived in, and joined at one point the groves round my palace. There, +while she was engaged over her flowers, she first heard the sound of my +lute for many months before I had discovered her, she had been in the +habit of climbing the enclosure that bounded her garden, and hiding +herself among the trees to listen to the music, whenever her father's +concerns took him abroad. She had been discovered in this occupation +by an old man appointed to watch her in his master's absence. The +attendant, however, on hearing her confession, not only promised to +keep her secret, but permitted her to continue her visits to my grove +whenever I chanced to be playing there on the lute. Now the most +mysterious part of this matter is, that the girl seemed--in spite of +his severity towards her--to have a great affection for her surly; for, +when I offered to deliver her from his custody, she declared that +nothing could induce her to desert him--not even the attraction of +living among fine pictures and hearing beautiful music every hour in +the day. But I see I weary you; and, indeed, it is evident from the +length of the shadows that the hour of my departure is at hand. Let me +then pass from my introductory interviews with Antonina, to the +consequences that had resulted from them when I set forth on my journey +to Ravenna.' + +'I think I can imagine the consequences already!' said Julia, smiling +maliciously. + + +'Begin then,' retorted Vetranio, 'by imagining that the strangeness of +this girl's situation, and the originality of her ideas, invested her +with an attraction for me, which the charms of her person and age +contributed immensely to heighten. She delighted my faculties as a +poet, as much as she fired my feelings as a man; and I determined to +lure her from the tyrannical protection of her father by the employment +of every artifice that my ingenuity could suggest. I began by teaching +her to exercise for herself the talent which had so attracted her in +another. By the familiarity engendered on both sides by such an +occupation, I hoped to gain as much in affection from her as she +acquired in skill from me; but to my astonishment, I still found her as +indifferent towards the master, and as tender towards the music, as she +had appeared at our first interview. If she had repelled my advances, +if they had overwhelmed her with confusion, I could have adapted myself +to her humour, I should have felt the encouragement of hope; but the +coldness, the carelessness, the unnatural, incomprehensible ease with +which she received even my caresses, utterly disconcerted me. It +seemed as if she could only regard me as a moving statue, as a mere +impersonation, immaterial as the science I was teaching her. If I +spoke, she hardly looked on me; if I moved, she scarcely noticed the +action. I could not consider it dislike; she seemed to gentle to +nourish such a feeling for any creature on earth. I could not believe +it coldness; she was all life, all agitation, if she heard only a few +notes of music. When she touched the chords of the instrument, her +whole frame trembled. Her eyes, mild, serious, and thoughtful when she +looked on me, now brightened with delight, now softened with tears, +when she listened to the lute. As day by day her skill in music +increased, so her manner towards me grew more inexplicably indifferent. +At length, weary of the constant disappointments that I experienced, +and determined to make a last effort to touch her heart by awakening +her gratitude, I presented her with the very lute which she had at +first heard, and on which she had now learned to play. Never have I +seen any human being so rapturously delighted as this incomprehensible +girl when she received the instrument from my hands. She alternately +wept and laughed over it, she kissed it, fondled it, spoke to it, as if +it had been a living thing. But when I approached to suppress the +expressions of thankfulness that she poured on me for the gift, she +suddenly hid the lute in her robe, as if afraid that I should deprive +her of it, and hurried rapidly from my sight. The next day I waited +for her at our accustomed meeting-place, but she never appeared. I +sent a slave to her father's house, but she would hold no communication +with him. It was evident that, now she had gained her end, she cared +no more to behold me. In my first moments of irritation, I determined +to make her feel my power, if she despised my kindness; but reflection +convinced me, from my acquaintance with her character, that in such a +matter force was impolitic, that I should risk my popularity in Rome, +and engage myself in an unworthy quarrel to no purpose. Dissatisfied +with myself, and disappointed in the girl, I obeyed the first dictates +of my impatience, and seizing the opportunity afforded by my duties in +the senate of escaping from the scene of defeated hopes, I departed +angrily for Ravenna.' + +'Departed for Ravenna!' cried Julia, laughing outright. 'Oh, what a +conclusion to the adventure! I confess it, Vetranio, such consequences +as these are beyond all imagination!' + +'You laugh, Julia,' returned the senator, a little piqued; 'but hear me +to the end, and you will find that I have not yet resigned myself to +defeat. For the few days that I have remained here, Antonina's image +has incessantly troubled my thoughts. I perceive that my inclination, +as well as my reputation, is concerned in subduing her ungrateful +aversion. I suspect that my anxiety to gain her will, if unremoved, so +far influence my character, that from Vetranio the Serene, I shall be +changed into Vetranio the Sardonic. Pride, honour, curiosity, and love +all urge me to her conquest. To prepare for my banquet is an excuse to +the Court for my sudden departure from this place; the real object of +my journey is Antonina alone.' + +'Ah, now I recognise my friend again in his own character,' remarked +the lady approvingly. + + +'You will ask me how I purpose to obtain another interview with her?' +continued Vetranio. 'I answer, that the girl's attendant has +voluntarily offered himself as an instrument for the prosecution of my +plans. The very day before I departed from Rome, he suddenly presented +himself to my in my garden, and proposed to introduce me into +Numerian's house--having first demanded, with the air more of an equal +than an inferior, whether the report that I was still a secret adherent +of the old religion, of the worship of the gods, was true. Suspicious +of the fellow's motives (for he abjured all recompense as the reward of +his treachery), and irritated by the girl's recent ingratitude, I +treated his offer with contempt. Now, however, that my dissatisfaction +is calmed and my anxiety aroused, I am determined, at all hazards, to +trust myself to this man, be his motives for aiding me what they may. +If my efforts at my expected interview--and I will not spare them--are +rewarded with success, it will be necessary to obtain some refuge for +Antonina that will neither be suspected nor searched. For such a +hiding-place, nothing can be more admirably adapted than your Arician +villa. Do you--now that you know for what use it is intended--repent +of your generous disposal of it in aid of my design?' + +'I am delighted to have had it to bestow on you,' replied the liberal +Julia, pressing Vetranio's hand. 'Your adventure is indeed uncommon--I +burn with impatience to hear how it will end. Whatever happens, you may +depend on my secrecy and count on my assistance. But see, the sun is +already verging towards the west; and yonder comes one of your slaves +to inform you, I doubt not, that your equipage is prepared. Return +with me to the palace, and I will supply you with the letter necessary +to introduce you as master to my country abode.' + + * * * * * + +The worthy citizens of Ravenna assembled in the square before the +palace to behold the senator's departure, had entirely exhausted such +innocent materials for amusement as consisted in staring at the guards, +catching the clouds of gnats that hovered about their ears, and +quarrelling with each other; and were now reduced to a state of very +noisy and unanimous impatience, when their discontent was suddenly and +most effectually appeased by the appearance of the travelling equipage +with Vetranio and Camilla outside the palace gates. + +Uproarious shouts greeted the appearance of the senator and his +magnificent retinue; but they were increased a hundred-fold when the +chief slaves, by their master's command, each scattered a handful of +small coin among the poorer classes of the spectators. Every man among +that heterogeneous assemblage of rogues, fools, and idlers roared his +loudest and capered his highest, in honour of the generous patrician. +Gradually and carefully the illustrious travellers moved through the +crowd around them to the city gate; and thence, amid incessant shouts +of applause, raised with imposing unanimity of lung, and wrought up to +the most distracting discordancy of noise, Vetranio and his lively +companion departed in triumph for Rome. + + * * * * * + +A few days after this event the citizens were again assembled at the +same place and hour--probably to witness another patrician +departure--when their ears were assailed by the unexpected sound +produced by the call to arms, which was followed immediately by the +closing of the city gates. They had scarcely asked each other the +meaning of these unusual occurrences, when a peasant, half frantic with +terror, rushed into the square, shouting out the terrible intelligence +that the Goths were in sight! + +The courtiers heard the news, and starting from a luxurious repast, +hurried to the palace windows to behold the portentous spectacle. For +the remainder of the evening the banqueting tables were unapproached by +the guests. + + +The wretched emperor was surprised among his poultry by that dreaded +intelligence. He, too, hastened to the windows, and looking forth, saw +the army of avengers passing in contempt his solitary fortress, and +moving swiftly onward towards defenceless Rome. Long after the +darkness had hidden the masses of that mighty multitude from his eyes, +did he remain staring helplessly upon the fading landscape, in a stupor +of astonishment and dread; and, for the first time since he had +possessed them, his flocks of fowls were left for that night unattended +by their master's hand. + + + +CHAPTER 3. + +ROME. + +The perusal of the title to this chapter will, we fear, excite emotions +of apprehension, rather than of curiosity, in the breasts of +experienced readers. They will doubtless imagine that it is portentous +of long rhapsodies on those wonders of antiquity, the description of +which has long become absolutely nauseous to them by incessant +iteration. They will foresee wailings over the Palace of the Caesars, +and meditations among the arches of the Colosseum, loading a long +series of weary paragraphs to the very chapter's end; and, +considerately anxious to spare their attention a task from which it +recoils, they will unanimously hurry past the dreaded desert of +conventional reflection, to alight on the first oasis that may present +itself, whether it be formed by a new division of the story, or +suddenly indicated by the appearance of a dialogue. Animated, +therefore, by apprehensions such as these, we hasten to assure them +that in no instance will the localities of our story trench upon the +limits of the well-worn Forum, or mount the arches of the exhausted +Colosseum. It is with the beings, and not the buildings of old Rome, +that their attention is to be occupied. We desire to present them with +a picture of the inmost emotions of the times--of the living, breathing +actions and passions of the people of the doomed Empire. Antiquarian +topography and classical architecture we leave to abler pens, and +resign to other readers. + +It is, however, necessary that the sphere in which the personages of +our story are about to act should be in some measure indicated, in +order to facilitate the comprehension of their respective movements. +That portion of the extinct city which we design to revive has left few +traces of its existence in the modern town. Its sites are +traditionary--its buildings are dust. The church rises where the temple +once stood, and the wine-shop now lures the passing idler where the +bath invited his ancestor of old. + +The walls of Rome are in extent, at the present day, the same as they +were at the period of which we now write. But here all analogy between +the ancient and modern city ends. The houses that those walls were +once scarcely wide enough to enclose have long since vanished, and +their modern successors occupy but a third of the space once allotted +to the capital of the Empire. + +Beyond the walls immense suburbs stretched forth in the days of old. +Gorgeous villas, luxurious groves, temples, theatres, +baths--interspersed by colonies of dwellings belonging to the lower +orders of the people--surrounded the mighty city. Of these innumerable +abodes hardly a trace remains. The modern traveller, as he looks forth +over the site of the famous suburbs, beholds, here and there, a ruined +aqueduct, or a crumbling tomb, tottering on the surface of a +pestilential marsh. + +The present entrance to Rome by the Porta del Popolo occupies the same +site as the ancient Flaminian Gate. Three great streets now lead from +it towards the southern extremity of the city, and form with their +tributaries the principal portion of modern Rome. On one side they are +bounded by the Pincian Hill, on the other by the Tiber. Of these +streets, those nearest the river occupy the position of the famous +Campus Martius; those on the other side, the ancient approaches to the +gardens of Sallust and Lucullus, on the Pincian Mount. + +On the opposite bank of the Tiber (gained by the Ponte St. Angelo, +formerly the Pons Elius), two streets pierced through an irregular and +populous neighbourhood, conduct to the modern Church of St. Peter. At +the period of our story this part of the city was of much greater +consequence, both in size and appearance, than it is at present, and +led directly to the ancient Basilica of St. Peter, which stood on the +same site as that now occupied by the modern edifice. + + +The events about to be narrated occur entirely in the parts of the city +just described. From the Pincian Hill, across the Campus Martius, over +the Pons Elius, and on to the Basilica of St. Peter, the reader may be +often invited to accompany us, but he will be spared all necessity of +penetrating familiar ruins, or mourning over the sepulchres of departed +patriots. + +Ere, however, we revert to former actors or proceed to new characters, +it will be requisite to people the streets that we here attempt to +rebuild. By this process it is hoped that the reader will gain that +familiarity with the manners and customs of the Romans of the fifth +century on which the influence of this story mainly depends, and which +we despair of being able to instil by a philosophical disquisition on +the features of the age. A few pages of illustration will serve our +purpose better, perhaps, than volumes of historical description. There +is no more unerring index to the character of a people than the streets +of their cities. + +It is near evening. In the widest part of the Campus Martius crowds of +people are assembled before the gates of a palace. They are +congregated to receive several baskets of provisions, distributed with +ostentatious charity by the owner of the mansion. The incessant +clamour and agitation of the impatient multitude form a strange +contrast to the stately serenity of the natural and artificial objects +by which they are enclosed on all sides. + +The space they occupy is oblong in shape and of great extent in size. +Part of it is formed by a turf walk shaded with trees, part by the +paved approaches to the palace and the public baths which stand in its +immediate neighbourhood. These two edifices are remarkable by their +magnificent outward adornments of statues, and the elegance and number +of the flights of steps by which they are respectively entered. With +the inferior buildings, the market-places and the gardens attached to +them, they are sufficiently extensive to form the boundary of one side +of the immediate view. The appearance of monotony which might at other +times be remarked in the vastness and regularity of their white fronts, +is at this moment agreeably broken by several gaily-coloured awnings +stretched over their doors and balconies. The sun is now shining on +them with overpowering brightness; the metallic ornaments on their +windows glitter like gems of fire; even the trees which form their +groves partake of the universal flow of light, and fail, like the +objects around them, to offer to the weary eye either refreshment or +repose. + +Towards the north, the Mausoleum of Augustus, towering proudly up into +the brilliant sky, at once attracts the attention. From its position, +parts of this noble building are already in shade. Not a human being is +visible on any part of its mighty galleries--it stands solitary and +sublime, an impressive embodiment of the emotions which it was raised +to represent. + +On the side opposite the palace and the baths is the turf walk already +mentioned. Trees, thickly planted and interlaced by vines, cast a +luxurious shade over this spot. In their interstices, viewed from a +distance, appear glimpses of gay dresses, groups of figures in repose, +stands loaded with fruit and flowers, and innumerable white marble +statues of fauns and wood-nymphs. From this delicious retreat the +rippling of fountains is to be heard, occasionally interrupted by the +rustling of leaves, or the plaintive cadences of the Roman flute. + + +Southward two pagan temples stand in lonely grandeur among a host of +monuments and trophies. The symmetry of their first construction still +remains unimpaired, their white marble pillars shine in the sunlight +brightly as of old, yet they now present to the eye an aspect of +strange desolation, of unnatural mysterious gloom. Although the laws +forbid the worship for which they were built, the hand of reform has as +yet not ventured to doom them to ruin or adapt them to Christian +purposes. None venture to tread their once-crowded colonnades. No +priest appears to give the oracles from their doors; no sacrifices reek +upon their naked altars. Under their roofs, visited only by the light +that steals through their narrow entrances, stand unnoticed, +unworshipped, unmoved, the mighty idols of old Rome. Human emotion, +which made them Omnipotence once, has left them but stone now. The +'Star in the East' has already dimmed the fearful halo which the +devotion of bloodshed once wreathed round their forms. Forsaken and +alone, they stand but as the gloomy monuments of the greatest delusion +ever organised by the ingenuity of man. + +We have now, so to express it, exhibited the frame surrounding the +moving picture, which we shall next attempt to present to the reader by +mixing with the multitude before the palace gates. + +This assembly resolved itself into three divisions: that collected +before the palace steps, that loitering about the public baths, and +that reposing in the shade of the groves. The first was of the most +consequence in numbers, and of the greatest variety in appearance. +Composed of rogues of the worst order from every quarter of the world, +it might be said to present, in its general aspect of numerical +importance, the very sublime of degradation. Confident in their rude +union of common avidity, these worthy citizens vented their insolence +on all objects, and in every direction, with a careless impartiality +which would have shamed the most victorious efforts of modern mobs. +The hubbub of voices was perfectly fearful. The coarse execrations of +drunken Gauls, the licentious witticisms of effeminate Greeks, the +noisy satisfaction of native Romans, the clamorous indignation of +irritable Jews--all sounded together in one incessant chorus of +discordant noises. Nor were the senses of sight and smell more +agreeably assailed than the faculty of hearing, by this anomalous +congregation. Immodest youth and irreverent age; woman savage, man +cowardly; the swarthy Ethiopian beslabbered with stinking oil; the +stolid Briton begrimed with dirt--these, and a hundred other varying +combinations, to be imagined rather than expressed, met the attention +in every direction. To describe the odours exhaled by the heat from +this seething mixture of many pollutions, would be to force the reader +to close the book; we prefer to return to the distribution which was +the cause of this degrading tumult, and which consisted of small +baskets of roasted meat packed with common fruits and vegetables, and +handed, or rather flung down, to the mob by the servants of the +nobleman who gave the feast. The people revelled in the abundance thus +presented to them. They threw themselves upon it like wild beasts; they +devoured it like hogs, or bore it off like plunderers; while, secure in +the eminence on which they were placed, the purveyors of this public +banquet expressed their contempt for its noisy recipients, by holding +their noses, stopping their ears, turning their backs, and other +pantomimic demonstrations of lofty and excessive disgust. These +actions did not escape the attention of those members of the assembly +who, having eaten their fill, were at leisure to make use of their +tongues, and who showered an incessant storm of abuse on the heads of +their benefactor's retainers. + +'See those fellows!' cried one; 'they are the waiters at our feast, and +they mock us to our faces! Down with the filthy kitchen thieves!' + +'Excellently well said, Davus!--but who is to approach them? They +stink at this distance!' + +'The rotten-bodied knaves have the noses of dogs and the carcases of +goats.' + +Then came a chorus of voices--'Down with them! Down with them!' In +the midst of which an indignant freedman advanced to rebuke the mob, +receiving, as the reward of his temerity, a shower of missiles and a +volley of curses; after which he was thus addressed by a huge, greasy +butcher, hoisted on his companions' shoulders:-- + +'By the soul of the emperor, could I get near you, you rogue, I would +quarter you with my fingers alone!--A grinning scoundrel that jeers at +others! A filthy flatterer that dirts the very ground he walks on! By +the blood of the martyrs, should I fling the sweepings of the +slaughter-house at him, he knows not where to get himself dried!' + + +'Thou rag of a man,' roared a neighbour of the indignant butcher's, +'dost thou frown upon the guests of thy master, the very scrapings of +whose skin are worth more than thy whole carcase! It is easier to make +a drinking-vessel of the skull of a flea than to make an honest man of +such a villainous night-walker as thou art!' + +'Health and prosperity to our noble entertainer!' shouted one section +of the grateful crowd as the last speaker paused for breath. + +'Death to all knaves of parasites!' chimed in another. + +'Honour to the citizens of Rome!' roared a third party with modest +enthusiasm. + +'Give that freedman our bones to pick!' screamed an urchin from the +outskirts of the crowd. + +This ingenious piece of advice was immediately followed; and the +populace gave vent to a shout of triumph as the unfortunate freedman, +scared by a new volley of missiles, retreated with ignominious +expedition to the shelter of his patron's halls. + +In the slight and purified specimen of the 'table talk' of a Roman mob +which we have here ventured to exhibit, the reader will perceive that +extraordinary mixture of servility and insolence which characterised +not only the conversation but the actions of the lower orders of +society at the period of which we write. Oppressed and degraded, on +the one hand, to a point of misery scarcely conceivable to the public +of the present day, the poorer classes in Rome were, on the other, +invested with such a degree of moral license, and permitted such an +extent of political privilege, as flattered their vanity into blinding +their sense of indignation. Slaves in their season of servitude, +masters in their hours of recreation, they presented, as a class, one +of the most amazing social anomalies ever existing in any nation; and +formed, in their dangerous and artificial position, one of the most +important of the internal causes of the downfall of Rome. + +The steps of the public baths were almost as crowded as the space +before the neighbouring building. Incessant streams of people, either +entering or departing, poured over the broad flagstones of its marble +colonnades. This concourse, although composed in some parts of the same +class of people as that assembled before the palace, presented a +certain appearance of respectability. Here and there--chequering the +dusky monotony of masses of dirty tunics--might be discerned the +refreshing vision of a clean robe, or the grateful indication of a +handsome person. Little groups, removed as far as possible from the +neighbourhood of the noisy plebeians, were scattered about, either +engaged in animated conversation, or listlessly succumbing to the +lassitude induced by a recent bath. An instant's attention to the +subject of discourse among the more active of these individuals will +aid us in pursuing our social revelations. + +The loudest voice among the speakers at this particular moment +proceeded from a tall, thin, sinister-looking man, who was haranguing a +little group of listeners with great vehemence and fluency. + +'I tell you, Socius,' said he, turning suddenly upon one of his +companions, 'that, unless new slave-laws are made, my calling is at an +end. My patron's estate requires incessant supplies of these wretches. +I do my best to satisfy the demand, and the only result of my labour +is, that the miscreants either endanger my life, or fly with impunity +to join the gangs of robbers infesting our woods.' + +'Truly I am sorry for you; but what alteration would you have made in +the slave-laws?' + +'I would empower bailiffs to slay upon the spot all slaves whom they +thought disorderly, as an example to the rest!' + +'What would such a permission avail you? These creatures are +necessary, and such a law would exterminate them in a few months. Can +you not break their spirit with labour, bind their strength with +chains, and vanquish their obstinacy with dungeons?' + + +'All this I have done, but they die under the discipline, or escape +from their prisons. I have now three hundred slaves on my patron's +estates. Against those born on our lands I have little to urge. Many +of them, it is true, begin the day with weeping and end it with death; +but for the most part, thanks to their diurnal allowance of stripes, +they are tolerably submissive. It is with the wretches that I have +been obliged to purchase from prisoners of war and the people of +revolted towns that I am so dissatisfied. Punishments have no effect +on them, they are incessantly indolent, sulky, desperate. It was but +the other day that ten of them poisoned themselves while at work in the +fields, and fifty more, after setting fire to a farm-house while my +back was turned, escaped to join a gang of their companions, who are +now robbers in the woods. These fellows, however, are the last of the +troop who will perpetrate such offences. With the concurrence of my +patron, I have adopted a plan that will henceforth tame them +efficiently!' + +'Are you at liberty to communicate it?' + +'By the keys of St. Peter, I wish I could see it practised on every +estate in the land! It is this:--Near a sulphur lake at some distance +from my farm-house is a tract of marshy ground, overspread here and +there by the ruins of an ancient slaughter-house. I propose to dig in +this place several subterranean caverns, each of which shall be capable +of holding twenty men. Here my mutinous slaves shall sleep after their +day's labour. The entrances shall be closed until morning with a large +stone, on which I will have engraven this inscription: 'These are the +dormitories invented by Gordian, bailiff of Saturninus, a nobleman, for +the reception of refractory slaves.' + +'Your plan is ingenious; but I suspect your slaves (so insensible to +hardships are the brutal herd) will sleep as unconcernedly in their new +dormitories as in their old.' + +'Sleep! It will be a most original species of repose that they will +taste there! The stench of the sulphur lake will breathe Sabian odours +for them over a couch of mud! Their anointing oil will be the slime of +attendant reptiles! Their liquid perfumes will be the stagnant oozings +from their chamber roof! Their music will be the croaking of frogs and +the humming of gnats; and as for their adornments, why, they will be +decked forth with head-garlands of twining worms, and movable brooches +of cockchafers and toads! Tell me now, most sagacious Socius, do you +still think that amidst such luxuries as these my slaves will sleep?' + +'No; they will die.' + +'You are again wrong. They will curse and rave perhaps, but that is of +no consequence. They will work the longer above ground to shorten the +term of their repose beneath. They will wake at an instant's notice, +and come forth at a moment's signal. I have no fear of their dying!' + +'Do you leave Rome soon?' + +'I go this evening, taking with me such a supply of trustworthy +assistants as will enable me to execute my plan without delay. +Farewell, Socius!' + +'Most ingenious of bailiffs, I bid you farewell!' + +As the worthy Gordian stalked off, big with the dignity of his new +projects, the gestures and tones of a man who formed one of a little +group collected in a remote part of the portico he was about to quit +attracted his attention. Curiosity formed as conspicuous an ingredient +in this man's character as cruelty. He stole behind the base of a +neighbouring pillar; and, as the frequent repetition of the word +'Goths' struck his ear (the report of that nation's impending invasion +having by this time reached Rome), he carefully disposed himself to +listen with the most implicit attention to the speaker's voice. + + +'Goths!' cried the man, in the stern, concentrated accents of despair. +'Is there one among us to whom this report of their advance upon Rome +does not speak of hope rather than of dread? Have we a chance of rising +from the degradation forced on us by our superiors until this den of +heartless triflers and shameless cowards is swept from the very earth +that it pollutes!' + +'Your sentiments on the evils of our condition are undoubtedly most +just,' observed a fat, pompous man, to whom the preceding remarks had +been addressed, 'but I cannot desire the reform you so ardently hope +for. Think of the degradation of being conquered by barbarians!' + +'I am the exile of my country's privileges. What interest have I in +upholding her honour--if honour she really has!' replied the first +speaker. + +'Nay! Your expressions are too severe. You are too discontented to be +just.' + +'Am I! Hear me for a moment, and you will change your opinion. You +see me now by my bearing and appearance superior to yonder plebeian +herd. You doubtless think that I live at my ease in the world, that I +can feel no anxiety for the future about my bodily necessities. What +would you say were I to tell you that if I want another meal, a lodging +for to-night, a fresh robe for tomorrow, I must rob or flatter some +great man to gain them? Yet so it is. I am hopeless, friendless, +destitute. In the whole of the Empire there is not an honest calling +in which I can take refuge. I must become a pander or a parasite--a +hired tyrant over slaves, or a chartered groveller beneath nobles--if I +would not starve miserably in the streets, or rob openly in the woods! +This is what I am. Now listen to what I was. I was born free. I +inherited from my father a farm which he had successfully defended from +the encroachments of the rich, at the expense of his comfort, his +health, and his life. When I succeeded to his lands, I determined to +protect them in my time as studiously as he had defended them in his. +I worked unintermittingly: I enlarged my house, I improved my fields, +I increased my flocks. One after another I despised the threats and +defeated the wiles of my noble neighbours, who desired possession of my +estate to swell their own territorial grandeur. In process of time I +married and had a child. I believed that I was picked out from my race +as a fortunate man--when one night I was attacked by robbers: slaves +made desperate by the cruelty of their wealthy masters. They ravaged +my cornfields, they deprived me of my flocks. When I demanded redress, +I was told to sell my lands to those who could defend them--to those +rich nobles whose tyranny had organised the band of wretches who had +spoiled me of my possessions, and to whose fraud-gotten treasures the +government were well pleased to grant that protection which they had +denied to my honest hoards. In my pride I determined that I would +still be independent. I planted new crops. With the little remnant of +my money I hired fresh servants and bought more flocks. I had just +recovered from my first disaster when I became the victim of a second. +I was again attacked. This time we had arms, and we attempted to +defend ourselves. My wife was slain before my eyes; my house was burnt +to the ground; I myself only escaped, mutilated with wounds; my child +soon afterwards pined and died. I had no wife, no offspring, no house, +no money. My fields still stretched round me, but I had none to +cultivate them. My walls still tottered at my feet, but I had none to +rear them again, none to inhabit them if they were reared. My father's +lands were now become a wilderness to me. I was too proud to sell them +to my rich neighbour; I preferred to leave them before I saw them the +prey of a tyrant, whose rank had triumphed over my industry, and who is +now able to boast that he can travel over ten leagues of senatorial +property untainted by the propinquity of a husbandman's farm. +Houseless, homeless, friendless, I have come to Rome alone in my +affliction, helpless in my degradation! Do you wonder now that I am +careless about the honour of my country? I would have served her with +my life and my possessions when she was worthy of my service; but she +has cast me off, and I care not who conquers her. I say to the +Goths--with thousands who suffer the same tribulation that I now +undergo--"Enter our gates! Level our palaces to the ground! Confound, +if you will, in one common slaughter, we that are victims with those +that are tyrants! Your invasion will bring new lords to the land. +They cannot crush it more--they may oppress it less. Our posterity may +gain their rights by the sacrifice of lives that our country has made +worthless. Romans though we are, we are ready to suffer and submit!"' + + +He stopped; for by this time he had lashed himself into fury. His eyes +glared, his cheeks flushed, his voice rose. Could he then have seen +the faintest vision of the destiny that future ages had in store for +the posterity of the race that now suffered throughout civilised +Europe, like him--could he have imagined how, in after years, the +'middle class', despised in his day, was to rise to privilege and +power; to hold in its just hands the balance of the prosperity of +nations; to crush oppression and regulate rule; to soar in its mighty +flight above thrones and principalities, and rank and riches, +apparently obedient, but really commanding;--could he but have +foreboded this, what a light must have burst upon his gloom, what a +hope must have soothed him in his despair! + +To what further extremities his anger might have carried him, to what +proceedings the indignant Gordian, who still listened from his +concealment, might have had recourse, it is difficult to say; for the +complaints of the ill-fated landholder and the cogitations of the +authoritative bailiff were alike suddenly suspended by an uproar raging +at this moment round a carriage which had just emerged from the palace +we have elsewhere described. + +This vehicle looked one mass of silver. Embroidered silk curtains +fluttered all around it, gold ornaments studded its polished sides, and +it held no less a person than the nobleman who had feasted the people +with baskets of meat. This fact had become known to the rabble before +the palace gates. Such an opportunity of showing their exultation in +their bondage, their real servility in their imaginary independence, +was not to be lost; and accordingly they let loose such a torrent of +clamorous gratitude on their entertainer's appearance, that a stranger +in Rome would have thought the city in revolt. They leapt, they ran, +they danced round the prancing horses, they flung their empty baskets +into the air, and patted approvingly their 'fair round bellies'. From +every side, as the carriage moved on, they gained fresh recruits and +acquired new importance. The timid fled before them, the noisy shouted +with them, the bold plunged into their ranks; and the constant burden +of their rejoicing chorus was--'Health to the noble Pomponius! +Prosperity to the senators of Rome, who feast us with their food and +give us the freedom of their theatres! Glory to Pomponius! Glory to +the senators!' + +Fate seemed on this day to take pleasure in pampering the insatiable +curiosity of Gordian, the bailiff. The cries of the multitude had +scarcely died away in the distance, as they followed the departing +carriage, when the voices of two men, pitched to a low, confidential +tone, reached his ear from the opposite side of the pillar. He peeped +cautiously round, and saw that they were priests. + +'What an eternal jester is that Pomponius!' said one voice. 'He is +going to receive absolution, and he journeys in his chariot of state, +as if he were preparing to celebrate his triumph, instead of to confess +his sins!' + +'Has he committed, then, a fresh imprudence?' + +'Alas, yes! For a senator he is dreadfully wanting in caution! A few +days since, in a fit of passion, he flung a drinking-cup at one of his +female slaves. The girl died on the spot, and her brother, who is also +in his service, threatened immediate vengeance. To prevent +disagreeable consequences to his body, Pomponius has sent the fellow to +his estates in Egypt; and now, from the same precaution for the welfare +of his soul, he goes to demand absolution from our holy and beneficent +Church.' + +'I am afraid these incessant absolutions, granted to men who are too +careless even to make a show of repentance for their crimes, will +prejudice us with the people at large.' + +'Of what consequence are the sentiments of the people while we have +their rulers on our side! Absolution is the sorcery that binds these +libertines of Rome to our will. We know what converted +Constantine--politic flattery and ready absolution; the people will +tell you it was the sign of the Cross.' + +'It is true this Pomponius is rich, and may increase our revenues, but +still I fear the indignation of the people.' + +'Fear nothing: think how long their old institutions imposed on them, +and then doubt, if you can, that we may shape them to our wishes as we +will. Any deceptions will be successful with a mob, if the instrument +employed to forward them be a religion.' + +The voices ceased. Gordian, who still cherished a vague intention of +denouncing the fugitive landholder to the senatorial authorities, +employed the liberty afforded to his attention by the silence of the +priests in turning to look after his intended victim. To his surprise +he saw that the man had left the auditors to whom he had before +addressed himself, and was engaged in earnest conversation in another +part of the portico, with an individual who seemed to have recently +joined him, and whose appearance was so remarkable that the bailiff had +moved a few steps forwards to gain a nearer view of him, when he was +once more arrested by the voices of the priests. + +Irresolute for an instant to which party to devote his unscrupulous +attention, he returned mechanically to his old position. Ere long, +however, his anxiety to hear the mysterious communications proceeding +between the landholder and his friend overbalanced his delight in +penetrating the theological secrets of the priests. He turned once +more, but to his astonishment the objects of his curiosity had +disappeared. He stepped to the outside of the portico and looked for +them in every direction, but they were nowhere to be seen. Peevish and +disappointed, he returned as a last resource to the pillar where he had +left the priests, but the time consumed in his investigations after one +party had been fatal to his reunion with the other. The churchmen were +gone. + +Sufficiently punished for his curiosity by his disappointment, the +bailiff walked doggedly off towards the Pincian Hill. Had he turned in +the contrary direction, towards the Basilica of St. Peter, he would +have found himself once more in the neighbourhood of the landholder and +his remarkable friend, and would have gained that acquaintance with the +subjects of their conversation, which we intend that the reader shall +acquire in the course of the next chapter. + + + +CHAPTER 4. + +THE CHURCH. + +In the year 324, on the locality assigned by rumour to the martyrdom of +St. Peter, and over the ruins of the Circus of Nero, Constantine +erected the church called the Basilica of St. Peter. + +For twelve centuries, this building, raised by a man infamous for his +murders and his tyrannies, stood uninjured amid the shocks which during +that long period devastated the rest of the city. After that time it +was removed, tottering to its base from its own reverend and +illustrious age, by Pope Julius II, to make way for the foundations of +the modern church. + +It is towards this structure of twelve hundred years' duration, erected +by hands stained with blood, and yet preserved as a star of peace in +the midst of stormy centuries of war, that we would direct the reader's +attention. What art has done for the modern church, time has effected +for the ancient. If the one is majestic to the eye by its grandeur, +the other is hallowed to the memory by its age. + + +As this church by its rise commemorated the triumphant establishment of +Christianity as the religion of Rome, so in its progress it reflected +every change wrought in the spirit of the new worship by the ambition, +the prodigality, or the frivolity of the priests. At first it stood +awful and imposing, beautiful in all its parts as the religion for +whose glory it was built. Vast porphyry colonnades decorated its +approaches, and surrounded a fountain whose waters issued from the +representation of a gigantic pine-tree in bronze. Its double rows of +aisles were each supported by forty-eight columns of precious marble. +Its flat ceiling was adorned with beams of gilt metal, rescued from the +pollution of heathen temples. Its walls were decorated with large +paintings of religious subjects, and its tribunal was studded with +elegant mosaics. Thus it rose, simple and yet sublime, awful and yet +alluring; in this its beginning, a type of the dawn of the worship +which it was elevated to represent. But when, flushed with success, +the priests seized on Christianity as their path to politics and their +introduction to power, the aspect of the church gradually began to +change. As, slowly and insensibly, ambitious man heaped the garbage of +his mysteries, his doctrines, and his disputes, about the pristine +purity of the structure given him by God, so, one by one, gaudy +adornments and meretricious alterations arose to sully the once +majestic basilica, until the threatening and reproving apparition of +the pagan Julian, when both Church and churchmen received in their +corrupt progress a sudden and impressive check. + +The short period of the revival of idolatry once passed over, the +priests, unmoved by the warning they had received, returned with +renewed vigour to confuse that which both in their Gospel and their +Church had been once simple. Day by day they put forth fresh +treatises, aroused fierce controversies, subsided into new sects; and +day by day they altered more and more the once noble aspect of the +ancient basilica. They hung their nauseous relics on its mighty walls, +they stuck their tiny tapers about its glorious pillars, they wreathed +their tawdry fringes around its massive altars. Here they polished, +there they embroidered. Wherever there was a window, they curtained it +with gaudy cloths; wherever there was a statue, they bedizened it with +artificial flowers; wherever there was a solemn recess, they outraged +its religious gloom with intruding light; until (arriving at the period +we write of) they succeeded so completely in changing the aspect of the +building, that it looked, within, more like a vast pagan toyshop than a +Christian church. Here and there, it is true, a pillar or an altar +rose unencumbered as of old, appearing as much at variance with the +frippery that surrounded it as a text of Scripture quoted in a sermon +of the time. But as regarded the general aspect of the basilica, the +decent glories of its earlier days seemed irrevocably departed and +destroyed. + +After what has been said of the edifice, the reader will have little +difficulty in imagining that the square in which it stood lost whatever +elevation of character it might once have possessed, with even greater +rapidity than the church itself. If the cathedral now looked like an +immense toyshop, assuredly its attendant colonnades had the appearance +of the booths of an enormous fair. + + +The day, whose decline we have hinted at in the preceding chapter, was +fast verging towards its close, as the inhabitants of the streets on +the western bank of the Tiber prepared to join the crowds that they +beheld passing by their windows in the direction of the Basilica of St. +Peter. The cause of this sudden confluence of the popular current in +once common direction was made sufficiently apparent to all inquirers +who happened to be near a church or a public building, by the +appearance in such situations of a large sheet of vellum elaborately +illuminated, raised on a high pole, and guarded from contact with the +inquisitive rabble by two armed soldiers. The announcements set forth +in these strange placards were all of the same nature and directed to +the same end. In each of them the Bishop of Rome informed his 'pious +and honourable brethren', the inhabitants of the city, that, as the +next days was the anniversary of the Martyrdom of St. Luke, the vigil +would necessarily be held on that evening in the Basilica of St. Peter; +and that, in consideration of the importance of the occasion, there +would be exhibited, before the commencement of the ceremony, those +precious relics connected with the death of the saint, which had become +the inestimable inheritance of the Church; and which consisted of a +branch of the olive-tree to which St. Luke was hung, a piece of the +noose--including the knot--which had been passed round his neck, and a +picture of the Apotheosis of the Virgin painted by his own hand. After +some sentences expressive of lamentation for the sufferings of the +saint, which nobody read, and which it is unnecessary to reproduce +here, the proclamation went on to state that a sermon would be preached +in the course of the vigil, and that at a later hour the great +chandelier, containing two thousand four hundred lamps, would be lit to +illuminate the church. Finally, the worthy bishop called upon all +members of his flock, in consideration of the solemnity of the day, to +abstain from sensual pleasures, in order that they might the more +piously and worthily contemplate the sacred objects submitted to their +view, and digest the spiritual nourishment to be offered to their +understandings. + +From the specimen we have already given of the character of the +populace of Rome, it will perhaps be unnecessary to say that the great +attractions presented by this theological bill of fare were the relics +and the chandelier. Pulpit eloquence and vigil solemnities alone must +have long exhibited their more sober allurements, before they could +have drawn into the streets a fiftieth part of the immense crowd that +now hurried towards the desecrated basilica. Indeed, so vast was the +assemblage soon congregated, that the advanced ranks of sightseers had +already filled the church to overflowing, before those in the rear had +come within view of the colonnades. + +However dissatisfied the unsuccessful portion of the citizens might +feel at their exclusion from the church, they found a powerful +counter-attraction in the amusements going forward in the Place, the +occupants of which seemed thoroughly regardless of the bishop's +admonitions upon the sobriety of behaviour due to the solemnity of the +day. As if in utter defiance of the decency and order recommended by +the clergy, popular exhibitions of all sorts were set up on the broad +flagstones of the great space before the church. Street dancing-girls +exercised at every available spot those 'gliding gyrations' so +eloquently condemned by the worthy Ammianus Marcellinus of orderly and +historical memory. Booths crammed with relics of doubtful authenticity, +baskets filled with neat manuscript abstracts of furiously +controversial pamphlets, pagan images regenerated into portraits of +saints, pictorial representations of Arians writhing in damnation, and +martyrs basking in haloes of celestial light, tempted, in every +direction, the more pious among the spectators. Cooks perambulated +with their shops on their backs; rival slave-merchants shouted +petitions for patronage; wine-sellers taught Bacchanalian philosophy +from the tops of their casks; poets recited compositions for sale; +sophisters held arguments destined to convert the wavering and perplex +the ignorant. + +Incessant motion and incessant noise seemed to be the sole +compensations sought by the multitude for the disappointment of +exclusion from the church. If a stranger, after reading the +proclamation of the day, had proceeded to the basilica, to feast his +eyes on the contemplation of the illustrious aggregate of humanity, +entitled by the bishop 'his pious and honourable brethren,' he must, on +mixing at this moment with the assemblage, have either doubted the +truth of the episcopal appellation, or have given the citizens credit +for that refinement of intrinsic worth which is of too elevated a +nature to influence the character of the outward man. + + +At the time when the sun set, nothing could be more picturesque than +the distant view of this joyous scene. The deep red rays of the +departing luminary cast their radiance, partly from behind the church, +over the vast multitude in the Place. Brightly and rapidly the rich +light roved over the waters that leaped towards it from the fountain in +all the loveliness of natural and evanescent form. Bathed in that +brilliant glow, the smooth porphyry colonnades reflected, chameleon +like, ethereal and varying hues; the white marble statues became +suffused in a delicate rose-colour, and the sober-tinted trees gleamed +in the innermost of their leafy depths as if steeped in the exhalations +of a golden mist. While, contrasting strangely with the wondrous +radiance around them, the huge bronze pine-tree in the middle of the +Place, and the wide front of the basilica, rose up in gloomy shadow, +indefinite and exaggerated, lowering like evil spirits over the joyous +beauty of the rest of the scene, and casting their great depths of +shade into the midst of the light whose dominion they despised. Beheld +from a distance, this wild combination of vivid brightness and solemn +gloom; these buildings, at one place darkened till they looked +gigantic, at another lightened till they appeared ethereal; these +crowded groups, seeming one great moving mass gleaming at this point in +radiant light, obscured at that in thick shadow, made up a whole so +incongruous and yet so beautiful, so grotesque and yet so sublime, that +the scene looked, for the moment, more like some inhabited meteor, half +eclipsed by its propinquity to earth, than a mortal and material +prospect. + +The beauties of this atmospheric effect were of far too serious and +sublime a nature to interest the multitude in the Place. Out of the +whole assemblage, but two men watched that glorious sunset with even an +appearance of the admiration and attention which it deserved. One was +the landholder whose wrongs were related in the preceding chapter--the +other his remarkable friend. + +These two men formed a singular contrast to each other, both in +demeanour and appearance, as they gazed forth upon the crimson heaven. +The landholder was an under-sized, restless-looking man, whose +features, naturally sharp, were now distorted by a fixed expression of +misery and discontent. His quick, penetrating glance wandered +incessantly from place to place, perceiving all things, but resting on +none. In his attention to the scene before him, he appeared to have +been led more by the influence of example than by his own spontaneous +feelings; for ever and anon he looked impatiently round upon his friend +as if expecting him to speak--but no word or movement escaped his +thoughtful companion. Occupied exclusively in his own contemplations, +he appeared wholly insensible to any ordinary outward appeal. + +In age and appearance this individual was in the decline of life; for +he had numbered sixty years, his hair was completely grey, and his face +was covered with deep wrinkles. Yet, in spite of these disadvantages, +he was in the highest sense of the word a handsome man. Though worn +and thin, his features were still bold and regular; and there was an +elevation about the habitual mournfulness of his expression, and an +intelligence about his somewhat severe and earnest eyes, that bore +eloquent testimony to the superiority of his intellectual powers. As +he now stood gazing fixedly out into the glowing sky, his tall, meagre +figure half supported upon his staff, his lips firmly compressed, his +brow slightly frowning, and his attitude firm and motionless, the most +superficial observer must have felt immediately that he looked on no +ordinary being. The history of a life of deep thought--perhaps of long +sorrow--seemed written in every lineament of his meditative +countenance; and there was a natural dignity in his manner, which +evidently restrained his restless companion from offering any +determined interruption to the course of his reflections. + +Slowly and gorgeously the sun had continued to wane in the horizon +until he was now lost to view. As his last rays sunk behind the +distant hills, the stranger started from his reverie and approached the +landholder, pointing with his staff towards the fast-fading brightness +of the western sky. + +'Probus,' said he, in a low, melancholy voice, 'as I looked on that +sunset I thought on the condition of the Church.' + +'I see little in the Church to think of, or in the sunset to observe,' +replied his companion. + +'How pure, how vivid,' murmured the other, scarcely heeding the +landholder's remark, 'was the light which that sun cast upon this earth +at our feet! How nobly for a time its brightness triumphed over the +shadows around; and yet, in spite of the promise of that radiance, how +swiftly did it fade ere long in its conflict with the gloom--how +thoroughly, even now, has it departed from the earth, and withdrawn the +beauty of its glory from the heavens! Already the shadows are +lengthening around us, and shrouding in their darkness every object in +the Place. But a short hour hence, and--should no moon arise--the +gloom of night will stretch unresisted over Rome!' + +'To what purpose do you tell me this?' + + +'Are you not reminded, by what we have observed, of the course of the +worship which it is our privilege to profess? Does not that first +beautiful light denote its pure and perfect rise; that short conflict +between the radiance and the gloom, its successful preservation, by the +Apostles and the Fathers; that rapid fading of the radiance, its +desecration in later times; and the gloom which now surrounds us, the +destruction which has encompassed it in this age we live in?--a +destruction which nothing can avert but a return to that pure first +faith that should now be the hope of our religion, as the moon is the +hope of night!' + +'How should we reform? Do people who have no liberties care about a +religion? Who is to teach them?' + +'I have--I will. It is the purpose of my life to restore to them the +holiness of the ancient Church; to rescue them from the snare of +traitors to the faith, whom men call priests. They shall learn through +me that the Church knew no adornment once, but the presence of the +pure; that the priest craved no finer vestment than his holiness; that +the Gospel, which once taught humility and now raises dispute, was in +former days the rule of faith--sufficient for all wants, powerful over +all difficulties. Through me they shall know that in times past it was +the guardian of the heart; through me they shall see that in times +present it is the plaything of the proud; through me they shall fear +that in times future it may become the exile of the Church! To this +task I have vowed myself; to overthrow this idolatry--which, like +another paganism, rises among us with its images, its relics, its +jewels, and its gold--I will devote my child, my life, my energies, and +my possessions. From this attempt I will never turn aside--from this +determination I will never flinch. While I have a breath of life in +me, I will persevere in restoring to this abandoned city the true +worship of the Most High!' + +He ceased abruptly. The intensity of his agitation seemed suddenly to +deny to him the faculty of speech. Every muscle in the frame of that +stern, melancholy man quivered at the immortal promptings of the soul +within him. There was something almost feminine in his universal +susceptibility to the influence of one solitary emotion. Even the +rough, desperate landholder felt awed by the enthusiasm of the being +before him, and forgot his wrongs, terrible as they were--and his +misery, poignant as it was--as he gazed upon his companion's face. + +For some minutes neither of the men said more. Soon, however, the last +speaker calmed his agitation with the facility of a man accustomed to +stifle the emotions that he cannot crush, and advancing to the +landholder, took him sorrowfully by the hand. + +'I see, Probus, that I have amazed you,' said he; 'but the Church is +the only subject on which I have no discretion. In all other matters I +have conquered the rashness of my early manhood; in this I have to +wrestle with my hastier nature still. When I look on the mockeries +that are acting around us; when I behold a priesthood deceivers, a +people deluded, a religion defiled, then, I confess it, my indignation +overpowers my patience, and I burn to destroy, where I ought only to +hope to reform.' + +'I knew you always violent of imagination; but when I last saw you your +enthusiasm was love. Your wife--' + +'Peace! She deceived me!' + +'Your child--' + +'Lives with me at Rome.' + +'I remember her an infant, when, fourteen years since, I was your +neighbour in Gaul. On my departure from the province, you had just +returned from a journey into Italy, unsuccessful in your attempts to +discover there a trace either of your parents, or of that elder brother +whose absence you were wont so continually to lament. Tell me, have +you, since that period, discovered the members of your ancient +household? Hitherto you have been so occupied in listening to the +history of my wrongs that you have scarcely spoken of the changes in +your life since we last met.' + + +'If, Probus, I have been silent to you concerning myself, it is because +for me retrospection has little that attracts. While yet it was in my +power to return to those parents whom I deserted in my boyhood, I +thought not of repentance; and now that they must be but too surely +lost to me, my yearning towards them is of no avail. Of my brother, +from whom I parted in a moment of childish jealousy and anger, and +whose pardon and love I would give up even my ambition to acquire, I +have never yet discovered a trace. Atonement to those whom I injured +in early life is a privilege denied to the prayers of my age. From my +parents and my brother I departed unblest, and unforgiven by them I +feel that I am doomed to die! My life has been careless, useless, +godless, passing from rapine and violence to luxury and indolence, and +leading me to the marriage which I exulted in when I last saw you, but +which I now feel was unworthy alike in its motives and its results. +But blessed and thrice blessed by that last calamity of my wicked +existence, for it opened my eyes to the truth--it made a Christian of +me while I was yet alive!' + +'Is it thus that the Christian can view his afflictions? I would, +then, that I were a Christian like you!' murmured the landholder, in +low, earnest tones. + +'It was in those first days, Probus,' continued the other, 'when I +found myself deserted and dishonoured, left alone to be the guardian of +my helpless child, exiled for ever from a home that I had myself +forsaken, that I repented me in earnest of my misdeeds, that I sought +wisdom from the book of salvation, and the conduct of life from the +Fathers of the Church. It was at that time that I determined to devote +my child, like Samuel of old, to the service of heaven, and myself to +the reformation of our degraded worship. As I have already told you, I +forsook my abode and changed my name (remember it is as 'Numerian' that +you must henceforth address me), that of my former self no remains +might be left, that of my former companions not one might ever discover +and tempt me again. With incessant care have I shielded my daughter +from the contamination of the world. As a precious jewel in a miser's +hands she has been watched and guarded in her father's house. Her +destiny is to soothe the afflicted, to watch the sick, to succour the +forlorn, when I, her teacher, have restored to the land the dominion of +its ancient faith and the guidance of its faultless Gospel. We have +neither of us an affection or a hope that can bind us to the things of +earth. Our hearts look both towards heaven; our expectations are only +from on high!' + +'Do not set your hopes too firmly on your child. Remember how the +nobles of Rome have destroyed the household I once had, and tremble for +your own.' + +'I have no fear for my daughter; she is cared for in my absence by one +who is vowed to aid me in my labours for the Church. It is now nearly +a year since I first met Ulpius, and from that time forth he has +devoted himself to my service and watched over my child.' + +'Who is this Ulpius, that you should put such faith in him?' + +'He is a man of age like mine. I found him, like me, worn down by the +calamities of his early life, and abandoned, as I had once been, to the +delusions of the pagan gods. He was desolate, suffering, forlorn, and +I had pity on him in his misery. I proved to him that the worship he +still professed was banished for its iniquities from the land; that the +religion which had succeeded it had become defiled by man, and that +there remained but one faith for him to choose, if he would be +saved--the faith of the early Church. He heard me and was converted. +From that moment he has served me patiently and helped me willingly. +Under the roof where I assemble the few who as yet are true believers, +he is always the first to come and the last to remain. No word of +anger has ever crossed his lips--no look of impatience has ever +appeared in his eyes. Though sorrowful, he is gentle; though suffering, +he is industrious. I have trusted him with all I possess, and I glory +in my credulity! Ulpius is incorruptible!' + +'And your daughter?--is Ulpius reverenced by her as he is respected by +you?' + + +'She knows that her duty is to love whom I love, and to avoid whom I +avoid. Can you imagine that a Christian virgin has any feelings +disobedient to her father's wishes? Come to my house; judge with your +own eyes of my daughter and my companion. You, whose misfortunes have +left you no home, shall find one, if you will, with me. Come then and +labour with me in my great undertaking! You will withdraw your mind +from the contemplation of your woes, and merit by your devotion the +favour of the Most High.' + +'No, Numerian, I will still be independent, even of my friends! Nor +Rome nor Italy are abiding-places for me. I go to another land to +abide among another people, until the arms of a conqueror shall have +restored freedom to the brave and protection to the honest throughout +the countries of the Empire.' + +'Probus, I implore you stay!' + +'Never! My determination is taken, Numerian--farewell!' + +For a few minutes Numerian stood motionless, gazing wistfully in the +direction taken by his companion on his departure. At first an +expression of grief and pity softened the austerity which seemed the +habitual characteristic of his countenance when in repose, but soon +these milder and tenderer feelings appeared to vanish from his heart as +suddenly as they had arisen; his features reassumed their customary +sternness, and he muttered to himself as he mixed with the crowd +struggling onwards in the direction of the basilica: 'Let him depart +unregretted; he has denied himself to the service of his Maker. He +should no longer be my friend.' + +In this sentence lay the index to the character of the man. His +existence was one vast sacrifice, one scene of intrepid +self-immolation. Although, in the brief hints at the events of his life +which he had communicated to his friend, he had exaggerated the extent +of his errors, he had by no means done justice to the fervour of his +penitence--a penitence which outstripped the usual boundaries of +repentance, and only began in despair to terminate in fanaticism. His +desertion of his father's house (into the motives of which it is not +our present intention to enter), and his long subsequent existence of +violence and excess, indisposed his naturally strong passions to submit +to the slightest restraint. In obedience to their first impulses, he +contracted, at a mature age, a marriage with a woman thoroughly +unworthy of the ardent admiration that she had inspired. When he found +himself deceived and dishonoured by her, the shock of such an +affliction thrilled through his whole being--crushed all his +energies--struck him prostrate, heart and mind, at one blow. The +errors of his youth, committed in his prosperity with moral impunity, +reacted upon him in his adversity with an influence fatal to his future +peace. His repentance was darkened by despondency; his resolutions +were unbrightened by hope. He flew to religion as the suicide flies to +the knife--in despair. + +Leaving all remaining peculiarities in Numerian's character to be +discussed at a future opportunity, we will now follow him in his +passage through the crowd, to the entrance of the basilica--continuing +to designate him, here and elsewhere, by the name which he had assumed +on his conversion, and by which he had insisted on being addressed +during his interview with the fugitive landholder. + +Although at the commencement of his progress towards the church, our +enthusiast found himself placed among the hindermost of the members of +the advancing throng, he soon contrived so thoroughly to outstrip his +dilatory and discursive neighbours as to gain, with little delay, the +steps of the sacred building. Here, in common with many others, he was +compelled to stop, while those nearest the basilica squeezed their way +through its stately doors. In such a situation his remarkable figure +could not fail to be noticed, and he was silently recognised by many of +the bystanders, some of whom looked on him with wonder, and some with +aversion. Nobody, however, approached or spoke to him. Every one felt +the necessity of shunning a man whose bold and daily exposures of the +abuses of the Church placed in incessant peril his liberty, and even +his life. + + +Among the bystanders who surrounded Numerian, there were nevertheless +two who did not remain content with carelessly avoiding any +communication with the intrepid and suspected reformer. These two men +belonged to the lowest order of the clergy, and appeared to be occupied +in cautiously watching the actions and listening to the conversation of +the individuals immediately around them. The instant they beheld +Numerian they moved so as to elude his observation, taking care at the +same time to occupy such a position as enabled them to keep in view the +object of their evident distrust. + +'Look, Osius,' said one, 'that man is here again!' + +'And doubtless with the same motives which brought him here yesterday,' +replied the other. 'You will see that he will again enter the church, +listen to the service, retire to his little chapel near the Pincian +Mount, and there, before his ragged mob of adherents, attack the +doctrines which our brethren have preached, as we know he did last +night, and as we suspect he will continue to do until the authorities +think proper to give the signal for his imprisonment.' + +'I marvel that he should have been permitted to persist so long a time +as he has in his course of contumacy towards the Church. Have we not +evidence enough in his writings alone to convict him of heresy? The +carelessness of the bishop upon such a matter as this is quite +inexplicable!' + +'You should consider, Numerian not being a priest, that the +carelessness about our interests lies more with the senate than the +bishop. What time our nobles can spare from their debaucheries has +been lately given to discussions on the conduct of the Emperor in +retiring to Ravenna, and will now be dedicated to penetrating the basis +of this rumour about the Goths. Besides, even were they at liberty, +what care the senate about theological disputes? They only know this +Numerian as a citizen of Rome, a man of some influence and possessions, +and, consequently, a person of political importance as a member of the +population. In addition to which, it would be no easy task for us at +the present moment to impugn the doctrines broached by our assailant; +for the fellow has a troublesome facility of supporting what he says by +the Bible. Believe me, in this matter, our only way of righting +ourselves will be to convict him of scandal against the highest +dignitaries of the Church.' + +'The order that we have lately received to track his movements and +listen to his discourses, leads me to believe that our superiors are of +your opinion.' + +'Whether my convictions are correct or not, of this I feel +assured--that his days of liberty are numbered. It was but a few hours +ago that I saw the bishop's chamberlain's head-assistant, and he told +me that he had heard, through the crevice of a door--' + +'Hush! he moves; he is pressing forward to enter the church. You can +tell me what you were about to say as we follow him. Quick! let us mix +with the crowd.' + +Ever enthusiastic in the performance of their loathsome duties, these +two discreet pastors of a Christian flock followed Numerian with the +most elaborate caution into the interior of the sacred building. + + +Although the sun still left a faint streak of red in the western sky, +and the moon had as yet scarcely risen, the great chandelier of two +thousand four hundred lamps, mentioned by the bishop in his address to +the people, was already alight. In the days of its severe and sacred +beauty, the appearance of the church would have suffered fatally by +this blaze of artificial brilliancy; but now that the ancient character +of the basilica was completely changed, now that from a solemn temple +it had been altered to the semblance of a luxurious palace, it gained +immensely by its gaudy illumination. Not an ornament along the vast +extent of its glorious nave but glittered in vivid distinctness in the +dazzling light that poured downwards from the roof. The gilded +rafters, the smooth inlaid marble pillars, the rich hangings of the +windows, the jewelled candlesticks on the altars, the pictures, the +statues, the bronzes, the mosaics, each and all glowed with a steady +and luxurious transparency absolutely intoxicating to the eye. Not a +trace of wear, not a vestige of tarnish now appeared on any object. +Each portion of the nave to which the attention was directed appeared +too finely, spotlessly radiant, ever to have been touched by mortal +hands. Entranced and bewildered, the observation roamed over the +surface of the brilliant scene, until, wearied by the unbroken +embellishment of the prospect, it wandered for repose upon the dimly +lighted aisles, and dwelt with delight upon the soft shadows that +hovered about their distant pillars, and the gliding forms that peopled +their dusky recesses, or loitered past their lofty walls. + +At the moment when Numerian entered the basilica, a part of the service +had just concluded. The last faint echo from the voices of the choir +still hung upon the incense-laden air, and the vast masses of the +spectators were still grouped in their listening and various attitudes, +as the devoted reformer looked forth upon the church. Even he, stern +as he was, seemed for a moment subdued by the ineffable enchantment of +the scene; but ere long, as if displeased with his own involuntary +emotions of admiration, his brow contracted, and he sighed heavily, as +(still followed by the attentive spies) he sought the comparative +seclusion of the aisles. + +During the interval between the divisions of the service, the +congregation occupied themselves in staring at the relics, which were +enclosed in a silver cabinet with crystal doors, and placed on the top +of the high altar. Although it was impossible to obtain a satisfactory +view of these ecclesiastical treasures, they nevertheless employed the +attention of every one until the appearance of a priest in the pulpit +gave signal of the commencement of the sermon, and admonished all those +who had seats to secure them without delay. + +Passing through the ranks of the auditors of the sermon--some of whom +were engaged in counting the lights in the chandelier, to be certain +that the bishop had not defrauded them of one out of the two thousand +four hundred lamps; others in holding whispered conversations, and +opening small boxes of sweetmeats--we again conduct the reader to the +outside of the church. + +The assemblage here had by this time much diminished; the shadows flung +over the ground by the lofty colonnades had deepened and increased; and +in many of the more remote recesses of the Place hardly a human being +was to be observed. At one of these extremities, where the pillars +terminated in the street and the obscurity was most intense, stood a +solitary old man keeping himself cautiously concealed in the darkness, +and looking out anxiously upon the public way immediately before him. + +He had waited but a short time when a handsome chariot, preceded by a +body-guard of gaily-attired slaves, stopped within a few paces of his +lurking-place, and the voice of the person it contained pronounced +audibly the following words:-- + +'No! no! Drive on--we are later than I thought. If I stay to see this +illumination of the basilica, I shall not be in time to receive my +guests for to-night's banquet. Besides, this inestimable kitten of the +breed most worshipped by the ancient Egyptians has already taken cold, +and I would not for the world expose the susceptible animal any longer +than is necessary to the dampness of the night-air. Drive on, good +Carrio, drive on!' + +The old man scarcely waited for the conclusion of this speech before he +ran up to the chariot, where he was immediately confronted by two +heads--one that of Vetranio the senator, the other that of a glossy +black kitten adorned with a collar of rubies, and half enveloped in its +master's ample robes. Before the astonished noble could articulate a +word, the man whispered in hoarse, hurried accents, 'I am +Ulpius--dismiss your servants--I have something important to say!' + +'Ha! my worthy Ulpius! You have a most unhappy faculty of delivering a +message with the manner of an assassin! But I must pardon your +unpleasant abruptness in consideration of your diligence. My excellent +Carrio, If you value my approbation, remove your companions and +yourself out of hearing!' + + +The freedman yielded instant obedience to his master's mandate. The +following conversation then took place, the strange man opening it +thus:-- + +'You remember your promise?' + +'I do.' + +'Upon your honour, as a nobleman and a senator, you are prepared to +abide by it whenever it is necessary?' + +'I am.' + +'Then at the dawn of morning meet me at the private gate of your palace +garden, and I will conduct you to Antonina's bedchamber.' + +'The time will suit me. But why at the dawn of morning?' + +'Because the Christian dotard will keep a vigil until midnight, which +the girl will most probably attend. I wished to tell you this at your +palace, but I heard there that you had gone to Aricia, and would return +by way of the basilica; so I posted myself to intercept you thus.' + +'Industrious Ulpius!' + +'Remember your promise!' + +Vetranio leaned forward to reply, but Ulpius was gone. + +As the senator again commanded his equipage to move on, he looked +anxiously around him, as if once more expecting to see his strange +adherent still lurking near the chariot. He only perceived, however, a +man whom he did not know, followed by two other, walking rapidly past +him. They were Numerian and the spies. + +'At last, my projects are approaching consummation,' exclaimed Vetranio +to himself, as he and his kitten rolled off in the chariot. 'It is +well that I thought of securing possession of Julia's villa to-day, for +I shall now, assuredly, want to use it to-morrow. Jupiter! What a +mass of dangers, contradictions, and mysteries encompass this affair! +When I think that I, who pride myself on my philosophy, have quitted +Ravenna, borrowed a private villa, leagued myself with an uncultivated +plebeian, and all for the sake of a girl who has already deceived my +expectations by gaining me as a music-master without admitting me as a +lover, I am positively astonished at my own weakness! Still it must be +owned that the complexion my adventure has lately assumed renders it of +some interest in itself. The mere pleasure of penetrating the secrets +of this Numerian's household is by no means the least among the +numerous attraction of my design. How has he gained his influence over +the girl? Why does he keep her in such strict seclusion? Who is this +old half-frantic, unceremonious man-monster calling himself Ulpius; +refusing all reward for his villainy; raving about a return to the old +religion of the gods; and exulting in the promise he has extorted from +me, as a good pagan, to support the first restoration of the ancient +worship that may be attempted in Rome? Where does he come from? Why +does he outwardly profess himself a Christian? What sent him into +Numerian's service? By the girdle of Venus! everything connected with +the girl is as incomprehensible as herself! But patience--patience! A +few hours more, and these mysteries will be revealed. In the meantime, +let me think of my banquet, and of its presiding deity, the Nightingale +Sauce!' + + + +CHAPTER 5. + +ANTONINA. + +Who that has been at Rome does not remember with delight the +attractions of the Pincian Hill? Who, after toiling through the +wonders of the dark, melancholy city, has not been revived by a visit +to its shady walks, and by breathing its fragrant breezes? Amid the +solemn mournfulness that reigns over declining Rome, this delightful +elevation rises light, airy, and inviting, at once a refreshment to the +body and a solace to the spirit. From its smooth summit the city is +seen in its utmost majesty, and the surrounding country in its +brightest aspect. The crimes and miseries of Rome seem deterred from +approaching its favoured soil; it impresses the mind as a place set +apart by common consent for the presence of the innocent and the +joyful--as a scene that rest and recreation keep sacred from the +intrusion of tumult and toil. + +Its appearance in modern days is the picture of its character for ages +past. Successive wars might dull its beauties for a time, but peace +invariably restored them in all their pristine loveliness. The old +Romans called it 'The Mount of Gardens'. Throughout the disasters of +the Empire and the convulsions of the Middle Ages, it continued to +merit its ancient appellation, and a 'Mount of Gardens' it still +triumphantly remains to the present day. + +At the commencement of the fifth century the magnificence of the +Pincian Hill was at its zenith. Were it consistent with the conduct of +our story to dwell upon the glories of its palaces and its groves, its +temples and its theatres, such a glowing prospect of artificial +splendour, aided by natural beauty, might be spread before the reader +as would tax his credulity, while it excited his astonishment. This +task, however, it is here unnecessary to attempt. It is not for the +wonders of ancient luxury and taste, but for the abode of the zealous +and religious Numerian, that we find it now requisite to arouse +interest and engage attention. + +At the back of the Flaminian extremity of the Pincian Hill, and +immediately overlooking the city wall, stood, at the period of which we +write, a small but elegantly built house, surrounded by a little garden +of its own, and protected at the back by the lofty groves and +outbuildings of the palace of Vetranio the senator. This abode had +been at one time a sort of summer-house belonging to the former +proprietor of a neighbouring mansion. + +Profligate necessities, however, had obliged the owner to part with +this portion of his possessions, which was purchased by a merchant well +known to Numerian, who received it as a legacy at his friend's death. +Disgusted, as soon as his reforming projects took possession of his +mind, at the bare idea of propinquity to the ennobled libertines of +Rome, the austere Christian determined to abandon his inheritance, and +to sell it to another; but, at the repeated entreaties of his daughter, +he at length consented to change his purpose, and sacrifice his +antipathy to his luxurious neighbours to his child's youthful +attachment to the beauties of Nature as displayed in his legacy on the +Pincian Mount. In this instance only did the natural affection of the +father prevail over the acquired severity of the reformer. Here he +condescended, for the first and the last time, to the sweet +trivialities of youth. Here, indulgent in spite of himself, he fixed +his little household, and permitted to his daughter her sole +recreations of tending the flowers in the garden and luxuriating in the +loveliness of the distant view. + + * * * * * + +The night has advanced an hour since the occurrence mentioned in the +preceding chapter. The clear and brilliant moonlight of Italy now +pervades every district of the glorious city, and bathes in its pure +effulgence the groves and palaces on the Pincian Mount. From the +garden of Numerian the irregular buildings of the great suburbs of +Rome, the rich undulating country beyond, and the long ranges of +mountains in the distance, are now all visible in the soft and +luxurious light. Near the spot which commands this view, not a living +creature is to be seen on a first examination; but on a more +industrious and patient observation, you are subsequently able to +detect at one of the windows of Numerian's house, half hidden by a +curtain, the figure of a young girl. + + +Soon this solitary form approaches nearer to the eye. The moonbeams, +that have hitherto shone only upon the window, now illuminate other +objects. First they display a small, white arm; then a light, simple +robe; then a fair, graceful neck; and finally a bright, youthful, +innocent face, directed steadfastly towards the wide moon-brightened +prospect of the distant mountains. + +For some time the girl remains in contemplation at her window. Then +she leaves her post, and almost immediately reappears at a door leading +into the garden. Her figure, as she advances towards the lawn before +her, is light and small--a natural grace and propriety appear in her +movements--she holds pressed to her bosom and half concealed by her +robe, a gilt lute. When she reaches a turf bank commanding the same +view as the window, she arranges her instrument upon her knees, and +with something of restraint in her manner gently touches the chords. +Then, as if alarmed at the sound she has produced, she glances +anxiously around her, apparently fearful of being overheard. Her +large, dark, lustrous eyes have in them an expression of apprehension; +her delicate lips are half parted; a sudden flush rises in her soft, +olive complexion as she examines every corner of the garden. Having +completed her survey without discovering any cause for the suspicions +she seems to entertain, she again employs herself over her instrument. +Once more she strikes the chords, and now with a bolder hand. The +notes she produces resolve themselves into a wild, plaintive, irregular +melody, alternately rising and sinking, as if swayed by the fickle +influence of a summer wind. These sounds are soon harmoniously +augmented by the young minstrel's voice, which is calm, still, and +mellow, and adapts itself with exquisite ingenuity to every arbitrary +variation in the tone of the accompaniment. The song that she has +chosen is one of the fanciful odes of the day. Its chief merit to her +lies in its alliance to the strange Eastern air which she heard at her +first interview with the senator who presented her with the lute. +Paraphrased in English, the words of the composition would run thus:-- + +THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC + +I. + + Spirit, whose dominion reigns + Over Music's thrilling strains, + Whence may be thy distant birth? + Say what tempted thee to earth? + + Mortal, listen: I was born + In Creation's early years, + Singing, 'mid the stars of morn, + To the music of the spheres. + + Once as, within the realms of space, + I view'd this mortal planet roll, + A yearning towards they hapless race, + Unbidden, filled my seraph soul! + + Angels, who had watched my birth, + Heard me sigh to sing to earth; + 'Twas transgression ne'er forgiv'n + To forget my native Heav'n; + So they sternly bade me go-- + Banish'd to the world below. + + +II. + + Exil'd here, I knew no fears; + For, though darkness round me clung, + Though none heard me in the spheres, + Earth had listeners while I sung. + + Young spirits of the Spring sweet breeze + Came thronging round me, soft and coy, + Light wood-nymphs sported in the trees, + And laughing Echo leapt for joy! + + Brooding Woe and writhing Pain + Soften'd at my gentle strain; + Bounding Joy, with footstep fleet, + Ran to nestle at my feet; + While, aroused, delighted Love + Softly kiss'd me from above! + + +III. + + Since those years of early time, + Faithful still to earth I've sung; + Flying through each distant clime, + Ever welcome, ever young! + + Still pleas'd, my solace I impart + Where brightest hopes are scattered dead; + 'Tis mine--sweet gift!--to charm the heart, + Though all its other joys have fled! + + Time, that withers all beside, + Harmless past me loves to glide; + Change, that mortals must obey, + Ne'er shall shake my gentle sway; + Still 'tis mine all hearts to move + In eternity of love. + +As the last sounds of her voice and her lute died softly away upon the +still night air, an indescribable elevation appeared in the girl's +countenance. She looked up rapturously into the far, star-bright sky; +her lip quivered, her dark eyes filled with tears, and her bosom heaved +with the excess of the emotions that the music and the scene inspired. +Then she gazed slowly around her, dwelling tenderly upon the fragrant +flower-beds that were the work of her own hands, and looking forth with +an expression half reverential, half ecstatic over the long, smooth, +shining plains, and the still, glorious mountains, that had so long +been the inspiration of her most cherished thoughts, and that now +glowed before her eyes, soft and beautiful as her dreams on her virgin +couch. Then, overpowered by the artless thoughts and innocent +recollections which on the magic wings of Nature and Night came wafted +over her mind, she bent down her head upon her lute, pressed her round, +dimpled cheek against its smooth frame, and drawing her fingers +mechanically over its strings, abandoned herself unreservedly to the +reveries of maidenhood and youth. + +Such was the being devoted by her father's fatal ambition to a lifelong +banishment from all that is attractive in human art and beautiful in +human intellect! Such was the daughter whose existence was to be one +long acquaintance with mortal woe, one unvaried refusal of mortal +pleasure, whose thoughts were to be only of sermons and fasts, whose +action were to be confined to the binding up of strangers' wounds and +the drying of strangers' tears; whose life, in brief, was doomed to be +the embodiment of her father's austere ideal of the austere virgins of +the ancient Church! + +Deprived of her mother, exiled from the companionship of others of her +age, permitted no familiarity with any living being, no sympathies with +any other heart, commanded but never indulged, rebuked but never +applauded, she must have sunk beneath the severities imposed on her by +her father, but for the venial disobedience committed in the pursuit of +the solitary pleasure procured for her by her lute. Vainly, in her +hours of study, did she read the fierce anathemas against love, +liberty, and pleasure, poetry, painting, and music, gold, silver, and +precious stones, which the ancient fathers had composed for the benefit +of the submissive congregations of former days; vainly did she imagine, +during those long hours of theological instruction, that her heart's +forbidden longings were banished and destroyed--that her patient and +childlike disposition was bowed in complete subserviency to the most +rigorous of her father's commands. No sooner were her interviews with +Numerian concluded than the promptings of that nature within us, which +artifice may warp but can never destroy, lured her into a forgetfulness +of all that she had heard and a longing for much that was forbidden. +We live, in this existence, but by the companionship of some sympathy, +aspiration, or pursuit, which serves us as our habitual refuge from the +tribulations we inherit from the outer world. The same feeling which +led Antonina in her childhood to beg for a flower-garden, in her +girlhood induced her to gain possession of a lute. + +The passion for music which prompted her visit to Vetranio, which alone +saved her affections from pining in the solitude imposed on them, and +which occupied her leisure hours in the manner we have already +described, was an inheritance of her birth. + + +Her Spanish mother had sung to her, hour after hour, in her cradle, for +the short time during which she was permitted to watch over her child. +The impression thus made on the dawning faculties of the infant, +nothing ever effaced. Though her earliest perception were greeted only +by the sight of her father's misery; though the form which his +despairing penitence soon assumed doomed her to a life of seclusion and +an education of admonition, the passionate attachment to the melody of +sound, inspired by her mother's voice--almost imbibed at her mother's +breast--lived through all neglect, and survived all opposition. It +found its nourishment in childish recollections, in snatches of street +minstrelsy heard through her window, in the passage of the night winds +of winter through the groves on the Pincian Mount, and received its +rapturous gratification in the first audible sounds from the Roman +senator's lute. How her possession of an instrument, and her skill in +playing, were subsequently gained, the reader already knows from +Vetranio's narrative at Ravenna. Could the frivolous senator have +discovered the real intensity of the emotions his art was raising in +his pupil's bosom while he taught her; could he have imagined how +incessantly, during their lessons, her sense of duty struggled with her +love for music--how completely she was absorbed, one moment by an agony +of doubt and fear, another by an ecstasy of enjoyment and hope--he +would have felt little of that astonishment at her coldness towards +himself which he so warmly expressed at his interview with Julia in the +gardens of the Court. In truth, nothing could be more complete than +Antonina's childish unconsciousness of the feelings with which Vetranio +regarded her. In entering his presence, whatever remnant of her +affections remained unwithered by her fears was solely attracted and +engrossed by the beloved and beautiful lute. In receiving the +instrument, she almost forgot the giver in the triumph of possession; +or, if she thought of him at all, it was to be grateful for having +escaped uninjured from a member of that class, for whom her father's +reiterated admonitions had inspired her with a vague feeling of dread +and distrust, and to determine that, now she had acknowledged his +kindness and departed from his domains, nothing should ever induce her +to risk discovery by her father and peril to herself by ever entering +them again. + +Innocent in her isolation, almost infantine in her natural simplicity, +a single enjoyment was sufficient to satisfy all the passions of her +age. Father, mother, lover, and companion; liberties, amusements, and +adornments--they were all summed up for her in that simple lute. The +archness, the liveliness, and the gentleness of her disposition; the +poetry of her nature, and the affection of her heart; the happy bloom +of youth, which seclusion could not all wither nor distorted precept +taint, were now entirely nourished, expanded, and freshened--such is +the creative power of human emotion--by that inestimable possession. +She could speak to it, smile on it, caress it, and believe, in the +ecstasy of her delight, in the carelessness of her self-delusion, that +it sympathised with her joy. During her long solitudes, when she was +silently watched in her father's absence by the brooding, melancholy +stranger whom he had set over her, it became a companion dearer than +the flower-garden, dearer even that the plains and mountains which +formed her favourite view. When her father returned, and she was led +forth to sit in a dark place among strange, silent people, and to +listen to interminable declamations, it was a solace to think of the +instrument as it lay hidden securely in her chamber, and to ponder +delightedly on what new music of her own she could play upon it next. +And then, when evening arrived, and she was left alone in her +garden--then came the hour of moonlight and song; the moment of rapture +and melody that drew her out of herself, elevated her she felt not how, +and transported her she knew not whither. + +But, while we thus linger over reflection on motives and examinations +into character, we are called back to the outer world of passing +interests and events by the appearances of another figure on the scene. +We left Antonina in the garden thinking over her lute. She still +remains in her meditative position, but she is now no longer alone. + +From the same steps by which she had descended, a man now advances into +the garden, and walks towards the place she occupies. His gait is +limping, his stature crooked, his proportions distorted. His large, +angular features stand out in gaunt contrast to his shrivelled cheeks. +His dry, matted hair has been burnt by the sun into a strange tawny +brown. His expression is one of fixed, stern, mournful thought. As he +steps stealthily along, advancing towards Antonina, he mutters to +himself, and clutches mechanically at his garments with his lank, +shapeless fingers. The radiant moonlight, falling fully upon his +countenance, invests it with a livid, mysterious, spectral appearance: +seen by a stranger at the present moment, he would have been almost +awful to look upon. + +This was the man who had intercepted Vetranio on his journey home, and +who had now hurried back so as to regain his accustomed post before his +master's return, for he was the same individual mentioned by Numerian +as his aged convert, Ulpius, in his interview with the landholder at +the Basilica of St. Peter. + +When Ulpius had arrived within a few paces of the girl he stopped, +saying in a hoarse, thick voice-- + +'Hide your toy--Numerian is at the gates!' + + +Antonina started violently as she listened to those repulsive accents. +The blood rushed into her cheeks; she hastily covered the lute with her +robe; paused an instant, as if intending to speak to the man, then +shuddered violently, and hurried towards the house. + +As she mounted the steps Numerian met her in the hall. There was now +no chance of hiding the lute in its accustomed place. + +'You stay too late in the garden,' said the father, looking proudly, in +spite of all his austerity, upon his beautiful daughter as she stood by +his side. 'But what affects you?' he added, noticing her confusion. +'You tremble; your colour comes and goes; your lips quiver. Give me +your hand!' + +As Antonina obeyed him, a fold of the treacherous robe slipped aside, +and discovered a part of the frame of the lute. Numerian's quick eye +discovered it immediately. He snatched the instrument from her feeble +grasp. His astonishment on beholding it was too great for words, and +for an instant he confronted the poor girl, whose pale face looked +rigid with terror, in ominous and expressive silence. + +'This thing,' said he at length, 'this invention of libertines in my +house--in my daughter's possession!' and he dashed the lute into +fragments on the floor. + +For one moment Antonina looked incredulously on the ruins of the +beloved companion, which was the centre of all her happiest +expectations for future days. Then, as she began to estimate the +reality of her deprivation, her eyes lost all their heaven-born +brightness, and filled to overflowing with the tears of earth. + +'To your chamber!' thundered Numerian, as she knelt, sobbing +convulsively, over those hapless fragments. 'To your chamber! +Tomorrow shall bring this mystery of iniquity to light!' + +She rose humbly to obey him, for indignation had no part in the +emotions that shook her gentle and affectionate nature. As she moved +towards the room that no lute was henceforth to occupy, as she thought +on the morrow that no lute was henceforth to enliven, her grief almost +overpowered her. She turned back and looked imploringly at her father, +as if entreating permission to pick up even the smallest of the +fragments at his feet. + +'To your chamber!' he reiterated sternly. 'Am I to be disobeyed to my +face?' + +Without any repetition of her silent remonstrance, she instantly +retired. As soon as she was out of sight, Ulpius ascended the steps +and stood before the angered father. + +'Look, Ulpius,' cried Numerian, 'my daughter, whom I have so carefully +cherished, whom I intended for an example to the world, has deceived +me, even thus!' + +He pointed, as he spoke, to the ruins of the unfortunate lute; but +Ulpius did not address to him a word in reply, and he hastily +continued:-- + +'I will not sully the solemn offices of tonight by interrupting them +with my worldly affairs. To-morrow I will interrogate my disobedient +child. In the meantime, do not imagine, Ulpius, that I connect you in +any way with this wicked and unworthy deception! In you I have every +confidence, in your faithfulness I have every hope.' + +Again he paused, and again Ulpius kept silence. Any one less agitated, +less confiding, than his unsuspicious master, would have remarked that +a faint sinister smile was breaking forth upon his haggard countenance. +But Numerian's indignation was still too violent to permit him to +observed, and, spite of his efforts to control himself, he again broke +forth in complaint. + + +'On this night too, of all others,' cried he, 'when I had hoped to lead +her among my little assembly of the faithful, to join in their prayers, +and to listen to my exhortations--on this night I am doomed to find her +a player on a pagan lute, a possessor of the most wanton of the world's +vanities! God give me patience to worship this night with unwandering +thoughts, for my heart is vexed at the transgression of my child, as +the heart of Eli of old at the iniquities of his sons!' + +He was moving rapidly away, when, as if struck with a sudden +recollection, he stopped abruptly, and again addressed his gloomy +companion. + +'I will go by myself to the chapel to-night,' said he. 'You, Ulpius, +will stay to keep watch over my disobedient child. Be vigilant, good +friend, over my house; for even now, on my return, I thought that two +strangers were following my steps, and I forebode some evil in store +for me as the chastisement for my sins, even greater than this misery +of my daughter's transgression. Be watchful, good Ulpius--be watchful!' + +And, as he hurried away, the stern, serious man felt as overwhelmed at +the outrage that had been offered to his gloomy fanaticism, as the +weak, timid girl at the destruction that had been wreaked upon her +harmless lute. + +After Numerian had departed, the sinister smile again appeared on the +countenance of Ulpius. He stood for a short time fixed in thought, and +then began slowly to descend a staircase near him which led to some +subterranean apartments. He had not gone far when a slight noise +became audible at an extremity of the corridor above. As he listened +for a repetition of the sound, he heard a sob, and looking cautiously +up, discovered, by the moonlight, Antonina stepping cautiously along +the marble pavement of the hall. + +She held in her hand a little lamp; her small, rosy feet were +uncovered; the tears still streamed over her cheeks. She advanced with +the greatest caution (as if fearful of being overheard) until she +gained the part of the floor still strewn with the ruins of the broken +lute. Here she knelt down, and pressed each fragment that lay before +her separately to her lips. Then hurriedly concealing a single piece +in her bosom, she arose and stole quickly away in the direction by +which she had come. + +'Be patient till the dawn,' muttered her faithless guardian, gazing +after her from his concealment as she disappeared; 'it will bring to +thy lute a restorer, and to Ulpius an ally!' + + + +CHAPTER 6. + +AN APPRENTICESHIP TO THE TEMPLE. + +The action of our characters during the night included in the last two +chapters has now come to a pause. Vetranio is awaiting his guests for +the banquet; Numerian is in the chapel, preparing for the discourse +that he is to deliver to his friends; Ulpius is meditating in his +master's house; Antonina is stretched upon her couch, caressing the +precious fragment that she had saved from the ruins of her lute. All +the immediate agents of our story are, for the present, in repose. + +It is our purpose to take advantage of this interval of inaction, and +direct the reader's attention to a different country from that selected +as the scene of our romance, and to such historical events of past +years as connect themselves remarkably with the early life of +Numerian's perfidious convert. This man will be found a person of +great importance in the future conduct of our story. It is necessary +to the comprehension of his character, and the penetration of such of +his purposes as have been already hinted at, and may subsequently +appear, that the long course of his existence should be traced upwards +to its source. + +It was in the reign of Julian, when the gods of the Pagan achieved +their last victory over the Gospel of the Christian, that a decently +attired man, leading by the hand a handsome boy of fifteen years of +age, entered the gates of Alexandria, and proceeded hastily towards the +high priest's dwelling in the Temple of Serapis. + + +After a stay of some hours at his destination, the man left the city +alone as hastily as he entered it, and was never after seen at +Alexandria. The boy remained in the abode of the high priest until the +next day, when he was solemnly devoted to the service of the temple. + +The boy was the young Emilius, afterwards called Ulpius. He was nephew +to the high priest, to whom he had been confided by his father, a +merchant of Rome. + +Ambition was the ruling passion of the father of Emilius. It had +prompted him to aspire to every distinction granted to the successful +by the state, but it had not gifted him with the powers requisite to +turn his aspirations in any instance into acquisitions. He passed +through existence a disappointed man, planning but never performing, +seeing his more fortunate brother rising to the highest distinction in +the priesthood, and finding himself irretrievably condemned to exist in +the affluent obscurity ensured to him by his mercantile pursuits. + +When his brother Macrinus, on Julian's accession to the imperial +throne, arrived at the pinnacle of power and celebrity as high priest +of the Temple of Serapis, the unsuccessful merchant lost all hope of +rivalling his relative in the pursuit of distinction. His insatiable +ambition, discarded from himself, now settled on one of his infant +sons. He determined that his child should be successful where he had +failed. Now that his brother had secured the highest elevation in the +temple, no calling could offer more direct advantages to a member of +his household that the priesthood. His family had been from their +earliest origin rigid Pagans. One of them had already attained to the +most distinguished honours of his gorgeous worship. He determined that +another should rival his kinsman, and that that other should be his +eldest son. + +Firm in this resolution, he at once devoted his child to the great +design which he now held continually in view. He knew well that +Paganism, revived though it was, was not the universal worship that it +had been; that it was now secretly resisted, and might soon be openly +opposed, by the persecuted Christians throughout the Empire; and that +if the young generation were to guard it successfully from all future +encroachments, and to rise securely to its highest honours, more must +be exacted from them than the easy attachment to the ancient religion +require from the votaries of former days. Then, the performance of the +most important offices in the priesthood was compatible with the +possession of military or political rank. Now, it was to the temple, +and to the temple only, that the future servant of the gods should be +devoted. Resolving thus, the father took care that all the son's +occupations and rewards should, from his earliest years, be in some way +connected with the career for which he was intended. His childish +pleasures were to be conducted to sacrifices and auguries; his childish +playthings and prizes were images of the deities. No opposition was +offered on the boy's part to this plan of education. Far different +from his younger brother, whose turbulent disposition defied all +authority, he was naturally docile; and his imagination, vivid beyond +his years, was easily led captive by any remarkable object presented to +it. With such encouragement, his father became thoroughly engrossed by +the occupation of forming him for his future existence. His mother's +influence over him was jealously watched; the secret expression of her +love, of her sorrow, at the prospect of parting with him, was +ruthlessly suppressed whenever it was discovered; and his younger +brother was neglected, almost forgotten, in order that the parental +watchfulness might be entirely and invariably devoted to the eldest son. + +When Emilius had numbered fifteen years, his father saw with delight +that the time had come when he could witness the commencement of the +realisation of all his projects. The boy was removed from home, taken +to Alexandria, and gladly left, by his proud and triumphant father, +under the especial guardianship of Macrinus, the high priest. + + +The chief of the temple full sympathised in his brother's designs for +the young Emilius. As soon as the boy had entered on his new +occupations, he was told that he must forget all that he had left +behind him at Rome; that he must look upon the high priest as his +father, and upon the temple, henceforth, as his home; and that the sole +object of his present labours and future ambition must be to rise in +the service of the gods. Nor did Macrinus stop here. So thoroughly +anxious was he to stand to his pupil in the place of a parent, and to +secure his allegiance by withdrawing him in every way from the world in +which he had hitherto lived, that he even changed his name, giving to +him one of his own appellations, and describing it as a privilege to +stimulate him to future exertions. From the boy Emilius, he was now +permanently transformed to the student Ulpius. + +With such a natural disposition as we have already described, and under +such guardianship as that of the high priest, there was little danger +that Ulpius would disappoint the unusual expectations which had been +formed of him. His attention to his new duties never relaxed; his +obedience to his new masters never wavered. Whatever Macrinus demanded +of him he was sure to perform. Whatever longings he might feel to +return to home, he never discovered them; he never sought to gratify +the tastes naturally peculiar to his age. The high priest and his +colleagues were astonished at the extraordinary readiness with which +the boy himself forwarded their intentions for him. Had they known how +elaborately he had been prepared for his future employments at his +father's house, they would have been less astonished at their pupil's +unusual docility. Trained as he had been, he must have shown a more +than human perversity had he displayed any opposition to his uncle's +wishes. He had been permitted no childhood either of thought or +action. His natural precocity had been seized as the engine to force +his faculties into a perilous and unwholesome maturity; and when his +new duties demanded his attention, he entered on them with the same +sincerity of enthusiasm which his boyish coevals would have exhibited +towards a new sport. His gradual initiation into the mysteries of his +religion created a strange, voluptuous sensation of fear and interest +in his mind. He heard the oracles, and he trembled; he attended the +sacrifices and the auguries, and he wondered. All the poetry of the +bold and beautiful superstition to which he was devoted flowed +overwhelmingly into his young heart, absorbing the service of his fresh +imagination, and transporting him incessantly from the vital realities +of the outer world to the shadowy regions of aspiration and thought. + + +But his duties did not entirely occupy the attention of Ulpius. The +boy had his peculiar pleasures as well as his peculiar occupations. +When his employments were over for the day, it was a strange, +unearthly, vital enjoyment to him to wander softly in the shade of the +temple porticoes, looking down from his great mysterious eminence upon +the populous and sun-brightened city at his feet; watching the +brilliant expanse of the waters of the Nile glittering joyfully in the +dazzling and pervading light; raising his eyes from the fields and +woods, the palaces and garden, that stretched out before him below, to +the lovely and cloudless sky that watched round him afar and above, and +that awoke all that his new duties had left of the joyfulness, the +affectionate sensibility, which his rare intervals of uninterrupted +intercourse with his mother had implanted in his heart. Then, when the +daylight began to wane, and the moon and stars already grew beautiful +in their places in the firmament, he would pass into the subterranean +vaults of the edifice, trembling as his little taper scarcely dispelled +the dull, solemn gloom, and listening with breathless attention for the +voices of those guardian spirits whose fabled habitation was made in +the apartments of the sacred place. Or, when the multitude had +departed for their amusements and their homes, he would steal into the +lofty halls and wander round the pedestals of the mighty statues, +breathing fearfully the still atmosphere of the temple, and watching +the passage of the cold, melancholy moonbeams through the openings in +the roof, and over the colossal limbs and features of the images of the +pagan gods. Sometimes, when the services of Serapis and the cares +attendant on his communications with the Emperor were concluded, +Macrinus would lead his pupil into the garden of the priests, and +praise him for his docility till his heart throbbed with gratitude and +pride. Sometimes he would convey him cautiously outside the precincts +of the sacred place, and show him, in the suburbs of the city, silent, +pale, melancholy men, gliding suspiciously through the gay, crowded +streets. Those fugitive figures, he would declare, were the enemies of +the temple and all that it contained; conspirators against the Emperor +and the gods; wretches who were to be driven forth as outcasts from +humanity; whose appellation was 'Christian'; and whose impious worship, +if tolerated, would deprive him of the uncle whom he loved, of the +temple that he reverenced, and of the priestly dignity and renown which +it should be his life's ambition to acquire. + +Thus tutored in his duties by his guardian, and in his recreations by +himself, as time wore on, the boy gradually lost every remaining +characteristic of his age. Even the remembrance of his mother and his +mother's love grew faint on his memory. Serious, solitary, thoughtful, +he lived but to succeed in the temple; he laboured but to emulate the +high priest. All his feelings and faculties were now enslaved by an +ambition, at once unnatural at his present age, and ominous of +affliction for his future life. The design that Macrinus had +contemplated as the work of years was perfected in a few months. The +hope that his father had scarce dared to entertain for his manhood was +already accomplished in his youth. + +In these preparations for future success passed three years of the life +of Ulpius. At the expiration of that period the death of Julian +darkened the brilliant prospects of the Pagan world. Scarcely had the +priests of Serapis recovered the first shock of astonishment and grief +consequent upon the fatal news of the vacancy in the imperial throne, +when the edict of toleration issued by Jovian, the new Emperor, reached +the city of Alexandria, and was elevated on the walls of the temple. + +The first sight of this proclamation (permitting freedom of worship to +the Christians) aroused in the highly wrought disposition of Ulpius the +most violent emotions of anger and contempt. The enthusiasm of his +character and age, guided invariably in the one direction of his +worship, took the character of the wildest fanaticism when he +discovered the Emperor's careless infringement of the supremacy of the +temple. He volunteered in the first moments of his fury to tear down +the edict from the walls, to lead an attack on the meetings of the +triumphant Christians, or to travel to the imperial abode and exhort +Jovian to withdraw his act of perilous leniency ere it was too late. +With difficulty did his more cautious confederates restrain him from +the execution of his impetuous designs. For two days he withdrew +himself from his companions, and brooded in solitude over the injury +offered to his beloved superstition, and the prospective augmentation +of the influence of the Christian sect. + +But the despair of the young enthusiast was destined to be further +augmented by a private calamity, at once mysterious in its cause and +overwhelming in its effect. Two days after the publication of the +edict the high priest Macrinus, in the prime of vigour and manhood, +suddenly died. + +To narrate the confusion and horror within and without the temple on +the discovery of this fatal even; to describe the execrations and +tumults of the priests and the populace, who at once suspected the +favoured and ambitious Christians of causing, by poison, the death of +their spiritual ruler, might be interesting as a history of the manners +of the times, but is immaterial to the object of this chapter. We +prefer rather to trace the effect on the mind of Ulpius of his personal +and private bereavement; of this loss--irretrievable to him--of the +master whom he loved and the guardian whom it was his privilege to +revere. + + +An illness of some months, during the latter part of which his +attendants trembled for his life and reason, sufficiently attested the +sincerity of the grief of Ulpius for the loss of his protector. During +his paroxysms of delirium the priests who watched round his bed drew +from his ravings many wise conclusions as to the effects that his +seizure and its causes were likely to produce on his future character; +but, in spite of all their penetration, they were still far from +appreciating to a tithe of its extent the revolution that his +bereavement had wrought in his disposition. The boy himself, until the +moment of the high priest's death, had never been aware of the depth of +his devotion to his second father. Warped as they had been by his +natural parent, the affectionate qualities that were the mainspring of +his nature had never been entirely destroyed; and they seized on every +kind word and gentle action of Macrinus as food which had been grudged +them since their birth. Morally and intellectually, Macrinus had been +to him the beacon that pointed the direction of his course, the judge +that regulated his conduct, the Muse that he looked to for inspiration. +And now, when this link which had connected every ramification of his +most cherished and governing ideas was suddenly snapped asunder, a +desolation sunk down upon his mind which at once paralysed its +elasticity and withered its freshness. He glanced back, and saw +nothing but a home from whose pleasures and affections his father's +ambition had exiled him for ever. He looked forward, and as he thought +of his unfitness, both from character and education, to mix in the +world as others mixed in it, he saw no guiding star of social happiness +for the conduct of his existence to come. There was now no resource +left for him but entirely to deliver himself up to those pursuits which +had made his home as a strange place to him, which were hallowed by +their connection with the lost object of his attachment, and which +would confer the sole happiness and distinction that he could hope for +in the wide world on his future life. + +In addition to this motive for labour in his vocation, there existed in +the mind of Ulpius a deep and settled feeling that animated him with +unceasing ardour for the prosecution of his cherished occupations. +This governing principle was detestation of the Christian sect. The +suspicion that others had entertained regarding the death of the high +priest was to his mind a certainty. He rejected every idea which +opposed his determined persuasion that the jealousy of the Christians +had prompted them to the murder, by poison, of the most powerful and +zealous of the Pagan priests. To labour incessantly until he attained +the influence and position formerly enjoyed by his relative, and to use +that influence and position, when once acquired, as the means of +avenging Macrinus, by sweeping every vestige of the Christian faith +from the face of the earth, were now the settled purposes of his heart. +Inspired by his determination with the deliberate wisdom which is in +most men the result only of the experience of years, he employed the +first days of his convalescence in cautiously maturing his future +plans, and impartially calculating his chances of success. This +self-examination completed, he devoted himself at once and for ever to +his life's great design. Nothing wearied, nothing discouraged, nothing +impeded him. Outward events passed by him unnoticed; the city's +afflictions and the city's triumphs spoke no longer to his heart. Year +succeeded to year, but Time had no tongue for him. Paganism gradually +sank, and Christianity imperceptibly rose, but change spread no picture +before his eyes. The whole outward world was a void to him, until the +moment arrived that beheld him successful in his designs. His +preparations for the future absorbed every faculty of his nature, and +left him, as to the present, a mere automaton, reflecting no principle, +and animated by no event--a machine that moved, but did not perceive--a +body that acted, without a mind that thought. + +Returning for a moment to the outward world, we find that on the death +of Jovian, in 364, Valentinian, the new Emperor, continued the system +of toleration adopted by his predecessor. On his death, in 375, +Gratian, the successor to the imperial throne, so far improved on the +example of the two former potentates as to range himself boldly on the +side of the partisans of the new faith. Not content with merely +encouraging, both by precept and by example, the growth of +Christianity, the Emperor further testified to his zeal for the rising +religion by inflicting incessant persecutions upon the rapidly +decreasing advocates of the ancient worship; serving, by these acts of +his reign, as pioneer to his successor, Theodosius the Great, in the +religious revolution which that illustrious opponent of Paganism was +destined to effect. + + +The death of Gratian, in 383, saw Ulpius enrolled among the chief +priests of the temple, and pointed out as the next inheritor of the +important office once held by the powerful and active Macrinus. +Beholding himself thus secure of the distinction for which he had +laboured, the aspiring priest found leisure, at length, to look forth +upon the affairs of the passing day. From every side desolation +darkened the prospect that he beheld. Already, throughout many +provinces of the Empire, the temples of the gods had been overthrown by +the destructive zeal of the triumphant Christians. Already hosts of +the terrified people, fearing that the fate of their idols might +ultimately be their own, finding themselves deserted by their disbanded +priests, and surrounded by the implacable enemies of the ancient faith, +had renounced their worship for the sake of saving their lives and +securing their property. On the wide field of Pagan ruin there now +rose but one structure entirely unimpaired. The Temple of Serapis +still reared its head--unshaken, unbending, unpolluted. Here the +sacrifice still prospered and the people still bowed in worship. Before +this monument of the religious glories of ages, even the rising power +of Christian supremacy quailed in dismay. Though the ranks of its once +multitudinous congregations were now perceptibly thinned, though the +new churches swarmed with converts, though the edicts from Rome +denounced it as a blot on the face of the earth, its gloomy and +solitary grandeur was still preserved. No unhallowed foot trod its +secret recesses; no destroying hand was raised as yet against its +ancient and glorious walls. + +Indignation, but not despondency, filled the heart of Ulpius as he +surveyed the situation of the Pagan world. A determination nourished +as his had been by the reflections of years, and matured by incessant +industry of deliberation, is above all those shocks which affect a +hasty decision or destroy a wavering intention. Impervious to failure, +disasters urge it into action, but never depress it to repose. Its +existence is the air that preserves the vitality of the mind--the +spring that moves the action of the thoughts. Never for a moment did +Ulpius waver in his devotion to his great design, or despair of its +ultimate execution and success. Though every succeeding day brought +the news of fresh misfortunes for the Pagans and fresh triumphs for the +Christians, still, with a few of his more zealous comrades, he +persisted in expecting the advent of another Julian, and a day of +restoration for the dismantled shrines of the deities that he served. +While the Temple of Serapis stood uninjured, to give encouragement to +his labours and refuge to his persecuted brethren, there existed for +him such an earnest of success as would spur him to any exertion, and +nerve him against any peril. + +And now, to the astonishment of priests and congregations, the silent, +thoughtful, solitary Ulpius suddenly started from his long repose, and +stood forth the fiery advocate of the rights of his invaded worship. +In a few days the fame of his addresses to the Pagans who still +attended the rites of Serapis spread throughout the whole city. The +boldest among the Christians, as they passed the temple walls, +involuntarily trembled when they heard the vehemence of the applause +which arose from the audience of the inspired priest. Addressed to all +varieties of age and character, these harangues woke an echo in every +breast they reached. To the young they were clothed in all the poetry +of the worship for which they pleaded. They dwelt on the altars of +Venus that the Christians would lay waste; on the woodlands that the +Christians would disenchant of their Dryads; on the hallowed Arts that +the Christians would arise and destroy. To the aged they called up +remembrances of the glories of the past achieved through the favour of +the gods; of ancestors who had died in their service; of old forgotten +loves, and joys, and successes that had grown and prospered under the +gentle guardianship of the deities of old--while the unvarying burden +of their conclusion to all was the reiterated assertion that the +illustrious Macrinus had died a victim to the toleration of the +Christian sect. + + +But the efforts of Ulpius were not confined to the delivery of +orations. Every moment of his leisure time was dedicated to secret +pilgrimages into Alexandria. Careless of peril, regardless of threats, +the undaunted enthusiast penetrated into the most private +meeting-places of the Christians; reclaiming on every side apostates to +the Pagan creed, and defying the hostility of half the city from the +stronghold of the temple walls. Day after day fresh recruits arrived +to swell the ranks of the worshippers of Serapis. The few members of +the scattered congregations of the provinces who still remained +faithful to the ancient worship were gathered together in Alexandria by +the private messengers of the unwearied Ulpius. Already tumults began +to take place between the Pagans and the Christians; and even now the +priest of Serapis prepared to address a protest to the new Emperor in +behalf of the ancient religion of the land. At this moment it seemed +probable that the heroic attempts of one man to prop the structure of +superstition, whose foundations were undermined throughout, and whose +walls were attacked by brigands, might actually be crowned with success. + +But Time rolled on; and with him came inexorable change, trampling over +the little barriers set up against it by human opposition, and erecting +its strange and transitory fabrics triumphantly in their stead. In +vain did the devoted priest exert all his powers to augment and combine +his scattered band; in vain did the mighty temple display its ancient +majesty, its gorgeous sacrifices, its mysterious auguries. The spirit +of Christianity was forth for triumph on the earth--the last destinies +of Paganism were fast accomplishing. Yet a few seasons more of +unavailing resistance passed by, and then the Archbishop of Alexandria +issued his decree that the Temple of Serapis should be destroyed. + +At the rumour of their Primate's determination, the Christian fanatics +rose by swarms from every corner of Egypt, and hurried into Alexandria +to be present at the work of demolition. From the arid solitudes of the +desert, from their convents on rocks and their caverns in the earth, +hosts of rejoicing monks flew to the city gates, and ranged themselves +with the soldiery and the citizens, impatient for the assault. At the +dawn of morning this assembly of destroyers was convened, and as the +sun rose over Alexandria they arrived before the temple walls. + +The gates of the glorious structure were barred; the walls were crowded +with their Pagan defenders. A still, dead, mysterious silence reigned +over the whole edifice; and, of all the men who thronged it, one only +moved from his appointed place--one only wandered incessantly from +point to point, wherever the building was open to assault. Those among +the besiegers who were nearest the temple saw in this presiding genius +of the preparations for defence the object at once of their most +malignant hatred and their most ungovernable dread--Ulpius the priest. + +As soon as the Archbishop gave the signal for the assault, a band of +monks--their harsh, discordant voices screaming fragments of psalms, +their tattered garments waving in the air, their cadaverous faces +gleaming with ferocious joy--led the way, placed the first ladders +against the walls, and began the attack. From all sides the temple was +assailed by the infuriated besiegers, and on all sides it was +successfully defended by the resolute besieged. Shock after shock fell +upon the massive gates without forcing them to recede; missile after +missile was hurled at the building, but no breach was made in its solid +surface. Multitudes scaled the walls, gained the outer porticoes, and +slaughtered their Pagan defenders, but were incessantly repulsed in +their turn ere they could make their advantage good. Over and over +again did the assailants seem on the point of storming the temple +successfully, but the figure of Ulpius, invariably appearing at the +critical moment among his disheartened followers, acted like a fatality +in destroying the effect of the most daring exertions and the most +important triumphs. Wherever there was danger, wherever there was +carnage, wherever there was despair, thither strode the undaunted +priest, inspiring the bold, succouring the wounded, reanimating the +feeble. Blinded by no stratagem, wearied by no fatigue, there was +something almost demoniac in his activity for destruction, in his +determination under defeat. The besiegers marked his course round the +temple by the calamities that befell them at his every step. If the +bodies of slaughtered Christians were flung down upon them from the +walls, they felt that Ulpius was there. If the bravest of the soldiery +hesitated at mounting the ladders, it was known that Ulpius was +directing the defeat of their comrades above. If a sally from the +temple drove back the advanced guard upon the reserves in the rear, it +was pleaded as their excuse that Ulpius was fighting at the head of his +Pagan bands. Crowd on crowd of Christian warriors still pressed +forward to the attack; but though the ranks of the unbelievers were +perceptibly thinned, though the gates that defended them at last began +to quiver before the reiterated blows by which they were assailed, +every court of the sacred edifice yet remained in the possession of the +besieged, and was at the disposal of the unconquered captain who +organised the defence. + + +Depressed by the failure of his efforts, and horrified at the carnage +already perpetrated among his adherents, the Archbishop suddenly +commanded a cessation of hostilities, and proposed to the defenders of +the temple a short and favourable truce. After some delay, and +apparently at the expense of some discord among their ranks, the Pagans +sent to the Primate an assurance of their acceptance of his terms, +which were that both parties should abstain from any further struggle +for the ascendancy until an edict from Theodosius determining the +ultimate fate of the temple should be applied for and obtained. + +The truce once agreed on, the wide space before the respited edifice +was gradually cleared of its occupants. Slowly and sadly the +Archbishop and his followers departed from the ancient walls whose +summits they had assaulted in vain; and when the sun went down, of the +great multitude congregated in the morning a few corpses were all that +remained. Within the sacred building, Death and Repose ruled with the +night, where morning had brightly glittered on Life and Action. The +wounded, the wearied, and the cold, all now lay hushed alike, fanned by +the night breezes that wandered through the lofty porticoes, or soothed +by the obscurity that reigned over the silent halls. Among the ranks +of the Pagan devotees but one man still toiled and thought. Round and +round the temple, restless as a wild beast that is threatened in his +lair, watchful as a lonely spirit in a city of strange tombs, wandered +the solitary and brooding Ulpius. For him there was no rest of +body--no tranquility of mind. On the events of the next few days +hovered the fearful chance that was soon, either for misery or +happiness, to influence irretrievably the years of his future life. +Round and round the mighty walls he watched with mechanical and useless +anxiety. Every stone in the building was eloquent to his lonely +heart--beautiful to his wild imagination. On those barren structures +stretched for him the loved and fertile home; there was the shrine for +whose glory his intellect had been enslaved, for whose honour his youth +had been sacrificed! Round and round the secret recesses and sacred +courts he paced with hurried footstep, cleansing with gentle and +industrious hand the stains of blood and the defilements of warfare +from the statues at his side. Sad, solitary, thoughtful, as in the +first days of his apprenticeship to the gods, he now roved in the same +moonlit recesses where Macrinus had taught him in his youth. As the +menacing tumults of the day had aroused his fierceness, so the +stillness of the quiet night awakened his gentleness. He had combated +for the temple in the morning as a son for a parent, and he now watched +over it at night as a miser over his treasure, as a lover over his +mistress, as a mother over her child! + +The days passed on; and at length the memorable morning arrived which +was to determine the fate of the last temple that Christian fanaticism +had spared to the admiration of the world. At an early hour of the +morning the diminished numbers of the Pagan zealots met their +reinforced and determined opponents--both sides being alike unarmed--in +the great square of Alexandria. The imperial prescript was then +publicly read. It began by assuring the Pagans that their priest's plea +for protection for the temple had received the same consideration which +had been bestowed on the petition against the gods presented by the +Christian Archbishop, and ended by proclaiming the commands of the +Emperor that Serapis and all other idols in Alexandria should +immediately be destroyed. + +The shout of triumph which followed the conclusion of the imperial +edict still rose from the Christian ranks when the advanced guard of +the soldiers appointed to ensure the execution of the Emperor's designs +appeared in the square. For a few minutes the forsaken Pagans stood +rooted to the spot where they had assembled, gazing at the warlike +preparations around them in a stupor of bewilderment and despair. Then +as they recollected how diminished were their numbers, how arduous had +been their first defence against a few, and how impossible would be a +second defence against many--from the boldest to the feeblest, a panic +seized on them; and, regardless of Ulpius, regardless of honour, +regardless of the gods, they turned with one accord and fled from the +place. + + +With the flight of the Pagans the work of demolition began. Even women +and children hurried to join in the welcome task of indiscriminate +destruction. No defenders on this occasion barred the gates of the +temple to the Christian hosts. The sublime solitude of the tenantless +building was outraged and invaded in an instant. Statues were broken, +gold was carried off, doors were splintered into fragments; but here +for a while the progress of demolition was delayed. Those to whom the +labour of ruining the outward structure had been confided were less +successful than their neighbours who had pillaged its contents. The +ponderous stones of the pillars, the massive surfaces of the walls, +resisted the most vigorous of their puny efforts, and forced them to +remain contented with mutilating that which they could not +destroy--with tearing off roofs, defacing marbles, and demolishing +capitals. The rest of the buildings remained uninjured, and grander +even now in the wildness of ruin than ever it had been in the +stateliness of perfection and strength. + +But the most important achievement still remained, the death-wound of +Paganism was yet to be struck--the idol Serapis, which had ruled the +hearts of millions, and was renowned in the remotest corners of the +Empire, was to be destroyed! A breathless silence pervaded the +Christian ranks as they filled the hall of the god. A superstitious +dread, to which they had hitherto thought themselves superior, overcame +their hearts, as a single soldier, bolder than his fellows, mounted by +a ladder to the head of the colossal statue, and struck at its cheek +with an axe. The blow had scarcely been dealt when a deep groan was +heard from the opposite wall of the apartment, succeeded by a noise of +retreating footsteps, and then all was silent again. For a few minutes +this incident stayed the feet of those who were about to join their +companion in the mutilation of the idol; but after an interval their +hesitation vanished, they dealt blow after blow at the statue, and no +more groans followed--no more sounds were heard, save the wild echoes +of the stroke of hammer, crowbar, and club, resounding through the +lofty hall. In an incredibly short space of time the image of Serapis +lay in great fragments on the marble floor. The multitude seized on +the limbs of the idol and ran forth to drag them in triumph through the +streets. Yet a few minutes more, and the ruins were untenanted, the +temple was silent--Paganism was destroyed! + +Throughout the ravaging course of the Christians over the temple, they +had been followed with dogged perseverance, and at the same time with +the most perfect impunity, by the only Pagan of all his brethren who +had not sought safety by flight. This man, being acquainted with every +private passage and staircase in the sacred building, was enabled to be +secretly present at each fresh act of demolition, in whatever part of +the edifice it might be perpetrated. From hall to hall, and from room +to room, he tracked with noiseless step and glaring eye the movements +of the Christian mob--now hiding himself behind a pillar, now passing +into concealed cavities in the walls, now looking down from +imperceptible fissures in the roof; but, whatever his situation, +invariably watching from it, with the same industry of attention and +the same silence of emotion, the minutest acts of spoliation committed +by the most humble follower of the Christian ranks. It was only when +he entered with the victorious ravagers into the vast apartment +occupied by the idol Serapis that the man's countenance began to give +evidence of the agony under which his heart was writhing within him. +He mounted a private staircase cut in the hollow of the massive wall of +the room, and gaining a passage that ran round the extremities of the +ceiling, looked through a sort of lattice concealed in the ornaments of +the cornice. As he gazed down and saw the soldier mounting, axe in +hand, to the idol's head, great drops of perspiration trickled from his +forehead. His hot, thick breath hissed through his closed teeth, and +his hands strained at the strong metal supports of the lattice until +they bent beneath his grasp. When the stroke descended on the image, +he closed his eyes. When the fragment detached by the blow fell on the +floor, a groan burst from his quivering lips. For one moment more he +glared down with a gaze of horror upon the multitude at his feet, and +then with frantic speed he descended the steep stairs by which he had +mounted to the roof, and fled from the temple. + + +The same night this man was again seen by some shepherds whom curiosity +led to visit the desecrated building, weeping bitterly in its ruined +and deserted porticoes. As they approached to address him, he raised +his head, and with a supplicating action signed to them to leave the +place. For the few moments during which he confronted them, the +moonlight shone full upon his countenance, and the shepherds, who had +in former days attended the ceremonies of the temple, saw with +astonishment that the solitary mourner whose meditations they had +disturbed was no other than Ulpius the priest. + +At the dawn of day these shepherds had again occasion to pass the walls +of the pillaged temple. Throughout the hours of the night the +remembrance of the scene of unsolaced, unpartaken grief that they had +beheld--of the awful loneliness of misery in which they had seen the +heart-broken and forsaken man, whose lightest words they had once +delighted to revere--inspired them with a feeling of pity for the +deserted Pagan, widely at variance with the spirit of persecution which +the spurious Christianity of their day would fain have instilled in the +bosoms of its humblest votaries. Bent on consolation, anxious to +afford help, these men, like the Samaritan of old, went up at their own +peril to succour a brother in affliction. They searched every portion +of the empty building, but the object of their sympathy was nowhere to +be seen. They called, but heard no answering sound, save the dirging of +the winds of early morning through the ruined halls, which but a short +time since had resounded with the eloquence of the once illustrious +priest. Except a few night-birds, already sheltered by the deserted +edifice, not a living being moved in what was once the temple of the +Eastern world. Ulpius was gone. + +These events took place in the year 389. In 390, Pagan ceremonies were +made treason by the laws throughout the whole Roman Empire. + +From that period the scattered few who still adhered to the ancient +faith became divided into three parties; each alike insignificant, +whether considered as openly or secretly inimical to the new religion +of the State at large. + +The first party unsuccessfully endeavoured to elude the laws +prohibitory of sacrifices and divinations by concealing their religious +ceremonies under the form of convivial meetings. + +The second preserved their ancient respect for the theory of Paganism, +but abandoned all hope and intention of ever again accomplishing its +practice. By such timely concessions many were enabled to +preserve--and some even to attain--high and lucrative employments as +officers of the State. + +The third retired to their homes, the voluntary exiles of every +religion; resigning the practice of their old worship as a necessity, +and shunning the communion of Christians as a matter of choice. + +Such were the unimportant divisions into which the last remnants of the +once powerful Pagan community now subsided; but to none of them was the +ruined and degraded Ulpius ever attached. + +For five weary years--dating from the epoch of the prohibition of +Paganism--he wandered through the Empire, visiting in every country the +ruined shrines of his deserted worship--a friendless, hopeless, +solitary man! + + +Throughout the whole of Europe, and all of Asia and the East that still +belonged to Rome, he bent his slow and toilsome course. In the fertile +valleys of Gaul, over the burning sands of Africa, through the +sun-bright cities of Spain, he travelled--unfriended as a man under a +curse, lonely as a second Cain. Never for an instant did the +remembrance of his ruined projects desert his memory, or his mad +determination to revive his worship abandon his mind. At every relic +of Paganism, however slight, that he encountered on his way, he found a +nourishment for his fierce anguish, and employment for his vengeful +thoughts. Often, in the little villages, children were frightened from +their sports in a deserted temple by the apparition of his gaunt, rigid +figure among the tottering pillars, or the sound of his hollow voice as +he muttered to himself among the ruins of the Pagan tombs. Often, in +crowded cities, groups of men, congregated to talk over the fall of +Paganism, found him listening at their sides, and comforting them, when +they carelessly regretted their ancient faith, with a smiling and +whispered assurance that a time of restitution would yet come. By all +opinions and in all places he was regarded as a harmless madman, whose +strange delusions and predilections were not to be combated, but to be +indulged. Thus he wandered through the Christian world; regardless +alike of lapse of time and change of climate; living within himself; +mourning, as a luxury, over the fall of his worship; patient of wrongs, +insults, and disappointments; watching for the opportunity that he +still persisted in believing was yet to arrive; holding by his fatal +determination with all the recklessness of ambition and all the +perseverance of revenge. + +The five years passed away unheeded, uncalculated, unregretted by +Ulpius. For him, living but in the past, hoping but for the future, +space held no obstacles--time was an oblivion. Years pass as days, +hours as moments, when the varying emotions which mark their existence +on the memory, and distinguish their succession on the dial of the +heart, exist no longer either for happiness or woe. Dead to all +freshness of feeling, the mind of Ulpius, during the whole term of his +wanderings, lay numbed beneath the one idea that possessed it. It was +only at the expiration of those unheeded years, when the chances of +travel turned his footsteps towards Alexandria, that his faculties +burst from the long bondage which had oppressed them. Then--when he +passed through those gates which he had entered in former years a +proud, ambitious boy, when he walked ungreeted through the ruined +temple where he had once lived illustrious and revered--his dull, cold +thoughts arose strong and vital within him. The spectacle of the scene +of his former glories, which might have awakened despair in others, +aroused the dormant passions, emancipated the stifled energies in him. +The projects of vengeance and the visions of restoration which he had +brooded over for five long years, now rose before him as realised +already under the vivid influence of the desecrated scenes around. As +he stood beneath the shattered porticoes of the sacred place, not a +stone crumbling at his feet but rebuked him for his past inaction, and +strengthened him for daring, for conspiracy, for revenge, in the +service of the outraged gods. The ruined temples he had visited in his +gloomy pilgrimages now became revived by his fancy, as one by one they +rose on his toiling memory. Broken pillars soared from the ground; +desecrated idols reoccupied their vacant pedestals; and he, the exile +and the mourner, stood forth once again the ruler, the teacher, and the +priest. The time of restitution was come; though his understanding +supplied him with no distinct projects, his heart urged him to rush +blindly on the execution of his reform. The moment had +arrived--Macrinus should yet be avenged; the temple should at last be +restored. + +He descended into the city; he hurried--neither welcomed nor +recognised--through the crowded streets; he entered the house of a man +who had once been his friend and colleague in the days that were past, +and poured forth to him his wild determinations and disjointed plans, +entreating his assistance, and promising him a glorious success. But +his old companion had become, by a timely conversion to Christianity, a +man of property and reputation in Alexandria, and he turned from the +friendless enthusiast with indignation and contempt. Repulsed, but not +disheartened, Ulpius sought others who he had known in his prosperity +and renown. They had all renounced their ancient worship--they all +received him with studied coldness or careless disdain; but he still +persisted in his useless efforts. He blinded his eyes to their +contemptuous looks; he shut his ears to their derisive words. +Persevering in his self-delusion, he appointed them messengers to their +brethren in other countries, captains of the conspiracy that was to +commence in Alexandria, orators before the people when the memorable +revolution had once begun. It was in vain that they refused all +participation in his designs; he left them as the expressions of +refusal rose to their lips, and hurried elsewhere, as industrious in +his efforts, as devoted to his unwelcome mission, as if half the +population of the city had vowed themselves joyfully to aid him in his +frantic attempt. + + +Thus during the whole day he continued his labour of useless persuasion +among those in the city who had once been his friends. When the +evening came, he repaired, weary but not despondent, to the earthly +paradise that he was determined to regain--to the temple where he had +once taught, and where he still imagined that he was again destined to +preside. Here he proceeded, ignorant of the new laws, careless of +discovery and danger, to ascertain by divination, as in the days of +old, whether failure or success awaited him ultimately in his great +design. + +Meanwhile the friends whose assistance Ulpius had determined to extort +were far from remaining inactive on their parts after the departure of +the aspiring priest. They remembered with terror that the laws +affected as severely those concealing their knowledge of a Pagan +intrigue as those actually engaged in directing a Pagan conspiracy; and +their anxiety for their personal safety overcoming every consideration +of the dues of honour or the claims of ancient friendship, they +repaired in a body to the Prefect of the city, and informed him, with +all the eagerness of apprehension, of the presence of Ulpius in +Alexandria, and of the culpability of the schemes that he had proposed. + +A search after the devoted Pagan was immediately commenced. He was +found the same night before a ruined altar, brooding over the entrails +of an animal that he had just sacrificed. Further proof of his guilt +could not be required. He was taken prisoner; led forth the next +morning to be judged, amid the execrations of the very people who had +almost adored him once; and condemned the following day to suffer the +penalty of death. + +At the appointed hour the populace assembled to behold the execution. +To their indignation and disappointment, however, when the officers of +the city appeared before the prison, it was only to inform the +spectators that the performance of the fatal ceremony had been +adjourned. After a mysterious delay of some weeks, they were again +convened, not to witness the execution, but to receive the +extraordinary announcement that the culprit's life had been spared, and +that his amended sentence now condemned him to labour as a slave for +life in the copper-mines of Spain. + +What powerful influence induced the Prefect to risk the odium of +reprieving a prisoner whose guilt was so satisfactorily ascertained as +that of Ulpius never was disclosed. Some declared that the city +magistrate was still at heart a Pagan, and that he consequently shrunk +from authorising the death of a man who had once been the most +illustrious among the professors of the ancient creed. Others reported +that Ulpius had secured the leniency of his judges by acquainting them +with the position of one of those secret repositories of enormous +treasure supposed to exist beneath the foundations of the dismantled +Temple of Serapis. But the truth of either of these rumours could +never be satisfactorily proved. Nothing more was accurately discovered +than that Ulpius was removed from Alexandria to the place of earthly +torment set apart for him by the zealous authorities, at the dead of +night; and that the sentry at the gate through which he departed heard +him mutter to himself, as he was hurried onward, that his divinations +had prepared him for defeat, but that the great day of Pagan +restoration would yet arrive. + +In the year 407, twelve years after the events above narrated, Ulpius +entered the city of Rome. + +He had not advanced far, before the gaiety and confusion in the streets +appeared completely to bewilder him. He hastened to the nearest public +garden that he could perceive, and avoiding the frequented paths, flung +himself down, apparently fainting with exhaustion, at the foot of a +tree. + + +For some time he lay on the shady resting-place which he had chosen, +gasping painfully for breath, his frame ever and anon shaken to its +centre by sudden spasms, and his lips quivering with an agitation which +he vainly endeavoured to suppress. So changed was his aspect, that the +guards who had removed him from Alexandria, wretched as was his +appearance even then, would have found it impossible to recognise him +now as the same man whom they had formerly abandoned to slavery in the +mines of Spain. The effluvia exhaled from the copper ore in which he +had been buried for twelve years had not only withered the flesh upon +his bones, but had imparted to its surface a livid hue, almost +death-like in its dulness. His limbs, wasted by age and distorted by +suffering, bent and trembled beneath him; and his form, once so +majestic in its noble proportions, was now so crooked and misshapen, +that whoever beheld him could only have imagined that he must have been +deformed from his birth. Of the former man no characteristic remained +but the expression of the stern, mournful eyes; and these, the truthful +interpreters of the indomitable mind whose emotions they seemed created +to express, preserved, unaltered by suffering and unimpaired by time, +the same look, partly of reflection, partly of defiance, and partly of +despair, which had marked them in those past days when the temple was +destroyed and the congregations of the Pagans dispersed. + +But the repose at this moment demanded by his worn-out body was even +yet denied to it by his untamed, unwearied mind, and, as the voice of +his old delusion spoke within him again, the devoted priest rose from +his solitary resting-place, and looked forth upon the great city, whose +new worship he was vowed to overthrow. + +'By years of patient watchfulness,' he whispered to himself, 'have I +succeeded in escaping successfully from my dungeon among the mines. +Yet a little more cunning, a little more endurance, a little more +vigilance, and I shall still live to people, by my own exertions, the +deserted temples of Rome.' + +As he spoke he emerged from the grove into the street. The joyous +sunlight--a stranger to him for years--shone warmly down upon his face, +as if to welcome him to liberty and the world. The sounds of gay +laughter rang in his ears, as if to woo him back to the blest +enjoyments and amenities of life; but Nature's influence and man's +example were now silent alike to his lonely heart. Over its dreary +wastes still reigned the ruthless ambition which had exiled love from +his youth, and friendship from his manhood, and which was destined to +end its mission of destruction by banishing tranquility from his age. +Scowling fiercely at all around and above him, he sought the loneliest +and shadiest streets. Solitude had now become a necessity to his +heart. The 'great gulph' of his unshared aspirations had long since +socially separated him for ever from his fellow-men. He thought, +laboured, and suffered for himself alone. + +To describe the years of unrewarded labour and unalleviated hardship +endured by Ulpius in the place of his punishment; to dwell on the day +that brought with it--whatever the season in the world above--the same +unwearying inheritance of exertion and fatigue; to chronicle the +history of night after night of broken slumber one hour, of wearying +thought the next, would be to produce a picture from the mournful +monotony of which the attention of the reader would recoil with +disgust. It will be here sufficient to observe, that the influence of +the same infatuation which had nerved him to the defence of the +assaulted temple, and encouraged him to attempt his ill-planned +restoration of Paganism, had preserved him through sufferings under +which stronger and younger men would have sunk for ever; had prompted +his determination to escape from his slavery, and had now brought him +to Rome--old, forsaken, and feeble as he was--to risk new perils and +suffer new afflictions for the cause to which, body and soul, he had +ruthlessly devoted himself for ever. + + +Urged, therefore, by his miserable delusion, he had now entered a city +where even his name was unknown, faithful to his frantic project of +opposing himself, as a helpless, solitary man, against the people and +government of an Empire. During his term of slavery, regardless of his +advanced years, he had arranged a series of projects, the gradual +execution of which would have demanded the advantages of a long and +vigorous life. He no more desired, as in his former attempt at +Alexandria, to precipitate at all hazards the success of his designs. +He was now prepared to watch, wait, plot, and contrive for years on +years; he was resigned to be contented with the poorest and slowest +advancement--to be encouraged by the smallest prospect of ultimate +triumph. Acting under this determination, he started his project by +devoting all that remained of his enfeebled energies to cautiously +informing himself, by every means in his power, of the private, +political, and religious sentiments of all men of influence in Rome. +Wherever there was a popular assemblage, he attended it to gather the +scandalous gossip of the day; wherever there was a chance of +overhearing a private conversation, he contrived to listen to it +unobserved. About the doors of taverns and the haunts of discharged +servants he lurked noiseless as a shadow, attentive alike to the +careless revelations of intoxication or the scurrility of malignant +slaves. Day after day passed on, and still saw him devoted to his +occupation (which, servile as it was in itself, was to his eyes +ennobled by its lofty end), until at the expiration of some months he +found himself in possession of a vague and inaccurate fund of +information, which he stored up as a priceless treasure in his mind. +He next discovered the name and abode of every nobleman in Rome +suspected even of the most careless attachment to the ancient form of +worship. He attended Christian churches, mastered the intricacies of +different sects, and estimated the importance of contending schisms; +gaining this collection of heterogeneous facts under the combined +disadvantages of poverty, solitude, and age; dependent for support on +the poorest public charities, and for shelter on the meanest public +asylums. Every conclusion that he drew from all he learned partook of +the sanguine character of the fatal self-deception which had embittered +his whole life. He believed that the dissensions which he saw raging +in the Church would speedily effect the destruction of Christianity +itself; that, when such a period should arrive, the public mind would +require but the guidance of some superior intellect to return to its +old religious predilections; and that to lay the foundation for +effecting in such a manner the desired revolution, it was necessary for +him--impossible though it might seem in his present degraded +condition--to gain access to the disaffected nobles of Rome, and +discover the secret of acquiring such an influence over them as would +enable him to infect them with his enthusiasm, and fire them with his +determination. Greater difficulties even than these had been overcome +by other men. Solitary individuals had, ere this, originated +revolutions. The gods would favour him; his own cunning would protect +him. Yet a little more patience, a little more determination, and he +might still, after all his misfortunes, be assured of success. + +It was about this period that he first heard, while pursuing his +investigations, of an obscure man who had suddenly arisen to undertake +a reformation in the Christian Church, whose declared aim was to rescue +the new worship from that very degeneracy on the fatal progress of +which rested all his hopes of triumph. It was reported that this man +had been for some time devoted to his reforming labours, but that the +difficulties attendant on the task that he had appointed for himself +had hitherto prevented him from attaining all the notoriety essential +to the satisfactory prosecution of his plans. On hearing this rumour, +Ulpius immediately joined the few who attended the new orator's +discourses, and there heard enough to convince him that he listened to +the most determined zealot for Christianity in the city of Rome. To +gain this man's confidence, to frustrate every effort that he might +make in his new vocation, to ruin his credit with his hearers, and to +threaten his personal safety by betraying his inmost secrets to his +powerful enemies in the Church, were determinations instantly adopted +by the Pagan as duties demanded by the exigencies of his creed. From +that moment he seized every opportunity of favourably attracting the +new reformer's attention to himself, and, as the reader already knows, +he was at length rewarded for his cunning and perseverance by being +received into the household of the charitable and unsuspicious Numerian +as a pious convert to the Christianity of the early Church. + + +Once installed under Numerian's roof, the treacherous Pagan saw in the +Christian's daughter an instrument admirably adapted, in his +unscrupulous hands, for forwarding his wild project of obtaining the +ear of a Roman of power and station who was disaffected to the +established worship. Among the patricians of whose anti-Christian +predilections report had informed him, was Numerian's neighbour, +Vetranio the senator. To such a man, renowned for his life of luxury, a +girl so beautiful as Antonina would be a bribe rich enough to enable +him to extort any promise required as a reward for betraying her while +under the protection of her father's house. In addition to this +advantage to be drawn from her ruin, was the certainty that her loss +would so affect Numerian as to render him, for a time at least, +incapable of pursuing his labours in the cause of Christianity. Fixed +then in his detestable purpose, the ruthless priest patiently awaited +the opportunity of commencing his machinations. Nor did he watch in +vain. The victim innocently fell into the very trap that he had +prepared for her when she first listened to the music of Vetranio's +lute, and permitted her treacherous guardian to become the friend who +concealed her disobedience from her father's ear. After that first +fatal step every day brought the projects of Ulpius nearer to success. +The long-sought interview with the senator was at length obtained; the +engagement imperatively demanded on the one side was, as we have +already related, carelessly accepted on the other; the day that was to +bring success to the schemes of the betrayer, and degradation to the +honour of the betrayed, was appointed; and once more the cold heart of +the fanatic warmed to the touch of joy. No doubts upon the validity of +his engagement with Vetranio ever entered his mind. He never imagined +that powerful senator could with perfect impunity deny him the +impracticable assistance he had demanded as his reward, and thrust him +as an ignorant madman from his palace gates. Firmly and sincerely he +believed that Vetranio was so satisfied with his readiness in pandering +to his profligate designs, and so dazzled by the prospect of the glory +which would attend success in the great enterprise, that he would +gladly hold to the performance of his promise whenever it should be +required of him. In the meantime the work was begun. Numerian was +already, through his agency, watched by the spies of a jealous and +unscrupulous Church. Feuds, schisms, treacheries, and dissensions +marched bravely onward through the Christian ranks. All things +combined to make it certain that the time was near at hand when, +through his exertions and the friendly senator's help, the restoration +of Paganism might be assured. + +With the widest diversity of pursuit and difference of design, there +was still a strange and mysterious analogy between the temporary +positions of Ulpius and Numerian. One was prepared to be a martyr for +the temple; the other to be a martyr for the Church. Both were +enthusiasts in an unwelcome cause; both had suffered more than a life's +wonted share of affliction; and both were old, passing irretrievably +from their fading present on earth to the eternal future awaiting them +in the unknown spheres beyond. + +But here--with their position--the comparison between them ends. The +Christian's principle of action, drawn from the Divinity he served, was +love; the Pagan's, born of the superstition that was destroying him, +was hate. The one laboured for mankind; the other for himself. And +thus the aspirations of Numerian, founded on the general good, +nourished by offices of kindness, and nobly directed to a generous end, +might lead him into indiscretion, but could never degrade him into +crime--might trouble the serenity of his life, but could never deprive +him of the consolation of hope. While, on the contrary, the ambition +of Ulpius, originating in revenge and directed to destruction, exacted +cruelty from his heart and duplicity from his mind; and, as the reward +for his service, mocked him alternately throughout his whole life with +delusion and despair. + + + +CHAPTER 7. + +THE BED-CHAMBER. + +It is now time to resume our chronicle of the eventful night which +marked the destruction of Antonina's lute and the conspiracy against +Antonina's honour. + + +The gates of Vetranio's palace were closed, and the noises in it were +all hushed; the banquet was over, the triumph of the Nightingale Sauce +had been achieved, and the daybreak was already glimmering in the +eastern sky, when the senator's favoured servant, the freedman Carrio, +drew back the shutter of the porter's lodge, where he had been dozing +since the conclusion of the feast, and looked out lazily into the +street. The dull, faint light of dawn was now strengthening slowly +over the lonely roadway and on the walls of the lofty houses. Of the +groups of idlers of the lowest class who had assembled during the +evening in the street to snuff the fragrant odours which steamed afar +from Vetranio's kitchens, not one remained; men, women, and children +had long since departed to seek shelter wherever they could find it, +and to fatten their lean bodies on what had been charitable bestowed on +them of the coarser relics of the banquet. The mysterious solitude and +tranquility of daybreak in a great city prevailed over all things. +Nothing impressed, however, by the peculiar and solemn attraction of +the scene at this moment, the freedman apostrophised the fresh morning +air, as it blew over him, in strong terms of disgust, and even ventured +in lowered tones to rail against his master's uncomfortable fancy for +being awakened after a feast at the approach of dawn. Far too well +aware, nevertheless, of the necessity of yielding the most implicit +obedience to the commands he had received to resign himself any longer +to the pleasant temptations of repose, Carrio, after yawning, rubbing +his eyes, and indulging for a few moments more in the luxury of +complaint, set forth in earnest to follow the corridors leading to the +interior of the palace, and to awaken Vetranio without further delay. + +He had not advanced more than a few steps when a proclamation, written +in letters of gold on a blue-coloured board, and hung against the wall +at his side, attracted his attention. This public notice, which +delayed his progress at the very outset, and which was intended for the +special edification of all the inhabitants of Rome, was thus +expressed:-- + +'ON THIS DAY, AND FOR TEN DAYS FOLLOWING, THE AFFAIRS OF OUR PATRON +OBLIGE HIM TO BE ABSENT FROM ROME.' + +Here the proclamation ended, without descending to particulars. It had +been put forth, in accordance with the easy fashion of the age, to +answer at once all applications at Vetranio's palace during the +senator's absence. Although the colouring of the board, the writing of +the letters, and the composition of the sentence were the work of his +own ingenuity, the worthy Carrio could not prevail upon himself to pass +the proclamation without contemplating its magnificence anew. For some +time he stood regarding it with the same expression of lofty and +complacent approbation which we see in these modern days illuminating +the countenance of a connoisseur before one of his own old pictures +which he has bought as a great bargain, or dawning over the bland +features of a linen-draper as he surveys from the pavement his +morning's arrangement of the window of the shop. All things, however, +have their limits, even a man's approval of an effort of his own skill. +Accordingly, after a prolonged review of the proclamation, some faint +ideas of the necessity of immediately obeying his master's commands +revived in the mind of the judicious Carrio, and counselled him to turn +his steps at once in the direction of the palace sleeping apartments. + +Greatly wondering what new caprice had induced the senator to +contemplate leaving Rome at the dawn of day--for Vetranio had divulged +to no one the object of his departure--the freedman cautiously entered +his master's bed-chamber. He drew aside the ample silken curtains +suspended around and over the sleeping couch, from the hands of Graces +and Cupids sculptured in marble; but the statues surrounded an empty +bed. Vetranio was not there. Carrio next entered the bathroom; the +perfumed water was steaming in its long marble basin, and the soft +wrapping-cloths lay ready for use; the attendant slave, with his +instruments of ablution, waited, half asleep, in his accustomed place; +but here also no signs of the master's presence appeared. Somewhat +perplexed, the freedman examined several other apartments. He found +guests, dancing girls, parasites, poets, painters--a motley +crew--occupying every kind of dormitory, and all peacefully engaged in +sleeping off the effects of the wine they had drunk at the banquet; but +the great object of his search still eluded him as before. At last it +occurred to him that the senator, in an excess of convivial enthusiasm +and jovial hospitality, might yet be detaining some favoured guest at +the table of the feast. + +Pausing, therefore, at some carved doors which stood ajar at one +extremity of a spacious hall, he pushed them open, and hurriedly +entered the banqueting-room beyond. + + +A soft, dim, luxurious light reigned over this apartment, which now +presented, as far as the eye could discern, an aspect of confusion that +was at once graceful and picturesque. Of the various lamps, of every +variety of pattern, hanging from the ceiling, but few remained alight. +From those, however, which were still unextinguished there shone a mild +brightness, admirably adapted to display the objects immediately around +them. The golden garlands and the alabaster pots of sweet ointment +which had been suspended before the guests during the banquet, still +hung from the painted ceiling. On the massive table, composed partly +of ebony and partly of silver, yet lay, in the wildest confusion, +fragments of gastronomic delicacies, grotesque dinner services, vases +of flowers, musical instruments, and crystal dice; while towering over +all rose the glittering dish which had contained the nightingales +consumed by the feasters, with the four golden Cupids which had spouted +over them that illustrious invention--the Nightingale Sauce. Around +the couches, of violet and rose colour, ranged along the table, the +perfumed and gaily-tinted powders that had been strewn in patterns over +the marble floor were perceptible for a few yards; but beyond this +point nothing more was plainly distinguishable. The eye roved down the +sides of the glorious chamber, catching dim glimpses of gorgeous +draperies, crowded statues, and marble columns, but discerning nothing +accurately, until it reached the half-opened windows, and rested upon +the fresh dewy verdure now faintly visible in the shady gardens +without. There--waving in the morning breezes, charged on every leaf +with their burden of pure and welcome moisture--rose the lofty +pine-trees, basking in the recurrence of the new day's beautiful and +undying youth, and rising in reproving contrast before the exhausted +allurements of luxury and the perverted creations of art which burdened +the tables of the hall within. + +After a hasty survey of the apartment, the freedman appeared to be on +the point of quitting it in despair, when the noise of a falling dish, +followed by several partly suppressed and wholly confused exclamations +of affright, caught his ear. He once more approached the +banqueting-table, retrimmed a lamp that hung near him, and taking it in +his hand, passed to the side of the room whence the disturbance +proceeded. A hideous little negro, staring in ludicrous terror at a +silver oven, half filled with bread, which had just fallen beside him, +was the first object he discovered. A few paces beyond the negro +reposed a beautiful boy, crowned with vine leaves and ivy, still +sleeping by the side of his lyre; and farther yet, stretched in an +uneasy slumber on a silken couch, lay the identical object of the +freedman's search--the illustrious author of the Nightingale Sauce. + +Immediately above the sleeping senator hung his portrait, in which he +was modestly represented as rising by the assistance of Minerva to the +top of Parnassus, the nine Muses standing round him rejoicing. At his +feet reposed a magnificent white cat, whose head rested in all the +luxurious laziness of satiety on the edge of a golden saucer half +filled with dormice stewed in milk. The most indubitable evidences of +the night's debauch appeared in Vetranio's disordered dress and flushed +countenance as the freedman regarded him. For some minutes the worthy +Carrio stood uncertain whether to awaken his master or not, deciding +finally, however, on obeying the commands he had received, and +disturbing the slumbers of the wearied voluptuary before him. To effect +this purpose, it was necessary to call in the aid of the singing-boy; +for, by a refinement of luxury, Vetranio had forbidden his attendants +to awaken him by any other method than the agency of musical sounds. + +With some difficulty the boy was sufficiently aroused to comprehend the +service that was required of him. For a short time the notes of the +lyre sounded in vain. At last, when the melody took a louder and more +martial character, the sleeping patrician slowly opened his eyes and +stared vacantly around him. + +'My respected patron,' said the polite Carrio in apologetic tones, +'commanded that I should awaken him with the dawn; the daybreak has +already appeared.' + +When the freedman had ceased speaking, Vetranio sat up on the couch, +called for a basin of water, dipped his fingers in the refreshing +liquid, dried them abstractedly on the long silky curls of the +singing-boy who stood beside him, gazed about him once more, repeated +interrogatively the word 'daybreak', and sunk gently back upon his +couch. We are grieved to confess it--but the author of the Nightingale +Sauce was moderately inebriated. + + +A short pause followed, during which the freedman and the singing-boy +stared upon each other in mutual perplexity. At length the one resumed +his address of apology, and the other resumed his efforts on the lyre. +Once more, after an interval, the eyes of Vetranio lazily unclosed, and +this time he began to speak; but his thoughts--if thoughts they could +be called--were as yet wholly occupied by the 'table-talk' at the past +night's banquet. + +'The ancient Egyptians--oh, sprightly and enchanting Camilla--were a +wise nation!' murmured the senator drowsily. 'I am myself descended +from the ancient Egyptians; and, therefore, I hold in high veneration +that cat in your lap, and all cats besides. Herodotus--an historian +whose works I feel a certain gratification in publicly mentioning as +good--informs us, that when a cat died in the dwelling of an ancient +Egyptian, the owner shaved his eyebrows as a mark of grief, embalmed +the defunct animal in a consecrated house, and carried it to be +interred in a considerable city of Lower Egypt, called 'Bubastis'--an +Egyptian word which I have discovered to mean The Sepulchre of all the +Cats; whence it is scarcely erroneous to infer--' + +At this point the speaker's power of recollection and articulation +suddenly failed him, and Carrio--who had listened with perfect gravity +to his master's oration upon cats--took immediate advantage of the +opportunity now afforded him to speak again. + +'The equipage which my patron was pleased to command to carry him to +Aricia,' said he, with a strong emphasis on the last word, 'now stands +in readiness at the private gate of the palace gardens.' + +As he heard the word 'Aricia', the senator's powers of recollection and +perception seemed suddenly to return to him. Among that high order of +drinkers who can imbibe to the point of perfect enjoyment, and stop +short scientifically before the point of perfect oblivion, Vetranio +occupied an exalted rank. The wine he had swallowed during the night +had disordered his memory and slightly troubled his self-possession, +but had not deprived him of his understanding. There was nothing +plebeian even in his debauchery; there was an art and a refinement in +his very excesses. + +'Aricia--Aricia!' he repeated to himself, 'ah! the villa that Julia +lent to me at Ravenna! The pleasures of the table must have obscured +for a moment the image of my beautiful pupil of other days, which now +revives before me again as Love resumes the dominion that Bacchus +usurped! My excellent Carrio,' he continued, speaking to the freedman, +'you have done perfectly right in awakening me; delay not a moment more +in ordering my bath to be prepared, or my man-monster Ulpius, the king +of conspirators and high priest of all that is mysterious, will wait +for me in vain! And you, Glyco,' he pursued, when Carrio had departed, +addressing the singing-boy, 'array yourself for a journey, and wait +with my equipage at the garden-gate. I shall require you to accompany +me in my expedition to Aricia. But first, oh! gifted and valued +songster, let me reward you for the harmonious symphony that has just +awakened me. Of what rank of my musicians are you at present, Glyco?' + +'Of the fifth,' replied the boy. + +'Were you bought, or born in my house?' asked Vetranio. + +'Neither; but bequeathed to you by Geta's testament,' rejoined the +gratified Glyco. + +'I advance you,' continued Vetranio, 'to the privileges and the pay of +the first rank of my musicians; and I give you, as a proof of my +continued favour, this ring. In return for these obligations, I desire +to keep secret whatever concerns my approaching expedition; to employ +your softest music in soothing the ear of a young girl who will +accompany us--in calming her terrors if she is afraid, in drying her +tears if she weeps; and finally, to exercise your voice and your lute +incessantly in uniting the name 'Antonina' to the sweetest harmonies of +sound that your imagination can suggest.' + +Pronouncing these words with an easy and benevolent smile, and looking +round complacently on the display of luxurious confusion about him, +Vetranio retired to the bath that was to prepare him for his +approaching triumph. + + +Meanwhile a scene of a very different nature was proceeding without, at +Numerian's garden-gate. Here were no singing-boys, no freedmen, no +profusion of rich treasures--here appeared only the solitary and +deformed figure of Ulpius, half hidden among surrounding trees, while +he waited at his appointed post. As time wore on, and still Vetranio +did not appear, the Pagan's self-possession began to desert him. He +moved restlessly backwards and forwards over the soft dewy grass, +sometimes in low tones calling upon his gods to hasten the tardy +footsteps of the libertine patrician, who was to be made the instrument +of restoring to the temples the worship of other days--sometimes +cursing the reckless delay of the senator, or exulting in the treachery +by which he madly believed his ambition was at last to be fulfilled; +but still, whatever his words or thoughts, wrought up to the same pitch +of fierce, fanatic enthusiasm which had strengthened him for the +defence of his idols at Alexandria, and had nerved him against the +torment and misery of years in his slavery in the copper mines of Spain. + +The precious moments were speeding irrevocably onwards. His impatience +was rapidly changing to rage and despair as he strained his eyes for +the last time in the direction of the palace gardens, and now at length +discerned a white robe among the distant trees. Vetranio was rapidly +approaching him. + +Restored by his bath, no effect of the night's festivity but its +exhilaration remained in the senator's brain. But for a slight +uncertainty in his gait, and an unusual vacancy in his smile, the +elegant gastronome might now have appeared to the closest observer +guiltless of the influence of intoxicating drinks. He advanced, +radiant with exultation, prepared for conquest, to the place where +Ulpius awaited him, and was about to address the Pagan with that +satirical familiarity so fashionable among the nobles of Rome in their +communications with the people, when the object of his intended +pleasantries sternly interrupted him, saying, in tones more of command +than of advice, 'Be silent! If you would succeed in your purpose, +follow me without uttering a word!' + +There was something so fierce and determined in the tones of the old +man's voice--low, tremulous, and husky though they were--as he uttered +those words, that the bold, confident senator instinctively held his +peace as he followed his stern guide into Numerian's house. Avoiding +the regular entrance, which at that early hour of the morning was +necessarily closed, Ulpius conducted the patrician through a small +wicket into the subterranean apartment, or rather outhouse, which was +his customary, though comfortless, retreat in his leisure hours, and +which was hardly ever entered by the other members of the Christian's +household. + +From the low, arched brick ceiling of this place hung an earthenware +lamp, whose light, small and tremulous, left all the corners of the +apartment in perfect obscurity. The thick buttresses that projected +inwards from the walls, made visible by their prominence, displayed on +their surfaces rude representations of idols and temples drawn in +chalk, and covered with strange, mysterious hieroglyphics. On a block +of stone which served as a table lay some fragments of small statues, +which Vetranio recognised as having belonged to the old, accredited +representations of Pagan idols. Over the sides of the table itself +were scrawled in Latin characters these two words, 'Serapis', +'Macrinus'; and about its base lay some pieces of torn, soiled linen, +which still retained enough of their former character, both in shape, +size, and colour, to convince Vetranio that they had once served as the +vestments of a Pagan priest. Further than this the senator's +observation did not carry him, for the close, almost mephitic +atmosphere of the place already began to affect him unfavourably. He +felt a suffocating sensation in his throat and a dizziness in his head. +The restorative influence of his recent bath declined rapidly. The +fumes of the wine he had drunk in the night, far from having been, as +he imagined, permanently dispersed, again mounted to his head. He was +obliged to lean against the stone table to preserved his equilibrium as +he faintly desired the Pagan to shorten their sojourn in his miserable +retreat. + + +Without even noticing the request, Ulpius hurriedly proceeded to erase +the drawings on the buttresses and the inscriptions on the table. Then +collecting the fragments of statues and the pieces of linen, he +deposited them in a hiding-place in the corner of the apartment. This +done, he returned to the stone against which Vetranio supported +himself, and for a few minutes silently regarded the senator with a +firm, earnest, and penetrating gaze. + +A dark suspicion that he had betrayed himself into the hands of a +villain, who was then plotting some atrocious project connected with +his safety or honour, began to rise on the senator's bewildered brain +as he unwillingly submitted to the penetrating examination of the +Pagan's glance. At that moment, however, the withered lips of the old +man slowly parted, and he began to speak. Whether as he looked on +Vetranio's disturbed countenance, and marked his unsteady gait, the +heart of Ulpius, for the first time since his introduction to the +senator, misgave him when he thought of their monstrous engagement; or +whether the near approach of the moment that was henceforth, as he +wildly imagined, to fix Vetranio as his assistant and ally, so +powerfully affected his mind that it instinctively sought to vent its +agitation through the natural medium of words, it is useless to +inquire. Whatever his motives for speech, the impressive earnestness +of his manner gave evidence of the depth and intensity of his emotions +as he addressed the senator thus:-- + +'I have submitted to servitude in a Christian's house, I have suffered +the contamination of a Christian's prayers, to gain the use of your +power and station when the time to employ them should arrive. The hour +has now come when my part of the conditions of our engagement is to be +performed; the hour will yet come when your part shall be exacted from +you in turn! Do you wonder at what I have done and what I will do? Do +you marvel that a household drudge should speak thus to a nobleman of +Rome? Are you astonished that I risk so much as to venture on +enlisting you--by the sacrifice of the girl who now slumbers above--in +the cause whose end is the restoration of our fathers' gods, and in +whose service I have suffered and grown old? Listen, and you shall +hear from what I have fallen--you shall know what I once was!' + +'I adjure you by all the gods and goddesses of our ancient worship, let +me hear you where I can breathe--in the garden, on the housetop, +anywhere but in this dungeon!' murmured the senator in entreating +accents. + +'My birth, my parents, my education, my ancient abode--these I will not +disclose,' interrupted the Pagan, raising one arm authoritatively, as +if to obstruct Vetranio from approaching the door. 'I have sworn by my +gods, that until the day of restitution these secrets of my past life +shall remain unrevealed to strangers' ears. Unknown I entered Rome, +and unknown I will labour in Rome until the projects I have lived for +are crowned with success! It is enough that I confess to you that with +those sacred images whose fragments you have just beheld, I was once +lodged; that those sacred vestments whose remains you discerned at your +feet, I once wore. To attain the glories of the priesthood there was +nothing that I did not resign, to preserve them there was nothing I did +not perform, to recover them there is nothing that I will not attempt! +I was once illustrious, prosperous, beloved; of my glory, my happiness, +my popularity, the Christians have robbed me, and I will yet live to +requite it heavily at their hands! I had a guardian who loved me in my +youth; the Christians murdered him! A temple was under the rule of my +manhood; the Christians destroyed it! The people of a whole nation +once listened to my voice; the Christians have dispersed them! The +wise, the great, the beautiful, the good, were once devoted to me; the +Christians have made me a stranger at their doors, and outcast of their +affections and thoughts! For all this shall I take no vengeance? Shall +I not plot to rebuild my ruined temple, and win back, in my age, the +honours that adorned me in my youth?' + +'Assuredly!--at once--without delay!' stammered Vetranio, returning the +stern and inquiring gaze of the Pagan with a bewildered, uneasy stare. + + +'To mount over the bodies of the Christian slain,' continued the old +man, his sinister eyes dilating in anticipated triumph as he whispered +close at the senator's ear, 'to rebuild the altars that the Christians +have overthrown, is the ambition that has made light to me the +sufferings of my whole life. I have battled, and it has sustained me +in the midst of carnage; I have wandered, and it has been my home in +the desert; I have failed, and it has supported me; I have been +threatened with death, and it has preserved me from fear; I have been +cast into slavery, and it has made my fetters light. You see me now, +old, degraded, lonely--believe that I long neither for wife, children, +tranquility, nor possessions; that I desire no companion but my +cherished and exalted purpose! Remember, then, in the hour of +performance the promise you have now made to aid me in the achievement +of that purpose! Remember that you are a Pagan yourself! Feast, +laugh, carouse with your compeers; be still the airy jester, the gay +companion; but never forget the end to which you are vowed--the destiny +of glory that the restoration of our deities has in store for us both!' + +He ceased. Though his voice, while he spoke, never rose beyond a +hoarse, monotonous, half-whispering tone, all the ferocity of his +abused and degraded nature was for the instant thoroughly aroused by +his recapitulation of his wrongs. Had Vetranio at this moment shown +any symptoms of indecision, or spoken any words of discouragement, he +would have murdered him on the spot where they stood. Every feature in +the Pagan's seared and livid countenance expressed the stormy emotions +that were rushing over his heart as he now confronted his bewildered +yet attentive listener. His firm, menacing position; his poor and +scanty garments; his wild, shaggy hair; his crooked, distorted form; +his stern, solemn, unwavering gaze--opposed as they were (under the +fitful illumination of the expiring lamp and the advancing daylight) to +the unsteady gait, the vacant countenance, the rich robes, the youthful +grace of form and delicacy of feature of the object of his steady +contemplation, made so wild and strange a contrast between his +patrician ally and himself that they scarcely looked like beings of the +same race. Nothing could be more immense than the difference, more wild +than the incongruity between them. It was sickness hand-in-hand with +health; pain marshalled face to face with enjoyment; darkness ranged in +monstrous discordance by the very side of light. + +The next instant--just as the astonished senator was endeavouring to +frame a suitable answer to the solemn adjuration that had been +addressed to him--Ulpius seized his arm, and opening a door at the +inner extremity of the apartment, led him up some stairs that conducted +to the interior of the house. + +They passed the hall, on the floor of which still lay the fragments of +the broken lute, dimly distinguishable in the soft light of daybreak; +and ascending another staircase, paused at a little door at the top, +which Ulpius cautiously opened, and in a moment afterwards Vetranio was +admitted into Antonina's bed-chamber. + + +The room was of no great extent; its scanty furniture was of the most +ordinary description; no ornaments glittered on its walls; no frescoes +adorned its ceiling; and yet there was a simple elegance in its +appearance, an unobtrusive propriety in its minutest details, which +made it at once interesting and attractive to the eye. From the white +curtains at the window to the vase of flowers standing by the bedside, +the same natural refinement of taste appeared in the arrangement of all +that the apartment contained. No sound broke the deep silence of the +place, save the low, soft breathing, occasionally interrupted by a +long, trembling sigh, of its sleeping occupant. The sole light in the +room consisted of a little lamp, so placed in the middle of the flowers +round the sides of the vase that no extended or steady illumination was +cast upon any object. There was something in the decent propriety of +all that was visible in the bed-chamber; in the soft obscurity of its +atmosphere; in the gentle and musical sound that alone interrupted its +magical stillness, impressive enough, it might have been imagined, to +have awakened some hesitation in the bosom of the boldest libertine ere +he deliberately proceeded to intrude on the unprotected slumbers of its +occupant. No such feeling of indecision, however, troubled the +thoughts of Vetranio as he cast a rapid glance round the apartment +which he had ventured so treacherously to invade. The fumes of the +wine he had imbibed at the banquet had been so thoroughly resuscitated +by the oppressive atmosphere of the subterranean retreat he had just +quitted, as to have left him nothing of his more refined nature. All +that was honourable or intellectual in his character had now completely +ceded to all that was base and animal. He looked round, and perceiving +that Ulpius had silently quitted him, softly closed the door. Then +advancing to the bedside with the utmost caution compatible with the +involuntary unsteadiness of an intoxicated man, he took the lamp from +the vase in which it was half concealed, and earnestly surveyed by its +light the figure of the sleeping girl. + +The head of Antonina was thrown back and rested rather over than on her +pillow. Her light linen dress had become so disordered during the +night that it displayed her throat and part of her bosom, in all the +dawning beauties of their youthful formation, to the gaze of the +licentious Roman. One hand half supported her head, and was almost +entirely hidden in the locks of her long black hair, which had escaped +from the white cincture intended to confine it, and now streamed over +the pillow in dazzling contrast to the light bed-furniture around it. +The other hand held tightly clasped to her bosom the precious fragment +of her broken lute. The deep repose expressed in her position had not +thoroughly communicated itself to her face. Now and then her slightly +parted lips moved and trembled, and ever and anon a change, so faint +and fugitive that it was hardly perceptible, appeared in her +complexion, breathing on the soft olive that was its natural hue, the +light rosy flush which the emotions of the past night had impressed on +it ere she slept. Her position, in its voluptuous negligence, seemed +the very type of Oriental loveliness; while her face, calm and +sorrowful in its expression, displayed the more refined and sober +graces of the European model. And thus these two characteristics of +two different orders of beauty, appearing conjointly under one form, +produced a whole so various and yet so harmonious, so impressive and +yet so attractive, that the senator, as he bent over the couch, though +the warm, soft breath of the young girl played on his cheeks and waved +the tips of his perfumed locks, could hardly imagine that the scene +before him was more than a bright, delusive dream. + +While Vetranio was yet absorbed in admiration of her charms, Antonina's +form slightly moved, as if agitated by the influence of a passing +dream. The change thus accomplished in her position broke the spell +that its former stillness and beauty had unconsciously wrought to +restrain the unhallowed ardour of the profligate Roman. He now passed +his arm round her warm, slender figure, and gently raising her till her +head rested on his shoulder as he sat by the bed, imprinted kiss after +kiss on the pure lips that sleep had innocently abandoned to him. + +As he had foreseen, Antonina instantly awoke, but, to his unmeasured +astonishment, neither started nor shrieked. The moment she had opened +her eyes she had recognised the person of Vetranio; and that +overwhelming terror which suspends in its victims the use of every +faculty, whether of the body or the mind, had immediately possessed +itself of her heart. Too innocent to imagine the real motive that +prompted the senator's intrusion on her slumbers, where others of her +sex would have foreboded dishonour, she feared death. All her father's +vague denunciations against the enormities of the nobles of Rome rushed +in an instant over her mind, and her childish imagination pictured +Vetranio as armed with some terrible and mysterious vengeance to be +wreaked on her for having avoided all communication with him as soon as +she had gained possession of her lute. Prostrate beneath the +petrifying influence of her fears, motionless and powerless before him +as its prey before the serpent, she made no effort to move or speak; +but looked up steadfastly into the senator's face, her large eyes fixed +and dilated in a gaze of overpowering terror. + +Intoxicated though he was, the affrighted expression of the poor girl's +pale, rigid countenance did not escape Vetranio's notice; and he taxed +his bewildered brain for such soothing and reassuring expressions as +would enable him to introduce his profligate proposals with some chance +that they would be listened to and understood. + + +'Dearest pupil! Most beautiful of Roman maidens,' he began in the +husky, monotonous tones of inebriety, 'abandon your fears! I come +hither, wafted by the breath of love, to restore the worship of the--I +would say to bear you on my bosom to a villa--the name of which has for +the moment escaped my remembrance. You cannot have forgotten that it +was I who taught you to compose the Nightingale Sauce--or, no--let me +rather say to play upon the lute. Love, music, pleasure, all await you +in the arms of your attached Vetranio. Your eloquent silence speaks +encouragement to my heart. Beloved Anto--' + +Here the senator suddenly paused; for the eyes of the girl, which had +hitherto been fixed on him with the same expression of blank dismay +that had characterised them from the first, slowly moved in the +direction of the door. The instant afterwards a slight noise caught +Vetranio's ear, and Antonina shuddered so violently as he pressed her +to his side that he felt it through his whole frame. Slowly and +unwillingly he withdrew his gaze from the pale yet lovely countenance +on which it had been fixed, and looked up. + +At the open door, pale, silent, motionless, stood the master of the +house. + +Incapable, from the confusion of his ideas, of any other feeling than +the animal instinct of self-defence, Vetranio no sooner beheld +Numerian's figure than he rose, and drawing a small dagger from his +bosom, attempted to advance on the intruder. He found himself, +however, restrained by Antonina, who had fallen on her knees before +him, and grasped his robe with a strength which seemed utterly +incompatible with the slenderness of her form and the feebleness of her +sex and age. + +The first voice that broke the silence which ensued was Numerian's. He +advanced, his face ghastly with anguish, his lip quivering with +suppressed emotions, to the senator's side, and addressed him thus:-- + +'Put up your weapon; I come but to ask a favour at your hands.' + +Vetranio mechanically obeyed him. There was something in the stern +calmness, frightful at such a moment, of the Christian's manner that +awed him in spite of himself. + +'The favour I would petition for,' continued Numerian, in low, steady, +bitter tones, 'is that you would remove your harlot there, to your own +abode. Here are no singing-boys, no banqueting-halls, no perfumed +couches. The retreat of a solitary old man is no place for such an one +as she. I beseech you, remove her to a more congenial home. She is +well fitted for her trade; her mother was a harlot before her!' + +He laughed scornfully, and pointed, as he spoke, to the figure of the +unhappy girl kneeling with outstretched arms at his feet. + +'Father, father!' she cried, in accents bereft of their native softness +and melody, 'have you forgotten me?' + +'I know you not!' he replied, thrusting her from him. 'Return to his +bosom; you shall never more be pressed to mine. Go to his palace; my +house is yours no longer! You are his harlot, not my daughter! I +command you--go!' + +As he advanced towards her with fierce glance and threatening +demeanour, she suddenly rose up. Her reason seemed crushed within her +as she looked with frantic earnestness from Vetranio to her father, and +then back again from her father to Vetranio. On one side she saw an +enemy who had ruined her she knew not how, and who threatened her with +she knew not what; on the other, a parent who had cast her off. For +one instant she directed a final look on the room, that, sad and lonely +though it was, had still been a home to her; and then, without a word +or a sigh, she turned, and crouching like a beaten dog, fled from the +house. + + +During the whole of the scene Vetranio had stood so fixed in the +helpless astonishment of intoxication as to be incapable of moving or +uttering a word. All that took place during the short and terrible +interview between father and child utterly perplexed him. He heard no +loud, violent anger on one side, no clamorous petitioning for +forgiveness on the other. The stern old man whom Antonina had called +father, and who had been pointed out to him as the most austere +Christian in Rome, far from avenging his intrusion on Antonina's +slumber, had voluntarily abandoned his daughter to his licentious will. +That the anger or irony of so severe a man should inspire such an +action as this, or that Numerian, like his servant, was plotting to +obtain some strange mysterious favour from him by using Antonina as a +bribe, seemed perfectly impossible. All that passed before the senator +was, to his bewildered imagination, thoroughly incomprehensible. +Frivolous, thoughtless, profligate as he might be, his nature was not +radically base, and when the scene of which he had been the astounded +witness was abruptly terminated by the flight of Antonina, the look of +frantic misery fixed on him by the unfortunate girl at the moment of +her departure, almost sobered him for the instant, as he stood before +the now solitary father gazing vacantly around him with emotions of +uncontrollable confusion and dismay. + +Meanwhile a third person was now approaching to join the two occupants +of the bedchamber abandoned by its ill-fated mistress. Although in the +subterranean retreat to which he had retired on leaving Vetranio, +Ulpius had not noticed the silent entrance of the master of the house, +he had heard through the open doors the sound, low though it was, of +the Christian's voice. As he rose, suspecting all things and prepared +for every emergency, to ascend to the bedchamber, he saw, while he +mounted the lowest range of stairs, a figure in white pass rapidly +through the hall and disappear by the principal entrance of the house. +He hesitated for an instant and looked after it, but the fugitive +figure had passed so swiftly in the uncertain light of early morning +that he was unable to identify it, and he determined to ascertain the +progress of events, now that Numerian must have discovered a portion at +least of the plot against his daughter and himself, by ascending +immediately to Antonina's apartment, whatever might be the consequences +of his intrusion at such an hour on her father's wrath. + +As soon as the Pagan appeared before him, a sensible change took place +in Vetranio. The presence of Ulpius in the chamber was a positive +relief to the senator's perturbed faculties, after the mysterious, +overpowering influence that the moral command expressed in the mere +presence of the father and the master of the house, at such an hour, +had exercised over them. Over Ulpius he had an absolute right, Ulpius +was his dependant; and he determined, therefore, to extort from the +servant whom he despised an explanation of the mysteries in the conduct +of the master whom he feared, and the daughter whom he began to doubt. + +'Where is Antonina?' he cried, starting as if from a trance, and +advancing fiercely towards the treacherous Pagan. 'She has left the +room--she must have taken refuge with you.' + +With a slow and penetrating gaze Ulpius looked round the apartment. A +faint agitation was perceptible in his livid countenance, but he +uttered not a word. + +The senator's face became pale and red with alternate emotions of +apprehension and rage. He seized the Pagan by the throat, his eyes +sparkled, his blood boiled, he began to suspect even then that Antonina +was lost to him for ever. + +'I ask you again where is she?' he shouted in a voice of fury. 'If +through this night's work she is lost or harmed, I will revenge it on +you. Is this the performance of your promise? Do you think that I +will direct your desired restoration of the gods of old for this? If +evil comes to Antonina through your treachery, sooner than assist in +your secret projects, I would see you and your accursed deities all +burning together in the Christians' hell! Where is the girl, you +slave? Villain, where was your vigilance, when you let that man +surprise us at our first interview?' + +He turned towards Numerian as he spoke. Trouble and emergency gift the +faculties with a more than mortal penetration. Every word that he had +uttered had eaten its burning way into the father's heart. Hours of +narrative could not have convinced him how fatally he had been +deceived, more thoroughly than the few hasty expressions he had just +heard. No word passed his lips--no action betrayed his misery. He +stood before the spoilers of his home, changed in an instant from the +courageous enthusiast to the feeble, helpless, heart-broken man. + +Though all the ferocity of his old Roman blood had been roused in +Vetranio, as he threatened Ulpius, the father's look of cold, silent, +frightful despair froze it in his young veins in an instant. His heart +was still the impressible heart of youth; and, struck for the first +time in his life with emotions of horror and remorse, he advanced a +step to offer such explanation and atonement as he best might, when the +voice of Ulpius suspended his intentions, and made him pause to listen. + +'She passed me in the hall,' muttered the Pagan, doggedly. 'I did my +part in betraying her into your power--it was for you to hinder her in +her flight. Why did you not strike him to the earth,' he continued, +pointing with a mocking smile to Numerian, 'when he surprised you? You +are wealthy and a noble of Rome; murder would have been no crime in +you!' + +'Stand back!' cried the senator, thrusting him from the position he had +hitherto occupied in the door-way. 'She may be recovered even yet! +All Rome shall be searched for her!' + +The next instant he disappeared from the room, and the master and +servant were left together alone. + +The silence that now reigned in the apartment was broken by distant +sounds of uproar and confusion in the streets of the city beneath. +These ominous noises had arisen with the dawn of day, but the different +emotions of the occupants of Numerian's abode had so engrossed them, +that the turmoil in the outer world had passed unheeded by all. No +sooner, however, had Vetranio departed than it caught the attention of +Ulpius, and he advanced to the window. What he there saw and heard was +of no ordinary importance, for it at once fixed him to the spot where +he stood in mute and ungovernable surprise. + +While Ulpius was occupied at the window, Numerian had staggered to the +side of the bed which his ill-timed severity had made vacant, perhaps +for ever. The power of action, the capacity to go forth and seek his +child himself, was entirely suspended in the agony of her loss, as the +miserable man fell on his knees, and in the anguish of his heart +endeavoured to find solace in prayer. In the positions they severally +occupied the servant and the master long remained--the betrayer +watching at the window, the betrayed mourning at his lost daughter's +bed--both alike silent, both alike unconscious of the lapse of time. + +At length, apparently unaware at first that he was not alone in the +room, Numerian spoke. In his low, broken, tremulous accents, none of +his adherents would have recognised the voice of the eloquent +preacher--the bold chastiser of the vices of the Church. The whole +nature of the man--moral, intellectual, physical--seemed fatally and +completely changed. + +'She was innocent, she was innocent!' he whispered to himself. 'And +even had she been guilty, was it for me to drive her from my doors! My +part, like my Redeemer's, was to teach repentance, and to show mercy! +Accursed be the pride and anger that drove justice and patience from my +heart, when I beheld her, as I thought, submitting herself without a +struggle or a cry, to my dishonour, and hers! Could I not have +imagined her terror, could I not have remembered her purity? Alas, my +beloved, if I myself have been the dupe of the wicked, what marvel is +it that you should have been betrayed as well! And I have driven you +from me, you, from whose mouth no word of anger ever dropped! I have +thrust you from my bosom, you, who were the adornment of my age! My +death approaches, and you will not be by to pardon my heavy offence, to +close my weary eyes, to mourn by my solitary tomb! God--oh God! If I +am left thus lonely on the earth, thou hast punished me beyond what I +can bear!' + +He paused--his emotions for the instant bereft him of speech. After an +interval, he muttered to himself in a low, moaning voice--'I called her +harlot! My pure, innocent child! I called her harlot--I called her +harlot!' + + +In a paroxysm of despair, he started up and looked distractedly around +him. Ulpius still stood motionless at the window. At the sight of the +ruthless Pagan he trembled in every limb. All those infirmities of age +that had been hitherto spared him, seemed to overwhelm him in an +instant. He feebly advanced to his betrayer's side, and addressed him +thus:-- + +'I have lodged you, taught you, cared for you; I have never intruded on +your secrets, never doubted your word, and for all this, you have +repaid me by plotting against my daughter and deceiving me! If your +end was to harm me by assailing my child's happiness and honour you +have succeeded! If you would banish me from Rome, if you would plunge +me into obscurity, to serve some mysterious ambition of your own, you +may dispose of me as you will! I bow before the terrible power of your +treachery! I will renounce whatever you command, if you will restore +me to my child! I am helpless and miserable; I have neither heart nor +strength to seek her myself! You, who know all things and can dare all +dangers, may restore her to pardon and bless me, if you will! +Remember, whoever you really are, that you were once helpless and +alone, and that you are still old, like me! Remember that I have +promised to abandon to you whatever you desire! Remember that no +woman's voice can cheer me, no woman's heart feel for me, now that I am +old and lonely, but my daughter's! I have guessed from the words of +the nobleman whom you serve, what are the designs you cherish and the +faith you profess; I will neither betray the one nor assault the other! +I thought that my labours for the Church were more to me than anything +on earth, but now, that through my fault, my daughter is driven from +her father's roof, I know that she is dearer to me than the greatest of +my designs; I must gain her pardon; I must win back her affection +before I die! You are powerful and can recover her! Ulpius! Ulpius!' + +As he spoke, the Christian knelt at the Pagan's feet. It was terrible +to see the man of affection and integrity thus humbled before the man +of heartlessness and crime. + +Ulpius turned to behold him, then without a word he raised him from the +ground, and thrusting him to the window, pointed with flashing eyes to +the wide view without. + +The sun had arisen high in the heaven and beamed in dazzling brilliancy +over Rome and the suburbs. A vague, fearful, mysterious desolation +seemed to have suddenly overwhelmed the whole range of dwellings beyond +the walls. No sounds rose from the gardens, no population idled in the +streets. The ramparts on the other hand were crowded at every visible +point with people of all ranks, and the distant squares and +amphitheatres of the city itself, swarmed like ant-hills to the eye +with the crowds that struggled within them. Confused cries and strange +wild noises rose at all points from these masses of human beings. The +whole of Rome seemed the prey of a vast and universal revolt. + +Extraordinary and affrighting as was the scene at the moment when he +beheld it, it passed unheeded before the eyes of the scarce conscious +father. He was blind to all sights but his daughter's form, deaf to +all sounds but her voice; and he murmured as he looked vacantly forth +upon the wild view before him, 'Where is my child!--where is my child!' + +'What is your child to me? What are the fortunes of affections of man +or woman, at such an hour as this?' cried the Pagan, as he stood by +Numerian, with features horribly animated by the emotions of fierce +delight and triumph that were raging within him at the prospect he +beheld. 'Dotard, look from this window! Listen to those voices! The +gods whom I serve, the god whom you and your worship would fain have +destroyed, have risen to avenge themselves at last! Behold those +suburbs, they are left desolate! Hear those cries--they are from Roman +lips! While your household's puny troubles have run their course, this +city of apostates has been doomed! In the world's annals this morning +will never be forgotten! THE GOTHS ARE AT THE GATES OF ROME!' + + + +CHAPTER 8. + +THE GOTHS. + +It was no false rumour that had driven the populace of the suburbs to +fly to the security of the city walls. It was no ill-founded cry of +terror that struck the ear of Ulpius, as he stood at Numerian's window. +The name of Rome had really lost its pristine terrors; the walls of +Rome, those walls which had morally guarded the Empire by their renown, +as they had actually guarded its capital by their strength, were +deprived at length of their ancient inviolability. An army of +barbarians had indeed penetrated for conquest and for vengeance to the +City of the World! The achievement which the invasions of six hundred +years had hitherto attempted in vain, was now accomplished, and +accomplished by the men whose forefathers had once fled like hunted +beasts to their native fastnesses, before the legions of the +Caesars--'The Goths were at the gates of Rome!' + +And now, as his warriors encamped around him, as he saw the arrayed +hosts whom his summons had gathered together, and his energy led on, +threatening at their doors the corrupt senate who had deceived, and the +boastful populace who had despised him, what emotions stirred within +the heart of Alaric! As the words of martial command fell from his +lips, and his eyes watched the movements of the multitudes around him, +what exalted aspirations, what daring resolves, grew and strengthened +in the mind of the man who was the pioneer of that mighty revolution, +which swept from one quarter of the world the sway, the civilisation, +the very life and spirit of centuries of ancient rule! High thoughts +gathered fast in his mind; a daring ambition expanded within him--the +ambition, not of the barbarian plunderer, but of the avenger who had +come to punish; not of the warrior who combated for combat's sake, but +of the hero who was vowed to conquer and to sway. From the far-distant +days when Odin was driven from his territories by the romans, to the +night polluted by the massacre of the hostages in Aquileia, the hour of +just and terrible retribution for Gothic wrongs had been delayed +through the weary lapse of years, and the warning convulsion of bitter +strifes, to approach at last under him. He looked on the towering +walls before him, the only invader since Hannibal by whom they had been +beheld; and he felt as he looked, that his new aspirations did not +deceive him, that his dreams of dominion were brightening into proud +reality, that his destiny was gloriously linked with the overthrow of +Imperial Rome! + +But even in the moment of approaching triumph, the leader of the Goths +was still wily in purpose and moderate in action. His impatient +warriors waited but the word to commence the assault, to pillage the +city, and to slaughter the inhabitants; but he withheld it. Scarcely +had the army halted before the gates of Rome, when the news was +promulgated among their ranks, that Alaric, for purposes of his own, +had determined to reduce the city by a blockade. + +The numbers of his forces, increased during his march by the accession +of thirty thousand auxiliaries, were now divided into battalions, +varying in strength according to the service that was required of them. +These divisions stretched round the city walls, and though occupying +separate posts, and devoted to separate duties, were so arranged as to +be capable of uniting at a signal in any numbers, on any given point. +Each body of men was commanded by a tried and veteran warrior, in whose +fidelity Alaric could place the most implicit trust, and to whom he +committed the duty of enforcing the strictest military discipline that +had ever prevailed among the Gothic ranks. Before each of the twelve +principal gates a separate encampment was raised. Multitudes watched +the navigation of the Tiber in every possible direction, with untiring +vigilance; and not one of the ordinary inlets to Rome, however +apparently unimportant, was overlooked. By these means, every mode of +communication between the beleaguered city and the wide and fertile +tracts of land around it, was effectually prevented. When it is +remembered that this elaborate plan of blockade was enforced against a +place containing, at the lowest possible computation, twelve hundred +thousand inhabitants, destitute of magazines for food within its walls, +dependent for supplies on its regular contributions from the country +without, governed by an irresolute senate, and defended by an enervated +army, the horrors that now impended over the besieged Romans are as +easily imagined as described. + + +Among the ranks of the army that now surrounded the doomed city, the +division appointed to guard the Pincian Gate will be found, at this +juncture, most worthy of the reader's attention: for one of the +warriors appointed to its subordinate command was the young chieftain +Hermanric, who had been accompanied by Goisvintha through all the toils +and dangers of the march, since the time when we left him at the +Italian Alps. + +The watch had been set, the tents had been pitched, the defences had +been raised on the portion of ground selected to occupy every possible +approach to the Pincian Gate, as Hermanric retired to await by +Goisvintha's side, whatever further commands he might yet be entrusted +with, by his superiors in the Gothic camp. The spot occupied by the +young warrior's simple tent was on a slight eminence, apart from the +positions chosen by his comrades, eastward of the city gate, and +overlooking at some distance the deserted gardens of the suburbs, and +the stately palaces of the Pincian Hill. Behind his temporary dwelling +was the open country, reduced to a fertile solitude by the flight of +its terrified inhabitants; and at each side lay one unvarying prospect +of military strength and preparation, stretching out its animated +confusion of soldiers, tents, and engines of warfare, as far as the +sight could reach. It was now evening. The walls of Rome, enshrouded +in a rising mist, showed dim and majestic to the eyes of the Goths. +The noises in the beleaguered city softened and deepened, seeming to be +muffled in the growing darkness of the autumn night, and becoming less +and less audible as the vigilant besiegers listened to them from their +respective posts. One by one, lights broke wildly forth at irregular +distances, in the Gothic camp. Harshly and fitfully the shrill call of +the signal trumpets rang from rank to rank; and through the dim thick +air rose, in the intervals of the more important noises, the clash of +heavy hammers and the shout of martial command. Wherever the +preparations for the blockade were still incomplete, neither the +approach of night nor the pretext of weariness were suffered for an +instant to hinder their continued progress. Alaric's indomitable will +conquered every obstacle of nature, and every deficiency of man. +Darkness had no obscurity that forced him to repose, and lassitude no +eloquence that lured him to delay. + +In no part of the army had the commands of the Gothic king been so +quickly and intelligently executed, as in that appointed to watch the +Pincian Gate. The interview of Hermanric and Goisvintha in the young +chieftain's tent, was, consequently, uninterrupted for a considerable +space of time by any fresh mandate from the head-quarters of the camp. + +In outward appearance, both the brother and sister had undergone a +change remarkable enough to be visible, even by the uncertain light of +the torch which now shone on them as they stood together at the door of +the tent. The features of Goisvintha--which at the period when we +first beheld her on the shores of the mountain lake, retained, in spite +of her poignant sufferings, much of the lofty and imposing beauty that +had been their natural characteristic in her happier days--now +preserved not the slightest traces of their former attractions. Its +freshness had withered from her complexion, its fulness had departed +from her form. Her eyes had contracted an unvarying sinister expression +of malignant despair, and her manner had become sullen, repulsive, and +distrustful. This alteration in her outward aspect, was but the result +of a more perilous change in the disposition of her heart. The death +of her last child at the very moment when her flight had successfully +directed her to the protection of her people, had affected her more +fatally than all the losses she had previously sustained. The +difficulties and dangers that she had encountered in saving her +offspring from the massacre; the dismal certainty that the child was +the only one, out of all the former objects of her affection, left to +her to love; the wild sense of triumph that she experienced in +remembering, that in this single instance her solitary efforts had +thwarted the savage treachery of the Court of Rome, had inspired her +with feelings of devotion towards the last of her household which +almost bordered on insanity. And, now that her beloved charge, her +innocent victim, her future warrior, had, after all her struggles for +his preservation, pined and died; now that she was childless indeed; +now that Roman cruelty had won its end in spite of all her patience, +all her courage, all her endurance; every noble feeling within her +sunk, annihilated at the shock. Her sorrow took the fatal form which +irretrievable destroys, in women, all the softer and better +emotions;--it changed to the despair that asks no sympathy, to the +grief that holds no communion with tears. + +Less elevated in intellect and less susceptible in disposition, the +change to sullenness of expression and abruptness of manner now visible +in Hermanric, resulted rather from his constant contemplation of +Goisvintha's gloomy despair, than from any actual revolution in his own +character. In truth, however many might be the points of outward +resemblance now discernible between the brother and sister, the +difference in degree of their moral positions, implied of itself the +difference in degree of the inward sorrow of each. Whatever the trials +and afflictions that might assail him, Hermanric possessed the +healthful elasticity of youth and the martial occupations of manhood to +support them. Goisvintha could repose on neither. With no employment +but bitter remembrance to engage her thoughts, with no kindly +aspiration, no soothing hope to fill her heart, she was abandoned +irrevocably to the influence of unpartaken sorrow and vindictive +despair. + +Both the woman and the warrior stood together in silence for some time. +At length, without taking his eyes from the dusky, irregular mass +before him, which was all that night now left visible of the ill-fated +city, Hermanric addressed Goisvintha thus:-- + +'Have you no words of triumph, as you look on the ramparts that your +people have fought for generations to behold at their mercy, as we now +behold them? Can a woman of the Goths be silent when she stands before +the city of Rome?' + +'I came hither to behold Rome pillaged, and Romans slaughtered; what is +Rome blockaded to me?' replied Goisvintha fiercely. 'The treasures +within that city will buy its safety from our King, as soon as the +tremblers on the ramparts gain heart enough to penetrate a Gothic camp. +Where is the vengeance that you promised me among those distant +palaces? Do I behold you carrying that destruction through the +dwellings of Rome, which the soldiers of yonder city carried through +the dwellings of the Goths? Is it for plunder or for glory that the +army is here? I thought, in my woman's delusion, that it was for +revenge!' + +'Dishonour will avenge you--Famine will avenge you--Pestilence will +avenge you!' + +'They will avenge my nation; they will not avenge me. I have seen the +blood of Gothic women spilt around me--I have looked on my children's +corpses bleeding at my feet! Will a famine that I cannot see, and a +pestilence that I cannot watch, give me vengeance for this? Look! +Here is the helmet-crest of my husband and your brother--the +helmet-crest that was flung to me as a witness that the Romans had +slain him! Since the massacre of Aquileia it has never quitted my +bosom. I have sworn that the blood which stains and darkens it, shall +be washed off in the blood of the people of Rome. Though I should +perish under those accursed walls; though you in your soulless patience +should refuse me protection and aid; I, widowed, weakened, forsaken as +I am, will hold to the fulfilment of my oath!' + +As she ceased she folded the crest in her mantle, and turned abruptly +from Hermanric in bitter and undissembled scorn. All the attributes of +her sex, in thought, expression, and manner, seemed to have deserted +her. The very tones she spoke in were harsh and unwomanly. + + +Every word she had uttered, every action she had displayed, had sunk +into the inmost heart, had stirred the fiercest passions of the young +warrior whom she addressed. The first national sentiment discoverable +in the day-spring of the ages of Gothic history, is the love of war; +but the second is the reverence of woman. This latter +feeling--especially remarkable among so fierce and unsusceptible a +people as the ancient Scandinavians--was entirely unconnected with +those strong attaching ties, which are the natural consequence of the +warm temperaments of more southern nations; for love was numbered with +the base inferior passions, in the frigid and hardy composition of the +warrior of the north. It was the offspring of reasoning and +observation, not of instinctive sentiment and momentary impulse. In +the wild, poetical code of the old Gothic superstition was one axiom, +closely and strangely approximating to an important theory in the +Christian scheme--the watchfulness of an omnipotent Creator over a +finite creature. Every action of the body, every impulse of the mind, +was the immediate result, in the system of worship among the Goths of +the direct, though invisible interference of the divinities they +adored. When, therefore, they observed that women were more submitted +in body to the mysterious laws of nature and temperament, and more +swayed in mind by the native and universal instincts of humanity than +themselves, they inferred as an inevitable conclusion, that the female +sex was more incessantly regarded, and more constantly and remarkably +influenced by the gods of their worship, than the male. Acting under +this persuasion, they committed the study of medicine, the +interpretation of dreams, and in many instances, the mysteries of +communication with the invisible world, to the care of their women. +The gentler sex became their counsellors in difficulty, and their +physicians in sickness--their companions rather than their +mistresses,--the objects of their veneration rather than the purveyors +of their pleasures. Although in after years, the national migrations +of the Goths changed the national temperament, although their ancient +mythology was exchanged for the worship of Christ, this prevailing +sentiment of their earliest existence as a people never entirely +deserted them; but, with different modifications and in different +forms, maintained much of its old supremacy through all changes of +manners and varieties of customs, descending finally to their posterity +among the present nations of Europe, in the shape of that established +code of universal courtesy to women, which is admitted to be one great +distinguishing mark between the social systems of the inhabitants of +civilised and uncivilised lands. + +This powerful and remarkable ascendancy of the woman over the man, +among the Goths, could hardly be more strikingly displayed than in the +instance of Hermanric. It appeared, not only in the deteriorating +effect of the constant companionship of Goisvintha on his naturally +manly character, but also in the strong influence over his mind of the +last words of fury and disdain that she had spoken. His eyes gleamed +with anger, his cheeks flushed with shame, as he listened to those +passages in her wrathful remonstrance which reflected most bitterly on +himself. She had scarcely ceased, and turned to retire into the tent, +when he arrested her progress, and replied, in heightened and accusing +tones:-- + +'You wrong me by your words! When I saw you among the Alps, did I +refuse you protection? When the child was wounded, did I leave him to +suffer unaided? When he died, did I forsake him to rot upon the earth, +or abandon to his mother the digging of his grave? When we approached +Aquileia, and marched past Ravenna, did I forget that the sword hung at +my shoulder? Was it at my will that it remained sheathed, or that I +entered not the gates of the Roman towns, but passed by them in haste? +Was it not the command of the king that withheld me? and could I, his +warrior, disobey? I swear it to you, the vengeance that I promised, I +yearn to perform,--but is it for me to alter the counsels of Alaric? +Can I alone assault the city which it is his command that we should +blockade? What would you have of me?' + +'I would have you remember,' retorted Goisvintha, indignantly, 'that +Romans slew your brother, and made me childless! I would have you +remember that a public warfare of years on years, is powerless to stay +one hour's craving of private vengeance! I would have you less +submitted to your general's wisdom, and more devoted to your own +wrongs! I would have you--like me--thirst for the blood of the first +inhabitant of yonder den of traitors, who--whether for peace or for +war--passes the precincts of its sheltering walls!' + +She paused abruptly for an answer, but Hermanric uttered not a word. +The courageous heart of the young chieftain recoiled at the deliberate +act of assassination, pressed upon him in Goisvintha's veiled yet +expressive speech. To act with his comrades in taking the city by +assault, to outdo in the heat of battle the worst horrors of the +massacre of Aquileia, would have been achievements in harmony with his +wild disposition and warlike education; but, to submit himself to +Goisvintha's projects, was a sacrifice, that the very peculiarities of +his martial character made repugnant to his thoughts. Emotions such as +these he would have communicated to his companion, as they passed +through his mind; but there was something in the fearful and ominous +change that had occurred in her disposition since he had met her among +the Alps,--in her frantic, unnatural craving for bloodshed and revenge, +that gave her a mysterious and powerful influence over his thoughts, +his words, and even his actions. He hesitated and was silent. + +'Have I not been patient?' continued Goisvintha, lowering her voice to +tones of earnest, agitated entreaty, which jarred upon Hermanric's ear, +as he thought who was the petitioner, and what would be the object of +the petition,--' Have I not been patient throughout the weary journey +from the Alps? Have I not waited for the hour of retribution, even +before the defenceless cities that we passed on the march? Have I not +at your instigation governed my yearning for vengeance, until the day +that should see you mounting those walls with the warriors of the +Goths, to scourge with fire and sword the haughty traitors of Rome? +Has that day come? Is it by this blockade that the requital you +promised me over the corpse of my murdered child, is to be performed? +Remember the perils I dared, to preserve the life of that last one of +my household,--and will you risk nothing to avenge his death? His +sepulchre is untended and solitary. Far from the dwellings of his +people, lost in the dawn of his beauty, slaughtered in the beginning of +his strength, lies the offspring of your brother's blood. And the +rest--the two children, who were yet infants; the father, who was brave +in battle and wise in council--where are they? Their bones whiten on +the shelterless plain, or rot unburied by the ocean shore! Think--had +they lived--how happily your days would have passed with them in the +time of peace! how gladly your brother would have gone forth with you +to the chase! how joyfully his boys would have nestled at your knees, +to gather from your lips the first lessons that should form them for +the warrior's life! Think of such enjoyments as these, and then think +that Roman swords have deprived you of them all!' + +Her voice trembled, she ceased for a moment, and looked mournfully up +into Hermanric's averted face. Every feature in the young chieftain's +countenance expressed the tumult that her words had aroused within him. +He attempted to reply, but his voice was powerless in that trying +moment. His head drooped upon his heaving breast, and he sighed +heavily as, without speaking, he grasped Goisvintha by the hand. The +object she had pleaded for was nearly attained;--he was fast sinking +beneath the tempter's well-spread toils! + +'Are you silent still?' she gloomily resumed. 'Do you wonder at this +longing for vengeance, at this craving for Roman blood? I tell you +that my desire has arisen within me, at promptings from the voices of +an unknown world. They urge me to seek requital on the nation who have +widowed and bereaved me--yonder, in their vaunted city, from their +pampered citizens, among their cherished homes--in the spot where their +shameful counsels take root, and whence their ruthless treacheries +derive their bloody source! In the book that our teachers worship, I +have heard it read, that "the voice of blood crieth from the ground!" +This is the voice--Hermanric, this is the voice that I have heard! I +have dreamed that I walked on a shore of corpses, by a sea of blood--I +have seen, arising from that sea, my husband's and my children's +bodies, gashed throughout with Roman wounds! They have called to me +through the vapour of carnage that was around them;--'Are we yet +unavenged? Is the sword of Hermanric yet sheathed?' Night after night +have I seen this vision and heard those voice, and hoped for no respite +until the day that saw the army encamped beneath the walls of Rome, and +raising the scaling ladders for the assault! And now, after all my +endurance, how has that day arrived? Accursed be the lust of treasure! +It is more to the warriors, and to you, than the justice of revenge!' + +'Listen! listen!' cried Hermanric entreatingly. + +'I listen no longer!' interrupted Goisvintha. 'The tongue of my people +is as a strange language in my ears; for it talks but of plunder and of +peace, of obedience, of patience, and of hope! I listen no longer; for +the kindred are gone that I loved to listen to--they are all slain by +the Romans but you--and you I renounce!' + + +Deprived of all power of consideration by the violence of the emotions +awakened in his heart by Goisvintha's wild revelations of the evil +passion that consumed her, the young Goth, shuddering throughout his +whole frame, and still averting his face, murmured in hoarse, unsteady +accents: 'Ask of me what you will. I have no words to deny, no power +to rebuke you--ask of me what you will!' + +'Promise me,' cried Goisvintha, seizing the hand of Hermanric, and +gazing with a look of fierce triumph on his disordered countenance, +'that this blockade of the city shall not hinder my vengeance! Promise +me that the first victim of our righteous revenge, shall be the first +one that appears before you--whether in war or peace--of the +inhabitants of Rome!' + +'I promise,' cried the Goth. And those two words sealed the destiny of +his future life. + +During the silence that now ensued between Goisvintha and Hermanric, +and while each stood absorbed in deep meditation, the dark prospect +spread around them began to brighten slowly under a soft, clear light. +The moon, whose dull broad disk had risen among the evening mists +arrayed in gloomy red, had now topped the highest of the exhalations of +earth, and beamed in the wide heaven, adorned once more in her pale, +accustomed hue. Gradually, yet perceptibly, the vapour rolled,--layer +by layer,--from the lofty summits of the palaces of Rome, and the high +places of the mighty city began to dawn, as it were, in the soft, +peaceful, mysterious light; while the lower divisions of the walls, the +desolate suburbs, and parts of the Gothic camp, lay still plunged in +the dusky obscurity of the mist, in grand and gloomy contrast to the +prospect of glowing brightness, that almost appeared to hover about +them from above and around. Patches of ground behind the tent of +Hermanric, began to grow partially visible in raised and open +positions; and the song of the nightingale was now faintly audible at +intervals, among the solitary and distant trees. In whatever direction +it was observed, the aspect of nature gave promise of the cloudless, +tranquil night, of the autumnal climate of ancient Italy. + +Hermanric was the first to return to the contemplation of the outward +world. Perceiving that the torch which still burnt by the side of his +tent, had become useless, now that the moon had arisen and dispelled +the mists, he advanced and extinguished it; pausing afterwards to look +forth over the plains, as they brightened slowly before him. He had +been thus occupied but a short time, when he thought he discerned a +human figure moving slowly over a spot of partially lightened and hilly +ground, at a short distance from him. It was impossible that this +wandering form could be one of his own people;--they were all collected +at their respective posts, and his tent he knew was on the outermost +boundary of the encampment before the Pincian Gate. + +He looked again. The figure still advanced, but at too great a +distance to allow him a chance of discovering, in the uncertain light +around him, either its nation, its sex, or its age. His heart misgave +him as he remembered his promise to Goisvintha, and contemplated the +possibility that it was some miserable slave, abandoned by the +fugitives who had quitted the suburbs in the morning, who now +approached as a last resource, to ask mercy and protection from his +enemies in the camp. He turned towards Goisvintha as the idea crossed +his mind, and observed that she was still occupied in meditation. +Assured by the sight, that she had not yet observed the fugitive +figure, he again directed his attention--with an excess of anxiety +which he could hardly account for--in the direction where he had first +beheld it, but it was no more to be seen. It had either retired to +concealment, or was now still advancing towards his tent through a +clump of trees that clothed the descent of the hill. + +Silently and patiently he continued to look forth over the landscape; +and still no living thing was to be seen. At length, just as he began +to doubt whether his senses had not deceived him, the fugitive figure +suddenly appeared from the trees, hurried with wavering gait over the +patch of low, damp ground that still separated it from the young Goth, +gained his tent, and then with a feeble cry fell helplessly upon the +earth at his feet. + + +That cry, faint as it was, attracted Goisvintha's attention. She +turned in an instant, thrust Hermanric aside, and raised the stranger +in her arms. The light, slender form, the fair hand and arm hanging +motionless towards the ground, the long locks of deep black hair, heavy +with the moisture of the night atmosphere, betrayed the wanderer's sex +and age in an instant. The solitary fugitive was a young girl. + +Signing to Hermanric to kindle the extinguished torch at a neighbouring +watch-fire, Goisvintha carried the still insensible girl into the tent. +As the Goth silently proceeded to obey her, a vague, horrid suspicion, +that he shrunk from embodying, passed across his mind. His hand shook +so that he could hardly light the torch, and bold and vigorous as he +was, his limbs trembled beneath him as he slowly returned to the tent. + +When he had gained the interior of his temporary abode, the light of +his torch illuminated a strange and impressive scene. + +Goisvintha was seated on a rude oaken chest, supporting on her knees +the form of the young girl, and gazing with an expression of the most +intense and enthralling interest upon her pale, wasted countenance. +The tattered robe that had hitherto enveloped the fugitive had fallen +back, and disclosed the white dress, which was the only other garment +she wore. Her face, throat, and arms, had been turned, by exposure to +the cold, to the pure whiteness of marble. Her eyes were closed, and +her small, delicate features were locked in a rigid repose. But for +her deep black hair, which heightened the ghastly aspect of her face, +she might have been mistaken, as she lay in the woman's arms, for an +exquisitely chiseled statue of youth in death! + +When the figure of the young warrior, arrayed in his martial +habiliments, and standing near the insensible girl with evident +emotions of wonder and anxiety, was added to the group thus +produced,--when Goisvintha's tall, powerful frame, clothed in dark +garments, and bent over the fragile form and white dress of the +fugitive, was illuminated by the wild, fitful glare of the torch,--when +the heightened colour, worn features, and eager expression of the woman +were beheld, here shadowed, there brightened, in close opposition to +the pale, youthful, reposing countenance of the girl, such an +assemblage of violent lights and deep shades was produced, as gave the +whole scene a character at once mysterious and sublime. It presented +an harmonious variety of solemn colours, united by the exquisite +artifice of Nature to a grand, yet simple disposition of form. It was +a picture executed by the hand of Rembrandt, and imagined by the mind +of Raphael. + +Starting abruptly from her long, earnest examination of the fugitive, +Goisvintha proceeded to employ herself in restoring animation to her +insensible charge. While thus occupied, she preserved unbroken +silence. A breathless expectation, that absorbed all her senses in one +direction, seemed to have possessed itself of her heart. She laboured +at her task with the mechanical, unwavering energy of those, whose +attention is occupied by their thoughts rather than their actions. +Slowly and unwillingly the first faint flush of returning animation +dawned, in the tenderest delicacy of hue, upon the girl's colourless +cheek. Gradually and softly, her quickening respiration fluttered a +thin lock of hair that had fallen over her face. A little interval +more, and then the closed, peaceful eyes suddenly opened, and glance +quickly round the tent with a wild expression of bewilderment and +terror. Then, as Goisvintha rose, and attempted to place her on a +seat, she tore herself from her grasp, looked on her for a moment with +fearful intentness, and then falling on her knees, murmured, in a +plaintive voice,-- + +'Have mercy upon me. I am forsaken by my father,--I know not why. The +gates of the city are shut against me. My habitation in Rome is closed +to me for ever!' + + +She had scarcely spoken these few words, before an ominous change +appeared in Goisvintha's countenance. Its former expression of ardent +curiosity changed to a look of malignant triumph. Her eyes fixed +themselves on the girl's upturned face, in glaring, steady, spell-bound +contemplation. She gloated over the helpless creature before her, as +the wild beast gloats over the prey that it has secured. Her form +dilated, a scornful smile appeared on her lips, a hot flush rose on her +cheeks, and ever and anon she whispered softly to herself, 'I knew she +was Roman! Aha! I knew she was Roman!' + +During this space of time Hermanric was silent. His breath came short +and thick, his face grew pale, and his glance, after resting for an +instant on the woman and the girl, travelled slowly and anxiously round +the tent. In one corner of it lay a heavy battle-axe. He looked for a +moment from the weapon to Goisvintha, with a vivid expression of +horror, and then moving slowly across the tent, with a firm, yet +trembling grasp, he possessed himself of the arm. + +As he looked up, Goisvintha approached him. In one hand she held the +bloody helmet-crest, while she pointed with the other to the crouching +form of the girl. Her lips were still parted with their unnatural +smile, and she whispered softly to the Goth--'Remember your +promise!--remember your kindred!--remember the massacre of Aquileia!' + +The young warrior made no answer. He moved rapidly forward a few +steps, and signed hurriedly to the young girl to fly by the door; but +her terror had by this time divested her of all her ordinary powers of +perception and comprehension. She looked up vacantly at Hermanric, and +then shuddering violently, crept into a corner of the tent. During the +short silence that now ensued, the Goth could hear her shiver and sigh, +as he stood watching, with all the anxiety of apprehension, +Goisvintha's darkening brow. + +'She is Roman--she is the first dweller in the city who has appeared +before you!--remember your promise!--remember your kindred!--remember +the massacre of Aquileia!' said the woman in fierce, quick, +concentrated tones. + +'I remember that I am a warrior and a Goth,' replied Hermanric, +disdainfully. 'I have promised to avenge you, but it must be on a man +that my promise must be fulfilled--an armed man, who can come forth +with weapons in his hand--a strong man of courage whom I will slay in +single combat before your eyes! The girl is too young to die, too weak +to be assailed!' + +Not a syllable that he had spoken had passed unheeded by the fugitive, +every word seemed to revive her torpid faculties. As he ceased she +arose, and with the quick instinct of terror, ran up to the side of the +young Goth. Then seizing his hand--the hand that still grasped the +battle-axe--she knelt down and kissed it, uttering hurried broken +ejaculations, as she clasped it to her bosom, which the tremulousness +of her voice rendered completely unintelligible. + +'Did the Romans think my children too young to die, or too weak to be +assailed?' cried Goisvintha. 'By the Lord God of Heaven, they murdered +them the more willingly because they were young, and wounded them the +more fiercely because they were weak! My heart leaps within me as I +look on the girl! I am doubly avenged, if I am avenged on the innocent +and the youthful! Her bones shall rot on the plains of Rome, as the +bones of my offspring rot on the plains of Aquileia! Shed me her +blood!--Remember your promise!--Shed me her blood!' + +She advanced with extended arms and gleaming eyes towards the fugitive. +She gasped for breath, her face turned suddenly to a livid paleness, +the torchlight fell upon her distorted features, she looked unearthly +at that fearful moment; but the divinity of mercy had now braced the +determination of the young Goth to meet all emergencies. His bright +steady eye quailed not for an instant, as he encountered the frantic +glance of the fury before him. With one hand he barred Goisvintha from +advancing another step; the other, he could not disengage from the +girl, who now clasped and kissed it more eagerly than before. + + +'You do this but to tempt me to anger,' said Goisvintha, altering her +manner with sudden and palpable cunning, more ominous of peril to the +fugitive than the fury she had hitherto displayed. 'You jest at me, +because I have failed in patience, like a child! But you will shed her +blood--you are honourable and will hold to your promise--you will shed +her blood! And I,' she continued, exultingly, seating herself on the +oaken chest that she had previously occupied, and resting her clenched +hands on her knees; 'I will wait to see it!' + +At this moment voices and steps were heard outside the tent. Hermanric +instantly raised the trembling girl from the ground, and supporting her +by his arm, advanced to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. He was +confronted the next instant by an old warrior of superior rank, +attached to the person of Alaric, who was followed by a small party of +the ordinary soldiery of the camp. + +'Among the women appointed by the king to the office of tending, for +this night, those sick and wounded on the march, is Goisvintha, sister +of Hermanric. If she is here, let her approach and follow me;' said +the chief of the party in authoritative tones, pausing at the door of +the tent. + +Goisvintha rose. For an instant she stood irresolute. To quit +Hermanric at such a time as this, was a sacrifice that wrung her savage +heart;--but she remembered the severity of Alaric's discipline, she saw +the armed men awaiting her, and yielded after a struggle to the +imperious necessity of obedience to the king's commands. Trembling +with suppressed anger and bitter disappointment, she whispered to +Hermanric as she passed him:-- + +'You cannot save her if you would! You dare not commit her to the +charge of your companions, she is too young and too fair to be +abandoned to their doubtful protection. You cannot escape with her, +for you must remain here on the watch at your post. You will not let +her depart by herself, for you know that she would perish with cold and +privation before the morning rises. When I return on the morrow I shall +see her in the tent. You cannot escape from your promise;--you cannot +forget it,--you must shed her blood!' + +'The commands of the king,' said the old warrior, signing to his party +to depart with Goisvintha, who now stood with forced calmness awaiting +their guidance: 'will be communicated to the chieftain Hermanric on +the morrow. Remember,' he continued in a lower tone, pointing +contemptuously to the trembling girl; 'that the vigilance you have +shown in setting the watch before yonder gate, will not excuse any +negligence your prize there may now cause you to commit! Consult your +youthful pleasures as you please, but remember your duties! Farewell!' + +Uttering these words in a stern, serious tone, the veteran departed. +Soon the last sound of the footsteps of his escort died away, and +Hermanric and the fugitive were left alone in the tent. + +During the address of the old warrior to the chieftain, the girl had +silently detached herself from her protector's support, and retired +hastily to the interior of the tent. When she saw that they were left +together again, she advanced hesitatingly towards the young Goth, and +looked up with an expression of mute inquiry into his face. + +'I am very miserable,' said she, after an interval of silence, in soft, +clear, melancholy accents. 'If you forsake me now, I must die--and I +have lived so short a time on the earth, I have known so little +happiness and so little love, that I am not fit to die! But you will +protect me! You are good and brave, strong with weapons in your hands, +and full of pity. You have defended me, and spoken kindly of me--I +love you for the compassion you have shown me.' + + +Her language and actions, simple as they were, were yet so new to +Hermanric, whose experience of her sex had been almost entirely limited +to the women of his own stern impassive nation, that he could only +reply by a brief assurance of protection, when the suppliant awaited +his answer. A new page in the history of humanity was opening before +his eyes, and he scanned it in wondering silence. + + +'If that woman should return,' pursued the girl, fixing her dark, +eloquent eyes intently upon the Goth's countenance, 'take me quickly +where she cannot come. My heart grows cold as I look on her! She will +kill me if she can approach me again! My father's anger is very +fearful, but hers is horrible--horrible--horrible! Hush! already I +hear her coming back--let us go--I will follow you wherever you +please--but let us not delay while there is time to depart! She will +destroy me if she sees me now, and I cannot die yet! Oh my preserver, +my compassionate defender, I cannot die yet!' + +'No one shall harm you--no on shall approach you to-night--you are +secure from all dangers in this tent,' said the Goth, gazing on her +with undissembled astonishment and admiration. + +'I will tell you why death is so dreadful to me,' she continued, and +her voice deepened as she spoke, to tones of mournful solemnity, +strangely impressive in a creature so young. 'I have lived much alone, +and have had no companions but my thoughts, and the sky that I could +look up to, and the things on the earth that I could watch. As I have +seen the clear heaven and the soft fields, and smelt the perfume of +flowers, and heard the voices of singing-birds afar off, I have +wondered why the same God who made all this, and made me, should have +made grief and pain and hell--the dread eternal hell that my father +speaks of in his church. I never looked at the sun-light, or woke from +my sleep to look on and to think of the distant stars, but I longed to +love something that might listen to my joy. But my father forbade me +to be happy! He frowned even when he gave me my flower-garden--though +God made flowers. He destroyed my lute--though God made music. My +life has been a longing in loneliness for the voices of friends! My +heart has swelled and trembled within me, because when I walked in the +garden and looked on the plains and woods and high, bright mountains +that were round me, I knew that I loved them alone! Do you know now +why I dare not die? It is because I must find first the happiness +which I feel God has made for me. It is because I must live to praise +this wonderful, beautiful world with others who enjoy it as I could! +It is because my home has been among those who sigh, and never among +those who smile! It is for this that I fear to die! I must find +companions whose prayers are in singing and in happiness, before I go +to the terrible hereafter that all dread. I dare not die! I dare not +die!' + +As she uttered these last words she began to weep bitterly. Between +amazement and compassion the young Goth was speechless. He looked down +upon the small, soft hand that she had placed on his arm while she +spoke, and saw that it trembled; he pressed it, and felt that it was +cold; and in the first impulse of pity produced by the action, he found +the readiness of speech which he had hitherto striven for in vain. + +'You shiver and look pale,' said he; 'a fire shall be kindled at the +door of the tent. I will bring you garments that will warm you, and +food that will give you strength; you shall sleep, and I will watch +that no one harms you.' + +The girl hastily looked up. An expression of ineffable gratitude +overspread her sorrowful countenance. She murmured in a broken voice, +'Oh, how merciful, how merciful you are!' And then, after an evident +struggle with herself, she covered her face with her hands, and again +burst into tears. + +More and more embarrassed, Hermanric mechanically busied himself in +procuring from such of his attendants as the necessities of the +blockade left free, the supplies of fire, food and raiment, which he +had promised. She received the coverings, approached the blazing fuel, +and partook of the simple refreshment, which the young warrior offered +her, with eagerness. After that she sat for some time silent, absorbed +in deep meditation, and cowering over the fire, apparently unconscious +of the curiosity with which she was still regarded by the Goth. At +length she suddenly looked up, and observing his eyes fixed on her, +arose and beckoned him to the seat that she occupied. + +'Did you know how utterly forsaken I am,' said she, 'you would not +wonder as you do, that I, a stranger and a Roman, have sought you thus. +I have told you how lonely was my home; but yet that home was a refuge +and a protection to me until the morning of this long day that is past, +when I was expelled from it for ever! I was suddenly awakened in my +bed by--my father entered in anger--he called me--' + +She hesitated, blushed, and then paused at the very outset of her +narrative. Innocent as she was, the natural instincts of her sex +spoke, though in a mysterious yet in a warning tone, within her heart, +abruptly imposing on her motives for silence that she could neither +penetrate nor explain. She clasped her trembling hands over her bosom +as if to repress its heaving, and casting down her eyes, continued in a +lower tone:-- + +'I cannot tell you why my father drove me from his doors. He has +always been silent and sorrowful to me; setting me long tasks in +mournful books; commanding that I should not quit the precincts of his +abode, and forbidding me to speak to him when I have sometimes asked +him to tell me of my mother whom I have lost. Yet he never threatened +me or drove me from his side, until the morning of which I have told +you. Then his wrath was terrible; his eyes were fierce; his voice was +threatening! He bade me begone, and I obeyed him in affright, for I +thought he would have slain me if I stayed! I fled from the house, +knowing not where I went, and ran through yonder gate, which is hard by +our abode. As I entered the suburbs, I met great crowds, all hurrying +into Rome. I was bewildered by my fears and the confusion all around, +yet I remember that they called loudly to me to fly to the city, ere +the gates were closed against the assault of the Goths. And others +jostled and scoffed at me, as they passed by and saw me in the thin +night garments in which I was banished from my home!' + +Here she paused and listened intently for a few moments. Every +accidental noise that she heard still awakened in her the apprehension +of Goisvintha's return. Reassured by Hermanric and by her own +observation of all that was passing outside the tent, she resumed her +narrative after an interval, speaking now in a steadier voice. + +'I thought my heart would burst within me,' she continued, 'as I tried +to escape them. All things whirled before my eyes. I could not +speak--I could not stop--I could not weep. I fled and fled I knew not +whither, until I sank down exhausted at the door of a small house on +the outskirts of the suburbs. Then I called for aid, but no one was by +to hear me. I crept--for I could stand no longer--into the house. It +was empty. I looked from the windows: no human figure passed through +the silent streets. The roar of a mighty confusion still rose from the +walls of the city, but I was left to listen to it alone. In the house +I saw scattered on the floor some fragments of bread and an old +garment. I took them both, and then rose and departed; for the silence +of the place was horrible to me, and I remembered the fields and the +plains that I had once loved to look on, and I thought that I might +find there the refuge that had been denied to me at Rome! So I set +forth once more; and when I gained the soft grass, and sat down beside +the shady trees, and saw the sunlight brightening over the earth, my +heart grew sad, and I wept as I thought on my loneliness and remembered +my father's anger. + +'I had not long remained in my resting-place, when I heard a sound of +trumpets in the distance, and looking forth, I saw far off, advancing +over the plains, a mighty multitude with arms that glittered in the +sun. I strove, as I beheld them, to arise and return even to those +suburbs whose solitude had affrighted me. But my limbs failed me. I +saw a little hollow hidden among the trees around. I entered it, and +there throughout the lonely day I lay concealed. I heard the long +tramp of footsteps, as your army passed me on the roads beneath; and +then, after those hours of fear came the weary hours of solitude! + + +'Oh, those--lonely--lonely--lonely hours! I have lived without +companions, but those hours were more terrible to me than all the years +of my former life! I dared not venture to leave my hiding-place--I +dared not call! Alone in the world, I crouched in my refuge till the +sun went down! Then came the mist, and the darkness, and the cold. +The bitter winds of night thrilled through and through me! The lonely +obscurity around me seemed filled with phantoms whom I could not +behold, who touched me and rustled over the surface of my skin! They +half maddened me! I rose to depart; to meet my wrathful father, or the +army that had passed me, or solitude in the cold, bright meadows--I +cared not which!--when I discerned the light of your torch, the moment +ere it was extinguished. Dark though it then was, I found your tent. +And now I know that I have found yet more--a companion and a friend!' + +She looked up at the young Goth as she pronounced these words with the +same grateful expression that had appeared on her countenance before; +but this time her eyes were not dimmed by tears. Already her +disposition--poor as was the prospect of happiness which now lay before +it--had begun to return, with an almost infantine facility of change, +to the restoring influences of the brighter emotions. Already the short +tranquilities of the present began to exert for her their effacing +charm over the long agitations of the past. Despair was unnumbered +among the emotions that grew round that child-like heart; shame, fear, +and grief, however they might overshadow it for a time, left no taint +of their presence on its bright, fine surface. Tender, perilously alive +to sensation, strangely retentive of kindness as she was by nature, the +very solitude to which she had been condemned had gifted her, young as +she was, with a martyr's endurance of ill, and with a stoic's patience +under pain. + +'Do not mourn for me now,' she pursued, gently interrupting some broken +expressions of compassion which fell from the lips of the young Goth. +'If you are merciful to me, I shall forget all that I have suffered! +Though your nation is at enmity with mine, while you remain my friend, +I fear nothing! I can look on your great stature, and heavy sword, and +bright armour now without trembling! You are not like the soldiers of +Rome;--you are taller, stronger, more gloriously arrayed! You are like +a statue I once saw by chance of a warrior of the Greeks! You have a +look of conquest and a presence of command!' + +She gazed on the manly and powerful frame of the young warrior, clothed +as it was in the accoutrements of his warlike nation, with an +expression of childish interest and astonishment, asking him the +appellation and use of each part of his equipment, as it attracted her +attention, and ending her inquiries by eagerly demanding his name. + +'Hermanric,' she repeated, as he answered her, pronouncing with some +difficulty the harsh Gothic syllables--'Hermanric!--that is a stern, +solemn name--a name fit for a warrior and a man! Mine sounds +worthless, after such a name as that! It is only Antonina!' + +Deeply as he was interested in every word uttered by the girl, +Hermanric could no longer fail to perceive the evident traces of +exhaustion that now appeared in the slightest of her actions. +Producing some furs from a corner of the tent, he made a sort of rude +couch by the side of the fire, heaped fresh fuel on the flames, and +then gently counselled her to recruit her wasted energies by repose. +There was something so candid in his manner, so sincere in the tones of +his voice, as he made his simple offer of hospitality to the stranger +who had taken refuge with him, that the most distrustful woman would +have accepted with as little hesitation as Antonina; who, gratefully +and unhesitatingly, laid down on the bed that he had been spreading for +her at her feet. + +As soon as he had carefully covered her with a cloak, and rearranged +her couch in the position best calculated to insure her all the warmth +of the burning fuel, Hermanric retired to the other side of the fire; +and, leaning on his sword, abandoned himself to the new and absorbing +reflections which the presence of the girl naturally aroused. + +He thought not on the duties demanded of him by the blockade; he +remembered neither the scene of rage and ferocity that had followed his +evasion of his reckless promise; nor the fierce determination that +Goisvintha had expressed as she quitted him for the night. The cares +and toils to come with the new morning, which would oblige him to +expose the fugitive to the malignity of her revengeful enemy; the +thousand contingencies that the difference of their sexes, their +nations, and their lives, might create to oppose the continuance of the +permanent protection that he had promised to her, caused him no +forebodings. Antonina, and Antonina alone, occupied every faculty of +his mind, and every feeling of his heart. There was a softness and a +melody to his ear in her very name! + + +His early life had made him well acquainted with the Latin tongue, but +he had never discovered all its native smoothness of sound, and +elegance of structure, until he had heard it spoken by Antonina. Word +by word, he passed over in his mind her varied, natural, and happy +turns of expression; recalling, as he was thus employed, the eloquent +looks, the rapid gesticulations, the changing tones which had +accompanied those words, and thinking how wide was the difference +between this young daughter of Rome, and the cold and taciturn women of +his own nation. The very mystery enveloping her story, which would have +excited the suspicion or contempt of more civilised men, aroused in him +no other emotions than those of wonder and compassion. No feelings of +a lower nature than these entered his heart towards the girl. She was +safe under the protection of the enemy and the barbarian, after having +been lost through the interference of the Roman and the senator. + +To the simple perceptions of the Goth, the discovery of so much +intelligence united to such extreme youth, of so much beauty doomed to +such utter loneliness, was the discovery of an apparition that dazzled, +and not of a woman who charmed him. He could not even have touched the +hand of the helpless creature, who now reposed under his tent, unless +she had extended it to him of her own accord. He could only +think--with a delight whose excess he was far from estimating +himself--on this solitary mysterious being who had come to him for +shelter and for aid; who had awakened in him already new sources of +sensation; and who seemed to his startled imagination to have suddenly +twined herself for ever about the destinies of his future life. + +He was still deep in meditation, when he was startled by a hand +suddenly laid on his arm. He looked up and saw that Antonina, whom he +had imagined to be slumbering on her couch, was standing by his side. + +'I cannot sleep,' said the girl in a low, awe-struck voice, 'until I +have asked you to spare my father when you enter Rome. I know that you +are here to ravage the city; and, for aught I can tell, you may assault +and destroy it to-night. Will you promise to warn me before the walls +are assailed? I will then tell you my father's name and abode, and you +will spare him as you have mercifully spared me? He has denied me his +protection, but he is my father still; and I remember that I disobeyed +him once, when I possessed myself of a lute! Will you promise me to +spare him? My mother, whom I have never seen and who must therefore be +dead, may love me in another world for pleading for my father's life!' + +In a few words, Hermanric quieted her agitation by explaining to her +the nature and intention of the Gothic blockade, and she silently +returned to the couch. After a short interval, her slow, regular +breathing announced to the young warrior, as he watched by the side of +the fire, that she had at length forgotten the day's heritage of +misfortune in the welcome oblivion of sleep. + + + +CHAPTER 9. + +THE TWO INTERVIEWS. + +The time, is the evening of the first day of the Gothic blockade; the +place, is Vetranio's palace at Rome. In one of the private apartments +of his mansion is seated its all-accomplished owner, released at length +from the long sitting convened by the Senate on the occasion of the +unexpected siege of the city. Although the same complete discipline, +the same elegant regularity, and the same luxurious pomp, which +distinguished the senator's abode in times of security, still prevail +over it in the time of imminent danger which now threatens rich and +poor alike in Rome, Vetranio himself appears far from partaking the +tranquility of his patrician household. His manner displays an unusual +sternness, and his face an unwonted displeasure, as he sits, occupied +by his silent reflections and thoroughly unregardful of whatever occurs +around him. Two ladies who are his companions in the apartment, exert +all their blandishments to win him back to hilarity, but in vain. The +services of his expectant musicians are not put into requisition, the +delicacies on his table remain untouched, and even 'the inestimable +kitten of the breed most worshipped by the ancient Egyptians' gambols +unnoticed and unapplauded at his feet. All its wonted philosophical +equanimity has evidently departed, for the time at least, from the +senator's mind. + +Silence--hitherto a stranger to the palace apartments--had reigned +uninterruptedly over them for some time, when the freedman Carrio +dissipated Vetranio's meditations, and put the ladies who were with him +to flight, by announcing in an important voice, that the Prefect +Pompeianus desired a private interview with the Senator Vetranio. + +The next instant the chief magistrate of Rome entered the apartment. +He was a short, fat, undignified man. Indolence and vacillation were +legibly impressed on his appearance and expression. You saw, in a +moment, that his mind, like a shuttlecock, might be urged in any +direction by the efforts of others, but was utterly incapable of +volition by itself. But once in his life had the Prefect Pompeianus +been known to arrive unaided at a positive determination, and that was +in deciding a fierce argument between a bishop and a general, regarding +the relative merits of two rival rope-dancers of equal renown. + +'I have come, my beloved friend,' said the Prefect in agitated tones, +'to ask your opinion, at this period of awful responsibility for us +all, on the plan of operations proposed by the Senate at the sitting of +to-day! But first,' he hastily continued, perceiving with the unerring +instinct of an old gastronome, that the inviting refreshments on +Vetranio's table had remained untouched, 'permit me to fortify my +exhausted energies by a visit to your ever-luxurious board. Alas, my +friend, when I consider the present fearful scarcity of our provision +stores in the city, and the length of time that this accursed blockade +may be expected to last, I am inclined to think that the gods alone +know (I mean St. Peter) how much longer we may be enabled to give +occupation to our digestions and employment to our cooks. + +'I have observed,' pursued the Prefect, after an interval, speaking +with his mouth full of stewed peacock; 'I have observed, oh esteemed +colleague! the melancholy of your manner and your absolute silence +during your attendance to-day at our deliberations. Have we, in your +opinion, decided erroneously? It is not impossible! Our confusion at +this unexpected appearance of the barbarians may have blinded our usual +penetration! If by any chance you dissent from our plans, I beseech +you communicate your objections to me without reserve!' + +'I dissent from nothing, because I have heard nothing,' replied +Vetranio sullenly. 'I was so occupied by a private matter of +importance during my attendance at the sitting of the Senate, that I +was deaf to their deliberations. I know that we are besieged by the +Goths--why are they not driven from before the walls?' + +'Deaf to our deliberations! Drive the Goths from the walls!' repeated +the Prefect faintly. 'Can you think of any private matter at such a +moment as this? Do you know our danger? Do you know that our friends +are so astonished at this frightful calamity, that they move about like +men half awakened from a dream? Have you not seen the streets filled +with terrified and indignant crowds? Have you not mounted the ramparts +and beheld the innumerable multitudes of pitiless Goths surrounding us +on all sides, intercepting our supplies of provisions from the country, +and menacing us with a speedy famine, unless our hoped-for auxiliaries +arrive from Ravenna?' + +'I have neither mounted the ramparts, nor viewed with any attention the +crowds in the streets,' replied Vetranio, carelessly. + +'But if you have seen nothing yourself, you must have heard what others +saw,' persisted the Prefect; 'you must know at least that the legions +we have in the city are not sufficient to guard more than half the +circuit of the walls. Has no one informed you that if it should please +the leader of the barbarians to change his blockade into an assault, it +is more than probable that we should be unable to repulse him +successfully? Are you still deaf to our deliberations, when your palace +may to-morrow be burnt over your head, when we may be staved to death, +when we may be doomed to eternal dishonour by being driven to conclude +a peace? Deaf to our deliberations, when such an unimaginable calamity +as this invasion has fallen like a thunderbolt under our very walls! +You amaze me! You overwhelm me! You horrify me!' + + +And in the excess of his astonishment the bewildered Prefect actually +abandoned his stewed peacock, and advanced, wine-cup in hand, to obtain +a nearer view of the features of his imperturbable host. + +'If we are not strong enough to drive the Goths out of Italy,' rejoined +Vetranio coolly, 'you and the Senate know that we are rich enough to +bribe them to depart to the remotest confines of the empire. If we +have not swords enough to fight, we have gold and silver enough to pay.' + +'You are jesting! Remember our honour and the auxiliaries we still +hope for from Ravenna,' said the Prefect reprovingly. + +'Honour has lost the signification now, that it had in the time of the +Caesars,' retorted the Senator. 'Our fighting days are over. We have +had heroes enough for our reputation. As for the auxiliaries you still +hope for, you will have none! While the Emperor is safe in Ravenna, he +will care nothing for the worst extremities that can be suffered by the +people of Rome.' + +'But you forget your duties,' urged the astonished Pompeianus, turning +from rebuke to expostulation. 'You forget that it is a time when all +private interests must be abandoned! You forget that I have come here +to ask your advice, that I am bewildered by a thousand projects, forced +on me from all sides, for ruling the city successfully during the +blockade; that I look to you, as a friend and a man of reputation, to +aid me in deciding on a choice out of the varied counsels submitted to +me in the Senate to-day.' + +'Write down the advice of each senator on a separate strip of vellum; +shake all the strips together in an urn; and then, let the first you +take out by chance, be your guide to govern by in the present condition +of the city!' said Vetranio with a sneer. + +'Oh friend, friend! it is cruel to jest with me thus!' cried the +Prefect, in tones of lament; 'Would you really persuade me that you are +ignorant that what sentinels we have, are doubled already on the walls? +Would you attempt to declare seriously to me, that you never heard the +project of Saturninus for reducing imperceptibly the diurnal allowance +of provisions? Or the recommendation of Emilianus, that the people +should be kept from thinking on the dangers and extremities which now +threaten them, by being provided incessantly with public amusements at +the theatres and hippodromes? Do you really mean that you are +indifferent to the horrors of our present situation? By the souls of +the Apostles, Vetranio, I begin to think that you do not believe in the +Goths!' + +'I have already told you that private affairs occupy me at present, to +the exclusion of public,' said Vetranio impatiently. 'Debate as you +choose--approve what projects you will--I withdraw myself from +interference in your deliberations!' + + +'This,' murmured the repulsed Prefect in soliloquy, as he mechanically +resumed his place at the refreshment table, 'this is the very end and +climax of all calamities! Now, when advice and assistance are more +precious than jewels in my estimation, I receive neither! I gain from +none, the wise and saving counsels which, as chief magistrate of this +Imperial City, it is my right to demand from all; and the man on whom I +most depended is the man who fails me most! Yet hear me, oh Vetranio, +once again,' he continued, addressing the Senator, 'if our perils +beyond the walls affect you not, there is a weighty matter that has +been settled within them, which must move you. After you had quitted +the Senate, Serena, the widow of Stilicho, was accused, as her husband +was accused before her, of secret and treasonable correspondence with +the Goths; and has been condemned, as her husband was condemned, to +suffer the penalty of death. I myself discerned no evidence to convict +her; but the populace cried out, in universal frenzy, that she was +guilty, that she should die; and that the barbarians, when they heard +of the punishment inflicted on their secret adherent, would retire in +dismay from Rome. This also was a moot point of argument, on which I +vainly endeavoured to decide; but the Senate and the people were wiser +than I; and Serena was condemned to be strangled to-morrow by the +public executioner. She was a woman of good report before this time, +and is the adopted mother of the Emperor. It is now doubted by many +whether Stilicho, her husband, was ever guilty of the correspondence +with the Goths, of which he was accused; and I, on my part, doubt much +that Serena has deserved the punishment of death at our hands. I +beseech you, Vetranio, let me be enlightened by your opinion on this +one point at least!' + +The Prefect waited anxiously for an answer, but Vetranio neither looked +at him nor replied. It was evident that the Senator had not listened +to a word that he had said! + +This reception of his final appeal for assistance, produced the effect +on the petitioner, which it was perhaps designed to convey--the Prefect +Pompeianus quitted the room in despair. + +He had not long departed, when Carrio again entered the apartment, and +addressed his master thus: + +'It is grievous for me, revered patron, to disclose it to you, but your +slaves have returned unsuccessful from the search!' + +'Give the description of the girl to a fresh division of them, and let +them continue their efforts throughout the night, not only in the +streets, but in all the houses of public entertainment in the city. +She must be in Rome, and she must be found!' said the senator gloomily. + +Carrio bowed profoundly, and was about to depart, when he was arrested +at the door by his master's voice. + +'If an old man, calling himself Numerian, should desire to see me,' +said Vetranio, 'admit him instantly.' + +'She had quitted the room but a short time when I attempted to reclaim +her,' pursued the senator, speaking to himself; 'and yet when I gained +the open air, she was nowhere to be seen! She must have mingled +unintentionally with the crowds whom the Goths drove into the city, and +thus have eluded my observation! So young and so innocent! She must +be found! She must be found!' + +He paused, once more engrossed in deep and melancholy thought. After a +long interval, he was roused from his abstraction by the sound of +footsteps on the marble floor. He looked up. The door had been opened +without his perceiving it, and an old man was advancing with slow and +trembling steps towards his silken couch. It was the bereaved and +broken-hearted Numerian. + +'Where is she? Is she found?' asked the father, gazing anxiously round +the room, as if he had expected to see his daughter there. + +'My slaves still search for her,' said Vetranio, mournfully. + +'Ah, woe--woe--woe! How I wronged her! How I wronged her!' cried the +old man, turning to depart. + + +'Listen to me ere you go,' said Vetranio, gently detaining him. 'I +have done you a great wrong, but I will yet atone for it by finding for +you your child! While there were women who would have triumphed in my +admiration, I should not have attempted to deprive you of your +daughter! Remember when you recover her--and you shall recover +her--that from the time when I first decoyed her into listening to my +lute, to the night when your traitorous servant led me to her +bed-chamber, she has been innocent in this ill-considered matter. I +alone have been guilty! She was scarcely awakened when you discovered +her in my arms, and my entry into her chamber, was as little expected +by her, as it was by you. I was bewildered by the fumes of wine and +the astonishment of your sudden appearance, or I should have rescued +her from your anger, ere it was too late! The events which have passed +this morning, confused though they were, have yet convinced me that I +had mistaken you both. I now know that your child was too pure to be +an object fitted for my pursuit; and I believe that in secluding her as +you did, however ill-advised you might appear, you were honest in your +design! Never in my pursuit of pleasure did I commit so fatal an +error, as when I entered the doors of your house!' + +In pronouncing these words, Vetranio but gave expression to the +sentiments by which they were really inspired. As we have before +observed, profligate as he was by thoughtlessness of character and +license of social position, he was neither heartless nor criminal by +nature. Fathers had stormed, but his generosity had hitherto +invariably pacified them. Daughters had wept, but had found +consolation on all previous occasions in the splendour of his palace +and the amiability of his disposition. In attempting, therefore, the +abduction of Antonina, though he had prepared for unusual obstacles, he +had expected no worse results of his new conquest, than those that had +followed, as yet, his gallantries that were past. But, when--in the +solitude of his own home, and in the complete possession of his +faculties--he recalled all the circumstances of his attempt, from the +time when he had stolen on the girl's slumbers, to the moment when she +had fled from the house; when he remembered the stern concentrated +anger of Numerian, and the agony and despair of Antonina; when he +thought on the spirit-broken repentance of the deceived father, and the +fatal departure of the injured daughter, he felt as a man who had not +merely committed an indiscretion, but had been guilty of a crime; he +became convinced that he had incurred the fearful responsibility of +destroying the happiness of a parent who was really virtuous, and a +child who was truly innocent. To a man, the business of whose whole +life was to procure for himself a heritage of unalloyed pleasure, whose +sole occupation was to pamper that refined sensuality which the habits +of a life had made the very material of his heart, by diffusing luxury +and awakening smiles wherever he turned his steps, the mere mental +disquietude attending the ill-success of his intrusion into Numerian's +dwelling, was as painful in its influence, as the bitterest remorse +that could have afflicted a more highly-principled mind. He now, +therefore, instituted the search after Antonina, and expressed his +contrition to her father, from a genuine persuasion that nothing but +the completest atonement for the error he had committed, could restore +to him that luxurious tranquility, the loss of which had, as he had +himself expressed it, rendered him deaf to the deliberations of the +Senate, and regardless of the invasion of the Goths. + +'Tell me,' he continued, after a pause, 'whither has Ulpius betaken +himself? It is necessary that he should be discovered. He may +enlighten us upon the place of Antonina's retreat. He shall be secured +and questioned.' + +'He left me suddenly; I saw him as I stood at the window, mix with the +multitude in the street, but I know not whither he is gone,' replied +Numerian; and a tremor passed over his whole frame as he spoke of the +remorseless Pagan. + +Again there was a short silence. The grief of the broken-spirited +father, possessed in its humility and despair, a voice of rebuke, +before which the senator, careless and profligate as he was, +instinctively quailed. For some time he endeavoured in vain to combat +the silencing and reproving influence, exerted over him by the very +presence of the sorrowing man whom he had so fatally wronged. At +length, after an interval, he recovered self-possession enough to +address to Numerian some further expressions of consolation and hope; +but he spoke to ears that listened not. The father had relapsed into +his mournful abstraction; and when the senator paused, he merely +muttered to himself--'She is lost! Alas, she is lost for ever!' + +'No, she is not lost for ever,' cried Vetranio, warmly. 'I have wealth +and power enough to cause her to be sought for to the ends of the +earth! Ulpius shall be secured and questioned--imprisoned, tortured, if +it is necessary. Your daughter shall be recovered. Nothing is +impossible to a senator of Rome!' + + +'I knew not that I loved her, until the morning when I wronged and +banished her!' continued the old man, still speaking to himself. 'I +have lost all traces of my parents and my brother--my wife is parted +from me for ever--I have nothing left but Antonina; and now too she is +gone! Even my ambition, that I once thought my all in all, is no +comfort to my soul; for I loved it--alas! unconsciously loved +it--through the being of my child! I destroyed her lute--I thought her +shameless--I drove her from my doors! Oh, how I wronged her!--how I +wronged her!' + +'Remain here, and repose yourself in one of the sleeping apartments, +until my slaves return in the morning. You will then hear without +delay of the result of their search to-night,' said Vetranio, in kindly +and compassionate tones. + +'It grows dark--dark!' groaned the father, tottering towards the door; +'but that is nothing; daylight itself now looks darkness to me! I must +go: I have duties at the chapel to perform. Night is repose for +you--for me, it is tribulation and prayer!' + +He departed as he spoke. Slowly he paced along the streets that led to +his chapel, glancing with penetrating eye at each inhabitant of the +besieged city who passed him on his way. With some difficulty he +arrived at his destination; for Rome was still thronged with armed men +hurrying backwards and forwards, and with crowds of disorderly citizens +pouring forth, wherever there was space enough for them to assemble. +The report of the affliction that had befallen him had already gone +abroad among his hearers, and they whispered anxiously to each other as +he entered the plain, dimly-lighted chapel, and slowly mounted the +pulpit to open the service, by reading the chapter in the Bible which +had been appointed for perusal that night, and which happened to be the +fifth of the Gospel of St. Mark. His voice trembled, his face was +ghastly pale, and his hands shook perceptibly as he began; but he read +on, in low, broken tones, and with evident pain and difficulty, until +he came to the verse containing these words: 'My little daughter lieth +at the point of death.' Here he stopped suddenly, endeavoured vainly +for a few minutes to proceed, and then, covering his face with his +hands, sank down in the pulpit and sobbed aloud. His sorrowing and +startled audience immediately gathered round him, raised him in their +arms, and prepared to conduct him to his own abode. When, however, +they had gained the door of the chapel, he desired them gently, to +leave him and return to the performance of the service among +themselves. Ever implicitly obedient to his slightest wishes, the +persons of his little assembly, moved to tears by the sight of their +teacher's suffering, obeyed him, by retiring silently to their former +places. As soon as he found that he was alone, he passed the door; and +whispering to himself, 'I must join those who seek her! I must aid +them myself in the search!'--he mingled once more with the disorderly +citizens who thronged the darkened streets. + + + +CHAPTER 10. + +THE RIFT IN THE WALL. + +When Ulpius suddenly departed from Numerian's house on the morning of +the siege, it was with no distinct intention of betaking himself to any +particular place, or devoting himself to any immediate employment. It +was to give vent to his joy--to the ecstacy that now filled his heart +to bursting--that he sought the open streets. His whole moral being +was exalted by that overwhelming sense of triumph, which urges the +physical nature into action. He hurried into the free air, as a child +runs on a bright day in the wide fields; his delight was too wild to +expand under a roof; his excess of bliss swelled irrepressibly beyond +all artificial limits of space. + + +The Goths were in sight! A few hours more, and their scaling ladders +would be planted against the walls. On a city so weakly guarded as +Rome, their assault must be almost instantaneously successful. +Thirsting for plunder, they would descend in infuriated multitudes on +the defenceless streets. Christians though they were, the restraints +of religion would, in that moment of fierce triumph, be powerless with +such a nation of marauders against the temptations to pillage. +Churches would be ravaged and destroyed; priests would be murdered in +attempting the defence of their ecclesiastical treasures; fire and +sword would waste to its remotest confines the stronghold of +Christianity, and overwhelm in death and oblivion the boldest of +Christianity's devotees! Then, when the hurricane of ruin and crime had +passed over the city, when a new people were ripe for another +government and another religion--then would be the time to invest the +banished gods of old Rome with their former rule; to bid the survivors +of the stricken multitude remember the judgment that their apostacy to +their ancient faith had demanded and incurred; to strike the very +remembrance of the Cross out of the memory of man; and to reinstate +Paganism on her throne of sacrifices, and under her roof of gold, more +powerful from her past persecutions; more universal in her sudden +restoration, than in all the glories of her ancient rule! + +Such thoughts as these passed through the Pagan's toiling mind as, +unobservant of all outward events, he paced through the streets of the +beleaguered city. Already he beheld the array of the Goths preparing +the way, as the unconscious pioneers of the returning gods, for the +march of that mighty revolution which he was determined to lead. The +warmth of his past eloquence, the glow of his old courage, thrilled +through his heart, as he figured to himself the prospect that would +soon stretch before him--a city laid waste, a people terrified, a +government distracted, a religion destroyed. Then, arising amid this +darkness and ruin; amid this solitude, desolation, and decay, it would +be his glorious privilege to summon an unfaithful people to return to +the mistress of their ancient love; to rise from prostration beneath a +dismantled Church; and to seek prosperity in temples repeopled and at +shrines restored! + +All remembrance of late events now entirely vanished from his mind. +Numerian, Vetranio, Antonina, they were all forgotten in this memorable +advent of the Goths! His slavery in the mines, his last visit to +Alexandria, his earlier wanderings--even these, so present to his +memory until the morning of the siege, were swept from its very surface +now. Age, solitude, infirmity--hitherto the mournful sensations which +were proofs to him that he still continued to exist--suddenly vanished +from his perceptions, as things that were not; and now at length he +forgot that he was an outcast, and remembered triumphantly that he was +still a priest. He felt animated by the same hopes, elevated by the +same aspirations, as in those early days when he had harangued the +wavering Pagans in the Temple, and first plotted the overthrow of the +Christian Church. + +It was a terrible and warning proof of the omnipotent influence that a +single idea may exercise over a whole life, to see that old man +wandering among the crowds around him, still enslaved, after years of +suffering and solitude, degradation, and crime, by the same ruling +ambition, which had crushed the promise of his early youth! It was an +awful testimony to the eternal and mysterious nature of thought, to +behold that wasted and weakened frame; and then to observe how the +unassailable mind within still swayed the wreck of body yet left to +it--how faithfully the last exhausted resources of failing vigour +rallied into action at its fierce command--how quickly, at its mocking +voice, the sunken eye lightened again with a gleam of hope, and the +pale, thin lips parted mechanically with an exulting smile! + +The hours passed, but he still walked on--whither or among whom he +neither knew nor cared. No remorse touched his heart for the +destruction that he had wreaked on the Christian who had sheltered him; +no terror appalled his soul at the contemplation of the miseries that +he believed to be in preparation for the city from the enemy at its +gates. The end that had hallowed to him the long series of his former +offences and former sufferings, now obliterated iniquities just passed, +and stripped of all their horrors, atrocities immediately to come. + +The Goths might be destroyers to others, but they were benefactors to +him; for they were harbingers of the ruin which would be the material +of his reform, and the source of his triumph. It never entered his +imagination that, as an inhabitant of Rome, he shared the approaching +perils of the citizens, and in the moment of the assault might share +their doom. He beheld only the new and gorgeous prospect that war and +rapine were opening before him. He thought only of the time that must +elapse ere his new efforts could be commenced--of the orders of the +people among whom he should successively make his voice heard--of the +temples which he should select for restoration--of the quarter of Rome +which should first be chosen for the reception of his daring reform. + + +At length he paused; his exhausted energies yielded under the exertions +imposed on them, and obliged him to bethink himself of refreshment and +repose. It was now noon. The course of his wanderings had insensibly +conducted him again to the precincts of his old, familiar +dwelling-place; he found himself at the back of the Pincian Mount, and +only separated by a strip of uneven woody ground, from the base of the +city wall. The place was very solitary. It was divided from the +streets and mansions above by thick groves and extensive gardens, which +stretched along the undulating descent of the hill. A short distance +to the westward lay the Pincian Gate, but an abrupt turn in the wall +and some olive trees which grew near it, shut out all view of objects +in that direction. On the other side, towards the eastward, the +ramparts were discernible, running in a straight line of some length, +until they suddenly turned inwards at a right angle and were concealed +from further observation by the walls of a distant palace and the pine +trees of a public garden. The only living figure discernible near this +lonely spot, was that of a sentinel, who occasionally passed over the +ramparts above, which--situated as they were between two stations of +soldiery, one at the Pincian Gate and the other where the wall made the +angle already described--were untenanted, save by the guard within the +limits of whose watch they happened to be placed. Here, for a short +space of time, the Pagan rested his weary frame, and aroused himself +insensibly from the enthralling meditations which had hitherto blinded +him to the troubled aspect of the world around him. + +He now for the first time heard on all sides distinctly, the confused +noises which still rose from every quarter of Rome. The same incessant +strife of struggling voices and hurrying footsteps, which had caught +his ear in the early morning, attracted his attention now; but no +shrieks of distress, no clash of weapons, no shouts of fury and +defiance, were mingled with them; although, as he perceived by the +position of the sun, the day had sufficiently advanced to have brought +the Gothic army long since to the foot of the walls. What could be the +cause of this delay in the assault; of this ominous tranquillity on the +ramparts above him? Had the impetuosity of the Goths suddenly vanished +at the sight of Rome? Had negotiations for peace been organised with +the first appearance of the invaders? He listened again. No sounds +caught his ear differing in character from those he had just heard. +Though besieged, the city was evidently--from some mysterious +cause--not even threatened by an assault. + +Suddenly there appeared from a little pathway near him, which led round +the base of the wall, a woman preceded by a child, who called to her +impatiently, as he ran on, 'Hasten, mother, hasten! There is no crowd +here. Yonder is the Gate. We shall have a noble view of the Goths!' + +There was something in the address of the child to the woman that gave +Ulpius a suspicion, even then, of the discovery that flushed upon him +soon after. He rose and followed them. They passed onward by the +wall, through the olive trees beyond, and then gained the open space +before the Pincian Gate. Here a great concourse of people had +assembled, and were suffered, in their proper turn, to ascend the +ramparts in divisions, by some soldiers who guarded the steps by which +they were approached. After a short delay, Ulpius and those around him +were permitted to gratify their curiosity, as others had done before +them. They mounted the walls, and beheld, stretched over the ground +within and beyond the suburbs, the vast circumference of the Gothic +lines. + +Terrible and almost sublime as was the prospect of that immense +multitude, seen under the brilliant illumination of the noontide sun, +it was not impressive enough to silence the turbulent loquacity rooted +in the dispositions of the people of Rome. Men, women, and children, +all made their noisy and conflicting observations on the sight before +them, in every variety of tone, from the tremulous accents of terror, +to the loud vociferations of bravado. + + +Some spoke boastfully of the achievements that would be performed by +the Romans, when their expected auxiliaries arrived from Ravenna. +Others foreboded, in undissembled terror, an assault under cover of the +night. Here, a group abused, in low confidential tones, the policy of +the government in its relations with the Goths. There, a company of +ragged vagabonds amused themselves by pompously confiding to each other +their positive conviction, that at that very moment the barbarians must +be trembling in their camp, at the mere sight of the all-powerful +Capital of the World. In one direction, people were heard noisily +speculating whether the Goths would be driven from the walls by the +soldiers of Rome, or be honoured by an invitation to conclude a peace +with the august Empire, which they had so treasonably ventured to +invade. In another, the more sober and reputable among the spectators +audibly expressed their apprehensions of starvation, dishonour, and +defeat, should the authorities of the city be foolhardy enough to +venture a resistance to Alaric and his barbarian hosts. But wide as +was the difference of the particular opinions hazarded among the +citizens, they all agreed in one unavoidable conviction, that Rome had +escaped the immediate horrors of an assault, to be threatened--if +unaided by the legions at Ravenna--by the prospective miseries of a +blockade. + +Amid the confusion of voices around him, that word 'blockade' alone +reached the Pagan's ear. It brought with it a flood of emotions that +overwhelmed him. All that he saw, all that he heard, connected itself +imperceptibly with that expression. A sudden darkness, neither to be +dissipated nor escaped, seemed to obscure his faculties in an instant. +He struggled mechanically through the crowd, descended the steps of the +ramparts, and returned to the solitary spot where he had first beheld +the woman and the child. + +The city was blockaded! The Goths were bent then, on obtaining a peace +and not on achieving a conquest! The city was blockaded! It was no +error of the ignorant multitude--he had seen with his own eyes the +tents and positions of the enemy, he had heard the soldiers on the wall +discoursing on the admirable disposition of Alaric's forces, on the +impossibility of obtaining the smallest communication with the +surrounding country, on the vigilant watch that had been set over the +navigation of the Tiber. There was no doubt on the matter--the +barbarians had determined on a blockade! + +There was even less uncertainty upon the results which would be +produced by this unimaginable policy of the Goths--the city would be +saved! Rome had not scrupled in former years to purchase the +withdrawal of all enemies from her distant provinces; and now that the +very centre of her glory, the very pinnacle of her declining power, was +threatened with sudden and unexpected ruin, she would lavish on the +Goths the treasures of the whole empire, to bribe them to peace and to +tempt them to retreat. The Senate might possibly delay the necessary +concessions, from hopes of assistance that would never be realised; but +sooner or later the hour of negotiation would arrive; northern rapacity +would be satisfied with southern wealth; and in the very moment when it +seemed inevitable, the ruin from which the Pagan revolution was to +derive its vigorous source, would be diverted from the churches of Rome. + +Could the old renown of the Roman name have retained so much of its +ancient influence as to daunt the hardy Goths, after they had so +successfully penetrated the empire as to have reached the walls of its +vaunted capital? Could Alaric have conceived so exaggerated an idea of +the strength of the forces in the city as to despair, with all his +multitudes, of storming it with success? It could not be otherwise! No +other consideration could have induced the barbarian general to abandon +such an achievement as the destruction of Rome. With the chance of an +assault the prospects of Paganism had brightened--with the certainty of +a blockade, they sunk immediately into disheartening gloom! + + +Filled with these thoughts, Ulpius paced backwards and forwards in his +solitary retreat, utterly abandoned by the exaltation of feeling which +had restored to his faculties in the morning, the long-lost vigour of +their former youth. Once more, he experienced the infirmities of his +age; once more he remembered the miseries that had made his existence +one unending martyrdom; once more he felt the presence of his ambition +within him, like a judgment that he was doomed to welcome, like a curse +that he was created to cherish. To say that his sensations at this +moment were those of the culprit who hears the order for his execution +when he had been assured of a reprieve, is to convey but a faint idea +of the fierce emotions of rage, grief, and despair, that now united to +rend the Pagan's heart. + +Overpowered with weariness both of body and mind, he flung himself down +under the shade of some bushes that clothed the base of the wall above +him. As he lay there--so still in his heavy lassitude that life itself +seemed to have left him--one of the long green lizards, common to +Italy, crawled over his shoulder. He seized the animal--doubtful for +the moment whether it might not be of the poisonous species--and +examined it. At the first glance he discovered that it was of the +harmless order of its race, and would have flung it carelessly from +him, but for something in its appearance which, in the wayward +irritability of his present mood, he felt a strange and sudden pleasure +in contemplating. + +Through its exquisitely marked and transparent skin he could perceive +the action of the creature's heart, and saw that it was beating +violently, in the agony of fear caused to the animal by its +imprisonment in his hand. As he looked on it, and thought how +continually a being so timid must be thwarted in its humble anxieties, +in its small efforts, in its little journeys from one patch of grass to +another, by a hundred obstacles, which, trifles though they might be to +animals of a higher species, were yet of fatal importance to creatures +constituted like itself, he began to find an imperfect, yet remarkable +analogy between his own destiny and that of this small unit of +creation. He felt that, in its petty sphere, the short life of the +humble animal before him must have been the prey of crosses and +disappointments, as serious to it, as the more severed and destructive +afflictions of which he, in his existence, had been the victim; and, as +he watched the shadow-like movement of the little fluttering heart of +the lizard, he experienced a cruel pleasure in perceiving that there +were other beings in the creation, even down to the most insignificant, +who inherited a part of his misery, and suffered a portion of his +despair. + +Ere long, however, his emotions took a sterner and a darker hue. The +sight of the animal wearied him, and he flung it contemptuously aside. +It disappeared in the direction of the ramparts; and almost at the same +moment he heard a slight sound, resembling the falling of several +minute particles of brick or light stone, which seemed to come from the +wall behind him. + +That such a noise should proceed from so massive a structure appeared +unaccountable. He rose, and, parting the bushes before him, advanced +close to the surface of the lofty wall. To his astonishment, he found +that the brickwork had in many places so completely mouldered away, +that he could move it easily with his fingers. The cause of the +trifling noise that he had heard was now fully explained: hundreds of +lizards had made their homes between the fissures of the bricks; the +animal that he had permitted to escape had taken refuge in one of these +cavities, and in the hurry of its flight had detached several of the +loose crumbling fragments that surrounded its hiding-place. + +Not content, however, with the discovery he had already made, he +retired a little, and, looking stedfastly up through some trees which +in this particular place grew at the foot of the wall, he saw that its +surface was pierced in many places by great irregular rifts, some of +which extended nearly to its whole height. In addition to this, he +perceived that the mass of the structure at one particular point, +leaned considerably out of the perpendicular. Astounded at what he +beheld, he took a stick from the ground, and inserting it in one of the +lowest and smallest of the cracks, easily succeeded in forcing it +entirely into the wall, part of which seemed to be hollow, and part +composed of the same rotten brickwork which had at first attracted his +attention. + + +It was now evident that the whole structure, over a breadth of several +yards, had been either weakly and carelessly built, or had at some +former period suffered a sudden and violent shock. He left the stick in +the wall to mark the place; and was about to retire, when he heard the +footstep of the sentinel on the rampart immediately above. Suddenly +cautious, though from what motive he would have been at that moment +hardly able to explain, he remained in the concealment of the trees and +bushes, until the guard had passed onward; then he cautiously emerged +from the place; and, retiring to some distance, fell into a train of +earnest and absorbing thought. + +To account to the reader for the phenomenon which now engrossed the +Pagan's attention, it will be necessary to make a brief digression to +the history of the walls of Rome. + +The circumference of the first fortifications of the city, built by +Romulus, was thirteen miles. The greater part, however, of this large +area was occupied by fields and gardens, which it was the object of the +founder of the empire to preserve for arable purposes, from the +incursions of the different enemies by whom he was threatened from +without. As Rome gradually increased in size, its walls were +progressively enlarged and altered by subsequent rulers. But it was +not until the reign of the Emperor Aurelian (A.D. 270), that any +extraordinary or important change was effected in the defences of the +city. That potentate commenced the erection of walls, twenty-one miles +in circumference, which were finally completed in the reign of Probus +(A.D. 276), were restored by Belisarius (A.D. 537), and are to be seen +in detached portions, in the fortifications of the modern city, to the +present day. + +At the date of our story, then (A.D. 408), the walls remained precisely +as they had been constructed in the reigns of Aurelian and Probus. +They were for the most part made of brick; and in a few places, +probably, a sort of soft sandstone might have been added to the +pervading material. At several points in their circumference, and +particularly in the part behind the Pincian Hill, these walls were +built in arches, forming deep recesses, and occasionally disposed in +double rows. The method of building employed in their erection, was +generally that mentioned by Vitruvius, in whose time it originated, as +'opus reticulatum'. + +The 'opus reticulatum' was composed of small bricks (or stones) set +together on their angles, instead of horizontally, and giving the +surface of a wall the appearance of a sort of solid network. This was +considered by some architects of antiquity a perishable mode of +construction; and Vitruvius asserts that some buildings where he had +seen it used, had fallen down. From the imperfect specimens of it +which remain in modern times, it would be difficult to decide upon its +merits. That it was assuredly insufficient to support the weight of the +bank of the Pincian Mount, which rose immediately behind it, in the +solitary spot described some pages back, is still made evident by the +appearance of the wall at that part of the city, which remains in +modern times bent out of the perpendicular, and cracked in some places +almost from top to bottom. This ruin is now known to the present race +of Italians, under the expressive title of 'Il Muro Torto' or, The +Crooked Wall. + +We may here observe that it is extremely improbable that the existence +of this natural breach in the fortifications of Rome was noticed, or if +noticed, regarded with the slightest anxiety or attention by the +majority of the careless and indolent inhabitants, at the period of the +present romance. It is supposed to have been visible as early as the +time of Aurelian, but is only particularly mentioned by Procopius, an +historian of the sixth century, who relates that Belisarius, in +strengthening the city against a siege of the Goths, attempted to +repair this weak point in the wall, but was hindered in his intended +labour by the devout populace, who declared that it was under the +peculiar protection of St. Peter, and that it would be consequently +impious to meddle with it. The general submitted without remonstrance +to the decision of the inhabitants, and found no cause afterwards to +repent of his facility of compliance; for, to use the translated words +of the writer above-mentioned, 'During the siege neither the enemy nor +the Romans regarded this place.' It is to be supposed that so +extraordinary an event as this, gave the wall that sacred character, +which deterred subsequent rulers from attempting its repair; which +permitted it to remain crooked and rent through the convulsions of the +middle ages; and which still preserves it, to attest the veracity of +historians, by appealing to the antiquarian curiosity of the traveller +of modern times. + + +We now return to Ulpius. It is a peculiarity observable in the +characters of men living under the ascendancy of one ruling idea, that +they intuitively distort whatever attracts their attention in the outer +world, into a connection more or less intimate with the single object +of their mental contemplation. Since the time when he had been exiled +from the Temple, the Pagan's faculties had, unconsciously to himself, +acted solely in reference to the daring design which it was the +business of his whole existence to entertain. Influenced, therefore, +by this obliquity of moral feeling, he had scarcely reflected on the +discovery that he had just made at the base of the city wall, ere his +mind instantly reverted to the ambitious meditations which had occupied +it in the morning; and the next moment, the first dawning conception of +a bold and perilous project began to absorb his restless thoughts. + +He reflected on the peculiarities and position of the wall before him. +Although the widest and most important of the rents which he had +observed in it, existed too near the rampart to be reached without the +assistance of a ladder, there were others as low as the ground, which +he knew, by the result of the trial he had already made, might be +successfully and immensely widened by the most ordinary exertion and +perseverance. The interior of the wall, if judged by the condition of +the surface, could offer no insuperable obstacles to an attempt at +penetration so partial as to be limited to a height and width of a few +feet. The ramparts, from their position between two guard-houses, +would be unencumbered by an inquisitive populace. The sentinel, within +the limits of whose allotted watch it happened to fall, would, when +night came on, be the only human being likely to pass the spot; and at +such an hour his attention must necessarily be fixed--in the +circumstances under which the city was now placed--on the prospect +beyond, rather than on the ground below and behind him. It seemed, +therefore, almost a matter of certainty, that a cautious man, labouring +under cover of the night, might pursue whatever investigations he +pleased at the base of the wall. + +He examined the ground where he now stood. Nothing could be more +lonely than its present appearance. The private gardens on the hill +above it shut out all communication from that quarter. It could only +be approached by the foot-path that ran round the Pincian Mount, and +along the base of the walls. In the state of affairs now existing in +the city, it was not probable that any one would seek this solitary +place, whence nothing could be seen, and where little could be heard, +in preference to mixing with the spirit-stirring confusion in the +streets, or observing the Gothic encampment from such positions on the +ramparts as were easily attainable to all. In addition to the secresy +offered by the loneliness of this patch of ground to whatever +employments were undertaken on it, was the further advantage afforded +by the trees and thickets which covered its lower end, and which would +effectually screen an intruder, during the darkness of night, from the +most penetrating observation directed from the wall above. + +Reflecting thus, he doubted not that a cunning and determined man might +with impunity so far widen any one of the inferior breaches in the +lower part of the wall as to make a cavity (large enough to admit a +human figure) that should pierce to its outer surface, and afford that +liberty of departing from the city and penetrating the Gothic camp +which the closed gates now denied to all the inhabitants alike. To +discover the practicability of such an attempt as this was, to a mind +filled with such aspirations as the Pagan's, to determine irrevocably +on its immediate execution. He resolved as soon as night approached to +begin his labours on the wall; to seek--if the breach were made good, +and the darkness favoured him--the tent of Alaric; and once arrived +there, to acquaint the Gothic King with the weakness of the materials +for defence within the city, and dilapidated condition of the +fortifications below the Pincian Mount, insisting, as the condition of +his treachery, on an assurance from the barbarian leader (which he +doubted not would be gladly and instantly accorded) of the destruction +of the Christian churches, the pillage of the Christian possessions, +and the massacre of the Christian priests. + + +He retired cautiously from the lonely place that had now become the +centre of his new hopes; and entering the streets of the city, +proceeded to provide himself with an instrument that would facilitate +his approaching labours, and food that would give him strength to +prosecute his intended efforts, unthreatened by the hindrance of +fatigue. As he thought on the daring treachery of his project, his +morning's exultation began to return to him again. All his previous +attempts to organise the restoration of Paganism sunk into sudden +insignificance before his present design. His defence of the Temple of +Serapis, his conspiracy at Alexandria, his intrigue with Vetranio, were +the efforts of a man; but this projected destruction of the priests, +the churches, and the treasures of a whole city, through the agency of +a mighty army, moved by the unaided machinations of a single +individual, would be the dazzling achievement of a god! + +The hours loitered slowly onward. The sun waned in the gorgeous +heaven, and set, surrounded by red and murky clouds. Then came silence +and darkness. The Gothic watch-fires flamed one by one into the dusky +air. The guards were doubled at the different posts. The populace were +driven from the ramparts, and the fortifications of the great city +echoed to no sound now but the tramp of the restless sentinel, or the +clash of arms from the distant guard-houses that dotted the long line +of the lofty walls. + +It was then that Ulpius, passing cautiously along the least-frequented +streets, gained unnoticed the place of his destination. A thick vapour +lay over the lonely and marshy spot. Nothing was now visible from it +but the dim, uncertain outline of the palaces above, and the mass, so +sunk in obscurity that it looked like a dark layer of mist itself, of +the rifted fortifications. A smile of exultation passed over the +Pagan's countenance, as he perceived the shrouding and welcome +thickness of the atmosphere. Groping his way softly through the +thickets, he arrived at the base of the wall. For some time he passed +slowly along it, feeling the width of the different rents wherever he +could stretch his hand. At length he paused at one more extensive than +the rest, drew from its concealment in his garments a thick bar of iron +sharpened at one end, and began to labour at the breach. + +Chance had led him to the place best adapted to his purpose. The +ground he stood on was only encumbered close to the wall by rank weeds +and low thickets, and was principally composed of damp, soft turf. The +bricks, therefore, as he carefully detached them, made no greater noise +in falling than the slight rustling caused by their sudden contact with +the boughs through which they descended. Insignificant as this sound +was, it aroused the apprehension of the wary Pagan. He laid down his +iron bar, and removed the thickets by dragging them up, or breaking +them at the roots, until he had cleared a space of some feet in extent +before the base of the wall. He then returned to his toilsome task, +and with hands bleeding from the wounds inflicted by the thorns he had +grasped in removing the thickets continued his labour at the +brick-work. He pursued his employment with perfect impunity; the +darkness covered him from observation; no one disturbed him by +approaching the solitary scene of his operations; and of the two +sentinels who were placed near the part of the wall which was the +centre of all his exertions, one remained motionless at the most +distant extremity of his post, and the other paced restlessly backwards +and forwards on the rampart, singing a wild, rambling song about war, +and women, and wine, which, whatever liberty it might allow to his +organs of perception, effectually hindered the vigilant exercise of his +faculties of hearing. + +Brick after brick yielded to the vigorous and well-timed efforts of +Ulpius. He had already made a cavity, in an oblique direction, large +enough to creep through, and was preparing to penetrate still further, +when a portion of the rotten material of the interior of the wall +suddenly yielded in a mass to a chance pressure of his iron bar, and +slowly sunk down inwards into a bed which, judging by such faint sounds +as were audible at the moment, must have been partly water, and partly +marshy earth and rotten brick-work. After having first listened, to be +sure that the slight noise caused by this event had not reached the +ears or excited the suspicions of the careless sentinels, Ulpius crept +into the cavity he had made, groping his way with his bar, until he +reached the brink of a chasm, the depth of which he could not probe, +and the breadth of which he could not ascertain. + + +He lingered irresolute; the darkness around him was impenetrable; he +could feel toads and noisome animals crawling over his limbs. The damp +atmosphere of the place began to thrill through him to his very bones; +his whole frame trembled under the excess of his past exertions. +Without light, he could neither attempt to proceed, nor hope to +discover the size and extent of the chasm which he had partially laid +open. The mist was fast vanishing as the night advanced: it was +necessary to arrive at a resolution ere it would be too late. + +He crept out of the cavity. Just as he had gained the open air, the +sentinel halted over the very spot where the Pagan stood, and paused +suddenly in his song. There was an instant's interval of silence, +during which the inmost soul of Ulpius quailed beneath an apprehension +as vivid, as that which had throbbed in the heart of the despised +lizard, whose flight had guided him to his discovery at the wall. +Soon, however, he heard the voice of the soldier calling cheerfully to +his fellow sentinel, 'Comrade, do you see the moon? She is rising to +cheer our watch!' + +Nothing had been discovered!--he was still safe! But if he stayed at +the cavity till the mists faded before the moonlight, could he be +certain of preserving his security? He felt that he could not! + +What mattered a night more or a night less, to such a project as his? +Months might elapse before the Goths retired from the walls. It was +better to suffer delay than to risk discovery. He determined to leave +the place, and to return on the following night provided with a +lantern, the light of which he would conceal until he entered the +cavity. Once there, it could not be perceived by the sentinels +above--it would guide him through all obstacles, preserve him through +all dangers. Massive as it was, he felt convinced that the interior of +the wall was in as ruinous a condition as the outside. Caution and +perseverance were sufficient of themselves to insure to his efforts the +speediest and completest success. + +He waited until the sentinel had again betaken himself to the furthest +limits of his watch, and then softly gathering up the brushwood that +lay round him, he concealed with it the mouth of the cavity in the +outer wall, and the fragments of brick-work that had fallen on the turf +beneath. This done, he again listened, to assure himself that he had +been unobserved; then, stepping with the utmost caution, he departed by +the path that led round the slope of the Pincian Hill. + +'Strength--patience--and to-morrow night!' muttered the Pagan to +himself, as he entered the streets, and congregated once more with the +citizens of Rome. + + + +CHAPTER 11. + +GOISVINTHA'S RETURN. + +It was morning. The sun had risen, but his beams were partially +obscured by thick heavy clouds, which scowled already over the +struggling brightness of the eastern horizon. The bustle and animation +of the new day gradually overspread the Gothic encampment in all +directions. The only tent whose curtain remained still closed, and +round which no busy crowds congregated in discussion or mingled in +labour, was that of Hermanric. By the dying embers of his watchfire +stood the young chieftain, with two warriors, to whom he appeared to be +giving some hurried directions. His countenance expressed emotions of +anxiety and discontent, which, though partially repressed while he was +in the presence of his companions, became thoroughly visible, not only +in his features, but in his manner, when they left him to watch alone +before his tent. + + +For some time he walked regularly backwards and forwards, looking +anxiously down the westward lines of the encampment, and occasionally +whispering to himself a hasty exclamation of doubt and impatience. +With the first breath of the new morning, the delighting meditations +which had occupied him by his watchfire during the darkness of the +night had begun to subside. And now, as the hour of her expected return +gradually approached, the image of Goisvintha banished from his mind +whatever remained of those peaceful and happy contemplation in which he +had hitherto been absorbed. The more he thought on his fatal +promise--on the nation of Antonina--on his duties to the army and the +people to whom he belonged, the more doubtful appeared to him his +chance of permanently protecting the young Roman without risking his +degradation as a Goth, and his ruin as a warrior; and the more sternly +and ominously ran in his ears the unassailable truth of Goisvintha's +parting taunt--'You must remember your promise, you cannot save her if +you would!' + +Wearied of persisting in deliberations which only deepened his +melancholy and increased his doubts; bent on sinking in a temporary and +delusive oblivion the boding reflections that overcame him in spite of +himself, by seeking--while its enjoyment was yet left to him--the +society of his ill-fated charge, he turned towards his tent, drew aside +the thick, heavy curtains of skins which closed its opening, and +approached the rude couch on which Antonina was still sleeping. + +A ray of sunlight, fitful and struggling, burst at this moment through +the heavy clouds, and stole into the opening of the tent as he +contemplated the slumbering girl. It ran its flowing course up her +uncovered hand and arm, flew over her bosom and neck, and bathed in a +bright fresh glow, her still and reposing features. Gradually her +limbs began to move, her lips parted gently and half smiled, as if in +welcome to the greeting of the light; her eyes slightly opened, then +dazzled by the brightness that flowed through their raised lids, +tremblingly closed again. At length thoroughly awakened, she shaded +her face with her hands, and sitting up on the couch, met the gaze of +Hermanric fixed on her in sorrowful examination. + +'Your bright armour, and your glorious name, and your merciful words, +have remained with me even in my sleep,' said she, wonderingly; 'and +now, when I awake, I see you before me again! It is a happiness to be +aroused by the sun which has gladdened me all my life, to look upon you +who have given me shelter in my distress! But why,' she continued, in +altered and enquiring tones, 'why do you gaze upon me with doubting and +mournful eyes?' + +'You have slept well and safely,' said Hermanric, evasively, 'I closed +the opening of the tent to preserve you from the night-damps, but I +have raised it now, for the air is warming under the rising sun--' + +'Are you wearied with watching?' she interrupted, rising to her feet, +and looking anxiously into his face. But he spoke not in reply. His +head was turned towards the door of the tent. He seemed to be +listening for some expected sound. It was evident that he had not +heard her question. She followed the direction of his eyes. The sight +of the great city, half brightened, half darkened, as its myriad +buildings reflected the light of the sun, or retained the shadows of +the clouds, brought back to her remembrance her last night's petition +for her father's safety. She laid her hand upon her companion's arm to +awaken his attention, and hastily resumed:-- + +'You have not forgotten what I said to you last night? My father's +name is Numerian. He lives on the Pincian Mount. You will save him, +Hermanric--you will save him! You will remember your promise!' + +The young warrior's eyes fell as she spoke, and an irrepressible +shudder shook his whole frame. The last part of Antonina's address to +him, was expressed in the same terms as a past appeal from other lips, +and in other accents, which still clung to his memory. The same +demand, 'Remember your promise,' which had been advanced to urge him to +bloodshed, by Goisvintha, was now proffered by Antonina, to lure him to +pity. The petition of affection was concluded in the same terms as the +petition of revenge. As he thought on both, the human pity of the one, +and the fiend-like cruelty of the other, rose in sinister and +significant contrast on the mind of the Goth, realising in all its +perils the struggle that was to come when Goisvintha returned, and +dispelling instantaneously the last hopes that he had yet ventured to +cherish for the fugitive at his side. + +'No assault of the city is commanded--no assault is intended. Your +father's life is safe from the swords of the Goths,' he gloomily +replied, in answer to Antonina's last words. + +The girl moved back from him a few steps as he spoke, and looked +thoughtfully round the tent. The battle-axe that Hermanric had secured +during the scene of the past evening, still lay on the ground, in a +corner. The sight of it brought back a flood of terrible recollections +to her mind. She started violently; a sudden change overspread her +features, and when she again addressed Hermanric, it was with quivering +lips and in almost inarticulate words. + +'I know now why you look on me so gloomily,' said she; 'that woman is +coming back! I was so occupied by my dreams and my thoughts of my +father and of you, and my hopes for days to come, that I had forgotten +her when I awoke! But I remember all now! She is coming back--I see +it in your sorrowful eyes--she is coming back to murder me! I shall +die at the moment when I had such hope in my life! There is no +happiness for me! None!--none!' + +The Goth's countenance began to darken. He whispered to himself +several times, 'How can I save her?' For a few minutes there was a +deep silence, broken only by the sobs of Antonina. He looked round at +her after an interval. She held her hands clasped over her eyes. The +tears were streaming through her parted fingers; her bosom heaved as if +her emotions would burst their way through it in some palpable form; +and her limbs trembled so, that she could scarcely support herself. +Unconsciously, as he looked on her, he passed his arm round her slender +form, drew her hands gently from her face, and said to her, though his +heart belied his words as he spoke, 'Do not be afraid--trust in me!' + +'How can I be calm?' she cried, looking up at him entreatingly; 'I was +so happy last night, so sure that you could preserve me, so hopeful +about to-morrow--and now I see by your mournful looks, I know by your +doubting voice, that to soothe my anguish you have promised me more +than you can perform! The woman who is your companion, has a power +over us both, that it is terrible even to think of! She will return, +she will withdraw all mercy from your heart, she will glare upon me +with her fearful eyes, she will kill me at your feet! I shall die +after all I have suffered and all I have hoped! Oh, Hermanric, while +there is yet time let us escape! You were not made to shed blood--you +are too merciful! God never made you to destroy! You cannot yearn +towards cruelty and woe, for you have aided and protected me! Let us +escape! I will follow you wherever you wish! I will do whatever you +ask! I will go with you beyond those far, bright mountains behind us, +to any strange and distant land; for there is beauty everywhere; there +are woods that may be dwelt in, and valleys that may be loved, on all +the surface of this wide great earth!' + +The Goth looked sadly on her as she paused; but he gave her no +answer--the gloom was deepening over his heart--the false words of +consolation were silenced on his lips. + + +'Think how many pleasures we should enjoy, how much we might see!' +continued the girl, in soft, appealing tones. 'We should be free to +wander wherever we pleased; we should never be lonely; never be +mournful; never be wearied! I could listen to you day after day, while +you told me of the country where your people were born! I could sing +you sweet songs that I have learned upon the lute! Oh, how I have wept +in my loneliness to lead such a life as this! How I have longed that +such freedom and joy might be mine! How I have thought of the distant +lands that I would visit, of the happy nations that I would discover, +of the mountain breezes that I would breathe, of the shady places that +I would repose in, of the rivers that I would follow in their course, +of the flowers I would plant, and the fruits I would gather! How I +have hoped for such an existence as this! How I have longed for a +companion who might enjoy it as I should! Have you never felt this joy +that I have imagined to myself, you who have been free to wander +wherever you pleased? Let us leave this place, and I will teach it to +you if you have not. I will be so patient, so obedient, so happy! I +will never be sorrowful; never repining--but let us escape--Oh, +Hermanric, let us escape while there is yet time! Will you keep me +here to be slain? Can you drive me forth into the world alone? +Remember that the gates of the city and the doors of my home are now +closed to me! Remember that I have no mother, and that my father has +forsaken me! Remember that I am a stranger on the earth which was made +for me to be joyful in! Think how soon the woman who has vowed that +she will murder me will return; think how terrible it is to be in the +fear of death; and while there is time let us depart--Hermanric, +Hermanric, if you have pity for me, let us depart!' + +She clasped her hands, and looked up in his face imploringly. The +manner of Hermanric had expressed more to her senses, sharpened as they +were by peril, than his words could have conveyed, even had he +confessed to her the cause of the emotions of doubt and apprehension +that oppressed his mind. Nothing could more strikingly testify to the +innocence of her character and the seclusion of her life, than her +attempt to combine with her escape from Goisvintha's fury, the +acquisition of such a companion as the Goth. But to the forlorn and +affectionate girl who saw herself--a stranger to the laws of the social +existence of her fellow creatures--suddenly thrust forth friendless +into the unfriendly world, could the heart have naturally prompted any +other desire, than anxiety to secure the companion after having +discovered the protector? In the guilelessness of her character, in +her absolute ignorance of humanity, of the influence of custom, of the +adaptation of difference of feeling to difference of sex, she vainly +imagined that the tranquil existence she had urged on Hermanric, would +suffice for the attainment of her end, by presenting the same +allurements to him, a warrior and a Goth, that it contained for her--a +lonely, thoughtful, visionary girl! And yet, so wonderful was the +ascendancy that she had acquired by the magic of her presence, the +freshness of her beauty, and the novelty of her manner, over the heart +of the young chieftain, that he, who would have spurned from him with +contempt any other woman who might have addressed to him such a +petition as Antonina's, looked down sorrowfully at the girl as she +ceased speaking, and for an instant hesitated in his choice. + +At that moment, when the attention of each was fixed on the other, a +third person stealthily approached the opening of the tent, and +beholding them together thus, burst into a bitter, taunting laugh. +Hermanric raised his eyes instantly; but the sound of that harsh +unwomanly voice was all-eloquent to Antonina's senses. She hid her +face against the Goth's breast, and murmured breathlessly--'She has +returned! I must die! I must die!' + +She had returned! She perceived Hermanric and Antonina in a position, +which left no doubt that a stronger feeling than the mere wish to +protect the victim of her intended revenge, had arisen, during her +absence, in the heart of her kinsman. Hour after hour, while she had +fulfilled her duties by the beds of Alaric's invalided soldiery, had +she brooded over her projects of vengeance and blood. Neither the +sickness nor the death which she had beheld around her, had possessed +an influence powerful enough over the stubborn ferocity which now alone +animated her nature, to lure it to mercy or awe it to repentance. +Invigorated by delay, and enlarged by disappointment, the evil passion +that consumed her had strengthened its power, and aroused the most +latent of its energies, during the silent vigil that she had just held. +She had detested the girl on the evening before, for her nation; she +now hated her for herself. + +'What have you to do with the trappings of a Gothic warrior?' she +cried, in mocking accents, pointing at Hermanric with a long +hunting-knife which she held in her hand. 'Why are you here in a +Gothic encampment? Go, knock at the gates of Rome, implore her guards +on your knees to admit you among the citizens, and when they ask you +why--show them the girl there! Tell them that you love her, that you +would wed her, that it is nothing to you that her people have murdered +your brother and his children! And then, when you yourself have +begotten sons, Gothic bastards infected with Roman blood, be a Roman at +heart yourself, send your children forth to complete what your wife's +people left undone at Aquileia--by murdering me!' + +She paused and laughed scornfully. Then her humour suddenly changed, +she advanced a few steps, and continued in a louder and sterner tone:-- + + +'You have broken your faith; you have lied to me; you have forgotten +your wrongs and mine; but you have not yet forgotten my parting words +when I left you last night! I told you that she should be slain, and +now that you have refused to avenge me, I will make good my words by +killing her with my own hand! If you would defend her, you must murder +me. You must shed her blood or mine!' + +She stepped forward, her towering form was stretched to its highest +stature, the muscles started into action on her bare arms as she raised +them above her head. For one instant, she fixed her glaring eyes +steadily on the girl's shrinking form--the next, she rushed up and +struck furiously with the knife at her bare neck. As the weapon +descended, Hermanric caught her wrist. She struggled violently to +disengage herself from his grasp, but in vain. + +The countenance of the young warrior grew deadly pale, as he held her. +For a few minutes he glanced eagerly round the tent, in an agony of +bewilderment and despair. The conflicting interests of his duty +towards his sister, and his anxiety for Antonina's preservation, filled +his heart to distraction. A moment more he hesitated, and during that +short delay, the despotism of custom had yet power enough to prevail +over the promptings of pity. He called to the girl--withdrawing his +arm which had hitherto been her support,--'Go, have mercy on me, go!' + +But she neither heeded nor heard him. She fell on her knees at the +woman's feet, and in a low moaning voice faltered out:-- + +'What have I done that I deserve to be slain? I never murdered your +children; I never yet saw a child but I loved it; if I had seen your +children, I should have loved them!' + +'If I had preserved to this time the child that I saved from the +massacre, and you had approached him,' returned the woman fiercely, 'I +would have taught him to strike at you with his little hands! When you +spoke to him, he should have spat upon you for answer--even thus!' + +Trembling, exhausted, terrified as she was, the girl's Roman blood +rushed over her pale cheeks as she felt the insult. She turned towards +Hermanric, looked up at him appealingly, attempted to speak, and then +sinking lower upon the ground, wept bitterly. + +'Why do you weep and pray and mouth it at him?' shrieked Goisvintha, +pointing to Hermanric with her disengaged hand. 'He has neither +courage to protect you, nor honour to aid me. Do you think that I am +to be moved by your tears and entreaties? I tell you that your people +have slain my husband and my children, and that I hate you for that. I +tell you that you have lured Hermanric into love for a Roman and +unfaithfulness to me, and I will slay you for doing it! I tell you +that there is not a living thing of the blood of your country, or the +name of your nation, throughout the length and breadth of this empire, +that I would not destroy if I had the power! If the very trees on the +road hither could have had feeling, I would have torn the bark from +their stems with my own hands! If a bird, native of your skies, had +flown into my bosom from very tameness and sport, I would have crushed +it dead at my feet! And do you think that you shall escape? Do you +think that I will not avenge the deaths of my husband and my children +upon you, after this?' + +As she spoke, she mechanically unclenched her hands. The knife dropped +to the ground. Hermanric instantly stooped and secured it. For a +moment she stood before him released from his grasp, motionless and +speechless. Then, starting as if struck by a sudden idea, she moved +towards the opening of the tent, and, in tones of malignant triumph, +addressed him thus:-- + +'You shall not save her yet! You are unworthy of your nation and your +name! I will betray your cowardice and treachery to your brethren in +the camp!' And she ran to the outside of the tent, calling in a loud +voice to a group of young warriors who happened to be passing at a +short distance. 'Stay, stay! +Fritigern--Athanaric--Colias--Suerid--Witheric--Fravitta! Hasten +hitherward! Hermanric has a captive in his tent--a prisoner whom it +will rejoice to see! Hitherward! hitherward!' + + +The group she addressed contained some of the most turbulent and +careless spirits of the whole Gothic army. They had just been released +from their duties of the past night, and were at leisure to comply with +Goisvintha's request. She had scarcely concluded her address before +they turned and hurried eagerly up to the tent, shouting to Hermanric, +as they advanced, to make his prisoner visible to them in the open air. + +They had probably expected to be regaled by the ludicrous terror of +some Roman slave whom their comrade had discovered lurking in the empty +suburbs; for when they entered the tent, and saw nothing but the +shrinking figure of the unhappy girl, as she crouched on the earth at +Hermanric's feet, they all paused with one accord, and looked round on +each other in speechless astonishment. + +'Behold her!' cried Goisvintha, breaking the momentary silence. 'She +is the Roman prisoner that your man of valour there has secured for +himself! For that trembling child he has forgotten the enmities of his +people! She is more to him already than army, general, or companions. +You have watched before the city during the night; but he has stood +sentinel by the maiden of Rome! Hope not that he will share in your +toils, or mix in your pleasures more. Alaric and the warriors have +lost his services--his future king cringes there at his feet!' + +She had expected to arouse the anger and excite the jealousy of the +rough audience she addressed; but the result of her envenomed jeers +disappointed her hopes. The humour of the moment prompted the Goths to +ridicule, a course infinitely more inimical to Antonina's interests +with Hermanric than menaces or recrimination. Recovered from their +first astonishment, they burst into a loud and universal laugh. + +'Mars and Venus caught together! But, by St. Peter, I see not Vulcan +and the net!' cried Fravitta, who having served in the armies of Rome, +and acquired a vague knowledge there of the ancient mythology, and the +modern politics of the Empire, was considered by his companions as the +wit of the battalion to which he was attached. + +'I like her figure,' growled Fritigern, a heavy, phlegmatic giant, +renowned for his imperturbable good humour and his prowess in drinking. +'What little there is of it looks so limp that Hermanric might pack her +into his light baggage and carry her about with him on his shoulders +wherever he goes!' + +'By which process you would say, old sucker of wine-skins, that he will +attain the double advantage of always keeping her to himself, and +always keeping her warm,' interrupted Colias, a ruddy, reckless boy of +sixteen, privileged to be impertinent in consideration of his years. + +'Is she Orthodox or Arian?' gravely demanded Athanaric, who piqued +himself on his theological accomplishments and his extraordinary piety. + +'What hair she has!' exclaimed Suerid, sarcastically. 'It is as black +as the horse-hides of a squadron of Huns!' + +'Show us her face! Whose tent will she visit next?' cried Witheric, +with an insolent laugh. + +'Mine!' replied Fritigern, complacently. 'What says the chorus of the +song? + +'Money and wine Make beauty mine! + +I have more of both than any of you. She will come to my tent!' + +During the delivery of these clumsy jests, which followed one upon +another with instantaneous rapidity, the scorn at first expressed in +Hermanric's countenance became gradually replaced by a look of +irrepressible anger. As Fritigern spoke, he lost all command over +himself, and seizing his sword, advanced threateningly towards the +easy-tempered giant, who made no attempt to recede or defend himself, +but called out soothingly, 'Patience, man! patience! Would you kill an +old comrade for jesting? I envy you your good luck as a friend, not as +an enemy!' + + +Yielding to the necessity of lowering his sword before a defenceless +man, Hermanric was about to reply angrily to Fritigern, when his voice +was drowned in the blast of a trumpet, sounding close by the tent. The +signal that it gave was understood at once by the group of jesters +still surrounding the young Goth. They turned, and retired without an +instant's delay. The last of their number had scarcely disappeared, +when the same veteran who had spoken with Hermanric, on the departure +of Goisvintha the evening before, entered and thus addressed him:-- + +'You are commanded to post yourself with the division that now awaits +you, at a place eastward of your present position, which will be shown +you by a guide. Make ready at once--you have not an instant to delay.' + +As the words passed the old man's lips, Hermanric turned and looked on +Goisvintha. During the presence of the Goths in the tent, she had sat +listening to their rough jeers in suppressed wrath and speechless +disdain; now she rose and advanced a few steps. But there suddenly +appeared an unwonted hesitation in her gait; her face was pale; she +breathed fast and heavily. 'Where will you shelter her now?' she +cried, addressing Hermanric, and threatening the girl with her +outstretched hands. 'Abandon her to your companions, or leave her to +me; she is lost either way! I shall triumph--triumph!'-- + +At this moment her voice sank to an unintelligible murmur; she tottered +where she stood. It was evident that the long strife of passions +during her past night of watching, and the fierce and varying emotions +of the morning, suddenly brought to a crisis, as they had been, by her +exultation when she heard the old warrior's fatal message, had at +length overtasked the energies even of her powerful frame. Yet one +moment more she endeavoured to advance, to speak, to snatch the hunting +knife from Hermanric's hand; the next she fell insensible at his feet. + +Goaded almost to madness by the successive trials that he had +undergone; Goisvintha's furious determination to thwart him, still +present to his mind; the scornful words of his companions yet ringing +in his ears; his inexorable duties demanding his attention without +reserve or delay; Hermanric succumbed at last under the difficulties of +his position, and despairingly abandoned all further hope of effecting +the girl's preservation. Pointing to some food that lay in a corner of +the tent, and to the country behind, he said to her, in broken and +gloomy accents, 'Furnish yourself with those provisions, and fly, while +Goisvintha is yet unable to pursue you. I can protect you no longer!' + +Until this moment, Antonina had kept her face hidden, and had remained +still crouching on the ground; motionless, save when a shudder ran +through her frame as she listened to the loud, coarse jesting of the +Goths; and speechless, except that when Goisvintha sank senseless to +the earth, she uttered an exclamation of terror. But now, when she +heard the sentence of her banishment proclaimed by the very lips which +but the evening before had assured her of shelter and protection, she +rose up instantly, cast on the young Goth a glance of such speechless +misery and despair, that he involuntarily quailed before it; and then, +without a tear or a sigh, without a look of reproach, or a word of +entreaty, petrified and bowed down beneath a perfect trance of terror +and grief, she left the tent. + +Hurrying his actions with the reckless energy of a man determined on +banishing his thoughts by his employments, Hermanric placed himself at +the head of his troop, and marched quickly onwards in an eastward +direction past the Pincian Gate. Two of his attendants who happened to +enter the tent after his departure, observing Goisvintha still extended +on the earth, proceeded to transport her to part of the camp occupied +by the women who were attached to the army; and then, the little +sheltering canopy which made the abode of the Goth, and which had +witnessed so large a share of human misery and so fierce a war of human +contention in so few hours, was left as silent and lonely as the +deserted country in which Antonina was now fated to seek a refuge and a +home. + + + +CHAPTER 12. + +THE PASSAGE OF THE WALL. + +'A fair night this, Balbus! All moonlight and no mist! I was posted +last evening at the Ostian Gate, and was half choked by the fog.' + +'If you were posted last night at the Ostian Gate, you were better +placed than you are now. The ramparts here are as lonely as a ruin in +the provinces. Nothing behind us but the back of the Pincian Mount; +nothing before us but the empty suburbs; nothing at each side of us but +brick and stone; nothing at our posts but ourselves. May I be +crucified like St. Peter, if I believe that there is another place on +the whole round of the walls possessed of such solitary dulness as +this!' + +'You are a man to find something to complain of, if you were lodged in +one of the palaces yonder. The place is solitary enough, it is true; +but whether it is dull or not depends on ourselves, its most honourable +occupants. I, for one, am determined to promote its joviality by the +very praiseworthy exertion of obliging you, my discontented friend, +with an inexhaustible series of those stories for which, I may say, +without arrogance, I am celebrated throughout the length and breadth of +all the barracks of Rome.' + +'You may tell as many stories as you please, but do not imagine that I +will make one of your audience.' + +'You are welcome to attend to me or not, as you choose. Though you do +not listen, I shall still relate my stories by way of practice. I will +address them to the walls, or to the air, or to the defunct gods and +goddesses of antiquity, should they happen at this moment to be +hovering over the city in a rage, as some of the unconverted would have +us believe; or to our neighbours the Goths, if they are seized with a +sudden desire to quite their encampments, and obtain a near view of the +fortifications that they are so discreetly unwilling to assault. Or, +these materials for a fit and decent auditory failing me, I will tell +my stories to the most attentive of all listeners--myself.' + +And the sentinel, without further delay, opened his budget of +anecdotes, with the easy fluency of of a man who possessed a +well-placed confidence in the perfection of his capacities for +narration. Determined that his saturnine colleague should hear him, +though he would not give him his attention, he talked in a raised +voice, pacing briskly backwards and forwards over the space of his +allotted limits, and laughing with ludicrous regularity and complacency +at every jest that he happened to make in the course of his +ill-rewarded narrative. He little thought, as he continued to proceed +in his tale that its commencement had been welcomed by an unseen +hearer, with emotions widely different from those which had dictated +the observations of the unfriendly companion of his watch. + +True to his determination, Ulpius, with part of the wages which he had +hoarded in Numerian's service, had procured a small lantern from a shop +in one of the distant quarters of Rome; and veiling its light in a +piece of coarse, thick cloth, had proceeded by the solitary pathway to +his second night's labour at the wall. He arrived at the breach, at +the commencement of the dialogue above related, and heard with delight +the sentinel's noisy resolution to amuse his companion in spite of +himself. The louder and the longer the man talked, the less probable +was the chance that the Pagan's labours in the interior of the wall +would be suspected or overheard. + +Softly clearing away the brushwood at the entrance of the hole that he +had made the night before, Ulpius crept in as far as he had penetrated +on that occasion; and then, with mingled emotions of expectation and +apprehension which affected him so powerfully, that he was for the +moment hardly master of his actions, he slowly and cautiously uncovered +his light. + + +His first glance was intuitively directed to the cavity that opened +beneath him. He saw immediately that it was less important, both in +size and depth, than he had imagined it to be. The earth at this +particular place had given way beneath the foundations of the wall, +which had sunk down, deepening the chasm by their weight, into the +yielding ground beneath them. A small spring of water (probably the +first cause of the sinking in the earth) had bubbled up into the space +in the brick-work, which bit by bit, and year by year, it had gradually +undermined. Nor did it remain stagnant at this place. It trickled +merrily and quietly onward--a tiny rivulet, emancipated from one prison +in the ground only to enter another in the wall, bounded by no grassy +banks, brightened by no cheerful light, admired by no human eye, +followed in its small course through the inner fissures in the brick by +no living thing but a bloated toad, or a solitary lizard: yet wending +as happily on its way through darkness and ruin, as its sisters who +were basking in the sunlight of the meadows, or leaping in the fresh +breezes of the open mountain side. + +Raising his eyes from the little spring, Ulpius next directed his +attention to the prospect above him. + +Immediately over his head, the material of the interior of the wall +presented a smooth, flat, hard surface, which seemed capable of +resisting the most vigorous attempts at its destruction; but on looking +round, he perceived at one side of him and further inwards, an +appearance of dark, dimly-defined irregularity, which promised +encouragingly for his intended efforts. He descended into the chasm of +the rivulet, crawled up on a heap of crumbling brick-work, and gained a +hole above it, which he immediately began to widen, to admit of his +passage through. Inch by inch, he enlarged the rift, crept into it, +and found himself on a fragment of the bow of one of the foundation +arches, which, though partly destroyed, still supported itself, +isolated from all connection with the part of the upper wall which it +had once sustained, and which had gradually crumbled away into the +cavities below. + +He looked up. An immense rift soared above him, stretching its +tortuous ramifications, at different points, into every part of the +wall that was immediately visible. The whole structure seemed, at this +place, to have received a sudden and tremendous wrench. But for the +support of the sounder fortifications at each side of it, it could not +have sustained itself after the shock. The Pagan gazed aloft, into the +fearful breaches which yawned above him, with ungovernable awe. His +small, fitful light was not sufficient to show him any of their +terminations. They looked, as he beheld them in dark relief against +the rest of the hollow part of the wall, like mighty serpents twining +their desolating path right upward to the ramparts above; and he, +himself, as he crouched on his pinnacle with his little light by his +side, was reduced by the wild grandeur, the vast, solemn gloom of the +obscure, dusky, and fantastic objects around him, to the stature of a +pigmy. Could he have been seen from the ramparts high overhead, as he +now peered down behind his lantern into the cavities and irregularities +below him, he would have looked, with his flickering light, like a mole +led by a glow-worm. + +He paused to consider his next movements. In a stationary position, +the damp coldness of the atmosphere was almost insupportable, but he +attained a great advantage by his present stillness: he could listen +undisturbed by the noises made by the bricks which crumbled from under +him, if he advanced. + + +Ere long, he heard a thin, winding, long-drawn sound, now louder, now +softer; now approaching, now retreating; now verging towards +shrillness, now quickly returning to a faint, gentle swell. Suddenly +this strange unearthly music was interrupted by a succession of long, +deep, rolling sounds, which travelled grandly about the fissures above, +like prisoned thunderbolts striving to escape. Utterly ignorant that +the first of these noises was occasioned by the night wind winding +through the rents in the brick of the outer wall beyond him; and the +second, by the echoes produced in the irregular cavities above, by the +footfall of the sentries overhead--roused by the influence of the +place, and the mystery of his employment, to a pitch of fanatic +exaltation, which for the moment absolutely unsteadied his +reason--filled with the frantic enthusiasm of his designs, and the +fearful legends of invisible beings and worlds which made the +foundation of his worship, Ulpius conceived, as he listened to the +sounds around and above, that the gods of antiquity were now in +viewless congregation hovering about him, and calling to him in +unearthly voices and in an unknown tongue, to proceed upon his daring +enterprise, in the full assurance of its near and glorious success. + +'Roar and mutter, and make your hurricane music in my ears!' exclaimed +the Pagan, raising his withered hands, and addressing in a savage +ecstacy his imagined deities. 'Your servant Ulpius stops not on the +journey that leads him to your repeopled shrines! Blood, crime, +danger, pain--pride and honour, joy and rest, have I strewn like +sacrifices at your altars' feet! Time has whirled past me; youth and +manhood have lain long since buried in the hidden Lethe which is the +portion of life; age has wreathed his coils over my body's strength, +but still I watch by your temples and serve your mighty cause! Your +vengeance is near! Monarchs of the world, your triumph is at hand!' + +He remained for some time in the same position, looking fixedly up into +the trackless darkness above him, drinking in the sounds +which--alternately rising and sinking--still floated round him. The +trembling gleam of his lantern fell red and wild upon his livid +countenance. His shaggy hair floated in the cold breezes that blew by +him. At this moment he would have appeared from a distance, like a +phantom of fire perishing in a mist of darkness; like a Gnome in +adoration in the bowels of the earth; like a forsaken spirit in a +solitary purgatory, watching for the advent of a glimpse of beauty, or +a breath of air. + +At length he aroused himself from his trance, trimmed with careful hand +his guiding lantern, and set forward to penetrate the breadth of the +great rift he had just entered. + +He moved on in an oblique direction several feet, now creeping over the +tops of the foundation arches, now skirting the extremities of +protrusions in the ruined brick-work, now descending into dark slimy +rubbish-choked chasms, until the rift suddenly diminished in all +directions. + +The atmosphere was warmer in the place he now occupied; he could +faintly distinguish patches of dark moss, dotted here and there over +the uneven surface of the wall; and once or twice, some blades of long +flat grass, that grew from a prominence immediately above his head, +were waved in his face by the wind, which he could now feel blowing +through the narrow fissure that he was preparing to enlarge. It was +evident that he had by this time advanced to within a few feet of the +outer extremity of the wall. + +'Numerian wanders after his child through the streets,' muttered the +Pagan, as he deposited his lantern by his side, bared his trembling +arms, and raised his iron bar, 'the slaves of his neighbour the senator +are forth to pursue me. On all sides my enemies are out after me; but, +posted here, I mock their strictest search! If they would track me to +my hiding-place, they must penetrate the walls of Rome! If they would +hunt me down in my lair, they must assail me to-night in the camp of +the Goths! Fools! let them look to themselves! I seal the doom of +their city, with the last brick that I tear from their defenceless +walls!' + +He laughed to himself as he thrust his bar boldly into the crevice +before him. In some places the bricks yielded easily to his efforts; +in others, their resistance was only to be overcome by the exertion of +his utmost strength. Resolutely and unceasingly he continued his +labours; now wounding his hands against the jagged surfaces presented +by the widening fissure; now involuntarily dropping his instrument from +ungovernable exhaustion; but, still working bravely on, in defiance of +every hindrance that opposed him, until he gained the interior of the +new rift. + +As he drew his lantern after him into the cavity that he had made, he +perceived that, unless it was heightened immediately over him, he could +proceed no further, even in a creeping position. Irritated at this +unexpected necessity for more violent exertion, desperate in his +determination to get through the wall at all hazards on that very +night, he recklessly struck his bar upwards with all his strength, +instead of gradually and softly loosening the material of the surface +that opposed him, as he had done before. + +A few moments of this labour had scarcely elapsed, when a considerable +portion of the brick-work, consolidated into one firm mass, fell with +lightning suddenness from above. It hurled him under it, prostrate on +the foundation arch which had been his support; crushed and dislocated +his right shoulder; and shivered his lantern into fragments. A groan +of irrepressible anguish burst from his lips. He was left in +impenetrable darkness. + +The mass of brick-work, after it had struck him, rolled a little to one +side. By a desperate exertion he extricated himself from under +it--only to swoon from the fresh anguish caused to him by the effort. + +For a short time he lay insensible in his cold dark solitude. Then, +reviving after this first shock, he began to experience in all their +severity, the fierce spasms, the dull gnawings, the throbbing torments, +that were the miserable consequences of the injury he received. His +arm lay motionless by his side--he had neither strength nor resolution +to move any one of the other sound limbs in his body. At one moment +his deep, sobbing, stifled respirations, syllabled horrible and +half-formed curses--at another, his panting breaths suddenly died away +within him; and then he could hear the blood dripping slowly from his +shoulder, with dismal regularity, into a little pool that it had formed +already by his side. + +The shrill breezes which wound through the crevices in the wall before +him, were now felt only on his wounded limb. They touched its surface +like innumerable splinters of thin, sharp ice; they penetrated his +flesh like rushing sparks struck out of a sea of molten lead. There +were moments, during the first pangs of this agony, when if he had been +possessed of a weapon and of the strength to use it, he would have +sacrificed his ambition for ever by depriving himself of life. + +But this desire to end his torments with his existence lasted not long. +Gradually, the anguish in his body awakened a wilder and stronger +distemper in his mind, and then the two agonies, physical and mental, +rioted over him together in fierce rivalry, divesting him of all +thoughts but such as were by their own agency created or aroused. + +For some time he lay helpless in his misery, alternately venting by +stifled groans the unalleviated torment of his wounds, and lamenting +with curses the failure of his enterprise, at the very moment of its +apparent success. At length, the pangs that struck through him seemed +to grow gradually less frequent; he hardly knew now from what part of +his frame they more immediately proceeded. Insensibly, his faculties of +thinking and feeling grew blunted; then he remained a little while in a +mysterious unrefreshing repose of body and mind; and then his +disordered senses, left unguided and unrestrained, became the victims +of a sudden and terrible delusion. + +The blank darkness around him appeared, after an interval, to be +gradually dawning into a dull light, thick and misty, like the +reflections on clouds which threaten a thunderstorm at the close of +evening. Soon, this atmosphere seemed to be crossed and streaked with +a fantastic trellis-work of white, seething vapour. Then the mass of +brick-work which had struck him down, grew visible at his side, +enlarged to an enormous bulk, and endued with a power of self-motion, +by which it mysteriously swelled and shrank, and raised and depressed +itself, without quitting for a moment its position near him. And then, +from its dark and toiling surface there rose a long stream of dusky +shapes, which twined themselves about the misty trellis-work above, and +took the prominent and palpable form of human countenances, marked by +every difference of age and distorted by every variety of suffering. + + +There were infantine faces, wreathed about with grave-worms that hung +round them like locks of filthy hair; aged faces, dabbled with gore and +slashed with wounds; youthful faces, seamed with livid channels, along +which ran unceasing tears; lovely faces, distorted into fixed +expressions of raging pain, wild malignity, and despairing gloom. Not +one of these countenances exactly resembled the other. Each was +distinguished by a revolting character of its own. Yet, however +deformed might be their other features, the eyes of all were preserved +unimpaired. Speechless and bodiless, they floated in unceasing myriads +up to the fantastic trellis-work, which seemed to swell its wild +proportions to receive them. There they clustered, in their goblin +amphitheatre, and fixed and silently they all glared down, without one +exception, on the Pagan's face! + +Meanwhile, the walls at the side began to gleam out with a light of +their own, making jagged boundaries to the midway scene of phantom +faces. Then the rifts in their surfaces widened, and disgorged +misshapen figures of priests and idols of the old time, which came +forth in every hideous deformity of aspect, mocking at the faces on the +trellis-work; while behind and over the whole, soared shapes of +gigantic darkness, robed in grim cloudy resemblances of skins such as +were worn by the Goths, and wielding through the quivering vapour, +mighty and shadow-like weapons of war. From the whole of this ghastly +assemblage there rose not the slightest sound. A stillness, as of a +dead and ruined world, possessed in all its quarters the appalling +scene. The deep echoes of the sentries' footsteps and the faint +dirging of the melancholy winds were no more. The blood that had as +yet dripped from his wound, made no sound now in the Pagan's ear; even +his own agony of terror was as silent as were the visionary demons who +had aroused it. Days, years, centuries, seemed to pass, as he lay +gazing up, in a trance of horror, into his realm of peopled and ghostly +darkness. At last nature yielded under the trial; the phantom prospect +suddenly whirled round him with fearful velocity, and his senses sought +refuge from the thraldom of their own creation in a deep and welcome +swoon. + +Time had moved wearily onward, the chiding winds had many times waved +the dry locks of his hair to and fro about his brow, as if to bid him +awaken and arise, ere he again recovered his consciousness. Once more +aroused to the knowledge of his position and the sensation of his +wound, he slowly raised himself upon his uninjured arm, and looked +wildly around for the faintest appearance of a gleam of light. But the +winding and uneven nature of the track which he had formed to lead him +through the wall, effectually prevented the moonbeams, then floating +into the outermost of the cavities that he had made, from reaching the +place where he now lay. Not a single object was even faintly +distinguishable around him. Darkness hemmed him in, in rayless and +triumphant obscurity, on every side. + +The first agonies of the injury he had received had resolved themselves +into one dull, heavy, unchanging sensation of pain. The vision that +had overwhelmed his senses was now, in a vast and shadowy form, present +only to his memory, filling the darkness with fearful recollections, +and not with dismal forms; and urging on him a restless, headlong +yearning to effect his escape from the lonely and unhallowed sepulchre, +the prison of solitude and death, that his own fatal exertions +threatened him with, should he linger much longer in the caverns of the +wall. + +'I must pass from this darkness into light--I must breathe the air of +the sky, or I shall perish in the damps of this vault,' he exclaimed in +a hoarse, moaning voice, as he raised himself gradually and painfully +into a creeping position; and turning round slowly, commenced his +meditated retreat. + +His brain still whirled with the emotions that had so lately +overwhelmed his mind; his right hand hung helplessly by his side, +dragged after him like a prisoner's chain, and lacerated by the uneven +surface of the ground over which it was slowly drawn, as--supporting +himself on his left arm, and creeping forward a few inches at a +time--he set forth on his toilsome journey. + +Here, he paused bewildered in the darkness; there, he either checked +himself by a convulsive effort from falling headlong into the unknown +deeps beneath him, or lost the little ground he had gained in labour +and agony, by retracing his way at the bidding of some unexpected +obstacle. Now he gnashed his teeth in anguish, now he cursed in +despair, now he was breathless with exhaustion; but still, with an +obstinacy that had in it something of the heroic, he never failed in +his fierce resolution to effect his escape. + + +Slowly and painfully, moving with the pace and the perseverance of the +tortoise, hopeless yet determined as a navigator in a strange sea, he +writhed onward and onward upon his unguided course, until he reaped at +length the reward of his long suffering, by the sudden discovery of a +thin ray of moonlight toiling through a crevice in the murky brickwork +before him. Hardly did the hearts of the Magi when the vision of 'the +star in the East' first dawned on their eyes, leap within them with a +more vivid transport, than that which animated the heart of Ulpius at +the moment when he beheld the inspiring and guiding light. + +Yet a little more exertion, a little more patience, a little more +anguish; and he stood once again, a ghastly and crippled figure, before +the outer cavity in the wall. + +It was near daybreak; the moon shone faintly in the dull, grey heaven; +a small, vaporous rain was sinking from the shapeless clouds; the +waning night showed bleak and cheerless to the earth, but cast no +mournful or reproving influence over the Pagan's mind. He looked round +on his solitary lurking place, and beheld no human figure in its lonely +recesses. He looked up at the ramparts, and saw that the sentinels +stood silent and apart, wrapped in their heavy watch-cloaks, and +supported on their trusty weapons. It was perfectly apparent that the +events of his night of suffering and despair had passed unheeded by the +outer world. + +He glanced back with a shudder upon his wounded and helpless limb; then +his eyes fixed themselves upon the wall. After surveying it with an +earnest and defiant gaze, he slowly moved the brushwood with his foot, +against the small cavity in its outer surface. + +'Days pass, wounds heal, chances change,' muttered the old man, +departing from his haunt with slow and uncertain steps. 'In the mines +I have borne lashes without a murmur--I have felt my chains widening, +with each succeeding day, the ulcers that their teeth of iron first +gnawed in my flesh, and have yet lived to loosen my fetters, and to +close my sores! Shall this new agony have a power to conquer me +greater than the others that are past? I will even yet return in time +to overcome the resistance of the wall! My arm is crushed, but my +purpose is whole!' + + + +CHAPTER 13. + +THE HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS. + +Retracing some hours, we turn from the rifted wall to the suburbs and +the country which its ramparts overlook; abandoning the footsteps of +the maimed and darkly-plotting Ulpius, our attention now fixes itself +on the fortunes of Hermanric, and the fate of Antonina. + +Although the evening had as yet scarcely closed, the Goth had allotted +to the warriors under his command their different stations for the +night in the lonely suburbs of the city. This duty performed, he was +left to the unbroken solitude of the deserted tenement which now served +him as a temporary abode. + +The house he occupied was the last of the wide and irregular street in +which it stood; it looked towards the wall beneath the Pincian Mount, +from which it was separated by a public garden about half a mile in +extent. This once well-thronged place of recreation was now totally +unoccupied. Its dull groves were brightened by no human forms; the +chambers of its gay summer houses were dark and desolate; the booths of +its fruit and flower-sellers stood vacant on its untrodden lawns. +Melancholy and forsaken, it stretched forth as a fertile solitude under +the very walls of a crowded city. + + +And yet there was a charm inexpressibly solemn and soothing in the +prospect of loneliness that it presented, as its flower-beds and trees +were now gradually obscured to the eye in the shadows of the advancing +night. It gained in its present refinement as much as it had lost of +its former gaiety; it had its own simple attraction still, though it +failed to sparkle to the eye with its accustomed illuminations, or to +please the ear by the music and laughter, which rose from it in times +of peace. As he looked forth over the view from the terrace of his new +abode, the remembrance of the employments of his past and busy hours +deserted the memory of the young Goth, leaving his faculties free to +welcome the reflections which night began insensibly to awaken and +create. + +Employed under such auspices, whither would the thoughts of Hermanric +naturally stray? + +From the moonlight that already began to ripple over the topmost +trembling leaves of the trees beyond him, to the delicate and shadowy +flowers that twined up the pillars of the deserted terrace where he now +stood, every object he beheld connected itself, to his vivid and +uncultured imagination, with the one being of whom all that was +beautiful in nature, seemed to him the eloquent and befitting type. He +thought of Antonina whom he had once protected; of Antonina whom he had +afterwards abandoned; of Antonina whom he had now lost! + +Strong in the imaginative and weak in the reasoning faculties; gifted +with large moral perception and little moral firmness; too easy to be +influenced and too difficult to be resolved, Hermanric had deserted the +girl's interests from an infirmity of disposition, rather than from a +determination of will. Now, therefore, when the employments of the day +had ceased to absorb his attention; now when silence and solitude led +his memory back to his morning's abandonment of his helpless charge, +that act of fatal impatience and irresolution inspired him with the +strongest emotions of sorrow and remorse. If during her sojourn under +his care, Antonina had insensibly influenced his heart, her image, now +that he reflected on his guilty share in their parting scene, filled +all his thoughts, at once saddening and shaming him, as he remembered +her banishment from the shelter of his tent. + +Every feeling which had animated his reflections on Antonina on the +previous night, was doubled in intensity as he thought on her now. +Again he recalled her eloquent words, and remembered the charm of her +gentle and innocent manner; again he dwelt on the beauties of her +outward form. Each warm expression; each varying intonation of voice +that had accompanied her petition to him for safety and companionship; +every persuasion that she had used to melt him, now revived in his +memory and moved in his heart with steady influence and increasing +power. All the hurried and imperfect pictures of happiness which she +had drawn to allure him, now expanded and brightened, until his mind +began to figure to him visions that had been hitherto unknown to +faculties occupied by no other images than those of rivalry, +turbulence, and strife. Scenes called into being by Antonina's +lightest and hastiest expressions, now rose vague and shadowy before +his brooding spirit. Lovely places of earth that he had visited and +forgotten now returned to his recollection, idealised and refined as he +thought of her. She appeared to his mind in every allurement of +action, fulfilling all the duties and enjoying all the pleasures that +she had proposed to him. He imagined her happy and healthful, +journeying gaily by his side in the fresh morning, with rosy cheek and +elastic step; he imagined her delighting him by her promised songs, +enlivening him by her eloquent words, in the mellow stillness of +evening; he imagined her sleeping, soft and warm and still, in his +protecting arms--ever happy and ever gentle; girl in years, and woman +in capacities; at once lover and companion, teacher and pupil, follower +and guide! + +Such she might have been once! What was she now? + + +Was she sinking under her loneliness, perishing from exposure and +fatigue, repulsed by the cruel, or mocked by the unthinking? To all +these perils and miseries had he exposed her; and to what end? To +maintain the uncertain favour, to preserve the unwelcome friendship, of +a woman abandoned even by the most common and intuitive virtues of her +sex; whose frantic craving for revenge, confounded justice with +treachery, innocence with guilt, helplessness with tyranny; whose +claims of nation and relationship should have been forfeited in his +estimation, by the openly-confessed malignity of her designs, at the +fatal moment when she had communicated them to him in all their +atrocity, before the walls of Rome. He groaned in despair, as he +thought on this, the most unworthy of the necessities, to which the +forsaken girl had been sacrificed. + +Soon, however, his mind reverted from such reflections as these, to his +own duties and his own renown; and here his remorse became partially +lightened, though his sorrow remained unchanged. + +Wonderful as had been the influence of Antonina's presence and +Antonina's words over the Goth, they had not yet acquired power enough +to smother in him entirely the warlike instincts of his sex and nation, +or to vanquish the strong and hostile promptings of education and +custom. She had gifted him with new emotions, and awakened him to new +thought; she had aroused all the dormant gentleness of his disposition +to war against the rugged indifference, the reckless energy, that +teaching and example had hitherto made a second nature to his heart. +She had wound her way into his mind, brightening its dark places, +enlarging its narrow recesses, beautifying its unpolished treasures. +She had created, she had refined, during her short hours of +communication with him, but she had not lured his disposition entirely +from its old habits and its old attachments; she had not yet stripped +off the false glitter from barbarian strife, or the pomp from martial +renown; she had not elevated the inferior intellectual, to the height +of the superior moral faculties, in his inward composition. Submitted +almost impartially to the alternate and conflicting dominion of the two +masters, Love and Duty, he at once regretted Antonina, and yet clung +mechanically to his old obedience to those tyrannic requirements of +nation and name, which had occasioned her loss. + +Oppressed by his varying emotions, destitute alike of consolation and +advice, the very inaction of his present position sensibly depressed +him. He rose impatiently, and buckling on his weapons, sought to +escape from his thoughts, by abandoning the scene under the influence +of which they had been first aroused. Turning his back upon the city, +he directed his steps at random, through the complicated labyrinth of +streets, composing the extent of the deserted suburbs. + +After he had passed through the dwellings comprised in the occupation +of the Gothic lines, and had gained those situated nearer to the +desolate country beyond, the scene around him became impressive enough +to have absorbed the attention of any man not wholly occupied by other +and more important objects of contemplation. + +The loneliness he now beheld on all sides, was not the loneliness of +ruin--the buildings near him were in perfect repair; it was not the +loneliness of pestilence--there were no corpses strewn over the +untrodden pavements of the streets; it was not the loneliness of +seclusion--there were no barred windows, and few closed doors; it was a +solitude of human annihilation. The open halls were unapproached; the +benches before the wine-shops were unoccupied; remains of gaudy +household wares still stood on the counters of the street booths, +watched by none, bought by none; particles of bread and meat +(treasures, fated to become soon of greater value than silver and gold, +to beleaguered Rome) rotted here in the open air, like garbage upon +dunghills; children's toys, women's ornaments, purses, money, +love-tokens, precious manuscripts, lay scattered hither and thither in +the public ways, dropped and abandoned by their different owners, in +the hurry of their sudden and universal flight. Every deserted street +was eloquent of darling projects desperately resigned, of valued +labours miserably deserted, of delighting enjoyments irretrievably +lost. The place was forsaken even by those household gods of rich and +poor, its domestic animals. They had either followed their owners into +the city, or strayed, unhindered and unwatched, into the country +beyond. Mansion, bath, and circus, displayed their gaudy pomp and +luxurious comfort in vain; not even a wandering Goth was to be seen +near their empty halls. For, with such a prospect before them as the +subjugation of Rome, the army had caught the infection of its leader's +enthusiasm for his exalted task, and willingly obeyed his commands for +suspending the pillage of the suburbs, disdaining the comparatively +worthless treasures around them, attainable at any time, when they felt +that the rich coffers of Rome herself were now fast opening to their +eager hands. Voiceless and noiseless, unpeopled and unravaged, lay the +far-famed suburbs of the greatest city of the universe, sunk alike in +the night of Nature, the night of Fortune, and the night of Glory! + +Saddening and impressive as was the prospect thus presented to the eyes +of the young Goth, it failed to weaken the powerful influence that his +evening's meditations yet held over his mind. As, during the hours +that were passed, the image of the forsaken girl had dissipated the +remembrance of the duties he had performed, and opposed the +contemplation of the commands he was yet to fulfil, so it now denied to +his faculties any impressions from the lonely scene, beheld, yet +unnoticed, which spread around him. Still, as he passed through the +gloomy streets, his vain regrets and self-accusations, his natural +predilections and acquired attachments, ruled over him and contended +within him, as sternly and as unceasingly as in the first moments when +they had arisen with the evening, during his sojourn in the terrace of +the deserted house. + +He had now arrived at the extremest boundary of the buildings in the +suburbs. Before him lay an uninterrupted prospect of smooth, shining +fields, and soft, hazy, indefinable woods. At one side of him were +some vineyards and cottage gardens; at the other was a solitary house, +the outermost of all the abodes in his immediate vicinity. Dark and +cheerless as it was, he regarded it for some time with the mechanical +attention of a man more occupied in thought than +observation,--gradually advancing towards it in the moody abstraction +of his reflections, until he unconsciously paused before the low range +of irregular steps which led to its entrance door. + +Startled from its meditations by his sudden propinquity to the object +that he had unwittingly approached, he now, for the first time, +examined the lonely abode before him with real attention. + +There was nothing remarkable about the house, save the extreme +desolateness of its appearance, which seemed to arise partly from its +isolated position, and partly from the unusual absence of all +decoration on its external front. It was too extensive to have been +the dwelling of a poor man, too void of pomp and ornament to have been +a mansion of the rich. It might, perhaps, have belonged to some +citizen, or foreigner, or the middle class--some moody Northman, some +solitary Egyptian, some scheming Jew. Yet, though it was not +possessed, in itself, of any remarkable or decided character, the Goth +experienced a mysterious, almost an eager curiosity to examine its +interior. He could assign no cause, discover no excuse for the act, as +he slowly mounted the steps before him. Some invisible and +incomprehensible magnet attracted him to the dwelling. If his return +had been suddenly commanded by Alaric himself; if evidences of +indubitable treachery had lurked about the solitary place, at the +moment when he thrust open its unbarred door, he felt that he must +still have proceeded upon his onward course. The next instant he +entered the house. The light streamed through the open entrance into +the gloomy hall; the night-wind, rushing upon its track, blew shrill +and dreary among the stone pillars, and in the hidden crevices and +untenanted chambers above. Not a sign of life appeared, not a sound of +a footstep was audible, not even an article of household use was to be +seen. The deserted suburbs rose without, like a wilderness; and this +empty house looked within, like a sepulchre--void of corpses, and yet +eloquent of death! + +There was an inexplicable fascination to the eyes of the Goth about +this vault-like, solitary hall. He stood motionless at its entrance, +gazing dreamily at the gloomy prospect before him, until a strong gust +of wind suddenly forced the outer door further backwards, and at the +same moment admitted a larger stream of light. + +The place was not empty. In a corner of the hall, hitherto sunk in +darkness, crouched a shadowy form. It was enveloped in a dark garment, +and huddled up into an indefinable and unfamiliar shape. Nothing +appeared on it, as a denoting sign of humanity, but one pale hand, +holding the black drapery together, and relieved against it in almost +ghastly contrast under the cold light of the moon. + + +Vague remembrances of the awful superstitions of his nation's ancient +worship, hurried over the memory of the young Goth, at the first moment +of his discovery of the ghost-like occupant of the hall. As he stood +in fixed attention before the motionless figure, it soon began to be +endowed with the same strange influence over his will, that the lonely +house had already exerted. He advanced slowly towards the crouching +form. + +It never stirred at the noise of his approach. The pale hand still +held the mantle over the compressed figure, with the same rigid +immobility of grasp. Brave as he was, Hermanric shuddered as he bent +down and touched the bloodless, icy fingers. At that action, as if +endowed with instant vitality from contact with a living being, the +figure suddenly started up. + +Then, the folds of the dark mantle fell back, disclosing a face as pale +in hue as the stone pillars around it; and the voice of the solitary +being became audible, uttering in faint, monotonous accents, these +words:-- + +'He has forgotten and abandoned me!--slay me if you will!--I am ready +to die!' + +Broken, untuned as it was, there yet lurked in that voice a tone of its +old music, there beamed in that vacant and heavy eye a ray of its +native gentleness. With a sudden exclamation of compassion and +surprise, the Goth stepped forward, raised the trembling outcast in his +arms; and, in the impulse of the moment quitting the solitary house, +stood the next instant on the firm earth, and under the starry sky, +once more united to the charge that he had abandoned--to Antonina whom +he had lost. + +He spoke to her, caressed her, entreated her pardon, assured her of his +future care; but she neither answered nor recognised him. She never +looked in his face, never moved in his arms, never petitioned for +mercy. She gave no sign of life or being, saving that she moaned at +regular intervals in piteous accents:--'He has forgotten and abandoned +me!' as if that one simple expression comprised in itself, her +acknowledgment of the uselessness of her life, and her dirge for her +expected death. + +The Goth's countenance whitened to his very lips. He began to fear +that her faculties had sunk under her trials. He hurried on with her +with trembling steps towards the open country, for he nourished a +dreamy, intuitive hope, that the sight of those woods and fields and +mountains which she had extolled to him, in her morning's entreaty for +protection, might aid in restoring her suspended consciousness, if she +now looked on them. + +He ran forward, until he had left the suburbs at least half a mile +behind him, and had reached an eminence, bounded on each side by high +grass banks and clustering woods, and commanding a narrow, yet various +prospect, of the valley ground beneath, and the fertile plains that +extended beyond. + +Here the warrior paused with his burden; and, seating himself on the +bank, once more attempted to calm the girl's continued bewilderment and +terror. He thought not on his sentinels, whom he had abandoned--on his +absence from the suburbs, which might be perceived and punished by an +unexpected visit, at his deserted quarters, from his superiors in the +camp. The social influence that sways the world; the fragile idol at +whose shrine pride learns to bow, and insensibility to feel; the soft, +grateful influence of yielding nature yet eternal rule--the influence +of woman, source alike of virtues and crimes, of earthly glories and +earthly disasters--had, in this moment of anguish and expectation, +silenced in him every appeal of duty, and overthrown every obstacle of +selfish doubt. He now spoke to Antonina as alluringly as a woman, as +gently as a child. He caressed her as warmly as a lover, as cheerfully +as a brother, as kindly as a father. He--the rough, northern warrior, +whose education had been of arms, and whose youthful aspirations had +been taught to point towards strife and bloodshed and glory--even he +was now endowed with the tender eloquence of pity and love--with +untiring, skilful care--with calm, enduring patience. + + +Gently and unceasingly he plied his soothing task; and soon, to his joy +and triumph, he beheld the approaching reward of his efforts, in the +slow changes that became gradually perceptible in the girl's face and +manner. She raised herself in his arms, looked up fixedly and vacantly +into his face, then round upon the bright, quiet landscape, then back +again more stedfastly upon her companion; and at length, trembling +violently, she whispered softly and several times the young Goth's +name, glancing at him anxiously and apprehensively, as if she feared +and doubted while she recognised him. + +'You are bearing me to my death,'--said she suddenly. 'You, who once +protected me--you, who forsook me!--You are luring me into the power of +the woman who thirsts for my blood!--Oh, it is horrible--horrible!' + +She paused, averted her face, and shuddering violently, disengaged +herself from his arms. After an interval, she continued:-- + +'Through the long day, and in the beginning of the cold night, I have +waited in one solitary place for the death that is in store for me! I +have suffered all the loneliness of my hours of expectation, without +complaint; I have listened with little dread, and no grief, for the +approach of my enemy who has sworn that she will shed my blood! Having +none to love me, and being a stranger in the land of my own nation, I +have nothing to live for! But it is a bitter misery to me to behold in +you the fulfiller of my doom; to be snatched by the hand of Hermanric +from the heritage of life that I have so long struggled to preserve!' + +Her voice had altered, as she pronounced these words, to an impressive +lowness and mournfulness of tone. Its quiet, saddened accents were +expressive of an almost divine resignation and sorrow; they seemed to +be attuned to a mysterious and untraceable harmony with the melancholy +stillness of the night-landscape. As she now stood looking up with +pale, calm countenance, and gentle, tearless eyes, into the sky whose +moonlight brightness shone softly over her form, the Virgin watching +the approach of her angel messenger could hardly have been adorned with +a more pure and simple loveliness, than now dwelt over the features of +Numerian's forsaken child. + +No longer master of his agitation; filled with awe, grief, and despair, +as he looked on the victim of his heartless impatience; Hermanric bowed +himself at the girl's feet, and, in the passionate utterance of real +remorse, offered up his supplications for pardon and his assurances of +protection and love. All that the reader has already learned--the +bitter self-upbraidings of his evening, the sorrowful wanderings of his +night, the mysterious attraction that led him to the solitary house, +his joy at once more discovering his lost charge--all these confessions +he now poured forth in the simple yet powerful eloquence of strong +emotion and true regret. + +Gradually and amazedly, as she listened to his words, Antonina awoke +from her abstraction. Even the expression of his countenance and the +earnestness of his manner, viewed by the intuitive penetration of her +sex, wrought with kind and healing influence on her mind. She started +suddenly, a bright flush flew over her colourless cheeks; she bent +down, and looked earnestly and wistfully into the Goth's face. Her +lips moved, but her quick convulsive breathing stifled the words that +she vainly endeavoured to form. + +'Yes,' continued Hermanric, rising and drawing her towards him again, +'you shall never mourn, never fear, never weep more! Though you have +lost your father, and the people of your nation are as strangers to +you, though you have been threatened and forsaken, you shall still be +beautiful--still be happy; for I will watch you, and you shall never be +harmed; I will labour for you, and you shall never want! People and +kindred--fame and duty, I will abandon them all to make atonement to +you!' + +Its youthful freshness and hope returned to the girl's heart, as water +to the long-parched spring, when the young warrior ceased. The tears +stood in her eyes, but she neither sighed nor spoke. Her frame trembled +all over with the excess of her astonishment and delight, as she still +steadfastly looked on him and still listened intently as he proceeded:-- + + +'Fear, then, no longer for your safety--Goisvintha, whom you dread, is +far from us; she knows not that we are here; she cannot track our +footsteps now, to threaten or to harm you! Remember no more how you +have suffered and I have sinned! Think only how bitterly I have +repented our morning's separation, and how gladly I welcome our meeting +of to-night! Oh, Antonina! you are beautiful with a wondrous +loveliness, you are young with a perfected and unchildlike youth, your +words fall upon my ear with the music of a song of the olden time; it +is like a dream of the spirits that my fathers worshipped, when I look +up and behold you at my side!' + +An expression of mingled confusion, pleasure, and surprise, flushed the +girl's half-averted countenance as she listened to the Goth. She rose +with a smile of ineffable gratitude and delight, and pointed to the +prospect beyond, as she softly rejoined:-- + +'Let us go a little further onward, where the moonlight shines over the +meadow below. My heart is bursting in this shadowy place! Let us seek +the light that is yonder; it seems happy like me!' + +They walked forward; and as they went, she told him again of the +sorrows of her past day; of her lonely and despairing progress from his +tent to the solitary house where he had found her in the night, and +where she had resigned herself from the first to meet a death that had +little horror for her then. There was no thought of reproach, no +utterance of complaint, in this renewal of her melancholy narration. +It was solely that she might luxuriate afresh in those delighting +expressions of repentance and devotion, which she knew that it would +call forth from the lips of Hermanric, that she now thought of +addressing him once more with the tale of her grief. + +As they still went onward; as she listened to the rude fervent +eloquence of the language of the Goth; as she looked on the deep repose +of the landscape, and the soft transparency of the night sky; her mind, +ever elastic under the shock of the most violent emotions, ever ready +to regain its wonted healthfulness and hope--now recovered its old +tone, and re-assumed its accustomed balance. Again her memory began to +store itself with its beloved remembrances, and her heart to rejoice in +its artless longings and visionary thoughts. In spite of all her fears +and all her sufferings, she now walked on blest in a disposition that +woe had no shadow to darken long, and neglect no influence to warp; +still as happy in herself; even yet as forgetful of her past, as +hopeful for her future, as on that first evening when we beheld her in +her father's garden, singing to the music of her lute. + +Insensibly as they proceeded, they had diverged from the road, had +entered a bye-path, and now stood before a gate which led to a small +farm house, surrounded by its gardens and vineyards, and, like the +suburbs that they had quitted, deserted by its inhabitants on the +approach of the Goths. They passed through the gate, and arriving at +the plot of ground in front of the house, paused for a moment to look +around them. + +The meadows had been already stripped of their grass, and the young +trees of their branches by the foragers of the invading army, but here +the destruction of the little property had been stayed. The house with +its neat thatched roof and shutters of variegated wood, the garden with +its small stock of fruit and its carefully tended beds of rare flowers, +designed probably to grace the feast of a nobleman or the statue of a +martyr, had presented no allurements to the rough tastes of Alaric's +soldiery. Not a mark of a footstep appeared on the turf before the +house door; the ivy crept in its wonted luxuriance about the pillars of +the lowly porch; and as Hermanric and Antonina walked towards the +fish-pond at the extremity of the garden, the few water-fowl placed +there by the owners of the cottage, came swimming towards the bank, as +if to welcome in their solitude the appearance of a human form. + + +Far from being melancholy, there was something soothing and attractive +about the loneliness of the deserted farm. Its ravaged outhouses and +plundered meadows, which might have appeared desolate by day, were so +distanced, softened, and obscured, by the atmosphere of night, that +they presented no harsh contrast to the prevailing smoothness and +luxuriance of the landscape around. As Antonina beheld the brightened +fields and the shadowed woods, here mingled, there succeeding each +other, stretched far onward and onward until they joined the distant +mountains, that eloquent voice of nature, whose audience is the human +heart, and whose theme is eternal love, spoke inspiringly to her +attentive senses. She stretched out her arms as she looked with steady +and enraptured gaze upon the bright view before her, as if she longed +to see its beauties resolved into a single and living form--into a +spirit human enough to be addressed, and visible enough to be adored. + +'Beautiful earth!' she murmured softly to herself, 'Thy mountains are +the watch-towers of angels, thy moonlight is the shadow of God!' + +Her eyes filled with bright, happy tears; she turned to Hermanric, who +stood watching her, and continued:-- + +'Have you never thought that light, and air, and the perfume of +flowers, might contain some relics of the beauties of Eden that escaped +with Eve, when she wandered into the lonely world? They glowed and +breathed for her, and she lived and was beautiful in them! They were +united to one another, as the sunbeam is united to the earth that it +warms; and could the sword of the cherubim have sundered them at once? +When Eve went forth, did the closed gates shut back in the empty +Paradise, all the beauty that had clung, and grown, and shone round +her? Did no ray of her native light steal forth after her into the +desolateness of the world? Did no print of her lost flowers remain on +the bosom they must once have pressed? It cannot be! A part of her +possessions of Eden must have been spared to her with a part of her +life. She must have refined the void air of the earth when she entered +it, with a breath of the fragrant breezes, and gleam of the truant +sunshine of her lost Paradise! They must have strengthened and +brightened, and must now be strengthening and brightening with the slow +lapse of mortal years, until, in the time when earth itself will be an +Eden, they shall be made one again with the hidden world of perfection, +from which they are yet separated. So that, even now, as I look forth +over the landscape, the light that I behold has in it a glow of +Paradise, and this flower that I gather a breath of the fragrance that +once stole over the senses of my first mother, Eve!' + +Though she paused here, as if in expectation of an answer, the Goth +preserved an unbroken silence. Neither by nature nor position was he +capable of partaking the wild fancies and aspiring thoughts, drawn by +the influences of the external world from their concealment in +Antonina's heart. + +The mystery of his present situation; his vague remembrance of the +duties he had abandoned; the uncertainty of his future fortunes and +future fate; the presence of the lonely being so inseparably connected +with his past emotions and his existence to come, so strangely +attractive by her sex, her age, her person, her misfortunes, and her +endowments; all contributed to bewilder his faculties. Goisvintha, the +army, the besieged city, the abandoned suburbs, seemed to hem him in +like a circle of shadowy and threatening judgments; and in the midst of +them stood the young denizen of Rome, with her eloquent countenance and +her inspiring words, ready to hurry him, he knew not whither, and able +to influence him, he felt not how. + +Unconsciously interpreting her companion's silence into a wish to +change the scene and the discourse, Antonina, after lingering over the +view from the garden for a moment longer, led the way back towards the +untenanted house. They removed the wooden padlock from the door of the +dwelling, and guided by the brilliant moonlight, entered its principal +apartment. + + +The homely adornments of the little room had remained undisturbed, and +dimly distinguishable though they now were, gave it to the eyes of the +two strangers, the same aspect of humble comfort which had probably +once endeared it to its exiled occupants. As Hermanric seated himself +by Antonina's side on the simple couch which made the principal piece +of furniture in the place, and looked forth from the window over the +same view that they had beheld in the garden, the magic stillness and +novelty of the scene now began to affect his slow perceptions, as they +had already influenced the finer and more sensitive faculties of the +thoughtful girl. New hopes and tranquil ideas arose in his young mind, +and communicated an unusual gentleness to his expression, an unusual +softness to his voice, as he thus addressed his silent companion:-- + +'With such a home as this, with this garden, with that country beyond, +with no warfare, no stern teachers, no enemy to threaten you; with +companions and occupations that you loved--tell me, Antonina, would not +your happiness be complete?' + +As he looked round at the girl to listen to her reply, he saw that her +countenance had changed. Their past expression of deep grief had again +returned to her features. Her eyes were fixed on the short dagger that +hung over the Goth's breast, which seemed to have suddenly aroused in +her a train of melancholy and unwelcome thoughts. When she at length +spoke, it was in a mournful and altered voice, and with a mingled +expression of resignation and despair. + +'You must leave me--we must be parted again,' said she; 'the sight of +your weapons has reminded me of all that until now I had forgotten, of +all that I have left in Rome, of all that you have abandoned before the +city walls. Once I thought we might have escaped together from the +turmoil and the danger around us, but now I know that it is better that +you should depart! Alas! for my hopes and my happiness, I must be left +alone once more!' + +She paused for an instant, struggling to retain her self-possession, +and then continued:-- + +'Yes, you must quit me, and return to your post before the city; for in +the day of assault there will be none to care for my father but you! +Until I know that he is safe, until I can see him once more, and ask +him for pardon, and entreat him for love, I dare not remove from the +perilous precincts of Rome! Return, then, to your duties, and your +companions, and your occupations of martial renown; and do not forget +Numerian when the city is assailed, nor Antonina, who is left to think +on you in the solitary plains!' + +She rose from her place, as if to set the example of departing; but her +strength and resolution both failed her, and she sank down again on the +couch, incapable of making another movement, or uttering another word. + +Strong and conflicting emotions passed over the heart of the Goth. The +language of the girl had quickened the remembrance of his +half-forgotten duties, and strengthened the failing influence of his +old predilections of education and race. Both conscience and +inclination now opposed his disputing her urgent and unselfish request. +For a few minutes he remained in deep reflection; then he rose and +looked earnestly from the window; then back again upon Antonina and the +room they occupied. At length, as if animated by a sudden +determination, he again approached his companion, and thus addressed +her:-- + +'It is right that I should return. I will do your bidding, and depart +for the camp (but not till the break of day), while you, Antonina, +remain in concealment and in safety here. None can come hither to +disturb you. The Goths will not revisit the fields they have already +stripped; the husbandman who owns this dwelling is imprisoned in the +beleaguered city; the peasants from the country beyond dare not +approach so near to the invading hosts; and Goisvintha, whom you dread, +knows not even of the existence of such a refuge as this. Here, though +lonely, you will be secure; here you can await my return, when each +succeeding night gives me the opportunity of departing from the camp; +and here I will warn you beforehand, if the city is devoted to an +assault. Though solitary, you will not be abandoned--we shall not be +parted one from the other. Often and often I shall return to look on +you, and to listen to you, and to love you! You will be happier here, +even in this lonely place, than in the former home that you have lost +through your father's wrath!' + + +'Oh! I will willingly remain--I will joyfully await you!' cried the +girl, raising her beaming eyes to Hermanric's face. 'I will never +speak mournfully to you again; I will never remind you more of all that +I have suffered, and all that I have lost! How merciful you were to +me, when I first saw you in your tent--how doubly merciful you are to +me here! I am proud when I look on your stature, and your strength, +and your heavy weapons, and know that you are happy in remaining with +me; that you will succour my father; that you will return from your +glittering encampments to this farm-house, where I am left to await +you! Already I have forgotten all that has happened to me of woe; +already I am more joyful than ever I was in my life before! See, I am +no longer weeping in sorrow! If there are any tears still on my +cheeks, they are the tears of gladness that every one welcomes--tears +to sing and rejoice in!' + +She ceased abruptly, as if words failed to give expression to her new +delight. All the gloomy emotions that had oppressed her but a short +time before had now completely vanished; and the young, fresh heart, +superior still to despair and woe, basked as happily again in its +native atmosphere of joy as a bird in the sunlight of morning and +spring. + +Then, when after an interval of delay their former tranquility had +returned to them, how softly and lightly the quiet hours of the +remaining night flowed onward to the two watchers in the lonely house! +How gladly the delighted girl disclosed her hidden thoughts, and poured +forth her innocent confessions, to the dweller among other nations and +the child of other impressions than her own! All the various +reflections aroused in her mind by the natural objects she had secretly +studied, by the mighty imagery of her Bible lore, by the gloomy +histories of saints' visions and martyrs' sufferings, which she had +learnt and pondered over by her father's side, were now drawn from +their treasured places in her memory, and addressed to the ear of the +Goth. As the child flies to the nurse with the story of its first toy; +as the girl resorts to the sister with the confession of her first +love; as the poet hurries to the friend with the plan of his first +composition; so did Antonina seek the attention of Hermanric with the +first outward revealings enjoyed by her faculties and the first +acknowledgment of her emotions liberated from her heart. + +The longer the Goth listened to her, the more perfect became the +enchantment of her words, half struggling into poetry, and her voice +half gliding into music. As her low, still, varying tones wound +smoothly into his ear, his thoughts suddenly and intuitively reverted +to her formerly expressed remembrances of her lost lute, inciting him +to ask her, with new interest and animation, of the manner of her +acquisition of that knowledge of song, which she had already assured +him that she possessed. + +'I have learned many odes of many poets,' said she, quickly and +confusedly avoiding the mention of Vetranio, which a direct answer to +Hermanric's question must have produced, 'but I remember none +perfectly, save those whose theme is of spirits and of other worlds, +and of the invisible beauty that we think of but cannot see. Of the +few that I know of these, there is one that I first learned and loved +most. I will sing it, that you may be assured I will not fail to you +in my promised art.' + +She hesitated for a moment. Sorrowful remembrances of the events that +had followed the utterance of the last notes she sang in her father's +garden, swelled within her, and held her speechless. Soon, however, +after a short interval of silence, she recovered her self-possession, +and began to sing, in low tremulous tones, that harmonised well with +the character of the words and the strain of the melody which she had +chosen. + +THE MISSION OF THE TEAR + + +I. + + The skies were its birth-place--the TEAR was the child + Of the dark maiden SORROW, by young JOY beguil'd; + It was born in convulsion; 'twas nurtur'd in woe; + And the world was yet young when it wander'd below. + + +II. + + No angel-bright guardians watch'd over its birth, + Ere yet it was suffer'd to roam upon earth; + No spirits of gladness its soft form caress'd; + SIGHS mourned round its cradle, and hush'd it to rest. + + +III. + + Though JOY might endeavour, with kisses and wiles, + To lure it away to his household of smiles: + From the daylight he lived in it turn'd in affright, + To nestle with SORROW in climates of night. + + +IV. + + When it came upon earth, 'twas to choose a career, + The brightest and best that is left to a TEAR; + To hallow delight, and bestow the relief + Denied by despair to the fulness of grief. + + +V. + + Few repell'd it--some bless'd it--wherever it came; + Whether soft'ning their sorrow, or soothing their shame; + And the joyful themselves, though its name they might fear, + Oft welcom'd the calming approach of the TEAR! + + +VI. + + Years on years have worn onward, as--watch'd from above-- + Speeds that meek spirit yet on its labour of love; + Still the exile of Heav'n, it ne'er shall away, + Every heart has a home for it, roam where it may! + +For the first few minutes after she had concluded the ode, Hermanric +was hardly conscious that she had ceased; and when at length she looked +up at him, her mute petition for approval had an eloquence which would +have been marred to the Goth at that moment, by the utterance of single +word. A rapture, an inspiration, a new life moved within him. The hour +and the scene completed what the magic of the song had begun. His +expression now glowed with a southern warmth; his words assumed a Roman +fervour. Gradually, as they discoursed, the voice of the girl was less +frequently audible. A change was passing over her spirit; from the +teacher, she was now becoming the pupil. + +As she still listened to the Goth, as she felt the birth of new +feelings within her while he spoke, her cheeks glowed, her features +lightened up, her very form seemed to freshen and expand. No intruding +thought or awakening remembrance disturbed her rapt attention. No cold +doubt, no gloomy hesitation, appeared in her companion's words. The +one listened, the other spoke, with the whole heart, the undivided +soul. While a world-wide revolution was concentrating its hurricane +forces around them; while the city of an Empire tottered already to its +tremendous fall; while Goisvintha plotted new revenge; while Ulpius +toiled for his revolution of bloodshed and ruin; while all these dark +materials of public misery and private strife seethed and strengthened +around them, they could as completely forget the stormy outward world, +in themselves; they could think as serenely of tranquil love; the kiss +could be given as passionately and returned as tenderly, as if the lot +of their existence had been cast in the pastoral days of the shepherd +poets, and the future of their duties and enjoyments was securely +awaiting them in a land of eternal peace! + + + +CHAPTER 14. + +THE FAMINE. + +The end of November is approaching. Nearly a month has elapsed since +the occurrence of the events mentioned in the last chapter, yet still +the Gothic lines stretch round the city walls. Rome, that we left +haughty and luxurious even while ruin threatened her at her gates, has +now suffered a terrible and warning change. As we approach her again, +woe, horror, and desolation have already gone forth to shadow her lofty +palaces and to darken her brilliant streets. + + +Over Pomp that spurned it, over Pleasure that defied it, over Plenty +that scared it in its secret rounds, the spectre Hunger has now risen +triumphant at last. Day by day has the city's insufficient allowance +of food been more and more sparingly doled out; higher and higher has +risen the value of the coarsest and simplest provision; the hoarded +supplies that pity and charity have already bestowed to cheer the +sinking people have reached their utmost limits. For the rich, there +is still corn in the city--treasure of food to be bartered for treasure +of gold. For the poor, man's natural nourishment exists no more; the +season of famine's loathsome feasts, the first days of the sacrifice of +choice to necessity have darkly and irretrievably begun. + +It is morning. A sad and noiseless throng is advancing over the cold +flagstones of the great square before the Basilica of St. John Lateran. +The members of the assembly speak in whispers. The weak are +tearful--the strong are gloomy--they all move with slow and languid +gait, and hold in their arms their dogs or other domestic animals. On +the outskirts of the crowd march the enfeebled guards of the city, +grasping in their rough hands rare favourite birds of gaudy plumage and +melodious note, and followed by children and young girls vainly and +piteously entreating that their favourites may be restored. + +This strange procession pauses, at length, before a mighty caldron +slung over a great fire in the middle of the square, round which stand +the city butchers with bare knives, and the trustiest men of the Roman +legions with threatening weapons. A proclamation is then repeated, +commanding the populace who have no money left to purchase food, to +bring up their domestic animals to be boiled together over the public +furnace, for the sake of contributing to the public support. + +The next minute, in pursuance of this edict, the dumb favourites of the +crowd passed from the owner's caressing hand into the butcher's ready +grasp. The faint cries of the animals, starved like their masters, +mingled for a few moments with the sobs and lamentations of the women +and children, to whom the greater part of them belonged. For, in this +the first stage of their calamities, that severity of hunger which +extinguishes pity and estranges grief was unknown to the populace; and +though fast losing spirit, they had not yet sunk to the depths of +ferocious despair which even now were invisibly opening between them. +A thousand pangs were felt, a thousand humble tragedies were acted, in +the brief moments of separation between guardian and charge. The child +snatched its last kiss of the bird that had sung over its bed; the dog +looked its last entreaty for protection from the mistress who had once +never met it without a caress. Then came the short interval of agony +and death, then the steam rose fiercely from the greedy caldron, and +then the people for a time dispersed; the sorrowful to linger near the +confines of the fire, and the hungry to calm their impatience by a +visit to the neighbouring church. + +The marble aisles of the noble basilica held a gloomy congregation. +Three small candles were alone lighted on the high altar. No sweet +voices sang melodious anthems or exulting hymns. The monks, in hoarse +tones and monotonous harmonics, chanted the penitential psalms. Here +and there knelt a figure clothed in mourning robes, and absorbed in +secret prayer; but over the majority of the assembly either blank +despondency or sullen inattention universally prevailed. + +As the last dull notes of the last psalm died away among the lofty +recesses of the church, a procession of pious Christians appeared at +the door and advanced slowly to the altar. It was composed both of men +and women barefooted, clothed in black garments, and with ashes +scattered over their dishevelled hair. Tears flowed from their eyes, +and they beat their breasts as they bowed their foreheads on the marble +pavement of the altar steps. + + +This humble public expression of penitence under the calamity that had +now fallen on the city was, however, confined only to its few really +religious inhabitants, and commanded neither sympathy nor attention +from the heartless and obstinate population of Rome. Some still +cherished the delusive hope of assistance from the court at Ravenna; +others believed that the Goths would ere long impatiently abandon their +protracted blockade, to stretch their ravages over the rich and +unprotected fields of Southern Italy. But the same blind confidence in +the lost terrors of the Roman name, the same fierce and reckless +determination to defy the Goths to the very last, sustained the sinking +courage and suppressed the despondent emotions of the great mass of the +suffering people, from the beggar who prowled for garbage, to the +patrician who sighed over his new and unwelcome nourishment of simple +bread. + +While the penitents who formed the procession above described were yet +engaged in the performance of their unnoticed and unshared duties of +penance and prayer, a priest ascended the great pulpit of the basilica, +to attempt the ungrateful task of preaching patience and piety to the +hungry multitude at his feet. + +He began his sermon by retracing the principal occurrences in Rome +since the beginning of the Gothic blockade. He touched cautiously upon +the first event that stained the annals of the besieged city--the +execution of the widow of the Roman general Stilicho, on the +unauthorised suspicion that she had held treasonable communication with +Alaric and the invading army; he noticed lengthily the promises of +assistance transmitted from Ravenna, after the perpetration of that +ill-omened act. He spoke admiringly of the skill displayed by the +government in making the necessary and immediate reductions in the +daily supplies of food; he lamented the terrible scarcity which +followed, too inevitably, those seasonable reductions. He pronounced +an eloquent eulogium on the noble charity of Laeta, the widow of the +Emperor Gratian, who, with her mother, devoted the store of provisions +obtained by their imperial revenues to succouring, at that important +juncture, the starving and desponding poor: he admitted the new +scarcity, consequent on the dissipation of Laeta's stores; deplored the +present necessity of sacrificing the domestic animals of the citizens; +condemned the enormous prices now demanded for the last remnants of +wholesome food that were garnered up; announced it as the firm +persuasion of every one that a few days more would bring help from +Ravenna; and ended his address by informing his auditory that, as they +had suffered so much already, they could patiently suffer a little +more, and that if, after this, they were so ill-fated as to sink under +their calamities, they would feel it a noble consolation to die in the +cause of Catholic and Apostolic Rome, and would assuredly be canonised +as saints and martyrs by the next generation of the pious in the first +interval of fertile and restoring peace. + +Flowing as was the eloquence of this oration, it yet possessed not the +power of inducing one among those whom it addressed to forget the +sensation of his present suffering, and to fix his attention on the +vision of future advantage, spread before all listeners by the fluent +priest. With the same murmurs of querulous complaint, and the same +expressions of impotent hatred and defiance of the Goths which had +fallen from them as they entered the church, the populace now departed +from it, to receive from the city officers the stinted allowance of +repugnant food, prepared for their hunger from the caldron in the +public square. + +And see, already from other haunts in the neighbouring quarter of Rome +their fellow-citizens press onward at the given signal, to meet them +round the caldron's sides! The languid sentinel, released from duty, +turns his gaze from the sickening prospect of the Gothic camp, and +hastens to share the public meal; the baker starts from sleeping on his +empty counter, the beggar rises from his kennel in the butcher's vacant +out-house, the slave deserts his place by the smouldering +kitchen-fire--all hurry to swell the numbers of the guests that are +bidden to the wretched feast. Rapidly and confusedly, the congregation +in the basilica pours through its lofty gates; the priests and +penitents retire from the altar's foot, and in the great church, so +crowded but a few moments before, there now only remains the figure of +a solitary man. + + +Since the commencement of the service, neither addressed nor observed, +this lonely being has faltered round the circle of the congregation, +gazing long and wistfully over the faces that met his view. Now that +the sermon is ended, and the last lingerer has quitted the church, he +turns from the spot whence he has anxiously watched the different +members of the departing throng, and feebly crouches down on his knees +at the base of a pillar that is near him. His eyes are hollow, and his +cheeks are wan; his thin grey hairs are few and fading on his aged +head. He makes no effort to follow the crowd and partake their +sustenance; no one is left behind to urge, no one returns to lead him +to the public meal. Though weak and old, he is perfectly forsaken in +his loneliness, perfectly unsolaced in his grief; his friends have lost +all trace of him; his enemies have ceased to fear or to hate him now. +As he crouches by the pillar alone, he covers his forehead with his +pale, palsied hands, his dim eyes fill with bitter tears, and such +expressions as these are ever and anon faintly audible in the intervals +of his heavy sighs: 'Day after day! Day after day! And my lost one +is not found! my loved and wronged one is not restored! Antonina! +Antonina!' + +Some days after the public distribution of food in the square of St. +John Lateran, Vetranio's favourite freedman might have been observed +pursuing his way homeward, sadly and slowly, to his master's palace. + +It was not without cause that the pace of the intelligent Carrio was +funereal and his expression disconsolate. Even during the short period +that had elapsed since the scene in the basilica already described, the +condition of the city had altered fearfully for the worse. The famine +advanced with giant strides; every succeeding hour endued it with new +vigour, every effort to repel it served but to increase its spreading +and overwhelming influence. One after another the pleasures and +pursuits of the city declined beneath the dismal oppression of the +universal ill, until the public spirit in Rome became moved alike in +all classes by one gloomy inspiration--a despairing defiance of the +famine and the Goths. + +The freedman entered his master's palace neither saluted nor welcomed +by the once obsequious slaves in the outer lodge. Neither harps nor +singing-boys, neither woman's ringing laughter nor man's bacchanalian +glee, now woke the echoes in the lonely halls. The pulse of pleasure +seemed to have throbbed its last in the joyless being of Vetranio's +altered household. + +Hastening his steps as he entered the mansion, Carrio passed into the +chamber where the senator awaited him. + +On two couches, separated by a small table, reclined the lord of the +palace and his pupil and companion at Ravenna, the once sprightly +Camilla. Vetranio's open brow had contracted a clouded and severe +expression, and he neither regarded nor addressed his visitor, who, on +her part, remained as silent and as melancholy as himself. Every trace +of the former characteristics of the gay, elegant voluptuary and the +lively, prattling girl seemed to have completely vanished. On the table +between them stood a large bottle containing Falernian wine, and a vase +filled with a little watery soup, in the middle of which floated a +small dough cake, sparingly sprinkled with common herbs. As for the +usual accompaniments of Vetranio's luxurious privacy, they were nowhere +to be seen. Poems, pictures, trinkets, lutes, all were absent. Even +the 'inestimable kitten of the breed most worshipped by the ancient +Egyptians' appeared no more. It had been stolen, cooked, and eaten by +a runaway slave, who had already bartered its ruby collar for a lean +parrot and the unroasted half of the carcase of a dog. + +'I lament to confess it, O estimable patron, but my mission has +failed,' observed Carrio, producing from his cloak several bags of +money and boxes of jewels, which he carefully deposited on the table. +'The Prefect has himself assisted in searching the public and private +granaries, and has arrived at the conclusion that not a handful of corn +is left in the city. I offered publicly in the market-place five +thousand sestertii for a living cock and hen, but was told that the +race had long since been exterminated, and that, as money would no +longer buy food, money was no longer desired by the poorest beggar in +Rome. There is no more even of the hay I yesterday purchased to be +obtained for the most extravagant bribes. Those still possessing the +smallest supplies of provision guard and hide them with the most +jealous care. I have done nothing but obtain for the consumption of +the few slaves who yet remain faithful in the house this small store of +dogs' hides, reserved from the public distribution of some days since +in the square of the Basilica of St. John.' + + +And the freedman, with an air of mingled triumph and disgust, produced +as he spoke his provision of dirty skins. + +'What supplies have we still left in our possession?' demanded +Vetranio, after drinking a deep draught of the Falernian, and motioning +his servant to place his treasured burden out of sight. + +'I have hidden in a secure receptacle, for I know not how soon hunger +may drive the slaves to disobedience,' rejoined Carrio, 'seven bags of +hay, three baskets stocked with salted horse-flesh, a sweetmeat-box +filled with oats, and another with dried parsley; the rare Indian +singing birds are still preserved inviolate in their aviary; there is a +great store of spices, and some bottles of the Nightingale Sauce yet +remain.' + +'What is the present aspect of the city?' interrupted Vetranio +impatiently. + +'Rome is as gloomy as a subterranean sepulchre,' replied Carrio, with a +shudder. 'The people congregate in speechless and hungry mobs at the +doors of their houses and the corners of the streets, the sentinels at +the ramparts totter on their posts, women and children are sleeping +exhausted on the very pavements of the churches, the theatres are +emptied of actors and audience alike, the baths resound with cries for +food and curses on the Goths, thefts are already committed in the open +and unguarded shops, and the barbarians remain fixed in their +encampments, unapproached by our promised legions from Ravenna, neither +assaulting us in our weakness, nor preparing to raise the blockade! +Our situation grows more and more perilous. I have great hopes in our +store of provisions; but--' + +'Cast your hopes to the court at Ravenna, and your beasts' provender to +the howling mob!' cried Vetranio with sudden energy. 'It is now too +late to yield; if the next few days bring us no assistance, the city +will be a human shambles! And think you that I, who have already lost +in this public suspension of social joys my pleasures, my employments, +and my companions, will wait serenely for the lingering and ignoble +death that must then threaten us all? No, it shall never be said that +I died starving with the herd, like a slave that his master deserts! +Though the plates in my banqueting hall must now be empty, my vases and +wine-cups shall yet sparkle for my guests! There is still wine in the +cellar, and spices and perfumes remain in the larder stores! I will +invite my friends to a last feast; a saturnalia in a city of famine; a +banquet of death, spread by the jovial labours of Silenus and his +fauns! Though the Parcae have woven for me the destiny of a dog, it is +the hand of Bacchus that shall sever the fatal thread!' + +His cheeks were flushed, his eyes sparkled; all the mad energy of his +determination appeared in his face as he spoke. He was no longer the +light, amiable, smooth-tongued trifler, but a moody, reckless, +desperate man, careless of every obligation and pursuit which had +hitherto influenced the easy surface of his patrician life. The +startled Camilla, who had as yet preserved a melancholy silence, ran +towards him with affrighted looks and undissembled tears. Carrio +stared in vacant astonishment on his master's disordered countenance; +and, forgetting his bundle of dogskins, suffered them to drop unheeded +on the floor. A momentary silence followed, which was suddenly +interrupted by the abrupt entrance of a fourth person, pale, trembling +and breathless, who was no other than Vetranio's former visitor, the +Prefect Pompeianus. + +'I bid you welcome to my approaching feast of brimming wine-cups and +empty dishes!' cried Vetranio, pouring the sparkling Falernian into his +empty glass. 'The last banquet given in Rome, ere the city is +annihilated, will be mine! The Goths and the famine shall have no part +in my death! Pleasure shall preside at my last moments, as it has +presided at my whole life! I will die like Sardanapalus, with my loves +and my treasures around me, and the last of my guests who remains proof +against our festivity shall set fire to my palace, as the kingly +Assyrian set fire to his!' + + +'This is no season for jesting,' exclaimed the Prefect, staring round +him with bewildered eyes and colourless cheeks. 'Our miseries are but +dawning as yet! In the next street lies the corpse of a woman, +and--horrible omen!--a coil of serpents is wreathed about her neck! We +have no burial-place to receive her, and the thousands who may die like +her, ere assistance arrives. The city sepulchres outside the walls are +in the hands of the Goths. The people stand round the body in a trance +of horror, for they have now discovered a fatal truth we would fain +have concealed from them--' Here the Prefect paused, looked round +affrightedly on his listeners, and then added in low trembling tones-- + +'The citizens are lying dead from famine in the streets of Rome!' + + + +CHAPTER 15. + +THE CITY AND THE GODS. + +We return once more to the Gothic encampment in the suburbs eastward of +the Pincian Gate, and to Hermanric and the warriors under his command, +who are still posted at that particular position on the great circle of +the blockade. + +The movements of the young chieftain from place to place expressed, in +their variety and rapidity, the restlessness that was agitating his +mind. He glanced back frequently from the warriors around him to the +remote and opposite quarter of the suburbs, occasionally directing his +eyes towards the western horizon, as if anxiously awaiting the approach +of some particular hour of the coming night. Weary at length of +pursuing occupations which evidently irritated rather than soothed his +impatience, he turned abruptly from his companions, and advancing +towards the city, paced slowly backwards and forwards over the waste +ground between the suburbs and the walls of Rome. + +At intervals he still continued to examine the scene around him. A +more dreary prospect than now met his view, whether in earth or sky, +can hardly be conceived. + +The dull sunless day was fast closing, and the portentous heaven gave +promise of a stormy night. Thick, black layers of shapeless cloud hung +over the whole firmament, save at the western point; and here lay a +streak of pale, yellow light, enclosed on all sides by the firm, +ungraduated, irregular edges of the masses of gloomy vapour around it. +A deep silence hung over the whole atmosphere. The wind was voiceless +among the steady trees. The stir and action in the being of nature and +the life of man seemed enthralled, suspended, stifled. The air was +laden with a burdensome heat; and all things on earth, animate and +inanimate, felt the oppression that weighed on them from the higher +elements. The people who lay gasping for breath in the famine-stricken +city, and the blades of grass that drooped languidly on the dry sward +beyond the walls, owned the enfeebling influence alike. + +As the hours wore on and night stealthily and gradually advanced, a +monotonous darkness overspread, one after another, the objects +discernible to Hermanric from the solitary ground he still occupied. +Soon the great city faded into one vast, impenetrable shadow, while the +suburbs and the low country around them vanished in the thick darkness +that gathered almost perceptibly over the earth. And now the sole +object distinctly visible was the figure of a weary sentinel, who stood +on the frowning rampart immediately above the rifted wall, and whose +drooping figure, propped upon his weapon, was indicated in hard relief +against the thin, solitary streak of light still shining in the cold +and cloudy wastes of the western sky. + +But as the night still deepened, this one space of light faded, +contracted, vanished, and with it disappeared the sentinel and the line +of rampart on which he was posted. The rule of the darkness now became +universal. Densely and rapidly it overspread the whole city with +startling suddenness; as if the fearful destiny now working its +fulfilment in Rome had forced the external appearances of the night +into harmony with its own woe-boding nature. + + +Then, as the young Goth still lingered at his post of observation, the +long, low, tremulous, absorbing roll of thunder afar off became grandly +audible. It seemed to proceed from a distance almost incalculable; to +be sounding from its cradle in the frozen north; to be journeying about +its ice-girdled chambers in the lonely poles. It deepened rather than +interrupted the dreary, mysterious stillness of the atmosphere. The +lightning, too, had a summer softness in its noiseless and frequent +gleam. It was not the fierce lightning of winter, but a warm, fitful +brightness, almost fascinating in its light, rapid recurrence, tinged +with the glow of heaven, and not with the glare of hell. + +There was no wind--no rain; and the air was as hushed as if it slept +over chaos in the infancy of a new creation. + +Among the various objects displayed, instant by instant, by the rapid +lightning to the eyes of Hermanric, the most easily and most distinctly +visible was the broad surface of the rifted wall. The large, loose +stones, scattered here and there at its base, and the overhanging lid +of its broad rampart, became plainly though fitfully apparent in the +brief moments of their illumination. The lightning had played for some +time over that structure of the fortifications, and the bare ground +that stretched immediately beyond them, when the smooth prospect which +it thus gave by glimpses to view, was suddenly chequered by a flight of +birds appearing from one of the lower divisions of the wall, and +flitting uneasily to and fro at one spot before its surface. + +As moment after moment the lightning continued to gleam, so the black +forms of the birds were visible to the practised eye of the +Goth--perceptible, yet evanescent, as sparks of fire or flakes of +snow--whirling confusedly and continually about the spot whence they +had evidently been startled by some unimaginable interruption. At +length, after a lapse of some time, they vanished as suddenly as they +had appeared, with shrill notes of affright which were audible even +above the continuous rolling of the thunder; and immediately +afterwards, when the lightning alternated with the darkness, there +appeared to Hermanric, in the part of the wall where the birds had been +first disturbed, a small red gleam, like a spark of fire lodged in the +surface of the structure. Then this was lost; a longer obscurity than +usual prevailed in the atmosphere, and when the Goth gazed eagerly +through the next succession of flashes, they showed him the momentary +and doubtful semblance of a human figure, standing erect on the stones +at the base of the wall. + +Hermanric started with astonishment. Again the lightning ceased. In +the ardour of his anxiety to behold more, he strained his eyes with the +vain hope of penetrating the obscurity around him. The darkness seemed +interminable. Once again the lightning flashed brilliantly out. He +looked eagerly towards the wall--the figure was still there. + +His heart throbbed quickly within him, as he stood irresolute on the +spot he had occupied since the first peal of thunder had struck upon +his ear. Were the light and the man--one seen but for an instant, the +other still perceptible--mere phantoms of his erring sight, dazzled by +the quick recurrence of atmospheric changes through which it had acted? +Or did he indubitably behold a human form, and had he really observed a +material light? Some strange treachery, some dangerous mystery might +be engendering in the besieged city, which it would be his duty to +observe and unmask. He drew his sword, and, at the risk of being +observed through the lightning, and heard during the pauses in the +thunder, by the sentinel on the wall, resolutely advanced to the very +foot of the fortifications of hostile Rome. + +He heard no sound, perceived no light, observed no figure, as, after +several unsuccessful attempts to reach the place where they stood, he +at length paused at the loose stones which he knew were heaped at the +base of the wall. The next moment he was so close to it, that he could +pass his sword-point over parts of its rugged surface. He had scarcely +examined thus a space of more than ten yards, before his weapon +encountered a sharp, jagged edge; and a sudden presentiment assured him +instantly that he had found the spot where he had beheld the momentary +light, and that he stood on the same stone which had been occupied by +the figure of the man. + + +After an instant's hesitation, he was about to mount higher on the +loose stones, and examine more closely the irregularity he had just +discovered in the wall, when a vivid flash of lightning, unusually +prolonged, showed him, obstructing at scarcely a yard's distance his +onward path, the figure he had already distantly beheld from the plain +behind. + +There was something inexpressibly fearful in his viewless vicinity, +during the next moment of darkness, to this silent, mysterious form, so +imperfectly shown by the lightning that quivered over its half-revealed +proportions. Every pulse in the body of the Goth seemed to pause as he +stood, with ready weapon, looking into the gloomy darkness, and wafting +for the next flash. It came, and displayed to him the man's fierce +eyes glaring steadily down upon his face; another gleam, and he beheld +his haggard finger placed upon his lip in token of silence; a third, +and he saw the arm of the figure pointing towards the plain behind him; +and then in the darkness that followed, a hot breath played upon his +ear, and a voice whispered to him, through a pause in the rolling of +the thunder--'Follow me.' + +The next instant Hermanric felt the momentary contact of the man's +body, as with noiseless steps he passed him on the stones. It was no +time to deliberate or to doubt. He followed close upon the stranger's +footsteps, gaining glimpses of his dark form moving onward before, +whenever the lightning briefly illuminated the scene, until they +arrived at a clump of trees, not far distant from the houses in the +suburbs that were occupied by the Goths under his own command. + +Here the stranger paused before the trunk of a tree which stood between +the city wall and himself, and drew from beneath his ragged cloak a +small lantern, carefully covered with a piece of cloth, which he now +removed, and holding the light high above his head, regarded the Goth +with a steady and anxious scrutiny. + +Hermanric attempted to address him first, but the appearance of the +man, barely visible though it was by the feeble light of his lantern, +was so startling and repulsive, that the half-formed words died away on +his lips. The face of the stranger was of a ghastly paleness; his +hollow cheeks were seamed with deep wrinkles; and his eyes glared with +an expression of ferocious suspicion. One of his arms was covered with +old bandages, stiff with coagulated blood, and hung paralysed at his +side. The hand that held the light trembled, so that the lantern +containing it vibrated continuously in his unsteady grasp. His limbs +were lank and shrivelled almost to deformity, and it was with evident +difficulty that he stood upright on his feet. Every member of his body +seemed to be wasting with a gradual death, while his expression, ardent +and forbidding, was stamped with all the energy of manhood, and all the +daring of youth. + +It was Ulpius! The wall was passed! The breach was made good! + +After a protracted examination of Hermanric's countenance and attire, +the man, with an imperious expression, strangely at variance with his +faltering voice, thus addressed him:-- + +'You are a Goth?' + +'I am,' rejoined the young chief; 'and you are--' + +'A friend of the Goths,' was the quick answer. + +An instant of silence followed. The dialogue was then again begun by +the stranger. + +'What brought you alone to the base of the ramparts?' he demanded, and +an expression of ungovernable apprehension shot from his eyes as he +spoke. + +'I saw the appearance of a man in the gleam of the lightning,' answered +Hermanric. 'I approached it, to assure myself that my eyes had not +deluded me, to discover--' + + +'There is but one man of your nation who shall discover whence I came +and what I would obtain,' interrupted the stranger fiercely; 'that man +is Alaric, your king.' + +Surprise, indignation, and contempt appeared in the features of the +Goth, as he listened to such a declaration from the helpless outcast +before him. The man perceived it, and motioning him to be silent, +again addressed him. + +'Listen!' cried he. 'I have that to reveal to the leader of your +forces which will stir the heart of every man in your encampment, if +you are trusted with the secret after your king has heard it from my +lips! Do you still refuse to guide me to his tent?' + +Hermanric laughed scornfully. + +'Look on me,' pursued the man, bending forward, and fixing his eyes +with savage earnestness upon his listener's face. 'I am alone, old, +wounded, weak,--a stranger to your nation,--a famished and a helpless +man! Should I venture into your camp--should I risk being slain for a +Roman by your comrades--should I dare the wrath of your imperious ruler +without a cause?' + +He paused; and then, still keeping his eyes on the Goth, continued in +lower and more agitated tones-- + +'Deny me your help, I will wander through your camp till I find your +king! Imprison me, your violence will not open my lips! Slay me, you +will gain nothing by my death! But aid me, and to the latest moment of +your life you will rejoice in the deed! I have words of terrible +import for Alaric's ear,--a secret in the gaining of which I have paid +the penalty thus!' + +He pointed to his wounded arm. The solemnity of his voice, the rough +energy of his words, the stern determination of his aspect, the +darkness of the night that was round them, the rolling thunder that +seemed to join itself to their discourse, the impressive mystery of +their meeting under the city walls, all began to exert their powerful +and different influences over the mind of the Goth, changing insensibly +the sentiments at first inspired in him by the man's communications. +He hesitated, and looked round doubtfully towards the lines of the camp. + +There was a long silence, which was again interrupted by the stranger. + +'Guard me, chain me, mock at me if you will,' he cried, with raised +voice and flashing eyes, 'but lead me to Alaric's tent! I swear to you +by the thunder pealing over our heads, that the words I would speak to +him will be more precious in his eyes than the brightest jewel he could +ravish from the coffers of Rome.' + +Though visibly troubled and impressed, Hermanric still hesitated. + +'Do you yet delay?' exclaimed the man, with contemptuous impatience. +'Stand back! I will pass on by myself into the very heart of your +camp! I entered on my project alone--I will work its fulfilment without +help! Stand back!' + +And he moved past Hermanric in the direction of the suburbs, with the +same look of fierce energy on his withered features which had marked +them so strikingly at the outset of his extraordinary interview with +the young chieftain. + + +The daring devotion to his purpose, the reckless toiling after a +dangerous and doubtful success, manifested in the words and actions of +one so feeble and unaided as the stranger, aroused in the Goth that +sentiment of irrepressible admiration which the union of moral and +physical courage inevitably awakens. In addition to the incentive to +aid the man thus created, an ardent curiosity to discover his secret +filled the mind of Hermanric, and further powerfully inclined him to +conduct his determined companion into Alaric's presence--for by such +proceeding only could he hope, after the man's firm declaration that he +would communicate in the first instance to no one but the king, to +penetrate ultimately the object of his mysterious errand. Animated, +therefore, by such motives as these, he called to the stranger to stop, +and briefly communicated to him his willingness to conduct him +instantly to the presence of the leader of the Goths. + +The man intimated by a sign his readiness to accept the offer. His +physical powers were now evidently fast failing, but he still tottered +painfully onward as they moved to the headquarters of the camp, +muttering and gesticulating to himself almost incessantly. Once only +did he address his conductor during their progress; and then with a +startling abruptness of manner, and in tones of vehement anxiety and +suspicion, he demanded of the young Goth if he had ever examined the +surface of the city wall before that night. Hermanric replied in the +negative; and they then proceeded in perfect silence. + +Their way lay through the line of encampment to the westward, and was +imperfectly lighted by the flame of an occasional torch or the glow of +a distant watch-fire. The thunder had diminished in frequency, but had +increased in volume; faint breaths of wind soared up fitfully from the +west, and already a few raindrops fell slowly to the thirsty earth. +The warriors not actually on duty at the different posts of observation +had retired to the shelter of their tents; none of the thousand idlers +and attendants attached to the great army appeared at their usual +haunts; even the few voices that were audible sounded distant and low. +The night-scene here, among the ranks of the invaders of Italy, was as +gloomy and repelling as on the solitary plains before the walls of Rome. + +Ere long the stranger perceived that they had reached a part of the +camp more thickly peopled, more carefully illuminated, more strongly +fortified, than that through which they had already passed; and the +liquid, rushing sound of the waters of the rapid Tiber now caught his +suspicious and attentive ear. They still moved onward a few yards; and +then paused suddenly before a tent, immediately surrounded by many +others, and occupied at all its approaches by groups of richly-armed +warriors. Here Hermanric stopped an instant to parley with the +sentinel, who, after a short delay, raised the outer covering of the +entrance to the tent, and the moment after the Roman adventurer beheld +himself standing by his conductor's side in the presence of the Gothic +king. + +The interior of Alaric's tent was lined with skins, and illuminated by +one small lamp, fastened to the centre pole that supported its roof. +The only articles of furniture in the place were some bundles of furs +flung down loosely on the ground, and a large, rudely-carved wooden +chest, on which stood a polished human skull, hollowed into a sort of +clumsy wine-cup. A thoroughly Gothic ruggedness of aspect, a stately +Northern simplicity prevailed over the spacious tent, and was indicated +not merely in its thick shadows, its calm lights, and its freedom from +pomp and glitter, but even in the appearance and employment of its +remarkable occupant. + + +Alaric was seated alone on the wooden chest already described, +contemplating with bent brow and abstracted gaze some old Runic +characters, traced upon the carved surface of a brass and silver +shield, full five feet high, which rested against the side of the tent. +The light of the lamp falling upon the polished surface of the +weapon--rendered doubly bright by the dark skins behind it--was +reflected back upon the figure of the Goth chief. It glowed upon his +ample cuirass; it revealed his firm lips, slightly curled by an +expression of scornful triumph; it displayed the grand, muscular +formation of his arm, which rested--clothed in tightly-fitting +leather--upon his knee; it partly brightened over his short, light +hair, and glittered steadily in his fixed, thoughtful, manly eyes, +which were just perceptible beneath the partial shadow of his +contracted brow; while it left the lower part of his body and his right +hand, which was supported on the head of a huge, shaggy dog couching at +his side, shadowed almost completely by the thick skins heaped +confusedly against the sides of the wooden chest. He was so completely +absorbed in the contemplation of the Runic characters, traced among the +carved figures on his immense shield, that he did not notice the entry +of Hermanric and the stranger until the growl of the watchful dog +suddenly disturbed him in his occupation. He looked up instantly, his +quick, penetrating glance dwelling for a moment on the young chieftain, +and then resting steadily and inquiringly on his companion's feeble and +mutilated form. + +Accustomed to the military brevity and promptitude exacted by his +commander in all communications addressed to him by his inferiors, +Hermanric, without waiting to be interrogated or attempting to preface +or excuse his narrative, shortly related the conversation that had +taken place between the stranger and himself on the plain near the +Pincian Gate; and then waited respectfully to receive the commendation +or incur the rebuke of the king, as the chance of the moment might +happen to decide. + +After again fixing his eyes in severe scrutiny on the person of the +Roman, Alaric spoke to the young warrior in the Gothic language thus:-- + +'Leave the man with me--return to your post, and there await whatever +commands it may be necessary that I should despatch to you to-night.' + +Hermanric immediately departed. Then, addressing the stranger for the +first time, and speaking in the Latin language, the Gothic leader +briefly and significantly intimated to his unknown visitant that they +were now alone. + +The man's parched lips moved, opened, quivered; his wild, hollow eyes +brightened till they absolutely gleamed, but he seemed incapable of +uttering a word; his features became horribly convulsed, the foam +gathered about his lips, he staggered forward and would have fallen to +the ground, had not the king instantly caught him in his strong grasp, +and placed him on the wooden chest that he had hitherto occupied +himself. + +'Can a starving Roman have escaped from the beleaguered city?' muttered +Alaric, as he took the skull cup, and poured some of the wine it +contained down the stranger's throat. + +The liquor was immediately successful in restoring composure to the +man's features and consciousness to his mind. He raised himself from +the seat, dashed off the cold perspiration that overspread his +forehead, and stood upright before the king--the solitary, powerless +old man before the vigorous lord of thousands, in the midst of his +warriors--without a tremor in his steady eye or a prayer for protection +on his haughty lip. + +'I, a Roman,' he began, 'come from Rome, against which the invader wars +with the weapon of famine, to deliver the city, her people, her +palaces, and her treasures into the hands of Alaric the Goth.' + +The king started, looked on the speaker for a moment, and then turned +from him in impatience and contempt. + +'I lie not,' pursued the enthusiast, with a calm dignity that affected +even the hardy sensibilities of the Gothic hero. 'Eye me again! Could +I come starved, shrivelled, withered thus from any place but Rome? +Since I quitted the city an hour has hardly passed, and by the way that +I left it the forces of the Goths may enter it to-night.' + +'The proof of the harvest is in the quantity of the grain, not in the +tongue of the husbandman. Show me your open gates, and I will believe +that you have spoken truth,' retorted the king, with a rough laugh. + +'I betray the city,' resumed the man sternly, 'but on one condition; +grant it me, and--' + +'I will grant you your life,' interrupted Alaric haughtily. + + +'My life!' cried the Roman, and his shrunken form seemed to expand, and +his tremulous voice to grow firm and steady in the very bitterness of +his contempt, as he spoke. 'My life! I ask it not of your power! The +wreck of my body is scarce strong enough to preserve it to me a single +day! I have no home, no loves, no friends, no possessions! I live in +Rome a solitary in the midst of the multitude, a pagan in a city of +apostates! What is my life to me? I cherish it but for the service of +the gods, whose instruments of vengeance against the nation that has +denied them I would make you and your hosts! If you slay me, it is a +sign to me from them that I am worthless in their cause. I shall die +content.' + +He ceased. The king's manner, as he listened to him, gradually lost +the bluntness and carelessness that had hitherto characterised it, and +assumed an attention and a seriousness more in accordance with his high +station and important responsibilities. He began to regard the +stranger as no common renegade, no ordinary spy, no shallow impostor, +who might be driven from his tent with disdain; but as a man important +enough to be heard, and ambitious enough to be distrusted. +Accordingly, he resumed the seat from which he had risen during the +interview, and calmly desired his new ally to explain the condition, on +the granting of which depended the promised betrayal of the city of +Rome. + +The pain-worn and despondent features of Ulpius became animated by a +glow of triumph as he heard the sudden mildness and moderation of the +king's demand; he raised his head proudly, and advanced a few steps, as +he thus loudly and abruptly resumed:-- + +'Assure to me the overthrow of the Christian churches, the +extermination of the Christian priests, and the universal revival of +the worship of the gods, and this night shall make you master of the +chief city of the empire you are labouring to subvert!' + +The boldness, the comprehensiveness, the insanity of wickedness +displayed in such a proposition, and emanating from such a source, so +astounded the mind of Alaric, as to deprive him for the moment of +speech. The stranger, perceiving his temporary inability to answer +him, broke the silence which ensued and continued-- + +'Is my condition a hard one? A conqueror is all-powerful; he can +overthrow the worship, as he can overthrow the government of a nation. +What matters it to you, while empire, renown, and treasure are yours, +what deities the people adore? Is it a great price to pay for an easy +conquest, to make a change which threatens neither your power, your +fame, nor your wealth? Do you marvel that I desire from you such a +revolution as this? I was born for the gods, in their service I +inherited rank and renown, for their cause I have suffered degradation +and woe, for their restoration I will plot, combat, die! Assure me +then by oath, that with a new rule you will erect our ancient worship, +and through my secret inlet to the city I will introduce men enough of +the Goths to murder with security the sentinels at the guard-houses, +and open the gates of Rome to the numbers of your whole invading +forces. Think not to despise the aid of a man unprotected and unknown! +The citizens will never yield to your blockade; you shrink from risking +the dangers of an assault; the legions of Ravenna are reported on their +way hitherward. Outcast as I am, I tell it to you here, in the midst +of your camp--your speediest assurance of success rests on my discovery +and on me!' + +The king started suddenly from his seat. 'What fool or madman!' he +cried, fixing his eyes in furious scorn and indignation on the +stranger's face, 'prates to me about the legions of Ravenna and the +dangers of an assault! Think you, renegade, that your city could have +resisted me had I chosen to storm it on the first day when I encamped +before its walls? Know you that your effeminate soldiery have laid +aside the armour of their ancestors, because their puny bodies are too +feeble to bear its weight, and that the half of my army here trebles +the whole number of the guards of Rome? Now, while you stand before +me, I have but to command, and the city shall be annihilated with fire +and sword, without the aid of one of the herd of traitors cowering +beneath the shelter of its ill-defended walls!' + + +As Alaric spoke thus, some invisible agency seemed to crush, body and +mind, the lost wretch whom he addressed. The shock of such an answer +as he now heard seemed to strike him idiotic, as a flash of lightning +strikes with blindness. He regarded the king with a bewildered stare, +waving his hand tremulously backwards and forwards before his face, as +if to clear some imaginary darkness off his eyes; then his arm fell +helpless by his side, his head drooped upon his breast, and he moaned +out in low, vacant tones, 'The restoration of the gods--that is the +condition of conquest--the restoration of the gods!' + +'I come not hither to be the tool of a frantic and forgotten +priesthood,' cried Alaric disdainfully. 'Wherever I meet with your +accursed idols I will melt them down into armour for my warriors and +shoes for my horses; I will turn your temples into granaries and cut +your images of wood into billets for the watchfires of my hosts!' + +'Slay me and be silent!' groaned the man, staggering back against the +side of the tent, and shrinking under the merciless words of the Goth +like a slave under the lash. + +'I leave the shedding of such blood as yours to your fellow Romans,' +answered the king; 'they alone are worthy of the deed.' + +No syllable of reply now escaped the stranger's lips, and after an +interval of silence Alaric resumed, in tones divested of their former +fiery irritation, and marked by a solemn earnestness that conferred +irresistible dignity and force on every word that he uttered. + +'Behold the characters engraven there!' said he, pointing to the +shield; 'they trace the curse denounced by Odin against the great +oppressor, Rome! Once these words made part of the worship of our +fathers; the worship has long since vanished, but the words remain; +they seal the eternal hatred of the people of the North to the people +of the South; they contain the spirit of the great destiny that has +brought me to the walls of Rome. Citizen of a fallen empire, the +measure of your crimes is full! The voice of a new nation calls +through me for the freedom of the earth, which was made for man, and +not for Romans! The rule that your ancestors won by strength their +posterity shall no longer keep by fraud. For two hundred years, hollow +and unlasting truces have alternated with long and bloody wars between +your people and mine. Remembering this, remembering the wrongs of the +Goths in their settlements in Thrace, the murder of the Gothic youths +in the towns of Asia, the massacre of the Gothic hostages in Aquileia, +I come--chosen by the supernatural decrees of Heaven--to assure the +freedom and satisfy the wrath of my nation, by humbling at its feet the +power of tyrannic Rome! It is not for battle and bloodshed that I am +encamped before yonder walls. It is to crush to the earth, by famine +and woe, the pride of your people and the spirit of your rulers; to +tear from you your hidden wealth, and to strip you of your boasted +honour; to overthrow by oppression the oppressors of the world; to deny +you the glories of a resistance, and to impose on you the shame of a +submission. It is for this that I now abstain from storming your city, +to encircle it with an immovable blockade!' + +As the declaration of his great mission burst thus from the lips of the +Gothic king, the spirit of his lofty ambition seemed to diffuse itself +over his outward form. His noble stature, his fine proportions, his +commanding features, became invested with a simple, primeval grandeur. +Contrasted as he now was with the shrunken figure of the spirit-broken +stranger, he looked almost sublime. + + +A succession of protracted shuddering ran through the Pagan's frame, +but he neither wept nor spoke. The unavailing defence of the Temple of +Serapis, the defeated revolution at Alexandria, and the abortive +intrigue with Vetranio, were now rising on his memory, to heighten the +horror of his present and worst overthrow. Every circumstance +connected with his desperate passage through the rifted wall revived, +fearfully vivid, on his mind. He remembered all the emotions of his +first night's labour in the darkness, all the miseries of his second +night's torture under the fallen brickwork, all the woe, danger, and +despondency that accompanied his subsequent toil--persevered in under +the obstructions of a famine-weakened body and a helpless arm--until he +passed, in delusive triumph, the last of the hindrances in the +long-laboured breach. One after another these banished recollections +returned to his memory as he listened to Alaric's rebuking +words--reviving past infirmities, opening old wounds, inflicting new +lacerations. But, saving the shudderings that still shook his body, no +outward witness betrayed the inward torment that assailed him. It was +too strong for human words, too terrible for human sympathy;--he +suffered it in brute silence. Monstrous as was his plot, the moral +punishment of its attempted consummation was severe enough to be worthy +of the projected crime. + +After watching the man for a few minutes more, with a glance of +pitiless disdain, Alaric summoned one of the warriors in attendance; +and, having previously commanded him to pass the word to the sentinels, +authorising the stranger's free passage through the encampment, he then +turned, and, for the last time, addressed him as follows:-- + +'Return to Rome, through the hole whence, reptile-like, you +emerged!--and feed your starving citizens with the words you have heard +in the barbarian's tent!' + +The guard approached, led him from the presence of the king, issued the +necessary directions to the sentinels, and left him to himself. Once +he raised his eyes in despairing appeal to the heaven that frowned over +his head; but still, no word, or tear, or groan, escaped him. He moved +slowly on through the thick darkness; and turning his back on the city, +passed, careless whither he strayed, into the streets of the desolate +and dispeopled suburbs. + + + +CHAPTER 16. + +LOVE MEETINGS. + +Who that has looked on a threatening and tempestuous sky, has not felt +the pleasure of discovering unexpectedly a small spot of serene blue, +still shining among the stormy clouds? The more unwillingly the eye +has wandered over the gloomy expanse of the rest of the firmament, the +more gladly does it finally rest on the little oasis of light which +meets at length its weary gaze, and which, when it was dispersed over +the whole heaven, was perhaps only briefly regarded with a careless +glance. Contrasted with the dark and mournful hues around it, even that +small spot of blue gradually acquires the power of investing the wider +and sadder prospect with a certain interest and animation that it did +not before possess--until the mind recognises in the surrounding +atmosphere of storm an object adding variety to the view--a spectacle +whose mournfulness may interest as well as repel. + +Was it with sensations resembling these (applied, however, rather to +the mind than to the eye) that the reader perused those pages devoted +to Hermanric and Antonina? Does the happiness there described now +appear to him to beam through the stormy progress of the narrative as +the spot of blue beams through the gathering clouds? Did that small +prospect of brightness present itself, at the time, like a garden of +repose amid the waste of fierce emotions which encompassed it? Did it +encourage him, when contrasted with what had gone before, to enter on +the field of gloomier interest which was to follow? If, indeed, it has +thus affected him, if he can still remember the scene at the farm-house +beyond the suburbs with emotions such as these, he will not now be +unwilling to turn again for a moment from the gathering clouds to the +spot of blue,--he will not deny us an instant's digression from Ulpius +and the city of famine to Antonina and the lonely plains. + +During the period that has elapsed since we left her, Antonina has +remained secure in her solitude, happy in her well-chosen concealment. +The few straggling Goths who at rare intervals appeared in the +neighbourhood of her sanctuary never intruded on its peaceful limits. +The sight of the ravaged fields and emptied granaries of the deserted +little property sufficed invariably to turn their marauding steps in +other directions. Day by day ran smoothly and swiftly onwards for the +gentle usurper of the abandoned farm-house. In the narrow round of its +gardens and protecting woods was comprised for her the whole circle of +the pleasures and occupations of her new life. + + +The simple stores left in the house, the fruits and vegetables to be +gathered in the garden, sufficed amply for her support. The pastoral +solitude of the place had in it a quiet, dreamy fascination, a novelty, +an unwearying charm, after the austere loneliness to which her former +existence had been subjected in Rome. And when evening came, and the +sun began to burnish the tops of the western tress, then, after the +calm emotions of the solitary day, came the hour of absorbing cares and +happy expectations--ever the same, yet ever delighting and ever new. +Then the rude shutters were carefully closed; the open door was shut +and barred; the small light--now invisible to the world without--was +joyfully kindled; and then, the mistress and author of these +preparations resigned herself to await, with pleased anxiety, the +approach of the guest for whose welcome they were designed. + +And never did she expect the arrival of that treasured companion in +vain. Hermanric remembered his promise to repair constantly to the +farm-house, and performed it with all the constancy of love and all the +enthusiasm of youth. When the sentinels under his command were +arranged in their order of watching for the night, and the trust +reposed in him by his superiors exempted his actions from +superintendence during the hours of darkness that followed, he left the +camp, passed through the desolate suburbs, and gained the dwelling +where the young Roman awaited him--returning before daybreak to receive +the communications regularly addressed to him, at that hour, by his +inferior in the command. + +Thus, false to his nation, yet true to the new Egeria of his thoughts +and actions--traitor to the requirements of vengeance and war, yet +faithful to the interests of tranquility and love--did he seek, night +after night, Antonina's presence. His passion, though it denied him to +his warrior duties, wrought not deteriorating change in his +disposition. All that it altered in him it altered nobly. It varied +and exalted his rude emotions, for it was inspired, not alone by the +beauty and youth that he saw, but by the pure thoughts, the artless +eloquence that he heard. And she--the forsaken daughter, the source +whence the Northern warrior derived those new and higher sensations +that had never animated him until now--regarded her protector, her +first friend and companion, as her first love, with a devotion which, +in its mingled and exalted nature, may be imagined by the mind, but can +be but imperfectly depicted by the pen. It was a devotion created of +innocence and gratitude, of joy and sorrow, of apprehension and hope. +It was too fresh, too unworldly to own any upbraidings of artificial +shame, any self-reproaches of artificial propriety. It resembled in +its essence, though not in its application, the devotion of the first +daughters of the Fall to their brother-lords. + +But it is now time that we return to the course of our narrative; +although, ere we again enter on the stirring and rapid present, it will +be necessary for a moment more to look back in another direction to the +eventful past. + +But it is not on peace, beauty, and pleasure that our observation now +fixes itself. It is to anger, disease, and crime--to the unappeasable +and unwomanly Goisvintha, that we now revert. + +Since the day when the violence of her conflicting emotions had +deprived her of consciousness, at the moment of her decisive triumph +over the scruples of Hermanric and the destiny of Antonina, a raging +fever had visited on her some part of those bitter sufferings that she +would fain have inflicted on others. Part of the time she lay in a +raving delirium; part of the time in helpless exhaustion; but she never +forgot, whatever the form assumed by her disease, the desperate purpose +in the pursuit of which she had first incurred it. Slowly and +doubtfully her vigour at length returned to her, and with it +strengthened and increased the fierce ambition of vengeance that +absorbed her lightest thoughts and governed her most careless actions. + + +Report informed her of the new position, on the line of blockade, on +which Hermanric was posted, and only enumerated as the companions of +his sojourn the warriors sent thither under his command. But, though +thus persuaded of the separation of Antonina and the Goth, her +ignorance of the girl's fate rankled unintermittingly in her savage +heart. Doubtful whether she had permanently reclaimed Hermanric to the +interests of vengeance and bloodshed; vaguely suspecting that he might +have informed himself in her absence of Antonina's place of refuge or +direction of flight; still resolutely bent on securing the death of her +victim, wherever she might have strayed, she awaited with trembling +eagerness that day of restoration to available activity and strength +which would enable her to resume her influence over the Goth, and her +machinations against the safety of the fugitive girl. The time of her +final and long-expected recovery, was the very day preceding the stormy +night we have already described, and her first employment of her +renewed energy was to send word to the young Goth of her intention of +seeking him at his encampment ere the evening closed. + +It was this intimation which caused the inquietude mentioned as +characteristic of the manner of Hermanric at the commencement of the +preceding chapter. The evening there described was the first that saw +him deprived, through the threatened visit of Goisvintha, of the +anticipation of repairing to Antonina, as had been his wont, under +cover of the night; for to slight his kinswoman's ominous message was +to risk the most fatal of discoveries. Trusting to the delusive +security of her sickness, he had hitherto banished the unwelcome +remembrance of her existence from his thoughts. But, now that she was +once more capable of exertion and of crime, he felt that if he would +preserve the secret of Antonina's hiding-place and the security of +Antonina's life, he must remain to oppose force to force and stratagem +to stratagem, when Goisvintha sought him at his post, even at the risk +of inflicting, by his absence from the farm-house, all the pangs of +anxiety and apprehension on the lonely girl. + +Absorbed in such reflections as these, longing to depart, yet +determined to remain, he impatiently awaited Goisvintha's approach, +until the rising of the storm with its mysterious and all-engrossing +train of events forced his thoughts and actions into a new channel. +When, however, his interviews with the stranger and the Gothic king +were past, and he had returned as he had been bidden to his appointed +sojourn in the camp, his old anxieties, displaced but not destroyed, +resumed their influence over him. He demanded eagerly of his comrades +if Goisvintha had arrived in his absence, and received the same answer +in the negative from each. + +As he now listened to the melancholy rising of the wind and the +increasing loudness of the thunder, to the shrill cries of the distant +night-birds hurrying to shelter, emotions of mournfulness and awe +possessed themselves of his heart. He now wondered that any events, +however startling, however appalling, should have had the power to turn +his mind for a moment from the dreary contemplations that had engaged +it at the close of day. He thought of Antonina, solitary and helpless, +listening to the tempest in affright, and watching vainly for his +long-delayed approach. His fancy arrayed before him dangers, plots, +and crimes, robed in all the horrible exaggerations of a dream. Even +the quick, monotonous dripping of the rain-drops outside aroused within +him dark and indefinable forebodings of ill. The passion that had +hitherto created for him new pleasures was now fulfilling the other +half of its earthly mission, and causing him new pains. + +As the storm strengthened, as the darkness lowered deeper and deeper, +so did his inquietude increase, until at length it mastered the last +feeble resistance of his wavering firmness. Persuading himself that, +after having delayed so long, Goisvintha would now refrain from seeking +him until the morrow, and that all communications from Alaric, had they +been despatched, would have reached him ere this; unable any longer to +combat his anxiety for the safety of Antonina; determined to risk the +worst possibilities rather than be absent at such a time of tempest and +peril from the farm-house, he made a last visit to the stations of the +watchful sentinels, and quitted the camp for the night. + + + +CHAPTER 17. + +THE HUNS. + +More than an hour after Hermanric had left the encampment, a man +hurriedly entered the house set apart for the young chieftain's +occupation. He made no attempt to kindle either light or fire, but sat +down in the principal apartment, occasionally whispering to himself in +a strange and barbarous tongue. + + +He had remained but a short time in possession of his comfortless +solitude, when he was intruded on by a camp-follower, bearing a small +lamp, and followed closely by a woman, who, as he started up and +confronted her, announced herself as Hermanric's kinswoman, and eagerly +demanded an interview with the Goth. + +Haggard and ghastly though it was from recent suffering and long +agitation, the countenance of Goisvintha (for it was she) appeared +absolutely attractive as it was now opposed by the lamp-light to the +face and figure of the individual she addressed. A flat nose, a +swarthy complexion, long, coarse, tangled locks of deep black hair, a +beardless, retreating chin, and small, savage, sunken eyes, gave a +character almost bestial to this man's physiognomy. His broad, brawny +shoulders overhung a form that was as low in stature as it was athletic +in build; you looked on him and saw the sinews of a giant strung in the +body of a dwarf. And yet this deformed Hercules was no solitary error +of Nature--no extraordinary exception to his fellow-beings, but the +actual type of a whole race, stunted and repulsive as himself. He was +a Hun. + +This savage people, the terror even of their barbarous neighbours, +living without government, laws, or religion, possessed but one feeling +in common with the human race--the instinct of war. Their historical +career may be said to have begun with their early conquests in China, +and to have proceeded in their first victories over the Goths, who +regarded them as demons, and fled at their approach. The hostilities +thus commenced between the two nations were at length suspended by the +temporary alliance of the conquered people with the empire, and +subsequently ceased in the gradual fusion of the interests of each in +one animating spirit--detestation of Rome. + +By this bond of brotherhood, the Goths and the Huns became publicly +united, though still privately at enmity--for the one nation remembered +its former defeats as vividly as the other remembered its former +victories. With various disasters, dissensions, and successes, they +ran their career of battle and rapine, sometimes separate, sometimes +together, until the period of our romance, when Alaric's besieging +forces numbered among the ranks of their barbarian auxiliaries a body +of Huns, who, unwillingly admitted to the title of Gothic allies, were +dispersed about the army in subordinate stations, and of whom the +individual above described was one of those contemptuously favoured by +promotion to an inferior command, under Hermanric, as a Gothic chief. + +An expression of aversion, but not of terror, passed over Goisvintha's +worn features as she approached the barbarian, and repeated her desire +to be conducted to Hermanric's presence. For the second time, however, +the man gave her no answer. He burst into a shrill, short laugh, and +shook his huge shoulders in clumsy derision. + +The woman's cheek reddened for an instant, and then turned again to +livid paleness as she thus resumed-- + +'I came not hither to be mocked by a barbarian, but to be welcomed by a +Goth! Again I ask you, where is my kinsman, Hermanric?' + +'Gone!' cried the Hun. And his laughter grew more wild and discordant +as he spoke. + +A sudden tremor ran through Goisvintha's frame as she marked the manner +of the barbarian and heard his reply. Repressing with difficulty her +anger and agitation, she continued, with apprehension in her eyes and +entreaty in her tones-- + +'Whither has he gone? Wherefore has he departed? I know that the hour +I appointed for our meeting here has long passed; but I have suffered a +sickness of many weeks, and when, at evening, I prepared to set forth, +my banished infirmities seemed suddenly to return to me again. I was +borne to my bed. But, though the woman who succoured me bid me remain +and repose, I found strength in the night to escape them, and through +storm and darkness to come hither alone--for I was determined, though I +should perish for it, to seek the presence of Hermanric, as I had +promised by my messengers. You, that are the companion of his watch, +must know whither he is gone. Go to him, and tell him what I have +spoken. I will await his return!' + + +'His business is secret,' sneered the Hun. 'He has departed, but +without telling me whither. How should I, that am a barbarian, know +the whereabouts of an illustrious Goth? It is not for me to know his +actions, but to obey his words!' + +'Jeer not about your obedience,' returned Goisvintha with breathless +eagerness. 'I say to you again, you know whither he is gone, and you +must tell me for what he has departed. You obey him--there is money to +make you obey me!' + +'When I said his business was secret, I lied not,' said the Hun, +picking up with avidity the coins she flung to him--'but he has not +kept it secret from me! The Huns are cunning! Aha, ugly and cunning!' + +Suspicion, the only refined emotion in a criminal heart, half +discovered to Goisvintha, at this moment, the intelligence that was yet +to be communicated. No word, however, escaped her, while she signed +the barbarian to proceed. + +'He has gone to a farm-house on the plains beyond the suburbs behind +us. He will not return till daybreak,' continued the Hun, tossing his +money carelessly in his great, horny hands. + +'Did you see him go?' gasped the woman. + +'I tracked him to the house,' returned the barbarian. 'For many nights +I watched and suspected him--to-night I saw him depart. It is but a +short time since I returned from following him. The darkness did not +delude me; the place is on the high-road from the suburbs--the first +by-path to the westward leads to its garden gate. I know it! I have +discovered his secret! I am more cunning than he!' + +'For what did he seek the farm-house at night?' demanded Goisvintha +after an interval, during which she appeared to be silently fixing the +man's last speech in her memory; 'are you cunning enough to tell me +that?' + +'For what do men venture their safety and their lives, their money and +their renown?' laughed the barbarian. 'They venture them for women! +There is a girl at the farm-house; I saw her at the door when the chief +went in!' + +He paused; but Goisvintha made no answer. Remembering that she was +descended from a race of women who slew their wounded husbands, +brothers, and sons with their own hands when they sought them after +battle dishonoured by a defeat; remembering that the fire of the old +ferocity of such ancestors as these still burnt at her heart; +remembering all that she had hoped from Hermanric, and had plotted +against Antonina; estimating in all its importance the shock of the +intelligence she now received, we are alike unwilling and unable to +describe her emotions at this moment. For some time the stillness in +the room was interrupted by no sounds but the rolling of the thunder +without, the quick, convulsive respiration of Goisvintha, and the +clinking of the money which the Hun still continued to toss +mechanically from hand to hand. + +'I shall reap good harvest of gold and silver after to-night's work,' +pursued the barbarian, suddenly breaking the silence. 'You have given +me money to speak--when the chief returns and hears that I have +discovered him, he will give me money to be silent. I shall drink +to-morrow with the best men in the army, Hun though I am!' + +He returned to his seat as he ceased, and began beating in monotonous +measure, with one of his pieces of money on the blade of his sword, +some chorus of a favourite drinking song; while Goisvintha, standing +pale and breathless near the door of the chamber, looked down on him +with fixed, vacant eyes. At length a deep sigh broke from her; her +hands involuntarily clenched themselves at her side; her lips moved +with a bitter smile; then, without addressing another word to the Hun, +she turned, and softly and stealthily quitted the room. + + +The instant she was gone, a sudden change arose in the barbarian's +manner. He started from his seat, a scowl of savage hatred and triumph +appeared on his shaggy brows, and he paced to and fro through the +chamber like a wild beast in his cage. 'I shall tear him from the +pinnacle of his power at last!' he whispered fiercely to himself. 'For +what I have told her this night, his kinswoman will hate him--I knew it +while she spoke! For his desertion of his post, Alaric may dishonour +him, may banish him, may hang him! His fate is at my mercy; I shall +rid myself nobly of him and his command! More than all the rest of his +nation I loathe this Goth! I will be by when they drag him to the +tree, and taunt him with his shame, as he has taunted me with my +deformity.' Here he paused to laugh in complacent approval of his +project, quickening his steps and hugging himself joyfully in the +barbarous exhilaration of his triumph. + +His secret meditations had thus occupied him for some time longer, when +the sound of a footstep was audible outside the door. He recognised it +instantly, and called softly to the person without to approach. At the +signal of his voice a man entered--less athletic in build, but in +deformity the very counterpart of himself. The following discourse was +then immediately held between the two Huns, the new-comer beginning it +thus:-- + +'Have you tracked him to the door?' + +'To the very threshold.' + +'Then his downfall is assured! I have seen Alaric.' + +'We shall trample him under our feet!--this boy, who has been set over +us that are his elders, because he is a Goth and we are Huns! But what +of Alaric? How did you gain his ear?' + +'The Goths round his tent scoffed at me as a savage, and swore that I +was begotten between a demon and a witch. But I remembered the time +when these boasters fled from their settlements; when our tribes +mounted their black steeds and hunted them like beasts! Aha, their +very lips were pale with fear in those days.' + +'Speak of Alaric--our time is short,' interrupted the other fiercely. + +'I answered not a word to their taunts,' resumed his companion, 'but I +called out loudly that I was a Gothic ally, that I brought messages to +Alaric, and that I had the privilege of audience like the rest. My +voice reached the ears of the king: he looked forth from his tent, and +beckoned me in. I saw his hatred of my nation lowering in his eye as +we looked on one another, but I spoke with submission and in a soft +voice. I told him how his chieftain whom he had set over us secretly +deserted his post; I told him how we had seen his favoured warrior for +many nights journeying towards the suburbs; how on this night, as on +others before, he had stolen from the encampment, and how you had gone +forth to track him to his lurking-place.' + +'Was the tyrant angered?' + +'His cheeks reddened, and his eyes flashed, and his fingers trembled +round the hilt of his sword while I spoke! When I ceased he answered +me that I lied. He cursed me for an infidel Hun who had slandered a +Christian chieftain. He threatened me with hanging! I cried to him to +send messengers to our quarters to prove the truth ere he slew me. He +commanded a warrior to return hither with me. When we arrived, the +most Christian chieftain was nowhere to be beheld--none knew whither he +had gone! We turned back again to the tent of the king; his warrior, +whom he honoured, spoke the same words to him as the Hun whom he +despised. Then the wrath of Alaric rose. "This very night," he cried, +"did I with my own lips direct him to await my commands with vigilance +at his appointed post! I would visit such disobedience with punishment +on my own son! Go, take with you others of your troop--your comrade +who has tracked him will guide you to his hiding-place--bring him +prisoner into my tent!" Such were his words! Our companions wait us +without--lest he should escape let us depart without delay.' + + +'And if he should resist us,' cried the other, leading the way eagerly +towards the door; 'what said the king if he should resist us?' + +'Slay him with your own hands.' + + + +CHAPTER 18. + +THE FARM-HOUSE. + +As the night still advanced, so did the storm increase. On the plains +in the open country its violence was most apparent. Here no living +voices jarred with the dreary music of the elements; no flaming torches +opposed the murky darkness or imitated the glaring lightning. The +thunder pursued uninterruptedly its tempest symphony, and the fierce +wind joined it, swelling into wild harmony when it rushed through the +trees, as if in their waving branches it struck the chords of a mighty +harp. + +In the small chamber of the farm-house sat together Hermanric and +Antonina, listening in speechless attention to the increasing tumult of +the storm. + +The room and its occupants were imperfectly illuminated by the flame of +a smouldering wood fire. The little earthenware lamp hung from its +usual place in the ceiling, but its oil was exhausted and its light was +extinct. An alabaster vase of fruit lay broken by the side of the +table, from which it had fallen unnoticed to the floor. No other +articles of ornament appeared in the apartment. Hermanric's downcast +eyes and melancholy, unchanging expressions betrayed the gloomy +abstraction in which he was absorbed. With one hand clasped in his, +and the other resting with her head on his shoulder, Antonina listened +attentively to the alternate rising and falling of the wind. Her +beauty had grown fresher and more woman-like during her sojourn at the +farm-house. Cheerfulness and hope seemed to have gained at length all +the share in her being assigned to them by nature at her birth. Even +at this moment of tempest and darkness there was more of wonder and awe +than of agitation and affright in her expression, as she sat +hearkening, with flushed cheek and brightened eye, to the progress of +the nocturnal storm. + +Thus engrossed by their thoughts, Hermanric and Antonina remained +silent in their little retreat, until the reveries of both were +suddenly interrupted by the snapping asunder of the bar of wood which +secured the door of the room, the stress of which, as it bent under the +repeated shocks of the wind, the rotten spar was too weak to sustain +any longer. There was something inexpressibly desolate in the flood of +rain, wind, and darkness that seemed instantly to pour into the chamber +through the open door, as it flew back violently on its frail hinges. +Antonina changed colour, and shuddered involuntarily, as Hermanric +hastily rose and closed the door again, by detaching its rude latch +from the sling which held it when not wanted for use. He looked round +the room as he did so for some substitute for the broken bar, but +nothing that was fit for the purpose immediately met his eye, and he +muttered to himself as he returned impatiently to his seat: 'While we +are here to watch it the latch is enough; it is new and strong.' + +He seemed on the point of again relapsing into his former gloom, when +the voice of Antonina arrested his attention, and aroused him for the +moment from his thoughts. + +'Is it in the power of the tempest to make you, a warrior of a race of +heroes, thus sorrowful and sad?' she asked, in accents of gentle +reproach. 'Even I, as I look on these walls that are so eloquent of my +happiness, and sit by you whose presence makes that happiness, can +listen to the raging storm, and feel no heaviness over my heart! What +is there to either of us in the tempest that should oppress us with +gloom? Does not the thunder come from the same heaven as the sunshine +of the summer day? You are so young, so generous, so brave,--you have +loved, and pitied, and succoured me,--why should the night language of +the sky cast such sorrow and such silence over you?' + +'It is not from sorrow that I am silent,' replied Hermanric, with a +constrained smile, 'but from weariness with much toil in the camp.' + + +He stifled a sigh as he spoke. His head returned to its old downcast +position. The struggle between his assumed carelessness and his real +inquietude was evidently unequal. As she looked fixedly on him, with +the vigilant eye of affection, the girl's countenance saddened with +his. She nestled closer to his side and resumed the discourse in +anxious and entreating tones. + +'It is haply the strife between our two nations which has separated us +already, and may separate us again, that thus oppresses you,' said she; +'but think, as I do, of the peace that must come, and not of the +warfare that now is. Think of the pleasures of our past days, and of +the happiness of our present moments,--thus united, thus living, +loving, hoping for each other; and, like me, you will doubt not of the +future that is in preparation for us both! The season of tranquillity +may return with the season of spring. The serene heaven will then be +reflected on a serene country and a happy people; and in those days of +sunshine and peace, will any hearts among all the glad population be +more joyful than ours?' + +She paused a moment. Some sudden thought or recollection heightened +her colour and caused her to hesitate ere she proceeded. She was about +at length to continue, when a peal of thunder, louder than any which +had preceded it, burst threateningly over the house and drowned the +first accents of her voice. The wind moaned loudly, the rain splashed +against the door, the latch rattled long and sharply in its socket. +Once more Hermanric rose from his seat, and approaching the fire, +placed a fresh log of wood upon the dying embers. His dejection seemed +now to communicate itself to Antonina, and as he reseated himself by +her side, she did not address him again. + +Thoughts, dreary and appalling beyond any that had occupied it before, +were rising in the mind of the Goth. His inquietude at the encampment +in the suburbs was tranquillity itself compared to the gloom which now +oppressed him. All the evaded dues of his nation, his family, and his +calling; all the suppressed recollections of the martial occupation he +had slighted, and the martial enmities he had disowned, now revived +avengingly in his memory. Yet, vivid as these remembrances were, they +weakened none of those feelings of passionate devotion to Antonina by +which their influence within him had hitherto been overcome. They +existed with them--the old recollections with the new emotions--the +stern rebukings of the warrior's nature with the anxious forebodings of +the lover's heart. And now, his mysterious meeting with Ulpius; +Goisvintha's unexpected return to health; the dreary rising and furious +progress of the night tempest, began to impress his superstitious mind +as a train of unwonted and meaning incidents, destined to mark the +fatal return of his kinswoman's influence over his own actions and +Antonina's fate. + +One by one, his memory revived with laborious minuteness every incident +that had attended his different interviews with the Roman girl, from +the first night when she had strayed into his tent to the last happy +evening that he had spent with her at the deserted farm-house. Then +tracing further backwards the course of his existence, he figured to +himself his meeting with Goisvintha among the Italian Alps; his +presence at the death of her last child, and his solemn engagement, on +hearing her recital of the massacre at Aquileia, to avenge her on the +Romans with his own hands. Roused by these opposite pictures of the +past, his imagination peopled the future with images of Antonina again +endangered, afflicted, and forsaken; with visions of the impatient +army, spurred at length into ferocious action, making universal havoc +among the people of Rome, and forcing him back for ever into their +avenging ranks. No decision for resistance or resignation to flight +presented itself to his judgment. Doubt, despair, and apprehension +held unimpeded sway over his impressible but inactive faculties. The +night itself, as he looked forth on it, was not more dark; the wild +thunder, as he listened to it, not more gloomy; the name of Goisvintha, +as he thought on it, not more ominous of evil, than the sinister +visions that now startled his imagination and oppressed his weary mind. + + +There was something indescribably simple, touching, and eloquent in the +very positions of Hermanric and Antonina as they now sat together--the +only members of their respective nations who were united in affection +and peace--in the lonely farm-house. Both the girl's hands were +clasped over Hermanric's shoulder, and her head rested on them, turned +from the door towards the interior of the room, and so displaying her +rich, black hair in all its luxuriance. The head of the Goth was still +sunk on his breast, as though he were wrapped in a deep sleep, and his +hands hung listlessly side by side over the scabbard of his sheathed +sword, which lay across his knees. The fire flamed only at intervals, +the fresh log that had been placed on it not having been thoroughly +kindled as yet. Sometimes the light played on the white folds of +Antonina's dress; sometimes over the bright surface of Hermanric's +cuirass, which he had removed and laid by his side on the ground; +sometimes over his sword, and his hands, as they rested on it; but it +was not sufficiently powerful or lasting to illuminate the room, the +walls and corners of which it left in almost complete darkness. + +The thunder still pealed from without, but the rain and wind had +partially lulled. The night hours had moved on more swiftly than our +narrative of the events that marked them. It was now midnight. + +No sound within the room reached Antonina's ear but the quick rattling +of the door-latch, shaken in its socket by the wind. As one by one the +moments journeyed slowly onward, it made its harsh music with as +monotonous a regularity as though it were moved by their progress, and +kept pace with their eternal march. Gradually the girl found herself +listening to this sharp, discordant sound, with all the attention she +could have bestowed at other times on the ripple of a distant rivulet +or the soothing harmony of a lute, when, just as it seemed adapting +itself most easily to her senses, it suddenly ceased, and the next +instant a gust of wind, like that which had rushed through the open +door on the breaking of the rotten bar, waved her hair about her face +and fluttered the folds of her light, loose dress. She raised her head +and whispered tremulously to Hermanric-- + +'The door is open again--the latch has given way!' + +The Goth started from his reverie and looked up hastily. At that +instant the rattling of the latch recommenced as suddenly as it had +ceased, and the air of the room recovered its former tranquillity. + +'Calm yourself, beloved one,' said Hermanric gently; 'your fancy has +misled you--the door is safe.' + +He parted back her dishevelled hair caressingly as he spoke. Incapable +of doubting the lightest word that fell from his lips, and hearing no +suspicious or unwonted sound in the room, she never attempted to +justify her suspicions. As she again rested her head on his shoulder, +a vague misgiving oppressed her heart, and drew from her an +irrepressible sigh; but she gave her apprehensions no expression in +words. After listening for a moment more to assure himself of the +security of the latch, the Goth resumed insensibly the contemplations +from which he had been disturbed; once more his head drooped, and again +his hands returned mechanically to their old listless position, side by +side, on the scabbard of his sword. + +The faint, fickle flames still rose and fell, gleaming here and sinking +there, the latch sounded sharply in its socket, the thunder yet uttered +its surly peal, but the wind was now subsiding into fainter moans, and +the rain began to splash faintly and more faintly against the shutters +without. To the watchers in the farm-house nothing was altered to the +eye, and little to the ear. Fatal security! The last few minutes had +darkly determined their future destinies--in the loved and cherished +retreat they were now no longer alone. + +They heard no stealthy footsteps pacing round their dwelling, they saw +no fierce eyes peering into the interior of the farm-house through a +chink in the shutters, they marked no dusky figure passing through the +softly and quickly opened door, and gliding into the darkest corner of +the room. Yet, now as they sat together, communing in silence with +their young, sad hearts, the threatening figure of Goisvintha stood, +shrouded in congenial darkness, under their protecting roof and in +their beloved chamber, rising still and silent almost at their very +sides. + +Though the fire of her past fever had raged again through her veins, +and though startling visions of the murders at Aquileia had flashed +before her mind as the wild lightning before her eyes, she had traced +her way through the suburbs and along the high-road, and down the +little path to the farm-house gate, without straying, without +hesitating. Regardless of the darkness and the storm, she had prowled +about the house, had raised the latch, had waited for a loud peal of +thunder ere she passed the door, and had stolen shadow-like into the +darkest corner of the room, with a patience and a determination that +nothing could disturb. And now, when she stood at the goal of her worst +wishes, even now, when she looked down upon the two beings by whom she +had been thwarted and deceived, her fierce self-possession did not +desert her; her lips quivered over her locked teeth, her bosom heaved +beneath her drenched garments, but neither sighs nor curses, not even a +smile of triumph or a movement of anger escaped her. + +She never looked at Antonina; her eyes wandered not for a moment from +Hermanric's form. The quickest, faintest gleam of firelight that +gleamed over it was followed through its fitful course by her eager +glance, rapid and momentary as itself. Soon her attention was fixed +wholly upon his hands, as they lay over the scabbard of his sword; and +then, slowly and obscurely, a new and fatal resolution sprung up within +her. The various emotions pictured in her face became resolved into +one sinister expression, and, without removing her eyes from the Goth, +she slowly drew from the bosom-folds of her garment a long sharp knife. + +The flames alternately trembled into light and subsided into darkness +as at first; Hermanric and Antonina yet continued in their old +positions, absorbed in their thoughts and in themselves; and still +Goisvintha remained unmoved as ever, knife in hand, watchful, steady, +silent as before. + +But beneath the concealment of her outward tranquillity raged a +contention under which her mind darkened and her heart writhed. Twice +she returned the knife to its former hiding-place, and twice she drew +it forth again; her cheeks grew paler and paler, she pressed her +clenched hand convulsively over her bosom, and leant back languidly +against the wall behind her. No thought of Antonina had part in this +great strife of secret emotions; her wrath had too much of anguish in +it to be spent against a stranger and an enemy. + +After the lapse of a few moments more, her strength returned--her +firmness was aroused. The last traces of grief and despair that had +hitherto appeared in her eyes vanished from them in an instant. Rage, +vengeance, ferocity, lowered over them as she crept stealthily forward +to the very side of the Goth, and, when the next gleam of the fire +played upon him, drew the knife fiercely across the back of his hands. +The cut was true, strong, and rapid--it divided the tendons from first +to last--he was crippled for life. + +At that instant the fire touched the very heart of the log that had +been laid on it. It crackled gaily; it blazed out brilliantly. The +whole room was as brightly illuminated as if a Christmas festival of +ancient England had been preparing within its walls! + +The warm, cheerful light showed the Goth the figure of his assassin, +ere the first cry of anguish had died away on his lips, or the first +start of irrepressible horror ceased to vibrate through his frame. The +cries of his hapless companion, as the whole scene of vengeance, +treachery, and mutilation flashed in one terrible instant before her +eyes, seemed not even to reach his ears. Once he looked down upon his +helpless hands, when the sword rolled heavily from them to the floor. +Then his gaze directed itself immovably upon Goisvintha, as she stood +at a little distance from him, with her blood-stained knife, silent as +himself. + + +There was no fury--no defiance--not even the passing distortion of +physical suffering in his features, as he now looked on her. Blank, +rigid horror--tearless, voiceless, helpless despair, seemed to have +petrified the expression of his face into an everlasting form, +unyouthful and unhopeful--as if he had been imprisoned from his +childhood, and a voice was now taunting him with the pleasures of +liberty, from a grating in his dungeon walls. Not even when Antonina, +recovering from her first agony of terror, pressed her convulsive +kisses on his cold cheek, entreating him to look on her, did he turn +his head, or remove his eyes from Goisvintha's form. + +At length the deep steady accents of the woman's voice were heard +through the desolate silence. + +'Traitor in word and thought you may be yet, but traitor in deed you +never more shall be!' she began, pointing to his hands with her knife. +'Those hands, that have protected a Roman life, shall never grasp a +Roman sword, shall never pollute again by their touch a Gothic weapon! +I remembered, as I watched you in the darkness, how the women of my +race once punished their recreant warriors when they fled to them from +a defeat. So have I punished you! The arm that served not the cause +of sister and sister's children--of king and king's nation--shall serve +no other! I am half avenged of the murders at Aquileia, now that I am +avenged on you! Go, fly with the Roman you have chosen to the city of +her people! Your life as a warrior is at an end!' + +He made her no answer. There are emotions, the last of a life, which +tear back from nature the strongest barriers that custom raises to +repress her, which betray the lurking existence of the first rude +social feeling of the primeval days of a great nation, in the breasts +of their most distant descendants, however widely their acquirements, +their prosperities, or their changes may seem to have morally separated +them from their ancestors of old. Such were the emotions now awakened +in the heart of the Goth. His Christianity, his love, his knowledge of +high aims, and his experience of new ideas, sank and deserted him, as +though he had never known them. He thought on his mutilated hands, and +no other spirit moved within him, but the ancient Gothic spirit of +centuries back; the inspiration of his nation's early Northern songs +and early Northern achievements--the renown of courage and the +supremacy of strength. + +Vainly did Antonina, in the midst of the despair that still possessed +her, yearn for a word from his lips or a glance from his eyes; vainly +did her trembling fingers, tearing the bandages from her robe, stanch +the blood on his wounded hands; vainly did her voice call on him to fly +and summon help from his companions in the camp! His mind was far +away, brooding over the legends of the battle-fields of his ancestors, +remembering how, even in the day of victory, they slew themselves if +they were crippled in the fray, how they scorned to exist for other +interests than the interests of strife, how they mutilated traitors as +Goisvintha had mutilated him! Such were the objects that enchained his +inward faculties, while his outward senses were still enthralled by the +horrible fascination that existed for him in the presence of the +assassin by his side. His very consciousness of his existence, though +he moved and breathed, seemed to have ceased. + +'You thought to deceive me in my sickness, you hoped to profit by my +death,' resumed Goisvintha, returning contemptuously her victim's +glance. 'You trusted in the night, and the darkness, and the storm; +you were secure in your boldness, in your strength, in the secrecy of +this lurking-place that you have chosen for your treachery, but your +stratagems and your expectations have failed you! At Aquileia I learnt +to be wily and watchful as you! I discovered your desertion of the +warriors and the camp; I penetrated the paths to your hiding-place; I +entered it as softly as I once departed from the dwelling where my +children were slain! In my just vengeance I have treated you as +treacherously as you would have treated me! Remember your murdered +brother; remember the child I put into your arms wounded and received +from them dead; remember your broken oaths and forgotten promises, and +make to your nation, to your duties, and to me, the atonement--the last +and the only one--that in my mercy I have left in your power--the +atonement of death.' + + +Again she paused, and again no reply awaited her. Still the Goth +neither moved nor spoke, and still Antonina--kneeling unconsciously +upon the sword, now useless to him for ever--continued to stanch the +blood on his hands with a mechanical earnestness that seemed to shut +out the contemplation of every other object from her eyes. The tears +streamed incessantly down her cheeks, but she never turned towards +Goisvintha, never suspended her occupation. + +Meanwhile, the fire still blazed noisily on the cheerful hearth; but +the storm, as if disdaining the office of heightening the human horror +of the farm-house scene, was rapidly subsiding. The thunder pealed +less frequently and less loudly, the wind fell into intervals of +noiseless calm, and occasionally the moonlight streamed, in momentary +brightness, through the ragged edges of the fast breaking clouds. The +breath of the still morning was already moving upon the firmament of +the stormy night. + +'Has life its old magic for you yet?' continued Goisvintha, in tones of +pitiless reproach. 'Have you forgotten, with the spirit of your +people, the end for which your ancestors lived? Is not your sword at +your feet? Is not the knife in my hand? Do not the waters of the +Tiber, rolling yonder to the sea, offer to you the grave of oblivion +that all may seek? Die then! In your last hour be a Goth; even to the +Romans you are worthless now! Already your comrades have discovered +your desertion; will you wait till you are hung for a rebel? Will you +live to implore the mercy of your enemies, or, dishonoured and +defenceless, will you endeavour to escape? You are of the blood of my +family, but again I say it to you--die!' + +His pale lips trembled; he looked round for the first time at Antonina, +but his utterance struggled ineffectually, even yet, against unyielding +despair. He was still silent. + +Goisvintha turned from him disdainfully, and approaching the fire sat +down before it, bending her haggard features over the brilliant flames. +For a few minutes she remained absorbed in her evil thoughts, but no +articulate word escaped her; and when at length she again abruptly +broke the silence, it was not to address the Goth or to fix her eyes on +him as before. + +Still cowering over the fire, apparently as regardless of the presence +of the two beings whose happiness she had just crushed for ever as if +they had never existed, she began to recite, in solemn, measured, +chanting tones, a legend of the darkest and earliest age of Gothic +history, keeping time to herself with the knife that she still held in +her hand. The malignity in her expression, as she pursued her +employment, betrayed the heartless motive that animated it, almost as +palpably as the words of the composition she was repeating: thus she +now spoke:-- + + 'The tempest-god's pinions o'ershadow the sky, + The waves leap to welcome the storm that is nigh, + Through the hall of old Odin re-echo the shocks + That the fierce ocean hurls at his rampart of rocks, + As, alone on the crags that soar up from the sands, + With his virgin SIONA the young AGNAR stands; + Tears sprinkle their dew on the sad maiden's cheeks, + And the voice of the chieftain sinks low while he speaks: + + "Crippled in the fight for ever, + Number'd with the worse than slain; + Weak, deform'd, disabled!--never + Can I join the hosts again! + With the battle that is won + AGNAR'S earthly course is run! + + "When thy shatter'd frame must yield, + If thou seek'st a future field; + When thy arm, that sway'd the strife, + Fails to shield thy worthless life; + When thy hands no more afford + Full employment to the sword; + Then, preserve--respect thy name; + Meet thy death--to live is shame! + Such is Odin's mighty will; + Such commands I now fulfil!"' + +At this point in the legend, she paused and turned suddenly to observe +its effect on Hermanric. All its horrible application to himself +thrilled through his heart. His head drooped, and a low groan burst +from his lips. But even this evidence of the suffering she was +inflicting failed to melt the iron malignity of Goisvintha's +determination. + + +'Do you remember the death of Agnar?' she cried. 'When you were a +child, I sung it to you ere you slept, and you vowed as you heard it, +that when you were a man, if you suffered his wounds you would die his +death! He was crippled in a victory, yet he slew himself on the day of +his triumph; you are crippled in your treachery, and have forgotten +your boy's honour, and will live in the darkness of your shame! Have +you lost remembrance of that ancient song? You heard it from me in the +morning of your years; listen, and you shall hear it to the end; it is +the dirge for your approaching death!' + +She continued-- + + "SIONA, mourn not!--where I go + The warriors feel nor pain nor woe; + They raise aloft the gleaming steel, + Their wounds, though warm, untended heal; + Their arrows bellow through the air + In showers, as they battle there; + In mighty cups their wine is pour'd, + Bright virgins throng their midnight board! + + "Yet think not that I die unmov'd; + I mourn the doom that sets me free, + As I think, betroth'd--belov'd, + On all the joys I lose in thee! + To form my boys to meet the fray, + Where'er the Gothic banner streams; + To guard thy night, to glad thy day, + Made all the bliss of AGNAR'S dreams-- + Dreams that must now be all forgot, + Earth's joys have passed from AGNAR'S lot! + + "See, athwart the face of light + Float the clouds of sullen Night! + Odin's warriors watch for me + By the earth-encircling sea! + The water's dirges howl my knell; + 'Tis time I die--Farewell-Farewell!" + + 'He rose with a smile to prepare for the spring, + He flew from the rock like a bird on the wing; + The sea met her prey with a leap and a roar, + And the maid stood alone by the wave-riven shore! + + The winds mutter'd deep, with a woe-boding sound, + As she wept o'er the footsteps he'd left on the ground; + And the wild vultures shriek'd, for the chieftain who spread + Their battle-field banquets was laid with the dead!' + +As, with a slow and measured emphasis, Goisvintha pronounced the last +lines of the poem she again approached Hermanric. But the eyes of the +Goth sought her no longer. She had calmed the emotions that she had +hoped to irritate. Of the latter divisions of her legend, those only +which were pathetic had arrested the lost chieftain's attention, and +the blunted faculties of his heart recovered their old refinement as he +listened to them. A solemn composure of love, grief, and pity appeared +in the glance of affection that he now directed on the girl's +despairing countenance. Years of good thoughts, an existence of tender +cares, an eternity of youthful devotion spoke in that rapt, momentary, +eloquent gaze, and imprinted on his expression a character ineffably +beautiful and calm--a nobleness above the human, and approaching the +angelic and divine. + +Intuitively Goisvintha followed the direction of his eyes, and looked, +like him, on the Roman girl's face. A lowering expression of hatred +replaced the scorn that had hitherto distorted her passionate features. +Mechanically her hand again half raised the knife, and the accents of +her wrathful voice once more disturbed the sacred silence of affection +and grief. + +'Is it for the girl there that you would still live?' she cried +sternly. 'I foreboded it, coward, when I first looked on you! I +prepared for it when I wounded you! I made sure that when my anger +again threatened this new ruler of your thoughts and mover of your +actions, you should have lost the power to divert it from her again! +Think you that, because my disdain has delayed it, my vengeance on her +is abandoned? Long since I swore to you that she should die, and I will +hold to my purpose! I have punished you; I will slay her! Can you +shield her from the blow to-night, as you shielded her in your tent? +You are weaker before me than a child!' + +She ceased abruptly, for at this moment a noise of hurrying footsteps +and contending voices became suddenly audible from without. As she +heard it, a ghastly paleness chased the flush of anger from her cheeks. +With the promptitude of apprehension she snatched the sword of +Hermanric from under Antonina, and ran it through the staples intended +to hold the rude bar of the door. The next instant the footsteps +sounded on the garden path, and the next the door was assailed. + +The good sword held firm, but the frail barrier that it sustained +yielded at the second shock and fell inwards, shattered, to the floor. +Instantly the gap was darkened by human forms, and the firelight glowed +over the repulsive countenances of two Huns who headed the intruders, +habited in complete armour and furnished with naked swords. + +'Yield yourself prisoner by Alaric's command,' cried one of the +barbarians, 'or you shall be slain as a deserter where you now stand!' + +The Goth had risen to his feet as the door was burst in. The arrival +of his pursuers seemed to restore his lost energies, to deliver him at +once from an all-powerful thraldom. An expression of triumph and +defiance shone over his steady features when he heard the summons of +the Hun. For a moment he stooped towards Antonina, as she clung +fainting round him. His mouth quivered and his eye glistened as he +kissed her cold cheek. In that moment all the hopelessness of his +position, all the worthlessness of his marred existence, all the +ignominy preparing for him when he returned to the camp, rushed over +his mind. In that moment the worst horrors of departure and death, the +fiercest rackings of love and despair, assailed but did not overcome +him. In that moment he paid his final tribute to the dues of +affection, and braced for the last time the fibres of manly +dauntlessness and Spartan resolve! + +The next instant he tore himself from the girl's arms, the old +hero-spirit of his conquering nation possessed every nerve in his +frame, his eye brightened again gloriously with its lost warrior-light, +his limbs grew firm, his face was calm, he confronted the Huns with a +mien of authority and a smile of disdain, and, as he presented to them +his defenceless breast, not the faintest tremor was audible in his +voice, while he cried in accents of steady command-- + +'Strike! I yield not!' + +The Huns rushed forward with fierce cries, and buried their swords in +his body. His warm young blood gushed out upon the floor of the +dwelling which had been the love-shrine of the heart that shed it. +Without a sigh from his lips or a convulsion on his features, he fell +dead at the feet of his enemies; all the valour of his disposition, all +the gentleness of his heart, all the vigour of his form, resolved in +one humble instant into a senseless and burdensome mass! + +Antonina beheld the assassination, but was spared the sight of the +death that followed it. She fell insensible by the side of her young +warrior--her dress was spotted with his blood, her form was motionless +as his own. + +'Leave him there to rot! His pride in his superiority will not serve +him now--even to a grave!' cried the Hun leader to his companions, as +he dried on the garments of the corpse his reeking sword. + +'And this woman,' demanded one of his comrades, 'is she to be liberated +or secured?' + +He pointed as he spoke to Goisvintha. During the brief scene of the +assassination, the very exercise of her faculties seemed to have been +suspended. She had never stirred a limb or uttered a word. + +The Hun recognised her as the woman who had questioned and bribed him +at the camp. 'She is the traitor's kinswoman and is absent from the +tents without leave,' he answered. 'Take her prisoner to Alaric; she +will bear us witness that we have done as he commanded us. As for the +girl,' he continued, glancing at the blood on Antonina's dress, and +stirring her figure carelessly with his foot, 'she may be dead too, for +she neither moves nor speaks, and may be left like her protector to lie +graveless where she is. For us, it is time that we depart--the king is +impatient of delay.' + + +As they led her roughly from the house, Goisvintha shuddered, and +attempted to pause for a moment when she passed the corpse of the Goth. +Death, that can extinguish enmities as well as sunder loves, rose awful +and appealing as she looked her last at her murdered brother, and +remembered her murdered husband. No tears flowed from her eyes, no +groans broke from her bosom; but there was a pang, a last momentary +pang of grief and pity at her heart as she murmured while they forced +her away--'Aquileia! Aquileia! have I outlived thee for this!' + +The troops retired. For a few minutes silence ruled uninterruptedly +over the room where the senseless girl still lay by the side of all +that was left to her of the object of her first youthful love. But ere +long footsteps again approached the farm-house door, and two Goths, who +had formed part of the escort allotted to the Hun, approached the young +chieftain's corpse. Quickly and silently they raised it in their arms +and bore it into the garden. There they scooped a shallow hole with +their swords in the fresh, flower-laden turf, and having laid the body +there, they hastily covered it, and rapidly departed without returning +to the house. + +These men had served among the warriors committed to Hermanric's +command. By many acts of frank generosity and encouragement, the young +chieftain had won their rough attachment. They mourned his fate, but +dared not obstruct the sentence, or oppose the act that determined it. +At their own risk they had secretly quitted the advancing ranks of +their comrades, to use the last privilege and obey the last dictate of +human kindness; and they thought not of the lonely girl as they now +left her desolate, and hurried away to reassume their appointed +stations ere it was too late. + +The turf lay caressingly round the young warrior's form; its crushed +flowers pressed softly against his cold cheek; the fragrance of the new +morning wafted its pure incense gently about his simple grave! Around +him flowered the delicate plants that the hand of Antonina had raised +to please his eye. Near him stood the dwelling, sacred to the first +and last kiss that he had impressed upon her lips; and about him, on +all sides, rose the plains and woodlands that had engrossed, with her +image, the devotion of all her dearest thoughts. He lay, in his death, +in the midst of the magic circle of the best joys of his life! It was +a fitter burial-place for the earthly relics of that bright and +generous spirit than the pit in the carnage-laden battle-field, or the +desolate sepulchres of a northern land! + + + +CHAPTER 19. + +THE GUARDIAN RESTORED. + +Not long is the new-made grave left unwatched to the solemn +guardianship of Solitude and Night. More than a few minutes have +scarcely elapsed since it was dug, yet already human footsteps press +its yielding surface, and a human glance scans attentively its small +and homely mound. + +But it is not Antonina, whom he loved; it is not Goisvintha, through +whose vengeance he was lost, who now looks upon the earth above the +young warrior's corpse. It is a stranger, an outcast; a man lost, +dishonoured, abandoned--it is the solitary and ruined Ulpius who now +gazes with indifferent eyes upon the peaceful garden and the eloquent +grave. + +In the destinies of woe committed to the keeping of the night, the +pagan had been fatally included. The destruction that had gone forth +against the body of the young man who lay beneath the earth had +overtaken the mind of the old man who stood over his simple grave. The +frame of Ulpius, with all its infirmities, was still there, but the +soul of ferocious patience and unconquerable daring that had lighted it +grandly in its ruin was gone. Over the long anguish of that woeful +life the veil of self-oblivion had closed for ever! + + +He had been dismissed by Alaric, but he had not returned to the city +whither he was bidden. Throughout the night he had wandered about the +lonely suburbs, striving in secret and horrible suffering for the +mastery of his mind. There did the overthrow of all his hopes from the +Goths expand rapidly into the overthrow of the whole intellect that had +created his aspirations. There had reason burst the bonds that had so +long chained, perverted, degraded it! At length, wandering hither and +thither, he had dragged the helpless body, possessed no longer by the +perilous mind, to the farm-house garden in which he now stood, gazing +alternately at the upturned sods of the chieftain's grave and the red +gleam of the fire as it glowed from the dreary room through the gap of +the shattered door. + +His faculties were fatally disordered rather than utterly destroyed. +His penetration, his firmness, and his cunning were gone; but a wreck +of memory, useless and unmanageable--a certain capacity for momentary +observation still remained to him. The shameful miscarriage in the +tent of Alaric, which had overthrown his faculties, had passed from him +as an event that never happened, but he remembered fragments of his +past existence--he still retained a vague consciousness of the ruling +purpose of his whole life. + +These embryo reflections, disconnected and unsustained, flitted to and +fro over his dark mind as luminous exhalations over a marsh--rising and +sinking, harmless and delusive, fitful and irregular. What he +remembered of the past he remembered carelessly, viewing it with as +vacant a curiosity as if it were the visionary spectacle of another +man's struggles and misfortunes and hopes, acting under it as under a +mysterious influence, neither the end nor the reason of which he cared +to discover. For the future, it was to his thoughts a perfect blank; +for the present, it was a jarring combination of bodily weariness and +mental repose. + +He shuddered as he stood shelterless under the open heaven. The cold, +that he had defied in the vaults of the rifted wall, pierced in the +farm-house garden; his limbs, which had resisted repose on the hard +journey from Rome to the camp of the Goths, now trembled so that he was +fain to rest them on the ground. For a short time he sat glaring with +vacant and affrighted eyes upon the open dwelling before him, as though +he longed to enter it but dare not. At length the temptation of the +ruddy firelight seemed to vanquish his irresolution; he rose with +difficulty, and slowly and hesitatingly entered the house. + +He had advanced, thief-like, but a few steps, he had felt but for a +moment the welcome warmth of the fire, when the figure of Antonina, +still extended insensible upon the floor, caught his eye; he approached +it with eager curiosity, and, raising the girl on his arm, looked at +her with a long and rigid scrutiny. + +For some moments no expression of recognition passed his lips or +appeared on his countenance, as, with a mechanical, doting gesture of +fondness, he smoothed her dishevelled hair over her forehead. While he +was thus engaged, while the remains of the gentleness of his childhood +were thus awfully revived in the insanity of his age, a musical string +wound round a small piece of gilt wood fell from its concealment in her +bosom; he snatched it from the ground--it was the fragment of her +broken lute, which had never quitted her since the night when, in her +innocent grief, she had wept over it in her maiden bed-chamber. + +Small, obscure, insignificant as it was, this little token touched the +fibre in the Pagan's shattered mind which the all-eloquent form and +presence of its hapless mistress had failed to reach; his memory flew +back instantly to the garden on the Pincian Mount, and to his past +duties in Numerian's household, but spoke not to him of the calamities +he had wreaked since that period on his confiding master. His +imagination presented to him at this moment but one image--his +servitude in the Christian's abode; and as he now looked on the girl he +could regard himself but in one light--as 'the guardian restored'. + +'What does she with her music here?' he whispered apprehensively. +'This is not her father's house, and the garden yonder looks not from +the summit of the hill!' + +As he curiously examined the room, the red spots on the floor suddenly +attracted his attention. A panic, a frantic terror seemed instantly to +overwhelm him. He rose with a cry of horror, and, still holding the +girl on his arm, hurried out into the garden trembling and breathless, +as if the weapon of an assassin had scared him from the house. + + +The shock of her rough removal, the sudden influence of the fresh, cold +air, restored Antonina to the consciousness of life at the moment when +Ulpius, unable to support her longer, laid her against the little heap +of turf which marked the position of the young chieftain's grave. Her +eyes opened wildly; their first glance fixed upon the shattered door +and the empty room. She rose from the ground, advanced a few steps +towards the house, then paused, rigid, breathless, silent, and, turning +slowly, faced the upturned turf. + +The grave was all-eloquent of its tenant. His cuirass, which the +soldiers had thought to bury with the body that it had defended in +former days, had been overlooked in the haste of the secret interment, +and lay partly imbedded in the broken earth, partly exposed to view--a +simple monument over a simple grave! Her tearless, dilated eyes looked +down on it as though they would number each blade of grass, each morsel +of earth by which it was surrounded! Her hair waved idly about her +cheeks, as the light wind fluttered it; but no expression passed over +her face, no gestures escaped her limbs. Her mind toiled and quivered, +as if crushed by a fiery burden; but her heart was voiceless, and her +body was still. + +Ulpius had stood unnoticed by her side. At this moment he moved so as +to confront her, and she suddenly looked up at him. A momentary +expression of bewilderment and suspicion lightened the heavy vacancy of +despair which had chased their natural and feminine tenderness from her +eyes, but it disappeared rapidly. She turned from the Pagan, knelt +down by the grave, and pressed her face and bosom against the little +mound of turf beneath her. + +No voice comforted her, no arm caressed her, as her mind now began to +penetrate the mysteries, to probe the darkest depths of the long +night's calamities! Unaided and unsolaced, while the few and waning +stars glimmered from their places in the sky, while the sublime +stillness of tranquillised Nature stretched around her, she knelt at +the altar of death, and raised her soul upward to the great heaven +above her, charged with its sacred offering of human grief! + +Long did she thus remain; and when at length she arose from the ground, +when, approaching the Pagan, she fixed on him her tearless, dreary +eyes, he quailed before her glance, as his dull faculties struggled +vainly to resume the old, informing power that they had now for ever +lost. Nothing but the remembrance aroused by his first sight of the +fragment of the lute lived within even yet, as he whispered to her in +low, entreating tones-- + +'Come home--come home! Your father may return before us--come home!' + +As the words 'home' and 'father'--those household gods of the heart's +earliest existence--struck upon her ears, a change flashed with +electric suddenness over the girl's whole aspect. She raised her wan +hands to the sky; all her woman's tenderness repossessed itself of her +heart; and as she again knelt down over the grave, her sobs rose +audibly through the calmed and fragrant air. + +With Hermanric's corpse beneath her, with the blood-sprinkled room +behind her, with a hostile army and a famine-wasted city beyond her, it +was only through that flood of tears, that healing passion of gentle +emotions, that she rose superior to the multiplied horrors of her +situation at the very moment when her faculties and her life seemed +sinking under them alike. Fully, freely, bitterly she wept, on the +kindly and parent earth--the patient, friendly ground that once bore +the light footsteps of the first of a race not created for death; that +now holds in its sheltering arms the loved ones, whom, in mourning, we +lay there to sleep; that shall yet be bound to the farthermost of its +depths, when the sun-bright presence of returning spirits shines over +its renovated frame, and love is resumed in angel perfection at the +point where death suspended it in mortal frailness! + +'Come home--your father is awaiting you--come home!' repeated the Pagan +vacantly, moving slowly away as he spoke. + + +At the sound of his voice she started up, and clasping his arm with her +trembling fingers, to arrest his progress, looked affrightedly into his +seared and listless countenance. As she thus gazed on him she appeared +for the first time to recognise him. Fear and astonishment mingled in +her expression with grief and despair as she sunk at his feet, moaning +in tones of piercing entreaty-- + +'O Ulpius!--if Ulpius you are--have pity on me and take me to my +father! My father! my father! In all the lonely world there is nothing +left to me but my father!' + +'Why do you weep to me about your broken lute?' answered Ulpius, with a +dull, unmeaning smile; 'it was not I that destroyed it!' + +'They have slain him!' she shrieked distractedly, heedless of the +Pagan's reply. 'I saw them draw their swords on him! See, his blood +is on me--me!--Antonina, whom he protected and loved! Look there; that +is a grave--his grave--I know it! I have never seen him since; he is +down--down there! under the flowers I grew to gather for him! They +slew him; and when I knew it not, they have buried him!--or you--you +have buried him! You have hidden him under the cold garden earth! He +is gone!--Ah, gone, gone--for ever gone!' + +And she flung herself again with reckless violence on the grave. After +looking steadfastly on her for a moment, Ulpius approached and raised +her from the earth. + +'Come!' he cried angrily, 'the night grows on--your father waits!' + +'The walls of Rome shut me from my father! I shall never see my father +nor Hermanric again!' she cried, in tones of bitter anguish, +remembering more perfectly all the miseries of her position, and +struggling to release herself from the Pagan's grasp. + +The walls of Rome! At those words the mind of Ulpius opened to a flow +of dark remembrances, and lost the visions that had occupied it until +that moment. He laughed triumphantly. + +'The walls of Rome bow to my arm!' he cried, in exulting tones; 'I +pierced them with my good bar of iron! I wound through them with my +bright lantern! Spirits roared on me, and struck me down, and grinned +upon me in the thick darkness, but I passed the wall! The thunder +pealed around me as I crawled along the winding rifts; but I won my way +through them! I came out conquering on the other side! Come, come, +come, come! We will return! I know the track, even in the darkness! +I can outwatch the sentinels! You shall walk in the pathway that I +have broken through the bricks! + +The girl's features lost for a moment their expression of grief, and +grew rigid with horror, as she glanced at his fiery eyes, and felt the +fearful suspicion of his insanity darkening over her mind. She stood +powerless, trembling, unresisting, in his grasp, without attempting to +delude him into departure or to appease him into delay. + +'Why did I make my passage through the wall?' muttered the Pagan in a +low, awe-struck voice, suddenly checking himself, as he was about to +step forward. 'Why did I tear down the strong brick-work and go forth +into the dark suburbs?' + +He paused, and for a few moments struggled with his purposeless and +disconnected thoughts; but a blank, a darkness, an annihilation +overwhelmed Alaric and the Gothic camp, which he vainly endeavoured to +disperse. He sighed bitterly to himself--'It is gone!' and still +grasping Antonina by the hand, drew her after him to the garden gate. + +'Leave me!' she shrieked, as he passed onward into the pathway that led +to the high-road. 'Oh, be merciful, and leave me to die where he has +died!' + +'Peace! or I will rend you limb by limb, as I rent the stones from the +wall when I passed through it!' he whispered to her in fierce accents, +as she struggled to escape him. 'You shall return with me to Rome! +You shall walk in the track that I have made in the rifted brick-work!' + + +Terror, anguish, exhaustion, overpowered her weak efforts. Her lips +moved, partly in prayer and partly in ejaculation; but she spoke in +murmurs only, as she mechanically suffered the Pagan to lead her onward +by the hand. + +They paced on under the waning starlight, over the cold, lonely road, +and through the dreary and deserted suburbs,--a fearful and discordant +pair! Coldly, obediently, impassively, as if she were walking in a +dream, the spirit-broken girl moved by the side of her scarce-human +leader. Disjointed exclamation, alternating horribly between infantine +simplicity and fierce wickedness, poured incessantly from the Pagan's +lips, but he never addressed himself further to his terror-stricken +companion. So, wending rapidly onward, they gained the Gothic lines; +and here the madman slackened his pace, and paused, beast-like, to +glare around him, as he approached the habitations of men. + +Still not opposed by Antonina, whose faculties of observation were +petrified by her terror into perfect inaction, even here, within reach +of the doubtful aid of the enemies of her people, the Pagan crept +forward through the loneliest places of the encampment, and, guided by +the mysterious cunning of his miserable race, eluded successfully the +observation of the drowsy sentinels. Never bewildered by the +darkness--for the moon had gone down--always led by the animal instinct +co-existent with his disease, he passed over the waste ground between +the hostile encampment and the city, and arrived triumphant at the heap +of stones that marked his entrance to the rifted wall. + +For one moment he stopped, and turning towards the girl, pointed +proudly to the dark, low breach he was about to penetrate. Then, +drawing her half-fainting form closer to his side, looking up +attentively to the ramparts, and stepping as noiselessly as though turf +were beneath his feet, he entered the dusky rift with his helpless +charge. + +As they disappeared in the recesses of the wall, Night--the stormy, the +eventful, the fatal!--reached its last limit; and the famished sentinel +on the fortifications of the besieged city roused himself from his +dreary and absorbing thoughts, for he saw that the new day was dawning +in the east. + + + +CHAPTER 20. + +THE BREACH REPASSED. + +Slowly and mournfully the sentinel at the rifted wall raised his eyes +towards the eastern clouds as they brightened before the advancing +dawn. Desolate as was the appearance of the dull, misty daybreak, it +was yet the most welcome of all the objects surrounding the starving +soldier on which he could fix his languid gaze. To look back on the +city behind him was to look back on the dreary charnel-house of famine +and death; to look down on the waste ground without the walls was to +look down on the dead body of the comrade of his watch, who, maddened +by the pangs of hunger which he had suffered during the night, had cast +himself from the rampart to meet a welcome death on the earth beneath. +Famished and despairing, the sentinel crouched on the fortifications +which he had now neither strength to pace nor care to defend, yearning +for the food that he had no hope to obtain, as he watched the grey +daybreak from his solitary post. + +While he was thus occupied, the gloomy silence of the scene was +suddenly broken by the sound of falling brick-work at the inner base of +the wall, followed by faint entreaties for mercy and deliverance, which +rose on his ear, strangely mingled with disjointed expression of +defiance and exultation from a second voice. He slowly turned his +head, and, looking down, saw on the ground beneath a young girl +struggling in the grasp of an old man, who was hurrying her onward in +the direction of the Pincian Gate. + + +For one moment the girl's eye met the sentinel's vacant glance, and she +renewed, with a last effort of strength, and a greater vehemence of +supplication, her cries for help; but the soldier neither moved nor +answered. Exhausted as he was, no sight could affect him now but the +sight of food. Like the rest of the citizens, he was sunk in a heavy +stupor of starvation--selfish, reckless, brutalised. No disasters could +depress, no atrocities rouse him. Famine had torn asunder every social +tie, had withered every human sympathy among his besieged +fellow-citizens, and he was famishing like them. + +At the moment when the dawn had first appeared, could he have looked +down by some mysterious agency to the interior foundations of the wall, +from the rampart on which he kept his weary watch, such a sight must +then have presented itself as would have aroused even his sluggish +observation to rigid attention and involuntary surprise. + +Winding upward and downward among jagged masses of ruined brick-work, +now lost amid the shadows of dreary chasms, now prominent over the +elevations of rising arches, the dark irregular passages broken by +Ulpius in the rotten wall would then have presented themselves to his +eyes; not stretching forth in dismal solitude, not peopled only by the +reptiles native to the place, but traced in all their mazes by human +forms. Then he would have perceived the fierce, resolute Pagan, moving +through darkness and obstacles with a sure, solemn progress, drawing +after him, like a dog devoted to his will, the young girl whose hapless +fate had doomed her to fall into his power. Her half-fainting figure +might have been seen, sometimes prostrate on the higher places of the +breach, while her fearful guide descended before her into a chasm +beyond, and then turned to drag her after him to a darker and a lower +depth yet; sometimes bent in supplication, when her lips moved once +more with a last despairing entreaty, and her limbs trembled with a +final effort to escape from her captor's relentless grasp. While +still, through all that opposed him, the same fierce tenacity of +purpose would have been invariably visible in every action of Ulpius, +constantly confirming him in his mad resolution to make his victim the +follower of his progress through the wall, ever guiding him with a +strange instinct through every hindrance, and preserving him from every +danger in his path, until it brought him forth triumphant, with his +prisoner still in his power, again free to tread the desolate streets +and mingle with the famine-stricken citizens of Rome. + +And now when, after peril and anguish, she once more stood within the +city of her home, what hope remained to Antonina of obtaining her last +refuge under her father's roof, and deriving her solitary consolation +from the effort to regain her father's love? With the termination of +his passage through the breach in the wall had ended every recollection +associated with it in the Pagan's shattered memory. A new blank now +pervaded his lost faculties, desolate as that which had overwhelmed +them in the night when he first stood in the farm-house garden by the +young chieftain's grave. He moved onward, unobservant, unthinking, +without aim or hope, driven by a mysterious restlessness, forgetting +the very presence of Antonina as she followed him, but still +mechanically grasping her hand, and dragging her after him he knew not +whither. + +And she, on her part, made no effort more for deliverance. She had +seen the sentinel unmoved by her entreaties, she had seen the walls of +her father's house receding from her longing eyes, as Ulpius pitilessly +hurried her father and farther from its distant door; and she lost the +last faint hope of restoration, the last lingering desire of life, as +the sense of her helplessness now weighed heaviest on her mind. Her +heart was full of her young warrior, who had been slain, and of her +father, from whom she had parted in the hour of his wrath, as she now +feebly followed the Pagan's steps, and resigned herself to a speedy +exhaustion and death in her utter despair. + + +They turned from the Pincian Gate and gained the Campus Martius; and +here the aspect of the besieged city and the condition of its doomed +inhabitants were fully and fearfully disclosed to view. On the surface +of the noble area, once thronged with bustling crowds passing to and +fro in every direction as their various destinations or caprices might +lead them, not twenty moving figures were now discernible. These few, +who still retained their strength or the resolution to pace the +greatest thoroughfare of Rome, stalked backwards and forwards +incessantly, their hollow eyes fixed on vacancy, their wan hands +pressed over their mouths; each separate, distrustful, and silent; +fierce as imprisoned madmen; restless as spectres disturbed in a place +of tombs. + +Such were the citizens who still moved over the Campus Martius; and, +besetting their path wherever they turned, lay the gloomy numbers of +the dying and the dead--the victims already stricken by the pestilence +which had now arisen in the infected city, and joined the famine in its +work of desolation and death. Around the public fountains, where the +water still bubbled up as freshly as in the summer-time of prosperity +and peace, the poorer population of beleaguered Rome had chiefly +congregated to expire. Some still retained strength enough to drink +greedily at the margin of the stone basins, across which others lay +dead--their heads and shoulders immersed in the water--drowned from +lack of strength to draw back after their first draught. Children +mounted over the dead bodies of their parents to raise themselves to +the fountain's brim; parents stared vacantly at the corpses of their +children alternately floating and sinking in the water, into which they +had fallen unsuccoured and unmourned. + +In other parts of the place, at the open gates of the theatres and +hippodromes, in the unguarded porticoes of the palaces and the baths +lay the discoloured bodies of those who had died ere they could reach +the fountains--of women and children especially--surrounded in +frightful contrast by the abandoned furniture of luxury and the +discarded inventions of vice--by gilded couches--by inlaid tables--by +jewelled cornices--by obscene picture and statues--by brilliantly +framed, gaudily tinted manuscripts of licentious songs, still hanging +at their accustomed places on the lofty marble walls. Farther on, in +the by-streets and the retired courts, where the corpse of the +tradesman was stretched on his empty counter; where the soldier of the +city guard dropped down overpowered ere he reached the limit of his +rounds; where the wealthy merchant lay pestilence-stricken upon the +last hoards of repulsive food which his gold had procured; the assassin +and the robber might be seen--now greedily devouring the offal that lay +around them, now falling dead upon the bodies which they had rifled but +the moment before. + +Over the whole prospect, far and near, wherever it might extend, +whatever the horrors by which it might be occupied, was spread a blank, +supernatural stillness. Not a sound arose; the living were as silent +as the dead; crime, suffering, despair, were all voiceless alike; the +trumpet was unheard in the guard-house; the bell never rang from the +church; even the thick, misty rain, that now descended from the black +and unmoving clouds, and obscured in cold shadows the outlines of +distant buildings and the pinnacle tops of mighty palaces, fell +noiseless to the ground. The sky had no wind; the earth no echoes--the +pervading desolation appalled the eye; the vast stillness weighed dull +on the ear--it was a scene as of the last-left city of an exhausted +world, decaying noiselessly into primeval chaos. + +Through this atmosphere of darkness and death, along these paths of +pestilence and famine; unregarding and unregarded, the Pagan and his +prisoner passed slowly onward towards the quarter of the city opposite +the Pincian Mount. No ray of thought, even yet, brightened the dull +faculties of Ulpius; still he walked forward vacantly, and still he was +followed wearily by the fast-failing girl. + +Sunk in her mingled stupor of bodily weakness and mental despair, she +never spoke, never raised her head, never looked forth on the one side +or the other. She had now ceased even to feel the strong, cold grasp +of the Pagan's hand. Shadowy visions of spheres beyond the world, +arrayed in enchanting beauty, and people with happy spirits in their +old earthly forms, where a long deathless existence moved smoothly and +dreamily onward, without mark of time or taint of woe, were opening +before her mind. She lost all memory of afflictions and wrongs, all +apprehension of danger from the madman at whose mercy she remained. +And thus she still moved feebly onward as the will of Ulpius guided +her, with no observation of her present peril, and no anxiety for her +impending fate. + + +They passed the grand circular structure of the Pantheon, entered the +long narrow streets leading to the banks of the river, and finally +gained the margin of the Tiber--hard by the little island that still +rises in the midst of its waters. Here, for the first time, the Pagan +paused mechanically in his course, and vacantly directed his dull, +dreamy eyes on the prospect before him, where the walls, stretching +abruptly outward from their ordinary direction, enclosed the Janiculum +Hill, as it rose with its irregular mass of buildings on the opposite +bank of the river. + +At this sudden change from action to repose, the overtasked energies +which had hitherto gifted the limbs of Antonina with an unnatural power +of endurance, abruptly relaxed. She sank down helpless and silent; her +head drooped towards the hard ground, as towards a welcome pillow, but +found no support, for the Pagan's iron grasp of her hand remained +unyielding as ever. Infirm though he was, he appeared at this moment +to be unconscious that his prisoner was now hanging at his side. Every +association connected with her, every recollection of his position with +her in her father's house, had vanished from his memory. A darker +blindness seemed to have sunk over his bodily perceptions; his eyes +rolled slowly to and fro over the prospect before him, but regarded +nothing; his panting breaths came thick and fast; his shrunk chest +heaved as if some deep, dread agony were pent within it--it was evident +that a new crisis in his insanity was at hand. + +At this moment one of the bands of marauders--the desperate criminals +of famine and plague--who still prowled through the city, appeared in +the street. Their trembling hands sought their weapons, and their +haggard faces brightened, when they first discerned the Pagan and the +girl; but as they approached nearer they saw enough in the figures of +the two, at a glance, to destroy their hopes of seizing on them either +plunder or food. For an instant they stood by their intended victims, +as if debating whether to murder them only for murder's sake, when the +appearance of two women, stealthily quitting a house farther on in the +street, carrying a basket covered by some tattered garments, attracted +their attention. They turned instantly to follow the bearers of the +basket, and again Ulpius and Antonina were left alone on the river's +bank. + +The appearance of the assassins had been powerless, as every other +sight or event in the city, in arousing the faculties of Ulpius. He +had neither looked on them nor fled from them when they surrounded him; +but now when they were gone he slowly turned his head in the direction +by which they had departed. His gaze wandered over the wet flagstones +of the street, over two corpses stretched on them at a little distance, +over the figure of a female slave who lay forsaken near the wall of one +of the houses, exerting her last energies to drink from the turbid +rain-water which ran down the kennel by her side; and still his eyes +remained unregardful of all that they encountered. The next object +which by chance attracted his vacant attention was a deserted temple. +This solitary building fixed him immediately in contemplation--it was +destined to open a new and a warning scene in the dark tragedy of his +closing life. + +In his course through the city he had passed unheeded many temples far +more prominent in situation, far more imposing in structure, than this. +It was a building of no remarkable extent or extraordinary beauty. Its +narrow porticoes and dark doorway were more fitted to repel than to +invite the eye; but it had one attraction, powerful above all glories +of architecture and all grandeur of situation to arrest in him those +wandering faculties whose sterner and loftier aims were now suspended +for ever; it was dedicated to Serapis--to the idol which had been the +deity of his first worship, and the inspiration of his last struggle +for the restoration of his faith. The image of the god, with the +three-headed monster encircled by a serpent, obedient beneath his hand, +was carved over the portico. + + +What flood of emotions rushed into the vacant mind of Ulpius at the +instant when he discerned the long-loved, well-known image of the +Egyptian god, there was nothing for some moments outwardly visible in +him to betray. His moral insensibility appeared but to be deepened as +his gaze was now fixed with rigid intensity on the temple portico. +Thus he continued to remain motionless, as if what he saw had petrified +him where he stood, when the clouds, which had been closing in deeper +and deeper blackness as the morning advanced, and which, still charged +with electricity, were gathering to revive the storm of the past night, +burst abruptly into a loud peal of thunder over his head. + +At that warning sound, as if it had been the supernatural signal +awaited to arouse him, as if in one brief moment it awakened every +recollection of all that he had resolutely attempted during the night +of thunder that was past, he started into instant animation. His +countenance brightened, his form expanded, he dropped the hand of +Antonina, raised his arm aloft towards the wrathful heaven in frantic +triumph, then staggering forwards, fell on his knees at the base of the +temple steps. + +Whatever the remembrances of his passage through the wall at the +Pincian Hill, and of the toil and peril succeeding it, which had +revived when the thunder first sounded in his ear, they now vanished as +rapidly as they had arisen, and left his wandering memory free to +revert to the scenes which the image of Serapis was most fitted to +recall. Recollections of his boyish enjoyments in the temple at +Alexandria, of his youth's enthusiasm, of the triumphs of his early +manhood--all disjointed and wayward, yet all bright, glorious, +intoxicating--flashed before his shattered mind. Tears, the first that +he had shed since his happy youth, flowed quickly down his withered +cheeks. He pressed his hot forehead, he beat his parched hand in +ecstasy on the cold, wet steps beneath him. He muttered breathless +ejaculations, he breathed strange murmurs of endearment, he humbled +himself in his rapturous delight beneath the walls of the temple like a +dog that has discovered his lost master and fawns affectionately at his +feet. Criminal as he was, his joy in his abasement, his glory in his +miserable isolation from humanity, was a doom of degradation pitiable +to behold. + +After an interval his mood changed. He rose to his feet, his trembling +limbs strengthened with a youthful vigour as he ascended the temple +steps and gained its doorway. He turned for a moment, and looked forth +over the street, ere he entered the hallowed domain of his distempered +imagination. To him the cloudy sky above was now shining with the +radiance of the sun-bright East. The death-laden highways of Rome, as +they stretched before him, were beautiful with lofty trees, and +populous with happy figures; and along the dark flagstones beneath, +where still lay the corpses which he had no eye to see, he beheld +already the priests of Serapis with his revered guardian, his beloved +Macrinus of former days, at their head, advancing to meet and welcome +him in the hall of the Egyptian god. Visions such as these passed +gloriously before the Pagan's eyes as he stood triumphant on the steps +of the temple, and brightened to him with a noonday light its dusky +recesses when, after his brief delay, he turned from the street and +disappeared through the doorway of the sacred place. + +The rain poured down more thickly than before; the thunder, once +aroused, now sounded in deep and frequent peals as Antonina raised +herself from the ground and looked around her, in momentary expectation +that the dreaded form of Ulpius must meet her eyes. No living creature +was visible in the street. The forsaken slave still reclined near the +wall of the house where she had first appeared when the Pagan gained +the approaches to the temple; but she now lay there dead. No fresh +bands of robbers appeared in sight. An uninterrupted solitude +prevailed in all directions as far as the eye could reach. + +At the moment when Ulpius had relinquished his grasp of her hand, +Antonina had sunk to the ground, helpless and resigned, but not +exhausted beyond all power of sensation or all capacity for thought. +While she lay on the cold pavement of the street, her mind still +pursued its visions of a speedy death, and a tranquil life-in-death to +succeed it in a future state. But, as minute after minute elapsed, and +no harsh voice sounded in her ear, no pitiless hand dragged her from +the ground, no ominous footsteps were audible around her, a change +passed gradually over her thoughts; the instinct of self-preservation +slowly revived within her, and, as she raised herself to look forth on +the gloomy prospect, the chances of uninterrupted flight and present +safety presented by the solitude of the street, aroused her like a +voice of encouragement, like an unexpected promise of help. + + +Her perception of outer influences returned; she felt the rain that +drenched her garments; she shuddered at the thunder sounding over her +head; she marked with horror the dead bodies lying before her on the +stones. An overpowering desire animated her to fly from the place, to +escape from the desolate scene around, even though she should sink +exhausted by the effort in the next street. Slowly she arose--her limbs +trembled with a premature infirmity; but she gained her feet. She +tottered onward, turning her back on the river, passed bewildered +between long rows of deserted houses, and arrived opposite a public +garden surrounding a little summer-house, whose deserted portico +offered both concealment and shelter. Here, therefore, she took +refuge, crouching in the darkest corner of the building, and hiding her +face in her hands, as if to shut out all view of the dreary though +altered scenes which spread before her eyes. + +Woeful thoughts and recollections now moved within her in bewildering +confusion. All that she had suffered since Ulpius had dragged her from +the farm-house in the suburbs--the night pilgrimage over the plain--the +fearful passage through the wall--revived in her memory, mingled with +vague ideas, now for the first time aroused, of the plague and famine +that were desolating the city; and, with sudden apprehensions that +Goisvintha might still be following her, knife in hand, through the +lonely streets; while passively prominent over all these varying +sources of anguish and dread, the scene of the young chieftain's death +lay like a cold weight on her heavy heart. The damp turf of his grave +seemed still to press against her breast; his last kiss yet trembled on +her lips; she knew, though she dared not look down on them, that the +spots of his blood yet stained her garments. + +Whether she strove to rise and continue her flight; whether she +crouched down again under the portico, resigned for one bitter moment +to perish by the knife of Goisvintha--if Goisvintha were near; to fall +once more into the hands of Ulpius--if Ulpius were tracking her to her +retreat,--the crushing sense that she was utterly bereaved of her +beloved protector--that the friend of her brief days of happiness was +lost to her for ever--that Hermanric, who had preserved her from death, +had been murdered in his youth and his strength by her side, never +deserted her. Since the assassination in the farm-house, she was now +for the first time alone; and now for the first time she felt the full +severity of her affliction, and knew how dark was the blank which was +spread before every aspiration of her future life. + +Enduring, almost eternal, as the burden of her desolation seemed now to +have become, it was yet to be removed, ere long, by feelings of a +tenderer mournfulness and a more resigned woe. The innate and innocent +fortitude of disposition, which had made her patient under the rigour +of her youthful education, and hopeful under the trials that assailed +her on her banishment from her father's house; which had never deserted +her until the awful scenes of the past night of assassination and death +rose in triumphant horror before her eyes; and which, even then, had +been suspended but not destroyed--was now destined to regain its +healing influence over her heart. As she still cowered in her lonely +refuge, the final hope, the yearning dependence on a restoration to her +father's presence and her father's love, that had moved her over the +young chieftain's grave, and had prompted her last effort for freedom +when Ulpius had dragged her through the passage in the rifted wall, +suddenly revived. + + +Once more she arose, and looked forth on the desolate city and the +stormy sky, but now with mild and unshrinking eyes. Her recollections +of the past grew tender in their youthful grief; her thoughts for the +future became patient, solemn, and serene. Images of her first and her +last-left protector, of her old familiar home, of her garden solitude +on the Pincian Mount, spread beautiful before her imagination as +resting-places to her weary heart. She descended the steps of the +summer-house with no apprehension of her enemies, no doubt of her +resolution; for she knew the beacon that was now to direct her onward +course. The tears gathered full in her eyes as she passed into the +garden; but her step never faltered, her features never lost their +combined expression of tranquil sorrow and subdued hope. So she once +more entered the perilous streets, and murmuring to herself, 'My +father! my father!' as if in those simple words lay the hand that was +to guide, and the providence that was to preserved her, she began to +trace her solitary way in the direction of the Pincian Mount. + +It was a spectacle--touching, beautiful, even sublime--to see this +young girl, but a few hours freed, by perilous paths and by criminal +hands, from scenes which had begun in treachery, only to end in death, +now passing, resolute and alone, through the streets of a mighty city, +overwhelmed by all that is poignant in human anguish and hideous in +human crime. It was a noble evidence of the strong power over the +world and the world's perils, with which the simplest affection may arm +the frailest being--to behold her thus pursuing her way, superior to +every horror of desolation and death that clogged her path, +unconsciously discovering in the softly murmured name of 'father', +which still fell at intervals from her lips, the pure purpose that +sustained her--the steady heroism that ever held her in her doubtful +course. The storms of heaven poured over her head--the crimes and +sufferings of Rome darkened the paths of her pilgrimage; but she passed +firmly onward through all, like a ministering spirit, journeying along +earthly shores in the bright inviolability of its merciful mission and +its holy thoughts--like a ray of light living in the strength of its +own beauty, amid the tempest and obscurity of a stranger sphere. + +Once more she entered the Campus Martius. Again she passed the public +fountains, still unnaturally devoted to serve as beds for the dying and +as sepulchres for the dead; again she trod the dreary highways, where +the stronger among the famished populace yet paced hither and thither +in ferocious silence and unsocial separation. No word was addressed, +hardly a look was directed to her, as she pursued her solitary course. +She was desolate among the desolate; forsaken among others abandoned +like herself. + +The robber, when he passed her by, saw that she was worthless for the +interests of plunder as the poorest of the dying citizens around him. +The patrician, loitering feebly onward to the shelter of his palace +halls, avoided her as a new suppliant among the people for the charity +which he had not to bestow, and quickened his pace as she approached +him in the street. Unprotected, yet unmolested, hurrying from her +loneliness and her bitter recollections to the refuge of her father's +love, as she would have hurried when a child from her first +apprehension of ill to the refuge of her father's arms, she gained at +length the foot of the Pincian Hill--at length ascended the streets so +often trodden in the tranquil days of old! + +The portals and outer buildings of Vetranio's palace, as she passed +them, presented a striking and ominous spectacle. Within the lofty +steel railings, which protected the building, the famine-wasted slaves +of the senator appeared reeling and tottering beneath full vases of +wine which they were feebly endeavouring to carry into the interior +apartments. Gaudy hangings drooped from the balconies, garlands of ivy +were wreathed round the statues of the marble front. In the midst of +the besieged city, and in impious mockery of the famine and pestilence +which were wasting it, hut and palace, to its remotest confines, were +proceeding in this devoted dwelling the preparations for a triumphant +feast! + +Unheedful of the startling prospect presented by Vetranio's abode, her +eyes bent but in one absorbing direction, her steps hurrying faster and +faster with each succeeding instant, Antonina approached the home from +which she had been exiled in fear, and to which she was returning in +woe. Yet a moment more of strong exertion, of overpowering +anticipation, and she reached the garden gate! + +She dashed back the heavy hair matted over her brows by the rain; she +glanced rapidly around her; she beheld the window of her bed-chamber +with the old simple curtain still hanging at its accustomed place; she +saw the well-remembered trees, the carefully tended flower-beds, now +drooping mournfully beneath the gloomy sky. Her heart swelled within +her, her breath seemed suddenly arrested in her bosom, as she trod the +garden path and ascended the steps beyond. The door at the top was +ajar. With a last effort she thrust it open, and stood once +more--unaided and unwelcomed, yet hopeful of consolation, of pardon, of +love--within her first and last sanctuary, the walls of her home! + + + + +CHAPTER 21. + +FATHER AND CHILD. + +Forsaken as it appears on an outward view, during the morning of which +we now write, the house of Numerian is yet not tenantless. In one of +the sleeping apartments, stretched on his couch, with none to watch by +its side, lies the master of the little dwelling. We last beheld him +on the scene mingled with the famishing congregation in the Basilica of +St. John Lateran, still searching for his child amid the confusion of +the public distribution of food during the earlier stages of the +misfortunes of besieged Rome. Since that time he has toiled and +suffered much; and now the day of exhaustion, long deferred, the hours +of helpless solitude, constantly dreaded, have at length arrived. + +From the first periods of the siege, while all around him in the city +moved gloomily onward through darker and darker changes, while famine +rapidly merged into pestilence and death, while human hopes and +purposes gradually diminished and declined with each succeeding day, he +alone remained ever devoted to the same labour, ever animated by the +same object--the only one among all his fellow-citizens whom no outward +event could influence for good or evil, for hope or fear. + +In every street of Rome, at all hours, among all ranks of people, he +was still to be seen constantly pursuing the same hopeless search. +When the mob burst furiously into the public granaries to seize the +last supplies of corn hoarded for the rich, he was ready at the doors +watching them as they came out. When rows of houses were deserted by +all but the dead, he was beheld within, passing from window to window, +as he sought through each room for the treasure that he had lost. When +some few among the populace, in the first days of the pestilence, +united in the vain attempt to cast over the lofty walls the corpses +that strewed the street, he mingled with them to look on the rigid +faces of the dead. In solitary places, where the parent, not yet lost +to affection, strove to carry his dying child from the desert roadway +to the shelter of a roof; where the wife, still faithful to her duties, +received her husband's last breath in silent despair--he was seen +gliding by their sides, and for one brief instant looking on them with +attentive and mournful eyes. Wherever he went, whatever he beheld, he +asked no sympathy and sought no aid. He went his way, a pilgrim on a +solitary path, an unregarded expectant for a boon that no others would +care to partake. + +When the famine first began to be felt in the city, he seemed +unconscious of its approach--he made no effort to procure beforehand +the provision of a few days' sustenance; if he attended the first +public distributions of food, it was only to prosecute his search for +his child amid the throng around him. He must have perished with the +first feeble victims of starvation, had he not been met, during his +solitary wanderings, by some of the members of the congregation whom +his piety and eloquence had collected in former days. + +By these persons, who entreaties that he would suspend his hopeless +search he always answered with the same firm and patient denial, his +course was carefully watched and his wants anxiously provided for. Out +of every supply of food which they were enabled to collect, his share +was invariably carried to his abode. They remembered their teacher in +the hour of his dejection, as they had formerly reverenced him in the +day of his vigour; they toiled to preserve his life as anxiously as +they had laboured to profit by his instructions; they listened as his +disciples once, they served him as his children now. + +But over these, as over all other offices of human kindness, the famine +was destined gradually and surely to prevail. The provision of food +garnered up by the congregation ominously lessened with each succeeding +day. When the pestilence began darkly to appear, the numbers of those +who sought their afflicted teacher at his abode, or followed him +through the dreary streets, fatally decreased. + + +Then, as the nourishment which had supported, and the vigilance which +had watched him, thus diminished, so did the hard-tasked energies of +the unhappy father fail him faster and faster. Each morning as he +arose, his steps were more feeble, his heart grew heavier within him, +his wanderings through the city were less and less resolute and +prolonged. At length his powers totally deserted him; the last-left +members of his congregation, as they approached his abode with the +last-left provision of food which they possessed, found him prostrate +with exhaustion at his garden gate. They bore him to his couch, placed +their charitable offering by his side, and leaving one of their number +to protect him from the robber and the assassin, they quitted the house +in despair. + +For some days the guardian remained faithful to his post, until his +sufferings from lack of food overpowered his vigilance. Dreading that, +in his extremity, he might be tempted to take from the old man's small +store of provision what little remained, he fled from the house, to +seek sustenance, however loathsome, in the public streets; and +thenceforth Numerian was left defenceless in his solitary abode. + +He was first beheld on the scenes which these pages present, a man of +austere purpose, of unwearied energy; a valiant reformer, who defied +all difficulties that beset him in his progress; a triumphant teacher, +leading at his will whoever listened to his words; a father, proudly +contemplating the future position which he destined for his child. Far +different did he now appear. Lost to his ambition, broken in spirit, +helpless in body, separated from his daughter by his own act, he lay on +his untended couch in a death-like lethargy. The cold wind blowing +through his opened window awakened no sensations in his torpid frame; +the cup of water and the small relics of coarse food stood near his +hand, but he had no vigilance to discern them. His open eyes looked +steadfastly upward, and yet he reposed as one in a deep sleep, or as +one already devoted to the tomb; save when, at intervals, his lips +moved slowly with a long and painfully drawn breath, or a fever flush +tinged his hollow cheek with changing and momentary hues. + +While thus in outward aspect appearing to linger between life and +death, his faculties yet remained feebly vital within him. Aroused by +no external influence, and governed by no mental restraint, they now +created before him a strange waking vision, palpable as an actual event. + +It seemed to him that he was reposing, not in his own chamber, but in +some mysterious world, filled with a twilight atmosphere, inexpressibly +soothing and gentle to his aching sight. Through this mild radiance he +could trace, at long intervals, shadowy representations of the scenes +through which he had passed in search of his lost child. The gloomy +streets, the lonely houses abandoned to the unburied dead, which he had +explored, alternately appeared and vanished before him in solemn +succession; and ever and anon, as one vision disappeared ere another +rose, he heard afar off a sound as of gentle, womanly voices, murmuring +in solemn accents, 'The search has been made in penitence, in patience, +in prayer, and has not been pursued in vain. The lost shall +return--the beloved shall yet be restored!' + +Thus, as it had begun, the vision long continued. Now the scenes +through which he had wandered passed slowly before his eyes, now the +soft voices murmured pityingly in his ear. At length the first +disappeared, and the last became silent; then ensued a long vacant +interval, and then the grey, tranquil light brightened slowly at one +spot, out of which he beheld advancing towards him the form of his lost +child. + +She came to his side, she bent lovingly over him; he saw her eyes, with +their old patient, childlike expression, looking sorrowfully down upon +him. His heart revived to a sense of unspeakable awe and contrition, +to emotions of yearning love and mournful hope; his speech returned; he +whispered tremulously, 'Child! child! I repented in bitter woe the +wrong that I did to thee; I sought thee, in my loneliness on earth, +through the long day and the gloomy night! And now the merciful God +has sent thee to pardon me! I loved thee; I wept for thee.' + + +His voice died within him, for now his outward sensations quickened. +He felt warm tears falling on his cheeks; he felt embracing arms +clasped round him; he heard tenderly repeated, 'Father! speak to me as +you were wont; love me, father, and forgive me, as you loved and +forgave me when I was a little child!' + +The sound of that well-remembered voice--which had ever spoken kindly +and reverently to him; which had last addressed him in tones of +despairing supplication; which he had hardly hoped to hear again on +earth--penetrated his whole being, like awakening music in the dead +silence of night. His eyes lost their vacant expression; he raised +himself suddenly on the couch; he saw that what had begun as a vision +had ended as a reality; that his dream had proved the immediate +fore-runner of its own fulfilment; that his daughter in her bodily +presence was indeed restored; and his head drooped forward, and he +trembled and wept upon her bosom, in the overpowering fulness of his +gratitude and delight. + +For some moments Antonina, calming with the resolute heroism of +affection her own thronging emotions of awe and affright, endeavoured +to soothe and support her fast-failing parent. Her horror almost +overwhelmed her, as she thought that now, when, through grief and +peril, she was at last restored to him, he might expire in her arms; +but even yet her resolution did not fail her. The last hope of her +brief and bitter life was now the hope of reviving her father, and she +clung to it with the tenacity of despair. + +She calmed her voice while she spoke to him; she entreated him to +remember that his daughter had returned to watch over him, to be his +obedient pupil as in days of old. Vain effort! Even while the words +passed her lips, his arms, which had been pressed over her, relaxed; +his head grew heavier on her bosom. In the despair of the moment, she +tore herself from him, and looked round to seek the help that none were +near to afford. The cup of water, the last provision of food, +attracted her eye. With quick instinct she caught them up. Hope, +success, salvation, lay in those miserable relics. She pressed the +food into his mouth; she moistened his parched lips, his dry brow, with +the water. During one moment of horrible suspense she saw him still +insensible; then the vital functions revived; his eyes opened again and +fixed famine-struck on the wretched nourishment before him. He +devoured it ravenously; he drained the cup of water to its last drop; +he sank back again on the couch. But now the torpid blood moved once +more in his veins; his heart beat less and less feebly: he was saved. +She saw it as she bent over him--saved by the lost child in the hour of +her return! It was a sensation of ecstatic triumph and gratitude which +no woeful remembrances had power to embitter in its bright, sudden +birth. She knelt down by the side of the couch, almost crushed by her +own emotions. Over the grave of the young warrior she had raised her +heart to Heaven in agony and grief, and now by her father's side she +poured forth her whole soul to her Creator in trembling ejaculations of +thankfulness and hope. + +Thus--the one slowly recovering whatever of life and vigour yet +continued in his weakened frame, the other still filled with her +all-absorbing emotions of gratitude--the father and daughter long +remained. And now, as morning waned towards noon, the storm began to +subside. Gradually and solemnly the vast thunder-clouds rolled asunder, +and the bright blue heaven beyond appeared through their fantastic +rifts. The lessening rain-drops fell light and silvery to the earth, +and breeze and sunshine were wafted at fitful intervals over the +plague-tainted atmosphere of Rome. As yet, subdued by the shadows of +the floating clouds, the dawning sunbeams glittered softly through the +windows of Numerian's chamber. They played, warm and reviving, over +his worn features, like messengers of resurrection and hope from their +native heaven. Life seemed to expand within him under their fresh and +gentle ministering. Once more he raised himself, and turned towards +his child; and now his heart throbbed with a healthful joy, and his +arms closed round her, not in the helplessness of infirmity, but in the +welcome of love. + +His words, when he spoke to her, fell at first almost inarticulately +from his lips--they were mingled together in confused phrases of +tenderness, contrition, thanksgiving. All the native enthusiasm of his +disposition, all the latent love for his child, which had for years +been suppressed by his austerity, or diverted by his ambition, now at +last burst forth. + +Trembling and silent in his arms, Antonina vainly endeavoured to return +his caresses and to answer his words of welcome. Now for the first +time she knew how deep was her father's affection for her; she felt how +foreign to his real nature had been his assumed severity in their +intercourse of former days; and in the quick flow of new feelings and +old recollections produced by the delighting surprise of the discovery, +she found herself speechless. She could only listen eagerly, +breathlessly, while he spoke. His words, faltering and confused though +they were, were words of endearment which she had never heard from him +before; they were words which no mother had ever pronounced beside her +infant bed, and they sank divinely consoling over her heart, as +messages of pardon from an angel's lips. + +Gradually Numerian's voice grew calmer. He raised his daughter in his +arms, and bent wistfully on her face his attentive and pitying eyes. +'Returned, returned!' he murmured, while he gazed on her, 'never again +to depart! Returned, beautiful and patient, kinder and more tender +than ever! Love me and pardon me, Antonina. I sought for you in +bitter loneliness and despair. Think not of me as what I was, but as +what I am! There were days when you were an infant, when I had no +thought but how to cherish and delight you, and now those days have +come again. You shall read no gloomy task-books; you shall never be +separated from me more; you shall play sweet music on the lute; you +shall be all garlanded with flowers which I will provide for you! We +will find friends and glad companions; we will bring happiness with us +wherever we are seen. God's blessing goes forth from children like +you--it has fallen upon me--it has raised me from the dead! My +Antonina shall teach me to worship, as I once taught her. She shall +pray for me in the morning, and pray for me at night; and when she +thinks not of it, when she sleeps, I shall come softly to her bedside, +and wait and watch over her, so that when she opens her eyes they shall +open on me--they are the eyes of my child who has been restored to +me--there is nothing on earth that can speak to me like them of +happiness and peace!' + +He paused for a moment, and looked rapturously on her face as it was +turned towards him. His features partially saddened while he gazed, +and taking her long hair, still wet and dishevelled from the rain, in +his hands, he pressed it over his lips, over his face, over his neck. +Then, when he saw that she was endeavouring to speak, when he beheld +the tears that were now filling her eyes, he drew her closer to him, +and hurriedly continued in lower tones-- + +'Hush! hush! No more grief, no more tears! Tell me not whither you +have wandered--speak not of what you have suffered; for would not every +word be a reproach to me? And you have come to pardon and not to +reproach! Let not the recollection that it was I who cast you off be +forced on me from your lips; let us remember only that we are restored +to each other; let us think that God has accepted my penitence and +forgiven me my sin, in suffering my child to return! Or, if we must +speak of the days of separation that are past, speak to me of the days +that found you tranquil and secure; rejoice me by telling me that it +was not all danger and woe in the bitter destiny which my guilty anger +prepared for my own child! Say to me that you met protectors as well +as enemies in the hour of your flight--that all were not harsh to you +as I was--that those of whom you asked shelter and safety looked on +your face as on a petition for charity and kindness from friends whom +they loved! Tell me only of your protectors, Antonina, for in that +there will be consolation; and you have come to console!' + +As he waited for her reply he felt her tremble on his bosom, he saw the +shudder that ran over her frame. The despair in her voice, though she +only pronounced in answer to him the simple words, 'There was one'--and +then ceased, unable to proceed--penetrated coldly to his heart. + +'Is he not at hand?' he hurriedly resumed. 'Why is he not here? Let +us seek him without delay. I must humble myself before him in my +gratitude. I must show him that I was worthy that my Antonina should +be restored.' + + +'He is dead!' she gasped, sinking down in the arms that embraced her, +as the recollections of the past night again crowded in all their +horror on her memory. 'They murdered him by my side. O father! +father! he loved me; he would have reverenced and protected you!' + +'May the merciful God receive him among the blessed angels, and honour +him among the holy martyrs!' cried the father, raising his tearful eyes +in supplication. 'May his spirit, if it can still be observant of the +things of earth, know that his name shall be written on my heart with +the name of my child; that I will think on him as on a beloved +companion, and mourn for him as a son that has been taken from me!' + +He ceased, and looked down on Antonina, whose features were still +hidden from him. Each felt that a new bond of mutual affection had +been created between them by what each had spoken; but both now +remained silent. + +During this interval the thoughts of Numerian wandered from the +reflections which had hitherto occupied him. The few mournful words +which his daughter had spoken had been sufficient to banish its fulness +of joy from his heart, and to turn him from the happy contemplation of +the present to the dark recollections of the past. Vague doubts and +fears now mingled with his gratitude and hope, and involuntarily his +thoughts reverted to what he would fain have forgotten for ever--to the +morning when he had driven Antonina from her home. + +Baseless apprehensions of the return of the treacherous Pagan and his +profligate employer, with the return of their victim--despairing +convictions of his own helplessness and infirmity rose startlingly in +his mind. His eyes wandered vacantly round the room, his hands closed +trembling over his daughter's form; then, suddenly releasing her, he +arose as one panic-stricken, and exclaiming, 'The doors must be +secured--Ulpius may be near--the senator may return!' endeavoured to +cross the room. But his strength was unequal to the effort; he leaned +back for support against the wall, and breathlessly repeating, 'Secure +the doors--Ulpius, Ulpius!' he motioned to Antonina to descend. + +She trembled as she obeyed him. Remembering her passage through the +breach in the wall, and her fearful journey through the streets of +Rome, she more than shared her father's apprehensions as she descended +the stairs. + +The door remained half open, as she had left it when she entered the +house. Ere she hurriedly closed and barred it, she cast a momentary +glance on the street beyond. The gaunt figures of the slaves still +moved wearily to and fro, amid the mockery of festal preparation in +Vetranio's palace; and here and there a few ghastly figures lay on the +ground contemplating them in languid amazement. Over all other parts of +the street the deadly tranquillity of plague and famine still prevailed. + +Hurriedly ascending the steps, Antonina hastened to assure her father +that she had obeyed his commands, and that they were now secure from +all intrusion from without. But, during her brief absence, a new and +more ominous prospect of calamity had presented itself before the old +man's mind. + +As she entered the room, she saw that he had returned to his couch, and +that he was holding before him the little wooden bowl which had +contained his last supply of food, and which was now empty. He +addressed not a word to her when he heard her enter; his features were +rigid with horror and despair as he looked down on the empty bowl; he +muttered vacantly, 'It was the last provision that remained, and it was +I that exhausted it! The beasts of the forest carry food to their +young, and I have taken the last morsel from my child!' + + +In an instant the utter desolateness of their situation--forgotten in +the first joy of their meeting--forced itself with appalling vividness +upon Antonina's mind. She endeavoured to speak of comfort and hope to +her father; but the fearful realities of the famine in the city now +rose palpably before her, and suspended the vain words of solace on her +lips. In the midst of still populous Rome, within sight of those +surrounding plains where the creative sun ripened hour by hour the +vegetation of the teeming earth, where field and granary displayed +profusely their abundant stores, the father and daughter now looked on +each other, as helpless to replace their exhausted provision of food as +if they had been abandoned on the raft of the shipwrecked in an +unexplored sea, or banished to a lonely island whose inland products +were withered by infected winds, and around whose arid shores ran such +destroying waters as seethe over the 'Cities of the Plain'. + +The silence which had long prevailed in the room, the bitter +reflections which still held the despairing father and the patient +daughter speechless alike, were at length interrupted by a hollow and +melancholy voice from the street, pronouncing, in the form of a public +notice, these words:-- + +'I, Publius Dalmatius, messenger of the Roman Senate, proclaim, that in +order to clear the streets from the dead, three thousand sestertii will +be given by the Prefect for every ten bodies that are cast over the +walls. This is the true decree of the Senate.' + +The voice ceased; but no sound of applause, no murmur of popular tumult +was heard in answer. Then, after an interval, it was once more faintly +audible as the messenger passed on and repeated the decree in another +street; and then the silence again sank down over all things more +awfully pervading than before. + +Every word of the proclamation, when repeated in the distance as when +spoken under his window, had clearly reached Numerian's ears. His +mind, already sinking in despair, was riveted on what he had heard from +the woe-boding voice of the herald, with a fascination as absorbing as +that which rivets the eye of the traveller, already giddy on the summit +of a precipice, upon the spectacle of the yawning gulfs beneath. When +all sound of the proclamation had finally died away, the unhappy father +dropped the empty bowl which he had hitherto mechanically continued to +hold before him, and glancing affrightedly at his daughter, groaned to +himself: 'The corpses are to be cast over the walls--the dead are to +be flung forth to the winds of heaven--there is no help for us in the +city. O God, God!--she may die!--her body may be cast away like the +rest, and I may live to see it!' + +He rose suddenly from the couch; his reason seemed for a moment to be +shaken as he tottered to the window, crying, 'Food! food!--I will give +my house and all it contains for a morsel of food. I have nothing to +support my own child--she will starve before me by tomorrow if I have +no food! I am a citizen of Rome--I demand help from the Senate! Food! +food!' + +In tones declining lower and lower he continued to cry thus from the +window, but no voice answered him either in sympathy or derision. Of +all the people--now increased in numbers--collected in the street +before Vetranio's palace, no one turned even to look on him. For days +and days past, such fruitless appeals as his had been heard, and heard +unconcernedly, at every hour and in every street of Rome--now ringing +through the heavy air in the shrieks of delirium; now faintly audible +in the last faltering murmurs of exhaustion and despair. + +Thus vainly entreating help and pity from a populace who had ceased to +give the one or to feel the other, Numerian might long have remained; +but now his daughter approached his side, and drawing him gently +towards his couch, said in tender and solemn accents: 'Remember, +father, that God sent the ravens to feed Elijah, and replenished the +widow's cruse! He will not desert us, for He has restored us to each +other, and has sent me hither not to perish in the famine, but to watch +over you!' + + +'God has deserted the city and all that it contains!' he answered +distractedly. 'The angel of destruction has gone forth into our +streets, and death walks in his shadow! On this day, when hope and +happiness seemed opening before us both; our little household has been +doomed! The young and the old, the weary and the watchful, they strew +the streets alike--the famine has mastered them all--the famine will +master us--there is no help, no escape! I, who would have died +patiently for my daughter's safety, must now die despairing, leaving +her friendless in the wide, dreary, perilous world; in the dismal city +of anguish, of horror, of death--where the enemy threatens without, and +hunger and pestilence waste within! O Antonina! you have returned to +me but for a little time; the day of our second separation draws near!' + +For a few moments his head drooped, and his sobs choked his utterance; +then he once more rose painfully to his feet. Heedless of Antonina's +entreaties, he again endeavoured to cross the room, only again to find +his feeble powers unequal to sustain him. As he fell back panting upon +a seat, his eyes assumed a wild, unnatural expression--despair of mind +and weakness of body had together partially unhinged his faculties. +When his daughter affrightedly approached to soothe and succour him, he +impatiently waved her back; and began to speak in a dull, hoarse, +monotonous voice, pressing his hand firmly over his brow, and directing +his eyes backwards and forwards incessantly, on object after object, in +every part of the room. + +'Listen, child, listen!' he hastily began. 'I tell you there is no +food in the house, and no food in Rome!--we are besieged--they have +taken from us our granaries in the suburbs, and our fields on the +plains--there is a great famine in the city--those who still eat, eat +strange food which men sicken at when it is named. I would seek even +this, but I have no strength to go forth into the byways and force it +from others at the point of the sword! I am old and feeble, and +heart-broken--I shall die first, and leave fatherless my good, kind +daughter, whom I sought for so long, and whom I loved as my only child!' + +He paused for an instant, not to listen to the words of encouragement +and hope which Antonina mechanically addressed to him while he spoke, +but to collect his wandering thoughts, to rally his failing strength. +His voice acquired a quicker tone, and his features presented a sudden +energy and earnestness of expression, as if some new project had +flashed across his mind, when, after an interval, he continued thus:-- + +'But though my child shall be bereaved of me, though I shall die in the +hour when I most longed to live for her, I must not leave her helpless; +I will send her among my congregation who have deserted me, but who +will repent when they hear that I am dead, and will receive Antonina +among them for my sake! Listen to this--listen, listen! You must tell +them to remember all that I once revealed to them of my brother, from +whom I parted in my boyhood--my brother, whom I have never seen since. +He may yet be alive, he may be found--they must search for him; for to +you he would be father to the fatherless, and guardian to the +unguarded--he may now be in Rome, he may be rich and powerful--he may +have food to spare, and shelter that is good against all enemies and +strangers! Attend, child, to my words: in these latter days I have +thought of him much; I have seen him in dreams as I saw him for the +last time in my father's house; he was happier and more beloved than I +was, and in envy and hatred I quitted my parents and parted from him. +You have heard nothing of this; but you must hear it now, that when I +am dead you may know you have a protector to seek! So I received in +anger my brother's farewell, and fled from my home--(those days were +well remembered by me once, but all things grow dull on my memory now). +Long years of turmoil and change passed on, and I never met him; and +men of many nations were my companions, but he was not among them; then +much affliction fell upon me, and I repented and learnt the fear of +God, and went back to my father's house. Since that, years have +passed--I know not how many. I could have told them when I spoke of my +former life to him--to my friend, when we stood near St. Peter's, ere +the city was besieged, looking on the sunset, and speaking of the early +days of our companionship; but now my very remembrance fails me; the +famine that threatens us with separation and death casts darkness over +my thoughts; yet hear me, hear me patiently--for your sake I must +continue!' + +'Not now, father--not now! At another time, on a happier day!' +murmured Antonina, in tremulous, entreating tones. + + +'My home, when I arrived to look on it, was gone,' pursued the old man +sadly, neither heeding nor hearing her. 'Other houses were built where +my father's house had stood; no man could tell me of my parents and my +brother; then I returned, and my former companions grew hateful in my +eyes; I left them, and they followed me with persecution and +scorn.--Listen, listen!--I set forth secretly in the night, with you, +to escape them, and to make perfect my reformation where they should +not be near to hinder it; and we travelled onward many days until we +came to Rome, and I made my abode there. But I feared that my +companions whom I abhorred might discover and persecute me again, and +in the new city of my dwelling I called myself by another name than the +name that I bore; thus I knew that all trace of me would be lost, and +that I should be kept secure from men whom I thought on only as enemies +now. Go, child! go quickly!--bring your tablets and write down the +names that I shall tell you; for so you will discover your protector +when I am gone! Say not to him that you are the child of Numerian--he +knows not the name; say that you are the daughter of Cleander, his +brother, who died longing to be restored to him. Write--write +carefully, Cleander!--that was the name my father gave to me; that was +the name I bore until I fled from my evil companions and changed it, +dreading their pursuit! Cleander! write and remember, Cleander! I +have seen in visions that my brother shall be discovered: he will not +be discovered to me, but he will be discovered to you! Your +tablets--your tablets!--write his name with mine--it is--' + +He stopped abruptly. His mental powers, fluctuating between torpor and +animation--shaken, but not overpowered by the trials which had assailed +them--suddenly rallied, and resuming somewhat of their accustomed +balance, became awakened to a sense of their own aberration. His vague +revelations of his past life (which the reader will recognise as +resembling his communications on the same subject to the fugitive +land-owner, previously related) now appeared before him in all their +incongruity and uselessness. His countenance fell--he sighed bitterly +to himself: 'My reason begins to desert me!--my judgment, which should +guide my child--my resolution, which should uphold her, both fail me! +How should my brother, since childhood lost to me, be found by her? +Against the famine that threatens us I offer but vain words! Already +her strength declines; her face, that I loved to look on grows wan +before my eyes! God have mercy upon us!--God have mercy upon us!' + +He returned feebly to his couch; his head declined on his bosom; +sometimes a low groan burst from his lips, but he spoke no more. + +Deep as was the prostration under which he had now fallen, it was yet +less painful to Antonina to behold it than to listen to the incoherent +revelations which had fallen from his lips but the moment before, and +which, in her astonishment and affright, she had dreaded might be the +awful indications of the overthrow of her father's reason. As she +again placed herself by his side, she trembled to feel that her own +weariness was fast overpowering her; but she still struggled with her +rising despair--still strove to think only of capacity for endurance +and chances of relief. + +The silence in the room was deep and dismal while they now sat +together. The faint breezes, at long intervals, drowsily rose and fell +as they floated through the open window; the fitful sunbeams +alternately appeared and vanished as the clouds rolled upward in airy +succession over the face of heaven. Time moved sternly in its destined +progress, and Nature varied tranquilly through its appointed limits of +change, and still no hopes, no saving projects, nothing but dark +recollections and woeful anticipations occupied Antonina's mind; when, +just as her weary head was drooping towards the ground, just as +sensation and fortitude and grief itself seemed declining into a +dreamless and deadly sleep, a last thought, void of discernible +connection or cause, rose suddenly within her--animating, awakening, +inspiring. She started up. 'The garden, father--the garden!' she +cried breathlessly. 'Remember the food that grows in our garden below! +Be comforted, we have provision left yet--God has not deserted us!' + +He raised his face while she spoke; his features assumed a deeper +mournfulness and hopelessness of expression; he looked upon her in +ominous silence, and laid his trembling fingers on her arm to detain +her, when she hurriedly attempted to quit the room. + + +'Do not forbid me to depart,' she anxiously pleaded. 'To me every +corner in the garden is known; for it was my possession in our happier +days--our last hopes rest in the garden, and I must search through it +without delay! Bear with me,' she added, in low and melancholy +tones--'bear with me, dear father, in all that I would now do! I have +suffered, since we parted, a bitter affliction, which clings dark and +heavy to all my thoughts--there is no consolation for me but the +privilege of caring for your welfare--my only hope of comfort is in the +employment of aiding you!' + +The old man's hand had pressed heavier on her arm while she addressed +him; but when she ceased it dropped from her, and he bent his head in +speechless submission to her entreaty. + +For one moment she lingered, looking on him silent as himself; the +next, she left the apartment with hasty and uncertain steps. + +On reaching the garden, she unconsciously took the path leading to the +bank where she had once loved to play secretly upon her lute and to +look on the distant mountains reposing in the warm atmosphere which +summer evenings shed over their blue expanse. How eloquent was this +little plot of ground of the quiet events now for ever gone by!--of the +joys, the hopes, the happy occupations, which rise with the day that +chronicles them, and pass like that day, never to return the +same!--which the memory alone can preserve as they were, and the heart +can never resume but in a changed form, divested of the presence of the +companion of the incident of the departed moment, which formed the +charm of the past and makes the imperfection of the present. + +Tender and thronging were the remembrances which the surrounding +prospect called up, as the sad mistress of the garden looked again on +her little domain! She saw the bank where she could never more sit to +sing with a renewal of the same feelings which had once inspired her +music; she saw the drooping flowers that she could never restore with +the same childlike enjoyment of the task which had animated her in +former hours! Young though she still was, the emotions of the youthful +days that were gone could never be revived as they had once existed! +As waters they had welled up, and as waters they had flowed forth, +never to return to their source! Thoughts of these former years--of +the young warrior who lay cold beneath the heavy earth--of the +desponding father who mourned hopeless in the room above--gathered +thick at her heart as she turned from her flower-beds--not, as in other +days, to pour forth her happiness to the music of her lute, but to +search laboriously for the sustenance of life. + +At first, as she stooped over those places in the garden where she knew +that fruits and vegetables had been planted by her own hand, her tears +blinded her. She hastily dashed them away, and looked eagerly around. + +Alas! others had reaped the field from which she had hoped abundance! +In the early days of the famine Numerian's congregation had entered the +garden, and gathered for him whatever it contained; its choicest and +its homeliest products were alike exhausted; withered leaves lay on the +barren earth, and naked branches waved over them in the air. She +wandered from path to path, searching amid the briars and thistles, +which already cast an aspect of ruin over the deserted place; she +explored its most hidden corners with the painful perseverance of +despair; but the same barrenness spread around her wherever she turned. +On this once fertile spot, which she had entered with such joyful faith +in its resources, there remained but a few poor decayed roots, dropped +and forgotten amid tangled weeds and faded flowers. + +She saw that they were barely sufficient for one scanty meal as she +collected them and returned slowly to the house. No words escaped her, +no tears flowed over her cheeks when she reascended the steps--hope, +fear, thought, sensation itself had been stunned within her from the +first moment when she had discovered that, in the garden as in the +house, the inexorable famine had anticipated the last chances of relief. + +She entered the room, and, still holding the withered roots, advanced +mechanically to her father's side. During her absence his mental and +bodily faculties had both yielded to wearied nature--he lay in a deep, +heavy sleep. + + +Her mind experienced a faint relief when she saw that the fatal +necessity of confessing the futility of the hopes she had herself +awakened was spared her for a while. She knelt down by Numerian, and +gently smoothed the hair over his brow; then she drew the curtain +across the window, for she feared even that the breeze blowing through +it might arouse him. + +A strange, secret satisfaction at the idea of devoting to her father +every moment of the time and every particle of the strength that might +yet be reserved for her; a ready resignation to death in dying for +him--overspread her heart, and took the place of all other aspirations +and all other thoughts. + +She now moved to and fro through the room with a cautious tranquillity +which nothing could startle; she prepared her decayed roots for food +with a patient attention which nothing could divert. Lost, through the +aggravated miseries of her position, to recent grief and present +apprehension, she could still instinctively perform the simple offices +of the woman and the daughter, as she might have performed them amid a +peaceful nation and a prosperous home. Thus do the first-born +affections outlast the exhaustion of all the stormy emotions, all the +aspiring thoughts of after years, which may occupy, but which cannot +absorb, the spirit within us; thus does their friendly and familiar +voice, when the clamour of contending passions has died away in its own +fury, speak again, serene and sustaining as in the early time, when the +mind moved secure within the limits of its native simplicity, and the +heart yet lay happy in the pure tranquillity of its first repose! + +The last scanty measure of food was soon prepared; it was bitter and +unpalatable when she tasted it--life could barely be preserved, even in +the most vigorous, by provision so wretched; but she set it aside as +carefully as if it had been the most precious luxury of the most +abundant feast. + +Nothing had changed during the interval of her solitary employment--her +father yet slept; the gloomy silence yet prevailed in the street. She +placed herself at the window, and partially drew aside the curtain to +let the warm breezes from without blow over her cold brow. The same +ineffable resignation, the same unnatural quietude, which had sunk down +over her faculties since she had entered the room, overspread them +still. Surrounding objects failed to impress her attention; +recollections and forebodings stagnated in her mind. A marble +composure prevailed over her features. Sometimes her eyes wandered +mechanically from the morsels of food by her side to her sleeping +father, as her one vacant idea of watching for his service, till the +feeble pulses of life had throbbed their last, alternately revived and +declined; but no other evidences of bodily existence or mental activity +appeared in her. As she now sat in the half-darkened room, by the +couch on which her father reposed--her features pale, calm, and rigid, +her form enveloped in cold white drapery--there were moments when she +looked like one of the penitential devotees of the primitive Church, +appointed to watch in the house of mourning, and surprised in her +saintly vigil by the advent of Death. + +Time flowed on--the monotonous hours of the day waned again towards +night; and plague and famine told their lapse in the fated highways of +Rome. For father and child the sand in the glass was fast running out, +and neither marked it as it diminished. The sleeper still reposed, and +the guardian by his side still watched; but now her weary gaze was +directed on the street, unconsciously attracted by the sound of voices +which at length rose from it at intervals, and by the light of the +torches and lamps which appeared in the great palace of the senator +Vetranio, as the sun gradually declined in the horizon, and the fiery +clouds around were quenched in the vapours of the advancing night. +Steadily she looked upon the sight beneath and before her; but even yet +her limbs never moved; no expression relieved the blank, solemn +peacefulness of her features. + +Meanwhile, the soft, brief twilight glimmered over the earth, and +showed the cold moon, poised solitary in the starless heaven; then, the +stealthy darkness arose at her pale signal, and closed slowly round the +City of Death! + + + +CHAPTER 22. + +THE BANQUET OF FAMINE. + +Of all prophecies, none are, perhaps, so frequently erroneous as those +on which we are most apt to venture in endeavouring to foretell the +effect of outward events on the characters of men. In no form of our +anticipations are we more frequently baffled than in such attempts to +estimate beforehand the influence of circumstance over conduct, not +only in others, but also even in ourselves. Let the event but happen, +and men, whom we view by the light of our previous observation of them, +act under it as the living contradictions of their own characters. The +friend of our daily social intercourse, in the progress of life, and +the favourite hero of our historic studies, in the progress of the +page, astonish, exceed, or disappoint our expectations alike. We find +it as vain to foresee a cause as to fix a limit for the arbitrary +inconsistencies in the dispositions of mankind. + +But, though to speculate upon the future conduct of others under +impending circumstances be but too often to expose the fallacy of our +wisest anticipations, to contemplate the nature of that conduct after +it has been displayed is a useful subject of curiosity, and may perhaps +be made a fruitful source of instruction. Similar events which succeed +each other at different periods are relieved from monotony, and derive +new importance from the ever-varying effects which they produce on the +human character. Thus, in the great occurrence which forms the +foundation of our narrative, we may find little in the siege of Rome, +looking at it as a mere event, to distinguish it remarkably from any +former siege of the city--the same desire for glory and vengeance, +wealth and dominion, which brought Alaric to her walls, brought other +invaders before him. But if we observed the effect of the Gothic +descent upon Italy on the inhabitants of her capital, we shall find +ample matter for novel contemplation and unbounded surprise. + +We shall perceive, as an astonishing instance of the inconsistencies of +the human character, the spectacle of a whole people resolutely defying +an overwhelming foreign invasion at their very doors, just at the +period when they had fallen most irremediably from the highest position +of national glory to the lowest depths of national degradation; +resisting an all-powerful enemy with inflexible obstinacy, for the +honour of the Roman name, which they had basely dishonoured or +carelessly forgotten for ages past. We shall behold men who have +hitherto laughed at the very name of patriotism, now starving +resolutely in their country's cause; who stopped at no villainy to +obtain wealth, now hesitating to employ their ill-gotten gains in the +purchase of the most important of all gratifications--their own +security and peace. Instances of the unimaginable effect produced by +the event of the siege of Rome on the characters of her inhabitants +might be drawn from all classes, from the lowest to the highest, from +patrician to plebeian; but to produce them here would be to admit too +long an interruption in the progress of the present narrative. If we +are to enter at all into detail on such a subject, it must be only in a +case clearly connected with the actual requirements of our story; and +such a case may be found, at this juncture, in the conduct of the +senator Vetranio, under the influence of the worst calamities attending +the blockade of Rome by the Goths. + +Who, it may be asked, knowing the previous character of this man, his +frivolity of disposition, his voluptuous anxiety for unremitting +enjoyment and ease, his horror of the slightest approaches of +affliction or pain, would have imagined him capable of rejecting in +disdain all the minor chances of present security and future prosperity +which his unbounded power and wealth might have procured for him, even +in a famine-stricken city, and rising suddenly to the sublime of +criminal desperation, in the resolution to abandon life as worthless +the moment it had ceased to run in the easy current of all former +years? Yet to this determination had he now arrived; and, still more +extraordinary, in this determination had he found others, of his own +patrician order, to join him. + + +The reader will remember his wild announcement of his intended orgie to +the Prefect Pompeianus during the earlier periods of the siege; that +announcement was now to be fulfilled. Vetranio had bidden his guests +to the Banquet of Famine. A chosen number of the senators of the great +city were to vindicate their daring by dying the revellers that they +had lived; by resigning in contempt all prospect of starving, like the +common herd, on a lessening daily pittance of loathsome food; by making +their triumphant exit from a fettered and ungrateful life, drowned in +floods of wine, and lighted by the fires of the wealthiest palace of +Rome! + +It had been intended to keep this frantic determination a profound +secret, to let the mighty catastrophe burst upon the remaining +inhabitants of the city like a prodigy from heaven; but the slaves +intrusted with the organisation of the suicide banquet had been bribed +to their tasks with wine, and in the carelessness of intoxication had +revealed to others whatever they heard within the palace walls. The +news passed from mouth to mouth. There was enough in the prospect of +beholding the burning palace and the drunken suicide of its desperate +guests to animate even the stagnant curiosity of a famishing mob. + +On the appointed evening the people dragged their weary limbs from all +quarters of the city towards the Pincian Hill. Many of them died on +the way; many lost their resolution to proceed to the end of their +journey, and took shelter sullenly in the empty houses on the road; +many found opportunities for plunder and crime as they proceeded, which +tempted them from their destination; but many persevered in their +purpose--the living dragging the dying along with them, the desperate +driving the cowardly before them in malignant sport, until they gained +the palace gates. It was by their voices, as they reached her ear from +the street, that the fast-sinking faculties of Antonina had been +startled, though not revived; and there, on the broad pavement, lay +these citizens of a fallen city--a congregation of pestilence and +crime--a starving and an awful band! + +The moon, brightened by the increasing darkness, now clearly +illuminated the street, and revealed, in a narrow space, a various and +impressive scene. + +One side of the roadway in which stood Vetranio's palace was occupied, +along each extremity, as far as the eye could reach at night, by the +groves and outbuildings attached to the senator's mansion. The palace +grounds, at the higher and farther end of the street--looking from the +Pincian Gate--crossed it by a wide archway, and then stretched +backward, until they joined the trees of the little garden of +Numerian's abode. In a line with this house, but separated from it by a +short space, stood a long row of buildings, let out floor by floor to +separate occupants, and towering to an unwieldy altitude; for in +ancient Rome, as in modern London, in consequence of the high price of +land in an over-populated city, builders could only secure space in a +dwelling by adding inconveniently to its height. Beyond these +habitations rose the trees surrounding another patrician abode; and +beyond that the houses took a sudden turn, and nothing more was visible +in a straight line but the dusky, indefinite objects of the distant +view. + + +The whole appearance of the street before Vetranio's mansion, had it +been unoccupied by the repulsive groups now formed in it, would have +been eminently beautiful at the hours of which we now write. The nobly +symmetrical frontage of the palace itself, with its graceful succession +of long porticoes and colossal statues, contrasted by the picturesquely +irregular appearance of the opposite dwelling of Numerian and the lofty +houses by its side; the soft, indistinct masses of foliage running +parallel along the upper ends of the street, terminated and connected +by the archway garden across the road, on which was planted a group of +tall pine-trees, rising in gigantic relief against the transparent sky; +the brilliant light streaming across the pavement from Vetranio's +gaily-curtained windows, immediately opposed by the tranquil moonlight +which lit the more distant view--formed altogether a prospect in which +the natural and the artificial were mingled together in the most +exquisite proportions--a prospect whose ineffable poetry and beauty +might, on any other night, have charmed the most careless eye and +exalted the most frivolous mind. But now, overspread as it was by +groups of people gaunt with famine and hideous with disease; startled +as it was, at gloomy intervals, by contending cries of supplication, +defiance, and despair--its brightest beauties of Nature and Art +appeared but to shine with an aspect of bitter mockery around the human +misery which their splendour disclosed. + +Upwards of a hundred people--mostly of the lowest orders--were +congregated before the senator's devoted dwelling. Some few among them +passed slowly to and fro in the street, their figures gliding shadowy +and solemn through the light around them; but the greater number lay on +the pavement before the wall of Numerian's dwelling and the doorways of +the lofty houses by its side. Illuminated by the full glare of the +light from the palace windows, these groups, huddled together in the +distorted attitudes of suffering and despair, assumed a fearful and +unearthly appearance. Their shrivelled faces, their tattered clothing, +their wan forms, here prostrate, there half-raised, were bathed in a +steady red glow. High above them, at the windows of the tall houses, +now tenanted in every floor by the dead, appeared a few figures (the +mercenary guardians of the dying within) bending forward to look out +upon the palace opposite--their haggard faces showing pale in the clear +moonlight. Sometimes their voices were heard calling in mockery to the +mass of people below to break down the strong steel gates of the +palace, and tear the full wine-cup from its master's lips. Sometimes +those beneath replied with execrations, which rose wildly mingled with +the wailing of women and children, the moans of the plague-stricken, +and the supplications of the famished to the slaves passing backwards +and forwards behind the palace railings for charity and help. + +In the intervals, when the tumult of weak voices was partially lulled, +there was heard a dull, regular, beating sound, produced by those who +had found dry bones on their road to the palace, and were pounding them +on the pavement, in sheltered places, for food. The wind, which had +been refreshing during the day, had changed at sunset, and now swept up +slowly over the street in hot, faint gusts, plague-laden, from the +East. Particles of the ragged clothing on some prostrate forms lying +most exposed in its course waved slowly to and fro, as it passed, like +banners planted by Death on the yielding defences of the citadel of +Life. It wound through the open windows of the palace, hot and +mephitic, as if tainted with the breath of the foul and furious words +which it bore onward into the banqueting-hall of the senator's reckless +guests. Driven over such scenes as now spread beneath it, it derived +from them a portentous significance; it seemed to blow like an +atmosphere exuded from the furnace-depths of centre earth, breathing +sinister warnings of some deadly convulsion in the whole fabric of +Nature over the thronged and dismal street. + +Such was the prospect before the palace, and such the spectators +assembled in ferocious anxiety to behold the destruction of the +senator's abode. Meanwhile, within the walls of the building, the +beginning of the fatal orgie was at hand. + +It had been covenanted by the slaves (who, during the calamities in the +besieged city, had relaxed in their accustomed implicit obedience to +their master with perfect impunity), that, as soon as the last labours +of preparation were completed, they should be free to consult their own +safety by quitting the devoted palace. Already some of the weakest and +most timid of their numbers might be seen passing out hastily into the +gardens by the back gates, like engineers who had fired a train, and +were escaping ere the explosion burst forth. Those among the menials +who still remained in the palace were for the greater part occupied in +drinking from the vases of wine which had been placed before them, to +preserve to the last moment their failing strength. + + +The mockery of festivity had been extended even to their dresses--green +liveries girt with cherry-coloured girdles arrayed their wasted forms. +They drank in utter silence. Not the slightest appearance of revelry +or intoxication prevailed among their ranks. Confusedly huddled +together, as if for mutual protection, they ever and anon cast quick +glances of suspicion and apprehension upon some six or eight of the +superior attendants of the palace, who walked backwards and forwards at +the outer extremity of the hall occupied by their comrades, and +occasionally advancing along the straight passages before them to the +front gates of the building, appeared to be exchanging furtive signals +with some of the people in the street. Reports had been vaguely spread +of a secret conspiracy between some of the principal of the slaves and +certain chosen ruffians of the populace, to murder all the inmates of +the palace, seize on its treasures, and, opening the city gates to the +Goths, escape with their booty during the confusion of the pillage of +Rome. Nothing had as yet been positively discovered; but the few +attendants who kept ominously apart from the rest were unanimously +suspected by their fellows, who now watched them over their wine-cups +with anxious eyes. Different as was the scene among the slaves still +left in the palace from the scene among the people dispersed in the +street, the one was nevertheless in its own degree as gloomily +suggestive of some great impending calamity as the other. + +The grand banqueting-hall of the palace, prepared though it now was for +festivity, wore a changed and melancholy aspect. + +The massive tables still ran down the whole length of the noble room, +surrounded by luxurious couches, as in former days, but not a vestige +of food appeared upon their glittering surfaces. Rich vases, flasks, +and drinking-cups, all filled with wine, alone occupied the festal +board. Above, hanging low from the ceiling, burnt ten large lamps, +corresponding to the number of guests assembled, as the only procurable +representatives of the hundreds of revellers who had feasted at +Vetranio's expense during the brilliant nights that were now passed for +ever. At the lower end of the room, beyond the grand door of entrance, +hung a thick black curtain, apparently intended to conceal mysteriously +some object behind it. Before the curtain burnt a small lamp of yellow +glass, raised upon a high gilt pole, and around and beneath it, heaped +against the side walls, and over part of the table, lay a various and +confused mass of rich objects, all of a nature more or less +inflammable, and all besprinkled with scented oils. Hundreds of yards +of gorgeously variegated hangings, rolls upon rolls of manuscripts, +gaudy dresses of all colours, toys, utensils, innumerable articles of +furniture formed in rare and beautifully inlaid woods, were carelessly +flung together against the walls of the apartment, and rose high +towards its ceiling. + +On every part of the tables not occupied by the vases of wine were laid +gold and jewelled ornaments which dazzled the eye by their brilliancy; +while, in extraordinary contrast to the magnificence thus profusely +displayed, there appeared in one of the upper corners of the hall an +old wooden stand covered by a coarse cloth, on which were placed one or +two common earthenware bowls, containing what my be termed a 'mash' of +boiled bran and salted horseflesh. Any repulsive odour which might +have arisen from this strange compound was overpowered by the various +perfumes sprinkled about the room, which, mingling with the hot breezes +wafted through the windows from the street, produced an atmosphere as +oppressive and debilitating, in spite of its artificial allurements to +the sense of smell, as the air of a dungeon or the vapours of a marsh. + +Remarkable as was the change in the present appearance of the +banqueting-hall, it was but the feeble reflection of the alteration for +the worse in the aspect of the host and his guests. Vetranio reclined +at the head of the table, dressed in a scarlet mantle. An embroidered +towel with purple tassels and fringes, connected with rings of gold, +fell over his breast, and silver and ivory bracelets were clasped round +his arms. But of the former man the habiliments were all that +remained. His head was bent forward, as if with the weakness of age; +his emaciated arms seemed barely able to support the weight of the +ornaments which glittered on them; his eyes had contracted a wild, +unsettled expression; and a deadly paleness overspread the once plump +and jovial cheeks which so many mistresses had kissed in mercenary +rapture in other days. Both in countenance and manner the elegant +voluptuary of our former acquaintance at the Court of Ravenna was +entirely and fatally changed. Of the other eight patricians who lay on +the couches around their altered host--some wild and reckless, some +gloomy and imbecile--all had suffered in the ordeal of the siege, the +famine, and the pestilence, like him. + +Such were the members of the assemblage, represented from the ceiling +by nine of the burning lamps. The tenth and last lamp indicated the +presence of one more guest who reclined a little apart from the rest. + + +This man was hump-backed; his gaunt, bony features were repulsively +disproportioned to his puny frame, which looked doubly contemptible, +enveloped as it was in an ample tawdry robe. Sprung from the lowest +ranks of the populace, he had gradually forced himself into the favour +of his superiors by his skill in coarse mimicry, and his readiness in +ministering to the worst vices of all who would employ him. Having +lost the greater part of his patrons during the siege, finding himself +abandoned to starvation on all sides, he had now, as a last resource, +obtained permission to participate in the Banquet of Famine, to enliven +it by a final exhibition of his buffoonery, and to die with his +masters, as he had lived with them--the slave, the parasite, and the +imitator of the lowest of their vices and the worst of their crimes. + +At the commencement of the orgie, little was audible beyond the clash +of the wine-cups, the low occasional whispering of the revellers, and +the confused voices of the people without, floating through the window +from the street. The desperate compact of the guests, now that its +execution had actually begun, awed them at first in spite of +themselves. At length, when there was a lull of all sounds--when a +temporary calm prevailed over the noises outside--when the wine-cups +were emptied, and left for a moment ere they were filled +again--Vetranio feebly rose, and, announcing with a mocking smile that +he was about to speak a funeral oration over his friends and himself, +pointed to the wall immediately behind him as to an object fitted to +awaken the astonishment or the hilarity of his moody guests. + +Against the upper part of the wall were fixed various small statues in +bronze and marble, all representing the owner of the palace, and all +hung with golden plates. Beneath these appeared the rent-roll of his +estates, written in various colours on white vellum, and beneath that, +scratched on the marble in faint irregular characters, was no less an +object than his own epitaph, composed by himself. It may be translated +thus:-- + + Stop, Spectator! + If thou has reverently cultivated the pleasures of the taste, + pause amid these illustrious ruins of what was once + a palace, + and peruse with respect on this stone + the epitaph of VETRANIO, a senator. + He was the first man who invented a successful + nightingale sauce; + his bold and creative genius added much, + and would have added more, to + THE ART OF COOKERY; + but, alas for the interests of science! + he lived in the days when the Gothic barbarians besieged + THE IMPERIAL CITY; + famine left him no matter for gustatory experiment; + and pestilence deprived him of cooks to enlighten! + Opposed at all points by the force of adverse circumstances, + finding his life of no further use to the culinary + interests of Rome, + he called his chosen friends together to assist him, + conscientiously drank up every drop of wine remaining + in his cellars, + lit the funeral pile of himself and his guests, + in the banqueting-hall of his own palace, + and died, as he had lived, + the patriotic CATO + of his country's gastronomy! + +'Behold!' cried Vetranio, pointing triumphantly to the epitaph--'behold +in every line of those eloquent letters at once the seal of my resolute +adherence to the engagement that unites us here, and the foundation of +my just claim to the reverence of posterity on the most useful of the +arts which I exercised for the benefit of my species! Read, friends, +brethren, fellow-martyrs of glory, and, as you read, rejoice with me +over the hour of our departure from the desecrated arena, no longer +worthy the celebration of the Games of Life! Yet, ere the feast +proceeds, hear me while I speak--I make my last oration as the arbiter +of our funeral sports, as the host of the Banquet of Famine! + + +'Who would sink ignobly beneath the slow superiority of starvation, or +perish under the quickly glancing steel of the barbarian conqueror's +sword, when such a death as ours is offered to the choice?--when wine +flows bright, to drown sensation in oblivion, and a palace and its +treasures furnish alike the scene of the revel and the radiant funeral +pile? The mighty philosophers of India--the inspired +Gymnosophists--died as we shall die! Calanus before Alexander, Zamarus +in the presence of Augustus, lit the fires that consumed them! Let us +follow their glorious example! No worms will prey upon our bodies, no +hired mourners will howl discordant at our funerals! Purified in the +radiance of primeval fire, we shall vanish triumphant from enemies and +friends--a marvel to the earth, a vision of glory to the gods +themselves! + +'Is it a day more or a day less of life that is now of importance to +us? No; it is only towards the easiest and the noblest death that our +aspirations can turn! Among our number there is now not one whom the +care of existence can further occupy! + +'Here, at my right hand, reclines my estimable comrade of a thousand +former feasts, Furius Balburius Placidus, who, when we sailed on the +Lucrine Lake, was wont to complain of intolerable hardship if a fly +settled on the gilded folds of his umbrella; who languished for a land +of Cimmerian darkness if a sunbeam penetrated the silken awnings of his +garden-terrace; and who now wrangles for a mouthful of horseflesh with +the meanest of his slaves, and would exchange the richest of his +country villas for a basket of dirty bread! O Furius Balburius +Placidus, of what further use is life to thee? + +'There, at my left, I discern the changed though still expressive +countenance of the resolute Thascius, he who chastised a slave with a +hundred lashes if his warm water was not brought immediately at his +command; he whose serene contempt for every member of the human species +by himself once ranked him among the greatest of human philosophers; +even he now wanders through his palace unserved, and fawns upon the +plebeian who will sell him a measure of wretched bran! Oh, admired +friend, oh, rightly reasoning Thascius, say, is there anything in Rome +which should delay thee on thy journey to the Elysian Fields? + +'Farther onward at the table, drinking largely while I speak, I behold, +O Marcus Moecius Moemmius, thy once plump and jovial form!--thou, in +former days accustomed to rejoice in the length of thy name, because it +enabled thy friends to drink the more in drinking a cup to each letter +of it, tell me what banqueting-hall is now open to thee but this?--and +thus desolate in the city of thy social triumphs, what should +disincline thee to make of our festal solemnity thy last revel on earth? + +'Thou, too, facetious hunchback, prince of parasites, unscrupulous +Reburrus, where, but at this banquet of famine, will thy buffoonery now +procure for thee a draught of reviving wine? Thy masters have +abandoned thee to thy native dunghill! No more shalt thou wheedle for +them when they borrow, or bully for them when they pay! No more +charges of poisoning or magic shalt thou forge to imprison their +troublesome creditors! Oh, officious sycophant, thy occupations are no +more! Drink while thou canst, and then resign thy carcass to congenial +mire! + +'And you, my five remaining friends, whom--little desirous of further +delay--I will collectively address, think on the days when the +suspicion of an infectious malady in any one of your companions was +sufficient to separate you from the dearest of them; when the slaves +who came to you from their palaces underwent long ceremonies of +ablution before they approached your presence; and remembering this, +reflect that most, perhaps all of us, now meet here plague-tainted +already; and then say, of what advantage is it to languish for a life +which is yours no longer? + +'No, my friends, my brethren of the banquet; feeling that when life is +worthless it is folly to live, you cannot shrink from the lofty +resolution by which we are bound, you cannot pause on our joyful +journey of departure from the scenes of earth--I wrong you even by a +doubt! Let me now, rather, ask your attention for a worthier +subject--the enumeration of the festal ceremonies by which the progress +of the banquet will be marked. That task concluded, that last ceremony +of my last welcome to you these halls duly performed, I join you once +more in your final homage to the deity of our social lives--the God of +Wine! + + +'It is not unknown to you--learned as you are in the jovial antiquities +of the table--that it was, among some of the ancients, a custom for a +master-spirit of philosophy to preside--the teacher as well as the +guest--at their feasts. This usage it has been my care to revive, and, +as this four meeting is unparalleled in its heroic design, so it was my +ambition to bid to it one unparalleled, either as a teacher or a guest. +Fired by an original idea, unobserved of my slaves, aided only by my +singing-boy, the faithful Glyco, I have succeeded in placing behind +that black curtain such an associate of our revels as you have never +feasted with before, whose appearance at the fitting moment must strike +you irresistibly with astonishment, and whose discourse--not of human +wisdom only--will be inspired by the midnight secrets of the tomb. By +my side, on this parchment, lies the formulary of questions to be +addressed by Reburrus, when the curtain is withdrawn, to the Oracle of +the Mysteries of other Spheres. + +'Before you, behold in those vases all that remains of my once +well-stocked cellars, and all that is provided for the palates of my +guests! We sit at the Banquet of Famine, and no coarser sustenance than +inspiring wine finds admittance at the Bacchanalian board. Yet, should +any among us, in his last moments, be feeble enough to pollute his lips +with nourishment alone worthy of the vermin of the earth, let him seek +the wretched and scanty table, type of the wretched and scanty food +that covers it, placed yonder in obscurity behind me. There will he +find (in all barely sufficient for one man's poorest meal) the last +morsels of the vilest nourishment left in the palace. For me, my +resolution is fixed--it is only the generous wine-cup that shall now +approach my lips! + +'Above me are the ten lamps, answering to the number of my friends here +assembled. One after another, as the wine overpowers us, those burning +images of life will be extinguished in succession by the guests who +remain proof against our draughts; and the last of these, lighting this +torch at the last lamp, will consummate the banquet, and celebrate its +glorious close, by firing the funeral pile of my treasures heaped +yonder against my palace walls! If my powers fail me before yours, +swear to me that whoever among you is able to lift the cup to his lips +after it has dropped from the hands of the rest, will fire the pile! +Swear it by your lost mistresses, your lost friends, your lost +treasures!--by your own lives, devoted to the pleasures of wine and the +purification of fire!' + +As, with flashing eyes and flushed countenance, Vetranio sank back on +his couch, his companions, inflamed with the wine they had already +drunk, arose cup in hand, and turned towards him. Their voices, +discordantly mingled, pronounced the oath together; then, as they +resumed their former positions, their eyes all turned towards the black +curtain in ardent expectation. + +They had observed the sinister and sarcastic expression of Vetranio's +eye as he spoke of his concealed guest; they knew that the hunchback +Reburrus possessed, among his other powers of buffoonery, the art of +ventriloquism; and they suspected the presence of some hideous or +grotesque image of a heathen god or demon in the hidden recess, which +the jugglery of the parasite was to gift with the capacity of speech. +Blasphemous comments upon life, death, and immortality were eagerly +awaited. The general impatience for the withdrawal of the curtain was +perceived by Vetranio, who, waving his hand for silence, +authoritatively exclaimed-- + +'The hour has not yet arrived. More draughts must be drunk, more +libations poured out, ere the mystery of the curtain is revealed! Ho, +Glyco!' he continued, turning towards the singing-boy, who had silently +entered the room, 'the moment is yours! Tune your lyre, and recite my +last ode, which I have addressed to you! Let the charms of Poetry +preside over the feast of Death!' + +The boy advanced, trembling; his once ruddy face was colourless and +haggard; his eyes were fixed with a look of rigid terror on the black +curtain; his features palpably expressed the presence within him of +some secret and overwhelming recollection which had crushed all his +other faculties and perceptions. Steadily, almost guiltily, averting +his face from his master's countenance, he stood by Vetranio's couch, a +frail and fallen being, a mournful spectacle of perverted docility and +degraded youth. + +Still true, however, to the duties of his vocation, he ran his thin, +trembling fingers over the lyre, and mechanically preluded the +commencement of the ode. But during the silence of attention which now +prevailed, the confused noises from the people in the street penetrated +more distinctly into the banqueting-room; and at this moment, high +above them all--hoarse, raving, terrible, rose the voice of one man. + +'Tell me not,' it cried, 'of perfumes wafted from the palace!--foul +vapours flow from it!--see, they sink, suffocating over me!--they bathe +sky and earth, and men who move around us, in fierce, green light!' + +Then other voices of men and women, shrill and savage, broke forth in +interruption together:--'Peace, Davus! you awake the dead about you!' +'Hide in the darkness; you are plague-struck; your skin is shrivelled; +your gums are toothless!' 'When the palace is fired you shall be flung +into the flames to purify your rotten carcass!' + +'Sing!' cried Vetranio furiously, observing the shudders that ran over +the boy's frame and held him speechless. 'Strike the lyre, as +Timotheus struck it before Alexander! Drown in melody the barking of +the curs who wait for our offal in the street!' + +Feebly and interruptedly the terrified boy began; the wild continuous +noises of the moaning voices from without sounding their awful +accompaniment to the infidel philosophy of his song as he breathed it +forth in faint and faltering accents. It ran thus:-- + +TO GLYCO + + Ah, Glyco! why in flow'rs array'd? + Those festive wreaths less quickly fade + Than briefly-blooming joy! + Those high-prized friends who share your mirth + Are counterfeits of brittle earth, + False coin'd in Death's alloy! + + The bliss your notes could once inspire, + When lightly o'er the god-like lyre + Your nimble fingers pass'd, + Shall spring the same from others' skill-- + When you're forgot, the music still + The player shall outlast! + + The sun-touch'd cloud that mounts the sky, + That brightly glows to warm the eye, + Then fades we know not where, + Is image of the little breath + Of life--and then, the doom of Death + That you and I must share! + + Helpless to make or mar our birth, + We blindly grope the ways of earth, + And live our paltry hour; + Sure, that when life has ceased to please, + To die at will, in Stoic ease, + Is yielded to our pow'r! + + Who, timely wise, would meanly wait + The dull delay of tardy Fate, + When Life's delights are shorn? + No! When its outer gloss has flown, + Let's fling the tarnish'd bauble down + As lightly as 'twas worn. + +'A health to Glyco! A deep draught to a singer from heaven come down +upon earth!' cried the guests, seizing their wine-cups, as the ode was +concluded, and draining them to the last drop. But their drunken +applause fell noiseless upon the ear to which it was addressed. The +boy's voice, as he sang the final stanza of the ode, had suddenly +changed to a shrill, almost an unearthly tone, then suddenly sank again +as he breathed forth the last few notes; and now as his dissolute +audience turned towards him with approving glances, they saw him +standing before them cold, rigid, and voiceless. The next instant his +fixed features were suddenly distorted, his whole frame collapsed as if +torn by an internal spasm--he fell back heavily to the floor. Those +around approached him with unsteady feet, and raised him in their arms. +His soul had burst the bonds of vice in which others had entangled it; +the voice of Death had whispered to the slave of the great despot, +Crime--'Be free!' + +'We have heard the note of the swan singing its own funeral hymn!' said +the patrician Placidus, looking in maudlin pity from the corpse of the +boy to the face of Vetranio, which presented for the moment an +involuntary expression of grief and remorse. + + +'Our miracle of beauty and boy-god of melody has departed before us to +the Elysian fields!' muttered the hunchback Reburrus, in harsh, +sarcastic accents. + +Then, during the short silence that ensued, the voices from the street, +joined on this occasion to a noise of approaching footsteps on the +pavement, became again distinctly audible in the banqueting-hall. +'News! news!' cried these fresh auxiliaries of the horde already +assembled before the palace. 'Keep together, you who still care for +your lives! Solitary citizens have been lured by strange men into +desolate streets, and never seen again! Jars of newly salted flesh, +which there were no beasts left in the city to supply, have been found +in a butcher's shop! Keep together! Keep together!' + +'No cannibals among the mob shall pollute the body of my poor boy!' +cried Vetranio, rousing himself from his short lethargy of grief. 'Ho! +Thascius! Marcus! you who can yet stand! let us bear him to the funeral +pile! He has died first--his ashes shall be first consumed!' + +The two patricians arose as the senator spoke, and aided him in +carrying the body to the lower end of the room, where it was laid +across the table, beneath the black curtain, and between the heaps of +drapery and furniture piled up against each of the walls. Then, as his +guests reeled back to their places, Vetranio, remaining by the side of +the corpse, and seizing in his unsteady hands a small vase of wine, +exclaimed in tones of fierce exultation: 'The hour has come--the +Banquet of Famine has ended--the Banquet of Death has begun! A health +to the guest behind the curtain! Fill--drink--behold!' + +He drank deeply from the vase as he ceased, and drew aside the black +drapery above him. A cry of terror and astonishment burst from the +intoxicated guests as they beheld in the recess now disclosed to view +the corpse of an aged woman, clothed in white, and propped up on a +high, black throne, with the face turned towards them, and the arms +(artificially supported) stretched out as if in denunciation over the +banqueting-table. The lamp of yellow glass, which burnt high above the +body, threw over it a lurid and flickering light; the eyes were open, +the jaw had fallen, the long grey tresses drooped heavily on either +side of the white hollow cheeks. + +'Behold!' cried Vetranio, pointing to the corpse--'Behold my secret +guest! Who so fit as the dead to preside at the Banquet of Death? +Compelling the aid of Glyco, shrouded by congenial night, seizing on +the first corpse exposed before me in the street, I have set up there, +unsuspected by all, the proper idol of our worship, and philosopher at +our feast! Another health to the queen of the fatal revels--to the +teacher of the mysteries of worlds unseen--rescued from rotting +unburied, to perish in the consecrated flames with the senators of +Rome! A health!--a health to the mighty mother, ere she begin the +mystic revelations! Fill--drink!' + +Fired by their host's example, recovered from their momentary awe, +already inflamed by the mad recklessness of debauchery, the guests +started from their couches, and with Bacchanalian shouts answered +Vetranio's challenge. The scene at this moment approached the +supernatural. The wild disorder of the richly laden tables; the wine +flowing over the floor from overthrown vases; the great lamps burning +bright and steady over the confusion beneath; the fierce gestures, the +disordered countenances of the revellers, as they waved their jewelled +cups over their heads in frantic triumph; and then the gloomy and +terrific prospect at the lower end of the hall--the black curtain, the +light burning solitary on its high pole, the dead boy lying across the +festal table, the living master standing by his side, and, like an evil +spirit, pointing upward in mockery to the white-robed corpse of the +woman, as it towered above all in its unnatural position, with its +skinny arms stretched forth, with its ghastly features appearing to +move as the faint and flickering light played over them,--produced +together such a combination of scarce-earthly objects as might be +painted, but cannot be described. It was an embodiment of a sorcerer's +vision--an apocalypse of sin triumphing over the world's last relics of +mortality in the vaults of death. + + +'To your task, Reburrus!' cried Vetranio, when the tumult was lulled; +'to your questions without delay! Behold the teacher with whom you are +to hold commune! Peruse carefully the parchment in your hand; +question, and question loudly--you speak to the apathetic dead!' + +For some time before the disclosure of the corpse, the hunchback had +been seated apart at the end of the banqueting-hall opposite the +black-curtained recess, conning over the manuscript containing the list +of questions and answers which formed the impious dialogue he was to +hold, by the aid of his powers of ventriloquism, with the violated +dead. When the curtain was withdrawn he had looked up for a moment, +and had greeted the appearance of the sight behind it with a laugh of +brutal derision, returning immediately to the study of his blasphemous +formulary which had been confided to his care. At the moment when +Vetranio's commands were addressed to him he arose, reeled down the +apartment towards the corpse, and, opening the dialogue as he +approached it, began in loud jeering tones: 'Speak, miserable relict +of decrepit mortality!' + +He paused as he uttered the last word, and gaining a point of view from +which the light of the lamp fell full upon the solemn and stony +features of the corpse, looked up defiantly at it. In an instant a +frightful change passed over him, the manuscript dropped from his hand, +his deformed frame shrank and tottered, a shrill cry of recognition +burst from his lips, more like the yell of a wild beast than the voice +of a man. + +The next moment, when the guests started up to question or deride him, +he turned slowly and faced them. Desperate and drunken as they were, +his look awed them into utter silence. His face was deathlike in hue, +as the face of the corpse above him--thick drops of perspiration +trickled down it like rain--his dry glaring eyes wandered fiercely over +the startled countenances before him, and, as he extended towards them +his clenched hands, he muttered in a deep gasping whisper: 'Who has +done this? MY MOTHER! MY MOTHER!' + +As these few words--of awful import though of simple form--fell upon +the ears of those whom he addressed, such of them as were not already +sunk in insensibility looked round on each other almost sobered for the +moment, and all speechless alike. Not even the clash of the wine-cups +was now heard at the banqueting-table--nothing was audible but the +sound, still fitfully rising and falling, of the voices of terror, +ribaldry, and anguish from the street; and the hoarse convulsive +accents of the hunchback, still uttering at intervals his fearful +identification of the dead body above him: 'MY MOTHER! MY MOTHER!' + +At length Vetranio, who was the first to recover himself, addressed the +terrified and degraded wretch before him, in tones which, in spite of +himself, betrayed, as he began, an unwonted tremulousness and +restraint. 'What, Reburrus!' he cried, 'are you already drunken to +insanity, that you call the first dead body which by chance I +encountered in the street, and by chance brought hither, your mother? +Was it to talk of your mother, whom dead or alive we neither know nor +care for, that you were admitted here? Son of obscurity and inheritor +of rags, what are your plebeian parents to us!' he continued, refilling +his cup, and lashing himself into assumed anger as he spoke. 'To your +dialogue without delay, or you shall be flung from the windows to +mingle with your rabble-equals in the street!' + + +Neither by word nor look did the hunchback answer the senator's +menaces. For him, the voice of the living was stifled in the presence +of the dead. The retribution that had gone forth against him had +struck his moral, as a thunderbolt might have stricken his physical +being. His soul strove in agony within him, as he thought on the awful +fatality which had set the dead mother in judgment on the degraded +son--which had directed the hand of the senator unwittingly to select +the corpse of the outraged parent as the object for the infidel +buffoonery of the reckless child, at the very close of his impious +career. His past life rose before him, for the first time, like a foul +vision, like a nightmare of horror, impurity, and crime. He staggered +up the room, groping his way along the wall, as if the darkness of +midnight had closed round his eyes, and crouched down by the open +window. Beneath him rose the evil and ominous voices from the street; +around him spread the pitiless array of his masters; before him +appeared the denouncing vision of the corpse. + +He would have remained but a short time unmolested in his place of +refuge, but for an event which now diverted from him the attention of +Vetranio and his guests. Drinking furiously to drown all recollection +of the catastrophe they had just witnessed, three of the revellers had +already suffered the worst consequences of an excess, which their +weakened frames were ill-fitted to bear. One after another, at short +intervals, they fell back senseless on their couches; and one after +another, as they succumbed, the three lamps burning nearest to them +were extinguished. The same speedy termination to the debauch seemed +to be in reserve for the rest of their companions, with the exception +of Vetranio and the two patricians who reclined at his right hand and +his left. These three still preserved the appearance of +self-possession, but an ominous change had already overspread their +countenances. The expression of wild joviality, of fierce +recklessness, had departed from their wild features; they silently +watched each other with vigilant and suspicious eyes; each in turn, as +he filled his wine-cup, significantly handled the torch with which the +last drinker was to fire the funeral pile. As the numbers of their +rivals decreased, and the flame of lamp after lamp was extinguished, +the fatal contest for a suicide supremacy assumed a present and +powerful interest, in which all other purposes and objects were +forgotten. The corpse at the foot of the banqueting-table, and the +wretch cowering in his misery at the window, were now alike unheeded. +In the bewildered and brutalised minds of the guests, one sensation +alone remained--the intensity of expectation which precedes the result +of a deadly strife. + +But ere long--awakening the attention which might otherwise never have +been aroused--the voice of the hunchback was heard, as the spirit of +repentance now moved within him, uttering, in wild, moaning tones, a +strange confession of degradation and sin--addressed to none; +proceeding, independent of consciousness or will, from the depths of +his stricken soul. He half raised himself, and fixed his sunken eyes +upon the dead body, as these words dropped from his lips: 'It was the +last time that I beheld her alive, when she approached me--lonely, and +feeble, and poor--in the street, beseeching me to return to her in the +days of her old age and her solitude, and to remember how she had loved +me in my childhood for my very deformity, how she had watched me +throughout the highways of Rome, that none should oppress or deride me! +The tears ran down her cheeks, she knelt to me on the hard pavement, +and I, who had deserted her for her poverty, to make myself a slave in +palaces among the accursed rich, flung down money to her as to a beggar +who wearied me, and passed on! She died desolate; her body lay +unburied, and I knew it not! The son who had abandoned the mother +never saw her more, until she rose before him there--avenging, +horrible, lifeless--a sight of death never to leave him! Woe, woe to +the accursed in his deformity, and the accursed of his mother's corpse!' + +He paused, and fell back again to the ground, grovelling and +speechless. The tyrannic Thascius, regarding him with a scowl of +drunken wrath, seized an empty vase, and poising it in his unsteady +hand, prepared to hurl it at the hunchback's prostrate form, when again +a single cry--a woman's--rising above the increasing uproar in the +street, rang shrill and startling through the banqueting-hall. The +patrician suspended his purpose as he heard it, mechanically listening +with the half-stupid, half-cunning attention of intoxication. 'Help! +help!' shrieked the voice beneath the palace windows--'he follows me +still--he attacked my dead child in my arms! As I flung myself down +upon it on the ground, I saw him watching his opportunity to drag it by +the limbs from under me--famine and madness were in his eyes--I drove +him back--I fled--he follows me still!--save us, save us!' + + +At this instant her voice was suddenly stifled in the sound of fierce +cries and rushing footsteps, followed by an appalling noise of heavy +blows, directed at several points, against the steel railings before +the palace doors. Between the blows, which fell slowly and together at +regular intervals, the infuriated wretches, whose last exertions of +strength were strained to the utmost to deal them, could be heard +shouting breathlessly to each other: 'Strike harder, strike harder! +the back gates are guarded against us by our comrades admitted to the +pillage of the palace instead of us. You who would share the booty, +strike firm! the stones are at your feet, the gates of entrance yield +before you.' + +Meanwhile a confused sound of trampling footsteps and contending voices +became audible from the lower apartments of the palace. Doors were +violently shut and opened--shouts and execrations echoed and re-echoed +along the lofty stone passages leading from the slaves' waiting-rooms +to the grand staircase; treachery betrayed itself as openly within the +building as violence still proclaimed itself in the assault on the +gates outside. The chief slaves had not been suspected by their +fellows without a cause; the bands of pillage and murder had been +organised in the house of debauchery and death; the chosen adherents +from the street had been secretly admitted through the garden gates, +and had barred and guarded them against further intrusion--another doom +than the doom they had impiously prepared for themselves was +approaching the devoted senators, at the hands of the slaves whom they +had oppressed, and the plebeians whom they had despised. + +At the first sound of the assault without and the first intimation of +the treachery within, Vetranio, Thascius, and Marcus started from their +couches; the remainder of the guests, incapable either of thought or +action, lay, in stupid insensibility, awaiting their fate. These three +men alone comprehended the peril that threatened them, and, maddened +with drink, defied, in their ferocious desperation, the death that was +in store for them. 'Hark! they approach, the rabble revolted from our +rule,' cried Vetranio scornfully, 'to take the lives that we despise +and the treasures that we have resigned! The hour has come; I go to +fire the pile that involves in one common destruction our assassins and +ourselves!' + +'Hold!' exclaimed Thascius, snatching the torch from his hand; 'the +entrance must first be defended, or, ere the flames are kindled, the +slaves will be here! Whatever is movable--couches, tables, +corpses--let us hurl them all against the door!' + +As he spoke he rushed towards the black-curtained recess, to set the +example to his companions by seizing the corpse of the woman; but he +had not passed more than half the length of the apartment, when the +hunchback, who had followed him unheeded, sprang upon him from behind, +and, with a shrill cry, fastening his fingers on his throat, hurled him +torn and senseless to the floor. 'Who touches the body that is mine?' +shrieked the deformed wretch, rising from his victim, and threatening +with his blood-stained hands Vetranio and Marcus, as they stood +bewildered, and uncertain for the moment whether first to avenge their +comrade or to barricade the door--'The son shall rescue the mother! I +go to bury her! Atonement! Atonement!' + +He leaped upon the table as he spoke, tore asunder with resistless +strength the cords which fastened the corpse to the throne, seized it +in his arms, and the next instant gained the door. Uttering fierce, +inarticulate cries, partly of anguish and partly of defiance, he threw +it open, and stepped forward to descend, when he was met at the head of +the stairs by the band of assassins hurrying up, with drawn swords and +blazing torches, to their work of pillage and death. He stood before +them--his deformed limbs set as firmly on the ground as if he were +preparing to descend the stairs at one leap--with the corpse raised +high on his breast; its unearthly features were turned towards them, +its bare arms were still stretched forth as they had been extended over +the banqueting-table, its grey hair streamed back and mingled with his +own: under the fitful illumination of the torches, which played red and +wild over him and his fearful burden, the dead and the living looked +joined to each other in one monstrous form. + + +Huddled together, motionless, on the stairs, their shouts of vengeance +and fury frozen on their lips, the assassins stood for one moment, +staring mechanically, with fixed, spell-bound eyes, upon the hideous +bulwark opposing their advance on the victims whom they had expected so +easily to surprise. The next instant a superstitious panic seized +them; as the hunchback suddenly moved towards them to descend, the +corpse seemed to their terror-stricken eyes to be on the eve of +bursting its way through their ranks. Ignorant of its introduction +into the palace, imagining it, in the revival of their slavish fears, +to be the spectral offspring of the magic incantations of the senators +above, they turned with one accord and fled down the stairs. The sound +of their cries of fear grew fainter and fainter in the direction of the +garden as they hurried through the secret gates at the back of the +building. Then the heavy, regular tamp of the hunchback's footsteps, +as he paced the solitary corridors after them, bearing his burden of +death, became audible in awful distinctness; then that sound also died +away and was lost, and nothing more was heard in the banqueting-room +save the sharp clang of the blows still dealt against the steel +railings from the street. + +But now these grew rare and more rare in their recurrence; the strong +metal resisted triumphantly the utmost efforts of the exhausted rabble +who assailed it. As the minutes moved on, the blows grew rapidly +fainter and fewer; soon they diminished to three, struck at long +intervals; soon to one, followed by deep execrations of despair; and, +after that, a great silence sank down over the palace and the street, +where such strife and confusion had startled the night-echoes but a few +moments before. + +In the banqueting-hall this rapid succession of events--the marvels of +a few minutes--passed before Vetranio and Marcus as visions beheld by +their eyes, but neither contained nor comprehended by their minds. +Stolid in their obstinate recklessness, stupefied by the spectacle of +the startling perils--menacing yet harmless, terrifying though +transitory--which surrounded them, neither of the senators moved a +muscle or uttered a word, from the period when Thascius had fallen +beneath the hunchback's attack, to the period when the last blow +against the palace railings, and the last sound of voices from the +street, had ceased in silence. Then the wild current of drunken +exultation, suspended within them during this brief interval, flowed +once more, doubly fierce, in its old course. Insensible, the moment +after they had passed away, to the warning and terrific scenes they had +beheld, each now looked round on the other with a glance of triumphant +levity. 'Hark!' cried Vetranio, 'the mob without, feeble and cowardly +to the last, abandon their puny efforts to force my palace gates! +Behold our banqueting-tables still sacred from the intrusion of the +revolted menials, driven before my guest from the dead, like a flock of +sheep before a single dog! Say, O Marcus! did I not well to set the +corpse at the foot of our banqueting-table? What marvels has it not +effected, borne before us by the frantic Reburrus, as a banner of the +hosts of death, against the cowardly slaves whose fit inheritance is +oppression, and whose sole sensation is fear! See, we are free to +continue and conclude the banquet as we had designed! The gods +themselves have interfered to raise us in security above our +fellow-mortals, whom we despise! Another health, in gratitude to our +departed guest, the instrument of our deliverance, under the auspices +of omnipotent Jove!' + +As Vetranio spoke, Marcus alone, out of all the revellers, answered his +challenge. These two--the last-remaining combatants of the +strife--having drained their cups to the health proposed, passed slowly +down each side of the room, looking contemptuously on their prostrate +companions, and extinguishing every lamp but the two which burnt over +their own couches. Then returning to the upper end of the tables, they +resumed their places, not to leave them again until the fatal rivalry +was finally decided, and the moment of firing the pile had actually +arrived. + +The torch lay between them; the last vases of wine stood at their +sides. Not a word escaped the lips of either, to break the deep +stillness prevailing over the palace. Each fixed his eyes on the +other, in stern and searching scrutiny, and cup for cup, drank in slow +and regular alternation. The debauch, which had hitherto presented a +spectacle of brutal degradation and violence, now that it was +restricted to two men only--each equally unimpressed by the scenes of +horror he had beheld, each vying with the other for the attainment of +the supreme of depravity--assumed an appearance of hardly human +iniquity; it became a contest for a satanic superiority of sin. + +For some time little alteration appeared in the countenances of either +of the suicide-rivals; but they had now drunk to that final point of +excess at which wine either acts as its own antidote, or overwhelms in +fatal suffocation the pulses of life. The crisis in the strife was +approaching for both, and the first to experience it was Marcus. +Vetranio, as he watched him, observed a dark purple flush overspreading +his face, hitherto pale, almost colourless. His eyes suddenly dilated; +he panted for breath. The vase of wine, when he strove with a last +effort to fill his cup from it, rolled from his hand to the floor. The +stare of death was in his face as he half-raised himself and for one +instant looked steadily on his companion; the moment after, without +word or groan, he dropped backward over his couch. + +The contest of the night was decided! The host of the banquet and the +master of the palace had been reserved to end the one and to fire the +other! + +A smile of malignant triumph parted Vetranio's lips as he now arose and +extinguished the last lamp burning besides his own. That done, he +grasped the torch. His eyes, as he raised it, wandered dreamily over +the array of his treasures, and the forms of his dead or insensible +fellow-patricians around him, to be consumed by his act in annihilating +fire. The sensation of his solemn night-solitude in his fated palace +began to work in vivid and varying impressions on his mind, which was +partially recovering some portion of its wonted acuteness, under the +bodily reaction now produced in him by the very extravagance of the +night's excess. His memory began to retrace confusedly the scenes with +which the dwelling that he was about to destroy had been connected at +distant or at recent periods. At one moment the pomp of former +banquets, the jovial congregation of guests since departed or dead, +revived before him; at another, he seemed to be acting over again his +secret departure from his dwelling on the night before his last feast, +his stealthy return with the corpse that he had dragged from the +street, his toil in setting it up in mockery behind the black curtain, +and inventing the dialogue to be spoken before it by the hunchback. +Now his thoughts reverted to the minutest circumstances of the +confusion and dismay among the members of his household when the first +extremities of the famine began to be felt in the city; and now, +without visible connection or cause, they turned suddenly to the +morning when he had hurried through the most solitary paths in his +grounds to meet the betrayer Ulpius at Numerian's garden gate. Once +more the image of Antonina--so often present to his imagination since +the original was lost to his eyes--grew palpable before him. He +thought of her, as listening at his knees to the sound of his lute; as +awakening, bewildered and terrified, in his arms; as flying +distractedly before her father's wrath; as now too surely lying dead, +in her beauty and her innocence, amid the thousand victims of the +famine and the plague. + +These and other reflections, while they crowded in whirlwind rapidity +on his mind, wrought no alteration in the deadly purpose which they +suspended. His delay in lighting the torch was the unconscious delay +of the suicide, secure in his resolution ere he lifts the poison to his +lips--when life rises before him as a thing that is past, and he stands +for one tremendous moment in the dark gap between the present and the +future--no more the pilgrim of Time--not yet the inheritor of Eternity! + +So, in the dimly lighted hall, surrounded by the victims whom he had +hurried before him to their doom, stood the lonely master of the great +palace; and so spoke within him the mysterious voices of his last +earthly thoughts. Gradually they sank and ceased, and stillness and +vacancy closed like dark veils over his mind. Starting like one +awakened from a trance he once more felt the torch in his hand, and +once more the expression of fierce desperation appeared in his eyes as +he lit it steadily at the lamp above him. + +The dew was falling pure to the polluted earth; the light breezes sang +their low daybreak anthem among the leaves to the Power that bade them +forth; night had expired, and morning was already born of it, as +Vetranio, with the burning torch in his hand, advanced towards the +funeral pile. + + +He had already passed the greater part of the length of the room, when +a faint sound of footsteps ascending a private staircase which led to +the palace gardens, and communicated with the lower end of the +banqueting-hall by a small door of inlaid ivory, suddenly attracted his +attention. He hesitated in his deadly purpose, listening to the slow, +regular approaching sound, which, feeble though it was, struck +mysteriously impressive upon his ear in the dreary silence of all +things around him. Holding the torch high above his head, as the +footsteps came nearer, he fixed his eyes in intense expectation upon +the door. It opened, and the figure of a young girl clothed in white +stood before him. One moment he looked upon her with startled eyes; +the next the torch dropped from his hand, and smouldered unheeded on +the marble floor. It was Antonina! + +Her face was overspread with a strange transparent paleness; her once +soft, round cheeks had lost their girlish beauty of form; her +expression, ineffably mournful, hopeless, and subdued, threw a simple, +spiritual solemnity over her whole aspect. She was changed, awfully +changed to the profligate senator from the being of his former +admiration; but still there remained in her despairing eyes enough of +the old look of gentleness and patience, surviving through all anguish +and dread, to connect her, even as she was now, with what she had been. +She stood in the chamber of debauchery and suicide between the funeral +pile and the desperate man who was vowed to fire it, a feeble, helpless +creature, yet powerful in the influence of her presence, at such a +moment and in such a form, as a saving and reproving spirit, armed with +the omnipotence of Heaven to mould the purposes of man. + +Awed and astounded, as if he beheld an apparition from the tomb, +Vetranio looked upon this young girl--whom he had loved with the least +selfish passion that ever inspired him; whom he had lamented as long +since lost and dead with the sincerest grief he had ever felt; whom he +now saw standing before him at the very moment ere he doomed himself to +death, altered, desolate, supplicating--with emotions which held him +speechless in wonder, and even in dread. While he still gazed upon her +in silence, he heard her speaking to him in low, melancholy, imploring +accents, which fell upon his ear, after the voices of terror and +desperation that had risen around him throughout the night, like tones +never addressed to it before. + +'Numerian, my father, is sinking under the famine,' she began; 'if no +help is given to him, he may die even before sunrise! You are rich and +powerful; I have come to you, having nothing now but his life to live +for, to beg sustenance for him!' She paused, overpowered for the +moment, and bent her eyes wistfully on the senator's face. Then seeing +that he vainly endeavoured to answer her, her head drooped upon her +breast, and her voice sank lower as she continued:-- + +'I have striven for patience under much sorrow and pain through the +long night that is past; my eyes were heavy and my spirit was faint; I +could have rendered up my soul willingly in my loneliness and +feebleness to God who gave it, but that it was my duty to struggle for +my life and my father's, now that I was restored to him after I had +lost all beside! I could not think, or move, or weep, as, looking +forth upon your palace, I watched and waited through the hours of +darkness. But, as morning dawned, the heaviness at my heart was +lightened; I remembered that the palace I saw before me was yours; and, +though the gates were closed, I knew that I could reach it through your +garden that joins to my father's land. I had none in Rome to ask mercy +of but you; so I set forth hastily, ere my weakness should overpower +me, remembering that I had inherited much misery at your hands, but +hoping that you might pity me for what I had suffered when you saw me +again. I came wearily through the garden; it was long before I found +my way hither; will you send me back as helpless as I came? You first +taught me to disobey my father in giving me the lute; will you refuse +to aid me in succouring him now? He is all that I have left in the +world! Have mercy upon him!--have mercy upon me!' + + +Again she looked up in Vetranio's face. His trembling lips moved, but +still no sound came from them. The expression of confusion and awe yet +prevailed over his features as he pointed slowly towards the upper end +of the banqueting-table. To her this simple action was eloquent beyond +all power of speech; she turned her feeble steps instantly in the +direction he had indicated. + +He watched her, by the light of the single lamp that still burnt, +passing--strong in the shielding inspiration of her good purpose--amid +the bodies of his suicide companions without pausing on her way. +Having gained the upper end of the room, she took from the table a +flask of wine, and from the wooden stand behind it the bowl of offal +disdained by the guests at the fatal banquet, returning immediately to +the spot where Vetranio still stood. Here she stopped for a moment, as +if about to speak once more; but her emotions overpowered her. From +the sources which despair and suffering had dried up, the long-prisoned +tears once more flowed forth at the bidding of gratitude and hope. She +looked upon the senator, silent as himself, and her expression at that +instant was destined to remain on his memory while memory survived. +Then, with faltering and hasty steps, she departed by the way she had +come; and in the great palace, which his evil supremacy over the wills +of others had made a hideous charnel-house, he was once more left alone. + +He made no effort to follow or detain her as she left him. The torch +still smouldered beside him on the floor, but he never stooped to take +it up; he dropped down on a vacant couch, stupefied by what he had +beheld. That which no entreaties, no threats, no fierce violence of +opposition could have effected in him, the appearance of Antonina had +produced--it had forced him to pause at the very moment of the +execution of his deadly design. + +He remembered how, from the very first day when he had seen her, she +had mysteriously influenced the whole progress of his life; how his +ardour to possess her had altered his occupations, and even interrupted +his amusements; how all his energy and all his wealth had been baffled +in the attempt to discover her when she fled from her father's house; +how the first feeling of remorse that he had ever known had been +awakened within him by his knowledge of the share he had had in +producing her unhappy fate. Recalling all this; reflecting that, had +she approached him at an earlier period, she would have been driven +back affrighted by the drunken clamour of his companions; and had she +arrived at a later, would have found his palace in flames; thinking at +the same time of her sudden presence in the banqueting-hall when he had +believed her to be dead, when her appearance at the moment before he +fired the pile was most irresistible in its supernatural influence over +his actions--that vague feeling of superstitious dread which exists +intuitively in all men's minds, which had never before been aroused in +his, thrilled through him. His eyes were fixed on the door by which +she had departed, as if he expected her to return. Her destiny seemed +to be portentously mingled with his own; his life seemed to move, his +death to wait at her bidding. There was no repentance, no moral +purification in the emotions which now suspended his bodily faculties +in inaction; he was struck for the time with a mental paralysis. + +The restless moments moved onward and onward, and still he delayed the +consummation of the ruin which the night's debauch had begun. Slowly +the tender daylight grew and brightened in its beauty, warmed the cold +prostrate bodies in the silent hall, and dimmed the faint glow of the +wasting lamp; no black mist of smoke, no red glare of devouring fire +arose to quench its fair lustre; no roar of flames interrupted the +murmuring morning tranquillity of nature, or startled from their heavy +repose the exhausted outcasts stretched upon the pavement of the +street. Still the noble palace stood unshaken on its firm foundations; +still the adornments of its porticoes and its statues glittered as of +old in the rays of the rising sun; and still the hand of the master who +had sworn to destroy it, as he had sworn to destroy himself, hung idly +near the torch which lay already extinguished in harmless ashes at his +feet. + + + +CHAPTER 23. + +THE LAST EFFORTS OF THE BESIEGED. + +We return to the street before the palace. The calamities of the siege +had fallen fiercely on those who lay there during the night. From the +turbulent and ferocious mob of a few hours since, not even the sound of +a voice was now heard. Some, surprised in a paroxysm of hunger by +exhaustion and insensibility, lay with their hands half forced into +their mouths, as if in their ravenous madness they had endeavoured to +prey upon their own flesh. Others now and then wearily opened their +languid eyes upon the street, no longer regardful, in the present +extremity of their sufferings, of the building whose destruction they +had assembled to behold, but watching for a fancied realisation of the +visions of richly spread tables and speedy relief called up before +them, as if in mockery, by the delirium of starvation and disease. + +The sun had as yet but slightly risen above the horizon, when the +attention of the few among the populace who still preserved some +perception of outward events was suddenly attracted by the appearance +of an irregular procession--composed partly of citizens and partly of +officers of the Senate, and headed by two men--which slowly approached +from the end of the street leading into the interior of the city. This +assembly of persons stopped opposite Vetranio's palace; and then such +members of the mob who watched them as were not yet entirely abandoned +by hope, heard the inspiring news that the procession they beheld was a +procession of peace, and that the two men who headed it were the +Spaniard, Basilius, a governor of a province, and Johannes, the chief +of the Imperial notaries--appointed ambassadors to conclude a treaty +with the Goths. + +As this intelligence reached them, men who had before appeared +incapable of the slightest movement now rose painfully, yet resolutely, +to their feet, and crowded round the two ambassadors as round two +angels descended to deliver them from bondage and death. Meanwhile, +some officers of the Senate, finding the front gates of the palace +closed against them, proceeded to the garden entrance at the back of +the building, to obtain admission to its owner. The absence of +Vetranio and his friends from the deliberations of the government had +been attributed to their disgust at the obstinate and unavailing +resistance offered to the Goths. Now, therefore, when submission had +been resolved upon, it had been thought both expedient and easy to +recall them peremptorily to their duties. In addition to this motive +for seeking the interior of the palace, the servants of the Senate had +another errand to perform there. The widely rumoured determination of +Vetranio and his associates to destroy themselves by fire, in the +frenzy of a last debauch--disbelieved or disregarded while the more +imminent perils of the city were under consideration--became a source +of some apprehension and anxiety to the acting members of the Roman +council, now that their minds were freed from part of the +responsibility which had weighed on them, by their resolution to treat +for peace. + +Accordingly, the persons now sent into the palace were charged with the +duty of frustrating its destruction, if such an act had been really +contemplated, as well as the duty of recalling its inmates to their +appointed places in the Senate-house. How far they were enabled, at +the time of their entrance into the banqueting-hall, to accomplish +their double mission, the reader is well able to calculate. They found +Vetranio still in the place which he had occupied since Antonina had +quitted him. Startled by their approach from the stupor which had +hitherto weighed on his faculties, the desperation of his purpose +returned; he made an effort to tear from its place the lamp which still +feebly burned, and to fire the pile in defiance of all opposition. But +his strength, already taxed to the utmost, failed him. Uttering +impotent threats of resistance and revenge, he fell, swooning and +helpless, into the arms of the officers of the Senate who held him +back. One of them was immediately dismissed, while his companions +remained in the palace, to communicate with the leaders of the assembly +outside. His report concluded, the two ambassadors moved slowly onward, +separating themselves from the procession which had accompanied them, +and followed only by a few chosen attendants--a mournful and a degraded +embassy, sent forth by the people who had once imposed their dominion, +their customs, and even their language, on the Eastern and Western +worlds, to bargain with the barbarians whom their fathers had enslaved +for the purchase of a disgraceful peace. + + +On the departure of the ambassadors, all the spectators still capable +of the effort repaired to the Forum to await their return, and were +joined there by members of the populace from other parts of the city. +It was known that the first intimation of the result of the embassy +would be given from this place; and in the eagerness of their anxiety +to hear it, in the painful intensity of their final hopes of +deliverance, even death itself seemed for a while to be arrested in its +fatal progress through the ranks of the besieged. + +In silence and apprehension they counted the tardy moments of delay, +and watched with sickening gaze the shadows lessening and lessening, as +the sun gradually rose in the heavens to the meridian point. + +At length, after an absence that appeared of endless duration, the two +ambassadors re-entered Rome. Neither of them spoke as they hurriedly +passed through the ranks of the people; but their looks of terror and +despair were all-eloquent to every beholder--their mission had failed. + +For some time no member of the government appeared to have resolution +enough to come forward and harangue the people on the subject of the +unsuccessful embassy. After a long interval, however, the Prefect +Pompeianus himself, urged partly by the selfish entreaties of his +friends, and partly by the childish love of display which still adhered +to him through all his present anxieties and apprehensions, stepped +into one of the lower balconies of the Senate-house to address the +citizens beneath him. + +The chief magistrate of Rome was no longer the pompous and portly +personage whose intrusion on Vetranio's privacy during the commencement +of the siege has been described previously. The little superfluous +flesh still remaining on his face hung about it like an ill-fitting +garment; his tones had become lachrymose; the oratorical gestures, with +which he was wont to embellish profusely his former speeches, were all +abandoned; nothing remained of the original man but the bombast of his +language and the impudent complacency of his self-applause, which now +appeared in contemptible contrast to his crestfallen demeanour and his +disheartening narrative of degradation and defeat. + +'Men of Rome, let each of you exercise in his own person the heroic +virtues of a Regulus or a Cato!' the prefect began. 'A treaty with the +barbarians is out of our power. It is the scourge of the empire, +Alaric himself, who commands the invading forces! Vain were the +dignified remonstrances of the grave Basilius, futile was the +persuasive rhetoric of the astute Johannes, addressed to the +slaughtering and vainglorious Goth! On their admission to his +presence, the ambassadors, anxious to awe him into a capitulation, +enlarged, with sagacious and commendable patriotism, on the expertness +of the Romans in the use of arms, their readiness for war, and their +vast numbers within the city walls. I blush to repeat the barbarian's +reply. Laughing immoderately, he answered, "The thicker the grass, the +easier it is to cut!" + +'Still undismayed, the ambassadors, changing their tactics, talked +indulgently of their willingness to purchase a peace. At this +proposal, his insolence burst beyond all bounds of barbarous arrogance. +"I will not relinquish the siege," he cried, "until I have delivered to +me all the gold and silver in the city, all the household goods in it, +and all the slaves from the northern countries." "What then, O King, +will you leave us?" asked our amazed ambassadors. "YOUR LIVES!" +answered the implacable Goth. Hearing this, even the resolute Basilius +and the wise Johannes despaired. They asked time to communicate with +the Senate, and left the camp of the enemy without further delay. Such +was the end of the embassy; such the arrogant ferocity of the barbarian +foe!' + +Here the Prefect paused, from sheer weakness and want of breath. His +oration, however, was not concluded. He had disheartened the people by +his narrative of what had occurred to the ambassadors; he now proceeded +to console them by his relation of what had occurred to himself, when, +after an interval, he thus resumed:-- + + +'But even yet, O citizens of Rome, it is not time to despair! There is +another chance of deliverance still left to us, and that chance has +been discovered by me. It was my lot, during the absence of the +ambassadors, to meet with certain men of Tuscany, who had entered Rome +a few days before the beginning of the siege, and who spoke of a +project for relieving the city which they would communicate to the +Prefect alone. Ever anxious for the public welfare, daring all +treachery from strangers for advantage of my office, I accorded to +these men a secret interview. They told me of a startling and +miraculous event. The town of Neveia, lying, as you well know, in the +direct road of the barbarians when they marched upon Rome, was +protected from their pillaging bands by a tempest of thunder and +lightning terrible to behold. This tempest arose not, as you may +suppose, from an accidental convulsion of the elements, but was +launched over the heads of the invaders by the express interference of +the tutelary deities of the town, invocated by the inhabitants, who +returned in their danger to the practice of their ancient manner of +worship. So said the men of Tuscany; and such pious resources as those +employed by the people of Neveia did they recommend to the people of +Rome! For my part, I acknowledge to you that I have faith in their +project. The antiquity of our former worship is still venerable in my +eyes. The prayers of the priests of our new religion have wrought no +miraculous interference in our behalf: let us therefore imitate the +example of the inhabitants of Neveia, and by the force of our +invocations hurl the thunders of Jupiter on the barbarian camp! Let us +trust for deliverance to the potent interposition of the gods whom our +fathers worshipped--those gods who now, perhaps, avenge themselves for +our desertion of their temples by our present calamities. I go without +delay to propose to the Bishop Innocentius and to the Senate, the +public performance of solemn ceremonies of sacrifice at the Capitol! I +leave you in the joyful assurance that the gods, appeased by our +returning fidelity to our altars, will not refuse the supernatural +protection which they accorded to the people of a provincial town to +the citizens of Rome!' + +No sounds either of applause or disapprobation followed the Prefect's +notable proposal for delivering the city from the besiegers by the +public apostasy of the besieged. As he disappeared from their eyes, +the audience turned away speechless. An universal despair now +overpowered in them even the last energies of discord and crime; they +resigned themselves to their doom with the gloomy indifference of +beings in whom all mortal sensations, all human passions, good or evil, +were extinguished. The Prefect departed on his ill-omened expedition +to propose the practice of Paganism to the bishop of a Christian +church; but no profitable effort for relief was even suggested, either +by the government or the people. + +And so this day drew in its turn towards a close--more mournful and +more disastrous, more fraught with peril, misery, and gloom, than the +days that had preceded it. + +The next morning dawned, but no preparations for the ceremonies of the +ancient worship appeared at the Capitol. The Senate and the bishop +hesitated to incur the responsibility of authorising a public +restoration of Paganism; the citizens, hopeless of succour, heavenly or +earthly, remained unheedful as the dead of all that passed around them. + +There was one man in Rome who might have succeeded in rousing their +languid energies to apostasy; but where and how employed was he? + +Now, when the opportunity for which he had laboured resolutely, though +in vain, through a long existence of suffering, degradation, and crime, +had gratuitously presented itself more tempting and more favourable +than even he in his wildest visions of success had ever dared to +hope--where was Ulpius? Hidden from men's eyes, like a foul reptile, +in his lurking-place in the deserted temple--now raving round his idols +in the fury of madness, now prostrate before them in idiot +adoration--weaker for the interests of his worship, at the crisis of +its fate, than the weakest child crawling famished through the +streets--the victim of his own evil machinations at the very moment +when they might have led him to triumph--the object of that worst +earthly retribution, by which the wicked are at once thwarted, doomed, +and punished, here as hereafter, through the agency of their own sins. + + +Three more days passed. The Senate, their numbers fast diminishing in +the pestilence, occupied the time in vain deliberations or in moody +silence. Each morning the weary guards looked forth from the ramparts, +with the fruitless hope of discerning the long-promised legions from +Ravenna on their way to Rome; and each morning devastation and death +gained ground afresh among the hapless besieged. + +At length, on the fourth day, the Senate abandoned all hope of further +resistance and determined on submission, whatever might be the result. +It was resolved that another embassy, composed of the whole acting +Senate, and followed by a considerable train, should proceed to Alaric; +that one more effort should be made to induce him to abate his ruinous +demands on the conquered; and that if this failed, the gates should be +thrown open, and the city and the people abandoned to his mercy in +despair. + +As soon as the procession of this last Roman embassy was formed in the +Forum, its numbers were almost immediately swelled, in spite of +opposition, by those among the mass of the people who were still able +to move their languid and diseased bodies, and who, in the extremity of +their misery, had determined at all hazards to take advantage of the +opening of the gates, and fly from the city of pestilence in which they +were immured, careless whether they perished on the swords of the Goths +or languished unaided on the open plains. All power of enforcing order +had long since been lost; the few soldiers gathered about the senators +made one abortive effort to drive the people back, and then resigned +any further resistance to their will. + +Feebly and silently the spirit-broken assembly now moved along the +great highways, so often trodden, to the roar of martial music and the +shouts of applauding multitudes, by the triumphal processions of +victorious Rome; and from every street, as it passed on, the wasted +forms of the people stole out like spectres to join it. + +Among these, as the embassy approached the Pincian Gate, were two, +hurrying forth to herd with their fellow-sufferers, on whose fortunes +in the fallen city our more particular attention has been fixed. To +explain their presence on the scene (if such an explanation be +required) it is necessary to digress for a moment from the progress of +events during the last days of the siege to the morning when Antonina +departed from Vetranio's palace to return with her succour of food and +wine to her father's house. + +The reader is already acquainted, from her own short and simple +narrative, with the history of the closing hours of her mournful night +vigil by the side of her sinking parent, and with the motives which +prompted her to seek the palace of the senator, and entreat assistance +in despair from one whom she only remembered as the profligate +destroyer of her tranquility under her father's roof. It is now, +therefore, most fitting to follow her on her way back through the +palace gardens. No living creature but herself trod the grassy paths, +along which she hastened with faltering steps--those paths which she +dimly remembered to have first explored when in former days she +ventured forth to follow the distant sounds of Vetranio's lute. + +In spite of her vague, heavy sensations of solitude and grief, this +recollection remained painfully present to her mind, unaccountably +mingled with the dark and dreary apprehension which filled her heart as +she hurried onward, until she once more entered her father's dwelling; +and then, as she again approached his couch, every other feeling became +absorbed in a faint, overpowering fear, lest, after all her +perseverance and success in her errand of filial devotion, she might +have returned too late. + + +The old man still lived--his weary eyes opened gladly on her, when she +aroused him to partake of the treasured gifts from the senator's +banqueting table. The wretched food which the suicide-guests had +disdained, and the simple flask of wine which they would have +carelessly quaffed at one draught, were viewed both by parent and child +as the saving and invigorating sustenance of many days. After having +consumed as much as they dared of their precarious supply, the +remainder was carefully husbanded. It was the last sign and promise of +life to which they looked--the humble yet precious store in which alone +they beheld the earnest of their security, for a few days longer, from +the pangs of famine and the separation of death. + +And now, with their small provision of food and wine set like a beacon +of safety before their sight, a deep, dream-like serenity--the sleep of +the oppressed and wearied faculties--arose over their minds. Under its +mysterious and tranquilising influence, all impressions of the gloom +and misery in the city, of the fatal evidences around them of the +duration of the siege, faded away before their perceptions as dim +retiring objects, which the eye loses in vacancy. + +Gradually, as the day of the first unsuccessful embassy declined, their +thoughts began to flow back gently to the world of bygone events which +had crumbled into oblivion beneath the march of time. Her first +recollections of her earliest childhood revived in Antonina's memory, +and then mingled strangely with tearful remembrances of the last words +and looks of the young warrior who had expired by her side, and with +calm, solemn thoughts that the beloved spirit, emancipated from the +sphere of shadows, might now be hovering near the quiet garden-grave +where her bitterest tears of loneliness and affliction had been shed, +or moving around her--an invisible and blessed presence--as she sat at +her father's feet and mourned their earthly separation! + +In the emotions thus awakened, there was nothing of bitterness or +agony--they calmed and purified the heart through which they moved. +She could now speak to the old man, for the first time, of her days of +absence from him, of the brief joys and long sorrows of her hours of +exile, without failing in her melancholy tale. Sometimes her father +listened to her in sorrowful and speechless attention; or spoke, when +she paused, of consolation and hope, as she had heard him speak among +his congregation while he was yet strong in his resolution to sacrifice +all things for the reformation of the Church. Sometimes resigning +himself to the influence of his thoughts, as they glided back to the +times that were gone, he again revealed to her the changing events of +his past life--not as before, with unsteady accents and wandering eyes; +but now with a calmness of voice and a coherence of language which +forbade her to doubt the strange and startling narrative that she heard. + +Once more he spoke of the image of his lost brother (as he had parted +from him in his boyhood) still present to his mind; of the country that +he had quitted in after years; of the name that he had changed--from +Cleander to Numerian--to foil his former associates, if they still +pursued him; and of the ardent desire to behold again the companion of +his first home, which now, when his daughter was restored to him, when +no other earthly aspiration but this was unsatisfied, remained at the +close of his life, the last longing wish of his heart. + +Such was the communion in which father and daughter passed the hours of +their short reprieve from the judgment of famine pronounced against the +city of their sojourn; so did they live, as it were, in a quiet +interval of existence, in a tranquil pause between the toil that is +over and the toil that is to come in the hard labour of life. + +But the term to these short days of repose after long suffering and +grief was fast approaching. The little hoard of provision diminished +as rapidly as the stores that had been anxiously collected before it; +and, on the morning of the second embassy to Alaric, the flask of wine +and the bowl of food were both emptied. The brief dream of security +was over and gone; the terrible realities of the struggle for life had +begun again! + +Where or to whom could they now turn for help? The siege still +continued; the food just exhausted was the last food that had been left +on the senator's table; to seek the palace again would be to risk +refusal, perhaps insult, as the result of a second entreaty for aid, +where all power of conferring it might now but too surely be lost. +Such were the thoughts of Antonina as she returned the empty bowl to +its former place; but she gave them no expression in words. + + +She saw, with horror, that the same expression of despair, almost of +frenzy, which had distorted her father's features on the day of her +restoration to him, now marked them again. Once more he tottered +towards the window, murmuring in his bitter despondency against the +delusive security and hope which had held him idle for the interests of +his child during the few days that were past. But, as he now looked +out on the beleaguered city, he saw the populace hastening along the +gloomy street beneath, as rapidly as their wearied limbs would carry +them, to join the embassy. He heard them encouraging each other to +proceed, to seize the last chance of escaping through the open gates +from the horrors of famine and plague; and caught the infection of the +recklessness and despair which had seized his fellow-sufferers from one +end of Rome to the other. + +Turning instantly, he grasped his daughter's hand and drew her from the +room, commanding her to come forth with him and join the citizens in +their flight, ere it was too late. Startled by his words and actions, +she vainly endeavoured, as she obeyed, to impress her father with the +dread of the Goths which her own bitter experience taught her to feel, +now that her only protector among them lay cold in the grave. With +Numerian, as with the rest of the people, all apprehension, all doubt, +all exercise of reason, was overpowered by the one eager idea of +escaping from the fatal precincts of Rome. + +So they mingled with the throng, herding affrightedly together in the +rear of the embassy, and followed in their ranks as best they might. + +The sun shone down brightly from the pure blue sky; the wind bore into +the city the sharp threatening notes of the trumpets from the Gothic +camp, as the Pincian Gate was opened to the ambassadors and their +train. With one accord the crowd instantly endeavoured to force their +way out after them in a mass; but they now moved in a narrow space, and +were opposed by a large reinforcement of the city guard. After a short +struggle they were overpowered, and the gates were closed. Some few of +the strongest and the foremost of their numbers succeeded in following +the ambassadors; the greater part, however, remained on the inner side +of the gate, pressing closely up to it in their impatience and despair, +like prisoners awaiting their deliverance, or preparing to force their +escape. + +Among these, feeblest amid the most feeble, were Numerian and Antonina, +hemmed in by the surrounding crowd, and shut out either from flight +from the city or a return to home. + + + +CHAPTER 24. + +THE GRAVE AND THE CAMP. + +While the second and last embassy from the Senate proceeds towards the +tent of the Gothic king, while the streets of Rome are deserted by all +but the dead, and the living populace crowd together in speechless +expectation behind the barrier of the Pincian Gate, an opportunity is +at length afforded of turning our attention towards a scene from which +it has been long removed. Let us now revisit the farm-house in the +suburbs, and look once more on the quiet garden and on Hermanric's +grave. + +The tranquility of the bright warm day is purest around the retired +path leading to the little dwelling. Here the fragrance of wild flowers +rises pleasantly from the waving grass; the lulling, monotonous hum of +insect life pervades the light, steady air; the sunbeams, intercepted +here and there by the clustering trees, fall in irregular patches of +brightness on the shady ground; and, saving the birds which +occasionally pass overhead, singing in their flight, no living creature +appears on the quiet scene, until, gaining the wicket-gate which leads +into the farm-house garden, we look forth upon the prospect within. + +There, following the small circular footpath which her own persevering +steps have day by day already traced, appears the form of a solitary +woman, pacing slowly about the mound of grassy earth which marks the +grave of the young Goth. + + +For some time she proceeds on her circumscribed round with as much +undeviating, mechanical regularity, as if beyond that narrow space rose +a barrier which caged her from ever setting foot on the earth beyond. +At length she pauses in her course when it brings her nearest to the +wicket, advances a few steps towards it, then recedes, and recommences +her monotonous progress, and then again breaking off on her round, +finally succeeds in withdrawing herself from the confines of the grave, +passes through the gate, and following the path to the high-road, +slowly proceeds towards the eastern limits of the Gothic camp. The +fixed, ghastly, unfeminine expression on her features marks her as the +same woman whom we last beheld as the assassin at the farm-house, but +beyond this she is hardly recognisable again. Her formerly powerful +and upright frame is bent and lean; her hair waves in wild, white locks +about her shrivelled face; all the rude majesty of her form has +departed; there is nothing to show that it is still Goisvintha haunting +the scene of her crime but the savage expression debasing her +countenance and betraying the evil heart within, unsubdued as ever in +its yearning for destruction and revenge. + +Since the period when we last beheld her, removed in the custody of the +Huns from the dead body of her kinsman, the farm-house had been the +constant scene of her pilgrimage from the camp, the chosen refuge where +she brooded in solitude over her fierce desires. Scorning to punish a +woman whom he regarded as insane for an absence from the tents of the +Goths which was of no moment wither to the army or to himself, Alaric +had impatiently dismissed her from his presence when she was brought +before him. The soldiers who had returned to bury the body of their +chieftain in the garden of the farm-house, found means to inform her +secretly of the charitable act which they had performed at their own +peril, but beyond this no further intercourse was held with her by any +of her former associates. + +All her actions favoured their hasty belief that her faculties were +disordered, and others shunned her as she shunned them. Her daily +allowance of food was left for her to seek at a certain place in the +camp, as it might have been left for an animal too savage to be +cherished by the hand of man. At certain periods she returned secretly +from her wanderings to take it. Her shelter for the night was not the +shelter of her people before the walls of Rome; her thoughts were not +their thoughts. Widowed, childless, friendless, the assassin of her +last kinsman, she moved apart in her own secret world of bereavement, +desolation, and crime. + +Yet there was no madness, no remorse for her share in accomplishing the +fate of Hermanric, in the dark and solitary existence which she now +led. From the moment when the young warrior had expiated with his death +his disregard of the enmities of his nation and the wrongs of his +kindred, she thought of him only as of one more victim whose dishonour +and ruin she must live to requite on the Romans with Roman blood, and +matured her schemes of revenge with a stern resolution which time, and +solitude, and bodily infirmity were all powerless to disturb. + + +She would pace for hours and hours together, in the still night and in +the broad noonday, round and round the warrior's grave, nursing her +vengeful thoughts within her, until a ferocious anticipation of triumph +quickened her steps and brightened her watchful eyes. Then she would +enter the farm-house, and, drawing the knife from its place of +concealment in her garments, would pass its point slowly backwards and +forwards over the hearth on which she had mutilated Hermanric with her +own hand, and from which he had advanced, without a tremor, to meet the +sword-points of the Huns. Sometimes, when darkness had gathered over +the earth, she would stand--a boding and menacing apparition--upon the +grave itself, and chaunt, moaning to the moaning wind, fragments of +obscure Northern legends, whose hideous burden was ever of anguish and +crime, of torture in prison vaults, and death by the annihilating +sword--mingling with them the gloomy story of the massacre at Aquileia, +and her fierce vows of vengeance against the households of Rome. The +forager, on his late return past the farm-house to the camp, heard the +harsh, droning accents of her voice, and quickened his onward step. +The venturesome peasant from the country beyond, approaching under +cover of the night to look from afar on the Gothic camp, beheld her +form, shadowy and threatening, as he neared the garden, and fled +affrighted from the place. Neither stranger nor friend intruded on her +dread solitude. The foul presence of cruelty and crime violated +undisturbed the scenes once sacred to the interests of tenderness and +love, once hallowed by the sojourn of youth and beauty! + +But now the farm-house garden is left solitary, the haunting spirit of +evil has departed from the grave, the footsteps of Goisvintha have +traced to their close the same paths from the suburbs over which the +young Goth once eagerly hastened on his night journey of love; and +already the walls of Rome rise--dark, near, and hateful--before her +eyes. Along these now useless bulwarks of the fallen city she wanders, +as she has often wandered before, watching anxiously for the first +opening of the long-closed gates. Let us follow her on her way. + +Her attention was now fixed only on the broad ramparts, while she +passed slowly along the Gothic tents towards the encampment at the +Pincian Gate. Arrived there, she was aroused for the first time from +her apathy by an unwonted stir and confusion prevailing around her. +She looked towards the tent of Alaric, and beheld before it the wasted +and crouching forms of the followers of the embassy awaiting their +sentence from the captain of the Northern hosts. In a few moments she +gathered enough from the words of the Goths congregated about this part +of the camp to assure her that it was the Pincian Gate which had given +egress to the Roman suppliants, and which would therefore, in all +probability, be the entrance again thrown open to admit their return to +the city. Remembering this, she began to calculate the numbers of the +conquered enemy grouped together before the king's tent, and then +mentally added to them those who might be present at the interview +proceeding within--mechanically withdrawing herself, while thus +occupied, nearer and nearer to the waste ground before the city walls. + +Gradually she turned her face towards Rome: she was realising a daring +purpose, a fatal resolution, long cherished during the days and nights +of her solitary wanderings. 'The ranks of the embassy,' she muttered, +in a deep, thoughtful tone, 'are thickly filled. Where there are many +there must be confusion and haste; they march together, and know not +their own numbers; they mark not one more or one less among them.' + +She stopped. Strange and dark changes of colour and expression passed +over her ghastly features. She drew from her bosom the bloody +helmet-crest of her husband, which had never quitted her since the day +of his death; her face grew livid under an awful expression of rage, +ferocity, and despair, as she gazed on it. Suddenly she looked up at +the city--fierce and defiant, as if the great walls before her were +mortal enemies against whom she stood at bay in the death-struggle. + +'The widowed and the childless shall drink of thy blood!' she cried, +stretching out her skinny hand towards Rome, 'though the armies of her +nation barter their wrongs with thy people for bags of silver and gold! +I have pondered on it in my solitude, and dreamed of it in my dreams! +I have sworn that I would enter Rome, and avenge my slaughtered +kindred, alone among thousands! Now, now, I will hold to my oath! +Thou blood-stained city of the coward and the traitor, the enemy of the +defenceless, and the murderer of the weak! thou who didst send forth to +Aquileia the slayers of my husband and the assassins of my children, I +wait no longer before thy walls! This day will I mingle, daring all +things, with thy returning citizens and penetrate, amid Romans, the +gates of Rome! Through the day will I lurk, cunning and watchful, in +thy solitary haunts, to steal forth on thee at nights, a secret +minister of death! I will watch for thy young and thy weak once in +unguarded places; I will prey, alone in the thick darkness, upon thy +unprotected lives; I will destroy thy children, as their fathers +destroyed at Aquileia the children of the Goths! Thy rabble will +discover me and arise against me; they will tear me in pieces and +trample my mangled body on the pavement of the streets; but it will be +after I have seen the blood that I have sworn to shed flowing under my +knife! My vengeance will be complete, and torments and death will be +to me as guests that I welcome, and as deliverers whom I await!' + +Again she paused--the wild triumph of the fanatic on the burning pile +was flashing in her face--suddenly her eyes fell once more upon the +stained helmet-crest; then her expression changed again to despair, and +her voice grew low and moaning, when she thus resumed:-- + + +'I am weary of my life; when the vengeance is done I shall be delivered +from this prison of the earth--in the world of shadows I shall see my +husband, and my little ones will gather round my knees again. The +living have no part in me; I yearn towards the spirits who wander in +the halls of the dead.' + +For a few minutes more she continued to fix her tearless eyes on the +helmet-crest. But soon the influence of the evil spirit revived in all +its strength; she raised her head suddenly, remained for an instant +absorbed in deep thought, then began to retrace her steps rapidly in +the direction by which she had come. + +Sometimes she whispered softly, 'I must be doing ere the time fail me: +my face must be hidden and my garments changed. Yonder, among the +houses, I must search, and search quickly!' Sometimes she reiterated +her denunciations of vengeance, her ejaculations of triumph in her +frantic project. At the recapitulation of these the remembrance of +Antonina was aroused; and then a bloodthirsty superstition darkened her +thoughts, and threw a vague and dreamy character over her speech. + +When she spoke now, it was to murmur to herself that the victim who had +twice escaped her might yet be alive; that the supernatural influences +which had often guided the old Goths, on the day of retribution, might +still guide her; might still direct the stroke of her destroying +weapon--the last stroke ere she was discovered and slain--straight to +the girl's heart. + +Thoughts such as these--wandering and obscure--arose in close, quick +succession within her; but whether she gave them expression in word and +action, or whether she suppressed them in silence, she never wavered or +halted in her rapid progress. Her energies were braced to all +emergencies, and her strong will suffered them not for an instant to +relax. + +She gained a retired street in the deserted suburbs, and looking round +to see that she was unobserved, entered on of the houses abandoned by +its inhabitants on the approach of the besiegers. Passing quickly +through the outer halls, she stopped at length in one of the sleeping +apartments; and here she found, among other possessions left behind in +the flight, the store of wearing apparel belonging to the owner of the +room. + +From this she selected a Roman robe, upper mantle, and sandals--the +most common in colour and texture that she could find--and folding them +up into the smallest compass, hid them under her own garments. Then, +avoiding all those whom she met on her way, she returned in the +direction of the king's tent; but when she approached it, branched off +stealthily towards Rome, until she reached a ruined building half-way +between the city and the camp. In this concealment she clothed herself +in her disguise, drawing the mantle closely round her head and face; +and from this point--calm, vigilant, determined, her hand on the knife +beneath her robe, her lips muttering the names of her murdered husband +and children--she watched the high-road to the Pincian Gate. + +There for a short time let us leave her, and enter the tent of Alaric, +while the Senate yet plead before the Arbiter of the Empire for mercy +and peace. + +At the moment of which we write, the embassy had already exhausted its +powers of intercession, apparently without moving the leader of the +Goths from his first pitiless resolution of fixing the ransom of Rome +at the price of every possession of value which the city contained. +There was a momentary silence now in the great tent. At one extremity +of it, congregated in a close and irregular group, stood the wearied +and broken-spirited members of the Senate, supported by such of their +attendants as had been permitted to follow them; at the other appeared +the stately forms of Alaric and the warriors who surrounded him as his +council of war. The vacant space in the middle of the tent was strewn +with martial weapons, separating the representatives of the two nations +one from the other; and thus accidentally, yet palpably, typifying the +fierce hostility which had sundered in years past, and was still to +sunder for years to come, the people of the North and the people of the +South. + +The Gothic king stood a little in advance of his warriors, leaning on +his huge, heavy sword. His steady eye wandered from man to man among +the broken-spirited senators, contemplating, with cold and cruel +penetration, all that suffering and despair had altered for the worse +in their outward appearance. Their soiled robes, their wan cheeks, +their trembling limbs were each marked in turn by the cool, sarcastic +examination of the conqueror's gaze. Debased and humiliated as they +were, there were some among the ambassadors who felt the insult thus +silently and deliberately inflicted on them the more keenly for their +very helplessness. They moved uneasily in their places, and whispered +among each other in low and bitter accents. + +At length one of their number raised his downcast eyes and broke the +silence. The old Roman spirit, which long years of voluntary frivolity +and degradation had not yet entirely depraved, flushed his pale, wasted +face as he spoke thus:-- + +'We have entreated, we have offered, we have promised--men can do no +more! Deserted by our Emperor and crushed by pestilence and famine, +nothing is now left to us but to perish in unavailing resistance +beneath the walls of Rome! It was in the power of Alaric to win +everlasting renown by moderation to the unfortunate of an illustrious +nation; but he has preferred to attempt the spoiling of a glorious city +and the subjugation of a suffering people! Yet let him remember, +though destruction may sate his vengeance, and pillage enrich his +hoards, the day of retribution will yet come. There are still soldiers +in the empire, and heroes who will lead them confidently to battle, +though the bodies of their countrymen lie slaughtered around them in +the streets of pillaged Rome!' + +A momentary expression of wrath and indignation appeared on Alaric's +features as he listened to this bold speech; but it was almost +immediately replaced by a scornful smile of derision. + +'What! ye have still soldiers before whom the barbarian must tremble +for his conquests!' he cried. 'Where are they? Are they on their +march, or in ambush, or hiding behind strong walls, or have they lost +their way on the road to the Gothic camp? Ha! here is one of them!' he +exclaimed, advancing towards an enfeebled and disarmed guard of the +Senate, who quailed beneath his fierce glance. 'Fight, man!' he loudly +continued; 'fight while there is yet time, for imperial Rome! Thy +sword is gone--take mine, and be a hero again!' + +With a rough laugh, echoed by the warriors behind him, he flung his +ponderous weapon as he spoke towards the wretched object of his +sarcasm. The hilt struck heavily against the man's breast; he staggered +and fell helpless to the ground. The laugh was redoubled among the +Goths; but now their leader did not join in it. His eye glowed in +triumphant scorn as he pointed to the prostrate Roman, exclaiming-- + +'So does the South fall beneath the sword of the North! So shall the +empire bow before the rule of the Goth! Say, as ye look on these +Romans before us, are we not avenged of our wrongs? They die not +fighting on our swords; they live to entreat our pity, as children that +are in terror of the whip!' + + +He paused. His massive and noble countenance gradually assumed a +thoughtful expression. The ambassadors moved forward a few +steps--perhaps to make a final entreaty, perhaps to depart in despair; +but he signed with his hand in command to them to be silent and remain +where they stood. The marauder's thirst for present plunder, and the +conqueror's lofty ambition of future glory, now stirred in strong +conflict within him. He walked to the opening of the tent, and +thrusting aside its curtain of skins, looked out upon Rome in silence. +The dazzling majesty of the temples and palaces of the mighty city, as +they towered before him, gleaming in the rays of the unclouded +sunlight, fixed him long in contemplation. Gradually, dreams of a +future dominion amid those unrivalled structures, which now waited but +his word to be pillaged and destroyed, filled his aspiring soul, and +saved the city from his wrath. He turned again toward the shrinking +ambassadors--in a voice and look superior to them as a being of a +higher sphere--and spoke thus:-- + +'When the Gothic conqueror reigns in Italy, the palaces of her rulers +shall be found standing for the places of his sojourn. I will ordain a +lower ransom; I will spare Rome.' + +A murmur arose among the warriors behind him. The rapine and +destruction which they had eagerly anticipated was denied them for the +first time by their chief. As their muttered remonstrances caught his +ear, Alaric instantly and sternly fixed his eyes upon them; and, +repeating in accents of deliberate command, 'I will ordain a lower +ransom; I will spare Rome,' steadily scanned the countenances of his +ferocious followers. + +Not a word of dissent fell from their lips; not a gesture of impatience +appeared in their ranks; they preserved perfect silence as the king +again advanced towards the ambassadors and continued-- + +'I fix the ransom of the city at five thousand pounds of gold; at +thirty thousand pounds of silver.' + +Here he suddenly ceased, as if pondering further on the terms he should +exact. The hearts of the Senate, lightened for a moment by Alaric's +unexpected announcement that he would moderate his demands, sank within +them again as they thought on the tribute required of them, and +remembered their exhausted treasury. But it was no time now to +remonstrate or to delay; and they answered with one accord, ignorant +though they were of the means of performing their promise, 'The ransom +shall be paid.' + +The king looked at them when they spoke, as if in astonishment that men +whom he had deprived of all freedom of choice ventured still to assert +it by intimating their acceptance of terms which they dared not +decline. The mocking spirit revived within him while he thus gazed on +the helpless and humiliated embassy; and he laughed once more as he +resumed, partly addressing himself to the silent array of the warriors +behind him-- + +'The gold and silver are but the first dues of the tribute; my army +shall be rewarded with more than the wealth of the enemy. You men of +Rome have laughed at our rough bearskins and our heavy armour, you +shall clothe us with your robes of festivity! I will add to the gold +and silver of your ransom, four thousand garments of silk, and three +thousand pieces of scarlet cloth. My barbarians shall be barbarians no +longer! I will make patricians, epicures, Romans of them!' + +The members of the ill-fated embassy looked up as he paused, in mute +appeal to the mercy of the triumphant conqueror; but they were not yet +to be released from the crushing infliction of his rapacity and scorn. + +'Hold!' he cried, 'I will have more--more still! You are a nation of +feasters;--we will rival you in your banquets when we have stripped you +of your banqueting robes! To the gold, the silver, the silk, and the +cloth, I will add yet more--three thousand pounds weight of pepper, +your precious merchandise, bought from far countries with your lavish +wealth!--see that you bring it hither, with the rest of the ransom, to +the last grain! The flesh of our beasts shall be seasoned for us like +the flesh of yours!' + +He turned abruptly from the senators as he pronounced the last words, +and began to speak in jesting tones and in the Gothic language to the +council of warriors around him. Some of the ambassadors bowed their +heads in silent resignation; others, with the utter thoughtlessness of +men bewildered by all that they had seen and heard during the interview +that was now close, unhappily revived the recollection of the broken +treaties of former days, by mechanically inquiring, in the terms of +past formularies, what security the besiegers would require for the +payment of their demands. + + +'Security!' cried Alaric fiercely, instantly relapsing as they spoke +into his sterner mood. 'Behold yonder the future security of the Goths +for the faith of Rome!' and flinging aside the curtain of the tent, he +pointed proudly to the long lines of his camp, stretching round all +that was visible of the walls of the fallen city. + +The ambassadors remembered the massacre of the hostages of Aquileia, +and the evasion of the payment of tribute-money promised in former +days, and were silent as they looked through the opening of the tent. + +'Remember the conditions of the ransom,' pursued Alaric in warning +tones, 'remember my security that the ransom shall be quickly paid! So +shall you live for a brief space in security, and feast and be merry +again while your territories yet remain to you. Go! I have spoken--it +is enough!' + +He withdrew abruptly from the senators, and the curtain of the tent +fell behind them as they passed out. The ordeal of the judgment was +over; the final sentence had been pronounced; the time had already +arrived to go forth and obey it. + +The news that terms of peace had been at last settled filled the Romans +who were waiting before the tent with emotions of delight, equally +unalloyed by reflections on the past or forebodings for the future. +Barred from their reckless project of flying to the open country by the +Goths surrounding them in the camp, shut out from retreating to Rome by +the gates through which they had rashly forced their way, exposed in +their helplessness to the brutal jeers of the enemy while they waited +in a long agony of suspense for the close of the perilous interview +between Alaric and the Senate, they had undergone every extremity of +suffering, and had yielded unanimously to despair when the intelligence +of the concluded treaty sounded like a promise of salvation in their +ears. + +None of the apprehensions aroused in the minds of their superiors by +the vastness of the exacted tribute now mingled with the unreflecting +ecstasy of their joy at the prospect of the removal of the blockade. +They arose to return to the city from which they had fled in dismay, +with cries of impatience and delight. They fawned like dogs upon the +ambassadors, and even upon the ferocious Goths. On their departure +from Rome they had mechanically preserved some regularity in their +progress, but now they hurried onward without distinction of place or +discipline of march--senators, guards, plebeians, all were huddled +together in the disorderly equality of a mob. + +Not one of them, in their new-born security, marked the ruined building +on the high-road; not one of them observed the closely-robed figure +that stole out from it to join them in their rear; and then, with +stealthy footstep and shrouded face, soon mingled in the thickest of +their ranks. The attention of the ambassadors was still engrossed by +their forebodings of failure in collecting the ransom; the eyes of the +people were fixed only on the Pincian Gate; their ears were open to no +sounds but their own ejaculations of delight. Not one disguised +stranger only, but many, might now have joined them in their tumultuous +progress, alike unquestioned and unobserved. + +So they hastily re-entered the city, where thousands of heavy eyes were +strained to look on them, and thousands of attentive ears drank in +their joyful news from the Gothic camp. Then were heard in all +directions the sounds of hysterical weeping and idiotic laughter, the +low groans of the weak who died victims of their sudden transport, and +the confused outbursts of the strong who had survived all extremities, +and at last beheld their deliverance in view. + +Still silent and serious, the ambassadors now slowly penetrated the +throng on their way back to the Forum; and as they proceeded the crowd +gradually dispersed on either side of them. Enemies, friends, and +strangers, all whom the ruthless famine had hitherto separated in +interests and sympathies, were now united together as one family, by +the expectation of speedy relief. + + +But there was one among the assembly that was now separating who stood +alone in her unrevealed emotions, amid the rejoicing thousands around +her. The women and children in the throng, as, preoccupied by their +own feeling, they unheedfully passed her by, saw not the eager, +ferocious attention in her eyes, as she watched them steadily till they +were out of sight. Within their gates the stranger and the enemy +waited for the treacherous darkness of night, and waited unobserved. +Where she had first stood when the thick crowd hemmed her in, there she +still continued to stand after they slowly moved past her and space +grew free. + +Yet beneath this outward calm and silence lurked the wildest passions +that ever raged against the weak restraint of human will; even the firm +self-possession of Goisvintha was shaken when she found herself within +the walls of Rome. + +No glance of suspicion had been cast upon her; not one of the crowd had +approached to thrust her back when she passed through the gates with +the heedless citizens around her. Shielded from detection, as much by +the careless security of her enemies as by the stratagem of her +disguise, she stood on the pavement of Rome, as she had vowed to stand, +afar from the armies of her people--alone as an avenger of blood! + +It was no dream; no fleeting, deceitful vision. The knife was under +her hand; the streets stretched before her; the living beings who +thronged them were Romans; the hours of the day were already on the +wane; the approach of her vengeance was as sure as the approach of +darkness that was to let it loose. A wild exultation quickened in her +the pulses of life, while she thought on the dread projects of secret +assassination and revenge which now opposed her, a solitary woman, in +deadly enmity against the defenceless population of a whole city. + +As her eyes travelled slowly from side to side over the moving throng; +as she thought on the time that might still elapse ere the discovery +and death--the martyrdom in the cause of blood--which she expected and +defied, would overtake her, her hands trembled beneath her robe, and +she reiterated in whispers to herself: 'Husband, children, +brother--there are five deaths to avenge! Remember Aquileia! Remember +Aquileia!' + +Suddenly, as she looked from group to group among the departing people, +her eyes became arrested by one object; she instantly stepped forwards, +then abruptly restrained herself and moved back where the crowd was +still thick, gazing fixedly ever in the same direction. She saw the +victim twice snatched from her hands--at the camp and in the +farm-house--a third time offered to her grasp in the streets of Rome. + +The chance of vengeance last expected was the chance that had first +arrived. A vague, oppressing sensation of awe mingled with the triumph +at her heart--a supernatural guidance seemed to be directing her with +fell rapidity, through every mortal obstacle, to the climax of her +revenge! + +She screened herself behind the people; she watched the girl from the +most distant point; but concealment was now vain--their eyes had met. +The robe had slipped aside when she suddenly stepped forward, and in +that moment Antonina had seen her. + +Numerian, moving slowly with his daughter through the crowd, felt her +hand tighten round his, and saw her features stiffen into sudden +rigidity; but the change was only for an instant. Ere he could speak, +she caught him by the arm, and drew him forward with convulsive energy. +Then, in accents hardly articulate, low, breathless, unlike her wonted +voice, he heard her exclaim, as she struggled on with him, 'She is +there--there behind us! to kill me, as she killed him! Home! home!' + +Exhausted already, through long weakness and natural infirmity, by the +rough contact of the crowd, bewildered by Antonina's looks and actions, +and by the startling intimation of unknown peril, conveyed to him in +her broken exclamations of affright, Numerian's first impulse, as he +hurried onward by her side, led him to entreat protection and help from +the surrounding populace. But even could he have pointed out to them +the object of his dread amid that motley throng of all nations, the +appeal he now made would have remained unanswered. + + +Of all the results of the frightful severity of privation suffered by +the besieged, none were more common than those mental aberrations which +produced visions of danger, enemies, and death, so palpable as to make +the persons beholding them implore assistance against the hideous +creation of their own delirium. Accordingly, most of those to whom the +entreaties of Numerian were addressed passed without noticing them. +Some few carelessly bid him remember that there were no enemies now; +that the days of peace were approaching; and that a meal of good food, +which he might soon expect to enjoy, was the only help for a famished +man. No one, in that period of horror and suffering, which was now +drawing to a close, saw anything extraordinary in the confusion of the +father and the terror of the child. So they pursued their feeble +flight unprotected, and the footsteps of Goisvintha followed them as +they went. + +They had already commenced the ascent of the Pincian Hill, when +Antonina stopped abruptly, and turned to look behind her. Many people +yet thronged the street below; but her eyes penetrated among them, +sharpened by peril, and instantly discerned the ample robe and the tall +form, still at the same distance from them, and pausing as they had +paused. For one moment, the girl's eyes fixed in the wild, helpless +stare of terror on her father's face; but the next, that mysterious +instinct of preservation, which is co-existent with the instinct of +fear--which gifts the weakest animal with cunning to improve its +flight, and takes the place of reason, reflection, and resolve, when +all are banished from the mind--warned her against the fatal error of +permitting the pursuer to track her to her home. + +'Not there! not there!' she gasped faintly as Numerian endeavoured to +lead her up the ascent. 'She will see us as we enter the +doors!--through the streets! Oh, father, if you would save me! we may +lose her in the streets!--the guards, the people are there! Back! +back!' + +Numerian trembled as he marked the terror in her looks and gestures; +but it was vain to question or oppose her. Nothing short of force +could restrain her,--no commands or entreaties could draw from her more +than the same breathless exclamation: 'Onward, father; onward, if you +would save me!' She was insensible to every sensation but fear, +incapable of any other exertion than flight. + +Turning and winding, hurrying forward ever at the same rapid pace, they +passed unconsciously along the intricate streets that led to the river +side; and still the avenger tracked the victim, constant as the shadow +to the substance; steady, vigilant, unwearied, as a bloodhound on a hot +scent. + +And now, even the sound of the father's voice ceased to be audible in +the daughter's ears; she no longer felt the pressure of his hand, no +longer perceived his very presence at her side. At length, frail and +shrinking, she again paused, and looked back. The street they had +reached was very tranquil and desolate: two slaves were walking at its +further extremity. While they were in sight, no living creature +appeared in the roadway behind; but as soon as they had passed away, a +shadow stole slowly forward over the pavement of a portico in the +distance, and the next moment Goisvintha appeared in the street. + +The sun glared down fiercely over her dark figure as she stopped and +for an instant looked stealthily around her. She moved to advance, and +Antonina saw no more. Again she turned to renew her hopeless flight; +and again her father--perceiving only as the mysterious cause of her +dread a solitary woman, who, though she followed, attempted not to +arrest, or even to address them--prepared to accompany her to the last, +in despair of all other chances of securing her safety. + +More and more completely did her terror now enchain her faculties, as +she still unconsciously traced her rapid way through the streets that +led to the Tiber. It was not Numerian, not Rome, not daylight in a +great city, that was before her eyes: it was the storm, the +assassination, the night at the farm-house, that she now lived through +over again. + + +Still the quick flight and the ceaseless pursuit were continued, as if +neither were ever to have an end; but the close of the scene was, +nevertheless, already at hand. During the interval of the passage +through the streets, Numerian's mind had gradually recovered from its +first astonishment and alarm; at length he perceived the necessity of +instant and decisive action, while there was yet time to save Antonina +from sinking under the excess of her own fears. Though a vague, awful +foreboding of disaster and death filled his heart, his resolution to +penetrate at once, at all hazards, the dark mystery of impending danger +indicated by his daughter's words and actions, did not fail him; for it +was aroused by the only motive powerful enough to revive all that +suffering and infirmity had not yet destroyed of the energy of his +former days--the preservation of his child. There was something of the +old firmness and vigour of the intrepid reformer of the Church, in his +dim eyes, as he now stopped, and enclosing Antonina in his arms, +arrested her instantly in her flight. + +She struggled to escape; but it was faintly, and only for a moment. +Her strength and consciousness were beginning to abandon her. She +never attempted to look back; she felt in her heart that Goisvintha was +still behind, and dared not to verify the frightful conviction with her +eyes. Her lips moved; but they expressed an altered and a vain +petition: 'Hermanric! O Hermanric!' was all they murmured now. + +They had arrived at the long street that ran by the banks of the Tiber. +The people had either retired to their homes or repaired to the Forum +to be informed of the period when the ransom would be paid. No one but +Goisvintha was in sight as Numerian looked around him; and she, after +having carefully viewed the empty street, was advancing towards them at +a quickened pace. + +For an instant the father looked on her steadily as she approached, and +in that instant his determination was formed. A flight of steps at his +feet led to the narrow doorway of a small temple, the nearest building +to him. + +Ignorant whether Goisvintha might not be secretly supported by +companions in her ceaseless pursuit, he resolved to secure this place +for Antonina, as a temporary refuge at least; while standing before it, +he should oblige the woman to declare her purpose, if she followed them +even there. In a moment he had begun the ascent of the steps, with the +exhausted girl by his side. Arrived at the summit, he guided her +before him into the doorway, and stopped on the threshold to look round +again. Goisvintha was nowhere to be seen. + +Not duped by the woman's sudden disappearance into the belief that she +had departed from the street--persisting in his resolution to lead his +daughter to a place of repose, where she might most immediately feel +herself secure, and might therefore most readily recover her +self-possession, Numerian drew Antonina with him into the temple. He +lingered there for a moment, ere he departed to watch the street from +the portico outside. + +The light in the building was dim,--it was admitted only from a small +aperture in the roof, and through the narrow doorway, where it was +intercepted by the overhanging bulk of the outer portico. A crooked +pile of dark heavy-looking substances on the floor, rose high towards +the ceiling in the obscure interior. Irregular in form, flung together +one over the other in strange disorder, for the most part dusky in hue, +yet here and there gleaming at points with a metallic brightness, these +objects presented a mysterious, indefinite, and startling appearance. +It was impossible, on a first view of their confused arrangement, to +discover what they were, or to guess for what purpose they could have +been pile together on the floor of a deserted temple. From the moment +when they had first attracted Numerian's observation, his attention was +fixed on them, and as he looked a faint thrill of suspicion--vague, +inexplicable, without apparent cause or object--struck chill to his +heart. + + +He had moved a step forward to examine the hidden space at the back of +the pile, when his further advance was instantly stopped by the +appearance of a man who walked forth from it dressed in the floating, +purple-edged robe and white fillet of the Pagan priests. Before either +father or daughter could speak, even before they could move to depart, +he stepped up to them, and, placing his hand on the shoulder of each, +confronted them in silence. + +At the moment when the stranger approached, Numerian raised his hand to +thrust him back, and, in so doing, fixed his eyes on the man's +countenance, as a ray of light from the doorway floated over it. +Instantly his arm remained outstretched and rigid, then it dropped to +his side, and the expression of horror on the face of the child became +reflected, as it were, on the face of the parent. Neither moved under +the hand of the dweller in the temple when he laid it heavily on each, +and both stood before him speechless as himself. + + + +CHAPTER 25. + +THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH. + +It was Ulpius. The Pagan was changed in bearing and countenance as +well as in apparel. He stood more firm and upright; a dull, tawny hue +overspread his face; his eyes, so sunken and lustreless in other days, +were now distended and bright with the glare of insanity. It seemed as +if his bodily powers had renewed their vigour, while his mental +faculties had declined towards their ruin. + +No human eye had ever beheld by what foul and secret means he had +survived through the famine, on what unnatural sustenance he had +satisfied the cravings of inexorable hunger; but there, in his gloomy +shelter, the madman and the outcast had lived and moved, and suddenly +and strangely strengthened, after the people of the city had exhausted +all their united responses, lavished in vain all their united wealth, +and drooped and died by thousands around him! + +His grasp still lay heavy on the father and daughter, and still both +confronted him--silent, as if death-struck by his gaze; motionless, as +if frozen at his touch. His presence was exerting over them a fatal +fascination. The power of action, suspended in Antonina as she entered +their ill-chosen refuge, was now arrested in Numerian also; but with +him no thought of the enemy in the street had any part, at this moment, +in the resistless influence which held him helpless before the enemy in +the temple. + +It was a feeling of deeper awe and darker horror. For now, as he +looked upon the hideous features of Ulpius, as he saw the forbidden +robe of priesthood in which the Pagan was arrayed, he beheld not only +the traitor who had successfully plotted against the prosperity of his +household, but the madman as well,--the moral leper of the whole human +family--the living Body and the dead Soul--the disinherited of that +Divine Light of Life which it is the awful privilege of mortal man to +share with the angels of God. + +He still clasped Antonina to his side, but it was unconsciously. To +all outward appearance he was helpless as his helpless child, when +Ulpius slowly removed his grasp from their shoulders, separated them, +and locking the hand of each in his cold, bony fingers, began to speak. + +His voice was deep and solemn, but his accents, in their hard, +unvarying tone, seemed to express no human emotion. His eyes, far from +brightening as he spoke, relapsed into a dull, vacant insensibility. +The connection between the action of speech and the accompanying and +explaining action of look which is observable in all men, seemed lost +in him. It was fearful to behold the death-like face, and to listen at +the same moment to the living voice. + +'Lo! the votaries come to the temple!' murmured the Pagan. 'The good +servants of the mighty worship gather at the voice of the priest! In +the far provinces, where the enemies of the gods approach to profane +the sacred groves, behold the scattered people congregating by night to +journey to the shrine of Serapis! Adoring thousands kneel beneath the +lofty porticoes, while within, in the secret hall where the light is +dim, where the air quivers round the breathing deities on their +pedestals of gold, the high priest Ulpius reads the destinies of the +future, that are unrolled before his eyes like a book!' + + +As he ceased, and, still holding the hands of his captives, looked on +them fixedly as ever, his eyes brightened and dilated again; but they +expressed not the slightest recognition either of father or daughter. +The delirium of his imagination had transported him to the temple at +Alexandria; the days were revived when his glory had risen to its +culminating point, when the Christians trembled before him as their +fiercest enemy, and the Pagans surrounded him as their last hope. The +victims of his former and forgotten treachery were but as two among the +throng of votaries allured by the fame of his eloquence, by the +triumphant notoriety of his power to protect the adherents of the +ancient creed. + +But it was not always thus that his madness declared itself: there +were moments when it rose to appalling frenzy. Then he imagined +himself to be again hurling the Christian assailants from the topmost +walls of the besieged temple, in that past time when the image of +Serapis was doomed by the Bishop of Alexandria to be destroyed. His +yells of fury, his frantic execrations of defiance were heard afar, in +the solemn silence of pestilence-stricken Rome. Those who, during the +most fatal days of the Gothic blockade, dropped famished on the +pavement before the little temple, as they endeavoured to pass it on +their onward way, presented a dread reality of death, to embody the +madman's visions of battle and slaughter. As these victims of famine +lay expiring in the street, they heard above them his raving voice +cursing them for Christians, triumphing over them as defeated enemies +destroyed by his hand, exhorting his imaginary adherents to fling the +slain above on the dead below, until the bodies of the besiegers of the +temple were piled, as barriers against their living comrades, round its +walls. Sometimes his frenzy gloried in the fancied revival of the foul +and sanguinary ceremonies of Pagan superstition. Then he bared his +arms, and shouted aloud for the sacrifice; he committed dark and +nameless atrocities--for now again the dead and the dying lay before +him, to give substance to the shadow of his evil thoughts; and Plague +and Hunger were as creatures of his will, and slew the victim for the +altar ready to his hands. + +At other times, when the raving fit had passed away, and he lay panting +in the darkest corner of the interior of the temple, his insanity +assumed another and a mournful form. His voice grew low and moaning; +the wreck of his memory--wandering and uncontrollable--floated back, +far back, on the dark waters of the past; and his tongue uttered +fragments of words and phrases that he had murmured at his father's +knees--farewell, childish wishes that he had breathed in his mother's +ear--innocent, anxious questions which he had addressed to Macrinus, +the high priest, when he first entered the service of the gods at +Alexandria. His boyish reveries--the gentleness of speech and poetry of +thought of his first youthful days, were now, by the unsearchable and +arbitrary influences of his disease, revived in his broken words, +renewed in his desolate old age of madness and crime, breathed out in +unconscious mockery by his lips, while the foam still gathered about +them, and the last flashes of frenzy yet lightened in his eyes. + +This unnatural calmness of language and vividness of memory, this +treacherous appearance of thoughtful, melancholy self-possession, would +often continue through long periods, uninterrupted; but, sooner or +later, the sudden change came; the deceitful chain of thought snapped +asunder in an instant; the word was left half uttered; the wearied +limbs started convulsively into renewed action; and as the dream of +violence returned and the dream of peace vanished, the madman rioted +afresh in his fury; and journeyed as his visions led him, round and +round his temple sanctuary, and hither and thither, when the night was +dark and death was busiest in Rome, among the expiring in deserted +houses, and the lifeless in the silent streets. + + +But there were other later events in his existence that never revived +within him. The old familiar image of the idol Serapis, which had +drawn him into the temple when he re-entered Rome, absorbed in itself +and in its associated remembrances all that remained active of his +paralysed faculties. His betrayal of his trust in the house of +Numerian, his passage through the rifted wall, his crushing repulse in +the tent of Alaric, never for a moment occupied his wandering thoughts. +The clouds that hung over his mind might open to him parting glimpses +of the toils and triumphs of his early career; but they descended in +impenetrable darkness on all the after-days of his dreary life. + +Such was the being to whose will, by a mysterious fatality, the father +and child were now submitted; such the existence--solitary, hopeless, +loathsome--of their stern and wily betrayer of other days! + +Since he had ceased speaking, the cold, death-like grasp of his hand +had gradually strengthened, and he had begun to look slowly and +inquiringly round him from side to side. Had this change marked the +approaching return of his raving paroxysm, the lives of Numerian and +Antonina would have been sacrificed the next moment; but all that it +now denoted was the quickening of the lofty and obscure ideas of +celebrity and success, of priestly honour and influence, of the +splendour and glory of the gods, which had prompted his last words. + +He moved suddenly, and drew the victims of his dangerous caprice a few +steps farther into the interior of the temple; then led them close up +to the lofty pile of objects which had first attracted Numerian's eyes +on entering the building. 'Kneel and adore!' cried the madman +fiercely, replacing his hands on their shoulders and pressing them to +the ground--'You stand before the gods, in the presence of their high +priest!' + +The girl's head sank forward, and she hid her face in her hands; but +her father looked up tremblingly at the pile. His eyes had insensibly +become more accustomed to the dim light of the temple, and he now saw +more distinctly the objects composing the mass that rose above him. + +Hundreds of images of the gods, in gold, silver, and wood--many in the +latter material being larger than life; canopies, vestments, furniture, +utensils, all of ancient Pagan form, were heaped together, without +order or arrangement, on the floor, to a height of full fifteen feet. + +There was something at once hideous and grotesque in the appearance of +the pile. The monstrous figures of the idols, with their rude carved +draperies and symbolic weapons, lay in every wild variety of position, +and presented every startling eccentricity of line, more especially +towards the higher portions of the mass, where they had evidently been +flung up from the ground by the hand that had raised the structure. + +The draperies mixed among the images and the furniture were here coiled +serpent-like around them, and there hung down towards the ground, +waving slow and solemn in the breezes that wound through the temple +doorway. The smaller objects of gold and silver, scattered irregularly +over the mass, shone out from it like gleaming eyes; while the pile +itself, seen in such a place under a dusky light, looked like some +vast, misshapen monster--the gloomy embodiment of the bloodiest +superstitions of Paganism, the growth of damp airs and teeming ruin, of +shadow and darkness, of accursed and infected solitude! + +Even in its position, as well as in the objects of which it was +composed, the pile wore an ominous and startling aspect; its crooked +outline, expanding towards the top, was bent over fearfully in the +direction of the doorway; it seemed as if a single hand might sway it +in its uncertain balance, and hurl it instantly in one solid mass to +the floor. + +Many toilsome hours had passed away, long secret labour had been +expended in the erection of this weird and tottering structure; but it +was all the work of one hand. Night after night had the Pagan entered +the deserted temples in the surrounding streets, and pillaged them of +their contents to enrich his favoured shrine: the removal of the idols +from their appointed places, which would have been sacrilege in any +meaner man, was in his eyes the dread privilege of the high priest +alone. + + +He had borne heavy burdens, and torn asunder strong fastenings, and +journeyed and journeyed again for hours together over the same gloomy +streets, without loitering in his task; he had raised treasures and +images one above another; he had strengthened the base and heightened +the summit of this precious and sacred heap; he had repaired and +rebuilt, whenever it crumbled and fell, this new Babel that he longed +to rear to the Olympus of the temple roof, with a resolute patience and +perseverance that no failure or fatigue could overcome. + +It was the dearest purpose of his dreamy superstition to surround +himself with innumerable deities, as well as to assemble innumerable +worshippers; to make the sacred place of his habitation a mighty +Pantheon, as well as a point of juncture for the scattered +congregations of the Pagan world. This was the ambition in which his +madness expanded to the fiercest fanaticism; and as he now stood erect +with his captives beneath him, his glaring eyes looked awe-struck when +he fixed them on his idols; he uplifted his arms in solemn, ecstatic +triumph, and in low tones poured forth his invocations, wild, +intermingled, and fragmentary, as the barbarous altar which his +solitary exertions had reared. + +Whatever was the effect on Numerian of his savage and confused +ejaculations, they were unnoticed, even unheard, by Antonina; for now, +while the madman's voice softened to an undertone, and while she hid +all surrounding objects from her eyes, her senses were awakened to +sounds in the temple which she had never remarked before. + +The rapid current of the Tiber washed the foundation walls of one side +of the building, within which the clear, lulling bubble of the water +was audible with singular distinctness. But besides this another and a +shriller sound caught the ear. On the summit of the temple roof still +remained several rows of little gilt bells, originally placed there, +partly with the intention of ornamenting this portion of the outer +structure, partly in order that the noise they produced, when agitated +by the wind, might scare birds from settling in their flight on the +consecrated edifice. The sounds produced by these bells were silvery +and high pitched; now, when the breeze was strong, they rang together +merrily and continuously; now, when it fell, their notes were faint, +separate, and irregular, almost plaintive in their pure metallic +softness. But, however their tone might vary under the capricious +influences of the wind, it seemed always wonderfully mingled within the +temple with the low, eternal bubbling of the river, which filled up the +slightest pauses in the pleasant chiming of the bells, and ever +preserved its gentle and monotonous harmony just audible beneath them. + +There was something in this quaint, unwonted combination of sounds, as +they were heard in the vaulted interior of the little building, +strangely simple, attractive, and spiritual; the longer they were +listened to, the more completely did the mind lose the recollection of +their real origin, and gradually shape out of them wilder and wilder +fancies, until the bells as they rang their small peal seemed like +happy voices of a heavenly stream, borne lightly onward on its airy +bubbles, and ever rejoicing over the gliding current that murmured to +them as it ran. + +Spite of the peril of her position, and of the terror which still fixed +her speechless and crouching on the ground, the effect on Antonina of +the strange mingled music of the running water and the bells was +powerful enough, when she first heard it, to suspend all her other +emotions in a momentary wonder and doubt. She withdrew her hands from +her face, and glanced round mechanically to the doorway, as if she +imagined that the sounds proceeded from the street. + +When she looked, the declining sun, gliding between two of the outer +pillars which surrounded the temple, covered with a bright glow the +smooth pavement before the entrance. A swarm of insects flew drowsily +round and round in the warm mellow light; their faint monotonous +humming deepened, rather than interrupted, the perfect silence +prevailing over all things without. + + +But a change was soon destined to appear in the repose of the quiet, +vacant scene; hardly a minute had elapsed while Antonina still looked +on it before she saw stealing over the sunny pavement a dark shadow, +the same shadow that she had last beheld when she stopped in her flight +to look behind her in the empty street. At first it slowly grew and +lengthened, then it remained stationary, then it receded and vanished +as gradually as it had advanced, and then the girl heard, or fancied +that she heard, a faint sound of footsteps, retiring along the lateral +colonnades towards the river side of the building. + +A low cry of horror burst from her lips as she sank back towards her +father; but it was unheeded. The voice of Ulpius had resumed in the +interval its hollow loudness of tone; he had raised Numerian from the +ground; his strong, cold grasp, which seemed to penetrate to the old +man's heart, which held him motionless and helpless as if by a fatal +spell, was on his arm. + +'Hear it! hear it!' cried the Pagan, waving his disengaged hand as if +he were addressing a vast concourse of people--'I advance this man to +be one of the servants of the high priest! He has travelled from a far +country to the sacred shrine; he is docile and obedient before the +altar of the gods; the lot is cast for his future life; his dwelling +shall be in the temple to the day of his death! He shall minister +before me in white robes, and swing the smoking censer, and slay the +sacrifice at my feet!' + +He stopped. A dark and sinister expression appeared in his eyes as the +word 'sacrifice' passed his lips; he muttered doubtingly to +himself--'The sacrifice!--is it yet the hour of the sacrifice?'--and +looked round towards the doorway. + +The sun still shone gaily on the outer pavement; the insects still +circled slowly in the mellow light; no shadow was now visible; no +distant footsteps were heard; there was nothing audible but the happy +music of the bubbling water, and the chiming, silvery bells. + +For a few moments the madman looked out anxiously towards the street, +without uttering a word or moving a muscle. The raving fit was nearly +possessing him again, as the thought of the sacrifice flashed over his +darkened mind; but once more its approach was delayed. + +He slowly turned his head in the direction of the interior of the +temple. 'The sun is still bright in the outer courts,' he murmured in +an undertone, 'the hour of the sacrifice is not yet! Come!' he +continued in a louder voice, shaking Numerian by the arm. 'It is time +that the servant of the temple should behold the place of the +sacrifice, and sharpen the knife for the victim before sunset! Arouse +thee, bondman, and follow me!' + +As yet, Numerian had neither spoken, nor attempted to escape. The +preceding events, though some space has been occupied in describing +them, passed in so short a period of time, that he had not hitherto +recovered from the first overwhelming shock of the meeting with Ulpius. +But now, awed though he still was, he felt that the moment of the +struggle for freedom had arrived. + +'Leave me, and let us depart!--there can be no fellowship between us +again!' he exclaimed with the reckless courage of despair, taking the +hand of Antonina, and striving to free himself from the madman's grasp. +But the effort was vain; Ulpius tightened his hold and laughed in +triumph. 'What! the servant of the temple is in terror of the high +priest, and shrinks from walking in the place of the sacrifice!' he +cried. 'Fear not, bondman! The mighty one, who rules over life and +death, and time and futurity, deals kindly with the servant of his +choice! Onward! onward! to the place of darkness and doom, where I +alone am omnipotent, and all others are creatures who tremble and obey! +To thy lesson, learner! by sunset the victim must be crowned!' + +He looked round on Numerian for an instant, as he prepared to drag him +forward, and their eyes met. In the fierce command of his action, and +the savage exultation of his glance, the father saw repeated in a +wilder form the very attitude and expression which he had beheld in the +Pagan on the morning of the loss of his child. All the circumstances +of that miserable hour--the vacant bed-chamber--the banished +daughter--the triumph of the betrayer--the anguish of the +betrayed--rushed over his mind, and rose up before it vivid as a +pictured scene before his eyes. + + +He struggled no more; the powers of resistance in mind and body were +crushed alike. He made an effort to remove Antonina from his side, as +if, in forgetfulness of the hidden enemy without, he designed to urge +her flight through the open door, while the madman's attention was yet +distracted from her. But, beyond this last exertion of the strong +instinct of paternal love, every other active emotion seemed dead +within him. + +Vainly had he striven to disentangle the child from the fate that might +be in store for the parent. To her the dread of the dark shadow on the +pavement was superior to all other apprehensions. She now clung more +closely to her father, and tightened her clasp round his hand. So, +when the Pagan advanced into the interior of the temple, it was not +Numerian alone who followed him to the place of sacrifice, but Antonina +as well. + +They moved to the back of the pile of idols. Behind it appeared a high +partition of gilt and inlaid wood reaching to the ceiling, and +separating the outer from the inner part of the temple. A low archway +passage, protected by carved gates similar to those at the front of the +building, had been formed in the partition, and through this Ulpius and +his prisoners now passed into the recess beyond. + +This apartment was considerably smaller than the first hall of the +temple which they had just left. The ceiling and the floor both sloped +downwards together, and here the rippling of the waters of the Tiber +was more distinctly audible to them than in the outer division of the +building. At the moment when they entered it the place was very dark; +the pile of idols intercepted even the little light that could have +been admitted through its narrow entrance; but the dense obscurity was +soon dissipated. Dragging Numerian after him to the left side of the +recess, Ulpius drew back a sort of wooden shutter, and a vivid ray of +sunlight immediately streamed in through a small circular opening +pierced in this part of the temple. + +Then there became apparent, at the lower end of the apartment, a vast +yawning cavity in the wall, high enough to admit a man without +stooping, but running downwards almost perpendicularly to some lower +region which it was impossible to see, for no light shot upwards from +this precipitous artificial abyss, in the darkness of which the eye was +lost after it had penetrated to the distance of a few feet only from +the opening. At the base of the confined space thus visible appeared +the commencement of a flight of steps, evidently leading far downwards +into the cavity. On the abruptly sloping walls, which bounded it on +all sides, were painted, in the brilliant hues of ancient fresco, +representations of the deities of the mythology--all in the attitude of +descending into the vault, and all followed by figures of nymphs +bearing wreaths of flowers, beautiful birds, and other similar adjuncts +of the votive ceremonies of Paganism. The repulsive contrast between +the bright colours and graceful forms presented by the frescoes, and +the perilous and gloomy appearance of the cavity which they decorated, +increased remarkably the startling significance in the character of the +whole structure. Its past evil uses seemed ineradicably written over +every part of it, as past crime and torment remain ineradicably written +on the human face; the mind imbibed from it terrifying ideas of deadly +treachery, of secret atrocities, of frightful refinements of torture, +which no uninitiated eye had ever beheld, and no human resolution had +ever been powerful enough to resist. + +But the impressions thus received were not produced only by what was +seen in and around this strange vault, but by what was heard there +besides. The wind penetrated the cavity at some distance, and through +some opening that could not be beheld, and was apparently intercepted +in its passage, for it whistled upwards towards the entrance in shrill, +winding notes, sometimes producing another and nearer sound, resembling +the clashing of many small metallic substances violently shaken +together. The noise of the wind, as well as the bubbling of the +current of the Tiber, seemed to proceed from a greater distance than +appeared compatible with the narrow extent of the back part of the +temple, and the proximity of the river to its low foundation walls. + + +It was evident that the vault only reached its outlet after it had +wound backwards, underneath the building, in some strange complication +of passages or labyrinth of artificial caverns, which might have been +built long since as dungeons for the living, or as sepulchres for the +dead. + +'The place of the sacrifice--aha! the place of the sacrifice!' cried +the Pagan exultingly, as he drew Numerian to the entrance of the +cavity, and solemnly pointed into the darkness beneath. + +The father gazed steadily into the chasm, never turning now to look on +Antonina, never moving to renew the struggle for freedom. Earthly +loves and earthly hopes began to fade away from his heart--he was +praying. The solemn words of Christian supplication fell in low, +murmuring sounds from his lips, in the place of idolatry and bloodshed, +and mingled with the incoherent ejaculations of the madman who kept him +captive, and who now bent his glaring eyes on the darkness of the +vault, half forgetful, in the gloomy fascination which it exercised +even over him, of the prisoners whom he held at its mouth. + +The single ray of light, admitted from the circular aperture of the +wall, fell wild and fantastic over the widely-differing figures of the +three, as they stood so strangely united together before the abyss that +opened beneath them. The shadows were above and the shadows were +around; there was no light in the ill-omened place but the one vivid +ray that streamed over the gaunt figure of Ulpius, as he still pointed +into the darkness; over the rigid features of Numerian, praying in the +bitterness of expected death; and over the frail youthful form of +Antonina as she nestled trembling at her father's side. It was an +unearthly and a solemn scene! + +Meanwhile the shadow which the girl had observed on the pavement before +the doorway of the temple now appeared there again, but not to retire +as before; for, the instant after, Goisvintha stealthily entered the +outer apartment of the building left vacant by its first occupants. +She passed softly around the pile of idols, looked into the inner +recess of the temple, and saw the three figures standing together in +the ray of light, gloomy and motionless, before the mouth of the +cavity. Her first glance fixed on the Pagan, whom she instinctively +doubted and dreaded, whose purpose in keeping captive the father and +daughter she could not divine; her next was directed on Antonina. + +The girl's position was a guarded one; still holding her father's hand, +she was partly protected by his body; and stood unconsciously beneath +the arm of Ulpius, as it was raised while he grasped Numerian's +shoulder. Marking this, and remembering that Antonina had twice +escaped her already, Goisvintha hesitated for a moment, and then, with +cautious step and lowering brow, began to retire again towards the +doorway of the building. 'Not yet--not yet the time!' she muttered, as +she resumed her former lurking-place; 'they stand where the light is +over them--the girl is watched and shielded--the two men are still on +either side of her! Not yet the moment of the blow; the stroke of the +knife must be sure and safe! Sure, for this time she must die by my +hand! Safe, for I have other vengeance to wreak besides the vengeance +on her! I, who have been patient and cunning since the night when I +escaped from Aquileia, will be patient and cunning still! If she +passes the door, I slay her as she goes out; if she remains in the +temple--' + +At the last word, Goisvintha paused and gazed upward; the setting sun +threw its fiery glow over her haggard face; her eye brightened fiercely +in the full light as she looked. 'The darkness is at hand!' she +continued; 'the night will be thick and black in the dim halls of the +temple; I shall see her when she shall not see me!--the darkness is +coming; the vengeance is sure!' + +She closed her lips, and with fatal perseverance continued to watch and +wait, as she had resolutely watched and waited already. The Roman and +the Goth; the opposite in sex, nation, and fate; the madman who dreamed +of the sanguinary superstitions of Paganism before the temple altar, +and the assassin who brooded over the chances of bloodshed beneath the +temple portico, were now united in a mysterious identity of +expectation, uncommunicated and unsuspected by either--the hour when +the sun vanished from the heaven was the hour of the sacrifice for both! + + * * * * * + +There is now a momentary pause in the progress of events. Occurrences +to be hereafter related render it necessary to take advantage of this +interval to inform the reader of the real nature and use of the vault +in the temple wall, the external appearance of which we have already +described. + +The marking peculiarity in the construction of the Pagan religion may +be most aptly compared to the marking peculiarity in the construction +of the pagan temples. Both were designed to attract the general eye by +the outward effect only, which was in both the false delusive +reflection of the inward substance. + +In the temple, the people, as they worshipped beneath the long +colonnades, or beheld the lofty porticoes from the street, were left to +imagine the corresponding majesty and symmetry of the interior of the +structure, and were not admitted to discover how grievously it +disappointed the brilliant expectations which the exterior was so well +calculated to inspire; how little the dark, narrow halls of the idols, +the secret vaults and gloomy recesses within, fulfilled the promise of +the long flights of steps, the broad extent of pavement, the massive +sun-brightened pillars without. So in the religion, the votary was +allured by the splendour of processions; by the pomp of auguries; by +the poetry of the superstition which peopled his native woods with the +sportive Dryads, and the fountains from which he drank with their +guardian Naiads; which gave to mountain and lake, to sun and moon and +stars, to all things around and above him, their fantastic allegory, or +their gracious legend of beauty and love: but beyond this, his first +acquaintance with his worship was not permitted to extend, here his +initiation concluded. He was kept in ignorance of the dark and +dangerous depths which lurked beneath this smooth and attractive +surface; he was left to imagine that what was displayed was but the +prelude to the future discovery of what was hidden of beauty in the +rites of Paganism; he was not admitted to behold the wretched +impostures, the loathsome orgies, the hideous incantations, the bloody +human sacrifices perpetrated in secret, which made the foul, real +substance of the fair exterior form. His first sight of the temple was +not less successful in deceiving his eye than his first impression of +the religion in deluding his mind. + +With these hidden and guilty mysteries of the Pagan worship, the vault +before which Ulpius now stood with his captives was intimately +connected. + +The human sacrifices offered among the Romans were of two kinds; those +publicly and those privately performed. The first were of annual +recurrence in the early years of the Republic; were prohibited at a +later date; were revived by Augustus, who sacrificed his prisoners of +war at the altar of Julius Caesar; and were afterwards--though +occasionally renewed for particular purposes under some subsequent +reigns--wholly abandoned as part of the ceremonies of Paganism during +the later periods of the empire. + +The sacrifices perpetrated in private were much longer practised. They +were connected with the most secret mysteries of the mythology; were +concealed from the supervision of government; and lasted probably until +the general extinction of heathen superstition in Italy and the +provinces. + +Many and various were the receptacles constructed for the private +immolation of human victims in different parts of the empire--in its +crowded cities as well as in its solitary woods--and among all, one of +the most remarkable and the longest preserved was the great cavity +pierced in the wall of the temple which Ulpius had chosen for his +solitary lurking-place in Rome. + + +It was not merely as a place of concealment for the act of immolation, +and for the corpse of the victim, that the vault had been built. A +sanguinary artifice had complicated the manner of its construction, by +placing in the cavity itself the instrument of the sacrifice; by making +it, as it were, not merely the receptacle, but the devourer also of its +human prey. At the bottom of the flight of steps leading down into it +(the top of which, as we have already observed, was alone visible from +the entrance in the temple recess) was fixed the image of a dragon +formed in brass. + +The body of the monster, protruding opposite the steps almost at a +right angle from the wall, was moved in all directions by steel +springs, which communicated with one of the lower stairs, and also with +a sword placed in the throat of the image to represent the dragon's +tongue. The walls around the steps narrowed so as barely to admit the +passage of the human body when they approached the dragon. At the +slightest pressure on the stair with which the spring communicated, the +body of the monster bent forward, and the sword instantly protruded +from its throat, at such a height from the steps as ensure that it +should transfix in a vital part the person who descended. The corpse, +then dropping by its own weight off the sword, fell through a tunnelled +opening beneath the dragon, running downward in an opposite direction +to that taken by the steps above, and was deposited on an iron grating +washed by the waters of the Tiber, which ran under the arched +foundations of the temple. The grating was approached by a secret +subterranean passage leading from the front of the building, by which +the sacrificing priests were enabled to reach the dead body, to fasten +weights to it, and opening the grating, to drop it into the river, +never to be beheld again by mortal eyes. + +In the days when this engine of destruction was permitted to serve the +purpose for which the horrible ingenuity of its inventors had +constructed it, its principal victims were young girls. Crowned with +flowers, and clad in white garments, they were lured into immolating +themselves by being furnished with rich offerings, and told that the +sole object of their fatal expedition down the steps of the vault was +to realise the pictures adorning its walls (which we have described a +few pages back), by presenting their gifts at the shrine of the idol +below. + +At the period of which we write, the dragon had for many years--since +the first prohibitions of Paganism--ceased to be fed with its wonted +prey. The scales forming its body grew gradually corroded and loosened +by the damp; and when moved by the wind which penetrated to them from +beneath, whistling up in its tortuous course through the tunnel that +ran in one direction below, and the vault of the steps that ascended in +another above, produced the clashing sound which has been mentioned as +audible at intervals from the mouth of the cavity. But the springs +which moved the deadly apparatus of the whole machine being placed +within it, under cover, continued to resist the slow progress of time +and of neglect, and still remained as completely fitted as ever to +execute the fatal purpose for which they had been designed. + +The ultimate destiny of the dragon of brass was the destiny of the +religion whose bloodiest superstitions it embodied: it fell beneath +the resistless advance of Christianity. Shortly after the date of our +narrative, the interior of the building beneath which it was placed +having suffered from an accident, which will be related farther on, the +exterior was dismantled, in order that its pillars might furnish +materials for a church. The vault in the wall was explored by a monk +who had been present at the destruction of other Pagan temples, and who +volunteered to discover its contents. With a torch in one hand, and an +iron bar in the other, he descended into the cavity, sounding the walls +and the steps before him as he proceeded. For the first and the last +time the sword protruded harmless from the monster's throat when the +monk pressed the fatal stair, before stepping on it, with his iron bar. +The same day the machine was destroyed and cast into the Tiber, where +its victims had been thrown before it in former years. + + * * * * * + + +Some minutes have elapsed since we left the father and daughter +standing by the Pagan's side before the mouth of the vault; and as yet +there appears no change in the several positions of the three. But +already, while Ulpius still looks down steadfastly into the cavity at +his feet, his voice, as he continues to speak, grows louder, and his +words become more distinct. Fearful recollections associated with the +place are beginning to stir his weary memory, to lift the darkness of +oblivion from his idle thoughts. + +'They go down, far down there!' he abruptly exclaimed, pointing into +the black depths of the vault, 'and never arise again to the light of +the upper earth! The great Destroyer is watchful in his solitude +beneath, and looks through the darkness for their approach! Hark! the +hissing of his breath is like to the clash of weapons in a deadly +strife!' + +At this moment the wind moved the loose scales of the dragon. During +an instant Ulpius remained silent, listening to the noise they +produced. For the first time an expression of dread appeared on his +face. His memory was obscurely reviving the incidents of his discovery +of the deadly machinery in the vault when he first made his sojourn in +the temple, when--filled with the confused remembrance of the +mysterious rites and incantations, the secret sacrifices which he had +witnessed and performed at Alexandria--he had found and followed the +subterranean passage which led to the iron grating beneath the dragon. +As the wind lulled again, and the clashing of the metal ceased with it, +he began to give these recollections expression in words, uttering them +in slow, solemn accents to himself. + +'I have seen the Destroyer; the Invisible has revealed himself to me!' +he murmured. 'I stood on the iron bars; the restless waters toiled and +struggled beneath my feet as I looked up into the place of darkness. A +voice called to me, "Get light, and behold me from above! Get light! +get light!" Sun, and moon, and stars gave no light there! but lamps +burnt in the city, in the houses of the dead, when I walked by them in +the night-time; and the lamp gave light when sun, and moon, and stars +gave none! From the top steps I looked down, and saw the Powerful One +in his golden brightness; and approached not, but watched and listened +in fear. The voice again!--the voice was heard again!--"Sacrifice to +me in secret, as thy brethren sacrifice! Give me the living where the +living are, and the dead where the dead!" The air came up cold, and +the voice ceased, and the lamp was like sun, and moon, and stars--it +gave no light in the place of darkness!' + +While he spoke, the loose metal again clashed in the vault, for the +wind was strengthening as the evening advanced. 'Hark! the signal to +prepare the sacrifice!' cried the Pagan, turning abruptly to Numerian. +'Listen, bondman! the living and the dead are within our reach. The +breath of the Invisible strikes them in the street and in the house; +they stagger in the highways, and drop at the temple steps. When the +hour comes we shall go forth and find them. Under my hand they go down +into the cavern beneath. Whether they are hurled dead, or whether they +go down living, they fall through to the iron bars, where the water +leaps and rejoices to receive them! It is mine to sacrifice them +above, and thine to wait for them below, to lift the bars and give them +to the river to be swallowed up! The dead drop down first, the living +that are slain by the Destroyer follow after!' + +Here he paused suddenly. Now, for the first time, his eye rested on +Antonina, whose very existence he seemed hitherto to have forgotten. A +revolting smile of mingled cunning and satisfaction instantly changed +the whole character of his countenance as he gazed on her and then +looked round significantly to the vault. 'Here is one,' he whispered +to Numerian, taking her by the arm. 'Keep her captive--the hour is +near!' + +Numerian had hitherto stood unheedful while he spoke; but when he +touched Antonina the bare action was enough to arouse the father to +resistance--hopeless though it was--once more. He shook off the grasp +of Ulpius from the girl's arm, and drew back with her--breathless, +vigilant, desperate--to the side-wall behind him. + +The madman laughed in proud approval. 'My bondman obeys me and seizes +the captive!' he cried. 'He remembers that the hour is near and loosens +not his hold! Come,' he continued, 'come out into the hall beyond!--it +is time that we watch for more victims for the sacrifice till the sun +goes down. The Destroyer is mighty and must be obeyed!' + + +He walked to the entrance leading into the first apartment of the +temple, and then waited to be followed by Numerian, who, now for the +first time separated from Ulpius, remained stationary in the position +he had last occupied, and looked eagerly around him. No chance of +escape presented itself; the mouth of the vault on one side, and the +passage through the partition on the other, were the only outlets to +the place. There was no hope but to follow the Pagan into the great +hall of the temple, to keep carefully at a distance from him, and to +watch the opportunity of flight through the doorway. The street, so +desolate when last beheld, might now afford more evidence that it was +inhabited. Citizens, guards might be passing by, and might be summoned +into the temple--help might be at hand. + +As he moved forward with Antonina, such thoughts passed rapidly through +the father's mind, unaccompanied at the moment by the recollection of +the stranger who had followed them from the Pincian Gate, or of the +apathy of the famished populace in aiding each other in any emergency. +Seeing that he was followed as he had commanded, Ulpius passed on +before them to the pile of idols; but a strange and sudden alteration +appeared in his gait. He had hitherto walked with the step of a +man--young, strong, and resolute of purpose; now he dragged one limb +after the other as slowly and painfully as if he had received a mortal +hurt. He tottered with more than the infirmity of his age, his head +dropped upon his breast, and he moaned and murmured inarticulately in +low, long-drawn cries. + +He had advanced to the side of the pile, half-way towards the doorway +of the temple, when Numerian, who had watched with searching eyes the +abrupt change in his demeanour, forgetting the dissimulation which +might still be all-important, abandoned himself to his first impulse, +and hurriedly pressing forward with Antonina, attempted to pass the +Pagan and escape. But at the moment Ulpius stopped in his slow +progress, reeled, threw out his hands convulsively, and seizing +Numerian by the arm, staggered back with him against the side-wall of +the temple. The fingers of the tortured wretch closed as if they were +never to be unlocked again--closed as if with the clutch of death, with +the last frantic grasp of a drowning man. + +For days and nights past he had toiled incessantly under the relentless +tyranny of his frenzy, building up higher and higher his altar of +idols, and pouring forth his invocations before his gods in the place +of the sacrifice; and now, at the moment when he was most triumphant in +his ferocious activity of purpose, when his fancied bondman and his +fancied victim were most helpless at his command--now, when his +strained faculties were strung to their highest pitch, the +long-deferred paroxysm had seized him, which was the precursor of his +repose, of the only repose granted by his awful fate--a change (the +mournful change already described) in the form of his insanity. For at +those rare periods when he slept, his sleep was not unconsciousness, +not rest: it was a trance of hideous dreams--his tongue spoke, his +limbs moved, when he slumbered as when he woke. It was only when his +visions of the pride, the power, the fierce conflicts, and daring +resolutions of his maturer years gave place to his dim, quiet, waking +dreams of his boyish days, that his wasted faculties reposed, and his +body rested with them in the motionless languor of perfect fatigue. +Then, if words were still uttered by his lips, they were as murmurs of +an infant--happy sleep; for the innocent phrases of his childhood which +they then revived, seemed for a time to bring with them the innocent +tranquillity of his childhood as well. + +'Go! go!--fly while you are yet free!' cried Numerian, dropping the +hand of Antonina, and pointing to the door. But for the second time +the girl refused to move forward a step. No horror, no peril in the +temple could banish for an instant her remembrance of the night at the +farm-house in the suburbs. She kept her head turned towards the vacant +entrance, fixed her eyes on it in the unintermitting watchfulness of +terror, and whispered affrightedly, 'Goisvintha! Goisvintha!' when her +father spoke. + + +The clasp of the Pagan's fingers remained fixed and deathlike as at +first; he leaned back against the wall, as still as if life and action +had for ever departed from him. The paroxysm had passed away; his +face, distorted but the moment before, was now in repose, but it was a +repose that was awful to look on. Tears rolled slowly from his +half-closed eyes over his seamed and wrinkled cheeks--tears which were +not the impressive expression of mental anguish (for a vacant and +unchanging smile was on his lips), but the mere mechanical outburst of +the physical weakness that the past crisis of agony had left behind it. +Not the slightest appearance of thought or observation was perceptible +in his features: his face was the face of an idiot. + +Numerian, who had looked on him for an instant, shuddered and averted +his eyes, recoiling from the sight before him. But a more overpowering +trial of his resolution was approaching, which he could not avoid. Ere +long the voice of Ulpius grew audible once more; but now its tones were +weak, piteous, almost childish, and the words they uttered were quiet +words of love and gentleness, which dropping from such lips, and +pronounced in such a place, were fearful to hear. The temple and all +that was in it vanished from his sight as from his memory. Swayed by +the dread and supernatural influences of his disease, the madman passed +back in an instant over the dark valley of life's evil pilgrimage to +the long-quitted precincts of his boyish home. While in bodily +presence he stood in the place of his last crimes, the outcast of +reason and humanity, in mental consciousness he lay in his mother's +arms, as he had lain there ere yet he had departed to the temple at +Alexandria; and his heart communed with her heart, and his eyes looked +on her as they had looked before his father's fatal ambition had +separated for ever parent and child! + +'Mother!--come back, mother!' he whispered. 'I was not asleep: I saw +you when you came in, and sat by my bedside, and wept over me when you +kissed me! Come back, and sit by me still! I am going away, far away, +and may never hear your voice again! How happy we should be, mother, +if I stayed with you always! But it is my father's will that I should +go to the temple in another country, and live there to be a priest; and +his will must be obeyed. I may never return; but we shall not forget +one another! I shall remember your words when we used to talk together +happily, and you shall still remember mine!' + +Hardly had the first sentence been uttered by Ulpius when Antonina felt +her father's whole frame suddenly tremble at her side. She turned her +eyes from the doorway, on which they had hitherto been fixed, and +looked on him. The Pagan's hand had fallen from his arm: he was free +to depart, to fly as he had longed to fly but a few minutes before, and +yet he never stirred. His daughter touched him, spoke to him, but he +neither moved nor answered. It was not merely the shock of the abrupt +transition in the language of Ulpius from the ravings of crime to the +murmurs of love--it was not merely astonishment at hearing from him, in +his madness, revelations of his early life which had never passed his +lips during his days of treacherous servitude in the house on the +Pincian Hill, that thus filled Numerian's inmost soul with awe, and +struck his limbs motionless. There was more in all that he heard than +this. The words seemed as words that had doomed him at once and for +ever. His eyes, directed full on the face of the madman, were dilated +with horror, and his deep, gasping, convulsive breathings mingled +heavily, during the moment of silence that ensued, with the chiming of +the bells above and the bubbling of the water below--the lulling music +of the temple, playing its happy evening hymn at the pleasant close of +day. + +'We shall remember, mother!--we shall remember!' continued the Pagan +softly, 'and be happy in our remembrances! My brother, who loves me +not, will love you when I am gone! You will walk in my little garden, +and think on me as you look at the flowers that we have planted and +watered together in the evening hours, when the sky was glorious to +behold, and the earth was all quiet around us! Listen, mother, and kiss +me! When I go to the far country, I will make a garden there like my +garden here, and plant the same flowers that we have planted here, and +in the evening I will go out and give them water at the hour when you +go out to give my flowers water at home; and so, though we see each +other no more, it will yet be as if we laboured together in the garden +as we labour now!' + + +The girl still fixed her eager gaze on her father. His eyes presented +the same rigid expression of horror; but he was now wiping off with his +own hand, mechanically, as if he knew it not, the foam which the +paroxysms had left round the madman's lips, and, amid the groans that +burst from him, she could hear such words as, 'Lord God!--mercy, Lord +God! Thou, who hast thus restored him to me--thus, worse than +dead!--mercy! mercy!' + +The light on the pavement beneath the portico of the temple was fading +visibly--the sun had gone down. + +For the third time the madman spoke, but his tones were losing their +softness; they were complaining, plaintive, unutterably mournful; his +dreams of the past were already changing. 'Farewell, brother--farewell +for years and years!' he cried. 'You have not given me the love that I +gave you. The fault was not mine that our father loved me the best, +and chose me to be sent to the temple to be a priest at the altar of +the gods! The fault was not mine that I partook not in your favoured +sports, and joined not the companions whom you sought; it was our +father's will that I should not live as you lived, and I obeyed it! +You have spoken to me in anger, and turned from me in disdain; but +farewell again, Cleander--farewell in forgiveness and in love!' + +He might have spoken more, but his voice was drowned in one long shriek +of agony which burst from Numerian's lips, and echoed discordantly +through the hall of the temple, and he sank down with his face to the +ground at the Pagan's feet. The dark and terrible destiny was +fulfilled. The enthusiast for the right and the fanatic for the wrong; +the man who had toiled to reform the Church, and the man who had toiled +to restore the Temple; the master who had received and trusted the +servant in his home, and the servant who in that home had betrayed the +master's trust--the two characters, separated hitherto in the sublime +disunion of good and bad, now struck together in tremendous contact, as +brethren who had drawn their life from one source, who as children had +been sheltered under the same roof! + +Not in the hours when the good Christian succoured the then forsaken +Pagan, wandering homeless in Rome, was the secret disclosed; no chance +word of it was uttered when the deceiver told the feigned relation of +his life to the benefactor whom he was plotting to deceive, or when, on +the first morning of the siege, the machinations of the servant +triumphed over the confidence of the master: it was reserved to be +revealed in the words of delirium, at the closing years of madness, +when he who discovered it was unconscious of all that he spoke, and his +eyes were blinded to the true nature of all that he saw; when earthly +voices that might once have called him back to repentance, to +recognition, and to love, were become to him as sounds that have no +meaning; when, by a ruthless and startling fatality, it was on the +brother who had wrought for the true faith that the whole crushing +weight of the terrible disclosure fell, unpartaken by the brother who +had wrought for the false! But the judgments pronounced in Time go +forth from the tribunal of that Eternity to which the mysteries of life +tend, and in which they shall be revealed--neither waiting on human +seasons nor abiding by human justice, but speaking to the soul in the +language of immortality, which is heard in the world that is now, and +interpreted in the world that is to come. + +Lost, for an instant, even the recollection that Goisvintha might still +be watching her opportunity from without, calling despairingly on her +father, and vainly striving to raise him from the ground, Antonina +remembered not, in the overwhelming trial of the moment, the +revelations of Numerian's past life that had been disclosed to her in +the days when the famine was at its worst in Rome. The name of +'Cleander', which she had then heard her father pronounce, as the name +that he had abandoned when he separated himself from the companions of +his sinful choice, passed unheeded by her when the Pagan unconsciously +uttered it. She saw the whole scene but as a fresh menace of danger, +as a new vision of terror, more ominous of ill than all that had +preceded it. + + +Thick as was the darkness in which the lulling and involuntary memories +of the past had enveloped the perceptions of Ulpius, the father's +piercing cry of anguish seemed to have penetrated it with a sudden ray +of light. The madman's half-closed eyes opened instantly and fixed, +dreamily at first, on the altar of idols. He waved his hands to and +fro before him, as if he were parting back the folds of a heavy veil +that obscured his sight; but his wayward thoughts did not resume as yet +their old bias towards ferocity and crime. When he spoke again, his +speech was still inspired by the visions of his early life--but now of +his early life in the temple at Alexandria. His expressions were more +abrupt, more disjointed than before; yet they continued to display the +same evidence of the mysterious, instinctive vividness of recollection, +which was the result of the sudden change in the nature of his +insanity. His language wandered (still as if the words came from him +undesignedly and unconsciously) over the events of his boyish +introduction to the service of the gods, and, though confusing them in +order, still preserved them in substance, as they have been already +related in the history of his 'apprenticeship to the temple'. + +Now he was in imagination looking down once more from the summit of the +Temple of Serapis on the glittering expanse of the Nile and the wide +country around it; and now he was walking proudly through the streets +of Alexandria by the side of his uncle, Macrinus, the high priest. Now +he was wandering at night, in curiosity and awe, through the gloomy +vaults and subterranean corridors of the sacred place; and now he was +listening, well pleased, to the kindly greeting, the inspiring praises +of Macrinus during their first interview. But at this point, and while +dwelling on this occasion, his memory became darkened again; it vainly +endeavoured to retrace the circumstances attending the crowning +evidence of the high priest's interest in his pupil, and anxiety to +identify him completely with his new protector and his new duties, +which had been displayed when he conferred on the trembling boy the +future distinction of one of his own names. + +And here, let it be remembered, as a chief link in the mysterious chain +of fatalities which had united to keep the brothers apart as brethren +after they had met as men, that both had, from widely different causes, +abandoned in after-life the names which they bore in their father's +house; that while one, by his own act and for his own purpose, +transformed himself from Cleander, the associate of the careless and +the criminal, to Numerian, the preacher of the Gospel and reformer of +the Church, the other had (to quote the words of the fourth chapter), +'become from the boy Emilius the student Ulpius,' by the express and +encouraging command of his master, Macrinus, the high priest. + +While the Pagan still fruitlessly endeavoured to revive the events +connected with the change in his designation on his arrival in +Alexandria, and, chafing under the burden of oblivion that weighed upon +his thoughts, attempted for the first time to move from the wall +against which he had hitherto leaned; while Antonina still strove in +vain to recall her father to the recollection of the terrible +exigencies of the moment as he crouched prostrate at the madman's +feet--the doorway of the temple was darkened once more by the figure of +Goisvintha. She stood on the threshold, a gloomy and indistinct form +in the fading light, looking intently into the deeply shadowed interior +of the building. As she marked the altered positions of the father and +daughter, she uttered a suppressed ejaculation of triumph; but, while +the sound passed her lips, she heard, or thought she heard, a noise in +the street behind. Even now her vigilance and cunning, her deadly, +calculating resolution to await in immovable patience the fitting time +for striking the blow deliberately and with impunity, did not fail her. +Turning instantly, she walked to the top step of the temple, and stood +there for a few moments, watchfully surveying the open space before her. + + +But in those few moments the scene in the building changed once more. +The madman, while he still wavered between relapsing into the raving +fit and continuing under the influence of the tranquil mood in which he +had been prematurely disturbed, caught sight of Goisvintha when her +approach suddenly shadowed the entrance to the temple. Her presence, +momentary though it was, was for him the presence of a figure that had +not appeared before; that had stood in a strange position between the +shade within and the faint light without; it was a new object, +presented to his eyes while they were straining to recover such +imperfect faculties of observation as had been their wont, and it +ascendancy over him was instantaneous and all-powerful. + +He started, bewildered like a deep sleeper suddenly awoke; violent +shudderings ran for a moment over his frame; then it strengthened again +with its former unnatural strength; the demon raged within him in +renewed fury as he tore his robe which Numerian held as he lay at his +feet from the feeble grasp that confined it, and, striding up to the +pile of idols, stretched out his hands in solemn deprecation. 'The +high priest has slept before the altar of the gods!' he cried loudly, +'but they have been patient with their well-beloved; their thunder has +not struck him for his crime! Now the servant returns to his +service--the rites of Serapis begin!' + +Numerian still remained prostrate, spirit-broken; he slowly clasped his +hands together on the floor, and his voice was now to be heard, still +supplicating in low and stifled accents, as if in unceasing prayer lay +his last hope of preserving his own reason. 'God! Thou art the God of +Mercy; be merciful to him!' he murmured. 'Thou acceptest of +repentance; grant repentance to him! If at any time I have served Thee +without blame, let the service be counted to him; let the vials of Thy +wrath be poured out on me!' + +'Hark! the trumpet blows for the sacrifice!' interrupted the raving +voice of the Pagan, as he turned from the altar, and extended his arms +in frenzied inspiration. 'The roar of music and the voice of +exultation soar upward from the highest mountain-tops! The incense +smokes, and in and out, and round and round, the dancers whirl about +the pillars of the temple! The ox for the sacrifice is without spot; +his horns are gilt; the crown and fillet adorn his head. The priest +stands before him naked from the waist upwards; he heaves the libation +out of the cup; the blood flows over the altar! Up! up! tear forth with +reeking hands the heart while it is yet warm, futurity is before you in +the quivering entrails, look on them and read! read!' + +While he spoke, Goisvintha had entered the temple. The street was +still desolate; no help was at hand. + +Not advancing at once, she concealed herself near the door behind a +projection in the pile of idols, watching from it until Ulpius, in the +progress of his frenzy, should turn away from Antonina, whom he stood +fronting at this instant. But she had not entered unperceived; +Antonina had seen her again. And now the bitterness of death, when the +young die unprotected in their youth, came over the girl, and she cried +in a low wailing voice, as she knelt by Numerian's side: 'I must die, +father, I must die, as Hermanric died! Look up at me, and speak to me +before I die!' + +Her father was still praying; he heard nothing, for his heart was +bleeding in atonement at the shrine of his boyish home, and his soul +still communed with its Maker. The voice that followed hers was the +voice of Ulpius. + +'Oh, beautiful are the gardens round the sacred altars, and lofty the +trees that embower the glittering shrines!' he exclaimed, rapt and +ecstatic in his new visions. 'Lo, the morning breaks, and the spirits +of light are welcomed by a sacrifice! The sun goes down behind the +mountain, and the beams of evening tremble on the victim beneath the +knife of the adoring priest! The moon and stars shine high in the +firmament, and the Genii of Nights are saluted in the still hours with +blood!' + +As he paused, the lament of Antonina was continued in lower and lower +tones: 'I must die, father, I must die!' And with it murmured the +supplicating accents of Numerian: 'God of Mercy! deliver the helpless +and forgive the afflicted! Lord of Judgment! deal gently with Thy +servants who have sinned!' While, mingling with both in discordant +combination, the strange music of the temple still poured on its +lulling sound--the rippling of the running waters and the airy chiming +of the bells! + + +'Worship!--emperors, armies, nations, glorify and worship me!' shouted +the madman, in thunder-tones of triumph and command, as his eye for the +first time encountered the figure of Numerian prostrate at his feet. +'Worship the demi-god who moves with the deities through spheres +unknown to man! I have heard the moans of the unburied who wander on +the shores of the Lake of the Dead--worship! I have looked on the +river whose black current roars and howls in its course through the +caves of everlasting night--worship! I have seen the furies lashed by +serpents on their wrinkled necks, and followed them as they hurled +their torches over the pining ghosts! I have stood unmoved in the +hurricane-tumult of hell--worship! worship! worship!' + +He turned round again towards the altar of idols, calling upon his gods +to proclaim his deification, and at the moment when he moved, +Goisvintha sprang forward. Antonina was kneeling with her face turned +from the door, as the assassin seized her by her long hair and drove +the knife into her neck. The moaning accents of the girl, bewailing her +approaching fate, closed in one faint groan; she stretched out her +arms, and fell forward over her father's body. + +In the ferocious triumph of the moment, Goisvintha raised her arm to +repeat the stroke; but at that instant the madman looked round. 'The +sacrifice--the sacrifice!' he shouted, leaping at one spring like a +wild beast at her throat. She struck ineffectually at him with the +knife, as he fastened his long nails in her flesh and hurled her +backwards to the floor. Then he yelled and gibbered in frantic +exultation, set his foot on her breast, and spat on her as she lay +beneath him. + +The contact of the girl's body when she fell--the short but terrible +tumult of the attack that passed almost over him--the shrill, deafening +cries of the madman, awoke Numerian from his trance of despairing +remembrance, aroused him in his agony of supplicating prayer. He +looked up. + +The scene that met his eyes was one of those scenes which crush every +faculty but the faculty of mechanical action--before which, thought +vanishes from men's minds, utterance is suspended on their lips, +expression is paralysed on their faces. The coldness of the tomb +seemed breathed over Numerian's aspect by the contemplation of the +terrible catastrophe: his eyes were glassy and vacant, his lips parted +and rigid; even the remembrance of the discovery of his brother seemed +lost to him as he stooped over his daughter and bound a fragment of her +robe round her neck. The mute, soulless, ghastly stillness of death +looked settled on his features, as, unconscious now of weakness or age, +he rose with her in his arms, stood motionless for one moment before +the doorway, and looked slowly round on Ulpius; then he moved forward +with heavy regular steps. The Pagan's foot was still on Goisvintha's +breast as the father passed him; his gaze was still fixed on her; but +his cries of triumph were calmed; he laughed and muttered incoherently +to himself. + +The moon was rising, soft, faint, and tranquil, over the quiet street +as Numerian descended the temple steps with his daughter in his arms, +and, after an instant's pause of bewilderment and doubt, instinctively +pursued his slow, funereal course along the deserted roadway in the +direction of home. Soon, as he advanced, he beheld in the moonlight, +down the long vista of the street at its termination, a little +assemblage of people walking towards him with calm and regular +progress. As they came nearer, he saw that one of them held an open +book, that another carried a crucifix, and that others followed these +two with clasped hands and drooping heads. And then, after an +interval, the fresh breezes that blew towards him bore onward these +words, slowly and reverently pronounced:-- + +'Know, therefore, that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity +deserveth. + +'Canst thou, by searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the +Almighty to perfection?' + +Then the breeze fell, the words grew indistinct, but the procession +still moved forward. As it came nearer and nearer, the voice of the +reader was again plainly heard:-- + +'If iniquity be in thy hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness +dwell in thy tabernacles. + +'For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be +steadfast, and shalt not fear; + +'Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that +pass away: + +And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine +forth, thou shalt be as the morning.' + +The reader stopped and closed the book; for now Numerian had met the +members of the little procession, and they looked on him standing +voiceless before them in the clear moonlight, with his daughter's head +drooping over his shoulder as he carried her in his arms. + +There were some among those who gathered round him whose features he +would have recognised at another time as the features of the surviving +adherents of his former congregation. The assembly he had met was +composed of the few sincere Christians in Rome, who had collected, on +the promulgation of the news that Alaric had ratified terms of peace, +to make a pilgrimage through the city, in the hopeless endeavour, by +reading from the Bible and passing exhortation, to awaken the reckless +populace to a feeling of contrition for their sins, and of devout +gratitude for their approaching deliverance from the horrors of the +siege. + +But now, when Numerian confronted them, neither by word nor look did he +express the slightest recognition of any who surrounded him. To all +the questions addressed to him, he replied by hurried gestures that +none could comprehend. To all the promises of help and protection +heaped upon him in the first outbreak of the grief and pity of his +adherents of other days, he answered but by the same dull, vacant +glance. It was only when they relieved him of his burden, and gently +prepared to carry the senseless girl among them back to her father's +house, that he spoke; and then, in faint entreating tones, he besought +them to let him hold her hand as they went, so that he might be the +first to feel her pulse beat--if it yet moved. + +They turned back by the way they had come--a sorrowful and slow-moving +procession! As they passed on, the reader again opened the Sacred +Book; and then these words rose through the soothing and heavenly +tranquillity of the first hours of night:-- + +'Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not +thou the chastening of the Almighty: + +'For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make +whole.' + + + +CHAPTER 26. + +RETRIBUTION. + +As, in the progress of Life, each man pursues his course with the +passions, good and evil, set, as it were, on either side of him; and +viewing their results in the actions of his fellow-men, finds his +attention, while still attracted by the spectacle of what is noble and +virtuous, suddenly challenged by the opposite display of what is mean +and criminal--so, in the progress of this narrative, which aims to be +the reflection of Life, the reader who has journeyed with us thus far, +and who may now be inclined to follow the little procession of +Christian devotees, to walk by the side of the afflicted father, and to +hold with him the hand of his ill-fated child, is yet, in obedience to +the conditions of the story, required to turn back for awhile to the +contemplation of its darker passages of guilt and terror--he must enter +the temple again; but he will enter it for the last time. + +The scene before the altar of idols was fast proceeding to its fatal +climax. + + +The Pagan's frenzy had exhausted itself in its own fury--his insanity +was assuming a quieter and a more dangerous form; his eye grew cunning +and suspicious; a stealthy deliberation and watchfulness appeared in +all his actions. He now slowly lifted his foot from Goisvintha's +breast, and raised his hands at the same time to strike her back if she +should attempt to escape. Seeing that she lay senseless from her fall, +he left her; retired to one of the corners of the temple, took from it +a rope that lay there, and returning, bound her arms behind her at the +hands and wrists. The rope cut deep through the skin--the pain +restored her to her senses; she suffered the sharp agony in her own +body, in the same place where she had inflicted it on the young +chieftain at the farm-house beyond the suburbs. + +The minute after, she felt herself dragged along the ground, farther +into the interior of the building. The madman drew her up to the iron +gates of the passage through the partition, and fastening the end of +the rope to them, left her there. This part of the temple was +enveloped in total darkness--her assailant addressed not a word to +her--she could not obtain even a glimpse of his form, but she could +hear him still laughing to himself in hoarse, monotonous tones, that +sounded now near, and now distant again. + +She abandoned herself as lost--prematurely devoted to the torment and +death that she had anticipated; but, as yet, her masculine resolution +and energy did not decline. The very intensity of the anguish she +suffered from the bindings at her wrists, producing a fierce bodily +effort to resist it, strengthened her iron-strung nerves. She neither +cried for help nor appealed to the Pagan for pity. The gloomy fatalism +which she had inherited from her savage ancestors sustained her in a +suicide-pride. + +Ere long the laughter of Ulpius, while he moved slowly hither and +thither in the darkness of the temple, was overpowered by the sound of +her voice--deep, groaning, but yet steady--as she uttered her last +words--words poured forth like the wild dirges, the fierce death-songs +of the old Goths when they died deserted on the bloody battle-field, or +were cast bound into deep dungeons, a prey to the viper and the asp. +Thus she spoke:-- 'I swore to be avenged! while I went forth from +Aquileia with the child that was killed and the child that was wounded; +while I climbed the high wall in the night-time, and heard the tumult +of the beating waves near the bank where I buried the dead; while I +wandered in the darkness over the naked heath and through the lonely +forest; while I climbed the pathless sides of the mountains, and made +my refuge in the cavern by the waters of the dark lake. + +'I swore to be avenged! while the warriors approached me on their +march, and the roaring of the trumpets and the clash of the armour +sounded in my ears; while I greeted my kinsman, Hermanric, a mighty +chieftain, at the king's side, among the invading hosts; while I looked +on my last child, dead like the rest, and knew that he was buried afar +from the land of his people, and from the others that the Romans had +slain before him. + +'I swore to be avenged! while the army encamped before Rome, and I +stood with Hermanric, looking on the great walls in the misty evening; +while the daughter of the Roman was a prisoner in our tent, and I eyed +her as she lay on my knees; while for her sake my kinsman turned +traitor, and withheld my hand from the blow; while I passed unseen into +the lonely farm-house to deal judgment on him with my knife; while I +saw him die the death of a deserter at my feet, and knew that it was a +Roman who had lured him from his people, and blinded him to the +righteousness of revenge. + +'I swore to be avenged! while I walked round the grave of the chieftain +who was the last of my race; while I stood alone out of the army of my +people in the city of the slayers of my babes; while I tracked the +footsteps of the Roman who had twice escaped me, as she fled through +the street; while I watched and was patient among the pillars of the +temple, and waited till the sun went down, and the victim was +unshielded for the moment to strike. + + +'I swore to be avenged! and my oath has been fulfilled--the knife that +still bleeds drops with her blood; the chief vengeance has been +wreaked! The rest that were to be slain remain for others, and not for +me! For now I go to my husband and my children; now the hour is near +at hand when I shall herd with their spirits in the Twilight World of +Shadows, and make my long-abiding place with them in the Valley of +Eternal Repose! The Destinies have willed it--it is enough!' + +Her voice trembled and grew faint as she pronounced the last words. +The anguish of the fastenings at her wrists was at last overpowering +her senses--conquering, in spite of all resistance, her stubborn +endurance. For a little while yet she spoke at intervals, but her +speech was fragmentary and incoherent. At one moment she still gloried +in her revenge, at another she exulted in the fancied contemplation of +the girl's body still lying before her, and her hands writhed beneath +their bonds in the effort to repossess themselves of the knife and +strike again. But soon all sounds ceased to proceed from her lips, +save the loud, thick, irregular breathings, which showed that she was +yet conscious and yet lived. + +Meanwhile the madman had passed into the inner recess of the temple, +and had drawn the shutter over the opening in the wall, through which +light had been admitted into the place when Numerian and Antonina first +entered it. Even the black chasm formed by the mouth of the vault of +the dragon now disappeared, with all other objects, in the thick +darkness. But no obscurity could confuse the senses of Ulpius in the +temple, whose every corner he visited in his restless wanderings by +night and by day alike. Led as if by a mysterious penetration of +sight, he traced his way unerringly to the entrance of the vault, knelt +down before it, and placing his hands on the first of the steps by +which it was descended, listened, breathless and attentive, to the +sounds that rose from the abyss--listened, rapt and unmoving, a +formidable and unearthly figure--like a magician waiting for a voice +from the oracles of Hell--like a spirit of Night looking down into the +mid-caverns of the earth, and watching the mysteries of subterranean +creation, the giant pulses of Action and Heat, which are the +life-springs of the rolling world. + +The fitful wind whistled up, wild and plaintive; the river chafed and +bubbled through the iron grating below; the loose scales of the dragon +clashed as the night breezes reached them: and these sounds were still +to him as the language of his gods, which filled him with a fearful +rapture, and inspired him, in the terrible degradation of his being, as +with a new soul. He listened and listened yet. Fragments of wild +fancies--the vain yearnings of the disinherited mind to recover its +divine birthright of boundless thought--now thrilled through him, and +held him still and speechless where he knelt. + +But at length, through the gloomy silence of the recess, he heard the +voice of Goisvintha raised once more, and in hoarse, wild tones calling +aloud for light and help. The agony of pain and suspense, the awful +sense of darkness and stillness, of solitary bondage and slow torment, +had at last effected that which no open peril, no common menace of +violent death could have produced. She yielded to fear and +despair--sank prostrate under a paralysing, superstitious dread. The +misery that she had inflicted on others recoiled in retribution on +herself, as she now shuddered under the consciousness of the first +emotions of helpless terror that she had ever felt. + +Ulpius instantly rose from the vault, and advanced straight through the +darkness to the gates of the partition; but he passed his prisoner +without stopping for an instant, and hastening into the outer apartment +of the temple, began to grope over the floor for the knife which the +woman had dropped when he bound her. He was laughing to himself once +more, for the evil spirit was prompting him to a new project, tempting +him to a pitiless refinement of cruelty and deceit. + +He found the knife, and returning with it to Goisvintha, cut the rope +that confined her wrists. Then she became silent when the first +sharpness of her suffering was assuaged; he whispered softly in her +ear, 'Follow me, and escape!' + + +Bewildered and daunted by the darkness and mystery around her, she +vainly strained her eyes to look through the obscurity as Ulpius drew +her on into the recess. He placed her at the mouth of the vault, and +here she strove to speak; but low, inarticulate sounds alone proceeded +from her powerless utterance. Still there was no light; still the +burning, gnawing agony at her wrists (relieved but for an instant when +the rope was cut) continued and increased; and still she felt the +presence of the unseen being at her side, whom no darkness could blind, +and who bound and loosed at his arbitrary will. + +By nature fierce, resolute, and vindictive under injury, she was a +terrible evidence of the debasing power of crime, as she now stood, +enfeebled by the weight of her own avenging guilt, upraised to crush +her in the hour of her pride; by the agency of Darkness, whose perils +the innocent and the weak have been known to brave; by Suspense, whose +agony they have resisted; by Pain, whose infliction they have endured +in patience. + +'Go down, far down the steep steps, and escape!' whispered the madman, +in soft, beguiling tones. 'The darkness above leads to the light below! +Go down, far down!' + +He quitted his hold of her as he spoke. She hesitated, shuddered, and +drew back; but again she was urged forward, and again she heard the +whisper, 'The darkness above leads to the light below! Go down, far +down!' + +Despair gave the firmness to proceed, and dread the hope to escape. +Her wounded arms trembled as she now stretched them out and felt for +the walls of the vault on either side of her. The horror of death in +utter darkness, from unseen hands, and the last longing aspiration to +behold the light of heaven once more, were at their strongest within +her as she began slowly and cautiously to tread the fatal stairs. + +While she descended, the Pagan dropped into his former attitude at the +month of the vault, and listened breathlessly. Minutes seemed to +elapse between each step as she went lower and lower down. Suddenly he +heard her pause, as if panic-stricken in the darkness, and her voice +ascended to him, groaning, 'Light! light! oh, where is the light!' He +rose up, and stretched out his hands to hurl her back if she should +attempt to return; but she descended again. Twice he heard her heavy +footfall on the steps--then there was an interval of deep silence--then +a sharp, grinding clash of metal echoed piercingly through the vault, +followed by the noise of a dull, heavy fall, faintly audible far +beneath--and then the old familiar sounds of the place were heard +again, and were not interrupted more. The sacrifice to the Dragon was +achieved! + + * * * * * + +The madman stood on the steps of the sacred building, and looked out on +the street shining before him in the bright Italian moonlight. No +remembrance of Numerian and Antonina, and of the earlier events in the +temple, remained within him. He was pondering imperfectly, in vague +pride and triumph, over the sacrifice that he had offered up at the +shrine of the Dragon of brass. Thus secretly exulting, he now remained +inactive. Absorbed in his wandering meditations, he delayed to trace +the subterranean passages leading to the iron grating where the corpse +of Goisvintha lay washed by the waters, as they struggled onward +through the bars, and waiting but his hand to be cast into the river, +where all past sacrifices had been engulphed before it. + +His tall solitary figure was lit by the moonlight streaming through the +pillars of the portico; his loose robes waved slowly about him in the +wind, as he stood firm and erect before the door of the temple: he +looked more like the spectral genius of departed Paganism than a living +man. But, lifeless though he seemed, his quick eye was still on the +watch, still directed by the restless suspicion of insanity. Minute +after minute quietly elapsed, and as yet nothing was presented to his +rapid observation but the desolate roadway, and the high, gloomy houses +that bounded it on either side. It was soon, however, destined to be +attracted by objects which startled the repose of the tranquil street +with the tumult of action and life. + + +He was still gazing earnestly on the narrow view before him, vaguely +imagining to himself, the while, Goisvintha's fatal descent into the +vault, and thinking triumphantly of her dead body that now lay on the +grating beneath it, when a red glare of torchlight, thrown wildly on +the moon-brightened pavement, whose purity it seemed to stain, caught +his eye. + +The light appeared at the end of the street leading from the more +central portion of the city, and ere long displayed clearly a body of +forty or fifty people advancing towards the temple. The Pagan looked +eagerly on them as they came nearer and nearer. The assembly was +composed of priests, soldiers, and citizens--the priests bearing +torches, the soldiers carrying hammers, crowbars, and other similar +tools, or bending under the weight of large chests secured with iron +fastenings, close to which the populace walked, as if guarding them +with jealous care. This strange procession was preceded by two men, +who were considerably in advance of it--a priest and soldier. An +expression of impatience and exultation appeared on their pale, +famine-wasted countenances, as they approached the temple with rapid +steps. + +Ulpius never moved from his position, but fixed his piercing eyes on +them as they advanced. Not vainly did he now stand, watchful and +menacing, before the entrance of his gloomy shrine. He had seen the +first degradations heaped on fallen Paganism, and he was now to see the +last. He had immolated all his affections and all his hopes, all his +faculties of body and mind, his happiness in boyhood, his enthusiasm in +youth, his courage in manhood, his reason in old age, at the altar of +his gods; and now they were to exact from him, in their defence, lonely +criminal, maddened, as he already was in their cause, more than all +this! The decree had gone forth from the Senate which devoted to +legalised pillage the treasures in the temples of Rome. + +Rulers of a people impoverished by former exactions, and comptrollers +only of an exhausted treasury, the government of the city had searched +vainly among all ordinary resources for the means of paying the heavy +ransom exacted by Alaric as the price of peace. The one chance of +meeting the emergency that remained was to strip the Pagan temples of +the mass of jewelled ornaments and utensils, the costly robes, the +idols of gold and silver which they were known to contain, and which, +under that mysterious hereditary influence of superstition, whose power +it is the longest labour of truth to destroy, had remained untouched +and respected, alike by the people and the senate, after the worship +that they represented had been interdicted by the laws, and abandoned +by the nation. + +This last expedient for freeing Rome from the blockade was adopted +almost as soon as imagined. The impatience of the starved populace for +the immediate collection of the ransom allowed the government little +time for the tedious preliminaries of deliberation. The soldiers were +provided at once with the necessary implements for the task imposed on +them; certain chosen members of the senate and the people followed +them, to see that they honestly gathered in the public spoil; and the +priests of the Christian churches volunteered to hallow the expedition +by their presence, and led the way with their torches into every secret +apartment of the temples where treasure might be contained. At the +close of the day, immediately after it had been authorised, this +strange search for the ransom was hurriedly commenced. Already much +had been collected; votive offerings of price had been snatched from +the altars, where they had so long hung undisturbed; hidden +treasure-chests of sacred utensils had been discovered and broken open; +idols had been stripped of their precious ornaments and torn from their +massive pedestals; and now the procession of gold-seekers, proceeding +along the banks of the Tiber, had come in sight of the little temple of +Serapis, and were hastening forward to empty it, in its turn, of every +valuable that it contained. + +The priest and the soldier, calling to their companions behind to hurry +on, had now arrived opposite the temple steps, and saw confronting them +in the pale moonlight, from the eminence on which he stood, the weird +and solitary figure of Ulpius--the apparition of a Pagan in the +gorgeous robes of his priesthood, bidden back from the tombs to stay +the hand of the spoiler before the shrine of his gods. + +The soldier dropped his weapon to the ground, and, trembling in every +limb, refused to proceed. But the priest, a tall, stern, emaciated man, +went on defenceless and undaunted. He signed himself solemnly with the +cross as he slowly ascended the steps; fixed his unflinching eyes on +the madman, who glared back on him in return; and called aloud in a +harsh, steady voice: 'Man or demon! in the name of Christ, whom thou +deniest, stand back!' + +For an instant, as the priest approached him, the Pagan averted his +eyes and looked on the concourse of people and the armed soldiers +rapidly advancing. His fingers closed round the hilt of Goisvintha's +knife, which he had hitherto held loosely in his hand, as he exclaimed +in low, concentrated tones, 'Aha! the siege--the siege of Serapis!' +The priest, now standing on the same step with him, stretched out his +arm to thrust him back, and at that moment received the stroke of the +knife. He staggered, lifted his hand again to sign his forehead with +the cross, and, as he raised it, rolled back dead on the pavement of +the street. + +The soldier, standing motionless with superstitious terror a few feet +from the corpse, called to his companions for help. Hurling his bloody +weapon at them in defiance, as they ran in confusion to the base of the +temple steps, Ulpius entered the building, and locked and chained the +gates. + +Then the assembled people thronging round the corpse of the priest, +heard the madman shouting in his frenzy, as if to a great body of +adherents round him, to pour down the molten lead and the scorching +sand; to hurl back every scaling ladder planted against the walls; to +massacre each prisoner who was seized mounting the ramparts to the +assault; and as they looked up to the building from the street, they +saw at intervals, through the bars of the closed gates, the figure of +Ulpius passing swift and shadowy, his arms extended, his long grey hair +and white robes streaming behind him, as he rushed round and round the +temple reiterating his wild Pagan war-cries as he went. The enfeebled, +superstitious populace trembled while they gazed--a spectre driven on a +whirlwind would not have been more terrible to their eyes. + +But the priest among the crowd, roused to fury by the murder of one of +their own body, revived the courage of those around them. Even the +shouts of Ulpius were now overpowered by the sound of their voices, +raised to the highest pitch, promising heavenly and earthly +rewards--salvation, money, absolution, promotion--to all who would +follow them up the steps and burst their way into the temple. Animated +by the words of the priests, and growing gradually confident in their +own numbers, the boldest in the throng seized a piece of timber lying +by the river side, and using it as a battering-ram, assailed the gate. +But they were weakened with famine; they could gain little impetus, +from the necessity of ascending the temple steps to the attack; the +iron quivered as they struck it, but hinge and lock remained firm +alike. They were preparing to renew the attempt, when a tremendous +shock--a crash as if the whole heavy roof of the building had fallen +in--drove them back in terror to the street. + +Recalled by the sight of the armed men, the priests and the attendant +crowd of people who were advancing to invade his sanctuary, to the days +when he had defended the great Temple of Serapis at Alexandria, against +enemies similar in appearance, though far superior in numbers; +persuaded in the revival of these, the most sanguinary visions of his +insanity, that he was still resisting the Christian fanatics, supported +by his adherents in his sacred fortress of former years, the Pagan +displayed none of his accustomed cunning and care in moving through the +darkness around him. He hurried hither and thither, encouraging his +imaginary followers, and glorying in his dreams of slaughter and +success, forgetful in his frenzy of all that the temple contained. + + +As he pursued his wild course round and round the altar of idols, his +robe became entangled, and was torn by the projecting substances at one +corner of it. The whole overhanging mass tottered at the moment, but +did not yet fall. A few of the smaller idols, however, at the outside +dropped to the ground, and with them an image of Serapis, which they +happened partially to support--a heavy monstrous figure, carved +life-size in wood, and studded with gold, silver, and precious +stones--fell at the Pagan's feet. But this was all--the outer +materials of the perilous structure had been detached only at one +point; the pile itself still remained in its place. + +The madman seized the image of Serapis in his arms, and passed blindly +onward with it through the passage in the partition into the recess +beyond. At that instant the shock of the first attack on the gates +resounded through the building. Shouting, as he heard it, 'A sally! a +sally! men of the Temple, the gods and the high priest lead you on!' +and still holding the idol before him, he rushed straight forward to +the entrance, and struck in violent collision against the backward part +of the pile. + +The ill-balanced, top-heavy mass of images and furniture of many +temples swayed, parted, and fell over against the gates and the wall on +either side of them. Maimed and bleeding, struck down by the lower +part of the pile, as it was forced back against the partition when the +upper part fell, the fury of Ulpius was but increased by the crashing +ruin around him. He struggled up again into an erect position; mounted +on the top of the fallen mass--now spread out at the sides over the +floor of the building, but confined at one end by the partition, and at +the other by the opposite wall and the gates--and still clasping the +image of Serapis in his arms, called louder and louder to 'the men of +the Temple' to mount with him the highest ramparts and pour down on the +besiegers the molten lead! + +The priests were again the first men to approach the gates of the +building after the shock that had been heard within it. The struggle +for the possession of the temple had assumed to them the character of a +holy warfare against heathenism and magic--a sacred conflict to be +sustained by the Church, for the sake of her servant who had fallen a +martyr at the outset of the strife. Strong in their fanatical +boldness, they advanced with one accord close to the gates. Some of +the smaller images of the fallen pile had been forced through the bars, +behind which appeared the great idols, the broken masses of furniture, +the long robes and costly hangings, all locked together in every wild +variety of position--a chaos of distorted objects heaped up by an +earthquake! Above and further inward, the lower part of the Pagan's +robe was faintly discernible through the upper interstices in the gate, +as he stood, commanding, on the summit of his prostrate altar, with his +idol in his arms. + +The priests felt an instant conviction of certain triumph when they +discerned the cause of the shock that had been heard within the temple. +One of their number snatched up a small image that had fallen through +to the pavement where he stood, and holding it before the people below, +exclaimed exultingly-- + +'Children of the Church! the mystery is revealed! Idols more precious +than this lie by hundreds on the floor of the temple! It is no demon, +but a man, one man, who still defies us within!--a robber who would +defraud the Romans of the ransom of their lives!--the pillage of many +temples is around him. Remember now, that the nearer we came to this +place the fewer were the spoils of idolatry that we gathered in; the +treasure which is yours, the treasure which is to free you from the +famine, has been seized by the assassin of our holy brother; it is +there scattered at his feet! To the gates! To the gates again! +Absolution for all their sins to the men who burst in the gates!' + +Again the mass of timber was taken up; again the gates were assailed; +and again they stood firm--they were now strengthened, barricaded by +the fallen pile. It seemed hopeless to attempt to break them down +without a reinforcement of men, without employing against them the +heaviest missiles, the strongest engines of war. + + +The people gave vent to a cry of fury as they heard from the temple the +hollow laughter of the madman triumphing in their defeat. The words of +the priest, in allaying their superstitious fears, had aroused the +deadly passions that superstition brings forth. A few among the throng +hurried to the nearest guard-house for assistance, but the greater part +pressed closely round the temple--some pouring forth impotent +execrations against the robber of the public spoil, some joining the +priests in calling on him to yield. But the clamour lasted not long; +it was suddenly and strangely stilled by the voice of one man in the +crowd, calling loudly to the rest to fire the temple! + +The words were hardly spoken ere they were repeated triumphantly on all +sides. 'Fire the temple!' cried the people ferociously. 'Burn it over +the robber's head! A furnace--a furnace! to melt down the gold and +silver ready to our hands! Fire the temple! Fire the temple!' + +Those who were most active among the crowd (which was now greatly +increased by stragglers from all parts of the city) entered the houses +behind them, and returned in a few minutes with every inflammable +substance that they could collect in their hands. A heap of fuel, two +or three feet in height, was raised against the gates immediately, and +soldiers and people pressed forward with torches to light it. But the +priest who had before spoken waved them back. 'Wait!' he cried; 'the +fate of his body is with the people, but the fate of his soul is with +the Church!' + +Then, turning to the temple, he called solemnly and sternly to the +madman, 'Thy hour is come! repent, confess, and save thy soul!' + +'Slay on! slay on!' answered the raving voice from within. 'Slay, till +not a Christian is left! Victory! Serapis! See, they drop from our +walls!--they writhe bleeding on the earth beneath us! There is no +worship but the worship of the gods! Slay! Slay on!' + +'Light!' cried the priest. 'His damnation be on his own head! +Anathema! Maranatha! Let him die accursed!' + +The dry fuel was fired at once at all points--it was an anticipation of +an 'Auto da Fe', a burning of a heretic, in the fifth century! As the +flames rose, the people fell back and watched their rapid progress. +The priests, standing before them in a line, stretched out their hands +in denunciation against the temple, and repeated together the awful +excommunication service of the Roman Church. + + * * * * * + +The fire at the gates had communicated with the idols inside. It was +no longer on his prostrate altar, but on his funeral pile that Ulpius +now stood; and the image that he clasped was the stake to which he was +bound. A red glare, dull at first, was now brightening and brightening +below him; flames, quick and noiseless, rose and fell, and rose again, +at different points, illuminating the interior of the temple with +fitful and changing light. The grim, swarthy forms of the idols seemed +to sway and writhe like living things in torment, as fire and smoke +alternately displayed and concealed them. A deadly stillness now +overspread the face and form of the Pagan, as he looked down +steadfastly on the deities of his worship engendering his destruction +beneath him. His cheek--the cheek which had rested in boyhood on his +mother's bosom--was pressed against the gilded breast of the god +Serapis, his taskmaster in life--his pillow in death! + +'I rise! I rise to the world of light, with my deities whom I have +served!' he murmured; 'the brightness of their presence is like a +flaming fire; the smoke of their breath pours forth around me like the +smoke of incense! I minister in the Temples of the Clouds; and the +glory of eternal sunlight shines round me while I adore! I rise! I +rise!' + +The smoke whirled in black volumes over his head; the fierce voice of +the fast-spreading fire roared on him; the flames leapt up at his +feet--his robes kindled, burst into radiant light, as the pile yawned +and opened under him. + + * * * * * + + +Time had passed. The strife between the Temple and the Church was +ended. The priests and the people had formed a wider circle round the +devoted building; all that was inflammable in it had been burnt; smoke +and flame now burst only at intervals through the gates, and gradually +both ceased to appear. Then the crowd approached nearer to the temple, +and felt the heat of the furnace they had kindled, as they looked in. + +The iron gates were red hot--from the great mass behind (still glowing +bright in some places, and heaving and quivering with its own heat) a +thin, transparent vapour rose slowly to the stone roof of the building, +now blackened with smoke. The priests looked eagerly for the corpse of +the Pagan; they saw two dark, charred objects closely united together, +lying in a chasm of ashes near the gate, at a spot where the fire had +already exhausted itself, but it was impossible to discern which was +the man and which was the idol. + +The necessity of providing means for entering the temple had not been +forgotten while the flames were raging. Proper implements for forcing +open the gates were now at hand, and already the mob began to dip their +buckets in the Tiber, and pour water wherever any traces of the fire +remained. Soon all obstacles were removed; the soldiers crowded into +the building with spades in their hands, trampled on the black, watery +mire of cinders which covered what had once been the altar of idols, +and throwing out into the street the refuse ashes and the stone images +which had remained unconsumed, dug in what was left, as in a new mine, +for the gold and silver which the fire could not destroy. + +The Pagan had lived with his idols, had perished with his idols!--and +now where they were cast away, there he was cast away with them. The +soldiers, as they dug into fragments the black ruins of his altar, +mingled him in fragments with it! The people, as they cast the refuse +thrown out to them into the river, cast what remained of him with what +remained of his gods! And when the temple was deserted, when the +citizens had borne off all the treasure they could collect, when +nothing but a few heaps of dust was left of all that had been burnt, +the night-wind blew away before it the ashes of Ulpius with the ashes +of the deities that Ulpius had served! + + + +CHAPTER 27. + +THE VIGIL OF HOPE. + +A new prospect now opens before us. The rough paths through which we +have hitherto threaded our way grow smoother as we approach their +close. Rome, so long dark and gloomy to our view, brightens at length +like a landscape when the rain is past and the first rays of returning +sunlight stream through the parting clouds. Some days have elapsed, +and in those days the temples have yielded all their wealth; the +conquered Romans have bribed the triumphant barbarians to mercy; the +ransom of the fallen city has been paid. + +The Gothic army is still encamped round the walls, but the gates are +opened, markets for food are established in the suburbs, boats appear +on the river and waggons on the highroads, laden with provisions, and +proceeding towards Rome. All the hidden treasure kept back by the +citizens is now bartered for food; the merchants who hold the market +reap a rich harvest of spoil, but the hungry are filled, the weak are +revived, every one is content. + +It is the end of the second day since the free sale of provisions and +the liberty of egress from the city have been permitted by the Goths. +The gates are closed for the night, and the people are quietly +returning, laden with their supplies of food, to their homes. Their +eyes no longer encounter the terrible traces of the march of pestilence +and famine through every street; the corpses have been removed, and the +sick are watched and sheltered. Rome is cleansed from her pollutions, +and the virtues of household life begin to revive wherever they once +existed. Death has thinned every family, but the survivors again +assemble together in the social hall. Even the veriest criminals, the +lowest outcasts of the population, are united harmlessly for a while in +the general participation of the first benefits of peace. + + +To follow the citizens to their homes; to trace in their thoughts, +words, and action the effect on them of their deliverance from the +horrors of the blockade; to contemplate in the people of a whole city, +now recovering as it were from a deep swoon, the varying forms of the +first reviving symptoms in all classes, in good and bad, rich and +poor--would afford matter enough in itself for a romance of searching +human interest, for a drama of the passions, moving absorbingly through +strange, intricate, and contrasted scenes. But another employment than +this now claims our care. It is to an individual, and not to a divided +source of interest, that our attention turns; we relinquish all +observations on the general mass of the populace to revert to Numerian +and Antonina alone--to penetrate once more into the little dwelling on +the Pincian Hill. + +The apartment where the father and daughter had suffered the pangs of +famine together during the period of the blockade, presented an +appearance far different from that which it had displayed on the +occasion when they had last occupied it. The formerly bare walls were +now covered with rich, thick hangings; and the simple couch and scanty +table of other days had been exchanged for whatever was most luxurious +and complete in the household furniture of the age. At one end of the +room three women, attended by a little girl, were engaged in preparing +some dishes of fruit and vegetables; at the other, two men were +occupied in low, earnest conversation, occasionally looking round +anxiously to a couch placed against the third side of the apartment, on +which Antonina lay extended, while Numerian watched by her in silence. +The point of Goisvintha's knife had struck deep, but, as yet, the fatal +purpose of the assassination had failed. + +The girl's eyes were closed; her lips were parted in the languor of +suffering; one of her hands lay listless on her father's knee. A +slight expression of pain, melancholy in its very slightness, appeared +on her pale face, and occasionally a long-drawn, quivering breath +escaped her--nature's last touching utterance of its own feebleness! +The old man, as he sat by her side, fixed on her a wistful, inquiring +glance. Sometimes he raised his hand, and gently and mechanically +moved to and fro the long locks of her hair, as they spread over the +head of the couch; but he never turned to communicate with the other +persons in the room--he sat as if he saw nothing save his daughter's +figure stretched before him, and heard nothing save the faint, +fluttering sound of her breathing, close at his ear. + +It was now dark, and one lamp hanging from the ceiling threw a soft +equal light over the room. The different persons occupying it +presented but little evidence of health and strength in their +countenances, to contrast them in appearance with the wounded girl; all +had undergone the wasting visitation of the famine, and all were pale +and languid, like her. A strange, indescribable harmony prevailed over +the scene. Even the calmness of absorbing expectation and trembling +hope, expressed in the demeanour of Numerian, seemed reflected in the +actions of those around him, in the quietness with which the women +pursued their employment, in the lower and lower whispers in which the +men continued their conversation. There was something pervading the +air of the whole apartment that conveyed a sense of the solemn, +unworldly stillness which we attach to the abstract idea of religion. + +Of the two men cautiously talking together, one was the patrician, +Vetranio; the other, a celebrated physician of Rome. + +Both the countenance and manner of the senator gave melancholy proof +that the orgie at his palace had altered him for the rest of his life. +He looked what he was, a man changed for ever in constitution and +character. A fixed expression of anxiety and gloom appeared in his +eyes; his emaciated face was occasionally distorted by a nervous, +involuntary contraction of the muscles; it was evident that the +paralysing effect of the debauch which had destroyed his companions +would remain with him to the end of his existence. No remnant of his +careless self-possession, his easy, patrician affability, appeared in +his manner, as he now listened to his companion's conversation; years +seemed to have been added to his life since he had headed the table at +'The Banquet of Famine'. + + +'Yes,' said the physician, a cold, calm man, who spoke much, but +pronounced all his words with emphatic deliberation,--'Yes, as I have +already told you, the wound in itself was not mortal. If the blade of +the knife had entered near the centre of the neck, she must have died +when she was struck. But it passed outwards and backwards; the large +vessels escaped, and no vital part has been touched.' + +'And yet you persist in declaring that you doubt her recovery!' +exclaimed Vetranio, in low, mournful tones. + +'I do,' pursued the physician. 'She must have been exhausted in mind +and body when she received the blow--I have watched her carefully; I +know it! There is nothing of the natural health and strength of youth +to oppose the effects of the wound. I have seen the old die from +injuries that the young recover, because life in them was losing its +powers of resistance; she is in the position of the old!' + +'They have died before me, and she will die before me! I shall lose +all--all!' sighed Vetranio bitterly to himself. + +'The resources of our art are exhausted,' continued the other; 'nothing +remains but to watch carefully and wait patiently. The chances of life +or death will be decided in a few hours; they are equally balanced now.' + +'I shall lose all!--all!' repeated the senator mournfully, as if he +heeded not the last words. + +'If she dies,' said the physician, speaking in warmer tones, for he was +struck with pity, in spite of himself, at the spectacle of Vetranio's +utter dejection, 'if she dies, you can at least remember that all that +could be done to secure her life has been done by you. Her father, +helpless in his lethargy and his age, was fitted only to sit and watch +her, as he has sat and watched her day after day; but you have spared +nothing, forgotten nothing. Whatever I have asked for, that you have +provided; the hangings round the room, and the couch that she lies on, +are yours; the first fresh supplies of nourishment from the +newly-opened markets were brought here from you; I told you that she +was thinking incessantly of what she had suffered, that it was +necessary to preserve her against her own recollections, that the +presence of women about her might do good, that a child appearing +sometimes in the room might soothe her fancy, might make her look at +what was passing, instead of thinking of what had passed--you found +them, and sent them! I have seen parents less anxious for their +children, lovers for their mistresses, than you for this girl.' + +'My destiny is with her,' interrupted Vetranio, looking round +superstitiously to the frail form on the couch. 'I know nothing of the +mysteries that the Christians call their "Faith", but I believe now in +the soul; I believe that one soul contains the fate of another, and +that her soul contains the fate of mine!' + +The physician shook his head derisively. His calling had determined +his philosophy--he was as ardent a materialist as Epicurus himself. + +'Listen,' said Vetranio; 'since I first saw her, a change came over my +whole being; it was as if her life was mingled with mine! I had no +influence over her, save an influence for ill: I loved her, and she +was driven defenceless from her home! I sent my slaves to search Rome +night and day; I exerted all my power, I lavished my wealth to discover +her; and, for the first time in this one effort, I failed in what I had +undertaken. I felt that through me she was lost--dead! Days passed +on; life weighed weary on me; the famine came. You know in what way I +determined that my career should close; the rumour of the Banquet of +Famine reached you as it reached others!' + +'It did,' replied the physician. 'And I see before me in your face,' +he added, after a momentary pause, 'the havoc which that ill-omened +banquet has worked. My friend, be advised!--abandon for ever the +turmoil of your Roman palace, and breathe in tranquillity the air of a +country home. The strength you once had is gone never to return--if +you would yet live, husband what is still left.' + + +'Hear me,' pursued Vetranio, in low, gloomy tones. 'I stood alone in +my doomed palace; the friends whom I had tempted to their destruction +lay lifeless around me; the torch was in my hand that was to light our +funeral pile, to set us free from the loathsome world! I approached +triumphantly to kindle the annihilating flames, when she stood before +me--she, whom I had sought as lost and mourned as dead! A strong hand +seemed to wrench the torch from me; it dropped to the ground! She +departed again; but I was powerless to take it up; her look was still +before me; her face, her figure, she herself, appeared ever watching +between the torch and me!' + +'Lower!--speak lower!' interrupted the physician, looking on the +senator's agitated features with unconcealed astonishment and pity. +'You retard your own recovery,--you disturb the girl's repose by +discourse such as this.' + +'The officers of the senate,' continued Vetranio, sadly resuming his +gentler tones, 'when they entered the palace, found me still standing +on the place where we had met! Days passed on again; I stood looking +out upon the street, and thought of my companions whom I had lured to +their death, and of my oath to partake their fate, which I had never +fulfilled. I would have driven my dagger to my heart; but her face was +yet before me, my hands were bound! In that hour I saw her for the +second time; saw her carried past me--wounded, assassinated! She had +saved me once; she had saved me twice! I knew that now the chance was +offered me, after having wrought her ill, to work her good; after +failing to discover her when she was lost, to succeed in saving her +when she was dying; after having survived the deaths of my friends at +my own table, to survive to see life restored under my influence, as +well as destroyed! These were my thoughts; these are my thoughts +still--thoughts felt only since I saw her! Do you know now why I +believe that her soul contains the fate of mine? Do you see me, +weakened, shattered, old before my time; my friends lost, my fresh +feelings of youth gone for ever; and can you not now comprehend that +her life is my life?--that if she dies, the one good purpose of my +existence is blighted?--that I lose all I have henceforth to live +for?--all, all!' + +As he pronounced the concluding words, the girl's eyes half unclosed, +and turned languidly towards her father. She made an effort to lift +her hand caressingly from his knee to his neck; but her strength was +unequal even to this slight action. The hand was raised only a few +inches ere it sank back again to its old position; a tear rolled slowly +over her cheek as she closed her eyes again, but she never spoke. + +'See,' said the physician, pointing to her, 'the current of life is at +its lowest ebb! If it flows again, it must flow to-night.' + +Vetranio made no answer; he dropped down on the seat near him, and +covered his face with his robe. + +The physician, beholding the senator's situation, and reflecting on the +strange hurriedly-uttered confession which had just been addressed to +him, began to doubt whether the scenes through which his patron had +lately passed had not affected his brain. Philosopher though he was, +the man of science had never observed the outward symptoms of the first +working of good and pure influences in elevating a degraded mind; he +had never watched the denoting signs of speech and action which mark +the progress of mental revolution while the old nature is changing for +the new; such objects of contemplation existed not for him. He gently +touched Vetranio on the shoulder. 'Rise,' said he, 'and let us depart. +Those are around her who can watch her best. Nothing remains for us +but to wait and hope. With the earliest morning we will return.' + +He delivered a few farewell directions to one of the women in +attendance, and then, accompanied by the senator, who, without speaking +again, mechanically rose to follow him, quitted the room. After this, +the silence was only interrupted by the sound of an occasional whisper, +and of quick, light footsteps passing backwards and forwards. Then the +cooling, reviving draughts which had been prepared for the night were +poured ready into the cups; and the women approached Numerian, as if to +address him, but he waved his hand impatiently when he saw them; and +then they too, in their turn, departed, to wait in an adjoining +apartment until they should be summoned again. + + +Nothing changed in the manner of the father when he was left alone in +the chamber of sickness, which the lapse of a few hours might convert +into the chamber of death. He sat watching Antonina, and touching the +outspread locks of her hair from time to time, as had been his wont. +It was a fair, starry night; the fresh air of the soft winter climate +of the South blew gently over the earth, the great city was sinking +fast into tranquillity, calling voices were sometimes heard faintly +from the principal streets, and the distant noises of martial music +sounded cheerily from the Gothic camp as the sentinels were posted +along the line of watch; but soon these noises ceased, and the +stillness of Rome was as the stillness round the couch of the wounded +girl. + +Day after day, and night after night, since the assassination in the +temple, Numerian had kept the same place by his daughter's side. Each +hour as it passed found him still absorbed in his long vigil of hope; +his life seemed suspended in its onward course by the one influence +that now enthralled it. At the brief intervals when his bodily +weariness overpowered him on his melancholy watch, it was observed by +those around him that, even in his short dreaming clumbers, his face +remained ever turned in the same direction, towards the head of the +couch, as if drawn thither by some irresistible attraction, by some +powerful ascendancy, felt even amid the deepest repose of sensation, +the heaviest fatigue of the overlaboured mind, and worn, sinking heart. +He held no communication, save by signs, with the friends about him; he +seemed neither to hope, to doubt, nor to despair with them; all his +faculties were strung up to vibrate at one point only, and were dull +and unimpressible in every other direction. + +But twice had he been heard to speak more than the fewest, simplest +words. The first time, when Antonina uttered the name of Goisvintha, +on the recovery of her senses after her wound, he answered eagerly by +reiterated declarations that there was nothing henceforth to fear; for +he had seen the assassin dead under the Pagan's foot on leaving the +temple. The second time, when mention was incautiously made before him +of rumours circulated through Rome of the burning of an unknown Pagan +priest, hidden in the temple of Serapis, with vast treasures around +him, the old man was seen to start and shudder, and heard to pray for +the soul that was now waiting before the dread judgment-seat; to murmur +about a vain restoration and a discovery made too late; to mourn over +horror that thickened round him, over hope fruitlessly awakened, and +bereavement more terrible than mortal had ever suffered before; to +entreat that the child, the last left of all, might be spared--with +many words more, which ran on themes like these, and which were counted +by all who listened to them but as the wanderings of a mind whose +higher powers were fatally prostrated by feebleness and grief. + +One long hour of the night had already passed away since parent and +child had been left together, and neither word nor movement had been +audible in the melancholy room. But, as the second hour began, the +girl's eyes unclosed again, and she moved painfully on the couch. +Accustomed to interpret the significance of her slightest actions, +Numerian rose and brought her one of the reviving draughts that had +been left ready for use. After she had drunk, when her eyes met her +father's fixed on her in mute and mournful inquiry, her lips closed, +and formed themselves into an expression which he remembered they had +always assumed when, as a little child, she used silently to hold up +her face to him to be kissed. The miserable contrast between what she +was now and what she had been them, was beyond the passive endurance, +the patient resignation of the spirit-broken old man; the empty cup +dropped from his hands, he knelt down by the side of the couch and +groaned aloud. + +'O father! father!' cried the weak, plaintive voice above him. 'I am +dying! Let us remember that our time to be together here grows shorter +and shorter, and let us pass it as happily as we can!' + +He raised his head, and looked up at her, vacant and wistful, forlorn +already, as if the death-parting was over. + + +'I have tried to live humbly and gratefully,' she sighed faintly. 'I +have longed to do more good on the earth than I have done! Yet you +will forgive me now, father, as you have always forgiven me! You have +been patient with me all my life; more patient than I have ever +deserved! But I had no mother to teach me to love you as I ought, to +teach me what I know now, when my death is near, and time and +opportunity are mine no longer!' + +'Hush! hush!' whispered the old man affrightedly; 'you will live! God +is good, and knows that we have suffered enough. The curse of the last +separation is not pronounced against us! Live, live!' + +'Father,' said the girl tenderly, 'we have that within us which not +death itself can separate. In another world I shall still think of you +when you think of me! I shall see you even when I am no more here, +when you long to see me! When you go out alone, and sit under the +trees on the garden bank where I used to sit; when you look forth on +the far plains and mountains that I used to look on; when you read at +night in the Bible that we have read in together, and remember Antonina +as you lie down sorrowful to rest; then I shall see you! then you will +feel that I am looking on you! You will be calm and consoled, even by +the side of my grave; for you will think, not of the body that is +beneath, but of the spirit that is waiting for you, as I have often +waited for you here when you were away, and I knew that the approach of +the evening would bring you home again!' + +'Hush! you will live!--you will live!' repeated Numerian in the same +low, vacant tones. The strength that still upheld him was in those few +simple words; they were the food of a hope that was born in agony and +cradled in despair. + +'Oh, if I might live!' said the girl softly, 'if I might live but for a +few days yet, how much I have to live for!' She endeavoured to bend +her head towards her father as she spoke; for the words were beginning +to fall faintly and more faintly from her lips--exhaustion was +mastering her once again. She dwelt for a moment now on the name of +Hermanric, on the grave in the farm-house garden; then reverted again +to her father. The last feeble sounds she uttered were addressed to +him; and their burden was still of consolation and of love. + +Soon the old man, as he stooped over her, saw her eyes close +again--those innocent, gentle eyes which even yet preserved their old +expression while the face grew wan and pale around them--and darkness +and night sank down over his soul while he looked. 'She sleeps,' he +murmured in a voice of awe, as he resumed his watching position by the +side of the couch. 'They call death a sleep; but on her face there is +no death!' + +The night grew on. The women who were in attendance entered the room +about midnight, wondering that their assistance had not yet been +required. They beheld the solemn, unruffled composure on the girl's +wasted face; the rapt attention of Numerian, as he ever preserved the +same attitude by her side; and went out again softly without uttering a +word, even in a whisper. There was something dread and impressive in +the very appearance of this room, where Death, that destroys, was in +mortal conflict with Youth and Beauty, that adorn, while the eyes of +one old man watched in loneliness the awful progress of the strife. + +Morning came, and still there was no change. Once, when the lamp that +lit the room was fading out as the dawn appeared, Numerian had risen +and looked close on his daughter's face--he thought at that moment that +her features moved; but he saw that the flickering of the dying light +on them had deceived him; the same stillness was over her. He placed +his ear close to her lips for an instant, and then resumed his place, +not stirring from it again. The slow current of his blood seemed to +have come to a pause--he was waiting as a man waits with his head on +the block ere the axe descends--as a mother waits to hear that the +breath of life has entered her new-born child. + + +The sun rose bright in a cloudless sky. As the fresh, sharp air of the +early dawn warmed under its spreading rays, the women entered the +apartment again, and partly drew aside the curtain and shutter from the +window. The beams of the new light fell fair and glorifying on the +girl's face; the faint, calm breezed ruffled the lighter locks of her +hair. Once this would have awakened her; but it did not disturb her +now. + +Soon after the voice of the child who sojourned with the women in the +house was heard beneath, in the hall, through the half-opened door of +the room. The little creature was slowly ascending the stairs, singing +her faltering morning song to herself. She was preceded on her +approach by a tame dove, bought at the provision market outside the +walls, but preserved for the child as a pet and plaything by its +mother. The bird fluttered, cooing, into the room, perched upon the +head of the couch, and began dressing its feathers there. The women +had caught the infection of the old man's enthralling suspense; and +moved not to bid the child retire, or to take away the dove from its +place--they watched like him. But the soft, lulling notes of the bird +were powerless over the girl's ear, as the light sunbeam over her +face--still she never woke. + +The child entered, and pausing in her song, climbed on to the side of +the couch. She held out one little hand for the dove to perch upon, +placed the other lightly on Antonina's shoulder, and pressed her fresh, +rosy lips to girl's faded cheek. 'I and my bird have come to make +Antonina well this morning,' she said gravely. + +The still, heavily-closed eyelids moved!--they quivered, opened, +closed, then opened again. The eyes had a faint, dreaming, unconscious +look; but Antonina lived! Antonina was awakened at last to another day +on earth! + +Her father's rigid, straining gaze still remained fixed upon her as at +first, but on his countenance there was a blank, an absence of all +appearance of sensation and life. The women, as they looked on +Antonina and looked on him, began to weep; the child resumed very +softly its morning song, now addressing it to the wounded girl and now +to the dove. + +At this moment Vetranio and the physician appeared on the scene. The +latter advanced to the couch, removed the child from it, and examined +Antonina intently. At length, partly addressing Numerian, partly +speaking to himself, he said: 'She has slept long, deeply, without +moving, almost without breathing--a sleep like death to all who looked +on it.' + +The old man spoke not in reply, but the women answered eagerly in the +affirmative. + +'She is saved,' pursued the physician, leisurely quitting the side of +the couch and smiling on Vetranio; 'be careful of her for days and days +to come.' + +'Saved! saved!' echoed the child joyfully, setting the dove free in the +room, and running to Numerian to climb on his knees. The father +glanced down when the clear young voice sounded in his ear. The +springs of joy, so long dried up in his heart, welled forth again as he +saw the little hands raised towards him entreatingly; his grey head +drooped--he wept. + +At a sign from the physician the child was led from the room. The +silence of deep and solemn emotion was preserved by all who remained; +nothing was heard but the suppressed sobs of the old man, and the +faint, retiring notes of the infant voice still singing its morning +song. And now one word, joyfully reiterated again and again, made all +the burden of the music-- + +'SAVED! SAVED!' + + +THE CONCLUSION. 'UBI THESAURUS IBI COR.' + + +Shortly after the opening of the provision markets outside the gates of +Rome, the Goths broke up their camp before the city and retired to +winter quarters in Tuscany. The negotiations which ensued between +Alaric and the Court and Government at Ravenna, were conducted with +cunning moderation by the conqueror, and with infatuated audacity by +the conquered, and ultimately terminated in a resumption of +hostilities. Rome was besieged a second and a third time by 'the +barbarians'. On the latter occasion the city was sacked, its palaces +were burnt, its treasures were seized; the monuments of the Christian +religion were alone respected. + +But it is no longer with the Goths that our narrative is concerned; the +connection with them which it has hitherto maintained closes with the +end of the first siege of Rome. We can claim the reader's attention +for historical events no more--the march of our little pageant, arrayed +for his pleasure, is over. If, however, he has felt, and still +retains, some interest in Antonina, he will not refuse to follow us, +and look on her again ere we part. + +More than a month had passed since the besieging army had retired to +their winter quarters, when several of the citizens of Rome assembled +themselves on the plains beyond the walls, to enjoy one of those rustic +festivals of ancient times, which are still celebrated, under different +usages, but with the same spirit, by the Italians of modern days. + +The place was a level plot of ground beyond the Pincian Gate, backed by +a thick grove of pine trees, and looking towards the north over the +smooth extent of the country round Rome. The persons congregated were +mostly of the lower class. Their amusements were dancing, music, games +of strength and games of chance; and, above all, to people who had +lately suffered the extremities of famine, abundant eating and +drinking--long, serious, ecstatic enjoyment of the powers of +mastication and the faculties of taste. + +Among the assembly were some individuals whose dress and manner raised +them, outwardly at least, above the general mass. These persons walked +backwards and forwards together on different parts of the ground as +observers, not as partakers in the sports. One of their number, +however, in whatever direction he turned, preserved an isolated +position. He held an open letter in his hand, which he looked at from +time to time, and appeared to be wholly absorbed in his own thoughts. +This man we may advantageously particularise on his own account, as +well as on account of the peculiarity of his accidental situation; for +he was the favoured minister of Vetranio's former pleasures--'the +industrious Carrio'. + +The freedman (who was last introduced to the reader in Chapter XIV., as +exhibiting to Vetranio the store of offal which he had collected during +the famine for the consumption of the palace) had contrived of late +greatly to increase his master's confidence in him. On the +organisation of the Banquet of Famine, he had discreetly refrained from +testifying the smallest desire to save himself from the catastrophe in +which the senator and his friends had determined to involve themselves. +Securing himself in a place of safety, he awaited the end of the orgie; +and when he found that its unexpected termination left his master still +living to employ him, appeared again as a faithful servant, ready to +resume his customary occupation with undiminished zeal. + +After the dispersion of his household during the famine, and amid the +general confusion of the social system in Rome, on the raising of the +blockade, Vetranio found no one near him that he could trust but +Carrio--and he trusted him. Nor was the confidence misplaced: the man +was selfish and sordid enough; but these very qualities ensured his +fidelity to his master as long as that master retained the power to +punish and the capacity to reward. + + +The letter which Carrio held in his hand was addressed to him at a +villa--from which he had just returned--belonging to Vetranio, on the +shores of the Bay of Naples, and was written by the senator from Rome. +The introductory portions of this communication seemed to interest the +freedman but little: they contained praises of his diligence in +preparing the country-house for the immediate habitation of its owner, +and expressed his master's anxiety to quit Rome as speedily as +possible, for the sake of living in perfect tranquillity, and breathing +the reviving air of the sea, as the physicians had counselled. It was +the latter part of the letter that Carrio perused and re-perused, and +then meditated over with unwonted attention and labour of mind. It ran +thus:-- + +'I have now to repose in you a trust, which you will execute with +perfect fidelity as you value my favour or respect the wealth from +which you may obtain your reward. When you left Rome you left the +daughter of Numerian lying in danger of death: she has since revived. +Questions that I have addressed to her during her recovery have +informed me of much in her history that I knew not before; and have +induced me to purchase, for reasons of my own, a farm-house and its +lands, beyond the suburbs. (The extent of the place and its situation +are written on the vellum that is within this.) The husbandman who +cultivated the property had survived the famine, and will continue to +cultivate it for me. But it is my desire that the garden, and all that +it contains, shall remain entirely at the disposal of Numerian and his +daughter, who may often repair to it; and who must henceforth be +regarded there as occupying my place and having my authority. You will +divide your time between overlooking the few slaves whom I leave at the +palace in my absence, and the husbandman and his labourers whom I have +installed at the farm; and you will answer to me for the due +performance of your own duties and the duties of those under you--being +assured that by well filling this office you will serve your own +interests in these, and in all things besides.' + +The letter concluded by directing the freedman to return to Rome on a +certain day, and to go to the farm-house at an appointed hour, there to +meet his master, who had further directions to give him, and who would +visit the newly acquired property before he proceeded on his journey to +Naples. + +Nothing could exceed the perplexity of Carrio as he read the passage in +his patron's letter which we have quoted above. Remembering the +incidents attending Vetranio's early connection with Antonina and her +father, the mere circumstances of a farm having been purchased to +flatter what was doubtless some accidental caprice on the part of the +girl, would have little perplexed him. But that this act should be +followed by the senator's immediate separation of himself from the +society of Numerian's daughter; that she was to gain nothing after all +from these lands which had evidently been bought at her instigation, +but the authority over a little strip of garden; and yet, the +inviolability of this valueless privilege should be insisted on in such +serious terms, and with such an imperative tone of command as the +senator had never been known to use before--these were inconsistencies +which all Carrio's ingenuity failed to reconcile. The man had been +born and reared in vice; vice had fed him, clothed him, freed him, +given him character, reputation, power in his own small way--he lived +in it as in the atmosphere that he breathed; to show him an action, +referable only to a principle of pure integrity, was to set him a +problem which it was hopeless to solve. And yet it is impossible, in +one point of view, to pronounce him utterly worthless. Ignorant of all +distinctions between good and bad, he thought wrong from sheer +inability to see right. + +However his instructions might perplex him, he followed them now--and +continued in after days to follow them--to the letter. If to serve +one's own interests be an art, of that art Carrio deserved to be head +professor. He arrived at the farm-house, not only punctually, but +before the appointed time, and calling the honest husbandman and the +labourers about him, explained to them every particular of the +authority that his patron had vested in him, with a flowing and +peremptory solemnity of speech which equally puzzled and impressed his +simple audience. He found Numerian and Antonina in the garden when he +entered it. The girl had been carried there daily in a litter since +her recovery, and her father had followed. They were never separated +now; the old man, when his first absorbing anxiety for her was calmed, +remembered again more distinctly the terrible disclosure in the temple, +and the yet more terrible catastrophe that followed it, and he sought +constant refuge from the horror of the recollection in the presence of +his child. + + +The freedman, during his interview with the father and daughter, +observed, for once, an involuntary and unfeigned respect; but he spoke +briefly, and left them together again almost immediately. Humble and +helpless as they were, they awed him; they looked, thought, and spoke +like beings of another nature than his; they were connected, he knew +not how, with the mystery of the grave in the garden. He would have +been self-possessed in the presence of the Emperor himself, but he was +uneasy in theirs. So he retired to the more congenial scene of the +public festival which was in the immediate neighbourhood of the +farm-house, to await the hour of his patron's arrival, and to perplex +himself afresh by a re-perusal of Vetranio's letter. + +The time was now near at hand when it was necessary for the freedman to +return to his appointed post. He carefully rolled up his note of +instructions, stood for a few minutes vacantly regarding the amusements +which had hitherto engaged so little of his attention, and then, +turning, he proceeded through the pine-grove on his way back. We will +follow him. + +On leaving the grove, a footpath conducted over some fields to the +farm-house. Arrived here, Carrio hesitated for a moment; then moved +slowly onward to await his master's approach in the lane that led to +the highroad. At this point we will part company with him, to enter +the garden by the wicket-gate. + +The trees, the flower-beds, and the patches of grass, all remained in +their former positions--nothing had been added or taken away since the +melancholy days that were past; but a change was visible in Hermanric's +grave. The turf above it had been renewed, and a border of small +evergreen shrubs was planted over the track which Goisvintha's +footsteps had traced. A white marble cross was raised at one end of +the mound; the short Latin inscription on it signified--'PRAY FOR THE +DEAD'. + +The sunlight was shining calmly over the grave, and over Numerian and +Antonina as they sat by it. Sometimes when the mirth grew louder at the +rustic festival, it reached them in faint, subdued notes; sometimes +they heard the voices of the labourers in the neighbouring fields +talking to each other at their work; but, besides these, no other +sounds were loud enough to be distinguished. There was still an +expression of the melancholy and feebleness that grief and suffering +leave behind them on the countenances of the father and daughter; but +resignation and peace appeared there as well--resignation that was +perfected by the hard teaching of woe, and peace that was purer for +being imparted from the one to the other, like the strong and deathless +love from which it grew. + +There was something now in the look and attitude of the girl, as she +sat thinking of the young warrior who had died in her defence and for +her love, and training the shrubs to grow closer round the grave, +which, changed though she was, recalled in a different form the old +poetry and tranquillity of her existence when we first saw her singing +to the music of her lute in the garden on the Pincian Hill. No thoughts +of horror and despair were suggested to her as she now looked on the +farm-house scene. Hers was not the grief which shrinks selfishly from +all that revives the remembrance of the dead: to her, their influence +over the memory was a grateful and a guardian influence that gave a +better purpose to the holiest life, and a nobler nature to the purest +thoughts. + +Thus they were sitting by the grave, sad yet content; footsore already +on the pilgrimage of life, yet patient to journey farther if they +might--when an unusual tumult, a noise of rolling wheels, mingled with +a confused sound of voices, was heard in the lane behind them. They +looked round, and saw that Vetranio was approaching them alone through +the wicket-gate. + +He came forward slowly; the stealthy poison instilled by the Banquet of +Famine palpably displayed its presence within him as the clear sunlight +fell on his pale, wasted face. He smiled kindly as he addressed +Antonina; but the bodily pain and mental agitation which that smile was +intended to conceal, betrayed themselves in his troubled voice as he +spoke. + + +'This is our last meeting for years--it may be our last meeting for +life,' he said; 'I linger at the outset of my journey, but to behold +you as guardian of the one spot of ground that is most precious to you +on earth--as mistress, indeed, of the little that I give you here!' He +paused a moment and pointed to the grave, then continued: 'All the +atonement that I owe to you, you can never know--I can never +tell!--think only that I bear away with me a companion in the solitude +to which I go in the remembrance of you. Be calm, good, happy still, +for my sake, and while you forgive the senator of former days, forget +not the friend who now parts from you in some sickness and sorrow, but +also in much patience and hope! Farewell!' + +His hand trembled as he held it out; a flush overspread the girl's +cheek while she murmured a few inarticulate words of gratitude, and, +bending over it, pressed it to her lips. Vetranio's heart beat quick; +the action revived an emotion that he dared not cherish; but he looked +at the wan, downcast face before him, at the grave that rose mournful +by his side, and quelled it again. Yet an instant he lingered to +exchange a farewell with the old man, then turned quickly, passed +through the gate, and they saw him no more. + +Antonina's tears fell fast on the grass beneath as she resumed her +place. When she raised her head again, and saw that her father was +looking at her, she nestled close to him and laid one of her arms round +his neck: the other gradually dropped to her side, until her hand +reached the topmost leaves of the shrubs that grew round the grave. + + * * * * * + +Shall we longer delay in the farm-house garden? No! For us, as for +Vetranio, it is now time to depart! While peace still watches round the +walls of Rome; while the hearts of the father and daughter still repose +together in security, after the trials that have wrung them, let us +quit the scene! Here, at last, the narrative that we have followed +over a dark and stormy track reposes on a tranquil field; and here let +us cease to pursue it! + +So the traveller who traces the course of a river wanders through the +day among the rocks and precipices that lead onward from its troubled +source; and, when the evening is at hand, pauses and rests where the +banks are grassy and the stream is smooth. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTONINA *** + +***** This file should be named 3606.txt or 3606.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/0/3606/ + +Produced by Bronwyn Margaret Evans. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/3606.zip b/3606.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cdbd2a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/3606.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..60c82e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #3606 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3606) diff --git a/old/ntnna10.txt b/old/ntnna10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9bde64 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ntnna10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17087 @@ +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins*** +#24 in our series by Wilkie Collins + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words +are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they +need about what they can legally do with the texts. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below, including for donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: Antonina + +Author: Wilkie Collins + +Release Date: January, 2003 [Etext #3606] +[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule] +[The actual date this file first posted = 06/12/01] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins*** +******This file should be named ntnna10.txt or ntnna10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ntnna11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ntnna10a.txt + +This etext was produced by +Bronwyn Margaret Evans <bronwyn.evans@student.adelaide.edu.au> + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after +the official publication date. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +http://gutenberg.net +http://promo.net/pg + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 +or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of June 1, 2001 contributions are only being solicited from people +in: +Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, +Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, +New +Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, +Texas, Vermont, Washington West Virginia and Wyoming. + +We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising +will begin in the additional states. Please feel +free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork +to legally request donations in all 50 states. If +your state is not listed and you would like to know +if we have added it since the list you have, just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in +states where we are not yet registered, we know +of no prohibition against accepting donations +from donors in these states who approach us with +an offer to donate. + + +International donations are accepted, +but we don't know ANYTHING about how +to make them tax-deductible, or +even if they CAN be made deductible, +and don't have the staff to handle it +even if there are ways. + +All donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541, +and has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal +Revenue Service (IRS). Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum +extent permitted by law. As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the +additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +*** + + +Example command-line FTP session: + +ftp ftp.ibiblio.org +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States +copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by +Bronwyn Margaret Evans <bronwyn.evans@student.adelaide.edu.au> + + + + + +ANTONINA +OR, THE FALL OF ROME + +by WILKIE COLLINS + + + + +PREFACE + +In preparing to compose a fiction founded on history, the writer of +these pages thought it no necessary requisite of such a work that the +principal characters appearing in it should be drawn from the historical +personages of the period. On the contrary, he felt that some very +weighty objections attached to this plan of composition. He knew well +that it obliged a writer to add largely from invention to what was +actually known--to fill in with the colouring of romantic fancy the bare +outline of historic fact--and thus to place the novelist's fiction in +what he could not but consider most unfavourable contrast to the +historian's truth. He was further by no means convinced that any story +in which historical characters supplied the main agents, could be +preserved in its fit unity of design and restrained within its due +limits of development, without some falsification or confusion of +historical dates--a species of poetical licence of which he felt no +disposition to avail himself, as it was his main anxiety to make his +plot invariably arise and proceed out of the great events of the era +exactly in the order in which they occurred. + +Influenced, therefore, by these considerations, he thought that by +forming all his principal characters from imagination, he should be able +to mould them as he pleased to the main necessities of the story; to +display them, without any impropriety, as influenced in whatever manner +appeared most strikingly interesting by its minor incidents; and +further, to make them, on all occasions, without trammel or hindrance, +the practical exponents of the spirit of the age, of all the various +historical illustrations of the period, which the Author's researches +among conflicting but equally important authorities had enabled him to +garner up, while, at the same time, the appearance of verisimilitude +necessary to an historical romance might, he imagined, be successfully +preserved by the occasional introduction of the living characters of the +era, in those portions of the plot comprising events with which they had +been remarkably connected. + +On this plan the recent work has been produced. + + +To the fictitious characters alone is committed the task of representing +the spirit of the age. The Roman emperor, Honorius, and the Gothic king, +Alaric, mix but little personally in the business of the story--only +appearing in such events, and acting under such circumstances, as the +records of history strictly authorise; but exact truth in respect to +time, place, and circumstance is observed in every historical event +introduced in the plot, from the period of the march of the Gothic +invaders over the Alps to the close of the first barbarian blockade of +Rome. + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER 1. GOISVINTHA. + +CHAPTER 2. THE COURT. + +CHAPTER 3. ROME. + +CHAPTER 4. THE CHURCH. + +CHAPTER 5. ANTONINA. + +CHAPTER 6. AN APPRENTICESHIP TO THE TEMPLE. + +CHAPTER 7. THE BED-CHAMBER. + +CHAPTER 8. THE GOTHS. + +CHAPTER 9. THE TWO INTERVIEWS. + +CHAPTER 10. THE RIFT IN THE WALL. + +CHAPTER 11. GOISVINTHA'S RETURN. + +CHAPTER 12. THE PASSAGE OF THE WALL. + +CHAPTER 13. THE HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS. + +CHAPTER 14. THE FAMINE. + +CHAPTER 15. THE CITY AND THE GODS. + +CHAPTER 16. LOVE MEETINGS. + +CHAPTER 17. THE HUNS. + +CHAPTER 18. THE FARM-HOUSE. + +CHAPTER 19. THE GUARDIAN RESTORED. + +CHAPTER 20. THE BREACH REPASSED. + +CHAPTER 21. FATHER AND CHILD. + +CHAPTER 22. THE BANQUET OF FAMINE. + +CHAPTER 23. THE LAST EFFORTS OF THE BESIEGED. + +CHAPTER 24. THE GRAVE AND THE CAMP. + +CHAPTER 25. THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH. + +CHAPTER 26. RETRIBUTION. + +CHAPTER 27. THE VIGIL OF HOPE. + +THE CONCLUSION. 'UBI THESAURUS IBI COR.' + + + +CHAPTER 1. GOISVINTHA. + +The mountains forming the range of Alps which border on the north- +eastern confines of Italy, were, in the autumn of the year 408, already +furrowed in numerous directions by the tracks of the invading forces of +those northern nations generally comprised under the appellation of +Goths. + +In some places these tracks were denoted on either side by fallen trees, +and occasionally assumed, when half obliterated by the ravages of +storms, the appearance of desolate and irregular marshes. In other +places they were less palpable. Here, the temporary path was entirely +hidden by the incursions of a swollen torrent; there, it was faintly +perceptible in occasional patches of soft ground, or partly traceable by +fragments of abandoned armour, skeletons of horses and men, and remnants +of the rude bridges which had once served for passage across a river or +transit over a precipice. + +Among the rocks of the topmost of the range of mountains immediately +overhanging the plains of Italy, and presenting the last barrier to the +exertions of a traveller or the march of an invader, there lay, at the +beginning of the fifth century, a little lake. Bounded on three sides +by precipices, its narrow banks barren of verdure or habitations, and +its dark and stagnant waters brightened but rarely by the presence of +the lively sunlight, this solitary spot--at all times mournful-- +presented, on the autumn of the day when our story commences, an aspect +of desolation at once dismal to the eye and oppressive to the heart. + +It was near noon; but no sun appeared in the heaven. The dull clouds, +monotonous in colour and form, hid all beauty in the firmament, and shed +heavy darkness on the earth. Dense, stagnant vapours clung to the +mountain summits; from the drooping trees dead leaves and rotten +branches sunk, at intervals, on the oozy soil, or whirled over the +gloomy precipice; and a small steady rain fell, slow and unintermitting, +upon the deserts around. Standing upon the path which armies had once +trodden, and which armies were still destined to tread, and looking +towards the solitary lake, you heard, at first, no sound but the regular +dripping of the rain-drops from rock to rock; you saw no prospect but +the motionless waters at your feet, and the dusky crags which shadowed +them from above. When, however, impressed by the mysterious loneliness +of the place, the eye grew more penetrating and the ear more attentive, +a cavern became apparent in the precipices round the lake; and, in the +intervals of the heavy rain-drops, were faintly perceptible the sounds +of a human voice. + +The mouth of the cavern was partly concealed by a large stone, on which +were piled some masses of rotten brushwood, as if for the purpose of +protecting any inhabitant it might contain from the coldness of the +atmosphere without. Placed at the eastward boundary of the lake, this +strange place of refuge commanded a view not only of the rugged path +immediately below it, but of a large plot of level ground at a short +distance to the west, which overhung a second and lower range of rocks. +From this spot might be seen far beneath, on days when the atmosphere +was clear, the olive grounds that clothed the mountain's base, and +beyond, stretching away to the distant horizon, the plains of fated +Italy, whose destiny of defeat and shame was now hastening to its dark +and fearful accomplishment. + +The cavern, within, was low and irregular in form. From its rugged +walls the damp oozed forth upon its floor of decayed moss. Lizards and +noisome animals had tenanted its comfortless recesses undisturbed, until +the period we have just described, when their miserable rights were +infringed on for the first time by human intruders. + +A woman crouched near the entrance of the place. More within, on the +driest part of the ground, lay a child asleep. Between them were +scattered some withered branches and decayed leaves, which were arranged +as if to form a fire. In many parts this scanty collection of fuel was +slightly blackened; but, wetted as it was by the rain, all efforts to +light it permanently had evidently been fruitless. + +The woman's head was bent forwards, and her face, hid in her hands, +rested on her knees. At intervals she muttered to herself in a hoarse, +moaning voice. A portion of her scanty clothing had been removed to +cover the child. What remained on her was composed, partly of skins of +animals, partly of coarse cotton cloth. In many places this miserable +dress was marked with blood, and her long, flaxen hair bore upon its +dishevelled locks the same ominous and repulsive stain. + +The child seemed scarcely four years of age, and showed on his pale, +thin face all the peculiarities of his Gothic origin. His features +seemed to have been once beautiful, both in expression and form; but a +deep wound, extending the whole length of his cheek, had now deformed +him for ever. He shivered and trembled in his sleep, and every now and +then mechanically stretched forth his little arms towards the dead cold +branches that were scattered before him. + +Suddenly a large stone became detached from the rock in a distant part +of the cavern, and fell noisily to the ground. At this sound he woke +with a scream--raised himself--endeavoured to advance towards the woman, +and staggered backward against the side of the cave. A second wound in +the leg had wreaked that destruction on his vigour which the first had +effected on his beauty. He was a cripple. + +At the instant of his awakening the woman had started up. She now +raised him from the ground, and taking some herbs from her bosom, +applied them to his wounded cheek. By this action her dress became +discomposed: it was stiff at the top with coagulated blood, which had +evidently flowed from a cut in her neck. + +All her attempts to compose the child were in vain; he moaned and wept +piteously, muttering at intervals his disjointed exclamations of +impatience at the coldness of the place and the agony of his recent +wounds. Speechless and tearless the wretched woman looked vacantly down +on his face. There was little difficulty in discerning from that fixed, +distracted gaze the nature of the tie that bound the mourning woman to +the suffering boy. The expression of rigid and awful despair that +lowered in her fixed, gloomy eyes, the livid paleness that discoloured +her compressed lips, the spasms that shook her firm, commanding form, +mutely expressing in the divine eloquence of human emotion that between +the solitary pair there existed the most intimate of earth's +relationships--the connection of mother and child. + +For some time no change occurred in the woman's demeanour. At last, as +if struck by some sudden suspicion, she rose, and clasping the child in +one arm, displaced with the other the brushwood at the entrance of her +place of refuge, cautiously looking forth on all that the mists left +visible of the western landscape. After a short survey she drew back as +if reassured by the unbroken solitude of the place, and turning towards +the lake, looked down upon the black waters at her feet. + +'Night has succeeded to night,' she muttered gloomily, 'and has brought +no succour to my body, and no hope to my heart! Mile on mile have I +journeyed, and danger is still behind, and loneliness for ever before. +The shadow of death deepens over the boy; the burden of anguish grows +weightier than I can bear. For me, friends are murdered, defenders are +distant, possessions are lost. The God of the Christian priests has +abandoned us to danger and deserted us in woe. It is for me to end the +struggle for us both. Our last refuge has been in this place--our +sepulchre shall be here as well!' + +With one last look at the cold and comfortless sky, she advanced to the +very edge of the lake's precipitous bank. Already the child was raised +in her arms, and her body bent to accomplish successfully the fatal +spring, when a sound in the east--faint, distant, and fugitive--caught +her ear. In an instant her eye brightened, her chest heaved, her cheek +flushed. She exerted the last relics of her wasted strength to gain a +prominent position upon a ledge of the rocks behind her, and waited in +an agony of expectation for a repetition of that magic sound. + + +In a moment more she heard it again--for the child, stupefied with +terror at the action that had accompanied her determination to plunge +with him into the lake, now kept silence, and she could listen +undisturbed. To unpractised ears the sound that so entranced her would +have been scarcely audible. Even the experienced traveller would have +thought it nothing more than the echo of a fallen stone among the rocks +in the eastward distance. But to her it was no unimportant sound, for +it gave the welcome signal of deliverance and delight. + +As the hour wore on, it came nearer and nearer, tossed about by the +sportive echoes, and now clearly betraying that its origin was, as she +had at first divined, the note of the Gothic trumpet. Soon the distant +music ceased, and was succeeded by another sound, low and rumbling, as +of an earthquake afar off or a rising thunderstorm, and changing, ere +long, to a harsh confused noise, like the rustling of a mighty wind +through whole forests of brushwood. + +At this instant the woman lost all command over herself; her former +patience and caution deserted her; reckless of danger, she placed the +child upon the ledge on which she had been standing; and, though +trembling in every limb, succeeded in mounting so much higher on the +crag as to gain a fissure near the top of the rock, which commanded an +uninterrupted view of the vast tracts of uneven ground leading in an +easterly direction to the next range of precipices and ravines. + +One after another the long minutes glided on, and, though much was still +audible, nothing was yet to be seen. At length the shrill sound of the +trumpet again rang through the dull, misty air, and the next instant the +advance guard of an army of Goths emerged from the distant woods. + +Then, after an interval, the multitudes of the main body thronged +through every outlet in the trees, and spread in dusky masses over the +desert ground that lay between the woods and the rocks about the borders +of the lake. The front ranks halted, as if to communicate with the +crowds of the rearguard and the stragglers among the baggage waggons, +who still poured forth, apparently in interminable hosts, from the +concealment of the distant trees. The advanced troops, evidently with +the intention of examining the roads, still marched rapidly on, until +they gained the foot of the ascent leading to the crags to which the +woman still clung, and from which, with eager attention, she still +watched their movements. + +Placed in a situation of the extremest peril, her strength was her only +preservative against the danger of slipping from her high and narrow +elevation. Hitherto the moral excitement of expectation had given her +the physical power necessary to maintain her position; but just as the +leaders of the guard arrived at the cavern, her over-wrought energies +suddenly deserted her; her hands relaxed their grasp; she tottered, and +would have sunk backwards to instant destruction, had not the skins +wrapped about her bosom and waist become entangled with a point of one +of the jagged rocks immediately around her. Fortunately--for she could +utter no cry--the troops halted at this instant to enable their horses +to gain breath. Two among them at once perceived her position and +detected her nation. They mounted the rocks; and, while one possessed +himself of the child, the other succeeded in rescuing the mother and +bearing her safely to the ground. + +The snorting of horses, the clashing of weapons, the confusion of loud, +rough voices, which now startled the native silence of the solitary +lake, and which would have bewildered and overwhelmed most persons in +the woman's exhausted condition, seemed, on the contrary, to reassure +her feelings and reanimate her powers. She disengaged herself from her +preserver's support, and taking her child in her arms, advanced towards +a man of gigantic stature, whose rich armour sufficiently announced that +his position in the army was one of command. + +'I am Goisvintha,' said she, in a firm, calm voice--'sister to +Hermanric. I have escaped from the massacre of the hostages of Aquileia +with one child. Is my brother with the army of the king?' + + +This declaration produced a marked change in the bystanders. The looks +of indifference or curiosity which they had at first cast on the +fugitive, changed to the liveliest expression of wonder and respect. +The chieftain whom she had addressed raised the visor of his helmet so +as to uncover his face, answered her question in the affirmative, and +ordered two soldiers to conduct her to the temporary encampment of the +main army in the rear. As she turned to depart, an old man advanced, +leaning on his long, heavy sword, and accosted her thus-- + +'I am Withimer, whose daughter was left hostage with the Romans in +Aquileia. Is she of the slain or of the escaped?' + +'Her bones rot under the city walls,' was the answer. 'The Romans made +of her a feast for the dogs.' + +No word or tear escaped the old warrior. He turned in the direction of +Italy; but, as he looked downwards towards the plains, his brow lowered, +and his hands tightened mechanically round the hilt of his enormous +weapon. + +The same gloomy question was propounded to Goisvintha by the two men who +guided her to the army that had been asked by their aged comrade. It +received the same terrible answer, which was borne with the same stern +composure, and followed by the same ominous glance in the direction of +Italy, as in the instance of the veteran Withimer. + +Leading the horse that carried the exhausted woman with the utmost care, +and yet with wonderful rapidity, down the paths which they had so +recently ascended, the men in a short space of time reached the place +where the army had halted, and displayed to Goisvintha, in all the +majesty of numbers and repose, the vast martial assemblage of the +warriors of the North. + +No brightness gleamed from their armour; no banners waved over their +heads; no music sounded among their ranks. Backed by the dreary woods, +which still disgorged unceasing additions to the warlike multitude +already encamped; surrounded by the desolate crags which showed dim, +wild, and majestic through the darkness of the mist; covered with the +dusky clouds which hovered motionless over the barren mountain tops, and +poured their stormy waters on the uncultivated plains--all that the +appearance of the Goths had of solemnity in itself was in awful harmony +with the cold and mournful aspect that the face of Nature had assumed. +Silent--menacing--dark,--the army looked the fit embodiment of its +leader's tremendous purpose--the subjugation of Rome. + +Conducting Goisvintha quickly through the front files of warriors, her +guides, pausing at a spot of ground which shelved upwards at right +angles with the main road from the woods, desired her to dismount; and +pointing to the group that occupied the place, said, 'Yonder is Alaric +the king, and with him is Hermanric thy brother.' + +At whatever point of view it could have been regarded, the assemblage of +persons thus indicated to Goisvintha must have arrested inattention +itself. Near a confused mass of weapons, scattered on the ground, +reclined a group of warriors apparently listening to the low, muttered +conversation of three men of great age, who rose above them, seated on +pieces of rock, and whose long white hair, rough skin dresses, and lean +tottering forms appeared in strong contrast with the iron-clad and +gigantic figures of their auditors beneath. Above the old men, on the +highroad, was one of Alaric's waggons; and on the heaps of baggage piled +against its clumsy wheels had been chosen resting-place of the future +conqueror of Rome. The top of the vehicle seemed absolutely teeming +with a living burden. Perched in every available nook and corner were +women and children of all ages, and weapons and live stock of all +varieties. Now, a child--lively, mischievous, inquisitive--peered forth +over the head of a battering-ram. Now, a lean, hungry sheep advanced his +inquiring nostrils sadly to the open air, and displayed by the movement +the head of a withered old woman pillowed on his woolly flanks. Here, +appeared a young girl struggling, half entombed in shields. There, +gasped an emaciated camp-follower, nearly suffocated in heaps of furs. +The whole scene, with its background of great woods, drenched in a +vapour of misty rain, with its striking contrasts at one point and its +solemn harmonies at another, presented a vast combination of objects +that either startled or awed--a gloomy conjunction of the menacing and +the sublime. + + +Bidding Goisvintha wait near the waggon, one of her conductors +approached and motioned aside a young man standing near the king. As +the warrior rose to obey the demand, he displayed, with all the physical +advantages of his race, and ease and elasticity of movement unusual +among the men of his nation. At the instant when he joined the soldier +who had accosted him, his face was partially concealed by an immense +helmet, crowned with a boar's head, the mouth of which, forced open at +death, gaped wide, as if still raging for prey. But the man had +scarcely stated his errand, when he started violently, removed the grim +appendage of war, and hastened bare-headed to the side of the waggon +where Goisvintha awaited his approach. + +The instant he was beheld by the woman, she hastened to meet him; placed +the wounded child in his arms, and greeted him with these words:-- + +'Your brother served in the armies of Rome when our people were at peace +with the Empire. Of his household and his possessions this is all that +the Romans have left!' + +She ceased, and for an instant the brother and sister regarded each +other in touching and expressive silence. Though, in addition to the +general characteristics of country, the countenances of the two +naturally bore the more particular evidences of community of blood, all +resemblance between them at this instant--so wonderful is the power of +expression over feature--had utterly vanished. The face and manner of +the young man (he had numbered only twenty years) expressed a deep +sorrow, manly in its stern tranquility, sincere in its perfect innocence +of display. As he looked on the child, his blue eyes--bright, piercing, +and lively--softened like a woman's; his lips, hardly hidden by his +short beard, closed and quivered; and his chest heaved under the armour +that lay upon its noble proportions. There was in this simple, +speechless, tearless melancholy--this exquisite consideration of +triumphant strength for suffering weakness--something almost sublime; +opposed as it was to the emotions of malignity and despair that appeared +in Goisvintha's features. The ferocity that gleamed from her dilated, +glaring eyes, the sinister markings that appeared round her pale and +parted lips, the swelling of the large veins, drawn to their extremest +point of tension on her lofty forehead, so distorted her countenance, +that the brother and sister, as they stood together, seemed in +expression to have changed sexes for the moment. From the warrior came +pity for the sufferer; from the mother, indignation for the offence. + +Arousing himself from his melancholy contemplation of the child, and as +yet answering not a word to Goisvintha, Hermanric mounted the waggon, +and placing the last of his sister's offspring in the arms of a decrepid +old woman, who sat brooding over some bundles of herbs spread out upon +her lap, addressed her thus:-- + +'These wounds are from the Romans. Revive the child, and you shall be +rewarded from the spoils of Rome.' + +'Ha! ha! ha!' chuckled the crone; 'Hermanric is an illustrious warrior, +and shall be obeyed. Hermanric is great, for his arm can slay; but +Brunechild is greater than he, for her cunning can cure!' + +As if anxious to verify this boast before the warrior's eyes, the old +woman immediately began the preparation of the necessary dressings from +her store of herbs; but Hermanric waited not to be a witness of her +skill. With one final look at the pale, exhausted child, he slowly +descended from the waggon, and approaching Goisvintha, drew her towards +a sheltered position near the ponderous vehicle. Here he seated himself +by her side, prepared to listen with the deepest attention to her +recital of the scenes of terror and suffering through which she had so +recently passed. + + +'You,' she began, 'born while our nation was at peace; transported from +the field of war to those distant provinces where tranquility still +prevailed; preserved throughout your childhood from the chances of +battle; advanced to the army in your youth, only when its toils are past +and its triumphs are already at hand--you alone have escaped the +miseries of our people, to partake in the glory of their approaching +revenge. + +'Hardly had a year passed since you had been removed from the +settlements of the Goths when I wedded Priulf. The race of triflers to +whom he was then allied, spite of their Roman haughtiness, deferred to +him in their councils, and confessed among their legions that he was +brave. I saw myself with joy the wife of a warrior of renown; I +believed, in my pride, that I was destined to be the mother of a race of +heroes; when suddenly there came news to us that the Emperor Theodosius +was dead. Then followed anarchy among the people of the soil, and +outrages on the liberties of their allies, the Goths. Ere long the call +to arms arose among our nation. Soon our waggons of war were rolled +across the frozen Danube; our soldiers quitted the Roman camp; our +husbandmen took their weapons from their cottage walls; we that were +women prepared with our children to follow our husbands to the field; +and Alaric, the king, came forth as the leader of our hosts. + +'We marched upon the territories of the Greeks. But how shall I tell +you of the events of those years of war that followed our invasion; of +the glory of our victories; of the hardships of our defences; of the +miseries of our retreats; of the hunger that we vanquished; of the +diseases that we endured; of the shameful peace that was finally +ratified, against the wishes of our king! How shall I tell of all this, +when my thoughts are on the massacre from which I have just escaped-- +when these first evils, though once remembered in anguish, are, even +now, forgotten in the superior horrors that ensued! + +'The truce was made. Alaric departed with the remnant of his army, and +encamped at AEmona, on the confines of that land which he had already +invaded, and which he is no prepared to conquer. Between our king and +Stilicho, the general of the Romans, passed many messages, for the +leaders disputed on the terms of the peace that should be finally +ordained. Meanwhile, as an earnest of the Gothic faith, bands of our +warriors, and among them Priulf, were despatched into Italy to be allies +once more of the legions of Rome, and with them they took their wives +and their children, to be detained as hostages in the cities throughout +the land. + +'I and my children were conducted to Aquileia. In a dwelling within the +city we were lodged with our possessions. It was night when I took +leave of Priulf, my husband, at the gates. I watched him as he departed +with the army, and, when the darkness hid him from my eyes, I re-entered +the town; from which I am the only woman of our nation who has escaped +alive.' + +As she pronounced these last words, Goisvintha's manner, which had +hitherto been calm and collected, began to change: she paused abruptly +in her narrative, her head sunk upon her breast, her frame quivered as +if convulsed with violent agony. When she turned towards Hermanric +after an interval of silence to address him again, the same malignant +expression lowered over her countenance that had appeared on it when she +presented to him her wounded child; her voice became broken, hoarse, and +unfeminine; and pressing closely to the young man's side, she laid her +trembling fingers on his arm, as if to bespeak his most undivided +attention. + +'Time grew on,' she continued, 'and still there came no tidings that the +peace was finally secured. We, that were hostages, lived separate from +the people of the town; for we felt enmity towards each other even then. +In my captivity there was no employment for me but patience--no pursuit +but hope. Alone with my children, I was wont to look forth over the sea +towards the camp of our king; but day succeeded to day, and his warriors +appeared not on the plains; nor did Priulf return with the legions to +encamp before the gates of the town. So I mourned in my loneliness; for +my heart yearned towards the homes of my people; I longed once more to +look upon my husband's face, and to behold again the ranks of our +warriors, and the majesty of their battle array. + + +'But already, when the great day of despair was quickly drawing near, a +bitter outrage was preparing for me alone. The men who had hitherto +watched us were changed, and of the number of the new guards was one who +cast on me the eyes of lust. Night after night he poured his entreaties +into my unwilling ear; for, in his vanity and shamelessness, he believed +that I, who was Gothic and the wife of a Goth, might be won by him whose +parentage was but Roman! Soon from prayers he rose to threats; and one +night, appearing before me with smiles, he cried out that Stilicho, +whose desire was to make peace with the Goths, had suffered, for his +devotion to our people, the penalty of death; that a time of ruin was +approaching for us all, and that he alone--whom I despised--could +preserve me from the anger of Rome. As he ceased he approached me; but +I, who had been in many battle-fields, felt no dread at the prospect of +war, and I spurned him with laughter from my presence. + +'Then, for a few nights more, my enemy approached me not again. Until +one evening, as I sat on the terrace before the house, with the child +that you have beheld, a helmet-crest suddenly fell at my feet, and a +voice cried to me from the garden beneath: 'Priulf thy husband has been +slain in a quarrel by the soldiers of Rome! Already the legions with +whom he served are on their way to the town; for a massacre of the +hostages is ordained. Speak but the word, and I can save thee even +yet!' + +'I looked on the crest. It was bloody, and it was his! For an instant +my heart writhed within me as I thought on my warrior whom I had loved! +Then, as I heard the messenger of death retire, cursing, from his +lurking-place in the garden, I recollected that now my children had none +but their mother to defend them, and that peril was preparing for them +from the enemies of their race. Besides the little one in my arms, I +had two that were sleeping in the house. As I looked round, bewildered +and in despair, to see if a chance were left us to escape, there rang +through the evening stillness the sound of a trumpet, and the tramp of +armed men was audible in the street beneath. Then, from all quarters of +the town rose, as one sudden sound, the shrieks of women and the yells +of men. Already, as I rushed towards my children's beds, the fiends of +Rome had mounted the stairs, and waved in bloody triumph their reeking +swords! I gained the steps; and, as I looked up, they flung down at me +the body of my youngest child. O Hermanric! Hermanric! it was the most +beautiful and the most beloved! What the priests say that God should be +to us, that, the fairest one of my offspring, was to me! As I saw it +mutilated and dead--I, who but an hour before had hushed it on my bosom +to rest!--my courage forsook me, and when the murderers advanced on me I +staggered and fell. I felt the sword-point enter my neck; I saw the +dagger gleam over the child in my arms; I heard the death-shriek of the +last victim above; and then my senses failed me, and I could listen and +move no more! + +'Long must I have lain motionless at the foot of those fatal stairs; for +when I awoke from my trance the noises in the city were hushed, and from +her place in the firmament the moon shone softly into the deserted +house. I listened, to be certain that I was alone with my murdered +children. No sound was in the dwelling; the assassins had departed, +believing that their labour of blood was ended when I fell beneath their +swords; and I was able to crawl forth in security, and to look my last +upon my offspring that the Romans had slain. The child that I held to +my breast still breathed. I stanched with some fragments of my garment +the wounds that he had received, and laying him gently by the stairs--in +the moonlight, so that I might see him when he moved--I groped in the +shadow of the wall for my first murdered and my last born; for that +youngest and fairest one of my offspring whom they had slaughtered +before my eyes! When I touched the corpse, it was wet with blood; I +felt its face, and it was cold beneath my hands; I raised its body in my +arms, and its limbs already were rigid in death! Then I thought of the +eldest child, who lay dead in the chamber above. But my strength was +failing me fast. I had an infant who might yet be preserved; and I knew +that if morning dawned on me in the house, all chances of escape were +lost for ever. So, though my heart was cold within me at leaving my +child's corpse to the mercy of the Romans, I took up the dead and the +wounded one in my arms, and went forth into the garden, and thence +towards the seaward quarter of the town. + + +'I passed through the forsaken streets. Sometimes I stumbled against +the body of a child--sometimes the moonlight showed me the death-pale +face of some woman of my nation whom I had loved, stretched upward to +the sky; but I still advanced until I gained the wall of the town, and +heard on the other side the waters of the river running onward to the +Port of Aquileia and the sea. + +'I looked around. The gates I knew were guarded and closed. By the +wall was the only prospect of escape; but its top was high and its sides +were smooth when I felt them with my hands. Despairing and wearied, I +laid my burdens down where they were hidden by the shade, and walked +forward a few paces, for to remain still was a torment that I could not +endure. At a short distance I saw a soldier sleeping against the wall +of a house. By his side was a ladder placed against the window. As I +looked up I beheld the head of a corpse resting on its top. The victim +must have been lately slain, for her blood still dripped slowly down +into an empty wine-pot that stood within the soldier's reach. When I +saw the ladder, hope revived within me. I removed it to the wall--I +mounted, and laid my dead child on the great stones at its top--I +returned, and placed my wounded boy by the corpse. Slowly, and with +many efforts, I dragged the ladder upwards, until from its own weight +one end fell to the ground on the other side. As I had risen so I +descended. In the sand of the river-bank I scraped a hole, and buried +there the corpse of the infant; for I could carry the weight of two no +longer. Then with my wounded child I reached some caverns that lay +onward near the seashore. There throughout the next day I lay hidden-- +alone with my sufferings of body and my affliction of heart--until the +night came on, when I set forth on my journey to the mountains; for I +knew that at Aemona, in the camp of the warriors of my people, lay the +only refuge that was left to me on earth. Feebly and slowly, hiding by +day an d travelling by night, I kept on my way until I gained that lake +among the rocks, where the guards of the army came forward and rescued +me from death.' + +She ceased. Throughout the latter portion of her narrative her +demeanour had been calm and sad; and as she dwelt, with the painful +industry of grief, over each minute circumstance connected with the +bereavements she had sustained, her voice softened to those accents of +quiet mournfulness, which make impressive the most simple words, and +render musical the most unsteady tones. It seemed as if those tenderer +and kinder emotions, which the attractions of her offspring had once +generated in her character, had at the bidding of memory become +revivified in her manner while she lingered over the recital of their +deaths. For a brief space of time she looked fixedly and anxiously upon +the countenance of Hermanric, which was half averted from her, and +expressed a fierce and revengeful gloom that sat unnaturally on it noble +lineaments. Then turning from him, she buried her face in her hands, +and made no effort more to attract him to attention or incite him to +reply. + +This solemn silence kept by the bereaved woman and the brooding man had +lasted but a few minutes, when a harsh, trembling voice was heard from +the top of the waggon, calling at intervals, 'Hermanric! Hermanric!' + +At first the young man remained unmoved by those discordant and +repulsive tones. They repeated his name, however, so often and so +perseveringly, that he noticed them ere long; and rising suddenly, as if +impatient of the interruption, advanced towards the side of the waggon +from which the mysterious summons appeared to come. + +As he looked up towards the vehicle the voice ceased, and he saw that +the old woman to whom he had confided the child was the person who had +called him so hurriedly but a few moments before. Her tottering body, +clothed in bear-skins, was bent forward over a large triangular shield +of polished brass, on which she leant her lank, shrivelled arms. Her +head shook with a tremulous, palsied action; a leer, half smile, half +grimace, distended her withered lips and lightened her sunken eyes. +Sinister, cringing, repulsive; her face livid with the reflection from +the weapon that was her support, and her figure scarcely human in the +rugged garments that encompassed its gaunt proportions, she seemed a +deformity set up by evil spirits to mock the majesty of the human form-- +an embodied satire on all that is most deplorable in infirmity and most +disgusting in age. + + +The instant she discerned Hermanric, she stretched her body out still +farther over the shield; and pointing to the interior of the waggon, +muttered softly that one fearful and expressive word--dead! + +Without waiting for any further explanation, the young Goth mounted the +vehicle, and gaining the old woman's side, saw stretched on her +collection of herbs--beautiful in the sublime and melancholy stillness +of death--the corpse of Goisvintha's last child. + +'Is Hermanric wroth?' whined the hag, quailing before the steady, +rebuking glance of the young man. 'When I said that Brunechild was +greater than Hermanric, I lied. It is Hermanric that is most powerful! +See, the dressings were placed on the wounds; and, though the child has +died, shall not the treasures that were promised me be mine? I have +done what I could, but my cunning begins to desert me, for I am old-- +old--old! I have seen my generation pass away! Aha! I am old, +Hermanric, I am old!' + +When the young warrior looked on the child, he saw that the hag had +spoken truth, and that the victim had died from no fault of hers. Pale +and serene, the countenance of the boy showed how tranquil had been his +death. The dressings had been skilfully composed and carefully applied +to his wounds, but suffering and privation had annihilated the +feebleness of human resistance in their march toward the last dread +goal, and the treachery of Imperial Rome had once more triumphed as was +its wont, and triumphed over a child! + +As Hermanric descended with the corpse Goisvintha was the first object +that met his eyes when he alighted on the ground. The mother received +from him the lifeless burden without an exclamation or a tear. That +emanation from her former and kinder self which had been produced by the +closing recital of her sufferings was henceforth, at the signal of her +last child's death, extinguished in her for ever! + +'His wounds had crippled him,' said the young man gloomily. 'He could +never have fought with the warriors! Our ancestors slew themselves when +they were no longer vigorous for the fight. It is better that he has +died!' + +'Vengeance!' gasped Goisvintha, pressing up closely to his side. 'We +will have vengeance for the massacre of Aquileia! When blood is +streaming in the palaces of Rome, remember my murdered children, and +hasten not to sheathe thy sword!' + +At this instant, as if to rouse still further the fierce determination +that appeared already in the face of the young Goth, the voice of Alaric +was heard commanding the army to advance. Hermanric started, and drew +the panting woman after him to the resting-place of the king. There, +armed at all points, and rising, by his superior stature, high above the +throng around him, stood the dreaded captain of the Gothic hosts. His +helmet was raised so as to display his clear blue eyes gleaming over the +multitude around him; he pointed with his sword in the direction of +Italy; and as rank by rank the men started to their arms, and prepared +exultingly for the march, his lips parted with a smile of triumph, and +ere he moved to accompany them he spoke thus:-- + +'Warriors of the Goths, our halt is a short one among the mountains; but +let not the weary repine, for the glorious resting-place that awaits our +labours is the city of Rome! The curse of Odin, when in the infancy of +our nation he retire before the myriads of the Empire, it is our +privilege to fulfil! That future destruction which he denounced against +Rome, it is ours to effect! Remember your hostages that the Romans have +slain; your possessions that the Romans have seized; your trust that the +Romans have betrayed! Remember that I, your king, have within me that +supernatural impulse which never deceives, and which calls to me in a +voice of encouragement--Advance, and the Empire is thine! Assemble the +warriors, and the City of the World shall be delivered to the conquering +Goths! Let us onward without delay! Our prey awaits us! Our triumph is +near! Our vengeance is at hand!' + +He paused; and at that moment the trumpet gave signal for the march. + + +'Up! up!' cried Hermanric, seizing Goisvintha by the arm, and pointing +to the waggon which had already begun to move; 'make ready for the +journey! I will charge myself with the burial of the child. Yet a few +days and our encampment may be before Aquileia. Be patient, and I will +avenge thee in the palaces of Rome!' + +The mighty mass moved. The multitude stretched forth over the barren +ground; and even now the warriors in front of the army might be seen by +those in the rear mounting the last range of passes that lay between the +plains of Italy and the Goths. + + +CHAPTER 2. THE COURT. + +The traveller who so far departs from the ordinary track of tourists in +modern Italy as to visit the city of Ravenna, remembers with +astonishment, as he treads its silent and melancholy streets, and +beholds vineyards and marshes spread over an extent of four miles +between the Adriatic and the town, that this place, now half deserted, +was once the most populous of Roman fortresses; and that where fields +and woods now present themselves to his eyes the fleets of the Empire +once rode securely at anchor, and the merchant of Rome disembarked his +precious cargoes at his warehouse door. + +As the power of Rome declined, the Adriatic, by a strange fatality, +began to desert the fortress whose defence it had hitherto secured. +Coeval with the gradual degeneracy of the people was the gradual +withdrawal of the ocean from the city walls; until, at the beginning of +the sixth century, a grove of pines already appeared where the port of +Augustus once existed. + +At the period of our story--though the sea had even then receded +perceptibly--the ditches round the walls were yet filled, and the canals +still ran through the city in much the same manner as they intersect +Venice at the present time. + +On the morning that we are about to describe, the autumn had advanced +some days since the events mentioned in the preceding chapter. Although +the sun was now high in the eastern horizon, the restlessness produced +by the heat emboldened a few idlers of Ravenna to brave the sultriness +of the atmosphere, in the vain hope of being greeted by a breeze from +the Adriatic as they mounted the seaward ramparts of the town. On +attaining their destined elevation, these sanguine citizens turned their +faces with fruitless and despairing industry towards every point of the +compass, but no breath of air came to reward their perseverance. Nothing +could be more thoroughly suggestive of the undiminished universality of +the heat than the view, in every direction, from the position they then +occupied. The stone houses of the city behind them glowed with a vivid +brightness overpowering to the strongest eyes. The light curtains hung +motionless over the lonely windows. No shadows varied the brilliant +monotony of the walls, or softened the lively glitter on the waters of +the fountains beneath. Not a ripple stirred the surface of the broad +channel, that now replaced the ancient harbour. Not a breath of wind +unfolded the scorching sails of the deserted vessels at the quay. Over +the marshes in the distance hung a hot, quivering mist; and in the +vineyards, near the town, not a leaf waved upon its slender stem. On +the seaward side lay, vast and level, the prospect of the burning sand; +and beyond it the main ocean--waveless, torpid, and suffused in a flood +of fierce brightness--stretched out to the cloudless horizon that closed +the sunbright view. + + +Within the town, in those streets where the tall houses cast a deep +shadow on the flagstones of the road, the figures of a few slaves might +here and there be seen sleeping against the walls, or gossiping +languidly on the faults of their respective lords. Sometimes an old +beggar might be observed hunting on the well-stocked preserves of his +own body the lively vermin of the South. Sometimes a restless child +crawled from a doorstep to paddle in the stagnant waters of a kennel; +but, with the exception of these doubtful evidences of human industry, +the prevailing characteristic of the few groups of the lowest orders of +the people which appeared in the streets was the most listless and utter +indolence. All that gave splendour to the city at other hours of the +day was at this period hidden from the eye. The elegant courtiers +reclined in their lofty chambers; the guards on duty ensconced +themselves in angles of walls and recesses of porticoes; the graceful +ladies slumbered on perfumed couches in darkened rooms; the gilded +chariots were shut into the carriage-houses; the prancing horses were +confined in the stables; and even the wares in the market-places were +removed from exposure to the sun. It was clear that the luxurious +inhabitants of Ravenna recognised no duties of sufficient importance, +and no pleasures of sufficient attraction, to necessitate the exposure +of their susceptible bodies to the noontide heat. + +To give the reader some idea of the manner in which the indolent +patricians of the Court loitered away their noon, and to satisfy, at the +same time, the exigencies attaching to the conduct of this story, it is +requisite to quit the lounging-places of the plebeians in the streets +for the couches of the nobles in the Emperor's palace. + +Passing through the massive entrance gates, crossing the vast hall of +the Imperial abode, with its statues, its marbles, and its guards in +attendance, and thence ascending the noble staircase, the first object +that might on this occasion have attracted the observer, when he gained +the approaches to the private apartments, was a door at an extremity of +the corridor, richly carved and standing half open. At this spot were +grouped some fifteen or twenty individuals, who conversed by signs, and +maintained in all their movements the most decorous and complete +silence. Sometimes one of the party stole on tiptoe to the door, and +looked cautiously through, returning almost instantaneously, and +expressing to his next neighbour, by various grimaces, his immense +interest in the sight he had just beheld. Occasionally there came from +this mysterious chamber sounds resembling the cackling of poultry, +varied now and then by a noise like the falling of a shower of small, +light substances upon a hard floor. Whenever these sounds were audible, +the members of the party outside the door looked round upon each other +and smiled--some sarcastically, some triumphantly. A few among these +patient expectants grasped rolls of vellum in their hands; the rest held +nosegays of rare flowers, or supported in their arms small statues and +pictures in mosaic. Of their number, some were painters and poets, some +orators and philosophers, and some statuaries and musicians. Among such +a motley assemblage of professions, remarkable in all ages of the world +for fostering in their votaries the vice of irritability, it may seem +strange that so quiet and orderly a behaviour should exist as that just +described. But it is to be observed that in attending at the palace, +these men of genius made sure at least of outward unanimity among their +ranks, by coming equally prepared with one accomplishment, and equally +animated by one hope: they waited to employ a common agent--flattery; to +attain a common end--gain. + +The chamber thus sacred, even from the intrusion of intellectual +inspiration, although richly ornamented, was of no remarkable extent. +At other times the eye might have wandered with delight on the exquisite +plants and flowers, scattered profusely over a noble terrace, to which a +second door in the apartment conducted; but, at the present moment, the +employment of the occupant of the room was of so extraordinary a nature, +that the most attentive observation must have missed all the inferior +characteristics of the place, to settle immediately on its inhabitant +alone. + + +In the midst of a large flock of poultry, which seemed strangely +misplaced on a floor of marble and under a gilded roof, stood a pale, +thin, debilitated youth, magnificently clothed, and holding in his hand +a silver vase filled with grain, which he ever and anon distributed to +the cackling multitude at his feet. Nothing could be more pitiably +effeminate than the appearance of this young man. His eyes were heavy +and vacant, his forehead low and retiring, his cheeks sallow, and his +form curved as if with a premature old age. An unmeaning smile dilated +his thin, colourless lips; and as he looked down on his strange +favourites, he occasionally whispered to them a few broken expressions +of endearment, almost infantine in their simplicity. His whole soul +seemed to be engrossed by the labour of distributing his grain, and he +followed the different movements of the poultry with an earnestness of +attention which seemed almost idiotic in its ridiculous intensity. If +it be asked, why a person so contemptible as this solitary youth has +been introduced with so much care, and described with so much +minuteness, it must be answered, that, though destined to form no +important figure in this work, he played, from his position, a +remarkable part in the great drama on which it is founded--for this +feeder of chickens was no less a person than Honorius, Emperor of Rome. + +It is the very imbecility of this man, at such a time as that we now +write on, which invests his character with a fearful interest in the eye +of posterity. In himself the impersonation of the meanest vices +inherent in the vicious civilisation of his period, to his feebleness +was accorded the terrible responsibility of liberating the long-prisoned +storm whose elements we have attempted to describe in the preceding +chapter. With just intellect enough to be capricious, and just +determination enough to be mischievous, he was an instrument fitted for +the uses of every ambitious villain who could succeed in gaining his +ear. To flatter his puerile tyranny, the infatuated intriguers of the +Court rewarded the heroic Stilicho for the rescue of his country with +the penalty of death, and defrauded Alaric of the moderate concessions +that they had solemnly pledged themselves to perform. To gratify his +vanity, he was paraded in triumph through the streets of Rome for a +victory that others had gained. To pander to his arrogance, by an +exhibition of the vilest privilege of that power which had been +intrusted to him for good, the massacre of the helpless hostages, +confided by Gothic honour to Roman treachery, was unhesitatingly +ordained; and, finally, to soothe the turbulence of his unmanly fears, +the last act of his unscrupulous councillors, ere the Empire fell, was +to authorise his abandoning his people in the hour of peril, careless +who suffered in defenceless Rome, while he was secure in fortified +Ravenna. Such was the man under whom the mightiest of the world's +structures was doomed to totter to its fall! Such was the figure +destined to close a scene which Time and Glory had united to hallow and +adorn! Raised and supported by a superhuman daring, that invested the +nauseous horrors of incessant bloodshed with a rude and appalling +magnificence, the mistress of nations was now fated to sink by the most +ignoble of defeats, under the most abject of tremblers. For this had +the rough old kingdom shaken off its enemies by swarms from its vigorous +arms! For this had the doubtful virtues of the Republic, and the +perilous magnificence of the Empire, perplexed and astonished the world! +In such a conclusion as Honorius ended the dignified barbarities of a +Brutus, the polished splendours of an Augustus, the unearthly atrocities +of a Nero, and the immortal virtues of a Trajan! Vainly, through the +toiling ages, over the ruin of her noblest hearts, and the prostitution +of her grandest intellects, had Rome striven pitilessly onward, grasping +at the shadow--Glory; the fiat had now gone forth that doomed her to +possess herself finally of the substance--Shame! + +When the imperial trifler had exhausted his store of grain, and +satisfied the cravings of his voracious favourites, he was relieved of +his silver vase by two attendants. The flock of poultry was then +ushered out at one door, while the flock of geniuses was ushered in at +the other. + +Leaving the emperor to cast his languid eyes over objects of art for +which he had no admiration, and to open his unwilling ears to +panegyrical orations for which he had no comprehension, we proceed to +introduce the reader to an apartment on the opposite side of the palace, +in which are congregated all the beauty and elegance of his Court. + + +Imagine a room two hundred feet long and proportionably broad. Its +floor is mosaic, wrought into the loveliest patterns. Its sides are +decorated with immense pillars of variegated marble, the recesses formed +by which are occupied by statues, all arranged in exquisite variety of +attitude, so as to appear to be offering to whoever approaches them the +rare flowers which it is the duty of the attendants to place in their +hands. The ceiling is painted in fresco, in patterns and colours +harmonising with those on the mosaic floor. The cornices are of silver, +and decorated with mottoes from the amatory poets of the day, the +letters of which are formed by precious stones. In the middle of the +room is a fountain throwing up streams of perfumed water, and surrounded +by golden aviaries containing birds of all sizes and nations. Three +large windows, placed at the eastern extremity of the apartment, look +out upon the Adriatic, but are covered at this hour, from the outside, +with silk curtains of a delicate green shade, which cast a soft, +luxurious light over every object, but are so thinly woven and so +skilfully arranged that the slightest breath of air which moves without +finds its way immediately to the languid occupants of the Court waiting- +room. The number of these individuals amounts to about fifty or sixty +persons. By far the larger half of the assemblage are women. Their +black hair tastefully braided into various forms, and adorned with +flowers or precious stones, contrasts elegantly with the brilliant +whiteness of the robes in which they are for the most part clothed. Some +of them are occupied in listlessly watching the movements of the birds +in the aviaries; others hold a languid and whispered conversation with +such of the courtiers as happen to be placed near them. The men exhibit +in their dresses a greater variety of colour, and in their occupations a +greater fertility of resource, than the women. Their garments, of the +lightest rose, violet, or yellow tints, diversify fantastically the +monotonous white robes of their gentle companions. Of their +employments, the most conspicuous are playing on the lute, gaming with +dice, teasing their lapdogs, and insulting their parasites. Whatever +their occupation, it is performed with little attention, and less +enthusiasm. Some recline on their couches with closed eyes, as if the +heat made the labour of using their organs of vision too much for them; +others, in the midst of a conversation, suddenly leave a sentence +unfinished, apparently incapacitated by lassitude from giving expression +to the simplest ideas. Every sight in the apartment that attracts the +eye, every sound that gains the ear, expresses a luxurious repose. No +brilliant light mars the pervading softness of the atmosphere; no +violent colour materialises the light, ethereal hues of the dresses; no +sudden noises interrupt the fitful and plaintive notes of the lute, jar +with the soft twittering of the birds in the aviaries, or drown the +still, regular melody of the ladies' voices. All objects, animate and +inanimate, are in harmony with each other. It is a scene of +spiritualised indolence--a picture of dreamy beatitude in the inmost +sanctuary of unruffled repose. + +Amid this assemblage of beauty and nobility, the members of which were +rather to be generally noticed than particularly observed, there was, +however, one individual who, both by the solitary occupation he had +chosen and his accidental position in the room, was personally +remarkable among the listless patricians around him. + +His couch was placed nearer the window than that of any other occupant +of the chamber. Some of his indolent neighbours--especially those of the +gentler sex--occasionally regarded him with mingled looks of admiration +and curiosity; but no one approached him, or attempted to engage him in +conversation. A piece of vellum lay by his side, on which, from time to +time, he traced a few words, and then resumed his reclining position, +apparently absorbed in reflection, and utterly regardless of all the +occupants, male and female, of the imperial apartment. Judging from his +general appearance, he could scarcely be twenty-five years of age. The +conformation of the upper part of his face was thoroughly intellectual-- +the forehead high, broad, and upright; the eyes clear, penetrating, and +thoughtful;--but the lower part was, on the other hand, undeniably +sensual. The lips, full and thick, formed a disagreeable contrast to +the delicate chiselling of the straight Grecian nose; while the +fleshiness of the chin, and the jovial redundancy of the cheeks, were, +in their turn, utterly at variance with the character of the pale, noble +forehead, and the expression of the quick, intelligent eyes. In stature +he was barely of the middle size; but every part of his body was so +perfectly proportioned that he appeared, in any position, taller than he +really was. The upper part of his dress, thrown open from the heat, +partly disclosed the fine statuesque formation of his neck and chest. +His ears, hands, and feet were of that smallness and delicacy which is +held to denote the aristocracy of birth; and there was in his manner +that indescribable combination of unobtrusive dignity and unaffected +elegance, which in all ages and countries, and through all changes of +manners and customs, has rendered the demeanour of its few favoured +possessors the instantaneous interpreter of their social rank. + + +While the patrician was still occupied over his vellum, the following +conversation took place in whispers between two ladies placed near the +situation he occupied. + +'Tell me, Camilla,' said the eldest and stateliest of the two, 'who is +the courtier so occupied in composition? I have endeavoured, I know not +how often, to catch his eye; but the man will look at nothing but his +roll of vellum or the corners of the room.' + +'What, are you so great a stranger in Italy as not to know him!' replied +the other, a lively girl of small delicate form, who fidgeted with +persevering restlessness on her couch, and seemed incapable of giving an +instant's steady attention to any of the objects around her. 'By all +the saints, martyrs, and relics of my uncle the bishop!' + +'Hush! You should not swear!' + +'Not swear! Why, I am making a new collection of oaths, intended solely +for ladies' use! I intend to set the fashion of swearing by them +myself!' + +'But answer my question, I beseech you! Will you never learn to talk on +one subject at a time?' + +'Your question--ah, your question! It was about the Goths?' + +'No, no! It was about that man who is incessantly writing, and will +look at nobody. He is almost as provoking as Camilla herself!' + +'Don't frown so! That man, as you call him, is the senator Vetranio.' + +The lady started. It was evident that Vetranio had a reputation. + +'Yes!' continued the lively Camilla, 'that is the accomplished Vetranio; +but he will be no favourite of yours, for he sometimes swears--swears by +the ancient gods, too, which is forbidden!' + +'He is handsome.' + +'Handsome! he is beautiful! Not a woman in Italy but is languishing for +him!' + +'I have heard that he is clever.' + +'Who has not? He is the author of some of the most celebrated sauces of +the age. Cooks of all nations worship him as an oracle. Then he writes +poetry, and composes music, and paints pictures! And as for +philosophy--he talks it better than my uncle the bishop!' + +'Is he rich?' + +'Ah! my uncle the bishop!--I must tell you how I helped Vetranio to make +a satire on him! When I was staying with him at Rome, I used often to +see a woman in a veil taken across the garden to his study; so, to +perplex him, I asked him who she was. And he frowned and stammered, and +said at first that I was disrespectful; but he told me afterwards that +she was an Arian whom he was labouring to convert. So I thought I +should like to see how this conversion went on, and I hid myself behind +a bookcase. But it is a profound secret; I tell it you in confidence.' + +'I don't care to know it. Tell me about Vetranio.' + +'How ill-natured you are! Oh! I shall never forget how we laughed when +I told Vetranio what I had seen. He took up his writing materials, and +made the satire immediately. The next day all Rome heard of it. My +uncle was speechless with rage! I believe he suspected me; but he gave +up converting the Arian lady, and--' + +'I ask you again--Is Vetranio rich?' + + +'Half Sicily is his. He has immense estates in Africa, olive-grounds in +Syria, and corn-fields in Gaul. I was present at an entertainment he +gave at his villa in Sicily. He fitted up one of his vessels from the +descriptions of the furnishing of Cleopatra's galley, and made his +slaves swim after us as attendant Tritons. Oh! it was magnificent!' + +'I should like to know him.' + +'You should see his cats! He has a perfect legion of them at his villa. +Twelve slaves are employed to attend on them. He is mad about cats, and +declares that the old Egyptians were right to worship them. He told me +yesterday, that when his largest cat is dead he will canonise her, in +spite of the Christians! And then he is so kind to his slaves! They +are never whipped or punished, except when they neglect or disfigure +themselves; for Vetranio will allow nothing that is ugly or dirty to +come near him. You must visit his banqueting-hall in Rome. It is +perfection!' + +'But why is he here?' + +'He has come to Ravenna, charged with some secret message from the +Senate, and has presented a rare breed of chickens to that foolish--' + +'Hush! you may be overheard!' + +'Well!--to that wise emperor of ours! Ah! the palace has been so +pleasant since he has been here!' + +At this instant the above dialogue--from the frivolity of which the +universally-learned readers of modern times will, we fear, recoil with +contempt--was interrupted by a movement on the part of its hero which +showed that his occupation was at an end. With the elaborate +deliberation of a man who disdains to exhibit himself as liable to be +hurried by any mortal affair, Vetranio slowly folded up the vellum he +had now filled with writing, and depositing it in his bosom, made a sign +to a slave who happened to be then passing near him with a dish of +fruit. + +Having received his message, the slave retired to the entrance of the +apartment, and beckoning to a man who stood outside the door, motioned +him to approach Vetranio's couch. + +This individual immediately hurried across the room to the window where +the elegant Roman awaited him. Not the slightest description of him is +needed; for he belonged to a class with which moderns are as well +acquainted as ancients--a class which has survived all changes of +nations and manners--a class which came in with the first rich man in +the world, and will only go out with the last. In a word, he was a +parasite. + +He enjoyed, however, one great superiority over his modern successors: +in his day flattery was a profession--in ours it has sunk to a pursuit. + +'I shall leave Ravenna this evening,' said Vetranio. + +The parasite made three low bows and smiled ecstatically. + +'You will order my travelling equipage to be at the palace gates an hour +before sunset.' + +The parasite declared he should never forget the honour of the +commission, and left the room. + +The sprightly Camilla, who had overheard Vetranio's command, jumped off +her couch, as soon as the parasite's back was turned, and running up to +the senator, began to reproach him for the determination he had just +formed. + +'Have you no compunction at leaving me to the dulness of this horrible +palace, to satisfy your idle fancy for going to Rome,' said she, pouting +her pretty lip, and playing with a lock of the dark brown hair that +clustered over Vetranio's brow. + + +'Has the senator Vetranio so little regard for his friends as to leave +them to the mercy of the Goths?' said another lady, advancing with a +winning smile to Camilla's side. + +'Ah, those Goths!' exclaimed Vetranio, turning to the last speaker. +'Tell me, Julia, is it not reported that the barbarians are really +marching into Italy?' + +'Everybody has heard of it. The emperor is so discomposed by the +rumour, that he has forbidden the very name of the Goths to be mentioned +in his presence again.' + +'For my part,' continued Vetranio, drawing Camilla towards him, and +playfully tapping her little dimpled hand, 'I am in anxious expectation +of the Goths, for I have designed a statue of Minerva, for which I can +find no model so fit as a woman of that troublesome nation. I am +informed upon good authority, that their limbs are colossal, and their +sense of propriety most obediently pliable under the discipline of the +purse.' + +'If the Goths supply you with a model for anything,' said a courtier who +had joined the group while Vetranio was speaking, 'it will be with a +representation of the burning of your palace at Rome, which they will +enable you to paint from the inexhaustible reservoir of your own +wounds.' + +The individual who uttered this last observation was remarkable among +the brilliant circle around him by his excessive ugliness. Urged by his +personal disadvantages, and the loss of all his property at the gaming- +table, he had latterly personated a character, the accomplishments +attached to which rescued him, by their disagreeable originality in that +frivolous age, from oblivion or contempt. He was a Cynic philosopher. + +His remark, however, produced no other effect on his hearers' serenity +than to excite their merriment. Vetranio laughed, Camilla laughed, +Julia laughed. The idea of a troop of barbarians ever being able to +burn a palace at Rome was too wildly ridiculous for any one's gravity; +and as the speech was repeated in other parts of the room, in spite of +their dulness and lassitude the whole Court laughed. + +'I know not why I should be amused by that man's nonsense,' said +Camilla, suddenly becoming grave at the very crisis of a most attractive +smile, 'when I am so melancholy at the thought of Vetranio's departure. +What will become of me when he is gone? Alas! who will be left in the +palace to compose songs to my beauty and music for my lute? Who will +paint me as Venus, and tell me stories about the ancient Egyptians and +their cats? Who at the banquet will direct what dishes I am to choose, +and what I am to reject? Who?'--and poor little Camilla stopped +suddenly in her enumeration of the pleasures she was about to lose, and +seemed on the point of weeping as piteously as she had been laughing +rapturously but the instant before. + +Vetranio was touched--not by the compliment to his more intellectual +powers, but by the admission of his convivial supremacy as a guide to +the banquet, contained in the latter part of Camilla's remonstrance. +The sex were then, as now, culpably deficient in gastronomic enthusiasm. +It was, therefore, a perfect triumph to have made a convert to the +science of the youngest and loveliest of the ladies of the Court. + +'If she can gain leave of absence,' said the gratified senator, 'Camilla +shall accompany me to Rome, and shall be present at the first +celebration of my recent discovery of a Nightingale Sauce.' + +Camilla was in ecstasies. She seized Vetranio's cheeks between her rosy +little fingers, kissed him as enthusiastically as a child kisses a new +toy, and darted gaily off to prepare for her departure. + + +'Vetranio would be better employed,' sneered the Cynic, 'in inventing +new salves for future wounds than new sauces for future nightingales! +His carcase will be carved by Gothic swords as a feast for the worms +before his birds are spitted with Roman skewers as a feast for his +guests! Is this a time for cutting statues and concocting sauces? Fie +on the senators who abandon themselves to such pursuits as Vetranio's!' + +'I have other designs,' replied the object of all this moral +indignation, looking with insulting indifference on the Cynic's +repulsive countenance, 'which, from their immense importance to the +world, must meet with universal approval. The labour that I have just +achieved forms one of a series of three projects which I have for some +time held in contemplation. The first is an analysis of the new +priesthood; the second, a true personification, both by painting and +sculpture, of Venus; the third, a discovery of what has been hitherto +uninvented--a nightingale sauce. By the inscrutable wisdom of Fate, it +has been so willed that the last of the objects I proposed to myself has +been the first attained. The sauce is composed, and I have just +concluded on this vellum the ode that is to introduce it at my table. +The analysation will be my next labour. It will take the form of a +treatise, in which, making the experience of past years the groundwork +of prophecy for the future, I shall show the precise number of +additional dissensions, controversies, and quarrels that will be require +to enable the new priesthood to be themselves the destroyers of their +own worship. I shall ascertain by an exact computation the year in +which this destruction will be consummated; and I have by me as the +materials for my work an historical summary of Christian schisms and +disputes in Rome for the last hundred years. As for my second design, +the personification of Venus, it is of appalling difficulty. It demands +an investigation of the women of every nation under the sun; a +comparison of the relative excellences and peculiarities of their +several charms; and a combination of all that is loveliest in the +infinite variety of their most prominent attractions, under one form. +To forward the execution of this arduous project, my tenants at home and +my slave-merchants abroad have orders to send to my villa in Sicily all +women who are born most beautiful in the Empire, or can be brought most +beautiful from the nations around. I will have them displayed before +me, of every shade in complexion and of every peculiarity in form! At +the fitting period I shall commence my investigations, undismayed by +difficulty, and determined on success. Never yet has the true Venus +been personified! Should I accomplish the task, how exquisite will be +my triumph! My work will be the altar at which thousands will offer up +the softest emotions of the heart. It will free the prisoned +imagination of youth, and freshen the fading recollections on the memory +of age!' + +Vetranio paused. The Cynic was struck dumb with indignation. A +solitary zealot for the Church, who happened to be by, frowned at the +analysation. The ladies tittered at the personification. The +gastronomists chuckled at the nightingale sauce; but for the first few +minutes no one spoke. During this temporary embarrassment, Vetranio +whispered a few words in Julia's ear; and--just as the Cynic was +sufficiently recovered to retort--accompanied by the lady, he quitted +the room. + +Never was popularity more unalloyed than Vetranio's. Gifted with a +disposition the pliability of which adapted itself to all emergencies, +his generosity disarmed enemies, while his affability made friends. +Munificent without assumption, successful without pride, he obliged with +grace and shone with safety. People enjoyed his hospitality, for they +knew that it was disinterested; and admired his acquirements, for they +felt that they were unobtrusive. Sometimes (as in his dialogue with the +Cynic) the whim of the moment, or the sting of a sarcasm, drew from him +a hint at his station, or a display of his eccentricities; but, as he +was always the first soon afterwards to lead the laugh at his own +outbreak, his credit as a noble suffered nothing by his infirmity as a +man. Gaily and attractively he moved in all grades of the society of +his age, winning his social laurels in every rank, without making a +rival to dispute their possession, or an enemy to detract from their +value. + + +On quitting the Court waiting-room, Vetranio and Julia descended the +palace stairs and passed into the emperor's garden. Used generally as +an evening lounge, this place was now untenanted, save by the few +attendants engaged in cultivating the flower-beds and watering the +smooth, shady lawns. Entering one of the most retired of the numerous +summer-houses among the trees, Vetranio motioned his companion to take a +seat, and then abruptly addressed her in the following words:-- + +'I have heard that you are about to depart for Rome--is it true?' + +He asked this question in a low voice, and with a manner in its +earnestness strangely at variance with the volatile gaiety which had +characterised him, but a few moments before, among the nobles of the +Court. As Julia answered him in the affirmative, his countenance +expressed a lively satisfaction; and seating himself by her side, he +continued the conversation thus:-- + +'If I thought that you intended to stay for any length of time in the +city, I should venture upon a fresh extortion from your friendship by +asking you to lend me your little villa at Aricia!' + +'You shall take with you to Rome an order on my steward to place +everything there at your entire disposal.' + +'My generous Julia! You are of the gifted few who really know how to +confer a favour! Another woman would have asked me why I wanted the +villa--you give it unreservedly. So delicate an unwillingness to +intrude on a secret reminds me that the secret should now be yours!' + +To explain the easy confidence that existed between Vetranio and Julia, +it is necessary to inform the reader that the lady--although still +attractive in appearance--was of an age to muse on her past, rather than +to meditate on her future conquests. She had known her eccentric +companion from his boyhood, had been once flattered in his verses, and +was sensible enough--now that her charms were on the wane--to be as +content with the friendship of the senator as she had formerly been +enraptured with the adoration of the youth. + +'You are too penetrating,' resumed Vetranio, after a short pause, 'not +to have already suspected that I only require your villa to assist me in +the concealment of an intrigue. So peculiar is my adventure in its +different circumstances, that to make use of my palace as the scene of +its development would be to risk a discovery which might produce the +immediate subversion of all my designs. But I fear the length of my +confession will exceed the duration of your patience!' + +'You have aroused my curiosity. I could listen to you for ever!' + +'A short time before I took my departure from Rome for this place,' +continued Vetranio, 'I encountered an adventure of the most +extraordinary nature, which has haunted me with the most extraordinary +perseverance, and which will have, I feel assured, the most +extraordinary results. I was sitting one evening in the garden of my +palace on the Pincian Mount, occupied in trying a new composition on my +lute. In one of the pauses of the melody, which was tender and +plaintive, I heard sounds that resembled the sobbing of some one in +distress among the trees behind me. I looked cautiously round, and +discerned, half-hidden by the verdure, the figure of a young girl, who +appeared to be listening to the music with the most entranced attention. +Flattered by such a testimony to my skill, and anxious to gain a nearer +view of my mysterious visitant, I advanced towards her hiding-place, +forgetting in my haste to continue playing on the lute. The instant the +music ceased, she discerned me and disappeared. Determined to behold +her, I again struck the chords, and in a few minutes I saw her white +robe once more among the trees. I redoubled my efforts. I played with +the utmost expression the most pathetic parts of the melody. As if +under the influence of a charm, she began to advance towards me, now +hesitating, now moving back a few steps, now approaching, half- +reluctantly, half willingly, until, utterly vanquished by the long +trembling close of the last cadence of the air, she ran suddenly up to +me, and falling at my feet, raised her hands as if to implore my +pardon.' + +'Truly this was no common tribute to your skill! Did she speak to you?' + + +'She uttered not a word,' continued Vetranio. 'Her large soft eyes, +bright with tears, looked piteously up in my face; her delicate lips +trembled, as if she wished to speak, but dared not; her smooth round +arms were the very perfection of beauty. Child as she seemed in years +and emotions, she looked a woman in loveliness and form. For the moment +I was too much astonished by the suddenness of her supplicating action +to move or speak. As soon as I recovered myself I attempted to fondle +and console her, but she shrunk from my embrace, and seemed inclined to +escape from me again; until I touched once more the strings of the lute, +and then she uttered a subdued exclamation of delight, nestled close up +to me, and looked into my face with such a strange expression of mingled +adoration and rapture, that I declare to you, Julia, I felt as bashful +before her as a boy.' + +'You bashful! The Senator Vetranio bashful!' exclaimed Julia, looking +up with an expression of the most unfeigned incredulity and +astonishment. + +'The lute,' pursued Vetranio gravely, without heeding the interruption, +'was my sole means of procuring any communication with her. If I ceased +playing, we were as strangers; if I resumed, we were as friends. So, +subduing the notes of the instrument while she spoke to me in a soft +tremulous musical voice, I still continued to play. By this plan I +discovered at our first interview that she was the daughter of one +Numerian, that she was on the point of completing her fourteenth year, +and that she was called Antonina. I had only succeeded in gaining this +mere outline of her story, when, as if struck by some sudden +apprehension, she tore herself from me with a look of the utmost terror, +and entreating me not to follow her if I ever desired to see her again, +she disappeared rapidly among the trees.' + +'More and more wonderful! And, in your new character of a bashful man, +you doubtless obeyed her injunctions?' + +'I did,' replied the senator; 'but the next evening I revisited the +garden grove, and, as soon as I struck the chords, as if by magic, she +again approached. At this second interview I learned the reason of her +mysterious appearances and departures. Her father, she told me, was one +of a new sect, who imagine--with what reason it is impossible to +comprehend--that they recommend themselves to their Deity by making +their lives one perpetual round of bodily suffering and mental anguish. +Not content with distorting all his own feelings and faculties, this +tyrant perpetrated his insane austerities upon the poor child as well. +He forbade her to enter a theatre, to look on sculpture, to read poetry, +to listen to music. He made her learn long prayers, and attend to +interminable sermons. He allowed her no companions of her own age--not +even girls like herself. The only recreation that she could obtain was +the permission--granted with much reluctance and many rebukes--to +cultivate a little garden which belonged to the house they lived in, and +joined at one point the groves round my palace. There, while she was +engaged over her flowers, she first heard the sound of my lute. for many +months before I had discovered her, she had been in the habit of +climbing the enclosure that bounded her garden, and hiding herself among +the trees to listen to the music, whenever her father's concerns took +him abroad. She had been discovered in this occupation by an old man +appointed to watch her in his master's absence. The attendant, however, +on hearing her confession, not only promised to keep her secret, but +permitted her to continue her visits to my grove whenever I chanced to +be playing there on the lute. Now the most mysterious part of this +matter is, that the girl seemed--in spite of his severity towards her-- +to have a great affection for her surly; for, when I offered to deliver +her from his custody, she declared that nothing could induce her to +desert him--not even the attraction of living among fine pictures and +hearing beautiful music every hour in the day. But I see I weary you; +and, indeed, it is evident from the length of the shadows that the hour +of my departure is at hand. Let me then pass from my introductory +interviews with Antonina, to the consequences that had resulted from +them when I set forth on my journey to Ravenna.' + +'I think I can imagine the consequences already!' said Julia, smiling +maliciously. + + +'Begin then,' retorted Vetranio, 'by imagining that the strangeness of +this girl's situation, and the originality of her ideas, invested her +with an attraction for me, which the charms of her person and age +contributed immensely to heighten. She delighted my faculties as a +poet, as much as she fired my feelings as a man; and I determined to +lure her from the tyrannical protection of her father by the employment +of every artifice that my ingenuity could suggest. I began by teaching +her to exercise for herself the talent which had so attracted her in +another. By the familiarity engendered on both sides by such an +occupation, I hoped to gain as much in affection from her as she +acquired in skill from me; but to my astonishment, I still found her as +indifferent towards the master, and as tender towards the music, as she +had appeared at our first interview. If she had repelled my advances, +if they had overwhelmed her with confusion, I could have adapted myself +to her humour, I should have felt the encouragement of hope; but the +coldness, the carelessness, the unnatural, incomprehensible ease with +which she received even my caresses, utterly disconcerted me. It seemed +as if she could only regard me as a moving statue, as a mere +impersonation, immaterial as the science I was teaching her. If I spoke, +she hardly looked on me; if I moved, she scarcely noticed the action. I +could not consider it dislike; she seemed to gentle to nourish such a +feeling for any creature on earth. I could not believe it coldness; she +was all life, all agitation, if she heard only a few notes of music. +When she touched the chords of the instrument, her whole frame trembled. +Her eyes, mild, serious, and thoughtful when she looked on me, now +brightened with delight, now softened with tears, when she listened to +the lute. As day by day her skill in music increased, so her manner +towards me grew more inexplicably indifferent. At length, weary of the +constant disappointments that I experienced, and determined to make a +last effort to touch her heart by awakening her gratitude, I presented +her with the very lute which she had at first heard, and on which she +had now learned to play. Never have I seen any human being so +rapturously delighted as this incomprehensible girl when she received +the instrument from my hands. She alternately wept and laughed over it, +she kissed it, fondled it, spoke to it, as if it had been a living +thing. But when I approached to suppress the expressions of +thankfulness that she poured on me for the gift, she suddenly hid the +lute in her robe, as if afraid that I should deprive her of it, and +hurried rapidly from my sight. The next day I waited for her at our +accustomed meeting-place, but she never appeared. I sent a slave to her +father's house, but she would hold no communication with him. It was +evident that, now she had gained her end, she cared no more to behold +me. In my first moments of irritation, I determined to make her feel my +power, if she despised my kindness; but reflection convinced me, from my +acquaintance with her character, that in such a matter force was +impolitic, that I should risk my popularity in Rome, and engage myself +in an unworthy quarrel to no purpose. Dissatisfied with myself, and +disappointed in the girl, I obeyed the first dictates of my impatience, +and seizing the opportunity afforded by my duties in the senate of +escaping from the scene of defeated hopes, I departed angrily for +Ravenna.' + +'Departed for Ravenna!' cried Julia, laughing outright. 'Oh, what a +conclusion to the adventure! I confess it, Vetranio, such consequences +as these are beyond all imagination!' + +'You laugh, Julia,' returned the senator, a little piqued; 'but hear me +to the end, and you will find that I have not yet resigned myself to +defeat. For the few days that I have remained here, Antonina's image +has incessantly troubled my thoughts. I perceive that my inclination, +as well as my reputation, is concerned in subduing her ungrateful +aversion. I suspect that my anxiety to gain her will, if unremoved, so +far influence my character, that from Vetranio the Serene, I shall be +changed into Vetranio the Sardonic. Pride, honour, curiosity, and love +all urge me to her conquest. To prepare for my banquet is an excuse to +the Court for my sudden departure from this place; the real object of my +journey is Antonina alone.' + +'Ah, now I recognise my friend again in his own character,' remarked the +lady approvingly. + + +'You will ask me how I purpose to obtain another interview with her?' +continued Vetranio. 'I answer, that the girl's attendant has voluntarily +offered himself as an instrument for the prosecution of my plans. The +very day before I departed from Rome, he suddenly presented himself to +my in my garden, and proposed to introduce me into Numerian's house-- +having first demanded, with the air more of an equal than an inferior, +whether the report that I was still a secret adherent of the old +religion, of the worship of the gods, was true. Suspicious of the +fellow's motives (for he abjured all recompense as the reward of his +treachery), and irritated by the girl's recent ingratitude, I treated +his offer with contempt. Now, however, that my dissatisfaction is +calmed and my anxiety aroused, I am determined, at all hazards, to trust +myself to this man, be his motives for aiding me what they may. If my +efforts at my expected interview--and I will not spare them--are +rewarded with success, it will be necessary to obtain some refuge for +Antonina that will neither be suspected nor searched. For such a +hiding-place, nothing can be more admirably adapted than your Arician +villa. Do you--now that you know for what use it is intended--repent of +your generous disposal of it in aid of my design?' + +'I am delighted to have had it to bestow on you,' replied the liberal +Julia, pressing Vetranio's hand. 'Your adventure is indeed uncommon--I +burn with impatience to hear how it will end. Whatever happens, you may +depend on my secrecy and count on my assistance. But see, the sun is +already verging towards the west; and yonder comes one of your slaves to +inform you, I doubt not, that your equipage is prepared. Return with me +to the palace, and I will supply you with the letter necessary to +introduce you as master to my country abode.' + +***** + +The worthy citizens of Ravenna assembled in the square before the palace +to behold the senator's departure, had entirely exhausted such innocent +materials for amusement as consisted in staring at the guards, catching +the clouds of gnats that hovered about their ears, and quarrelling with +each other; and were now reduced to a state of very noisy and unanimous +impatience, when their discontent was suddenly and most effectually +appeased by the appearance of the travelling equipage with Vetranio and +Camilla outside the palace gates. + +Uproarious shouts greeted the appearance of the senator and his +magnificent retinue; but they were increased a hundred-fold when the +chief slaves, by their master's command, each scattered a handful of +small coin among the poorer classes of the spectators. Every man among +that heterogeneous assemblage of rogues, fools, and idlers roared his +loudest and capered his highest, in honour of the generous patrician. +Gradually and carefully the illustrious travellers moved through the +crowd around them to the city gate; and thence, amid incessant shouts of +applause, raised with imposing unanimity of lung, and wrought up to the +most distracting discordancy of noise, Vetranio and his lively companion +departed in triumph for Rome. + +***** + +A few days after this event the citizens were again assembled at the +same place and hour--probably to witness another patrician departure-- +when their ears were assailed by the unexpected sound produced by the +call to arms, which was followed immediately by the closing of the city +gates. They had scarcely asked each other the meaning of these unusual +occurrences, when a peasant, half frantic with terror, rushed into the +square, shouting out the terrible intelligence that the Goths were in +sight! + +The courtiers heard the news, and starting from a luxurious repast, +hurried to the palace windows to behold the portentous spectacle. For +the remainder of the evening the banqueting tables were unapproached by +the guests. + + +The wretched emperor was surprised among his poultry by that dreaded +intelligence. He, too, hastened to the windows, and looking forth, saw +the army of avengers passing in contempt his solitary fortress, and +moving swiftly onward towards defenceless Rome. Long after the darkness +had hidden the masses of that mighty multitude from his eyes, did he +remain staring helplessly upon the fading landscape, in a stupor of +astonishment and dread; and, for the first time since he had possessed +them, his flocks of fowls were left for that night unattended by their +master's hand. + + +CHAPTER 3. ROME. + +The perusal of the title to this chapter will, we fear, excite emotions +of apprehension, rather than of curiosity, in the breasts of experienced +readers. They will doubtless imagine that it is portentous of long +rhapsodies on those wonders of antiquity, the description of which has +long become absolutely nauseous to them by incessant iteration. They +will foresee wailings over the Palace of the Caesars, and meditations +among the arches of the Colosseum, loading a long series of weary +paragraphs to the very chapter's end; and, considerately anxious to +spare their attention a task from which it recoils, they will +unanimously hurry past the dreaded desert of conventional reflection, to +alight on the first oasis that may present itself, whether it be formed +by a new division of the story, or suddenly indicated by the appearance +of a dialogue. Animated, therefore, by apprehensions such as these, we +hasten to assure them that in no instance will the localities of our +story trench upon the limits of the well-worn Forum, or mount the arches +of the exhausted Colosseum. It is with the beings, and not the +buildings of old Rome, that their attention is to be occupied. We +desire to present them with a picture of the inmost emotions of the +times--of the living, breathing actions and passions of the people of +the doomed Empire. Antiquarian topography and classical architecture we +leave to abler pens, and resign to other readers. + +It is, however, necessary that the sphere in which the personages of our +story are about to act should be in some measure indicated, in order to +facilitate the comprehension of their respective movements. That +portion of the extinct city which we design to revive has left few +traces of its existence in the modern town. Its sites are +traditionary--its buildings are dust. The church rises where the temple +once stood, and the wine-shop now lures the passing idler where the bath +invited his ancestor of old. + +The walls of Rome are in extent, at the present day, the same as they +were at the period of which we now write. But here all analogy between +the ancient and modern city ends. The houses that those walls were once +scarcely wide enough to enclose have long since vanished, and their +modern successors occupy but a third of the space once allotted to the +capital of the Empire. + +Beyond the walls immense suburbs stretched forth in the days of old. +Gorgeous villas, luxurious groves, temples, theatres, baths-- +interspersed by colonies of dwellings belonging to the lower orders of +the people--surrounded the mighty city. Of these innumerable abodes +hardly a trace remains. The modern traveller, as he looks forth over +the site of the famous suburbs, beholds, here and there, a ruined +aqueduct, or a crumbling tomb, tottering on the surface of a +pestilential marsh. + +The present entrance to Rome by the Porta del Popolo occupies the same +site as the ancient Flaminian Gate. Three great streets now lead from +it towards the southern extremity of the city, and form with their +tributaries the principal portion of modern Rome. On one side they are +bounded by the Pincian Hill, on the other by the Tiber. Of these +streets, those nearest the river occupy the position of the famous +Campus Martius; those on the other side, the ancient approaches to the +gardens of Sallust and Lucullus, on the Pincian Mount. + +On the opposite bank of the Tiber (gained by the Ponte St. Angelo, +formerly the Pons Elius), two streets pierced through an irregular and +populous neighbourhood, conduct to the modern Church of St. Peter. At +the period of our story this part of the city was of much greater +consequence, both in size and appearance, than it is at present, and led +directly to the ancient Basilica of St. Peter, which stood on the same +site as that now occupied by the modern edifice. + + +The events about to be narrated occur entirely in the parts of the city +just described. From the Pincian Hill, across the Campus Martius, over +the Pons Elius, and on to the Basilica of St. Peter, the reader may be +often invited to accompany us, but he will be spared all necessity of +penetrating familiar ruins, or mourning over the sepulchres of departed +patriots. + +Ere, however, we revert to former actors or proceed to new characters, +it will be requisite to people the streets that we here attempt to +rebuild. By this process it is hoped that the reader will gain that +familiarity with the manners and customs of the Romans of the fifth +century on which the influence of this story mainly depends, and which +we despair of being able to instil by a philosophical disquisition on +the features of the age. A few pages of illustration will serve our +purpose better, perhaps, than volumes of historical description. There +is no more unerring index to the character of a people than the streets +of their cities. + +It is near evening. In the widest part of the Campus Martius crowds of +people are assembled before the gates of a palace. They are congregated +to receive several baskets of provisions, distributed with ostentatious +charity by the owner of the mansion. The incessant clamour and +agitation of the impatient multitude form a strange contrast to the +stately serenity of the natural and artificial objects by which they are +enclosed on all sides. + +The space they occupy is oblong in shape and of great extent in size. +Part of it is formed by a turf walk shaded with trees, part by the paved +approaches to the palace and the public baths which stand in its +immediate neighbourhood. These two edifices are remarkable by their +magnificent outward adornments of statues, and the elegance and number +of the flights of steps by which they are respectively entered. With +the inferior buildings, the market-places and the gardens attached to +them, they are sufficiently extensive to form the boundary of one side +of the immediate view. The appearance of monotony which might at other +times be remarked in the vastness and regularity of their white fronts, +is at this moment agreeably broken by several gaily-coloured awnings +stretched over their doors and balconies. The sun is now shining on +them with overpowering brightness; the metallic ornaments on their +windows glitter like gems of fire; even the trees which form their +groves partake of the universal flow of light, and fail, like the +objects around them, to offer to the weary eye either refreshment or +repose. + +Towards the north, the Mausoleum of Augustus, towering proudly up into +the brilliant sky, at once attracts the attention. From its position, +parts of this noble building are already in shade. Not a human being is +visible on any part of its mighty galleries--it stands solitary and +sublime, an impressive embodiment of the emotions which it was raised to +represent. + +On the side opposite the palace and the baths is the turf walk already +mentioned. Trees, thickly planted and interlaced by vines, cast a +luxurious shade over this spot. In their interstices, viewed from a +distance, appear glimpses of gay dresses, groups of figures in repose, +stands loaded with fruit and flowers, and innumerable white marble +statues of fauns and wood-nymphs. From this delicious retreat the +rippling of fountains is to be heard, occasionally interrupted by the +rustling of leaves, or the plaintive cadences of the Roman flute. + + +Southward two pagan temples stand in lonely grandeur among a host of +monuments and trophies. The symmetry of their first construction still +remains unimpaired, their white marble pillars shine in the sunlight +brightly as of old, yet they now present to the eye an aspect of strange +desolation, of unnatural mysterious gloom. Although the laws forbid the +worship for which they were built, the hand of reform has as yet not +ventured to doom them to ruin or adapt them to Christian purposes. None +venture to tread their once-crowded colonnades. No priest appears to +give the oracles from their doors; no sacrifices reek upon their naked +altars. Under their roofs, visited only by the light that steals through +their narrow entrances, stand unnoticed, unworshipped, unmoved, the +mighty idols of old Rome. Human emotion, which made them Omnipotence +once, has left them but stone now. The 'Star in the East' has already +dimmed the fearful halo which the devotion of bloodshed once wreathed +round their forms. Forsaken and alone, they stand but as the gloomy +monuments of the greatest delusion ever organised by the ingenuity of +man. + +We have now, so to express it, exhibited the frame surrounding the +moving picture, which we shall next attempt to present to the reader by +mixing with the multitude before the palace gates. + +This assembly resolved itself into three divisions: that collected +before the palace steps, that loitering about the public baths, and that +reposing in the shade of the groves. The first was of the most +consequence in numbers, and of the greatest variety in appearance. +Composed of rogues of the worst order from every quarter of the world, +it might be said to present, in its general aspect of numerical +importance, the very sublime of degradation. Confident in their rude +union of common avidity, these worthy citizens vented their insolence on +all objects, and in every direction, with a careless impartiality which +would have shamed the most victorious efforts of modern mobs. The +hubbub of voices was perfectly fearful. The coarse execrations of +drunken Gauls, the licentious witticisms of effeminate Greeks, the noisy +satisfaction of native Romans, the clamorous indignation of irritable +Jews--all sounded together in one incessant chorus of discordant noises. +Nor were the senses of sight and smell more agreeably assailed than the +faculty of hearing, by this anomalous congregation. Immodest youth and +irreverent age; woman savage, man cowardly; the swarthy Ethiopian +beslabbered with stinking oil; the stolid Briton begrimed with dirt-- +these, and a hundred other varying combinations, to be imagined rather +than expressed, met the attention in every direction. To describe the +odours exhaled by the heat from this seething mixture of many +pollutions, would be to force the reader to close the book; we prefer to +return to the distribution which was the cause of this degrading tumult, +and which consisted of small baskets of roasted meat packed with common +fruits and vegetables, and handed, or rather flung down, to the mob by +the servants of the nobleman who gave the feast. The people revelled in +the abundance thus presented to them. They threw themselves upon it like +wild beasts; they devoured it like hogs, or bore it off like plunderers; +while, secure in the eminence on which they were placed, the purveyors +of this public banquet expressed their contempt for its noisy +recipients, by holding their noses, stopping their ears, turning their +backs, and other pantomimic demonstrations of lofty and excessive +disgust. These actions did not escape the attention of those members of +the assembly who, having eaten their fill, were at leisure to make use +of their tongues, and who showered an incessant storm of abuse on the +heads of their benefactor's retainers. + +'See those fellows!' cried one; 'they are the waiters at our feast, and +they mock us to our faces! Down with the filthy kitchen thieves!' + +'Excellently well said, Davus!--but who is to approach them? They stink +at this distance!' + +'The rotten-bodied knaves have the noses of dogs and the carcases of +goats.' + +Then came a chorus of voices--'Down with them! Down with them!' In the +midst of which an indignant freedman advanced to rebuke the mob, +receiving, as the reward of his temerity, a shower of missiles and a +volley of curses; after which he was thus addressed by a huge, greasy +butcher, hoisted on his companions' shoulders:-- + +'By the soul of the emperor, could I get near you, you rogue, I would +quarter you with my fingers alone!--A grinning scoundrel that jeers at +others! A filthy flatterer that dirts the very ground he walks on! By +the blood of the martyrs, should I fling the sweepings of the slaughter- +house at him, he knows not where to get himself dried!' + + +'Thou rag of a man,' roared a neighbour of the indignant butcher's, +'dost thou frown upon the guests of thy master, the very scrapings of +whose skin are worth more than thy whole carcase! It is easier to make a +drinking-vessel of the skull of a flea than to make an honest man of +such a villainous night-walker as thou art!' + +'Health and prosperity to our noble entertainer!' shouted one section of +the grateful crowd as the last speaker paused for breath. + +'Death to all knaves of parasites!' chimed in another. + +'Honour to the citizens of Rome!' roared a third party with modest +enthusiasm. + +'Give that freedman our bones to pick!' screamed an urchin from the +outskirts of the crowd. + +This ingenious piece of advice was immediately followed; and the +populace gave vent to a shout of triumph as the unfortunate freedman, +scared by a new volley of missiles, retreated with ignominious +expedition to the shelter of his patron's halls. + +In the slight and purified specimen of the 'table talk' of a Roman mob +which we have here ventured to exhibit, the reader will perceive that +extraordinary mixture of servility and insolence which characterised not +only the conversation but the actions of the lower orders of society at +the period of which we write. Oppressed and degraded, on the one hand, +to a point of misery scarcely conceivable to the public of the present +day, the poorer classes in Rome were, on the other, invested with such a +degree of moral license, and permitted such an extent of political +privilege, as flattered their vanity into blinding their sense of +indignation. Slaves in their season of servitude, masters in their hours +of recreation, they presented, as a class, one of the most amazing +social anomalies ever existing in any nation; and formed, in their +dangerous and artificial position, one of the most important of the +internal causes of the downfall of Rome. + +The steps of the public baths were almost as crowded as the space before +the neighbouring building. Incessant streams of people, either entering +or departing, poured over the broad flagstones of its marble colonnades. +This concourse, although composed in some parts of the same class of +people as that assembled before the palace, presented a certain +appearance of respectability. Here and there--chequering the dusky +monotony of masses of dirty tunics--might be discerned the refreshing +vision of a clean robe, or the grateful indication of a handsome person. +Little groups, removed as far as possible from the neighbourhood of the +noisy plebeians, were scattered about, either engaged in animated +conversation, or listlessly succumbing to the lassitude induced by a +recent bath. An instant's attention to the subject of discourse among +the more active of these individuals will aid us in pursuing our social +revelations. + +The loudest voice among the speakers at this particular moment proceeded +from a tall, thin, sinister-looking man, who was haranguing a little +group of listeners with great vehemence and fluency. + +'I tell you, Socius,' said he, turning suddenly upon one of his +companions, 'that, unless new slave-laws are made, my calling is at an +end. My patron's estate requires incessant supplies of these wretches. +I do my best to satisfy the demand, and the only result of my labour is, +that the miscreants either endanger my life, or fly with impunity to +join the gangs of robbers infesting our woods.' + +'Truly I am sorry for you; but what alteration would you have made in +the slave-laws?' + +'I would empower bailiffs to slay upon the spot all slaves whom they +thought disorderly, as an example to the rest!' + +'What would such a permission avail you? These creatures are necessary, +and such a law would exterminate them in a few months. Can you not +break their spirit with labour, bind their strength with chains, and +vanquish their obstinacy with dungeons?' + + +'All this I have done, but they die under the discipline, or escape from +their prisons. I have now three hundred slaves on my patron's estates. +Against those born on our lands I have little to urge. Many of them, it +is true, begin the day with weeping and end it with death; but for the +most part, thanks to their diurnal allowance of stripes, they are +tolerably submissive. It is with the wretches that I have been obliged +to purchase from prisoners of war and the people of revolted towns that +I am so dissatisfied. Punishments have no effect on them, they are +incessantly indolent, sulky, desperate. It was but the other day that +ten of them poisoned themselves while at work in the fields, and fifty +more, after setting fire to a farm-house while my back was turned, +escaped to join a gang of their companions, who are now robbers in the +woods. These fellows, however, are the last of the troop who will +perpetrate such offences. With the concurrence of my patron, I have +adopted a plan that will henceforth tame them efficiently!' + +'Are you at liberty to communicate it?' + +'By the keys of St. Peter, I wish I could see it practised on every +estate in the land! It is this:--Near a sulphur lake at some distance +from my farm-house is a tract of marshy ground, overspread here and +there by the ruins of an ancient slaughter-house. I propose to dig in +this place several subterranean caverns, each of which shall be capable +of holding twenty men. Here my mutinous slaves shall sleep after their +day's labour. The entrances shall be closed until morning with a large +stone, on which I will have engraven this inscription: 'These are the +dormitories invented by Gordian, bailiff of Saturninus, a nobleman, for +the reception of refractory slaves.' + +'Your plan is ingenious; but I suspect your slaves (so insensible to +hardships are the brutal herd) will sleep as unconcernedly in their new +dormitories as in their old.' + +'Sleep! It will be a most original species of repose that they will +taste there! The stench of the sulphur lake will breathe Sabian odours +for them over a couch of mud! Their anointing oil will be the slime of +attendant reptiles! Their liquid perfumes will be the stagnant oozings +from their chamber roof! Their music will be the croaking of frogs and +the humming of gnats; and as for their adornments, why, they will be +decked forth with head-garlands of twining worms, and movable brooches +of cockchafers and toads! Tell me now, most sagacious Socius, do you +still think that amidst such luxuries as these my slaves will sleep?' + +'No; they will die.' + +'You are again wrong. They will curse and rave perhaps, but that is of +no consequence. They will work the longer above ground to shorten the +term of their repose beneath. They will wake at an instant's notice, +and come forth at a moment's signal. I have no fear of their dying!' + +'Do you leave Rome soon?' + +'I go this evening, taking with me such a supply of trustworthy +assistants as will enable me to execute my plan without delay. +Farewell, Socius!' + +'Most ingenious of bailiffs, I bid you farewell!' + +As the worthy Gordian stalked off, big with the dignity of his new +projects, the gestures and tones of a man who formed one of a little +group collected in a remote part of the portico he was about to quit +attracted his attention. Curiosity formed as conspicuous an ingredient +in this man's character as cruelty. He stole behind the base of a +neighbouring pillar; and, as the frequent repetition of the word 'Goths' +struck his ear (the report of that nation's impending invasion having by +this time reached Rome), he carefully disposed himself to listen with +the most implicit attention to the speaker's voice. + + +'Goths!' cried the man, in the stern, concentrated accents of despair. +'Is there one among us to whom this report of their advance upon Rome +does not speak of hope rather than of dread? Have we a chance of rising +from the degradation forced on us by our superiors until this den of +heartless triflers and shameless cowards is swept from the very earth +that it pollutes!' + +'Your sentiments on the evils of our condition are undoubtedly most +just,' observed a fat, pompous man, to whom the preceding remarks had +been addressed, 'but I cannot desire the reform you so ardently hope +for. Think of the degradation of being conquered by barbarians!' + +'I am the exile of my country's privileges. What interest have I in +upholding her honour--if honour she really has!' replied the first +speaker. + +'Nay! Your expressions are too severe. You are too discontented to be +just.' + +'Am I! Hear me for a moment, and you will change your opinion. You see +me now by my bearing and appearance superior to yonder plebeian herd. +You doubtless think that I live at my ease in the world, that I can feel +no anxiety for the future about my bodily necessities. What would you +say were I to tell you that if I want another meal, a lodging for to- +night, a fresh robe for tomorrow, I must rob or flatter some great man +to gain them? Yet so it is. I am hopeless, friendless, destitute. In +the whole of the Empire there is not an honest calling in which I can +take refuge. I must become a pander or a parasite--a hired tyrant over +slaves, or a chartered groveller beneath nobles--if I would not starve +miserably in the streets, or rob openly in the woods! This is what I +am. Now listen to what I was. I was born free. I inherited from my +father a farm which he had successfully defended from the encroachments +of the rich, at the expense of his comfort, his health, and his life. +When I succeeded to his lands, I determined to protect them in my time +as studiously as he had defended them in his. I worked +unintermittingly: I enlarged my house, I improved my fields, I +increased my flocks. One after another I despised the threats and +defeated the wiles of my noble neighbours, who desired possession of my +estate to swell their own territorial grandeur. In process of time I +married and had a child. I believed that I was picked out from my race +as a fortunate man--when one night I was attacked by robbers: slaves +made desperate by the cruelty of their wealthy masters. They ravaged my +cornfields, they deprived me of my flocks. When I demanded redress, I +was told to sell my lands to those who could defend them--to those rich +nobles whose tyranny had organised the band of wretches who had spoiled +me of my possessions, and to whose fraud-gotten treasures the government +were well pleased to grant that protection which they had denied to my +honest hoards. In my pride I determined that I would still be +independent. I planted new crops. With the little remnant of my money +I hired fresh servants and bought more flocks. I had just recovered +from my first disaster when I became the victim of a second. I was again +attacked. This time we had arms, and we attempted to defend ourselves. +My wife was slain before my eyes; my house was burnt to the ground; I +myself only escaped, mutilated with wounds; my child soon afterwards +pined and died. I had no wife, no offspring, no house, no money. My +fields still stretched round me, but I had none to cultivate them. My +walls still tottered at my feet, but I had none to rear them again, none +to inhabit them if they were reared. My father's lands were now become +a wilderness to me. I was too proud to sell them to my rich neighbour; +I preferred to leave them before I saw them the prey of a tyrant, whose +rank had triumphed over my industry, and who is now able to boast that +he can travel over ten leagues of senatorial property untainted by the +propinquity of a husbandman's farm. Houseless, homeless, friendless, I +have come to Rome alone in my affliction, helpless in my degradation! +Do you wonder now that I am careless about the honour of my country? I +would have served her with my life and my possessions when she was +worthy of my service; but she has cast me off, and I care not who +conquers her. I say to the Goths--with thousands who suffer the same +tribulation that I now undergo--"Enter our gates! Level our palaces to +the ground! Confound, if you will, in one common slaughter, we that are +victims with those that are tyrants! Your invasion will bring new lords +to the land. They cannot crush it more--they may oppress it less. Our +posterity may gain their rights by the sacrifice of lives that our +country has made worthless. Romans though we are, we are ready to +suffer and submit!"' + + +He stopped; for by this time he had lashed himself into fury. His eyes +glared, his cheeks flushed, his voice rose. Could he then have seen the +faintest vision of the destiny that future ages had in store for the +posterity of the race that now suffered throughout civilised Europe, +like him--could he have imagined how, in after years, the 'middle +class', despised in his day, was to rise to privilege and power; to hold +in its just hands the balance of the prosperity of nations; to crush +oppression and regulate rule; to soar in its mighty flight above thrones +and principalities, and rank and riches, apparently obedient, but really +commanding;--could he but have foreboded this, what a light must have +burst upon his gloom, what a hope must have soothed him in his despair! + +To what further extremities his anger might have carried him, to what +proceedings the indignant Gordian, who still listened from his +concealment, might have had recourse, it is difficult to say; for the +complaints of the ill-fated landholder and the cogitations of the +authoritative bailiff were alike suddenly suspended by an uproar raging +at this moment round a carriage which had just emerged from the palace +we have elsewhere described. + +This vehicle looked one mass of silver. Embroidered silk curtains +fluttered all around it, gold ornaments studded its polished sides, and +it held no less a person than the nobleman who had feasted the people +with baskets of meat. This fact had become known to the rabble before +the palace gates. Such an opportunity of showing their exultation in +their bondage, their real servility in their imaginary independence, was +not to be lost; and accordingly they let loose such a torrent of +clamorous gratitude on their entertainer's appearance, that a stranger +in Rome would have thought the city in revolt. They leapt, they ran, +they danced round the prancing horses, they flung their empty baskets +into the air, and patted approvingly their 'fair round bellies'. From +every side, as the carriage moved on, they gained fresh recruits and +acquired new importance. The timid fled before them, the noisy shouted +with them, the bold plunged into their ranks; and the constant burden of +their rejoicing chorus was--'Health to the noble Pomponius! Prosperity +to the senators of Rome, who feast us with their food and give us the +freedom of their theatres! Glory to Pomponius! Glory to the senators!' + +Fate seemed on this day to take pleasure in pampering the insatiable +curiosity of Gordian, the bailiff. The cries of the multitude had +scarcely died away in the distance, as they followed the departing +carriage, when the voices of two men, pitched to a low, confidential +tone, reached his ear from the opposite side of the pillar. He peeped +cautiously round, and saw that they were priests. + +'What an eternal jester is that Pomponius!' said one voice. 'He is +going to receive absolution, and he journeys in his chariot of state, as +if he were preparing to celebrate his triumph, instead of to confess his +sins!' + +'Has he committed, then, a fresh imprudence?' + +'Alas, yes! For a senator he is dreadfully wanting in caution! A few +days since, in a fit of passion, he flung a drinking-cup at one of his +female slaves. The girl died on the spot, and her brother, who is also +in his service, threatened immediate vengeance. To prevent disagreeable +consequences to his body, Pomponius has sent the fellow to his estates +in Egypt; and now, from the same precaution for the welfare of his soul, +he goes to demand absolution from our holy and beneficent Church.' + +'I am afraid these incessant absolutions, granted to men who are too +careless even to make a show of repentance for their crimes, will +prejudice us with the people at large.' + +'Of what consequence are the sentiments of the people while we have +their rulers on our side! Absolution is the sorcery that binds these +libertines of Rome to our will. We know what converted Constantine-- +politic flattery and ready absolution; the people will tell you it was +the sign of the Cross.' + +'It is true this Pomponius is rich, and may increase our revenues, but +still I fear the indignation of the people.' + +'Fear nothing: think how long their old institutions imposed on them, +and then doubt, if you can, that we may shape them to our wishes as we +will. Any deceptions will be successful with a mob, if the instrument +employed to forward them be a religion.' + +The voices ceased. Gordian, who still cherished a vague intention of +denouncing the fugitive landholder to the senatorial authorities, +employed the liberty afforded to his attention by the silence of the +priests in turning to look after his intended victim. To his surprise +he saw that the man had left the auditors to whom he had before +addressed himself, and was engaged in earnest conversation in another +part of the portico, with an individual who seemed to have recently +joined him, and whose appearance was so remarkable that the bailiff had +moved a few steps forwards to gain a nearer view of him, when he was +once more arrested by the voices of the priests. + +Irresolute for an instant to which party to devote his unscrupulous +attention, he returned mechanically to his old position. Ere long, +however, his anxiety to hear the mysterious communications proceeding +between the landholder and his friend overbalanced his delight in +penetrating the theological secrets of the priests. He turned once +more, but to his astonishment the objects of his curiosity had +disappeared. He stepped to the outside of the portico and looked for +them in every direction, but they were nowhere to be seen. Peevish and +disappointed, he returned as a last resource to the pillar where he had +left the priests, but the time consumed in his investigations after one +party had been fatal to his reunion with the other. The churchmen were +gone. + +Sufficiently punished for his curiosity by his disappointment, the +bailiff walked doggedly off towards the Pincian Hill. Had he turned in +the contrary direction, towards the Basilica of St. Peter, he would have +found himself once more in the neighbourhood of the landholder and his +remarkable friend, and would have gained that acquaintance with the +subjects of their conversation, which we intend that the reader shall +acquire in the course of the next chapter. + + +CHAPTER 4. THE CHURCH. + +In the year 324, on the locality assigned by rumour to the martyrdom of +St. Peter, and over the ruins of the Circus of Nero, Constantine erected +the church called the Basilica of St. Peter. + +For twelve centuries, this building, raised by a man infamous for his +murders and his tyrannies, stood uninjured amid the shocks which during +that long period devastated the rest of the city. After that time it was +removed, tottering to its base from its own reverend and illustrious +age, by Pope Julius II, to make way for the foundations of the modern +church. + +It is towards this structure of twelve hundred years' duration, erected +by hands stained with blood, and yet preserved as a star of peace in the +midst of stormy centuries of war, that we would direct the reader's +attention. What art has done for the modern church, time has effected +for the ancient. If the one is majestic to the eye by its grandeur, the +other is hallowed to the memory by its age. + + +As this church by its rise commemorated the triumphant establishment of +Christianity as the religion of Rome, so in its progress it reflected +every change wrought in the spirit of the new worship by the ambition, +the prodigality, or the frivolity of the priests. At first it stood +awful and imposing, beautiful in all its parts as the religion for whose +glory it was built. Vast porphyry colonnades decorated its approaches, +and surrounded a fountain whose waters issued from the representation of +a gigantic pine-tree in bronze. Its double rows of aisles were each +supported by forty-eight columns of precious marble. Its flat ceiling +was adorned with beams of gilt metal, rescued from the pollution of +heathen temples. Its walls were decorated with large paintings of +religious subjects, and its tribunal was studded with elegant mosaics. +Thus it rose, simple and yet sublime, awful and yet alluring; in this +its beginning, a type of the dawn of the worship which it was elevated +to represent. But when, flushed with success, the priests seized on +Christianity as their path to politics and their introduction to power, +the aspect of the church gradually began to change. As, slowly and +insensibly, ambitious man heaped the garbage of his mysteries, his +doctrines, and his disputes, about the pristine purity of the structure +given him by God, so, one by one, gaudy adornments and meretricious +alterations arose to sully the once majestic basilica, until the +threatening and reproving apparition of the pagan Julian, when both +Church and churchmen received in their corrupt progress a sudden and +impressive check. + +The short period of the revival of idolatry once passed over, the +priests, unmoved by the warning they had received, returned with renewed +vigour to confuse that which both in their Gospel and their Church had +been once simple. Day by day they put forth fresh treatises, aroused +fierce controversies, subsided into new sects; and day by day they +altered more and more the once noble aspect of the ancient basilica. +They hung their nauseous relics on its mighty walls, they stuck their +tiny tapers about its glorious pillars, they wreathed their tawdry +fringes around its massive altars. Here they polished, there they +embroidered. Wherever there was a window, they curtained it with gaudy +cloths; wherever there was a statue, they bedizened it with artificial +flowers; wherever there was a solemn recess, they outraged its religious +gloom with intruding light; until (arriving at the period we write of) +they succeeded so completely in changing the aspect of the building, +that it looked, within, more like a vast pagan toyshop than a Christian +church. Here and there, it is true, a pillar or an altar rose +unencumbered as of old, appearing as much at variance with the frippery +that surrounded it as a text of Scripture quoted in a sermon of the +time. But as regarded the general aspect of the basilica, the decent +glories of its earlier days seemed irrevocably departed and destroyed. + +After what has been said of the edifice, the reader will have little +difficulty in imagining that the square in which it stood lost whatever +elevation of character it might once have possessed, with even greater +rapidity than the church itself. If the cathedral now looked like an +immense toyshop, assuredly its attendant colonnades had the appearance +of the booths of an enormous fair. + + +The day, whose decline we have hinted at in the preceding chapter, was +fast verging towards its close, as the inhabitants of the streets on the +western bank of the Tiber prepared to join the crowds that they beheld +passing by their windows in the direction of the Basilica of St. Peter. +The cause of this sudden confluence of the popular current in once +common direction was made sufficiently apparent to all inquirers who +happened to be near a church or a public building, by the appearance in +such situations of a large sheet of vellum elaborately illuminated, +raised on a high pole, and guarded from contact with the inquisitive +rabble by two armed soldiers. The announcements set forth in these +strange placards were all of the same nature and directed to the same +end. In each of them the Bishop of Rome informed his 'pious and +honourable brethren', the inhabitants of the city, that, as the next +days was the anniversary of the Martyrdom of St. Luke, the vigil would +necessarily be held on that evening in the Basilica of St. Peter; and +that, in consideration of the importance of the occasion, there would be +exhibited, before the commencement of the ceremony, those precious +relics connected with the death of the saint, which had become the +inestimable inheritance of the Church; and which consisted of a branch +of the olive-tree to which St. Luke was hung, a piece of the noose-- +including the knot--which had been passed round his neck, and a picture +of the Apotheosis of the Virgin painted by his own hand. After some +sentences expressive of lamentation for the sufferings of the saint, +which nobody read, and which it is unnecessary to reproduce here, the +proclamation went on to state that a sermon would be preached in the +course of the vigil, and that at a later hour the great chandelier, +containing two thousand four hundred lamps, would be lit to illuminate +the church. Finally, the worthy bishop called upon all members of his +flock, in consideration of the solemnity of the day, to abstain from +sensual pleasures, in order that they might the more piously and +worthily contemplate the sacred objects submitted to their view, and +digest the spiritual nourishment to be offered to their understandings. + +From the specimen we have already given of the character of the populace +of Rome, it will perhaps be unnecessary to say that the great +attractions presented by this theological bill of fare were the relics +and the chandelier. Pulpit eloquence and vigil solemnities alone must +have long exhibited their more sober allurements, before they could have +drawn into the streets a fiftieth part of the immense crowd that now +hurried towards the desecrated basilica. Indeed, so vast was the +assemblage soon congregated, that the advanced ranks of sightseers had +already filled the church to overflowing, before those in the rear had +come within view of the colonnades. + +However dissatisfied the unsuccessful portion of the citizens might feel +at their exclusion from the church, they found a powerful counter- +attraction in the amusements going forward in the Place, the occupants +of which seemed thoroughly regardless of the bishop's admonitions upon +the sobriety of behaviour due to the solemnity of the day. As if in +utter defiance of the decency and order recommended by the clergy, +popular exhibitions of all sorts were set up on the broad flagstones of +the great space before the church. Street dancing-girls exercised at +every available spot those 'gliding gyrations' so eloquently condemned +by the worthy Ammianus Marcellinus of orderly and historical memory. +Booths crammed with relics of doubtful authenticity, baskets filled with +neat manuscript abstracts of furiously controversial pamphlets, pagan +images regenerated into portraits of saints, pictorial representations +of Arians writhing in damnation, and martyrs basking in haloes of +celestial light, tempted, in every direction, the more pious among the +spectators. Cooks perambulated with their shops on their backs; rival +slave-merchants shouted petitions for patronage; wine-sellers taught +Bacchanalian philosophy from the tops of their casks; poets recited +compositions for sale; sophisters held arguments destined to convert +the wavering and perplex the ignorant. + +Incessant motion and incessant noise seemed to be the sole compensations +sought by the multitude for the disappointment of exclusion from the +church. If a stranger, after reading the proclamation of the day, had +proceeded to the basilica, to feast his eyes on the contemplation of the +illustrious aggregate of humanity, entitled by the bishop 'his pious and +honourable brethren,' he must, on mixing at this moment with the +assemblage, have either doubted the truth of the episcopal appellation, +or have given the citizens credit for that refinement of intrinsic worth +which is of too elevated a nature to influence the character of the +outward man. + + +At the time when the sun set, nothing could be more picturesque than the +distant view of this joyous scene. The deep red rays of the departing +luminary cast their radiance, partly from behind the church, over the +vast multitude in the Place. Brightly and rapidly the rich light roved +over the waters that leaped towards it from the fountain in all the +loveliness of natural and evanescent form. Bathed in that brilliant +glow, the smooth porphyry colonnades reflected, chameleon like, ethereal +and varying hues; the white marble statues became suffused in a delicate +rose-colour, and the sober-tinted trees gleamed in the innermost of +their leafy depths as if steeped in the exhalations of a golden mist. +While, contrasting strangely with the wondrous radiance around them, the +huge bronze pine-tree in the middle of the Place, and the wide front of +the basilica, rose up in gloomy shadow, indefinite and exaggerated, +lowering like evil spirits over the joyous beauty of the rest of the +scene, and casting their great depths of shade into the midst of the +light whose dominion they despised. Beheld from a distance, this wild +combination of vivid brightness and solemn gloom; these buildings, at +one place darkened till they looked gigantic, at another lightened till +they appeared ethereal; these crowded groups, seeming one great moving +mass gleaming at this point in radiant light, obscured at that in thick +shadow, made up a whole so incongruous and yet so beautiful, so +grotesque and yet so sublime, that the scene looked, for the moment, +more like some inhabited meteor, half eclipsed by its propinquity to +earth, than a mortal and material prospect. + +The beauties of this atmospheric effect were of far too serious and +sublime a nature to interest the multitude in the Place. Out of the +whole assemblage, but two men watched that glorious sunset with even an +appearance of the admiration and attention which it deserved. One was +the landholder whose wrongs were related in the preceding chapter--the +other his remarkable friend. + +These two men formed a singular contrast to each other, both in +demeanour and appearance, as they gazed forth upon the crimson heaven. +The landholder was an under-sized, restless-looking man, whose features, +naturally sharp, were now distorted by a fixed expression of misery and +discontent. His quick, penetrating glance wandered incessantly from +place to place, perceiving all things, but resting on none. In his +attention to the scene before him, he appeared to have been led more by +the influence of example than by his own spontaneous feelings; for ever +and anon he looked impatiently round upon his friend as if expecting him +to speak--but no word or movement escaped his thoughtful companion. +Occupied exclusively in his own contemplations, he appeared wholly +insensible to any ordinary outward appeal. + +In age and appearance this individual was in the decline of life; for he +had numbered sixty years, his hair was completely grey, and his face was +covered with deep wrinkles. Yet, in spite of these disadvantages, he +was in the highest sense of the word a handsome man. Though worn and +thin, his features were still bold and regular; and there was an +elevation about the habitual mournfulness of his expression, and an +intelligence about his somewhat severe and earnest eyes, that bore +eloquent testimony to the superiority of his intellectual powers. As he +now stood gazing fixedly out into the glowing sky, his tall, meagre +figure half supported upon his staff, his lips firmly compressed, his +brow slightly frowning, and his attitude firm and motionless, the most +superficial observer must have felt immediately that he looked on no +ordinary being. The history of a life of deep thought--perhaps of long +sorrow--seemed written in every lineament of his meditative countenance; +and there was a natural dignity in his manner, which evidently +restrained his restless companion from offering any determined +interruption to the course of his reflections. + +Slowly and gorgeously the sun had continued to wane in the horizon until +he was now lost to view. As his last rays sunk behind the distant +hills, the stranger started from his reverie and approached the +landholder, pointing with his staff towards the fast-fading brightness +of the western sky. + +'Probus,' said he, in a low, melancholy voice, 'as I looked on that +sunset I thought on the condition of the Church.' + +'I see little in the Church to think of, or in the sunset to observe,' +replied his companion. + +'How pure, how vivid,' murmured the other, scarcely heeding the +landholder's remark,' was the light which that sun cast upon this earth +at our feet! How nobly for a time its brightness triumphed over the +shadows around; and yet, in spite of the promise of that radiance, how +swiftly did it fade ere long in its conflict with the gloom--how +thoroughly, even now, has it departed from the earth, and withdrawn the +beauty of its glory from the heavens! Already the shadows are +lengthening around us, and shrouding in their darkness every object in +the Place. But a short hour hence, and--should no moon arise--the gloom +of night will stretch unresisted over Rome!' + +'To what purpose do you tell me this?' + + +'Are you not reminded, by what we have observed, of the course of the +worship which it is our privilege to profess? Does not that first +beautiful light denote its pure and perfect rise; that short conflict +between the radiance and the gloom, its successful preservation, by the +Apostles and the Fathers; that rapid fading of the radiance, its +desecration in later times; and the gloom which now surrounds us, the +destruction which has encompassed it in this age we live in?--a +destruction which nothing can avert but a return to that pure first +faith that should now be the hope of our religion, as the moon is the +hope of night!' + +'How should we reform? Do people who have no liberties care about a +religion? Who is to teach them?' + +'I have--I will. It is the purpose of my life to restore to them the +holiness of the ancient Church; to rescue them from the snare of +traitors to the faith, whom men call priests. They shall learn through +me that the Church knew no adornment once, but the presence of the pure; +that the priest craved no finer vestment than his holiness; that the +Gospel, which once taught humility and now raises dispute, was in former +days the rule of faith--sufficient for all wants, powerful over all +difficulties. Through me they shall know that in times past it was the +guardian of the heart; through me they shall see that in times present +it is the plaything of the proud; through me they shall fear that in +times future it may become the exile of the Church! To this task I have +vowed myself; to overthrow this idolatry--which, like another paganism, +rises among us with its images, its relics, its jewels, and its gold--I +will devote my child, my life, my energies, and my possessions. From +this attempt I will never turn aside--from this determination I will +never flinch. While I have a breath of life in me, I will persevere in +restoring to this abandoned city the true worship of the Most High!' + +He ceased abruptly. The intensity of his agitation seemed suddenly to +deny to him the faculty of speech. Every muscle in the frame of that +stern, melancholy man quivered at the immortal promptings of the soul +within him. There was something almost feminine in his universal +susceptibility to the influence of one solitary emotion. Even the +rough, desperate landholder felt awed by the enthusiasm of the being +before him, and forgot his wrongs, terrible as they were--and his +misery, poignant as it was--as he gazed upon his companion's face. + +For some minutes neither of the men said more. Soon, however, the last +speaker calmed his agitation with the facility of a man accustomed to +stifle the emotions that he cannot crush, and advancing to the +landholder, took him sorrowfully by the hand. + +'I see, Probus, that I have amazed you,' said he; 'but the Church is the +only subject on which I have no discretion. In all other matters I have +conquered the rashness of my early manhood; in this I have to wrestle +with my hastier nature still. When I look on the mockeries that are +acting around us; when I behold a priesthood deceivers, a people +deluded, a religion defiled, then, I confess it, my indignation +overpowers my patience, and I burn to destroy, where I ought only to +hope to reform.' + +'I knew you always violent of imagination; but when I last saw you your +enthusiasm was love. Your wife--' + +'Peace! She deceived me!' + +'Your child--' + +'Lives with me at Rome.' + +'I remember her an infant, when, fourteen years since, I was your +neighbour in Gaul. On my departure from the province, you had just +returned from a journey into Italy, unsuccessful in your attempts to +discover there a trace either of your parents, or of that elder brother +whose absence you were wont so continually to lament. Tell me, have +you, since that period, discovered the members of your ancient +household? Hitherto you have been so occupied in listening to the +history of my wrongs that you have scarcely spoken of the changes in +your life since we last met.' + + +'If, Probus, I have been silent to you concerning myself, it is because +for me retrospection has little that attracts. While yet it was in my +power to return to those parents whom I deserted in my boyhood, I +thought not of repentance; and now that they must be but too surely lost +to me, my yearning towards them is of no avail. Of my brother, from +whom I parted in a moment of childish jealousy and anger, and whose +pardon and love I would give up even my ambition to acquire, I have +never yet discovered a trace. Atonement to those whom I injured in +early life is a privilege denied to the prayers of my age. From my +parents and my brother I departed unblest, and unforgiven by them I feel +that I am doomed to die! My life has been careless, useless, godless, +passing from rapine and violence to luxury and indolence, and leading me +to the marriage which I exulted in when I last saw you, but which I now +feel was unworthy alike in its motives and its results. But blessed and +thrice blessed by that last calamity of my wicked existence, for it +opened my eyes to the truth--it made a Christian of me while I was yet +alive!' + +'Is it thus that the Christian can view his afflictions? I would, then, +that I were a Christian like you!' murmured the landholder, in low, +earnest tones. + +'It was in those first days, Probus,' continued the other, 'when I found +myself deserted and dishonoured, left alone to be the guardian of my +helpless child, exiled for ever from a home that I had myself forsaken, +that I repented me in earnest of my misdeeds, that I sought wisdom from +the book of salvation, and the conduct of life from the Fathers of the +Church. It was at that time that I determined to devote my child, like +Samuel of old, to the service of heaven, and myself to the reformation +of our degraded worship. As I have already told you, I forsook my abode +and changed my name (remember it is as 'Numerian' that you must +henceforth address me), that of my former self no remains might be left, +that of my former companions not one might ever discover and tempt me +again. With incessant care have I shielded my daughter from the +contamination of the world. As a precious jewel in a miser's hands she +has been watched and guarded in her father's house. Her destiny is to +soothe the afflicted, to watch the sick, to succour the forlorn, when I, +her teacher, have restored to the land the dominion of its ancient faith +and the guidance of its faultless Gospel. We have neither of us an +affection or a hope that can bind us to the things of earth. Our hearts +look both towards heaven; our expectations are only from on high!' + +'Do not set your hopes too firmly on your child. Remember how the +nobles of Rome have destroyed the household I once had, and tremble for +your own.' + +'I have no fear for my daughter; she is cared for in my absence by one +who is vowed to aid me in my labours for the Church. It is now nearly a +year since I first met Ulpius, and from that time forth he has devoted +himself to my service and watched over my child.' + +'Who is this Ulpius, that you should put such faith in him?' + +'He is a man of age like mine. I found him, like me, worn down by the +calamities of his early life, and abandoned, as I had once been, to the +delusions of the pagan gods. He was desolate, suffering, forlorn, and I +had pity on him in his misery. I proved to him that the worship he +still professed was banished for its iniquities from the land; that the +religion which had succeeded it had become defiled by man, and that +there remained but one faith for him to choose, if he would be saved-- +the faith of the early Church. He heard me and was converted. From +that moment he has served my patiently and helped me willingly. Under +the roof where I assemble the few who as yet are true believers, he is +always the first to come and the last to remain. No word of anger has +ever crossed his lips--no look of impatience has ever appeared in his +eyes. Though sorrowful, he is gentle; though suffering, he is +industrious. I have trusted him with all I possess, and I glory in my +credulity! Ulpius is incorruptible!' + +'And your daughter?--is Ulpius reverenced by her as he is respected by +you?' + + +'She knows that her duty is to love whom I love, and to avoid whom I +avoid. Can you imagine that a Christian virgin has any feelings +disobedient to her father's wishes? Come to my house; judge with your +own eyes of my daughter and my companion. You, whose misfortunes have +left you no home, shall find one, if you will, with me. Come then and +labour with me in my great undertaking! You will withdraw your mind +from the contemplation of your woes, and merit by your devotion the +favour of the Most High.' + +'No, Numerian, I will still be independent, even of my friends! Nor +Rome nor Italy are abiding-places for me. I go to another land to abide +among another people, until the arms of a conqueror shall have restored +freedom to the brave and protection to the honest throughout the +countries of the Empire.' + +'Probus, I implore you stay!' + +'Never! My determination is taken, Numerian--farewell!' + +For a few minutes Numerian stood motionless, gazing wistfully in the +direction taken by his companion on his departure. At first an +expression of grief and pity softened the austerity which seemed the +habitual characteristic of his countenance when in repose, but soon +these milder and tenderer feelings appeared to vanish from his heart as +suddenly as they had arisen; his features reassumed their customary +sternness, and he muttered to himself as he mixed with the crowd +struggling onwards in the direction of the basilica: 'Let him depart +unregretted; he has denied himself to the service of his Maker. He +should no longer be my friend.' + +In this sentence lay the index to the character of the man. His +existence was one vast sacrifice, one scene of intrepid self-immolation. +Although, in the brief hints at the events of his life which he had +communicated to his friend, he had exaggerated the extent of his errors, +he had by no means done justice to the fervour of his penitence--a +penitence which outstripped the usual boundaries of repentance, and only +began in despair to terminate in fanaticism. His desertion of his +father's house (into the motives of which it is not our present +intention to enter), and his long subsequent existence of violence and +excess, indisposed his naturally strong passions to submit to the +slightest restraint. In obedience to their first impulses, he +contracted, at a mature age, a marriage with a woman thoroughly unworthy +of the ardent admiration that she had inspired. When he found himself +deceived and dishonoured by her, the shock of such an affliction +thrilled through his whole being--crushed all his energies--struck him +prostrate, heart and mind, at one blow. The errors of his youth, +committed in his prosperity with moral impunity, reacted upon him in his +adversity with an influence fatal to his future peace. His repentance +was darkened by despondency; his resolutions were unbrightened by hope. +He flew to religion as the suicide flies to the knife--in despair. + +Leaving all remaining peculiarities in Numerian's character to be +discussed at a future opportunity, we will now follow him in his passage +through the crowd, to the entrance of the basilica--continuing to +designate him, here and elsewhere, by the name which he had assumed on +his conversion, and by which he had insisted on being addressed during +his interview with the fugitive landholder. + +Although at the commencement of his progress towards the church, our +enthusiast found himself placed among the hindermost of the members of +the advancing throng, he soon contrived so thoroughly to outstrip his +dilatory and discursive neighbours as to gain, with little delay, the +steps of the sacred building. Here, in common with many others, he was +compelled to stop, while those nearest the basilica squeezed their way +through its stately doors. In such a situation his remarkable figure +could not fail to be noticed, and he was silently recognised by many of +the bystanders, some of whom looked on him with wonder, and some with +aversion. Nobody, however, approached or spoke to him. Every one felt +the necessity of shunning a man whose bold and daily exposures of the +abuses of the Church placed in incessant peril his liberty, and even his +life. + + +Among the bystanders who surrounded Numerian, there were nevertheless +two who did not remain content with carelessly avoiding any +communication with the intrepid and suspected reformer. These two men +belonged to the lowest order of the clergy, and appeared to be occupied +in cautiously watching the actions and listening to the conversation of +the individuals immediately around them. The instant they beheld +Numerian they moved so as to elude his observation, taking care at the +same time to occupy such a position as enabled them to keep in view the +object of their evident distrust. + +'Look, Osius,' said one, 'that man is here again!' + +'And doubtless with the same motives which brought him here yesterday,' +replied the other. 'You will see that he will again enter the church, +listen to the service, retire to his little chapel near the Pincian +Mount, and there, before his ragged mob of adherents, attack the +doctrines which our brethren have preached, as we know he did last +night, and as we suspect he will continue to do until the authorities +think proper to give the signal for his imprisonment.' + +'I marvel that he should have been permitted to persist so long a time +as he has in his course of contumacy towards the Church. Have we not +evidence enough in his writings alone to convict him of heresy? The +carelessness of the bishop upon such a matter as this is quite +inexplicable!' + +'You should consider, Numerian not being a priest, that the carelessness +about our interests lies more with the senate than the bishop. What +time our nobles can spare from their debaucheries has been lately given +to discussions on the conduct of the Emperor in retiring to Ravenna, and +will now be dedicated to penetrating the basis of this rumour about the +Goths. Besides, even were they at liberty, what care the senate about +theological disputes? They only know this Numerian as a citizen of Rome, +a man of some influence and possessions, and, consequently, a person of +political importance as a member of the population. In addition to +which, it would be no easy task for us at the present moment to impugn +the doctrines broached by our assailant; for the fellow has a +troublesome facility of supporting what he says by the Bible. Believe +me, in this matter, our only way of righting ourselves will be to +convict him of scandal against the highest dignitaries of the Church.' + +'The order that we have lately received to track his movements and +listen to his discourses, leads me to believe that our superiors are of +your opinion.' + +'Whether my convictions are correct or not, of this I feel assured--that +his days of liberty are numbered. It was but a few hours ago that I saw +the bishop's chamberlain's head-assistant, and he told me that he had +heard, through the crevice of a door--' + +'Hush! he moves; he is pressing forward to enter the church. You can +tell me what you were about to say as we follow him. Quick! let us mix +with the crowd.' + +Ever enthusiastic in the performance of their loathsome duties, these +two discreet pastors of a Christian flock followed Numerian with the +most elaborate caution into the interior of the sacred building. + + +Although the sun still left a faint streak of red in the western sky, +and the moon had as yet scarcely risen, the great chandelier of two +thousand four hundred lamps, mentioned by the bishop in his address to +the people, was already alight. In the days of its severe and sacred +beauty, the appearance of the church would have suffered fatally by this +blaze of artificial brilliancy; but now that the ancient character of +the basilica was completely changed, now that from a solemn temple it +had been altered to the semblance of a luxurious palace, it gained +immensely by its gaudy illumination. Not an ornament along the vast +extent of its glorious nave but glittered in vivid distinctness in the +dazzling light that poured downwards from the roof. The gilded rafters, +the smooth inlaid marble pillars, the rich hangings of the windows, the +jewelled candlesticks on the altars, the pictures, the statues, the +bronzes, the mosaics, each and all glowed with a steady and luxurious +transparency absolutely intoxicating to the eye. Not a trace of wear, +not a vestige of tarnish now appeared on any object. Each portion of +the nave to which the attention was directed appeared too finely, +spotlessly radiant, ever to have been touched by mortal hands. +Entranced and bewildered, the observation roamed over the surface of the +brilliant scene, until, wearied by the unbroken embellishment of the +prospect, it wandered for repose upon the dimly lighted aisles, and +dwelt with delight upon the soft shadows that hovered about their +distant pillars, and the gliding forms that peopled their dusky +recesses, or loitered past their lofty walls. + +At the moment when Numerian entered the basilica, a part of the service +had just concluded. The last faint echo from the voices of the choir +still hung upon the incense-laden air, and the vast masses of the +spectators were still grouped in their listening and various attitudes, +as the devoted reformer looked forth upon the church. Even he, stern as +he was, seemed for a moment subdued by the ineffable enchantment of the +scene; but ere long, as if displeased with his own involuntary emotions +of admiration, his brow contracted, and he sighed heavily, as (still +followed by the attentive spies) he sought the comparative seclusion of +the aisles. + +During the interval between the divisions of the service, the +congregation occupied themselves in staring at the relics, which were +enclosed in a silver cabinet with crystal doors, and placed on the top +of the high altar. Although it was impossible to obtain a satisfactory +view of these ecclesiastical treasures, they nevertheless employed the +attention of every one until the appearance of a priest in the pulpit +gave signal of the commencement of the sermon, and admonished all those +who had seats to secure them without delay. + +Passing through the ranks of the auditors of the sermon--some of whom +were engaged in counting the lights in the chandelier, to be certain +that the bishop had not defrauded them of one out of the two thousand +four hundred lamps; others in holding whispered conversations, and +opening small boxes of sweetmeats--we again conduct the reader to the +outside of the church. + +The assemblage here had by this time much diminished; the shadows flung +over the ground by the lofty colonnades had deepened and increased; and +in many of the more remote recesses of the Place hardly a human being +was to be observed. At one of these extremities, where the pillars +terminated in the street and the obscurity was most intense, stood a +solitary old man keeping himself cautiously concealed in the darkness, +and looking out anxiously upon the public way immediately before him. + +He had waited but a short time when a handsome chariot, preceded by a +body-guard of gaily-attired slaves, stopped within a few paces of his +lurking-place, and the voice of the person it contained pronounced +audibly the following words:-- + +'No! no! Drive on--we are later than I thought. If I stay to see this +illumination of the basilica, I shall not be in time to receive my +guests for to-night's banquet. Besides, this inestimable kitten of the +breed most worshipped by the ancient Egyptians has already taken cold, +and I would not for the world expose the susceptible animal any longer +than is necessary to the dampness of the night-air. Drive on, good +Carrio, drive on!' + +The old man scarcely waited for the conclusion of this speech before he +ran up to the chariot, where he was immediately confronted by two +heads--one that of Vetranio the senator, the other that of a glossy +black kitten adorned with a collar of rubies, and half enveloped in its +master's ample robes. Before the astonished noble could articulate a +word, the man whispered in hoarse, hurried accents, 'I am Ulpius-- +dismiss your servants--I have something important to say!' + +'Ha! my worthy Ulpius! You have a most unhappy faculty of delivering a +message with the manner of an assassin! But I must pardon your +unpleasant abruptness in consideration of your diligence. My excellent +Carrio, If you value my approbation, remove your companions and yourself +out of hearing!' + + +The freedman yielded instant obedience to his master's mandate. The +following conversation then took place, the strange man opening it +thus:-- + +'You remember your promise?' + +'I do.' + +'Upon your honour, as a nobleman and a senator, you are prepared to +abide by it whenever it is necessary?' + +'I am.' + +'Then at the dawn of morning meet me at the private gate of your palace +garden, and I will conduct you to Antonina's bedchamber.' + +'The time will suit me. But why at the dawn of morning?' + +'Because the Christian dotard will keep a vigil until midnight, which +the girl will most probably attend. I wished to tell you this at your +palace, but I heard there that you had gone to Aricia, and would return +by way of the basilica; so I posted myself to intercept you thus.' + +'Industrious Ulpius!' + +'Remember your promise!' + +Vetranio leaned forward to reply, but Ulpius was gone. + +As the senator again commanded his equipage to move on, he looked +anxiously around him, as if once more expecting to see his strange +adherent still lurking near the chariot. He only perceived, however, a +man whom he did not know, followed by two other, walking rapidly past +him. They were Numerian and the spies. + +'At last, my projects are approaching consummation,' exclaimed Vetranio +to himself, as he and his kitten rolled off in the chariot. 'It is well +that I thought of securing possession of Julia's villa to-day, for I +shall now, assuredly, want to use it to-morrow. Jupiter! What a mass +of dangers, contradictions, and mysteries encompass this affair! When I +think that I, who pride myself on my philosophy, have quitted Ravenna, +borrowed a private villa, leagued myself with an uncultivated plebeian, +and all for the sake of a girl who has already deceived my expectations +by gaining me as a music-master without admitting me as a lover, I am +positively astonished at my own weakness! Still it must be owned that +the complexion my adventure has lately assumed renders it of some +interest in itself. The mere pleasure of penetrating the secrets of +this Numerian's household is by no means the least among the numerous +attraction of my design. How has he gained his influence over the girl? +Why does he keep her in such strict seclusion? Who is this old half- +frantic, unceremonious man-monster calling himself Ulpius; refusing all +reward for his villainy; raving about a return to the old religion of +the gods; and exulting in the promise he has extorted from me, as a good +pagan, to support the first restoration of the ancient worship that may +be attempted in Rome? Where does he come from? Why does he outwardly +profess himself a Christian? What sent him into Numerian's service? By +the girdle of Venus! everything connected with the girl is as +incomprehensible as herself! But patience--patience! A few hours more, +and these mysteries will be revealed. In the meantime, let me think of +my banquet, and of its presiding deity, the Nightingale Sauce!' + + +CHAPTER 5. ANTONINA. + + +Who that has been at Rome does not remember with delight the attractions +of the Pincian Hill? Who, after toiling through the wonders of the +dark, melancholy city, has not been revived by a visit to its shady +walks, and by breathing its fragrant breezes? Amid the solemn +mournfulness that reigns over declining Rome, this delightful elevation +rises light, airy, and inviting, at once a refreshment to the body and a +solace to the spirit. From its smooth summit the city is seen in its +utmost majesty, and the surrounding country in its brightest aspect. +The crimes and miseries of Rome seem deterred from approaching its +favoured soil; it impresses the mind as a place set apart by common +consent for the presence of the innocent and the joyful--as a scene that +rest and recreation keep sacred from the intrusion of tumult and toil. + +Its appearance in modern days is the picture of its character for ages +past. Successive wars might dull its beauties for a time, but peace +invariably restored them in all their pristine loveliness. The old +Romans called it 'The Mount of Gardens'. Throughout the disasters of +the Empire and the convulsions of the Middle Ages, it continued to merit +its ancient appellation, and a 'Mount of Gardens' it still triumphantly +remains to the present day. + +At the commencement of the fifth century the magnificence of the Pincian +Hill was at its zenith. Were it consistent with the conduct of our story +to dwell upon the glories of its palaces and its groves, its temples and +its theatres, such a glowing prospect of artificial splendour, aided by +natural beauty, might be spread before the reader as would tax his +credulity, while it excited his astonishment. This task, however, it is +here unnecessary to attempt. It is not for the wonders of ancient +luxury and taste, but for the abode of the zealous and religious +Numerian, that we find it now requisite to arouse interest and engage +attention. + +At the back of the Flaminian extremity of the Pincian Hill, and +immediately overlooking the city wall, stood, at the period of which we +write, a small but elegantly built house, surrounded by a little garden +of its own, and protected at the back by the lofty groves and +outbuildings of the palace of Vetranio the senator. This abode had been +at one time a sort of summer-house belonging to the former proprietor of +a neighbouring mansion. + +Profligate necessities, however, had obliged the owner to part with this +portion of his possessions, which was purchased by a merchant well known +to Numerian, who received it as a legacy at his friend's death. +Disgusted, as soon as his reforming projects took possession of his +mind, at the bare idea of propinquity to the ennobled libertines of +Rome, the austere Christian determined to abandon his inheritance, and +to sell it to another; but, at the repeated entreaties of his daughter, +he at length consented to change his purpose, and sacrifice his +antipathy to his luxurious neighbours to his child's youthful attachment +to the beauties of Nature as displayed in his legacy on the Pincian +Mount. In this instance only did the natural affection of the father +prevail over the acquired severity of the reformer. Here he +condescended, for the first and the last time, to the sweet trivialities +of youth. Here, indulgent in spite of himself, he fixed his little +household, and permitted to his daughter her sole recreations of tending +the flowers in the garden and luxuriating in the loveliness of the +distant view. + +****** + +The night has advanced an hour since the occurrence mentioned in the +preceding chapter. The clear and brilliant moonlight of Italy now +pervades every district of the glorious city, and bathes in its pure +effulgence the groves and palaces on the Pincian Mount. From the garden +of Numerian the irregular buildings of the great suburbs of Rome, the +rich undulating country beyond, and the long ranges of mountains in the +distance, are now all visible in the soft and luxurious light. Near the +spot which commands this view, not a living creature is to be seen on a +first examination; but on a more industrious and patient observation, +you are subsequently able to detect at one of the windows of Numerian's +house, half hidden by a curtain, the figure of a young girl. + + +Soon this solitary form approaches nearer to the eye. The moonbeams, +that have hitherto shone only upon the window, now illuminate other +objects. First they display a small, white arm; then a light, simple +robe; then a fair, graceful neck; and finally a bright, youthful, +innocent face, directed steadfastly towards the wide moon-brightened +prospect of the distant mountains. + +For some time the girl remains in contemplation at her window. Then she +leaves her post, and almost immediately reappears at a door leading into +the garden. Her figure, as she advances towards the lawn before her, is +light and small--a natural grace and propriety appear in her movements-- +she holds pressed to her bosom and half concealed by her robe, a gilt +lute. When she reaches a turf bank commanding the same view as the +window, she arranges her instrument upon her knees, and with something +of restraint in her manner gently touches the chords. Then, as if +alarmed at the sound she has produced, she glances anxiously around her, +apparently fearful of being overheard. Her large, dark, lustrous eyes +have in them an expression of apprehension; her delicate lips are half +parted; a sudden flush rises in her soft, olive complexion as she +examines every corner of the garden. Having completed her survey +without discovering any cause for the suspicions she seems to entertain, +she again employs herself over her instrument. Once more she strikes +the chords, and now with a bolder hand. The notes she produces resolve +themselves into a wild, plaintive, irregular melody, alternately rising +and sinking, as if swayed by the fickle influence of a summer wind. +These sounds are soon harmoniously augmented by the young minstrel's +voice, which is calm, still, and mellow, and adapts itself with +exquisite ingenuity to every arbitrary variation in the tone of the +accompaniment. The song that she has chosen is one of the fanciful odes +of the day. Its chief merit to her lies in its alliance to the strange +Eastern air which she heard at her first interview with the senator who +presented her with the lute. Paraphrased in English, the words of the +composition would run thus:-- + +THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC + +I. Spirit, whose dominion reigns Over Music's thrilling strains, Whence +may be thy distant birth? Say what tempted thee to earth? + +Mortal, listen: I was born In Creation's early years, Singing, 'mid the +stars of morn, `To the music of the spheres. + +Once as, within the realms of space, I view'd this mortal planet roll, A +yearning towards they hapless race, Unbidden, filled my seraph soul! + +Angels, who had watched my birth, Heard me sigh to sing to earth; 'Twas +transgression ne'er forgiv'n To forget my native heav'n; So they sternly +bade me go--Banish'd to the world below. + +II. Exil'd here, I knew no fears; For, though darkness round me clung, +Though none heard me in the spheres, Earth had listeners while I sung. + +Young spirits of the Spring sweet breeze Came thronging round me, soft +and coy, Light wood-nymphs sported in the trees, And laughing Echo leapt +for joy! + +Brooding Woe and writhing Pain Soften'd at my gentle strain; Bounding +Joy, with footstep fleet, Ran to nestle at my feet; While, arous'd, +delighted Love Softly kiss'd me from above! + +III. Since those years of early time, Faithful still to earth I've +sung; Flying through each distant clime, Ever welcome, ever young! + +Still pleas'd, my solace I impart Where brightest hopes are scattered +dead; 'Tis mine--sweet gift!--to charm the heart, Though all its other +joys have fled! + +Time, that withers all beside, Harmless past me loves to glide; Change, +that mortals must obey, Ne'er shall shake my gentle sway; Still 'tis +mine all hearts to move In eternity of love. + + +As the last sounds of her voice and her lute died softly away upon the +still night air, an indescribable elevation appeared in the girl's +countenance. She looked up rapturously into the far, star-bright sky; +her lip quivered, her dark eyes filled with tears, and her bosom heaved +with the excess of the emotions that the music and the scene inspired. +Then she gazed slowly around her, dwelling tenderly upon the fragrant +flower-beds that were the work of her own hands, and looking forth with +an expression half reverential, half ecstatic over the long, smooth, +shining plains, and the still, glorious mountains, that had so long been +the inspiration of her most cherished thoughts, and that now glowed +before her eyes, soft and beautiful as her dreams on her virgin couch. +Then, overpowered by the artless thoughts and innocent recollections +which on the magic wings of Nature and Night came wafted over her mind, +she bent down her head upon her lute, pressed her round, dimpled cheek +against its smooth frame, and drawing her fingers mechanically over its +strings, abandoned herself unreservedly to the reveries of maidenhood +and youth. + +Such was the being devoted by her father's fatal ambition to a lifelong +banishment from all that is attractive in human art and beautiful in +human intellect! Such was the daughter whose existence was to be one +long acquaintance with mortal woe, one unvaried refusal of mortal +pleasure, whose thoughts were to be only of sermons and fasts, whose +action were to be confined to the binding up of strangers' wounds and +the drying of strangers' tears; whose life, in brief, was doomed to be +the embodiment of her father's austere ideal of the austere virgins of +the ancient Church! + +Deprived of her mother, exiled from the companionship of others of her +age, permitted no familiarity with any living being, no sympathies with +any other heart, commanded but never indulged, rebuked but never +applauded, she must have sunk beneath the severities imposed on her by +her father, but for the venial disobedience committed in the pursuit of +the solitary pleasure procured for her by her lute. Vainly, in her +hours of study, did she read the fierce anathemas against love, liberty, +and pleasure, poetry, painting, and music, gold, silver, and precious +stones, which the ancient fathers had composed for the benefit of the +submissive congregations of former days; vainly did she imagine, during +those long hours of theological instruction, that her heart's forbidden +longings were banished and destroyed--that her patient and childlike +disposition was bowed in complete subserviency to the most rigorous of +her father's commands. No sooner were her interviews with Numerian +concluded than the promptings of that nature within us, which artifice +may warp but can never destroy, lured her into a forgetfulness of all +that she had heard and a longing for much that was forbidden. We live, +in this existence, but by the companionship of some sympathy, +aspiration, or pursuit, which serves us as our habitual refuge from the +tribulations we inherit from the outer world. The same feeling which led +Antonina in her childhood to beg for a flower-garden, in her girlhood +induced her to gain possession of a lute. + +The passion for music which prompted her visit to Vetranio, which alone +saved her affections from pining in the solitude imposed on them, and +which occupied her leisure hours in the manner we have already +described, was an inheritance of her birth. + + +Her Spanish mother had sung to her, hour after hour, in her cradle, for +the short time during which she was permitted to watch over her child. +The impression thus made on the dawning faculties of the infant, nothing +ever effaced. Though her earliest perception were greeted only by the +sight of her father's misery; though the form which his despairing +penitence soon assumed doomed her to a life of seclusion and an +education of admonition, the passionate attachment to the melody of +sound, inspired by her mother's voice--almost imbibed at her mother's +breast--lived through all neglect, and survived all opposition. It +found its nourishment in childish recollections, in snatches of street +minstrelsy heard through her window, in the passage of the night winds +of winter through the groves on the Pincian Mount, and received its +rapturous gratification in the first audible sounds from the Roman +senator's lute. How her possession of an instrument, and her skill in +playing, were subsequently gained, the reader already knows from +Vetranio's narrative at Ravenna. Could the frivolous senator have +discovered the real intensity of the emotions his art was raising in his +pupil's bosom while he taught her; could he have imagined how +incessantly, during their lessons, her sense of duty struggled with her +love for music--how completely she was absorbed, one moment by an agony +of doubt and fear, another by an ecstasy of enjoyment and hope--he would +have felt little of that astonishment at her coldness towards himself +which he so warmly expressed at his interview with Julia in the gardens +of the Court. In truth, nothing could be more complete than Antonina's +childish unconsciousness of the feelings with which Vetranio regarded +her. In entering his presence, whatever remnant of her affections +remained unwithered by her fears was solely attracted and engrossed by +the beloved and beautiful lute. In receiving the instrument, she almost +forgot the giver in the triumph of possession; or, if she thought of him +at all, it was to be grateful for having escaped uninjured from a member +of that class, for whom her father's reiterated admonitions had inspired +her with a vague feeling of dread and distrust, and to determine that, +now she had acknowledged his kindness and departed from his domains, +nothing should ever induce her to risk discovery by her father and peril +to herself by ever entering them again. + +Innocent in her isolation, almost infantine in her natural simplicity, a +single enjoyment was sufficient to satisfy all the passions of her age. +Father, mother, lover, and companion; liberties, amusements, and +adornments--they were all summed up for her in that simple lute. The +archness, the liveliness, and the gentleness of her disposition; the +poetry of her nature, and the affection of her heart; the happy bloom of +youth, which seclusion could not all wither nor distorted precept taint, +were now entirely nourished, expanded, and freshened--such is the +creative power of human emotion--by that inestimable possession. She +could speak to it, smile on it, caress it, and believe, in the ecstasy +of her delight, in the carelessness of her self-delusion, that it +sympathised with her joy. During her long solitudes, when she was +silently watched in her father's absence by the brooding, melancholy +stranger whom he had set over her, it became a companion dearer than the +flower-garden, dearer even that the plains and mountains which formed +her favourite view. When her father returned, and she was led forth to +sit in a dark place among strange, silent people, and to listen to +interminable declamations, it was a solace to think of the instrument as +it lay hidden securely in her chamber, and to ponder delightedly on what +new music of her own she could play upon it next. And then, when +evening arrived, and she was left alone in her garden--then came the +hour of moonlight and song; the moment of rapture and melody that drew +her out of herself, elevated her she felt not how, and transported her +she knew not whither. + +But, while we thus linger over reflection on motives and examinations +into character, we are called back to the outer world of passing +interests and events by the appearances of another figure on the scene. +We left Antonina in the garden thinking over her lute. She still +remains in her meditative position, but she is now no longer alone. + +From the same steps by which she had descended, a man now advances into +the garden, and walks towards the place she occupies. His gait is +limping, his stature crooked, his proportions distorted. His large, +angular features stand out in gaunt contrast to his shrivelled cheeks. +His dry, matted hair has been burnt by the sun into a strange tawny +brown. His expression is one of fixed, stern, mournful thought. As he +steps stealthily along, advancing towards Antonina, he mutters to +himself, and clutches mechanically at his garments with his lank, +shapeless fingers. The radiant moonlight, falling fully upon his +countenance, invests it with a livid, mysterious, spectral appearance: +seen by a stranger at the present moment, he would have been almost +awful to look upon. + +This was the man who had intercepted Vetranio on his journey home, and +who had now hurried back so as to regain his accustomed post before his +master's return, for he was the same individual mentioned by Numerian as +his aged convert, Ulpius, in his interview with the landholder at the +Basilica of St. Peter. + +When Ulpius had arrived within a few paces of the girl he stopped, +saying in a hoarse, thick voice-- + +'Hide your toy--Numerian is at the gates!' + + +Antonina started violently as she listened to those repulsive accents. +The blood rushed into her cheeks; she hastily covered the lute with her +robe; paused an instant, as if intending to speak to the man, then +shuddered violently, and hurried towards the house. + +As she mounted the steps Numerian met her in the hall. There was now no +chance of hiding the lute in its accustomed place. + +'You stay too late in the garden,' said the father, looking proudly, in +spite of all his austerity, upon his beautiful daughter as she stood by +his side. 'But what affects you?' he added, noticing her confusion. +'You tremble; your colour comes and goes; your lips quiver. Give me +your hand!' + +As Antonina obeyed him, a fold of the treacherous robe slipped aside, +and discovered a part of the frame of the lute. Numerian's quick eye +discovered it immediately. He snatched the instrument from her feeble +grasp. His astonishment on beholding it was too great for words, and +for an instant he confronted the poor girl, whose pale face looked rigid +with terror, in ominous and expressive silence. + +'This thing,' said he at length, 'this invention of libertines in my +house--in my daughter's possession!' and he dashed the lute into +fragments on the floor. + +For one moment Antonina looked incredulously on the ruins of the beloved +companion, which was the centre of all her happiest expectations for +future days. Then, as she began to estimate the reality of her +deprivation, her eyes lost all their heaven-born brightness, and filled +to overflowing with the tears of earth. + +'To your chamber!' thundered Numerian, as she knelt, sobbing +convulsively, over those hapless fragments. 'To your chamber! Tomorrow +shall bring this mystery of iniquity to light!' + +She rose humbly to obey him, for indignation had no part in the emotions +that shook her gentle and affectionate nature. As she moved towards the +room that no lute was henceforth to occupy, as she thought on the morrow +that no lute was henceforth to enliven, her grief almost overpowered +her. She turned back and looked imploringly at her father, as if +entreating permission to pick up even the smallest of the fragments at +his feet. + +'To your chamber!' he reiterated sternly. 'Am I to be disobeyed to my +face?' + +Without any repetition of her silent remonstrance, she instantly +retired. As soon as she was out of sight, Ulpius ascended the steps and +stood before the angered father. + +'Look, Ulpius,' cried Numerian, 'my daughter, whom I have so carefully +cherished, whom I intended for an example to the world, has deceived me, +even thus!' + +He pointed, as he spoke, to the ruins of the unfortunate lute; but +Ulpius did not address to him a word in reply, and he hastily +continued:-- + +'I will not sully the solemn offices of tonight by interrupting them +with my worldly affairs. To-morrow I will interrogate my disobedient +child. In the meantime, do not imagine, Ulpius, that I connect you in +any way with this wicked and unworthy deception! In you I have every +confidence, in your faithfulness I have every hope.' + +Again he paused, and again Ulpius kept silence. Any one less agitated, +less confiding, than his unsuspicious master, would have remarked that a +faint sinister smile was breaking forth upon his haggard countenance. +But Numerian's indignation was still too violent to permit him to +observed, and, spite of his efforts to control himself, he again broke +forth in complaint. + + +'On this night too, of all others,' cried he, 'when I had hoped to lead +her among my little assembly of the faithful, to join in their prayers, +and to listen to my exhortations--on this night I am doomed to find her +a player on a pagan lute, a possessor of the most wanton of the world's +vanities! God give me patience to worship this night with unwandering +thoughts, for my heart is vexed at the transgression of my child, as the +heart of Eli of old at the iniquities of his sons!' + +He was moving rapidly away, when, as if struck with a sudden +recollection, he stopped abruptly, and again addressed his gloomy +companion. + +'I will go by myself to the chapel to-night,' said he. 'You, Ulpius, +will stay to keep watch over my disobedient child. Be vigilant, good +friend, over my house; for even now, on my return, I thought that two +strangers were following my steps, and I forebode some evil in store for +me as the chastisement for my sins, even greater than this misery of my +daughter's transgression. Be watchful, good Ulpius--be watchful!' + +And, as he hurried away, the stern, serious man felt as overwhelmed at +the outrage that had been offered to his gloomy fanaticism, as the weak, +timid girl at the destruction that had been wreaked upon her harmless +lute. + +After Numerian had departed, the sinister smile again appeared on the +countenance of Ulpius. He stood for a short time fixed in thought, and +then began slowly to descend a staircase near him which led to some +subterranean apartments. He had not gone far when a slight noise became +audible at an extremity of the corridor above. As he listened for a +repetition of the sound, he heard a sob, and looking cautiously up, +discovered, by the moonlight, Antonina stepping cautiously along the +marble pavement of the hall. + +She held in her hand a little lamp; her small, rosy feet were uncovered; +the tears still streamed over her cheeks. She advanced with the +greatest caution (as if fearful of being overheard) until she gained the +part of the floor still strewn with the ruins of the broken lute. Here +she knelt down, and pressed each fragment that lay before her separately +to her lips. Then hurriedly concealing a single piece in her bosom, she +arose and stole quickly away in the direction by which she had come. + +'Be patient till the dawn,' muttered her faithless guardian, gazing +after her from his concealment as she disappeared; 'it will bring to thy +lute a restorer, and to Ulpius an ally!' + + +CHAPTER 6. AN APPRENTICESHIP TO THE TEMPLE. + +The action of our characters during the night included in the last two +chapters has now come to a pause. Vetranio is awaiting his guests for +the banquet; Numerian is in the chapel, preparing for the discourse that +he is to deliver to his friends; Ulpius is meditating in his master's +house; Antonina is stretched upon her couch, caressing the precious +fragment that she had saved from the ruins of her lute. All the +immediate agents of our story are, for the present, in repose. + +It is our purpose to take advantage of this interval of inaction, and +direct the reader's attention to a different country from that selected +as the scene of our romance, and to such historical events of past years +as connect themselves remarkably with the early life of Numerian's +perfidious convert. This man will be found a person of great importance +in the future conduct of our story. It is necessary to the +comprehension of his character, and the penetration of such of his +purposes as have been already hinted at, and may subsequently appear, +that the long course of his existence should be traced upwards to its +source. + +It was in the reign of Julian, when the gods of the Pagan achieved their +last victory over the Gospel of the Christian, that a decently attired +man, leading by the hand a handsome boy of fifteen years of age, entered +the gates of Alexandria, and proceeded hastily towards the high priest's +dwelling in the Temple of Serapis. + + +After a stay of some hours at his destination, the man left the city +alone as hastily as he entered it, and was never after seen at +Alexandria. The boy remained in the abode of the high priest until the +next day, when he was solemnly devoted to the service of the temple. + +The boy was the young Emilius, afterwards called Ulpius. He was nephew +to the high priest, to whom he had been confided by his father, a +merchant of Rome. + +Ambition was the ruling passion of the father of Emilius. It had +prompted him to aspire to every distinction granted to the successful by +the state, but it had not gifted him with the powers requisite to turn +his aspirations in any instance into acquisitions. He passed through +existence a disappointed man, planning but never performing, seeing his +more fortunate brother rising to the highest distinction in the +priesthood, and finding himself irretrievably condemned to exist in the +affluent obscurity ensured to him by his mercantile pursuits. + +When his brother Macrinus, on Julian's accession to the imperial throne, +arrived at the pinnacle of power and celebrity as high priest of the +Temple of Serapis, the unsuccessful merchant lost all hope of rivalling +his relative in the pursuit of distinction. His insatiable ambition, +discarded from himself, now settled on one of his infant sons. He +determined that his child should be successful where he had failed. Now +that his brother had secured the highest elevation in the temple, no +calling could offer more direct advantages to a member of his household +that the priesthood. His family had been from their earliest origin +rigid Pagans. One of them had already attained to the most +distinguished honours of his gorgeous worship. He determined that +another should rival his kinsman, and that that other should be his +eldest son. + +Firm in this resolution, he at once devoted his child to the great +design which he now held continually in view. He knew well that +Paganism, revived though it was, was not the universal worship that it +had been; that it was now secretly resisted, and might soon be openly +opposed, by the persecuted Christians throughout the Empire; and that if +the young generation were to guard it successfully from all future +encroachments, and to rise securely to its highest honours, more must be +exacted from them than the easy attachment to the ancient religion +require from the votaries of former days. Then, the performance of the +most important offices in the priesthood was compatible with the +possession of military or political rank. Now, it was to the temple, +and to the temple only, that the future servant of the gods should be +devoted. Resolving thus, the father took care that all the son's +occupations and rewards should, from his earliest years, be in some way +connected with the career for which he was intended. His childish +pleasures were to be conducted to sacrifices and auguries; his childish +playthings and prizes were images of the deities. No opposition was +offered on the boy's part to this plan of education. Far different from +his younger brother, whose turbulent disposition defied all authority, +he was naturally docile; and his imagination, vivid beyond his years, +was easily led captive by any remarkable object presented to it. With +such encouragement, his father became thoroughly engrossed by the +occupation of forming him for his future existence. His mother's +influence over him was jealously watched; the secret expression of her +love, of her sorrow, at the prospect of parting with him, was ruthlessly +suppressed whenever it was discovered; and his younger brother was +neglected, almost forgotten, in order that the parental watchfulness +might be entirely and invariably devoted to the eldest son. + +When Emilius had numbered fifteen years, his father saw with delight +that the time had come when he could witness the commencement of the +realisation of all his projects. The boy was removed from home, taken +to Alexandria, and gladly left, by his proud and triumphant father, +under the especial guardianship of Macrinus, the high priest. + + +The chief of the temple full sympathised in his brother's designs for +the young Emilius. As soon as the boy had entered on his new +occupations, he was told that he must forget all that he had left behind +him at Rome; that he must look upon the high priest as his father, and +upon the temple, henceforth, as his home; and that the sole object of +his present labours and future ambition must be to rise in the service +of the gods. Nor did Macrinus stop here. So thoroughly anxious was he +to stand to his pupil in the place of a parent, and to secure his +allegiance by withdrawing him in every way from the world in which he +had hitherto lived, that he even changed his name, giving to him one of +his own appellations, and describing it as a privilege to stimulate him +to future exertions. From the boy Emilius, he was now permanently +transformed to the student Ulpius. + +With such a natural disposition as we have already described, and under +such guardianship as that of the high priest, there was little danger +that Ulpius would disappoint the unusual expectations which had been +formed of him. His attention to his new duties never relaxed; his +obedience to his new masters never wavered. Whatever Macrinus demanded +of him he was sure to perform. Whatever longings he might feel to +return to home, he never discovered them; he never sought to gratify the +tastes naturally peculiar to his age. The high priest and his +colleagues were astonished at the extraordinary readiness with which the +boy himself forwarded their intentions for him. Had they known how +elaborately he had been prepared for his future employments at his +father's house, they would have been less astonished at their pupil's +unusual docility. Trained as he had been, he must have shown a more +than human perversity had he displayed any opposition to his uncle's +wishes. He had been permitted no childhood either of thought or action. +His natural precocity had been seized as the engine to force his +faculties into a perilous and unwholesome maturity; and when his new +duties demanded his attention, he entered on them with the same +sincerity of enthusiasm which his boyish coevals would have exhibited +towards a new sport. His gradual initiation into the mysteries of his +religion created a strange, voluptuous sensation of fear and interest in +his mind. He heard the oracles, and he trembled; he attended the +sacrifices and the auguries, and he wondered. All the poetry of the +bold and beautiful superstition to which he was devoted flowed +overwhelmingly into his young heart, absorbing the service of his fresh +imagination, and transporting him incessantly from the vital realities +of the outer world to the shadowy regions of aspiration and thought. + + +But his duties did not entirely occupy the attention of Ulpius. The boy +had his peculiar pleasures as well as his peculiar occupations. When +his employments were over for the day, it was a strange, unearthly, +vital enjoyment to him to wander softly in the shade of the temple +porticoes, looking down from his great mysterious eminence upon the +populous and sun-brightened city at his feet; watching the brilliant +expanse of the waters of the Nile glittering joyfully in the dazzling +and pervading light; raising his eyes from the fields and woods, the +palaces and garden, that stretched out before him below, to the lovely +and cloudless sky that watched round him afar and above, and that awoke +all that his new duties had left of the joyfulness, the affectionate +sensibility, which his rare intervals of uninterrupted intercourse with +his mother had implanted in his heart. Then, when the daylight began to +wane, and the moon and stars already grew beautiful in their places in +the firmament, he would pass into the subterranean vaults of the +edifice, trembling as his little taper scarcely dispelled the dull, +solemn gloom, and listening with breathless attention for the voices of +those guardian spirits whose fabled habitation was made in the +apartments of the sacred place. Or, when the multitude had departed for +their amusements and their homes, he would steal into the lofty halls +and wander round the pedestals of the mighty statues, breathing +fearfully the still atmosphere of the temple, and watching the passage +of the cold, melancholy moonbeams through the openings in the roof, and +over the colossal limbs and features of the images of the pagan gods. +Sometimes, when the services of Serapis and the cares attendant on his +communications with the Emperor were concluded, Macrinus would lead his +pupil into the garden of the priests, and praise him for his docility +till his heart throbbed with gratitude and pride. Sometimes he would +convey him cautiously outside the precincts of the sacred place, and +show him, in the suburbs of the city, silent, pale, melancholy men, +gliding suspiciously through the gay, crowded streets. Those fugitive +figures, he would declare, were the enemies of the temple and all that +it contained; conspirators against the Emperor and the gods; wretches +who were to be driven forth as outcasts from humanity; whose appellation +was 'Christian'; and whose impious worship, if tolerated, would deprive +him of the uncle whom he loved, of the temple that he reverenced, and of +the priestly dignity and renown which it should be his life's ambition +to acquire. + +Thus tutored in his duties by his guardian, and in his recreations by +himself, as time wore on, the boy gradually lost every remaining +characteristic of his age. Even the remembrance of his mother and his +mother's love grew faint on his memory. Serious, solitary, thoughtful, +he lived but to succeed in the temple; he laboured but to emulate the +high priest. All his feelings and faculties were now enslaved by an +ambition, at once unnatural at his present age, and ominous of +affliction for his future life. The design that Macrinus had +contemplated as the work of years was perfected in a few months. The +hope that his father had scarce dared to entertain for his manhood was +already accomplished in his youth. + +In these preparations for future success passed three years of the life +of Ulpius. At the expiration of that period the death of Julian +darkened the brilliant prospects of the Pagan world. Scarcely had the +priests of Serapis recovered the first shock of astonishment and grief +consequent upon the fatal news of the vacancy in the imperial throne, +when the edict of toleration issued by Jovian, the new Emperor, reached +the city of Alexandria, and was elevated on the walls of the temple. + +The first sight of this proclamation (permitting freedom of worship to +the Christians) aroused in the highly wrought disposition of Ulpius the +most violent emotions of anger and contempt. The enthusiasm of his +character and age, guided invariably in the one direction of his +worship, took the character of the wildest fanaticism when he discovered +the Emperor's careless infringement of the supremacy of the temple. He +volunteered in the first moments of his fury to tear down the edict from +the walls, to lead an attack on the meetings of the triumphant +Christians, or to travel to the imperial abode and exhort Jovian to +withdraw his act of perilous leniency ere it was too late. With +difficulty did his more cautious confederates restrain him from the +execution of his impetuous designs. For two days he withdrew himself +from his companions, and brooded in solitude over the injury offered to +his beloved superstition, and the prospective augmentation of the +influence of the Christian sect. + +But the despair of the young enthusiast was destined to be further +augmented by a private calamity, at once mysterious in its cause and +overwhelming in its effect. Two days after the publication of the edict +the high priest Macrinus, in the prime of vigour and manhood, suddenly +died. + +To narrate the confusion and horror within and without the temple on the +discovery of this fatal even; to describe the execrations and tumults of +the priests and the populace, who at once suspected the favoured and +ambitious Christians of causing, by poison, the death of their spiritual +ruler, might be interesting as a history of the manners of the times, +but is immaterial to the object of this chapter. We prefer rather to +trace the effect on the mind of Ulpius of his personal and private +bereavement; of this loss--irretrievable to him--of the master whom he +loved and the guardian whom it was his privilege to revere. + + +An illness of some months, during the latter part of which his +attendants trembled for his life and reason, sufficiently attested the +sincerity of the grief of Ulpius for the loss of his protector. During +his paroxysms of delirium the priests who watched round his bed drew +from his ravings many wise conclusions as to the effects that his +seizure and its causes were likely to produce on his future character; +but, in spite of all their penetration, they were still far from +appreciating to a tithe of its extent the revolution that his +bereavement had wrought in his disposition. The boy himself, until the +moment of the high priest's death, had never been aware of the depth of +his devotion to his second father. Warped as they had been by his +natural parent, the affectionate qualities that were the mainspring of +his nature had never been entirely destroyed; and they seized on every +kind word and gentle action of Macrinus as food which had been grudged +them since their birth. Morally and intellectually, Macrinus had been +to him the beacon that pointed the direction of his course, the judge +that regulated his conduct, the Muse that he looked to for inspiration. +And now, when this link which had connected every ramification of his +most cherished and governing ideas was suddenly snapped asunder, a +desolation sunk down upon his mind which at once paralysed its +elasticity and withered its freshness. He glanced back, and saw nothing +but a home from whose pleasures and affections his father's ambition had +exiled him for ever. He looked forward, and as he thought of his +unfitness, both from character and education, to mix in the world as +others mixed in it, he saw no guiding star of social happiness for the +conduct of his existence to come. There was now no resource left for +him but entirely to deliver himself up to those pursuits which had made +his home as a strange place to him, which were hallowed by their +connection with the lost object of his attachment, and which would +confer the sole happiness and distinction that he could hope for in the +wide world on his future life. + +In addition to this motive for labour in his vocation, there existed in +the mind of Ulpius a deep and settled feeling that animated him with +unceasing ardour for the prosecution of his cherished occupations. This +governing principle was detestation of the Christian sect. The +suspicion that others had entertained regarding the death of the high +priest was to his mind a certainty. He rejected every idea which +opposed his determined persuasion that the jealousy of the Christians +had prompted them to the murder, by poison, of the most powerful and +zealous of the Pagan priests. To labour incessantly until he attained +the influence and position formerly enjoyed by his relative, and to use +that influence and position, when once acquired, as the means of +avenging Macrinus, by sweeping every vestige of the Christian faith from +the face of the earth, were now the settled purposes of his heart. +Inspired by his determination with the deliberate wisdom which is in +most men the result only of the experience of years, he employed the +first days of his convalescence in cautiously maturing his future plans, +and impartially calculating his chances of success. This self- +examination completed, he devoted himself at once and for ever to his +life's great design. Nothing wearied, nothing discouraged, nothing +impeded him. Outward events passed by him unnoticed; the city's +afflictions and the city's triumphs spoke no longer to his heart. Year +succeeded to year, but Time had no tongue for him. Paganism gradually +sank, and Christianity imperceptibly rose, but change spread no picture +before his eyes. The whole outward world was a void to him, until the +moment arrived that beheld him successful in his designs. His +preparations for the future absorbed every faculty of his nature, and +left him, as to the present, a mere automaton, reflecting no principle, +and animated by no event--a machine that moved, but did not perceive--a +body that acted, without a mind that thought. + +Returning for a moment to the outward world, we find that on the death +of Jovian, in 364, Valentinian, the new Emperor, continued the system of +toleration adopted by his predecessor. On his death, in 375, Gratian, +the successor to the imperial throne, so far improved on the example of +the two former potentates as to range himself boldly on the side of the +partisans of the new faith. Not content with merely encouraging, both +by precept and by example, the growth of Christianity, the Emperor +further testified to his zeal for the rising religion by inflicting +incessant persecutions upon the rapidly decreasing advocates of the +ancient worship; serving, by these acts of his reign, as pioneer to his +successor, Theodosius the Great, in the religious revolution which that +illustrious opponent of Paganism was destined to effect. + + +The death of Gratian, in 383, saw Ulpius enrolled among the chief +priests of the temple, and pointed out as the next inheritor of the +important office once held by the powerful and active Macrinus. +Beholding himself thus secure of the distinction for which he had +laboured, the aspiring priest found leisure, at length, to look forth +upon the affairs of the passing day. From every side desolation +darkened the prospect that he beheld. Already, throughout many +provinces of the Empire, the temples of the gods had been overthrown by +the destructive zeal of the triumphant Christians. Already hosts of the +terrified people, fearing that the fate of their idols might ultimately +be their own, finding themselves deserted by their disbanded priests, +and surrounded by the implacable enemies of the ancient faith, had +renounced their worship for the sake of saving their lives and securing +their property. On the wide field of Pagan ruin there now rose but one +structure entirely unimpaired. The Temple of Serapis still reared its +head--unshaken, unbending, unpolluted. Here the sacrifice still +prospered and the people still bowed in worship. Before this monument of +the religious glories of ages, even the rising power of Christian +supremacy quailed in dismay. Though the ranks of its once multitudinous +congregations were now perceptibly thinned, though the new churches +swarmed with converts, though the edicts from Rome denounced it as a +blot on the face of the earth, its gloomy and solitary grandeur was +still preserved. No unhallowed foot trod its secret recesses; no +destroying hand was raised as yet against its ancient and glorious +walls. + +Indignation, but not despondency, filled the heart of Ulpius as he +surveyed the situation of the Pagan world. A determination nourished as +his had been by the reflections of years, and matured by incessant +industry of deliberation, is above all those shocks which affect a hasty +decision or destroy a wavering intention. Impervious to failure, +disasters urge it into action, but never depress it to repose. Its +existence is the air that preserves the vitality of the mind--the spring +that moves the action of the thoughts. Never for a moment did Ulpius +waver in his devotion to his great design, or despair of its ultimate +execution and success. Though every succeeding day brought the news of +fresh misfortunes for the Pagans and fresh triumphs for the Christians, +still, with a few of his more zealous comrades, he persisted in +expecting the advent of another Julian, and a day of restoration for the +dismantled shrines of the deities that he served. While the Temple of +Serapis stood uninjured, to give encouragement to his labours and refuge +to his persecuted brethren, there existed for him such an earnest of +success as would spur him to any exertion, and nerve him against any +peril. + +And now, to the astonishment of priests and congregations, the silent, +thoughtful, solitary Ulpius suddenly started from his long repose, and +stood forth the fiery advocate of the rights of his invaded worship. In +a few days the fame of his addresses to the Pagans who still attended +the rites of Serapis spread throughout the whole city. The boldest +among the Christians, as they passed the temple walls, involuntarily +trembled when they heard the vehemence of the applause which arose from +the audience of the inspired priest. Addressed to all varieties of age +and character, these harangues woke an echo in every breast they +reached. To the young they were clothed in all the poetry of the +worship for which they pleaded. They dwelt on the altars of Venus that +the Christians would lay waste; on the woodlands that the Christians +would disenchant of their Dryads; on the hallowed Arts that the +Christians would arise and destroy. To the aged they called up +remembrances of the glories of the past achieved through the favour of +the gods; of ancestors who had died in their service; of old forgotten +loves, and joys, and successes that had grown and prospered under the +gentle guardianship of the deities of old--while the unvarying burden of +their conclusion to all was the reiterated assertion that the +illustrious Macrinus had died a victim to the toleration of the +Christian sect. + + +But the efforts of Ulpius were not confined to the delivery of orations. +Every moment of his leisure time was dedicated to secret pilgrimages +into Alexandria. Careless of peril, regardless of threats, the +undaunted enthusiast penetrated into the most private meeting-places of +the Christians; reclaiming on every side apostates to the Pagan creed, +and defying the hostility of half the city from the stronghold of the +temple walls. Day after day fresh recruits arrived to swell the ranks +of the worshippers of Serapis. The few members of the scattered +congregations of the provinces who still remained faithful to the +ancient worship were gathered together in Alexandria by the private +messengers of the unwearied Ulpius. Already tumults began to take place +between the Pagans and the Christians; and even now the priest of +Serapis prepared to address a protest to the new Emperor in behalf of +the ancient religion of the land. At this moment it seemed probable +that the heroic attempts of one man to prop the structure of +superstition, whose foundations were undermined throughout, and whose +walls were attacked by brigands, might actually be crowned with success. + +But Time rolled on; and with him came inexorable change, trampling over +the little barriers set up against it by human opposition, and erecting +its strange and transitory fabrics triumphantly in their stead. In vain +did the devoted priest exert all his powers to augment and combine his +scattered band; in vain did the mighty temple display its ancient +majesty, its gorgeous sacrifices, its mysterious auguries. The spirit +of Christianity was forth for triumph on the earth--the last destinies +of Paganism were fast accomplishing. Yet a few seasons more of +unavailing resistance passed by, and then the Archbishop of Alexandria +issued his decree that the Temple of Serapis should be destroyed. + +At the rumour of their Primate's determination, the Christian fanatics +rose by swarms from every corner of Egypt, and hurried into Alexandria +to be present at the work of demolition. From the arid solitudes of the +desert, from their convents on rocks and their caverns in the earth, +hosts of rejoicing monks flew to the city gates, and ranged themselves +with the soldiery and the citizens, impatient for the assault. At the +dawn of morning this assembly of destroyers was convened, and as the sun +rose over Alexandria they arrived before the temple walls. + +The gates of the glorious structure were barred; the walls were crowded +with their Pagan defenders. A still, dead, mysterious silence reigned +over the whole edifice; and, of all the men who thronged it, one only +moved from his appointed place--one only wandered incessantly from point +to point, wherever the building was open to assault. Those among the +besiegers who were nearest the temple saw in this presiding genius of +the preparations for defence the object at once of their most malignant +hatred and their most ungovernable dread--Ulpius the priest. + +As soon as the Archbishop gave the signal for the assault, a band of +monks--their harsh, discordant voices screaming fragments of psalms, +their tattered garments waving in the air, their cadaverous faces +gleaming with ferocious joy--led the way, placed the first ladders +against the walls, and began the attack. From all sides the temple was +assailed by the infuriated besiegers, and on all sides it was +successfully defended by the resolute besieged. Shock after shock fell +upon the massive gates without forcing them to recede; missile after +missile was hurled at the building, but no breach was made in its solid +surface. Multitudes scaled the walls, gained the outer porticoes, and +slaughtered their Pagan defenders, but were incessantly repulsed in +their turn ere they could make their advantage good. Over and over +again did the assailants seem on the point of storming the temple +successfully, but the figure of Ulpius, invariably appearing at the +critical moment among his disheartened followers, acted like a fatality +in destroying the effect of the most daring exertions and the most +important triumphs. Wherever there was danger, wherever there was +carnage, wherever there was despair, thither strode the undaunted +priest, inspiring the bold, succouring the wounded, reanimating the +feeble. Blinded by no stratagem, wearied by no fatigue, there was +something almost demoniac in his activity for destruction, in his +determination under defeat. The besiegers marked his course round the +temple by the calamities that befell them at his every step. If the +bodies of slaughtered Christians were flung down upon them from the +walls, they felt that Ulpius was there. If the bravest of the soldiery +hesitated at mounting the ladders, it was known that Ulpius was +directing the defeat of their comrades above. If a sally from the +temple drove back the advanced guard upon the reserves in the rear, it +was pleaded as their excuse that Ulpius was fighting at the head of his +Pagan bands. Crowd on crowd of Christian warriors still pressed forward +to the attack; but though the ranks of the unbelievers were perceptibly +thinned, though the gates that defended them at last began to quiver +before the reiterated blows by which they were assailed, every court of +the sacred edifice yet remained in the possession of the besieged, and +was at the disposal of the unconquered captain who organised the +defence. + + +Depressed by the failure of his efforts, and horrified at the carnage +already perpetrated among his adherents, the Archbishop suddenly +commanded a cessation of hostilities, and proposed to the defenders of +the temple a short and favourable truce. After some delay, and +apparently at the expense of some discord among their ranks, the Pagans +sent to the Primate an assurance of their acceptance of his terms, which +were that both parties should abstain from any further struggle for the +ascendancy until an edict from Theodosius determining the ultimate fate +of the temple should be applied for and obtained. + +The truce once agreed on, the wide space before the respited edifice was +gradually cleared of its occupants. Slowly and sadly the Archbishop and +his followers departed from the ancient walls whose summits they had +assaulted in vain; and when the sun went down, of the great multitude +congregated in the morning a few corpses were all that remained. Within +the sacred building, Death and Repose ruled with the night, where +morning had brightly glittered on Life and Action. The wounded, the +wearied, and the cold, all now lay hushed alike, fanned by the night +breezes that wandered through the lofty porticoes, or soothed by the +obscurity that reigned over the silent halls. Among the ranks of the +Pagan devotees but one man still toiled and thought. Round and round +the temple, restless as a wild beast that is threatened in his lair, +watchful as a lonely spirit in a city of strange tombs, wandered the +solitary and brooding Ulpius. For him there was no rest of body--no +tranquility of mind. On the events of the next few days hovered the +fearful chance that was soon, either for misery or happiness, to +influence irretrievably the years of his future life. Round and round +the mighty walls he watched with mechanical and useless anxiety. Every +stone in the building was eloquent to his lonely heart--beautiful to his +wild imagination. On those barren structures stretched for him the loved +and fertile home; there was the shrine for whose glory his intellect had +been enslaved, for whose honour his youth had been sacrificed! Round and +round the secret recesses and sacred courts he paced with hurried +footstep, cleansing with gentle and industrious hand the stains of blood +and the defilements of warfare from the statues at his side. Sad, +solitary, thoughtful, as in the first days of his apprenticeship to the +gods, he now roved in the same moonlit recesses where Macrinus had +taught him in his youth. As the menacing tumults of the day had aroused +his fierceness, so the stillness of the quiet night awakened his +gentleness. He had combated for the temple in the morning as a son for +a parent, and he now watched over it at night as a miser over his +treasure, as a lover over his mistress, as a mother over her child! + +The days passed on; and at length the memorable morning arrived which +was to determine the fate of the last temple that Christian fanaticism +had spared to the admiration of the world. At an early hour of the +morning the diminished numbers of the Pagan zealots met their reinforced +and determined opponents--both sides being alike unarmed--in the great +square of Alexandria. The imperial prescript was then publicly read. +It began by assuring the Pagans that their priest's plea for protection +for the temple had received the same consideration which had been +bestowed on the petition against the gods presented by the Christian +Archbishop, and ended by proclaiming the commands of the Emperor that +Serapis and all other idols in Alexandria should immediately be +destroyed. + +The shout of triumph which followed the conclusion of the imperial edict +still rose from the Christian ranks when the advanced guard of the +soldiers appointed to ensure the execution of the Emperor's designs +appeared in the square. For a few minutes the forsaken Pagans stood +rooted to the spot where they had assembled, gazing at the warlike +preparations around them in a stupor of bewilderment and despair. Then +as they recollected how diminished were their numbers, how arduous had +been their first defence against a few, and how impossible would be a +second defence against many--from the boldest to the feeblest, a panic +seized on them; and, regardless of Ulpius, regardless of honour, +regardless of the gods, they turned with one accord and fled from the +place. + + +With the flight of the Pagans the work of demolition began. Even women +and children hurried to join in the welcome task of indiscriminate +destruction. No defenders on this occasion barred the gates of the +temple to the Christian hosts. The sublime solitude of the tenantless +building was outraged and invaded in an instant. Statues were broken, +gold was carried off, doors were splintered into fragments; but here for +a while the progress of demolition was delayed. Those to whom the +labour of ruining the outward structure had been confided were less +successful than their neighbours who had pillaged its contents. The +ponderous stones of the pillars, the massive surfaces of the walls, +resisted the most vigorous of their puny efforts, and forced them to +remain contented with mutilating that which they could not destroy--with +tearing off roofs, defacing marbles, and demolishing capitals. The rest +of the buildings remained uninjured, and grander even now in the +wildness of ruin than ever it had been in the stateliness of perfection +and strength. + +But the most important achievement still remained, the death-wound of +Paganism was yet to be struck--the idol Serapis, which had ruled the +hearts of millions, and was renowned in the remotest corners of the +Empire, was to be destroyed! A breathless silence pervaded the +Christian ranks as they filled the hall of the god. A superstitious +dread, to which they had hitherto thought themselves superior, overcame +their hearts, as a single soldier, bolder than his fellows, mounted by a +ladder to the head of the colossal statue, and struck at its cheek with +an axe. The blow had scarcely been dealt when a deep groan was heard +from the opposite wall of the apartment, succeeded by a noise of +retreating footsteps, and then all was silent again. For a few minutes +this incident stayed the feet of those who were about to join their +companion in the mutilation of the idol; but after an interval their +hesitation vanished, they dealt blow after blow at the statue, and no +more groans followed--no more sounds were heard, save the wild echoes of +the stroke of hammer, crowbar, and club, resounding through the lofty +hall. In an incredibly short space of time the image of Serapis lay in +great fragments on the marble floor. The multitude seized on the limbs +of the idol and ran forth to drag them in triumph through the streets. +Yet a few minutes more, and the ruins were untenanted, the temple was +silent--Paganism was destroyed! + +Throughout the ravaging course of the Christians over the temple, they +had been followed with dogged perseverance, and at the same time with +the most perfect impunity, by the only Pagan of all his brethren who had +not sought safety by flight. This man, being acquainted with every +private passage and staircase in the sacred building, was enabled to be +secretly present at each fresh act of demolition, in whatever part of +the edifice it might be perpetrated. From hall to hall, and from room +to room, he tracked with noiseless step and glaring eye the movements of +the Christian mob--now hiding himself behind a pillar, now passing into +concealed cavities in the walls, now looking down from imperceptible +fissures in the roof; but, whatever his situation, invariably watching +from it, with the same industry of attention and the same silence of +emotion, the minutest acts of spoliation committed by the most humble +follower of the Christian ranks. It was only when he entered with the +victorious ravagers into the vast apartment occupied by the idol Serapis +that the man's countenance began to give evidence of the agony under +which his heart was writhing within him. He mounted a private staircase +cut in the hollow of the massive wall of the room, and gaining a passage +that ran round the extremities of the ceiling, looked through a sort of +lattice concealed in the ornaments of the cornice. As he gazed down and +saw the soldier mounting, axe in hand, to the idol's head, great drops +of perspiration trickled from his forehead. His hot, thick breath +hissed through his closed teeth, and his hands strained at the strong +metal supports of the lattice until they bent beneath his grasp. When +the stroke descended on the image, he closed his eyes. When the +fragment detached by the blow fell on the floor, a groan burst from his +quivering lips. For one moment more he glared down with a gaze of +horror upon the multitude at his feet, and then with frantic speed he +descended the steep stairs by which he had mounted to the roof, and fled +from the temple. + + +The same night this man was again seen by some shepherds whom curiosity +led to visit the desecrated building, weeping bitterly in its ruined and +deserted porticoes. As they approached to address him, he raised his +head, and with a supplicating action signed to them to leave the place. +For the few moments during which he confronted them, the moonlight shone +full upon his countenance, and the shepherds, who had in former days +attended the ceremonies of the temple, saw with astonishment that the +solitary mourner whose meditations they had disturbed was no other than +Ulpius the priest. + +At the dawn of day these shepherds had again occasion to pass the walls +of the pillaged temple. Throughout the hours of the night the +remembrance of the scene of unsolaced, unpartaken grief that they had +beheld--of the awful loneliness of misery in which they had seen the +heart-broken and forsaken man, whose lightest words they had once +delighted to revere--inspired them with a feeling of pity for the +deserted Pagan, widely at variance with the spirit of persecution which +the spurious Christianity of their day would fain have instilled in the +bosoms of its humblest votaries. Bent on consolation, anxious to afford +help, these men, like the Samaritan of old, went up at their own peril +to succour a brother in affliction. They searched every portion of the +empty building, but the object of their sympathy was nowhere to be seen. +They called, but heard no answering sound, save the dirging of the winds +of early morning through the ruined halls, which but a short time since +had resounded with the eloquence of the once illustrious priest. Except +a few night-birds, already sheltered by the deserted edifice, not a +living being moved in what was once the temple of the Eastern world. +Ulpius was gone. + +These events took place in the year 389. In 390, Pagan ceremonies were +made treason by the laws throughout the whole Roman Empire. + +From that period the scattered few who still adhered to the ancient +faith became divided into three parties; each alike insignificant, +whether considered as openly or secretly inimical to the new religion of +the State at large. + +The first party unsuccessfully endeavoured to elude the laws prohibitory +of sacrifices and divinations by concealing their religious ceremonies +under the form of convivial meetings. + +The second preserved their ancient respect for the theory of Paganism, +but abandoned all hope and intention of ever again accomplishing its +practice. By such timely concessions many were enabled to preserve--and +some even to attain--high and lucrative employments as officers of the +State. + +The third retired to their homes, the voluntary exiles of every +religion; resigning the practice of their old worship as a necessity, +and shunning the communion of Christians as a matter of choice. + +Such were the unimportant divisions into which the last remnants of the +once powerful Pagan community now subsided; but to none of them was the +ruined and degraded Ulpius ever attached. + +For five weary years--dating from the epoch of the prohibition of +Paganism--he wandered through the Empire, visiting in every country the +ruined shrines of his deserted worship--a friendless, hopeless, solitary +man! + + +Throughout the whole of Europe, and all of Asia and the East that still +belonged to Rome, he bent his slow and toilsome course. In the fertile +valleys of Gaul, over the burning sands of Africa, through the sun- +bright cities of Spain, he travelled--unfriended as a man under a curse, +lonely as a second Cain. Never for an instant did the remembrance of +his ruined projects desert his memory, or his mad determination to +revive his worship abandon his mind. At every relic of Paganism, +however slight, that he encountered on his way, he found a nourishment +for his fierce anguish, and employment for his vengeful thoughts. +Often, in the little villages, children were frightened from their +sports in a deserted temple by the apparition of his gaunt, rigid figure +among the tottering pillars, or the sound of his hollow voice as he +muttered to himself among the ruins of the Pagan tombs. Often, in +crowded cities, groups of men, congregated to talk over the fall of +Paganism, found him listening at their sides, and comforting them, when +they carelessly regretted their ancient faith, with a smiling and +whispered assurance that a time of restitution would yet come. By all +opinions and in all places he was regarded as a harmless madman, whose +strange delusions and predilections were not to be combated, but to be +indulged. Thus he wandered through the Christian world; regardless +alike of lapse of time and change of climate; living within himself; +mourning, as a luxury, over the fall of his worship; patient of wrongs, +insults, and disappointments; watching for the opportunity that he still +persisted in believing was yet to arrive; holding by his fatal +determination with all the recklessness of ambition and all the +perseverance of revenge. + +The five years passed away unheeded, uncalculated, unregretted by +Ulpius. For him, living but in the past, hoping but for the future, +space held no obstacles--time was an oblivion. Years pass as days, +hours as moments, when the varying emotions which mark their existence +on the memory, and distinguish their succession on the dial of the +heart, exist no longer either for happiness or woe. Dead to all +freshness of feeling, the mind of Ulpius, during the whole term of his +wanderings, lay numbed beneath the one idea that possessed it. It was +only at the expiration of those unheeded years, when the chances of +travel turned his footsteps towards Alexandria, that his faculties burst +from the long bondage which had oppressed them. Then--when he passed +through those gates which he had entered in former years a proud, +ambitious boy, when he walked ungreeted through the ruined temple where +he had once lived illustrious and revered--his dull, cold thoughts arose +strong and vital within him. The spectacle of the scene of his former +glories, which might have awakened despair in others, aroused the +dormant passions, emancipated the stifled energies in him. The projects +of vengeance and the visions of restoration which he had brooded over +for five long years, now rose before him as realised already under the +vivid influence of the desecrated scenes around. As he stood beneath +the shattered porticoes of the sacred place, not a stone crumbling at +his feet but rebuked him for his past inaction, and strengthened him for +daring, for conspiracy, for revenge, in the service of the outrage gods. +The ruined temples he had visited in his gloomy pilgrimages now became +revived by his fancy, as one by one they rose on his toiling memory. +Broken pillars soared from the ground; desecrated idols reoccupied their +vacant pedestals; and he, the exile and the mourner, stood forth once +again the ruler, the teacher, and the priest. The time of restitution +was come; though his understanding supplied him with no distinct +projects, his heart urged him to rush blindly on the execution of his +reform. The moment had arrived--Macrinus should yet be avenged; the +temple should at last be restored. + +He descended into the city; he hurried--neither welcomed nor +recognised--through the crowded streets; he entered the house of a man +who had once been his friend and colleague in the days that were past, +and poured forth to him his wild determinations and disjointed plans, +entreating his assistance, and promising him a glorious success. But +his old companion had become, by a timely conversion to Christianity, a +man of property and reputation in Alexandria, and he turned from the +friendless enthusiast with indignation and contempt. Repulsed, but not +disheartened, Ulpius sought others who he had known in his prosperity +and renown. They had all renounced their ancient worship--they all +received him with studied coldness or careless disdain; but he still +persisted in his useless efforts. He blinded his eyes to their +contemptuous looks; he shut his ears to their derisive words. +Persevering in his self-delusion, he appointed them messengers to their +brethren in other countries, captains of the conspiracy that was to +commence in Alexandria, orators before the people when the memorable +revolution had once begun. It was in vain that they refused all +participation in his designs; he left them as the expressions of refusal +rose to their lips, and hurried elsewhere, as industrious in his +efforts, as devoted to his unwelcome mission, as if half the population +of the city had vowed themselves joyfully to aid him in his frantic +attempt. + + +Thus during the whole day he continued his labour of useless persuasion +among those in the city who had once been his friends. When the evening +came, he repaired, weary but not despondent, to the earthly paradise +that he was determined to regain--to the temple where he had once +taught, and where he still imagined that he was again destined to +preside. Here he proceeded, ignorant of the new laws, careless of +discovery and danger, to ascertain by divination, as in the days of old, +whether failure or success awaited him ultimately in his great design. + +Meanwhile the friends whose assistance Ulpius had determined to extort +were far from remaining inactive on their parts after the departure of +the aspiring priest. They remembered with terror that the laws affected +as severely those concealing their knowledge of a Pagan intrigue as +those actually engaged in directing a Pagan conspiracy; and their +anxiety for their personal safety overcoming every consideration of the +dues of honour or the claims of ancient friendship, they repaired in a +body to the Prefect of the city, and informed him, with all the +eagerness of apprehension, of the presence of Ulpius in Alexandria, and +of the culpability of the schemes that he had proposed. + +A search after the devoted Pagan was immediately commenced. He was +found the same night before a ruined altar, brooding over the entrails +of an animal that he had just sacrificed. Further proof of his guilt +could not be required. He was taken prisoner; led forth the next +morning to be judged, amid the execrations of the very people who had +almost adored him once; and condemned the following day to suffer the +penalty of death. + +At the appointed hour the populace assembled to behold the execution. +To their indignation and disappointment, however, when the officers of +the city appeared before the prison, it was only to inform the +spectators that the performance of the fatal ceremony had been +adjourned. After a mysterious delay of some weeks, they were again +convened, not to witness the execution, but the receive the +extraordinary announcement that the culprit's life had been spared, and +that his amended sentence now condemned him to labour as a slave for +life in the copper-mines of Spain. + +What powerful influence induced the Prefect to risk the odium of +reprieving a prisoner whose guilt was so satisfactorily ascertained as +that of Ulpius never was disclosed. Some declared that the city +magistrate was still at heart a Pagan, and that he consequently shrunk +from authorising the death of a man who had once been the most +illustrious among the professors of the ancient creed. Others reported +that Ulpius had secured the leniency of his judges by acquainting them +with the position of one of those secret repositories of enormous +treasure supposed to exist beneath the foundations of the dismantled +Temple of Serapis. But the truth of either of these rumours could never +be satisfactorily proved. Nothing more was accurately discovered than +that Ulpius was removed from Alexandria to the place of earthly torment +set apart for him by the zealous authorities, at the dead of night; and +that the sentry at the gate through which he departed heard him mutter +to himself, as he was hurried onward, that his divinations had prepared +him for defeat, but that the great day of Pagan restoration would yet +arrive. + +In the year 407, twelve years after the events above narrated, Ulpius +entered the city of Rome. + +He had not advanced far, before the gaiety and confusion in the streets +appeared completely to bewilder him. He hastened to the nearest public +garden that he could perceive, and avoiding the frequented paths, flung +himself down, apparently fainting with exhaustion, at the foot of a +tree. + + +For some time he lay on the shady resting-place which he had chosen, +gasping painfully for breath, his frame ever and anon shaken to its +centre by sudden spasms, and his lips quivering with an agitation which +he vainly endeavoured to suppress. So changed was his aspect, that the +guards who had removed him from Alexandria, wretched as was his +appearance even then, would have found it impossible to recognise him +now as the same man whom they had formerly abandoned to slavery in the +mines of Spain. The effluvia exhaled from the copper ore in which he +had been buried for twelve years had not only withered the flesh upon +his bones, but had imparted to its surface a livid hue, almost death- +like in its dulness. His limbs, wasted by age and distorted by +suffering, bent and trembled beneath him; and his form, once so majestic +in its noble proportions, was now so crooked and misshapen, that whoever +beheld him could only have imagined that he must have been deformed from +his birth. Of the former man no characteristic remained but the +expression of the stern, mournful eyes; and these, the truthful +interpreters of the indomitable mind whose emotions they seemed created +to express, preserved, unaltered by suffering and unimpaired by time, +the same look, partly of reflection, partly of defiance, and partly of +despair, which had marked them in those past days when the temple was +destroyed and the congregations of the Pagans dispersed. + +But the repose at this moment demanded by his worn-out body was even yet +denied to it by his untamed, unwearied mind, and, as the voice of his +old delusion spoke within him again, the devoted priest rose from his +solitary resting-place, and looked forth upon the great city, whose new +worship he was vowed to overthrow. + +'By years of patient watchfulness,' he whispered to himself, 'have I +succeeded in escaping successfully from my dungeon among the mines. Yet +a little more cunning, a little more endurance, a little more vigilance, +and I shall still live to people, by my own exertions, the deserted +temples of Rome.' + +As he spoke he emerged from the grove into the street. The joyous +sunlight--a stranger to him for years--shone warmly down upon his face, +as if to welcome him to liberty and the world. The sounds of gay +laughter rang in his ears, as if to woo him back to the blest enjoyments +and amenities of life; but Nature's influence and man's example were now +silent alike to his lonely heart. Over its dreary wastes still reigned +the ruthless ambition which had exiled love from his youth, and +friendship from his manhood, and which was destined to end its mission +of destruction by banishing tranquility from his age. Scowling fiercely +at all around and above him, he sought the loneliest and shadiest +streets. Solitude had now become a necessity to his heart. The 'great +gulph' of his unshared aspirations had long since socially separated him +for ever from his fellow-men. He thought, laboured, and suffered for +himself alone. + +To describe the years of unrewarded labour and unalleviated hardship +endured by Ulpius in the place of his punishment; to dwell on the day +that brought with it--whatever the season in the world above--the same +unwearying inheritance of exertion and fatigue; to chronicle the history +of night after night of broken slumber one hour, of wearying thought the +next, would be to produce a picture from the mournful monotony of which +the attention of the reader would recoil with disgust. It will be here +sufficient to observe, that the influence of the same infatuation which +had nerved him to the defence of the assaulted temple, and encouraged +him to attempt his ill-planned restoration of Paganism, had preserved +him through sufferings under which stronger and younger men would have +sunk for ever; had prompted his determination to escape from his +slavery, and had now brought him to Rome--old, forsaken, and feeble as +he was--to risk new perils and suffer new afflictions for the cause to +which, body and soul, he had ruthlessly devoted himself for ever. + + +Urged, therefore, by his miserable delusion, he had now entered a city +where even his name was unknown, faithful to his frantic project of +opposing himself, as a helpless, solitary man, against the people and +government of an Empire. During his term of slavery, regardless of his +advanced years, he had arranged a series of projects, the gradual +execution of which would have demanded the advantages of a long and +vigorous life. He no more desired, as in his former attempt at +Alexandria, to precipitate at all hazards the success of his designs. +He was now prepared to watch, wait, plot, and contrive for years on +years; he was resigned to be contented with the poorest and slowest +advancement--to be encouraged by the smallest prospect of ultimate +triumph. Acting under this determination, he started his project by +devoting all that remained of his enfeebled energies to cautiously +informing himself, by every means in his power, of the private, +political, and religious sentiments of all men of influence in Rome. +Wherever there was a popular assemblage, he attended it to gather the +scandalous gossip of the day; wherever there was a chance of overhearing +a private conversation, he contrived to listen to it unobserved. About +the doors of taverns and the haunts of discharged servants he lurked +noiseless as a shadow, attentive alike to the careless revelations of +intoxication or the scurrility of malignant slaves. Day after day +passed on, and still saw him devoted to his occupation (which, servile +as it was in itself, was to his eyes ennobled by its lofty end), until +at the expiration of some months he found himself in possession of a +vague and inaccurate fund of information, which he stored up as a +priceless treasure in his mind. He next discovered the name and abode +of every nobleman in Rome suspected even of the most careless attachment +to the ancient form of worship. He attended Christian churches, +mastered the intricacies of different sects, and estimated the +importance of contending schisms; gaining this collection of +heterogeneous facts under the combined disadvantages of poverty, +solitude, and age; dependent for support on the poorest public +charities, and for shelter on the meanest public asylums. Every +conclusion that he drew from all he learned partook of the sanguine +character of the fatal self-deception which had embittered his whole +life. He believed that the dissensions which he saw raging in the +Church would speedily effect the destruction of Christianity itself; +that, when such a period should arrive, the public mind would require +but the guidance of some superior intellect to return to its old +religious predilections; and that to lay the foundation for effecting in +such a manner the desired revolution, it was necessary for him-- +impossible though it might seem in his present degraded condition--to +gain access to the disaffected nobles of Rome, and discover the secret +of acquiring such an influence over them as would enable him to infect +them with his enthusiasm, and fire them with his determination. Greater +difficulties even than these had been overcome by other men. Solitary +individuals had, ere this, originated revolutions. The gods would +favour him; his own cunning would protect him. Yet a little more +patience, a little more determination, and he might still, after all his +misfortunes, be assured of success. + +It was about this period that he first heard, while pursuing his +investigations, of an obscure man who had suddenly arisen to undertake a +reformation in the Christian Church, whose declared aim was to rescue +the new worship from that very degeneracy on the fatal progress of which +rested all his hopes of triumph. It was reported that this man had been +for some time devoted to his reforming labours, but that the +difficulties attendant on the task that he had appointed for himself had +hitherto prevented him from attaining all the notoriety essential to the +satisfactory prosecution of his plans. On hearing this rumour, Ulpius +immediately joined the few who attended the new orator's discourses, and +there heard enough to convince him that he listened to the most +determined zealot for Christianity in the city of Rome. To gain this +man's confidence, to frustrate every effort that he might make in his +new vocation, to ruin his credit with his hearers, and to threaten his +personal safety by betraying his inmost secrets to his powerful enemies +in the Church, were determinations instantly adopted by the Pagan as +duties demanded by the exigencies of his creed. From that moment he +seized every opportunity of favourably attracting the new reformer's +attention to himself, and, as the reader already knows, he was at length +rewarded for his cunning and perseverance by being received into the +household of the charitable and unsuspicious Numerian as a pious convert +to the Christianity of the early Church. + + +Once installed under Numerian's roof, the treacherous Pagan saw in the +Christian's daughter an instrument admirably adapted, in his +unscrupulous hands, for forwarding his wild project of obtaining the ear +of a Roman of power and station who was disaffected to the established +worship. Among the patricians of whose anti-Christian predilections +report had informed him, was Numerian's neighbour, Vetranio the senator. +To such a man, renowned for his life of luxury, a girl so beautiful as +Antonina would be a bribe rich enough to enable him to extort any +promise required as a reward for betraying her while under the +protection of her father's house. In addition to this advantage to be +drawn from her ruin, was the certainty that her loss would so affect +Numerian as to render him, for a time at least, incapable of pursuing +his labours in the cause of Christianity. Fixed then in his detestable +purpose, the ruthless priest patiently awaited the opportunity of +commencing his machinations. Nor did he watch in vain. The victim +innocently fell into the very trap that he had prepared for her when she +first listened to the music of Vetranio's lute, and permitted her +treacherous guardian to become the friend who concealed her disobedience +from her father's ear. After that first fatal step every day brought +the projects of Ulpius nearer to success. The long-sought interview +with the senator was at length obtained; the engagement imperatively +demanded on the one side was, as we have already related, carelessly +accepted on the other; the day that was to bring success to the schemes +of the betrayer, and degradation to the honour of the betrayed, was +appointed; and once more the cold heart of the fanatic warmed to the +touch of joy. No doubts upon the validity of his engagement with +Vetranio ever entered his mind. He never imagined that powerful senator +could with perfect impunity deny him the impracticable assistance he had +demanded as his reward, and thrust him as an ignorant madman from his +palace gates. Firmly and sincerely he believed that Vetranio was so +satisfied with his readiness in pandering to his profligate designs, and +so dazzled by the prospect of the glory which would attend success in +the great enterprise, that he would gladly hold to the performance of +his promise whenever it should be required of him. In the meantime the +work was begun. Numerian was already, through his agency, watched by +the spies of a jealous and unscrupulous Church. Feuds, schisms, +treacheries, and dissensions marched bravely onward through the +Christian ranks. All things combined to make it certain that the time +was near at hand when, through his exertions and the friendly senator's +help, the restoration of Paganism might be assured. + +With the widest diversity of pursuit and difference of design, there was +still a strange and mysterious analogy between the temporary positions +of Ulpius and Numerian. One was prepared to be a martyr for the temple; +the other to be a martyr for the Church. Both were enthusiasts in an +unwelcome cause; both had suffered more than a life's wonted share of +affliction; and both were old, passing irretrievably from their fading +present on earth to the eternal future awaiting them in the unknown +spheres beyond. + +But here--with their position--the comparison between them ends. The +Christian's principle of action, drawn from the Divinity he served, was +love; the Pagan's, born of the superstition that was destroying him, was +hate. The one laboured for mankind; the other for himself. And thus +the aspirations of Numerian, founded on the general good, nourished by +offices of kindness, and nobly directed to a generous end, might lead +him into indiscretion, but could never degrade him into crime--might +trouble the serenity of his life, but could never deprive him of the +consolation of hope. While, on the contrary, the ambition of Ulpius, +originating in revenge and directed to destruction, exacted cruelty from +his heart and duplicity from his mind; and, as the reward for his +service, mocked him alternately throughout his whole life with delusion +and despair. + + +CHAPTER 7. THE BED-CHAMBER. + +It is now time to resume our chronicle of the eventful night which +marked the destruction of Antonina's lute and the conspiracy against +Antonina's honour. + + +The gates of Vetranio's palace were closed, and the noises in it were +all hushed; the banquet was over, the triumph of the Nightingale Sauce +had been achieved, and the daybreak was already glimmering in the +eastern sky, when the senator's favoured servant, the freedman Carrio, +drew back the shutter of the porter's lodge, where he had been dozing +since the conclusion of the feast, and looked out lazily into the +street. The dull, faint light of dawn was now strengthening slowly over +the lonely roadway and on the walls of the lofty houses. Of the groups +of idlers of the lowest class who had assembled during the evening in +the street to snuff the fragrant odours which steamed afar from +Vetranio's kitchens, not one remained; men, women, and children had long +since departed to seek shelter wherever they could find it, and to +fatten their lean bodies on what had been charitable bestowed on them of +the coarser relics of the banquet. The mysterious solitude and +tranquility of daybreak in a great city prevailed over all things. +Nothing impressed, however, by the peculiar and solemn attraction of the +scene at this moment, the freedman apostrophised the fresh morning air, +as it blew over him, in strong terms of disgust, and even ventured in +lowered tones to rail against his master's uncomfortable fancy for being +awakened after a feast at the approach of dawn. Far too well aware, +nevertheless, of the necessity of yielding the most implicit obedience +to the commands he had received to resign himself any longer to the +pleasant temptations of repose, Carrio, after yawning, rubbing his eyes, +and indulging for a few moments more in the luxury of complaint, set +forth in earnest to follow the corridors leading to the interior of the +palace, and to awaken Vetranio without further delay. + +He had not advanced more than a few steps when a proclamation, written +in letters of gold on a blue-coloured board, and hung against the wall +at his side, attracted his attention. This public notice, which delayed +his progress at the very outset, and which was intended for the special +edification of all the inhabitants of Rome, was thus expressed:-- + +'ON THIS DAY, AND FOR TEN DAYS FOLLOWING, THE AFFAIRS OF OUR PATRON +OBLIGE HIM TO BE ABSENT FROM ROME.' + +Here the proclamation ended, without descending to particulars. It had +been put forth, in accordance with the easy fashion of the age, to +answer at once all applications at Vetranio's palace during the +senator's absence. Although the colouring of the board, the writing of +the letters, and the composition of the sentence were the work of his +own ingenuity, the worthy Carrio could not prevail upon himself to pass +the proclamation without contemplating is magnificence anew. For some +time he stood regarding it with the same expression of lofty and +complacent approbation which we see in these modern days illuminating +the countenance of a connoisseur before one of his own old pictures +which he has bought as a great bargain, or dawning over the bland +features of a linen-draper as he surveys from the pavement his morning's +arrangement of the window of the shop. All things, however, have their +limits, even a man's approval of an effort of his own skill. +Accordingly, after a prolonged review of the proclamation, some faint +ideas of the necessity of immediately obeying his master's commands +revived in the mind of the judicious Carrio, and counselled him to turn +his steps at once in the direction of the palace sleeping apartments. + +Greatly wondering what new caprice had induced the senator to +contemplate leaving Rome at the dawn of day--for Vetranio had divulged +to no one the object of his departure--the freedman cautiously entered +his master's bed-chamber. He drew aside the ample silken curtains +suspended around and over the sleeping couch, from the hands of Graces +and Cupids sculptured in marble; but the statues surrounded an empty +bed. Vetranio was not there. Carrio next entered the bathroom; the +perfumed water was steaming in its long marble basin, and the soft +wrapping-cloths lay ready for use; the attendant slave, with his +instruments of ablution, waited, half asleep, in his accustomed place; +but here also no signs of the master's presence appeared. Somewhat +perplexed, the freedman examined several other apartments. He found +guests, dancing girls, parasites, poets, painters--a motley crew-- +occupying every kind of dormitory, and all peacefully engaged in +sleeping off the effects of the wine they had drunk at the banquet; but +the great object of his search still eluded him as before. At last it +occurred to him that the senator, in an excess of convivial enthusiasm +and jovial hospitality, might yet be detaining some favoured guest at +the table of the feast. + +Pausing, therefore, at some carved doors which stood ajar at one +extremity of a spacious hall, he pushed them open, and hurriedly entered +the banqueting-room beyond. + + +A soft, dim, luxurious light reigned over this apartment, which now +presented, as far as the eye could discern, an aspect of confusion that +was at once graceful and picturesque. Of the various lamps, of every +variety of pattern, hanging from the ceiling, but few remained alight. +From those, however, which were still unextinguished there shone a mild +brightness, admirably adapted to display the objects immediately around +them. The golden garlands and the alabaster pots of sweet ointment +which had been suspended before the guests during the banquet, still +hung from the painted ceiling. On the massive table, composed partly of +ebony and partly of silver, yet lay, in the wildest confusion, fragments +of gastronomic delicacies, grotesque dinner services, vases of flowers, +musical instruments, and crystal dice; while towering over all rose the +glittering dish which had contained the nightingales consumed by the +feasters, with the four golden Cupids which had spouted over them that +illustrious invention--the Nightingale Sauce. Around the couches, of +violet and rose colour, ranged along the table, the perfumed and gaily- +tinted powders that had been strewn in patterns over the marble floor +were perceptible for a few yards; but beyond this point nothing more was +plainly distinguishable. The eye roved down the sides of the glorious +chamber, catching dim glimpses of gorgeous draperies, crowded statues, +and marble columns, but discerning nothing accurately, until it reached +the half-opened windows, and rested upon the fresh dewy verdure now +faintly visible in the shady gardens without. There--waving in the +morning breezes, charged on every leaf with their burden of pure and +welcome moisture--rose the lofty pine-trees, basking in the recurrence +of the new day's beautiful and undying youth, and rising in reproving +contrast before the exhausted allurements of luxury and the perverted +creations of art which burdened the tables of the hall within. + +After a hasty survey of the apartment, the freedman appeared to be on +the point of quitting it in despair, when the noise of a falling dish, +followed by several partly suppressed and wholly confused exclamations +of affright, caught his ear. He once more approached the banqueting- +table, retrimmed a lamp that hung near him, and taking it in his hand, +passed to the side of the room whence the disturbance proceeded. A +hideous little negro, staring in ludicrous terror at a silver oven, half +filled with bread, which had just fallen beside him, was the first +object he discovered. A few paces beyond the negro reposed a beautiful +boy, crowned with vine leaves and ivy, still sleeping by the side of his +lyre; and farther yet, stretched in an uneasy slumber on a silken couch, +lay the identical object of the freedman's search--the illustrious +author of the Nightingale Sauce. + +Immediately above the sleeping senator hung his portrait, in which he +was modestly represented as rising by the assistance of Minerva to the +top of Parnassus, the nine Muses standing round him rejoicing. At his +feet reposed a magnificent white cat, whose head rested in all the +luxurious laziness of satiety on the edge of a golden saucer half filled +with dormice stewed in milk. The most indubitable evidences of the +night's debauch appeared in Vetranio's disordered dress and flushed +countenance as the freedman regarded him. For some minutes the worthy +Carrio stood uncertain whether to awaken his master or not, deciding +finally, however, on obeying the commands he had received, and +disturbing the slumbers of the wearied voluptuary before him. To effect +this purpose, it was necessary to call in the aid of the singing-boy; +for, by a refinement of luxury, Vetranio had forbidden his attendants to +awaken him by any other method than the agency of musical sounds. + +With some difficulty the boy was sufficiently aroused to comprehend the +service that was required of him. For a short time the notes of the +lyre sounded in vain. At last, when the melody took a louder and more +martial character, the sleeping patrician slowly opened his eyes and +stared vacantly around him. + +'My respected patron,' said the polite Carrio in apologetic tones, +'commanded that I should awaken him with the dawn; the daybreak has +already appeared.' + +When the freedman had ceased speaking, Vetranio sat up on the couch, +called for a basin of water, dipped his fingers in the refreshing +liquid, dried them abstractedly on the long silky curls of the singing- +boy who stood beside him, gazed about him once more, repeated +interrogatively the word 'daybreak', and sunk gently back upon his +couch. We are grieved to confess it--but the author of the Nightingale +Sauce was moderately inebriated. + + +A short pause followed, during which the freedman and the singing-boy +stared upon each other in mutual perplexity. At length the one resumed +his address of apology, and the other resumed his efforts on the lyre. +Once more, after an interval, the eyes of Vetranio lazily unclosed, and +this time he began to speak; but his thoughts--if thoughts they could be +called--were as yet wholly occupied by the 'table-talk' at the past +night's banquet. + +'The ancient Egyptians--oh, sprightly and enchanting Camilla--were a +wise nation!' murmured the senator drowsily. 'I am myself descended +from the ancient Egyptians; and, therefore, I hold in high veneration +that cat in your lap, and all cats besides. Herodotus--an historian +whose works I feel a certain gratification in publicly mentioning as +good--informs us, that when a cat died in the dwelling of an ancient +Egyptian, the owner shaved his eyebrows as a mark of grief, embalmed the +defunct animal in a consecrated house, and carried it to be interred in +a considerable city of Lower Egypt, called 'Bubastis'--an Egyptian word +which I have discovered to mean The Sepulchre of all the Cats; whence it +is scarcely erroneous to infer--' + +At this point the speaker's power of recollection and articulation +suddenly failed him, and Carrio--who had listened with perfect gravity +to his master's oration upon cats--took immediate advantage of the +opportunity now afforded him to speak again. + +'The equipage which my patron was pleased to command to carry him to +Aricia,' said he, with a strong emphasis on the last word, 'now stands +in readiness at the private gate of the palace gardens.' + +As he heard the word 'Aricia', the senator's powers of recollection and +perception seemed suddenly to return to him. Among that high order of +drinkers who can imbibe to the point of perfect enjoyment, and stop +short scientifically before the point of perfect oblivion, Vetranio +occupied an exalted rank. The wine he had swallowed during the night +had disordered his memory and slightly troubled his self-possession, but +had not deprived him of his understanding. There was nothing plebeian +even in his debauchery; there was an art and a refinement in his very +excesses. + +'Aricia--Aricia!' he repeated to himself, 'ah! the villa that Julia lent +to me at Ravenna! The pleasures of the table must have obscured for a +moment the image of my beautiful pupil of other days, which now revives +before me again as Love resumes the dominion that Bacchus usurped! My +excellent Carrio,' he continued, speaking to the freedman, 'you have +done perfectly right in awakening me; delay not a moment more in +ordering my bath to be prepared, or my man-monster Ulpius, the king of +conspirators and high priest of all that is mysterious, will wait for me +in vain! And you, Glyco,' he pursued, when Carrio had departed, +addressing the singing-boy, 'array yourself for a journey, and wait with +my equipage at the garden-gate. I shall require you to accompany me in +my expedition to Aricia. But first, oh! gifted and valued songster, let +me reward you for the harmonious symphony that has just awakened me. Of +what rank of my musicians are you at present, Glyco?' + +'Of the fifth,' replied the boy. + +'Were you bought, or born in my house?' asked Vetranio. + +'Neither; but bequeathed to you by Geta's testament,' rejoined the +gratified Glyco. + +'I advance you,' continued Vetranio, 'to the privileges and the pay of +the first rank of my musicians; and I give you, as a proof of my +continued favour, this ring. In return for these obligations, I desire +to keep secret whatever concerns my approaching expedition; to employ +your softest music in soothing the ear of a young girl who will +accompany us--in calming her terrors if she is afraid, in drying her +tears if she weeps; and finally, to exercise your voice and your lute +incessantly in uniting the name 'Antonina' to the sweetest harmonies of +sound that your imagination can suggest.' + +Pronouncing these words with an easy and benevolent smile, and looking +round complacently on the display of luxurious confusion about him, +Vetranio retired to the bath that was to prepare him for his approaching +triumph. + + +Meanwhile a scene of a very different nature was proceeding without, at +Numerian's garden-gate. Here were no singing-boys, no freedmen, no +profusion of rich treasures--here appeared only the solitary and +deformed figure of Ulpius, half hidden among surrounding trees, while he +waited at his appointed post. As time wore on, and still Vetranio did +not appear, the Pagan's self-possession began to desert him. He moved +restlessly backwards and forwards over the soft dewy grass, sometimes in +low tones calling upon his gods to hasten the tardy footsteps of the +libertine patrician, who was to be made the instrument of restoring to +the temples the worship of other days--sometimes cursing the reckless +delay of the senator, or exulting in the treachery by which he madly +believed his ambition was at last to be fulfilled; but still, whatever +his words or thoughts, wrought up to the same pitch of fierce, fanatic +enthusiasm which had strengthened him for the defence of his idols at +Alexandria, and had nerved him against the torment and misery of years +in his slavery in the copper mines of Spain. + +The precious moments were speeding irrevocably onwards. His impatience +was rapidly changing to rage and despair as he strained his eyes for the +last time in the direction of the palace gardens, and now at length +discerned a white robe among the distant trees. Vetranio was rapidly +approaching him. + +Restored by his bath, no effect of the night's festivity but its +exhilaration remained in the senator's brain. But for a slight +uncertainty in his gait, and an unusual vacancy in his smile, the +elegant gastronome might now have appeared to the closest observer +guiltless of the influence of intoxicating drinks. He advanced, radiant +with exultation, prepared for conquest, to the place where Ulpius +awaited him, and was about to address the Pagan with that satirical +familiarity so fashionable among the nobles of Rome in their +communications with the people, when the object of his intended +pleasantries sternly interrupted him, saying, in tones more of command +than of advice, 'Be silent! If you would succeed in your purpose, +follow me without uttering a word!' + +There was something so fierce and determined in the tones of the old +man's voice--low, tremulous, and husky though they were--as he uttered +those words, that the bold, confident senator instinctively held his +peace as he followed his stern guide into Numerian's house. Avoiding the +regular entrance, which at that early hour of the morning was +necessarily closed, Ulpius conducted the patrician through a small +wicket into the subterranean apartment, or rather outhouse, which was +his customary, though comfortless, retreat in his leisure hours, and +which was hardly ever entered by the other members of the Christian's +household. + +From the low, arched brick ceiling of this place hung an earthenware +lamp, whose light, small and tremulous, left all the corners of the +apartment in perfect obscurity. The thick buttresses that projected +inwards from the walls, made visible by their prominence, displayed on +their surfaces rude representations of idols and temples drawn in chalk, +and covered with strange, mysterious hieroglyphics. On a block of stone +which served as a table lay some fragments of small statues, which +Vetranio recognised as having belonged to the old, accredited +representations of Pagan idols. Over the sides of the table itself were +scrawled in Latin characters these two words, 'Serapis', 'Macrinus'; and +about its base lay some pieces of torn, soiled linen, which still +retained enough of their former character, both in shape, size, and +colour, to convince Vetranio that they had once served as the vestments +of a Pagan priest. Further than this the senator's observation did not +carry him, for the close, almost mephitic atmosphere of the place +already began to affect him unfavourably. He felt a suffocating +sensation in his throat and a dizziness in his head. The restorative +influence of his recent bath declined rapidly. The fumes of the wine he +had drunk in the night, far from having been, as he imagined, +permanently dispersed, again mounted to his head. He was obliged to +lean against the stone table to preserved his equilibrium as he faintly +desired the Pagan to shorten their sojourn in his miserable retreat. + + +Without even noticing the request, Ulpius hurriedly proceeded to erase +the drawings on the buttresses and the inscriptions on the table. Then +collecting the fragments of statues and the pieces of linen, he +deposited them in a hiding-place in the corner of the apartment. This +done, he returned to the stone against which Vetranio supported himself, +and for a few minutes silently regarded the senator with a firm, +earnest, and penetrating gaze. + +A dark suspicion that he had betrayed himself into the hands of a +villain, who was then plotting some atrocious project connected with his +safety or honour, began to rise on the senator's bewildered brain as he +unwillingly submitted to the penetrating examination of the Pagan's +glance. At that moment, however, the withered lips of the old man slowly +parted, and he began to speak. Whether as he looked on Vetranio's +disturbed countenance, and marked his unsteady gait, the heart of +Ulpius, for the first time since his introduction to the senator, +misgave him when he thought of their monstrous engagement; or whether +the near approach of the moment that was henceforth, as he wildly +imagined, to fix Vetranio as his assistant and ally, so powerfully +affected his mind that it instinctively sought to vent its agitation +through the natural medium of words, it is useless to inquire. Whatever +his motives for speech, the impressive earnestness of his manner gave +evidence of the depth and intensity of his emotions as he addressed the +senator thus:-- + +'I have submitted to servitude in a Christian's house, I have suffered +the contamination of a Christian's prayers, to gain the use of your +power and station when the time to employ them should arrive. The hour +has now come when my part of the conditions of our engagement is to be +performed; the hour will yet come when your part shall be exacted from +you in turn! Do you wonder at what I have done and what I will do? Do +you marvel that a household drudge should speak thus to a nobleman of +Rome? Are you astonished that I risk so much as to venture on enlisting +you--by the sacrifice of the girl who now slumbers above--in the cause +whose end is the restoration of our fathers' gods, and in whose service +I have suffered and grown old? Listen, and you shall hear from what I +have fallen--you shall know what I once was!' 'I adjure you by all the +gods and goddesses of our ancient worship, let me hear you where I can +breathe--in the garden, on the housetop, anywhere but in this dungeon!' +murmured the senator in entreating accents. + +'My birth, my parents, my education, my ancient abode--these I will not +disclose,' interrupted the Pagan, raising one arm authoritatively, as if +to obstruct Vetranio from approaching the door. 'I have sworn by my +gods, that until the day of restitution these secrets of my past life +shall remain unrevealed to strangers' ears. Unknown I entered Rome, and +unknown I will labour in Rome until the projects I have lived for are +crowned with success! It is enough that I confess to you that with +those sacred images whose fragments you have just beheld, I was once +lodged; that those sacred vestments whose remains you discerned at your +feet, I once wore. To attain the glories of the priesthood there was +nothing that I did not resign, to preserve them there was nothing I did +not perform, to recover them there is nothing that I will not attempt! +I was once illustrious, prosperous, beloved; of my glory, my happiness, +my popularity, the Christians have robbed me, and I will yet live to +requite it heavily at their hands! I had a guardian who loved me in my +youth; the Christians murdered him! A temple was under the rule of my +manhood; the Christians destroyed it! The people of a whole nation once +listened to my voice; the Christians have dispersed them! The wise, the +great, the beautiful, the good, were once devoted to me; the Christians +have made me a stranger at their doors, and outcast of their affections +and thoughts! For all this shall I take no vengeance? Shall I not plot +to rebuild my ruined temple, and win back, in my age, the honours that +adorned me in my youth?' + +'Assuredly!--at once--without delay!' stammered Vetranio, returning the +stern and inquiring gaze of the Pagan with a bewildered, uneasy stare. + + +'To mount over the bodies of the Christian slain,' continued the old +man, his sinister eyes dilating in anticipated triumph as he whispered +close at the senator's ear, 'to rebuild the altars that the Christians +have overthrown, is the ambition that has made light to me the +sufferings of my whole life. I have battled, and it has sustained me in +the midst of carnage; I have wandered, and it has been my home in the +desert; I have failed, and it has supported me; I have been threatened +with death, and it has preserved me from fear; I have been cast into +slavery, and it has made my fetters light. You see me now, old, +degraded, lonely--believe that I long neither for wife, children, +tranquility, nor possessions; that I desire no companion but my +cherished and exalted purpose! Remember, then, in the hour of +performance the promise you have now made to aid me in the achievement +of that purpose! Remember that you are a Pagan yourself! Feast, laugh, +carouse with your compeers; be still the airy jester, the gay companion; +but never forget the end to which you are vowed--the destiny of glory +that the restoration of our deities has in store for us both!' + +He ceased. Though his voice, while he spoke, never rose beyond a +hoarse, monotonous, half-whispering tone, all the ferocity of his abused +and degraded nature was for the instant thoroughly aroused by his +recapitulation of his wrongs. Had Vetranio at this moment shown any +symptoms of indecision, or spoken any words of discouragement, he would +have murdered him on the spot where they stood. Every feature in the +Pagan's seared and livid countenance expressed the stormy emotions that +were rushing over his heart as he now confronted his bewildered yet +attentive listener. His firm, menacing position; his poor and scanty +garments; his wild, shaggy hair; his crooked, distorted form; his stern, +solemn, unwavering gaze--opposed as they were (under the fitful +illumination of the expiring lamp and the advancing daylight) to the +unsteady gait, the vacant countenance, the rich robes, the youthful +grace of form and delicacy of feature of the object of his steady +contemplation, made so wild and strange a contrast between his patrician +ally and himself that they scarcely looked like beings of the same race. +Nothing could be more immense than the difference, more wild than the +incongruity between them. It was sickness hand-in-hand with health; +pain marshalled face to face with enjoyment; darkness ranged in +monstrous discordance by the very side of light. + +The next instant--just as the astonished senator was endeavouring to +frame a suitable answer to the solemn adjuration that had been addressed +to him--Ulpius seized his arm, and opening a door at the inner extremity +of the apartment, led him up some stairs that conducted to the interior +of the house. + +They passed the hall, on the floor of which still lay the fragments of +the broken lute, dimly distinguishable in the soft light of daybreak; +and ascending another staircase, paused at a little door at the top, +which Ulpius cautiously opened, and in a moment afterwards Vetranio was +admitted into Antonina's bed-chamber. + + +The room was of no great extent; its scanty furniture was of the most +ordinary description; no ornaments glittered on its walls; no frescoes +adorned its ceiling; and yet there was a simple elegance in its +appearance, an unobtrusive propriety in its minutest details, which made +it at once interesting and attractive to the eye. From the white +curtains at the window to the vase of flowers standing by the bedside, +the same natural refinement of taste appeared in the arrangement of all +that the apartment contained. No sound broke the deep silence of the +place, save the low, soft breathing, occasionally interrupted by a long, +trembling sigh, of its sleeping occupant. The sole light in the room +consisted of a little lamp, so placed in the middle of the flowers round +the sides of the vase that no extended or steady illumination was cast +upon any object. There was something in the decent propriety of all +that was visible in the bed-chamber; in the soft obscurity of its +atmosphere; in the gentle and musical sound that alone interrupted its +magical stillness, impressive enough, it might have been imagined, to +have awakened some hesitation in the bosom of the boldest libertine ere +he deliberately proceeded to intrude on the unprotected slumbers of its +occupant. No such feeling of indecision, however, troubled the thoughts +of Vetranio as he cast a rapid glance round the apartment which he had +venture so treacherously to invade. The fumes of the wine he had +imbibed at the banquet had been so thoroughly resuscitated by the +oppressive atmosphere of the subterranean retreat he had just quitted, +as to have left him nothing of his more refined nature. All that was +honourable or intellectual in his character had now completely ceded to +all that was base and animal. He looked round, and perceiving that +Ulpius had silently quitted him, softly closed the door. Then advancing +to the bedside with the utmost caution compatible with the involuntary +unsteadiness of an intoxicated man, he took the lamp from the vase in +which it was half concealed, and earnestly surveyed by its light the +figure of the sleeping girl. + +The head of Antonina was thrown back and rested rather over than on her +pillow. Her light linen dress had become so disordered during the night +that it displayed her throat and part of her bosom, in all the dawning +beauties of their youthful formation, to the gaze of the licentious +Roman. One hand half supported her head, and was almost entirely hidden +in the locks of her long black hair, which had escaped from the white +cincture intended to confine it, and now streamed over the pillow in +dazzling contrast to the light bed-furniture around it. The other hand +held tightly clasped to her bosom the precious fragment of her broken +lute. The deep repose expressed in her position had not thoroughly +communicated itself to her face. Now and then her slightly parted lips +moved and trembled, and ever and anon a change, so faint and fugitive +that it was hardly perceptible, appeared in her complexion, breathing on +the soft olive that was its natural hue, the light rosy flush which the +emotions of the past night had impressed on it ere she slept. Her +position, in its voluptuous negligence, seemed the very type of Oriental +loveliness; while her face, calm and sorrowful in its expression, +displayed the more refined and sober graces of the European model. And +thus these two characteristics of two different orders of beauty, +appearing conjointly under one form, produced a whole so various and yet +so harmonious, so impressive and yet so attractive, that the senator, as +he bent over the couch, though the warm, soft breath of the young girl +played on his cheeks and waved the tips of his perfumed locks, could +hardly imagine that the scene before him was more than a bright, +delusive dream. + +While Vetranio was yet absorbed in admiration of her charms, Antonina's +form slightly moved, as if agitated by the influence of a passing dream. +The change thus accomplished in her position broke the spell that its +former stillness and beauty had unconsciously wrought to restrain the +unhallowed ardour of the profligate Roman. He now passed his arm round +her warm, slender figure, and gently raising her till her head rested on +his shoulder as he sat by the bed, imprinted kiss after kiss on the pure +lips that sleep had innocently abandoned to him. + +As he had foreseen, Antonina instantly awoke, but, to his unmeasured +astonishment, neither started nor shrieked. The moment she had opened +her eyes she had recognised the person of Vetranio; and that +overwhelming terror which suspends in its victims the use of every +faculty, whether of the body or the mind, had immediately possessed +itself of her heart. Too innocent to imagine the real motive that +prompted the senator's intrusion on her slumbers, where others of her +sex would have foreboded dishonour, she feared death. All her father's +vague denunciations against the enormities of the nobles of Rome rushed +in an instant over her mind, and her childish imagination pictured +Vetranio as armed with some terrible and mysterious vengeance to be +wreaked on her for having avoided all communication with him as soon as +she had gained possession of her lute. Prostrate beneath the petrifying +influence of her fears, motionless and powerless before him as its prey +before the serpent, she made no effort to move or speak; but looked up +steadfastly into the senator's face, her large eyes fixed and dilated in +a gaze of overpowering terror. + +Intoxicated though he was, the affrighted expression of the poor girl's +pale, rigid countenance did not escape Vetranio's notice; and he taxed +his bewildered brain for such soothing and reassuring expressions as +would enable him to introduce his profligate proposals with some chance +that they would be listened to and understood. + + +'Dearest pupil! Most beautiful of Roman maidens,' he began in the +husky, monotonous tones of inebriety, 'abandon your fears! I come +hither, wafted by the breath of love, to restore the worship of the--I +would say to bear you on my bosom to a villa--the name of which has for +the moment escaped my remembrance. You cannot have forgotten that it +was I who taught you to compose the Nightingale Sauce--or, no--let me +rather say to play upon the lute. Love, music, pleasure, all await you +in the arms of your attached Vetranio. Your eloquent silence speaks +encouragement to my heart. Beloved Anto--' + +Here the senator suddenly paused; for the eyes of the girl, which had +hitherto been fixed on him with the same expression of blank dismay that +had characterised them from the first, slowly moved in the direction of +the door. The instant afterwards a slight noise caught Vetranio's ear, +and Antonina shuddered so violently as he pressed her to his side that +he felt it through his whole frame. Slowly and unwillingly he withdrew +his gaze from the pale yet lovely countenance on which it had been +fixed, and looked up. + +At the open door, pale, silent, motionless, stood the master of the +house. + +Incapable, from the confusion of his ideas, of any other feeling than +the animal instinct of self-defence, Vetranio no sooner beheld +Numerian's figure than he rose, and drawing a small dagger from his +bosom, attempted to advance on the intruder. He found himself, however, +restrained by Antonina, who had fallen on her knees before him, and +grasped his robe with a strength which seemed utterly incompatible with +the slenderness of her form and the feebleness of her sex and age. + +The first voice that broke the silence which ensued was Numerian's. He +advanced, his face ghastly with anguish, his lip quivering with +suppressed emotions, to the senator's side, and addressed him thus:-- + +'Put up your weapon; I come but to ask a favour at your hands.' + +Vetranio mechanically obeyed him. There was something in the stern +calmness, frightful at such a moment, of the Christian's manner that +awed him in spite of himself. + +'The favour I would petition for,' continued Numerian, in low, steady, +bitter tones, 'is that you would remove your harlot there, to your own +abode. Here are no singing-boys, no banqueting-halls, no perfumed +couches. The retreat of a solitary old man is no place for such an one +as she. I beseech you, remove her to a more congenial home. She is +well fitted for her trade; her mother was a harlot before her!' + +He laughed scornfully, and pointed, as he spoke, to the figure of the +unhappy girl kneeling with outstretched arms at his feet. + +'Father, father!' she cried, in accents bereft of their native softness +and melody, 'have you forgotten me?' + +'I know you not!' he replied, thrusting her from him. 'Return to his +bosom; you shall never more be pressed to mine. Go to his palace; my +house is yours no longer! You are his harlot, not my daughter! I +command you--go!' + +As he advanced towards her with fierce glance and threatening demeanour, +she suddenly rose up. Her reason seemed crushed within her as she looked +with frantic earnestness from Vetranio to her father, and then back +again from her father to Vetranio. On one side she saw an enemy who had +ruined her she knew not how, and who threatened her with she knew not +what; on the other, a parent who had cast her off. For one instant she +directed a final look on the room, that, sad and lonely though it was, +had still been a home to her; and then, without a word or a sigh, she +turned, and crouching like a beaten dog, fled from the house. + + +During the whole of the scene Vetranio had stood so fixed in the +helpless astonishment of intoxication as to be incapable of moving or +uttering a word. All that took place during the short and terrible +interview between father and child utterly perplexed him. He heard no +loud, violent anger on one side, no clamorous petitioning for +forgiveness on the other. The stern old man whom Antonina had called +father, and who had been pointed out to him as the most austere +Christian in Rome, far from avenging his intrusion on Antonina's +slumber, had voluntarily abandoned his daughter to his licentious will. +That the anger or irony of so severe a man should inspire such an action +as this, or that Numerian, like his servant, was plotting to obtain some +strange mysterious favour from him by using Antonina as a bribe, seemed +perfectly impossible. all that passed before the senator was, to his +bewildered imagination, thoroughly incomprehensible. Frivolous, +thoughtless, profligate as he might be, his nature was not radically +base, and when the scene of which he had been the astounded witness was +abruptly terminated by the flight of Antonina, the look of frantic +misery fixed on him by the unfortunate girl at the moment of her +departure, almost sobered him for the instant, as he stood before the +now solitary father gazing vacantly around him with emotions of +uncontrollable confusion and dismay. + +Meanwhile a third person was now approaching to join the two occupants +of the bedchamber abandoned by its ill-fated mistress. Although in the +subterranean retreat to which he had retired on leaving Vetranio, Ulpius +had not noticed the silent entrance of the master of the house, he had +heard through the open doors the sound, low though it was, of the +Christian's voice. As he rose, suspecting all things and prepared for +every emergency, to ascend to the bedchamber, he saw, while he mounted +the lowest range of stairs, a figure in white pass rapidly through the +hall and disappear by the principal entrance of the house. He hesitated +for an instant and looked after it, but the fugitive figure had passed +so swiftly in the uncertain light of early morning that he was unable to +identify it, and he determined to ascertain the progress of events, now +that Numerian must have discovered a portion at least of the plot +against his daughter and himself, by ascending immediately to Antonina's +apartment, whatever might be the consequences of his intrusion at such +an hour on her father's wrath. + +As soon as the Pagan appeared before him, a sensible change took place +in Vetranio. The presence of Ulpius in the chamber was a positive +relief to the senator's perturbed faculties, after the mysterious, +overpowering influence that the moral command expressed in the mere +presence of the father and the master of the house, at such an hour, had +exercised over them. Over Ulpius he had an absolute right, Ulpius was +his dependant; and he determined, therefore, to extort from the servant +whom he despised an explanation of the mysteries in the conduct of the +master whom he feared, and the daughter whom he began to doubt. + +'Where is Antonina?' he cried, starting as if from a trance, and +advancing fiercely towards the treacherous Pagan. 'She has left the +room--she must have taken refuge with you.' + +With a slow and penetrating gaze Ulpius looked round the apartment. A +faint agitation was perceptible in his livid countenance, but he uttered +not a word. + +The senator's face became pale and red with alternate emotions of +apprehension and rage. He seized the Pagan by the throat, his eyes +sparkled, his blood boiled, he began to suspect even then that Antonina +was lost to him for ever. + +'I ask you again where is she?' he shouted in a voice of fury. 'If +through this night's work she is lost or harmed, I will revenge it on +you. Is this the performance of your promise? Do you think that I will +direct your desired restoration of the gods of old for this? If evil +comes to Antonina through your treachery, sooner than assist in your +secret projects, I would see you and your accursed deities all burning +together in the Christians' hell! Where is the girl, you slave? +Villain, where was your vigilance, when you let that man surprise us at +our first interview?' + +He turned towards Numerian as he spoke. Trouble and emergency gift the +faculties with a more than mortal penetration. Every word that he had +uttered had eaten its burning way into the father's heart. Hours of +narrative could not have convinced him how fatally he had been deceived, +more thoroughly than the few hasty expressions he had just heard. No +word passed his lips--no action betrayed his misery. He stood before +the spoilers of his home, changed in an instant from the courageous +enthusiast to the feeble, helpless, heart-broken man. + +Though all the ferocity of his old Roman blood had been roused in +Vetranio, as he threatened Ulpius, the father's look of cold, silent, +frightful despair froze it in his young veins in an instant. His heart +was still the impressible heart of youth; and, struck for the first time +in his life with emotions of horror and remorse, he advanced a step to +offer such explanation and atonement as he best might, when the voice of +Ulpius suspended his intentions, and made him pause to listen. + +'She passed me in the hall,' muttered the Pagan, doggedly. 'I did my +part in betraying her into your power--it was for you to hinder her in +her flight. Why did you not strike him to the earth,' he continued, +pointing with a mocking smile to Numerian, 'when he surprised you? You +are wealthy and a noble of Rome; murder would have been no crime in +you!' + +'Stand back!' cried the senator, thrusting him from the position he had +hitherto occupied in the door-way. 'She may be recovered even yet! All +Rome shall be searched for her!' + +The next instant he disappeared from the room, and the master and +servant were left together alone. + +The silence that now reigned in the apartment was broken by distant +sounds of uproar and confusion in the streets of the city beneath. +These ominous noises had arisen with the dawn of day, but the different +emotions of the occupants of Numerian's abode had so engrossed them, +that the turmoil in the outer world had passed unheeded by all. No +sooner, however, had Vetranio departed than it caught the attention of +Ulpius, and he advanced to the window. What he there saw and heard was +of no ordinary importance, for it at once fixed him to the spot where he +stood in mute and ungovernable surprise. + +While Ulpius was occupied at the window, Numerian had staggered to the +side of the bed which his ill-timed severity had made vacant, perhaps +for ever. The power of action, the capacity to go forth and seek his +child himself, was entirely suspended in the agony of her loss, as the +miserable man fell on his knees, and in the anguish of his heart +endeavoured to find solace in prayer. In the positions they severally +occupied the servant and the master long remained--the betrayer watching +at the window, the betrayed mourning at his lost daughter's bed--both +alike silent, both alike unconscious of the lapse of time. + +At length, apparently unaware at first that he was not alone in the +room, Numerian spoke. In his low, broken, tremulous accents, none of +his adherents would have recognised the voice of the eloquent preacher-- +the bold chastiser of the vices of the Church. The whole nature of the +man--moral, intellectual, physical--seemed fatally and completely +changed. + +'She was innocent, she was innocent!' he whispered to himself. 'And +even had she been guilty, was it for me to drive her from my doors! My +part, like my Redeemer's, was to teach repentance, and to show mercy! +Accursed be the pride and anger that drove justice and patience from my +heart, when I beheld her, as I thought, submitting herself without a +struggle or a cry, to my dishonour, and hers! Could I not have imagined +her terror, could I not have remembered her purity? Alas, my beloved, +if I myself have been the dupe of the wicked, what marvel is it that you +should have been betrayed as well! And I have driven you from me, you, +from whose mouth no word of anger ever dropped! I have thrust you from +my bosom, you, who were the adornment of my age! My death approaches, +and you will not be by to pardon my heavy offence, to close my weary +eyes, to mourn by my solitary tomb! God--oh God! If I am left thus +lonely on the earth, thou hast punished me beyond what I can bear!' + +He paused--his emotions for the instant bereft him of speech. After an +interval, he muttered to himself in a low, moaning voice--'I called her +harlot! My pure, innocent child! I called her harlot--I called her +harlot!' + + +In a paroxysm of despair, he started up and looked distractedly around +him. Ulpius still stood motionless at the window. At the sight of the +ruthless Pagan he trembled in every limb. All those infirmities of age +that had been hitherto spared him, seemed to overwhelm him in an +instant. He feebly advanced to his betrayer's side, and addressed him +thus:-- + +'I have lodged you, taught you, cared for you; I have never intruded on +your secrets, never doubted your word, and for all this, you have repaid +me by plotting against my daughter and deceiving me! If your end was to +harm me by assailing my child's happiness and honour you have succeeded! +If you would banish me from Rome, if you would plunge me into obscurity, +to serve some mysterious ambition of your own, you may dispose of me as +you will! I bow before the terrible power of your treachery! I will +renounce whatever you command, if you will restore me to my child! I am +helpless and miserable; I have neither heart nor strength to seek her +myself! You, who know all things and can dare all dangers, may restore +her to pardon and bless me, if you will! Remember, whoever you really +are, that you were once helpless and alone, and that you are still old, +like me! Remember that I have promised to abandon to you whatever you +desire! Remember that no woman's voice can cheer me, no woman's heart +feel for me, now that I am old and lonely, but my daughter's! I have +guessed from the words of the nobleman whom you serve, what are the +designs you cherish and the faith you profess; I will neither betray the +one nor assault the other! I thought that my labours for the Church +were more to me than anything on earth, but now, that through my fault, +my daughter is driven from her father's roof, I know that she is dearer +to me than the greatest of my designs; I must gain her pardon; I must +win back her affection before I die! You are powerful and can recover +her! Ulpius! Ulpius!' + +As he spoke, the Christian knelt at the Pagan's feet. It was terrible +to see the man of affection and integrity thus humbled before the man of +heartlessness and crime. + +Ulpius turned to behold him, then without a word he raised him from the +ground, and thrusting him to the window, pointed with flashing eyes to +the wide view without. + +The sun had arisen high in the heaven and beamed in dazzling brilliancy +over Rome and the suburbs. A vague, fearful, mysterious desolation +seemed to have suddenly overwhelmed the whole range of dwellings beyond +the walls. No sounds rose from the gardens, no population idled in the +streets. The ramparts on the other hand were crowded at every visible +point with people of all ranks, and the distant squares and +amphitheatres of the city itself, swarmed like ant-hills to the eye with +the crowds that struggled within them. Confused cries and strange wild +noises rose at all points from these masses of human beings. The whole +of Rome seemed the prey of a vast and universal revolt. + +Extraordinary and affrighting as was the scene at the moment when he +beheld it, it passed unheeded before the eyes of the scarce conscious +father. He was blind to all sights but his daughter's form, deaf to all +sounds but her voice; and he murmured as he looked vacantly forth upon +the wild view before him, 'Where is my child!--where is my child!' + +'What is your child to me? What are the fortunes of affections of man +or woman, at such an hour as this?' cried the Pagan, as he stood by +Numerian, with features horribly animated by the emotions of fierce +delight and triumph that were raging within him at the prospect he +beheld. 'Dotard, look from this window! Listen to those voices! The +gods whom I serve, the god whom you and your worship would fain have +destroyed, have risen to avenge themselves at last! Behold those +suburbs, they are left desolate! Hear those cries--they are from Roman +lips! While your household's puny troubles have run their course, this +city of apostates has been doomed! In the world's annals this morning +will never be forgotten! THE GOTHS ARE AT THE GATES OF ROME!' + + +CHAPTER 8. THE GOTHS. + + +It was no false rumour that had driven the populace of the suburbs to +fly to the security of the city walls. It was no ill-founded cry of +terror that struck the ear of Ulpius, as he stood at Numerian's window. +The name of Rome had really lost its pristine terrors; the walls of +Rome, those walls which had morally guarded the Empire by their renown, +as they had actually guarded its capital by their strength, were +deprived at length of their ancient inviolability. An army of +barbarians had indeed penetrated for conquest and for vengeance to the +City of the World! The achievement which the invasions of six hundred +years had hitherto attempted in vain, was now accomplished, and +accomplished by the men whose forefathers had once fled like hunted +beasts to their native fastnesses, before the legions of the +Caesars--'The Goths were at the gates of Rome!' + +And now, as his warriors encamped around him, as he saw the arrayed +hosts whom his summons had gathered together, and his energy led on, +threatening at their doors the corrupt senate who had deceived, and the +boastful populace who had despised him, what emotions stirred within the +heart of Alaric! As the words of martial command fell from his lips, +and his eyes watched the movements of the multitudes around him, what +exalted aspirations, what daring resolves, grew and strengthened in the +mind of the man who was the pioneer of that mighty revolution, which +swept from one quarter of the world the sway, the civilisation, the very +life and spirit of centuries of ancient rule! High thoughts gathered +fast in his mind; a daring ambition expanded within him--the ambition, +not of the barbarian plunderer, but of the avenger who had come to +punish; not of the warrior who combated for combat's sake, but of the +hero who was vowed to conquer and to sway. From the far-distant days +when Odin was driven from his territories by the romans, to the night +polluted by the massacre of the hostages in Aquileia, the hour of just +and terrible retribution for Gothic wrongs had been delayed through the +weary lapse of years, and the warning convulsion of bitter strifes, to +approach at last under him. He looked on the towering walls before him, +the only invader since Hannibal by whom they had been beheld; and he +felt as he looked, that his new aspirations did not deceive him, that +his dreams of dominion were brightening into proud reality, that his +destiny was gloriously linked with the overthrow of Imperial Rome! + +But even in the moment of approaching triumph, the leader of the Goths +was still wily in purpose and moderate in action. His impatient +warriors waited but the word to commence the assault, to pillage the +city, and to slaughter the inhabitants; but he withheld it. Scarcely +had the army halted before the gates of Rome, when the news was +promulgated among their ranks, that Alaric, for purposes of his own, had +determined to reduce the city by a blockade. + +The numbers of his forces, increased during his march by the accession +of thirty thousand auxiliaries, were now divided into battalions, +varying in strength according to the service that was required of them. +These divisions stretched round the city walls, and though occupying +separate posts, and devoted to separate duties, were so arranged as to +be capable of uniting at a signal in any numbers, on any given point. +Each body of men was commanded by a tried and veteran warrior, in whose +fidelity Alaric could place the most implicit trust, and to whom he +committed the duty of enforcing the strictest military discipline that +had ever prevailed among the Gothic ranks. Before each of the twelve +principal gates a separate encampment was raised. Multitudes watched the +navigation of the Tiber in every possible direction, with untiring +vigilance; and not one of the ordinary inlets to Rome, however +apparently unimportant, was overlooked. By these means, every mode of +communication between the beleaguered city and the wide and fertile +tracts of land around it, was effectually prevented. When it is +remembered that this elaborate plan of blockade was enforced against a +place containing, at the lowest possible computation, twelve hundred +thousand inhabitants, destitute of magazines for food within its walls, +dependent for supplies on its regular contributions from the country +without, governed by an irresolute senate, and defended by an enervated +army, the horrors that now impended over the besieged Romans are as +easily imagined as described. + + +Among the ranks of the army that now surrounded the doomed city, the +division appointed to guard the Pincian Gate will be found, at this +juncture, most worthy of the reader's attention: for one of the +warriors appointed to its subordinate command was the young chieftain +Hermanric, who had been accompanied by Goisvintha through all the toils +and dangers of the march, since the time when we left him at the Italian +Alps. + +The watch had been set, the tents had been pitched, the defences had +been raised on the portion of ground selected to occupy every possible +approach to the Pincian Gate, as Hermanric retired to await by +Goisvintha's side, whatever further commands he might yet be entrusted +with, by his superiors in the Gothic camp. The spot occupied by the +young warrior's simple tent was on a slight eminence, apart from the +positions chosen by his comrades, eastward of the city gate, and +overlooking at some distance the deserted gardens of the suburbs, and +the stately palaces of the Pincian Hill. Behind his temporary dwelling +was the open country, reduced to a fertile solitude by the flight of its +terrified inhabitants; and at each side lay one unvarying prospect of +military strength and preparation, stretching out its animated confusion +of soldiers, tents, and engines of warfare, as far as the sight could +reach. It was now evening. The walls of Rome, enshrouded in a rising +mist, showed dim and majestic to the eyes of the Goths. The noises in +the beleaguered city softened and deepened, seeming to be muffled in the +growing darkness of the autumn night, and becoming less and less audible +as the vigilant besiegers listened to them from their respective posts. +One by one, lights broke wildly forth at irregular distances, in the +Gothic camp. Harshly and fitfully the shrill call of the signal +trumpets rang from rank to rank; and through the dim thick air rose, in +the intervals of the more important noises, the clash of heavy hammers +and the shout of martial command. Wherever the preparations for the +blockade were still incomplete, neither the approach of night nor the +pretext of weariness were suffered for an instant to hinder their +continued progress. Alaric's indomitable will conquered every obstacle +of nature, and every deficiency of man. Darkness had no obscurity that +forced him to repose, and lassitude no eloquence that lured him to +delay. + +In no part of the army had the commands of the Gothic king been so +quickly and intelligently executed, as in that appointed to watch the +Pincian Gate. The interview of Hermanric and Goisvintha in the young +chieftain's tent, was, consequently, uninterrupted for a considerable +space of time by any fresh mandate from the head-quarters of the camp. + +In outward appearance, both the brother and sister had undergone a +change remarkable enough to be visible, even by the uncertain light of +the torch which now shone on them as they stood together at the door of +the tent. The features of Goisvintha--which at the period when we first +beheld her on the shores of the mountain lake, retained, in spite of her +poignant sufferings, much of the lofty and imposing beauty that had been +their natural characteristic in her happier days--now preserved not the +slightest traces of their former attractions. Its freshness had +withered from her complexion, its fulness had departed from her form. +Her eyes had contracted an unvarying sinister expression of malignant +despair, and her manner had become sullen, repulsive, and distrustful. +This alteration in her outward aspect, was but the result of a more +perilous change in the disposition of her heart. The death of her last +child at the very moment when her flight had successfully directed her +to the protection of her people, had affected her more fatally than all +the losses she had previously sustained. The difficulties and dangers +that she had encountered in saving her offspring from the massacre; the +dismal certainty that the child was the only one, out of all the former +objects of her affection, left to her to love; the wild sense of triumph +that she experienced in remembering, that in this single instance her +solitary efforts had thwarted the savage treachery of the Court of Rome, +had inspired her with feelings of devotion towards the last of her +household which almost bordered on insanity. And, now that her beloved +charge, her innocent victim, her future warrior, had, after all her +struggles for his preservation, pined and died; now that she was +childless indeed; now that Roman cruelty had won its end in spite of all +her patience, all her courage, all her endurance; every noble feeling +within her sunk, annihilated at the shock. Her sorrow took the fatal +form which irretrievable destroys, in women, all the softer and better +emotions;--it changed to the despair that asks no sympathy, to the grief +that holds no communion with tears. + +Less elevated in intellect and less susceptible in disposition, the +change to sullenness of expression and abruptness of manner now visible +in Hermanric, resulted rather from his constant contemplation of +Goisvintha's gloomy despair, tan from any actual revolution in his own +character. In truth, however many might be the points of outward +resemblance now discernible between the brother and sister, the +difference in degree of their moral positions, implied of itself the +difference in degree of the inward sorrow of each. Whatever the trials +and afflictions that might assail him, Hermanric possessed the healthful +elasticity of youth and the martial occupations of manhood to support +them. Goisvintha could repose on neither. With no employment but +bitter remembrance to engage her thoughts, with no kindly aspiration, +no soothing hope to fill her heart, she was abandoned irrevocably to the +influence of unpartaken sorrow and vindictive despair. + +Both the woman and the warrior stood together in silence for some time. +At length, without taking his eyes from the dusky, irregular mass before +him, which was all that night now left visible of the ill-fated city, +Hermanric addressed Goisvintha thus:-- + +'Have you no words of triumph, as you look on the ramparts that your +people have fought for generations to behold at their mercy, as we now +behold them? Can a woman of the Goths be silent when she stands before +the city of Rome?' + +'I came hither to behold Rome pillaged, and Romans slaughtered; what is +Rome blockaded to me?' replied Goisvintha fiercely. 'The treasures +within that city will buy its safety from our King, as soon as the +tremblers on the ramparts gain heart enough to penetrate a Gothic camp. +Where is the vengeance that you promised me among those distant palaces? +Do I behold you carrying that destruction through the dwellings of Rome, +which the soldiers of yonder city carried through the dwellings of the +Goths? Is it for plunder or for glory that the army is here? I +thought, in my woman's delusion, that it was for revenge!' + +'Dishonour will avenge you--Famine will avenge you--Pestilence will +avenge you!' + +'They will avenge my nation; they will not avenge me. I have seen the +blood of Gothic women spilt around me--I have looked on my children's +corpses bleeding at my feet! Will a famine that I cannot see, and a +pestilence that I cannot watch, give me vengeance for this? Look! Here +is the helmet-crest of my husband and your brother--the helmet-crest +that was flung to me as a witness that the Romans had slain him! Since +the massacre of Aquileia it has never quitted my bosom. I have sworn +that the blood which stains and darkens it, shall be washed off in the +blood of the people of Rome. Though I should perish under those +accursed walls; though you in your soulless patience should refuse me +protection and aid; I, widowed, weakened, forsaken as I am, will hold to +the fulfilment of my oath!' + +As she ceased she folded the crest in her mantle, and turned abruptly +from Hermanric in bitter and undissembled scorn. All the attributes of +her sex, in thought, expression, and manner, seemed to have deserted +her. The very tones she spoke in were harsh and unwomanly. + + +Every word she had uttered, every action she had displayed, had sunk +into the inmost heart, had stirred the fiercest passions of the young +warrior whom she addressed. The first national sentiment discoverable +in the day-spring of the ages of Gothic history, is the love of war; but +the second is the reverence of woman. This latter feeling--especially +remarkable among so fierce and unsusceptible a people as the ancient +Scandinavians--was entirely unconnected with those strong attaching +ties, which are the natural consequence of the warm temperaments of more +southern nations; for love was numbered with the base inferior passions, +in the frigid and hardy composition of the warrior of the north. It was +the offspring of reasoning and observation, not of instinctive sentiment +and momentary impulse. In the wild, poetical code of the old Gothic +superstition was one axiom, closely and strangely approximating to an +important theory in the Christian scheme--the watchfulness of an +omnipotent Creator over a finite creature. Every action of the body, +every impulse of the mind, was the immediate result, in the system of +worship among the Goths of the direct, though invisible interference of +the divinities they adored. When, therefore, they observed that women +were more submitted in body to the mysterious laws of nature and +temperament, and more swayed in mind by the native and universal +instincts of humanity than themselves, they inferred as an inevitable +conclusion, that the female sex was more incessantly regarded, and more +constantly and remarkably influenced by the gods of their worship, than +the male. Acting under this persuasion, they committed the study of +medicine, the interpretation of dreams, and in many instances, the +mysteries of communication with the invisible world, to the care of +their women. The gentler sex became their counsellors in difficulty, +and their physicians in sickness--their companions rather than their +mistresses,--the objects of their veneration rather than the purveyors +of their pleasures. Although in after years, the national migrations of +the Goths changed the national temperament, although their ancient +mythology was exchanged for the worship of Christ, this prevailing +sentiment of their earliest existence as a people never entirely +deserted them; but, with different modifications and in different forms, +maintained much of its old supremacy through all changes of manners and +varieties of customs, descending finally to their posterity among the +present nations of Europe, in the shape of that established code of +universal courtesy to women, which is admitted to be one great +distinguishing mark between the social systems of the inhabitants of +civilised and uncivilised lands. + +This powerful and remarkable ascendancy of the woman over the man, among +the Goths, could hardly be more strikingly displayed than in the +instance of Hermanric. It appeared, not only in the deteriorating +effect of the constant companionship of Goisvintha on his naturally +manly character, but also in the strong influence over his mind of the +last words of fury and disdain that she had spoken. His eyes gleamed +with anger, his cheeks flushed with shame, as he listened to those +passages in her wrathful remonstrance which reflected most bitterly on +himself. She had scarcely ceased, and turned to retire into the tent, +when he arrested her progress, and replied, in heightened and accusing +tones:-- + +'You wrong me by your words! When I saw you among the Alps, did I +refuse you protection? When the child was wounded, did I leave him to +suffer unaided? When he died, did I forsake him to rot upon the earth, +or abandon to his mother the digging of his grave? When we approached +Aquileia, and marched past Ravenna, did I forget that the sword hung at +my shoulder? Was it at my will that it remained sheathed, or that I +entered not the gates of the Roman towns, but passed by them in haste? +Was it not the command of the king that withheld me? and could I, his +warrior, disobey? I swear it to you, the vengeance that I promised, I +yearn to perform,--but is it for me to alter the counsels of Alaric? +Can I alone assault the city which it is his command that we should +blockade? What would you have of me?' + +'I would have you remember,' retorted Goisvintha, indignantly, 'that +Romans slew your brother, and made me childless! I would have you +remember that a public warfare of years on years, is powerless to stay +one hour's craving of private vengeance! I would have you less +submitted to your general's wisdom, and more devoted to your own wrongs! +I would have you--like me--thirst for the blood of the first inhabitant +of yonder den of traitors, who--whether for peace or for war--passes the +precincts of its sheltering walls!' + +She paused abruptly for an answer, but Hermanric uttered not a word. +The courageous heart of the young chieftain recoiled at the deliberate +act of assassination, pressed upon him in + +Goisvintha's veiled yet expressive speech. To act with his comrades in +taking the city by assault, to outdo in the heat of battle the worst +horrors of the massacre of Aquileia, would have been achievements in +harmony with his wild disposition and warlike education; but, to submit +himself to Goisvintha's projects, was a sacrifice, that the very +peculiarities of his martial character made repugnant to his thoughts. +Emotions such as these he would have communicated to his companion, as +they passed through his mind; but there was something in the fearful and +ominous change that had occurred in her disposition since he had met her +among the Alps,--in her frantic, unnatural craving for bloodshed and +revenge, that gave her a mysterious and powerful influence over his +thoughts, his words, and even his actions. He hesitated and was silent. + +'Have I not been patient?' continued Goisvintha, lowering her voice to +tones of earnest, agitated entreaty, which jarred upon Hermanric's ear, +as he thought who was the petitioner, and what would be the object of +the petition,--' Have I not been patient throughout the weary journey +from the Alps? Have I not waited for the hour of retribution, even +before the defenceless cities that we passed on the march? Have I not +at you instigation governed my yearning for vengeance, until the day +that should see you mounting those walls with the warriors of the Goths, +to scourge with fire and sword the haughty traitors of Rome? Has that +day come? Is it by this blockade that the requital you promised me over +the corpse of my murdered child, is to be performed? Remember the +perils I dared, to preserved the life of that last one of my +household,--and will you risk nothing to avenge his death? His +sepulchre is untended and solitary. Far from the dwellings of his +people, lost in the dawn of his beauty, slaughtered in the beginning of +his strength, lies the offspring of your brother's blood. And the +rest--the two children, who were yet infants; the father, who was brave +in battle and wise in council--where are they? Their bones whiten on +the shelterless plain, or rot unburied by the ocean shore! Think--had +they lived--how happily your days would have passed with them in the +time of peace! how gladly your brother would have gone forth with you to +the chase! how joyfully his boys would have nestled at your knees, to +gather from your lips the first lessons that should form them for the +warrior's life! Think of such enjoyments as these, and then think that +Roman swords have deprived you of them all!' + +Her voice trembled, she ceased for a moment, and looked mournfully up +into Hermanric's averted face. Every feature in the young chieftain's +countenance expressed the tumult that her words had aroused within him. +He attempted to reply, but his voice was powerless in that trying +moment. His head drooped upon his heaving breast, and he sighed heavily +as, without speaking, he grasped Goisvintha by the hand. The object she +had pleaded for was nearly attained;--he was fast sinking beneath the +tempter's well-spread toils! + +'Are you silent still?' she gloomily resumed. 'Do you wonder at this +longing for vengeance, at this craving for Roman blood? I tell you that +my desire has arisen within me, at promptings from the voices of an +unknown world. They urge me to seek requital on the nation who have +widowed and bereaved me--yonder, in their vaunted city, from their +pampered citizens, among their cherished homes--in the spot where their +shameful counsels take root, and whence their ruthless treacheries +derive their bloody source! In the book that our teachers worship, I +have heard it read, that "the voice of blood crieth from the ground!" +This is the voice--Hermanric, this is the voice that I have heard! I +have dreamed that I walked on a shore of corpses, by a sea of blood--I +have seen, arising from that sea, my husband's and my children's bodies, +gashed throughout with Roman wounds! They have called to me through the +vapour of carnage that was around them;--'Are we yet unavenged? Is the +sword of Hermanric yet sheathed?' Night after night have I seen this +vision and heard those voice, and hoped for no respite until the day +that saw the army encamped beneath the walls of Rome, and raising the +scaling ladders for the assault! And now, after all my endurance, how +has that day arrived? Accursed be the lust of treasure! It is more to +the warriors, and to you, than the justice of revenge!' + +'Listen! listen!' cried Hermanric entreatingly. + +'I listen no longer!' interrupted Goisvintha. 'The tongue of my people +is as a strange language in my ears; for it talks but of plunder and of +peace, of obedience, of patience, and of hope! I listen no longer; for +the kindred are gone that I loved to listen to--they are all slain by +the Romans but you--and you I renounce!' + + +Deprived of all power of consideration by the violence of the emotions +awakened in his heart by Goisvintha's wild revelations of the evil +passion that consumed her, the young Goth, shuddering throughout his +whole frame, and still averting his face, murmured in hoarse, unsteady +accents: 'Ask of me what you will. I have no words to deny, no power to +rebuke you--ask of me what you will!' + +'Promise me,' cried Goisvintha, seizing the hand of Hermanric, and +gazing with a look of fierce triumph on his disordered countenance, +'that this blockade of the city shall not hinder my vengeance! Promise +me that the first victim of our righteous revenge, shall be the first +one that appears before you--whether in war or peace--of the inhabitants +of Rome!' + +'I promise,' cried the Goth. And those two words sealed the destiny of +his future life. + +During the silence that now ensued between Goisvintha and Hermanric, and +while each stood absorbed in deep meditation, the dark prospect spread +around them began to brighten slowly under a soft, clear light. The +moon, whose dull broad disk had risen among the evening mists arrayed in +gloomy red, had now topped the highest of the exhalations of earth, and +beamed in the wide heaven, adorned once more in her pale, accustomed +hue. Gradually, yet perceptibly, the vapour rolled,--layer by layer,-- +from the lofty summits of the palaces of Rome, and the high places of +the mighty city began to dawn, as it were, in the soft, peaceful, +mysterious light; while the lower divisions of the walls, the desolate +suburbs, and parts of the Gothic camp, lay still plunged in the dusky +obscurity of the mist, in grand and gloomy contrast to the prospect of +glowing brightness, that almost appeared to hover about them from above +and around. Patches of ground behind the tent of Hermanric, began to +grow partially visible in raised and open positions; and the song of the +nightingale was now faintly audible at intervals, among the solitary and +distant trees. In whatever direction it was observed, the aspect of +nature gave promise of the cloudless, tranquil night, of the autumnal +climate of ancient Italy. + +Hermanric was the first to return to the contemplation of the outward +world. Perceiving that the torch which still burnt by the side of his +tent, had become useless, now that the moon had arisen and dispelled the +mists, he advance and extinguished it; pausing afterwards to look forth +over the plains, as they brightened slowly before him. He had been thus +occupied but a short time, when he thought he discerned a human figure +moving slowly over a spot of partially lightened and hilly ground, at a +short distance from him. It was impossible that this wandering form +could be one of his own people;--they were all collected at their +respective posts, and his tent he knew was on the outermost boundary of +the encampment before the Pincian Gate. + +He looked again. The figure still advanced, but at too great a distance +to allow him a chance of discovering, in the uncertain light around him, +either its nation, its sex, or its age. His heart misgave him as he +remembered his promise to Goisvintha, and contemplated the possibility +that it was some miserable slave, abandoned by the fugitives who had +quitted the suburbs in the morning, who now approached as a last +resource, to ask mercy and protection from his enemies in the camp. He +turned towards Goisvintha as the idea crossed his mind, and observed +that she was still occupied in meditation. Assured by the sight, that +she had not yet observed the fugitive figure, he again directed his +attention--with an excess of anxiety which he could hardly account for-- +in the direction where he had first beheld it, but it was no more to be +seen. It had either retired to concealment, or was now still advancing +towards his tent through a clump of trees that clothed the descent of +the hill. + +Silently and patiently he continued to look forth over the landscape; +and still no living thing was to be seen. At length, just as he began +to doubt whether his senses had not deceived him, the fugitive figure +suddenly appeared from the trees, hurried with wavering gait over the +patch of low, damp ground that still separated it from the young Goth, +gained his tent, and then with a feeble cry fell helplessly upon the +earth at his feet. + + +That cry, faint as it was, attracted Goisvintha's attention. She turned +in an instant, thrust Hermanric aside, and raised the stranger in her +arms. The light, slender form, the fair hand and arm hanging motionless +towards the ground, the long locks of deep black hair, heavy with the +moisture of the night atmosphere, betrayed the wanderer's sex and age in +an instant. The solitary fugitive was a young girl. + +Signing to Hermanric to kindle the extinguished torch at a neighbouring +watch-fire, Goisvintha carried the still insensible girl into the tent. +As the Goth silently proceeded to obey her, a vague, horrid suspicion, +that he shrunk from embodying, passed across his mind. His hand shook +so that he could hardly light the torch, and bold and vigorous as he +was, his limbs trembled beneath him as he slowly returned to the tent. + +When he had gained the interior of his temporary abode, the light of his +torch illuminated a strange and impressive scene. + +Goisvintha was seated on a rude oaken chest, supporting on her knees the +form of the young girl, and gazing with an expression of the most +intense and enthralling interest upon her pale, wasted countenance. The +tattered robe that had hitherto enveloped the fugitive had fallen back, +and disclosed the white dress, which was the only other garment she +wore. Her face, throat, and arms, had been turned, by exposure to the +cold, to the pure whiteness of marble. Her eyes were closed, and her +small, delicate features were locked in a rigid repose. But for her +deep black hair, which heightened the ghastly aspect of her face, she +might have been mistaken, as she lay in the woman's arms, for an +exquisitely chiseled statue of youth in death! + +When the figure of the young warrior, arrayed in his martial +habiliments, and standing near the insensible girl with evident emotions +of wonder and anxiety, was added to the group thus produced,--when +Goisvintha's tall, powerful frame, clothed in dark garments, and bent +over the fragile form and white dress of the fugitive, was illuminated +by the wild, fitful glare of the torch,--when the heightened colour, +worn features, and eager expression of the woman were beheld, here +shadowed, there brightened, in close opposition to the pale, youthful, +reposing countenance of the girl, such an assemblage of violent lights +and deep shades was produced, as gave the whole scene a character at +once mysterious and sublime. It presented an harmonious variety of +solemn colours, united by the exquisite artifice of Nature to a grand, +yet simple disposition of form. It was a picture executed by the hand +of Rembrandt, and imagined by the mind of Raphael. + +Starting abruptly from her long, earnest examination of the fugitive, +Goisvintha proceeded to employ herself in restoring animation to her +insensible charge. While thus occupied, she preserved unbroken silence. +A breathless expectation, that absorbed all her senses in one direction, +seemed to have possessed itself of her heart. She laboured at her task +with the mechanical, unwavering energy of those, whose attention is +occupied by their thoughts rather than their actions. Slowly and +unwillingly the first faint flush of returning animation dawned, in the +tenderest delicacy of hue, upon the girl's colourless cheek. Gradually +and softly, her quickening respiration fluttered a thin lock of hair +that had fallen over her face. A little interval more, and then the +closed, peaceful eyes suddenly opened, and glance quickly round the tent +with a wild expression of bewilderment and terror. Then, as Goisvintha +rose, and attempted to place her on a seat, she tore herself from her +grasp, looked on her for a moment with fearful intentness, and then +falling on her knees, murmured, in a plaintive voice,-- + +'Have mercy upon me. I am forsaken by my father,--I know not why. The +gates of the city are shut against me. My habitation in Rome is closed +to me for ever!' + + +She had scarcely spoken these few words, before an ominous change +appeared in Goisvintha's countenance. Its former expression of ardent +curiosity changed to a look of malignant triumph. Her eyes fixed +themselves on the girl's upturned face, in glaring, steady, spell-bound +contemplation. She gloated over the helpless creature before her, as +the wild beast gloats over the prey that it has secured. Her form +dilated, a scornful smile appeared on her lips, a hot flush rose on her +cheeks, and ever and anon she whispered softly to herself, 'I knew she +was Roman! Aha! I knew she was Roman!' + +During this space of time Hermanric was silent. His breath came short +and thick, his face grew pale, and his glance, after resting for an +instant on the woman and the girl, travelled slowly and anxiously round +the tent. In one corner of it lay a heavy battle-axe. He looked for a +moment from the weapon to Goisvintha, with a vivid expression of horror, +and then moving slowly across the tent, with a firm, yet trembling +grasp, he possessed himself of the arm. + +As he looked up, Goisvintha approached him. In one hand she held the +bloody helmet-crest, while she pointed with the other to the crouching +form of the girl. Her lips were still parted with their unnatural +smile, and she whispered softly to the Goth--'Remember your promise!-- +remember your kindred!--remember the massacre of Aquileia!' + +The young warrior made no answer. He moved rapidly forward a few steps, +and signed hurriedly to the young girl to fly by the door; but her +terror had by this time divested her of all her ordinary powers of +perception and comprehension. She looked up vacantly at Hermanric, and +then shuddering violently, crept into a corner of the tent. During the +short silence that now ensued, the Goth could hear her shiver and sigh, +as he stood watching, with all the anxiety of apprehension, Goisvintha's +darkening brow. + +'She is Roman--she is the first dweller in the city who has appeared +before you!--remember your promise!--remember your kindred!--remember +the massacre of Aquileia!' said the woman in fierce, quick, concentrated +tones. + +'I remember that I am a warrior and a Goth,' replied Hermanric, +disdainfully. 'I have promised to avenge you, but it must be on a man +that my promise must be fulfilled--an armed man, who can come forth with +weapons in his hand--a strong man of courage whom I will slay in single +combat before your eyes! The girl is too young to die, too weak to be +assailed!' + +Not a syllable that he had spoken had passed unheeded by the fugitive, +every word seemed to revive her torpid faculties. As he ceased she +arose, and with the quick instinct of terror, ran up to the side of the +young Goth. Then seizing his hand--the hand that still grasped the +battle-axe--she knelt down and kissed it, uttering hurried broken +ejaculations, as she clasped it to her bosom, which the tremulousness of +her voice rendered completely unintelligible. + +'Did the Romans think my children too young to die, or too weak to be +assailed?' cried Goisvintha. 'By the Lord God of Heaven, they murdered +them the more willingly because they were young, and wounded them the +more fiercely because they were weak! My heart leaps within me as I +look on the girl! I am doubly avenged, if I am avenged on the innocent +and the youthful! Her bones shall rot on the plains of Rome, as the +bones of my offspring rot on the plains of Aquileia! Shed me her +blood!--Remember your promise!--Shed me her blood!' + +She advanced with extended arms and gleaming eyes towards the fugitive. +She gasped for breath, her face turned suddenly to a livid paleness, the +torchlight fell upon her distorted features, she looked unearthly at +that fearful moment; but the divinity of mercy had now braced the +determination of the young Goth to meet all emergencies. His bright +steady eye quailed not for an instant, as he encountered the frantic +glance of the fury before him. With one hand he barred Goisvintha from +advancing another step; the other, he could not disengage from the girl, +who now clasped and kissed it more eagerly than before. + + +'You do this but to tempt me to anger,' said Goisvintha, altering her +manner with sudden and palpable cunning, more ominous of peril to the +fugitive than the fury she had hitherto displayed. 'You jest at me, +because I have failed in patience, like a child! But you will shed her +blood--you are honourable and will hold to your promise--you will shed +her blood! And I,' she continued, exultingly, seating herself on the +oaken chest that she had previously occupied, and resting her clenched +hands on her knees; 'I will wait to see it!' + +At this moment voices and steps were heard outside the tent. Hermanric +instantly raised the trembling girl from the ground, and supporting her +by his arm, advanced to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. He was +confronted the next instant by an old warrior of superior rank, attached +to the person of Alaric, who was followed by a small party of the +ordinary soldiery of the camp. + +'Among the women appointed by the king to the office of tending, for +this night, those sick and wounded on the march, is Goisvintha, sister +of Hermanric. If she is here, let her approach and follow me;' said the +chief of the party in authoritative tones, pausing at the door of the +tent. + +Goisvintha rose. For an instant she stood irresolute. To quit +Hermanric at such a time as this, was a sacrifice that wrung her savage +heart;--but she remembered the severity of Alaric's discipline, she saw +the armed men awaiting her, and yielded after a struggle to the +imperious necessity of obedience to the king's commands. Trembling with +suppressed anger and bitter disappointment, she whispered to Hermanric +as she passed him:-- + +'You cannot save her if you would! You dare not commit her to the +charge of your companions, she is too young and too fair to be abandoned +to their doubtful protection. You cannot escape with her, for you must +remain here on the watch at your post. You will not let her depart by +herself, for you know that she would perish with cold and privation +before the morning rises. When I return on the morrow I shall see her in +the tent. You cannot escape from your promise;--you cannot forget it,-- +you must shed her blood!' + +'The commands of the king,' said the old warrior, signing to his party +to depart with Goisvintha, who now stood with forced calmness awaiting +their guidance: 'will be communicated to the chieftain Hermanric on the +morrow. Remember,' he continued in a lower tone, pointing +contemptuously to the trembling girl; 'that the vigilance you have shown +in setting the watch before yonder gate, will not excuse any negligence +your prize there may now cause you to commit! Consult your youthful +pleasures as you please, but remember your duties! Farewell!' + +Uttering these words in a stern, serious tone, the veteran departed. +Soon the last sound of the footsteps of his escort died away, and +Hermanric and the fugitive were left alone in the tent. + +During the address of the old warrior to the chieftain, the girl had +silently detached herself from her protector's support, and retired +hastily to the interior of the tent. When she saw that they were left +together again, she advanced hesitatingly towards the young Goth, and +looked up with an expression of mute inquiry into his face. + +'I am very miserable,' said she, after an interval of silence, in soft, +clear, melancholy accents. 'If you forsake me now, I must die--and I +have lived so short a time on the earth, I have known so little +happiness and so little love, that I am not fit to die! But you will +protect me! You are good and brave, strong with weapons in your hands, +and full of pity. You have defended me, and spoken kindly of me--I love +you for the compassion you have shown me.' + + +Her language and actions, simple as they were, were yet so new to +Hermanric, whose experience of her sex had been almost entirely limited +to the women of his own stern impassive nation, that he could only reply +by a brief assurance of protection, when the suppliant awaited his +answer. A new page in the history of humanity was opening before his +eyes, and he scanned it in wondering silence. + + +'If that woman should return,' pursued the girl, fixing her dark, +eloquent eyes intently upon the Goth's countenance, 'take me quickly +where she cannot come. My heart grows cold as I look on her! She will +kill me if she can approach me again! My father's anger is very +fearful, but hers is horrible--horrible--horrible! Hush! already I hear +her coming back--let us go--I will follow you wherever you please--but +let us not delay while there is time to depart! She will destroy me if +she sees me now, and I cannot die yet! Oh my preserver, my +compassionate defender, I cannot die yet!' + +'No one shall harm you--no on shall approach you to-night--you are +secure from all dangers in this tent,' said the Goth, gazing on her with +undissembled astonishment and admiration. + +'I will tell you why death is so dreadful to me,' she continued, and her +voice deepened as she spoke, to tones of mournful solemnity, strangely +impressive in a creature so young. 'I have lived much alone, and have +had no companions but my thoughts, and the sky that I could look up to, +and the things on the earth that I could watch. As I have seen the +clear heaven and the soft fields, and smelt the perfume of flowers, and +heard the voices of singing-birds afar off, I have wondered why the same +God who made all this, and made me, should have made grief and pain and +hell--the dread eternal hell that my father speaks of in his church. I +never looked at the sun-light, or woke from my sleep to look on and to +think of the distant stars, but I longed to love something that might +listen to my joy. But my father forbade me to be happy! He frowned +even when he gave me my flower-garden--though God made flowers. He +destroyed my lute--though God made music. My life has been a longing in +loneliness for the voices of friends! My heart has swelled and trembled +within my, because when I walked in the garden and looked on the plains +and woods and high, bright mountains that were round me, I knew that I +loved them alone! Do you know now why I dare not die? It is because I +must find first the happiness which I feel God has made for me. It is +because I must live to praise this wonderful, beautiful world with +others who enjoy it as I could! It is because my home has been among +those who sigh, and never among those who smile! It is for this that I +fear to die! I must find companions whose prayers are in singing and in +happiness, before I go to the terrible hereafter that all dread. I dare +not die! I dare not die!' + +As she uttered these last words she began to weep bitterly. Between +amazement and compassion the young Goth was speechless. He looked down +upon the small, soft hand that she had placed on his arm while she +spoke, and saw that it trembled; he pressed it, and felt that it was +cold; and in the first impulse of pity produced by the action, he found +the readiness of speech which he had hitherto striven for in vain. + +'You shiver and look pale,' said he; 'a fire shall be kindled at the +door of the tent. I will bring you garments that will warm you, and +food that will give you strength; you shall sleep, and I will watch that +no one harms you.' + +The girl hastily looked up. An expression of ineffable gratitude +overspread her sorrowful countenance. She murmured in a broken voice, +'Oh, how merciful, how merciful you are!' And then, after an evident +struggle with herself, she covered her face with her hands, and again +burst into tears. + +More and more embarrassed, Hermanric mechanically busied himself in +procuring from such of his attendants as the necessities of the blockade +left free, the supplies of fire, food and raiment, which he had +promised. She received the coverings, approached the blazing fuel, and +partook of the simple refreshment, which the young warrior offered her, +with eagerness. After that she sat for some time silent, absorbed in +deep meditation, and cowering over the fire, apparently unconscious of +the curiosity with which she was still regarded by the Goth. At length +she suddenly looked up, and observing his eyes fixed on her, arose and +beckoned him to the seat that she occupied. + +'Did you know how utterly forsaken I am,' said she, 'you would not +wonder as you do, that I, a stranger and a Roman, have sought you thus. +I have told you how lonely was my home; but yet that home was a refuge +and a protection to me until the morning of this long day that is past, +when I was expelled from it for ever! I was suddenly awakened in my bed +by--my father entered in anger--he called me--' + +She hesitated, blushed, and then paused at the very outset of her +narrative. Innocent as she was, the natural instincts of her sex spoke, +though in a mysterious yet in a warning tone, within her heart, abruptly +imposing on her motives for silence that she could neither penetrate nor +explain. She clasped her trembling hands over her bosom as if to repress +its heaving, and casting down her eyes, continued in a lower tone:-- + +I cannot tell you why my father drove me from his doors. He has always +been silent and sorrowful to me; setting me long tasks in mournful +books; commanding that I should not quit the precincts of his abode, and +forbidding me to speak to him when I have sometimes asked him to tell me +of my mother whom I have lost. Yet he never threatened me or drove me +from his side, until the morning of which I have told you. Then his +wrath was terrible; his eyes were fierce; his voice was threatening! He +bade me begone, and I obeyed him in affright, for I thought he would +have slain me if I stayed! I fled from the house, knowing not where I +went, and ran through yonder gate, which is hard by our abode. As I +entered the suburbs, I met great crowds, all hurrying into Rome. I was +bewildered by my fears and the confusion all around, yet I remember that +they called loudly to me to fly to the city, ere the gates were closed +against the assault of the Goths. And others jostled and scoffed at me, +as they passed by and saw me in the thin night garments in which I was +banished from my home!' + +Here she paused and listened intently for a few moments. Every +accidental noise that she heard still awakened in her the apprehension +of Goisvintha's return. Reassured by Hermanric and by her own +observation of all that was passing outside the tent, she resumed her +narrative after an interval, speaking now in a steadier voice. + +'I thought my heart would burst within me,' she continued, 'as I tried +to escape them. All things whirled before my eyes. I could not speak-- +I could not stop--I could not weep. I fled and fled I knew not whither, +until I sank down exhausted at the door of a small house on the +outskirts of the suburbs. Then I called for aid, but no one was by to +hear me. I crept--for I could stand no longer--into the house. It was +empty. I looked from the windows: no human figure passed through the +silent streets. The roar of a mighty confusion still rose from the +walls of the city, but I was left to listen to it alone. In the house I +saw scattered on the floor some fragments of bread and an old garment. +I took them both, and then rose and departed; for the silence of the +place was horrible to me, and I remembered the fields and the plains +that I had once loved to look on, and I thought that I might find there +the refuge that had been denied to me at Rome! So I set forth once more; +and when I gained the soft grass, and sat down beside the shady trees, +and saw the sunlight brightening over the earth, my heart grew sad, and +I wept as I thought on my loneliness and remembered my father's anger. + +'I had not long remained in my resting-place, when I heard a sound of +trumpets in the distance, and looking forth, I saw far off, advancing +over the plains, a mighty multitude with arms that glittered in the sun. +I strove, as I beheld them, to arise and return even to those suburbs +whose solitude had affrighted me. But my limbs failed me. I saw a +little hollow hidden among the trees around. I entered it, and there +throughout the lonely day I lay concealed. I heard the long tramp of +footsteps, as your army passed me on the roads beneath; and then, after +those hours of fear came the weary hours of solitude! + + +'Oh, those--lonely--lonely--lonely hours! I have lived without +companions, but those hours were more terrible to me than all the years +of my former life! I dared not venture to leave my hiding-place--I +dared not call! Alone in the world, I crouched in my refuge till the +sun went down! Then came the mist, and the darkness, and the cold. The +bitter winds of night thrilled through and through me! The lonely +obscurity around me seemed filled with phantoms whom I could not behold, +who touched me and rustled over the surface of my skin! They half +maddened me! I rose to depart; to meet my wrathful father, or the army +that had passed me, or solitude in the cold, bright meadows--I cared not +which!--when I discerned the light of your torch, the moment ere it was +extinguished. Dark though it then was, I found your tent. And now I +know that I have found yet more--a companion and a friend!' + +She looked up at the young Goth as she pronounced these words with the +same grateful expression that had appeared on her countenance before; +but this time her eyes were not by tears. Already her disposition--poor +as was the prospect of happiness which now lay before it--had begun to +return, with an almost infantine facility of change, to the restoring +influences of the brighter emotions. Already the short tranquilities of +the present began to exert for her their effacing charm over the long +agitations of the past. Despair was unnumbered among the emotions that +grew round that child-like heart; shame, fear, and grief, however they +might overshadow it for a time, left no taint of their presence on its +bright, fine surface. Tender, perilously alive to sensation, strangely +retentive of kindness as she was by nature, the very solitude to which +she had been condemned had gifted her, young as she was, with a martyr's +endurance of ill, and with a stoic's patience under pain. + +'Do not mourn for me now,' she pursued, gently interrupting some broken +expressions of compassion which fell from the lips of the young Goth. +'If you are merciful to me, I shall forget all that I have suffered! +Though your nation is at enmity with mine, while you remain my friend, I +fear nothing! I can look on your great stature, and heavy sword, and +bright armour now without trembling! You are not like to the soldiers +of Rome;--you are taller, stronger, more gloriously arrayed! You are +like a statue I once saw by chance of a warrior of the Greeks! You have +a look of conquest and a presence of command!' + +She gazed on the manly and powerful frame of the young warrior, clothed +as it was in the accoutrements of his warlike nation, with an expression +of childish interest and astonishment, asking him the appellation and +use of each part of his equipment, as it attracted her attention, and +ending her inquiries by eagerly demanding his name. + +'Hermanric,' she repeated, as he answered her, pronouncing with some +difficulty the harsh Gothic syllables--'Hermanric!--that is a stern, +solemn name--a name fit for a warrior and a man! Mine sounds worthless, +after such a name as that! It is only Antonina!' + +Deeply as he was interested in every word uttered by the girl, Hermanric +could no longer fail to perceive the evident traces of exhaustion that +now appeared in the slightest of her actions. Producing some furs from +a corner of the tent, he made a sort of rude couch by the side of the +fire, heaped fresh fuel on the flames, and then gently counselled her to +recruit her wasted energies by repose. There was something so candid in +his manner, so sincere in the tones of his voice, as he made his simple +offer of hospitality to the stranger who had taken refuge with him, that +the most distrustful woman would have accepted with as little hesitation +as Antonina; who, gratefully and unhesitatingly, laid down on the bed +that he had been spreading for her at her feet. + +As soon as he had carefully covered her with a cloak, and rearranged her +couch in the position best calculated to insure her all the warmth of +the burning fuel, Hermanric retired to the other side of the fire; and, +leaning on his sword, abandoned himself to the new and absorbing +reflections which the presence of the girl naturally aroused. + +He thought not one the duties demanded of him by the blockade; he +remembered neither the scene of rage and ferocity that had followed his +evasion of his reckless promise; nor the fierce determination that +Goisvintha had expressed as she quitted him for the night. The cares +and toils to come with the new morning, which would oblige him to expose +the fugitive to the malignity of her revengeful enemy; the thousand +contingencies that the difference of their sexes, their nations, and +their lives, might create to oppose the continuance of the permanent +protection that he had promised to her, caused him no forebodings. +Antonina, and Antonina alone, occupied every faculty of his mind, and +every feeling of his heart. There was a softness and a melody to his +ear in her very name! + + +His early life had made him well acquainted with the Latin tongue, but +he had never discovered all its native smoothness of sound, and elegance +of structure, until he had heard it spoken by Antonina. Word by word, +he passed over in his mind her varied, natural, and happy turns of +expression; recalling, as he was thus employed, the eloquent looks, the +rapid gesticulations, the changing tones which had accompanied those +words, and thinking how wide was the difference between this young +daughter of Rome, and the cold and taciturn women of his own nation. +The very mystery enveloping her story, which would have excited the +suspicion or contempt of more civilised men, aroused in him no other +emotions than those of wonder and compassion. No feelings of a lower +nature than these entered his heart towards the girl. She was safe +under the protection of the enemy and the barbarian, after having been +lost through the interference of the Roman and the senator. + +To the simple perceptions of the Goth, the discovery of so much +intelligence united to such extreme youth, of so much beauty doomed to +such utter loneliness, was the discovery of an apparition that dazzled, +and not of a woman who charmed him. He could not even have touched the +hand of the helpless creature, who now reposed under his tent, unless +she had extended it to him of her own accord. He could only think--with +a delight whose excess he was far from estimating himself--on this +solitary mysterious being who had come to him for shelter and for aid; +who had awakened in him already new sources of sensation; and who seemed +to his startled imagination to have suddenly twined herself for ever +about the destinies of his future life. + +He was still deep in meditation, when he was startled by a hand suddenly +laid on his arm. He looked up and saw that Antonina, whom he had +imagined to be slumbering on her couch, was standing by his side. + +'I cannot sleep,' said the girl in a low, awe-struck voice, 'until I +have asked you to spare my father when you enter Rome. I know that you +are here to ravage the city; and, for aught I can tell, you may assault +and destroy it to-night. Will you promise to warn me before the walls +are assailed? I will then tell you my father's name and abode, and you +will spare him as you have mercifully spared me? He has denied me his +protection, but he is my father still; and I remember that I disobeyed +him once, when I possessed myself of a lute! Will you promise me to +spare him? My mother, whom I have never seen and who must therefore be +dead, may love me in another world for pleading for my father's life!' + +In a few words, Hermanric quieted her agitation by explaining to her the +nature and intention of the Gothic blockade, and she silently returned +to the couch. After a short interval, her slow, regular breathing +announced to the young warrior, as he watched by the side of the fire, +that she had at length forgotten the day's heritage of misfortune in the +welcome oblivion of sleep. + + +CHAPTER 9. THE TWO INTERVIEWS. + +The time, is the evening of the first day of the Gothic blockade; the +place, is Vetranio's palace at Rome. In one of the private apartments +of his mansion is seated its all-accomplished owner, released at length +from the long sitting convened by the Senate on the occasion of the +unexpected siege of the city. Although the same complete discipline, +the same elegant regularity, and the same luxurious pomp, which +distinguished the senator's abode in times of security, still prevail +over it in the time of imminent danger which now threatens rich and poor +alike in Rome, Vetranio himself appears far from partaking the +tranquility of his patrician household. His manner displays an unusual +sternness, and his face an unwonted displeasure, as he sits, occupied by +his silent reflections and thoroughly unregardful of whatever occurs +around him. Two ladies who are his companions in the apartment, exert +all their blandishments to win him back to hilarity, but in vain. The +services of his expectant musicians are not put into requisition, the +delicacies on his table remain untouched, and even 'the inestimable +kitten of the breed most worshipped by the ancient Egyptians' gambols +unnoticed and unapplauded at his feet. All its wonted philosophical +equanimity has evidently departed, for the time at least, from the +senator's mind. + +Silence--hitherto a stranger to the palace apartments--had reigned +uninterruptedly over them for some time, when the freedman Carrio +dissipated Vetranio's meditations, and put the ladies who were with him +to flight, by announcing in an important voice, that the Prefect +Pompeianus desired a private interview with the Senator Vetranio. + +The next instant the chief magistrate of Rome entered the apartment. He +was a short, fat, undignified man. Indolence and vacillation were +legibly impressed on his appearance and expression. You saw, in a +moment, that his mind, like a shuttlecock, might be urged in any +direction by the efforts of others, but was utterly incapable of +volition by itself. But once in his life had the Prefect Pompeianus +been known to arrive unaided at a positive determination, and that was +in deciding a fierce argument between a bishop and a general, regarding +the relative merits of two rival rope-dancers of equal renown. + +'I have come, my beloved friend,' said the Prefect in agitated tones, +'to ask your opinion, at this period of awful responsibility for us all, +on the plan of operations proposed by the Senate at the sitting of to- +day! But first,' he hastily continued, perceiving with the unerring +instinct of an old gastronome, that the inviting refreshments on +Vetranio's table had remained untouched, 'permit me to fortify my +exhausted energies by a visit to your ever-luxurious board. Alas, my +friend, when I consider the present fearful scarcity of our provision +stores in the city, and the length of time that this accursed blockade +may be expected to last, I am inclined to think that the gods alone know +(I mean St. Peter) how much longer we may be enabled to give occupation +to our digestions and employment to our cooks. + +'I have observed,' pursued the Prefect, after an interval, speaking with +his mouth full of stewed peacock; 'I have observed, oh esteemed +colleague! the melancholy of your manner and your absolute silence +during your attendance to-day at our deliberations. Have we, in your +opinion, decided erroneously? It is not impossible! Our confusion at +this unexpected appearance of the barbarians may have blinded our usual +penetration! If by any chance you dissent from our plans, I beseech you +communicate your objections to me without reserve!' + +'I dissent from nothing, because I have heard nothing,' replied Vetranio +sullenly. 'I was so occupied by a private matter of importance during +my attendance at the sitting of the Senate, that I was deaf to their +deliberations. I know that we are besieged by the Goths--why are they +not driven from before the walls?' + +'Deaf to our deliberations! Drive the Goths from the walls!' repeated +the Prefect faintly. 'Can you think of any private matter at such a +moment as this? Do you know our danger? Do you know that our friends +are so astonished at this frightful calamity, that they move about like +men half awakened from a dream? Have you not seen the streets filled +with terrified and indignant crowds? Have you not mounted the ramparts +and beheld the innumerable multitudes of pitiless Goths surrounding us +on all sides, intercepting our supplies of provisions from the country, +and menacing us with a speedy famine, unless our hoped-for auxiliaries +arrive from Ravenna?' + +'I have neither mounted the ramparts, nor viewed with any attention the +crowds in the streets,' replied Vetranio, carelessly. + +'But if you have seen nothing yourself, you must have heard what others +saw,' persisted the Prefect; 'you must know at least that the legions we +have in the city are not sufficient to guard more than half the circuit +of the walls. Has no one informed you that if it should please the +leader of the barbarians to change his blockade into an assault, it is +more than probable that we should be unable to repulse him successfully? +Are you still deaf to our deliberations, when your palace may to-morrow +be burnt over your head, when we may be staved to death, when we may be +doomed to eternal dishonour by being driven to conclude a peace? Deaf +to our deliberations, when such an unimaginable calamity as this +invasion has fallen like a thunderbolt under our very walls! You amaze +me! You overwhelm me! You horrify me!' + + +And in the excess of his astonishment the bewildered Prefect actually +abandoned his stewed peacock, and advanced, wine-cup in hand, to obtain +a nearer view of the features of his imperturbable host. + +'If we are not strong enough to drive the Goths out of Italy,' rejoined +Vetranio coolly, 'you and the Senate know that we are rich enough to +bribe them to depart to the remotest confines of the empire. If we have +not swords enough to fight, we have gold and silver enough to pay.' + +'You are jesting! Remember our honour and the auxiliaries we still hope +for from Ravenna,' said the Prefect reprovingly. + +'Honour has lost the signification now, that it had in the time of the +Caesars,' retorted the Senator. 'Our fighting days are over. We have +had heroes enough for our reputation. As for the auxiliaries you still +hope for, you will have none! While the Emperor is safe in Ravenna, he +will care nothing for the worst extremities that can be suffered by the +people of Rome.' + +'But you forget your duties,' urged the astonished Pompeianus, turning +from rebuke to expostulation. 'You forget that it is a time when all +private interests must be abandoned! You forget that I have come here +to ask your advice, that I am bewildered by a thousand projects, forced +on me from all sides, for ruling the city successfully during the +blockade; that I look to you, as a friend and a man of reputation, to +aid me in deciding on a choice out of the varied counsels submitted to +me in the Senate to-day.' + +'Write down the advice of each senator on a separate strip of vellum; +shake all the strips together in an urn; and then, let the first you +take out by chance, be your guide to govern by in the present condition +of the city!' said Vetranio with a sneer. + +'Oh friend, friend! it is cruel to jest with me thus!' cried the +Prefect, in tones of lament; 'Would you really persuade me that you are +ignorant that what sentinels we have, are doubled already on the walls? +Would you attempt to declare seriously to me, that you never heard the +project of Saturninus for reducing imperceptibly the diurnal allowance +of provisions? Or the recommendation of Emilianus, that the people +should be kept from thinking on the dangers and extremities which now +threaten them, by being provided incessantly with public amusements at +the theatres and hippodromes? Do you really mean that you are +indifferent to the horrors of our present situation? By the souls of +the Apostles, Vetranio, I begin to think that you do not believe in the +Goths!' + +'I have already told you that private affairs occupy me at present, to +the exclusion of public,' said Vetranio impatiently. 'Debate as you +choose--approve what projects you will--I withdraw myself from +interference in your deliberations!' + + +'This,' murmured the repulsed Prefect in soliloquy, as he mechanically +resumed his place at the refreshment table, 'this is the very end and +climax of all calamities! Now, when advice and assistance are more +precious than jewels in my estimation, I receive neither! I gain from +none, the wise and saving counsels which, as chief magistrate of this +Imperial City, it is my right to demand from all; and the man on whom I +most depended is the man who fails me most! Yet hear me, oh Vetranio, +once again,' he continued, addressing the Senator, 'if our perils beyond +the walls affect you not, there is a weighty matter that has been +settled within them, which must move you. After you had quitted the +Senate, Serena, the widow of Stilicho, was accused, as her husband was +accused before her, of secret and treasonable correspondence with the +Goths; and has been condemned, as her husband was condemned, to suffer +the penalty of death. I myself discerned no evidence to convict her; +but the populace cried out, in universal frenzy, that she was guilty, +that she should die; and that the barbarians, when they heard of the +punishment inflicted on their secret adherent, would retire in dismay +from Rome. This also was a moot point of argument, on which I vainly +endeavoured to decide; but the Senate and the people were wiser than I; +and Serena was condemned to be strangled to-morrow by the public +executioner. She was a woman of good report before this time, and is +the adopted mother of the Emperor. It is now doubted by many whether +Stilicho, her husband, was ever guilty of the correspondence with the +Goths, of which he was accused; and I, on my part, doubt much that +Serena has deserved the punishment of death at our hands. I beseech +you, Vetranio, let me be enlightened by your opinion on this one point +at least!' + +The Prefect waited anxiously for an answer, but Vetranio neither looked +at him nor replied. It was evident that the Senator had not listened to +a word that he had said! + +This reception of his final appeal for assistance, produced the effect +on the petitioner, which it was perhaps designed to convey--the Prefect +Pompeianus quitted the room in despair. + +He had not long departed, when Carrio again entered the apartment, and +addressed his master thus: + +'It is grievous for me, revered patron, to disclose it to you, but your +slaves have returned unsuccessful from the search!' + +'Give the description of the girl to a fresh division of them, and let +them continue their efforts throughout the night, not only in the +streets, but in all the houses of public entertainment in the city. She +must be in Rome, and she must be found!' said the senator gloomily. + +Carrio bowed profoundly, and was about to depart, when he was arrested +at the door by his master's voice. + +'If an old man, calling himself Numerian, should desire to see me,' said +Vetranio, 'admit him instantly.' + +'She had quitted the room but a short time when I attempted to reclaim +her,' pursued the senator, speaking to himself; 'and yet when I gained +the open air, she was nowhere to be seen! She must have mingled +unintentionally with the crowds whom the Goths drove into the city, and +thus have eluded my observation! So young and so innocent! She must be +found! She must be found!' + +He paused, once more engrossed in deep and melancholy thought. After a +long interval, he was roused form his abstraction by the sound of +footsteps on the marble floor. He looked up. The door had been opened +without his perceiving it, and an old man was advancing with slow and +trembling steps towards his silken couch. It was the bereaved and +broken-hearted Numerian. + +'Where is she? Is she found?' asked the father, gazing anxiously round +the room, as if he had expected to see his daughter there. + +'My slaves still search for her,' said Vetranio, mournfully. + +'Ah, woe--woe--woe! How I wronged her! How I wronged her!' cried the +old man, turning to depart. + + +'Listen to me ere you go,' said Vetranio, gently detaining him. 'I have +done you a great wrong, but I will yet atone for it by finding for you +your child! While there were women who would have triumphed in my +admiration, I should not have attempted to deprive you of your daughter! +Remember when you recover her--and you shall recover her--that from the +time when I first decoyed her into listening to my lute, to the night +when your traitorous servant led me to her bed-chamber, she has been +innocent in this ill-considered matter. I alone have been guilty! She +was scarcely awakened when you discovered her in my arms, and my entry +into her chamber, was as little expected by her, as it was by you. I +was bewildered by the fumes of wine and the astonishment of your sudden +appearance, or I should have rescued her from your anger, ere it was too +late! The events which have passed this morning, confused though they +were, have yet convinced me that I had mistaken you both. I now know +that your child was too pure to be an object fitted for my pursuit; and +I believe that in secluding her as you did, however ill-advised you +might appear, you were honest in your design! Never in my pursuit of +pleasure did I commit so fatal an error, as when I entered the doors of +your house!' + +In pronouncing these words, Vetranio but gave expression to the +sentiments by which they were really inspired. As we have before +observed, profligate as he was by thoughtlessness of character and +license of social position, he was neither heartless nor criminal by +nature. Fathers had stormed, but his generosity had hitherto invariably +pacified them. Daughters had wept, but had found consolation on all +previous occasions in the splendour of his palace and the amiability of +his disposition. In attempting, therefore, the abduction of Antonina, +though he had prepared for unusual obstacles, he had expected no worse +results of his new conquest, than those that had followed, as yet, his +gallantries that were past. But, when--in the solitude of his own home, +and in the complete possession of his faculties--he recalled all the +circumstances of his attempt, from the time when he had stolen on the +girl's slumbers, to the moment when she had fled from the house; when he +remembered the stern concentrated anger of Numerian, and the agony and +despair of Antonina; when he thought on the spirit-broken repentance of +the deceived father, and the fatal departure of the injured daughter, he +felt as a man who had not merely committed an indiscretion, but had been +guilty of a crime; he became convinced that he had incurred the fearful +responsibility of destroying the happiness of a parent who was really +virtuous, and a child who was truly innocent. To a man, the business of +whose whole life was to procure for himself a heritage of unalloyed +pleasure, whose sole occupation was to pamper that refined sensuality +which the habits of a life had made the very material of his heart, by +diffusing luxury and awakening smiles wherever he turned his steps, the +mere mental disquietude attending the ill-success of his intrusion into +Numerian's dwelling, was as painful in its influence, as the bitterest +remorse that could have afflicted a more highly-principled mind. He +now, therefore, instituted the search after Antonina, and expressed his +contrition to her father, from a genuine persuasion that nothing but the +completest atonement for the error he had committed, could restore to +him that luxurious tranquility, the loss of which had, as he had himself +expressed it, rendered him deaf to the deliberations of the Senate, and +regardless of the invasion of the Goths. + +'Tell me,' he continued, after a pause, 'whither has Ulpius betaken +himself? It is necessary that he should be discovered. He may +enlighten us upon the place of Antonina's retreat. He shall be secured +and questioned.' + +'He left me suddenly; I saw him as I stood at the window, mix with the +multitude in the street, but I know not whither he is gone,' replied +Numerian; and a tremor passed over his whole frame as he spoke of the +remorseless Pagan. + +Again there was a short silence. The grief of the broken-spirited +father, possessed in its humility and despair, a voice of rebuke, before +which the senator, careless and profligate as he was, instinctively +quailed. For some time he endeavoured in vain to combat the silencing +and reproving influence, exerted over him by the very presence of the +sorrowing man whom he had so fatally wronged. At length, after an +interval, he recovered self-possession enough to address to Numerian +some further expressions of consolation and hope; but he spoke to ears +that listened not. The father had relapsed into his mournful +abstraction; and when the senator paused, he merely muttered to +himself--'She is lost! Alas, she is lost for ever!' + +'No, she is not lost for ever,' cried Vetranio, warmly. 'I have wealth +and power enough to cause her to be sought for to the ends of the earth! +Ulpius shall be secured and questioned--imprisoned, tortured, if it is +necessary. Your daughter shall be recovered. Nothing is impossible to +a senator of Rome!' + + +'I knew not that I loved her, until the morning when I wronged and +banished her!' continued the old man, still speaking to himself. 'I +have lost all traces of my parents and my brother--my wife is parted +from me for ever--I have nothing left but Antonina; and now too she is +gone! Even my ambition, that I once thought my all in all, is no +comfort to my soul; for I loved it--alas! unconsciously loved it-- +through the being of my child! I destroyed her lute--I thought her +shameless--I drove her from my doors! Oh, how I wronged her!--how I +wronged her!' + +'Remain here, and repose yourself in one of the sleeping apartments, +until my slaves return in the morning. You will then hear without delay +of the result of their search to-night,' said Vetranio, in kindly and +compassionate tones. + +'It grows dark--dark!' groaned the father, tottering towards the door; +'but that is nothing; daylight itself now looks darkness to me! I must +go: I have duties at the chapel to perform. Night is repose for you-- +for me, it is tribulation and prayer!' + +He departed as he spoke. Slowly he paced along the streets that led to +his chapel, glancing with penetrating eye at each inhabitant of the +besieged city who passed him on his way. With some difficulty he +arrived at his destination; for Rome was still thronged with armed men +hurrying backwards and forwards, and with crowds of disorderly citizens +pouring forth, wherever there was space enough for them to assemble. +The report of the affliction that had befallen him had already gone +abroad among his hearers, and they whispered anxiously to each other as +he entered the plain, dimly-lighted chapel, and slowly mounted the +pulpit to open the service, by reading the chapter in the Bible which +had been appointed for perusal that night, and which happened to be the +fifth of the Gospel of St. Mark. His voice trembled, his face was +ghastly pale, and his hands shook perceptibly as he began; but he read +on, in low, broken tones, and with evident pain and difficulty, until he +came to the verse containing these words: 'My little daughter lieth at +the point of death.' Here he stopped suddenly, endeavoured vainly for a +few minutes to proceed, and then, covering his face with his hands, sank +down in the pulpit and sobbed aloud. His sorrowing and startled audience +immediately gathered round him, raised him in their arms, and prepared +to conduct him to his own abode. When, however, they had gained the +door of the chapel, he desired them gently, to leave him and return to +the performance of the service among themselves. Ever implicitly +obedient to his slightest wishes, the persons of his little assembly, +moved to tears by the sight of their teacher's suffering, obeyed him, by +retiring silently to their former places. As soon as he found that he +was alone, he passed the door; and whispering to himself, 'I must join +those who seek her! I must aid them myself in the search!'--he mingled +once more with the disorderly citizens who thronged the darkened +streets. + + +CHAPTER 10. THE RIFT IN THE WALL. + +When Ulpius suddenly departed from Numerian's house on the morning of +the siege, it was with no distinct intention of betaking himself to any +particular place, or devoting himself to any immediate employment. It +was to give vent to his joy--to the ecstacy that now filled his heart to +bursting--that he sought the open streets. His whole moral being was +exalted by that overwhelming sense of triumph, which urges the physical +nature into action. He hurried into the free air, as a child runs on a +bright day in the wide fields; his delight was too wild to expand under +a roof; his excess of bliss swelled irrepressibly beyond all artificial +limits of space. + + +The Goths were in sight! A few hours more, and their scaling ladders +would be planted against the walls. On a city so weakly guarded as +Rome, their assault must be almost instantaneously successful. +Thirsting for plunder, they would descend in infuriated multitudes on +the defenceless streets. Christians though they were, the restraints of +religion would, in that moment of fierce triumph, be powerless with such +a nation of marauders against the temptations to pillage. Churches +would be ravaged and destroyed; priests would be murdered in attempting +the defence of their ecclesiastical treasures; fire and sword would +waste to its remotest confines the stronghold of Christianity, and +overwhelm in death and oblivion the boldest of Christianity's devotees! +Then, when the hurricane of ruin and crime had passed over the city, +when a new people were ripe for another government and another +religion--then would be the time to invest the banished gods of old Rome +with their former rule; to bid the survivors of the stricken multitude +remember the judgment that their apostacy to their ancient faith had +demanded and incurred; to strike the very remembrance of the Cross out +of the memory of man; and to reinstate Paganism on her throne of +sacrifices, and under her roof of gold, more powerful from her past +persecutions; more universal in her sudden restoration, than in all the +glories of her ancient rule! + +Such thoughts as these passed through the Pagan's toiling mind as, +unobservant of all outward events, he paced through the streets of the +beleaguered city. Already he beheld the array of the Goths preparing +the way, as the unconscious pioneers of the returning gods, for the +march of that mighty revolution which he was determined to lead. The +warmth of his past eloquence, the glow of his old courage, thrilled +through his heart, as he figured to himself the prospect that would soon +stretch before him--a city laid waste, a people terrified, a government +distracted, a religion destroyed. Then, arising amid this darkness and +ruin; amid this solitude, desolation, and decay, it would be his +glorious privilege to summon an unfaithful people to return to the +mistress of their ancient love; to rise from prostration beneath a +dismantled Church; and to seek prosperity in temples repeopled and at +shrines restored! + +All remembrance of late events now entirely vanished from his mind. +Numerian, Vetranio, Antonina, they were all forgotten in this memorable +advent of the Goths! His slavery in the mines, his last visit to +Alexandria, his earlier wanderings--even these, so present to his memory +until the morning of the siege, were swept from its very surface now. +Age, solitude, infirmity--hitherto the mournful sensations which were +proofs to him that he still continued to exist--suddenly vanished from +his perceptions, as things that were not; and now at length he forgot +that he was an outcast, and remembered triumphantly that he was still a +priest. He felt animated by the same hopes, elevated by the same +aspirations, as in those early days when he had harangued the wavering +Pagans in the Temple, and first plotted the overthrow of the Christian +Church. + +It was a terrible and warning proof of the omnipotent influence that a +single idea may exercise over a whole life, to see that old man +wandering among the crowds around him, still enslaved, after years of +suffering and solitude, degradation, and crime, by the same ruling +ambition, which had crushed the promise of his early youth! It was an +awful testimony to the eternal and mysterious nature of thought, to +behold that wasted and weakened frame; and then to observe how the +unassailable mind within still swayed the wreck of body yet left to it-- +how faithfully the last exhausted resources of failing vigour rallied +into action at its fierce command--how quickly, at its mocking voice, +the sunken eye lightened again with a gleam of hope, and the pale, thin +lips parted mechanically with an exulting smile! + +The hours passed, but he still walked on--whither or among whom he +neither knew nor cared. No remorse touched his heart for the +destruction that he had wreaked on the Christian who had sheltered him; +no terror appalled his soul at the contemplation of the miseries that he +believed to be in preparation for the city from the enemy at its gates. +The end that had hallowed to him the long series of his former offences +and former sufferings, now obliterated iniquities just passed, and +stripped of all their horrors, atrocities immediately to come. + +The Goths might be destroyers to others, but they were benefactors to +him; for they were harbingers of the ruin which would be the material of +his reform, and the source of his triumph. It never entered his +imagination that, as an inhabitant of Rome, he shared the approaching +perils of the citizens, and in the moment of the assault might share +their doom. He beheld only the new and gorgeous prospect that war and +rapine were opening before him. He thought only of the time that must +elapse ere his new efforts could be commenced--of the orders of the +people among whom he should successively make his voice heard--of the +temples which he should select for restoration--of the quarter of Rome +which should first be chosen for the reception of his daring reform. + + +At length he paused; his exhausted energies yielded under the exertions +imposed on them, and obliged him to bethink himself of refreshment and +repose. It was now noon. The course of his wanderings had insensibly +conducted him again to the precincts of his old, familiar dwelling- +place; he found himself at the back of the Pincian Mount, and only +separated by a strip of uneven woody ground, from the base of the city +wall. The place was very solitary. It was divided from the streets and +mansions above by thick groves and extensive gardens, which stretched +along the undulating descent of the hill. A short distance to the +westward lay the Pincian Gate, but an abrupt turn in the wall and some +olive trees which grew near it, shut out all view of objects in that +direction. On the other side, towards the eastward, the ramparts were +discernible, running in a straight line of some length, until they +suddenly turned inwards at a right angle and were concealed from further +observation by the walls of a distant palace and the pine trees of a +public garden. The only living figure discernible near this lonely +spot, was that of a sentinel, who occasionally passed over the ramparts +above, which--situated as they were between two stations of soldiery, +one at the Pincian Gate and the other where the wall made the angle +already described--were untenanted, save by the guard within the limits +of whose watch they happened to be placed. Here, for a short space of +time, the Pagan rested his weary frame, and aroused himself insensibly +from the enthralling meditations which had hitherto blinded him to the +troubled aspect of the world around him. + +He now for the first time heard on all sides distinctly, the confused +noises which still rose from every quarter of Rome. The same incessant +strife of struggling voices and hurrying footsteps, which had caught his +ear in the early morning, attracted his attention now; but no shrieks of +distress, no clash of weapons, no shouts of fury and defiance, were +mingled with them; although, as he perceived by the position of the sun, +the day had sufficiently advanced to have brought the Gothic army long +since to the foot of the walls. What could be the cause of this delay +in the assault; of this ominous tranquillity on the ramparts above him? +Had the impetuosity of the Goths suddenly vanished at the sight of Rome? +Had negotiations for peace been organised with the first appearance of +the invaders? He listened again. No sounds caught his ear differing in +character from those he had just heard. Though besieged, the city was +evidently--from some mysterious cause--not even threatened by an +assault. + +Suddenly there appeared from a little pathway near him, which led round +the base of the wall, a woman preceded by a child, who called to her +impatiently, as he ran on, 'Hasten, mother, hasten! There is no crowd +here. Yonder is the Gate. We shall have a noble view of the Goths!' + +There was something in the address of the child to the woman that gave +Ulpius a suspicion, even then, of the discovery that flushed upon him +soon after. He rose and followed them. They passed onward by the wall, +through the olive trees beyond, and then gained the open space before +the Pincian Gate. Here a great concourse of people had assembled, and +were suffered, in their proper turn, to ascend the ramparts in +divisions, by some soldiers who guarded the steps by which they were +approached. After a short delay, Ulpius and those around him were +permitted to gratify their curiosity, as others had done before them. +They mounted the walls, and beheld, stretched over the ground within and +beyond the suburbs, the vast circumference of the Gothic lines. + +Terrible and almost sublime as was the prospect of that immense +multitude, seen under the brilliant illumination of the noontide sun, it +was not impressive enough to silence the turbulent loquacity rooted in +the dispositions of the people of Rome. Men, women, and children, all +made their noisy and conflicting observations on the sight before them, +in every variety of tone, from the tremulous accents of terror, to the +loud vociferations of bravado. + + +Some spoke boastfully of the achievements that would be performed by the +Romans, when their expected auxiliaries arrived from Ravenna. Others +foreboded, in undissembled terror, an assault under cover of the night. +Here, a group abused, in low confidential tones, the policy of the +government in its relations with the Goths. There, a company of ragged +vagabonds amused themselves by pompously confiding to each other their +positive conviction, that at that very moment the barbarians must be +trembling in their camp, at the mere sight of the all-powerful Capital +of the World. In one direction, people were heard noisily speculating +whether the Goths would be driven from the walls by the soldiers of +Rome, or be honoured by an invitation to conclude a peace with the +august Empire, which they had so treasonably ventured to invade. In +another, the more sober and reputable among the spectators audibly +expressed their apprehensions of starvation, dishonour, and defeat, +should the authorities of the city be foolhardy enough to venture a +resistance to Alaric and his barbarian hosts. But wide as was the +difference of the particular opinions hazarded among the citizens, they +all agreed in one unavoidable conviction, that Rome had escaped the +immediate horrors of an assault, to be threatened--if unaided by the +legions at Ravenna--by the prospective miseries of a blockade. + +Amid the confusion of voices around him, that word 'blockade' alone +reached the Pagan's ear. It brought with it a flood of emotions that +overwhelmed him. All that he saw, all that he heard, connected itself +imperceptibly with that expression. a sudden darkness, neither to be +dissipated nor escaped, seemed to obscure his faculties in an instant. +He struggled mechanically through the crowd, descended the steps of the +ramparts, and returned to the solitary spot where he had first beheld +the woman and the child. + +The city was blockaded! The Goths were bent then, on obtaining a peace +and not on achieving a conquest! The city was blockaded! It was no +error of the ignorant multitude--he had seen with his own eyes the tents +and positions of the enemy, he had heard the soldiers on the wall +discoursing on the admirable disposition of Alaric's forces, on the +impossibility of obtaining the smallest communication with the +surrounding country, on the vigilant watch that had been set over the +navigation of the Tiber. There was no doubt on the matter--the +barbarians had determined on a blockade! + +There was even less uncertainty upon the results which would be produced +by this unimaginable policy of the Goths--the city would be saved! Rome +had not scrupled in former years to purchase the withdrawal of all +enemies from her distant provinces; and now that the very centre of her +glory, the very pinnacle of her declining power, was threatened with +sudden and unexpected ruin, she would lavish on the Goths the treasures +of the whole empire, to bribe them to peace and to tempt them to +retreat. The Senate might possibly delay the necessary concessions, +from hopes of assistance that would never be realised; but sooner or +later the hour of negotiation would arrive; northern rapacity would be +satisfied with southern wealth; and in the very moment when it seemed +inevitable, the ruin from which the Pagan revolution was to derive its +vigorous source, would be diverted from the churches of Rome. + +Could the old renown of the Roman name have retained so much of its +ancient influence as to daunt the hardy Goths, after they had so +successfully penetrated the empire as to have reached the walls of its +vaunted capital? Could Alaric have conceived so exaggerated an idea of +the strength of the forces in the city as to despair, with all his +multitudes, of storming it with success? It could not be otherwise! No +other consideration could have induced the barbarian general to abandon +such an achievement as the destruction of Rome. With the chance of an +assault the prospects of Paganism had brightened--with the certainty of +a blockade, they sunk immediately into disheartening gloom! + + +Filled with these thoughts, Ulpius paced backwards and forwards in his +solitary retreat, utterly abandoned by the exaltation of feeling which +had restored to his faculties in the morning, the long-lost vigour of +their former youth. Once more, he experienced the infirmities of his +age; once more he remembered the miseries that had made his existence +one unending martyrdom; once more he felt the presence of his ambition +within him, like a judgment that he was doomed to welcome, like a curse +that he was created to cherish. To say that his sensations at this +moment were those of the culprit who hears the order for his execution +when he had been assured of a reprieve, is to convey but a faint idea of +the fierce emotions of rage, grief, and despair, that now united to rend +the Pagan's heart. + +Overpowered with weariness both of body and mind, he flung himself down +under the shade of some bushes that clothed the base of the wall above +him. As he lay there--so still in his heavy lassitude that life itself +seemed to have left him--one of the long green lizards, common to Italy, +crawled over his shoulder. He seized the animal--doubtful for the +moment whether it might not be of the poisonous species--and examined +it. At the first glance he discovered that it was of the harmless order +of its race, and would have flung it carelessly from him, but for +something in its appearance which, in the wayward irritability of his +present mood, he felt a strange and sudden pleasure in contemplating. + +Through its exquisitely marked and transparent skin he could perceive +the action of the creature's heart, and saw that it was beating +violently, in the agony of fear caused to the animal by its imprisonment +in his hand. As he looked on it, and thought how continually a being so +timid must be thwarted in its humble anxieties, in its small efforts, in +its little journeys from one patch of grass to another, by a hundred +obstacles, which, trifles though they might be to animals of a higher +species, were yet of fatal importance to creatures constituted like +itself, he began to find an imperfect, yet remarkable analogy between +his own destiny and that of this small unit of creation. He felt that, +in its petty sphere, the short life of the humble animal before him must +have been the prey of crosses and disappointments, as serious to it, as +the more severed and destructive afflictions of which he, in his +existence, had been the victim; and, as he watched the shadow-like +movement of the little fluttering heart of the lizard, he experienced a +cruel pleasure in perceiving that there were other beings in the +creation, even down to the most insignificant, who inherited a part of +his misery, and suffered a portion of his despair. + +Ere long, however, his emotions took a sterner and a darker hue. The +sight of the animal wearied him, and he flung it contemptuously aside. +It disappeared in the direction of the ramparts; and almost at the same +moment he heard a slight sound, resembling the falling of several minute +particles of brick or light stone, which seemed to come from the wall +behind him. + +That such a noise should proceed from so massive a structure appeared +unaccountable. He rose, and, parting the bushes before him, advanced +close to the surface of the lofty wall. To his astonishment, he found +that the brickwork had in many places so completely mouldered away, that +he could move it easily with his fingers. The cause of the trifling +noise that he had heard was now fully explained: hundreds of lizards +had made their homes between the fissures of the bricks; the animal that +he had permitted to escape had taken refuge in one of these cavities, +and in the hurry of its flight had detached several of the loose +crumbling fragments that surrounded its hiding-place. + +No content, however, with the discovery he had already made, he retired +a little, and, looking stedfastly up through some trees which in this +particular place grew at the foot of the wall, he saw that its surface +was pierced in many places by great irregular rifts, some of which +extended nearly to its whole height. In addition to this, he perceived +that the mass of the structure at one particular point, leaned +considerably out of the perpendicular. Astounded at what he beheld, he +took a stick from the ground, and inserting it in one of the lowest and +smallest of the cracks, easily succeeded in forcing it entirely into the +wall, part of which seemed to be hollow, and part composed of the same +rotten brickwork which had at first attracted his attention. + + +It was now evident that the whole structure, over a breadth of several +yards, had been either weakly and carelessly built, or had at some +former period suffered a sudden and violent shock. He left the stick in +the wall to mark the place; and was about to retire, when he heard the +footstep of the sentinel on the rampart immediately above. Suddenly +cautious, though from what motive he would have been at that moment +hardly able to explain, he remained in the concealment of the trees and +bushes, until the guard had passed onward; then he cautiously emerged +from the place; and, retiring to some distance, fell into a train of +earnest and absorbing thought. + +To account to the reader for the phenomenon which now engrossed the +Pagan's attention, it will be necessary to make a brief digression to +the history of the walls of Rome. + +The circumference of the first fortifications of the city, built by +Romulus, was thirteen miles. The greater part, however, of this large +area was occupied by fields and gardens, which it was the object of the +founder of the empire to preserve for arable purposes, from the +incursions of the different enemies by whom he was threatened from +without. As Rome gradually increased in size, its walls were +progressively enlarged and altered by subsequent rulers. But it was not +until the reign of the Emperor Aurelian (A.D. 270), that any +extraordinary or important change was effected in the defences of the +city. That potentate commenced the erection of walls, twenty-one miles +in circumference, which were finally completed in the reign of Probus +(A.D. 276), were restored by Belisarius (A.D. 537), and are to be seen +in detached portions, in the fortifications of the modern city, to the +present day. + +At the date of our story, then (A.D. 408), the walls remained precisely +as they had been constructed in the reigns of Aurelian and Probus. They +were for the most part made of brick; and in a few places, probably, a +sort of soft sandstone might have been added to the pervading material. +At several points in their circumference, and particularly in the part +behind the Pincian Hill, these walls were built in arches, forming deep +recesses, and occasionally disposed in double rows. The method of +building employed in their erection, was generally that mentioned by +Vitruvius, in whose time it originated, as 'opus reticulatum'. + +The 'opus reticulatum' was composed of small bricks (or stones) set +together on their angles, instead of horizontally, and giving the +surface of a wall the appearance of a sort of solid network. This was +considered by some architects of antiquity a perishable mode of +construction; and Vitruvius asserts that some buildings where he had +seen it used, had fallen down. From the imperfect specimens of it which +remain in modern times, it would be difficult to decide upon its merits. +That it was assuredly insufficient to support the weight of the bank of +the Pincian Mount, which rose immediately behind it, in the solitary +spot described some pages back, is still made evident by the appearance +of the wall at that part of the city, which remains in modern times bent +out of the perpendicular, and cracked in some places almost from top to +bottom. This ruin is now known to the present race of Italians, under +the expressive title of 'Il Muro Torto' or, The Crooked Wall. + +We may here observe that it is extremely improbable that the existence +of this natural breach in the fortifications of Rome was noticed, or if +noticed, regarded with the slightest anxiety or attention by the +majority of the careless and indolent inhabitants, at the period of the +present romance. It is supposed to have been visible as early as the +time of Aurelian, but is only particularly mentioned by Procopius, an +historian of the sixth century, who relates that Belisarius, in +strengthening the city against a siege of the Goths, attempted to repair +this weak point in the wall, but was hindered in his intended labour by +the devout populace, who declared that it was under the peculiar +protection of St. Peter, and that it would be consequently impious to +meddle with it. The general submitted without remonstrance to the +decision of the inhabitants, and found no cause afterwards to repent of +his facility of compliance; for, to use the translated words of the +writer above-mentioned, 'During the siege neither the enemy nor the +Romans regarded this place.' It is to be supposed that so extraordinary +an event as this, gave the wall that sacred character, which deterred +subsequent rulers from attempting its repair; which permitted it to +remain crooked and rent through the convulsions of the middle ages; and +which still preserves it, to attest the veracity of historians, by +appealing to the antiquarian curiosity of the traveller of modern times. + + +We now return to Ulpius. It is a peculiarity observable in the +characters of men living under the ascendancy of one ruling idea, that +they intuitively distort whatever attracts their attention in the outer +world, into a connection more or less intimate with the single object of +their mental contemplation. since the time when he had been exiled from +the Temple, the Pagan's faculties had, unconsciously to himself, acted +solely in reference to the daring design which it was the business of +his whole existence to entertain. Influenced, therefore, by this +obliquity of moral feeling, he had scarcely reflected on the discovery +that he had just made at the base of the city wall, ere his mind +instantly reverted to the ambitious meditations which had occupied it in +the morning; and the next moment, the first dawning conception of a bold +and perilous project began to absorb his restless thoughts. + +He reflected on the peculiarities and position of the wall before him. +Although the widest and most important of the rents which he had +observed in it, existed too near the rampart to be reached without the +assistance of a ladder, there were others as low as the ground, which he +knew, by the result of the trial he had already made, might be +successfully and immensely widened by the most ordinary exertion and +perseverance. The interior of the wall, if judged by the condition of +the surface, could offer no insuperable obstacles to an attempt at +penetration so partial as to be limited to a height and width of a few +feet. The ramparts, from their position between two guard-houses, would +be unencumbered by an inquisitive populace. The sentinel, within the +limits of whose allotted watch it happened to fall, would, when night +came on, be the only human being likely to pass the spot; and at such an +hour his attention must necessarily be fixed--in the circumstances under +which the city was now placed--on the prospect beyond, rather than on +the ground below and behind him. It seemed, therefore, almost a matter +of certainty, that a cautious man, labouring under cover of the night, +might pursue whatever investigations he pleased at the base of the wall. + +He examined the ground where he now stood. Nothing could be more lonely +than its present appearance. The private gardens on the hill above it +shut out all communication from that quarter. It could only be +approached by the foot-path that ran round the Pincian Mount, and along +the base of the walls. In the state of affairs now existing in the +city, it was not probable that any one would seek this solitary place, +whence nothing could be seen, and where little could be heard, in +preference to mixing with the spirit-stirring confusion in the streets, +or observing the Gothic encampment from such positions on the ramparts +as were easily attainable to all. In addition to the secresy offered by +the loneliness of this patch of ground to whatever employments were +undertaken on it, was the further advantage afforded by the trees and +thickets which covered its lower end, and which would effectually screen +an intruder, during the darkness of night, from the most penetrating +observation directed from the wall above. + +Reflecting thus, he doubted not that a cunning and determined man might +with impunity so far widen any one of the inferior breaches in the lower +part of the wall as to make a cavity (large enough to admit a human +figure) that should pierce to its outer surface, and afford that liberty +of departing from the city and penetrating the Gothic camp which the +closed gates now denied to all the inhabitants alike. To discover the +practicability of such an attempt as this was, to a mind filled with +such aspirations as the Pagan's, to determine irrevocably on its +immediate execution. He resolved as soon as night approached to begin +his labours on the wall; to seek--if the breach were made good, and the +darkness favoured him--the tent of Alaric; and once arrived there, to +acquaint the Gothic King with the weakness of the materials for defence +within the city, and dilapidated condition of the fortifications below +the Pincian Mount, insisting, as the condition of his treachery, on an +assurance from the barbarian leader (which he doubted not would be +gladly and instantly accorded) of the destruction of the Christian +churches, the pillage of the Christian possessions, and the massacre of +the Christian priests. + + +He retired cautiously from the lonely place that had now become the +centre of his new hopes; and entering the streets of the city, proceeded +to provide himself with an instrument that would facilitate his +approaching labours, and food that would give him strength to prosecute +his intended efforts, unthreatened by the hindrance of fatigue. As he +thought on the daring treachery of his project, his morning's exultation +began to return to him again. All his previous attempts to organise the +restoration of Paganism sunk into sudden insignificance before his +present design. His defence of the Temple of Serapis, his conspiracy at +Alexandria, his intrigue with Vetranio, were the efforts of a man; but +this projected destruction of the priests, the churches, and the +treasures of a whole city, through the agency of a mighty army, moved by +the unaided machinations of a single individual, would be the dazzling +achievement of a god! + +The hours loitered slowly onward. The sun waned in the gorgeous heaven, +and set, surrounded by red and murky clouds. Then came silence and +darkness. The Gothic watch-fires flamed one by one into the dusky air. +The guards were doubled at the different posts. The populace were +driven from the ramparts, and the fortifications of the great city +echoed to no sound now but the tramp of the restless sentinel, or the +clash of arms from the distant guard-houses that dotted the long line of +the lofty walls. + +It was then that Ulpius, passing cautiously along the least-frequented +streets, gained unnoticed the place of his destination. A thick vapour +lay over the lonely and marshy spot. Nothing was now visible from it +but the dim, uncertain outline of the palaces above, and the mass, so +sunk in obscurity that it looked like a dark layer of mist itself, of +the rifted fortifications. A smile of exultation passed over the +Pagan's countenance, as he perceived the shrouding and welcome thickness +of the atmosphere. Groping his way softly through the thickets, he +arrived at the base of the wall. For some time he passed slowly along +it, feeling the width of the different rents wherever he could stretch +his hand. At length he paused at one more extensive than the rest, drew +from its concealment in his garments a thick bar of iron sharpened at +one end, and began to labour at the breach. + +Chance had led him to the place best adapted to his purpose. The ground +he stood on was only encumbered close to the wall by rank weeds and low +thickets, and was principally composed of damp, soft turf. The bricks, +therefore, as he carefully detached them, made no greater noise in +falling than the slight rustling caused by their sudden contact with the +boughs through which they descended. Insignificant as this sound was, +it aroused the apprehension of the wary Pagan. He laid down his iron +bar, and removed the thickets by dragging them up, or breaking them at +the roots, until he had cleared a space of some feet in extent before +the base of the wall. He then returned to his toilsome task, and with +hands bleeding from the wounds inflicted by the thorns he had grasped in +removing the thickets continued his labour at the brick-work. He +pursued his employment with perfect impunity; the darkness covered him +from observation; no one disturbed him by approaching the solitary scene +of his operations; and of the two sentinels who were placed near the +part of the wall which was the centre of all his exertions, one remained +motionless at the most distant extremity of his post, and the other +paced restlessly backwards and forwards on the rampart, singing a wild, +rambling son about war, and women, and wine, which, whatever liberty it +might allow to his organs of perception, effectually hindered the +vigilant exercise of his faculties of hearing. + +Brick after brick yielded to the vigorous and well-timed efforts of +Ulpius. He had already made a cavity, in an oblique direction, large +enough to creep through, and was preparing to penetrate still further, +when a portion of the rotten material of the interior of the wall +suddenly yielded in a mass to a chance pressure of his iron bar, and +slowly sunk down inwards into a bed which, judging by such faint sounds +as were audible at the moment, must have been partly water, and partly +marshy earth and rotten brick-work. After having first listened, to be +sure that the slight noise caused by this event had not reached the ears +or excited the suspicions of the careless sentinels, Ulpius crept into +the cavity he had made, groping his way with his bar, until he reached +the brink of a chasm, the depth of which he could not probe, and the +breadth of which he could not ascertain. + + +He lingered irresolute; the darkness around him was impenetrable; he +could feel toads and noisome animals crawling over his limbs. The damp +atmosphere of the place began to thrill through him to his very bones; +his whole frame trembled under the excess of his past exertions. Without +light, he could neither attempt to proceed, nor hope to discover the +size and extent of the chasm which he had partially laid open. The mist +was fast vanishing as the night advanced: it was necessary to arrive at +a resolution ere it would be too late. + +He crept out of the cavity. Just as he had gained the open air, the +sentinel halted over the very spot where the Pagan stood, and paused +suddenly in his song. There was an instant's interval of silence, +during which the inmost soul of Ulpius quailed beneath an apprehension +as vivid, as that which had throbbed in the heart of the despised +lizard, whose flight had guided him to his discovery at the wall. Soon, +however, he heard the voice of the soldier calling cheerfully to his +fellow sentinel, 'Comrade, do you see the moon? She is rising to cheer +our watch!' + +Nothing had been discovered!--he was still safe! But if he stayed at +the cavity till the mists faded before the moonlight, could he be +certain of preserving his security? He felt that he could not! + +What mattered a night more or a night less, to such a project as his? +Months might elapse before the Goths retired from the walls. It was +better to suffer delay than to risk discovery. He determined to leave +the place, and to return on the following night provided with a lantern, +the light of which he would conceal until he entered the cavity. Once +there, it could not be perceived by the sentinels above--it would guide +him through all obstacles, preserve him through all dangers. Massive as +it was, he felt convinced that the interior of the wall was in as +ruinous a condition as the outside. Caution and perseverance were +sufficient of themselves to insure to his efforts the speediest and +completest success. + +He waited until the sentinel had again betaken himself to the furthest +limits of his watch, and then softly gathering up the brushwood that lay +round him, he concealed with it the mouth of the cavity in the outer +wall, and the fragments of brick-work that had fallen on the turf +beneath. This done, he again listened, to assure himself that he had +been unobserved; then, stepping with the utmost caution, he departed by +the path that led round the slope of the Pincian Hill. + +'Strength--patience--and to-morrow night!' muttered the Pagan to +himself, as he entered the streets, and congregated once more with the +citizens of Rome. + + +CHAPTER 11. GOISVINTHA'S RETURN. + +It was morning. The sun had risen, but his beams were partially +obscured by thick heavy clouds, which scowled already over the +struggling brightness of the eastern horizon. The bustle and animation +of the new day gradually overspread the Gothic encampment in all +directions. The only tent whose curtain remained still closed, and +round which no busy crowds congregated in discussion or mingled in +labour, was that of Hermanric. By the dying embers of his watchfire +stood the young chieftain, with two warriors, to whom he appeared to be +giving some hurried directions. His countenance expressed emotions of +anxiety and discontent, which, though partially repressed while he was +in the presence of his companions, became thoroughly visible, not only +in his features, but in his manner, when they left him to watch alone +before his tent. + + +For some time he walked regularly backwards and forwards, looking +anxiously down the westward lines of the encampment, and occasionally +whispering to himself a hasty exclamation of doubt and impatience. With +the first breath of the new morning, the delighting meditations which +had occupied him by his watchfire during the darkness of the night had +begun to subside. And now, as the hour of her expected return gradually +approached, the image of Goisvintha banished from his mind whatever +remained of those peaceful and happy contemplation in which he had +hitherto been absorbed. The more he thought on his fatal promise--on +the nation of Antonina--on his duties to the army and the people to whom +he belonged, the more doubtful appeared to him his chance of permanently +protecting the young Roman without risking his degradation as a Goth, +and his ruin as a warrior; and the more sternly and ominously ran in his +ears the unassailable truth of Goisvintha's parting taunt--'You must +remember your promise, you cannot save her if you would!' + +Wearied of persisting in deliberations which only deepened his +melancholy and increased his doubts; bent on sinking in a temporary and +delusive oblivion the boding reflections that overcame him in spite of +himself, by seeking--while its enjoyment was yet left to him--the +society of his ill-fated charge, he turned towards his tent, drew aside +the thick, heavy curtains of skins which closed its opening, and +approached the rude couch on which Antonina was still sleeping. + +A ray of sunlight, fitful and struggling, burst at this moment through +the heavy clouds, and stole into the opening of the tent as he +contemplated the slumbering girl. It ran its flowing course up her +uncovered hand and arm, flew over her bosom and neck, and bathed in a +bright fresh glow, her still and reposing features. Gradually her limbs +began to move, her lips parted gently and half smiled, as if in welcome +to the greeting of the light; her eyes slightly opened, then dazzled by +the brightness that flowed through their raised lids, tremblingly closed +again. At length thoroughly awakened, she shaded her face with her +hands, and sitting up on the couch, met the gaze of Hermanric fixed on +her in sorrowful examination. + +'Your bright armour, and your glorious name, and your merciful words, +have remained with me even in my sleep,' said she, wonderingly; 'and +now, when I awake, I see you before me again! It is a happiness to be +aroused by the sun which has gladdened me all my life, to look upon you +who have given me shelter in my distress! But why,' she continued, in +altered and enquiring tones, 'why do you gaze upon me with doubting and +mournful eyes?' + +'You have slept well and safely,' said Hermanric, evasively, 'I closed +the opening of the tent to preserve you from the night-damps, but I have +raised it now, for the air is warming under the rising sun--' + +'Are you wearied with watching?' she interrupted, rising to her feet, +and looking anxiously into his face. But he spoke not in reply. His +head was turned towards the door of the tent. He seemed to be listening +for some expected sound. It was evident that he had not heard her +question. She followed the direction of his eyes. The sight of the +great city, half brightened, half darkened, as its myriad buildings +reflected the light of the sun, or retained the shadows of the clouds, +brought back to her remembrance her last night's petition for her +father's safety. She laid her hand upon her companion's arm to awaken +his attention, and hastily resumed:-- + +'You have not forgotten what I said to you last night? My father's name +is Numerian. He lives on the Pincian Mount. You will save him, +Hermanric--you will save him! You will remember your promise!' + +The young warrior's eyes fell as she spoke, and an irrepressible shudder +shook his whole frame. The last part of Antonina's address to him, was +expressed in the same terms as a past appeal from other lips, and in +other accents, which still clung to his memory. The same demand, +'Remember your promise,' which had been advanced to urge him to +bloodshed, by Goisvintha, was now proffered by Antonina, to lure him to +pity. The petition of affection was concluded in the same terms as the +petition of revenge. As he thought on both, the human pity of the one, +and the fiend-like cruelty of the other, rose in sinister and +significant contrast on the mind of the Goth, realising in all its +perils the struggle that was to come when Goisvintha returned, and +dispelling instantaneously the last hopes that he had yet ventured to +cherish for the fugitive at his side. + +'No assault of the city is commanded--no assault is intended. Your +father's life is safe from the swords of the Goths,' he gloomily +replied, in answer to Antonina's last words. + +The girl moved back from him a few steps as he spoke, and looked +thoughtfully round the tent. The battle-axe that Hermanric had secured +during the scene of the past evening, still lay on the ground, in a +corner. The sight of it brought back a flood of terrible recollections +to her mind. She started violently; a sudden change overspread her +features, and when she again addressed Hermanric, it was with quivering +lips and in almost inarticulate words. + +'I know now why you look on me so gloomily,' said she; 'that woman is +coming back! I was so occupied by my dreams and my thoughts of my +father and of you, and my hopes for days to come, that I had forgotten +her when I awoke! But I remember all now! She is coming back--I see +it in your sorrowful eyes--she is coming back to murder me! I shall die +at the moment when I had such hope in my life! There is no happiness +for me! None!--none!' + +The Goth's countenance began to darken. He whispered to himself several +times, 'How can I save her?' For a few minutes there was a deep +silence, broken only by the sobs of Antonina. He looked round at her +after an interval. She held her hands clasped over her eyes. The tears +were streaming through her parted fingers; her bosom heaved as if her +emotions would burst their way through it in some palpable form; and her +limbs trembled so, that she could scarcely support herself. +Unconsciously, as he looked on her, he passed his arm round her slender +form, drew her hands gently from her face, and said to her, though his +heart belied his words as he spoke, 'Do not be afraid--trust in me!' + +'How can I be calm?' she cried, looking up at him entreatingly; 'I was +so happy last night, so sure that you could preserve me, so hopeful +about to-morrow--and now I see by your mournful looks, I know by your +doubting voice, that to soothe my anguish you have promised me more than +you can perform! The woman who is your companion, has a power over us +both, that it is terrible even to think of! She will return, she will +withdraw all mercy from your heart, she will glare upon me with her +fearful eyes, she will kill me at your feet! I shall die after all I +have suffered and all I have hoped! Oh, Hermanric, while there is yet +time let us escape! You were not made to shed blood--you are too +merciful! God never made you to destroy! You cannot yearn towards +cruelty and woe, for you have aided and protected me! Let us escape! I +will follow you wherever you wish! I will do whatever you ask! I will +go with you beyond those far, bright mountains behind us, to any strange +and distant land; for there is beauty everywhere; there are woods that +may be dwelt in, and valleys that may be loved, on all the surface of +this wide great earth!' + +The Goth looked sadly on her as she paused; but he gave her no answer-- +the gloom was deepening over his heart--the false words of consolation +were silenced on his lips. + + +'Think how many pleasures we should enjoy, how much we might see!' +continued the girl, in soft, appealing tones. 'We should be free to +wander wherever we pleased; we should never be lonely; never be +mournful; never be wearied! I could listen to you day after day, while +you told me of the country where your people were born! I could sing +you sweet songs that I have learned upon the lute! Oh, how I have wept +in my loneliness to lead such a life as this! How I have longed that +such freedom and joy might be mine! How I have thought of the distant +lands that I would visit, of the happy nations that I would discover, of +the mountain breezes that I would breathe, of the shady places that I +would repose in, of the rivers that I would follow in their course, of +the flowers I would plant, and the fruits I would gather! How I have +hoped for such an existence as this! How I have longed for a companion +who might enjoy it as I should! Have you never felt this joy that I +have imagined to myself, you who have been free to wander wherever you +pleased? Let us leave this place, and I will teach it to you if you +have not. I will be so patient, so obedient, so happy! I will never be +sorrowful; never repining--but let us escape--Oh, Hermanric, let us +escape while there is yet time! Will you keep me here to be slain? Can +you drive me forth into the world alone? Remember that the gates of the +city and the doors of my home are now closed to me! Remember that I have +no mother, and that my father has forsaken me! Remember that I am a +stranger on the earth which was made for me to be joyful in! Think how +soon the woman who has vowed that she will murder me will return; think +how terrible it is to be in the fear of death; and while there is time +let us depart--Hermanric, Hermanric, if you have pity for me, let us +depart!' + +She clasped her hands, and looked up in his face imploringly. The +manner of Hermanric had expressed more to her senses, sharpened as they +were by peril, than his words could have conveyed, even had he confessed +to her the cause of the emotions of doubt and apprehension that +oppressed his mind. Nothing could more strikingly testify to the +innocence of her character and the seclusion of her life, than her +attempt to combine with her escape from Goisvintha's fury, the +acquisition of such a companion as the Goth. But to the forlorn and +affectionate girl who saw herself--a stranger to the laws of the social +existence of her fellow creatures--suddenly thrust forth friendless into +the unfriendly world, could the heart have naturally prompted any other +desire, than anxiety to secure the companion after having discovered the +protector? In the guilelessness of her character, in her absolute +ignorance of humanity, of the influence of custom, of the adaptation of +difference of feeling to difference of sex, she vainly imagined that the +tranquil existence she had urged on Hermanric, would suffice for the +attainment of her end, by presenting the same allurements to him, a +warrior and a Goth, that it contained for her--a lonely, thoughtful, +visionary girl! And yet, so wonderful was the ascendancy that she had +acquired by the magic of her presence, the freshness of her beauty, and +the novelty of her manner, over the heart of the young chieftain, that +he, who would have spurned from him with contempt any other woman who +might have addressed to him such a petition as Antonina's, looked down +sorrowfully at the girl as she ceased speaking, and for an instant +hesitated in his choice. + +At that moment, when the attention of each was fixed on the other, a +third person stealthily approached the opening of the tent, and +beholding them together thus, burst into a bitter, taunting laugh. +Hermanric raised his eyes instantly; but the sound of that harsh +unwomanly voice was all-eloquent to Antonina's senses. She hid her face +against the Goth's breast, and murmured breathlessly--'She has returned! +I must die! I must die!' + +She had returned! She perceived Hermanric and Antonina in a position, +which left no doubt that a stronger feeling than the mere wish to +protect the victim of her intended revenge, had arisen, during her +absence, in the heart of her kinsman. Hour after hour, while she had +fulfilled her duties by the beds of Alaric's invalided soldiery, had she +brooded over her projects of vengeance and blood. Neither the sickness +nor the death which she had beheld around her, had possessed an +influence powerful enough over the stubborn ferocity which now alone +animated her nature, to lure it to mercy or awe it to repentance. +Invigorated by delay, and enlarged by disappointment, the evil passion +that consumed her had strengthened its power, and aroused the most +latent of its energies, during the silent vigil that she had just held. +She had detested the girl on the evening before, for her nation; she now +hated her for herself. + +'What have you to do with the trappings of a Gothic warrior?' she cried, +in mocking accents, pointing at Hermanric with a long hunting-knife +which she held in her hand. 'Why are you here in a Gothic encampment? +Go, knock at the gates of Rome, implore her guards on your knees to +admit you among the citizens, and when they ask you why--show them the +girl there! Tell them that you love her, that you would wed her, that +it is nothing to you that her people have murdered your brother and his +children! And then, when you yourself have begotten sons, Gothic +bastards infected with Roman blood, be a Roman at heart yourself, send +your children forth to complete what your wife's people left undone at +Aquileia--by murdering me!' + +She paused and laughed scornfully. Then her humour suddenly changed, +she advanced a few steps, and continued in a louder and sterner tone:-- + + +'You have broken your faith; you have lied to me; you have forgotten +your wrongs and mine; but you have not yet forgotten my parting words +when I left you last night! I told you that she should be slain, and +now that you have refused to avenge me, I will make good my words by +killing her with my own hand! If you would defend her, you must murder +me. You must shed her blood or mine!' + +She stepped forward, her towering form was stretched to its highest +stature, the muscles started into action on her bare arms as she raised +them above her head. For one instant, she fixed her glaring eyes +steadily on the girl's shrinking form--the next, she rushed up and +struck furiously with the knife at her bare neck. As the weapon +descended, Hermanric caught her wrist. She struggled violently to +disengage herself from his grasp, but in vain. + +The countenance of the young warrior grew deadly pale, as he held her. +For a few minutes he glanced eagerly round the tent, in an agony of +bewilderment and despair. The conflicting interests of his duty towards +his sister, and his anxiety for Antonina's preservation, filled his +heart to distraction. A moment more he hesitated, and during that short +delay, the despotism of custom had yet power enough to prevail over the +promptings of pity. He called to the girl--withdrawing his arm which +had hitherto been her support,--'Go, have mercy on me, go!' + +But she neither heeded nor heard him. She fell on her knees at the +woman's feet, and in a low moaning voice faltered out:-- + +'What have I done that I deserve to be slain? I never murdered your +children; I never yet saw a child but I loved it; if I had seen your +children, I should have loved them!' + +'If I had preserved to this time the child that I saved from the +massacre, and you had approached him,' returned the woman fiercely, 'I +would have taught him to strike at you with his little hands! When you +spoke to him, he should have spat upon you for answer--even thus!' + +Trembling, exhausted, terrified as she was, the girl's Roman blood +rushed over her pale cheeks as she felt the insult. She turned towards +Hermanric, looked up at him appealingly, attempted to speak, and then +sinking lower upon the ground, wept bitterly. + +'Why do you weep and pray and mouth it at him?' shrieked Goisvintha, +pointing to Hermanric with her disengaged hand. 'He has neither courage +to protect you, nor honour to aid me. Do you think that I am to be +moved by your tears and entreaties? I tell you that your people have +slain my husband and my children, and that I hate you for that. I tell +you that you have lured Hermanric into love for a Roman and +unfaithfulness to me, and I will slay you for doing it! I tell you that +there is not a living thing of the blood of your country, or the name of +your nation, throughout the length and breadth of this empire, that I +would not destroy if I had the power! If the very trees on the road +hither could have had feeling, I would have torn the bark from their +stems with my own hands! If a bird, native of your skies, had flown +into my bosom from very tameness and sport, I would have crushed it dead +at my feet! And do you think that you shall escape? Do you think that +I will not avenge the deaths of my husband and my children upon you, +after this?' + +As she spoke, she mechanically unclenched her hands. The knife dropped +to the ground. Hermanric instantly stooped and secured it. For a +moment she stood before him released from his grasp, motionless and +speechless. Then, starting as if struck by a sudden idea, she moved +towards the opening of the tent, and, in tones of malignant triumph, +addressed him thus:-- + +'You shall not save her yet! You are unworthy of your nation and your +name! I will betray your cowardice and treachery to your brethren in +the camp!' And she ran to the outside of the tent, calling in a loud +voice to a group of young warriors who happened to be passing at a short +distance. 'Stay, stay! Fritigern--Athanaric--Colias--Suerid-- +Witheric--Fravitta! Hasten hitherward! Hermanric has a captive in his +tent--a prisoner whom it will rejoice to see! Hitherward! hitherward!' + + +The group she addressed contained some of the most turbulent and +careless spirits of the whole Gothic army. They had just been released +from their duties of the past night, and were at leisure to comply with +Goisvintha's request. She had scarcely concluded her address before +they turned and hurried eagerly up to the tent, shouting to Hermanric, +as they advanced, to make his prisoner visible to them in the open air. + +They had probably expected to be regaled by the ludicrous terror of some +Roman slave whom their comrade had discovered lurking in the empty +suburbs; for when they entered the tent, and saw nothing but the +shrinking figure of the unhappy girl, as she crouched on the earth at +Hermanric's feet, they all paused with one accord, and looked round on +each other in speechless astonishment. + +'Behold her!' cried Goisvintha, breaking the momentary silence. 'She is +the Roman prisoner that your man of valour there has secured for +himself! For that trembling child he has forgotten the enmities of his +people! She is more to him already than army, general, or companions. +You have watched before the city during the night; but he has stood +sentinel by the maiden of Rome! Hope not that he will share in your +toils, or mix in your pleasures more. Alaric and the warriors have lost +his services--his future king cringes there at his feet!' + +She had expected to arouse the anger and excite the jealousy of the +rough audience she addressed; but the result of her envenomed jeers +disappointed her hopes. The humour of the moment prompted the Goths to +ridicule, a course infinitely more inimical to Antonina's interests with +Hermanric than menaces or recrimination. Recovered from their first +astonishment, they burst into a loud and universal laugh. + +'Mars and Venus caught together! But, by St. Peter, I see not Vulcan +and the net!' cried Fravitta, who having served in the armies of Rome, +and acquired a vague knowledge there of the ancient mythology, and the +modern politics of the Empire, was considered by his companions as the +wit of the battalion to which he was attached. + +'I like her figure,' growled Fritigern, a heavy, phlegmatic giant, +renowned for his imperturbable good humour and his prowess in drinking. +'What little there is of it looks so limp that Hermanric might pack her +into his light baggage and carry her about with him on his shoulders +wherever he goes!' + +'By which process you would say, old sucker of wine-skins, that he will +attain the double advantage of always keeping her to himself, and always +keeping her warm,' interrupted Colias, a ruddy, reckless boy of sixteen, +privileged to be impertinent in consideration of his years. + +'Is she Orthodox or Arian?' gravely demanded Athanaric, who piqued +himself on his theological accomplishments and his extraordinary piety. + +'What hair she has!' exclaimed Suerid, sarcastically. 'It is as black +as the horse-hides of a squadron of Huns!' + +'Show us her face! Whose tent will she visit next?' cried Witheric, +with an insolent laugh. + +'Mine!' replied Fritigern, complacently. 'What says the chorus of the +song? + +'Money and wine Make beauty mine! + +I have more of both than any of you. She will come to my tent!' + +During the delivery of these clumsy jests, which followed one upon +another with instantaneous rapidity, the scorn at first expressed in +Hermanric's countenance became gradually replaced by a look of +irrepressible anger. As Fritigern spoke, he lost all command over +himself, and seizing his sword, advanced threateningly towards the easy- +tempered giant, who made no attempt to recede or defend himself, but +called out soothingly, 'Patience, man! patience! Would you kill an old +comrade for jesting? I envy you your good luck as a friend, not as an +enemy!' + + +Yielding to the necessity of lowering his sword before a defenceless +man, Hermanric was about to reply angrily to Fritigern, when his voice +was drowned in the blast of a trumpet, sounding close by the tent. The +signal that it gave was understood at once by the group of jesters still +surrounding the young Goth. They turned, and retired without an +instant's delay. The last of their number had scarcely disappeared, +when the same veteran who had spoken with Hermanric, on the departure of +Goisvintha the evening before, entered and thus addressed him:-- + +'You are commanded to post yourself with the division that now awaits +you, at a place eastward of your present position, which will be shown +you by a guide. Make ready at once--you have not an instant to delay.' + +As the words passed the old man's lips, Hermanric turned and looked on +Goisvintha. During the presence of the Goths in the tent, she had sat +listening to their rough jeers in suppressed wrath and speechless +disdain; now she rose and advanced a few steps. But there suddenly +appeared an unwonted hesitation in her gait; her face was pale; she +breathed fast and heavily. 'Where will you shelter her now?' she cried, +addressing Hermanric, and threatening the girl with her outstretched +hands. 'Abandon her to your companions, or leave her to me; she is lost +either way! I shall triumph--triumph!'-- + +At this moment her voice sank to an unintelligible murmur; she tottered +where she stood. It was evident that the long strife of passions during +her past night of watching, and the fierce and varying emotions of the +morning, suddenly brought to a crisis, as they had been, by her +exultation when she heard the old warrior's fatal message, had at length +overtasked the energies even of her powerful frame. Yet one moment more +she endeavoured to advance, to speak, to snatch the hunting knife from +Hermanric's hand; the next she fell insensible at his feet. + +Goaded almost to madness by the successive trials that he had undergone; +Goisvintha's furious determination to thwart him, still present to his +mind; the scornful words of his companions yet ringing in his ears; his +inexorable duties demanding his attention without reserve or delay; +Hermanric succumbed at last under the difficulties of his position, and +despairingly abandoned all further hope of effecting the girl's +preservation. Pointing to some food that lay in a corner of the tent, +and to the country behind, he said to her, in broken and gloomy accents, +'Furnish yourself with those provisions, and fly, while Goisvintha is +yet unable to pursue you. I can protect you no longer!' + +Until this moment, Antonina had kept her face hidden, and had remained +still crouching on the ground; motionless, save when a shudder ran +through her frame as she listened to the loud, coarse jesting of the +Goths; and speechless, except that when Goisvintha sank senseless to the +earth, she uttered an exclamation of terror. But now, when she heard +the sentence of her banishment proclaimed by the very lips which but the +evening before had assured her of shelter and protection, she rose up +instantly, cast on the young Goth a glance of such speechless misery and +despair, that he involuntarily quailed before it; and then, without a +tear or a sigh, without a look of reproach, or a word of entreaty, +petrified and bowed down beneath a perfect trance of terror and grief, +she left the tent. + +Hurrying his actions with the reckless energy of a man determined on +banishing his thoughts by his employments, Hermanric placed himself at +the head of his troop, and marched quickly onwards in an eastward +direction past the Pincian Gate. Two of his attendants who happened to +enter the tent after his departure, observing Goisvintha still extended +on the earth, proceeded to transport her to part of the camp occupied by +the women who were attached to the army; and then, the little sheltering +canopy which made the abode of the Goth, and which had witnessed so +large a share of human misery and so fierce a war of human contention in +so few hours, was left as silent and lonely as the deserted country in +which Antonina was now fated to seek a refuge and a home. + + +CHAPTER 12. THE PASSAGE OF THE WALL. + + +'A fair night this, Balbus! All moonlight and no mist! I was posted +last evening at the Ostian Gate, and was half choked by the fog.' + +'If you were posted last night at the Ostian Gate, you were better +placed than you are now. The ramparts here are as lonely as a ruin in +the provinces. Nothing behind us but the back of the Pincian Mount; +nothing before us but the empty suburbs; nothing at each side of us but +brick and stone; nothing at our posts but ourselves. May I be crucified +like St. Peter, if I believe that there is another place on the whole +round of the walls possessed of such solitary dulness as this!' + +'You are a man to find something to complain of, if you were lodged in +one of the palaces yonder. The place is solitary enough, it is true; +but whether it is dull or not depends on ourselves, its most honourable +occupants. I, for one, am determined to promote its joviality by the +very praiseworthy exertion of obliging you, my discontented friend, with +an inexhaustible series of those stories for which, I may say, without +arrogance, I am celebrated throughout the length and breadth of all the +barracks of Rome.' + +'You may tell as many stories as you please, but do not imagine that I +will make one of your audience.' + +'You are welcome to attend to me or not, as you choose. Though you do +not listen, I shall still relate my stories by way of practice. I will +address them to the walls, or to the air, or to the defunct gods and +goddesses of antiquity, should they happen at this moment to be hovering +over the city in a rage, as some of the unconverted would have us +believe; or to our neighbours the Goths, if they are seized with a +sudden desire to quite their encampments, and obtain a near view of the +fortifications that they are so discreetly unwilling to assault. Or, +these materials for a fit and decent auditory failing me, I will tell my +stories to the most attentive of all listeners--myself.' + +And the sentinel, without further delay, opened his budget of anecdotes, +with the easy fluency of of a man who possessed a well-placed confidence +in the perfection of his capacities for narration. Determined that his +saturnine colleague should hear him, though he would not give him his +attention, he talked in a raised voice, pacing briskly backwards and +forwards over the space of his allotted limits, and laughing with +ludicrous regularity and complacency at every jest that he happened to +make in the course of his ill-rewarded narrative. He little thought, as +he continued to proceed in his tale that its commencement had been +welcomed by an unseen hearer, with emotions widely different from those +which had dictated the observations of the unfriendly companion of his +watch. + +True to his determination, Ulpius, with part of the wages which he had +hoarded in Numerian's service, had procured a small lantern from a shop +in one of the distant quarters of Rome; and veiling its light in a piece +of coarse, thick cloth, had proceeded by the solitary pathway to his +second night's labour at the wall. He arrived at the breach, at the +commencement of the dialogue above related, and heard with delight the +sentinel's noisy resolution to amuse his companion in spite of himself. +The louder and the longer the man talked, the less probable was the +chance that the Pagan's labours in the interior of the wall would be +suspected or overheard. + +Softly clearing away the brushwood at the entrance of the hole that he +had made the night before, Ulpius crept in as far as he had penetrated +on that occasion; and then, with mingled emotions of expectation and +apprehension which affected him so powerfully, that he was for the +moment hardly master of his actions, he slowly and cautiously uncovered +his light. + + +His first glance was intuitively directed to the cavity that opened +beneath him. He saw immediately that it was less important, both in +size and depth, than he had imagined it to be. The earth at this +particular place had given way beneath the foundations of the wall, +which had sunk down, deepening the chasm by their weight, into the +yielding ground beneath them. A small spring of water (probably the +first cause of the sinking in the earth) had bubbled up into the space +in the brick-work, which bit by bit, and year by year, it had gradually +undermined. Nor did it remain stagnant at this place. It trickled +merrily and quietly onward--a tiny rivulet, emancipated from one prison +in the ground only to enter another in the wall, bounded by no grassy +banks, brightened by no cheerful light, admired by no human eye, +followed in its small course through the inner fissures in the brick by +no living thing but a bloated toad, or a solitary lizard: yet wending +as happily on its way through darkness and ruin, as its sisters who were +basking in the sunlight of the meadows, or leaping in the fresh breezes +of the open mountain side. + +Raising his eyes from the little spring, Ulpius next directed his +attention to the prospect above him. + +Immediately over his head, the material of the interior of the wall +presented a smooth, flat, hard surface, which seemed capable of +resisting the most vigorous attempts at its destruction; but on looking +round, he perceived at one side of him and further inwards, an +appearance of dark, dimly-defined irregularity, which promised +encouragingly for his intended efforts. He descended into the chasm of +the rivulet, crawled up on a heap of crumbling brick-work, and gained a +hole above it, which he immediately began to widen, to admit of his +passage through. Inch by inch, he enlarged the rift, crept into it, and +found himself on a fragment of the bow of one of the foundation arches, +which, though partly destroyed, still supported itself, isolated from +all connection with the part of the upper wall which it had once +sustained, and which had gradually crumbled away into the cavities +below. + +He looked up. An immense rift soared above him, stretching its tortuous +ramifications, at different points, into every part of the wall that was +immediately visible. The whole structure seemed, at this place, to have +received a sudden and tremendous wrench. But for the support of the +sounder fortifications at each side of it, it could not have sustained +itself after the shock. The Pagan gazed aloft, into the fearful breaches +which yawned above him, with ungovernable awe. His small, fitful light +was not sufficient to show him any of their terminations. They looked, +as he beheld them in dark relief against the rest of the hollow part of +the wall, like mighty serpents twining their desolating path right +upward to the ramparts above; and he, himself, as he crouched on his +pinnacle with his little light by his side, was reduced by the wild +grandeur, the vast, solemn gloom of the obscure, dusky, and fantastic +objects around him, to the stature of a pigmy. Could he have been seen +from the ramparts high overhead, as he now peered down behind his +lantern into the cavities and irregularities below him, he would have +looked, with his flickering light, like a mole led by a glow-worm. + +He paused to consider his next movements. In a stationary position, the +damp coldness of the atmosphere was almost insupportable, but he +attained a great advantage by his present stillness: he could listen +undisturbed by the noises made by the bricks which crumbled from under +him, if he advanced. + + +Ere long, he heard a thin, winding, long-drawn sound, now louder, now +softer; now approaching, now retreating; now verging towards shrillness, +now quickly returning to a faint, gentle swell. Suddenly this strange +unearthly music was interrupted by a succession of long, deep, rolling +sounds, which travelled grandly about the fissures above, like prisoned +thunderbolts striving to escape. Utterly ignorant that the first of +these noises was occasioned by the night wind winding through the rents +in the brick of the outer wall beyond him; and the second, by the echoes +produced in the irregular cavities above, by the footfall of the +sentries overhead--roused by the influence of the place, and the mystery +of his employment, to a pitch of fanatic exaltation, which for the +moment absolutely unsteadied his reason--filled with the frantic +enthusiasm of his designs, and the fearful legends of invisible beings +and worlds which made the foundation of his worship, Ulpius conceived, +as he listened to the sounds around and above, that the gods of +antiquity were now in viewless congregation hovering about him, and +calling to him in unearthly voices and in an unknown tongue, to proceed +upon his daring enterprise, in the full assurance of its near and +glorious success. + +'Roar and mutter, and make your hurricane music in my ears!' exclaimed +the Pagan, raising his withered hands, and addressing in a savage +ecstacy his imagined deities. 'Your servant Ulpius stops not on the +journey that leads him to your repeopled shrines! Blood, crime, danger, +pain--pride and honour, joy and rest, have I strewn like sacrifices at +your altars' feet! Time has whirled past me; youth and manhood have +lain long since buried in the hidden Lethe which is the portion of life; +age has wreathed his coils over my body's strength, but still I watch by +your temples and serve your mighty cause! Your vengeance is near! +Monarchs of the world, your triumph is at hand!' + +He remained for some time in the same position, looking fixedly up into +the trackless darkness above him, drinking in the sounds which-- +alternately rising and sinking--still floated round him. The trembling +gleam of his lantern fell red and wild upon his livid countenance. His +shaggy hair floated in the cold breezes that blew by him. At this +moment he would have appeared from a distance, like a phantom of fire +perishing in a mist of darkness; like a Gnome in adoration in the bowels +of the earth; like a forsaken spirit in a solitary purgatory, watching +for the advent of a glimpse of beauty, or a breath of air. + +At length he aroused himself from his trance, trimmed with careful hand +his guiding lantern, and set forward to penetrate the breadth of the +great rift he had just entered. + +He moved on in an oblique direction several feet, now creeping over the +tops of the foundation arches, now skirting the extremities of +protrusions in the ruined brick-work, now descending into dark slimy +rubbish-choked chasms, until the rift suddenly diminished in all +directions. + +The atmosphere was warmer in the place he now occupied; he could faintly +distinguish patches of dark moss, dotted here and there over the uneven +surface of the wall; and once or twice, some blades of long flat grass, +that grew from a prominence immediately above his head, were waved in +his face by the wind, which he could now feel blowing through the narrow +fissure that he was preparing to enlarge. It was evident that he had by +this time advanced to within a few feet of the outer extremity of the +wall. + +'Numerian wanders after his child through the streets,' muttered the +Pagan, as he deposited his lantern by his side, bared his trembling +arms, and raised his iron bar, 'the slaves of his neighbour the senator +are forth to pursue me. On all sides my enemies are out after me; but, +posted here, I mock their strictest search! If they would track me to +my hiding-place, they must penetrate the walls of Rome! If they would +hunt me down in my lair, they must assail me to-night in the camp of the +Goths! Fools! let them look to themselves! I seal the doom of their +city, with the last brick that I tear from their defenceless walls!' + +He laughed to himself as he thrust his bar boldly into the crevice +before him. In some places the bricks yielded easily to his efforts; in +others, their resistance was only to be overcome by the exertion of his +utmost strength. Resolutely and unceasingly he continued his labours; +now wounding his hands against the jagged surfaces presented by the +widening fissure; now involuntarily dropping his instrument from +ungovernable exhaustion; but, still working bravely on, in defiance of +every hindrance that opposed him, until he gained the interior of the +new rift. + +As he drew his lantern after him into the cavity that he had made, he +perceived that, unless it was heightened immediately over him, he could +proceed no further, even in a creeping position. Irritated at this +unexpected necessity for more violent exertion, desperate in his +determination to get through the wall at all hazards on that very night, +he recklessly struck his bar upwards with all his strength, instead of +gradually and softly loosening the material of the surface that opposed +him, as he had done before. + +A few moments of this labour had scarcely elapsed, when a considerable +portion of the brick-work, consolidated into one firm mass, fell with +lightning suddenness from above. It hurled him under it, prostrate on +the foundation arch which had been his support; crushed and dislocated +his right shoulder; and shivered his lantern into fragments. A groan of +irrepressible anguish burst from his lips. He was left in impenetrable +darkness. + +The mass of brick-work, after it had struck him, rolled a little to one +side. By a desperate exertion he extricated himself from under it--only +to swoon from the fresh anguish caused to him by the effort. + +For a short time he lay insensible in his cold dark solitude. Then, +reviving after this first shock, he began to experience in all their +severity, the fierce spasms, the dull gnawings, the throbbing torments, +that were the miserable consequences of the injury he received. His arm +lay motionless by his side--he had neither strength nor resolution to +move any one of the other sound limbs in his body. At one moment his +deep, sobbing, stifled respirations, syllabled horrible and half-formed +curses--at another, his panting breaths suddenly died away within him; +and then he could hear the blood dripping slowly from his shoulder, with +dismal regularity, into a little pool that it had formed already by his +side. + +The shrill breezes which wound through the crevices in the wall before +him, were now felt only on his wounded limb. They touched its surface +like innumerable splinters of thin, sharp ice; they penetrated his flesh +like rushing sparks struck out of a sea of molten lead. There were +moments, during the first pangs of this agony, when if he had been +possessed of a weapon and of the strength to use it, he would have +sacrificed his ambition for ever by depriving himself of life. + +But this desire to end his torments with his existence lasted not long. +Gradually, the anguish in his body awakened a wilder and stronger +distemper in his mind, and then the two agonies, physical and mental, +rioted over him together in fierce rivalry, divesting him of all +thoughts but such as were by their own agency created or aroused. + +For some time he lay helpless in his misery, alternately venting by +stifled groans the unalleviated torment of his wounds, and lamenting +with curses the failure of his enterprise, at the very moment of its +apparent success. At length, the pangs that struck through him seemed +to grow gradually less frequent; he hardly knew now from what part of +his frame they more immediately proceeded. Insensibly, his faculties of +thinking and feeling grew blunted; then he remained a little while in a +mysterious unrefreshing repose of body and mind; and then his disordered +senses, left unguided and unrestrained, became the victims of a sudden +and terrible delusion. + +The blank darkness around him appeared, after an interval, to be +gradually dawning into a dull light, thick and misty, like the +reflections on clouds which threaten a thunderstorm at the close of +evening. Soon, this atmosphere seemed to be crossed and streaked with a +fantastic trellis-work of white, seething vapour. Then the mass of +brick-work which had struck him down, grew visible at his side, enlarged +to an enormous bulk, and endued with a power of self-motion, by which it +mysteriously swelled and shrank, and raised and depressed itself, +without quitting for a moment its position near him. And then, from its +dark and toiling surface there rose a long stream of dusky shapes, which +twined themselves about the misty trellis-work above, and took the +prominent and palpable form of human countenances, marked by every +difference of age and distorted by every variety of suffering. + + +There were infantine faces, wreathed about with grave-worms that hung +round them like locks of filthy hair; aged faces, dabbled with gore and +slashed with wounds; youthful faces, seamed with livid channels, along +which ran unceasing tears; lovely faces, distorted into fixed +expressions of raging pain, wild malignity, and despairing gloom. Not +one of these countenances exactly resembled the other. Each was +distinguished by a revolting character of its own. Yet, however +deformed might be their other features, the eyes of all were preserved +unimpaired. Speechless and bodiless, they floated in unceasing myriads +up to the fantastic trellis-work, which seemed to swell its wild +proportions to receive them. There they clustered, in their goblin +amphitheatre, and fixed and silently they all glared down, without one +exception, on the Pagan's face! + +Meanwhile, the walls at the side began to gleam out with a light of +their own, making jagged boundaries to the midway scene of phantom +faces. Then the rifts in their surfaces widened, and disgorged +misshapen figures of priests and idols of the old time, which came forth +in every hideous deformity of aspect, mocking at the faces on the +trellis-work; while behind and over the whole, soared shapes of gigantic +darkness, robed in grim cloudy resemblances of skins such as were worn +by the Goths, and wielding through the quivering vapour, mighty and +shadow-like weapons of war. From the whole of this ghastly assemblage +there rose not the slightest sound. A stillness, as of a dead and ruined +world, possessed in all its quarters the appalling scene. The deep +echoes of the sentries' footsteps and the faint dirging of the +melancholy winds were no more. The blood that had as yet dripped from +his wound, made no sound now in the Pagan's ear; even his own agony of +terror was as silent as were the visionary demons who had aroused it. +Days, years, centuries, seemed to pass, as he lay gazing up, in a trance +of horror, into his realm of peopled and ghostly darkness. At last +nature yielded under the trial; the phantom prospect suddenly whirled +round him with fearful velocity, and his senses sought refuge from the +thraldom of their own creation in a deep and welcome swoon. + +Time had moved wearily onward, the chiding winds had many times waved +the dry locks of his hair to and fro about his brow, as if to bid him +awaken and arise, ere he again recovered his consciousness. Once more +aroused to the knowledge of his position and the sensation of his wound, +he slowly raised himself upon his uninjured arm, and looked wildly +around for the faintest appearance of a gleam of light. But the winding +and uneven nature of the track which he had formed to lead him through +the wall, effectually prevented the moonbeams, then floating into the +outermost of the cavities that he had made, from reaching the place +where he now lay. Not a single object was even faintly distinguishable +around him. Darkness hemmed him in, in rayless and triumphant +obscurity, on every side. + +The first agonies of the injury he had received had resolved themselves +into one dull, heavy, unchanging sensation of pain. The vision that had +overwhelmed his senses was now, in a vast and shadowy form, present only +to his memory, filling the darkness with fearful recollections, and not +with dismal forms; and urging on him a restless, headlong yearning to +effect his escape from the lonely and unhallowed sepulchre, the prison +of solitude and death, that his own fatal exertions threatened him with, +should he linger much longer in the caverns of the wall. + +'I must pass from this darkness into light--I must breathe the air of +the sky, or I shall perish in the damps of this vault,' he exclaimed in +a hoarse, moaning voice, as he raised himself gradually and painfully +into a creeping position; and turning round slowly, commenced his +meditated retreat. + +His brain still whirled with the emotions that had so lately overwhelmed +his mind; his right hand hung helplessly by his side, dragged after him +like a prisoner's chain, and lacerated by the uneven surface of the +ground over which it was slowly drawn, as--supporting himself on his +left arm, and creeping forward a few inches at a time--he set forth on +his toilsome journey. + +Here, he paused bewildered in the darkness; there, he either checked +himself by a convulsive effort from falling headlong into the unknown +deeps beneath him, or lost the little ground he had gained in labour and +agony, by retracing his way at the bidding of some unexpected obstacle. +Now he gnashed his teeth in anguish, now he cursed in despair, now he +was breathless with exhaustion; but still, with an obstinacy that had in +it something of the heroic, he never failed in his fierce resolution to +effect his escape. + + +Slowly and painfully, moving with the pace and the perseverance of the +tortoise, hopeless yet determined as a navigator in a strange sea, he +writhed onward and onward upon his unguided course, until he reaped at +length the reward of his long suffering, by the sudden discovery of a +thin ray of moonlight toiling through a crevice in the murky brickwork +before him. Hardly did the hearts of the Magi when the vision of 'the +star in the East' first dawned on their eyes, leap within them with a +more vivid transport, than that which animated the heart of Ulpius at +the moment when he beheld the inspiring and guiding light. + +Yet a little more exertion, a little more patience, a little more +anguish; and he stood once again, a ghastly and crippled figure, before +the outer cavity in the wall. + +It was near daybreak; the moon shone faintly in the dull, grey heaven; a +small, vaporous rain was sinking from the shapeless clouds; the waning +night showed bleak and cheerless to the earth, but cast no mournful or +reproving influence over the Pagan's mind. He looked round on his +solitary lurking place, and beheld no human figure in its lonely +recesses. He looked up at the ramparts, and saw that the sentinels +stood silent and apart, wrapped in their heavy watch-cloaks, and +supported on their trusty weapons. It was perfectly apparent that the +events of his night of suffering and despair had passed unheeded by the +outer world. + +He glanced back with a shudder upon his wounded and helpless limb; then +his eyes fixed themselves upon the wall. After surveying it with an +earnest and defiant gaze, he slowly moved the brushwood with his foot, +against the small cavity in its outer surface. + +'Days pass, wounds heal, chances change,' muttered the old man, +departing from his haunt with slow and uncertain steps. 'In the mines I +have borne lashes without a murmur--I have felt my chains widening, with +each succeeding day, the ulcers that their teeth of iron first gnawed in +my flesh, and have yet lived to loosen my fetters, and to close my +sores! Shall this new agony have a power to conquer me greater than the +others that are past? I will even yet return in time to overcome the +resistance of the wall! My arm is crushed, but my purpose is whole!' + + +CHAPTER 13. THE HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS. + +Retracing some hours, we turn from the rifted wall to the suburbs and +the country which its ramparts overlook; abandoning the footsteps of the +maimed and darkly-plotting Ulpius, our attention now fixes itself on the +fortunes of Hermanric, and the fate of Antonina. + +Although the evening had as yet scarcely closed, the Goth had allotted +to the warriors under his command their different stations for the night +in the lonely suburbs of the city. This duty performed, he was left to +the unbroken solitude of the deserted tenement which now served him as a +temporary abode. + +The house he occupied was the last of the wide and irregular street in +which it stood; it looked towards the wall beneath the Pincian Mount, +from which it was separated by a public garden about half a mile in +extent. This once well-thronged place of recreation was now totally +unoccupied. Its dull groves were brightened by no human forms; the +chambers of its gay summer houses were dark and desolate; the booths of +its fruit and flower-sellers stood vacant on its untrodden lawns. +Melancholy and forsaken, it stretched forth as a fertile solitude under +the very walls of a crowded city. + + +And yet there was a charm inexpressibly solemn and soothing in the +prospect of loneliness that it presented, as its flower-beds and trees +were now gradually obscured to the eye in the shadows of the advancing +night. It gained in its present refinement as much as it had lost of +its former gaiety; it had its own simple attraction still, though it +failed to sparkle to the eye with its accustomed illuminations, or to +please the ear by the music and laughter, which rose from it in times of +peace. As he looked forth over the view from the terrace of his new +abode, the remembrance of the employments of his past and busy hours +deserted the memory of the young Goth, leaving his faculties free to +welcome the reflections which night began insensibly to awaken and +create. + +Employed under such auspices, whither would the thoughts of Hermanric +naturally stray? + +From the moonlight that already began to ripple over the topmost +trembling leaves of the trees beyond him, to the delicate and shadowy +flowers that twined up the pillars of the deserted terrace where he now +stood, every object he beheld connected itself, to his vivid and +uncultured imagination, with the one being of whom all that was +beautiful in nature, seemed to him the eloquent and befitting type. He +thought of Antonina whom he had once protected; of Antonina whom he had +afterwards abandoned; of Antonina whom he had now lost! + +Strong in the imaginative and weak in the reasoning faculties; gifted +with large moral perception and little moral firmness; too easy to be +influenced and too difficult to be resolved, Hermanric had deserted the +girl's interests from an infirmity of disposition, rather than from a +determination of will. Now, therefore, when the employments of the day +had ceased to absorb his attention; now when silence and solitude led +his memory back to his morning's abandonment of his helpless charge, +that act of fatal impatience and irresolution inspired him with the +strongest emotions of sorrow and remorse. If during her sojourn under +his care, Antonina had insensibly influenced his heart, her image, now +that he reflected on his guilty share in their parting scene, filled all +his thoughts, at once saddening and shaming him, as he remembered her +banishment from the shelter of his tent. + +Every feeling which had animated his reflections on Antonina on the +previous night, was doubled in intensity as he thought on her now. +Again he recalled her eloquent words, and remembered the charm of her +gentle and innocent manner; again he dwelt on the beauties of her +outward form. Each warm expression; each varying intonation of voice +that had accompanied her petition to him for safety and companionship; +every persuasion that she had used to melt him, now revived in his +memory and moved in his heart with steady influence and increasing +power. All the hurried and imperfect pictures of happiness which she +had drawn to allure him, now expanded and brightened, until his mind +began to figure to him visions that had been hitherto unknown to +faculties occupied by no other images than those of rivalry, turbulence, +and strife. Scenes called into being by Antonina's lightest and +hastiest expressions, now rose vague and shadowy before his brooding +spirit. Lovely places of earth that he had visited and forgotten now +returned to his recollection, idealised and refined as he thought of +her. She appeared to his mind in every allurement of action, fulfilling +all the duties and enjoying all the pleasures that she had proposed to +him. He imagined her happy and healthful, journeying gaily by his side +in the fresh morning, with rosy cheek and elastic step; he imagined her +delighting him by her promised songs, enlivening him by her eloquent +words, in the mellow stillness of evening; he imagined her sleeping, +soft and warm and still, in his protecting arms--ever happy and ever +gentle; girl in years, and woman in capacities; at once lover and +companion, teacher and pupil, follower and guide! + +Such she might have been once! What was she now? + + +Was she sinking under her loneliness, perishing from exposure and +fatigue, repulsed by the cruel, or mocked by the unthinking? To all +these perils and miseries had he exposed her; and to what end? To +maintain the uncertain favour, to preserve the unwelcome friendship, of +a woman abandoned even by the most common and intuitive virtues of her +sex; whose frantic craving for revenge, confounded justice with +treachery, innocence with guilt, helplessness with tyranny; whose claims +of nation and relationship should have been forfeited in his estimation, +by the openly-confessed malignity of her designs, at the fatal moment +when she had communicated them to him in all their atrocity, before the +walls of Rome. He groaned in despair, as he thought on this, the most +unworthy of the necessities, to which the forsaken girl had been +sacrificed. + +Soon, however, his mind reverted from such reflections as these, to his +own duties and his own renown; and here his remorse became partially +lightened, though his sorrow remained unchanged. + +Wonderful as had been the influence of Antonina's presence and +Antonina's words over the Goth, they had not yet acquired power enough +to smother in him entirely the warlike instincts of his sex and nation, +or to vanquish the strong and hostile promptings of education and +custom. She had gifted him with new emotions, and awakened him to new +thought; she had aroused all the dormant gentleness of his disposition +to war against the rugged indifference, the reckless energy, that +teaching and example had hitherto made a second nature to his heart. +She had wound her way into his mind, brightening its dark places, +enlarging its narrow recesses, beautifying its unpolished treasures. +She had created, she had refined, during her short hours of +communication with him, but she had not lured his disposition entirely +from its old habits and its old attachments; she had not yet stripped +off the false glitter from barbarian strife, or the pomp from martial +renown; she had not elevated the inferior intellectual, to the height of +the superior moral faculties, in his inward composition. Submitted +almost impartially to the alternate and conflicting dominion of the two +masters, Love and Duty, he at once regretted Antonina, and yet clung +mechanically to his old obedience to those tyrannic requirements of +nation and name, which had occasioned her loss. + +Oppressed by his varying emotions, destitute alike of consolation and +advice, the very inaction of his present position sensibly depressed +him. He rose impatiently, and buckling on his weapons, sought to escape +from his thoughts, by abandoning the scene under the influence of which +they had been first aroused. Turning his back upon the city, he +directed his steps at random, through the complicated labyrinth of +streets, composing the extent of the deserted suburbs. + +After he had passed through the dwellings comprised in the occupation of +the Gothic lines, and had gained those situated nearer to the desolate +country beyond, the scene around him became impressive enough to have +absorbed the attention of any man not wholly occupied by other and more +important objects of contemplation. + +The loneliness he now beheld on all sides, was not the loneliness of +ruin--the buildings near him were in perfect repair; it was not the +loneliness of pestilence--there were no corpses strewn over the +untrodden pavements of the streets; it was not the loneliness of +seclusion--there were no barred windows, and few closed doors; it was a +solitude of human annihilation. The open halls were unapproached; the +benches before the wine-shops were unoccupied; remains of gaudy +household wares still stood on the counters of the street booths, +watched by none, bought by none; particles of bread and meat (treasures, +fated to become soon of greater value than silver and gold, to +beleaguered Rome) rotted here in the open air, like garbage upon +dunghills; children's toys, women's ornaments, purses, money, love- +tokens, precious manuscripts, lay scattered hither and thither in the +public ways, dropped and abandoned by their different owners, in the +hurry of their sudden and universal flight. Every deserted street was +eloquent of darling projects desperately resigned, of valued labours +miserably deserted, of delighting enjoyments irretrievably lost. The +place was forsaken even by those household gods of rich and poor, its +domestic animals. They had either followed their owners into the city, +or strayed, unhindered and unwatched, into the country beyond. Mansion, +bath, and circus, displayed their gaudy pomp and luxurious comfort in +vain; not even a wandering Goth was to be seen near their empty halls. +For, with such a prospect before them as the subjugation of Rome, the +army had caught the infection of its leader's enthusiasm for his exalted +task, and willingly obeyed his commands for suspending the pillage of +the suburbs, disdaining the comparatively worthless treasures around +them, attainable at any time, when they felt that the rich coffers of +Rome herself were now fast opening to their eager hands. Voiceless and +noiseless, unpeopled and unravaged, lay the far-famed suburbs of the +greatest city of the universe, sunk alike in the night of Nature, the +night of Fortune, and the night of Glory! + +Saddening and impressive as was the prospect thus presented to the eyes +of the young Goth, it failed to weaken the powerful influence that his +evening's meditations yet held over his mind. As, during the hours that +were passed, the image of the forsaken girl had dissipated the +remembrance of the duties he had performed, and opposed the +contemplation of the commands he was yet to fulfil, so it now denied to +his faculties any impressions from the lonely scene, beheld, yet +unnoticed, which spread around him. Still, as he passed through the +gloomy streets, his vain regrets and self-accusations, his natural +predilections and acquired attachments, ruled over him and contended +within him, as sternly and as unceasingly as in the first moments when +they had arisen with the evening, during his sojourn in the terrace of +the deserted house. + +He had now arrived at the extremest boundary of the buildings in the +suburbs. Before him lay an uninterrupted prospect of smooth, shining +fields, and soft, hazy, indefinable woods. At one side of him were some +vineyards and cottage gardens; at the other was a solitary house, the +outermost of all the abodes in his immediate vicinity. Dark and +cheerless as it was, he regarded it for some time with the mechanical +attention of a man more occupied in thought than observation,--gradually +advancing towards it in the moody abstraction of his reflections, until +he unconsciously paused before the low range of irregular steps which +led to its entrance door. + +Startled from its meditations by his sudden propinquity to the object +that he had unwittingly approached, he now, for the first time, examined +the lonely abode before him with real attention. + +There was nothing remarkable about the house, save the extreme +desolateness of its appearance, which seemed to arise partly from its +isolated position, and partly from the unusual absence of all decoration +on its external front. It was too extensive to have been the dwelling +of a poor man, too void of pomp and ornament to have been a mansion of +the rich. It might, perhaps, have belonged to some citizen, or +foreigner, or the middle class--some moody Northman, some solitary +Egyptian, some scheming Jew. Yet, though it was not possessed, in +itself, of any remarkable or decided character, the Goth experienced a +mysterious, almost an eager curiosity to examine its interior. He could +assign no cause, discover no excuse for the act, as he slowly mounted +the steps before him. Some invisible and incomprehensible magnet +attracted him to the dwelling. If his return had been suddenly +commanded by Alaric himself; if evidences of indubitable treachery had +lurked about the solitary place, at the moment when he thrust open its +unbarred door, he felt that he must still have proceeded upon his onward +course. The next instant he entered the house. The light streamed +through the open entrance into the gloomy hall; the night-wind, rushing +upon its track, blew shrill and dreary among the stone pillars, and in +the hidden crevices and untenanted chambers above. Not a sign of life +appeared, not a sound of a footstep was audible, not even an article of +household use was to be seen. The deserted suburbs rose without, like a +wilderness; and this empty house looked within, like a sepulchre--void +of corpses, and yet eloquent of death! + +There was an inexplicable fascination to the eyes of the Goth about this +vault-like, solitary hall. He stood motionless at its entrance, gazing +dreamily at the gloomy prospect before him, until a strong gust of wind +suddenly forced the outer door further backwards, and at the same moment +admitted a larger stream of light. + +The place was not empty. In a corner of the hall, hitherto sunk in +darkness, crouched a shadowy form. It was enveloped in a dark garment, +and huddled up into an indefinable and unfamiliar shape. Nothing +appeared on it, as a denoting sign of humanity, but one pale hand, +holding the black drapery together, and relieved against it in almost +ghastly contrast under the cold light of the moon. + + +Vague remembrances of the awful superstitions of his nation's ancient +worship, hurried over the memory of the young Goth, at the first moment +of his discovery of the ghost-like occupant of the hall. As he stood in +fixed attention before the motionless figure, it soon began to be +endowed with the same strange influence over his will, that the lonely +house had already exerted. He advanced slowly towards the crouching +form. + +It never stirred at the noise of his approach. The pale hand still held +the mantle over the compressed figure, with the same rigid immobility of +grasp. Brave as he was, Hermanric shuddered as he bent down and touched +the bloodless, icy fingers. At that action, as if endowed with instant +vitality from contact with a living being, the figure suddenly started +up. + +Then, the folds of the dark mantle fell back, disclosing a face as pale +in hue as the stone pillars around it; and the voice of the solitary +being became audible, uttering in faint, monotonous accents, these +words:-- + +'He has forgotten and abandoned me!--slay me if you will!--I am ready to +die!' + +Broken, untuned as it was, there yet lurked in that voice a tone of its +old music, there beamed in that vacant and heavy eye a ray of its native +gentleness. With a sudden exclamation of compassion and surprise, the +Goth stepped forward, raised the trembling outcast in his arms; and, in +the impulse of the moment quitting the solitary house, stood the next +instant on the firm earth, and under the starry sky, once more united to +the charge that he had abandoned--to Antonina whom he had lost. + +He spoke to her, caressed her, entreated her pardon, assured her of his +future care; but she neither answered nor recognised him. She never +looked in his face, never moved in his arms, never petitioned for mercy. +She gave no sign of life or being, saving that she moaned at regular +intervals in piteous accents:--'He has forgotten and abandoned me!' as +if that one simple expression comprised in itself, her acknowledgment of +the uselessness of her life, and her dirge for her expected death. + +The Goth's countenance whitened to his very lips. He began to fear that +her faculties had sunk under her trials. He hurried on with her with +trembling steps towards the open country, for he nourished a dreamy, +intuitive hope, that the sight of those woods and fields and mountains +which she had extolled to him, in her morning's entreaty for protection, +might aid in restoring her suspended consciousness, if she now looked on +them. + +He ran forward, until he had left the suburbs at least half a mile +behind him, and had reached an eminence, bounded on each side by high +grass banks and clustering woods, and commanding a narrow, yet various +prospect, of the valley ground beneath, and the fertile plains that +extended beyond. + +Here the warrior paused with his burden; and, seating himself on the +bank, once more attempted to calm the girl's continued bewilderment and +terror. He thought not on his sentinels, whom he had abandoned--on his +absence from the suburbs, which might be perceived and punished by an +unexpected visit, at his deserted quarters, from his superiors in the +camp. The social influence that sways the world; the fragile idol at +whose shrine pride learns to bow, and insensibility to feel; the soft, +grateful influence of yielding nature yet eternal rule--the influence of +woman, source alike of virtues and crimes, of earthly glories and +earthly disasters--had, in this moment of anguish and expectation, +silenced in him every appeal of duty, and overthrown every obstacle of +selfish doubt. He now spoke to Antonina as alluringly as a woman, as +gently as a child. He caressed her as warmly as a lover, as cheerfully +as a brother, as kindly as a father. He--the rough, northern warrior, +whose education had been of arms, and whose youthful aspirations had +been taught to point towards strife and bloodshed and glory--even he was +now endowed with the tender eloquence of pity and love--with untiring, +skilful care--with calm, enduring patience. + + +Gently and unceasingly he plied his soothing task; and soon, to his joy +and triumph, he beheld the approaching reward of his efforts, in the +slow changes that became gradually perceptible in the girl's face and +manner. She raised herself in his arms, looked up fixedly and vacantly +into his face, then round upon the bright, quiet landscape, then back +again more stedfastly upon her companion; and at length, trembling +violently, she whispered softly and several times the young Goth's name, +glancing at him anxiously and apprehensively, as if she feared and +doubted while she recognised him. + +'You are bearing me to my death,'--said she suddenly. 'You, who once +protected me--you, who forsook me!--You are luring me into the power of +the woman who thirsts for my blood!--Oh, it is horrible--horrible!' + +She paused, averted her face, and shuddering violently, disengaged +herself from his arms. After an interval, she continued:-- + +'Through the long day, and in the beginning of the cold night, I have +waited in one solitary place for the death that is in store for me! I +have suffered all the loneliness of my hours of expectation, without +complaint; I have listened with little dread, and no grief, for the +approach of my enemy who has sworn that she will shed my blood! Having +none to love me, and being a stranger in the land of my own nation, I +have nothing to live for! But it is a bitter misery to me to behold in +you the fulfiller of my doom; to be snatched by the hand of Hermanric +from the heritage of life that I have so long struggled to preserve!' + +Her voice had altered, as she pronounced these words, to an impressive +lowness and mournfulness of tone. Its quiet, saddened accents were +expressive of an almost divine resignation and sorrow; they seemed to be +attuned to a mysterious and untraceable harmony with the melancholy +stillness of the night-landscape. As she now stood looking up with +pale, calm countenance, and gentle, tearless eyes, into the sky whose +moonlight brightness shone softly over her form, the Virgin watching the +approach of her angel messenger could hardly have been adorned with a +more pure and simple loveliness, than now dwelt over the features of +Numerian's forsaken child. + +No longer master of his agitation; filled with awe, grief, and despair, +as he looked on the victim of his heartless impatience; Hermanric bowed +himself at the girl's feet, and, in the passionate utterance of real +remorse, offered up his supplications for pardon and his assurances of +protection and love. All that the reader has already learned--the +bitter self-upbraidings of his evening, the sorrowful wanderings of his +night, the mysterious attraction that led him to the solitary house, his +joy at once more discovering his lost charge--all these confessions he +now poured forth in the simple yet powerful eloquence of strong emotion +and true regret. + +Gradually and amazedly, as she listened to his words, Antonina awoke +from her abstraction. Even the expression of his countenance and the +earnestness of his manner, viewed by the intuitive penetration of her +sex, wrought with kind and healing influence on her mind. She started +suddenly, a bright flush flew over her colourless cheeks; she bent down, +and looked earnestly and wistfully into the Goth's face. Her lips +moved, but her quick convulsive breathing stifled the words that she +vainly endeavoured to form. + +'Yes,' continued Hermanric, rising and drawing her towards him again, +'you shall never mourn, never fear, never weep more! Though you have +lost your father, and the people of your nation are as strangers to you, +though you have been threatened and forsaken, you shall still be +beautiful--still be happy; for I will watch you, and you shall never be +harmed; I will labour for you, and you shall never want! People and +kindred--fame and duty, I will abandon them all to make atonement to +you!' + +Its youthful freshness and hope returned to the girl's heart, as water +to the long-parched spring, when the young warrior ceased. The tears +stood in her eyes, but she neither sighed nor spoke. Her frame trembled +all over with the excess of her astonishment and delight, as she still +steadfastly looked on him and still listened intently as he proceeded:-- + + +'Fear, then, no longer for your safety--Goisvintha, whom you dread, is +far from us; she knows not that we are here; she cannot track our +footsteps now, to threaten or to harm you! Remember no more how you +have suffered and I have sinned! Think only how bitterly I have +repented our morning's separation, and how gladly I welcome our meeting +of to-night! Oh, Antonina! you are beautiful with a wondrous +loveliness, you are young with a perfected and unchildlike youth, your +words fall upon my ear with the music of a song of the olden time; it is +like a dream of the spirits that my fathers worshipped, when I look up +and behold you at my side!' + +An expression of mingled confusion, pleasure, and surprise, flushed the +girl's half-averted countenance as she listened to the Goth. She rose +with a smile of ineffable gratitude and delight, and pointed to the +prospect beyond, as she softly rejoined:-- + +'Let us go a little further onward, where the moonlight shines over the +meadow below. My heart is bursting in this shadowy place! Let us seek +the light that is yonder; it seems happy like me!' + +They walked forward; and as they went, she told him again of the sorrows +of her past day; of her lonely and despairing progress from his tent to +the solitary house where he had found her in the night, and where she +had resigned herself from the first to meet a death that had little +horror for her then. There was no thought of reproach, no utterance of +complaint, in this renewal of her melancholy narration. It was solely +that she might luxuriate afresh in those delighting expressions of +repentance and devotion, which she knew that it would call forth from +the lips of Hermanric, that she now thought of addressing him once more +with the tale of her grief. + +As they still went onward; as she listened to the rude fervent eloquence +of the language of the Goth; as she looked on the deep repose of the +landscape, and the soft transparency of the night sky; her mind, ever +elastic under the shock of the most violent emotions, ever ready to +regain its wonted healthfulness and hope--now recovered its old tone, +and re-assumed its accustomed balance. Again her memory began to store +itself with its beloved remembrances, and her heart to rejoice in its +artless longings and visionary thoughts. In spite of all her fears and +all her sufferings, she now walked on blest in a disposition that woe +had no shadow to darken long, and neglect no influence to warp; still as +happy in herself; even yet as forgetful of her past, as hopeful for her +future, as on that first evening when we beheld her in her father's +garden, singing to the music of her lute. + +Insensibly as they proceeded, they had diverged from the road, had +entered a bye-path, and now stood before a gate which led to a small +farm house, surrounded by its gardens and vineyards, and, like the +suburbs that they had quitted, deserted by its inhabitants on the +approach of the Goths. They passed through the gate, and arriving at +the plot of ground in front of the house, paused for a moment to look +around them. + +The meadows had been already stripped of their grass, and the young +trees of their branches by the foragers of the invading army, but here +the destruction of the little property had been stayed. The house with +its neat thatched roof and shutters of variegated wood, the garden with +its small stock of fruit and its carefully tended beds of rare flowers, +designed probably to grace the feast of a nobleman or the statue of a +martyr, had presented no allurements to the rough tastes of Alaric's +soldiery. Not a mark of a footstep appeared on the turf before the +house door; the ivy crept in its wonted luxuriance about the pillars of +the lowly porch; and as Hermanric and Antonina walked towards the fish- +pond at the extremity of the garden, the few water-fowl placed there by +the owners of the cottage, came swimming towards the bank, as if to +welcome in their solitude the appearance of a human form. + + +Far from being melancholy, there was something soothing and attractive +about the loneliness of the deserted farm. Its ravaged outhouses and +plundered meadows, which might have appeared desolate by day, were so +distanced, softened, and obscured, by the atmosphere of night, that they +presented no harsh contrast to the prevailing smoothness and luxuriance +of the landscape around. As Antonina beheld the brightened fields and +the shadowed woods, here mingled, there succeeding each other, stretched +far onward and onward until they joined the distant mountains, that +eloquent voice of nature, whose audience is the human heart, and whose +theme is eternal love, spoke inspiringly to her attentive senses. She +stretched out her arms as she looked with steady and enraptured gaze +upon the bright view before her, as if she longed to see its beauties +resolved into a single and living form--into a spirit human enough to be +addressed, and visible enough to be adored. + +'Beautiful earth!' she murmured softly to herself, 'Thy mountains are +the watch-towers of angels, thy moonlight is the shadow of God!' + +Her eyes filled with bright, happy tears; she turned to Hermanric, who +stood watching her, and continued:-- + +'Have you never thought that light, and air, and the perfume of flowers, +might contain some relics of the beauties of Eden that escaped with Eve, +when she wandered into the lonely world? They glowed and breathed for +her, and she lived and was beautiful in them! They were united to one +another, as the sunbeam is united to the earth that it warms; and could +the sword of the cherubim have sundered them at once? When Eve went +forth, did the closed gates shut back in the empty Paradise, all the +beauty that had clung, and grown, and shone round her? Did no ray of +her native light steal forth after her into the desolateness of the +world? Did no print of her lost flowers remain on the bosom they must +once have pressed? It cannot be! A part of her possessions of Eden +must have been spared to her with a part of her life. She must have +refined the void air of the earth when she entered it, with a breath of +the fragrant breezes, and gleam of the truant sunshine of her lost +Paradise! They must have strengthened and brightened, and must now be +strengthening and brightening with the slow lapse of mortal years, +until, in the time when earth itself will be an Eden, they shall be made +one again with the hidden world of perfection, from which they are yet +separated. So that, even now, as I look forth over the landscape, the +light that I behold has in it a glow of Paradise, and this flower that I +gather a breath of the fragrance that once stole over the senses of my +first mother, Eve!' + +Though she paused here, as if in expectation of an answer, the Goth +preserved an unbroken silence. Neither by nature nor position was he +capable of partaking the wild fancies and aspiring thoughts, drawn by +the influences of the external world from their concealment in +Antonina's heart. + +The mystery of his present situation; his vague remembrance of the +duties he had abandoned; the uncertainty of his future fortunes and +future fate; the presence of the lonely being so inseparably connected +with his past emotions and his existence to come, so strangely +attractive by her sex, her age, her person, her misfortunes, and her +endowments; all contributed to bewilder his faculties. Goisvintha, the +army, the besieged city, the abandoned suburbs, seemed to hem him in +like a circle of shadowy and threatening judgments; and in the midst of +them stood the young denizen of Rome, with her eloquent countenance and +her inspiring words, ready to hurry him, he knew not whither, and able +to influence him, he felt not how. + +Unconsciously interpreting her companion's silence into a wish to change +the scene and the discourse, Antonina, after lingering over the view +from the garden for a moment longer, led the way back towards the +untenanted house. They removed the wooden padlock from the door of the +dwelling, and guided by the brilliant moonlight, entered its principal +apartment. + + +The homely adornments of the little room had remained undisturbed, and +dimly distinguishable though they now were, gave it to the eyes of the +two strangers, the same aspect of humble comfort which had probably once +endeared it to its exiled occupants. As Hermanric seated himself by +Antonina's side on the simple couch which made the principal piece of +furniture in the place, and looked forth from the window over the same +view that they had beheld in the garden, the magic stillness and novelty +of the scene now began to affect his slow perceptions, as they had +already influenced the finer and more sensitive faculties of the +thoughtful girl. New hopes and tranquil ideas arose in his young mind, +and communicated an unusual gentleness to his expression, an unusual +softness to his voice, as he thus addressed his silent companion:-- + +'With such a home as this, with this garden, with that country beyond, +with no warfare, no stern teachers, no enemy to threaten you; with +companions and occupations that you loved--tell me, Antonina, would not +your happiness be complete?' + +As he looked round at the girl to listen to her reply, he saw that her +countenance had changed. Their past expression of deep grief had again +returned to her features. Her eyes were fixed on the short dagger that +hung over the Goth's breast, which seemed to have suddenly aroused in +her a train of melancholy and unwelcome thoughts. When she at length +spoke, it was in a mournful and altered voice, and with a mingled +expression of resignation and despair. + +'You must leave me--we must be parted again,' said she; 'the sight of +your weapons has reminded me of all that until now I had forgotten, of +all that I have left in Rome, of all that you have abandoned before the +city walls. Once I thought we might have escaped together from the +turmoil and the danger around us, but now I know that it is better that +you should depart! Alas! for my hopes and my happiness, I must be left +alone once more!' + +She paused for an instant, struggling to retain her self-possession, and +then continued:-- + +'Yes, you must quit me, and return to your post before the city; for in +the day of assault there will be none to care for my father but you! +Until I know that he is safe, until I can see him once more, and ask him +for pardon, and entreat him for love, I dare not remove from the +perilous precincts of Rome! Return, then, to your duties, and your +companions, and your occupations of martial renown; and do not forget +Numerian when the city is assailed, nor Antonina, who is left to think +on you in the solitary plains!' + +She rose from her place, as if to set the example of departing; but her +strength and resolution both failed her, and she sank down again on the +couch, incapable of making another movement, or uttering another word. + +Strong and conflicting emotions passed over the heart of the Goth. The +language of the girl had quickened the remembrance of his half-forgotten +duties, and strengthened the failing influence of his old predilections +of education and race. Both conscience and inclination now opposed his +disputing her urgent and unselfish request. For a few minutes he +remained in deep reflection; then he rose and looked earnestly from the +window; then back again upon Antonina and the room they occupied. At +length, as if animated by a sudden determination, he again approached +his companion, and thus addressed her:-- + +'It is right that I should return. I will do your bidding, and depart +for the camp (but not till the break of day), while you, Antonina, +remain in concealment and in safety here. None can come hither to +disturb you. The Goths will not revisit the fields they have already +stripped; the husbandman who owns this dwelling is imprisoned in the +beleaguered city; the peasants from the country beyond dare not approach +so near to the invading hosts; and Goisvintha, whom you dread, knows not +even of the existence of such a refuge as this. Here, though lonely, +you will be secure; here you can await my return, when each succeeding +night gives me the opportunity of departing from the camp; and here I +will warn you beforehand, if the city is devoted to an assault. Though +solitary, you will not be abandoned--we shall not be parted one from the +other. Often and often I shall return to look on you, and to listen to +you, and to love you! You will be happier here, even in this lonely +place, than in the former home that you have lost through your father's +wrath!' + + +'Oh! I will willingly remain--I will joyfully await you!' cried the +girl, raising her beaming eyes to Hermanric's face. 'I will never speak +mournfully to you again; I will never remind you more of all that I have +suffered, and all that I have lost! How merciful you were to me, when I +first saw you in your tent--how doubly merciful you are to me here! I +am proud when I look on your stature, and your strength, and your heavy +weapons, and know that you are happy in remaining with me; that you will +succour my father; that you will return from your glittering encampments +to this farm-house, where I am left to await you! Already I have +forgotten all that has happened to me of woe; already I am more joyful +than ever I was in my life before! See, I am no longer weeping in +sorrow! If there are any tears still on my cheeks, they are the tears +of gladness that every one welcomes--tears to sing and rejoice in!' + +She ceased abruptly, as if words failed to give expression to her new +delight. All the gloomy emotions that had oppressed her but a short +time before had now completely vanished; and the young, fresh heart, +superior still to despair and woe, basked as happily again in its native +atmosphere of joy as a bird in the sunlight of morning and spring. + +Then, when after an interval of delay their former tranquility had +returned to them, how softly and lightly the quiet hours of the +remaining night flowed onward to the two watchers in the lonely house! +How gladly the delighted girl disclosed her hidden thoughts, and poured +forth her innocent confessions, to the dweller among other nations and +the child of other impressions than her own! All the various reflections +aroused in her mind by the natural objects she had secretly studied, by +the mighty imagery of her Bible lore, by the gloomy histories of saints' +visions and martyrs' sufferings, which she had learnt and pondered over +by her father's side, were now drawn from their treasured places in her +memory, and addressed to the ear of the Goth. As the child flies to the +nurse with the story of its first toy; as the girl resorts to the sister +with the confession of her first love; as the poet hurries to the friend +with the plan of his first composition; so did Antonina seek the +attention of Hermanric with the first outward revealings enjoyed by her +faculties and the first acknowledgment of her emotions liberated from +her heart. + +The longer the Goth listened to her, the more perfect became the +enchantment of her words, half struggling into poetry, and her voice +half gliding into music. As her low, still, varying tones wound +smoothly into his ear, his thoughts suddenly and intuitively reverted to +her formerly expressed remembrances of her lost lute, inciting him to +ask her, with new interest and animation, of the manner of her +acquisition of that knowledge of song, which she had already assured him +that she possessed. + +'I have learned many odes of many poets,' said she, quickly and +confusedly avoiding the mention of Vetranio, which a direct answer to +Hermanric's question must have produced, 'but I remember none perfectly, +save those whose theme is of spirits and of other worlds, and of the +invisible beauty that we think of but cannot see. Of the few that I +know of these, there is one that I first learned and loved most. I will +sing it, that you may be assured I will not fail to you in my promised +art.' + +She hesitated for a moment. Sorrowful remembrances of the events that +had followed the utterance of the last notes she sang in her father's +garden, swelled within her, and held her speechless. Soon, however, +after a short interval of silence, she recovered her self-possession, +and began to sing, in low tremulous tones, that harmonised well with the +character of the words and the strain of the melody which she had +chosen. + +THE MISSION OF THE TEAR + +I. + +The skies were its birth-place--the TEAR was the child Of the dark +maiden SORROW, by young JOY beguil'd; It was born in convulsion; 'twas +nurtur'd in woe; And the world was yet young when it wander'd below. + +II. + +No angel-bright guardians watch'd over its birth, Ere yet it was +suffer'd to roam upon earth; No spirits of gladness its soft form +caress'd; SIGHS mourned round its cradle, and hush'd it to rest. + +III. + +Though JOY might endeavour, with kisses and wiles, To lure it away to +his household of smiles: From the daylight he lived in it turn'd in +affright, To nestle with SORROW in climates of night. + +IV. + +When it came upon earth, 'twas to choose a career, The brightest and +best that is left to a TEAR; To hallow delight, and bestow the relief +Denied by despair to the fulness of grief. + +V. + +Few repell'd it--some bless'd it--wherever it came; Whether soft'ning +their sorrow, or soothing their shame; And the joyful themselves, though +its name they might fear, Oft welcom'd the calming approach of the TEAR! + +VI. + +Years on years have worn onward, as--watch'd from above--Speeds that +meek spirit yet on its labour of love; Still the exile of Heav'n, it +ne'er shall away, Every heart has a home for it, roam where it may! + +For the first few minutes after she had concluded the ode, Hermanric was +hardly conscious that she had ceased; and when at length she looked up +at him, her mute petition for approval had an eloquence which would have +been marred to the Goth at that moment, by the utterance of single word. +A rapture, an inspiration, a new life moved within him. The hour and +the scene completed what the magic of the song had begun. His +expression now glowed with a southern warmth; his words assumed a Roman +fervour. Gradually, as they discoursed, the voice of the girl was less +frequently audible. A change was passing over her spirit; from the +teacher, she was now becoming the pupil. + +As she still listened to the Goth, as she felt the birth of new feelings +within her while he spoke, her cheeks glowed, her features lightened up, +her very form seemed to freshen and expand. No intruding thought or +awakening remembrance disturbed her rapt attention. No cold doubt, no +gloomy hesitation, appeared in her companion's words. The one listened, +the other spoke, with the whole heart, the undivided soul. While a +world-wide revolution was concentrating its hurricane forces around +them; while the city of an Empire tottered already to its tremendous +fall; while Goisvintha plotted new revenge; while Ulpius toiled for his +revolution of bloodshed and ruin; while all these dark materials of +public misery and private strife seethed and strengthened around them, +they could as completely forget the stormy outward world, in themselves; +they could think as serenely of tranquil love; the kiss could be given +as passionately and returned as tenderly, as if the lot of their +existence had been cast in the pastoral days of the shepherd poets, and +the future of their duties and enjoyments was securely awaiting them in +a land of eternal peace! + + +CHAPTER 14. THE FAMINE. + +The end of November is approaching. Nearly a month has elapsed since +the occurrence of the events mentioned in the last chapter, yet still +the Gothic lines stretch round the city walls. Rome, that we left +haughty and luxurious even while ruin threatened her at her gates, has +now suffered a terrible and warning change. As we approach her again, +woe, horror, and desolation have already gone forth to shadow her lofty +palaces and to darken her brilliant streets. + + +Over Pomp that spurned it, over Pleasure that defied it, over Plenty +that scared it in its secret rounds, the spectre Hunger has now risen +triumphant at last. Day by day has the city's insufficient allowance of +food been more and more sparingly doled out; higher and higher has risen +the value of the coarsest and simplest provision; the hoarded supplies +that pity and charity have already bestowed to cheer the sinking people +have reached their utmost limits. For the rich, there is still corn in +the city--treasure of food to be bartered for treasure of gold. For the +poor, man's natural nourishment exists no more; the season of famine's +loathsome feasts, the first days of the sacrifice of choice to necessity +have darkly and irretrievably begun. + +It is morning. A sad and noiseless throng is advancing over the cold +flagstones of the great square before the Basilica of St. John Lateran. +The members of the assembly speak in whispers. The weak are tearful--the +strong are gloomy--they all move with slow and languid gait, and hold in +their arms their dogs or other domestic animals. On the outskirts of +the crowd march the enfeebled guards of the city, grasping in their +rough hands rare favourite birds of gaudy plumage and melodious note, +and followed by children and young girls vainly and piteously entreating +that their favourites may be restored. + +This strange procession pauses, at length, before a mighty caldron slung +over a great fire in the middle of the square, round which stand the +city butchers with bare knives, and the trustiest men of the Roman +legions with threatening weapons. A proclamation is then repeated, +commanding the populace who have no money left to purchase food, to +bring up their domestic animals to be boiled together over the public +furnace, for the sake of contributing to the public support. + +The next minute, in pursuance of this edict, the dumb favourites of the +crowd passed from the owner's caressing hand into the butcher's ready +grasp. The faint cries of the animals, starved like their masters, +mingled for a few moments with the sobs and lamentations of the women +and children, to whom the greater part of them belonged. For, in this +the first stage of their calamities, that severity of hunger which +extinguishes pity and estranges grief was unknown to the populace; and +though fast losing spirit, they had not yet sunk to the depths of +ferocious despair which even now were invisibly opening between them. A +thousand pangs were felt, a thousand humble tragedies were acted, in the +brief moments of separation between guardian and charge. The child +snatched its last kiss of the bird that had sung over its bed; the dog +looked its last entreaty for protection from the mistress who had once +never met it without a caress. Then came the short interval of agony +and death, then the steam rose fiercely from the greedy caldron, and +then the people for a time dispersed; the sorrowful to linger near the +confines of the fire, and the hungry to calm their impatience by a visit +to the neighbouring church. + +The marble aisles of the noble basilica held a gloomy congregation. +Three small candles were alone lighted on the high altar. No sweet +voices sang melodious anthems or exulting hymns. The monks, in hoarse +tones and monotonous harmonics, chanted the penitential psalms. Here +and there knelt a figure clothed in mourning robes, and absorbed in +secret prayer; but over the majority of the assembly either blank +despondency or sullen inattention universally prevailed. + +As the last dull notes of the last psalm died away among the lofty +recesses of the church, a procession of pious Christians appeared at the +door and advanced slowly to the altar. It was composed both of men and +women barefooted, clothed in black garments, and with ashes scattered +over their dishevelled hair. Tears flowed from their eyes, and they +beat their breasts as they bowed their foreheads on the marble pavement +of the altar steps. + + +This humble public expression of penitence under the calamity that had +now fallen on the city was, however, confined only to its few really +religious inhabitants, and commanded neither sympathy nor attention from +the heartless and obstinate population of Rome. Some still cherished +the delusive hope of assistance from the court at Ravenna; others +believed that the Goths would ere long impatiently abandon their +protracted blockade, to stretch their ravages over the rich and +unprotected fields of Southern Italy. But the same blind confidence in +the lost terrors of the Roman name, the same fierce and reckless +determination to defy the Goths to the very last, sustained the sinking +courage and suppressed the despondent emotions of the great mass of the +suffering people, from the beggar who prowled for garbage, to the +patrician who sighed over his new and unwelcome nourishment of simple +bread. + +While the penitents who formed the procession above described were yet +engaged in the performance of their unnoticed and unshared duties of +penance and prayer, a priest ascended the great pulpit of the basilica, +to attempt the ungrateful task of preaching patience and piety to the +hungry multitude at his feet. + +He began his sermon by retracing the principal occurrences in Rome since +the beginning of the Gothic blockade. He touched cautiously upon the +first event that stained the annals of the besieged city--the execution +of the widow of the Roman general Stilicho, on the unauthorised +suspicion that she had held treasonable communication with Alaric and +the invading army; he noticed lengthily the promises of assistance +transmitted from Ravenna, after the perpetration of that ill-omened act. +He spoke admiringly of the skill displayed by the government in making +the necessary and immediate reductions in the daily supplies of food; he +lamented the terrible scarcity which followed, too inevitably, those +seasonable reductions. He pronounced an eloquent eulogium on the noble +charity of Laeta, the widow of the Emperor Gratian, who, with her +mother, devoted the store of provisions obtained by their imperial +revenues to succouring, at that important juncture, the starving and +desponding poor: he admitted the new scarcity, consequent on the +dissipation of Laeta's stores; deplored the present necessity of +sacrificing the domestic animals of the citizens; condemned the enormous +prices now demanded for the last remnants of wholesome food that were +garnered up; announced it as the firm persuasion of every one that a few +days more would bring help from Ravenna; and ended his address by +informing his auditory that, as they had suffered so much already, they +could patiently suffer a little more, and that if, after this, they were +so ill-fated as to sink under their calamities, they would feel it a +noble consolation to die in the cause of Catholic and Apostolic Rome, +and would assuredly be canonised as saints and martyrs by the next +generation of the pious in the first interval of fertile and restoring +peace. + +Flowing as was the eloquence of this oration, it yet possessed not the +power of inducing one among those whom it addressed to forget the +sensation of his present suffering, and to fix his attention on the +vision of future advantage, spread before all listeners by the fluent +priest. With the same murmurs of querulous complaint, and the same +expressions of impotent hatred and and defiance of the Goths which had +fallen from them as they entered the church, the populace now departed +from it, to receive from the city officers the stinted allowance of +repugnant food, prepared for their hunger from the caldron in the public +square. + +And see, already from other haunts in the neighbouring quarter of Rome +their fellow-citizens press onward at the given signal, to meet them +round the caldron's sides! The languid sentinel, released from duty, +turns his gaze from the sickening prospect of the Gothic camp, and +hastens to share the public meal; the baker starts from sleeping on his +empty counter, the beggar rises from his kennel in the butcher's vacant +out-house, the slave deserts his place by the smouldering kitchen-fire-- +all hurry to swell the numbers of the guests that are bidden to the +wretched feast. Rapidly and confusedly, the congregation in the basilica +pours through its lofty gates; the priests and penitents retire from the +altar's foot, and in the great church, so crowded by a few moments +before, there now only remains the figure of a solitary man. + + +Since the commencement of the service, neither addressed nor observed, +this lonely being has faltered round the circle of the congregation, +gazing long and wistfully over the faces that met his view. Now that +the sermon is ended, and the last lingerer has quitted the church, he +turns from the spot whence he has anxiously watched the different +members of the departing throng, and feebly crouches down on his knees +at the base of a pillar that is near him. His eyes are hollow, and his +cheeks are wan; his thin grey hairs are few and fading on his aged head. +He makes no effort to follow the crowd and partake their sustenance; no +one is left behind to urge, no one returns to lead him to the public +meal. Though weak and old, he is perfectly forsaken in his loneliness, +perfectly unsolaced in his grief; his friends have lost all trace of +him; his enemies have ceased to fear or to hate him now. As he crouches +by the pillar alone, he covers his forehead with his pale, palsied +hands, his dim eyes fill with bitter tears, and such expressions as +these are ever and anon faintly audible in the intervals of his heavy +sighs: 'Day after day! Day after day! And my lost one is not found! +my loved and wronged one is not restored! Antonina! Antonina!' + +Some days after the public distribution of food in the square of St. +John Lateran, Vetranio's favourite freedman might have been observed +pursuing his way homeward, sadly and slowly, to his master's palace. + +It was not without cause that the pace of the intelligent Carrio was +funereal and his expression disconsolate. Even during the short period +that had elapsed since the scene in the basilica already described, the +condition of the city had altered fearfully for the worse. The famine +advanced with giant strides; every succeeding hour endued it with new +vigour, every effort to repel it served but to increase its spreading +and overwhelming influence. One after another the pleasures and +pursuits of the city declined beneath the dismal oppression of the +universal ill, until the public spirit in Rome became moved alike in all +classes by one gloomy inspiration--a despairing defiance of the famine +and the Goths. + +The freedman entered his master's palace neither saluted nor welcomed by +the once obsequious slaves in the outer lodge. Neither harps nor +singing-boys, neither woman's ringing laughter nor man's bacchanalian +glee, now woke the echoes in the lonely halls. The pulse of pleasure +seemed to have throbbed its last in the joyless being of Vetranio's +altered household. + +Hastening his steps as he entered the mansion, Carrio passed into the +chamber where the senator awaited him. + +On two couches, separated by a small table, reclined the lord of the +palace and his pupil and companion at Ravenna, the once sprightly +Camilla. Vetranio's open brow had contracted a clouded and severe +expression, and he neither regarded nor addressed his visitor, who, on +her part, remained as silent and as melancholy as himself. Every trace +of the former characteristics of the gay, elegant voluptuary and the +lively, prattling girl seemed to have completely vanished. On the table +between them stood a large bottle containing Falernian wine, and a vase +filled with a little watery soup, in the middle of which floated a small +dough cake, sparingly sprinkled with common herbs. As for the usual +accompaniments of Vetranio's luxurious privacy, they were nowhere to be +seen. Poems, pictures, trinkets, lutes, all were absent. Even the +'inestimable kitten of the breed most worshipped by the ancient +Egyptians' appeared no more. It had been stolen, cooked, and eaten by a +runaway slave, who had already bartered its ruby collar for a lean +parrot and the unroasted half of the carcase of a dog. + +'I lament to confess it, O estimable patron, but my mission has failed,' +observed Carrio, producing from his cloak several bags of money and +boxes of jewels, which he carefully deposited on the table. 'The +Prefect has himself assisted in searching the public and private +granaries, and has arrived at the conclusion that not a handful of corn +is left in the city. I offered publicly in the market-place five +thousand sestertii for a living cock and hen, but was told that the race +had long since been exterminated, and that, as money would no longer buy +food, money was no longer desired by the poorest beggar in Rome. There +is no more even of the hay I yesterday purchased to be obtained for the +most extravagant bribes. Those still possessing the smallest supplies +of provision guard and hide them with the most jealous care. I have +done nothing but obtain for the consumption of the few slaves who yet +remain faithful in the house this small store of dogs' hides, reserved +from the public distribution of some days since in the square of the +Basilica of St. John.' + + +And the freedman, with an air of mingled triumph and disgust, produced +as he spoke his provision of dirty skins. + +'What supplies have we still left in our possession?' demanded Vetranio, +after drinking a deep draught of the Falernian, and motioning his +servant to place his treasured burden out of sight. + +'I have hidden in a secure receptacle, for I know not how soon hunger +may drive the slaves to disobedience,' rejoined Carrio, 'seven bags of +hay, three baskets stocked with salted horse-flesh, a sweetmeat-box +filled with oats, and another with dried parsley; the rare Indian +singing birds are still preserved inviolate in their aviary; there is a +great store of spices, and some bottles of the Nightingale Sauce yet +remain.' + +'What is the present aspect of the city?' interrupted Vetranio +impatiently. + +'Rome is as gloomy as a subterranean sepulchre,' replied Carrio, with a +shudder. 'The people congregate in speechless and hungry mobs at the +doors of their houses and the corners of the streets, the sentinels at +the ramparts totter on their posts, women and children are sleeping +exhausted on the very pavements of the churches, the theatres are +emptied of actors and audience alike, the baths resound with cries for +food and curses on the Goths, thefts are already committed in the open +and unguarded shops, and the barbarians remain fixed in their +encampments, unapproached by our promised legions from Ravenna, neither +assaulting us in our weakness, nor preparing to raise the blockade! Our +situation grows more and more perilous. I have great hopes in our store +of provisions; but--' + +'Cast your hopes to the court at Ravenna, and your beasts' provender to +the howling mob!' cried Vetranio with sudden energy. 'It is now too +late to yield; if the next few days bring us no assistance, the city +will be a human shambles! And think you that I, who have already lost +in this public suspension of social joys my pleasures, my employments, +and my companions, will wait serenely for the lingering and ignoble +death that must then threaten us all? No, it shall never be said that I +died starving with the herd, like a slave that his master deserts! +Though the plates in my banqueting hall must now be empty, my vases and +wine-cups shall yet sparkle for my guests! There is still wine in the +cellar, and spices and perfumes remain in the larder stores! I will +invite my friends to a last feast; a saturnalia in a city of famine; a +banquet of death, spread by the jovial labours of Silenus and his fauns! +Though the Parcae have woven for me the destiny of a dog, it is the hand +of Bacchus that shall sever the fatal thread!' + +His cheeks were flushed, his eyes sparkled; all the mad energy of his +determination appeared in his face as he spoke. He was no longer the +light, amiable, smooth-tongued trifler, but a moody, reckless, desperate +man, careless of every obligation and pursuit which had hitherto +influenced the easy surface of his patrician life. The startled +Camilla, who had as yet preserved a melancholy silence, ran towards him +with affrighted looks and undissembled tears. Carrio stared in vacant +astonishment on his master's disordered countenance; and, forgetting his +bundle of dogskins, suffered them to drop unheeded on the floor. A +momentary silence followed, which was suddenly interrupted by the abrupt +entrance of a fourth person, pale, trembling and breathless, who was no +other than Vetranio's former visitor, the Prefect Pompeianus. + +'I bid you welcome to my approaching feast of brimming wine-cups and +empty dishes!' cried Vetranio, pouring the sparkling Falernian into his +empty glass. 'The last banquet given in Rome, ere the city is +annihilated, will be mine! The Goths and the famine shall have no part +in my death! Pleasure shall preside at my last moments, as it has +presided at my whole life! I will die like Sardanapalus, with my loves +and my treasures around me, and the last of my guests who remains proof +against our festivity shall set fire to my palace, as the kingly +Assyrian set fire to his!' + + +'This is no season for jesting,' exclaimed the Prefect, staring round +him with bewildered eyes and colourless cheeks. 'Our miseries are but +dawning as yet! In the next street lies the corpse of a woman, and-- +horrible omen!--a coil of serpents is wreathed about her neck! We have +no burial-place to receive her, and the thousands who may die like her, +ere assistance arrives. The city sepulchres outside the walls are in +the hands of the Goths. The people stand round the body in a trance of +horror, for they have now discovered a fatal truth we would fain have +concealed from them;' here the Prefect paused, looked round affrightedly +on his listeners, and then added in low trembling tones-- + +'The citizens are lying dead from famine in the streets of Rome!' + + +CHAPTER 15. THE CITY AND THE GODS. + +We return once more to the Gothic encampment in the suburbs eastward of +the Pincian Gate, and to Hermanric and the warriors under his command, +who are still posted at that particular position on the great circle of +the blockade. + +The movements of the young chieftain from place to place expressed, in +their variety and rapidity, the restlessness that was agitating his +mind. He glanced back frequently from the warriors around him to the +remote and opposite quarter of the suburbs, occasionally directing his +eyes towards the western horizon, as if anxiously awaiting the approach +of some particular hour of the coming night. Weary at length of pursuing +occupations which evidently irritated rather than soothed his +impatience, he turned abruptly from his companions, and advancing +towards the city, paced slowly backwards and forwards over the waste +ground between the suburbs and the walls of Rome. + +At intervals he still continued to examine the scene around him. A more +dreary prospect than now met his view, whether in earth or sky, can +hardly be conceived. + +The dull sunless day was fast closing, and the portentous heaven gave +promise of a stormy night. Thick, black layers of shapeless cloud hung +over the whole firmament, save at the western point; and here lay a +streak of pale, yellow light, enclosed on all sides by the firm, +ungraduated, irregular edges of the masses of gloomy vapour around it. +A deep silence hung over the whole atmosphere. The wind was voiceless +among the steady trees. The stir and action in the being of nature and +the life of man seemed enthralled, suspended, stifled. The air was +laden with a burdensome heat; and all things on earth, animate and +inanimate, felt the oppression that weighed on them from the higher +elements. The people who lay gasping for breath in the famine-stricken +city, and the blades of grass that drooped languidly on the dry sward +beyond the walls, owned the enfeebling influence alike. + +As the hours wore on and night stealthily and gradually advanced, a +monotonous darkness overspread, one after another, the objects +discernible to Hermanric from the solitary ground he still occupied. +Soon the great city faded into one vast, impenetrable shadow, while the +suburbs and the low country around them vanished in the thick darkness +that gathered almost perceptibly over the earth. And now the sole +object distinctly visible was the figure of a weary sentinel, who stood +on the frowning rampart immediately above the rifted wall, and whose +drooping figure, propped upon his weapon, was indicated in hard relief +against the thin, solitary streak of light still shining in the cold and +cloudy wastes of the western sky. + +But as the night still deepened, this one space of light faded, +contracted, vanished, and with it disappeared the sentinel and the line +of rampart on which he was posted. The rule of the darkness now became +universal. Densely and rapidly it overspread the whole city with +startling suddenness; as if the fearful destiny now working its +fulfilment in Rome had forced the external appearances of the night into +harmony with its own woe-boding nature. + + +Then, as the young Goth still lingered at his post of observation, the +long, low, tremulous, absorbing roll of thunder afar off became grandly +audible. It seemed to proceed from a distance almost incalculable; to +be sounding from its cradle in the frozen north; to be journeying about +its ice-girdled chambers in the lonely poles. It deepened rather than +interrupted the dreary, mysterious stillness of the atmosphere. The +lightning, too, had a summer softness in its noiseless and frequent +gleam. It was not the fierce lightning of winter, but a warm, fitful +brightness, almost fascinating in its light, rapid recurrence, tinged +with the glow of heaven, and not with the glare of hell. + +There was no wind--no rain; and the air was as hushed as if it slept +over chaos in the infancy of a new creation. + +Among the various objects displayed, instant by instant, by the rapid +lightning to the eyes of Hermanric, the most easily and most distinctly +visible was the broad surface of the rifted wall. The large, loose +stones, scattered here and there at its base, and the overhanging lid of +its broad rampart, became plainly though fitfully apparent in the brief +moments of their illumination. The lightning had played for some time +over that structure of the fortifications, and the bare ground that +stretched immediately beyond them, when the smooth prospect which it +thus gave by glimpses to view, was suddenly chequered by a flight of +birds appearing from one of the lower divisions of the wall, and +flitting uneasily to and fro at one spot before its surface. + +As moment after moment the lightning continued to gleam, so the black +forms of the birds were visible to the practised eye of the Goth-- +perceptible, yet evanescent, as sparks of fire or flakes of snow-- +whirling confusedly and continually about the spot whence they had +evidently been startled by some unimaginable interruption. At length, +after a lapse of some time, they vanished as suddenly as they had +appeared, with shrill notes of affright which were audible even above +the continuous rolling of the thunder; and immediately afterwards, when +the lightning alternated with the darkness, there appeared to Hermanric, +in the part of the wall where the birds had been first disturbed, a +small red gleam, like a spark of fire lodged in the surface of the +structure. Then this was lost; a longer obscurity than usual prevailed +in the atmosphere, and when the Goth gazed eagerly through the next +succession of flashes, they showed him the momentary and doubtful +semblance of a human figure, standing erect on the stones at the base of +the wall. + +Hermanric started with astonishment. Again the lightning ceased. In +the ardour of his anxiety to behold more, he strained his eyes with the +vain hope of penetrating the obscurity around him. The darkness seemed +interminable. Once again the lightning flashed brilliantly out. He +looked eagerly towards the wall--the figure was still there. + +His heart throbbed quickly within him, as he stood irresolute on the +spot he had occupied since the first peal of thunder had struck upon his +ear. Were the light and the man--one seen but for an instant, the other +still perceptible--mere phantoms of his erring sight, dazzled by the +quick recurrence of atmospheric changes through which it had acted? Or +did he indubitably behold a human form, and had he really observed a +material light? Some strange treachery, some dangerous mystery might be +engendering in the besieged city, which it would be his duty to observe +and unmask. He drew his sword, and, at the risk of being observed +through the lightning, and heard during the pauses in the thunder, by +the sentinel on the wall, resolutely advanced to the very foot of the +fortifications of hostile Rome. + +He heard no sound, perceived no light, observed no figure, as, after +several unsuccessful attempts to reach the place where they stood, he at +length paused at the loose stones which he knew were heaped at the base +of the wall. The next moment he was so close to it, that he could pass +his sword-point over parts of its rugged surface. He had scarcely +examined thus a space of more than ten yards, before his weapon +encountered a sharp, jagged edge; and a sudden presentiment assured him +instantly that he had found the spot where he had beheld the momentary +light, and that he stood on the same stone which had been occupied by +the figure of the man. + + +After an instant's hesitation, he was about to mount higher on the loose +stones, and examine more closely the irregularity he had just discovered +in the wall, when a vivid flash of lightning, unusually prolonged, +showed him, obstructing at scarcely a yard's distance his onward path, +the figure he had already distantly beheld from the plain behind. + +There was something inexpressibly fearful in his viewless vicinity, +during the next moment of darkness, to this silent, mysterious form, so +imperfectly shown by the lightning that quivered over its half-revealed +proportions. Every pulse in the body of the Goth seemed to pause as he +stood, with ready weapon, looking into the gloomy darkness, and wafting +for the next flash. It came, and displayed to him the man's fierce eyes +glaring steadily down upon his face; another gleam, and he beheld his +haggard finger placed upon his lip in token of silence; a third, and he +saw the arm of the figure pointing towards the plain behind him; and +then in the darkness that followed, a hot breath played upon his ear, +and a voice whispered to him, through a pause in the rolling of the +thunder--'Follow me.' + +The next instant Hermanric felt the momentary contact of the man's body, +as with noiseless steps he passed him on the stones. It was no time to +deliberate or to doubt. He followed close upon the stranger's +footsteps, gaining glimpses of his dark form moving onward before, +whenever the lightning briefly illuminated the scene, until they arrived +at a clump of trees, not far distant from the houses in the suburbs that +were occupied by the Goths under his own command. + +Here the stranger paused before the trunk of a tree which stood between +the city wall and himself, and drew from beneath his ragged cloak a +small lantern, carefully covered with a piece of cloth, which he now +removed, and holding the light high above his head, regarded the Goth +with a steady and anxious scrutiny. + +Hermanric attempted to address him first, but the appearance of the man, +barely visible though it was by the feeble light of his lantern, was so +startling and repulsive, that the half-formed words died away on his +lips. The face of the stranger was of a ghastly paleness; his hollow +cheeks were seamed with deep wrinkles; and his eyes glared with an +expression of ferocious suspicion. One of his arms was covered with old +bandages, stiff with coagulated blood, and hung paralysed at his side. +The hand that held the light trembled, so that the lantern containing it +vibrated continuously in his unsteady grasp. His limbs were lank and +shrivelled almost to deformity, and it was with evident difficulty that +he stood upright on his feet. Every member of his body seemed to be +wasting with a gradual death, while his expression, ardent and +forbidding, was stamped with all the energy of manhood, and all the +daring of youth. + +It was Ulpius! The wall was passed! The breach was made good! + +After a protracted examination of Hermanric's countenance and attire, +the man, with an imperious expression, strangely at variance with his +faltering voice, thus addressed him:-- + +'You are a Goth?' + +'I am,' rejoined the young chief; 'and you are--' + +'A friend of the Goths,' was the quick answer. + +An instant of silence followed. The dialogue was then again begun by +the stranger. + +'What brought you alone to the base of the ramparts?' he demanded, and +an expression of ungovernable apprehension shot from his eyes as he +spoke. + +'I saw the appearance of a man in the gleam of the lightning,' answered +Hermanric. 'I approached it, to assure myself that my eyes had not +deluded me, to discover--' + + +'There is but one man of your nation who shall discover whence I came +and what I would obtain,' interrupted the stranger fiercely; 'that man +is Alaric, your king.' + +Surprise, indignation, and contempt appeared in the features of the +Goth, as he listened to such a declaration from the helpless outcast +before him. The man perceived it, and motioning him to be silent, again +addressed him. + +'Listen!' cried he. 'I have that to reveal to the leader of your forces +which will stir the heart of every man in your encampment, if you are +trusted with the secret after your king has heard it from my lips! Do +you still refuse to guide me to his tent?' + +Hermanric laughed scornfully. + +'Look on me,' pursued the man, bending forward, and fixing his eyes with +savage earnestness upon his listener's face. 'I am alone, old, wounded, +weak,--a stranger to your nation,--a famished and a helpless man! +Should I venture into your camp--should I risk being slain for a Roman +by your comrades--should I dare the wrath of your imperious ruler +without a cause?' + +He paused; and then, still keeping his eyes on the Goth, continued in +lower and more agitated tones-- + +'Deny me your help, I will wander through your camp till I find your +king? Imprison me, your violence will not open my lips! Slay me, you +will gain nothing by my death! But aid me, and to the latest moment of +your life you will rejoice in the deed! I have words of terrible import +for Alaric's ear,--a secret in the gaining of which I have paid the +penalty thus!' + +He pointed to his wounded arm. The solemnity of his voice, the rough +energy of his words, the stern determination of his aspect, the darkness +of the night that was round them, the rolling thunder that seemed to +join itself to their discourse, the impressive mystery of their meeting +under the city walls, all began to exert their powerful and different +influences over the mind of the Goth, changing insensibly the sentiments +at first inspired in him by the man's communications. He hesitated, and +looked round doubtfully towards the lines of the camp. + +There was a long silence, which was again interrupted by the stranger. + +'Guard me, chain me, mock at me if you will,' he cried, with raised +voice and flashing eyes, 'but lead me to Alaric's tent! I swear to you +by the thunder pealing over our heads, that the words I would speak to +him will be more precious in his eyes than the brightest jewel he could +ravish from the coffers of Rome.' + +Though visibly troubled and impressed, Hermanric still hesitated. + +'Do you yet delay?' exclaimed the man, with contemptuous impatience. +'Stand back! I will pass on by myself into the very heart of your camp! +I entered on my project alone--I will work its fulfilment without help! +Stand back!' + +And he moved past Hermanric in the direction of the suburbs, with the +same look of fierce energy on his withered features which had marked +them so strikingly at the outset of his extraordinary interview with the +young chieftain. + + +The daring devotion to his purpose, the reckless toiling after a +dangerous and doubtful success, manifested in the words and actions of +one so feeble and unaided as the stranger, aroused in the Goth that +sentiment of irrepressible admiration which the union of moral and +physical courage inevitably awakens. In addition to the incentive to +aid the man thus created, an ardent curiosity to discover his secret +filled the mind of Hermanric, and further powerfully inclined him to +conduct his determined companion into Alaric's presence--for by such +proceeding only could he hope, after the man's firm declaration that he +would communicate in the first instance to no one but the king, to +penetrate ultimately the object of his mysterious errand. Animated, +therefore, by such motives as these, he called to the stranger to stop, +and briefly communicated to him his willingness to conduct him instantly +to the presence of the leader of the Goths. + +The man intimated by a sign his readiness to accept the offer. His +physical powers were now evidently fast failing, but he still tottered +painfully onward as they moved to the headquarters of the camp, +muttering and gesticulating to himself almost incessantly. Once only +did he address his conductor during their progress; and then with a +startling abruptness of manner, and in tones of vehement anxiety and +suspicion, he demanded of the young Goth if he had ever examined the +surface of the city wall before that night. Hermanric replied in the +negative; and they then proceeded in perfect silence. + +Their way lay through the line of encampment to the westward, and was +imperfectly lighted by the flame of an occasional torch or the glow of a +distant watch-fire. The thunder had diminished in frequency, but had +increased in volume; faint breaths of wind soared up fitfully from the +west, and already a few raindrops fell slowly to the thirsty earth. The +warriors not actually on duty at the different posts of observation had +retired to the shelter of their tents; none of the thousand idlers and +attendants attached to the great army appeared at their usual haunts; +even the few voices that were audible sounded distant and low. The +night-scene here, among the ranks of the invaders of Italy, was as +gloomy and repelling as on the solitary plains before the walls of Rome. + +Ere long the stranger perceived that they had reached a part of the camp +more thickly peopled, more carefully illuminated, more strongly +fortified, than that through which they had already passed; and the +liquid, rushing sound of the waters of the rapid Tiber now caught his +suspicious and attentive ear. They still moved onward a few yards; and +then paused suddenly before a tent, immediately surrounded by many +others, and occupied at all its approaches by groups of richly-armed +warriors. Here Hermanric stopped an instant to parley with the sentinel, +who, after a short delay, raised the outer covering of the entrance to +the tent, and the moment after the Roman adventurer beheld himself +standing by his conductor's side in the presence of the Gothic king. + +The interior of Alaric's tent was lined with skins, and illuminated by +one small lamp, fastened to the centre pole that supported its roof. +The only articles of furniture in the place were some bundles of furs +flung down loosely on the ground, and a large, rudely-carved wooden +chest, on which stood a polished human skull, hollowed into a sort of +clumsy wine-cup. A thoroughly Gothic ruggedness of aspect, a stately +Northern simplicity prevailed over the spacious tent, and was indicated +not merely in its thick shadows, its calm lights, and its freedom from +pomp and glitter, but even in the appearance and employment of its +remarkable occupant. + + +Alaric was seated alone on the wooden chest already described, +contemplating with bent brow and abstracted gaze some old Runic +characters, traced upon the carved surface of a brass and silver shield, +full five feet high, which rested against the side of the tent. The +light of the lamp falling upon the polished surface of the weapon-- +rendered doubly bright by the dark skins behind it--was reflected back +upon the figure of the Goth chief. It glowed upon his ample cuirass; it +revealed his firm lips, slightly curled by an expression of scornful +triumph; it displayed the grand, muscular formation of his arm, which +rested--clothed in tightly-fitting leather--upon his knee; it partly +brightened over his short, light hair, and glittered steadily in his +fixed, thoughtful, manly eyes, which were just perceptible beneath the +partial shadow of his contracted brow; while it left the lower part of +his body and his right hand, which was supported on the head of a huge, +shaggy dog couching at his side, shadowed almost completely by the thick +skins heaped confusedly against the sides of the wooden chest. He was +so completely absorbed in the contemplation of the Runic characters, +traced among the carved figures on his immense shield, that he did not +notice the entry of Hermanric and the stranger until the growl of the +watchful dog suddenly disturbed him in his occupation. He looked up +instantly, his quick, penetrating glance dwelling for a moment on the +young chieftain, and then resting steadily and inquiringly on his +companion's feeble and mutilated form. + +Accustomed to the military brevity and promptitude exacted by his +commander in all communications addressed to him by his inferiors, +Hermanric, without waiting to be interrogated or attempting to preface +or excuse his narrative, shortly related the conversation that had taken +place between the stranger and himself on the plain near the Pincian +Gate; and then waited respectfully to receive the commendation or incur +the rebuke of the king, as the chance of the moment might happen to +decide. + +After again fixing his eyes in severe scrutiny on the person of the +Roman, Alaric spoke to the young warrior in the Gothic language thus:-- + +'Leave the man with me--return to your post, and there await whatever +commands it may be necessary that I should despatch to you to-night.' + +Hermanric immediately departed. Then, addressing the stranger for the +first time, and speaking in the Latin language, the Gothic leader +briefly and significantly intimated to his unknown visitant that they +were now alone. + +The man's parched lips moved, opened, quivered; his wild, hollow eyes +brightened till they absolutely gleamed, but he seemed incapable of +uttering a word; his features became horribly convulsed, the foam +gathered about his lips, he staggered forward and would have fallen to +the ground, had not the king instantly caught him in his strong grasp, +and placed him on the wooden chest that he had hitherto occupied +himself. + +'Can a starving Roman have escaped from the beleaguered city?' muttered +Alaric, as he took the skull cup, and poured some of the wine it +contained down the stranger's throat. + +The liquor was immediately successful in restoring composure to the +man's features and consciousness to his mind. He raised himself from +the seat, dashed off the cold perspiration that overspread his forehead, +and stood upright before the king--the solitary, powerless old man +before the vigorous lord of thousands, in the midst of his warriors-- +without a tremor in his steady eye or a prayer for protection on his +haughty lip. + +'I, a Roman,' he began, 'come from Rome, against which the invader wars +with the weapon of famine, to deliver the city, her people, her palaces, +and her treasures into the hands of Alaric the Goth.' + +The king started, looked on the speaker for a moment, and then turned +from him in impatience and contempt. + +'I lie not,' pursued the enthusiast, with a calm dignity that affected +even the hardy sensibilities of the Gothic hero. 'Eye me again! Could +I come starved, shrivelled, withered thus from any place but Rome? +Since I quitted the city an hour has hardly passed, and by the way that +I left it the forces of the Goths may enter it to-night.' + +'The proof of the harvest is in the quantity of the grain, not in the +tongue of the husbandman. Show me your open gates, and I will believe +that you have spoken truth,' retorted the king, with a rough laugh. + +'I betray the city,' resumed the man sternly, 'but on one condition; +grant it me, and--' + +'I will grant you your life,' interrupted Alaric haughtily. + + +'My life!' cried the Roman, and his shrunken form seemed to expand, and +his tremulous voice to grow firm and steady in the very bitterness of +his contempt, as he spoke. 'My life! I ask it not of your power! The +wreck of my body is scarce strong enough to preserve it to me a single +day! I have no home, no loves, no friends, no possessions! I live in +Rome a solitary in the midst of the multitude, a pagan in a city of +apostates! What is my life to me? I cherish it but for the service of +the gods, whose instruments of vengeance against the nation that has +denied them I would make you and your hosts! If you slay me, it is a +sign to me from them that I am worthless in their cause. I shall die +content.' + +He ceased. The king's manner, as he listened to him, gradually lost the +bluntness and carelessness that had hitherto characterised it, and +assumed an attention and a seriousness more in accordance with his high +station and important responsibilities. He began to regard the stranger +as no common renegade, no ordinary spy, no shallow impostor, who might +be driven from his tent with disdain; but as a man important enough to +be heard, and ambitious enough to be distrusted. Accordingly, he +resumed the seat from which he had risen during the interview, and +calmly desired his new ally to explain the condition, on the granting of +which depended the promised betrayal of the city of Rome. + +The pain-worn and despondent features of Ulpius became animated by a +glow of triumph as he heard the sudden mildness and moderation of the +king's demand; he raised his head proudly, and advanced a few steps, as +he thus loudly and abruptly resumed:-- + +'Assure to me the overthrow of the Christian churches, the extermination +of the Christian priests, and the universal revival of the worship of +the gods, and this night shall make you master of the chief city of the +empire you are labouring to subvert!' + +The boldness, the comprehensiveness, the insanity of wickedness +displayed in such a proposition, and emanating from such a source, so +astounded the mind of Alaric, as to deprive him for the moment of +speech. The stranger, perceiving his temporary inability to answer him, +broke the silence which ensued and continued-- + +'Is my condition a hard one? A conqueror is all-powerful; he can +overthrow the worship, as he can overthrow the government of a nation. +What matters it to you, while empire, renown, and treasure are yours, +what deities the people adore? Is it a great price to pay for an easy +conquest, to make a change which threatens neither your power, your +fame, nor your wealth? Do you marvel that I desire from you such a +revolution as this? I was born for the gods, in their service I +inherited rank and renown, for their cause I have suffered degradation +and woe, for their restoration I will plot, combat, die! Assure me then +by oath, that with a new rule you will erect our ancient worship, and +through my secret inlet to the city I will introduce men enough of the +Goths to murder with security the sentinels at the guard-houses, and +open the gates of Rome to the numbers of your whole invading forces. +Think not to despise the aid of a man unprotected and unknown! The +citizens will never yield to your blockade; you shrink from risking the +dangers of an assault; the legions of Ravenna are reported on their way +hitherward. Outcast as I am, I tell it to you here, in the midst of +your camp--your speediest assurance of success rests on my discovery and +on me!' + +The king started suddenly from his seat. 'What fool or madman!' he +cried, fixing his eyes in furious scorn and indignation on the +stranger's face, 'prates to me about the legions of Ravenna and the +dangers of an assault! Think you, renegade, that your city could have +resisted me had I chosen to storm it on the first day when I encamped +before its walls? Know you that your effeminate soldiery have laid +aside the armour of their ancestors, because their puny bodies are too +feeble to bear its weight, and that the half of my army here trebles the +whole number of the guards of Rome? Now, while you stand before me, I +have but to command, and the city shall be annihilated with fire and +sword, without the aid of one of the herd of traitors cowering beneath +the shelter of its ill-defended walls!' + + +As Alaric spoke thus, some invisible agency seemed to crush, body and +mind, the lost wretch whom he addressed. The shock of such an answer as +he now heard seemed to strike him idiotic, as a flash of lightning +strikes with blindness. He regarded the king with a bewildered stare, +waving his hand tremulously backwards and forwards before his face, as +if to clear some imaginary darkness off his eyes; then his arm fell +helpless by his side, his head drooped upon his breast, and he moaned +out in low, vacant tones, 'The restoration of the gods--that is the +condition of conquest--the restoration of the gods!' + +'I come not hither to be the tool of a frantic and forgotten +priesthood,' cried Alaric disdainfully. 'Wherever I meet with your +accursed idols I will melt them down into armour for my warriors and +shoes for my horses; I will turn your temples into granaries and cut +your images of wood into billets for the watchfires of my hosts!' + +'Slay me and be silent!' groaned the man, staggering back against the +side of the tent, and shrinking under the merciless words of the Goth +like a slave under the lash. + +'I leave the shedding of such blood as yours to your fellow Romans,' +answered the king; 'they alone are worthy of the deed.' + +No syllable of reply now escaped the stranger's lips, and after an +interval of silence Alaric resumed, in tones divested of their former +fiery irritation, and marked by a solemn earnestness that conferred +irresistible dignity and force on every word that he uttered. + +'Behold the characters engraven there!' said he, pointing to the shield; +'they trace the curse denounced by Odin against the great oppressor, +Rome! Once these words made part of the worship of our fathers; the +worship has long since vanished, but the words remain; they seal the +eternal hatred of the people of the North to the people of the South; +they contain the spirit of the great destiny that has brought me to the +walls of Rome. Citizen of a fallen empire, the measure of your crimes +is full! The voice of a new nation calls through me for the freedom of +the earth, which was made for man, and not for Romans! The rule that +your ancestors won by strength their posterity shall no longer keep by +fraud. For two hundred years, hollow and unlasting truces have +alternated with long and bloody wars between your people and mine. +Remembering this, remembering the wrongs of the Goths in their +settlements in Thrace, the murder of the Gothic youths in the towns of +Asia, the massacre of the Gothic hostages in Aquileia, I come--chosen by +the supernatural decrees of Heaven--to assure the freedom and satisfy +the wrath of my nation, by humbling at its feet the power of tyrannic +Rome! It is not for battle and bloodshed that I am encamped before +yonder walls. It is to crush to the earth, by famine and woe, the pride +of your people and the spirit of your rulers; to tear from you your +hidden wealth, and to strip you of your boasted honour; to overthrow by +oppression the oppressors of the world; to deny you the glories of a +resistance, and to impose on you the shame of a submission. It is for +this that I now abstain from storming your city, to encircle it with an +immovable blockade!' + +As the declaration of his great mission burst thus from the lips of the +Gothic king, the spirit of his lofty ambition seemed to diffuse itself +over his outward form. His noble stature, his fine proportions, his +commanding features, became invested with a simple, primeval grandeur. +Contrasted as he now was with the shrunken figure of the spirit-broken +stranger, he looked almost sublime. + + +A succession of protracted shuddering ran through the Pagan's frame, but +he neither wept nor spoke. The unavailing defence of the Temple of +Serapis, the defeated revolution at Alexandria, and the abortive +intrigue with Vetranio, were now rising on his memory, to heighten the +horror of his present and worst overthrow. Every circumstance connected +with his desperate passage through the rifted wall revived, fearfully +vivid, on his mind. He remembered all the emotions of his first night's +labour in the darkness, all the miseries of his second night's torture +under the fallen brickwork, all the woe, danger, and despondency that +accompanied his subsequent toil--persevered in under the obstructions of +a famine-weakened body and a helpless arm--until he passed, in delusive +triumph, the last of the hindrances in the long-laboured breach. One +after another these banished recollections returned to his memory as he +listened to Alaric's rebuking words--reviving past infirmities, opening +old wounds, inflicting new lacerations. But, saving the shudderings +that still shook his body, no outward witness betrayed the inward +torment that assailed him. It was too strong for human words, too +terrible for human sympathy;--he suffered it in brute silence. +Monstrous as was his plot, the moral punishment of its attempted +consummation was severe enough to be worthy of the projected crime. + +After watching the man for a few minutes more, with a glance of pitiless +disdain, Alaric summoned one of the warriors in attendance; and, having +previously commanded him to pass the word to the sentinels, authorising +the stranger's free passage through the encampment, he then turned, and, +for the last time, addressed him as follows:-- + +'Return to Rome, through the hole whence, reptile-like, you emerged!-- +and feed your starving citizens with the words you have heard in the +barbarian's tent!' + +The guard approached, led him from the presence of the king, issued the +necessary directions to the sentinels, and left him to himself. Once he +raised his eyes in despairing appeal to the heaven that frowned over his +head; but still, no word, or tear, or groan, escaped him. He moved +slowly on through the thick darkness; and turning his back on the city, +passed, careless whither he strayed, into the streets of the desolate +and dispeopled suburbs. + + +CHAPTER 16. LOVE MEETINGS. + +Who that has looked on a threatening and tempestuous sky, has not felt +the pleasure of discovering unexpectedly a small spot of serene blue, +still shining among the stormy clouds? The more unwillingly the eye has +wandered over the gloomy expanse of the rest of the firmament, the more +gladly does it finally rest on the little oasis of light which meets at +length its weary gaze, and which, when it was dispersed over the whole +heaven, was perhaps only briefly regarded with a careless glance. +Contrasted with the dark and mournful hues around it, even that small +spot of blue gradually acquires the power of investing the wider and +sadder prospect with a certain interest and animation that it did not +before possess--until the mind recognises in the surrounding atmosphere +of storm an object adding variety to the view--a spectacle whose +mournfulness may interest as well as repel. + +Was it with sensations resembling these (applied, however, rather to the +mind than to the eye) that the reader perused those pages devoted to +Hermanric and Antonina? Does the happiness there described now appear +to him to beam through the stormy progress of the narrative as the spot +of blue beams through the gathering clouds? Did that small prospect of +brightness present itself, at the time, like a garden of repose amid the +waste of fierce emotions which encompassed it? Did it encourage him, +when contrasted with what had gone before, to enter on the field of +gloomier interest which was to follow? If, indeed, it has thus affected +him, if he can still remember the scene at the farm-house beyond the +suburbs with emotions such as these, he will not now be unwilling to +turn again for a moment from the gathering clouds to the spot of blue,-- +he will not deny us an instant's digression from Ulpius and the city of +famine to Antonina and the lonely plains. + +During the period that has elapsed since we left her, Antonina has +remained secure in her solitude, happy in her well-chosen concealment. +The few straggling Goths who at rare intervals appeared in the +neighbourhood of her sanctuary never intruded on its peaceful limits. +The sight of the ravaged fields and emptied granaries of the deserted +little property sufficed invariably to turn their marauding steps in +other directions. Day by day ran smoothly and swiftly onwards for the +gentle usurper of the abandoned farm-house. In the narrow round of its +gardens and protecting woods was comprised for her the whole circle of +the pleasures and occupations of her new life. + + +The simple stores left in the house, the fruits and vegetables to be +gathered in the garden, sufficed amply for her support. The pastoral +solitude of the place had in it a quiet, dreamy fascination, a novelty, +an unwearying charm, after the austere loneliness to which her former +existence had been subjected in Rome. And when evening came, and the +sun began to burnish the tops of the western tress, then, after the calm +emotions of the solitary day, came the hour of absorbing cares and happy +expectations--ever the same, yet ever delighting and ever new. Then the +rude shutters were carefully closed; the open door was shut and barred; +the small light--now invisible to the world without--was joyfully +kindled; and then, the mistress and author of these preparations +resigned herself to await, with pleased anxiety, the approach of the +guest for whose welcome they were designed. + +And never did she expect the arrival of that treasured companion in +vain. Hermanric remembered his promise to repair constantly to the +farm-house, and performed it with all the constancy of love and all the +enthusiasm of youth. When the sentinels under his command were arranged +in their order of watching for the night, and the trust reposed in him +by his superiors exempted his actions from superintendence during the +hours of darkness that followed, he left the camp, passed through the +desolate suburbs, and gained the dwelling where the young Roman awaited +him--returning before daybreak to receive the communication s regularly +addressed to him, at that hour, by his inferior in the command. + +Thus, false to his nation, yet true to the new Egeria of his thoughts +and actions--traitor to the requirements of vengeance and war, yet +faithful to the interests of tranquility and love--did he seek, night +after night, Antonina's presence. His passion, though it denied him to +his warrior duties, wrought not deteriorating change in his disposition. +All that it altered in him it altered nobly. It varied and exalted his +rude emotions, for it was inspired, not alone by the beauty and youth +that he saw, but by the pure thoughts, the artless eloquence that he +heard. And she--the forsaken daughter, the source whence the Northern +warrior derived those new and higher sensations that had never animated +him until now--regarded her protector, her first friend and companion, +as her first love, with a devotion which, in its mingled and exalted +nature, may be imagined by the mind, but can be but imperfectly depicted +by the pen. It was a devotion created of innocence and gratitude, of +joy and sorrow, of apprehension and hope. It was too fresh, too +unworldly to own any upbraidings of artificial shame, any self- +reproaches of artificial propriety. It resembled in its essence, though +not in its application, the devotion of the first daughters of the Fall +to their brother-lords. + +But it is now time that we return to the course of our narrative; +although, ere we again enter on the stirring and rapid present, it will +be necessary for a moment more to look back in another direction to the +eventful past. + +But it is not on peace, beauty, and pleasure that our observation now +fixes itself. It is to anger, disease, and crime--to the unappeasable +and unwomanly Goisvintha, that we now revert. + +Since the day when the violence of her conflicting emotions had deprived +her of consciousness, at the moment of her decisive triumph over the +scruples of Hermanric and the destiny of Antonina, a raging fever had +visited on her some part of those bitter sufferings that she would fain +have inflicted on others. Part of the time she lay in a raving +delirium; part of the time in helpless exhaustion; but she never forgot, +whatever the form assumed by her disease, the desperate purpose in the +pursuit of which she had first incurred it. Slowly and doubtfully her +vigour at length returned to her, and with it strengthened and increased +the fierce ambition of vengeance that absorbed her lightest thoughts and +governed her most careless actions. + + +Report informed her of the new position, on the line of blockade, on +which Hermanric was posted, and only enumerated as the companions of his +sojourn the warriors sent thither under his command. But, though thus +persuaded of the separation of Antonina and the Goth, her ignorance of +the girl's fate rankled unintermittingly in her savage heart. Doubtful +whether she had permanently reclaimed Hermanric to the interests of +vengeance and bloodshed; vaguely suspecting that he might have informed +himself in her absence of Antonina's place of refuge or direction of +flight; still resolutely bent on securing the death of her victim, +wherever she might have strayed, she awaited with trembling eagerness +that day of restoration to available activity and strength which would +enable her to resume her influence over the Goth, and her machinations +against the safety of the fugitive girl. The time of her final and long- +expected recovery, was the very day preceding the stormy night we have +already described, and her first employment of her renewed energy was to +send word to the young Goth of her intention of seeking him at his +encampment ere the evening closed. + +It was this intimation which caused the inquietude mentioned as +characteristic of the manner of Hermanric at the commencement of the +preceding chapter. The evening there described was the first that saw +him deprived, through the threatened visit of Goisvintha, of the +anticipation of repairing to Antonina, as had been his wont, under cover +of the night; for to slight his kinswoman's ominous message was to risk +the most fatal of discoveries. Trusting to the delusive security of her +sickness, he had hitherto banished the unwelcome remembrance of her +existence from his thoughts. But, now that she was once more capable of +exertion and of crime, he felt that if he would preserve the secret of +Antonina's hiding-place and the security of Antonina's life, he must +remain to oppose force to force and stratagem to stratagem, when +Goisvintha sought him at his post, even at the risk of inflicting, by +his absence from the farm-house, all the pangs of anxiety and +apprehension on the lonely girl. + +Absorbed in such reflections as these, longing to depart, yet determined +to remain, he impatiently awaited Goisvintha's approach, until the +rising of the storm with its mysterious and all-engrossing train of +events forced his thoughts and actions into a new channel. When, +however, his interviews with the stranger and the Gothic king were past, +and he had returned as he had been bidden to his appointed sojourn in +the camp, his old anxieties, displaced but not destroyed, resumed their +influence over him. He demanded eagerly of his comrades if Goisvintha +had arrived in his absence, and received the same answer in the negative +from each. + +As he now listened to the melancholy rising of the wind and the +increasing loudness of the thunder, to the shrill cries of the distant +night-birds hurrying to shelter, emotions of mournfulness and awe +possessed themselves of his heart. He now wondered that any events, +however startling, however appalling, should have had the power to turn +his mind for a moment from the dreary contemplations that had engaged it +at the close of day. He thought of Antonina, solitary and helpless, +listening to the tempest in affright, and watching vainly for his long- +delayed approach. His fancy arrayed before him dangers, plots, and +crimes, robed in all the horrible exaggerations of a dream. Even the +quick, monotonous dripping of the rain-drops outside aroused within him +dark and indefinable forebodings of ill. The passion that had hitherto +created for him new pleasures was now fulfilling the other half of its +earthly mission, and causing him new pains. + +As the storm strengthened, as the darkness lowered deeper and deeper, so +did his inquietude increase, until at length it mastered the last feeble +resistance of his wavering firmness. Persuading himself that, after +having delayed so long, Goisvintha would now refrain from seeking him +until the morrow, and that all communications from Alaric, had they been +despatched, would have reached him ere this; unable any longer to combat +his anxiety for the safety of Antonina; determined to risk the worst +possibilities rather than be absent at such a time of tempest and peril +from the farm-house, he made a last visit to the stations of the +watchful sentinels, and quitted the camp for the night. + + +CHAPTER 17. THE HUNS. + +More than an hour after Hermanric had left the encampment, a man +hurriedly entered the house set apart for the young chieftain's +occupation. He made no attempt to kindle either light or fire, but sat +down in the principal apartment, occasionally whispering to himself in a +strange and barbarous tongue. + + +He had remained but a short time in possession of his comfortless +solitude, when he was intruded on by a camp-follower, bearing a small +lamp, and followed closely by a woman, who, as he started up and +confronted her, announced herself as Hermanric's kinswoman, and eagerly +demanded an interview with the Goth. + +Haggard and ghastly though it was from recent suffering and long +agitation, the countenance of Goisvintha (for it was she) appeared +absolutely attractive as it was now opposed by the lamp-light to the +face and figure of the individual she addressed. A flat nose, a swarthy +complexion, long, coarse, tangled locks of deep black hair, a beardless, +retreating chin, and small, savage, sunken eyes, gave a character almost +bestial to this man's physiognomy. His broad, brawny shoulders overhung +a form that was as low in stature as it was athletic in build; you +looked on him and saw the sinews of a giant strung in the body of a +dwarf. And yet this deformed Hercules was no solitary error of Nature-- +no extraordinary exception to his fellow-beings, but the actual type of +a whole race, stunted and repulsive as himself. He was a Hun. + +This savage people, the terror even of their barbarous neighbours, +living without government, laws, or religion, possessed but one feeling +in common with the human race--the instinct of war. Their historical +career may be said to have begun with their early conquests in China, +and to have proceeded in their first victories over the Goths, who +regarded them as demons, and fled at their approach. The hostilities +thus commenced between the two nations were at length suspended by the +temporary alliance of the conquered people with the empire, and +subsequently ceased in the gradual fusion of the interests of each in +one animating spirit--detestation of Rome. + +By this bond of brotherhood, the Goths and the Huns became publicly +united, though still privately at enmity--for the one nation remembered +its former defeats as vividly as the other remembered its former +victories. With various disasters, dissensions, and successes, they ran +their career of battle and rapine, sometimes separate, sometimes +together, until the period of our romance, when Alaric's besieging +forces numbered among the ranks of their barbarian auxiliaries a body of +Huns, who, unwillingly admitted to the title of Gothic allies, were +dispersed about the army in subordinate stations, and of whom the +individual above described was one of those contemptuously favoured by +promotion to an inferior command, under Hermanric, as a Gothic chief. + +An expression of aversion, but not of terror, passed over Goisvintha's +worn features as she approached the barbarian, and repeated her desire +to be conducted to Hermanric's presence. For the second time, however, +the man gave her no answer. He burst into a shrill, short laugh, and +shook his huge shoulders in clumsy derision. + +The woman's cheek reddened for an instant, and then turned again to +livid paleness as she thus resumed-- + +'I came not hither to be mocked by a barbarian, but to be welcomed by a +Goth! Again I ask you, where is my kinsman, Hermanric?' + +'Gone!' cried the Hun. And his laughter grew more wild and discordant +as he spoke. + +A sudden tremor ran through Goisvintha's frame as she marked the manner +of the barbarian and heard his reply. Repressing with difficulty her +anger and agitation, she continued, with apprehension in her eyes and +entreaty in her tones-- + +'Whither has he gone? Wherefore has he departed? I know that the hour +I appointed for our meeting here has long passed; but I have suffered a +sickness of many weeks, and when, at evening, I prepared to set forth, +my banished infirmities seemed suddenly to return to me again. I was +borne to my bed. But, though the woman who succoured me bid me remain +and repose, I found strength in the night to escape them, and through +storm and darkness to come hither alone--for I was determined, though I +should perish for it, to seek the presence of Hermanric, as I had +promised by my messengers. You, that are the companion of his watch, +must know whither he is gone. Go to him, and tell him what I have +spoken. I will await his return!' + + +'His business is secret,' sneered the Hun. 'He has departed, but +without telling me whither. How should I, that am a barbarian, know the +whereabouts of an illustrious Goth? It is not for me to know his +actions, but to obey his words!' + +'Jeer not about your obedience,' returned Goisvintha with breathless +eagerness. 'I say to you again, you know whither he is gone, and you +must tell me for what he has departed. You obey him--there is money to +make you obey me!' + +'When I said his business was secret, I lied not,' said the Hun, picking +up with avidity the coins she flung to him--'but he has not kept it +secret from me! The Huns are cunning! Aha, ugly and cunning!' + +Suspicion, the only refined emotion in a criminal heart, half discovered +to Goisvintha, at this moment, the intelligence that was yet to be +communicated. No word, however, escaped her, while she signed the +barbarian to proceed. + +'He has gone to a farm-house on the plains beyond the suburbs behind us. +He will not return till daybreak,' continued the Hun, tossing his money +carelessly in his great, horny hands. + +'Did you see him go?' gasped the woman. + +'I tracked him to the house,' returned the barbarian. 'For many nights +I watched and suspected him--to-night I saw him depart. It is but a +short time since I returned from following him. The darkness did not +delude me; the place is on the high-road from the suburbs--the first by- +path to the westward leads to its garden gate. I know it! I have +discovered his secret! I am more cunning than he!' + +'For what did he seek the farm-house at night?' demanded Goisvintha +after an interval, during which she appeared to be silently fixing the +man's last speech in her memory; 'are you cunning enough to tell me +that?' + +'For what do men venture their safety and their lives, their money and +their renown?' laughed the barbarian. 'They venture them for women! +There is a girl at the farm-house; I saw her at the door when the chief +went in!' + +He paused; but Goisvintha made no answer. Remembering that she was +descended from a race of women who slew their wounded husbands, +brothers, and sons with their own hands when they sought them after +battle dishonoured by a defeat; remembering that the fire of the old +ferocity of such ancestors as these still burnt at her heart; +remembering all that she had hoped from Hermanric, and had plotted +against Antonina; estimating in all its importance the shock of the +intelligence she now received, we are alike unwilling and unable to +describe her emotions at this moment. For some time the stillness in +the room was interrupted by no sounds but the rolling of the thunder +without, the quick, convulsive respiration of Goisvintha, and the +clinking of the money which the Hun still continued to toss mechanically +from hand to hand. + +'I shall reap good harvest of gold and silver after to-night's work,' +pursued the barbarian, suddenly breaking the silence. 'You have given +me money to speak--when the chief returns and hears that I have +discovered him, he will give me money to be silent. I shall drink to- +morrow with the best men in the army, Hun though I am!' + +He returned to his seat as he ceased, and began beating in monotonous +measure, with one of his pieces of money on the blade of his sword, some +chorus of a favourite drinking song; while Goisvintha, standing pale and +breathless near the door of the chamber, looked down on him with fixed, +vacant eyes. At length a deep sigh broke from her; her hands +involuntarily clenched themselves at her side; her lips moved with a +bitter smile; then, without addressing another word to the Hun, she +turned, and softly and stealthily quitted the room. + + +The instant she was gone, a sudden change arose in the barbarian's +manner. He started from his seat, a scowl of savage hatred and triumph +appeared on his shaggy brows, and he paced to and fro through the +chamber like a wild beast in his cage. 'I shall tear him from the +pinnacle of his power at last!' he whispered fiercely to himself. 'For +what I have told her this night, his kinswoman will hate him--I knew it +while she spoke! For his desertion of his post, Alaric may dishonour +him, may banish him, may hang him! His fate is at my mercy; I shall rid +myself nobly of him and his command! More than all the rest of his +nation I loathe this Goth! I will be by when they drag him to the tree, +and taunt him with his shame, as he has taunted me with my deformity.' +Here he paused to laugh in complacent approval of his project, +quickening his steps and hugging himself joyfully in the barbarous +exhilaration of his triumph. + +His secret meditations had thus occupied him for some time longer, when +the sound of a footstep was audible outside the door. He recognised it +instantly, and called softly to the person without to approach. At the +signal of his voice a man entered--less athletic in build, but in +deformity the very counterpart of himself. The following discourse was +then immediately held between the two Huns, the new-comer beginning it +thus:-- + +'Have you tracked him to the door?' + +'To the very threshold.' + +'Then his downfall is assured! I have seen Alaric.' + +'We shall trample him under our feet!--this boy, who has been set over +us that are his elders, because he is a Goth and we are Huns! But what +of Alaric? How did you gain his ear?' + +'The Goths round his tent scoffed at me as a savage, and swore that I +was begotten between a demon and a witch. But I remembered the time +when these boasters fled from their settlements; when our tribes mounted +their black steeds and hunted them like beasts! Aha, their very lips +were pale with fear in those days.' + +'Speak of Alaric--our time is short,' interrupted the other fiercely. + +'I answered not a word to their taunts,' resumed his companion, 'but I +called out loudly that I was a Gothic ally, that I brought messages to +Alaric, and that I had the privilege of audience like the rest. My voice +reached the ears of the king: he looked forth from his tent, and +beckoned me in. I saw his hatred of my nation lowering in his eye as we +looked on one another, but I spoke with submission and in a soft voice. +I told him how his chieftain whom he had set over us secretly deserted +his post; I told him how we had seen his favoured warrior for many +nights journeying towards the suburbs; how on this night, as on others +before, he had stolen from the encampment, and how you had gone forth to +track him to his lurking-place.' + +'Was the tyrant angered?' + +'His cheeks reddened, and his eyes flashed, and his fingers trembled +round the hilt of his sword while I spoke! When I ceased he answered me +that I lied. He cursed me for an infidel Hun who had slandered a +Christian chieftain. He threatened me with hanging! I cried to him to +send messengers to our quarters to prove the truth ere he slew me. He +commanded a warrior to return hither with me. When we arrived, the most +Christian chieftain was nowhere to be beheld--none knew whither he had +gone! We turned back again to the tent of the king; his warrior, whom +he honoured, spoke the same words to him as the Hun whom he despised. +Then the wrath of Alaric rose. "This very night," he cried, "did I with +my own lips direct him to await my commands with vigilance at his +appointed post! I would visit such disobedience with punishment on my +own son! Go, take with you others of your troop--your comrade who has +tracked him will guide you to his hiding-place--bring him prisoner into +my tent!" Such were his words! Our companions wait us without--lest he +should escape let us depart without delay.' + + +'And if he should resist us,' cried the other, leading the way eagerly +towards the door; 'what said the king if he should resist us?' + +'Slay him with your own hands.' + + +CHAPTER 18. THE FARM-HOUSE. + +As the night still advanced, so did the storm increase. On the plains +in the open country its violence was most apparent. Here no living +voices jarred with the dreary music of the elements; no flaming torches +opposed the murky darkness or imitated the glaring lightning. The +thunder pursued uninterruptedly its tempest symphony, and the fierce +wind joined it, swelling into wild harmony when it rushed through the +trees, as if in their waving branches it struck the chords of a mighty +harp. + +In the small chamber of the farm-house sat together Hermanric and +Antonina, listening in speechless attention to the increasing tumult of +the storm. + +The room and its occupants were imperfectly illuminated by the flame of +a smouldering wood fire. The little earthenware lamp hung from its usual +place in the ceiling, but its oil was exhausted and its light was +extinct. An alabaster vase of fruit lay broken by the side of the +table, from which it had fallen unnoticed to the floor. No other +articles of ornament appeared in the apartment. Hermanric's downcast +eyes and melancholy, unchanging expressions betrayed the gloomy +abstraction in which he was absorbed. With one hand clasped in his, and +the other resting with her head on his shoulder, Antonina listened +attentively to the alternate rising and falling of the wind. Her beauty +had grown fresher and more woman-like during her sojourn at the farm- +house. Cheerfulness and hope seemed to have gained at length all the +share in her being assigned to them by nature at her birth. Even at +this moment of tempest and darkness there was more of wonder and awe +than of agitation and affright in her expression, as she sat hearkening, +with flushed cheek and brightened eye, to the progress of the nocturnal +storm. + +Thus engrossed by their thoughts, Hermanric and Antonina remained silent +in their little retreat, until the reveries of both were suddenly +interrupted by the snapping asunder of the bar of wood which secured the +door of the room, the stress of which, as it bent under the repeated +shocks of the wind, the rotten spar was too weak to sustain any longer. +There was something inexpressibly desolate in the flood of rain, wind, +and darkness that seemed instantly to pour into the chamber through the +open door, as it flew back violently on its frail hinges. Antonina +changed colour, and shuddered involuntarily, as Hermanric hastily rose +and closed the door again, by detaching its rude latch from the sling +which held it when not wanted for use. He looked round the room as he +did so for some substitute for the broken bar, but nothing that was fit +for the purpose immediately met his eye, and he muttered to himself as +he returned impatiently to his seat: 'While we are here to watch it the +latch is enough; it is new and strong.' + +He seemed on the point of again relapsing into his former gloom, when +the voice of Antonina arrested his attention, and aroused him for the +moment from his thoughts. + +'Is it in the power of the tempest to make you, a warrior of a race of +heroes, thus sorrowful and sad?' she asked, in accents of gentle +reproach. 'Even I, as I look on these walls that are so eloquent of my +happiness, and sit by you whose presence makes that happiness, can +listen to the raging storm, and feel no heaviness over my heart! What +is there to either of us in the tempest that should oppress us with +gloom? Does not the thunder come from the same heaven as the sunshine +of the summer day? You are so young, so generous, so brave,--you have +loved, and pitied, and succoured me,--why should the night language of +the sky cast such sorrow and such silence over you?' + +'It is not from sorrow that I am silent,' replied Hermanric, with a +constrained smile, 'but from weariness with much toil in the camp.' + + +He stifled a sigh as he spoke. His head returned to its old downcast +position. The struggle between his assumed carelessness and his real +inquietude was evidently unequal. As she looked fixedly on him, with +the vigilant eye of affection, the girl's countenance saddened with his. +She nestled closer to his side and resumed the discourse in anxious and +entreating tones. + +'It is haply the strife between our two nations which has separated us +already, and may separate us again, that thus oppresses you,' said she; +'but think, as I do, of the peace that must come, and not of the warfare +that now is. Think of the pleasures of our past days, and of the +happiness of our present moments,--thus united, thus living, loving, +hoping for each other; and, like me, you will doubt not of the future +that is in preparation for us both! The season of tranquillity may +return with the season of spring. The serene heaven will then be +reflected on a serene country and a happy people; and in those days of +sunshine and peace, will any hearts among all the glad population be +more joyful than ours?' + +She paused a moment. Some sudden thought or recollection heightened her +colour and caused her to hesitate ere she proceeded. She was about at +length to continue, when a peal of thunder, louder than any which had +preceded it, burst threateningly over the house and drowned the first +accents of her voice. The wind moaned loudly, the rain splashed against +the door, the latch rattled long and sharply in its socket. Once more +Hermanric rose from his seat, and approaching the fire, placed a fresh +log of wood upon the dying embers. His dejection seemed now to +communicate itself to Antonina, and as he reseated himself by her side, +she did not address him again. + +Thoughts, dreary and appalling beyond any that had occupied it before, +were rising in the mind of the Goth. His inquietude at the encampment +in the suburbs was tranquillity itself compared to the gloom which now +oppressed him. All the evaded dues of his nation, his family, and his +calling; all the suppressed recollections of the martial occupation he +had slighted, and the martial enmities he had disowned, now revived +avengingly in his memory. Yet, vivid as these remembrances were, they +weakened none of those feelings of passionate devotion to Antonina by +which their influence within him had hitherto been overcome. They +existed with them--the old recollections with the new emotions--the +stern rebukings of the warrior's nature with the anxious forebodings of +the lover's heart. And now, his mysterious meeting with Ulpius; +Goisvintha's unexpected return to health; the dreary rising and furious +progress of the night tempest, began to impress his superstitious mind +as a train of unwonted and meaning incidents, destined to mark the fatal +return of his kinswoman's influence over his own actions and Antonina's +fate. + +One by one, his memory revived with laborious minuteness every incident +that had attended his different interviews with the Roman girl, from the +first night when she had strayed into his tent to the last happy evening +that he had spent with her at the deserted farm-house. Then tracing +further backwards the course of his existence, he figured to himself his +meeting with Goisvintha among the Italian Alps; his presence at the +death of her last child, and his solemn engagement, on hearing her +recital of the massacre at Aquileia, to avenge her on the Romans with +his own hands. Roused by these opposite pictures of the past, his +imagination peopled the future with images of Antonina again endangered, +afflicted, and forsaken; with visions of the impatient army, spurred at +length into ferocious action, making universal havoc among the people of +Rome, and forcing him back for ever into their avenging ranks. No +decision for resistance or resignation to flight presented itself to his +judgment. Doubt, despair, and apprehension held unimpeded sway over his +impressible but inactive faculties. The night itself, as he looked +forth on it, was not more dark; the wild thunder, as he listened to it, +not more gloomy; the name of Goisvintha, as he thought on it, not more +ominous of evil, than the sinister visions that now startled his +imagination and oppressed his weary mind. + + +There was something indescribably simple, touching, and eloquent in the +very positions of Hermanric and Antonina as they now sat together--the +only members of their respective nations who were united in affection +and peace--in the lonely farm-house. Both the girl's hands were clasped +over Hermanric's shoulder, and her head rested on them, turned from the +door towards the interior of the room, and so displaying her rich, black +hair in all its luxuriance. The head of the Goth was still sunk on his +breast, as though he were wrapped in a deep sleep, and his hands hung +listlessly side by side over the scabbard of his sheathed sword, which +lay across his knees. The fire flamed only at intervals, the fresh log +that had been placed on it not having been thoroughly kindled as yet. +Sometimes the light played on the white folds of Antonina's dress; +sometimes over the bright surface of Hermanric's cuirass, which he had +removed and laid by his side on the ground; sometimes over his sword, +and his hands, as they rested on it; but it was not sufficiently +powerful or lasting to illuminate the room, the walls and corners of +which it left in almost complete darkness. + +The thunder still pealed from without, but the rain and wind had +partially lulled. The night hours had moved on more swiftly than our +narrative of the events that marked them. It was now midnight. + +No sound within the room reached Antonina's ear but the quick rattling +of the door-latch, shaken in its socket by the wind. As one by one the +moments journeyed slowly onward, it made its harsh music with as +monotonous a regularity as though it were moved by their progress, and +kept pace with their eternal march. Gradually the girl found herself +listening to this sharp, discordant sound, with all the attention she +could have bestowed at other times on the ripple of a distant rivulet or +the soothing harmony of a lute, when, just as it seemed adapting itself +most easily to her senses, it suddenly ceased, and the next instant a +gust of wind, like that which had rushed through the open door on the +breaking of the rotten bar, waved her hair about her face and fluttered +the folds of her light, loose dress. She raised her head and whispered +tremulously to Hermanric-- + +'The door is open again--the latch has given way!' + +The Goth started from his reverie and looked up hastily. At that +instant the rattling of the latch recommenced as suddenly as it had +ceased, and the air of the room recovered its former tranquillity. + +'Calm yourself, beloved one,' said Hermanric gently; 'your fancy has +misled you--the door is safe.' + +He parted back her dishevelled hair caressingly as he spoke. Incapable +of doubting the lightest word that fell from his lips, and hearing no +suspicious or unwonted sound in the room, she never attempted to justify +her suspicions. As she again rested her head on his shoulder, a vague +misgiving oppressed her heart, and drew from her an irrepressible sigh; +but she gave her apprehensions no expression in words. After listening +for a moment more to assure himself of the security of the latch, the +Goth resumed insensibly the contemplations from which he had been +disturbed; once more his head drooped, and again his hands returned +mechanically to their old listless position, side by side, on the +scabbard of his sword. + +The faint, fickle flames still rose and fell, gleaming here and sinking +there, the latch sounded sharply in its socket, the thunder yet uttered +its surly peal, but the wind was now subsiding into fainter moans, and +the rain began to splash faintly and more faintly against the shutters +without. To the watchers in the farm-house nothing was altered to the +eye, and little to the ear. Fatal security! The last few minutes had +darkly determined their future destinies--in the loved and cherished +retreat they were now no longer alone. + +They heard no stealthy footsteps pacing round their dwelling, they saw +no fierce eyes peering into the interior of the farm-house through a +chink in the shutters, they marked no dusky figure passing through the +softly and quickly opened door, and gliding into the darkest corner of +the room. Yet, now as they sat together, communing in silence with +their young, sad hearts, the threatening figure of Goisvintha stood, +shrouded in congenial darkness, under their protecting roof and in their +beloved chamber, rising still and silent almost at their very sides. + +Though the fire of her past fever had raged again through her veins, and +though startling visions of the murders at Aquileia had flashed before +her mind as the wild lightning before her eyes, she had traced her way +through the suburbs and along the high-road, and down the little path to +the farm-house gate, without straying, without hesitating. Regardless +of the darkness and the storm, she had prowled about the house, had +raised the latch, had waited for a loud peal of thunder ere she passed +the door, and had stolen shadow-like into the darkest corner of the +room, with a patience and a determination that nothing could disturb. +And now, when she stood at the goal of her worst wishes, even now, when +she looked down upon the two beings by whom she had been thwarted and +deceived, her fierce self-possession did not desert her; her lips +quivered over her locked teeth, her bosom heaved beneath her drenched +garments, but neither sighs nor curses, not even a smile of triumph or a +movement of anger escaped her. + +She never looked at Antonina; her eyes wandered not for a moment from +Hermanric's form. The quickest, faintest gleam of firelight that +gleamed over it was followed through its fitful course by her eager +glance, rapid and momentary as itself. Soon her attention was fixed +wholly upon his hands, as they lay over the scabbard of his sword; and +then, slowly and obscurely, a new and fatal resolution sprung up within +her. The various emotions pictured in her face became resolved into one +sinister expression, and, without removing her eyes from the Goth, she +slowly drew from the bosom-folds of her garment a long sharp knife. + +The flames alternately trembled into light and subsided into darkness as +at first; Hermanric and Antonina yet continued in their old positions, +absorbed in their thoughts and in themselves; and still Goisvintha +remained unmoved as ever, knife in hand, watchful, steady, silent as +before. + +But beneath the concealment of her outward tranquillity raged a +contention under which her mind darkened and her heart writhed. Twice +she returned the knife to its former hiding-place, and twice she drew it +forth again; her cheeks grew paler and paler, she pressed her clenched +hand convulsively over her bosom, and leant back languidly against the +wall behind her. No thought of Antonina had part in this great strife +of secret emotions; her wrath had too much of anguish in it to be spent +against a stranger and an enemy. + +After the lapse of a few moments more, her strength returned--her +firmness was aroused. The last traces of grief and despair that had +hitherto appeared in her eyes vanished from them in an instant. Rage, +vengeance, ferocity, lowered over them as she crept stealthily forward +to the very side of the Goth, and, when the next gleam of the fire +played upon him, drew the knife fiercely across the back of his hands. +The cut was true, strong, and rapid--it divided the tendons from first +to last--he was crippled for life. + +At that instant the fire touched the very heart of the log that had been +laid on it. It crackled gaily; it blazed out brilliantly. The whole +room was as brightly illuminated as if a Christmas festival of ancient +England had been preparing within its walls! + +The warm, cheerful light showed the Goth the figure of his assassin, ere +the first cry of anguish had died away on his lips, or the first start +of irrepressible horror ceased to vibrate through his frame. The cries +of his hapless companion, as the whole scene of vengeance, treachery, +and mutilation flashed in one terrible instant before her eyes, seemed +not even to reach his ears. Once he looked down upon his helpless +hands, when the sword rolled heavily from them to the floor. Then his +gaze directed itself immovably upon Goisvintha, as she stood at a little +distance from him, with her blood-stained knife, silent as himself. + + +There was no fury--no defiance--not even the passing distortion of +physical suffering in his features, as he now looked on her. Blank, +rigid horror--tearless, voiceless, helpless despair, seemed to have +petrified the expression of his face into an everlasting form, +unyouthful and unhopeful--as if he had been imprisoned from his +childhood, and a voice was now taunting him with the pleasures of +liberty, from a grating in his dungeon walls. Not even when Antonina, +recovering from her first agony of terror, pressed her convulsive kisses +on his cold cheek, entreating him to look on her, did he turn his head, +or remove his eyes from Goisvintha's form. + +At length the deep steady accents of the woman's voice were heard +through the desolate silence. + +'Traitor in word and thought you may be yet, but traitor in deed you +never more shall be!' she began, pointing to his hands with her knife. +'Those hands, that have protected a Roman life, shall never grasp a +Roman sword, shall never pollute again by their touch a Gothic weapon! +I remembered, as I watched you in the darkness, how the women of my race +once punished their recreant warriors when they fled to them from a +defeat. So have I punished you! The arm that served not the cause of +sister and sister's children--of king and king's nation--shall serve no +other! I am half avenged of the murders at Aquileia, now that I am +avenged on you! Go, fly with the Roman you have chosen to the city of +her people! Your life as a warrior is at an end!' + +He made her no answer. There are emotions, the last of a life, which +tear back from nature the strongest barriers that custom raises to +repress her, which betray the lurking existence of the first rude social +feeling of the primeval days of a great nation, in the breasts of their +most distant descendants, however widely their acquirements, their +prosperities, or their changes may seem to have morally separated them +from their ancestors of old. Such were the emotions now awakened in the +heart of the Goth. His Christianity, his love, his knowledge of high +aims, and his experience of new ideas, sank and deserted him, as though +he had never known them. He thought on his mutilated hands, and no +other spirit moved within him, but the ancient Gothic spirit of +centuries back; the inspiration of his nation's early Northern songs and +early Northern achievements--the renown of courage and the supremacy of +strength. + +Vainly did Antonina, in the midst of the despair that still possessed +her, yearn for a word from his lips or a glance from his eyes; vainly +did her trembling fingers, tearing the bandages from her robe, stanch +the blood on his wounded hands; vainly did her voice call on him to fly +and summon help from his companions in the camp! His mind was far away, +brooding over the legends of the battle-fields of his ancestors, +remembering how, even in the day of victory, they slew themselves if +they were crippled in the fray, how they scorned to exist for other +interests than the interests of strife, how they mutilated traitors as +Goisvintha had mutilated him! Such were the objects that enchained his +inward faculties, while his outward senses were still enthralled by the +horrible fascination that existed for him in the presence of the +assassin by his side. His very consciousness of his existence, though +he moved and breathed, seemed to have ceased. + +'You thought to deceive me in my sickness, you hoped to profit by my +death,' resumed Goisvintha, returning contemptuously her victim's +glance. 'You trusted in the night, and the darkness, and the storm; you +were secure in your boldness, in your strength, in the secrecy of this +lurking-place that you have chosen for your treachery, but your +stratagems and your expectations have failed you! At Aquileia I learnt +to be wily and watchful as you! I discovered your desertion of the +warriors and the camp; I penetrated the paths to your hiding-place; I +entered it as softly as I once departed from the dwelling where my +children were slain! In my just vengeance I have treated you as +treacherously as you would have treated me! Remember your murdered +brother; remember the child I put into your arms wounded and received +from them dead; remember your broken oaths and forgotten promises, and +make to your nation, to your duties, and to me, the atonement--the last +and the only one--that in my mercy I have left in your power--the +atonement of death.' + + +Again she paused, and again no reply awaited her. Still the Goth +neither moved nor spoke, and still Antonina--kneeling unconsciously upon +the sword, now useless to him for ever--continued to stanch the blood on +his hands with a mechanical earnestness that seemed to shut out the +contemplation of every other object from her eyes. The tears streamed +incessantly down her cheeks, but she never turned towards Goisvintha, +never suspended her occupation. + +Meanwhile, the fire still blazed noisily on the cheerful hearth; but the +storm, as if disdaining the office of heightening the human horror of +the farm-house scene, was rapidly subsiding. The thunder pealed less +frequently and less loudly, the wind fell into intervals of noiseless +calm, and occasionally the moonlight streamed, in momentary brightness, +through the ragged edges of the fast breaking clouds. The breath of the +still morning was already moving upon the firmament of the stormy night. + +'Has life its old magic for you yet?' continued Goisvintha, in tones of +pitiless reproach. 'Have you forgotten, with the spirit of your people, +the end for which your ancestors lived? Is not your sword at your feet? +Is not the knife in my hand? Do not the waters of the Tiber, rolling +yonder to the sea, offer to you the grave of oblivion that all may seek? +Die then! In your last hour be a Goth; even to the Romans you are +worthless now! Already your comrades have discovered your desertion; +will you wait till you are hung for a rebel? Will you live to implore +the mercy of your enemies, or, dishonoured and defenceless, will you +endeavour to escape? You are of the blood of my family, but again I say +it to you--die!' + +His pale lips trembled; he looked round for the first time at Antonina, +but his utterance struggled ineffectually, even yet, against unyielding +despair. He was still silent. + +Goisvintha turned from him disdainfully, and approaching the fire sat +down before it, bending her haggard features over the brilliant flames. +For a few minutes she remained absorbed in her evil thoughts, but no +articulate word escaped her; and when at length she again abruptly broke +the silence, it was not to address the Goth or to fix her eyes on him as +before. + +Still cowering over the fire, apparently as regardless of the presence +of the two beings whose happiness she had just crushed for ever as if +they had never existed, she began to recite, in solemn, measured, +chanting tones, a legend of the darkest and earliest age of Gothic +history, keeping time to herself with the knife that she still held in +her hand. The malignity in her expression, as she pursued her +employment, betrayed the heartless motive that animated it, almost as +palpably as the words of the composition she was repeating: thus she +now spoke:-- + +'The tempest-god's pinions o'ershadow the sky, The waves leap to welcome +the storm that is nigh, Through the hall of old Odin re-echo the shocks +That the fierce ocean hurls at his rampart of rocks, As, alone on the +crags that soar up from the sands, With his virgin SIONA the young AGNAR +stands; Tears sprinkle their dew on the sad maiden's cheeks, And the +voice of the chieftain sinks low while he speaks:-- + +"Crippled in the fight for ever, Number'd with the worse than slain; +Weak, deform'd, disabled!--never Can I join the hosts again!--With the +battle that is won AGNAR'S earthly course is run! + +"When thy shatter'd frame must yield, If thou seek'st a future field; +When thy arm, that sway'd the strife, Fails to shield thy worthless +life; When thy hands no more afford Full employment to the sword; Then, +preserve--respect thy name; Meet thy death--to live is shame! Such is +Odin's mighty will; Such commands I now fulfil!"' + +At this point in the legend, she paused and turned suddenly to observe +its effect on Hermanric. All its horrible application to himself +thrilled through his heart. His head drooped, and a low groan burst +from his lips. But even this evidence of the suffering she was +inflicting failed to melt the iron malignity of Goisvintha's +determination. + + +'Do you remember the death of Agnar?' she cried. 'When you were a +child, I sung it to you ere you slept, and you vowed as you heard it, +that when you were a man, if you suffered his wounds you would die his +death! He was crippled in a victory, yet he slew himself on the day of +his triumph; you are crippled in your treachery, and have forgotten your +boy's honour, and will live in the darkness of your shame! Have you +lost remembrance of that ancient song? You heard it from me in the +morning of your years; listen, and you shall hear it to the end; it is +the dirge for your approaching death!' + +She continued-- + +"SIONA, mourn not!--where I go The warriors feel nor pain nor woe; They +raise aloft the gleaming steel, Their wounds, though warm, untended +heal; Their arrows bellow through the air In showers, as they battle +there; In mighty cups their wine is pour'd, Bright virgins throng their +midnight board! + +"Yet think not that I die unmov'd; I mourn the doom that sets me free, +As I think, betroth'd--belov'd, On all the joys I lose in thee! To form +my boys to meet the fray, Where'er the Gothic banner streams; To guard +thy night, to glad thy day, Made all the bliss of AGNAR'S dreams--Dreams +that must now be all forgot, Earth's joys have passed from AGNAR'S lot! + +"See, athwart the face of light Float the clouds of sullen Night! Odin's +warriors watch for me By the earth-encircling sea! The water's dirges +howl my knell; 'Tis time I die--Farewell-Farewell!" + +'He rose with a smile to prepare for the spring, He flew from the rock +like a bird on the wing; The sea met her prey with a leap and a roar, +And the maid stood alone by the wave-riven shore! The winds mutter'd +deep, with a woe-boding sound, As she wept o'er the footsteps he'd left +on the ground; And the wild vultures shriek'd, for the chieftain who +spread Their battle-field banquets was laid with the dead!' + +As, with a slow and measured emphasis, Goisvintha pronounced the last +lines of the poem she again approached Hermanric. But the eyes of the +Goth sought her no longer. She had calmed the emotions that she had +hoped to irritate. Of the latter divisions of her legend, those only +which were pathetic had arrested the lost chieftain's attention, and the +blunted faculties of his heart recovered their old refinement as he +listened to them. A solemn composure of love, grief, and pity appeared +in the glance of affection that he now directed on the girl's despairing +countenance. Years of good thoughts, an existence of tender cares, an +eternity of youthful devotion spoke in that rapt, momentary, eloquent +gaze, and imprinted on his expression a character ineffably beautiful +and calm--a nobleness above the human, and approaching the angelic and +divine. + +Intuitively Goisvintha followed the direction of his eyes, and looked, +like him, on the Roman girl's face. A lowering expression of hatred +replaced the scorn that had hitherto distorted her passionate features. +Mechanically her hand again half raised the knife, and the accents of +her wrathful voice once more disturbed the sacred silence of affection +and grief. + +'Is it for the girl there that you would still live?' she cried sternly. +'I foreboded it, coward, when I first looked on you! I prepared for it +when I wounded you! I made sure that when my anger again threatened +this new ruler of your thoughts and mover of your actions, you should +have lost the power to divert it from her again! Think you that, +because my disdain has delayed it, my vengeance on her is abandoned? +Long since I swore to you that she should die, and I will hold to my +purpose! I have punished you; I will slay her! Can you shield her from +the blow to-night, as you shielded her in your tent? You are weaker +before me than a child!' + +She ceased abruptly, for at this moment a noise of hurrying footsteps +and contending voices became suddenly audible from without. As she +heard it, a ghastly paleness chased the flush of anger from her cheeks. +With the promptitude of apprehension she snatched the sword of Hermanric +from under Antonina, and ran it through the staples intended to hold the +rude bar of the door. The next instant the footsteps sounded on the +garden path, and the next the door was assailed. + +The good sword held firm, but the frail barrier that it sustained +yielded at the second shock and fell inwards, shattered, to the floor. +Instantly the gap was darkened by human forms, and the firelight glowed +over the repulsive countenances of two Huns who headed the intruders, +habited in complete armour and furnished with naked swords. + +'Yield yourself prisoner by Alaric's command,' cried one of the +barbarians, 'or you shall be slain as a deserter where you now stand!' + +The Goth had risen to his feet as the door was burst in. The arrival of +his pursuers seemed to restore his lost energies, to deliver him at once +from an all-powerful thraldom. An expression of triumph and defiance +shone over his steady features when he heard the summons of the Hun. +For a moment he stooped towards Antonina, as she clung fainting round +him. His mouth quivered and his eye glistened as he kissed her cold +cheek. In that moment all the hopelessness of his position, all the +worthlessness of his marred existence, all the ignominy preparing for +him when he returned to the camp, rushed over his mind. In that moment +the worst horrors of departure and death, the fiercest rackings of love +and despair, assailed but did not overcome him. In that moment he paid +his final tribute to the dues of affection, and braced for the last time +the fibres of manly dauntlessness and Spartan resolve! + +The next instant he tore himself from the girl's arms, the old hero- +spirit of his conquering nation possessed every nerve in his frame, his +eye brightened again gloriously with its lost warrior-light, his limbs +grew firm, his face was calm, he confronted the Huns with a mien of +authority and a smile of disdain, and, as he presented to them his +defenceless breast, not the faintest tremor was audible in his voice, +while he cried in accents of steady command-- + +'Strike! I yield not!' + +The Huns rushed forward with fierce cries, and buried their swords in +his body. His warm young blood gushed out upon the floor of the +dwelling which had been the love-shrine of the heart that shed it. +Without a sigh from his lips or a convulsion on his features, he fell +dead at the feet of his enemies; all the valour of his disposition, all +the gentleness of his heart, all the vigour of his form, resolved in one +humble instant into a senseless and burdensome mass! + +Antonina beheld the assassination, but was spared the sight of the death +that followed it. She fell insensible by the side of her young +warrior--her dress was spotted with his blood, her form was motionless +as his own. + +'Leave him there to rot! His pride in his superiority will not serve +him now--even to a grave!' cried the Hun leader to his companions, as he +dried on the garments of the corpse his reeking sword. + +'And this woman,' demanded one of his comrades, 'is she to be liberated +or secured?' + +He pointed as he spoke to Goisvintha. During the brief scene of the +assassination, the very exercise of her faculties seemed to have been +suspended. She had never stirred a limb or uttered a word. + +The Hun recognised her as the woman who had questioned and bribed him at +the camp. 'She is the traitor's kinswoman and is absent from the tents +without leave,' he answered. 'Take her prisoner to Alaric; she will +bear us witness that we have done as he commanded us. As for the girl,' +he continued, glancing at the blood on Antonina's dress, and stirring +her figure carelessly with his foot, 'she may be dead too, for she +neither moves nor speaks, and may be left like her protector to lie +graveless where she is. For us, it is time that we depart--the king is +impatient of delay.' + + +As they led her roughly from the house, Goisvintha shuddered, and +attempted to pause for a moment when she passed the corpse of the Goth. +Death, that can extinguish enmities as well as sunder loves, rose awful +and appealing as she looked her last at her murdered brother, and +remembered her murdered husband. No tears flowed from her eyes, no +groans broke from her bosom; but there was a pang, a last momentary pang +of grief and pity at her heart as she murmured while they forced her +away--'Aquileia! Aquileia! have I outlived thee for this!' + +The troops retired. For a few minutes silence ruled uninterruptedly +over the room where the senseless girl still lay by the side of all that +was left to her of the object of her first youthful love. But ere long +footsteps again house door, and two Goths, who had formed part of the +escort allotted to the Hun, approached the young chieftain's corpse. +Quickly and silently they raised it in their arms and bore it into the +garden. There they scooped a shallow hole with their swords in the +fresh, flower-laden turf, and having laid the body there, they hastily +covered it, and rapidly departed without returning to the house. + +These men had served among the warriors committed to Hermanric's +command. By many acts of frank generosity and encouragement, the young +chieftain had won their rough attachment. They mourned his fate, but +dared not obstruct the sentence, or oppose the act that determined it. +At their own risk they had secretly quitted the advancing ranks of their +comrades, to use the last privilege and obey the last dictate of human +kindness; and they thought not of the lonely girl as they now left her +desolate, and hurried away to reassume their appointed stations ere it +was too late. + +The turf lay caressingly round the young warrior's form; its crushed +flowers pressed softly against his cold cheek; the fragrance of the new +morning wafted its pure incense gently about his simple grave! Around +him flowered the delicate plants that the hand of Antonina had raised to +please his eye. Near him stood the dwelling, sacred to the first and +last kiss that he had impressed upon her lips; and about him, on all +sides, rose the plains and woodlands that had engrossed, with her image, +the devotion of all her dearest thoughts. He lay, in his death, in the +midst of the magic circle of the best joys of his life! It was a fitter +burial-place for the earthly relics of that bright and generous spirit +than the pit in the carnage-laden battle-field, or the desolate +sepulchres of a northern land! + + +CHAPTER 19. THE GUARDIAN RESTORED. + +Not long is the new-made grave left unwatched to the solemn guardianship +of Solitude and Night. More than a few minutes have scarcely elapsed +since it was dug, yet already human footsteps press its yielding +surface, and a human glance scans attentively its small and homely +mound. + +But it is not Antonina, whom he loved; it is not Goisvintha, through +whose vengeance he was lost, who now looks upon the earth above the +young warrior's corpse. It is a stranger, an outcast; a man lost, +dishonoured, abandoned--it is the solitary and ruined Ulpius who now +gazes with indifferent eyes upon the peaceful garden and the eloquent +grave. + +In the destinies of woe committed to the keeping of the night, the pagan +had been fatally included. The destruction that had gone forth against +the body of the young man who lay beneath the earth had overtaken the +mind of the old man who stood over his simple grave. The frame of +Ulpius, with all its infirmities, was still there, but the soul of +ferocious patience and unconquerable daring that had lighted it grandly +in its ruin was gone. Over the long anguish of that woeful life the +veil of self-oblivion had closed for ever! + + +He had been dismissed by Alaric, but he had not returned to the city +whither he was bidden. Throughout the night he had wandered about the +lonely suburbs, striving in secret and horrible suffering for the +mastery of his mind. There did the overthrow of all his hopes from the +Goths expand rapidly into the overthrow of the whole intellect that had +created his aspirations. There had reason burst the bonds that had so +long chained, perverted, degraded it! At length, wandering hither and +thither, he had dragged the helpless body, possessed no longer by the +perilous mind, to the farm-house garden in which he now stood, gazing +alternately at the upturned sods of the chieftain's grave and the red +gleam of the fire as it glowed from the dreary room through the gap of +the shattered door. + +His faculties were fatally disordered rather than utterly destroyed. +His penetration, his firmness, and his cunning were gone; but a wreck of +memory, useless and unmanageable--a certain capacity for momentary +observation still remained to him. The shameful miscarriage in the tent +of Alaric, which had overthrown his faculties, had passed from him as an +event that never happened, but he remembered fragments of his past +existence--he still retained a vague consciousness of the ruling purpose +of his whole life. + +These embryo reflections, disconnected and unsustained, flitted to and +fro over his dark mind as luminous exhalations over a marsh--rising and +sinking, harmless and delusive, fitful and irregular. What he remembered +of the past he remembered carelessly, viewing it with as vacant a +curiosity as if it were the visionary spectacle of another man's +struggles and misfortunes and hopes, acting under it as under a +mysterious influence, neither the end nor the reason of which he cared +to discover. For the future, it was to his thoughts a perfect blank; +for the present, it was a jarring combination of bodily weariness and +mental repose. + +He shuddered as he stood shelterless under the open heaven. The cold, +that he had defied in the vaults of the rifted wall, pierced in the +farm-house garden; his limbs, which had resisted repose on the hard +journey from Rome to the camp of the Goths, now trembled so that he was +fain to rest them on the ground. For a short time he sat glaring with +vacant and affrighted eyes upon the open dwelling before him, as though +he longed to enter it but dare not. At length the temptation of the +ruddy firelight seemed to vanquish his irresolution; he rose with +difficulty, and slowly and hesitatingly entered the house. + +He had advanced, thief-like, but a few steps, he had felt but for a +moment the welcome warmth of the fire, when the figure of Antonina, +still extended insensible upon the floor, caught his eye; he approached +it with eager curiosity, and, raising the girl on his arm, looked at her +with a long and rigid scrutiny. + +For some moments no expression of recognition passed his lips or +appeared on his countenance, as, with a mechanical, doting gesture of +fondness, he smoothed her dishevelled hair over her forehead. While he +was thus engaged, while the remains of the gentleness of his childhood +were thus awfully revived in the insanity of his age, a musical string +wound round a small piece of gilt wood fell from its concealment in her +bosom; he snatched it from the ground--it was the fragment of her broken +lute, which had never quitted her since the night when, in her innocent +grief, she had wept over it in her maiden bed-chamber. + +Small, obscure, insignificant as it was, this little token touched the +fibre in the Pagan's shattered mind which the all-eloquent form and +presence of its hapless mistress had failed to reach; his memory flew +back instantly to the garden on the Pincian Mount, and to his past +duties in Numerian's household, but spoke not to him of the calamities +he had wreaked since that period on his confiding master. His +imagination presented to him at this moment but one image--his servitude +in the Christian's abode; and as he now looked on the girl he could +regard himself but in one light--as 'the guardian restored'. + +'What does she with her music here?' he whispered apprehensively. 'This +is not her father's house, and the garden yonder looks not from the +summit of the hill!' + +As he curiously examined the room, the red spots on the floor suddenly +attracted his attention. A panic, a frantic terror seemed instantly to +overwhelm him. He rose with a cry of horror, and, still holding the +girl on his arm, hurried out into the garden trembling and breathless, +as if the weapon of an assassin had scared him from the house. + + +The shock of her rough removal, the sudden influence of the fresh, cold +air, restored Antonina to the consciousness of life at the moment when +Ulpius, unable to support her longer, laid her against the little heap +of turf which marked the position of the young chieftain's grave. Her +eyes opened wildly; their first glance fixed upon the shattered door and +the empty room. She rose from the ground, advanced a few steps towards +the house, then paused, rigid, breathless, silent, and, turning slowly, +faced the upturned turf. + +The grave was all-eloquent of its tenant. His cuirass, which the +soldiers had thought to bury with the body that it had defended in +former days, had been overlooked in the haste of the secret interment, +and lay partly imbedded in the broken earth, partly exposed to view--a +simple monument over a simple grave! Her tearless, dilated eyes looked +down on it as though they would number each blade of grass, each morsel +of earth by which it was surrounded! Her hair waved idly about her +cheeks, as the light wind fluttered it; but no expression passed over +her face, no gestures escaped her limbs. Her mind toiled and quivered, +as if crushed by a fiery burden; but her heart was voiceless, and her +body was still. + +Ulpius had stood unnoticed by her side. At this moment he moved so as +to confront her, and she suddenly looked up at him. A momentary +expression of bewilderment and suspicion lightened the heavy vacancy of +despair which had chased their natural and feminine tenderness from her +eyes, but it disappeared rapidly. She turned from the Pagan, knelt down +by the grave, and pressed her face and bosom against the little mound of +turf beneath her. + +No voice comforted her, no arm caressed her, as her mind now began to +penetrate the mysteries, to probe the darkest depths of the long night's +calamities! Unaided and unsolaced, while the few and waning stars +glimmered from their places in the sky, while the sublime stillness of +tranquillised Nature stretched around her, she knelt at the altar of +death, and raised her soul upward to the great heaven above her, charged +with its sacred offering of human grief! + +Long did she thus remain; and when at length she arose from the ground, +when, approaching the Pagan, she fixed on him her tearless, dreary eyes, +he quailed before her glance, as his dull faculties struggled vainly to +resume the old, informing power that they had now for ever lost. +Nothing but the remembrance aroused by his first sight of the fragment +of the lute lived within even yet, as he whispered to her in low, +entreating tones-- + +'Come home--come home! Your father may return before us--come home!' + +As the words 'home' and 'father'--those household gods of the heart's +earliest existence--struck upon her ears, a change flashed with electric +suddenness over the girl's whole aspect. She raised her wan hands to +the sky; all her woman's tenderness repossessed itself of her heart; and +as she again knelt down over the grave, her sobs rose audibly through +the calmed and fragrant air. + +With Hermanric's corpse beneath her, with the blood-sprinkled room +behind her, with a hostile army and a famine-wasted city beyond her, it +was only through that flood of tears, that healing passion of gentle +emotions, that she rose superior to the multiplied horrors of her +situation at the very moment when her faculties and her life seemed +sinking under them alike. Fully, freely, bitterly she wept, on the +kindly and parent earth--the patient, friendly ground that once bore the +light footsteps of the first of a race not created for death; that now +holds in its sheltering arms the loved ones, whom, in mourning, we lay +there to sleep; that shall yet be bound to the farthermost of its +depths, when the sun-bright presence of returning spirits shines over +its renovated frame, and love is resumed in angel perfection at the +point where death suspended it in mortal frailness! + +'Come home--your father is awaiting you--come home!' repeated the Pagan +vacantly, moving slowly away as he spoke. + + +At the sound of his voice she started up, and clasping his arm with her +trembling fingers, to arrest his progress, looked affrightedly into his +seared and listless countenance. As she thus gazed on him she appeared +for the first time to recognise him. Fear and astonishment mingled in +her expression with grief and despair as she sunk at his feet, moaning +in tones of piercing entreaty-- + +'O Ulpius!--if Ulpius you are--have pity on me and take me to my father! +My father! my father! In all the lonely world there is nothing left to +me but my father!' + +'Why do you weep to me about your broken lute?' answered Ulpius, with a +dull, unmeaning smile; 'it was not I that destroyed it!' + +'They have slain him!' she shrieked distractedly, heedless of the +Pagan's reply. 'I saw them draw their swords on him! See, his blood is +on me--me!--Antonina, whom he protected and loved! Look there; that is +a grave--his grave--I know it! I have never seen him since; he is +down--down there! under the flowers I grew to gather for him! They slew +him; and when I knew it not, they have buried him!--or you--you have +buried him! You have hidden him under the cold garden earth! He is +gone!--Ah, gone, gone--for ever gone!' + +And she flung herself again with reckless violence on the grave. After +looking steadfastly on her for a moment, Ulpius approached and raised +her from the earth. + +'Come!' he cried angrily, 'the night grows on--your father waits!' + +'The walls of Rome shut me from my father! I shall never see my father +nor Hermanric again!' she cried, in tones of bitter anguish, remembering +more perfectly all the miseries of her position, and struggling to +release herself from the Pagan's grasp. + +The walls of Rome! At those words the mind of Ulpius opened to a flow +of dark remembrances, and lost the visions that had occupied it until +that moment. He laughed triumphantly. + +'The walls of Rome bow to my arm!' he cried, in exulting tones; 'I +pierced them with my good bar of iron! I wound through them with my +bright lantern! Spirits roared on me, and struck me down, and grinned +upon me in the thick darkness, but I passed the wall! The thunder +pealed around me as I crawled along the winding rifts; but I won my way +through them! I came out conquering on the other side! Come, come, +come, come! We will return! I know the track, even in the darkness! I +can outwatch the sentinels! You shall walk in the pathway that I have +broken through the bricks! + +The girl's features lost for a moment their expression of grief, and +grew rigid with horror, as she glanced at his fiery eyes, and felt the +fearful suspicion of his insanity darkening over her mind. She stood +powerless, trembling, unresisting, in his grasp, without attempting to +delude him into departure or to appease him into delay. + +'Why did I make my passage through the wall?' muttered the Pagan in a +low, awe-struck voice, suddenly checking himself, as he was about to +step forward. 'Why did I tear down the strong brick-work and go forth +into the dark suburbs?' + +He paused, and for a few moments struggled with his purposeless and +disconnected thoughts; but a blank, a darkness, an annihilation +overwhelmed Alaric and the Gothic camp, which he vainly endeavoured to +disperse. He sighed bitterly to himself--'It is gone!' and still +grasping Antonina by the hand, drew her after him to the garden gate. + +'Leave me!' she shrieked, as he passed onward into the pathway that led +to the high-road. 'Oh, be merciful, and leave me to die where he has +died!' + +'Peace! or I will rend you limb by limb, as I rent the stones from the +wall when I passed through it!' he whispered to her in fierce accents, +as she struggled to escape him. 'You shall return with me to Rome! You +shall walk in the track that I have made in the rifted brick-work!' + + +Terror, anguish, exhaustion, overpowered her weak efforts. Her lips +moved, partly in prayer and partly in ejaculation; but she spoke in +murmurs only, as she mechanically suffered the Pagan to lead her onward +by the hand. + +They paced on under the waning starlight, over the cold, lonely road, +and through the dreary and deserted suburbs,--a fearful and discordant +pair! Coldly, obediently, impassively, as if she were walking in a +dream, the spirit-broken girl moved by the side of her scarce-human +leader. Disjointed exclamation, alternating horribly between infantine +simplicity and fierce wickedness, poured incessantly from the Pagan's +lips, but he never addressed himself further to his terror-stricken +companion. So, wending rapidly onward, they gained the Gothic lines; +and here the madman slackened his pace, and paused, beast-like, to glare +around him, as he approached the habitations of men. + +Still not opposed by Antonina, whose faculties of observation were +petrified by her terror into perfect inaction, even here, within reach +of the doubtful aid of the enemies of her people, the Pagan crept +forward through the loneliest places of the encampment, and, guided by +the mysterious cunning of his miserable race, eluded successfully the +observation of the drowsy sentinels. Never bewildered by the darkness-- +for the moon had gone down--always led by the animal instinct co- +existent with his disease, he passed over the waste ground between the +hostile encampment and the city, and arrived triumphant at the heap of +stones that marked his entrance to the rifted wall. + +For one moment he stopped, and turning towards the girl, pointed proudly +to the dark, low breach he was about to penetrate. Then, drawing her +half-fainting form closer to his side, looking up attentively to the +ramparts, and stepping as noiselessly as though turf were beneath his +feet, he entered the dusky rift with his helpless charge. + +As they disappeared in the recesses of the wall, Night--the stormy, the +eventful, the fatal!--reached its last limit; and the famished sentinel +on the fortifications of the besieged city roused himself from his +dreary and absorbing thoughts, for he saw that the new day was dawning +in the east. + + +CHAPTER 20. THE BREACH REPASSED. + +Slowly and mournfully the sentinel at the rifted wall raised his eyes +towards the eastern clouds as they brightened before the advancing dawn. +Desolate as was the appearance of the dull, misty daybreak, it was yet +the most welcome of all the objects surrounding the starving soldier on +which he could fix his languid gaze. To look back on the city behind +him was to look back on the dreary charnel-house of famine and death; to +look down on the waste ground without the walls was to look down on the +dead body of the comrade of his watch, who, maddened by the pangs of +hunger which he had suffered during the night, had cast himself from the +rampart to meet a welcome death on the earth beneath. Famished and +despairing, the sentinel crouched on the fortifications which he had now +neither strength to pace nor care to defend, yearning for the food that +he had no hope to obtain, as he watched the grey daybreak from his +solitary post. + +While he was thus occupied, the gloomy silence of the scene was suddenly +broken by the sound of falling brick-work at the inner base of the wall, +followed by faint entreaties for mercy and deliverance, which rose on +his ear, strangely mingled with disjointed expression of defiance and +exultation from a second voice. He slowly turned his head, and, looking +down, saw on the ground beneath a young girl struggling in the grasp of +an old man, who was hurrying her onward in the direction of the Pincian +Gate. + + +For one moment the girl's eye met the sentinel's vacant glance, and she +renewed, with a last effort of strength, and a greater vehemence of +supplication, her cries for help; but the soldier neither moved nor +answered. Exhausted as he was, no sight could affect him now but the +sight of food. Like the rest of the citizens, he was sunk in a heavy +stupor of starvation--selfish, reckless, brutalised. No disasters could +depress, no atrocities rouse him. Famine had torn asunder every social +tie, had withered every human sympathy among his besieged fellow- +citizens, and he was famishing like them. + +At the moment when the dawn had first appeared, could he have looked +down by some mysterious agency to the interior foundations of the wall, +from the rampart on which he kept his weary watch, such a sight must +then have presented itself as would have aroused even his sluggish +observation to rigid attention and involuntary surprise. + +Winding upward and downward among jagged masses of ruined brick-work, +now lost amid the shadows of dreary chasms, now prominent over the +elevations of rising arches, the dark irregular passages broken by +Ulpius in the rotten wall would then have presented themselves to his +eyes; not stretching forth in dismal solitude, not peopled only by the +reptiles native to the place, but traced in all their mazes by human +forms. Then he would have perceived the fierce, resolute Pagan, moving +through darkness and obstacles with a sure, solemn progress, drawing +after him, like a dog devoted to his will, the young girl whose hapless +fate had doomed her to fall into his power. Her half-fainting figure +might have been seen, sometimes prostrate on the higher places of the +breach, while her fearful guide descended before her into a chasm +beyond, and then turned to drag her after him to a darker and a lower +depth yet; sometimes bent in supplication, when her lips moved once more +with a last despairing entreaty, and her limbs trembled with a final +effort to escape from her captor's relentless grasp. While still, +through all that opposed him, the same fierce tenacity of purpose would +have been invariably visible in every action of Ulpius, constantly +confirming him in his mad resolution to make his victim the follower of +his progress through the wall, ever guiding him with a strange instinct +through every hindrance, and preserving him from every danger in his +path, until it brought him forth triumphant, with his prisoner still in +his power, again free to tread the desolate streets and mingle with the +famine-stricken citizens of Rome. + +And now when, after peril and anguish, she once more stood within the +city of her home, what hope remained to Antonina of obtaining her last +refuge under her father's roof, and deriving her solitary consolation +from the effort to regain her father's love? With the termination of +his passage through the breach in the wall had ended ever recollection +associated with it in the Pagan's shattered memory. A new blank now +pervaded his lost faculties, desolate as that which had overwhelmed them +in the night when he first stood in the farm-house garden by the young +chieftain's grave. He moved onward, unobservant, unthinking, without +aim or hope, driven by a mysterious restlessness, forgetting the very +presence of Antonina as she followed him, but still mechanically +grasping her hand, and dragging her after him he knew not whither. + +And she, on her part, made no effort more for deliverance. She had seen +the sentinel unmoved by her entreaties, she had seen the walls of her +father's house receding from her longing eyes, as Ulpius pitilessly +hurried her father and farther from its distant door; and she lost the +last faint hope of restoration, the last lingering desire of life, as +the sense of her helplessness now weighed heaviest on her mind. Her +heart was full of her young warrior, who had been slain, and of her +father, from whom she had parted in the hour of his wrath, as she now +feebly followed the Pagan's steps, and resigned herself to a speedy +exhaustion and death in her utter despair. + + +They turned from the Pincian Gate and gained the Campus Martius; and +here the aspect of the besieged city and the condition of its doomed +inhabitants were fully and fearfully disclosed to view. On the surface +of the noble area, once thronged with bustling crowds passing to and fro +in every direction as their various destinations or caprices might lead +them, not twenty moving figures were now discernible. These few, who +still retained their strength or the resolution to pace the greatest +thoroughfare of Rome, stalked backwards and forwards incessantly, their +hollow eyes fixed on vacancy, their wan hands pressed over their mouths; +each separate, distrustful, and silent; fierce as imprisoned madmen; +restless as spectres disturbed in a place of tombs. + +Such were the citizens who still moved over the Campus Martius; and, +besetting their path wherever they turned, lay the gloomy numbers of the +dying and the dead--the victims already stricken by the pestilence which +had now arisen in the infected city, and joined the famine in its work +of desolation and death. Around the public fountains, where the water +still bubbled up as freshly as in the summer-time of prosperity and +peace, the poorer population of beleaguered Rome had chiefly congregated +to expire. Some still retained strength enough to drink greedily at the +margin of the stone basins, across which others lay dead--their heads +and shoulders immersed in the water--drowned from lack of strength to +draw back after their first draught. Children mounted over the dead +bodies of their parents to raise themselves to the fountain's brim; +parents stared vacantly at the corpses of their children alternately +floating and sinking in the water, into which they had fallen +unsuccoured and unmourned. + +In other parts of the place, at the open gates of the theatres and +hippodromes, in the unguarded porticoes of the palaces and the baths lay +the discoloured bodies of those who had died ere they could reach the +fountains--of women and children especially--surrounded in frightful +contrast by the abandoned furniture of luxury and the discarded +inventions of vice--by gilded couches--by inlaid tables--by jewelled +cornices--by obscene picture and statues--by brilliantly framed, gaudily +tinted manuscripts of licentious songs, still hanging at their +accustomed places on the lofty marble walls. Farther on, in the by- +streets and the retired courts, where the corpse of the tradesman was +stretched on his empty counter; where the soldier of the city guard +dropped down overpowered were he reached the limit of his rounds; where +the wealthy merchant lay pestilence-stricken upon the last hoards of +repulsive food which his gold had procured; the assassin and the robber +might be seen--now greedily devouring the offal that lay around them, +now falling dead upon the bodies which they had rifled but the moment +before. + +Over the whole prospect, far and near, wherever it might extend, +whatever the horrors by which it might be occupied, was spread a blank, +supernatural stillness. Not a sound arose; the living were as silent as +the dead; crime, suffering, despair, were all voiceless alike; the +trumpet was unheard in the guard-house; the bell never rang from the +church; even the thick, misty rain, that now descended from the black +and unmoving clouds, and obscured in cold shadows the outlines of +distant buildings and the pinnacle tops of mighty palaces, fell +noiseless to the ground. The sky had no wind; the earth no echoes--the +pervading desolation appalled the eye; the vast stillness weighed dull +on the ear--it was a scene as of the last-left city of an exhausted +world, decaying noiselessly into primeval chaos. + +Through this atmosphere of darkness and death, along these paths of +pestilence and famine; unregarding and unregarded, the Pagan and his +prisoner passed slowly onward towards the quarter of the city opposite +the Pincian Mount. No ray of thought, even yet, brightened the dull +faculties of Ulpius; still he walked forward vacantly, and still he was +followed wearily by the fast-failing girl. + +Sunk in her mingled stupor of bodily weakness and mental despair, she +never spoke, never raised her head, never looked forth on the one side +or the other. She had now ceased even to feel the strong, cold grasp of +the Pagan's hand. Shadowy visions of spheres beyond the world, arrayed +in enchanting beauty, and people with happy spirits in their old earthly +forms, where a long deathless existence moved smoothly and dreamily +onward, without mark of time or taint of woe, were opening before her +mind. She lost all memory of afflictions and wrongs, all apprehension +of danger from the madman at whose mercy she remained. And thus she +still moved feebly onward as the will of Ulpius guided her, with no +observation of her present peril, and no anxiety for her impending fate. + + +They passed the grand circular structure of the Pantheon, entered the +long narrow streets leading to the banks of the river, and finally +gained the margin of the Tiber--hard by the little island that still +rises in the midst of its waters. Here, for the first time, the Pagan +paused mechanically in his course, and vacantly directed his dull, +dreamy eyes on the prospect before him, where the walls, stretching +abruptly outward from their ordinary direction, enclosed the Janiculum +Hill, as it rose with its irregular mass of buildings on the opposite +bank of the river. + +At this sudden change from action to repose, the overtasked energies +which had hitherto gifted the limbs of Antonina with an unnatural power +of endurance, abruptly relaxed. She sank down helpless and silent; her +head drooped towards the hard ground, as towards a welcome pillow, but +found no support, for the Pagan's iron grasp of her hand remained +unyielding as ever. Infirm though he was, he appeared at this moment to +be unconscious that his prisoner was now hanging at his side. Every +association connected with her, every recollection of his position with +her in her father's house, had vanished from his memory. A darker +blindness seemed to have sunk over his bodily perceptions; his eyes +rolled slowly to and fro over the prospect before him, but regarded +nothing; his panting breaths came thick and fast; his shrunk chest +heaved as if some deep, dread agony were pent within it--it was evident +that a new crisis in his insanity was at hand. + +At this moment one of the bands of marauders--the desperate criminals of +famine and plague--who still prowled through the city, appeared in the +street. Their trembling hands sought their weapons, and their haggard +faces brightened, when they first discerned the Pagan and the girl; but +as they approached nearer they saw enough in the figures of the two, at +a glance, to destroy their hopes of seizing on them either plunder or +food. For an instant they stood by their intended victims, as if +debating whether to murder them only for murder's sake, when the +appearance of two women, stealthily quitting a house farther on in the +street, carrying a basket covered by some tattered garments, attracted +their attention. They turned instantly to follow the bearers of the +basket, and again Ulpius and Antonina were left alone on the river's +bank. + +The appearance of the assassins had been powerless, as every other sight +or event in the city, in arousing the faculties of Ulpius. He had +neither looked on them nor fled from them when they surrounded him; but +now when they were gone he slowly turned his head in the direction by +which they had departed. His gaze wandered over the wet flagstones of +the street, over two corpses stretched on them at a little distance, +over the figure of a female slave who lay forsaken near the wall of one +of the houses, exerting her last energies to drink from the turbid rain- +water which ran down the kennel by her side; and still his eyes remained +unregardful of all that they encountered. The next object which by +chance attracted his vacant attention was a deserted temple. This +solitary building fixed him immediately in contemplation--it was +destined to open a new and a warning scene in the dark tragedy of his +closing life. + +In his course through the city he had passed unheeded many temples far +more prominent in situation, far more imposing in structure, than this. +It was a building of no remarkable extent or extraordinary beauty. Its +narrow porticoes and dark doorway were more fitted to repel than to +invite the eye; but it had one attraction, powerful above all glories of +architecture and all grandeur of situation to arrest in him those +wandering faculties whose sterner and loftier aims were now suspended +for ever; it was dedicated to Serapis--to the idol which had been the +deity of his first worship, and the inspiration of his last struggled +for the restoration of his faith. The image of the god, with the three- +headed monster encircled by a serpent, obedient beneath his hand, was +carved over the portico. + + +What flood of emotions rushed into the vacant mind of Ulpius at the +instant when he discerned the long-loved, well-known image of the +Egyptian god, there was nothing for some moments outwardly visible in +him to betray. His moral insensibility appeared but to be deepened as +his gaze was now fixed with rigid intensity on the temple portico. Thus +he continued to remain motionless, as if what he saw had petrified him +where he stood, when the clouds, which had been closing in deeper and +deeper blackness as the morning advanced, and which, still charged with +electricity, were gathering to revive the storm of the past night, burst +abruptly into a loud peal of thunder over his head. + +At that warning sound, as if it had been the supernatural signal awaited +to arouse him, as if in one brief moment it awakened every recollection +of all that he had resolutely attempted during the night of thunder that +was past, he started into instant animation. His countenance +brightened, his form expanded, he dropped the hand of Antonina, raised +his arm aloft towards the wrathful heaven in frantic triumph, then +staggering forwards, fell on his knees at the base of the temple steps. + +Whatever the remembrances of his passage through the wall at the Pincian +Hill, and of the toil and peril succeeding it, which had revived when +the thunder first sounded in his ear, they now vanished as rapidly as +they had arisen, and left his wandering memory free to revert to the +scenes which the image of Serapis was most fitted to recall. +Recollections of his boyish enjoyments in the temple at Alexandria, of +his youth's enthusiasm, of the triumphs of his early manhood--all +disjointed and wayward, yet all bright, glorious, intoxicating--flashed +before his shattered mind. Tears, the first that he had shed since his +happy youth, flowed quickly down his withered cheeks. He pressed his +hot forehead, he beat his parched hand in ecstasy on the cold, wet steps +beneath him. He muttered breathless ejaculations, he breathed strange +murmurs of endearment, he humbled himself in his rapturous delight +beneath the walls of the temple like a dog that has discovered his lost +master and fawns affectionately at his feet. Criminal as he was, his +joy in his abasement, his glory in his miserable isolation from +humanity, was a doom of degradation pitiable to behold. + +After an interval his mood changed. He rose to his feet, his trembling +limbs strengthened with a youthful vigour as he ascended the temple +steps and gained its doorway. He turned for a moment, and looked forth +over the street, ere he entered the hallowed domain of his distempered +imagination. To him the cloudy sky above was now shining with the +radiance of the sun-bright East. The death-laden highways of Rome, as +they stretched before him, were beautiful with lofty trees, and populous +with happy figures; and along the dark flagstones beneath, where still +lay the corpses which he had no eye to see, he beheld already the +priests of Serapis with his revered guardian, his beloved Macrinus of +former days, at their head, advancing to meet and welcome him in the +hall of the Egyptian god. Visions such as these passed gloriously +before the Pagan's eyes as he stood triumphant on the steps of the +temple, and brightened to him with a noonday light its dusky recesses +when, after his brief delay, he turned from the street and disappeared +through the doorway of the sacred place. + +The rain poured down more thickly than before; the thunder, once +aroused, now sounded in deep and frequent peals as Antonina raised +herself from the ground and looked around her, in momentary expectation +that the dreaded form of Ulpius must meet her eyes. No living creature +was visible in the street. The forsaken slave still reclined near the +wall of the house where she had first appeared when the Pagan gained the +approaches to the temple; but she now lay there dead. No fresh bands of +robbers appeared in sight. An uninterrupted solitude prevailed in all +directions as far as the eye could reach. + +At the moment when Ulpius had relinquished his grasp of her hand, +Antonina had sunk to the ground, helpless and resigned, but not +exhausted beyond all power of sensation or all capacity for thought. +While she lay on the cold pavement of the street, her mind still pursued +its visions of a speedy death, and a tranquil life-in-death to succeed +it in a future state. But, as minute after minute elapsed, and no harsh +voice sounded in her ear, no pitiless hand dragged her from the ground, +no ominous footsteps were audible around her, a change passed gradually +over her thoughts; the instinct of self-preservation slowly revived +within her, and, as she raised herself to look forth on the gloomy +prospect, the chances of uninterrupted flight and present safety +presented by the solitude of the street, aroused her like a voice of +encouragement, like an unexpected promise of help. + + +Her perception of outer influences returned; she felt the rain that +drenched her garments; she shuddered at the thunder sounding over her +head; she marked with horror the dead bodies lying before her on the +stones. An overpowering desire animated her to fly from the place, to +escape from the desolate scene around, even though she should sink +exhausted by the effort in the next street. Slowly she arose--her limbs +trembled with a premature infirmity; but she gained her feet. She +tottered onward, turning her back on the river, passed bewildered +between long rows of deserted houses, and arrived opposite a public +garden surrounding a little summer-house, whose deserted portico offered +both concealment and shelter. Here, therefore, she took refuge, +crouching in the darkest corner of the building, and hiding her face in +her hands, as if to shut out all view of the dreary though altered +scenes which spread before her eyes. + +Woeful thoughts and recollections now moved within her in bewildering +confusion. All that she had suffered since Ulpius had dragged her from +the farm-house in the suburbs--the night pilgrimage over the plain--the +fearful passage through the wall--revived in her memory, mingled with +vague ideas, now for the first time aroused, of the plague and famine +that were desolating the city; and, with sudden apprehensions that +Goisvintha might still be following her, knife in hand, through the +lonely streets; while passively prominent over all these varying sources +of anguish and dread, the scene of the young chieftain's death lay like +a cold weight on her heavy heart. The damp turf of his grave seemed +still to press against her breast; his last kiss yet trembled on her +lips; she knew, though she dared not look down on them, that the spots +of his blood yet stained her garments. + +Whether she strove to rise and continue her flight; whether she crouched +down again under the portico, resigned for one bitter moment to perish +by the knife of Goisvintha--if Goisvintha were near; to fall once more +into the hands of Ulpius--if Ulpius were tracking her to her retreat,-- +the crushing sense that she was utterly bereaved of her beloved +protector--that the friend of her brief days of happiness was lost to +her for ever--that Hermanric, who had preserved her from death, had been +murdered in his youth and his strength by her side, never deserted her. +Since the assassination in the farm-house, she was now for the first +time alone; and now for the first time she felt the full severity of her +affliction, and knew how dark was the blank which was spread before +every aspiration of her future life. + +Enduring, almost eternal, as the burden of her desolation seemed now to +have become, it was yet to be removed, ere long, by feelings of a +tenderer mournfulness and a more resigned woe. The innate and innocent +fortitude of disposition, which had made her patient under the rigour of +her youthful education, and hopeful under the trials that assailed her +on her banishment from her father's house; which had never deserted her +until the awful scenes of the past night of assassination and death rose +in triumphant horror before her eyes; and which, even then, had been +suspended but not destroyed--was now destined to regain its healing +influence over her heart. As she still cowered in her lonely refuge, +the final hope, the yearning dependence on a restoration to her father's +presence and her father's love, that had moved her over the young +chieftain's grave, and had prompted her last effort for freedom when +Ulpius had dragged her through the passage in the rifted wall, suddenly +revived. + + +Once more she arose, and looked forth on the desolate city and the +stormy sky, but now with mild and unshrinking eyes. Her recollections +of the past grew tender in their youthful grief; her thoughts for the +future became patient, solemn, and serene. Images of her first and her +last-left protector, of her old familiar home, of her garden solitude on +the Pincian Mount, spread beautiful before her imagination as resting- +places to her weary heart. She descended the steps of the summer-house +with no apprehension of her enemies, no doubt of her resolution; for she +knew the beacon that was now to direct her onward course. The tears +gathered full in her eyes as she passed into the garden; but her step +never faltered, her features never lost their combined expression of +tranquil sorrow and subdued hope. So she once more entered the perilous +streets, and murmuring to herself, 'My father! my father!' as if in +those simple words lay the hand that was to guide, and the providence +that was to preserved her, she began to trace her solitary way in the +direction of the Pincian Mount. + +It was a spectacle--touching, beautiful, even sublime--to see this young +girl, but a few hours freed, by perilous paths and by criminal hands, +from scenes which had begun in treachery, only to end in death, now +passing, resolute and alone, through the streets of a mighty city, +overwhelmed by all that is poignant in human anguish and hideous in +human crime. It was a noble evidence of the strong power over the world +and the world's perils, with which the simplest affection may arm the +frailest being--to behold her thus pursuing her way, superior to every +horror of desolation and death that clogged her path, unconsciously +discovering in the softly murmured name of 'father', which still fell at +intervals from her lips, the pure purpose that sustained her--the steady +heroism that ever held her in her doubtful course. The storms of heaven +poured over her head--the crimes and sufferings of Rome darkened the +paths of her pilgrimage; but she passed firmly onward through all, like +a ministering spirit, journeying along earthly shores in the bright +inviolability of its merciful mission and its holy thoughts--like a ray +of light living in the strength of its own beauty, amid the tempest and +obscurity of a stranger sphere. + +Once more she entered the Campus Martius. Again she passed the public +fountains, still unnaturally devoted to serve as beds for the dying and +as sepulchres for the dead; again she trod the dreary highways, where +the stronger among the famished populace yet paced hither and thither in +ferocious silence and unsocial separation. No word was addressed, +hardly a look was directed to her, as she pursued her solitary course. +She was desolate among the desolate; forsaken among others abandoned +like herself. + +The robber, when he passed her by, saw that she was worthless for the +interests of plunder as the poorest of the dying citizens around him. +The patrician, loitering feebly onward to the shelter of his palace +halls, avoided her as a new suppliant among the people for the charity +which he had not to bestow, and quickened his pace as she approached him +in the street. Unprotected, yet unmolested, hurrying from her +loneliness and her bitter recollections to the refuge of her father's +love, as she would have hurried when a child from her first apprehension +of ill to the refuge of her father's arms, she gained at length the foot +of the Pincian Hill--at length ascended the streets so often trodden in +the tranquil days of old! + +The portals and outer buildings of Vetranio's palace, as she passed +them, presented a striking and ominous spectacle. Within the lofty +steel railings, which protected the building, the famine-wasted slaves +of the senator appeared reeling and tottering beneath full vases of wine +which they were feebly endeavouring to carry into the interior +apartments. Gaudy hangings drooped from the balconies, garlands of ivy +were wreathed round the statues of the marble front. In the midst of +the besieged city, and in impious mockery of the famine and pestilence +which were wasting it, hut and palace, to its remotest confines, were +proceeding in this devoted dwelling the preparations for a triumphant +feast! + +Unheedful of the startling prospect presented by Vetranio's abode, her +eyes bent but in one absorbing direction, her steps hurrying faster and +faster with each succeeding instant, Antonina approached the home from +which she had been exiled in fear, and to which she was returning in +woe. Yet a moment more of strong exertion, of overpowering +anticipation, and she reached the garden gate! + +She dashed back the heavy hair matted over her brows by the rain; she +glanced rapidly around her; she beheld the window of her bed-chamber +with the old simple curtain still hanging at its accustomed place; she +saw the well-remembered trees, the carefully tended flower-beds, now +drooping mournfully beneath the gloomy sky. Her heart swelled within +her, her breath seemed suddenly arrested in her bosom, as she trod the +garden path and ascended the steps beyond. The door at the top was +ajar. With a last effort she thrust it open, and stood once more-- +unaided and unwelcomed, yet hopeful of consolation, of pardon, of love-- +within her first and last sanctuary, the walls of her home! + + +CHAPTER 21. FATHER AND CHILD. + +Forsaken as it appears on an outward view, during the morning of which +we now write, the house of Numerian is yet not tenantless. In one of +the sleeping apartments, stretched on his couch, with none to watch by +its side, lies the master of the little dwelling. We last beheld him on +the scene mingled with the famishing congregation in the Basilica of St. +John Lateran, still searching for his child amid the confusion of the +public distribution of food during the earlier stages of the misfortunes +of besieged Rome. Since that time he has toiled and suffered much; and +now the day of exhaustion, long deferred, the hours of helpless +solitude, constantly dreaded, have at length arrived. + +From the first periods of the siege, while all around him in the city +moved gloomily onward through darker and darker changes, while famine +rapidly merged into pestilence and death, while human hopes and purposes +gradually diminished and declined with each succeeding day, he alone +remained ever devoted to the same labour, ever animated by the same +object--the only one among all his fellow-citizens whom no outward event +could influence for good or evil, for hope or fear. + +In every street of Rome, at all hours, among all ranks of people, he was +still to be seen constantly pursuing the same hopeless search. When the +mob burst furiously into the public granaries to seize the last supplies +of corn hoarded for the rich, he was ready at the doors watching them as +they came out. When rows of houses were deserted by all but the dead, +he was beheld within, passing from window to window, as he sought +through each room for the treasure that he had lost. When some few +among the populace, in the first days of the pestilence, united in the +vain attempt to cast over the lofty walls the corpses that strewed the +street, he mingled with them to look on the rigid faces of the dead. In +solitary places, where the parent, not yet lost to affection, strove to +carry his dying child from the desert roadway to the shelter of a roof; +where the wife, still faithful to her duties, received her husband's +last breath in silent despair--he was seen gliding by their sides, and +for one brief instant looking on them with attentive and mournful eyes. +Wherever he went, whatever he beheld, he asked no sympathy and sought no +aid. He went his way, a pilgrim on a solitary path, an unregarded +expectant for a boon that no others would care to partake. + +When the famine first began to be felt in the city, he seemed +unconscious of its approach--he made no effort to procure beforehand the +provision of a few days' sustenance; if he attended the first public +distributions of food, it was only to prosecute his search for his child +amid the throng around him. He must have perished with the first feeble +victims of starvation, had he not been met, during his solitary +wanderings, by some of the members of the congregation whom his piety +and eloquence had collected in former days. + +By these persons, who entreaties that he would suspend his hopeless +search he always answered with the same firm and patient denial, his +course was carefully watched and his wants anxiously provided for. Out +of every supply of food which they were enabled to collect, his share +was invariably carried to his abode. They remembered their teacher in +the hour of his dejection, as they had formerly reverenced him in the +day of his vigour; they toiled to preserve his life as anxiously as they +had laboured to profit by his instructions; they listened as his +disciples once, they served him as his children now. + +But over these, as over all other offices of human kindness, the famine +was destined gradually and surely to prevail. The provision of food +garnered up by the congregation ominously lessened with each succeeding +day. When the pestilence began darkly to appear, the numbers of those +who sought their afflicted teacher at his abode, or followed him through +the dreary streets, fatally decreased. + + +Then, as the nourishment which had supported, and the vigilance which +had watched him, thus diminished, so did the hard-tasked energies of the +unhappy father fail him faster and faster. Each morning as he arose, +his steps were more feeble, his heart grew heavier within him, his +wanderings through the city were less and less resolute and prolonged. +At length his powers totally deserted him; the last-left members of his +congregation, as they approached his abode with the last-left provision +of food which they possessed, found him prostrate with exhaustion at his +garden gate. They bore him to his couch, placed their charitable +offering by his side, and leaving one of their number to protect him +from the robber and the assassin, they quitted the house in despair. + +For some days the guardian remained faithful to his post, until his +sufferings from lack of food overpowered his vigilance. Dreading that, +in his extremity, he might be tempted to take from the old man's small +store of provision what little remained, he fled from the house, to seek +sustenance, however loathsome, in the public streets; and thenceforth +Numerian was left defenceless in his solitary abode. + +He was first beheld on the scenes which these pages present, a man of +austere purpose, of unwearied energy; a valiant reformer, who defied all +difficulties that beset him in his progress; a triumphant teacher, +leading at his will whoever listened to his words; a father, proudly +contemplating the future position which he destined for his child. Far +different did he now appear. Lost to his ambition, broken in spirit, +helpless in body, separated from his daughter by his own act, he lay on +his untended couch in a death-like lethargy. The cold wind blowing +through his opened window awakened no sensations in his torpid frame; +the cup of water and the small relics of coarse food stood near his +hand, but he had no vigilance to discern them. His open eyes looked +steadfastly upward, and yet he reposed as one in a deep sleep, or as one +already devoted to the tomb; save when, at intervals, his lips moved +slowly with a long and painfully drawn breath, or a fever flush tinged +his hollow cheek with changing and momentary hues. + +While thus in outward aspect appearing to linger between life and death, +his faculties yet remained feebly vital within him. Aroused by no +external influence, and governed by no mental restraint, they now +created before him a strange waking vision, palpable as an actual event. + +It seemed to him that he was reposing, not in his own chamber, but in +some mysterious world, filled with a twilight atmosphere, inexpressibly +soothing and gentle to his aching sight. Through this mild radiance he +could trace, at long intervals, shadowy representations of the scenes +through which he had passed in search of his lost child. The gloomy +streets, the lonely houses abandoned to the unburied dead, which he had +explored, alternately appeared and vanished before him in solemn +succession; and ever and anon, as one vision disappeared ere another +rose, he heard afar off a sound as of gentle, womanly voices, murmuring +in solemn accents, 'The search has been made in penitence, in patience, +in prayer, and has not been pursued in vain. The lost shall return--the +beloved shall yet be restored!' + +Thus, as it had begun, the vision long continued. Now the scenes +through which he had wandered passed slowly before his eyes, now the +soft voices murmured pityingly in his ear. At length the first +disappeared, and the last became silent; then ensued a long vacant +interval, and then the grey, tranquil light brightened slowly at one +spot, out of which he beheld advancing towards him the form of his lost +child. + +She came to his side, she bent lovingly over him; he saw her eyes, with +their old patient, childlike expression, looking sorrowfully down upon +him. His heart revived to a sense of unspeakable awe and contrition, to +emotions of yearning love and mournful hope; his speech returned; he +whispered tremulously, 'Child! child! I repented in bitter woe the wrong +that I did to thee; I sought thee, in my loneliness on earth, through +the long day and the gloomy night! And now the merciful God has sent +thee to pardon me! I loved thee; I wept for thee.' + + +His voice died within him, for now his outward sensations quickened. He +felt warm tears falling on his cheeks; he felt embracing arms clasped +round him; he heard tenderly repeated, 'Father! speak to me as you were +wont; love me, father, and forgive me, as you loved and forgave me when +I was a little child!' + +The sound of that well-remembered voice--which had ever spoken kindly +and reverently to him; which had last addressed him in tones of +despairing supplication; which he had hardly hoped to hear again on +earth--penetrated his whole being, like awakening music in the dead +silence of night. His eyes lost their vacant expression; he raised +himself suddenly on the couch; he saw that what had begun as a vision +had ended as a reality; that his dream had proved the immediate fore- +runner of its own fulfilment; that his daughter in her bodily presence +was indeed restored; and his head drooped forward, and he trembled and +wept upon her bosom, in the overpowering fulness of his gratitude and +delight. + +For some moments Antonina, calming with the resolute heroism of +affection her own thronging emotions of awe and affright, endeavoured to +soothe and support her fast-failing parent. Her horror almost +overwhelmed her, as she thought that now, when, through grief and peril, +she was at last restored to him, he might expire in her arms; but even +yet her resolution did not fail her. The last hope of her brief and +bitter life was now the hope of reviving her father, and she clung to it +with the tenacity of despair. + +She calmed her voice while she spoke to him; she entreated him to +remember that his daughter had returned to watch over him, to be his +obedient pupil as in days of old. Vain effort! Even while the words +passed her lips, his arms, which had been pressed over her, relaxed; his +head grew heavier on her bosom. In the despair of the moment, she tore +herself from him, and looked round to seek the help that none were near +to afford. The cup of water, the last provision of food, attracted her +eye. With quick instinct she caught them up. Hope, success, salvation, +lay in those miserable relics. She pressed the food into his mouth; she +moistened his parched lips, his dry brow, with the water. During one +moment of horrible suspense she saw him still insensible; then the vital +functions revived; his eyes opened again and fixed famine-struck on the +wretched nourishment before him. He devoured it ravenously; he drained +the cup of water to its last drop; he sank back again on the couch. But +now the torpid blood moved once more in his veins; his heart beat less +and less feebly: he was saved. She saw it as she bent over him--saved +by the lost child in the hour of her return! It was a sensation of +ecstatic triumph and gratitude which no woeful remembrances had power to +embitter in its bright, sudden birth. She knelt down by the side of the +couch, almost crushed by her own emotions. Over the grave of the young +warrior she had raised her heart to Heaven in agony and grief, and now +by her father's side she poured forth her whole soul to her Creator in +trembling ejaculations of thankfulness and hope. + +Thus--the one slowly recovering whatever of life and vigour yet +continued in his weakened frame, the other still filled with her all- +absorbing emotions of gratitude--the father and daughter long remained. +And now, as morning waned towards noon, the storm began to subside. +Gradually and solemnly the vast thunder-clouds rolled asunder, and the +bright blue heaven beyond appeared through their fantastic rifts. The +lessening rain-drops fell light and silvery to the earth, and breeze and +sunshine were wafted at fitful intervals over the plague-tainted +atmosphere of Rome. As yet, subdued by the shadows of the floating +clouds, the dawning sunbeams glittered softly through the windows of +Numerian's chamber. They played, warm and reviving, over his worn +features, like messengers of resurrection and hope from their native +heaven. Life seemed to expand within him under their fresh and gentle +ministering. Once more he raised himself, and turned towards his child; +and now his heart throbbed with a healthful joy, and his arms closed +round her, not in the helplessness of infirmity, but in the welcome of +love. + +His words, when he spoke to her, fell at first almost inarticulately +from his lips--they were mingled together in confused phrases of +tenderness, contrition, thanksgiving. All the native enthusiasm of his +disposition, all the latent love for his child, which had for years been +suppressed by his austerity, or diverted by his ambition, now at last +burst forth. + +Trembling and silent in his arms, Antonina vainly endeavoured to return +his caresses and to answer his words of welcome. Now for the first time +she knew how deep was her father's affection for her; she felt how +foreign to his real nature had been his assumed severity in their +intercourse of former days; and in the quick flow of new feelings and +old recollections produced by the delighting surprise of the discovery, +she found herself speechless. She could only listen eagerly, +breathlessly, while he spoke. His words, faltering and confused though +they were, were words of endearment which she had never heard from him +before; they were words which no mother had ever pronounced beside her +infant bed, and they sank divinely consoling over her heart, as messages +of pardon from an angel's lips. + +Gradually Numerian's voice grew calmer. He raised his daughter in his +arms, and bent wistfully on her face his attentive and pitying eyes. +'Returned, returned!' he murmured, while he gazed on her, 'never again +to depart! Returned, beautiful and patient, kinder and more tender than +ever! Love me and pardon me, Antonina. I sought for you in bitter +loneliness and despair. Think not of me as what I was, but as what I +am! There were days when you were an infant, when I had no thought but +how to cherish and delight you, and now those days have come again. You +shall read no gloomy task-books; you shall never be separated from me +more; you shall play sweet music on the lute; you shall be all garlanded +with flowers which I will provide for you! We will find friends and +glad companions; we will bring happiness with us wherever we are seen. +God's blessing goes forth from children like you--it has fallen upon +me--it has raised me from the dead! My Antonina shall teach me to +worship, as I once taught her. She shall pray for me in the morning, +and pray for me at night; and when she thinks not of it, when she +sleeps, I shall come softly to her bedside, and wait and watch over her, +so that when she opens her eyes they shall open on me--they are the eyes +of my child who has been restored to me--there is nothing on earth that +can speak to me like them of happiness and peace!' + +He paused for a moment, and looked rapturously on her face as it was +turned towards him. His features partially saddened while he gazed, and +taking her long hair, still wet and dishevelled from the rain, in his +hands, he pressed it over his lips, over his face, over his neck. Then, +when he saw that she was endeavouring to speak, when he beheld the tears +that were now filling her eyes, he drew her closer to him, and hurriedly +continued in lower tones-- + +'Hush! hush! No more grief, no more tears! Tell me not whither you +have wandered--speak not of what you have suffered; for would not every +word be a reproach to me? And you have come to pardon and not to +reproach! Let not the recollection that it was I who cast you off be +forced on me from your lips; let us remember only that we are restored +to each other; let us think that God has accepted my penitence and +forgiven me my sin, in suffering my child to return! Or, if we must +speak of the days of separation that are past, speak to me of the days +that found you tranquil and secure; rejoice me by telling me that it was +not all danger and woe in the bitter destiny which my guilty anger +prepared for my own child! Say to me that you met protectors as well as +enemies in the hour of your flight--that all were not harsh to you as I +was--that those of whom you asked shelter and safety looked on your face +as on a petition for charity and kindness from friends whom they loved! +Tell me only of your protectors, Antonina, for in that there will be +consolation; and you have come to console!' + +As he waited for her reply he felt her tremble on his bosom, he saw the +shudder that ran over her frame. The despair in her voice, thought she +only pronounced in answer to him the simple words, 'There was one'--and +then ceased, unable to proceed--penetrated coldly to his heart. + +'Is he not at hand?' he hurriedly resumed. 'Why is he not here? Let us +seek him without delay. I must humble myself before him in my +gratitude. I must show him that I was worthy that my Antonina should be +restored.' + + +'He is dead!' she gasped, sinking down in the arms that embraced her, as +the recollections of the past night again crowded in all their horror on +her memory. 'They murdered him by my side. O father! father! he loved +me; he would have reverenced and protected you!' + +'May the merciful God receive him among the blessed angels, and honour +him among the holy martyrs!' cried the father, raising his tearful eyes +in supplication. 'May his spirit, if it can still be observant of the +things of earth, know that his name shall be written on my heart with +the name of my child; that I will think on him as on a beloved +companion, and mourn for him as a son that has been taken from me!' + +He ceased, and looked down on Antonina, whose features were still hidden +from him. Each felt that a new bond of mutual affection had been +created between them by what each had spoken; but both now remained +silent. + +During this interval the thoughts of Numerian wandered from the +reflections which had hitherto occupied him. The few mournful words +which his daughter had spoken had been sufficient to banish its fulness +of joy from his heart, and to turn him from the happy contemplation of +the present to the dark recollections of the past. Vague doubts and +fears now mingled with his gratitude and hope, and involuntarily his +thoughts reverted to what he would fain have forgotten for ever--to the +morning when he had driven Antonina from her home. + +Baseless apprehensions of the return of the treacherous Pagan and his +profligate employer, with the return of their victim--despairing +convictions of his own helplessness and infirmity rose startlingly in +his mind. His eyes wandered vacantly round the room, his hands closed +trembling over his daughter's form; then, suddenly releasing her, he +arose as one panic-stricken, and exclaiming, 'The doors must be +secured--Ulpius may be near--the senator may return!' endeavoured to +cross the room. But his strength was unequal to the effort; he leaned +back for support against the wall, and breathlessly repeating, 'Secure +the doors--Ulpius, Ulpius!' he motioned to Antonina to descend. + +She trembled as she obeyed him. Remembering her passage through the +breach in the wall, and her fearful journey through the streets of Rome, +she more than shared her father's apprehensions as she descended the +stairs. + +The door remained half open, as she had left it when she entered the +house. Ere she hurriedly closed and barred it, she cast a momentary +glance on the street beyond. The gaunt figures of the slaves still +moved wearily to and fro, amid the mockery of festal preparation in +Vetranio's palace; and here and there a few ghastly figures lay on the +ground contemplating them in languid amazement. Over all other parts of +the street the deadly tranquillity of plague and famine still prevailed. + +Hurriedly ascending the steps, Antonina hastened to assure her father +that she had obeyed his commands, and that they were now secure from all +intrusion from without. But, during her brief absence, a new and more +ominous prospect of calamity had presented itself before the old man's +mind. + +As she entered the room, she saw that he had returned to his couch, and +that he was holding before him the little wooden bowl which had +contained his last supply of food, and which was now empty. He addressed +not a word to her when he heard her enter; his features were rigid with +horror and despair as he looked down on the empty bowl; he muttered +vacantly, 'It was the last provision that remained, and it was I that +exhausted it! The beasts of the forest carry food to their young, and I +have taken the last morsel from my child!' + + +In an instant the utter desolateness of their situation--forgotten in +the first joy of their meeting--forced itself with appalling vividness +upon Antonina's mind. She endeavoured to speak of comfort and hope to +her father; but the fearful realities of the famine in the city now rose +palpably before her, and suspended the vain words of solace on her lips. +In the midst of still populous Rome, within sight of those surrounding +plains where the creative sun ripened hour by hour the vegetation of the +teeming earth, where field and granary displayed profusely their +abundant stores, the father and daughter now looked on each other, as +helpless to replace their exhausted provision of food as if they had +been abandoned on the raft of the shipwrecked in an unexplored sea, or +banished to a lonely island whose inland products were withered by +infected winds, and around whose arid shores ran such destroying waters +as seethe over the 'Cities of the Plain'. + +The silence which had long prevailed in the room, the bitter reflections +which still held the despairing father and the patient daughter +speechless alike, were at length interrupted by a hollow and melancholy +voice from the street, pronouncing, in the form of a public notice, +these words:-- + +'I, Publius Dalmatius, messenger of the Roman Senate, proclaim, that in +order to clear the streets from the dead, three thousand sestertii will +be given by the Prefect for every ten bodies that are cast over the +walls. This is the true decree of the Senate.' + +The voice ceased; but no sound of applause, no murmur of popular tumult +was heard in answer. Then, after an interval, it was once more faintly +audible as the messenger passed on and repeated the decree in another +street; and then the silence again sank down over all things more +awfully pervading than before. + +Every word of the proclamation, when repeated in the distance as when +spoken under his window, had clearly reached Numerian's ears. His mind, +already sinking in despair, was riveted on what he had heard from the +woe-boding voice of the herald, with a fascination as absorbing as that +which rivets the eye of the traveller, already giddy on the summit of a +precipice, upon the spectacle of the yawning gulfs beneath. When all +sound of the proclamation had finally died away, the unhappy father +dropped the empty bowl which he had hitherto mechanically continued to +hold before him, and glancing affrightedly at his daughter, groaned to +himself: 'The corpses are to be cast over the walls--the dead are to be +flung forth to the winds of heaven--there is no help for us in the city. +O God, God!--she may die!--her body may be cast away like the rest, and +I may live to see it!' + +He rose suddenly from the couch; his reason seemed for a moment to be +shaken as he tottered to the window, crying, 'Food! food!--I will give +my house and all it contains for a morsel of food. I have nothing to +support my own child--she will starve before me by tomorrow if I have no +food! I am a citizen of Rome--I demand help from the Senate! Food! +food!' + +In tones declining lower and lower he continued to cry thus from the +window, but no voice answered him either in sympathy or derision. Of +all the people--now increased in numbers--collected in the street before +Vetranio's palace, no one turned even to look on him. For days and days +past, such fruitless appeals as his had been heard, and heard +unconcernedly, at every hour and in every street of Rome--now ringing +through the heavy air in the shrieks of delirium; now faintly audible in +the last faltering murmurs of exhaustion and despair. + +Thus vainly entreating help and pity from a populace who had ceased to +give the one or to feel the other, Numerian might long have remained; +but now his daughter approached his side, and drawing him gently towards +his couch, said in tender and solemn accents: 'Remember, father, that +God sent the ravens to feed Elijah, and replenished the widow's cruse! +He will not desert us, for He has restored us to each other, and has +sent me hither not to perish in the famine, but to watch over you!' + + +'God has deserted the city and all that it contains!' he answered +distractedly. 'The angel of destruction has gone forth into our +streets, and death walks in his shadow! On this day, when hope and +happiness seemed opening before us both; our little household has been +doomed! The young and the old, the weary and the watchful, they strew +the streets alike--the famine has mastered them all--the famine will +master us--there is no help, no escape! I, who would have died +patiently for my daughter's safety, must now die despairing, leaving her +friendless in the wide, dreary, perilous world; in the dismal city of +anguish, of horror, of death--where the enemy threatens without, and +hunger and pestilence waste within! O Antonina! you have returned to me +but for a little time; the day of our second separation draws near!' + +For a few moments his head drooped, and his sobs choked his utterance; +then he once more rose painfully to his feet. Heedless of Antonina's +entreaties, he again endeavoured to cross the room, only again to find +his feeble powers unequal to sustain him. As he fell back panting upon +a seat, his eyes assumed a wild, unnatural expression--despair of mind +and weakness of body had together partially unhinged his faculties. +When his daughter affrightedly approached to soothe and succour him, he +impatiently waved her back; and began to speak in a dull, hoarse, +monotonous voice, pressing his hand firmly over his brow, and directing +his eyes backwards and forwards incessantly, on object after object, in +every part of the room. + +'Listen, child, listen!' he hastily began. 'I tell you there is no food +in the house, and no food in Rome!--we are besieged--they have taken +from us our granaries in the suburbs, and our fields on the plains-- +there is a great famine in the city--those who still eat, eat strange +food which men sicken at when it is named. I would seek even this, but +I have no strength to go forth into the byways and force it from others +at the point of the sword! I am old and feeble, and heart-broken--I +shall die first, and leave fatherless my good, kind daughter, whom I +sought for so long, and whom I loved as my only child!' + +He paused for an instant, not to listen to the words of encouragement +and hope which Antonina mechanically addressed to him while he spoke, +but to collect his wandering thoughts, to rally his failing strength. +His voice acquired a quicker tone, and his features presented a sudden +energy and earnestness of expression, as if some new project had flashed +across his mind, when, after an interval, he continued thus:-- + +'But though my child shall be bereaved of me, though I shall die in the +hour when I most longed to live for her, I must not leave her helpless; +I will send her among my congregation who have deserted me, but who will +repent when they hear that I am dead, and will receive Antonina among +them for my sake! Listen to this--listen, listen! You must tell them +to remember all that I once revealed to them of my brother, from whom I +parted in my boyhood--my brother, whom I have never seen since. He may +yet be alive, he may be found--they must search for him; for to you he +would be father to the fatherless, and guardian to the unguarded--he may +now be in Rome, he may be rich and powerful--he may have food to spare, +and shelter that is good against all enemies and strangers! Attend, +child, to my words: in these latter days I have thought of him much; I +have seen him in dreams as I saw him for the last time in my father's +house; he was happier and more beloved than I was, and in envy and +hatred I quitted my parents and parted from him. You have heard nothing +of this; but you must hear it now, that when I am dead you may know you +have a protector to seek! So I received in anger my brother's farewell, +and fled from my home--(those days were well remembered by me once, but +all things grow dull on my memory now). Long years of turmoil and +change passed on, and I never met him; and men of many nations were my +companions, but he was not among them; then much affliction fell upon +me, and I repented and learnt the fear of God, and went back to my +father's house. Since that, years have passed--I know not how many. I +could have told them when I spoke of my former life to him--to my +friend, when we stood near St. Peter's, ere the city was besieged, +looking on the sunset, and speaking of the early days of our +companionship; but now my very remembrance fails me; the famine that +threatens us with separation and death casts darkness over my thoughts; +yet hear me, hear me patiently--for your sake I must continue!' + +'Not now, father--not now! At another time, on a happier day!' murmured +Antonina, in tremulous, entreating tones. + + +'My home, when I arrived to look on it, was gone,' pursued the old man +sadly, neither heeding nor hearing her. 'Other houses were built where +my father's house had stood; no man could tell me of my parents and my +brother; then I returned, and my former companions grew hateful in my +eyes; I left them, and they followed me with persecution and scorn.-- +Listen, listen!--I set forth secretly in the night, with you, to escape +them, and to make perfect my reformation where they should not be near +to hinder it; and we travelled onward many days until we came to Rome, +and I made my abode there. But I feared that my companions whom I +abhorred might discover and persecute me again, and in the new city of +my dwelling I called myself by another name than the name that I bore; +thus I knew that all trace of me would be lost, and that I should be +kept secure from men whom I thought on only as enemies now. Go, child! +go quickly!--bring your tablets and write down the names that I shall +tell you; for so you will discover your protector when I am gone! Say +not to him that you are the child of Numerian--he knows not the name; +say that you are the daughter of Cleander, his brother, who died longing +to be restored to him. Write--write carefully, Cleander!--that was the +name my father gave to me; that was the name I bore until I fled from my +evil companions and changed it, dreading their pursuit! Cleander! write +and remember, Cleander! I have seen in visions that my brother shall be +discovered: he will not be discovered to me, but he will be discovered +to you! Your tablets--your tablets!--write his name with mine--it is--' + +He stopped abruptly. His mental powers, fluctuating between torpor and +animation--shaken, but not overpowered by the trials which had assailed +them--suddenly rallied, and resuming somewhat of their accustomed +balance, became awakened to a sense of their own aberration. His vague +revelations of his past life (which the reader will recognise as +resembling his communications on the same subject to the fugitive land- +owner, previously related) now appeared before him in all their +incongruity and uselessness. His countenance fell--he sighed bitterly +to himself: 'My reason begins to desert me!--my judgment, which should +guide my child--my resolution, which should uphold her, both fail me! +How should my brother, since childhood lost to me, be found by her? +Against the famine that threatens us I offer but vain words! Already +her strength declines; her face, that I loved to look on grows wan +before my eyes! God have mercy upon us!--God have mercy upon us!' + +He returned feebly to his couch; his head declined on his bosom; +sometimes a low groan burst from his lips, but he spoke no more. + +Deep as was the prostration under which he had now fallen, it was yet +less painful to Antonina to behold it than to listen to the incoherent +revelations which had fallen from his lips but the moment before, and +which, in her astonishment and affright, she had dreaded might be the +awful indications of the overthrow of her father's reason. As she again +placed herself by his side, she trembled to feel that her own weariness +was fast overpowering her; but she still struggled with her rising +despair--still strove to think only of capacity for endurance and +chances of relief. + +The silence in the room was deep and dismal while they now sat together. +The faint breezes, at long intervals, drowsily rose and fell as they +floated through the open window; the fitful sunbeams alternately +appeared and vanished as the clouds rolled upward in airy succession +over the face of heaven. Time moved sternly in its destined progress, +and Nature varied tranquilly through its appointed limits of change, and +still no hopes, no saving projects, nothing but dark recollections and +woeful anticipations occupied Antonina's mind; when, just as her weary +head was drooping towards the ground, just as sensation and fortitude +and grief itself seemed declining into a dreamless and deadly sleep, a +last thought, void of discernible connection or cause, rose suddenly +within her--animating, awakening, inspiring. She started up. 'The +garden, father--the garden!' she cried breathlessly. 'Remember the food +that grows in our garden below! Be comforted, we have provision left +yet--God has not deserted us!' + +He raised his face while she spoke; his features assumed a deeper +mournfulness and hopelessness of expression; he looked upon her in +ominous silence, and laid his trembling fingers on her arm to detain +her, when she hurriedly attempted to quit the room. + + +'Do not forbid me to depart,' she anxiously pleaded. 'To me every +corner in the garden is known; for it was my possession in our happier +days--our last hopes rest in the garden, and I must search through it +without delay! Bear with me,' she added, in low and melancholy +tones--'bear with m e, dear father, in all that I would now do! I have +suffered, since we parted, a bitter affliction, which clings dark and +heavy to all my thoughts--there is no consolation for me but the +privilege of caring for your welfare--my only hope of comfort is in the +employment of aiding you!' + +The old man's hand had pressed heavier on her arm while she addressed +him; but when she ceased it dropped from her, and he bent his head in +speechless submission to her entreaty. + +For one moment she lingered, looking on him silent as himself; the next, +she left the apartment with hasty and uncertain steps. + +On reaching the garden, she unconsciously took the path leading to the +bank where she had once loved to play secretly upon her lute and to look +on the distant mountains reposing in the warm atmosphere which summer +evenings shed over their blue expanse. How eloquent was this little +plot of ground of the quiet events now for ever gone by!--of the joys, +the hopes, the happy occupations, which rise with the day that +chronicles them, and pass like that day, never to return the same!-- +which the memory alone can preserve as they were, and the heart can +never resume but in a changed form, divested of the presence of the +companion of the incident of the departed moment, which formed the charm +of the past and makes the imperfection of the present. + +Tender and thronging were the remembrances which the surrounding +prospect called up, as the sad mistress of the garden looked again on +her little domain! She saw the bank where she could never more sit to +sing with a renewal of the same feelings which had once inspired her +music; she saw the drooping flowers that she could never restore with +the same childlike enjoyment of the task which had animated her in +former hours! Young though she still was, the emotions of the youthful +days that were gone could never be revived as they had once existed! As +waters they had welled up, and as waters they had flowed forth, never to +return to their source! Thoughts of these former years--of the young +warrior who lay cold beneath the heavy earth--of the desponding father +who mourned hopeless in the room above--gathered thick at her heart as +she turned from her flower-beds--not, as in other days, to pour forth +her happiness to the music of her lute, but to search laboriously for +the sustenance of life. + +At first, as she stooped over those places in the garden where she knew +that fruits and vegetables had been planted by her own hand, her tears +blinded her. She hastily dashed them away, and looked eagerly around. + +Alas! others had reaped the field from which she had hoped abundance! +In the early days of the famine Numerian's congregation had entered the +garden, and gathered for him whatever it contained; its choicest and its +homeliest products were alike exhausted; withered leaves lay on the +barren earth, and naked branches waved over them in the air. She +wandered from path to path, searching amid the briars and thistles, +which already cast an aspect of ruin over the deserted place; she +explored its most hidden corners with the painful perseverance of +despair; but the same barrenness spread around her wherever she turned. +On this once fertile spot, which she had entered with such joyful faith +in its resources, there remained but a few poor decayed roots, dropped +and forgotten amid tangled weeds and faded flowers. + +She saw that they were barely sufficient for one scanty meal as she +collected them and returned slowly to the house. No words escaped her, +no tears flowed over her cheeks when she reascended the steps--hope, +fear, thought, sensation itself had been stunned within her from the +first moment when she had discovered that, in the garden as in the +house, the inexorable famine had anticipated the last chances of relief. + +She entered the room, and, still holding the withered roots, advanced +mechanically to her father's side. During her absence his mental and +bodily faculties had both yielded to wearied nature--he lay in a deep, +heavy sleep. + + +Her mind experienced a faint relief when she saw that the fatal +necessity of confessing the futility of the hopes she had herself +awakened was spared her for a while. She knelt down by Numerian, and +gently smoothed the hair over his brow; then she drew the curtain across +the window, for she feared even that the breeze blowing through it might +arouse him. + +A strange, secret satisfaction at the idea of devoting to her father +every moment of the time and every particle of the strength that might +yet be reserved for her; a ready resignation to death in dying for him-- +overspread her heart, and took the place of all other aspirations and +all other thoughts. + +She now moved to and fro through the room with a cautious tranquillity +which nothing could startle; she prepared her decayed roots for food +with a patient attention which nothing could divert. Lost, through the +aggravated miseries of her position, to recent grief and present +apprehension, she could still instinctively perform the simple offices +of the woman and the daughter, as she might have performed them amid a +peaceful nation and a prosperous home. Thus do the first-born +affections outlast the exhaustion of all the stormy emotions, all the +aspiring thoughts of after years, which may occupy, but which cannot +absorb, the spirit within us; thus does their friendly and familiar +voice, when the clamour of contending passions has died away in its own +fury, speak again, serene and sustaining as in the early time, when the +mind moved secure within the limits of its native simplicity, and the +heart yet lay happy in the pure tranquillity of its first repose! + +The last scanty measure of food was soon prepared; it was bitter and +unpalatable when she tasted it--life could barely be preserved, even in +the most vigorous, by provision so wretched; but she set it aside as +carefully as if it had been the most precious luxury of the most +abundant feast. + +Nothing had changed during the interval of her solitary employment--her +father yet slept; the gloomy silence yet prevailed in the street. She +placed herself at the window, and partially drew aside the curtain to +let the warm breezes from without blow over her cold brow. The same +ineffable resignation, the same unnatural quietude, which had sunk down +over her faculties since she had entered the room, overspread them +still. Surrounding objects failed to impress her attention; +recollections and forebodings stagnated in her mind. A marble composure +prevailed over her features. Sometimes her eyes wandered mechanically +from the morsels of food by her side to her sleeping father, as her one +vacant idea of watching for his service, till the feeble pulses of life +had throbbed their last, alternately revived and declined; but no other +evidences of bodily existence or mental activity appeared in her. As +she now sat in the half-darkened room, by the couch on which her father +reposed--her features pale, calm, and rigid, her form enveloped in cold +white drapery--there were moments when she looked like one of the +penitential devotees of the primitive Church, appointed to watch in the +house of mourning, and surprised in her saintly vigil by the advent of +Death. + +Time flowed on--the monotonous hours of the day waned again towards +night; and plague and famine told their lapse in the fated highways of +Rome. For father and child the sand in the glass was fast running out, +and neither marked it as it diminished. The sleeper still reposed, and +the guardian by his side still watched; but now her weary gaze was +directed on the street, unconsciously attracted by the sound of voices +which at length rose from it at intervals, and by the light of the +torches and lamps which appeared in the great palace of the senator +Vetranio, as the sun gradually declined in the horizon, and the fiery +clouds around were quenched in the vapours of the advancing night. +Steadily she looked upon the sight beneath and before her; but even yet +her limbs never moved; no expression relieved the blank, solemn +peacefulness of her features. + +Meanwhile, the soft, brief twilight glimmered over the earth, and showed +the cold moon, poised solitary in the starless heaven; then, the +stealthy darkness arose at her pale signal, and closed slowly round the +City of Death! + + +CHAPTER 22. THE BANQUET OF FAMINE. + +Of all prophecies, none are, perhaps, so frequently erroneous as those +on which we are most apt to venture in endeavouring to foretell the +effect of outward events on the characters of men. In no form of our +anticipations are we more frequently baffled than in such attempts to +estimate beforehand the influence of circumstance over conduct, not only +in others, but also even in ourselves. Let the event but happen, and +men, whom we view by the light of our previous observation of them, act +under it as the living contradictions of their own characters. The +friend of our daily social intercourse, in the progress of life, and the +favourite hero of our historic studies, in the progress of the page, +astonish, exceed, or disappoint our expectations alike. We find it as +vain to foresee a cause as to fix a limit for the arbitrary +inconsistencies in the dispositions of mankind. + +But, though to speculate upon the future conduct of others under +impending circumstances be but too often to expose the fallacy of our +wisest anticipations, to contemplate the nature of that conduct after it +has been displayed is a useful subject of curiosity, and may perhaps be +made a fruitful source of instruction. Similar events which succeed +each other at different periods are relieved from monotony, and derive +new importance from the ever-varying effects which they produce on the +human character. Thus, in the great occurrence which forms the +foundation of our narrative, we may find little in the siege of Rome, +looking at it as a mere event, to distinguish it remarkably from any +former siege of the city--the same desire for glory and vengeance, +wealth and dominion, which brought Alaric to her walls, brought other +invaders before him. But if we observed the effect of the Gothic +descent upon Italy on the inhabitants of her capital, we shall find +ample matter for novel contemplation and unbounded surprise. + +We shall perceive, as an astonishing instance of the inconsistencies of +the human character, the spectacle of a whole people resolutely defying +an overwhelming foreign invasion at their very doors, just at the period +when they had fallen most irremediably from the highest position of +national glory to the lowest depths of national degradation; resisting +an all-powerful enemy with inflexible obstinacy, for the honour of the +Roman name, which they had basely dishonoured or carelessly forgotten +for ages past. We shall behold men who have hitherto laughed at the +very name of patriotism, now starving resolutely in their country's +cause; who stopped at no villainy to obtain wealth, now hesitating to +employ their ill-gotten gains in the purchase of the most important of +all gratifications--their own security and peace. Instances of the +unimaginable effect produced by the event of the siege of Rome on the +characters of her inhabitants might be drawn from all classes, from the +lowest to the highest, from patrician to plebeian; but to produce them +here would be to admit too long an interruption in the progress of the +present narrative. If we are to enter at all into detail on such a +subject, it must be only in a case clearly connected with the actual +requirements of our story; and such a case may be found, at this +juncture, in the conduct of the senator Vetranio, under the influence of +the worst calamities attending the blockade of Rome by the Goths. + +Who, it may be asked, knowing the previous character of this man, his +frivolity of disposition, his voluptuous anxiety for unremitting +enjoyment and ease, his horror of the slightest approaches of affliction +or pain, would have imagined him capable of rejecting in disdain all the +minor chances of present security and future prosperity which his +unbounded power and wealth might have procured for him, even in a +famine-stricken city, and rising suddenly to the sublime of criminal +desperation, in the resolution to abandon life as worthless the moment +it had ceased to run in the easy current of all former years? Yet to +this determination had he now arrived; and, still more extraordinary, in +this determination had he found others, of his own patrician order, to +join him. + + +The reader will remember his wild announcement of his intended orgie to +the Prefect Pompeianus during the earlier periods of the siege; that +announcement was now to be fulfilled. Vetranio had bidden his guests to +the Banquet of Famine. A chosen number of the senators of the great +city were to vindicate their daring by dying the revellers that they had +lived; by resigning in contempt all prospect of starving, like the +common herd, on a lessening daily pittance of loathsome food; by making +their triumphant exit from a fettered and ungrateful life, drowned in +floods of wine, and lighted by the fires of the wealthiest palace of +Rome! + +It had been intended to keep this frantic determination a profound +secret, to let the mighty catastrophe burst upon the remaining +inhabitants of the city like a prodigy from heaven; but the slaves +intrusted with the organisation of the suicide banquet had been bribed +to their tasks with wine, and in the carelessness of intoxication had +revealed to others whatever they heard within the palace walls. The +news passed from mouth to mouth. There was enough in the prospect of +beholding the burning palace and the drunken suicide of its desperate +guests to animate even the stagnant curiosity of a famishing mob. + +On the appointed evening the people dragged their weary limbs from all +quarters of the city towards the Pincian Hill. Many of them died on the +way; many lost their resolution to proceed to the end of their journey, +and took shelter sullenly in the empty houses on the road; many found +opportunities for plunder and crime as they proceeded, which tempted +them from their destination; but many persevered in their purpose--the +living dragging the dying along with them, the desperate driving the +cowardly before them in malignant sport, until they gained the palace +gates. It was by their voices, as they reached her ear from the street, +that the fast-sinking faculties of Antonina had been startled, though +not revived; and there, on the broad pavement, lay these citizens of a +fallen city--a congregation of pestilence and crime--a starving and an +awful band! + +The moon, brightened by the increasing darkness, now clearly illuminated +the street, and revealed, in a narrow space, a various and impressive +scene. + +One side of the roadway in which stood Vetranio's palace was occupied, +along each extremity, as far as the eye could reach at night, by the +groves and outbuildings attached to the senator's mansion. The palace +grounds, at the higher and farther end of the street--looking from the +Pincian Gate--crossed it by a wide archway, and then stretched backward, +until they joined the trees of the little garden of Numerian's abode. +In a line with this house, but separated from it by a short space, stood +a long row of buildings, let out floor by floor to separate occupants, +and towering to an unwieldy altitude; for in ancient Rome, as in modern +London, in consequence of the high price of land in an over-populated +city, builders could only secure space in a dwelling by adding +inconveniently to its height. Beyond these habitations rose the trees +surrounding another patrician abode; and beyond that the houses took a +sudden turn, and nothing more was visible in a straight line but the +dusky, indefinite objects of the distant view. + + +The whole appearance of the street before Vetranio's mansion, had it +been unoccupied by the repulsive groups now formed in it, would have +been eminently beautiful at the hours of which we now write. The nobly +symmetrical frontage of the palace itself, with its graceful succession +of long porticoes and colossal statues, contrasted by the picturesquely +irregular appearance of the opposite dwelling of Numerian and the lofty +houses by its side; the soft, indistinct masses of foliage running +parallel along the upper ends of the street, terminated and connected by +the archway garden across the road, on which was planted a group of tall +pine-trees, rising in gigantic relief against the transparent sky; the +brilliant light streaming across the pavement from Vetranio's gaily- +curtained windows, immediately opposed by the tranquil moonlight which +lit the more distant view--formed altogether a prospect in which the +natural and the artificial were mingled together in the most exquisite +proportions--a prospect whose ineffable poetry and beauty might, on any +other night, have charmed the most careless eye and exalted the most +frivolous mind. But now, overspread as it was by groups of people gaunt +with famine and hideous with disease; startled as it was, at gloomy +intervals, by contending cries of supplication, defiance, and despair-- +its brightest beauties of Nature and Art appeared but to shine with an +aspect of bitter mockery around the human misery which their splendour +disclosed. + +Upwards of a hundred people--mostly of the lowest orders--were +congregated before the senator's devoted dwelling. Some few among them +passed slowly to and fro in the street, their figures gliding shadowy +and solemn through the light around them; but the greater number lay on +the pavement before the wall of Numerian's dwelling and the doorways of +the lofty houses by its side. Illuminated by the full glare of the +light from the palace windows, these groups, huddled together in the +distorted attitudes of suffering and despair, assumed a fearful and +unearthly appearance. Their shrivelled faces, their tattered clothing, +their wan forms, here prostrate, there half-raised, were bathed in a +steady red glow. High above them, at the windows of the tall houses, +now tenanted in every floor by the dead, appeared a few figures (the +mercenary guardians of the dying within) bending forward to look out +upon the palace opposite--their haggard faces showing pale in the clear +moonlight. Sometimes their voices were heard calling in mockery to the +mass of people below to break down the strong steel gates of the palace, +and tear the full wine-cup from its master's lips. Sometimes those +beneath replied with execrations, which rose wildly mingled with the +wailing of women and children, the moans of the plague-stricken, and the +supplications of the famished to the slaves passing backwards and +forwards behind the palace railings for charity and help. + +In the intervals, when the tumult of weak voices was partially lulled, +there was heard a dull, regular, beating sound, produced by those who +had found dry bones on their road to the palace, and were pounding them +on the pavement, in sheltered places, for food. The wind, which had +been refreshing during the day, had changed at sunset, and now swept up +slowly over the street in hot, faint gusts, plague-laden, from the East. +Particles of the ragged clothing on some prostrate forms lying most +exposed in its course waved slowly to and fro, as it passed, like +banners planted by Death on the yielding defences of the citadel of +Life. It wound through the open windows of the palace, hot and +mephitic, as if tainted with the breath of the foul and furious words +which it bore onward into the banqueting-hall of the senator's reckless +guests. Driven over such scenes as now spread beneath it, it derived +from them a portentous significance; it seemed to blow like an +atmosphere exuded from the furnace-depths of centre earth, breathing +sinister warnings of some deadly convulsion in the whole fabric of +Nature over the thronged and dismal street. + +Such was the prospect before the palace, and such the spectators +assembled in ferocious anxiety to behold the destruction of the +senator's abode. Meanwhile, within the walls of the building, the +beginning of the fatal orgie was at hand. + +It had been covenanted by the slaves (who, during the calamities in the +besieged city, had relaxed in their accustomed implicit obedience to +their master with perfect impunity), that, as soon as the last labours +of preparation were completed, they should be free to consult their own +safety by quitting the devoted palace. Already some of the weakest and +most timid of their numbers might be seen passing out hastily into the +gardens by the back gates, like engineers who had fired a train, and +were escaping ere the explosion burst forth. Those among the menials +who still remained in the palace were for the greater part occupied in +drinking from the vases of wine which had been placed before them, to +preserved to the last moment their failing strength. + + +The mockery of festivity had been extended even to their dresses--green +liveries girt with cherry-coloured girdles arrayed their wasted forms. +They drank in utter silence. Not the slightest appearance of revelry or +intoxication prevailed among their ranks. Confusedly huddled together, +as if for mutual protection, they ever and anon cast quick glances of +suspicion and apprehension upon some six or eight of the superior +attendants of the palace, who walked backwards and forwards at the outer +extremity of the hall occupied by their comrades, and occasionally +advancing along the straight passages before them to the front gates of +the building, appeared to be exchanging furtive signals with some of the +people in the street. Reports had been vaguely spread of a secret +conspiracy between some of the principal of the slaves and certain +chosen ruffians of the populace, to murder all the inmates of the +palace, seize on its treasures, and, opening the city gates to the +Goths, escape with their booty during the confusion of the pillage of +Rome. Nothing had as yet been positively discovered; but the few +attendants who kept ominously apart from the rest were unanimously +suspected by their fellows, who now watched them over their wine-cups +with anxious eyes. Different as was the scene among the slaves still +left in the palace from the scene among the people dispersed in the +street, the one was nevertheless in its own degree as gloomily +suggestive of some great impending calamity as the other. + +The grand banqueting-hall of the palace, prepared though it now was for +festivity, wore a changed and melancholy aspect. + +The massive tables still ran down the whole length of the noble room, +surrounded by luxurious couches, as in former days, but not a vestige of +food appeared upon their glittering surfaces. Rich vases, flasks, and +drinking-cups, all filled with wine, alone occupied the festal board. +Above, hanging low from the ceiling, burnt ten large lamps, +corresponding to the number of guests assembled, as the only procurable +representatives of the hundreds of revellers who had feasted at +Vetranio's expense during the brilliant nights that were now passed for +ever. At the lower end of the room, beyond the grand door of entrance, +hung a thick black curtain, apparently intended to conceal mysteriously +some object behind it. Before the curtain burnt a small lamp of yellow +glass, raised upon a high gilt pole, and around and beneath it, heaped +against the side walls, and over part of the table, lay a various and +confused mass of rich objects, all of a nature more or less inflammable, +and all besprinkled with scented oils. Hundreds of yards of gorgeously +variegated hangings, rolls upon rolls of manuscripts, gaudy dresses of +all colours, toys, utensils, innumerable articles of furniture formed in +rare and beautifully inlaid woods, were carelessly flung together +against the walls of the apartment, and rose high towards its ceiling. + +On every part of the tables not occupied by the vases of wine were laid +gold and jewelled ornaments which dazzled the eye by their brilliancy; +while, in extraordinary contrast to the magnificence thus profusely +displayed, there appeared in one of the upper corners of the hall an old +wooden stand covered by a coarse cloth, on which were placed one or two +common earthenware bowls, containing what my be termed a 'mash' of +boiled bran and salted horseflesh. Any repulsive odour which might have +arisen from this strange compound was overpowered by the various +perfumes sprinkled about the room, which, mingling with the hot breezes +wafted through the windows from the street, produced an atmosphere as +oppressive and debilitating, in spite of its artificial allurements to +the sense of smell, as the air of a dungeon or the vapours of a marsh. + +Remarkable as was the change in the present appearance of the +banqueting-hall, it was but the feeble reflection of the alteration for +the worse in the aspect of the host and his guests. Vetranio reclined +at the head of the table, dressed in a scarlet mantle. An embroidered +towel with purple tassels and fringes, connected with rings of gold, +fell over his breast, and silver and ivory bracelets were clasped round +his arms. But of the former man the habiliments were all that remained. +His head was bent forward, as if with the weakness of age; his emaciated +arms seemed barely able to support the weight of the ornaments which +glittered on them; his eyes had contracted a wild, unsettled expression; +and a deadly paleness overspread the once plump and jovial cheeks which +so many mistresses had kissed in mercenary rapture in other days. Both +in countenance and manner the elegant voluptuary of our former +acquaintance at the Court of Ravenna was entirely and fatally changed. +Of the other eight patricians who lay on the couches around their +altered host--some wild and reckless, some gloomy and imbecile--all had +suffered in the ordeal of the siege, the famine, and the pestilence, +like him. + +Such were the member of the assemblage, represented from the ceiling by +nine of the burning lamps. The tenth and last lamp indicated the +presence of one more guest who reclined a little apart from the rest. + + +This man was hump-backed; his gaunt, bony features were repulsively +disproportioned to his puny frame, which looked doubly contemptible, +enveloped as it was in an ample tawdry robe. Sprung from the lowest +ranks of the populace, he had gradually forced himself into the favour +of his superiors by his skill in coarse mimicry, and his readiness in +ministering to the worst vices of all who would employ him. Having lost +the greater part of his patrons during the siege, finding himself +abandoned to starvation on all sides, he had now, as a last resource, +obtained permission to participate in the Banquet of Famine, to enliven +it by a final exhibition of his buffoonery, and to die with his masters, +as he had lived with them--the slave, the parasite, and the imitator of +the lowest of their vices and the worst of their crimes. + +At the commencement of the orgie, little was audible beyond the clash of +the wine-cups, the low occasional whispering of the revellers, and the +confused voices of the people without, floating through the window from +the street. The desperate compact of the guests, now that its execution +had actually begun, awed them at first in spite of themselves. At +length, when there was a lull of all sounds--when a temporary calm +prevailed over the noises outside--when the wine-cups were emptied, and +left for a moment ere they were filled again--Vetranio feebly rose, and, +announcing with a mocking smile that he was about to speak a funeral +oration over his friends and himself, pointed to the wall immediately +behind him as to an object fitted to awaken the astonishment or the +hilarity of his moody guests. + +Against the upper part of the wall were fixed various small statues in +bronze and marble, all representing the owner of the palace, and all +hung with golden plates. Beneath these appeared the rent-roll of his +estates, written in various colours on white vellum, and beneath that, +scratched on the marble in faint irregular characters, was no less an +object than his own epitaph, composed by himself. It may be translated +thus:-- + +Stop, Spectator! + +If thou has reverently cultivated the pleasures of the taste, pause amid +these illustrious ruins of what was once a palace, and peruse with +respect on this stone the epitaph of VETRANIO, a senator. He was the +first man who invented a successful nightingale sauce; his bold and +creative genius added much, and would have added more, to THE ART OF +COOKERY--but, alas for the interests of science! he lived in the days +when the Gothic barbarians besieged THE IMPERIAL CITY; famine left him +no matter for gustatory experiment; and pestilence deprived him of cooks +to enlighten! Opposed at all points by the force of adverse +circumstances, finding his life of no further use to the culinary +interests of Rome, he called his chosen friends together to assist him, +conscientiously drank up every drop of wine remaining in his cellars, +lit the funeral pile of himself and his guests, in the banqueting-hall +of his own palace, and died, as he had lived, the patriotic CATO of his +country's gastronomy! + +'Behold!' cried Vetranio, pointing triumphantly to the epitaph--'behold +in every line of those eloquent letters at once the seal of my resolute +adherence to the engagement that unites us here, and the foundation of +my just claim to the reverence of posterity on the most useful of the +arts which I exercised for the benefit of my species! Read, friends, +brethren, fellow-martyrs of glory, and, as you read, rejoice with me +over the hour of our departure from the desecrated arena, no longer +worthy the celebration of the Games of Life! Yet, ere the feast +proceeds, hear me while I speak--I make my last oration as the arbiter +of our funeral sports, as the host of the Banquet of Famine! + + +'Who would sink ignobly beneath the slow superiority of starvation, or +perish under the quickly glancing steel of the barbarian conqueror's +sword, when such a death as ours is offered to the choice?--when wine +flows bright, to drown sensation in oblivion, and a palace and its +treasures furnish alike the scene of the revel and the radiant funeral +pile? The mighty philosophers of India--the inspired Gymnosophists-- +died as we shall die! Calanus before Alexander, Zamarus in the presence +of Augustus, lit the fires that consumed them! Let us follow their +glorious example! No worms will prey upon our bodies, no hired mourners +will howl discordant at our funerals! Purified in the radiance of +primeval fire, we shall vanish triumphant from enemies and friends--a +marvel to the earth, a vision of glory to the gods themselves! + +'Is it a day more or a day less of life that is now of importance to us? +No; it is only towards the easiest and the noblest death that our +aspirations can turn! Among our number there is now not one whom the +care of existence can further occupy! + +'Here, at my right hand, reclines my estimable comrade of a thousand +former feasts, Furius Balburius Placidus, who, when we sailed on the +Lucrine Lake, was wont to complain of intolerable hardship if a fly +settled on the gilded folds of his umbrella; who languished for a land +of Cimmerian darkness if a sunbeam penetrated the silken awnings of his +garden-terrace; and who now wrangles for a mouthful of horseflesh with +the meanest of his slaves, and would exchange the richest of his country +villas for a basket of dirty bread! O Furius Balburius Placidus, of +what further use is life to thee? + +'There, at my left, I discern the changed though still expressive +countenance of the resolute Thascius, he who chastised a slave with a +hundred lashes if his warm water was not brought immediately at his +command; he whose serene contempt for every member of the human species +by himself once ranked him among the greatest of human philosophers; +even he now wanders through his palace unserved, and fawns upon the +plebeian who will sell him a measure of wretched bran! Oh, admired +friend, oh, rightly reasoning Thascius, say, is there anything in Rome +which should delay thee on thy journey to the Elysian Fields? + +'Farther onward at the table, drinking largely while I speak, I behold, +O Marcus Moecius Moemmius, thy once plump and jovial form!--thou, in +former days accustomed to rejoice in the length of thy name, because it +enabled thy friends to drink the more in drinking a cup to each letter +of it, tell me what banqueting-hall is now open to thee but this?--and +thus desolate in the city of thy social triumphs, what should disincline +thee to make of our festal solemnity thy last revel on earth? + +'Thou, too, facetious hunchback, prince of parasites, unscrupulous +Reburrus, where, but at this banquet of famine, will thy buffoonery now +procure for thee a draught of reviving wine? Thy masters have abandoned +thee to thy native dunghill! No more shalt thou wheedle for them when +they borrow, or bully for them when they pay! No more charges of +poisoning or magic shalt thou forge to imprison their troublesome +creditors! Oh, officious sycophant, thy occupations are no more! Drink +while thou canst, and then resign thy carcass to congenial mire! + +'And you, my five remaining friends, whom--little desirous of further +delay--I will collectively address, think on the days when the suspicion +of an infectious malady in any one of your companions was sufficient to +separate you from the dearest of them; when the slaves who came to you +from their palaces underwent long ceremonies of ablution before they +approached your presence; and remembering this, reflect that most, +perhaps all of us, now meet here plague-tainted already; and then say, +of what advantage is it to languish for a life which is yours no longer? + +'No, my friends, my brethren of the banquet; feeling that when life is +worthless it is folly to live, you cannot shrink from the lofty +resolution by which we are bound, you cannot pause on our joyful journey +of departure from the scenes of earth--I wrong you even by a doubt! Let +me now, rather, ask your attention for a worthier subject--the +enumeration of the festal ceremonies by which the progress of the +banquet will be marked. That task concluded, that last ceremony of my +last welcome to you these halls duly performed, I join you once more in +your final homage to the deity of our social lives--the God of Wine! + + +'It is not unknown to you--learned as you are in the jovial antiquities +of the table--that it was, among some of the ancients, a custom for a +master-spirit of philosophy to preside--the teacher as well as the +guest--at their feasts. This usage it has been my care to revive, and, +as this four meeting is unparalleled in its heroic design, so it was my +ambition to bid to it one unparalleled, either as a teacher or a guest. +Fired by an original idea, unobserved of my slaves, aided only by my +singing-boy, the faithful Glyco, I have succeeded in placing behind that +black curtain such an associate of our revels as you have never feasted +with before, whose appearance at the fitting moment must strike you +irresistibly with astonishment, and whose discourse--not of human wisdom +only--will be inspired by the midnight secrets of the tomb. By my side, +on this parchment, lies the formulary of questions to be addressed by +Reburrus, when the curtain is withdrawn, to the Oracle of the Mysteries +of other Spheres. + +'Before you, behold in those vases all that remains of my once well- +stocked cellars, and all that is provided for the palates of my guests! +We sit at the Banquet of Famine, and no coarser sustenance than +inspiring wine finds admittance at the Bacchanalian board. Yet, should +any among us, in his last moments, be feeble enough to pollute his lips +with nourishment alone worthy of the vermin of the earth, let him seek +the wretched and scanty table, type of the wretched and scanty food that +covers it, placed yonder in obscurity behind me. There will he find (in +all barely sufficient for one man's poorest meal) the last morsels of +the vilest nourishment left in the palace. For me, my resolution is +fixed--it is only the generous wine-cup that shall now approach my lips! + +'Above me are the ten lamps, answering to the number of my friends here +assembled. One after another, as the wine overpowers us, those burning +images of life will be extinguished in succession by the guests who +remain proof against our draughts; and the last of these, lighting this +torch at the last lamp, will consummate the banquet, and celebrate its +glorious close, by firing the funeral pile of my treasures heaped yonder +against my palace walls! If my powers fail me before yours, swear to me +that whoever among you is able to lift the cup to his lips after it has +dropped from the hands of the rest, will fire the pile! Swear it by +your lost mistresses, your lost friends, your lost treasures!--by your +own lives, devoted to the pleasures of wine and the purification of +fire!' + +As, with flashing eyes and flushed countenance, Vetranio sank back on +his couch, his companions, inflamed with the wine they had already +drunk, arose cup in hand, and turned towards him. Their voices, +discordantly mingled, pronounced the oath together; then, as they +resumed their former positions, their eyes all turned towards the black +curtain in ardent expectation. + +They had observed the sinister and sarcastic expression of Vetranio's +eye as he spoke of his concealed guest; they knew that the hunchback +Reburrus possessed, among his other powers of buffoonery, the art of +ventriloquism; and they suspected the presence of some hideous or +grotesque image of a heathen god or demon in the hidden recess, which +the jugglery of the parasite was to gift with the capacity of speech. +Blasphemous comments upon life, death, and immortality were eagerly +awaited. The general impatience for the withdrawal of the curtain was +perceived by Vetranio, who, waving his hand for silence, authoritatively +exclaimed-- + +'The hour has not yet arrived. More draughts must be drunk, more +libations poured out, ere the mystery of the curtain is revealed! Ho, +Glyco!' he continued, turning towards the singing-boy, who had silently +entered the room, 'the moment is yours! Tune your lyre, and recite my +last ode, which I have addressed to you! Let the charms of Poetry +preside over the feast of Death!' + +The boy advanced, trembling; his once ruddy face was colourless and +haggard; his eyes were fixed with a look of rigid terror on the black +curtain; his features palpably expressed the presence within him of some +secret and overwhelming recollection which had crushed all his other +faculties and perceptions. Steadily, almost guiltily, averting his face +from his master's countenance, he stood by Vetranio's couch, a frail and +fallen being, a mournful spectacle of perverted docility and degraded +youth. + +Still true, however, to the duties of his vocation, he ran his thin, +trembling fingers over the lyre, and mechanically preluded the +commencement of the ode. But during the silence of attention which now +prevailed, the confused noises from the people in the street penetrated +more distinctly into the banqueting-room; and at this moment, high above +them all--hoarse, raving, terrible, rose the voice of one man. + +'Tell me not,' it cried, 'of perfumes wafted from the palace!--foul +vapours flow from it!--see, they sink, suffocating over me!--they bathe +sky and earth, and men who move around us, in fierce, green light!' + +Then other voices of men and women, shrill and savage, broke forth in +interruption together:--'Peace, Davus! you awake the dead about you!' +'Hide in the darkness; you are plague-struck; your skin is shrivelled; +your gums are toothless!' 'When the palace is fired you shall be flung +into the flames to purify your rotten carcass!' + +'Sing!' cried Vetranio furiously, observing the shudders that ran over +the boy's frame and held him speechless. 'Strike the lyre, as Timotheus +struck it before Alexander! Drown in melody the barking of the curs who +wait for our offal in the street!' + +Feebly and interruptedly the terrified boy began; the wild continuous +noises of the moaning voices from without sounding their awful +accompaniment to the infidel philosophy of his song as he breathed it +forth in faint and faltering accents. It ran thus:-- + +TO GLYCO + +Ah, Glyco! why in flow'rs array'd? Those festive wreaths less quickly +fade Than briefly-blooming joy! Those high-prized friends who share your +mirth Are counterfeits of brittle earth, False coin'd in Death's alloy! + +The bliss your notes could once inspire, When lightly o'er the god-like +lyre Your nimble fingers pass'd, Shall spring the same from others' +skill--When you're forgot, the music still The player shall outlast! + +The sun-touch'd cloud that mounts the sky, That brightly glows to warm +the eye, Then fades we know not where, Is image of the little breath Of +life--and then, the doom of Death That you and I must share! + +Helpless to make or mar our birth, We blindly grope the ways of earth, +And live our paltry hour; Sure, that when life has ceased to please, To +die at will, in Stoic ease, Is yielded to our pow'r! + +Who, timely wise, would meanly wait The dull delay of tardy Fate, When +Life's delights are shorn? No! When its outer gloss has flown, Let's +fling the tarnish'd bauble down As lightly as 'twas worn. + +'A health to Glyco! A deep draught to a singer from heaven come down +upon earth!' cried the guests, seizing their wine-cups, as the ode was +concluded, and draining them to the last drop. But their drunken +applause fell noiseless upon the ear to which it was addressed. The +boy's voice, as he sang the final stanza of the ode, had suddenly +changed to a shrill, almost an unearthly tone, then suddenly sank again +as he breathed forth the last few notes; and now as his dissolute +audience turned towards him with approving glances, they saw him +standing before them cold, rigid, and voiceless. The next instant his +fixed features were suddenly distorted, his whole frame collapsed as if +torn by an internal spasm--he fell back heavily to the floor. Those +around approached him with unsteady feet, and raised him in their arms. +His soul had burst the bonds of vice in which others had entangled it; +the voice of Death had whispered to the slave of the great despot, +Crime--'Be free!' + +'We have heard the note of the swan singing its own funeral hymn!' said +the patrician Placidus, looking in maudlin pity from the corpse of the +boy to the face of Vetranio, which presented for the moment an +involuntary expression of grief and remorse. + + +'Our miracle of beauty and boy-god of melody has departed before us to +the Elysian fields!' muttered the hunchback Reburrus, in harsh, +sarcastic accents. + +Then, during the short silence that ensued, the voices from the street, +joined on this occasion to a noise of approaching footsteps on the +pavement, became again distinctly audible in the banqueting-hall. +'News! news!' cried these fresh auxiliaries of the horde already +assembled before the palace. 'Keep together, you who still care for your +lives! Solitary citizens have been lured by strange men into desolate +streets, and never seen again! Jars of newly salted flesh, which there +were no beasts left in the city to supply, have been found in a +butcher's shop! Keep together! Keep together!' + +'No cannibals among the mob shall pollute the body of my poor boy!' +cried Vetranio, rousing himself from his short lethargy of grief. 'Ho! +Thascius! Marcus! you who can yet stand! let us bear him to the funeral +pile! He has died first--his ashes shall be first consumed!' + +The two patricians arose as the senator spoke, and aided him in carrying +the body to the lower end of the room, where it was laid across the +table, beneath the black curtain, and between the heaps of drapery and +furniture piled up against each of the walls. Then, as his guests +reeled back to their places, Vetranio, remaining by the side of the +corpse, and seizing in his unsteady hands a small vase of wine, +exclaimed in tones of fierce exultation: 'The hour has come--the +Banquet of Famine has ended--the Banquet of Death has begun! A health +to the guest behind the curtain! Fill--drink--behold!' + +He drank deeply from the vase as he ceased, and drew aside the black +drapery above him. A cry of terror and astonishment burst from the +intoxicated guests as they beheld in the recess now disclosed to view +the corpse of an aged woman, clothed in white, and propped up on a high, +black throne, with the face turned towards them, and the arms +(artificially supported) stretched out as if in denunciation over the +banqueting-table. The lamp of yellow glass, which burnt high above the +body, threw over it a lurid and flickering light; the eyes were open, +the jaw had fallen, the long grey tresses drooped heavily on either side +of the white hollow cheeks. + +'Behold!' cried Vetranio, pointing to the corpse--'Behold my secret +guest! Who so fit as the dead to preside at the Banquet of Death? +Compelling the aid of Glyco, shrouded by congenial night, seizing on the +first corpse exposed before me in the street, I have set up there, +unsuspected by all, the proper idol of our worship, and philosopher at +our feast! Another health to the queen of the fatal revels--to the +teacher of the mysteries of worlds unseen--rescued from rotting +unburied, to perish in the consecrated flames with the senators of Rome! +A health!--a health to the mighty mother, ere she begin the mystic +revelations! Fill--drink!' + +Fired by their host's example, recovered from their momentary awe, +already inflamed by the mad recklessness of debauchery, the guests +started from their couches, and with Bacchanalian shouts answered +Vetranio's challenge. The scene at this moment approached the +supernatural. The wild disorder of the richly laden tables; the wine +flowing over the floor from overthrown vases; the great lamps burning +bright and steady over the confusion beneath; the fierce gestures, the +disordered countenances of the revellers, as they waved their jewelled +cups over their heads in frantic triumph; and then the gloomy and +terrific prospect at the lower end of the hall--the black curtain, the +light burning solitary on its high pole, the dead boy lying across the +festal table, the living master standing by his side, and, like an evil +spirit, pointing upward in mockery to the white-robed corpse of the +woman, as it towered above all in its unnatural position, with its +skinny arms stretched forth, with its ghastly features appearing to move +as the faint and flickering light played over them,--produced together +such a combination of scarce-earthly objects as might be painted, but +cannot be described. It was an embodiment of a sorcerer's vision--an +apocalypse of sin triumphing over the world's last relics of mortality +in the vaults of death. + + +'To your task, Reburrus!' cried Vetranio, when the tumult was lulled; +'to your questions without delay! Behold the teacher with whom you are +to hold commune! Peruse carefully the parchment in your hand; question, +and question loudly--you speak to the apathetic dead!' + +For some time before the disclosure of the corpse, the hunchback had +been seated apart at the end of the banqueting-hall opposite the black- +curtained recess, conning over the manuscript containing the list of +questions and answers which formed the impious dialogue he was to hold, +by the aid of his powers of ventriloquism, with the violated dead. When +the curtain was withdrawn he had looked up for a moment, and had greeted +the appearance of the sight behind it with a laugh of brutal derision, +returning immediately to the study of his blasphemous formulary which +had been confided to his care. At the moment when Vetranio's commands +were addressed to him he arose, reeled down the apartment towards the +corpse, and, opening the dialogue as he approached it, began in loud +jeering tones: 'Speak, miserable relict of decrepit mortality!' + +He paused as he uttered the last word, and gaining a point of view from +which the light of the lamp fell full upon the solemn and stony features +of the corpse, looked up defiantly at it. In an instant a frightful +change passed over him, the manuscript dropped from his hand, his +deformed frame shrank and tottered, a shrill cry of recognition burst +from his lips, more like the yell of a wild beast than the voice of a +man. + +The next moment, when the guests started up to question or deride him, +he turned slowly and faced them. Desperate and drunken as they were, +his look awed them into utter silence. His face was deathlike in hue, +as the face of the corpse above him--thick drops of perspiration +trickled down it like rain--his dry glaring eyes wandered fiercely over +the startled countenances before him, and, as he extended towards them +his clenched hands, he muttered in a deep gasping whisper: 'Who has +done this? MY MOTHER! MY MOTHER!' + +As these few words--of awful import though of simple form--fell upon the +ears of those whom he addressed, such of them as were not already sunk +in insensibility looked round on each other almost sobered for the +moment, and all speechless alike. Not even the clash of the wine-cups +was now heard at the banqueting-table--nothing was audible but the +sound, still fitfully rising and falling, of the voices of terror, +ribaldry, and anguish from the street; and the hoarse convulsive accents +of the hunchback, still uttering at intervals his fearful identification +of the dead body above him: 'MY MOTHER! MY MOTHER!' + +At length Vetranio, who was the first to recover himself, addressed the +terrified and degraded wretch before him, in tones which, in spite of +himself, betrayed, as he began, an unwonted tremulousness and restraint. +'What, Reburrus!' he cried, 'are you already drunken to insanity, that +you call the first dead body which by chance I encountered in the +street, and by chance brought hither, your mother? +Was it to talk of your mother, whom dead or alive we neither know nor +care for, that you were admitted here? Son of obscurity and inheritor +of rags, what are your plebeian parents to us!' he continued, refilling +his cup, and lashing himself into assumed anger as he spoke. 'To your +dialogue without delay, or you shall be flung from the windows to mingle +with your rabble-equals in the street!' + + +Neither by word nor look did the hunchback answer the senator's menaces. +For him, the voice of the living was stifled in the presence of the +dead. The retribution that had gone forth against him had struck his +moral, as a thunderbolt might have stricken his physical being. His +soul strove in agony within him, as he thought on the awful fatality +which had set the dead mother in judgment on the degraded son--which had +directed the hand of the senator unwittingly to select the corpse of the +outraged parent as the object for the infidel buffoonery of the reckless +child, at the very close of his impious career. His past life rose +before him, for the first time, like a foul vision, like a nightmare of +horror, impurity, and crime. He staggered up the room, groping his way +along the wall, as if the darkness of midnight had closed round his +eyes, and crouched down by the open window. Beneath him rose the evil +and ominous voices from the street; around him spread the pitiless array +of his masters; before him appeared the denouncing vision of the corpse. + +He would have remained but a short time unmolested in his place of +refuge, but for an event which now diverted from him the attention of +Vetranio and his guests. Drinking furiously to drown all recollection +of the catastrophe they had just witnessed, three of the revellers had +already suffered the worst consequences of an excess, which their +weakened frames were ill-fitted to bear. One after another, at short +intervals, they fell back senseless on their couches; and one after +another, as they succumbed, the three lamps burning nearest to them were +extinguished. The same speedy termination to the debauch seemed to be +in reserve for the rest of their companions, with the exception of +Vetranio and the two patricians who reclined at his right hand and his +left. These three still preserved the appearance of self-possession, +but an ominous change had already overspread their countenances. The +expression of wild joviality, of fierce recklessness, had departed from +their wild features; they silently watched each other with vigilant and +suspicious eyes; each in turn, as he filled his wine-cup, significantly +handled the torch with which the last drinker was to fire the funeral +pile. As the numbers of their rivals decreased, and the flame of lamp +after lamp was extinguished, the fatal contest for a suicide supremacy +assumed a present and powerful interest, in which all other purposes and +objects were forgotten. The corpse at the foot of the banqueting-table, +and the wretch cowering in his misery at the window, were now alike +unheeded. In the bewildered and brutalised minds of the guests, one +sensation alone remained--the intensity of expectation which precedes +the result of a deadly strife. + +But ere long--awakening the attention which might otherwise never have +been aroused--the voice of the hunchback was heard, as the spirit of +repentance now moved within him, uttering, in wild, moaning tones, a +strange confession of degradation and sin--addressed to none; +proceeding, independent of consciousness or will, from the depths of his +stricken soul. He half raised himself, and fixed his sunken eyes upon +the dead body, as these words dropped from his lips: 'It was the last +time that I beheld her alive, when she approached me--lonely, and +feeble, and poor--in the street, beseeching me to return to her in the +days of her old age and her solitude, and to remember how she had loved +me in my childhood for my very deformity, how she had watched me +throughout the highways of Rome, that none should oppress or deride me! +The tears ran down her cheeks, she knelt to me on the hard pavement, and +I, who had deserted her for her poverty, to make myself a slave in +palaces among the accursed rich, flung down money to her as to a beggar +who wearied me, and passed on! She died desolate; her body lay +unburied, and I knew it not! The son who had abandoned the mother never +saw her more, until she rose before him there--avenging, horrible, +lifeless--a sight of death never to leave him! Woe, woe to the accursed +in his deformity, and the accursed of his mother's corpse!' + +He paused, and fell back again to the ground, grovelling and speechless. +The tyrannic Thascius, regarding him with a scowl of drunken wrath, +seized an empty vase, and poising it in his unsteady hand, prepared to +hurl it at the hunchback's prostrate form, when again a single cry--a +woman's--rising above the increasing uproar in the street, rang shrill +and startling through the banqueting-hall. The patrician suspended his +purpose as he heard it, mechanically listening with the half-stupid, +half-cunning attention of intoxication. 'Help! help!' shrieked the +voice beneath the palace windows--'he follows me still--he attacked my +dead child in my arms! As I flung myself down upon it on the ground, I +saw him watching his opportunity to drag it by the limbs from under me-- +famine and madness were in his eyes--I drove him back--I fled--he +follows me still!--save us, save us!' + + +At this instant her voice was suddenly stifled in the sound of fierce +cries and rushing footsteps, followed by an appalling noise of heavy +blows, directed at several points, against the steel railings before the +palace doors. Between the blows, which fell slowly and together at +regular intervals, the infuriated wretches, whose last exertions of +strength were strained to the utmost to deal them, could be heard +shouting breathlessly to each other: 'Strike harder, strike harder! the +back gates are guarded against us by our comrades admitted to the +pillage of the palace instead of us. You who would share the booty, +strike firm! the stones are at your feet, the gates of entrance yield +before you.' + +Meanwhile a confused sound of trampling footsteps and contending voices +became audible from the lower apartments of the palace. Doors were +violently shut and opened--shouts and execrations echoed and re-echoed +along the lofty stone passages leading from the slaves' waiting-rooms to +the grand staircase; treachery betrayed itself as openly within the +building as violence still proclaimed itself in the assault on the gates +outside. The chief slaves had not been suspected by their fellows +without a cause; the bands of pillage and murder had been organised in +the house of debauchery and death; the chosen adherents from the street +had been secretly admitted through the garden gates, and had barred and +guarded them against further intrusion--another doom than the doom they +had impiously prepared for themselves was approaching the devoted +senators, at the hands of the slaves whom they had oppressed, and the +plebeians whom they had despised. + +At the first sound of the assault without and the first intimation of +the treachery within, Vetranio, Thascius, and Marcus started from their +couches; the remainder of the guests, incapable either of thought or +action, lay, in stupid insensibility, awaiting their fate. These three +men alone comprehended the peril that threatened them, and, maddened +with drink, defied, in their ferocious desperation, the death that was +in store for them. 'Hark! they approach, the rabble revolted from our +rule,' cried Vetranio scornfully, 'to take the lives that we despise and +the treasures that we have resigned! The hour has come; I go to fire +the pile that involves in one common destruction our assassins and +ourselves!' + +'Hold!' exclaimed Thascius, snatching the torch from his hand; 'the +entrance must first be defended, or, ere the flames are kindled, the +slaves will be here! Whatever is movable--couches, tables, corpses--let +us hurl them all against the door!' + +As he spoke he rushed towards the black-curtained recess, to set the +example to his companions by seizing the corpse of the woman; but he had +not passed more than half the length of the apartment, when the +hunchback, who had followed him unheeded, sprang upon him from behind, +and, with a shrill cry, fastening his fingers on his throat, hurled him +torn and senseless to the floor. 'Who touches the body that is mine?' +shrieked the deformed wretch, rising from his victim, and threatening +with his blood-stained hands Vetranio and Marcus, as they stood +bewildered, and uncertain for the moment whether first to avenge their +comrade or to barricade the door--'The son shall rescue the mother! I +go to bury her! Atonement! Atonement!' + +He leaped upon the table as he spoke, tore asunder with resistless +strength the cords which fastened the corpse to the throne, seized it in +his arms, and the next instant gained the door. Uttering fierce, +inarticulate cries, partly of anguish and partly of defiance, he threw +it open, and stepped forward to descend, when he was met at the head of +the stairs by the band of assassins hurrying up, with drawn swords and +blazing torches, to their work of pillage and death. He stood before +them--his deformed limbs set as firmly on the ground as if he were +preparing to descend the stairs at one leap--with the corpse raised high +on his breast; its unearthly features were turned towards them, its bare +arms were still stretched forth as they had been extended over the +banqueting-table, its grey hair streamed back and mingled with his own: +under the fitful illumination of the torches, which played red and wild +over him and his fearful burden, the dead and the living looked joined +to each other in one monstrous form. + + +Huddled together, motionless, on the stairs, their shouts of vengeance +and fury frozen on their lips, the assassins stood for one moment, +staring mechanically, with fixed, spell-bound eyes, upon the hideous +bulwark opposing their advance on the victims whom they had expected so +easily to surprise. The next instant a superstitious panic seized them; +as the hunchback suddenly moved towards them to descend, the corpse +seemed to their terror-stricken eyes to be on the eve of bursting its +way through their ranks. Ignorant of its introduction into the palace, +imagining it, in the revival of their slavish fears, to be the spectral +offspring of the magic incantations of the senators above, they turned +with one accord and fled down the stairs. The sound of their cries of +fear grew fainter and fainter in the direction of the garden as they +hurried through the secret gates at the back of the building. Then the +heavy, regular tamp of the hunchback's footsteps, as he paced the +solitary corridors after them, bearing his burden of death, became +audible in awful distinctness; then that sound also died away and was +lost, and nothing more was heard in the banqueting-room save the sharp +clang of the blows still dealt against the steel railings from the +street. + +But now these grew rare and more rare in their recurrence; the strong +metal resisted triumphantly the utmost efforts of the exhausted rabble +who assailed it. As the minutes moved on, the blows grew rapidly +fainter and fewer; soon they diminished to three, struck at long +intervals; soon to one, followed by deep execrations of despair; and, +after that, a great silence sank down over the palace and the street, +where such strife and confusion had startled the night-echoes but a few +moments before. + +In the banqueting-hall this rapid succession of events--the marvels of a +few minutes--passed before Vetranio and Marcus as visions beheld by +their eyes, but neither contained nor comprehended by their minds. +Stolid in their obstinate recklessness, stupefied by the spectacle of +the startling perils--menacing yet harmless, terrifying though +transitory--which surrounded them, neither of the senators moved a +muscle or uttered a word, from the period when Thascius had fallen +beneath the hunchback's attack, to the period when the last blow against +the palace railings, and the last sound of voices from the street, had +ceased in silence. Then the wild current of drunken exultation, +suspended within them during this brief interval, flowed once more, +doubly fierce, in its old course. Insensible, the moment after they had +passed away, to the warning and terrific scenes they had beheld, each +now looked round on the other with a glance of triumphant levity. +'Hark!' cried Vetranio, 'the mob without, feeble and cowardly to the +last, abandon their puny efforts to force my palace gates! Behold our +banqueting-tables still sacred from the intrusion of the revolted +menials, driven before my guest from the dead, like a flock of sheep +before a single dog! Say, O Marcus! did I not well to set the corpse at +the foot of our banqueting-table? What marvels has it not effected, +borne before us by the frantic Reburrus, as a banner of the hosts of +death, against the cowardly slaves whose fit inheritance is oppression, +and whose sole sensation is fear! See, we are free to continue and +conclude the banquet as we had designed! The gods themselves have +interfered to raise us in security above our fellow-mortals, whom we +despise! Another health, in gratitude to our departed guest, the +instrument of our deliverance, under the auspices of omnipotent Jove!' + +As Vetranio spoke, Marcus alone, out of all the revellers, answered his +challenge. These two--the last-remaining combatants of the strife-- +having drained their cups to the health proposed, passed slowly down +each side of the room, looking contemptuously on their prostrate +companions, and extinguishing every lamp but the two which burnt over +their own couches. Then returning to the upper end of the tables, they +resumed their places, not to leave them again until the fatal rivalry +was finally decided, and the moment of firing the pile had actually +arrived. + +The torch lay between them; the last vases of wine stood at their sides. +Not a word escaped the lips of either, to break the deep stillness +prevailing over the palace. Each fixed his eyes on the other, in stern +and searching scrutiny, and cup for cup, drank in slow and regular +alternation. The debauch, which had hitherto presented a spectacle of +brutal degradation and violence, now that it was restricted to two men +only--each equally unimpressed by the scenes of horror he had beheld, +each vying with the other for the attainment of the supreme of +depravity--assumed an appearance of hardly human iniquity; it became a +contest for a satanic superiority of sin. + +For some time little alteration appeared in the countenances of either +of the suicide-rivals; but they had now drunk to that final point of +excess at which wine either acts as its own antidote, or overwhelms in +fatal suffocation the pulses of life. The crisis in the strife was +approaching for both, and the first to experience it was Marcus. +Vetranio, as he watched him, observed a dark purple flush overspreading +his face, hitherto pale, almost colourless. His eyes suddenly dilated; +he panted for breath. The vase of wine, when he strove with a last +effort to fill his cup from it, rolled from his hand to the floor. The +stare of death was in his face as he half-raised himself and for one +instant looked steadily on his companion; the moment after, without word +or groan, he dropped backward over his couch. + +The contest of the night was decided! The host of the banquet and the +master of the palace had been reserved to end the one and to fire the +other! + +A smile of malignant triumph parted Vetranio's lips as he now arose and +extinguished the last lamp burning besides his own. That done, he +grasped the torch. His eyes, as he raised it, wandered dreamily over +the array of his treasures, and the forms of his dead or insensible +fellow-patricians around him, to be consumed by his act in annihilating +fire. The sensation of his solemn night-solitude in his fated palace +began to work in vivid and varying impressions on his mind, which was +partially recovering some portion of its wonted acuteness, under the +bodily reaction now produced in him by the very extravagance of the +night's excess. His memory began to retrace confusedly the scenes with +which the dwelling that he was about to destroy had been connected at +distant or at recent periods. At one moment the pomp of former +banquets, the jovial congregation of guests since departed or dead, +revived before him; at another, he seemed to be acting over again his +secret departure from his dwelling on the night before his last feast, +his stealthy return with the corpse that he had dragged from the street, +his toil in setting it up in mockery behind the black curtain, and +inventing the dialogue to be spoken before it by the hunchback. Now his +thoughts reverted to the minutest circumstances of the confusion and +dismay among the members of his household when the first extremities of +the famine began to be felt in the city; and now, without visible +connection or cause, they turned suddenly to the morning when he had +hurried through the most solitary paths in his grounds to meet the +betrayer Ulpius at Numerian's garden gate. Once more the image of +Antonina--so often present to his imagination since the original was +lost to his eyes--grew palpable before him. He thought of her, as +listening at his knees to the sound of his lute; as awakening, +bewildered and terrified, in his arms; as flying distractedly before her +father's wrath; as now too surely lying dead, in her beauty and her +innocence, amid the thousand victims of the famine and the plague. + +These and other reflections, while they crowded in whirlwind rapidity on +his mind, wrought no alteration in the deadly purpose which they +suspended. His delay in lighting the torch was the unconscious delay of +the suicide, secure in his resolution ere he lifts the poison to his +lips--when life rises before him as a thing that is past, and he stands +for one tremendous moment in the dark gap between the present and the +future--no more the pilgrim of Time--not yet the inheritor of Eternity! + +So, in the dimly lighted hall, surrounded by the victims whom he had +hurried before him to their doom, stood the lonely master of the great +palace; and so spoke within him the mysterious voices of his last +earthly thoughts. Gradually they sank and ceased, and stillness and +vacancy closed like dark veils over his mind. Starting like one +awakened from a trance he once more felt the torch in his hand, and once +more the expression of fierce desperation appeared in his eyes as he lit +it steadily at the lamp above him. + +The dew was falling pure to the polluted earth; the light breezes sang +their low daybreak anthem among the leaves to the Power that bade them +forth; night had expired, and morning was already born of it, as +Vetranio, with the burning torch in his hand, advanced towards the +funeral pile. + + +He had already passed the greater part of the length of the room, when a +faint sound of footsteps ascending a private staircase which led to the +palace gardens, and communicated with the lower end of the banqueting- +hall by a small door of inlaid ivory, suddenly attracted his attention. +He hesitated in his deadly purpose, listening to the slow, regular +approaching sound, which, feeble though it was, struck mysteriously +impressive upon his ear in the dreary silence of all things around him. +Holding the torch high above his head, as the footsteps came nearer, he +fixed his eyes in intense expectation upon the door. It opened, and the +figure of a young girl clothed in white stood before him. One moment he +looked upon her with startled eyes; the next the torch dropped from his +hand, and smouldered unheeded on the marble floor. It was Antonina! + +Her face was overspread with a strange transparent paleness; her once +soft, round cheeks had lost their girlish beauty of form; her +expression, ineffably mournful, hopeless, and subdued, threw a simple, +spiritual solemnity over her whole aspect. She was changed, awfully +changed to the profligate senator from the being of his former +admiration; but still there remained in her despairing eyes enough of +the old look of gentleness and patience, surviving through all anguish +and dread, to connect her, even as she was now, with what she had been. +She stood in the chamber of debauchery and suicide between the funeral +pile and the desperate man who was vowed to fire it, a feeble, helpless +creature, yet powerful in the influence of her presence, at such a +moment and in such a form, as a saving and reproving spirit, armed with +the omnipotence of Heaven to mould the purposes of man. + +Awed and astounded, as if he beheld an apparition from the tomb, +Vetranio looked upon this young girl--whom he had loved with the least +selfish passion that ever inspired him; whom he had lamented as long +since lost and dead with the sincerest grief he had ever felt; whom he +now saw standing before him at the very moment ere he doomed himself to +death, altered, desolate, supplicating--with emotions which held him +speechless in wonder, and even in dread. While he still gazed upon her +in silence, he heard her speaking to him in low, melancholy, imploring +accents, which fell upon his ear, after the voices of terror and +desperation that had risen around him throughout the night, like tones +never addressed to it before. + +'Numerian, my father, is sinking under the famine,' she began; 'if no +help is given to him, he may die even before sunrise! You are rich and +powerful; I have come to you, having nothing now but his life to live +for, to beg sustenance for him!' She paused, overpowered for the +moment, and bent her eyes wistfully on the senator's face. Then seeing +that he vainly endeavoured to answer her, her head drooped upon her +breast, and her voice sank lower as she continued:-- + +'I have striven for patience under much sorrow and pain through the long +night that is past; my eyes were heavy and my spirit was faint; I could +have rendered up my soul willingly in my loneliness and feebleness to +God who gave it, but that it was my duty to struggle for my life and my +father's, now that I was restored to him after I had lost all beside! I +could not think, or move, or weep, as, looking forth upon your palace, I +watched and waited through the hours of darkness. But, as morning +dawned, the heaviness at my heart was lightened; I remembered that the +palace I saw before me was yours; and, though the gates were closed, I +knew that I could reach it through your garden that joins to my father's +land. I had none in Rome to ask mercy of but you; so I set forth +hastily, ere my weakness should overpower me, remembering that I had +inherited much misery at your hands, but hoping that you might pity me +for what I had suffered when you saw me again. I came wearily through +the garden; it was long before I found my way hither; will you send me +back as helpless as I came? You first taught me to disobey my father in +giving me the lute; will you refuse to aid me in succouring him now? He +is all that I have left in the world! Have mercy upon him!--have mercy +upon me!' + + +Again she looked up in Vetranio's face. His trembling lips moved, but +still no sound came from them. The expression of confusion and awe yet +prevailed over his features as he pointed slowly towards the upper end +of the banqueting-table. To her this simple action was eloquent beyond +all power of speech; she turned her feeble steps instantly in the +direction he had indicated. + +He watched her, by the light of the single lamp that still burnt, +passing--strong in the shielding inspiration of her good purpose--amid +the bodies of his suicide companions without pausing on her way. Having +gained the upper end of the room, she took from the table a flask of +wine, and from the wooden stand behind it the bowl of offal disdained by +the guests at the fatal banquet, returning immediately to the spot where +Vetranio still stood. Here she stopped for a moment, as if about to +speak once more; but her emotions overpowered her. From the sources +which despair and suffering had dried up, the long-prisoned tears once +more flowed forth at the bidding of gratitude and hope. She looked upon +the senator, silent as himself, and her expression at that instant was +destined to remain on his memory while memory survived. Then, with +faltering and hasty steps, she departed by the way she had come; and in +the great palace, which his evil supremacy over the wills of others had +made a hideous charnel-house, he was once more left alone. + +He made no effort to follow or detain her as she left him. The torch +still smouldered beside him on the floor, but he never stooped to take +it up; he dropped down on a vacant couch, stupefied by what he had +beheld. That which no entreaties, no threats, no fierce violence of +opposition could have effected in him, the appearance of Antonina had +produced--it had forced him to pause at the very moment of the execution +of his deadly design. + +He remembered how, from the very first day when he had seen her, she had +mysteriously influenced the whole progress of his life; how his ardour +to possess her had altered his occupations, and even interrupted his +amusements; how all his energy and all his wealth had been baffled in +the attempt to discover her when she fled from her father's house; how +the first feeling of remorse that he had ever known had been awakened +within him by his knowledge of the share he had had in producing her +unhappy fate. Recalling all this; reflecting that, had she approached +him at an earlier period, she would have been driven back affrighted by +the drunken clamour of his companions; and had she arrived at a later, +would have found his palace in flames; thinking at the same time of her +sudden presence in the banqueting-hall when he had believed her to be +dead, when her appearance at the moment before he fired the pile was +most irresistible in its supernatural influence over his actions--that +vague feeling of superstitious dread which exists intuitively in all +men's minds, which had never before been aroused in his, thrilled +through him. His eyes were fixed on the door by which she had departed, +as if he expected her to return. Her destiny seemed to be portentously +mingled with his own; his life seemed to move, his death to wait at her +bidding. There was no repentance, no moral purification in the emotions +which now suspended his bodily faculties in inaction; he was struck for +the time with a mental paralysis. + +The restless moments moved onward and onward, and still he delayed the +consummation of the ruin which the night's debauch had begun. Slowly +the tender daylight grew and brightened in its beauty, warmed the cold +prostrate bodies in the silent hall, and dimmed the faint glow of the +wasting lamp; no black mist of smoke, no red glare of devouring fire +arose to quench its fair lustre; no roar of flames interrupted the +murmuring morning tranquillity of nature, or startled from their heavy +repose the exhausted outcasts stretched upon the pavement of the street. +Still the noble palace stood unshaken on its firm foundations; still the +adornments of its porticoes and its statues glittered as of old in the +rays of the rising sun; and still the hand of the master who had sworn +to destroy it, as he had sworn to destroy himself, hung idly near the +torch which lay already extinguished in harmless ashes at his feet. + + +CHAPTER 23. THE LAST EFFORTS OF THE BESIEGED. + + +We return to the street before the palace. The calamities of the siege +had fallen fiercely on those who lay there during the night. From the +turbulent and ferocious mob of a few hours since, not even the sound of +a voice was now heard. Some, surprised in a paroxysm of hunger by +exhaustion and insensibility, lay with their hands half forced into +their mouths, as if in their ravenous madness they had endeavoured to +prey upon their own flesh. Others now and then wearily opened their +languid eyes upon the street, no longer regardful, in the present +extremity of their sufferings, of the building whose destruction they +had assembled to behold, but watching for a fancied realisation of the +visions of richly spread tables and speedy relief called up before them, +as if in mockery, by the delirium of starvation and disease. + +The sun had as yet but slightly risen above the horizon, when the +attention of the few among the populace who still preserved some +perception of outward events was suddenly attracted by the appearance of +an irregular procession--composed partly of citizens and partly of +officers of the Senate, and headed by two men--which slowly approached +from the end of the street leading into the interior of the city. This +assembly of persons stopped opposite Vetranio's palace; and then such +members of the mob who watched them as were not yet entirely abandoned +by hope, heard the inspiring news that the procession they beheld was a +procession of peace, and that the two men who headed it were the +Spaniard, Basilius, a governor of a province, and Johannes, the chief of +the Imperial notaries--appointed ambassadors to conclude a treaty with +the Goths. + +As this intelligence reached them, men who had before appeared incapable +of the slightest movement now rose painfully, yet resolutely, to their +feet, and crowded round the two ambassadors as round two angels +descended to deliver them from bondage and death. Meanwhile, some +officers of the Senate, finding the front gates of the palace closed +against them, proceeded to the garden entrance at the back of the +building, to obtain admission to its owner. The absence of Vetranio and +his friends from the deliberations of the government had been attributed +to their disgust at the obstinate and unavailing resistance offered to +the Goths. Now, therefore, when submission had been resolved upon, it +had been thought both expedient and easy to recall them peremptorily to +their duties. In addition to this motive for seeking the interior of +the palace, the servants of the Senate had another errand to perform +there. The widely rumoured determination of Vetranio and his associates +to destroy themselves by fire, in the frenzy of a last debauch-- +disbelieved or disregarded while the more imminent perils of the city +were under consideration--became a source of some apprehension and +anxiety to the acting members of the Roman council, now that their minds +were freed from part of the responsibility which had weighed on them, by +their resolution to treat for peace. + +Accordingly, the persons now sent into the palace were charged with the +duty of frustrating its destruction, if such an act had been really +contemplated, as well as the duty of recalling its inmates to their +appointed places in the Senate-house. How far they were enabled, at the +time of their entrance into the banqueting-hall, to accomplish their +double mission, the reader is well able to calculate. They found +Vetranio still in the place which he had occupied since Antonina had +quitted him. Startled by their approach from the stupor which had +hitherto weighed on his faculties, the desperation of his purpose +returned; he made an effort to tear from its place the lamp which still +feebly burned, and to fire the pile in defiance of all opposition. But +his strength, already taxed to the utmost, failed him. Uttering +impotent threats of resistance and revenge, he fell, swooning and +helpless, into the arms of the officers of the Senate who held him back. +One of them was immediately dismissed, while his companions remained in +the palace, to communicate with the leaders of the assembly outside. +His report concluded, the two ambassadors moved slowly onward, +separating themselves from the procession which had accompanied them, +and followed only by a few chosen attendants--a mournful and a degraded +embassy, sent forth by the people who had once imposed their dominion, +their customs, and even their language, on the Eastern and Western +worlds, to bargain with the barbarians whom their fathers had enslaved +for the purchase of a disgraceful peace. + + +On the departure of the ambassadors, all the spectators still capable of +the effort repaired to the Forum to await their return, and were joined +there by members of the populace from other parts of the city. It was +known that the first intimation of the result of the embassy would be +given from this place; and in the eagerness of their anxiety to hear it, +in the painful intensity of their final hopes of deliverance, even death +itself seemed for a while to be arrested in its fatal progress through +the ranks of the besieged. + +In silence and apprehension they counted the tardy moments of delay, and +watched with sickening gaze the shadows lessening and lessening, as the +sun gradually rose in the heavens to the meridian point. + +At length, after an absence that appeared of endless duration, the two +ambassadors re-entered Rome. Neither of them spoke as they hurriedly +passed through the ranks of the people; but their looks of terror and +despair were all-eloquent to every beholder--their mission had failed. + +For some time no member of the government appeared to have resolution +enough to come forward and harangue the people on the subject of the +unsuccessful embassy. After a long interval, however, the Prefect +Pompeianus himself, urged partly by the selfish entreaties of his +friends, and partly by the childish love of display which still adhered +to him through all his present anxieties and apprehensions, stepped into +one of the lower balconies of the Senate-house to address the citizens +beneath him. + +The chief magistrate of Rome was no longer the pompous and portly +personage whose intrusion on Vetranio's privacy during the commencement +of the siege has been described previously. The little superfluous +flesh still remaining on his face hung about it like an ill-fitting +garment; his tones had become lachrymose; the oratorical gestures, with +which he was wont to embellish profusely his former speeches, were all +abandoned; nothing remained of the original man but the bombast of his +language and the impudent complacency of his self-applause, which now +appeared in contemptible contrast to his crestfallen demeanour and his +disheartening narrative of degradation and defeat. + +'Men of Rome, let each of you exercise in his own person the heroic +virtues of a Regulus or a Cato!' the prefect began. 'A treaty with the +barbarians is out of our power. It is the scourge of the empire, Alaric +himself, who commands the invading forces! Vain were the dignified +remonstrances of the grave Basilius, futile was the persuasive rhetoric +of the astute Johannes, addressed to the slaughtering and vainglorious +Goth! On their admission to his presence, the ambassadors, anxious to +awe him into a capitulation, enlarged, with sagacious and commendable +patriotism, on the expertness of the Romans in the use of arms, their +readiness for war, and their vast numbers within the city walls. I +blush to repeat the barbarian's reply. Laughing immoderately, he +answered, "The thicker the grass, the easier it is to cut!" + +'Still undismayed, the ambassadors, changing their tactics, talked +indulgently of their willingness to purchase a peace. At this proposal, +his insolence burst beyond all bounds of barbarous arrogance. "I will +not relinquish the siege," he cried, "until I have delivered to me all +the gold and silver in the city, all the household goods in it, and all +the slaves from the northern countries." "What then, O King, will you +leave us?" asked our amazed ambassadors. "YOUR LIVES!" answered the +implacable Goth. Hearing this, even the resolute Basilius and the wise +Johannes despaired. They asked time to communicate with the Senate, and +left the camp of the enemy without further delay. Such was the end of +the embassy; such the arrogant ferocity of the barbarian foe!' + +Here the Prefect paused, from sheer weakness and want of breath. His +oration, however, was not concluded. He had disheartened the people by +his narrative of what had occurred to the ambassadors; he now proceeded +to console them by his relation of what had occurred to himself, when, +after an interval, he thus resumed:-- + + +'But even yet, O citizens of Rome, it is not time to despair! There is +another chance of deliverance still left to us, and that chance has been +discovered by me. It was my lot, during the absence of the ambassadors, +to meet with certain men of Tuscany, who had entered Rome a few days +before the beginning of the siege, and who spoke of a project for +relieving the city which they would communicate to the Prefect alone. +Ever anxious for the public welfare, daring all treachery from strangers +for advantage of my office, I accorded to these men a secret interview. +They told me of a startling and miraculous event. The town of Neveia, +lying, as you well know, in the direct road of the barbarians when they +marched upon Rome, was protected from their pillaging bands by a tempest +of thunder and lightning terrible to behold. This tempest arose not, as +you may suppose, from an accidental convulsion of the elements, but was +launched over the heads of the invaders by the express interference of +the tutelary deities of the town, invocated by the inhabitants, who +returned in their danger to the practice of their ancient manner of +worship. So said the men of Tuscany; and such pious resources as those +employed by the people of Neveia did they recommend to the people of +Rome! For my part, I acknowledge to you that I have faith in their +project. The antiquity of our former worship is still venerable in my +eyes. The prayers of the priests of our new religion have wrought no +miraculous interference in our behalf: let us therefore imitate the +example of the inhabitants of Neveia, and by the force of our +invocations hurl the thunders of Jupiter on the barbarian camp! Let us +trust for deliverance to the potent interposition of the gods whom our +fathers worshipped--those gods who now, perhaps, avenge themselves for +our desertion of their temples by our present calamities. I go without +delay to propose to the Bishop Innocentius and to the Senate, the public +performance of solemn ceremonies of sacrifice at the Capitol! I leave +you in the joyful assurance that the gods, appeased by our returning +fidelity to our altars, will not refuse the supernatural protection +which they accorded to the people of a provincial town to the citizens +of Rome!' + +No sounds either of applause or disapprobation followed the Prefect's +notable proposal for delivering the city from the besiegers by the +public apostasy of the besieged. As he disappeared from their eyes, the +audience turned away speechless. An universal despair now overpowered +in them even the last energies of discord and crime; they resigned +themselves to their doom with the gloomy indifference of beings in whom +all mortal sensations, all human passions, good or evil, were +extinguished. The Prefect departed on his ill-omened expedition to +propose the practice of Paganism to the bishop of a Christian church; +but no profitable effort for relief was even suggested, either by the +government or the people. + +And so this day drew in its turn towards a close--more mournful and more +disastrous, more fraught with peril, misery, and gloom, than the days +that had preceded it. + +The next morning dawned, but no preparations for the ceremonies of the +ancient worship appeared at the Capitol. The Senate and the bishop +hesitated to incur the responsibility of authorising a public +restoration of Paganism; the citizens, hopeless of succour, heavenly or +earthly, remained unheedful as the dead of all that passed around them. + +There was one man in Rome who might have succeeded in rousing their +languid energies to apostasy; but where and how employed was he? + +Now, when the opportunity for which he had laboured resolutely, though +in vain, through a long existence of suffering, degradation, and crime, +had gratuitously presented itself more tempting and more favourable than +even he in his wildest visions of success had ever dared to hope--where +was Ulpius? Hidden from men's eyes, like a foul reptile, in his +lurking-place in the deserted temple--now raving round his idols in the +fury of madness, now prostrate before them in idiot adoration--weaker +for the interests of his worship, at the crisis of its fate, than the +weakest child crawling famished through the streets--the victim of his +own evil machinations at the very moment when they might have led him to +triumph--the object of that worst earthly retribution, by which the +wicked are at once thwarted, doomed, and punished, here as hereafter, +through the agency of their own sins. + + +Three more days passed. The Senate, their numbers fast diminishing in +the pestilence, occupied the time in vain deliberations or in moody +silence. Each morning the weary guards looked forth from the ramparts, +with the fruitless hope of discerning the long-promised legions from +Ravenna on their way to Rome; and each morning devastation and death +gained ground afresh among the hapless besieged. + +At length, on the fourth day, the Senate abandoned all hope of further +resistance and determined on submission, whatever might be the result. +It was resolved that another embassy, composed of the whole acting +Senate, and followed by a considerable train, should proceed to Alaric; +that one more effort should be made to induce him to abate his ruinous +demands on the conquered; and that if this failed, the gates should be +thrown open, and the city and the people abandoned to his mercy in +despair. + +As soon as the procession of this last Roman embassy was formed in the +Forum, its numbers were almost immediately swelled, in spite of +opposition, by those among the mass of the people who were still able to +move their languid and diseased bodies, and who, in the extremity of +their misery, had determined at all hazards to take advantage of the +opening of the gates, and fly from the city of pestilence in which they +were immured, careless whether they perished on the swords of the Goths +or languished unaided on the open plains. All power of enforcing order +had long since been lost; the few soldiers gathered about the senators +made one abortive effort to drive the people back, and then resigned any +further resistance to their will. + +Feebly and silently the spirit-broken assembly now moved along the great +highways, so often trodden, to the roar of martial music and the shouts +of applauding multitudes, by the triumphal processions of victorious +Rome; and from every street, as it passed on, the wasted forms of the +people stole out like spectres to join it. + +Among these, as the embassy approached the Pincian Gate, were two, +hurrying forth to herd with their fellow-sufferers, on whose fortunes in +the fallen city our more particular attention has been fixed. To +explain their presence on the scene (if such an explanation be required) +it is necessary to digress for a moment from the progress of events +during the last days of the siege to the morning when Antonina departed +from Vetranio's palace to return with her succour of food and wine to +her father's house. + +The reader is already acquainted, from her own short and simple +narrative, with the history of the closing hours of her mournful night +vigil by the side of her sinking parent, and with the motives which +prompted her to seek the palace of the senator, and entreat assistance +in despair from one whom she only remembered as the profligate destroyer +of her tranquility under her father's roof. It is now, therefore, most +fitting to follow her on her way back through the palace gardens. No +living creature but herself trod the grassy paths, along which she +hastened with faltering steps--those paths which she dimly remembered to +have first explored when in former days she ventured forth to follow the +distant sounds of Vetranio's lute. + +In spite of her vague, heavy sensations of solitude and grief, this +recollection remained painfully present to her mind, unaccountably +mingled with the dark and dreary apprehension which filled her heart as +she hurried onward, until she once more entered her father's dwelling; +and then, as she again approached his couch, every other feeling became +absorbed in a faint, overpowering fear, lest, after all her perseverance +and success in her errand of filial devotion, she might have returned +too late. + + +The old man still lived--his weary eyes opened gladly on her, when she +aroused him to partake of the treasured gifts from the senator's +banqueting table. The wretched food which the suicide-guests had +disdained, and the simple flask of wine which they would have carelessly +quaffed at one draught, were viewed both by parent and child as the +saving and invigorating sustenance of many days. After having consumed +as much as they dared of their precarious supply, the remainder was +carefully husbanded. It was the last sign and promise of life to which +they looked--the humble yet precious store in which alone they beheld +the earnest of their security, for a few days longer, from the pangs of +famine and the separation of death. + +And now, with their small provision of food and wine set like a beacon +of safety before their sight, a deep, dream-like serenity--the sleep of +the oppressed and wearied faculties--arose over their minds. Under its +mysterious and tranquilising influence, all impressions of the gloom and +misery in the city, of the fatal evidences around them of the duration +of the siege, faded away before their perceptions as dim retiring +objects, which the eye loses in vacancy. + +Gradually, as the day of the first unsuccessful embassy declined, their +thoughts began to flow back gently to the world of bygone events which +had crumbled into oblivion beneath the march of time. Her first +recollections of her earliest childhood revived in Antonina's memory, +and then mingled strangely with tearful remembrances of the last words +and looks of the young warrior who had expired by her side, and with +calm, solemn thoughts that the beloved spirit, emancipated from the +sphere of shadows, might now be hovering near the quiet garden-grave +where her bitterest tears of loneliness and affliction had been shed, or +moving around her--an invisible and blessed presence--as she sat at her +father's feet and mourned their earthly separation! + +In the emotions thus awakened, there was nothing of bitterness or +agony--they calmed and purified the heart through which they moved. She +could now speak to the old man, for the first time, of her days of +absence from him, of the brief joys and long sorrows of her hours of +exile, without failing in her melancholy tale. Sometimes her father +listened to her in sorrowful and speechless attention; or spoke, when +she paused, of consolation and hope, as she had heard him speak among +his congregation while he was yet strong in his resolution to sacrifice +all things for the reformation of the Church. Sometimes resigning +himself to the influence of his thoughts, as they glided back to the +times that were gone, he again revealed to her the changing events of +his past life--not as before, with unsteady accents and wandering eyes; +but now with a calmness of voice and a coherence of language which +forbade her to doubt the strange and startling narrative that she heard. + +Once more he spoke of the image of his lost brother (as he had parted +from him in his boyhood) still present to his mind; of the country that +he had quitted in after years; of the name that he had changed--from +Cleander to Numerian--to foil his former associates, if they still +pursued him; and of the ardent desire to behold again the companion of +his first home, which now, when his daughter was restored to him, when +no other earthly aspiration but this was unsatisfied, remained at the +close of his life, the last longing wish of his heart. + +Such was the communion in which father and daughter passed the hours of +their short reprieve from the judgment of famine pronounced against the +city of their sojourn; so did they live, as it were, in a quiet interval +of existence, in a tranquil pause between the toil that is over and the +toil that is to come in the hard labour of life. + +But the term to these short days of repose after long suffering and +grief was fast approaching. The little hoard of provision diminished as +rapidly as the stores that had been anxiously collected before it; and, +on the morning of the second embassy to Alaric, the flask of wine and +the bowl of food were both emptied. The brief dream of security was +over and gone; the terrible realities of the struggle for life had begun +again! + +Where or to whom could they now turn for help? The siege still +continued; the food just exhausted was the last food that had been left +on the senator's table; to seek the palace again would be to risk +refusal, perhaps insult, as the result of a second entreaty for aid, +where all power of conferring it might now but too surely be lost. Such +were the thoughts of Antonina as she returned the empty bowl to its +former place; but she gave them no expression in words. + + +She saw, with horror, that the same expression of despair, almost of +frenzy, which had distorted her father's features on the day of her +restoration to him, now marked them again. Once more he tottered +towards the window, murmuring in his bitter despondency against the +delusive security and hope which had held him idle for the interests of +his child during the few days that were past. But, as he now looked out +on the beleaguered city, he saw the populace hastening along the gloomy +street beneath, as rapidly as their wearied limbs would carry them, to +join the embassy. He heard them encouraging each other to proceed, to +seize the last chance of escaping through the open gates from the +horrors of famine and plague; and caught the infection of the +recklessness and despair which had seized his fellow-sufferers from one +end of Rome to the other. + +Turning instantly, he grasped his daughter's hand and drew her from the +room, commanding her to come forth with him and join the citizens in +their flight, ere it was too late. Startled by his words and actions, +she vainly endeavoured, as she obeyed, to impress her father with the +dread of the Goths which her own bitter experience taught her to feel, +now that her only protector among them lay cold in the grave. With +Numerian, as with the rest of the people, all apprehension, all doubt, +all exercise of reason, was overpowered by the one eager idea of +escaping from the fatal precincts of Rome. + +So they mingled with the throng, herding affrightedly together in the +rear of the embassy, and followed in their ranks as best they might. + +The sun shone down brightly from the pure blue sky; the wind bore into +the city the sharp threatening notes of the trumpets from the Gothic +camp, as the Pincian Gate was opened to the ambassadors and their train. +With one accord the crowd instantly endeavoured to force their way out +after them in a mass; but they now moved in a narrow space, and were +opposed by a large reinforcement of the city guard. After a short +struggle they were overpowered, and the gates were closed. Some few of +the strongest and the foremost of their numbers succeeded in following +the ambassadors; the greater part, however, remained on the inner side +of the gate, pressing closely up to it in their impatience and despair, +like prisoners awaiting their deliverance, or preparing to force their +escape. + +Among these, feeblest amid the most feeble, were Numerian and Antonina, +hemmed in by the surrounding crowd, and shut out either from flight from +the city or a return to home. + + +CHAPTER 24. THE GRAVE AND THE CAMP. + +While the second and last embassy from the Senate proceeds towards the +tent of the Gothic king, while the streets of Rome are deserted by all +but the dead, and the living populace crowd together in speechless +expectation behind the barrier of the Pincian Gate, an opportunity is at +length afforded of turning our attention towards a scene from which it +has been long removed. Let us now revisit the farm-house in the +suburbs, and look once more on the quiet garden and on Hermanric's +grave. + +The tranquility of the bright warm day is purest around the retired path +leading to the little dwelling. Here the fragrance of wild flowers rises +pleasantly from the waving grass; the lulling, monotonous hum of insect +life pervades the light, steady air; the sunbeams, intercepted here and +there by the clustering trees, fall in irregular patches of brightness +on the shady ground; and, saving the birds which occasionally pass +overhead, singing in their flight, no living creature appears on the +quiet scene, until, gaining the wicket-gate which leads into the farm- +house garden, we look forth upon the prospect within. + +There, following the small circular footpath which her own persevering +steps have day by day already traced, appears the form of a solitary +woman, pacing slowly about the mound of grassy earth which marks the +grave of the young Goth. + + +For some time she proceeds on her circumscribed round with as much +undeviating, mechanical regularity, as if beyond that narrow space rose +a barrier which caged her from ever setting foot on the earth beyond. +At length she pauses in her course when it brings her nearest to the +wicket, advances a few steps towards it, then recedes, and recommences +her monotonous progress, and then again breaking off on her round, +finally succeeds in withdrawing herself from the confines of the grave, +passes through the gate, and following the path to the high-road, slowly +proceeds towards the eastern limits of the Gothic camp. The fixed, +ghastly, unfeminine expression on her features marks her as the same +woman whom we last beheld as the assassin at the farm-house, but beyond +this she is hardly recognisable again. Her formerly powerful and +upright frame is bent and lean; her hair waves in wild, white locks +about her shrivelled face; all the rude majesty of her form has +departed; there is nothing to show that it is still Goisvintha haunting +the scene of her crime but the savage expression debasing her +countenance and betraying the evil heart within, unsubdued as ever in +its yearning for destruction and revenge. + +Since the period when we last beheld her, removed in the custody of the +Huns from the dead body of her kinsman, the farm-house had been the +constant scene of her pilgrimage from the camp, the chosen refuge where +she brooded in solitude over her fierce desires. Scorning to punish a +woman whom he regarded as insane for an absence from the tents of the +Goths which was of no moment wither to the army or to himself, Alaric +had impatiently dismissed her from his presence when she was brought +before him. The soldiers who had returned to bury the body of their +chieftain in the garden of the farm-house, found means to inform her +secretly of the charitable act which they had performed at their own +peril, but beyond this no further intercourse was held with her by any +of her former associates. + +All her actions favoured their hasty belief that her faculties were +disordered, and others shunned her as she shunned them. Her daily +allowance of food was left for her to seek at a certain place in the +camp, as it might have been left for an animal too savage to be +cherished by the hand of man. At certain periods she returned secretly +from her wanderings to take it. Her shelter for the night was not the +shelter of her people before the walls of Rome; her thoughts were not +their thoughts. Widowed, childless, friendless, the assassin of her +last kinsman, she moved apart in her own secret world of bereavement, +desolation, and crime. + +Yet there was no madness, no remorse for her share in accomplishing the +fate of Hermanric, in the dark and solitary existence which she now led. +From the moment when the young warrior had expiated with his death his +disregard of the enmities of his nation and the wrongs of his kindred, +she thought of him only as of one more victim whose dishonour and ruin +she must live to requite on the Romans with Roman blood, and matured her +schemes of revenge with a stern resolution which time, and solitude, and +bodily infirmity were all powerless to disturb. + + +She would pace for hours and hours together, in the still night and in +the broad noonday, round and round the warrior's grave, nursing her +vengeful thoughts within her, until a ferocious anticipation of triumph +quickened her steps and brightened her watchful eyes. Then she would +enter the farm-house, and, drawing the knife from its place of +concealment in her garments, would pass its point slowly backwards and +forwards over the hearth on which she had mutilated Hermanric with her +own hand, and from which he had advanced, without a tremor, to meet the +sword-points of the Huns. Sometimes, when darkness had gathered over the +earth, she would stand--a boding and menacing apparition--upon the grave +itself, and chaunt, moaning to the moaning wind, fragments of obscure +Northern legends, whose hideous burden was ever of anguish and crime, of +torture in prison vaults, and death by the annihilating sword--mingling +with them the gloomy story of the massacre at Aquileia, and her fierce +vows of vengeance against the households of Rome. The forager, on his +late return past the farm-house to the camp, heard the harsh, droning +accents of her voice, and quickened his onward step. The venturesome +peasant from the country beyond, approaching under cover of the night to +look from afar on the Gothic camp, beheld her form, shadowy and +threatening, as he neared the garden, and fled affrighted from the +place. Neither stranger nor friend intruded on her dread solitude. The +foul presence of cruelty and crime violated undisturbed the scenes once +sacred to the interests of tenderness and love, once hallowed by the +sojourn of youth and beauty! + +But now the farm-house garden is left solitary, the haunting spirit of +evil has departed from the grave, the footsteps of Goisvintha have +traced to their close the same paths from the suburbs over which the +young Goth once eagerly hastened on his night journey of love; and +already the walls of Rome rise--dark, near, and hateful--before her +eyes. Along these now useless bulwarks of the fallen city she wanders, +as she has often wandered before, watching anxiously for the first +opening of the long-closed gates. Let us follow her on her way. + +Her attention was now fixed only on the broad ramparts, while she passed +slowly along the Gothic tents towards the encampment at the Pincian +Gate. Arrived there, she was aroused for the first time from her apathy +by an unwonted stir and confusion prevailing around her. She looked +towards the tent of Alaric, and beheld before it the wasted and +crouching forms of the followers of the embassy awaiting their sentence +from the captain of the Northern hosts. In a few moments she gathered +enough from the words of the Goths congregated about this part of the +camp to assure her that it was the Pincian Gate which had given egress +to the Roman suppliants, and which would therefore, in all probability, +be the entrance again thrown open to admit their return to the city. +Remembering this, she began to calculate the numbers of the conquered +enemy grouped together before the king's tent, and then mentally added +to them those who might be present at the interview proceeding within-- +mechanically withdrawing herself, while thus occupied, nearer and nearer +to the waste ground before the city walls. + +Gradually she turned her face towards Rome: she was realising a daring +purpose, a fatal resolution, long cherished during the days and nights +of her solitary wanderings. 'The ranks of the embassy,' she muttered, +in a deep, thoughtful tone, 'are thickly filled. Where there are many +there must be confusion and haste; they march together, and know not +their own numbers; they mark not one more or one less among them.' + +She stopped. Strange and dark changes of colour and expression passed +over her ghastly features. She drew from her bosom the bloody helmet- +crest of her husband, which had never quitted her since the day of his +death; her face grew livid under an awful expression of rage, ferocity, +and despair, as she gazed on it. Suddenly she looked up at the city-- +fierce and defiant, as if the great walls before her were mortal enemies +against whom she stood at bay in the death-struggle. + +'The widowed and the childless shall drink of thy blood!' she cried, +stretching out her skinny hand towards Rome, 'though the armies of her +nation barter their wrongs with thy people for bags of silver and gold! +I have pondered on it in my solitude, and dreamed of it in my dreams! I +have sworn that I would enter Rome, and avenge my slaughtered kindred, +alone among thousands! Now, now, I will hold to my oath! Thou blood- +stained city of the coward and the traitor, the enemy of the +defenceless, and the murderer of the weak! thou who didst send forth to +Aquileia the slayers of my husband and the assassins of my children, I +wait no longer before thy walls! This day will I mingle, daring all +things, with thy returning citizens and penetrate, amid Romans, the +gates of Rome! Through the day will I lurk, cunning and watchful, in +thy solitary haunts, to steal forth on thee at nights, a secret minister +of death! I will watch for thy young and thy weak once in unguarded +places; I will prey, alone in the thick darkness, upon thy unprotected +lives; I will destroy thy children, as their fathers destroyed at +Aquileia the children of the Goths! Thy rabble will discover me and +arise against me; they will tear me in pieces and trample my mangled +body on the pavement of the streets; but it will be after I have seen +the blood that I have sworn to shed flowing under my knife! My +vengeance will be complete, and torments and death will be to me as +guests that I welcome, and as deliverers whom I await!' + +Again she paused--the wild triumph of the fanatic on the burning pile +was flashing in her face--suddenly her eyes fell once more upon the +stained helmet-crest; then her expression changed again to despair, and +her voice grew low and moaning, when she thus resumed:-- + + +'I am weary of my life; when the vengeance is done I shall be delivered +from this prison of the earth--in the world of shadows I shall see my +husband, and my little ones will gather round my knees again. The living +have no part in me; I yearn towards the spirits who wander in the halls +of the dead.' + +For a few minutes more she continued to fix her tearless eyes on the +helmet-crest. But soon the influence of the evil spirit revived in all +its strength; she raised her head suddenly, remained for an instant +absorbed in deep thought, then began to retrace her steps rapidly in the +direction by which she had come. + +Sometimes she whispered softly, 'I must be doing ere the time fail me: +my face must be hidden and my garments changed. Yonder, among the +houses, I must search, and search quickly!' Sometimes she reiterated +her denunciations of vengeance, her ejaculations of triumph in her +frantic project. At the recapitulation of these the remembrance of +Antonina was aroused; and then a bloodthirsty superstition darkened her +thoughts, and threw a vague and dreamy character over her speech. + +When she spoke now, it was to murmur to herself that the victim who had +twice escaped her might yet be alive; that the supernatural influences +which had often guided the old Goths, on the day of retribution, might +still guide her; might still direct the stroke of her destroying +weapon--the last stroke ere she was discovered and slain--straight to +the girl's heart. + +Thoughts such as these--wandering and obscure--arose in close, quick +succession within her; but whether she gave them expression in word and +action, or whether she suppressed them in silence, she never wavered or +halted in her rapid progress. Her energies were braced to all +emergencies, and her strong will suffered them not for an instant to +relax. + +She gained a retired street in the deserted suburbs, and looking round +to see that she was unobserved, entered on of the houses abandoned by +its inhabitants on the approach of the besiegers. Passing quickly +through the outer halls, she stopped at length in one of the sleeping +apartments; and here she found, among other possessions left behind in +the flight, the store of wearing apparel belonging to the owner of the +room. + +From this she selected a Roman robe, upper mantle, and sandals--the most +common in colour and texture that she could find--and folding them up +into the smallest compass, hid them under her own garments. Then, +avoiding all those whom she met on her way, she returned in the +direction of the king's tent; but when she approached it, branched off +stealthily towards Rome, until she reached a ruined building half-way +between the city and the camp. In this concealment she clothed herself +in her disguise, drawing the mantle closely round her head and face; and +from this point--calm, vigilant, determined, her hand on the knife +beneath her robe, her lips muttering the names of her murdered husband +and children--she watched the high-road to the Pincian Gate. + +There for a short time let us leave her, and enter the tent of Alaric, +while the Senate yet plead before the Arbiter of the Empire for mercy +and peace. + +At the moment of which we write, the embassy had already exhausted its +powers of intercession, apparently without moving the leader of the +Goths from his first pitiless resolution of fixing the ransom of Rome at +the price of every possession of value which the city contained. There +was a momentary silence now in the great tent. At one extremity of it, +congregated in a close and irregular group, stood the wearied and +broken-spirited members of the Senate, supported by such of their +attendants as had been permitted to follow them; at the other appeared +the stately forms of Alaric and the warriors who surrounded him as his +council of war. The vacant space in the middle of the tent was strewn +with martial weapons, separating the representatives of the two nations +one from the other; and thus accidentally, yet palpably, typifying the +fierce hostility which had sundered in years past, and was still to +sunder for years to come, the people of the North and the people of the +South. + +The Gothic king stood a little in advance of his warriors, leaning on +his huge, heavy sword. His steady eye wandered from man to man among +the broken-spirited senators, contemplating, with cold and cruel +penetration, all that suffering and despair had altered for the worse in +their outward appearance. Their soiled robes, their wan cheeks, their +trembling limbs were each marked in turn by the cool, sarcastic +examination of the conqueror's gaze. Debased and humiliated as they +were, there were some among the ambassadors who felt the insult thus +silently and deliberately inflicted on them the more keenly for their +very helplessness. They moved uneasily in their places, and whispered +among each other in low and bitter accents. + +At length one of their number raised his downcast eyes and broke the +silence. The old Roman spirit, which long years of voluntary frivolity +and degradation had not yet entirely depraved, flushed his pale, wasted +face as he spoke thus:-- + +'We have entreated, we have offered, we have promised--men can do no +more! Deserted by our Emperor and crushed by pestilence and famine, +nothing is now left to us but to perish in unavailing resistance beneath +the walls of Rome! It was in the power of Alaric to win everlasting +renown by moderation to the unfortunate of an illustrious nation; but he +has preferred to attempt the spoiling of a glorious city and the +subjugation of a suffering people! Yet let him remember, though +destruction may sate his vengeance, and pillage enrich his hoards, the +day of retribution will yet come. There are still soldiers in the +empire, and heroes who will lead them confidently to battle, though the +bodies of their countrymen lie slaughtered around them in the streets of +pillaged Rome!' + +A momentary expression of wrath and indignation appeared on Alaric's +features as he listened to this bold speech; but it was almost +immediately replaced by a scornful smile of derision. + +'What! ye have still soldiers before whom the barbarian must tremble for +his conquests!' he cried. 'Where are they? Are they on their march, or +in ambush, or hiding behind strong walls, or have they lost their way on +the road to the Gothic camp? Ha! here is one of them!' he exclaimed, +advancing towards an enfeebled and disarmed guard of the Senate, who +quailed beneath his fierce glance. 'Fight, man!' he loudly continued; +'fight while there is yet time, for imperial Rome! Thy sword is gone-- +take mine, and be a hero again!' + +With a rough laugh, echoed by the warriors behind him, he flung his +ponderous weapon as he spoke towards the wretched object of his sarcasm. +The hilt struck heavily against the man's breast; he staggered and fell +helpless to the ground. The laugh was redoubled among the Goths; but +now their leader did not join in it. His eye glowed in triumphant scorn +as he pointed to the prostrate Roman, exclaiming-- + +'So does the South fall beneath the sword of the North! So shall the +empire bow before the rule of the Goth! Say, as ye look on these Romans +before us, are we not avenged of our wrongs? They die not fighting on +our swords; they live to entreat our pity, as children that are in +terror of the whip!' + + +He paused. His massive and noble countenance gradually assumed a +thoughtful expression. The ambassadors moved forward a few steps-- +perhaps to make a final entreaty, perhaps to depart in despair; but he +signed with his hand in command to them to be silent and remain where +they stood. The marauder's thirst for present plunder, and the +conqueror's lofty ambition of future glory, now stirred in strong +conflict within him. He walked to the opening of the tent, and +thrusting aside its curtain of skins, looked out upon Rome in silence. +The dazzling majesty of the temples and palaces of the mighty city, as +they towered before him, gleaming in the rays of the unclouded sunlight, +fixed him long in contemplation. Gradually, dreams of a future dominion +amid those unrivalled structures, which now waited but his word to be +pillaged and destroyed, filled his aspiring soul, and saved the city +from his wrath. He turned again toward the shrinking ambassadors--in a +voice and look superior to them as a being of a higher sphere--and spoke +thus:-- + +'When the Gothic conqueror reigns in Italy, the palaces of her rulers +shall be found standing for the places of his sojourn. I will ordain a +lower ransom; I will spare Rome.' + +A murmur arose among the warriors behind him. The rapine and +destruction which they had eagerly anticipated was denied them for the +first time by their chief. As their muttered remonstrances caught his +ear, Alaric instantly and sternly fixed his eyes upon them; and, +repeating in accents of deliberate command, 'I will ordain a lower +ransom; I will spare Rome,' steadily scanned the countenances of his +ferocious followers. + +Not a word of dissent fell from their lips; not a gesture of impatience +appeared in their ranks; they preserved perfect silence as the king +again advanced towards the ambassadors and continued-- + +'I fix the ransom of the city at five thousand pounds of gold; at thirty +thousand pounds of silver.' + +Here he suddenly ceased, as if pondering further on the terms he should +exact. The hearts of the Senate, lightened for a moment by Alaric's +unexpected announcement that he would moderate his demands, sank within +them again as they thought on the tribute required of them, and +remembered their exhausted treasury. But it was no time now to +remonstrate or to delay; and they answered with one accord, ignorant +though they were of the means of performing their promise, 'The ransom +shall be paid.' + +The king looked at them when they spoke, as if in astonishment that men +whom he had deprived of all freedom of choice ventured still to assert +it by intimating their acceptance of terms which they dared not decline. +The mocking spirit revived within him while he thus gazed on the +helpless and humiliated embassy; and he laughed once more as he resumed, +partly addressing himself to the silent array of the warriors behind +him-- + +'The gold and silver are but the first dues of the tribute; my army +shall be rewarded with more than the wealth of the enemy. You men of +Rome have laughed at our rough bearskins and our heavy armour, you shall +clothe us with your robes of festivity! I will add to the gold and +silver of your ransom, four thousand garments of silk, and three +thousand pieces of scarlet cloth. My barbarians shall be barbarians no +longer! I will make patricians, epicures, Romans of them!' + +The members of the ill-fated embassy looked up as he paused, in mute +appeal to the mercy of the triumphant conqueror; but they were not yet +to be released from the crushing infliction of his rapacity and scorn. + +'Hold!' he cried, 'I will have more--more still! You are a nation of +feasters;--we will rival you in your banquets when we have stripped you +of your banqueting robes! To the gold, the silver, the silk, and the +cloth, I will add yet more--three thousand pounds weight of pepper, your +precious merchandise, bought from far countries with your lavish +wealth!--see that you bring it hither, with the rest of the ransom, to +the last grain! The flesh of our beasts shall be seasoned for us like +the flesh of yours!' + +He turned abruptly from the senators as he pronounced the last words, +and began to speak in jesting tones and in the Gothic language to the +council of warriors around him. Some of the ambassadors bowed their +heads in silent resignation; others, with the utter thoughtlessness of +men bewildered by all that they had seen and heard during the interview +that was now close, unhappily revived the recollection of the broken +treaties of former days, by mechanically inquiring, in the terms of past +formularies, what security the besiegers would require for the payment +of their demands. + + +'Security!' cried Alaric fiercely, instantly relapsing as they spoke +into his sterner mood. 'Behold yonder the future security of the Goths +for the faith of Rome!' and flinging aside the curtain of the tent, he +pointed proudly to the long lines of his camp, stretching round all that +was visible of the walls of the fallen city. + +The ambassadors remembered the massacre of the hostages of Aquileia, and +the evasion of the payment of tribute-money promised in former days, and +were silent as they looked through the opening of the tent. + +'Remember the conditions of the ransom,' pursued Alaric in warning +tones, 'remember my security that the ransom shall be quickly paid! So +shall you live for a brief space in security, and feast and be merry +again while your territories yet remain to you. Go! I have spoken--it +is enough!' + +He withdrew abruptly from the senators, and the curtain of the tent fell +behind them as they passed out. The ordeal of the judgment was over; +the final sentence had been pronounced; the time had already arrived to +go forth and obey it. + +The news that terms of peace had been at last settled filled the Romans +who were waiting before the tent with emotions of delight, equally +unalloyed by reflections on the past or forebodings for the future. +Barred from their reckless project of flying to the open country by the +Goths surrounding them in the camp, shut out from retreating to Rome by +the gates through which they had rashly forced their way, exposed in +their helplessness to the brutal jeers of the enemy while they waited in +a long agony of suspense for the close of the perilous interview between +Alaric and the Senate, they had undergone every extremity of suffering, +and had yielded unanimously to despair when the intelligence of the +concluded treaty sounded like a promise of salvation in their ears. + +None of the apprehensions aroused in the minds of their superiors by the +vastness of the exacted tribute now mingled with the unreflecting +ecstasy of their joy at the prospect of the removal of the blockade. +They arose to return to the city from which they had fled in dismay, +with cries of impatience and delight. They fawned like dogs upon the +ambassadors, and even upon the ferocious Goths. On their departure from +Rome they had mechanically preserved some regularity in their progress, +but now they hurried onward without distinction of place or discipline +of march--senators, guards, plebeians, all were huddled together in the +disorderly equality of a mob. + +Not one of them, in their new-born security, marked the ruined building +on the high-road; not one of them observed the closely-robed figure that +stole out from it to join them in their rear; and then, with stealthy +footstep and shrouded face, soon mingled in the thickest of their ranks. +The attention of the ambassadors was still engrossed by their +forebodings of failure in collecting the ransom; the eyes of the people +were fixed only on the Pincian Gate; their ears were open to no sounds +but their own ejaculations of delight. Not one disguised stranger only, +but many, might now have joined them in their tumultuous progress, alike +unquestioned and unobserved. + +So they hastily re-entered the city, where thousands of heavy eyes were +strained to look on them, and thousands of attentive ears drank in their +joyful news from the Gothic camp. Then were heard in all directions the +sounds of hysterical weeping and idiotic laughter, the low groans of the +weak who died victims of their sudden transport, and the confused +outbursts of the strong who had survived all extremities, and at last +beheld their deliverance in view. + +Still silent and serious, the ambassadors now slowly penetrated the +throng on their way back to the Forum; and as they proceeded the crowd +gradually dispersed on either side of them. Enemies, friends, and +strangers, all whom the ruthless famine had hitherto separated in +interests and sympathies, were now united together as one family, by the +expectation of speedy relief. + + +But there was one among the assembly that was now separating who stood +alone in her unrevealed emotions, amid the rejoicing thousands around +her. The women and children in the throng, as, preoccupied by their own +feeling, they unheedfully passed her by, saw not the eager, ferocious +attention in her eyes, as she watched them steadily till they were out +of sight. Within their gates the stranger and the enemy waited for the +treacherous darkness of night, and waited unobserved. Where she had +first stood when the thick crowd hemmed her in, there she still +continued to stand after they slowly moved past her and space grew free. + +Yet beneath this outward calm and silence lurked the wildest passions +that ever raged against the weak restraint of human will; even the firm +self-possession of Goisvintha was shaken when she found herself within +the walls of Rome. + +No glance of suspicion had been cast upon her; not one of the crowd had +approached to thrust her back when she passed through the gates with the +heedless citizens around her. Shielded from detection, as much by the +careless security of her enemies as by the stratagem of her disguise, +she stood on the pavement of Rome, as she had vowed to stand, afar from +the armies of her people--alone as an avenger of blood! + +It was no dream; no fleeting, deceitful vision. The knife was under her +hand; the streets stretched before her; the living beings who thronged +them were Romans; the hours of the day were already on the wane; the +approach of her vengeance was as sure as the approach of darkness that +was to let it loose. A wild exultation quickened in her the pulses of +life, while she thought on the dread projects of secret assassination +and revenge which now opposed her, a solitary woman, in deadly enmity +against the defenceless population of a whole city. + +As her eyes travelled slowly from side to side over the moving throng; +as she thought on the time that might still elapse ere the discovery and +death--the martyrdom in the cause of blood--which she expected and +defied, would overtake her, her hands trembled beneath her robe, and she +reiterated in whispers to herself: 'Husband, children, brother--there +are five deaths to avenge! Remember Aquileia! Remember Aquileia!' + +Suddenly, as she looked from group to group among the departing people, +her eyes became arrested by one object; she instantly stepped forwards, +then abruptly restrained herself and moved back where the crowd was +still thick, gazing fixedly ever in the same direction. She saw the +victim twice snatched from her hands--at the camp and in the farm- +house--a third time offered to her grasp in the streets of Rome. + +The chance of vengeance last expected was the chance that had first +arrived. A vague, oppressing sensation of awe mingled with the triumph +at her heart--a supernatural guidance seemed to be directing her with +fell rapidity, through every mortal obstacle, to the climax of her +revenge! + +She screened herself behind the people; she watched the girl from the +most distant point; but concealment was now vain--their eyes had met. +The robe had slipped aside when she suddenly stepped forward, and in +that moment Antonina had seen her. + +Numerian, moving slowly with his daughter through the crowd, felt her +hand tighten round his, and saw her features stiffen into sudden +rigidity; but the change was only for an instant. Ere he could speak, +she caught him by the arm, and drew him forward with convulsive energy. +Then, in accents hardly articulate, low, breathless, unlike her wonted +voice, he heard he exclaim, as she struggled on with him, 'She is +there--there behind us! to kill me, as she killed him! Home! home!' + +Exhausted already, through long weakness and natural infirmity, by the +rough contact of the crowd, bewildered by Antonina's looks and actions, +and by the startling intimation of unknown peril, conveyed to him in her +broken exclamations of affright, Numerian's first impulse, as he hurried +onward by her side, led him to entreat protection and help from the +surrounding populace. But even could he have pointed out to them the +object of his dread amid that motley throng of all nations, the appeal +he now made would have remained unanswered. + + +Of all the results of the frightful severity of privation suffered by +the besieged, none were more common than those mental aberrations which +produced visions of danger, enemies, and death, so palpable as to make +the persons beholding them implore assistance against the hideous +creation of their own delirium. Accordingly, most of those to whom the +entreaties of Numerian were addressed passed without noticing them. +Some few carelessly bid him remember that there were no enemies now; +that the days of peace were approaching; and that a meal of good food, +which he might soon expect to enjoy, was the only help for a famished +man. No one, in that period of horror and suffering, which was now +drawing to a close, saw anything extraordinary in the confusion of the +father and the terror of the child. So they pursued their feeble flight +unprotected, and the footsteps of Goisvintha followed them as they went. + +They had already commenced the ascent of the Pincian Hill, when Antonina +stopped abruptly, and turned to look behind her. Many people yet +thronged the street below; but her eyes penetrated among them, sharpened +by peril, and instantly discerned the ample robe and the tall form, +still at the same distance from them, and pausing as they had paused. +For one moment, the girl's eyes fixed in the wild, helpless stare of +terror on her father's face; but the next, that mysterious instinct of +preservation, which is co-existent with the instinct of fear--which +gifts the weakest animal with cunning to improve its flight, and takes +the place of reason, reflection, and resolve, when all are banished from +the mind--warned her against the fatal error of permitting the pursuer +to track her to her home. + +'Not there! not there!' she gasped faintly as Numerian endeavoured to +lead her up the ascent. 'She will see us as we enter the doors!-- +through the streets! Oh, father, if you would save me! we may lose her +in the streets!--the guards, the people are there! Back! back!' + +Numerian trembled as he marked the terror in her looks and gestures; but +it was vain to question or oppose her. Nothing short of force could +restrain her,--no commands or entreaties could draw from her more than +the same breathless exclamation: 'Onward, father; onward, if you would +save me!' She was insensible to every sensation but fear, incapable of +any other exertion than flight. + +Turning and winding, hurrying forward ever at the same rapid pace, they +passed unconsciously along the intricate streets that led to the river +side; and still the avenger tracked the victim, constant as the shadow +to the substance; steady, vigilant, unwearied, as a bloodhound on a hot +scent. + +And now, even the sound of the father's voice ceased to be audible in +the daughter's ears; she no longer felt the pressure of his hand, no +longer perceived his very presence at her side. At length, frail and +shrinking, she again paused, and looked back. The street they had +reached was very tranquil and desolate: two slaves were walking at its +further extremity. While they were in sight, no living creature +appeared in the roadway behind; but as soon as they had passed away, a +shadow stole slowly forward over the pavement of a portico in the +distance, and the next moment Goisvintha appeared in the street. + +The sun glared down fiercely over her dark figure as she stopped and for +an instant looked stealthily around her. She moved to advance, and +Antonina saw no more. Again she turned to renew her hopeless flight; +and again her father--perceiving only as the mysterious cause of her +dread a solitary woman, who, though she followed, attempted not to +arrest, or even to address them--prepared to accompany her to the last, +in despair of all other chances of securing her safety. + +More and more completely did her terror now enchain her faculties, as +she still unconsciously traced her rapid way through the streets that +led to the Tiber. It was not Numerian, not Rome, not daylight in a +great city, that was before her eyes: it was the storm, the +assassination, the night at the farm-house, that she now lived through +over again. + + +Still the quick flight and the ceaseless pursuit were continued, as if +neither were ever to have an end; but the close of the scene was, +nevertheless, already at hand. During the interval of the passage +through the streets, Numerian's mind had gradually recovered from its +first astonishment and alarm; at length he perceived the necessity of +instant and decisive action, while there was yet time to save Antonina +from sinking under the excess of her own fears. Though a vague, awful +foreboding of disaster and death filled his heart, his resolution to +penetrate at once, at all hazards, the dark mystery of impending danger +indicated by his daughter's words and actions, did not fail him; for it +was aroused by the only motive powerful enough to revive all that +suffering and infirmity had not yet destroyed of the energy of his +former days--the preservation of his child. There was something of the +old firmness and vigour of the intrepid reformer of the Church, in his +dim eyes, as he now stopped, and enclosing Antonina in his arms, +arrested her instantly in her flight. + +She struggled to escape; but it was faintly, and only for a moment. Her +strength and consciousness were beginning to abandon her. She never +attempted to look back; she felt in her heart that Goisvintha was still +behind, and dared not to verify the frightful conviction with her eyes. +Her lips moved; but they expressed an altered and a vain petition: +'Hermanric! O Hermanric!' was all they murmured now. + +They had arrived at the long street that ran by the banks of the Tiber. +The people had either retired to their homes or repaired to the Forum to +be informed of the period when the ransom would be paid. No one but +Goisvintha was in sight as Numerian looked around him; and she, after +having carefully viewed the empty street, was advancing towards them at +a quickened pace. + +For an instant the father looked on her steadily as she approached, and +in that instant his determination was formed. A flight of steps at his +feet led to the narrow doorway of a small temple, the nearest building +to him. + +Ignorant whether Goisvintha might not be secretly supported by +companions in her ceaseless pursuit, he resolved to secure this place +for Antonina, as a temporary refuge at least; while standing before it, +he should oblige the woman to declare her purpose, if she followed them +even there. In a moment he had begun the ascent of the steps, with the +exhausted girl by his side. Arrived at the summit, he guided her before +him into the doorway, and stopped on the threshold to look round again. +Goisvintha was nowhere to be seen. + +Not duped by the woman's sudden disappearance into the belief that she +had departed from the street--persisting in his resolution to lead his +daughter to a place of repose, where she might most immediately feel +herself secure, and might therefore most readily recover her self- +possession, Numerian drew Antonina with him into the temple. He +lingered there for a moment, ere he departed to watch the street from +the portico outside. + +The light in the building was dim,--it was admitted only from a small +aperture in the roof, and through the narrow doorway, where it was +intercepted by the overhanging bulk of the outer portico. A crooked pile +of dark heavy-looking substances on the floor, rose high towards the +ceiling in the obscure interior. Irregular in form, flung together one +over the other in strange disorder, for the most part dusky in hue, yet +here and there gleaming at points with a metallic brightness, these +objects presented a mysterious, indefinite, and startling appearance. +It was impossible, on a first view of their confused arrangement, to +discover what they were, or to guess for what purpose they could have +been pile together on the floor of a deserted temple. From the moment +when they had first attracted Numerian's observation, his attention was +fixed on them, and as he looked a faint thrill of suspicion--vague, +inexplicable, without apparent cause or object--struck chill to his +heart. + + +He had moved a step forward to examine the hidden space at the back of +the pile, when his further advance was instantly stopped by the +appearance of a man who walked forth from it dressed in the floating, +purple-edged robe and white fillet of the Pagan priests. Before either +father or daughter could speak, even before they could move to depart, +he stepped up to them, and, placing his hand on the shoulder of each, +confronted them in silence. + +At the moment when the stranger approached, Numerian raised his hand to +thrust him back, and, in so doing, fixed his eyes on the man's +countenance, as a ray of light from the doorway floated over it. +Instantly his arm remained outstretched and rigid, then it dropped to +his side, and the expression of horror on the face of the child became +reflected, as it were, on the face of the parent. Neither moved under +the hand of the dweller in the temple when he laid it heavily on each, +and both stood before him speechless as himself. + + +CHAPTER 25. THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH. + +It was Ulpius. The Pagan was changed in bearing and countenance as well +as in apparel. He stood more firm and upright; a dull, tawny hue +overspread his face; his eyes, so sunken and lustreless in other days, +were now distended and bright with the glare of insanity. It seemed as +if his bodily powers had renewed their vigour, while his mental +faculties had declined towards their ruin. + +No human eye had ever beheld by what foul and secret means he had +survived through the famine, on what unnatural sustenance he had +satisfied the cravings of inexorable hunger; but there, in his gloomy +shelter, the madman and the outcast had lived and moved, and suddenly +and strangely strengthened, after the people of the city had exhausted +all their united responses, lavished in vain all their united wealth, +and drooped and died by thousands around him! + +His grasp still lay heavy on the father and daughter, and still both +confronted him--silent, as if death-struck by his gaze; motionless, as +if frozen at his touch. His presence was exerting over them a fatal +fascination. The power of action, suspended in Antonina as she entered +their ill-chosen refuge, was now arrested in Numerian also; but with him +no thought of the enemy in the street had any part, at this moment, in +the resistless influence which held him helpless before the enemy in the +temple. + +It was a feeling of deeper awe and darker horror. For now, as he looked +upon the hideous features of Ulpius, as he saw the forbidden robe of +priesthood in which the Pagan was arrayed, he beheld not only the +traitor who had successfully plotted against the prosperity of his +household, but the madman as well,--the moral leper of the whole human +family--the living Body and the dead Soul--the disinherited of that +Divine Light of Life which it is the awful privilege of mortal man to +share with the angels of God. + +He still clasped Antonina to his side, but it was unconsciously. To all +outward appearance he was helpless as his helpless child, when Ulpius +slowly removed his grasp from their shoulders, separated them, and +locking the hand of each in his cold, bony fingers, began to speak. + +His voice was deep and solemn, but his accents, in their hard, unvarying +tone, seemed to express no human emotion. His eyes, far from +brightening as he spoke, relapsed into a dull, vacant insensibility. The +connection between the action of speech and the accompanying and +explaining action of look which is observable in all men, seemed lost in +him. It was fearful to behold the death-like face, and to listen at the +same moment to the living voice. + +'Lo! the votaries come to the temple!' murmured the Pagan. 'The good +servants of the mighty worship gather at the voice of the priest! In +the far provinces, where the enemies of the gods approach to profane the +sacred groves, behold the scattered people congregating by night to +journey to the shrine of Serapis! Adoring thousands kneel beneath the +lofty porticoes, while within, in the secret hall where the light is +dim, where the air quivers round the breathing deities on their +pedestals of gold, the high priest Ulpius reads the destinies of the +future, that are unrolled before his eyes like a book!' + + +As he ceased, and, still holding the hands of his captives, looked on +them fixedly as ever, his eyes brightened and dilated again; but they +expressed not the slightest recognition either of father or daughter. +The delirium of his imagination had transported him to the temple at +Alexandria; the days were revived when his glory had risen to its +culminating point, when the Christians trembled before him as their +fiercest enemy, and the Pagans surrounded him as their last hope. The +victims of his former and forgotten treachery were but as two among the +throng of votaries allured by the fame of his eloquence, by the +triumphant notoriety of his power to protect the adherents of the +ancient creed. + +But it was not always thus that his madness declared itself: there were +moments when it rose to appalling frenzy. Then he imagined himself to +be again hurling the Christian assailants from the topmost walls of the +besieged temple, in that past time when the image of Serapis was doomed +by the Bishop of Alexandria to be destroyed. His yells of fury, his +frantic execrations of defiance were heard afar, in the solemn silence +of pestilence-stricken Rome. Those who, during the most fatal days of +the Gothic blockade, dropped famished on the pavement before the little +temple, as they endeavoured to pass it on their onward way, presented a +dread reality of death, to embody the madman's visions of battle and +slaughter. As these victims of famine lay expiring in the street, they +heard above them his raving voice cursing them for Christians, +triumphing over them as defeated enemies destroyed by his hand, +exhorting his imaginary adherents to fling the slain above on the dead +below, until the bodies of the besiegers of the temple were piled, as +barriers against their living comrades, round its walls. Sometimes his +frenzy gloried in the fancied revival of the foul and sanguinary +ceremonies of Pagan superstition. Then he bared his arms, and shouted +aloud for the sacrifice; he committed dark and nameless atrocities--for +now again the dead and the dying lay before him, to give substance to +the shadow of his evil thoughts; and Plague and Hunger were as creatures +of his will, and slew the victim for the altar ready to his hands. + +At other times, when the raving fit had passed away, and he lay panting +in the darkest corner of the interior of the temple, his insanity +assumed another and a mournful form. His voice grew low and moaning; +the wreck of his memory--wandering and uncontrollable--floated back, far +back, on the dark waters of the past; and his tongue uttered fragments +of words and phrases that he had murmured at his father's knees-- +farewell, childish wishes that he had breathed in his mother's ear-- +innocent, anxious questions which he had addressed to Macrinus, the high +priest, when he first entered the service of the gods at Alexandria. +His boyish reveries--the gentleness of speech and poetry of thought of +his first youthful days, were now, by the unsearchable and arbitrary +influences of his disease, revived in his broken words, renewed in his +desolate old age of madness and crime, breathed out in unconscious +mockery by his lips, while the foam still gathered about them, and the +last flashes of frenzy yet lightened in his eyes. + +This unnatural calmness of language and vividness of memory, this +treacherous appearance of thoughtful, melancholy self-possession, would +often continue through long periods, uninterrupted; but, sooner or +later, the sudden change came; the deceitful chain of thought snapped +asunder in an instant; the word was left half uttered; the wearied limbs +started convulsively into renewed action; and as the dream of violence +returned and the dream of peace vanished, the madman rioted afresh in +his fury; and journeyed as his visions led him, round and round his +temple sanctuary, and hither and thither, when the night was dark and +death was busiest in Rome, among the expiring in deserted houses, and +the lifeless in the silent streets. + + +But there were other later events in his existence that never revived +within him. The old familiar image of the idol Serapis, which had drawn +him into the temple when he re-entered Rome, absorbed in itself and in +its associated remembrances all that remained active of his paralysed +faculties. His betrayal of his trust in the house of Numerian, his +passage through the rifted wall, his crushing repulse in the tent of +Alaric, never for a moment occupied his wandering thoughts. The clouds +that hung over his mind might open to him parting glimpses of the toils +and triumphs of his early career; but they descended in impenetrable +darkness on all the after-days of his dreary life. + +Such was the being to whose will, by a mysterious fatality, the father +and child were now submitted; such the existence--solitary, hopeless, +loathsome--of their stern and wily betrayer of other days! + +Since he had ceased speaking, the cold, death-like grasp of his hand had +gradually strengthened, and he had begun to look slowly and inquiringly +round him from side to side. Had this change marked the approaching +return of his raving paroxysm, the lives of Numerian and Antonina would +have been sacrificed the next moment; but all that it now denoted was +the quickening of the lofty and obscure ideas of celebrity and success, +of priestly honour and influence, of the splendour and glory of the +gods, which had prompted his last words. + +He moved suddenly, and drew the victims of his dangerous caprice a few +steps farther into the interior of the temple; then led them close up to +the lofty pile of objects which had first attracted Numerian's eyes on +entering the building. 'Kneel and adore!' cried the madman fiercely, +replacing his hands on their shoulders and pressing them to the +ground--'You stand before the gods, in the presence of their high +priest!' + +The girl's head sank forward, and she hid her face in her hands; but her +father looked up tremblingly at the pile. His eyes had insensibly +become more accustomed to the dim light of the temple, and he now saw +more distinctly the objects composing the mass that rose above him. + +Hundreds of images of the gods, in gold, silver, and wood--many in the +latter material being larger than life; canopies, vestments, furniture, +utensils, all of ancient Pagan form, were heaped together, without order +or arrangement, on the floor, to a height of full fifteen feet. + +There was something at once hideous and grotesque in the appearance of +the pile. The monstrous figures of the idols, with their rude carved +draperies and symbolic weapons, lay in every wild variety of position, +and presented every startling eccentricity of line, more especially +towards the higher portions of the mass, where they had evidently been +flung up from the ground by the hand that had raised the structure. + +The draperies mixed among the images and the furniture were here coiled +serpent-like around them, and there hung down towards the ground, waving +slow and solemn in the breezes that wound through the temple doorway. +The smaller objects of gold and silver, scattered irregularly over the +mass, shone out from it like gleaming eyes; while the pile itself, seen +in such a place under a dusky light, looked like some vast, misshapen +monster--the gloomy embodiment of the bloodiest superstitions of +Paganism, the growth of damp airs and teeming ruin, of shadow and +darkness, of accursed and infected solitude! + +Even in its position, as well as in the objects of which it was +composed, the pile wore an ominous and startling aspect; its crooked +outline, expanding towards the top, was bent over fearfully in the +direction of the doorway; it seemed as if a single hand might sway it in +its uncertain balance, and hurl it instantly in one solid mass to the +floor. + +Many toilsome hours had passed away, long secret labour had been +expended in the erection of this weird and tottering structure; but it +was all the work of one hand. Night after night had the Pagan entered +the deserted temples in the surrounding streets, and pillaged them of +their contents to enrich his favoured shrine: the removal of the idols +from their appointed places, which would have been sacrilege in any +meaner man, was in his eyes the dread privilege of the high priest +alone. + + +He had borne heavy burdens, and torn asunder strong fastenings, and +journeyed and journeyed again for hours together over the same gloomy +streets, without loitering in his task; he had raised treasures and +images one above another; he had strengthened the base and heightened +the summit of this precious and sacred heap; he had repaired and +rebuilt, whenever it crumbled and fell, this new Babel that he longed to +rear to the Olympus of the temple roof, with a resolute patience and +perseverance that no failure or fatigue could overcome. + +It was the dearest purpose of his dreamy superstition to surround +himself with innumerable deities, as well as to assemble innumerable +worshippers; to make the sacred place of his habitation a mighty +Pantheon, as well as a point of juncture for the scattered congregations +of the Pagan world. This was the ambition in which his madness expanded +to the fiercest fanaticism; and as he now stood erect with his captives +beneath him, his glaring eyes looked awe-struck when he fixed them on +his idols; he uplifted his arms in solemn, ecstatic triumph, and in low +tones poured forth his invocations, wild, intermingled, and fragmentary, +as the barbarous altar which his solitary exertions had reared. + +Whatever was the effect on Numerian of his savage and confused +ejaculations, they were unnoticed, even unheard, by Antonina; for now, +while the madman's voice softened to an undertone, and while she hid all +surrounding objects from her eyes, her senses were awakened to sounds in +the temple which she had never remarked before. + +The rapid current of the Tiber washed the foundation walls of one side +of the building, within which the clear, lulling bubble of the water was +audible with singular distinctness. But besides this another and a +shriller sound caught the ear. On the summit of the temple roof still +remained several rows of little gilt bells, originally placed there, +partly with the intention of ornamenting this portion of the outer +structure, partly in order that the noise they produced, when agitated +by the wind, might scare birds from settling in their flight on the +consecrated edifice. The sounds produced by these bells were silvery +and high pitched; now, when the breeze was strong, they rang together +merrily and continuously; now, when it fell, their notes were faint, +separate, and irregular, almost plaintive in their pure metallic +softness. But, however their tone might vary under the capricious +influences of the wind, it seemed always wonderfully mingled within the +temple with the low, eternal bubbling of the river, which filled up the +slightest pauses in the pleasant chiming of the bells, and ever +preserved its gentle and monotonous harmony just audible beneath them. + +There was something in this quaint, unwonted combination of sounds, as +they were heard in the vaulted interior of the little building, +strangely simple, attractive, and spiritual; the longer they were +listened to, the more completely did the mind lose the recollection of +their real origin, and gradually shape out of them wilder and wilder +fancies, until the bells as they rang their small peal seemed like happy +voices of a heavenly stream, borne lightly onward on its airy bubbles, +and ever rejoicing over the gliding current that murmured to them as it +ran. + +Spite of the peril of her position, and of the terror which still fixed +her speechless and crouching on the ground, the effect on Antonina of +the strange mingled music of the running water and the bells was +powerful enough, when she first heard it, to suspend all her other +emotions in a momentary wonder and doubt. She withdrew her hands from +her face, and glanced round mechanically to the doorway, as if she +imagined that the sounds proceeded from the street. + +When she looked, the declining sun, gliding between two of the outer +pillars which surrounded the temple, covered with a bright glow the +smooth pavement before the entrance. A swarm of insects flew drowsily +round and round in the warm mellow light; their faint monotonous humming +deepened, rather than interrupted, the perfect silence prevailing over +all things without. + + +But a change was soon destined to appear in the repose of the quiet, +vacant scene; hardly a minute had elapsed while Antonina still looked on +it before she saw stealing over the sunny pavement a dark shadow, the +same shadow that she had last beheld when she stopped in her flight to +look behind her in the empty street. At first it slowly grew and +lengthened, then it remained stationary, then it receded and vanished as +gradually as it had advanced, and then the girl heard, or fancied that +she heard, a faint sound of footsteps, retiring along the lateral +colonnades towards the river side of the building. + +A low cry of horror burst from her lips as she sank back towards her +father; but it was unheeded. The voice of Ulpius had resumed in the +interval its hollow loudness of tone; he had raised Numerian from the +ground; his strong, cold grasp, which seemed to penetrate to the old +man's heart, which held him motionless and helpless as if by a fatal +spell, was on his arm. + +'Hear it! hear it!' cried the Pagan, waving his disengaged hand as if he +were addressing a vast concourse of people--'I advance this man to be +one of the servants of the high priest! He has travelled from a far +country to the sacred shrine; he is docile and obedient before the altar +of the gods; the lost is cast for his future life; his dwelling shall be +in the temple to the day of his death! He shall minister before me in +white robes, and swing the smoking censer, and slay the sacrifice at my +feet!' + +He stopped. A dark and sinister expression appeared in his eyes as the +word 'sacrifice' passed his lips; he muttered doubtingly to +himself--'The sacrifice!--is it yet the hour of the sacrifice?'--and +looked round towards the doorway. + +The sun still shone gaily on the outer pavement; the insects still +circled slowly in the mellow light; no shadow was now visible; no +distant footsteps were heard; there was nothing audible but the happy +music of the bubbling water, and the chiming, silvery bells. + +For a few moments the madman looked out anxiously towards the street, +without uttering a word or moving a muscle. The raving fit was nearly +possessing him again, as the thought of the sacrifice flashed over his +darkened mind; but once more its approach was delayed. + +He slowly turned his head in the direction of the interior of the +temple. 'The sun is still bright in the outer courts,' he murmured in +an undertone, 'the hour of the sacrifice is not yet! Come!' he +continued in a louder voice, shaking Numerian by the arm. 'It is time +that the servant of the temple should behold the place of the sacrifice, +and sharpen the knife for the victim before sunset! Arouse thee, +bondman, and follow me!' + +As yet, Numerian had neither spoken, nor attempted to escape. The +preceding events, though some space has been occupied in describing +them, passed in so short a period of time, that he had not hitherto +recovered from the first overwhelming shock of the meeting with Ulpius. +But now, awed though he still was, he felt that the moment of the +struggle for freedom had arrived. + +'Leave me, and let us depart!--there can be no fellowship between us +again!' he exclaimed with the reckless courage of despair, taking the +hand of Antonina, and striving to free himself from the madman's grasp. +But the effort was vain; Ulpius tightened his hold and laughed in +triumph. 'What! the servant of the temple is in terror of the high +priest, and shrinks from walking in the place of the sacrifice!' he +cried. 'Fear not, bondman! The mighty one, who rules over life and +death, and time and futurity, deals kindly with the servant of his +choice! Onward! onward! to the place of darkness and doom, where I +alone am omnipotent, and all others are creatures who tremble and obey! +To thy lesson, learner! by sunset the victim must be crowned!' + +He looked round on Numerian for an instant, as he prepared to drag him +forward, and their eyes met. In the fierce command of his action, and +the savage exultation of his glance, the father saw repeated in a wilder +form the very attitude and expression which he had beheld in the Pagan +on the morning of the loss of his child. All the circumstances of that +miserable hour--the vacant bed-chamber--the banished daughter--the +triumph of the betrayer--the anguish of the betrayed--rushed over his +mind, and rose up before it vivid as a pictured scene before his eyes. + + +He struggled no more; the powers of resistance in mind and body were +crushed alike. He made an effort to remove Antonina from his side, as +if, in forgetfulness of the hidden enemy without, he designed to urge +her flight through the open door, while the madman's attention was yet +distracted from her. But, beyond this last exertion of the strong +instinct of paternal love, every other active emotion seemed dead within +him. + +Vainly had he striven to disentangle the child from the fate that might +be in store for the parent. To her the dread of the dark shadow on the +pavement was superior to all other apprehensions. She now clung more +closely to her father, and tightened her clasp round his hand. So, when +the Pagan advanced into the interior of the temple, it was not Numerian +alone who followed him to the place of sacrifice, but Antonina as well. + +They moved to the back of the pile of idols. Behind it appeared a high +partition of gilt and inlaid wood reaching to the ceiling, and +separating the outer from the inner part of the temple. A low archway +passage, protected by carved gates similar to those at the front of the +building, had been formed in the partition, and through this Ulpius and +his prisoners now passed into the recess beyond. + +This apartment was considerably smaller than the first hall of the +temple which they had just left. The ceiling and the floor both sloped +downwards together, and here the rippling of the waters of the Tiber was +more distinctly audible to them than in the outer division of the +building. At the moment when they entered it the place was very dark; +the pile of idols intercepted even the little light that could have been +admitted through its narrow entrance; but the dense obscurity was soon +dissipated. Dragging Numerian after him to the left side of the recess, +Ulpius drew back a sort of wooden shutter, and a vivid ray of sunlight +immediately streamed in through a small circular opening pierced in this +part of the temple. + +Then there became apparent, at the lower end of the apartment, a vast +yawning cavity in the wall, high enough to admit a man without stooping, +but running downwards almost perpendicularly to some lower region which +it was impossible to see, for no light shot upwards from this +precipitous artificial abyss, in the darkness of which the eye was lost +after it had penetrated to the distance of a few feet only from the +opening. At the base of the confined space thus visible appeared the +commencement of a flight of steps, evidently leading far downwards into +the cavity. On the abruptly sloping walls, which bounded it on all +sides, were painted, in the brilliant hues of ancient fresco, +representations of the deities of the mythology--all in the attitude of +descending into the vault, and all followed by figures of nymphs bearing +wreaths of flowers, beautiful birds, and other similar adjuncts of the +votive ceremonies of Paganism. The repulsive contrast between the +bright colours and graceful forms presented by the frescoes, and the +perilous and gloomy appearance of the cavity which they decorated, +increased remarkably the startling significance in the character of the +whole structure. Its past evil uses seemed ineradicably written over +every part of it, as past crime and torment remain ineradicably written +on the human face; the mind imbibed from it terrifying ideas of deadly +treachery, of secret atrocities, of frightful refinements of torture, +which no uninitiated eye had ever beheld, and no human resolution had +ever been powerful enough to resist. + +But the impressions thus received were not produced only by what was +seen in and around this strange vault, but by what was heard there +besides. The wind penetrated the cavity at some distance, and through +some opening that could not be beheld, and was apparently intercepted in +its passage, for it whistled upwards towards the entrance in shrill, +winding notes, sometimes producing another and nearer sound, resembling +the clashing of many small metallic substances violently shaken +together. The noise of the wind, as well as the bubbling of the current +of the Tiber, seemed to proceed from a greater distance than appeared +compatible with the narrow extent of the back part of the temple, and +the proximity of the river to its low foundation walls. + + +It was evident that the vault only reached its outlet after it had wound +backwards, underneath the building, in some strange complication of +passages or labyrinth of artificial caverns, which might have been built +long since as dungeons for the living, or as sepulchres for the dead. + +'The place of the sacrifice--aha! the place of the sacrifice!' cried the +Pagan exultingly, as he drew Numerian to the entrance of the cavity, and +solemnly pointed into the darkness beneath. + +The father gazed steadily into the chasm, never turning now to look on +Antonina, never moving to renew the struggle for freedom. Earthly loves +and earthly hopes began to fade away from his heart--he was praying. +The solemn words of Christian supplication fell in low, murmuring sounds +from his lips, in the place of idolatry and bloodshed, and mingled with +the incoherent ejaculations of the madman who kept him captive, and who +now bent his glaring eyes on the darkness of the vault, half forgetful, +in the gloomy fascination which it exercised even over him, of the +prisoners whom he held at its mouth. + +The single ray of light, admitted from the circular aperture of the +wall, fell wild and fantastic over the widely-differing figures of the +three, as they stood so strangely united together before the abyss that +opened beneath them. The shadows were above and the shadows were +around; there was no light in the ill-omened place but the one vivid ray +that streamed over the gaunt figure of Ulpius, as he still pointed into +the darkness; over the rigid features of Numerian, praying in the +bitterness of expected death; and over the frail youthful form of +Antonina as she nestled trembling at her father's side. It was an +unearthly and a solemn scene! + +Meanwhile the shadow which the girl had observed on the pavement before +the doorway of the temple now appeared there again, but not to retire as +before; for, the instant after, Goisvintha stealthily entered the outer +apartment of the building left vacant by its first occupants. She +passed softly around the pile of idols, looked into the inner recess of +the temple, and saw the three figures standing together in the ray of +light, gloomy and motionless, before the mouth of the cavity. Her first +glance fixed on the Pagan, whom she instinctively doubted and dreaded, +whose purpose in keeping captive the father and daughter she could not +divine; her next was directed on Antonina. + +The girl's position was a guarded one; still holding her father's hand, +she was partly protected by his body; and stood unconsciously beneath +the arm of Ulpius, as it was raised while he grasped Numerian's +shoulder. Marking this, and remembering that Antonina had twice escaped +her already, Goisvintha hesitated for a moment, and then, with cautious +step and lowering brow, began to retire again towards the doorway of the +building. 'Not yet--not yet the time!' she muttered, as she resumed her +former lurking-place; 'they stand where the light is over them--the girl +is watched and shielded--the two men are still on either side of her! +Not yet the moment of the blow; the stroke of the knife must be sure and +safe! Sure, for this time she must die by my hand! Safe, for I have +other vengeance to wreak besides the vengeance on her! I, who have been +patient and cunning since the night when I escaped from Aquileia, will +be patient and cunning still! If she passes the door, I slay her as she +goes out; if she remains in the temple--' + +At the last word, Goisvintha paused and gazed upward; the setting sun +threw its fiery glow over her haggard face; her eye brightened fiercely +in the full light as she looked. 'The darkness is at hand!' she +continued; 'the night will be thick and black in the dim halls of the +temple; I shall see her when she shall not see me!--the darkness is +coming; the vengeance is sure!' + +She closed her lips, and with fatal perseverance continued to watch and +wait, as she had resolutely watched and waited already. The Roman and +the Goth; the opposite in sex, nation, and fate; the madman who dreamed +of the sanguinary superstitions of Paganism before the temple altar, and +the assassin who brooded over the chances of bloodshed beneath the +temple portico, were now united in a mysterious identity of expectation, +uncommunicated and unsuspected by either--the hour when the sun vanished +from the heaven was the hour of the sacrifice for both! + +**** + +There is now a momentary pause in the progress of events. Occurrences +to be hereafter related render it necessary to take advantage of this +interval to inform the reader of the real nature and use of the vault in +the temple wall, the external appearance of which we have already +described. + +The marking peculiarity in the construction of the Pagan religion may be +most aptly compared to the marking peculiarity in the construction of +the pagan temples. Both were designed to attract the general eye by the +outward effect only, which was in both the false delusive reflection of +the inward substance. + +In the temple, the people, as they worshipped beneath the long +colonnades, or beheld the lofty porticoes from the street, were left to +imagine the corresponding majesty and symmetry of the interior of the +structure, and were not admitted to discover how grievously it +disappointed the brilliant expectations which the exterior was so well +calculated to inspire; how little the dark, narrow halls of the idols, +the secret vaults and gloomy recesses within, fulfilled the promise of +the long flights of steps, the broad extent of pavement, the massive +sun-brightened pillars without. So in the religion, the votary was +allured by the splendour of processions; by the pomp of auguries; by the +poetry of the superstition which peopled his native woods with the +sportive Dryads, and the fountains from which he drank with their +guardian Naiads; which gave to mountain and lake, to sun and moon and +stars, to all things around and above him, their fantastic allegory, or +their gracious legend of beauty and love: but beyond this, his first +acquaintance with his worship was not permitted to extend, here his +initiation concluded. He was kept in ignorance of the dark and +dangerous depths which lurked beneath this smooth and attractive +surface; he was left to imagine that what was displayed was but the +prelude to the future discovery of what was hidden of beauty in the +rites of Paganism; he was not admitted to behold the wretched +impostures, the loathsome orgies, the hideous incantations, the bloody +human sacrifices perpetrated in secret, which made the foul, real +substance of the fair exterior form. His first sight of the temple was +not less successful in deceiving his eye than his first impression of +the religion in deluding his mind. + +With these hidden and guilty mysteries of the Pagan worship, the vault +before which Ulpius now stood with his captives was intimately +connected. + +The human sacrifices offered among the Romans were of two kinds; those +publicly and those privately performed. The first were of annual +recurrence in the early years of the Republic; were prohibited at a +later date; were revived by Augustus, who sacrificed his prisoners of +war at the altar of Julius Caesar; and were afterwards--though +occasionally renewed for particular purposes under some subsequent +reigns--wholly abandoned as part of the ceremonies of Paganism during +the later periods of the empire. + +The sacrifices perpetrated in private were much longer practised. They +were connected with the most secret mysteries of the mythology; were +concealed from the supervision of government; and lasted probably until +the general extinction of heathen superstition in Italy and the +provinces. + +Many and various were the receptacles constructed for the private +immolation of human victims in different parts of the empire--in its +crowded cities as well as in its solitary woods--and among all, one of +the most remarkable and the longest preserved was the great cavity +pierced in the wall of the temple which Ulpius had chosen for his +solitary lurking-place in Rome. + + +It was not merely as a place of concealment for the act of immolation, +and for the corpse of the victim, that the vault had been built. A +sanguinary artifice had complicated the manner of its construction, by +placing in the cavity itself the instrument of the sacrifice; by making +it, as it were, not merely the receptacle, but the devourer also of its +human prey. At the bottom of the flight of steps leading down into it +(the top of which, as we have already observed, was alone visible from +the entrance in the temple recess) was fixed the image of a dragon +formed in brass. + +The body of the monster, protruding opposite the steps almost at a right +angle from the wall, was moved in all directions by steel springs, which +communicated with one of the lower stairs, and also with a sword placed +in the throat of the image to represent the dragon's tongue. The walls +around the steps narrowed so as barely to admit the passage of the human +body when they approached the dragon. At the slightest pressure on the +stair with which the spring communicated, the body of the monster bent +forward, and the sword instantly protruded from its throat, at such a +height from the steps as ensure that it should transfix in a vital part +the person who descended. The corpse, then dropping by its own weight +off the sword, fell through a tunnelled opening beneath the dragon, +running downward in an opposite direction to that taken by the steps +above, and was deposited on an iron grating washed by the waters of the +Tiber, which ran under the arched foundations of the temple. The +grating was approached by a secret subterranean passage leading from the +front of the building, by which the sacrificing priests were enabled to +reach the dead body, to fasten weights to it, and opening the grating, +to drop it into the river, never to be beheld again by mortal eyes. + +In the days when this engine of destruction was permitted to serve the +purpose for which the horrible ingenuity of its inventors had +constructed it, its principal victims were young girls. Crowned with +flowers, and clad in white garments, they were lured into immolating +themselves by being furnished with rich offerings, and told that the +sole object of their fatal expedition down the steps of the vault was to +realise the pictures adorning its walls (which we have described a few +pages back), by presenting their gifts at the shrine of the idol below. + +At the period of which we write, the dragon had for many years--since +the first prohibitions of Paganism--ceased to be fed with its wonted +prey. The scales forming its body grew gradually corroded and loosened +by the damp; and when moved by the wind which penetrated to them from +beneath, whistling up in its tortuous course through the tunnel that ran +in one direction below, and the vault of the steps that ascended in +another above, produced the clashing sound which has been mentioned as +audible at intervals from the mouth of the cavity. But the springs +which moved the deadly apparatus of the whole machine being placed +within it, under cover, continued to resist the slow progress of time +and of neglect, and still remained as completely fitted as ever to +execute the fatal purpose for which they had been designed. + +The ultimate destiny of the dragon of brass was the destiny of the +religion whose bloodiest superstitions it embodied: it fell beneath the +resistless advance of Christianity. Shortly after the date of our +narrative, the interior of the building beneath which it was placed +having suffered from an accident, which will be related farther on, the +exterior was dismantled, in order that its pillars might furnish +materials for a church. The vault in the wall was explored by a monk +who had been present at the destruction of other Pagan temples, and who +volunteered to discover its contents. With a torch in one hand, and an +iron bar in the other, he descended into the cavity, sounding the walls +and the steps before him as he proceeded. For the first and the last +time the sword protruded harmless from the monster's throat when the +monk pressed the fatal stair, before stepping on it, with his iron bar. +The same day the machine was destroyed and cast into the Tiber, where +its victims had been thrown before it in former years. + +***** + + +Some minutes have elapsed since we left the father and daughter standing +by the Pagan's side before the mouth of the vault; and as yet there +appears no change in the several positions of the three. But already, +while Ulpius still looks down steadfastly into the cavity at his feet, +his voice, as he continues to speak, grows louder, and his words become +more distinct. Fearful recollections associated with the place are +beginning to stir his weary memory, to lift the darkness of oblivion +from his idle thoughts. + +'They go down, far down there!' he abruptly exclaimed, pointing into the +black depths of the vault, 'and never arise again to the light of the +upper earth! The great Destroyer is watchful in his solitude beneath, +and looks through the darkness for their approach! Hark! the hissing of +his breath is like to the clash of weapons in a deadly strife!' + +At this moment the wind moved the loose scales of the dragon. During an +instant Ulpius remained silent, listening to the noise they produced. +For the first time an expression of dread appeared on his face. His +memory was obscurely reviving the incidents of his discovery of the +deadly machinery in the vault when he first made his sojourn in the +temple, when--filled with the confused remembrance of the mysterious +rites and incantations, the secret sacrifices which he had witnessed and +performed at Alexandria--he had found and followed the subterranean +passage which led to the iron grating beneath the dragon. As the wind +lulled again, and the clashing of the metal ceased with it, he began to +give these recollections expression in words, uttering them in slow, +solemn accents to himself. + +'I have seen the Destroyer; the Invisible has revealed himself to me!' +he murmured. 'I stood on the iron bars; the restless waters toiled and +struggled beneath my feet as I looked up into the place of darkness. A +voice called to me, "Get light, and behold me from above! Get light! +get light!" Sun, and moon, and stars gave no light there! but lamps +burnt in the city, in the houses of the dead, when I walked by them in +the night-time; and the lamp gave light when sun, and moon, and stars +gave none! From the top steps I looked down, and saw the Powerful One in +his golden brightness; and approached not, but watched and listened in +fear. The voice again!--the voice was heard again!--"Sacrifice to me in +secret, as thy brethren sacrifice! Give me the living where the living +are, and the dead where the dead!" The air came up cold, and the voice +ceased, and the lamp was like sun, and moon, and stars--it gave no light +in the place of darkness!' + +While he spoke, the loose metal again clashed in the vault, for the wind +was strengthening as the evening advanced. 'Hark! the signal to prepare +the sacrifice!' cried the Pagan, turning abruptly to Numerian. 'Listen, +bondman! the living and the dead are within our reach. The breath of +the Invisible strikes them in the street and in the house; they stagger +in the highways, and drop at the temple steps. When the hour comes we +shall go forth and find them. Under my hand they go down into the +cavern beneath. Whether they are hurled dead, or whether they go down +living, they fall through to the iron bars, where the water leaps and +rejoices to receive them! It is mine to sacrifice them above, and thine +to wait for them below, to lift the bars and give them to the river to +be swallowed up! The dead drop down first, the living that are slain by +the Destroyer follow after!' + +Here he paused suddenly. Now, for the first time, his eye rested on +Antonina, whose very existence he seemed hitherto to have forgotten. A +revolting smile of mingled cunning and satisfaction instantly changed +the whole character of his countenance as he gazed on her and then +looked round significantly to the vault. 'Here is one,' he whispered to +Numerian, taking her by the arm. 'Keep her captive--the hour is near!' + +Numerian had hitherto stood unheedful while he spoke; but when he +touched Antonina the bare action was enough to arouse the father to +resistance--hopeless though it was--once more. He shook off the grasp +of Ulpius from the girl's arm, and drew back with her--breathless, +vigilant, desperate--to the side-wall behind him. + +The madman laughed in proud approval. 'My bondman obeys me and seizes +the captive!' he cried. 'He remembers that the hour is near and loosens +not his hold! Come,' he continued, 'come out into the hall beyond!--it +is time that we watch for more victims for the sacrifice till the sun +goes down. The Destroyer is mighty and must be obeyed!' + + +He walked to the entrance leading into the first apartment of the +temple, and then waited to be followed by Numerian, who, now for the +first time separated from Ulpius, remained stationary in the position he +had last occupied, and looked eagerly around him. No chance of escape +presented itself; the mouth of the vault on one side, and the passage +through the partition on the other, were the only outlets to the place. +There was no hope but to follow the Pagan into the great hall of the +temple, to keep carefully at a distance from him, and to watch the +opportunity of flight through the doorway. The street, so desolate when +last beheld, might now afford more evidence that it was inhabited. +Citizens, guards might be passing by, and might be summoned into the +temple--help might be at hand. + +As he moved forward with Antonina, such thoughts passed rapidly through +the father's mind, unaccompanied at the moment by the recollection of +the stranger who had followed them from the Pincian Gate, or of the +apathy of the famished populace in aiding each other in any emergency. +Seeing that he was followed as he had commanded, Ulpius passed on before +them to the pile of idols; but a strange and sudden alteration appeared +in his gait. He had hitherto walked with the step of a man--young, +strong, and resolute of purpose; now he dragged one limb after the other +as slowly and painfully as if he had received a mortal hurt. He +tottered with more than the infirmity of his age, his head dropped upon +his breast, and he moaned and murmured inarticulately in low, long-drawn +cries. + +He had advanced to the side of the pile, half-way towards the doorway of +the temple, when Numerian, who had watched with searching eyes the +abrupt change in his demeanour, forgetting the dissimulation which might +still be all-important, abandoned himself to his first impulse, and +hurriedly pressing forward with Antonina, attempted to pass the Pagan +and escape. But at the moment Ulpius stopped in his slow progress, +reeled, threw out his hands convulsively, and seizing Numerian by the +arm, staggered back with him against the side-wall of the temple. The +fingers of the tortured wretch closed as if they were never to be +unlocked again--closed as if with the clutch of death, with the last +frantic grasp of a drowning man. + +For days and nights past he had toiled incessantly under the relentless +tyranny of his frenzy, building up higher and higher his altar of idols, +and pouring forth his invocations before his gods in the place of the +sacrifice; and now, at the moment when he was most triumphant in his +ferocious activity of purpose, when his fancied bondman and his fancied +victim were most helpless at his command--now, when his strained +faculties were strung to their highest pitch, the long-deferred paroxysm +had seized him, which was the precursor of his repose, of the only +repose granted by his awful fate--a change (the mournful change already +described) in the form of his insanity. For at those rare periods when +he slept, his sleep was not unconsciousness, not rest: it was a trance +of hideous dreams--his tongue spoke, his limbs moved, when he slumbered +as when he woke. It was only when his visions of the pride, the power, +the fierce conflicts, and daring resolutions of his maturer years gave +place to his dim, quiet, waking dreams of his boyish days, that his +wasted faculties reposed, and his body rested with them in the +motionless languor of perfect fatigue. Then, if words were still +uttered by his lips, they were as murmurs of an infant--happy sleep; for +the innocent phrases of his childhood which they then revived, seemed +for a time to bring with them the innocent tranquillity of his childhood +as well. + +'Go! go!--fly while you are yet free!' cried Numerian, dropping the hand +of Antonina, and pointing to the door. But for the second time the girl +refused to move forward a step. No horror, no peril in the temple could +banish for an instant her remembrance of the night at the farm-house in +the suburbs. She kept her head turned towards the vacant entrance, fixed +her eyes on it in the unintermitting watchfulness of terror, and +whispered affrightedly, 'Goisvintha! Goisvintha!' when her father +spoke. + + +The clasp of the Pagan's fingers remained fixed and deathlike as at +first; he leaned back against the wall, as still as if life and action +had for ever departed from him. The paroxysm had passed away; his face, +distorted but the moment before, was now in repose, but it was a repose +that was awful to look on. Tears rolled slowly from his half-closed +eyes over his seamed and wrinkled cheeks--tears which were not the +impressive expression of mental anguish (for a vacant and unchanging +smile was on his lips), but the mere mechanical outburst of the physical +weakness that the past crisis of agony had left behind it. Not the +slightest appearance of thought or observation was perceptible in his +features: his face was the face of an idiot. + +Numerian, who had looked on him for an instant, shuddered and averted +his eyes, recoiling from the sight before him. But a more overpowering +trial of his resolution was approaching, which he could not avoid. Ere +long the voice of Ulpius grew audible once more; but now its tones were +weak, piteous, almost childish, and the words they uttered were quiet +words of love and gentleness, which dropping from such lips, and +pronounced in such a place, were fearful to hear. The temple and all +that was in it vanished from his sight as from his memory. Swayed by +the dread and supernatural influences of his disease, the madman passed +back in an instant over the dark valley of life's evil pilgrimage to the +long-quitted precincts of his boyish home. While in bodily presence he +stood in the place of his last crimes, the outcast of reason and +humanity, in mental consciousness he lay in his mother's arms, as he had +lain there ere yet he had departed to the temple at Alexandria; and his +heart communed with her heart, and his eyes looked on her as they had +looked before his father's fatal ambition had separated for ever parent +and child! + +'Mother!--come back, mother!' he whispered. 'I was not asleep: I saw +you when you came in, and sat by my bedside, and wept over me when you +kissed me! Come back, and sit by me still! I am going away, far away, +and may never hear your voice again! How happy we should be, mother, if +I stayed with you always! But it is my father's will that I should go +to the temple in another country, and live there to be a priest; and his +will must be obeyed. I may never return; but we shall not forget one +another! I shall remember your words when we used to talk together +happily, and you shall still remember mine!' + +Hardly had the first sentence been uttered by Ulpius when Antonina felt +her father's whole frame suddenly tremble at her side. She turned her +eyes from the doorway, on which they had hitherto been fixed, and looked +on him. The Pagan's hand had fallen from his arm: he was free to +depart, to fly as he had longed to fly but a few minutes before, and yet +he never stirred. His daughter touched him, spoke to him, but he +neither moved nor answered. It was not merely the shock of the abrupt +transition in the language of Ulpius from the ravings of crime to the +murmurs of love--it was not merely astonishment at hearing from him, in +his madness, revelations of his early life which had never passed his +lips during his days of treacherous servitude in the house on the +Pincian Hill, that thus filled Numerian's inmost soul with awe, and +struck his limbs motionless. There was more in all that he heard than +this. The words seemed as words that had doomed him at once and for +ever. His eyes, directed full on the face of the madman, were dilated +with horror, and his deep, gasping, convulsive breathings mingled +heavily, during the moment of silence that ensued, with the chiming of +the bells above and the bubbling of the water below--the lulling music +of the temple, playing its happy evening hymn at the pleasant close of +day. + +'We shall remember, mother!--we shall remember!' continued the Pagan +softly, 'and be happy in our remembrances! My brother, who loves me +not, will love you when I am gone! You will walk in my little garden, +and think on me as you look at the flowers that we have planted and +watered together in the evening hours, when the sky was glorious to +behold, and the earth was all quiet around us! Listen, mother, and kiss +me! When I go to the far country, I will make a garden there like my +garden here, and plant the same flowers that we have planted here, and +in the evening I will go out and give them water at the hour when you go +out to give my flowers water at home; and so, though we see each other +no more, it will yet be as if we laboured together in the garden as we +labour now!' + + +The girl still fixed her eager gaze on her father. His eyes presented +the same rigid expression of horror; but he was now wiping off with his +own hand, mechanically, as if he knew it not, the foam which the +paroxysms had left round the madman's lips, and, amid the groans that +burst from him, she could hear such words as, 'Lord God!--mercy, Lord +God! Thou, who hast thus restored him to me--thus, worse than dead!-- +mercy! mercy!' + +The light on the pavement beneath the portico of the temple was fading +visibly--the sun had gone down. + +For the third time the madman spoke, but his tones were losing their +softness; they were complaining, plaintive, unutterably mournful; his +dreams of the past were already changing. 'Farewell, brother--farewell +for years and years!' he cried. 'You have not given me the love that I +gave you. The fault was not mine that our father loved me the best, and +chose me to be sent to the temple to be a priest at the altar of the +gods! The fault was not mine that I partook not in your favoured +sports, and joined not the companions whom you sought; it was our +father's will that I should not live as you lived, and I obeyed it! You +have spoken to me in anger, and turned from me in disdain; but farewell +again, Cleander--farewell in forgiveness and in love!' + +He might have spoken more, but his voice was drowned in one long shriek +of agony which burst from Numerian's lips, and echoed discordantly +through the hall of the temple, and he sank down with his face to the +ground at the Pagan's feet. The dark and terrible destiny was +fulfilled. The enthusiast for the right and the fanatic for the wrong; +the man who had toiled to reform the Church, and the man who had toiled +to restore the Temple; the master who had received and trusted the +servant in his home, and the servant who in that home had betrayed the +master's trust--the two characters, separated hitherto in the sublime +disunion of good and bad, now struck together in tremendous contact, as +brethren who had drawn their life from one source, who as children had +been sheltered under the same roof! + +Not in the hours when the good Christian succoured the then forsaken +Pagan, wandering homeless in Rome, was the secret disclosed; no chance +word of it was uttered when the deceiver told the feigned relation of +his life to the benefactor whom he was plotting to deceive, or when, on +the first morning of the siege, the machinations of the servant +triumphed over the confidence of the master: it was reserved to be +revealed in the words of delirium, at the closing years of madness, when +he who discovered it was unconscious of all that he spoke, and his eyes +were blinded to the true nature of all that he saw; when earthly voices +that might once have called him back to repentance, to recognition, and +to love, were become to him as sounds that have no meaning; when, by a +ruthless and startling fatality, it was on the brother who had wrought +for the true faith that the whole crushing weight of the terrible +disclosure fell, unpartaken by the brother who had wrought for the +false! But the judgments pronounced in Time go forth from the tribunal +of that Eternity to which the mysteries of life tend, and in which they +shall be revealed--neither waiting on human seasons nor abiding by human +justice, but speaking to the soul in the language of immortality, which +is heard in the world that is now, and interpreted in the world that is +to come. + +Lost, for an instant, even the recollection that Goisvintha might still +be watching her opportunity from without, calling despairingly on her +father, and vainly striving to raise him from the ground, Antonina +remembered not, in the overwhelming trial of the moment, the revelations +of Numerian's past life that had been disclosed to her in the days when +the famine was at its worst in Rome. The name of 'Cleander', which she +had then heard her father pronounce, as the name that he had abandoned +when he separated himself from the companions of his sinful choice, +passed unheeded by her when the Pagan unconsciously uttered it. She saw +the whole scene but as a fresh menace of danger, as a new vision of +terror, more ominous of ill than all that had preceded it. + + +Thick as was the darkness in which the lulling and involuntary memories +of the past had enveloped the perceptions of Ulpius, the father's +piercing cry of anguish seemed to have penetrated it with a sudden ray +of light. The madman's half-closed eyes opened instantly and fixed, +dreamily at first, on the altar of idols. He waved his hands to and fro +before him, as if her were parting back the folds of a heavy veil that +obscured his sight; but his wayward thoughts did not resume as yet their +old bias towards ferocity and crime. When he spoke again, his speech +was still inspired by the visions of his early life--but now of his +early life in the temple at Alexandria. His expressions were more +abrupt, more disjointed than before; yet they continued to display the +same evidence of the mysterious, instinctive vividness of recollection, +which was the result of the sudden change in the nature of his insanity. +His language wandered (still as if the words came from him undesignedly +and unconsciously) over the events of his boyish introduction to the +service of the gods, and, though confusing them in order, still +preserved them in substance, as they have been already related in the +history of his 'apprenticeship to the temple'. + +Now he was in imagination looking down once more from the summit of the +Temple of Serapis on the glittering expanse of the Nile and the wide +country around it; and now he was walking proudly through the streets of +Alexandria by the side of his uncle, Macrinus, the high priest. Now he +was wandering at night, in curiosity and awe, through the gloomy vaults +and subterranean corridors of the sacred place; and now he was +listening, well pleased, to the kindly greeting, the inspiring praises +of Macrinus during their first interview. But at this point, and while +dwelling on this occasion, his memory became darkened again; it vainly +endeavoured to retrace the circumstances attending the crowning evidence +of the high priest's interest in his pupil, and anxiety to identify him +completely with his new protector and his new duties, which had been +displayed when he conferred on the trembling boy the future distinction +of one of his own names. + +And here, let it be remembered, as a chief link in the mysterious chain +of fatalities which had united to keep the brothers apart as brethren +after they had met as men, that both had, from widely different causes, +abandoned in after-life the names which they bore in their father's +house; that while one, by his own act and for his own purpose, +transformed himself from Cleander, the associate of the careless and the +criminal, to Numerian, the preacher of the Gospel and reformer of the +Church, the other had (to quote the words of the fourth chapter), +'become from the boy Emilius the student Ulpius,' by the express and +encouraging command of his master, Macrinus, the high priest. + +While the Pagan still fruitlessly endeavoured to revive the events +connected with the change in his designation on his arrival in +Alexandria, and, chafing under the burden of oblivion that weighed upon +his thoughts, attempted for the first time to move from the wall against +which he had hitherto leaned; while Antonina still strove in vain to +recall her father to the recollection of the terrible exigencies of the +moment as he crouched prostrate at the madman's feet--the doorway of the +temple was darkened once more by the figure of Goisvintha. She stood on +the threshold, a gloomy and indistinct form in the fading light, looking +intently into the deeply shadowed interior of the building. As she +marked the altered positions of the father and daughter, she uttered a +suppressed ejaculation of triumph; but, while the sound passed her lips, +she heard, or thought she heard, a noise in the street behind. Even now +her vigilance and cunning, her deadly, calculating resolution to await +in immovable patience the fitting time for striking the blow +deliberately and with impunity, did not fail her. Turning instantly, +she walked to the top step of the temple, and stood there for a few +moments, watchfully surveying the open space before her. + + +But in those few moments the scene in the building changed once more. +The madman, while he still wavered between relapsing into the raving fit +and continuing under the influence of the tranquil mood in which he had +been prematurely disturbed, caught sight of Goisvintha when her approach +suddenly shadowed the entrance to the temple. Her presence, momentary +though it was, was for him the presence of a figure that had not +appeared before; that had stood in a strange position between the shade +within and the faint light without; it was a new object, presented to +his eyes while they were straining to recover such imperfect faculties +of observation as had been their wont, and it ascendancy over him was +instantaneous and all-powerful. + +He started, bewildered like a deep sleeper suddenly awoke; violent +shudderings ran for a moment over his frame; then it strengthened again +with its former unnatural strength; the demon raged within him in +renewed fury as he tore his robe which Numerian held as he lay at his +feet from the feeble grasp that confined it, and, striding up to the +pile of idols, stretched out his hands in solemn deprecation. 'The high +priest has slept before the altar of the gods!' he cried loudly, 'but +they have been patient with their well-beloved; their thunder has not +struck him for his crime! Now the servant returns to his service--the +rites of Serapis begin!' + +Numerian still remained prostrate, spirit-broken; he slowly clasped his +hands together on the floor, and his voice was now to be heard, still +supplicating in low and stifled accents, as if in unceasing prayer lay +his last hope of preserving his own reason. 'God! Thou art the God of +Mercy; be merciful to him!' he murmured. 'Thou acceptest of repentance; +grant repentance to him! If at any time I have served Thee without +blame, let the service be counted to him; let the vials of Thy wrath be +poured out on me!' + +'Hark! the trumpet blows for the sacrifice!' interrupted the raving +voice of the Pagan, as he turned from the altar, and extended his arms +in frenzied inspiration. 'The roar of music and the voice of exultation +soar upward from the highest mountain-tops! The incense smokes, and in +and out, and round and round, the dancers whirl about the pillars of the +temple! The ox for the sacrifice is without spot; his horns are gilt; +the crown and fillet adorn his head. The priest stands before him naked +from the waist upwards; he heaves the libation out of the cup; the blood +flows over the altar! Up! up! tear forth with reeking hands the heart +while it is yet warm, futurity is before you in the quivering entrails, +look on them and read! read!' + +While he spoke, Goisvintha had entered the temple. The street was still +desolate; no help was at hand. + +Not advancing at once, she concealed herself near the door behind a +projection in the pile of idols, watching from it until Ulpius, in the +progress of his frenzy, should turn away from Antonina, whom he stood +fronting at this instant. But she had not entered unperceived; Antonina +had seen her again. And now the bitterness of death, when the young die +unprotected in their youth, came over the girl, and she cried in a low +wailing voice, as she knelt by Numerian's side: 'I must die, father, I +must die, as Hermanric died! Look up at me, and speak to me before I +die!' + +Her father was still praying; he heard nothing, for his heart was +bleeding in atonement at the shrine of his boyish home, and his soul +still communed with its Maker. The voice that followed hers was the +voice of Ulpius. + +'Oh, beautiful are the gardens round the sacred altars, and lofty the +trees that embower the glittering shrines!' he exclaimed, rapt and +ecstatic in his new visions. 'Lo, the morning breaks, and the spirits +of light are welcomed by a sacrifice! The sun goes down behind the +mountain, and the beams of evening tremble on the victim beneath the +knife of the adoring priest! The moon and stars shine high in the +firmament, and the Genii of Nights are saluted in the still hours with +blood!' + +As he paused, the lament of Antonina was continued in lower and lower +tones: 'I must die, father, I must die!' And with it murmured the +supplicating accents of Numerian: 'God of Mercy! deliver the helpless +and forgive the afflicted! Lord of Judgment! deal gently with Thy +servants who have sinned!' While, mingling with both in discordant +combination, the strange music of the temple still poured on its lulling +sound--the rippling of the running waters and the airy chiming of the +bells! + + +'Worship!--emperors, armies, nations, glorify and worship me!' shouted +the madman, in thunder-tones of triumph and command, as his eye for the +first time encountered the figure of Numerian prostrate at his feet. +'Worship the demi-god who moves with the deities through spheres unknown +to man! I have heard the moans of the unburied who wander on the shores +of the Lake of the Dead--worship! I have looked on the river whose +black current roars and howls in its course through the caves of +everlasting night--worship! I have seen the furies lashed by serpents +on their wrinkled necks, and followed them as they hurled their torches +over the pining ghosts! I have stood unmoved in the hurricane-tumult of +hell--worship! worship! worship!' + +He turned round again towards the altar of idols, calling upon his gods +to proclaim his deification, and at the moment when he moved, Goisvintha +sprang forward. Antonina was kneeling with her face turned from the +door, as the assassin seized her by her long hair and drove the knife +into her neck. The moaning accents of the girl, bewailing her +approaching fate, closed in one faint groan; she stretched out her arms, +and fell forward over her father's body. + +In the ferocious triumph of the moment, Goisvintha raised her arm to +repeat the stroke; but at that instant the madman looked round. 'The +sacrifice--the sacrifice!' he shouted, leaping at one spring like a wild +beast at her throat. She struck ineffectually at him with the knife, as +he fastened his long nails in her flesh and hurled her backwards to the +floor. Then he yelled and gibbered in frantic exultation, set his foot +on her breast, and spat on her as she lay beneath him. + +The contact of the girl's body when she fell--the short but terrible +tumult of the attack that passed almost over him--the shrill, deafening +cries of the madman, awoke Numerian from his trance of despairing +remembrance, aroused him in his agony of supplicating prayer. He looked +up. + +The scene that met his eyes was one of those scenes which crush every +faculty but the faculty of mechanical action--before which, thought +vanishes from men's minds, utterance is suspended on their lips, +expression is paralysed on their faces. The coldness of the tomb seemed +breathed over Numerian's aspect by the contemplation of the terrible +catastrophe: his eyes were glassy and vacant, his lips parted and +rigid; even the remembrance of the discovery of his brother seemed lost +to him as he stooped over his daughter and bound a fragment of her robe +round her neck. The mute, soulless, ghastly stillness of death looked +settled on his features, as, unconscious now of weakness or age, he rose +with her in his arms, stood motionless for one moment before the +doorway, and looked slowly round on Ulpius; then he moved forward with +heavy regular steps. The Pagan's foot was still on Goisvintha's breast +as the father passed him; his gaze was still fixed on her; but his cries +of triumph were calmed; he laughed and muttered incoherently to himself. + +The moon was rising, soft, faint, and tranquil, over the quiet street as +Numerian descended the temple steps with his daughter in his arms, and, +after an instant's pause of bewilderment and doubt, instinctively +pursued his slow, funereal course along the deserted roadway in the +direction of home. Soon, as he advanced, he beheld in the moonlight, +down the long vista of the street at its termination, a little +assemblage of people walking towards him with calm and regular progress. +As they came nearer, he saw that one of them held an open book, that +another carried a crucifix, and that others followed these two with +clasped hands and drooping heads. And then, after an interval, the +fresh breezes that blew towards him bore onward these words, slowly and +reverently pronounced:-- + +'Know, therefore, that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity +deserveth. + +'Canst thou, by searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the +Almighty to perfection?' + +Then the breeze fell, the words grew indistinct, but the procession +still moved forward. As it came nearer and nearer, the voice of the +reader was again plainly heard:-- + +'If iniquity be in thy hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness +dwell in thy tabernacles. + +'For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be +steadfast, and shalt not fear; + +'Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that +pass away: + +And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, +thou shalt be as the morning.' + +The reader stopped and closed the book; for now Numerian had met the +members of the little procession, and they looked on him standing +voiceless before them in the clear moonlight, with his daughter's head +drooping over his shoulder as he carried her in his arms. + +There were some among those who gathered round him whose features he +would have recognised at another time as the features of the surviving +adherents of his former congregation. The assembly he had met was +composed of the few sincere Christians in Rome, who had collected, on +the promulgation of the news that Alaric had ratified terms of peace, to +make a pilgrimage through the city, in the hopeless endeavour, by +reading from the Bible and passing exhortation, to awaken the reckless +populace to a feeling of contrition for their sins, and of devout +gratitude for their approaching deliverance from the horrors of the +siege. + +But now, when Numerian confronted them, neither by word nor look did he +express the slightest recognition of any who surrounded him. To all the +questions addressed to him, he replied by hurried gestures that none +could comprehend. To all the promises of help and protection heaped +upon him in the first outbreak of the grief and pity of his adherents of +other days, he answered but by the same dull, vacant glance. It was +only when they relieved him of his burden, and gently prepared to carry +the senseless girl among them back to her father's house, that he spoke; +and then, in faint entreating tones, he besought them to let him hold +her hand as they went, so that he might be the first to feel her pulse +beat--if it yet moved. + +They turned back by the way they had come--a sorrowful and slow-moving +procession! As they passed on, the reader again opened the Sacred Book; +and then these words rose through the soothing and heavenly tranquillity +of the first hours of night:-- + +'Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not +thou the chastening of the Almighty: + +'For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make +whole.' + + +CHAPTER 26. RETRIBUTION. + +As, in the progress of Life, each man pursues his course with the +passions, good and evil, set, as it were, on either side of him; and +viewing their results in the actions of his fellow-men, finds his +attention, while still attracted by the spectacle of what is noble and +virtuous, suddenly challenged by the opposite display of what is mean +and criminal--so, in the progress of this narrative, which aims to be +the reflection of Life, the reader who has journeyed with us thus far, +and who may now be inclined to follow the little procession of Christian +devotees, to walk by the side of the afflicted father, and to hold with +him the hand of his ill-fated child, is yet, in obedience to the +conditions of the story, required to turn back for awhile to the +contemplation of its darker passages of guilt and terror--he must enter +the temple again; but he will enter it for the last time. + +The scene before the altar of idols was fast proceeding to its fatal +climax. + + +The Pagan's frenzy had exhausted itself in its own fury--his insanity +was assuming a quieter and a more dangerous form; his eye grew cunning +and suspicious; a stealthy deliberation and watchfulness appeared in all +his actions. He now slowly lifted his foot from Goisvintha's breast, +and raised his hands at the same time to strike her back if she should +attempt to escape. Seeing that she lay senseless from her fall, he left +her; retired to one of the corners of the temple, took from it a rope +that lay there, and returning, bound her arms behind her at the hands +and wrists. The rope cut deep through the skin--the pain restored her +to her senses; she suffered the sharp agony in her own body, in the same +place where she had inflicted it on the young chieftain at the farm- +house beyond the suburbs. + +The minute after, she felt herself dragged along the ground, farther +into the interior of the building. The madman drew her up to the iron +gates of the passage through the partition, and fastening the end of the +rope to them, left her there. This part of the temple was enveloped in +total darkness--her assailant addressed not a word to her--she could not +obtain even a glimpse of his form, but she could hear him still laughing +to himself in hoarse, monotonous tones, that sounded now near, and now +distant again. + +She abandoned herself as lost--prematurely devoted to the torment and +death that she had anticipated; but, as yet, her masculine resolution +and energy did not decline. The very intensity of the anguish she +suffered from the bindings at her wrists, producing a fierce bodily +effort to resist it, strengthened her iron-strung nerves. She neither +cried for help nor appealed to the Pagan for pity. The gloomy fatalism +which she had inherited from her savage ancestors sustained her in a +suicide-pride. + +Ere long the laughter of Ulpius, while he moved slowly hither and +thither in the darkness of the temple, was overpowered by the sound of +her voice--deep, groaning, but yet steady--as she uttered her last +words--words poured forth like the wild dirges, the fierce death-songs +of the old Goths when they died deserted on the bloody battle-field, or +were cast bound into deep dungeons, a prey to the viper and the asp. +Thus she spoke:-- 'I swore to be avenged! while I went forth from +Aquileia with the child that was killed and the child that was wounded; +while I climbed the high wall in the night-time, and heard the tumult of +the beating waves near the bank where I buried the dead; while I +wandered in the darkness over the naked heath and through the lonely +forest; while I climbed the pathless sides of the mountains, and made my +refuge in the cavern by the waters of the dark lake. + +'I swore to be avenged! while the warriors approached me on their march, +and the roaring of the trumpets and the clash of the armour sounded in +my ears; while I greeted my kinsman, Hermanric, a mighty chieftain, at +the king's side, among the invading hosts; while I looked on my last +child, dead like the rest, and knew that he was buried afar from the +land of his people, and from the others that the Romans had slain before +him. + +'I swore to be avenged! while the army encamped before Rome, and I stood +with Hermanric, looking on the great walls in the misty evening; while +the daughter of the Roman was a prisoner in our tent, and I eyed her as +she lay on my knees; while for her sake my kinsman turned traitor, and +withheld my hand from the blow; while I passed unseen into the lonely +farm-house to deal judgment on him with my knife; while I saw him die +the death of a deserter at my feet, and knew that it was a Roman who had +lured him from his people, and blinded him to the righteousness of +revenge. + +'I swore to be avenged! while I walked round the grave of the chieftain +who was the last of my race; while I stood alone out of the army of my +people in the city of the slayers of my babes; while I tracked the +footsteps of the Roman who had twice escaped me, as she fled through the +street; while I watched and was patient among the pillars of the temple, +and waited till the sun went down, and the victim was unshielded for the +moment to strike. + + +'I swore to be avenged! and my oath has been fulfilled--the knife that +still bleeds drops with her blood; the chief vengeance has been wreaked! +The rest that were to be slain remain for others, and not for me! For +now I go to my husband and my children; now the hour is near at hand +when I shall herd with their spirits in the Twilight World of Shadows, +and make my long-abiding place with them in the Valley of Eternal +Repose! The Destinies have willed it--it is enough!' + +Her voice trembled and grew faint as she pronounced the last words. The +anguish of the fastenings at her wrists was at last overpowering her +senses--conquering, in spite of all resistance, her stubborn endurance. +For a little while yet she spoke at intervals, but her speech was +fragmentary and incoherent. At one moment she still gloried in her +revenge, at another she exulted in the fancied contemplation of the +girl's body still lying before her, and her hands writhed beneath their +bonds in the effort to repossess themselves of the knife and strike +again. But soon all sounds ceased to proceed from her lips, save the +loud, thick, irregular breathings, which showed that she was yet +conscious and yet lived. + +Meanwhile the madman had passed into the inner recess of the temple, and +had drawn the shutter over the opening in the wall, through which light +had been admitted into the place when Numerian and Antonina first +entered it. Even the black chasm formed by the mouth of the vault of +the dragon now disappeared, with all other objects, in the thick +darkness. But no obscurity could confuse the senses of Ulpius in the +temple, whose every corner he visited in his restless wanderings by +night and by day alike. Led as if by a mysterious penetration of sight, +he traced his way unerringly to the entrance of the vault, knelt down +before it, and placing his hands on the first of the steps by which it +was descended, listened, breathless and attentive, to the sounds that +rose from the abyss--listened, rapt and unmoving, a formidable and +unearthly figure--like a magician waiting for a voice from the oracles +of Hell--like a spirit of Night looking down into the mid-caverns of the +earth, and watching the mysteries of subterranean creation, the giant +pulses of Action and Heat, which are the life-springs of the rolling +world. + +The fitful wind whistled up, wild and plaintive; the river chafed and +bubbled through the iron grating below; the loose scales of the dragon +clashed as the night breezes reached them: and these sounds were still +to him as the language of his gods, which filled him with a fearful +rapture, and inspired him, in the terrible degradation of his being, as +with a new soul. He listened and listened yet. Fragments of wild +fancies--the vain yearnings of the disinherited mind to recover its +divine birthright of boundless thought--now thrilled through him, and +held him still and speechless where he knelt. + +But at length, through the gloomy silence of the recess, he heard the +voice of Goisvintha raised once more, and in hoarse, wild tones calling +aloud for light and help. The agony of pain and suspense, the awful +sense of darkness and stillness, of solitary bondage and slow torment, +had at last effected that which no open peril, no common menace of +violent death could have produced. She yielded to fear and despair-- +sank prostrate under a paralysing, superstitious dread. The misery that +she had inflicted on others recoiled in retribution on herself, as she +now shuddered under the consciousness of the first emotions of helpless +terror that she had ever felt. + +Ulpius instantly rose from the vault, and advanced straight through the +darkness to the gates of the partition; but he passed his prisoner +without stopping for an instant, and hastening into the outer apartment +of the temple, began to grope over the floor for the knife which the +woman had dropped when he bound her. He was laughing to himself once +more, for the evil spirit was prompting him to a new project, tempting +him to a pitiless refinement of cruelty and deceit. + +He found the knife, and returning with it to Goisvintha, cut the rope +that confined her wrists. Then she became silent when the first +sharpness of her suffering was assuaged; he whispered softly in her ear, +'Follow me, and escape!' + + +Bewildered and daunted by the darkness and mystery around her, she +vainly strained her eyes to look through the obscurity as Ulpius drew +her on into the recess. He placed her at the mouth of the vault, and +here she strove to speak; but low, inarticulate sounds alone proceeded +from her powerless utterance. Still there was no light; still the +burning, gnawing agony at her wrists (relieved but for an instant when +the rope was cut) continued and increased; and still she felt the +presence of the unseen being at her side, whom no darkness could blind, +and who bound and loosed at his arbitrary will. + +By nature fierce, resolute, and vindictive under injury, she was a +terrible evidence of the debasing power of crime, as she now stood, +enfeebled by the weight of her own avenging guilt, upraised to crush her +in the hour of her pride; by the agency of Darkness, whose perils the +innocent and the weak have been known to brave; by Suspense, whose agony +they have resisted; by Pain, whose infliction they have endured in +patience. + +'Go down, far down the steep steps, and escape!' whispered the madman, +in soft, beguiling tones. 'The darkness above leads to the light below! +Go down, far down!' + +He quitted his hold of her as he spoke. She hesitated, shuddered, and +drew back; but again she was urged forward, and again she heard the +whisper, 'The darkness above leads to the light below! Go down, far +down!' + +Despair gave the firmness to proceed, and dread the hope to escape. Her +wounded arms trembled as she now stretched them out and felt for the +walls of the vault on either side of her. The horror of death in utter +darkness, from unseen hands, and the last longing aspiration to behold +the light of heaven once more, were at their strongest within her as she +began slowly and cautiously to tread the fatal stairs. + +While she descended, the Pagan dropped into his former attitude at the +month of the vault, and listened breathlessly. Minutes seemed to elapse +between each step as she went lower and lower down. Suddenly he heard +her pause, as if panic-stricken in the darkness, and her voice ascended +to him, groaning, 'Light! light! oh, where is the light!' He rose up, +and stretched out his hands to hurl her back if she should attempt to +return; but she descended again. Twice he heard her heavy footfall on +the steps--then there was an interval of deep silence--then a sharp, +grinding clash of metal echoed piercingly through the vault, followed by +the noise of a dull, heavy fall, faintly audible far beneath--and then +the old familiar sounds of the place were heard again, and were not +interrupted more. The sacrifice to the Dragon was achieved! + +***** + +The madman stood on the steps of the sacred building, and looked out on +the street shining before him in the bright Italian moonlight. No +remembrance of Numerian and Antonina, and of the earlier events in the +temple, remained within him. He was pondering imperfectly, in vague +pride and triumph, over the sacrifice that he had offered up at the +shrine of the Dragon of brass. Thus secretly exulting, he now remained +inactive. Absorbed in his wandering meditations, he delayed to trace +the subterranean passages leading to the iron grating where the corpse +of Goisvintha lay washed by the waters, as they struggled onward through +the bars, and waiting but his hand to be cast into the river, where all +past sacrifices had been engulphed before it. + +His tall solitary figure was lit by the moonlight streaming through the +pillars of the portico; his loose robes waved slowly about him in the +wind, as he stood firm and erect before the door of the temple: he +looked more like the spectral genius of departed Paganism than a living +man. But, lifeless though he seemed, his quick eye was still on the +watch, still directed by the restless suspicion of insanity. Minute +after minute quietly elapsed, and as yet nothing was presented to his +rapid observation but the desolate roadway, and the high, gloomy houses +that bounded it on either side. It was soon, however, destined to be +attracted by objects which startled the repose of the tranquil street +with the tumult of action and life. + + +He was still gazing earnestly on the narrow view before him, vaguely +imagining to himself, the while, Goisvintha's fatal descent into the +vault, and thinking triumphantly of her dead body that now lay on the +grating beneath it, when a red glare of torchlight, thrown wildly on the +moon-brightened pavement, whose purity it seemed to stain, caught his +eye. + +The light appeared at the end of the street leading from the more +central portion of the city, and ere long displayed clearly a body of +forty or fifty people advancing towards the temple. The Pagan looked +eagerly on them as they came nearer and nearer. The assembly was +composed of priests, soldiers, and citizens--the priests bearing +torches, the soldiers carrying hammers, crowbars, and other similar +tools, or bending under the weight of large chests secured with iron +fastenings, close to which the populace walked, as if guarding them with +jealous care. This strange procession was preceded by two men, who were +considerably in advance of it--a priest and soldier. An expression of +impatience and exultation appeared on their pale, famine-wasted +countenances, as they approached the temple with rapid steps. + +Ulpius never moved from his position, but fixed his piercing eyes on +them as they advanced. Not vainly did he now stand, watchful and +menacing, before the entrance of his gloomy shrine. He had seen the +first degradations heaped on fallen Paganism, and he was now to see the +last. He had immolated all his affections and all his hopes, all his +faculties of body and mind, his happiness in boyhood, his enthusiasm in +youth, his courage in manhood, his reason in old age, at the altar of +his gods; and now they were to exact from him, in their defence, lonely +criminal, maddened, as he already was in their cause, more than all +this! The decree had gone forth from the Senate which devoted to +legalised pillage the treasures in the temples of Rome. + +Rulers of a people impoverished by former exactions, and comptrollers +only of an exhausted treasury, the government of the city had searched +vainly among all ordinary resources for the means of paying the heavy +ransom exacted by Alaric as the price of peace. The one chance of +meeting the emergency that remained was to strip the Pagan temples of +the mass of jewelled ornaments and utensils, the costly robes, the idols +of gold and silver which they were known to contain, and which, under +that mysterious hereditary influence of superstition, whose power it is +the longest labour of truth to destroy, had remained untouched and +respected, alike by the people and the senate, after the worship that +they represented had been interdicted by the laws, and abandoned by the +nation. + +This last expedient for freeing Rome from the blockade was adopted +almost as soon as imagined. The impatience of the starved populace for +the immediate collection of the ransom allowed the government little +time for the tedious preliminaries of deliberation. The soldiers were +provided at once with the necessary implements for the task imposed on +them; certain chosen members of the senate and the people followed them, +to see that they honestly gathered in the public spoil; and the priests +of the Christian churches volunteered to hallow the expedition by their +presence, and led the way with their torches into every secret apartment +of the temples where treasure might be contained. At the close of the +day, immediately after it had been authorised, this strange search for +the ransom was hurriedly commenced. Already much had been collected; +votive offerings of price had been snatched from the altars, where they +had so long hung undisturbed; hidden treasure-chests of sacred utensils +had been discovered and broken open; idols had been stripped of their +precious ornaments and torn from their massive pedestals; and now the +procession of gold-seekers, proceeding along the banks of the Tiber, had +come in sight of the little temple of Serapis, and were hastening +forward to empty it, in its turn, of every valuable that it contained. + +The priest and the soldier, calling to their companions behind to hurry +on, had now arrived opposite the temple steps, and saw confronting them +in the pale moonlight, from the eminence on which he stood, the weird +and solitary figure of Ulpius--the apparition of a Pagan in the gorgeous +robes of his priesthood, bidden back from the tombs to stay the hand of +the spoiler before the shrine of his gods. + +The soldier dropped his weapon to the ground, and, trembling in every +limb, refused to proceed. But the priest, a tall, stern, emaciated man, +went on defenceless and undaunted. He signed himself solemnly with the +cross as he slowly ascended the steps; fixed his unflinching eyes on the +madman, who glared back on him in return; and called aloud in a harsh, +steady voice: 'Man or demon! in the name of Christ, whom thou deniest, +stand back!' + +For an instant, as the priest approached him, the Pagan averted his eyes +and looked on the concourse of people and the armed soldiers rapidly +advancing. His fingers closed round the hilt of Goisvintha's knife, +which he had hitherto held loosely in his hand, as he exclaimed in low, +concentrated tones, 'Aha! the siege--the siege of Serapis!' The priest, +now standing on the same step with him, stretched out his arm to thrust +him back, and at that moment received the stroke of the knife. He +staggered, lifted his hand again to sign his forehead with the cross, +and, as he raised it, rolled back dead on the pavement of the street. + +The soldier, standing motionless with superstitious terror a few feet +from the corpse, called to his companions for help. Hurling his bloody +weapon at them in defiance, as they ran in confusion to the base of the +temple steps, Ulpius entered the building, and locked and chained the +gates. + +Then the assembled people thronging round the corpse of the priest, +heard the madman shouting in his frenzy, as if to a great body of +adherents round him, to pour down the molten lead and the scorching +sand; to hurl back every scaling ladder planted against the walls; to +massacre each prisoner who was seized mounting the ramparts to the +assault; and as they looked up to the building from the street, they saw +at intervals, through the bars of the closed gates, the figure of Ulpius +passing swift and shadowy, his arms extended, his long grey hair and +white robes streaming behind him, as he rushed round and round the +temple reiterating his wild Pagan war-cries as he went. The enfeebled, +superstitious populace trembled while they gazed--a spectre driven on a +whirlwind would not have been more terrible to their eyes. + +But the priest among the crowd, roused to fury by the murder of one of +their own body, revived the courage of those around them. Even the +shouts of Ulpius were now overpowered by the sound of their voices, +raised to the highest pitch, promising heavenly and earthly rewards-- +salvation, money, absolution, promotion--to all who would follow them up +the steps and burst their way into the temple. Animated by the words of +the priests, and growing gradually confident in their own numbers, the +boldest in the throng seized a piece of timber lying by the river side, +and using it as a battering-ram, assailed the gate. But they were +weakened with famine; they could gain little impetus, from the necessity +of ascending the temple steps to the attack; the iron quivered as they +struck it, but hinge and lock remained firm alike. They were preparing +to renew the attempt, when a tremendous shock--a crash as if the whole +heavy roof of the building had fallen in--drove them back in terror to +the street. + +Recalled by the sight of the armed men, the priests and the attendant +crowd of people who were advancing to invade his sanctuary, to the days +when he had defended the great Temple of Serapis at Alexandria, against +enemies similar in appearance, though far superior in numbers; persuaded +in the revival of these, the most sanguinary visions of his insanity, +that he was still resisting the Christian fanatics, supported by his +adherents in his sacred fortress of former years, the Pagan displayed +none of his accustomed cunning and care in moving through the darkness +around him. He hurried hither and thither, encouraging his imaginary +followers, and glorying in his dreams of slaughter and success, +forgetful in his frenzy of all that the temple contained. + + +As he pursued his wild course round and round the altar of idols, his +robe became entangled, and was torn by the projecting substances at one +corner of it. The whole overhanging mass tottered at the moment, but +did not yet fall. A few of the smaller idols, however, at the outside +dropped to the ground, and with them an image of Serapis, which they +happened partially to support--a heavy monstrous figure, carved life- +size in wood, and studded with gold, silver, and precious stones--fell +at the Pagan's feet. But this was all--the outer materials of the +perilous structure had been detached only at one point; the pile itself +still remained in its place. + +The madman seized the image of Serapis in his arms, and passed blindly +onward with it through the passage in the partition into the recess +beyond. At that instant the shock of the first attack on the gates +resounded through the building. Shouting, as he heard it, 'A sally! a +sally! men of the Temple, the gods and the high priest lead you on!' and +still holding the idol before him, he rushed straight forward to the +entrance, and struck in violent collision against the backward part of +the pile. + +The ill-balanced, top-heavy mass of images and furniture of many temples +swayed, parted, and fell over against the gates and the wall on either +side of them. Maimed and bleeding, struck down by the lower part of the +pile, as it was forced back against the partition when the upper part +fell, the fury of Ulpius was but increased by the crashing ruin around +him. He struggled up again into an erect position; mounted on the top +of the fallen mass--now spread out at the sides over the floor of the +building, but confined at one end by the partition, and at the other by +the opposite wall and the gates--and still clasping the image of Serapis +in his arms, called louder and louder to 'the men of the Temple' to +mount with him the highest ramparts and pour down on the besiegers the +molten lead! + +The priests were again the first men to approach the gates of the +building after the shock that had been heard within it. The struggle +for the possession of the temple had assumed to them the character of a +holy warfare against heathenism and magic--a sacred conflict to be +sustained by the Church, for the sake of her servant who had fallen a +martyr at the outset of the strife. Strong in their fanatical boldness, +they advanced with one accord close to the gates. Some of the smaller +images of the fallen pile had been forced through the bars, behind which +appeared the great idols, the broken masses of furniture, the long robes +and costly hangings, all locked together in every wild variety of +position--a chaos of distorted objects heaped up by an earthquake! +Above and further inward, the lower part of the Pagan's robe was faintly +discernible through the upper interstices in the gate, as he stood, +commanding, on the summit of his prostrate altar, with his idol in his +arms. + +The priests felt an instant conviction of certain triumph when they +discerned the cause of the shock that had been heard within the temple. +One of their number snatched up a small image that had fallen through to +the pavement where he stood, and holding it before the people below, +exclaimed exultingly-- + +'Children of the Church! the mystery is revealed! Idols more precious +than this lie by hundreds on the floor of the temple! It is no demon, +but a man, one man, who still defies us within!--a robber who would +defraud the Romans of the ransom of their lives!--the pillage of many +temples is around him. Remember now, that the nearer we came to this +place the fewer were the spoils of idolatry that we gathered in; the +treasure which is yours, the treasure which is to free you from the +famine, has been seized by the assassin of our holy brother; it is there +scattered at his feet! To the gates! To the gates again! Absolution +for all their sins to the men who burst in the gates!' + +Again the mass of timber was taken up; again the gates were assailed; +and again they stood firm--they were now strengthened, barricaded by the +fallen pile. It seemed hopeless to attempt to break them down without a +reinforcement of men, without employing against them the heaviest +missiles, the strongest engines of war. + + +The people gave vent to a cry of fury as they heard from the temple the +hollow laughter of the madman triumphing in their defeat. The words of +the priest, in allaying their superstitious fears, had aroused the +deadly passions that superstition brings forth. A few among the throng +hurried to the nearest guard-house for assistance, but the greater part +pressed closely round the temple--some pouring forth impotent +execrations against the robber of the public spoil, some joining the +priests in calling on him to yield. But the clamour lasted not long; it +was suddenly and strangely stilled by the voice of one man in the crowd, +calling loudly to the rest to fire the temple! + +The words were hardly spoken ere they were repeated triumphantly on all +sides. 'Fire the temple!' cried the people ferociously. 'Burn it over +the robber's head! A furnace--a furnace! to melt down the gold and +silver ready to our hands! Fire the temple! Fire the temple!' + +Those who were most active among the crowd (which was now greatly +increased by stragglers from all parts of the city) entered the houses +behind them, and returned in a few minutes with every inflammable +substance that they could collect in their hands. A heap of fuel, two +or three feet in height, was raised against the gates immediately, and +soldiers and people pressed forward with torches to light it. But the +priest who had before spoken waved them back. 'Wait!' he cried; 'the +fate of his body is with the people, but the fate of his soul is with +the Church!' + +Then, turning to the temple, he called solemnly and sternly to the +madman, 'Thy hour is come! repent, confess, and save thy soul!' + +'Slay on! slay on!' answered the raving voice from within. 'Slay, till +not a Christian is left! Victory! Serapis! See, they drop from our +walls!--they writhe bleeding on the earth beneath us! There is no +worship but the worship of the gods! Slay! Slay on!' + +'Light!' cried the priest. 'His damnation be on his own head! +Anathema! Maranatha! Let him die accursed!' + +The dry fuel was fired at once at all points--it was an anticipation of +an 'Auto da Fe', a burning of a heretic, in the fifth century! As the +flames rose, the people fell back and watched their rapid progress. The +priests, standing before them in a line, stretched out their hands in +denunciation against the temple, and repeated together the awful +excommunication service of the Roman Church. + +***** + +The fire at the gates had communicated with the idols inside. It was no +longer on his prostrate altar, but on his funeral pile that Ulpius now +stood; and the image that he clasped was the stake to which he was +bound. A red glare, dull at first, was now brightening and brightening +below him; flames, quick and noiseless, rose and fell, and rose again, +at different points, illuminating the interior of the temple with fitful +and changing light. The grim, swarthy forms of the idols seemed to sway +and writhe like living things in torment, as fire and smoke alternately +displayed and concealed them. A deadly stillness now overspread the +face and form of the Pagan, as he looked down steadfastly on the deities +of his worship engendering his destruction beneath him. His cheek--the +cheek which had rested in boyhood on his mother's bosom--was pressed +against the gilded breast of the god Serapis, his taskmaster in life-- +his pillow in death! + +'I rise! I rise to the world of light, with my deities whom I have +served!' he murmured; 'the brightness of their presence is like a +flaming fire; the smoke of their breath pours forth around me like the +smoke of incense! I minister in the Temples of the Clouds; and the +glory of eternal sunlight shines round me while I adore! I rise! I +rise!' + +The smoke whirled in black volumes over his head; the fierce voice of +the fast-spreading fire roared on him; the flames leapt up at his feet-- +his robes kindled, burst into radiant light, as the pile yawned and +opened under him. + +***** + + +Time had passed. The strife between the Temple and the Church was +ended. The priests and the people had formed a wider circle round the +devoted building; all that was inflammable in it had been burnt; smoke +and flame now burst only at intervals through the gates, and gradually +both ceased to appear. Then the crowd approached nearer to the temple, +and felt the heat of the furnace they had kindled, as they looked in. + +The iron gates were red hot--from the great mass behind (still glowing +bright in some places, and heaving and quivering with its own heat) a +thin, transparent vapour rose slowly to the stone roof of the building, +now blackened with smoke. The priests looked eagerly for the corpse of +the Pagan; they saw two dark, charred objects closely united together, +lying in a chasm of ashes near the gate, at a spot where the fire had +already exhausted itself, but it was impossible to discern which was the +man and which was the idol. + +The necessity of providing means for entering the temple had not been +forgotten while the flames were raging. Proper implements for forcing +open the gates were now at hand, and already the mob began to dip their +buckets in the Tiber, and pour water wherever any traces of the fire +remained. Soon all obstacles were removed; the soldiers crowded into the +building with spades in their hands, trampled on the black, watery mire +of cinders which covered what had once been the altar of idols, and +throwing out into the street the refuse ashes and the stone images which +had remained unconsumed, dug in what was left, as in a new mine, for the +gold and silver which the fire could not destroy. + +The Pagan had lived with his idols, had perished with his idols!--and +now where they were cast away, there he was cast away with them. The +soldiers, as they dug into fragments the black ruins of his altar, +mingled him in fragments with it! The people, as they cast the refuse +thrown out to them into the river, cast what remained of him with what +remained of his gods! And when the temple was deserted, when the +citizens had borne off all the treasure they could collect, when nothing +but a few heaps of dust was left of all that had been burnt, the night- +wind blew away before it the ashes of Ulpius with the ashes of the +deities that Ulpius had served! + + +CHAPTER 27. THE VIGIL OF HOPE. + +A new prospect now opens before us. The rough paths through which we +have hitherto threaded our way grow smoother as we approach their close. +Rome, so long dark and gloomy to our view, brightens at length like a +landscape when the rain is past and the first rays of returning sunlight +stream through the parting clouds. Some days have elapsed, and in those +days the temples have yielded all their wealth; the conquered Romans +have bribed the triumphant barbarians to mercy; the ransom of the fallen +city has been paid. + +The Gothic army is still encamped round the walls, but the gates are +opened, markets for food are established in the suburbs, boats appear on +the river and waggons on the highroads, laden with provisions, and +proceeding towards Rome. All the hidden treasure kept back by the +citizens is now bartered for food; the merchants who hold the market +reap a rich harvest of spoil, but the hungry are filled, the weak are +revived, every one is content. + +It is the end of the second day since the free sale of provisions and +the liberty of egress from the city have been permitted by the Goths. +The gates are closed for the night, and the people are quietly +returning, laden with their supplies of food, to their homes. Their +eyes no longer encounter the terrible traces of the march of pestilence +and famine through every street; the corpses have been removed, and the +sick are watched and sheltered. Rome is cleansed from her pollutions, +and the virtues of household life begin to revive wherever they once +existed. Death has thinned every family, but the survivors again +assemble together in the social hall. Even the veriest criminals, the +lowest outcasts of the population, are united harmlessly for a while in +the general participation of the first benefits of peace. + + +To follow the citizens to their homes; to trace in their thoughts, +words, and action the effect on them of their deliverance from the +horrors of the blockade; to contemplate in the people of a whole city, +now recovering as it were from a deep swoon, the varying forms of the +first reviving symptoms in all classes, in good and bad, rich and poor-- +would afford matter enough in itself for a romance of searching human +interest, for a drama of the passions, moving absorbingly through +strange, intricate, and contrasted scenes. But another employment than +this now claims our care. It is to an individual, and not to a divided +source of interest, that our attention turns; we relinquish all +observations on the general mass of the populace to revert to Numerian +and Antonina alone--to penetrate once more into the little dwelling on +the Pincian Hill. + +The apartment where the father and daughter had suffered the pangs of +famine together during the period of the blockade, presented an +appearance far different from that which it had displayed on the +occasion when they had last occupied it. The formerly bare walls were +now covered with rich, thick hangings; and the simple couch and scanty +table of other days had been exchanged for whatever was most luxurious +and complete in the household furniture of the age. At one end of the +room three women, attended by a little girl, were engaged in preparing +some dishes of fruit and vegetables; at the other, two men were occupied +in low, earnest conversation, occasionally looking round anxiously to a +couch placed against the third side of the apartment, on which Antonina +lay extended, while Numerian watched by her in silence. The point of +Goisvintha's knife had struck deep, but, as yet, the fatal purpose of +the assassination had failed. + +The girl's eyes were closed; her lips were parted in the languor of +suffering; one of her hands lay listless on her father's knee. A slight +expression of pain, melancholy in its very slightness, appeared on her +pale face, and occasionally a long-drawn, quivering breath escaped her-- +nature's last touching utterance of its own feebleness! The old man, as +he sat by her side, fixed on her a wistful, inquiring glance. Sometimes +he raised his hand, and gently and mechanically moved to and fro the +long locks of her hair, as they spread over the head of the couch; but +he never turned to communicate with the other persons in the room--he +sat as if he saw nothing save his daughter's figure stretched before +him, and heard nothing save the faint, fluttering sound of her +breathing, close at his ear. + +It was now dark, and one lamp hanging from the ceiling threw a soft +equal light over the room. The different persons occupying it presented +but little evidence of health and strength in their countenances, to +contrast them in appearance with the wounded girl; all had undergone the +wasting visitation of the famine, and all were pale and languid, like +her. A strange, indescribable harmony prevailed over the scene. Even +the calmness of absorbing expectation and trembling hope, expressed in +the demeanour of Numerian, seemed reflected in the actions of those +around him, in the quietness with which the women pursued their +employment, in the lower and lower whispers in which the men continued +their conversation. There was something pervading the air of the whole +apartment that conveyed a sense of the solemn, unworldly stillness which +we attach to the abstract idea of religion. + +Of the two men cautiously talking together, one was the patrician, +Vetranio; the other, a celebrated physician of Rome. + +Both the countenance and manner of the senator gave melancholy proof +that the orgie at his palace had altered him for the rest of his life. +He looked what he was, a man changed for ever in constitution and +character. A fixed expression of anxiety and gloom appeared in his +eyes; his emaciated face was occasionally distorted by a nervous, +involuntary contraction of the muscles; it was evident that the +paralysing effect of the debauch which had destroyed his companions +would remain with him to the end of his existence. No remnant of his +careless self-possession, his easy, patrician affability, appeared in +his manner, as he now listened to his companion's conversation; years +seemed to have been added to his life since he had headed the table at +'The Banquet of Famine'. + + +'Yes,' said the physician, a cold, calm man, who spoke much, but +pronounced all his words with emphatic deliberation,--'Yes, as I have +already told you, the wound in itself was not mortal. If the blade of +the knife had entered near the centre of the neck, she must have died +when she was struck. But it passed outwards and backwards; the large +vessels escaped, and no vital part has been touched.' + +'And yet you persist in declaring that you doubt her recovery!' +exclaimed Vetranio, in low, mournful tones. + +'I do,' pursued the physician. 'She must have been exhausted in mind +and body when she received the blow--I have watched her carefully; I +know it! There is nothing of the natural health and strength of youth +to oppose the effects of the wound. I have seen the old die from +injuries that the young recover, because life in them was losing its +powers of resistance; she is in the position of the old!' + +'They have died before me, and she will die before me! I shall lose +all--all!' sighed Vetranio bitterly to himself. + +'The resources of our art are exhausted,' continued the other; 'nothing +remains but to watch carefully and wait patiently. The chances of life +or death will be decided in a few hours; they are equally balanced now.' + +'I shall lose all!--all!' repeated the senator mournfully, as if he +heeded not the last words. + +'If she dies,' said the physician, speaking in warmer tones, for he was +struck with pity, in spite of himself, at the spectacle of Vetranio's +utter dejection, 'if she dies, you can at least remember that all that +could be done to secure her life has been done by you. Her father, +helpless in his lethargy and his age, was fitted only to sit and watch +her, as he has sat and watched her day after day; but you have spared +nothing, forgotten nothing. Whatever I have asked for, that you have +provided; the hangings round the room, and the couch that she lies on, +are yours; the first fresh supplies of nourishment from the newly-opened +markets were brought here from you; I told you that she was thinking +incessantly of what she had suffered, that it was necessary to preserve +her against her own recollections, that the presence of women about her +might do good, that a child appearing sometimes in the room might soothe +her fancy, might make her look at what was passing, instead of thinking +of what had passed--you found them, and sent them! I have seen parents +less anxious for their children, lovers for their mistresses, than you +for this girl.' + +'My destiny is with her,' interrupted Vetranio, looking round +superstitiously to the frail form on the couch. 'I know nothing of the +mysteries that the Christians call their "Faith", but I believe now in +the soul; I believe that one soul contains the fate of another, and that +her soul contains the fate of mine!' + +The physician shook his head derisively. His calling had determined his +philosophy--he was as ardent a materialist as Epicurus himself. + +'Listen,' said Vetranio; 'since I first saw her, a change came over my +whole being; it was as if her life was mingled with mine! I had no +influence over her, save an influence for ill: I loved her, and she was +driven defenceless from her home! I sent my slaves to search Rome night +and day; I exerted all my power, I lavished my wealth to discover her; +and, for the first time in this one effort, I failed in what I had +undertaken. I felt that through me she was lost--dead! Days passed on; +life weighed weary on me; the famine came. You know in what way I +determined that my career should close; the rumour of the Banquet of +Famine reached you as it reached others!' + +'It did,' replied the physician. 'And I see before me in your face,' he +added, after a momentary pause, 'the havoc which that ill-omened banquet +has worked. My friend, be advised!--abandon for ever the turmoil of +your Roman palace, and breathe in tranquillity the air of a country +home. The strength you once had is gone never to return--if you would +yet live, husband what is still left.' + + +'Hear me,' pursued Vetranio, in low, gloomy tones. 'I stood alone in my +doomed palace; the friends whom I had tempted to their destruction lay +lifeless around me; the torch was in my hand that was to light our +funeral pile, to set us free from the loathsome world! I approached +triumphantly to kindle the annihilating flames, when she stood before +me--she, whom I had sought as lost and mourned as dead! A strong hand +seemed to wrench the torch from me; it dropped to the ground! She +departed again; but I was powerless to take it up; her look was still +before me; her face, her figure, she herself, appeared ever watching +between the torch and me!' + +'Lower!--speak lower!' interrupted the physician, looking on the +senator's agitated features with unconcealed astonishment and pity. +'You retard your own recovery,--you disturb the girl's repose by +discourse such as this.' + +'The officers of the senate,' continued Vetranio, sadly resuming his +gentler tones, 'when they entered the palace, found me still standing on +the place where we had met! Days passed on again; I stood looking out +upon the street, and thought of my companions whom I had lured to their +death, and of my oath to partake their fate, which I had never +fulfilled. I would have driven my dagger to my heart; but her face was +yet before me, my hands were bound! In that hour I saw her for the +second time; saw her carried past me--wounded, assassinated! She had +saved me once; she had saved me twice! I knew that now the chance was +offered me, after having wrought her ill, to work her good; after +failing to discover her when she was lost, to succeed in saving her when +she was dying; after having survived the deaths of my friends at my own +table, to survive to see life restored under my influence, as well as +destroyed! These were my thoughts; these are my thoughts still-- +thoughts felt only since I saw her! Do you know now why I believe that +her soul contains the fate of mine? Do you see me, weakened, shattered, +old before my time; my friends lost, my fresh feelings of youth gone for +ever; and can you not now comprehend that her life is my life?--that if +she dies, the one good purpose of my existence is blighted?--that I lose +all I have henceforth to live for?--all, all!' + +As he pronounced the concluding words, the girl's eyes half unclosed, +and turned languidly towards her father. She made an effort to lift her +hand caressingly from his knee to his neck; but her strength was unequal +even to this slight action. The hand was raised only a few inches ere +it sank back again to its old position; a tear rolled slowly over her +cheek as she closed her eyes again, but she never spoke. + +'See,' said the physician, pointing to her, 'the current of life is at +its lowest ebb! If it flows again, it must flow to-night.' + +Vetranio made no answer; he dropped down on the seat near him, and +covered his face with his robe. + +The physician, beholding the senator's situation, and reflecting on the +strange hurriedly-uttered confession which had just been addressed to +him, began to doubt whether the scenes through which his patron had +lately passed had not affected his brain. Philosopher though he was, +the man of science had never observed the outward symptoms of the first +working of good and pure influences in elevating a degraded mind; he had +never watched the denoting signs of speech and action which mark the +progress of mental revolution while the old nature is changing for the +new; such objects of contemplation existed not for him. He gently +touched Vetranio on the shoulder. 'Rise,' said he, 'and let us depart. +Those are around her who can watch her best. Nothing remains for us but +to wait and hope. With the earliest morning we will return.' + +He delivered a few farewell directions to one of the women in +attendance, and then, accompanied by the senator, who, without speaking +again, mechanically rose to follow him, quitted the room. After this, +the silence was only interrupted by the sound of an occasional whisper, +and of quick, light footsteps passing backwards and forwards. Then the +cooling, reviving draughts which had been prepared for the night were +poured ready into the cups; and the women approached Numerian, as if to +address him, but he waved his hand impatiently when he saw them; and +then they too, in their turn, departed, to wait in an adjoining +apartment until they should be summoned again. + + +Nothing changed in the manner of the father when he was left alone in +the chamber of sickness, which the lapse of a few hours might convert +into the chamber of death. He sat watching Antonina, and touching the +outspread locks of her hair from time to time, as had been his wont. It +was a fair, starry night; the fresh air of the soft winter climate of +the South blew gently over the earth, the great city was sinking fast +into tranquillity, calling voices were sometimes heard faintly from the +principal streets, and the distant noises of martial music sounded +cheerily from the Gothic camp as the sentinels were posted along the +line of watch; but soon these noises ceased, and the stillness of Rome +was as the stillness round the couch of the wounded girl. + +Day after day, and night after night, since the assassination in the +temple, Numerian had kept the same place by his daughter's side. Each +hour as it passed found him still absorbed in his long vigil of hope; +his life seemed suspended in its onward course by the one influence that +now enthralled it. At the brief intervals when his bodily weariness +overpowered him on his melancholy watch, it was observed by those around +him that, even in his short dreaming clumbers, his face remained ever +turned in the same direction, towards the head of the couch, as if drawn +thither by some irresistible attraction, by some powerful ascendancy, +felt even amid the deepest repose of sensation, the heaviest fatigue of +the overlaboured mind, and worn, sinking heart. He held no +communication, save by signs, with the friends about him; he seemed +neither to hope, to doubt, nor to despair with them; all his faculties +were strung up to vibrate at one point only, and were dull and +unimpressible in every other direction. + +But twice had he been heard to speak more than the fewest, simplest +words. The first time, when Antonina uttered the name of Goisvintha, on +the recovery of her senses after her wound, he answered eagerly by +reiterated declarations that there was nothing henceforth to fear; for +he had seen the assassin dead under the Pagan's foot on leaving the +temple. The second time, when mention was incautiously made before him +of rumours circulated through Rome of the burning of an unknown Pagan +priest, hidden in the temple of Serapis, with vast treasures around him, +the old man was seen to start and shudder, and heard to pray for the +soul that was now waiting before the dread judgment-seat; to murmur +about a vain restoration and a discovery made too late; to mourn over +horror that thickened round him, over hope fruitlessly awakened, and +bereavement more terrible than mortal had ever suffered before; to +entreat that the child, the last left of all, might be spared--with many +words more, which ran on themes like these, and which were counted by +all who listened to them but as the wanderings of a mind whose higher +powers were fatally prostrated by feebleness and grief. + +One long hour of the night had already passed away since parent and +child had been left together, and neither word nor movement had been +audible in the melancholy room. But, as the second hour began, the +girl's eyes unclosed again, and she moved painfully on the couch. +Accustomed to interpret the significance of her slightest actions, +Numerian rose and brought her one of the reviving draughts that had been +left ready for use. After she had drunk, when her eyes met her father's +fixed on her in mute and mournful inquiry, her lips closed, and formed +themselves into an expression which he remembered they had always +assumed when, as a little child, she used silently to hold up her face +to him to be kissed. The miserable contrast between what she was now +and what she had been them, was beyond the passive endurance, the +patient resignation of the spirit-broken old man; the empty cup dropped +from his hands, he knelt down by the side of the couch and groaned +aloud. + +'O father! father!' cried the weak, plaintive voice above him. 'I am +dying! Let us remember that our time to be together here grows shorter +and shorter, and let us pass it as happily as we can!' + +He raised his head, and looked up at her, vacant and wistful, forlorn +already, as if the death-parting was over. + + +'I have tried to live humbly and gratefully,' she sighed faintly. 'I +have longed to do more good on the earth than I have done! Yet you will +forgive me now, father, as you have always forgiven me! You have been +patient with me all my life; more patient than I have ever deserved! +But I had no mother to teach me to love you as I ought, to teach me what +I know now, when my death is near, and time and opportunity are mine no +longer!' + +'Hush! hush!' whispered the old man affrightedly; 'you will live! God +is good, and knows that we have suffered enough. The curse of the last +separation is not pronounced against us! Live, live!' + +'Father,' said the girl tenderly, 'we have that within us which not +death itself can separate. In another world I shall still think of you +when you think of me! I shall see you even when I am no more here, when +you long to see me! When you got out alone, and sit under the trees on +the garden bank where I used to sit; when you look forth on the far +plains and mountains that I used to look on; when you read at night in +the Bible that we have read in together, and remember Antonina as you +lie down sorrowful to rest; then I shall see you! then you will feel +that I am looking on you! You will be calm and consoled, even by the +side of my grave; for you will think, not of the body that is beneath, +but of the spirit that is waiting for you, as I have often waited for +you here when you were away, and I knew that the approach of the evening +would bring you home again!' + +'Hush! you will live!--you will live!' repeated Numerian in the same +low, vacant tones. The strength that still upheld him was in those few +simple words; they were the food of a hope that was born in agony and +cradled in despair. + +'Oh, if I might live!' said the girl softly, 'if I might live but for a +few days yet, how much I have to live for!' She endeavoured to bend her +head towards her father as she spoke; for the words were beginning to +fall faintly and more faintly from her lips--exhaustion was mastering +her once again. She dwelt for a moment now on the name of Hermanric, on +the grave in the farm-house garden; then reverted again to her father. +The last feeble sounds she uttered were addressed to him; and their +burden was still of consolation and of love. + +Soon the old man, as he stooped over her, saw her eyes close again-- +those innocent, gentle eyes which even yet preserved their old +expression while the face grew wan and pale around them--and darkness +and night sank down over his soul while he looked. 'She sleeps,' he +murmured in a voice of awe, as he resumed his watching position by the +side of the couch. 'They call death a sleep; but on her face there is +no death!' + +The night grew on. The women who were in attendance entered the room +about midnight, wondering that their assistance had not yet been +required. They beheld the solemn, unruffled composure on the girl's +wasted face; the rapt attention of Numerian, as he ever preserved the +same attitude by her side; and went out again softly without uttering a +word, even in a whisper. There was something dread and impressive in +the very appearance of this room, where Death, that destroys, was in +mortal conflict with Youth and Beauty, that adorn, while the eyes of one +old man watched in loneliness the awful progress of the strife. + +Morning came, and still there was no change. Once, when the lamp that +lit the room was fading out as the dawn appeared, Numerian had risen and +looked close on his daughter's face--he thought at that moment that her +features moved; but he saw that the flickering of the dying light on +them had deceived him; the same stillness was over her. He placed his +ear close to her lips for an instant, and then resumed his place, not +stirring from it again. The slow current of his blood seemed to have +come to a pause--he was waiting as a man waits with his head on the +block ere the axe descends--as a mother waits to hear that the breath of +life has entered her new-born child. + + +The sun rose bright in a cloudless sky. As the fresh, sharp air of the +early dawn warmed under its spreading rays, the women entered the +apartment again, and partly drew aside the curtain and shutter from the +window. The beams of the new light fell fair and glorifying on the +girl's face; the faint, calm breezed ruffled the lighter locks of her +hair. Once this would have awakened her; but it did not disturb her +now. + +Soon after the voice of the child who sojourned with the women in the +house was heard beneath, in the hall, through the half-opened door of +the room. The little creature was slowly ascending the stairs, singing +her faltering morning song to herself. She was preceded on her approach +by a tame dove, bought at the provision market outside the walls, but +preserved for the child as a pet and plaything by its mother. The bird +fluttered, cooing, into the room, perched upon the head of the couch, +and began dressing its feathers there. The women had caught the +infection of the old man's enthralling suspense; and moved not to bid +the child retire, or to take away the dove from its place--they watched +like him. But the soft, lulling notes of the bird were powerless over +the girl's ear, as the light sunbeam over her face--still she never +woke. + +The child entered, and pausing in her song, climbed on to the side of +the couch. She held out one little hand for the dove to perch upon, +placed the other lightly on Antonina's shoulder, and pressed her fresh, +rosy lips to girl's faded cheek. 'I and my bird have come to make +Antonina well this morning,' she said gravely. + +The still, heavily-closed eyelids moved!--they quivered, opened, closed, +then opened again. The eyes had a faint, dreaming, unconscious look; +but Antonina lived! Antonina was awakened at last to another day on +earth! + +Her father's rigid, straining gaze still remained fixed upon her as at +first, but on his countenance there was a blank, an absence of all +appearance of sensation and life. The women, as they looked on Antonina +and looked on him, began to weep; the child resumed very softly its +morning song, now addressing it to the wounded girl and now to the dove. + +At this moment Vetranio and the physician appeared on the scene. The +latter advanced to the couch, removed the child from it, and examined +Antonina intently. At length, partly addressing Numerian, partly +speaking to himself, he said: 'She has slept long, deeply, without +moving, almost without breathing--a sleep like death to all who looked +on it.' + +The old man spoke not in reply, but the women answered eagerly in the +affirmative. + +'She is saved,' pursued the physician, leisurely quitting the side of +the couch and smiling on Vetranio; 'be careful of her for days and days +to come.' + +'Saved! saved!' echoed the child joyfully, setting the dove free in the +room, and running to Numerian to climb on his knees. The father glanced +down when the clear young voice sounded in his ear. The springs of joy, +so long dried up in his heart, welled forth again as he saw the little +hands raised towards him entreatingly; his grey head drooped--he wept. + +At a sign from the physician the child was led from the room. The +silence of deep and solemn emotion was preserved by all who remained; +nothing was heard but the suppressed sobs of the old man, and the faint, +retiring notes of the infant voice still singing its morning song. And +now one word, joyfully reiterated again and again, made all the burden +of the music-- + +'SAVED! SAVED!' + + +THE CONCLUSION. 'UBI THESAURUS IBI COR.' + + +Shortly after the opening of the provision markets outside the gates of +Rome, the Goths broke up their camp before the city and retired to +winter quarters in Tuscany. The negotiations which ensued between +Alaric and the Court and Government at Ravenna, were conducted with +cunning moderation by the conqueror, and with infatuated audacity by the +conquered, and ultimately terminated in a resumption of hostilities. +Rome was besiege and second and a third time by 'the barbarians'. On +the latter occasion the city was sacked, its palaces were burnt, its +treasures were seized; the monuments of the Christian religion were +alone respected. + +But it is no longer with the Goths that our narrative is concerned; the +connection with them which it has hitherto maintained closes with the +end of the first siege of Rome. We can claim the reader's attention for +historical events no more--the march of our little pageant, arrayed for +his pleasure, is over. If, however, he has felt, and still retains, +some interest in Antonina, he will not refuse to follow us, and look on +her again ere we part. + +More than a month had passed since the besieging army had retired to +their winter quarters, when several of the citizens of Rome assembled +themselves on the plains beyond the walls, to enjoy one of those rustic +festivals of ancient times, which are still celebrated, under different +usages, but with the same spirit, by the Italians of modern days. + +The place was a level plot of ground beyond the Pincian Gate, backed by +a thick grove of pine trees, and looking towards the north over the +smooth extent of the country round Rome. The persons congregated were +mostly of the lower class. Their amusements were dancing, music, games +of strength and games of chance; and, above all, to people who had +lately suffered the extremities of famine, abundant eating and +drinking--long, serious, ecstatic enjoyment of the powers of mastication +and the faculties of taste. + +Among the assembly were some individuals whose dress and manner raised +them, outwardly at least, above the general mass. These persons walked +backwards and forwards together on different parts of the ground as +observers, not as partakers in the sports. One of their number, +however, in whatever direction he turned, preserved an isolated +position. He held an open letter in his hand, which he looked at from +time to time, and appeared to be wholly absorbed in his own thoughts. +This man we may advantageously particularise on his own account, as well +as on account of the peculiarity of his accidental situation; for he was +the favoured minister of Vetranio's former pleasures--'the industrious +Carrio'. + +The freedman (who was last introduced to the reader in Chapter XIV., as +exhibiting to Vetranio the store of offal which he had collected during +the famine for the consumption of the palace) had contrived of late +greatly to increase his master's confidence in him. On the organisation +of the Banquet of Famine, he had discreetly refrained from testifying +the smallest desire to save himself from the catastrophe in which the +senator and his friends had determined to involve themselves. Securing +himself in a place of safety, he awaited the end of the orgie; and when +he found that its unexpected termination left his master still living to +employ him, appeared again as a faithful servant, ready to resume his +customary occupation with undiminished zeal. + +After the dispersion of his household during the famine, and amid the +general confusion of the social system in Rome, on the raising of the +blockade, Vetranio found no one near him that he could trust but +Carrio--and he trusted him. Nor was the confidence misplaced: the man +was selfish and sordid enough; but these very qualities ensured his +fidelity to his master as long as that master retained the power to +punish and the capacity to reward. + + +The letter which Carrio held in his hand was addressed to him at a +villa--from which he had just returned--belonging to Vetranio, on the +shores of the Bay of Naples, and was written by the senator from Rome. +The introductory portions of this communication seemed to interest the +freedman but little: they contained praised of his diligence in +preparing the country-house for the immediate habitation of its owner, +and expressed his master's anxiety to quit Rome as speedily as possible, +for the sake of living in perfect tranquillity, and breathing the +reviving air of the sea, as the physicians had counselled. It was the +latter part of the letter that Carrio perused and re-perused, and then +meditated over with unwonted attention and labour of mind. It ran +thus:-- + +'I have now to repose in you a trust, which you will execute with +perfect fidelity as you value my favour or respect the wealth from which +you may obtain your reward. When you left Rome you left the daughter of +Numerian lying in danger of death: she has since revived. Questions +that I have addressed to her during her recovery have informed me of +much in her history that I knew not before; and have induced me to +purchase, for reasons of my own, a farm-house and its lands, beyond the +suburbs. (The extent of the place and its situation are written on the +vellum that is within this.) The husbandman who cultivated the property +had survived the famine, and will continue to cultivate it for me. But +it is my desire that the garden, and all that it contains, shall remain +entirely at the disposal of Numerian and his daughter, who may often +repair to it; and who must henceforth be regarded there as occupying my +place and having my authority. You will divide your time between +overlooking the few slaves whom I leave at the palace in my absence, and +the husbandman and his labourers whom I have installed at the farm; and +you will answer to me for the due performance of your own duties and the +duties of those under you--being assured that by well filling this +office you will serve your own interests in these, and in all things +besides.' + +The letter concluded by directing the freedman to return to Rome on a +certain day, and to go to the farm-house at an appointed hour, there to +meet his master, who had further directions to give him, and who would +visit the newly acquired property before he proceeded on his journey to +Naples. + +Nothing could exceed the perplexity of Carrio as he read the passage in +his patron's letter which we have quoted above. Remembering the +incidents attending Vetranio's early connection with Antonina and her +father, the mere circumstances of a farm having been purchased to +flatter what was doubtless some accidental caprice on the part of the +girl, would have little perplexed him. But that this act should be +followed by the senator's immediate separation of himself from the +society of Numerian's daughter; that she was to gain nothing after all +from these lands which had evidently been bought at her instigation, but +the authority over a little strip of garden; and yet, the inviolability +of this valueless privilege should be insisted on in such serious terms, +and with such an imperative tone of command as the senator had never +been known to use before--these were inconsistencies which all Carrio's +ingenuity failed to reconcile. The man had been born and reared in +vice; vice had fed him, clothed him, freed him, given him character, +reputation, power in his own small way--he lived in it as in the +atmosphere that he breathed; to show him an action, referable only to a +principle of pure integrity, was to set him a problem which it was +hopeless to solve. And yet it is impossible, in one point of view, to +pronounce him utterly worthless. Ignorant of all distinctions between +good and bad, he thought wrong from sheer inability to see right. + +However his instructions might perplex him, he followed them now--and +continued in after days to follow them--to the letter. If to serve +one's own interests be an art, of that art Carrio deserved to be head +professor. He arrived at the farm-house, not only punctually, but +before the appointed time, and calling the honest husbandman and the +labourers about him, explained to them every particular of the authority +that his patron had vested in him, with a flowing and peremptory +solemnity of speech which equally puzzled and impressed his simple +audience. He found Numerian and Antonina in the garden when he entered +it. The girl had been carried there daily in a litter since her +recovery, and her father had followed. They were never separated now; +the old man, when his first absorbing anxiety for her was calmed, +remembered again more distinctly the terrible disclosure in the temple, +and the yet more terrible catastrophe that followed it, and he sought +constant refuge from the horror of the recollection in the presence of +his child. + + +The freedman, during his interview with the father and daughter, +observed, for once, an involuntary and unfeigned respect; but he spoke +briefly, and left them together again almost immediately. Humble and +helpless as they were, they awed him; they looked, thought, and spoke +like beings of another nature than his; they were connected, he knew not +how, with the mystery of the grave in the garden. He would have been +self-possessed in the presence of the Emperor himself, but he was uneasy +in theirs. So he retired to the more congenial scene of the public +festival which was in the immediate neighbourhood of the farm-house, to +await the hour of his patron's arrival, and to perplex himself afresh by +a re-perusal of Vetranio's letter. + +The time was now near at hand when it was necessary for the freedman to +return to his appointed post. He carefully rolled up his note of +instructions, stood for a few minutes vacantly regarding the amusements +which had hitherto engaged so little of his attention, and then, +turning, he proceeded through the pine-grove on his way back. We will +follow him. + +On leaving the grove, a footpath conducted over some fields to the farm- +house. Arrived here, Carrio hesitated for a moment; then moved slowly +onward to await his master's approach in the lane that led to the +highroad. At this point we will part company with him, to enter the +garden by the wicket-gate. + +The trees, the flower-beds, and the patches of grass, all remained in +their former positions--nothing had been added or taken away since the +melancholy days that were past; but a change was visible in Hermanric's +grave. The turf above it had been renewed, and a border of small +evergreen shrubs was planted over the track which Goisvintha's footsteps +had traced. A white marble cross was raised at one end of the mound; +the short Latin inscription on it signified--'PRAY FOR THE DEAD'. + +The sunlight was shining calmly over the grave, and over Numerian and +Antonina as they sat by it. Sometimes when the mirth grew louder at the +rustic festival, it reached them in faint, subdued notes; sometimes they +heard the voices of the labourers in the neighbouring fields talking to +each other at their work; but, besides these, no other sounds were loud +enough to be distinguished. There was still and expression of the +melancholy and feebleness that grief and suffering leave behind them on +the countenances of the father and daughter; but resignation and peace +appeared there as well--resignation that was perfected by the hard +teaching of woe, and peach that was purer for being imparted from the +one to the other, like the strong and deathless love from which it grew. + +There was something now in the look and attitude of the girl, as she sat +thinking of the young warrior who had died in her defence and for her +love, and training the shrubs to grow closer round the grave, which, +changed though she was, recalled in a different form the old poetry and +tranquillity of her existence when we first saw her singing to the music +of her lute in the garden on the Pincian Hill. No thoughts of horror and +despair were suggested to her as she now looked on the farm-house scene. +Hers was not the grief which shrinks selfishly from all that revives the +remembrance of the dead: to her, their influence over the memory was a +grateful and a guardian influence that gave a better purpose to the +holiest life, and a nobler nature to the purest thoughts. + +Thus they were sitting by the grave, sad yet content; footsore already +on the pilgrimage of life, yet patient to journey farther if they +might--when an unusual tumult, a noise of rolling wheels, mingled with a +confused sound of voices, was heard in the lane behind them. They +looked round, and saw that Vetranio was approaching them alone through +the wicket-gate. + +He came forward slowly; the stealthy poison instilled by the Banquet of +Famine palpably displayed its presence within him as the clear sunlight +fell on his pale, wasted face. He smiled kindly as he addressed +Antonina; but the bodily pain and mental agitation which that smile was +intended to conceal, betrayed themselves in his troubled voice as he +spoke. + + +'This is our last meeting for years--it may be our last meeting for +life,' he said; 'I linger at the outset of my journey, but to behold you +as guardian of the one spot of ground that is most precious to you on +earth--as mistress, indeed, of the little that I give you here!' He +paused a moment and pointed to the grave, then continued: 'All the +atonement that I owe to you, you can never know--I can never tell!-- +think only that I bear away with me a companion in the solitude to which +I go in the remembrance of you. Be calm, good, happy still, for my +sake, and while you forgive the senator of former days, forget not the +friend who now parts from you in some sickness and sorrow, but also in +much patience and hope! Farewell!' + +His hand trembled as he held it out; a flush overspread the girl's cheek +while she murmured a few inarticulate words of gratitude, and, bending +over it, pressed it to her lips. Vetranio's heart beat quick; the +action revived an emotion that he dared not cherish; but he looked at +the wan, downcast face before him, at the grave that rose mournful by +his side, and quelled it again. Yet an instant he lingered to exchange +a farewell with the old man, then turned quickly, passed through the +gate, and they saw him no more. + +Antonina's tears fell fast on the grass beneath as she resumed her +place. When she raised her head again, and saw that her father was +looking at her, she nestled close to him and laid one of her arms round +his neck: the other gradually dropped to her side, until her hand +reached the topmost leaves of the shrubs that grew round the grave. + +***** + +Shall we longer delay in the farm-house garden? No! For us, as for +Vetranio, it is now time to depart! While peace still watches round the +walls of Rome; while the hearts of the father and daughter still repose +together in security, after the trials that have wrung them, let us quit +the scene! Here, at last, the narrative that we have followed over a +dark and stormy track reposes on a tranquil field; and here let us cease +to pursue it! + +So the traveller who traces the course of a river wanders through the +day among the rocks and precipices that lead onward from its troubled +source; and, when the evening is at hand, pauses and rests where the +banks are grassy and the stream is smooth. + + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins + diff --git a/old/ntnna10.zip b/old/ntnna10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce133cf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ntnna10.zip diff --git a/old/ntnna11.txt b/old/ntnna11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..807ab36 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ntnna11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17176 @@ +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins*** +#24 in our series by Wilkie Collins + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words +are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they +need about what they can legally do with the texts. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below, including for donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: Antonina + +Author: Wilkie Collins + +Release Date: February 26, 2007 [EBook #3606] +[File was first posted in etext03 as ntnna10.txt in January, 2003] +[The actual date this file first posted = 06/12/01] + +Edition: 11 + +Language: English + +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins*** +******This file should be named ntnna11.txt or ntnna11.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ntnna12.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ntnna10a.txt + +This etext was produced by +Bronwyn Margaret Evans <bronwyn.evans@student.adelaide.edu.au> + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after +the official publication date. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +http://gutenberg.net +http://promo.net/pg + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 +or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of June 1, 2001 contributions are only being solicited from people +in: +Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, +Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, +New +Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, +Texas, Vermont, Washington West Virginia and Wyoming. + +We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising +will begin in the additional states. Please feel +free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork +to legally request donations in all 50 states. If +your state is not listed and you would like to know +if we have added it since the list you have, just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in +states where we are not yet registered, we know +of no prohibition against accepting donations +from donors in these states who approach us with +an offer to donate. + + +International donations are accepted, +but we don't know ANYTHING about how +to make them tax-deductible, or +even if they CAN be made deductible, +and don't have the staff to handle it +even if there are ways. + +All donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541, +and has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal +Revenue Service (IRS). Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum +extent permitted by law. As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the +additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +*** + + +Example command-line FTP session: + +ftp ftp.ibiblio.org +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States +copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by +Bronwyn Margaret Evans <bronwyn.evans@student.adelaide.edu.au> + + + + + +ANTONINA +OR, THE FALL OF ROME + +by WILKIE COLLINS + + + + +PREFACE + +In preparing to compose a fiction founded on history, the writer of +these pages thought it no necessary requisite of such a work that the +principal characters appearing in it should be drawn from the historical +personages of the period. On the contrary, he felt that some very +weighty objections attached to this plan of composition. He knew well +that it obliged a writer to add largely from invention to what was +actually known--to fill in with the colouring of romantic fancy the bare +outline of historic fact--and thus to place the novelist's fiction in +what he could not but consider most unfavourable contrast to the +historian's truth. He was further by no means convinced that any story +in which historical characters supplied the main agents, could be +preserved in its fit unity of design and restrained within its due +limits of development, without some falsification or confusion of +historical dates--a species of poetical licence of which he felt no +disposition to avail himself, as it was his main anxiety to make his +plot invariably arise and proceed out of the great events of the era +exactly in the order in which they occurred. + +Influenced, therefore, by these considerations, he thought that by +forming all his principal characters from imagination, he should be able +to mould them as he pleased to the main necessities of the story; to +display them, without any impropriety, as influenced in whatever manner +appeared most strikingly interesting by its minor incidents; and +further, to make them, on all occasions, without trammel or hindrance, +the practical exponents of the spirit of the age, of all the various +historical illustrations of the period, which the Author's researches +among conflicting but equally important authorities had enabled him to +garner up, while, at the same time, the appearance of verisimilitude +necessary to an historical romance might, he imagined, be successfully +preserved by the occasional introduction of the living characters of the +era, in those portions of the plot comprising events with which they had +been remarkably connected. + +On this plan the recent work has been produced. + + +To the fictitious characters alone is committed the task of representing +the spirit of the age. The Roman emperor, Honorius, and the Gothic king, +Alaric, mix but little personally in the business of the story--only +appearing in such events, and acting under such circumstances, as the +records of history strictly authorise; but exact truth in respect to +time, place, and circumstance is observed in every historical event +introduced in the plot, from the period of the march of the Gothic +invaders over the Alps to the close of the first barbarian blockade of +Rome. + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER 1. GOISVINTHA. + +CHAPTER 2. THE COURT. + +CHAPTER 3. ROME. + +CHAPTER 4. THE CHURCH. + +CHAPTER 5. ANTONINA. + +CHAPTER 6. AN APPRENTICESHIP TO THE TEMPLE. + +CHAPTER 7. THE BED-CHAMBER. + +CHAPTER 8. THE GOTHS. + +CHAPTER 9. THE TWO INTERVIEWS. + +CHAPTER 10. THE RIFT IN THE WALL. + +CHAPTER 11. GOISVINTHA'S RETURN. + +CHAPTER 12. THE PASSAGE OF THE WALL. + +CHAPTER 13. THE HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS. + +CHAPTER 14. THE FAMINE. + +CHAPTER 15. THE CITY AND THE GODS. + +CHAPTER 16. LOVE MEETINGS. + +CHAPTER 17. THE HUNS. + +CHAPTER 18. THE FARM-HOUSE. + +CHAPTER 19. THE GUARDIAN RESTORED. + +CHAPTER 20. THE BREACH REPASSED. + +CHAPTER 21. FATHER AND CHILD. + +CHAPTER 22. THE BANQUET OF FAMINE. + +CHAPTER 23. THE LAST EFFORTS OF THE BESIEGED. + +CHAPTER 24. THE GRAVE AND THE CAMP. + +CHAPTER 25. THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH. + +CHAPTER 26. RETRIBUTION. + +CHAPTER 27. THE VIGIL OF HOPE. + +THE CONCLUSION. 'UBI THESAURUS IBI COR.' + + + +CHAPTER 1. GOISVINTHA. + +The mountains forming the range of Alps which border on the north- +eastern confines of Italy, were, in the autumn of the year 408, already +furrowed in numerous directions by the tracks of the invading forces of +those northern nations generally comprised under the appellation of +Goths. + +In some places these tracks were denoted on either side by fallen trees, +and occasionally assumed, when half obliterated by the ravages of +storms, the appearance of desolate and irregular marshes. In other +places they were less palpable. Here, the temporary path was entirely +hidden by the incursions of a swollen torrent; there, it was faintly +perceptible in occasional patches of soft ground, or partly traceable by +fragments of abandoned armour, skeletons of horses and men, and remnants +of the rude bridges which had once served for passage across a river or +transit over a precipice. + +Among the rocks of the topmost of the range of mountains immediately +overhanging the plains of Italy, and presenting the last barrier to the +exertions of a traveller or the march of an invader, there lay, at the +beginning of the fifth century, a little lake. Bounded on three sides +by precipices, its narrow banks barren of verdure or habitations, and +its dark and stagnant waters brightened but rarely by the presence of +the lively sunlight, this solitary spot--at all times mournful-- +presented, on the autumn of the day when our story commences, an aspect +of desolation at once dismal to the eye and oppressive to the heart. + +It was near noon; but no sun appeared in the heaven. The dull clouds, +monotonous in colour and form, hid all beauty in the firmament, and shed +heavy darkness on the earth. Dense, stagnant vapours clung to the +mountain summits; from the drooping trees dead leaves and rotten +branches sunk, at intervals, on the oozy soil, or whirled over the +gloomy precipice; and a small steady rain fell, slow and unintermitting, +upon the deserts around. Standing upon the path which armies had once +trodden, and which armies were still destined to tread, and looking +towards the solitary lake, you heard, at first, no sound but the regular +dripping of the rain-drops from rock to rock; you saw no prospect but +the motionless waters at your feet, and the dusky crags which shadowed +them from above. When, however, impressed by the mysterious loneliness +of the place, the eye grew more penetrating and the ear more attentive, +a cavern became apparent in the precipices round the lake; and, in the +intervals of the heavy rain-drops, were faintly perceptible the sounds +of a human voice. + +The mouth of the cavern was partly concealed by a large stone, on which +were piled some masses of rotten brushwood, as if for the purpose of +protecting any inhabitant it might contain from the coldness of the +atmosphere without. Placed at the eastward boundary of the lake, this +strange place of refuge commanded a view not only of the rugged path +immediately below it, but of a large plot of level ground at a short +distance to the west, which overhung a second and lower range of rocks. +From this spot might be seen far beneath, on days when the atmosphere +was clear, the olive grounds that clothed the mountain's base, and +beyond, stretching away to the distant horizon, the plains of fated +Italy, whose destiny of defeat and shame was now hastening to its dark +and fearful accomplishment. + +The cavern, within, was low and irregular in form. From its rugged +walls the damp oozed forth upon its floor of decayed moss. Lizards and +noisome animals had tenanted its comfortless recesses undisturbed, until +the period we have just described, when their miserable rights were +infringed on for the first time by human intruders. + +A woman crouched near the entrance of the place. More within, on the +driest part of the ground, lay a child asleep. Between them were +scattered some withered branches and decayed leaves, which were arranged +as if to form a fire. In many parts this scanty collection of fuel was +slightly blackened; but, wetted as it was by the rain, all efforts to +light it permanently had evidently been fruitless. + +The woman's head was bent forwards, and her face, hid in her hands, +rested on her knees. At intervals she muttered to herself in a hoarse, +moaning voice. A portion of her scanty clothing had been removed to +cover the child. What remained on her was composed, partly of skins of +animals, partly of coarse cotton cloth. In many places this miserable +dress was marked with blood, and her long, flaxen hair bore upon its +dishevelled locks the same ominous and repulsive stain. + +The child seemed scarcely four years of age, and showed on his pale, +thin face all the peculiarities of his Gothic origin. His features +seemed to have been once beautiful, both in expression and form; but a +deep wound, extending the whole length of his cheek, had now deformed +him for ever. He shivered and trembled in his sleep, and every now and +then mechanically stretched forth his little arms towards the dead cold +branches that were scattered before him. + +Suddenly a large stone became detached from the rock in a distant part +of the cavern, and fell noisily to the ground. At this sound he woke +with a scream--raised himself--endeavoured to advance towards the woman, +and staggered backward against the side of the cave. A second wound in +the leg had wreaked that destruction on his vigour which the first had +effected on his beauty. He was a cripple. + +At the instant of his awakening the woman had started up. She now +raised him from the ground, and taking some herbs from her bosom, +applied them to his wounded cheek. By this action her dress became +discomposed: it was stiff at the top with coagulated blood, which had +evidently flowed from a cut in her neck. + +All her attempts to compose the child were in vain; he moaned and wept +piteously, muttering at intervals his disjointed exclamations of +impatience at the coldness of the place and the agony of his recent +wounds. Speechless and tearless the wretched woman looked vacantly down +on his face. There was little difficulty in discerning from that fixed, +distracted gaze the nature of the tie that bound the mourning woman to +the suffering boy. The expression of rigid and awful despair that +lowered in her fixed, gloomy eyes, the livid paleness that discoloured +her compressed lips, the spasms that shook her firm, commanding form, +mutely expressing in the divine eloquence of human emotion that between +the solitary pair there existed the most intimate of earth's +relationships--the connection of mother and child. + +For some time no change occurred in the woman's demeanour. At last, as +if struck by some sudden suspicion, she rose, and clasping the child in +one arm, displaced with the other the brushwood at the entrance of her +place of refuge, cautiously looking forth on all that the mists left +visible of the western landscape. After a short survey she drew back as +if reassured by the unbroken solitude of the place, and turning towards +the lake, looked down upon the black waters at her feet. + +'Night has succeeded to night,' she muttered gloomily, 'and has brought +no succour to my body, and no hope to my heart! Mile on mile have I +journeyed, and danger is still behind, and loneliness for ever before. +The shadow of death deepens over the boy; the burden of anguish grows +weightier than I can bear. For me, friends are murdered, defenders are +distant, possessions are lost. The God of the Christian priests has +abandoned us to danger and deserted us in woe. It is for me to end the +struggle for us both. Our last refuge has been in this place--our +sepulchre shall be here as well!' + +With one last look at the cold and comfortless sky, she advanced to the +very edge of the lake's precipitous bank. Already the child was raised +in her arms, and her body bent to accomplish successfully the fatal +spring, when a sound in the east--faint, distant, and fugitive--caught +her ear. In an instant her eye brightened, her chest heaved, her cheek +flushed. She exerted the last relics of her wasted strength to gain a +prominent position upon a ledge of the rocks behind her, and waited in +an agony of expectation for a repetition of that magic sound. + + +In a moment more she heard it again--for the child, stupefied with +terror at the action that had accompanied her determination to plunge +with him into the lake, now kept silence, and she could listen +undisturbed. To unpractised ears the sound that so entranced her would +have been scarcely audible. Even the experienced traveller would have +thought it nothing more than the echo of a fallen stone among the rocks +in the eastward distance. But to her it was no unimportant sound, for +it gave the welcome signal of deliverance and delight. + +As the hour wore on, it came nearer and nearer, tossed about by the +sportive echoes, and now clearly betraying that its origin was, as she +had at first divined, the note of the Gothic trumpet. Soon the distant +music ceased, and was succeeded by another sound, low and rumbling, as +of an earthquake afar off or a rising thunderstorm, and changing, ere +long, to a harsh confused noise, like the rustling of a mighty wind +through whole forests of brushwood. + +At this instant the woman lost all command over herself; her former +patience and caution deserted her; reckless of danger, she placed the +child upon the ledge on which she had been standing; and, though +trembling in every limb, succeeded in mounting so much higher on the +crag as to gain a fissure near the top of the rock, which commanded an +uninterrupted view of the vast tracts of uneven ground leading in an +easterly direction to the next range of precipices and ravines. + +One after another the long minutes glided on, and, though much was still +audible, nothing was yet to be seen. At length the shrill sound of the +trumpet again rang through the dull, misty air, and the next instant the +advance guard of an army of Goths emerged from the distant woods. + +Then, after an interval, the multitudes of the main body thronged +through every outlet in the trees, and spread in dusky masses over the +desert ground that lay between the woods and the rocks about the borders +of the lake. The front ranks halted, as if to communicate with the +crowds of the rearguard and the stragglers among the baggage waggons, +who still poured forth, apparently in interminable hosts, from the +concealment of the distant trees. The advanced troops, evidently with +the intention of examining the roads, still marched rapidly on, until +they gained the foot of the ascent leading to the crags to which the +woman still clung, and from which, with eager attention, she still +watched their movements. + +Placed in a situation of the extremest peril, her strength was her only +preservative against the danger of slipping from her high and narrow +elevation. Hitherto the moral excitement of expectation had given her +the physical power necessary to maintain her position; but just as the +leaders of the guard arrived at the cavern, her over-wrought energies +suddenly deserted her; her hands relaxed their grasp; she tottered, and +would have sunk backwards to instant destruction, had not the skins +wrapped about her bosom and waist become entangled with a point of one +of the jagged rocks immediately around her. Fortunately--for she could +utter no cry--the troops halted at this instant to enable their horses +to gain breath. Two among them at once perceived her position and +detected her nation. They mounted the rocks; and, while one possessed +himself of the child, the other succeeded in rescuing the mother and +bearing her safely to the ground. + +The snorting of horses, the clashing of weapons, the confusion of loud, +rough voices, which now startled the native silence of the solitary +lake, and which would have bewildered and overwhelmed most persons in +the woman's exhausted condition, seemed, on the contrary, to reassure +her feelings and reanimate her powers. She disengaged herself from her +preserver's support, and taking her child in her arms, advanced towards +a man of gigantic stature, whose rich armour sufficiently announced that +his position in the army was one of command. + +'I am Goisvintha,' said she, in a firm, calm voice--'sister to +Hermanric. I have escaped from the massacre of the hostages of Aquileia +with one child. Is my brother with the army of the king?' + +This declaration produced a marked change in the bystanders. The looks +of indifference or curiosity which they had at first cast on the +fugitive, changed to the liveliest expression of wonder and respect. +The chieftain whom she had addressed raised the visor of his helmet so +as to uncover his face, answered her question in the affirmative, and +ordered two soldiers to conduct her to the temporary encampment of the +main army in the rear. As she turned to depart, an old man advanced, +leaning on his long, heavy sword, and accosted her thus-- + +'I am Withimer, whose daughter was left hostage with the Romans in +Aquileia. Is she of the slain or of the escaped?' + +'Her bones rot under the city walls,' was the answer. 'The Romans made +of her a feast for the dogs.' + +No word or tear escaped the old warrior. He turned in the direction of +Italy; but, as he looked downwards towards the plains, his brow lowered, +and his hands tightened mechanically round the hilt of his enormous +weapon. + +The same gloomy question was propounded to Goisvintha by the two men who +guided her to the army that had been asked by their aged comrade. It +received the same terrible answer, which was borne with the same stern +composure, and followed by the same ominous glance in the direction of +Italy, as in the instance of the veteran Withimer. + +Leading the horse that carried the exhausted woman with the utmost care, +and yet with wonderful rapidity, down the paths which they had so +recently ascended, the men in a short space of time reached the place +where the army had halted, and displayed to Goisvintha, in all the +majesty of numbers and repose, the vast martial assemblage of the +warriors of the North. + +No brightness gleamed from their armour; no banners waved over their +heads; no music sounded among their ranks. Backed by the dreary woods, +which still disgorged unceasing additions to the warlike multitude +already encamped; surrounded by the desolate crags which showed dim, +wild, and majestic through the darkness of the mist; covered with the +dusky clouds which hovered motionless over the barren mountain tops, and +poured their stormy waters on the uncultivated plains--all that the +appearance of the Goths had of solemnity in itself was in awful harmony +with the cold and mournful aspect that the face of Nature had assumed. +Silent--menacing--dark,--the army looked the fit embodiment of its +leader's tremendous purpose--the subjugation of Rome. + +Conducting Goisvintha quickly through the front files of warriors, her +guides, pausing at a spot of ground which shelved upwards at right +angles with the main road from the woods, desired her to dismount; and +pointing to the group that occupied the place, said, 'Yonder is Alaric +the king, and with him is Hermanric thy brother.' + +At whatever point of view it could have been regarded, the assemblage of +persons thus indicated to Goisvintha must have arrested inattention +itself. Near a confused mass of weapons, scattered on the ground, +reclined a group of warriors apparently listening to the low, muttered +conversation of three men of great age, who rose above them, seated on +pieces of rock, and whose long white hair, rough skin dresses, and lean +tottering forms appeared in strong contrast with the iron-clad and +gigantic figures of their auditors beneath. Above the old men, on the +highroad, was one of Alaric's waggons; and on the heaps of baggage piled +against its clumsy wheels had been chosen resting-place of the future +conqueror of Rome. The top of the vehicle seemed absolutely teeming +with a living burden. Perched in every available nook and corner were +women and children of all ages, and weapons and live stock of all +varieties. Now, a child--lively, mischievous, inquisitive--peered forth +over the head of a battering-ram. Now, a lean, hungry sheep advanced his +inquiring nostrils sadly to the open air, and displayed by the movement +the head of a withered old woman pillowed on his woolly flanks. Here, +appeared a young girl struggling, half entombed in shields. There, +gasped an emaciated camp-follower, nearly suffocated in heaps of furs. +The whole scene, with its background of great woods, drenched in a +vapour of misty rain, with its striking contrasts at one point and its +solemn harmonies at another, presented a vast combination of objects +that either startled or awed--a gloomy conjunction of the menacing and +the sublime. + + +Bidding Goisvintha wait near the waggon, one of her conductors +approached and motioned aside a young man standing near the king. As +the warrior rose to obey the demand, he displayed, with all the physical +advantages of his race, and ease and elasticity of movement unusual +among the men of his nation. At the instant when he joined the soldier +who had accosted him, his face was partially concealed by an immense +helmet, crowned with a boar's head, the mouth of which, forced open at +death, gaped wide, as if still raging for prey. But the man had +scarcely stated his errand, when he started violently, removed the grim +appendage of war, and hastened bare-headed to the side of the waggon +where Goisvintha awaited his approach. + +The instant he was beheld by the woman, she hastened to meet him; placed +the wounded child in his arms, and greeted him with these words:-- + +'Your brother served in the armies of Rome when our people were at peace +with the Empire. Of his household and his possessions this is all that +the Romans have left!' + +She ceased, and for an instant the brother and sister regarded each +other in touching and expressive silence. Though, in addition to the +general characteristics of country, the countenances of the two +naturally bore the more particular evidences of community of blood, all +resemblance between them at this instant--so wonderful is the power of +expression over feature--had utterly vanished. The face and manner of +the young man (he had numbered only twenty years) expressed a deep +sorrow, manly in its stern tranquility, sincere in its perfect innocence +of display. As he looked on the child, his blue eyes--bright, piercing, +and lively--softened like a woman's; his lips, hardly hidden by his +short beard, closed and quivered; and his chest heaved under the armour +that lay upon its noble proportions. There was in this simple, +speechless, tearless melancholy--this exquisite consideration of +triumphant strength for suffering weakness--something almost sublime; +opposed as it was to the emotions of malignity and despair that appeared +in Goisvintha's features. The ferocity that gleamed from her dilated, +glaring eyes, the sinister markings that appeared round her pale and +parted lips, the swelling of the large veins, drawn to their extremest +point of tension on her lofty forehead, so distorted her countenance, +that the brother and sister, as they stood together, seemed in +expression to have changed sexes for the moment. From the warrior came +pity for the sufferer; from the mother, indignation for the offence. + +Arousing himself from his melancholy contemplation of the child, and as +yet answering not a word to Goisvintha, Hermanric mounted the waggon, +and placing the last of his sister's offspring in the arms of a decrepid +old woman, who sat brooding over some bundles of herbs spread out upon +her lap, addressed her thus:-- + +'These wounds are from the Romans. Revive the child, and you shall be +rewarded from the spoils of Rome.' + +'Ha! ha! ha!' chuckled the crone; 'Hermanric is an illustrious warrior, +and shall be obeyed. Hermanric is great, for his arm can slay; but +Brunechild is greater than he, for her cunning can cure!' + +As if anxious to verify this boast before the warrior's eyes, the old +woman immediately began the preparation of the necessary dressings from +her store of herbs; but Hermanric waited not to be a witness of her +skill. With one final look at the pale, exhausted child, he slowly +descended from the waggon, and approaching Goisvintha, drew her towards +a sheltered position near the ponderous vehicle. Here he seated himself +by her side, prepared to listen with the deepest attention to her +recital of the scenes of terror and suffering through which she had so +recently passed. + +'You,' she began, 'born while our nation was at peace; transported from +the field of war to those distant provinces where tranquility still +prevailed; preserved throughout your childhood from the chances of +battle; advanced to the army in your youth, only when its toils are past +and its triumphs are already at hand--you alone have escaped the +miseries of our people, to partake in the glory of their approaching +revenge. + +'Hardly had a year passed since you had been removed from the +settlements of the Goths when I wedded Priulf. The race of triflers to +whom he was then allied, spite of their Roman haughtiness, deferred to +him in their councils, and confessed among their legions that he was +brave. I saw myself with joy the wife of a warrior of renown; I +believed, in my pride, that I was destined to be the mother of a race of +heroes; when suddenly there came news to us that the Emperor Theodosius +was dead. Then followed anarchy among the people of the soil, and +outrages on the liberties of their allies, the Goths. Ere long the call +to arms arose among our nation. Soon our waggons of war were rolled +across the frozen Danube; our soldiers quitted the Roman camp; our +husbandmen took their weapons from their cottage walls; we that were +women prepared with our children to follow our husbands to the field; +and Alaric, the king, came forth as the leader of our hosts. + +'We marched upon the territories of the Greeks. But how shall I tell +you of the events of those years of war that followed our invasion; of +the glory of our victories; of the hardships of our defences; of the +miseries of our retreats; of the hunger that we vanquished; of the +diseases that we endured; of the shameful peace that was finally +ratified, against the wishes of our king! How shall I tell of all this, +when my thoughts are on the massacre from which I have just escaped-- +when these first evils, though once remembered in anguish, are, even +now, forgotten in the superior horrors that ensued! + +'The truce was made. Alaric departed with the remnant of his army, and +encamped at AEmona, on the confines of that land which he had already +invaded, and which he is now prepared to conquer. Between our king and +Stilicho, the general of the Romans, passed many messages, for the +leaders disputed on the terms of the peace that should be finally +ordained. Meanwhile, as an earnest of the Gothic faith, bands of our +warriors, and among them Priulf, were despatched into Italy to be allies +once more of the legions of Rome, and with them they took their wives +and their children, to be detained as hostages in the cities throughout +the land. + +'I and my children were conducted to Aquileia. In a dwelling within the +city we were lodged with our possessions. It was night when I took +leave of Priulf, my husband, at the gates. I watched him as he departed +with the army, and, when the darkness hid him from my eyes, I re-entered +the town; from which I am the only woman of our nation who has escaped +alive.' + +As she pronounced these last words, Goisvintha's manner, which had +hitherto been calm and collected, began to change: she paused abruptly +in her narrative, her head sunk upon her breast, her frame quivered as +if convulsed with violent agony. When she turned towards Hermanric +after an interval of silence to address him again, the same malignant +expression lowered over her countenance that had appeared on it when she +presented to him her wounded child; her voice became broken, hoarse, and +unfeminine; and pressing closely to the young man's side, she laid her +trembling fingers on his arm, as if to bespeak his most undivided +attention. + +'Time grew on,' she continued, 'and still there came no tidings that the +peace was finally secured. We, that were hostages, lived separate from +the people of the town; for we felt enmity towards each other even then. +In my captivity there was no employment for me but patience--no pursuit +but hope. Alone with my children, I was wont to look forth over the sea +towards the camp of our king; but day succeeded to day, and his warriors +appeared not on the plains; nor did Priulf return with the legions to +encamp before the gates of the town. So I mourned in my loneliness; for +my heart yearned towards the homes of my people; I longed once more to +look upon my husband's face, and to behold again the ranks of our +warriors, and the majesty of their battle array. + + +'But already, when the great day of despair was quickly drawing near, a +bitter outrage was preparing for me alone. The men who had hitherto +watched us were changed, and of the number of the new guards was one who +cast on me the eyes of lust. Night after night he poured his entreaties +into my unwilling ear; for, in his vanity and shamelessness, he believed +that I, who was Gothic and the wife of a Goth, might be won by him whose +parentage was but Roman! Soon from prayers he rose to threats; and one +night, appearing before me with smiles, he cried out that Stilicho, +whose desire was to make peace with the Goths, had suffered, for his +devotion to our people, the penalty of death; that a time of ruin was +approaching for us all, and that he alone--whom I despised--could +preserve me from the anger of Rome. As he ceased he approached me; but +I, who had been in many battle-fields, felt no dread at the prospect of +war, and I spurned him with laughter from my presence. + +'Then, for a few nights more, my enemy approached me not again. Until +one evening, as I sat on the terrace before the house, with the child +that you have beheld, a helmet-crest suddenly fell at my feet, and a +voice cried to me from the garden beneath: 'Priulf thy husband has been +slain in a quarrel by the soldiers of Rome! Already the legions with +whom he served are on their way to the town; for a massacre of the +hostages is ordained. Speak but the word, and I can save thee even +yet!' + +'I looked on the crest. It was bloody, and it was his! For an instant +my heart writhed within me as I thought on my warrior whom I had loved! +Then, as I heard the messenger of death retire, cursing, from his +lurking-place in the garden, I recollected that now my children had none +but their mother to defend them, and that peril was preparing for them +from the enemies of their race. Besides the little one in my arms, I +had two that were sleeping in the house. As I looked round, bewildered +and in despair, to see if a chance were left us to escape, there rang +through the evening stillness the sound of a trumpet, and the tramp of +armed men was audible in the street beneath. Then, from all quarters of +the town rose, as one sudden sound, the shrieks of women and the yells +of men. Already, as I rushed towards my children's beds, the fiends of +Rome had mounted the stairs, and waved in bloody triumph their reeking +swords! I gained the steps; and, as I looked up, they flung down at me +the body of my youngest child. O Hermanric! Hermanric! it was the most +beautiful and the most beloved! What the priests say that God should be +to us, that, the fairest one of my offspring, was to me! As I saw it +mutilated and dead--I, who but an hour before had hushed it on my bosom +to rest!--my courage forsook me, and when the murderers advanced on me I +staggered and fell. I felt the sword-point enter my neck; I saw the +dagger gleam over the child in my arms; I heard the death-shriek of the +last victim above; and then my senses failed me, and I could listen and +move no more! + +'Long must I have lain motionless at the foot of those fatal stairs; for +when I awoke from my trance the noises in the city were hushed, and from +her place in the firmament the moon shone softly into the deserted +house. I listened, to be certain that I was alone with my murdered +children. No sound was in the dwelling; the assassins had departed, +believing that their labour of blood was ended when I fell beneath their +swords; and I was able to crawl forth in security, and to look my last +upon my offspring that the Romans had slain. The child that I held to +my breast still breathed. I stanched with some fragments of my garment +the wounds that he had received, and laying him gently by the stairs--in +the moonlight, so that I might see him when he moved--I groped in the +shadow of the wall for my first murdered and my last born; for that +youngest and fairest one of my offspring whom they had slaughtered +before my eyes! When I touched the corpse, it was wet with blood; I +felt its face, and it was cold beneath my hands; I raised its body in my +arms, and its limbs already were rigid in death! Then I thought of the +eldest child, who lay dead in the chamber above. But my strength was +failing me fast. I had an infant who might yet be preserved; and I knew +that if morning dawned on me in the house, all chances of escape were +lost for ever. So, though my heart was cold within me at leaving my +child's corpse to the mercy of the Romans, I took up the dead and the +wounded one in my arms, and went forth into the garden, and thence +towards the seaward quarter of the town. + + +'I passed through the forsaken streets. Sometimes I stumbled against +the body of a child--sometimes the moonlight showed me the death-pale +face of some woman of my nation whom I had loved, stretched upward to +the sky; but I still advanced until I gained the wall of the town, and +heard on the other side the waters of the river running onward to the +Port of Aquileia and the sea. + +'I looked around. The gates I knew were guarded and closed. By the +wall was the only prospect of escape; but its top was high and its sides +were smooth when I felt them with my hands. Despairing and wearied, I +laid my burdens down where they were hidden by the shade, and walked +forward a few paces, for to remain still was a torment that I could not +endure. At a short distance I saw a soldier sleeping against the wall +of a house. By his side was a ladder placed against the window. As I +looked up I beheld the head of a corpse resting on its top. The victim +must have been lately slain, for her blood still dripped slowly down +into an empty wine-pot that stood within the soldier's reach. When I +saw the ladder, hope revived within me. I removed it to the wall--I +mounted, and laid my dead child on the great stones at its top--I +returned, and placed my wounded boy by the corpse. Slowly, and with +many efforts, I dragged the ladder upwards, until from its own weight +one end fell to the ground on the other side. As I had risen so I +descended. In the sand of the river-bank I scraped a hole, and buried +there the corpse of the infant; for I could carry the weight of two no +longer. Then with my wounded child I reached some caverns that lay +onward near the seashore. There throughout the next day I lay hidden-- +alone with my sufferings of body and my affliction of heart--until the +night came on, when I set forth on my journey to the mountains; for I +knew that at AEmona, in the camp of the warriors of my people, lay the +only refuge that was left to me on earth. Feebly and slowly, hiding by +day and travelling by night, I kept on my way until I gained that lake +among the rocks, where the guards of the army came forward and rescued +me from death.' + +She ceased. Throughout the latter portion of her narrative her +demeanour had been calm and sad; and as she dwelt, with the painful +industry of grief, over each minute circumstance connected with the +bereavements she had sustained, her voice softened to those accents of +quiet mournfulness, which make impressive the most simple words, and +render musical the most unsteady tones. It seemed as if those tenderer +and kinder emotions, which the attractions of her offspring had once +generated in her character, had at the bidding of memory become +revivified in her manner while she lingered over the recital of their +deaths. For a brief space of time she looked fixedly and anxiously upon +the countenance of Hermanric, which was half averted from her, and +expressed a fierce and revengeful gloom that sat unnaturally on it noble +lineaments. Then turning from him, she buried her face in her hands, +and made no effort more to attract him to attention or incite him to +reply. + +This solemn silence kept by the bereaved woman and the brooding man had +lasted but a few minutes, when a harsh, trembling voice was heard from +the top of the waggon, calling at intervals, 'Hermanric! Hermanric!' + +At first the young man remained unmoved by those discordant and +repulsive tones. They repeated his name, however, so often and so +perseveringly, that he noticed them ere long; and rising suddenly, as if +impatient of the interruption, advanced towards the side of the waggon +from which the mysterious summons appeared to come. + +As he looked up towards the vehicle the voice ceased, and he saw that +the old woman to whom he had confided the child was the person who had +called him so hurriedly but a few moments before. Her tottering body, +clothed in bear-skins, was bent forward over a large triangular shield +of polished brass, on which she leant her lank, shrivelled arms. Her +head shook with a tremulous, palsied action; a leer, half smile, half +grimace, distended her withered lips and lightened her sunken eyes. +Sinister, cringing, repulsive; her face livid with the reflection from +the weapon that was her support, and her figure scarcely human in the +rugged garments that encompassed its gaunt proportions, she seemed a +deformity set up by evil spirits to mock the majesty of the human form-- +an embodied satire on all that is most deplorable in infirmity and most +disgusting in age. + + +The instant she discerned Hermanric, she stretched her body out still +farther over the shield; and pointing to the interior of the waggon, +muttered softly that one fearful and expressive word--dead! + +Without waiting for any further explanation, the young Goth mounted the +vehicle, and gaining the old woman's side, saw stretched on her +collection of herbs--beautiful in the sublime and melancholy stillness +of death--the corpse of Goisvintha's last child. + +'Is Hermanric wroth?' whined the hag, quailing before the steady, +rebuking glance of the young man. 'When I said that Brunechild was +greater than Hermanric, I lied. It is Hermanric that is most powerful! +See, the dressings were placed on the wounds; and, though the child has +died, shall not the treasures that were promised me be mine? I have +done what I could, but my cunning begins to desert me, for I am old-- +old--old! I have seen my generation pass away! Aha! I am old, +Hermanric, I am old!' + +When the young warrior looked on the child, he saw that the hag had +spoken truth, and that the victim had died from no fault of hers. Pale +and serene, the countenance of the boy showed how tranquil had been his +death. The dressings had been skilfully composed and carefully applied +to his wounds, but suffering and privation had annihilated the +feebleness of human resistance in their march toward the last dread +goal, and the treachery of Imperial Rome had once more triumphed as was +its wont, and triumphed over a child! + +As Hermanric descended with the corpse Goisvintha was the first object +that met his eyes when he alighted on the ground. The mother received +from him the lifeless burden without an exclamation or a tear. That +emanation from her former and kinder self which had been produced by the +closing recital of her sufferings was henceforth, at the signal of her +last child's death, extinguished in her for ever! + +'His wounds had crippled him,' said the young man gloomily. 'He could +never have fought with the warriors! Our ancestors slew themselves when +they were no longer vigorous for the fight. It is better that he has +died!' + +'Vengeance!' gasped Goisvintha, pressing up closely to his side. 'We +will have vengeance for the massacre of Aquileia! When blood is +streaming in the palaces of Rome, remember my murdered children, and +hasten not to sheathe thy sword!' + +At this instant, as if to rouse still further the fierce determination +that appeared already in the face of the young Goth, the voice of Alaric +was heard commanding the army to advance. Hermanric started, and drew +the panting woman after him to the resting-place of the king. There, +armed at all points, and rising, by his superior stature, high above the +throng around him, stood the dreaded captain of the Gothic hosts. His +helmet was raised so as to display his clear blue eyes gleaming over the +multitude around him; he pointed with his sword in the direction of +Italy; and as rank by rank the men started to their arms, and prepared +exultingly for the march, his lips parted with a smile of triumph, and +ere he moved to accompany them he spoke thus:-- + +'Warriors of the Goths, our halt is a short one among the mountains; but +let not the weary repine, for the glorious resting-place that awaits our +labours is the city of Rome! The curse of Odin, when in the infancy of +our nation he retired before the myriads of the Empire, it is our +privilege to fulfil! That future destruction which he denounced against +Rome, it is ours to effect! Remember your hostages that the Romans have +slain; your possessions that the Romans have seized; your trust that the +Romans have betrayed! Remember that I, your king, have within me that +supernatural impulse which never deceives, and which calls to me in a +voice of encouragement--Advance, and the Empire is thine! Assemble the +warriors, and the City of the World shall be delivered to the conquering +Goths! Let us onward without delay! Our prey awaits us! Our triumph is +near! Our vengeance is at hand!' + +He paused; and at that moment the trumpet gave signal for the march. + + +'Up! up!' cried Hermanric, seizing Goisvintha by the arm, and pointing +to the waggon which had already begun to move; 'make ready for the +journey! I will charge myself with the burial of the child. Yet a few +days and our encampment may be before Aquileia. Be patient, and I will +avenge thee in the palaces of Rome!' + +The mighty mass moved. The multitude stretched forth over the barren +ground; and even now the warriors in front of the army might be seen by +those in the rear mounting the last range of passes that lay between the +plains of Italy and the Goths. + + +CHAPTER 2. THE COURT. + +The traveller who so far departs from the ordinary track of tourists in +modern Italy as to visit the city of Ravenna, remembers with +astonishment, as he treads its silent and melancholy streets, and +beholds vineyards and marshes spread over an extent of four miles +between the Adriatic and the town, that this place, now half deserted, +was once the most populous of Roman fortresses; and that where fields +and woods now present themselves to his eyes the fleets of the Empire +once rode securely at anchor, and the merchant of Rome disembarked his +precious cargoes at his warehouse door. + +As the power of Rome declined, the Adriatic, by a strange fatality, +began to desert the fortress whose defence it had hitherto secured. +Coeval with the gradual degeneracy of the people was the gradual +withdrawal of the ocean from the city walls; until, at the beginning of +the sixth century, a grove of pines already appeared where the port of +Augustus once existed. + +At the period of our story--though the sea had even then receded +perceptibly--the ditches round the walls were yet filled, and the canals +still ran through the city in much the same manner as they intersect +Venice at the present time. + +On the morning that we are about to describe, the autumn had advanced +some days since the events mentioned in the preceding chapter. Although +the sun was now high in the eastern horizon, the restlessness produced +by the heat emboldened a few idlers of Ravenna to brave the sultriness +of the atmosphere, in the vain hope of being greeted by a breeze from +the Adriatic as they mounted the seaward ramparts of the town. On +attaining their destined elevation, these sanguine citizens turned their +faces with fruitless and despairing industry towards every point of the +compass, but no breath of air came to reward their perseverance. Nothing +could be more thoroughly suggestive of the undiminished universality of +the heat than the view, in every direction, from the position they then +occupied. The stone houses of the city behind them glowed with a vivid +brightness overpowering to the strongest eyes. The light curtains hung +motionless over the lonely windows. No shadows varied the brilliant +monotony of the walls, or softened the lively glitter on the waters of +the fountains beneath. Not a ripple stirred the surface of the broad +channel, that now replaced the ancient harbour. Not a breath of wind +unfolded the scorching sails of the deserted vessels at the quay. Over +the marshes in the distance hung a hot, quivering mist; and in the +vineyards, near the town, not a leaf waved upon its slender stem. On +the seaward side lay, vast and level, the prospect of the burning sand; +and beyond it the main ocean--waveless, torpid, and suffused in a flood +of fierce brightness--stretched out to the cloudless horizon that closed +the sunbright view. + + +Within the town, in those streets where the tall houses cast a deep +shadow on the flagstones of the road, the figures of a few slaves might +here and there be seen sleeping against the walls, or gossiping +languidly on the faults of their respective lords. Sometimes an old +beggar might be observed hunting on the well-stocked preserves of his +own body the lively vermin of the South. Sometimes a restless child +crawled from a doorstep to paddle in the stagnant waters of a kennel; +but, with the exception of these doubtful evidences of human industry, +the prevailing characteristic of the few groups of the lowest orders of +the people which appeared in the streets was the most listless and utter +indolence. All that gave splendour to the city at other hours of the +day was at this period hidden from the eye. The elegant courtiers +reclined in their lofty chambers; the guards on duty ensconced +themselves in angles of walls and recesses of porticoes; the graceful +ladies slumbered on perfumed couches in darkened rooms; the gilded +chariots were shut into the carriage-houses; the prancing horses were +confined in the stables; and even the wares in the market-places were +removed from exposure to the sun. It was clear that the luxurious +inhabitants of Ravenna recognised no duties of sufficient importance, +and no pleasures of sufficient attraction, to necessitate the exposure +of their susceptible bodies to the noontide heat. + +To give the reader some idea of the manner in which the indolent +patricians of the Court loitered away their noon, and to satisfy, at the +same time, the exigencies attaching to the conduct of this story, it is +requisite to quit the lounging-places of the plebeians in the streets +for the couches of the nobles in the Emperor's palace. + +Passing through the massive entrance gates, crossing the vast hall of +the Imperial abode, with its statues, its marbles, and its guards in +attendance, and thence ascending the noble staircase, the first object +that might on this occasion have attracted the observer, when he gained +the approaches to the private apartments, was a door at an extremity of +the corridor, richly carved and standing half open. At this spot were +grouped some fifteen or twenty individuals, who conversed by signs, and +maintained in all their movements the most decorous and complete +silence. Sometimes one of the party stole on tiptoe to the door, and +looked cautiously through, returning almost instantaneously, and +expressing to his next neighbour, by various grimaces, his immense +interest in the sight he had just beheld. Occasionally there came from +this mysterious chamber sounds resembling the cackling of poultry, +varied now and then by a noise like the falling of a shower of small, +light substances upon a hard floor. Whenever these sounds were audible, +the members of the party outside the door looked round upon each other +and smiled--some sarcastically, some triumphantly. A few among these +patient expectants grasped rolls of vellum in their hands; the rest held +nosegays of rare flowers, or supported in their arms small statues and +pictures in mosaic. Of their number, some were painters and poets, some +orators and philosophers, and some statuaries and musicians. Among such +a motley assemblage of professions, remarkable in all ages of the world +for fostering in their votaries the vice of irritability, it may seem +strange that so quiet and orderly a behaviour should exist as that just +described. But it is to be observed that in attending at the palace, +these men of genius made sure at least of outward unanimity among their +ranks, by coming equally prepared with one accomplishment, and equally +animated by one hope: they waited to employ a common agent--flattery; to +attain a common end--gain. + +The chamber thus sacred, even from the intrusion of intellectual +inspiration, although richly ornamented, was of no remarkable extent. +At other times the eye might have wandered with delight on the exquisite +plants and flowers, scattered profusely over a noble terrace, to which a +second door in the apartment conducted; but, at the present moment, the +employment of the occupant of the room was of so extraordinary a nature, +that the most attentive observation must have missed all the inferior +characteristics of the place, to settle immediately on its inhabitant +alone. + + +In the midst of a large flock of poultry, which seemed strangely +misplaced on a floor of marble and under a gilded roof, stood a pale, +thin, debilitated youth, magnificently clothed, and holding in his hand +a silver vase filled with grain, which he ever and anon distributed to +the cackling multitude at his feet. Nothing could be more pitiably +effeminate than the appearance of this young man. His eyes were heavy +and vacant, his forehead low and retiring, his cheeks sallow, and his +form curved as if with a premature old age. An unmeaning smile dilated +his thin, colourless lips; and as he looked down on his strange +favourites, he occasionally whispered to them a few broken expressions +of endearment, almost infantine in their simplicity. His whole soul +seemed to be engrossed by the labour of distributing his grain, and he +followed the different movements of the poultry with an earnestness of +attention which seemed almost idiotic in its ridiculous intensity. If +it be asked, why a person so contemptible as this solitary youth has +been introduced with so much care, and described with so much +minuteness, it must be answered, that, though destined to form no +important figure in this work, he played, from his position, a +remarkable part in the great drama on which it is founded--for this +feeder of chickens was no less a person than Honorius, Emperor of Rome. + +It is the very imbecility of this man, at such a time as that we now +write on, which invests his character with a fearful interest in the eye +of posterity. In himself the impersonation of the meanest vices +inherent in the vicious civilisation of his period, to his feebleness +was accorded the terrible responsibility of liberating the long-prisoned +storm whose elements we have attempted to describe in the preceding +chapter. With just intellect enough to be capricious, and just +determination enough to be mischievous, he was an instrument fitted for +the uses of every ambitious villain who could succeed in gaining his +ear. To flatter his puerile tyranny, the infatuated intriguers of the +Court rewarded the heroic Stilicho for the rescue of his country with +the penalty of death, and defrauded Alaric of the moderate concessions +that they had solemnly pledged themselves to perform. To gratify his +vanity, he was paraded in triumph through the streets of Rome for a +victory that others had gained. To pander to his arrogance, by an +exhibition of the vilest privilege of that power which had been +intrusted to him for good, the massacre of the helpless hostages, +confided by Gothic honour to Roman treachery, was unhesitatingly +ordained; and, finally, to soothe the turbulence of his unmanly fears, +the last act of his unscrupulous councillors, ere the Empire fell, was +to authorise his abandoning his people in the hour of peril, careless +who suffered in defenceless Rome, while he was secure in fortified +Ravenna. Such was the man under whom the mightiest of the world's +structures was doomed to totter to its fall! Such was the figure +destined to close a scene which Time and Glory had united to hallow and +adorn! Raised and supported by a superhuman daring, that invested the +nauseous horrors of incessant bloodshed with a rude and appalling +magnificence, the mistress of nations was now fated to sink by the most +ignoble of defeats, under the most abject of tremblers. For this had +the rough old kingdom shaken off its enemies by swarms from its vigorous +arms! For this had the doubtful virtues of the Republic, and the +perilous magnificence of the Empire, perplexed and astonished the world! +In such a conclusion as Honorius ended the dignified barbarities of a +Brutus, the polished splendours of an Augustus, the unearthly atrocities +of a Nero, and the immortal virtues of a Trajan! Vainly, through the +toiling ages, over the ruin of her noblest hearts, and the prostitution +of her grandest intellects, had Rome striven pitilessly onward, grasping +at the shadow--Glory; the fiat had now gone forth that doomed her to +possess herself finally of the substance--Shame! + +When the imperial trifler had exhausted his store of grain, and +satisfied the cravings of his voracious favourites, he was relieved of +his silver vase by two attendants. The flock of poultry was then +ushered out at one door, while the flock of geniuses was ushered in at +the other. + +Leaving the emperor to cast his languid eyes over objects of art for +which he had no admiration, and to open his unwilling ears to +panegyrical orations for which he had no comprehension, we proceed to +introduce the reader to an apartment on the opposite side of the palace, +in which are congregated all the beauty and elegance of his Court. + + +Imagine a room two hundred feet long and proportionably broad. Its +floor is mosaic, wrought into the loveliest patterns. Its sides are +decorated with immense pillars of variegated marble, the recesses formed +by which are occupied by statues, all arranged in exquisite variety of +attitude, so as to appear to be offering to whoever approaches them the +rare flowers which it is the duty of the attendants to place in their +hands. The ceiling is painted in fresco, in patterns and colours +harmonising with those on the mosaic floor. The cornices are of silver, +and decorated with mottoes from the amatory poets of the day, the +letters of which are formed by precious stones. In the middle of the +room is a fountain throwing up streams of perfumed water, and surrounded +by golden aviaries containing birds of all sizes and nations. Three +large windows, placed at the eastern extremity of the apartment, look +out upon the Adriatic, but are covered at this hour, from the outside, +with silk curtains of a delicate green shade, which cast a soft, +luxurious light over every object, but are so thinly woven and so +skilfully arranged that the slightest breath of air which moves without +finds its way immediately to the languid occupants of the Court waiting- +room. The number of these individuals amounts to about fifty or sixty +persons. By far the larger half of the assemblage are women. Their +black hair tastefully braided into various forms, and adorned with +flowers or precious stones, contrasts elegantly with the brilliant +whiteness of the robes in which they are for the most part clothed. Some +of them are occupied in listlessly watching the movements of the birds +in the aviaries; others hold a languid and whispered conversation with +such of the courtiers as happen to be placed near them. The men exhibit +in their dresses a greater variety of colour, and in their occupations a +greater fertility of resource, than the women. Their garments, of the +lightest rose, violet, or yellow tints, diversify fantastically the +monotonous white robes of their gentle companions. Of their +employments, the most conspicuous are playing on the lute, gaming with +dice, teasing their lapdogs, and insulting their parasites. Whatever +their occupation, it is performed with little attention, and less +enthusiasm. Some recline on their couches with closed eyes, as if the +heat made the labour of using their organs of vision too much for them; +others, in the midst of a conversation, suddenly leave a sentence +unfinished, apparently incapacitated by lassitude from giving expression +to the simplest ideas. Every sight in the apartment that attracts the +eye, every sound that gains the ear, expresses a luxurious repose. No +brilliant light mars the pervading softness of the atmosphere; no +violent colour materialises the light, ethereal hues of the dresses; no +sudden noises interrupt the fitful and plaintive notes of the lute, jar +with the soft twittering of the birds in the aviaries, or drown the +still, regular melody of the ladies' voices. All objects, animate and +inanimate, are in harmony with each other. It is a scene of +spiritualised indolence--a picture of dreamy beatitude in the inmost +sanctuary of unruffled repose. + +Amid this assemblage of beauty and nobility, the members of which were +rather to be generally noticed than particularly observed, there was, +however, one individual who, both by the solitary occupation he had +chosen and his accidental position in the room, was personally +remarkable among the listless patricians around him. + +His couch was placed nearer the window than that of any other occupant +of the chamber. Some of his indolent neighbours--especially those of the +gentler sex--occasionally regarded him with mingled looks of admiration +and curiosity; but no one approached him, or attempted to engage him in +conversation. A piece of vellum lay by his side, on which, from time to +time, he traced a few words, and then resumed his reclining position, +apparently absorbed in reflection, and utterly regardless of all the +occupants, male and female, of the imperial apartment. Judging from his +general appearance, he could scarcely be twenty-five years of age. The +conformation of the upper part of his face was thoroughly intellectual-- +the forehead high, broad, and upright; the eyes clear, penetrating, and +thoughtful;--but the lower part was, on the other hand, undeniably +sensual. The lips, full and thick, formed a disagreeable contrast to +the delicate chiselling of the straight Grecian nose; while the +fleshiness of the chin, and the jovial redundancy of the cheeks, were, +in their turn, utterly at variance with the character of the pale, noble +forehead, and the expression of the quick, intelligent eyes. In stature +he was barely of the middle size; but every part of his body was so +perfectly proportioned that he appeared, in any position, taller than he +really was. The upper part of his dress, thrown open from the heat, +partly disclosed the fine statuesque formation of his neck and chest. +His ears, hands, and feet were of that smallness and delicacy which is +held to denote the aristocracy of birth; and there was in his manner +that indescribable combination of unobtrusive dignity and unaffected +elegance, which in all ages and countries, and through all changes of +manners and customs, has rendered the demeanour of its few favoured +possessors the instantaneous interpreter of their social rank. + + +While the patrician was still occupied over his vellum, the following +conversation took place in whispers between two ladies placed near the +situation he occupied. + +'Tell me, Camilla,' said the eldest and stateliest of the two, 'who is +the courtier so occupied in composition? I have endeavoured, I know not +how often, to catch his eye; but the man will look at nothing but his +roll of vellum or the corners of the room.' + +'What, are you so great a stranger in Italy as not to know him!' replied +the other, a lively girl of small delicate form, who fidgeted with +persevering restlessness on her couch, and seemed incapable of giving an +instant's steady attention to any of the objects around her. 'By all +the saints, martyrs, and relics of my uncle the bishop!' + +'Hush! You should not swear!' + +'Not swear! Why, I am making a new collection of oaths, intended solely +for ladies' use! I intend to set the fashion of swearing by them +myself!' + +'But answer my question, I beseech you! Will you never learn to talk on +one subject at a time?' + +'Your question--ah, your question! It was about the Goths?' + +'No, no! It was about that man who is incessantly writing, and will +look at nobody. He is almost as provoking as Camilla herself!' + +'Don't frown so! That man, as you call him, is the senator Vetranio.' + +The lady started. It was evident that Vetranio had a reputation. + +'Yes!' continued the lively Camilla, 'that is the accomplished Vetranio; +but he will be no favourite of yours, for he sometimes swears--swears by +the ancient gods, too, which is forbidden!' + +'He is handsome.' + +'Handsome! he is beautiful! Not a woman in Italy but is languishing for +him!' + +'I have heard that he is clever.' + +'Who has not? He is the author of some of the most celebrated sauces of +the age. Cooks of all nations worship him as an oracle. Then he writes +poetry, and composes music, and paints pictures! And as for +philosophy--he talks it better than my uncle the bishop!' + +'Is he rich?' + +'Ah! my uncle the bishop!--I must tell you how I helped Vetranio to make +a satire on him! When I was staying with him at Rome, I used often to +see a woman in a veil taken across the garden to his study; so, to +perplex him, I asked him who she was. And he frowned and stammered, and +said at first that I was disrespectful; but he told me afterwards that +she was an Arian whom he was labouring to convert. So I thought I +should like to see how this conversion went on, and I hid myself behind +a bookcase. But it is a profound secret; I tell it you in confidence.' + +'I don't care to know it. Tell me about Vetranio.' + +'How ill-natured you are! Oh! I shall never forget how we laughed when +I told Vetranio what I had seen. He took up his writing materials, and +made the satire immediately. The next day all Rome heard of it. My +uncle was speechless with rage! I believe he suspected me; but he gave +up converting the Arian lady, and--' + +'I ask you again--Is Vetranio rich?' + + +'Half Sicily is his. He has immense estates in Africa, olive-grounds in +Syria, and corn-fields in Gaul. I was present at an entertainment he +gave at his villa in Sicily. He fitted up one of his vessels from the +descriptions of the furnishing of Cleopatra's galley, and made his +slaves swim after us as attendant Tritons. Oh! it was magnificent!' + +'I should like to know him.' + +'You should see his cats! He has a perfect legion of them at his villa. +Twelve slaves are employed to attend on them. He is mad about cats, and +declares that the old Egyptians were right to worship them. He told me +yesterday, that when his largest cat is dead he will canonise her, in +spite of the Christians! And then he is so kind to his slaves! They +are never whipped or punished, except when they neglect or disfigure +themselves; for Vetranio will allow nothing that is ugly or dirty to +come near him. You must visit his banqueting-hall in Rome. It is +perfection!' + +'But why is he here?' + +'He has come to Ravenna, charged with some secret message from the +Senate, and has presented a rare breed of chickens to that foolish--' + +'Hush! you may be overheard!' + +'Well!--to that wise emperor of ours! Ah! the palace has been so +pleasant since he has been here!' + +At this instant the above dialogue--from the frivolity of which the +universally-learned readers of modern times will, we fear, recoil with +contempt--was interrupted by a movement on the part of its hero which +showed that his occupation was at an end. With the elaborate +deliberation of a man who disdains to exhibit himself as liable to be +hurried by any mortal affair, Vetranio slowly folded up the vellum he +had now filled with writing, and depositing it in his bosom, made a sign +to a slave who happened to be then passing near him with a dish of +fruit. + +Having received his message, the slave retired to the entrance of the +apartment, and beckoning to a man who stood outside the door, motioned +him to approach Vetranio's couch. + +This individual immediately hurried across the room to the window where +the elegant Roman awaited him. Not the slightest description of him is +needed; for he belonged to a class with which moderns are as well +acquainted as ancients--a class which has survived all changes of +nations and manners--a class which came in with the first rich man in +the world, and will only go out with the last. In a word, he was a +parasite. + +He enjoyed, however, one great superiority over his modern successors: +in his day flattery was a profession--in ours it has sunk to a pursuit. + +'I shall leave Ravenna this evening,' said Vetranio. + +The parasite made three low bows and smiled ecstatically. + +'You will order my travelling equipage to be at the palace gates an hour +before sunset.' + +The parasite declared he should never forget the honour of the +commission, and left the room. + +The sprightly Camilla, who had overheard Vetranio's command, jumped off +her couch, as soon as the parasite's back was turned, and running up to +the senator, began to reproach him for the determination he had just +formed. + +'Have you no compunction at leaving me to the dulness of this horrible +palace, to satisfy your idle fancy for going to Rome,' said she, pouting +her pretty lip, and playing with a lock of the dark brown hair that +clustered over Vetranio's brow. + + +'Has the senator Vetranio so little regard for his friends as to leave +them to the mercy of the Goths?' said another lady, advancing with a +winning smile to Camilla's side. + +'Ah, those Goths!' exclaimed Vetranio, turning to the last speaker. +'Tell me, Julia, is it not reported that the barbarians are really +marching into Italy?' + +'Everybody has heard of it. The emperor is so discomposed by the +rumour, that he has forbidden the very name of the Goths to be mentioned +in his presence again.' + +'For my part,' continued Vetranio, drawing Camilla towards him, and +playfully tapping her little dimpled hand, 'I am in anxious expectation +of the Goths, for I have designed a statue of Minerva, for which I can +find no model so fit as a woman of that troublesome nation. I am +informed upon good authority, that their limbs are colossal, and their +sense of propriety most obediently pliable under the discipline of the +purse.' + +'If the Goths supply you with a model for anything,' said a courtier who +had joined the group while Vetranio was speaking, 'it will be with a +representation of the burning of your palace at Rome, which they will +enable you to paint from the inexhaustible reservoir of your own +wounds.' + +The individual who uttered this last observation was remarkable among +the brilliant circle around him by his excessive ugliness. Urged by his +personal disadvantages, and the loss of all his property at the gaming- +table, he had latterly personated a character, the accomplishments +attached to which rescued him, by their disagreeable originality in that +frivolous age, from oblivion or contempt. He was a Cynic philosopher. + +His remark, however, produced no other effect on his hearers' serenity +than to excite their merriment. Vetranio laughed, Camilla laughed, +Julia laughed. The idea of a troop of barbarians ever being able to +burn a palace at Rome was too wildly ridiculous for any one's gravity; +and as the speech was repeated in other parts of the room, in spite of +their dulness and lassitude the whole Court laughed. + +'I know not why I should be amused by that man's nonsense,' said +Camilla, suddenly becoming grave at the very crisis of a most attractive +smile, 'when I am so melancholy at the thought of Vetranio's departure. +What will become of me when he is gone? Alas! who will be left in the +palace to compose songs to my beauty and music for my lute? Who will +paint me as Venus, and tell me stories about the ancient Egyptians and +their cats? Who at the banquet will direct what dishes I am to choose, +and what I am to reject? Who?'--and poor little Camilla stopped +suddenly in her enumeration of the pleasures she was about to lose, and +seemed on the point of weeping as piteously as she had been laughing +rapturously but the instant before. + +Vetranio was touched--not by the compliment to his more intellectual +powers, but by the admission of his convivial supremacy as a guide to +the banquet, contained in the latter part of Camilla's remonstrance. +The sex were then, as now, culpably deficient in gastronomic enthusiasm. +It was, therefore, a perfect triumph to have made a convert to the +science of the youngest and loveliest of the ladies of the Court. + +'If she can gain leave of absence,' said the gratified senator, 'Camilla +shall accompany me to Rome, and shall be present at the first +celebration of my recent discovery of a Nightingale Sauce.' + +Camilla was in ecstasies. She seized Vetranio's cheeks between her rosy +little fingers, kissed him as enthusiastically as a child kisses a new +toy, and darted gaily off to prepare for her departure. + + +'Vetranio would be better employed,' sneered the Cynic, 'in inventing +new salves for future wounds than new sauces for future nightingales! +His carcase will be carved by Gothic swords as a feast for the worms +before his birds are spitted with Roman skewers as a feast for his +guests! Is this a time for cutting statues and concocting sauces? Fie +on the senators who abandon themselves to such pursuits as Vetranio's!' + +'I have other designs,' replied the object of all this moral +indignation, looking with insulting indifference on the Cynic's +repulsive countenance, 'which, from their immense importance to the +world, must meet with universal approval. The labour that I have just +achieved forms one of a series of three projects which I have for some +time held in contemplation. The first is an analysis of the new +priesthood; the second, a true personification, both by painting and +sculpture, of Venus; the third, a discovery of what has been hitherto +uninvented--a nightingale sauce. By the inscrutable wisdom of Fate, it +has been so willed that the last of the objects I proposed to myself has +been the first attained. The sauce is composed, and I have just +concluded on this vellum the ode that is to introduce it at my table. +The analysation will be my next labour. It will take the form of a +treatise, in which, making the experience of past years the groundwork +of prophecy for the future, I shall show the precise number of +additional dissensions, controversies, and quarrels that will be require +to enable the new priesthood to be themselves the destroyers of their +own worship. I shall ascertain by an exact computation the year in +which this destruction will be consummated; and I have by me as the +materials for my work an historical summary of Christian schisms and +disputes in Rome for the last hundred years. As for my second design, +the personification of Venus, it is of appalling difficulty. It demands +an investigation of the women of every nation under the sun; a +comparison of the relative excellences and peculiarities of their +several charms; and a combination of all that is loveliest in the +infinite variety of their most prominent attractions, under one form. +To forward the execution of this arduous project, my tenants at home and +my slave-merchants abroad have orders to send to my villa in Sicily all +women who are born most beautiful in the Empire, or can be brought most +beautiful from the nations around. I will have them displayed before +me, of every shade in complexion and of every peculiarity in form! At +the fitting period I shall commence my investigations, undismayed by +difficulty, and determined on success. Never yet has the true Venus +been personified! Should I accomplish the task, how exquisite will be +my triumph! My work will be the altar at which thousands will offer up +the softest emotions of the heart. It will free the prisoned +imagination of youth, and freshen the fading recollections on the memory +of age!' + +Vetranio paused. The Cynic was struck dumb with indignation. A +solitary zealot for the Church, who happened to be by, frowned at the +analysation. The ladies tittered at the personification. The +gastronomists chuckled at the nightingale sauce; but for the first few +minutes no one spoke. During this temporary embarrassment, Vetranio +whispered a few words in Julia's ear; and--just as the Cynic was +sufficiently recovered to retort--accompanied by the lady, he quitted +the room. + +Never was popularity more unalloyed than Vetranio's. Gifted with a +disposition the pliability of which adapted itself to all emergencies, +his generosity disarmed enemies, while his affability made friends. +Munificent without assumption, successful without pride, he obliged with +grace and shone with safety. People enjoyed his hospitality, for they +knew that it was disinterested; and admired his acquirements, for they +felt that they were unobtrusive. Sometimes (as in his dialogue with the +Cynic) the whim of the moment, or the sting of a sarcasm, drew from him +a hint at his station, or a display of his eccentricities; but, as he +was always the first soon afterwards to lead the laugh at his own +outbreak, his credit as a noble suffered nothing by his infirmity as a +man. Gaily and attractively he moved in all grades of the society of +his age, winning his social laurels in every rank, without making a +rival to dispute their possession, or an enemy to detract from their +value. + + +On quitting the Court waiting-room, Vetranio and Julia descended the +palace stairs and passed into the emperor's garden. Used generally as +an evening lounge, this place was now untenanted, save by the few +attendants engaged in cultivating the flower-beds and watering the +smooth, shady lawns. Entering one of the most retired of the numerous +summer-houses among the trees, Vetranio motioned his companion to take a +seat, and then abruptly addressed her in the following words:-- + +'I have heard that you are about to depart for Rome--is it true?' + +He asked this question in a low voice, and with a manner in its +earnestness strangely at variance with the volatile gaiety which had +characterised him, but a few moments before, among the nobles of the +Court. As Julia answered him in the affirmative, his countenance +expressed a lively satisfaction; and seating himself by her side, he +continued the conversation thus:-- + +'If I thought that you intended to stay for any length of time in the +city, I should venture upon a fresh extortion from your friendship by +asking you to lend me your little villa at Aricia!' + +'You shall take with you to Rome an order on my steward to place +everything there at your entire disposal.' + +'My generous Julia! You are of the gifted few who really know how to +confer a favour! Another woman would have asked me why I wanted the +villa--you give it unreservedly. So delicate an unwillingness to +intrude on a secret reminds me that the secret should now be yours!' + +To explain the easy confidence that existed between Vetranio and Julia, +it is necessary to inform the reader that the lady--although still +attractive in appearance--was of an age to muse on her past, rather than +to meditate on her future conquests. She had known her eccentric +companion from his boyhood, had been once flattered in his verses, and +was sensible enough--now that her charms were on the wane--to be as +content with the friendship of the senator as she had formerly been +enraptured with the adoration of the youth. + +'You are too penetrating,' resumed Vetranio, after a short pause, 'not +to have already suspected that I only require your villa to assist me in +the concealment of an intrigue. So peculiar is my adventure in its +different circumstances, that to make use of my palace as the scene of +its development would be to risk a discovery which might produce the +immediate subversion of all my designs. But I fear the length of my +confession will exceed the duration of your patience!' + +'You have aroused my curiosity. I could listen to you for ever!' + +'A short time before I took my departure from Rome for this place,' +continued Vetranio, 'I encountered an adventure of the most +extraordinary nature, which has haunted me with the most extraordinary +perseverance, and which will have, I feel assured, the most +extraordinary results. I was sitting one evening in the garden of my +palace on the Pincian Mount, occupied in trying a new composition on my +lute. In one of the pauses of the melody, which was tender and +plaintive, I heard sounds that resembled the sobbing of some one in +distress among the trees behind me. I looked cautiously round, and +discerned, half-hidden by the verdure, the figure of a young girl, who +appeared to be listening to the music with the most entranced attention. +Flattered by such a testimony to my skill, and anxious to gain a nearer +view of my mysterious visitant, I advanced towards her hiding-place, +forgetting in my haste to continue playing on the lute. The instant the +music ceased, she discerned me and disappeared. Determined to behold +her, I again struck the chords, and in a few minutes I saw her white +robe once more among the trees. I redoubled my efforts. I played with +the utmost expression the most pathetic parts of the melody. As if +under the influence of a charm, she began to advance towards me, now +hesitating, now moving back a few steps, now approaching, half- +reluctantly, half willingly, until, utterly vanquished by the long +trembling close of the last cadence of the air, she ran suddenly up to +me, and falling at my feet, raised her hands as if to implore my +pardon.' + +'Truly this was no common tribute to your skill! Did she speak to you?' + + +'She uttered not a word,' continued Vetranio. 'Her large soft eyes, +bright with tears, looked piteously up in my face; her delicate lips +trembled, as if she wished to speak, but dared not; her smooth round +arms were the very perfection of beauty. Child as she seemed in years +and emotions, she looked a woman in loveliness and form. For the moment +I was too much astonished by the suddenness of her supplicating action +to move or speak. As soon as I recovered myself I attempted to fondle +and console her, but she shrunk from my embrace, and seemed inclined to +escape from me again; until I touched once more the strings of the lute, +and then she uttered a subdued exclamation of delight, nestled close up +to me, and looked into my face with such a strange expression of mingled +adoration and rapture, that I declare to you, Julia, I felt as bashful +before her as a boy.' + +'You bashful! The Senator Vetranio bashful!' exclaimed Julia, looking +up with an expression of the most unfeigned incredulity and +astonishment. + +'The lute,' pursued Vetranio gravely, without heeding the interruption, +'was my sole means of procuring any communication with her. If I ceased +playing, we were as strangers; if I resumed, we were as friends. So, +subduing the notes of the instrument while she spoke to me in a soft +tremulous musical voice, I still continued to play. By this plan I +discovered at our first interview that she was the daughter of one +Numerian, that she was on the point of completing her fourteenth year, +and that she was called Antonina. I had only succeeded in gaining this +mere outline of her story, when, as if struck by some sudden +apprehension, she tore herself from me with a look of the utmost terror, +and entreating me not to follow her if I ever desired to see her again, +she disappeared rapidly among the trees.' + +'More and more wonderful! And, in your new character of a bashful man, +you doubtless obeyed her injunctions?' + +'I did,' replied the senator; 'but the next evening I revisited the +garden grove, and, as soon as I struck the chords, as if by magic, she +again approached. At this second interview I learned the reason of her +mysterious appearances and departures. Her father, she told me, was one +of a new sect, who imagine--with what reason it is impossible to +comprehend--that they recommend themselves to their Deity by making +their lives one perpetual round of bodily suffering and mental anguish. +Not content with distorting all his own feelings and faculties, this +tyrant perpetrated his insane austerities upon the poor child as well. +He forbade her to enter a theatre, to look on sculpture, to read poetry, +to listen to music. He made her learn long prayers, and attend to +interminable sermons. He allowed her no companions of her own age--not +even girls like herself. The only recreation that she could obtain was +the permission--granted with much reluctance and many rebukes--to +cultivate a little garden which belonged to the house they lived in, and +joined at one point the groves round my palace. There, while she was +engaged over her flowers, she first heard the sound of my lute for many +months before I had discovered her, she had been in the habit of +climbing the enclosure that bounded her garden, and hiding herself among +the trees to listen to the music, whenever her father's concerns took +him abroad. She had been discovered in this occupation by an old man +appointed to watch her in his master's absence. The attendant, however, +on hearing her confession, not only promised to keep her secret, but +permitted her to continue her visits to my grove whenever I chanced to +be playing there on the lute. Now the most mysterious part of this +matter is, that the girl seemed--in spite of his severity towards her-- +to have a great affection for her surly; for, when I offered to deliver +her from his custody, she declared that nothing could induce her to +desert him--not even the attraction of living among fine pictures and +hearing beautiful music every hour in the day. But I see I weary you; +and, indeed, it is evident from the length of the shadows that the hour +of my departure is at hand. Let me then pass from my introductory +interviews with Antonina, to the consequences that had resulted from +them when I set forth on my journey to Ravenna.' + +'I think I can imagine the consequences already!' said Julia, smiling +maliciously. + + +'Begin then,' retorted Vetranio, 'by imagining that the strangeness of +this girl's situation, and the originality of her ideas, invested her +with an attraction for me, which the charms of her person and age +contributed immensely to heighten. She delighted my faculties as a +poet, as much as she fired my feelings as a man; and I determined to +lure her from the tyrannical protection of her father by the employment +of every artifice that my ingenuity could suggest. I began by teaching +her to exercise for herself the talent which had so attracted her in +another. By the familiarity engendered on both sides by such an +occupation, I hoped to gain as much in affection from her as she +acquired in skill from me; but to my astonishment, I still found her as +indifferent towards the master, and as tender towards the music, as she +had appeared at our first interview. If she had repelled my advances, +if they had overwhelmed her with confusion, I could have adapted myself +to her humour, I should have felt the encouragement of hope; but the +coldness, the carelessness, the unnatural, incomprehensible ease with +which she received even my caresses, utterly disconcerted me. It seemed +as if she could only regard me as a moving statue, as a mere +impersonation, immaterial as the science I was teaching her. If I spoke, +she hardly looked on me; if I moved, she scarcely noticed the action. I +could not consider it dislike; she seemed to gentle to nourish such a +feeling for any creature on earth. I could not believe it coldness; she +was all life, all agitation, if she heard only a few notes of music. +When she touched the chords of the instrument, her whole frame trembled. +Her eyes, mild, serious, and thoughtful when she looked on me, now +brightened with delight, now softened with tears, when she listened to +the lute. As day by day her skill in music increased, so her manner +towards me grew more inexplicably indifferent. At length, weary of the +constant disappointments that I experienced, and determined to make a +last effort to touch her heart by awakening her gratitude, I presented +her with the very lute which she had at first heard, and on which she +had now learned to play. Never have I seen any human being so +rapturously delighted as this incomprehensible girl when she received +the instrument from my hands. She alternately wept and laughed over it, +she kissed it, fondled it, spoke to it, as if it had been a living +thing. But when I approached to suppress the expressions of +thankfulness that she poured on me for the gift, she suddenly hid the +lute in her robe, as if afraid that I should deprive her of it, and +hurried rapidly from my sight. The next day I waited for her at our +accustomed meeting-place, but she never appeared. I sent a slave to her +father's house, but she would hold no communication with him. It was +evident that, now she had gained her end, she cared no more to behold +me. In my first moments of irritation, I determined to make her feel my +power, if she despised my kindness; but reflection convinced me, from my +acquaintance with her character, that in such a matter force was +impolitic, that I should risk my popularity in Rome, and engage myself +in an unworthy quarrel to no purpose. Dissatisfied with myself, and +disappointed in the girl, I obeyed the first dictates of my impatience, +and seizing the opportunity afforded by my duties in the senate of +escaping from the scene of defeated hopes, I departed angrily for +Ravenna.' + +'Departed for Ravenna!' cried Julia, laughing outright. 'Oh, what a +conclusion to the adventure! I confess it, Vetranio, such consequences +as these are beyond all imagination!' + +'You laugh, Julia,' returned the senator, a little piqued; 'but hear me +to the end, and you will find that I have not yet resigned myself to +defeat. For the few days that I have remained here, Antonina's image +has incessantly troubled my thoughts. I perceive that my inclination, +as well as my reputation, is concerned in subduing her ungrateful +aversion. I suspect that my anxiety to gain her will, if unremoved, so +far influence my character, that from Vetranio the Serene, I shall be +changed into Vetranio the Sardonic. Pride, honour, curiosity, and love +all urge me to her conquest. To prepare for my banquet is an excuse to +the Court for my sudden departure from this place; the real object of my +journey is Antonina alone.' + +'Ah, now I recognise my friend again in his own character,' remarked the +lady approvingly. + + +'You will ask me how I purpose to obtain another interview with her?' +continued Vetranio. 'I answer, that the girl's attendant has voluntarily +offered himself as an instrument for the prosecution of my plans. The +very day before I departed from Rome, he suddenly presented himself to +my in my garden, and proposed to introduce me into Numerian's house-- +having first demanded, with the air more of an equal than an inferior, +whether the report that I was still a secret adherent of the old +religion, of the worship of the gods, was true. Suspicious of the +fellow's motives (for he abjured all recompense as the reward of his +treachery), and irritated by the girl's recent ingratitude, I treated +his offer with contempt. Now, however, that my dissatisfaction is +calmed and my anxiety aroused, I am determined, at all hazards, to trust +myself to this man, be his motives for aiding me what they may. If my +efforts at my expected interview--and I will not spare them--are +rewarded with success, it will be necessary to obtain some refuge for +Antonina that will neither be suspected nor searched. For such a +hiding-place, nothing can be more admirably adapted than your Arician +villa. Do you--now that you know for what use it is intended--repent of +your generous disposal of it in aid of my design?' + +'I am delighted to have had it to bestow on you,' replied the liberal +Julia, pressing Vetranio's hand. 'Your adventure is indeed uncommon--I +burn with impatience to hear how it will end. Whatever happens, you may +depend on my secrecy and count on my assistance. But see, the sun is +already verging towards the west; and yonder comes one of your slaves to +inform you, I doubt not, that your equipage is prepared. Return with me +to the palace, and I will supply you with the letter necessary to +introduce you as master to my country abode.' + +***** + +The worthy citizens of Ravenna assembled in the square before the palace +to behold the senator's departure, had entirely exhausted such innocent +materials for amusement as consisted in staring at the guards, catching +the clouds of gnats that hovered about their ears, and quarrelling with +each other; and were now reduced to a state of very noisy and unanimous +impatience, when their discontent was suddenly and most effectually +appeased by the appearance of the travelling equipage with Vetranio and +Camilla outside the palace gates. + +Uproarious shouts greeted the appearance of the senator and his +magnificent retinue; but they were increased a hundred-fold when the +chief slaves, by their master's command, each scattered a handful of +small coin among the poorer classes of the spectators. Every man among +that heterogeneous assemblage of rogues, fools, and idlers roared his +loudest and capered his highest, in honour of the generous patrician. +Gradually and carefully the illustrious travellers moved through the +crowd around them to the city gate; and thence, amid incessant shouts of +applause, raised with imposing unanimity of lung, and wrought up to the +most distracting discordancy of noise, Vetranio and his lively companion +departed in triumph for Rome. + +***** + +A few days after this event the citizens were again assembled at the +same place and hour--probably to witness another patrician departure-- +when their ears were assailed by the unexpected sound produced by the +call to arms, which was followed immediately by the closing of the city +gates. They had scarcely asked each other the meaning of these unusual +occurrences, when a peasant, half frantic with terror, rushed into the +square, shouting out the terrible intelligence that the Goths were in +sight! + +The courtiers heard the news, and starting from a luxurious repast, +hurried to the palace windows to behold the portentous spectacle. For +the remainder of the evening the banqueting tables were unapproached by +the guests. + + +The wretched emperor was surprised among his poultry by that dreaded +intelligence. He, too, hastened to the windows, and looking forth, saw +the army of avengers passing in contempt his solitary fortress, and +moving swiftly onward towards defenceless Rome. Long after the darkness +had hidden the masses of that mighty multitude from his eyes, did he +remain staring helplessly upon the fading landscape, in a stupor of +astonishment and dread; and, for the first time since he had possessed +them, his flocks of fowls were left for that night unattended by their +master's hand. + + +CHAPTER 3. ROME. + +The perusal of the title to this chapter will, we fear, excite emotions +of apprehension, rather than of curiosity, in the breasts of experienced +readers. They will doubtless imagine that it is portentous of long +rhapsodies on those wonders of antiquity, the description of which has +long become absolutely nauseous to them by incessant iteration. They +will foresee wailings over the Palace of the Caesars, and meditations +among the arches of the Colosseum, loading a long series of weary +paragraphs to the very chapter's end; and, considerately anxious to +spare their attention a task from which it recoils, they will +unanimously hurry past the dreaded desert of conventional reflection, to +alight on the first oasis that may present itself, whether it be formed +by a new division of the story, or suddenly indicated by the appearance +of a dialogue. Animated, therefore, by apprehensions such as these, we +hasten to assure them that in no instance will the localities of our +story trench upon the limits of the well-worn Forum, or mount the arches +of the exhausted Colosseum. It is with the beings, and not the +buildings of old Rome, that their attention is to be occupied. We +desire to present them with a picture of the inmost emotions of the +times--of the living, breathing actions and passions of the people of +the doomed Empire. Antiquarian topography and classical architecture we +leave to abler pens, and resign to other readers. + +It is, however, necessary that the sphere in which the personages of our +story are about to act should be in some measure indicated, in order to +facilitate the comprehension of their respective movements. That +portion of the extinct city which we design to revive has left few +traces of its existence in the modern town. Its sites are +traditionary--its buildings are dust. The church rises where the temple +once stood, and the wine-shop now lures the passing idler where the bath +invited his ancestor of old. + +The walls of Rome are in extent, at the present day, the same as they +were at the period of which we now write. But here all analogy between +the ancient and modern city ends. The houses that those walls were once +scarcely wide enough to enclose have long since vanished, and their +modern successors occupy but a third of the space once allotted to the +capital of the Empire. + +Beyond the walls immense suburbs stretched forth in the days of old. +Gorgeous villas, luxurious groves, temples, theatres, baths-- +interspersed by colonies of dwellings belonging to the lower orders of +the people--surrounded the mighty city. Of these innumerable abodes +hardly a trace remains. The modern traveller, as he looks forth over +the site of the famous suburbs, beholds, here and there, a ruined +aqueduct, or a crumbling tomb, tottering on the surface of a +pestilential marsh. + +The present entrance to Rome by the Porta del Popolo occupies the same +site as the ancient Flaminian Gate. Three great streets now lead from +it towards the southern extremity of the city, and form with their +tributaries the principal portion of modern Rome. On one side they are +bounded by the Pincian Hill, on the other by the Tiber. Of these +streets, those nearest the river occupy the position of the famous +Campus Martius; those on the other side, the ancient approaches to the +gardens of Sallust and Lucullus, on the Pincian Mount. + +On the opposite bank of the Tiber (gained by the Ponte St. Angelo, +formerly the Pons Elius), two streets pierced through an irregular and +populous neighbourhood, conduct to the modern Church of St. Peter. At +the period of our story this part of the city was of much greater +consequence, both in size and appearance, than it is at present, and led +directly to the ancient Basilica of St. Peter, which stood on the same +site as that now occupied by the modern edifice. + + +The events about to be narrated occur entirely in the parts of the city +just described. From the Pincian Hill, across the Campus Martius, over +the Pons Elius, and on to the Basilica of St. Peter, the reader may be +often invited to accompany us, but he will be spared all necessity of +penetrating familiar ruins, or mourning over the sepulchres of departed +patriots. + +Ere, however, we revert to former actors or proceed to new characters, +it will be requisite to people the streets that we here attempt to +rebuild. By this process it is hoped that the reader will gain that +familiarity with the manners and customs of the Romans of the fifth +century on which the influence of this story mainly depends, and which +we despair of being able to instil by a philosophical disquisition on +the features of the age. A few pages of illustration will serve our +purpose better, perhaps, than volumes of historical description. There +is no more unerring index to the character of a people than the streets +of their cities. + +It is near evening. In the widest part of the Campus Martius crowds of +people are assembled before the gates of a palace. They are congregated +to receive several baskets of provisions, distributed with ostentatious +charity by the owner of the mansion. The incessant clamour and +agitation of the impatient multitude form a strange contrast to the +stately serenity of the natural and artificial objects by which they are +enclosed on all sides. + +The space they occupy is oblong in shape and of great extent in size. +Part of it is formed by a turf walk shaded with trees, part by the paved +approaches to the palace and the public baths which stand in its +immediate neighbourhood. These two edifices are remarkable by their +magnificent outward adornments of statues, and the elegance and number +of the flights of steps by which they are respectively entered. With +the inferior buildings, the market-places and the gardens attached to +them, they are sufficiently extensive to form the boundary of one side +of the immediate view. The appearance of monotony which might at other +times be remarked in the vastness and regularity of their white fronts, +is at this moment agreeably broken by several gaily-coloured awnings +stretched over their doors and balconies. The sun is now shining on +them with overpowering brightness; the metallic ornaments on their +windows glitter like gems of fire; even the trees which form their +groves partake of the universal flow of light, and fail, like the +objects around them, to offer to the weary eye either refreshment or +repose. + +Towards the north, the Mausoleum of Augustus, towering proudly up into +the brilliant sky, at once attracts the attention. From its position, +parts of this noble building are already in shade. Not a human being is +visible on any part of its mighty galleries--it stands solitary and +sublime, an impressive embodiment of the emotions which it was raised to +represent. + +On the side opposite the palace and the baths is the turf walk already +mentioned. Trees, thickly planted and interlaced by vines, cast a +luxurious shade over this spot. In their interstices, viewed from a +distance, appear glimpses of gay dresses, groups of figures in repose, +stands loaded with fruit and flowers, and innumerable white marble +statues of fauns and wood-nymphs. From this delicious retreat the +rippling of fountains is to be heard, occasionally interrupted by the +rustling of leaves, or the plaintive cadences of the Roman flute. + + +Southward two pagan temples stand in lonely grandeur among a host of +monuments and trophies. The symmetry of their first construction still +remains unimpaired, their white marble pillars shine in the sunlight +brightly as of old, yet they now present to the eye an aspect of strange +desolation, of unnatural mysterious gloom. Although the laws forbid the +worship for which they were built, the hand of reform has as yet not +ventured to doom them to ruin or adapt them to Christian purposes. None +venture to tread their once-crowded colonnades. No priest appears to +give the oracles from their doors; no sacrifices reek upon their naked +altars. Under their roofs, visited only by the light that steals through +their narrow entrances, stand unnoticed, unworshipped, unmoved, the +mighty idols of old Rome. Human emotion, which made them Omnipotence +once, has left them but stone now. The 'Star in the East' has already +dimmed the fearful halo which the devotion of bloodshed once wreathed +round their forms. Forsaken and alone, they stand but as the gloomy +monuments of the greatest delusion ever organised by the ingenuity of +man. + +We have now, so to express it, exhibited the frame surrounding the +moving picture, which we shall next attempt to present to the reader by +mixing with the multitude before the palace gates. + +This assembly resolved itself into three divisions: that collected +before the palace steps, that loitering about the public baths, and that +reposing in the shade of the groves. The first was of the most +consequence in numbers, and of the greatest variety in appearance. +Composed of rogues of the worst order from every quarter of the world, +it might be said to present, in its general aspect of numerical +importance, the very sublime of degradation. Confident in their rude +union of common avidity, these worthy citizens vented their insolence on +all objects, and in every direction, with a careless impartiality which +would have shamed the most victorious efforts of modern mobs. The +hubbub of voices was perfectly fearful. The coarse execrations of +drunken Gauls, the licentious witticisms of effeminate Greeks, the noisy +satisfaction of native Romans, the clamorous indignation of irritable +Jews--all sounded together in one incessant chorus of discordant noises. +Nor were the senses of sight and smell more agreeably assailed than the +faculty of hearing, by this anomalous congregation. Immodest youth and +irreverent age; woman savage, man cowardly; the swarthy Ethiopian +beslabbered with stinking oil; the stolid Briton begrimed with dirt-- +these, and a hundred other varying combinations, to be imagined rather +than expressed, met the attention in every direction. To describe the +odours exhaled by the heat from this seething mixture of many +pollutions, would be to force the reader to close the book; we prefer to +return to the distribution which was the cause of this degrading tumult, +and which consisted of small baskets of roasted meat packed with common +fruits and vegetables, and handed, or rather flung down, to the mob by +the servants of the nobleman who gave the feast. The people revelled in +the abundance thus presented to them. They threw themselves upon it like +wild beasts; they devoured it like hogs, or bore it off like plunderers; +while, secure in the eminence on which they were placed, the purveyors +of this public banquet expressed their contempt for its noisy +recipients, by holding their noses, stopping their ears, turning their +backs, and other pantomimic demonstrations of lofty and excessive +disgust. These actions did not escape the attention of those members of +the assembly who, having eaten their fill, were at leisure to make use +of their tongues, and who showered an incessant storm of abuse on the +heads of their benefactor's retainers. + +'See those fellows!' cried one; 'they are the waiters at our feast, and +they mock us to our faces! Down with the filthy kitchen thieves!' + +'Excellently well said, Davus!--but who is to approach them? They stink +at this distance!' + +'The rotten-bodied knaves have the noses of dogs and the carcases of +goats.' + +Then came a chorus of voices--'Down with them! Down with them!' In the +midst of which an indignant freedman advanced to rebuke the mob, +receiving, as the reward of his temerity, a shower of missiles and a +volley of curses; after which he was thus addressed by a huge, greasy +butcher, hoisted on his companions' shoulders:-- + +'By the soul of the emperor, could I get near you, you rogue, I would +quarter you with my fingers alone!--A grinning scoundrel that jeers at +others! A filthy flatterer that dirts the very ground he walks on! By +the blood of the martyrs, should I fling the sweepings of the slaughter- +house at him, he knows not where to get himself dried!' + + +'Thou rag of a man,' roared a neighbour of the indignant butcher's, +'dost thou frown upon the guests of thy master, the very scrapings of +whose skin are worth more than thy whole carcase! It is easier to make a +drinking-vessel of the skull of a flea than to make an honest man of +such a villainous night-walker as thou art!' + +'Health and prosperity to our noble entertainer!' shouted one section of +the grateful crowd as the last speaker paused for breath. + +'Death to all knaves of parasites!' chimed in another. + +'Honour to the citizens of Rome!' roared a third party with modest +enthusiasm. + +'Give that freedman our bones to pick!' screamed an urchin from the +outskirts of the crowd. + +This ingenious piece of advice was immediately followed; and the +populace gave vent to a shout of triumph as the unfortunate freedman, +scared by a new volley of missiles, retreated with ignominious +expedition to the shelter of his patron's halls. + +In the slight and purified specimen of the 'table talk' of a Roman mob +which we have here ventured to exhibit, the reader will perceive that +extraordinary mixture of servility and insolence which characterised not +only the conversation but the actions of the lower orders of society at +the period of which we write. Oppressed and degraded, on the one hand, +to a point of misery scarcely conceivable to the public of the present +day, the poorer classes in Rome were, on the other, invested with such a +degree of moral license, and permitted such an extent of political +privilege, as flattered their vanity into blinding their sense of +indignation. Slaves in their season of servitude, masters in their hours +of recreation, they presented, as a class, one of the most amazing +social anomalies ever existing in any nation; and formed, in their +dangerous and artificial position, one of the most important of the +internal causes of the downfall of Rome. + +The steps of the public baths were almost as crowded as the space before +the neighbouring building. Incessant streams of people, either entering +or departing, poured over the broad flagstones of its marble colonnades. +This concourse, although composed in some parts of the same class of +people as that assembled before the palace, presented a certain +appearance of respectability. Here and there--chequering the dusky +monotony of masses of dirty tunics--might be discerned the refreshing +vision of a clean robe, or the grateful indication of a handsome person. +Little groups, removed as far as possible from the neighbourhood of the +noisy plebeians, were scattered about, either engaged in animated +conversation, or listlessly succumbing to the lassitude induced by a +recent bath. An instant's attention to the subject of discourse among +the more active of these individuals will aid us in pursuing our social +revelations. + +The loudest voice among the speakers at this particular moment proceeded +from a tall, thin, sinister-looking man, who was haranguing a little +group of listeners with great vehemence and fluency. + +'I tell you, Socius,' said he, turning suddenly upon one of his +companions, 'that, unless new slave-laws are made, my calling is at an +end. My patron's estate requires incessant supplies of these wretches. +I do my best to satisfy the demand, and the only result of my labour is, +that the miscreants either endanger my life, or fly with impunity to +join the gangs of robbers infesting our woods.' + +'Truly I am sorry for you; but what alteration would you have made in +the slave-laws?' + +'I would empower bailiffs to slay upon the spot all slaves whom they +thought disorderly, as an example to the rest!' + +'What would such a permission avail you? These creatures are necessary, +and such a law would exterminate them in a few months. Can you not +break their spirit with labour, bind their strength with chains, and +vanquish their obstinacy with dungeons?' + + +'All this I have done, but they die under the discipline, or escape from +their prisons. I have now three hundred slaves on my patron's estates. +Against those born on our lands I have little to urge. Many of them, it +is true, begin the day with weeping and end it with death; but for the +most part, thanks to their diurnal allowance of stripes, they are +tolerably submissive. It is with the wretches that I have been obliged +to purchase from prisoners of war and the people of revolted towns that +I am so dissatisfied. Punishments have no effect on them, they are +incessantly indolent, sulky, desperate. It was but the other day that +ten of them poisoned themselves while at work in the fields, and fifty +more, after setting fire to a farm-house while my back was turned, +escaped to join a gang of their companions, who are now robbers in the +woods. These fellows, however, are the last of the troop who will +perpetrate such offences. With the concurrence of my patron, I have +adopted a plan that will henceforth tame them efficiently!' + +'Are you at liberty to communicate it?' + +'By the keys of St. Peter, I wish I could see it practised on every +estate in the land! It is this:--Near a sulphur lake at some distance +from my farm-house is a tract of marshy ground, overspread here and +there by the ruins of an ancient slaughter-house. I propose to dig in +this place several subterranean caverns, each of which shall be capable +of holding twenty men. Here my mutinous slaves shall sleep after their +day's labour. The entrances shall be closed until morning with a large +stone, on which I will have engraven this inscription: 'These are the +dormitories invented by Gordian, bailiff of Saturninus, a nobleman, for +the reception of refractory slaves.' + +'Your plan is ingenious; but I suspect your slaves (so insensible to +hardships are the brutal herd) will sleep as unconcernedly in their new +dormitories as in their old.' + +'Sleep! It will be a most original species of repose that they will +taste there! The stench of the sulphur lake will breathe Sabian odours +for them over a couch of mud! Their anointing oil will be the slime of +attendant reptiles! Their liquid perfumes will be the stagnant oozings +from their chamber roof! Their music will be the croaking of frogs and +the humming of gnats; and as for their adornments, why, they will be +decked forth with head-garlands of twining worms, and movable brooches +of cockchafers and toads! Tell me now, most sagacious Socius, do you +still think that amidst such luxuries as these my slaves will sleep?' + +'No; they will die.' + +'You are again wrong. They will curse and rave perhaps, but that is of +no consequence. They will work the longer above ground to shorten the +term of their repose beneath. They will wake at an instant's notice, +and come forth at a moment's signal. I have no fear of their dying!' + +'Do you leave Rome soon?' + +'I go this evening, taking with me such a supply of trustworthy +assistants as will enable me to execute my plan without delay. +Farewell, Socius!' + +'Most ingenious of bailiffs, I bid you farewell!' + +As the worthy Gordian stalked off, big with the dignity of his new +projects, the gestures and tones of a man who formed one of a little +group collected in a remote part of the portico he was about to quit +attracted his attention. Curiosity formed as conspicuous an ingredient +in this man's character as cruelty. He stole behind the base of a +neighbouring pillar; and, as the frequent repetition of the word 'Goths' +struck his ear (the report of that nation's impending invasion having by +this time reached Rome), he carefully disposed himself to listen with +the most implicit attention to the speaker's voice. + + +'Goths!' cried the man, in the stern, concentrated accents of despair. +'Is there one among us to whom this report of their advance upon Rome +does not speak of hope rather than of dread? Have we a chance of rising +from the degradation forced on us by our superiors until this den of +heartless triflers and shameless cowards is swept from the very earth +that it pollutes!' + +'Your sentiments on the evils of our condition are undoubtedly most +just,' observed a fat, pompous man, to whom the preceding remarks had +been addressed, 'but I cannot desire the reform you so ardently hope +for. Think of the degradation of being conquered by barbarians!' + +'I am the exile of my country's privileges. What interest have I in +upholding her honour--if honour she really has!' replied the first +speaker. + +'Nay! Your expressions are too severe. You are too discontented to be +just.' + +'Am I! Hear me for a moment, and you will change your opinion. You see +me now by my bearing and appearance superior to yonder plebeian herd. +You doubtless think that I live at my ease in the world, that I can feel +no anxiety for the future about my bodily necessities. What would you +say were I to tell you that if I want another meal, a lodging for to- +night, a fresh robe for tomorrow, I must rob or flatter some great man +to gain them? Yet so it is. I am hopeless, friendless, destitute. In +the whole of the Empire there is not an honest calling in which I can +take refuge. I must become a pander or a parasite--a hired tyrant over +slaves, or a chartered groveller beneath nobles--if I would not starve +miserably in the streets, or rob openly in the woods! This is what I +am. Now listen to what I was. I was born free. I inherited from my +father a farm which he had successfully defended from the encroachments +of the rich, at the expense of his comfort, his health, and his life. +When I succeeded to his lands, I determined to protect them in my time +as studiously as he had defended them in his. I worked +unintermittingly: I enlarged my house, I improved my fields, I +increased my flocks. One after another I despised the threats and +defeated the wiles of my noble neighbours, who desired possession of my +estate to swell their own territorial grandeur. In process of time I +married and had a child. I believed that I was picked out from my race +as a fortunate man--when one night I was attacked by robbers: slaves +made desperate by the cruelty of their wealthy masters. They ravaged my +cornfields, they deprived me of my flocks. When I demanded redress, I +was told to sell my lands to those who could defend them--to those rich +nobles whose tyranny had organised the band of wretches who had spoiled +me of my possessions, and to whose fraud-gotten treasures the government +were well pleased to grant that protection which they had denied to my +honest hoards. In my pride I determined that I would still be +independent. I planted new crops. With the little remnant of my money +I hired fresh servants and bought more flocks. I had just recovered +from my first disaster when I became the victim of a second. I was again +attacked. This time we had arms, and we attempted to defend ourselves. +My wife was slain before my eyes; my house was burnt to the ground; I +myself only escaped, mutilated with wounds; my child soon afterwards +pined and died. I had no wife, no offspring, no house, no money. My +fields still stretched round me, but I had none to cultivate them. My +walls still tottered at my feet, but I had none to rear them again, none +to inhabit them if they were reared. My father's lands were now become +a wilderness to me. I was too proud to sell them to my rich neighbour; +I preferred to leave them before I saw them the prey of a tyrant, whose +rank had triumphed over my industry, and who is now able to boast that +he can travel over ten leagues of senatorial property untainted by the +propinquity of a husbandman's farm. Houseless, homeless, friendless, I +have come to Rome alone in my affliction, helpless in my degradation! +Do you wonder now that I am careless about the honour of my country? I +would have served her with my life and my possessions when she was +worthy of my service; but she has cast me off, and I care not who +conquers her. I say to the Goths--with thousands who suffer the same +tribulation that I now undergo--"Enter our gates! Level our palaces to +the ground! Confound, if you will, in one common slaughter, we that are +victims with those that are tyrants! Your invasion will bring new lords +to the land. They cannot crush it more--they may oppress it less. Our +posterity may gain their rights by the sacrifice of lives that our +country has made worthless. Romans though we are, we are ready to +suffer and submit!"' + + +He stopped; for by this time he had lashed himself into fury. His eyes +glared, his cheeks flushed, his voice rose. Could he then have seen the +faintest vision of the destiny that future ages had in store for the +posterity of the race that now suffered throughout civilised Europe, +like him--could he have imagined how, in after years, the 'middle +class', despised in his day, was to rise to privilege and power; to hold +in its just hands the balance of the prosperity of nations; to crush +oppression and regulate rule; to soar in its mighty flight above thrones +and principalities, and rank and riches, apparently obedient, but really +commanding;--could he but have foreboded this, what a light must have +burst upon his gloom, what a hope must have soothed him in his despair! + +To what further extremities his anger might have carried him, to what +proceedings the indignant Gordian, who still listened from his +concealment, might have had recourse, it is difficult to say; for the +complaints of the ill-fated landholder and the cogitations of the +authoritative bailiff were alike suddenly suspended by an uproar raging +at this moment round a carriage which had just emerged from the palace +we have elsewhere described. + +This vehicle looked one mass of silver. Embroidered silk curtains +fluttered all around it, gold ornaments studded its polished sides, and +it held no less a person than the nobleman who had feasted the people +with baskets of meat. This fact had become known to the rabble before +the palace gates. Such an opportunity of showing their exultation in +their bondage, their real servility in their imaginary independence, was +not to be lost; and accordingly they let loose such a torrent of +clamorous gratitude on their entertainer's appearance, that a stranger +in Rome would have thought the city in revolt. They leapt, they ran, +they danced round the prancing horses, they flung their empty baskets +into the air, and patted approvingly their 'fair round bellies'. From +every side, as the carriage moved on, they gained fresh recruits and +acquired new importance. The timid fled before them, the noisy shouted +with them, the bold plunged into their ranks; and the constant burden of +their rejoicing chorus was--'Health to the noble Pomponius! Prosperity +to the senators of Rome, who feast us with their food and give us the +freedom of their theatres! Glory to Pomponius! Glory to the senators!' + +Fate seemed on this day to take pleasure in pampering the insatiable +curiosity of Gordian, the bailiff. The cries of the multitude had +scarcely died away in the distance, as they followed the departing +carriage, when the voices of two men, pitched to a low, confidential +tone, reached his ear from the opposite side of the pillar. He peeped +cautiously round, and saw that they were priests. + +'What an eternal jester is that Pomponius!' said one voice. 'He is +going to receive absolution, and he journeys in his chariot of state, as +if he were preparing to celebrate his triumph, instead of to confess his +sins!' + +'Has he committed, then, a fresh imprudence?' + +'Alas, yes! For a senator he is dreadfully wanting in caution! A few +days since, in a fit of passion, he flung a drinking-cup at one of his +female slaves. The girl died on the spot, and her brother, who is also +in his service, threatened immediate vengeance. To prevent disagreeable +consequences to his body, Pomponius has sent the fellow to his estates +in Egypt; and now, from the same precaution for the welfare of his soul, +he goes to demand absolution from our holy and beneficent Church.' + +'I am afraid these incessant absolutions, granted to men who are too +careless even to make a show of repentance for their crimes, will +prejudice us with the people at large.' + +'Of what consequence are the sentiments of the people while we have +their rulers on our side! Absolution is the sorcery that binds these +libertines of Rome to our will. We know what converted Constantine-- +politic flattery and ready absolution; the people will tell you it was +the sign of the Cross.' + +'It is true this Pomponius is rich, and may increase our revenues, but +still I fear the indignation of the people.' + +'Fear nothing: think how long their old institutions imposed on them, +and then doubt, if you can, that we may shape them to our wishes as we +will. Any deceptions will be successful with a mob, if the instrument +employed to forward them be a religion.' + +The voices ceased. Gordian, who still cherished a vague intention of +denouncing the fugitive landholder to the senatorial authorities, +employed the liberty afforded to his attention by the silence of the +priests in turning to look after his intended victim. To his surprise +he saw that the man had left the auditors to whom he had before +addressed himself, and was engaged in earnest conversation in another +part of the portico, with an individual who seemed to have recently +joined him, and whose appearance was so remarkable that the bailiff had +moved a few steps forwards to gain a nearer view of him, when he was +once more arrested by the voices of the priests. + +Irresolute for an instant to which party to devote his unscrupulous +attention, he returned mechanically to his old position. Ere long, +however, his anxiety to hear the mysterious communications proceeding +between the landholder and his friend overbalanced his delight in +penetrating the theological secrets of the priests. He turned once +more, but to his astonishment the objects of his curiosity had +disappeared. He stepped to the outside of the portico and looked for +them in every direction, but they were nowhere to be seen. Peevish and +disappointed, he returned as a last resource to the pillar where he had +left the priests, but the time consumed in his investigations after one +party had been fatal to his reunion with the other. The churchmen were +gone. + +Sufficiently punished for his curiosity by his disappointment, the +bailiff walked doggedly off towards the Pincian Hill. Had he turned in +the contrary direction, towards the Basilica of St. Peter, he would have +found himself once more in the neighbourhood of the landholder and his +remarkable friend, and would have gained that acquaintance with the +subjects of their conversation, which we intend that the reader shall +acquire in the course of the next chapter. + + +CHAPTER 4. THE CHURCH. + +In the year 324, on the locality assigned by rumour to the martyrdom of +St. Peter, and over the ruins of the Circus of Nero, Constantine erected +the church called the Basilica of St. Peter. + +For twelve centuries, this building, raised by a man infamous for his +murders and his tyrannies, stood uninjured amid the shocks which during +that long period devastated the rest of the city. After that time it was +removed, tottering to its base from its own reverend and illustrious +age, by Pope Julius II, to make way for the foundations of the modern +church. + +It is towards this structure of twelve hundred years' duration, erected +by hands stained with blood, and yet preserved as a star of peace in the +midst of stormy centuries of war, that we would direct the reader's +attention. What art has done for the modern church, time has effected +for the ancient. If the one is majestic to the eye by its grandeur, the +other is hallowed to the memory by its age. + + +As this church by its rise commemorated the triumphant establishment of +Christianity as the religion of Rome, so in its progress it reflected +every change wrought in the spirit of the new worship by the ambition, +the prodigality, or the frivolity of the priests. At first it stood +awful and imposing, beautiful in all its parts as the religion for whose +glory it was built. Vast porphyry colonnades decorated its approaches, +and surrounded a fountain whose waters issued from the representation of +a gigantic pine-tree in bronze. Its double rows of aisles were each +supported by forty-eight columns of precious marble. Its flat ceiling +was adorned with beams of gilt metal, rescued from the pollution of +heathen temples. Its walls were decorated with large paintings of +religious subjects, and its tribunal was studded with elegant mosaics. +Thus it rose, simple and yet sublime, awful and yet alluring; in this +its beginning, a type of the dawn of the worship which it was elevated +to represent. But when, flushed with success, the priests seized on +Christianity as their path to politics and their introduction to power, +the aspect of the church gradually began to change. As, slowly and +insensibly, ambitious man heaped the garbage of his mysteries, his +doctrines, and his disputes, about the pristine purity of the structure +given him by God, so, one by one, gaudy adornments and meretricious +alterations arose to sully the once majestic basilica, until the +threatening and reproving apparition of the pagan Julian, when both +Church and churchmen received in their corrupt progress a sudden and +impressive check. + +The short period of the revival of idolatry once passed over, the +priests, unmoved by the warning they had received, returned with renewed +vigour to confuse that which both in their Gospel and their Church had +been once simple. Day by day they put forth fresh treatises, aroused +fierce controversies, subsided into new sects; and day by day they +altered more and more the once noble aspect of the ancient basilica. +They hung their nauseous relics on its mighty walls, they stuck their +tiny tapers about its glorious pillars, they wreathed their tawdry +fringes around its massive altars. Here they polished, there they +embroidered. Wherever there was a window, they curtained it with gaudy +cloths; wherever there was a statue, they bedizened it with artificial +flowers; wherever there was a solemn recess, they outraged its religious +gloom with intruding light; until (arriving at the period we write of) +they succeeded so completely in changing the aspect of the building, +that it looked, within, more like a vast pagan toyshop than a Christian +church. Here and there, it is true, a pillar or an altar rose +unencumbered as of old, appearing as much at variance with the frippery +that surrounded it as a text of Scripture quoted in a sermon of the +time. But as regarded the general aspect of the basilica, the decent +glories of its earlier days seemed irrevocably departed and destroyed. + +After what has been said of the edifice, the reader will have little +difficulty in imagining that the square in which it stood lost whatever +elevation of character it might once have possessed, with even greater +rapidity than the church itself. If the cathedral now looked like an +immense toyshop, assuredly its attendant colonnades had the appearance +of the booths of an enormous fair. + + +The day, whose decline we have hinted at in the preceding chapter, was +fast verging towards its close, as the inhabitants of the streets on the +western bank of the Tiber prepared to join the crowds that they beheld +passing by their windows in the direction of the Basilica of St. Peter. +The cause of this sudden confluence of the popular current in once +common direction was made sufficiently apparent to all inquirers who +happened to be near a church or a public building, by the appearance in +such situations of a large sheet of vellum elaborately illuminated, +raised on a high pole, and guarded from contact with the inquisitive +rabble by two armed soldiers. The announcements set forth in these +strange placards were all of the same nature and directed to the same +end. In each of them the Bishop of Rome informed his 'pious and +honourable brethren', the inhabitants of the city, that, as the next +days was the anniversary of the Martyrdom of St. Luke, the vigil would +necessarily be held on that evening in the Basilica of St. Peter; and +that, in consideration of the importance of the occasion, there would be +exhibited, before the commencement of the ceremony, those precious +relics connected with the death of the saint, which had become the +inestimable inheritance of the Church; and which consisted of a branch +of the olive-tree to which St. Luke was hung, a piece of the noose-- +including the knot--which had been passed round his neck, and a picture +of the Apotheosis of the Virgin painted by his own hand. After some +sentences expressive of lamentation for the sufferings of the saint, +which nobody read, and which it is unnecessary to reproduce here, the +proclamation went on to state that a sermon would be preached in the +course of the vigil, and that at a later hour the great chandelier, +containing two thousand four hundred lamps, would be lit to illuminate +the church. Finally, the worthy bishop called upon all members of his +flock, in consideration of the solemnity of the day, to abstain from +sensual pleasures, in order that they might the more piously and +worthily contemplate the sacred objects submitted to their view, and +digest the spiritual nourishment to be offered to their understandings. + +From the specimen we have already given of the character of the populace +of Rome, it will perhaps be unnecessary to say that the great +attractions presented by this theological bill of fare were the relics +and the chandelier. Pulpit eloquence and vigil solemnities alone must +have long exhibited their more sober allurements, before they could have +drawn into the streets a fiftieth part of the immense crowd that now +hurried towards the desecrated basilica. Indeed, so vast was the +assemblage soon congregated, that the advanced ranks of sightseers had +already filled the church to overflowing, before those in the rear had +come within view of the colonnades. + +However dissatisfied the unsuccessful portion of the citizens might feel +at their exclusion from the church, they found a powerful counter- +attraction in the amusements going forward in the Place, the occupants +of which seemed thoroughly regardless of the bishop's admonitions upon +the sobriety of behaviour due to the solemnity of the day. As if in +utter defiance of the decency and order recommended by the clergy, +popular exhibitions of all sorts were set up on the broad flagstones of +the great space before the church. Street dancing-girls exercised at +every available spot those 'gliding gyrations' so eloquently condemned +by the worthy Ammianus Marcellinus of orderly and historical memory. +Booths crammed with relics of doubtful authenticity, baskets filled with +neat manuscript abstracts of furiously controversial pamphlets, pagan +images regenerated into portraits of saints, pictorial representations +of Arians writhing in damnation, and martyrs basking in haloes of +celestial light, tempted, in every direction, the more pious among the +spectators. Cooks perambulated with their shops on their backs; rival +slave-merchants shouted petitions for patronage; wine-sellers taught +Bacchanalian philosophy from the tops of their casks; poets recited +compositions for sale; sophisters held arguments destined to convert +the wavering and perplex the ignorant. + +Incessant motion and incessant noise seemed to be the sole compensations +sought by the multitude for the disappointment of exclusion from the +church. If a stranger, after reading the proclamation of the day, had +proceeded to the basilica, to feast his eyes on the contemplation of the +illustrious aggregate of humanity, entitled by the bishop 'his pious and +honourable brethren,' he must, on mixing at this moment with the +assemblage, have either doubted the truth of the episcopal appellation, +or have given the citizens credit for that refinement of intrinsic worth +which is of too elevated a nature to influence the character of the +outward man. + + +At the time when the sun set, nothing could be more picturesque than the +distant view of this joyous scene. The deep red rays of the departing +luminary cast their radiance, partly from behind the church, over the +vast multitude in the Place. Brightly and rapidly the rich light roved +over the waters that leaped towards it from the fountain in all the +loveliness of natural and evanescent form. Bathed in that brilliant +glow, the smooth porphyry colonnades reflected, chameleon like, ethereal +and varying hues; the white marble statues became suffused in a delicate +rose-colour, and the sober-tinted trees gleamed in the innermost of +their leafy depths as if steeped in the exhalations of a golden mist. +While, contrasting strangely with the wondrous radiance around them, the +huge bronze pine-tree in the middle of the Place, and the wide front of +the basilica, rose up in gloomy shadow, indefinite and exaggerated, +lowering like evil spirits over the joyous beauty of the rest of the +scene, and casting their great depths of shade into the midst of the +light whose dominion they despised. Beheld from a distance, this wild +combination of vivid brightness and solemn gloom; these buildings, at +one place darkened till they looked gigantic, at another lightened till +they appeared ethereal; these crowded groups, seeming one great moving +mass gleaming at this point in radiant light, obscured at that in thick +shadow, made up a whole so incongruous and yet so beautiful, so +grotesque and yet so sublime, that the scene looked, for the moment, +more like some inhabited meteor, half eclipsed by its propinquity to +earth, than a mortal and material prospect. + +The beauties of this atmospheric effect were of far too serious and +sublime a nature to interest the multitude in the Place. Out of the +whole assemblage, but two men watched that glorious sunset with even an +appearance of the admiration and attention which it deserved. One was +the landholder whose wrongs were related in the preceding chapter--the +other his remarkable friend. + +These two men formed a singular contrast to each other, both in +demeanour and appearance, as they gazed forth upon the crimson heaven. +The landholder was an under-sized, restless-looking man, whose features, +naturally sharp, were now distorted by a fixed expression of misery and +discontent. His quick, penetrating glance wandered incessantly from +place to place, perceiving all things, but resting on none. In his +attention to the scene before him, he appeared to have been led more by +the influence of example than by his own spontaneous feelings; for ever +and anon he looked impatiently round upon his friend as if expecting him +to speak--but no word or movement escaped his thoughtful companion. +Occupied exclusively in his own contemplations, he appeared wholly +insensible to any ordinary outward appeal. + +In age and appearance this individual was in the decline of life; for he +had numbered sixty years, his hair was completely grey, and his face was +covered with deep wrinkles. Yet, in spite of these disadvantages, he +was in the highest sense of the word a handsome man. Though worn and +thin, his features were still bold and regular; and there was an +elevation about the habitual mournfulness of his expression, and an +intelligence about his somewhat severe and earnest eyes, that bore +eloquent testimony to the superiority of his intellectual powers. As he +now stood gazing fixedly out into the glowing sky, his tall, meagre +figure half supported upon his staff, his lips firmly compressed, his +brow slightly frowning, and his attitude firm and motionless, the most +superficial observer must have felt immediately that he looked on no +ordinary being. The history of a life of deep thought--perhaps of long +sorrow--seemed written in every lineament of his meditative countenance; +and there was a natural dignity in his manner, which evidently +restrained his restless companion from offering any determined +interruption to the course of his reflections. + +Slowly and gorgeously the sun had continued to wane in the horizon until +he was now lost to view. As his last rays sunk behind the distant +hills, the stranger started from his reverie and approached the +landholder, pointing with his staff towards the fast-fading brightness +of the western sky. + +'Probus,' said he, in a low, melancholy voice, 'as I looked on that +sunset I thought on the condition of the Church.' + +'I see little in the Church to think of, or in the sunset to observe,' +replied his companion. + +'How pure, how vivid,' murmured the other, scarcely heeding the +landholder's remark, 'was the light which that sun cast upon this earth +at our feet! How nobly for a time its brightness triumphed over the +shadows around; and yet, in spite of the promise of that radiance, how +swiftly did it fade ere long in its conflict with the gloom--how +thoroughly, even now, has it departed from the earth, and withdrawn the +beauty of its glory from the heavens! Already the shadows are +lengthening around us, and shrouding in their darkness every object in +the Place. But a short hour hence, and--should no moon arise--the gloom +of night will stretch unresisted over Rome!' + +'To what purpose do you tell me this?' + + +'Are you not reminded, by what we have observed, of the course of the +worship which it is our privilege to profess? Does not that first +beautiful light denote its pure and perfect rise; that short conflict +between the radiance and the gloom, its successful preservation, by the +Apostles and the Fathers; that rapid fading of the radiance, its +desecration in later times; and the gloom which now surrounds us, the +destruction which has encompassed it in this age we live in?--a +destruction which nothing can avert but a return to that pure first +faith that should now be the hope of our religion, as the moon is the +hope of night!' + +'How should we reform? Do people who have no liberties care about a +religion? Who is to teach them?' + +'I have--I will. It is the purpose of my life to restore to them the +holiness of the ancient Church; to rescue them from the snare of +traitors to the faith, whom men call priests. They shall learn through +me that the Church knew no adornment once, but the presence of the pure; +that the priest craved no finer vestment than his holiness; that the +Gospel, which once taught humility and now raises dispute, was in former +days the rule of faith--sufficient for all wants, powerful over all +difficulties. Through me they shall know that in times past it was the +guardian of the heart; through me they shall see that in times present +it is the plaything of the proud; through me they shall fear that in +times future it may become the exile of the Church! To this task I have +vowed myself; to overthrow this idolatry--which, like another paganism, +rises among us with its images, its relics, its jewels, and its gold--I +will devote my child, my life, my energies, and my possessions. From +this attempt I will never turn aside--from this determination I will +never flinch. While I have a breath of life in me, I will persevere in +restoring to this abandoned city the true worship of the Most High!' + +He ceased abruptly. The intensity of his agitation seemed suddenly to +deny to him the faculty of speech. Every muscle in the frame of that +stern, melancholy man quivered at the immortal promptings of the soul +within him. There was something almost feminine in his universal +susceptibility to the influence of one solitary emotion. Even the +rough, desperate landholder felt awed by the enthusiasm of the being +before him, and forgot his wrongs, terrible as they were--and his +misery, poignant as it was--as he gazed upon his companion's face. + +For some minutes neither of the men said more. Soon, however, the last +speaker calmed his agitation with the facility of a man accustomed to +stifle the emotions that he cannot crush, and advancing to the +landholder, took him sorrowfully by the hand. + +'I see, Probus, that I have amazed you,' said he; 'but the Church is the +only subject on which I have no discretion. In all other matters I have +conquered the rashness of my early manhood; in this I have to wrestle +with my hastier nature still. When I look on the mockeries that are +acting around us; when I behold a priesthood deceivers, a people +deluded, a religion defiled, then, I confess it, my indignation +overpowers my patience, and I burn to destroy, where I ought only to +hope to reform.' + +'I knew you always violent of imagination; but when I last saw you your +enthusiasm was love. Your wife--' + +'Peace! She deceived me!' + +'Your child--' + +'Lives with me at Rome.' + +'I remember her an infant, when, fourteen years since, I was your +neighbour in Gaul. On my departure from the province, you had just +returned from a journey into Italy, unsuccessful in your attempts to +discover there a trace either of your parents, or of that elder brother +whose absence you were wont so continually to lament. Tell me, have +you, since that period, discovered the members of your ancient +household? Hitherto you have been so occupied in listening to the +history of my wrongs that you have scarcely spoken of the changes in +your life since we last met.' + + +'If, Probus, I have been silent to you concerning myself, it is because +for me retrospection has little that attracts. While yet it was in my +power to return to those parents whom I deserted in my boyhood, I +thought not of repentance; and now that they must be but too surely lost +to me, my yearning towards them is of no avail. Of my brother, from +whom I parted in a moment of childish jealousy and anger, and whose +pardon and love I would give up even my ambition to acquire, I have +never yet discovered a trace. Atonement to those whom I injured in +early life is a privilege denied to the prayers of my age. From my +parents and my brother I departed unblest, and unforgiven by them I feel +that I am doomed to die! My life has been careless, useless, godless, +passing from rapine and violence to luxury and indolence, and leading me +to the marriage which I exulted in when I last saw you, but which I now +feel was unworthy alike in its motives and its results. But blessed and +thrice blessed by that last calamity of my wicked existence, for it +opened my eyes to the truth--it made a Christian of me while I was yet +alive!' + +'Is it thus that the Christian can view his afflictions? I would, then, +that I were a Christian like you!' murmured the landholder, in low, +earnest tones. + +'It was in those first days, Probus,' continued the other, 'when I found +myself deserted and dishonoured, left alone to be the guardian of my +helpless child, exiled for ever from a home that I had myself forsaken, +that I repented me in earnest of my misdeeds, that I sought wisdom from +the book of salvation, and the conduct of life from the Fathers of the +Church. It was at that time that I determined to devote my child, like +Samuel of old, to the service of heaven, and myself to the reformation +of our degraded worship. As I have already told you, I forsook my abode +and changed my name (remember it is as 'Numerian' that you must +henceforth address me), that of my former self no remains might be left, +that of my former companions not one might ever discover and tempt me +again. With incessant care have I shielded my daughter from the +contamination of the world. As a precious jewel in a miser's hands she +has been watched and guarded in her father's house. Her destiny is to +soothe the afflicted, to watch the sick, to succour the forlorn, when I, +her teacher, have restored to the land the dominion of its ancient faith +and the guidance of its faultless Gospel. We have neither of us an +affection or a hope that can bind us to the things of earth. Our hearts +look both towards heaven; our expectations are only from on high!' + +'Do not set your hopes too firmly on your child. Remember how the +nobles of Rome have destroyed the household I once had, and tremble for +your own.' + +'I have no fear for my daughter; she is cared for in my absence by one +who is vowed to aid me in my labours for the Church. It is now nearly a +year since I first met Ulpius, and from that time forth he has devoted +himself to my service and watched over my child.' + +'Who is this Ulpius, that you should put such faith in him?' + +'He is a man of age like mine. I found him, like me, worn down by the +calamities of his early life, and abandoned, as I had once been, to the +delusions of the pagan gods. He was desolate, suffering, forlorn, and I +had pity on him in his misery. I proved to him that the worship he +still professed was banished for its iniquities from the land; that the +religion which had succeeded it had become defiled by man, and that +there remained but one faith for him to choose, if he would be saved-- +the faith of the early Church. He heard me and was converted. From +that moment he has served me patiently and helped me willingly. Under +the roof where I assemble the few who as yet are true believers, he is +always the first to come and the last to remain. No word of anger has +ever crossed his lips--no look of impatience has ever appeared in his +eyes. Though sorrowful, he is gentle; though suffering, he is +industrious. I have trusted him with all I possess, and I glory in my +credulity! Ulpius is incorruptible!' + +'And your daughter?--is Ulpius reverenced by her as he is respected by +you?' + + +'She knows that her duty is to love whom I love, and to avoid whom I +avoid. Can you imagine that a Christian virgin has any feelings +disobedient to her father's wishes? Come to my house; judge with your +own eyes of my daughter and my companion. You, whose misfortunes have +left you no home, shall find one, if you will, with me. Come then and +labour with me in my great undertaking! You will withdraw your mind +from the contemplation of your woes, and merit by your devotion the +favour of the Most High.' + +'No, Numerian, I will still be independent, even of my friends! Nor +Rome nor Italy are abiding-places for me. I go to another land to abide +among another people, until the arms of a conqueror shall have restored +freedom to the brave and protection to the honest throughout the +countries of the Empire.' + +'Probus, I implore you stay!' + +'Never! My determination is taken, Numerian--farewell!' + +For a few minutes Numerian stood motionless, gazing wistfully in the +direction taken by his companion on his departure. At first an +expression of grief and pity softened the austerity which seemed the +habitual characteristic of his countenance when in repose, but soon +these milder and tenderer feelings appeared to vanish from his heart as +suddenly as they had arisen; his features reassumed their customary +sternness, and he muttered to himself as he mixed with the crowd +struggling onwards in the direction of the basilica: 'Let him depart +unregretted; he has denied himself to the service of his Maker. He +should no longer be my friend.' + +In this sentence lay the index to the character of the man. His +existence was one vast sacrifice, one scene of intrepid self-immolation. +Although, in the brief hints at the events of his life which he had +communicated to his friend, he had exaggerated the extent of his errors, +he had by no means done justice to the fervour of his penitence--a +penitence which outstripped the usual boundaries of repentance, and only +began in despair to terminate in fanaticism. His desertion of his +father's house (into the motives of which it is not our present +intention to enter), and his long subsequent existence of violence and +excess, indisposed his naturally strong passions to submit to the +slightest restraint. In obedience to their first impulses, he +contracted, at a mature age, a marriage with a woman thoroughly unworthy +of the ardent admiration that she had inspired. When he found himself +deceived and dishonoured by her, the shock of such an affliction +thrilled through his whole being--crushed all his energies--struck him +prostrate, heart and mind, at one blow. The errors of his youth, +committed in his prosperity with moral impunity, reacted upon him in his +adversity with an influence fatal to his future peace. His repentance +was darkened by despondency; his resolutions were unbrightened by hope. +He flew to religion as the suicide flies to the knife--in despair. + +Leaving all remaining peculiarities in Numerian's character to be +discussed at a future opportunity, we will now follow him in his passage +through the crowd, to the entrance of the basilica--continuing to +designate him, here and elsewhere, by the name which he had assumed on +his conversion, and by which he had insisted on being addressed during +his interview with the fugitive landholder. + +Although at the commencement of his progress towards the church, our +enthusiast found himself placed among the hindermost of the members of +the advancing throng, he soon contrived so thoroughly to outstrip his +dilatory and discursive neighbours as to gain, with little delay, the +steps of the sacred building. Here, in common with many others, he was +compelled to stop, while those nearest the basilica squeezed their way +through its stately doors. In such a situation his remarkable figure +could not fail to be noticed, and he was silently recognised by many of +the bystanders, some of whom looked on him with wonder, and some with +aversion. Nobody, however, approached or spoke to him. Every one felt +the necessity of shunning a man whose bold and daily exposures of the +abuses of the Church placed in incessant peril his liberty, and even his +life. + + +Among the bystanders who surrounded Numerian, there were nevertheless +two who did not remain content with carelessly avoiding any +communication with the intrepid and suspected reformer. These two men +belonged to the lowest order of the clergy, and appeared to be occupied +in cautiously watching the actions and listening to the conversation of +the individuals immediately around them. The instant they beheld +Numerian they moved so as to elude his observation, taking care at the +same time to occupy such a position as enabled them to keep in view the +object of their evident distrust. + +'Look, Osius,' said one, 'that man is here again!' + +'And doubtless with the same motives which brought him here yesterday,' +replied the other. 'You will see that he will again enter the church, +listen to the service, retire to his little chapel near the Pincian +Mount, and there, before his ragged mob of adherents, attack the +doctrines which our brethren have preached, as we know he did last +night, and as we suspect he will continue to do until the authorities +think proper to give the signal for his imprisonment.' + +'I marvel that he should have been permitted to persist so long a time +as he has in his course of contumacy towards the Church. Have we not +evidence enough in his writings alone to convict him of heresy? The +carelessness of the bishop upon such a matter as this is quite +inexplicable!' + +'You should consider, Numerian not being a priest, that the carelessness +about our interests lies more with the senate than the bishop. What +time our nobles can spare from their debaucheries has been lately given +to discussions on the conduct of the Emperor in retiring to Ravenna, and +will now be dedicated to penetrating the basis of this rumour about the +Goths. Besides, even were they at liberty, what care the senate about +theological disputes? They only know this Numerian as a citizen of Rome, +a man of some influence and possessions, and, consequently, a person of +political importance as a member of the population. In addition to +which, it would be no easy task for us at the present moment to impugn +the doctrines broached by our assailant; for the fellow has a +troublesome facility of supporting what he says by the Bible. Believe +me, in this matter, our only way of righting ourselves will be to +convict him of scandal against the highest dignitaries of the Church.' + +'The order that we have lately received to track his movements and +listen to his discourses, leads me to believe that our superiors are of +your opinion.' + +'Whether my convictions are correct or not, of this I feel assured--that +his days of liberty are numbered. It was but a few hours ago that I saw +the bishop's chamberlain's head-assistant, and he told me that he had +heard, through the crevice of a door--' + +'Hush! he moves; he is pressing forward to enter the church. You can +tell me what you were about to say as we follow him. Quick! let us mix +with the crowd.' + +Ever enthusiastic in the performance of their loathsome duties, these +two discreet pastors of a Christian flock followed Numerian with the +most elaborate caution into the interior of the sacred building. + + +Although the sun still left a faint streak of red in the western sky, +and the moon had as yet scarcely risen, the great chandelier of two +thousand four hundred lamps, mentioned by the bishop in his address to +the people, was already alight. In the days of its severe and sacred +beauty, the appearance of the church would have suffered fatally by this +blaze of artificial brilliancy; but now that the ancient character of +the basilica was completely changed, now that from a solemn temple it +had been altered to the semblance of a luxurious palace, it gained +immensely by its gaudy illumination. Not an ornament along the vast +extent of its glorious nave but glittered in vivid distinctness in the +dazzling light that poured downwards from the roof. The gilded rafters, +the smooth inlaid marble pillars, the rich hangings of the windows, the +jewelled candlesticks on the altars, the pictures, the statues, the +bronzes, the mosaics, each and all glowed with a steady and luxurious +transparency absolutely intoxicating to the eye. Not a trace of wear, +not a vestige of tarnish now appeared on any object. Each portion of +the nave to which the attention was directed appeared too finely, +spotlessly radiant, ever to have been touched by mortal hands. +Entranced and bewildered, the observation roamed over the surface of the +brilliant scene, until, wearied by the unbroken embellishment of the +prospect, it wandered for repose upon the dimly lighted aisles, and +dwelt with delight upon the soft shadows that hovered about their +distant pillars, and the gliding forms that peopled their dusky +recesses, or loitered past their lofty walls. + +At the moment when Numerian entered the basilica, a part of the service +had just concluded. The last faint echo from the voices of the choir +still hung upon the incense-laden air, and the vast masses of the +spectators were still grouped in their listening and various attitudes, +as the devoted reformer looked forth upon the church. Even he, stern as +he was, seemed for a moment subdued by the ineffable enchantment of the +scene; but ere long, as if displeased with his own involuntary emotions +of admiration, his brow contracted, and he sighed heavily, as (still +followed by the attentive spies) he sought the comparative seclusion of +the aisles. + +During the interval between the divisions of the service, the +congregation occupied themselves in staring at the relics, which were +enclosed in a silver cabinet with crystal doors, and placed on the top +of the high altar. Although it was impossible to obtain a satisfactory +view of these ecclesiastical treasures, they nevertheless employed the +attention of every one until the appearance of a priest in the pulpit +gave signal of the commencement of the sermon, and admonished all those +who had seats to secure them without delay. + +Passing through the ranks of the auditors of the sermon--some of whom +were engaged in counting the lights in the chandelier, to be certain +that the bishop had not defrauded them of one out of the two thousand +four hundred lamps; others in holding whispered conversations, and +opening small boxes of sweetmeats--we again conduct the reader to the +outside of the church. + +The assemblage here had by this time much diminished; the shadows flung +over the ground by the lofty colonnades had deepened and increased; and +in many of the more remote recesses of the Place hardly a human being +was to be observed. At one of these extremities, where the pillars +terminated in the street and the obscurity was most intense, stood a +solitary old man keeping himself cautiously concealed in the darkness, +and looking out anxiously upon the public way immediately before him. + +He had waited but a short time when a handsome chariot, preceded by a +body-guard of gaily-attired slaves, stopped within a few paces of his +lurking-place, and the voice of the person it contained pronounced +audibly the following words:-- + +'No! no! Drive on--we are later than I thought. If I stay to see this +illumination of the basilica, I shall not be in time to receive my +guests for to-night's banquet. Besides, this inestimable kitten of the +breed most worshipped by the ancient Egyptians has already taken cold, +and I would not for the world expose the susceptible animal any longer +than is necessary to the dampness of the night-air. Drive on, good +Carrio, drive on!' + +The old man scarcely waited for the conclusion of this speech before he +ran up to the chariot, where he was immediately confronted by two +heads--one that of Vetranio the senator, the other that of a glossy +black kitten adorned with a collar of rubies, and half enveloped in its +master's ample robes. Before the astonished noble could articulate a +word, the man whispered in hoarse, hurried accents, 'I am Ulpius-- +dismiss your servants--I have something important to say!' + +'Ha! my worthy Ulpius! You have a most unhappy faculty of delivering a +message with the manner of an assassin! But I must pardon your +unpleasant abruptness in consideration of your diligence. My excellent +Carrio, If you value my approbation, remove your companions and yourself +out of hearing!' + + +The freedman yielded instant obedience to his master's mandate. The +following conversation then took place, the strange man opening it +thus:-- + +'You remember your promise?' + +'I do.' + +'Upon your honour, as a nobleman and a senator, you are prepared to +abide by it whenever it is necessary?' + +'I am.' + +'Then at the dawn of morning meet me at the private gate of your palace +garden, and I will conduct you to Antonina's bedchamber.' + +'The time will suit me. But why at the dawn of morning?' + +'Because the Christian dotard will keep a vigil until midnight, which +the girl will most probably attend. I wished to tell you this at your +palace, but I heard there that you had gone to Aricia, and would return +by way of the basilica; so I posted myself to intercept you thus.' + +'Industrious Ulpius!' + +'Remember your promise!' + +Vetranio leaned forward to reply, but Ulpius was gone. + +As the senator again commanded his equipage to move on, he looked +anxiously around him, as if once more expecting to see his strange +adherent still lurking near the chariot. He only perceived, however, a +man whom he did not know, followed by two other, walking rapidly past +him. They were Numerian and the spies. + +'At last, my projects are approaching consummation,' exclaimed Vetranio +to himself, as he and his kitten rolled off in the chariot. 'It is well +that I thought of securing possession of Julia's villa to-day, for I +shall now, assuredly, want to use it to-morrow. Jupiter! What a mass +of dangers, contradictions, and mysteries encompass this affair! When I +think that I, who pride myself on my philosophy, have quitted Ravenna, +borrowed a private villa, leagued myself with an uncultivated plebeian, +and all for the sake of a girl who has already deceived my expectations +by gaining me as a music-master without admitting me as a lover, I am +positively astonished at my own weakness! Still it must be owned that +the complexion my adventure has lately assumed renders it of some +interest in itself. The mere pleasure of penetrating the secrets of +this Numerian's household is by no means the least among the numerous +attraction of my design. How has he gained his influence over the girl? +Why does he keep her in such strict seclusion? Who is this old half- +frantic, unceremonious man-monster calling himself Ulpius; refusing all +reward for his villainy; raving about a return to the old religion of +the gods; and exulting in the promise he has extorted from me, as a good +pagan, to support the first restoration of the ancient worship that may +be attempted in Rome? Where does he come from? Why does he outwardly +profess himself a Christian? What sent him into Numerian's service? By +the girdle of Venus! everything connected with the girl is as +incomprehensible as herself! But patience--patience! A few hours more, +and these mysteries will be revealed. In the meantime, let me think of +my banquet, and of its presiding deity, the Nightingale Sauce!' + + +CHAPTER 5. ANTONINA. + + +Who that has been at Rome does not remember with delight the attractions +of the Pincian Hill? Who, after toiling through the wonders of the +dark, melancholy city, has not been revived by a visit to its shady +walks, and by breathing its fragrant breezes? Amid the solemn +mournfulness that reigns over declining Rome, this delightful elevation +rises light, airy, and inviting, at once a refreshment to the body and a +solace to the spirit. From its smooth summit the city is seen in its +utmost majesty, and the surrounding country in its brightest aspect. +The crimes and miseries of Rome seem deterred from approaching its +favoured soil; it impresses the mind as a place set apart by common +consent for the presence of the innocent and the joyful--as a scene that +rest and recreation keep sacred from the intrusion of tumult and toil. + +Its appearance in modern days is the picture of its character for ages +past. Successive wars might dull its beauties for a time, but peace +invariably restored them in all their pristine loveliness. The old +Romans called it 'The Mount of Gardens'. Throughout the disasters of +the Empire and the convulsions of the Middle Ages, it continued to merit +its ancient appellation, and a 'Mount of Gardens' it still triumphantly +remains to the present day. + +At the commencement of the fifth century the magnificence of the Pincian +Hill was at its zenith. Were it consistent with the conduct of our story +to dwell upon the glories of its palaces and its groves, its temples and +its theatres, such a glowing prospect of artificial splendour, aided by +natural beauty, might be spread before the reader as would tax his +credulity, while it excited his astonishment. This task, however, it is +here unnecessary to attempt. It is not for the wonders of ancient +luxury and taste, but for the abode of the zealous and religious +Numerian, that we find it now requisite to arouse interest and engage +attention. + +At the back of the Flaminian extremity of the Pincian Hill, and +immediately overlooking the city wall, stood, at the period of which we +write, a small but elegantly built house, surrounded by a little garden +of its own, and protected at the back by the lofty groves and +outbuildings of the palace of Vetranio the senator. This abode had been +at one time a sort of summer-house belonging to the former proprietor of +a neighbouring mansion. + +Profligate necessities, however, had obliged the owner to part with this +portion of his possessions, which was purchased by a merchant well known +to Numerian, who received it as a legacy at his friend's death. +Disgusted, as soon as his reforming projects took possession of his +mind, at the bare idea of propinquity to the ennobled libertines of +Rome, the austere Christian determined to abandon his inheritance, and +to sell it to another; but, at the repeated entreaties of his daughter, +he at length consented to change his purpose, and sacrifice his +antipathy to his luxurious neighbours to his child's youthful attachment +to the beauties of Nature as displayed in his legacy on the Pincian +Mount. In this instance only did the natural affection of the father +prevail over the acquired severity of the reformer. Here he +condescended, for the first and the last time, to the sweet trivialities +of youth. Here, indulgent in spite of himself, he fixed his little +household, and permitted to his daughter her sole recreations of tending +the flowers in the garden and luxuriating in the loveliness of the +distant view. + +****** + +The night has advanced an hour since the occurrence mentioned in the +preceding chapter. The clear and brilliant moonlight of Italy now +pervades every district of the glorious city, and bathes in its pure +effulgence the groves and palaces on the Pincian Mount. From the garden +of Numerian the irregular buildings of the great suburbs of Rome, the +rich undulating country beyond, and the long ranges of mountains in the +distance, are now all visible in the soft and luxurious light. Near the +spot which commands this view, not a living creature is to be seen on a +first examination; but on a more industrious and patient observation, +you are subsequently able to detect at one of the windows of Numerian's +house, half hidden by a curtain, the figure of a young girl. + + +Soon this solitary form approaches nearer to the eye. The moonbeams, +that have hitherto shone only upon the window, now illuminate other +objects. First they display a small, white arm; then a light, simple +robe; then a fair, graceful neck; and finally a bright, youthful, +innocent face, directed steadfastly towards the wide moon-brightened +prospect of the distant mountains. + +For some time the girl remains in contemplation at her window. Then she +leaves her post, and almost immediately reappears at a door leading into +the garden. Her figure, as she advances towards the lawn before her, is +light and small--a natural grace and propriety appear in her movements-- +she holds pressed to her bosom and half concealed by her robe, a gilt +lute. When she reaches a turf bank commanding the same view as the +window, she arranges her instrument upon her knees, and with something +of restraint in her manner gently touches the chords. Then, as if +alarmed at the sound she has produced, she glances anxiously around her, +apparently fearful of being overheard. Her large, dark, lustrous eyes +have in them an expression of apprehension; her delicate lips are half +parted; a sudden flush rises in her soft, olive complexion as she +examines every corner of the garden. Having completed her survey +without discovering any cause for the suspicions she seems to entertain, +she again employs herself over her instrument. Once more she strikes +the chords, and now with a bolder hand. The notes she produces resolve +themselves into a wild, plaintive, irregular melody, alternately rising +and sinking, as if swayed by the fickle influence of a summer wind. +These sounds are soon harmoniously augmented by the young minstrel's +voice, which is calm, still, and mellow, and adapts itself with +exquisite ingenuity to every arbitrary variation in the tone of the +accompaniment. The song that she has chosen is one of the fanciful odes +of the day. Its chief merit to her lies in its alliance to the strange +Eastern air which she heard at her first interview with the senator who +presented her with the lute. Paraphrased in English, the words of the +composition would run thus:-- + +THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC + +I. + + Spirit, whose dominion reigns + Over Music's thrilling strains, + Whence may be thy distant birth? + Say what tempted thee to earth? + + Mortal, listen: I was born + In Creation's early years, + Singing, 'mid the stars of morn, + To the music of the spheres. + + Once as, within the realms of space, + I view'd this mortal planet roll, + A yearning towards they hapless race, + Unbidden, filled my seraph soul! + + Angels, who had watched my birth, + Heard me sigh to sing to earth; + 'Twas transgression ne'er forgiv'n + To forget my native Heav'n; + So they sternly bade me go-- + Banish'd to the world below. + + +II. + + Exil'd here, I knew no fears; + For, though darkness round me clung, + Though none heard me in the spheres, + Earth had listeners while I sung. + + Young spirits of the Spring sweet breeze + Came thronging round me, soft and coy, + Light wood-nymphs sported in the trees, + And laughing Echo leapt for joy! + + Brooding Woe and writhing Pain + Soften'd at my gentle strain; + Bounding Joy, with footstep fleet, + Ran to nestle at my feet; + While, aroused, delighted Love + Softly kiss'd me from above! + + +III. + + Since those years of early time, + Faithful still to earth I've sung; + Flying through each distant clime, + Ever welcome, ever young! + + Still pleas'd, my solace I impart + Where brightest hopes are scattered dead; + 'Tis mine--sweet gift!--to charm the heart, + Though all its other joys have fled! + + Time, that withers all beside, + Harmless past me loves to glide; + Change, that mortals must obey, + Ne'er shall shake my gentle sway; + Still 'tis mine all hearts to move + In eternity of love. + +As the last sounds of her voice and her lute died softly away upon the +still night air, an indescribable elevation appeared in the girl's +countenance. She looked up rapturously into the far, star-bright sky; +her lip quivered, her dark eyes filled with tears, and her bosom heaved +with the excess of the emotions that the music and the scene inspired. +Then she gazed slowly around her, dwelling tenderly upon the fragrant +flower-beds that were the work of her own hands, and looking forth with +an expression half reverential, half ecstatic over the long, smooth, +shining plains, and the still, glorious mountains, that had so long been +the inspiration of her most cherished thoughts, and that now glowed +before her eyes, soft and beautiful as her dreams on her virgin couch. +Then, overpowered by the artless thoughts and innocent recollections +which on the magic wings of Nature and Night came wafted over her mind, +she bent down her head upon her lute, pressed her round, dimpled cheek +against its smooth frame, and drawing her fingers mechanically over its +strings, abandoned herself unreservedly to the reveries of maidenhood +and youth. + +Such was the being devoted by her father's fatal ambition to a lifelong +banishment from all that is attractive in human art and beautiful in +human intellect! Such was the daughter whose existence was to be one +long acquaintance with mortal woe, one unvaried refusal of mortal +pleasure, whose thoughts were to be only of sermons and fasts, whose +action were to be confined to the binding up of strangers' wounds and +the drying of strangers' tears; whose life, in brief, was doomed to be +the embodiment of her father's austere ideal of the austere virgins of +the ancient Church! + +Deprived of her mother, exiled from the companionship of others of her +age, permitted no familiarity with any living being, no sympathies with +any other heart, commanded but never indulged, rebuked but never +applauded, she must have sunk beneath the severities imposed on her by +her father, but for the venial disobedience committed in the pursuit of +the solitary pleasure procured for her by her lute. Vainly, in her +hours of study, did she read the fierce anathemas against love, liberty, +and pleasure, poetry, painting, and music, gold, silver, and precious +stones, which the ancient fathers had composed for the benefit of the +submissive congregations of former days; vainly did she imagine, during +those long hours of theological instruction, that her heart's forbidden +longings were banished and destroyed--that her patient and childlike +disposition was bowed in complete subserviency to the most rigorous of +her father's commands. No sooner were her interviews with Numerian +concluded than the promptings of that nature within us, which artifice +may warp but can never destroy, lured her into a forgetfulness of all +that she had heard and a longing for much that was forbidden. We live, +in this existence, but by the companionship of some sympathy, +aspiration, or pursuit, which serves us as our habitual refuge from the +tribulations we inherit from the outer world. The same feeling which led +Antonina in her childhood to beg for a flower-garden, in her girlhood +induced her to gain possession of a lute. + +The passion for music which prompted her visit to Vetranio, which alone +saved her affections from pining in the solitude imposed on them, and +which occupied her leisure hours in the manner we have already +described, was an inheritance of her birth. + + +Her Spanish mother had sung to her, hour after hour, in her cradle, for +the short time during which she was permitted to watch over her child. +The impression thus made on the dawning faculties of the infant, nothing +ever effaced. Though her earliest perception were greeted only by the +sight of her father's misery; though the form which his despairing +penitence soon assumed doomed her to a life of seclusion and an +education of admonition, the passionate attachment to the melody of +sound, inspired by her mother's voice--almost imbibed at her mother's +breast--lived through all neglect, and survived all opposition. It +found its nourishment in childish recollections, in snatches of street +minstrelsy heard through her window, in the passage of the night winds +of winter through the groves on the Pincian Mount, and received its +rapturous gratification in the first audible sounds from the Roman +senator's lute. How her possession of an instrument, and her skill in +playing, were subsequently gained, the reader already knows from +Vetranio's narrative at Ravenna. Could the frivolous senator have +discovered the real intensity of the emotions his art was raising in his +pupil's bosom while he taught her; could he have imagined how +incessantly, during their lessons, her sense of duty struggled with her +love for music--how completely she was absorbed, one moment by an agony +of doubt and fear, another by an ecstasy of enjoyment and hope--he would +have felt little of that astonishment at her coldness towards himself +which he so warmly expressed at his interview with Julia in the gardens +of the Court. In truth, nothing could be more complete than Antonina's +childish unconsciousness of the feelings with which Vetranio regarded +her. In entering his presence, whatever remnant of her affections +remained unwithered by her fears was solely attracted and engrossed by +the beloved and beautiful lute. In receiving the instrument, she almost +forgot the giver in the triumph of possession; or, if she thought of him +at all, it was to be grateful for having escaped uninjured from a member +of that class, for whom her father's reiterated admonitions had inspired +her with a vague feeling of dread and distrust, and to determine that, +now she had acknowledged his kindness and departed from his domains, +nothing should ever induce her to risk discovery by her father and peril +to herself by ever entering them again. + +Innocent in her isolation, almost infantine in her natural simplicity, a +single enjoyment was sufficient to satisfy all the passions of her age. +Father, mother, lover, and companion; liberties, amusements, and +adornments--they were all summed up for her in that simple lute. The +archness, the liveliness, and the gentleness of her disposition; the +poetry of her nature, and the affection of her heart; the happy bloom of +youth, which seclusion could not all wither nor distorted precept taint, +were now entirely nourished, expanded, and freshened--such is the +creative power of human emotion--by that inestimable possession. She +could speak to it, smile on it, caress it, and believe, in the ecstasy +of her delight, in the carelessness of her self-delusion, that it +sympathised with her joy. During her long solitudes, when she was +silently watched in her father's absence by the brooding, melancholy +stranger whom he had set over her, it became a companion dearer than the +flower-garden, dearer even that the plains and mountains which formed +her favourite view. When her father returned, and she was led forth to +sit in a dark place among strange, silent people, and to listen to +interminable declamations, it was a solace to think of the instrument as +it lay hidden securely in her chamber, and to ponder delightedly on what +new music of her own she could play upon it next. And then, when +evening arrived, and she was left alone in her garden--then came the +hour of moonlight and song; the moment of rapture and melody that drew +her out of herself, elevated her she felt not how, and transported her +she knew not whither. + +But, while we thus linger over reflection on motives and examinations +into character, we are called back to the outer world of passing +interests and events by the appearances of another figure on the scene. +We left Antonina in the garden thinking over her lute. She still +remains in her meditative position, but she is now no longer alone. + +From the same steps by which she had descended, a man now advances into +the garden, and walks towards the place she occupies. His gait is +limping, his stature crooked, his proportions distorted. His large, +angular features stand out in gaunt contrast to his shrivelled cheeks. +His dry, matted hair has been burnt by the sun into a strange tawny +brown. His expression is one of fixed, stern, mournful thought. As he +steps stealthily along, advancing towards Antonina, he mutters to +himself, and clutches mechanically at his garments with his lank, +shapeless fingers. The radiant moonlight, falling fully upon his +countenance, invests it with a livid, mysterious, spectral appearance: +seen by a stranger at the present moment, he would have been almost +awful to look upon. + +This was the man who had intercepted Vetranio on his journey home, and +who had now hurried back so as to regain his accustomed post before his +master's return, for he was the same individual mentioned by Numerian as +his aged convert, Ulpius, in his interview with the landholder at the +Basilica of St. Peter. + +When Ulpius had arrived within a few paces of the girl he stopped, +saying in a hoarse, thick voice-- + +'Hide your toy--Numerian is at the gates!' + + +Antonina started violently as she listened to those repulsive accents. +The blood rushed into her cheeks; she hastily covered the lute with her +robe; paused an instant, as if intending to speak to the man, then +shuddered violently, and hurried towards the house. + +As she mounted the steps Numerian met her in the hall. There was now no +chance of hiding the lute in its accustomed place. + +'You stay too late in the garden,' said the father, looking proudly, in +spite of all his austerity, upon his beautiful daughter as she stood by +his side. 'But what affects you?' he added, noticing her confusion. +'You tremble; your colour comes and goes; your lips quiver. Give me +your hand!' + +As Antonina obeyed him, a fold of the treacherous robe slipped aside, +and discovered a part of the frame of the lute. Numerian's quick eye +discovered it immediately. He snatched the instrument from her feeble +grasp. His astonishment on beholding it was too great for words, and +for an instant he confronted the poor girl, whose pale face looked rigid +with terror, in ominous and expressive silence. + +'This thing,' said he at length, 'this invention of libertines in my +house--in my daughter's possession!' and he dashed the lute into +fragments on the floor. + +For one moment Antonina looked incredulously on the ruins of the beloved +companion, which was the centre of all her happiest expectations for +future days. Then, as she began to estimate the reality of her +deprivation, her eyes lost all their heaven-born brightness, and filled +to overflowing with the tears of earth. + +'To your chamber!' thundered Numerian, as she knelt, sobbing +convulsively, over those hapless fragments. 'To your chamber! Tomorrow +shall bring this mystery of iniquity to light!' + +She rose humbly to obey him, for indignation had no part in the emotions +that shook her gentle and affectionate nature. As she moved towards the +room that no lute was henceforth to occupy, as she thought on the morrow +that no lute was henceforth to enliven, her grief almost overpowered +her. She turned back and looked imploringly at her father, as if +entreating permission to pick up even the smallest of the fragments at +his feet. + +'To your chamber!' he reiterated sternly. 'Am I to be disobeyed to my +face?' + +Without any repetition of her silent remonstrance, she instantly +retired. As soon as she was out of sight, Ulpius ascended the steps and +stood before the angered father. + +'Look, Ulpius,' cried Numerian, 'my daughter, whom I have so carefully +cherished, whom I intended for an example to the world, has deceived me, +even thus!' + +He pointed, as he spoke, to the ruins of the unfortunate lute; but +Ulpius did not address to him a word in reply, and he hastily +continued:-- + +'I will not sully the solemn offices of tonight by interrupting them +with my worldly affairs. To-morrow I will interrogate my disobedient +child. In the meantime, do not imagine, Ulpius, that I connect you in +any way with this wicked and unworthy deception! In you I have every +confidence, in your faithfulness I have every hope.' + +Again he paused, and again Ulpius kept silence. Any one less agitated, +less confiding, than his unsuspicious master, would have remarked that a +faint sinister smile was breaking forth upon his haggard countenance. +But Numerian's indignation was still too violent to permit him to +observed, and, spite of his efforts to control himself, he again broke +forth in complaint. + + +'On this night too, of all others,' cried he, 'when I had hoped to lead +her among my little assembly of the faithful, to join in their prayers, +and to listen to my exhortations--on this night I am doomed to find her +a player on a pagan lute, a possessor of the most wanton of the world's +vanities! God give me patience to worship this night with unwandering +thoughts, for my heart is vexed at the transgression of my child, as the +heart of Eli of old at the iniquities of his sons!' + +He was moving rapidly away, when, as if struck with a sudden +recollection, he stopped abruptly, and again addressed his gloomy +companion. + +'I will go by myself to the chapel to-night,' said he. 'You, Ulpius, +will stay to keep watch over my disobedient child. Be vigilant, good +friend, over my house; for even now, on my return, I thought that two +strangers were following my steps, and I forebode some evil in store for +me as the chastisement for my sins, even greater than this misery of my +daughter's transgression. Be watchful, good Ulpius--be watchful!' + +And, as he hurried away, the stern, serious man felt as overwhelmed at +the outrage that had been offered to his gloomy fanaticism, as the weak, +timid girl at the destruction that had been wreaked upon her harmless +lute. + +After Numerian had departed, the sinister smile again appeared on the +countenance of Ulpius. He stood for a short time fixed in thought, and +then began slowly to descend a staircase near him which led to some +subterranean apartments. He had not gone far when a slight noise became +audible at an extremity of the corridor above. As he listened for a +repetition of the sound, he heard a sob, and looking cautiously up, +discovered, by the moonlight, Antonina stepping cautiously along the +marble pavement of the hall. + +She held in her hand a little lamp; her small, rosy feet were uncovered; +the tears still streamed over her cheeks. She advanced with the +greatest caution (as if fearful of being overheard) until she gained the +part of the floor still strewn with the ruins of the broken lute. Here +she knelt down, and pressed each fragment that lay before her separately +to her lips. Then hurriedly concealing a single piece in her bosom, she +arose and stole quickly away in the direction by which she had come. + +'Be patient till the dawn,' muttered her faithless guardian, gazing +after her from his concealment as she disappeared; 'it will bring to thy +lute a restorer, and to Ulpius an ally!' + + +CHAPTER 6. AN APPRENTICESHIP TO THE TEMPLE. + +The action of our characters during the night included in the last two +chapters has now come to a pause. Vetranio is awaiting his guests for +the banquet; Numerian is in the chapel, preparing for the discourse that +he is to deliver to his friends; Ulpius is meditating in his master's +house; Antonina is stretched upon her couch, caressing the precious +fragment that she had saved from the ruins of her lute. All the +immediate agents of our story are, for the present, in repose. + +It is our purpose to take advantage of this interval of inaction, and +direct the reader's attention to a different country from that selected +as the scene of our romance, and to such historical events of past years +as connect themselves remarkably with the early life of Numerian's +perfidious convert. This man will be found a person of great importance +in the future conduct of our story. It is necessary to the +comprehension of his character, and the penetration of such of his +purposes as have been already hinted at, and may subsequently appear, +that the long course of his existence should be traced upwards to its +source. + +It was in the reign of Julian, when the gods of the Pagan achieved their +last victory over the Gospel of the Christian, that a decently attired +man, leading by the hand a handsome boy of fifteen years of age, entered +the gates of Alexandria, and proceeded hastily towards the high priest's +dwelling in the Temple of Serapis. + + +After a stay of some hours at his destination, the man left the city +alone as hastily as he entered it, and was never after seen at +Alexandria. The boy remained in the abode of the high priest until the +next day, when he was solemnly devoted to the service of the temple. + +The boy was the young Emilius, afterwards called Ulpius. He was nephew +to the high priest, to whom he had been confided by his father, a +merchant of Rome. + +Ambition was the ruling passion of the father of Emilius. It had +prompted him to aspire to every distinction granted to the successful by +the state, but it had not gifted him with the powers requisite to turn +his aspirations in any instance into acquisitions. He passed through +existence a disappointed man, planning but never performing, seeing his +more fortunate brother rising to the highest distinction in the +priesthood, and finding himself irretrievably condemned to exist in the +affluent obscurity ensured to him by his mercantile pursuits. + +When his brother Macrinus, on Julian's accession to the imperial throne, +arrived at the pinnacle of power and celebrity as high priest of the +Temple of Serapis, the unsuccessful merchant lost all hope of rivalling +his relative in the pursuit of distinction. His insatiable ambition, +discarded from himself, now settled on one of his infant sons. He +determined that his child should be successful where he had failed. Now +that his brother had secured the highest elevation in the temple, no +calling could offer more direct advantages to a member of his household +that the priesthood. His family had been from their earliest origin +rigid Pagans. One of them had already attained to the most +distinguished honours of his gorgeous worship. He determined that +another should rival his kinsman, and that that other should be his +eldest son. + +Firm in this resolution, he at once devoted his child to the great +design which he now held continually in view. He knew well that +Paganism, revived though it was, was not the universal worship that it +had been; that it was now secretly resisted, and might soon be openly +opposed, by the persecuted Christians throughout the Empire; and that if +the young generation were to guard it successfully from all future +encroachments, and to rise securely to its highest honours, more must be +exacted from them than the easy attachment to the ancient religion +require from the votaries of former days. Then, the performance of the +most important offices in the priesthood was compatible with the +possession of military or political rank. Now, it was to the temple, +and to the temple only, that the future servant of the gods should be +devoted. Resolving thus, the father took care that all the son's +occupations and rewards should, from his earliest years, be in some way +connected with the career for which he was intended. His childish +pleasures were to be conducted to sacrifices and auguries; his childish +playthings and prizes were images of the deities. No opposition was +offered on the boy's part to this plan of education. Far different from +his younger brother, whose turbulent disposition defied all authority, +he was naturally docile; and his imagination, vivid beyond his years, +was easily led captive by any remarkable object presented to it. With +such encouragement, his father became thoroughly engrossed by the +occupation of forming him for his future existence. His mother's +influence over him was jealously watched; the secret expression of her +love, of her sorrow, at the prospect of parting with him, was ruthlessly +suppressed whenever it was discovered; and his younger brother was +neglected, almost forgotten, in order that the parental watchfulness +might be entirely and invariably devoted to the eldest son. + +When Emilius had numbered fifteen years, his father saw with delight +that the time had come when he could witness the commencement of the +realisation of all his projects. The boy was removed from home, taken +to Alexandria, and gladly left, by his proud and triumphant father, +under the especial guardianship of Macrinus, the high priest. + + +The chief of the temple full sympathised in his brother's designs for +the young Emilius. As soon as the boy had entered on his new +occupations, he was told that he must forget all that he had left behind +him at Rome; that he must look upon the high priest as his father, and +upon the temple, henceforth, as his home; and that the sole object of +his present labours and future ambition must be to rise in the service +of the gods. Nor did Macrinus stop here. So thoroughly anxious was he +to stand to his pupil in the place of a parent, and to secure his +allegiance by withdrawing him in every way from the world in which he +had hitherto lived, that he even changed his name, giving to him one of +his own appellations, and describing it as a privilege to stimulate him +to future exertions. From the boy Emilius, he was now permanently +transformed to the student Ulpius. + +With such a natural disposition as we have already described, and under +such guardianship as that of the high priest, there was little danger +that Ulpius would disappoint the unusual expectations which had been +formed of him. His attention to his new duties never relaxed; his +obedience to his new masters never wavered. Whatever Macrinus demanded +of him he was sure to perform. Whatever longings he might feel to +return to home, he never discovered them; he never sought to gratify the +tastes naturally peculiar to his age. The high priest and his +colleagues were astonished at the extraordinary readiness with which the +boy himself forwarded their intentions for him. Had they known how +elaborately he had been prepared for his future employments at his +father's house, they would have been less astonished at their pupil's +unusual docility. Trained as he had been, he must have shown a more +than human perversity had he displayed any opposition to his uncle's +wishes. He had been permitted no childhood either of thought or action. +His natural precocity had been seized as the engine to force his +faculties into a perilous and unwholesome maturity; and when his new +duties demanded his attention, he entered on them with the same +sincerity of enthusiasm which his boyish coevals would have exhibited +towards a new sport. His gradual initiation into the mysteries of his +religion created a strange, voluptuous sensation of fear and interest in +his mind. He heard the oracles, and he trembled; he attended the +sacrifices and the auguries, and he wondered. All the poetry of the +bold and beautiful superstition to which he was devoted flowed +overwhelmingly into his young heart, absorbing the service of his fresh +imagination, and transporting him incessantly from the vital realities +of the outer world to the shadowy regions of aspiration and thought. + + +But his duties did not entirely occupy the attention of Ulpius. The boy +had his peculiar pleasures as well as his peculiar occupations. When +his employments were over for the day, it was a strange, unearthly, +vital enjoyment to him to wander softly in the shade of the temple +porticoes, looking down from his great mysterious eminence upon the +populous and sun-brightened city at his feet; watching the brilliant +expanse of the waters of the Nile glittering joyfully in the dazzling +and pervading light; raising his eyes from the fields and woods, the +palaces and garden, that stretched out before him below, to the lovely +and cloudless sky that watched round him afar and above, and that awoke +all that his new duties had left of the joyfulness, the affectionate +sensibility, which his rare intervals of uninterrupted intercourse with +his mother had implanted in his heart. Then, when the daylight began to +wane, and the moon and stars already grew beautiful in their places in +the firmament, he would pass into the subterranean vaults of the +edifice, trembling as his little taper scarcely dispelled the dull, +solemn gloom, and listening with breathless attention for the voices of +those guardian spirits whose fabled habitation was made in the +apartments of the sacred place. Or, when the multitude had departed for +their amusements and their homes, he would steal into the lofty halls +and wander round the pedestals of the mighty statues, breathing +fearfully the still atmosphere of the temple, and watching the passage +of the cold, melancholy moonbeams through the openings in the roof, and +over the colossal limbs and features of the images of the pagan gods. +Sometimes, when the services of Serapis and the cares attendant on his +communications with the Emperor were concluded, Macrinus would lead his +pupil into the garden of the priests, and praise him for his docility +till his heart throbbed with gratitude and pride. Sometimes he would +convey him cautiously outside the precincts of the sacred place, and +show him, in the suburbs of the city, silent, pale, melancholy men, +gliding suspiciously through the gay, crowded streets. Those fugitive +figures, he would declare, were the enemies of the temple and all that +it contained; conspirators against the Emperor and the gods; wretches +who were to be driven forth as outcasts from humanity; whose appellation +was 'Christian'; and whose impious worship, if tolerated, would deprive +him of the uncle whom he loved, of the temple that he reverenced, and of +the priestly dignity and renown which it should be his life's ambition +to acquire. + +Thus tutored in his duties by his guardian, and in his recreations by +himself, as time wore on, the boy gradually lost every remaining +characteristic of his age. Even the remembrance of his mother and his +mother's love grew faint on his memory. Serious, solitary, thoughtful, +he lived but to succeed in the temple; he laboured but to emulate the +high priest. All his feelings and faculties were now enslaved by an +ambition, at once unnatural at his present age, and ominous of +affliction for his future life. The design that Macrinus had +contemplated as the work of years was perfected in a few months. The +hope that his father had scarce dared to entertain for his manhood was +already accomplished in his youth. + +In these preparations for future success passed three years of the life +of Ulpius. At the expiration of that period the death of Julian +darkened the brilliant prospects of the Pagan world. Scarcely had the +priests of Serapis recovered the first shock of astonishment and grief +consequent upon the fatal news of the vacancy in the imperial throne, +when the edict of toleration issued by Jovian, the new Emperor, reached +the city of Alexandria, and was elevated on the walls of the temple. + +The first sight of this proclamation (permitting freedom of worship to +the Christians) aroused in the highly wrought disposition of Ulpius the +most violent emotions of anger and contempt. The enthusiasm of his +character and age, guided invariably in the one direction of his +worship, took the character of the wildest fanaticism when he discovered +the Emperor's careless infringement of the supremacy of the temple. He +volunteered in the first moments of his fury to tear down the edict from +the walls, to lead an attack on the meetings of the triumphant +Christians, or to travel to the imperial abode and exhort Jovian to +withdraw his act of perilous leniency ere it was too late. With +difficulty did his more cautious confederates restrain him from the +execution of his impetuous designs. For two days he withdrew himself +from his companions, and brooded in solitude over the injury offered to +his beloved superstition, and the prospective augmentation of the +influence of the Christian sect. + +But the despair of the young enthusiast was destined to be further +augmented by a private calamity, at once mysterious in its cause and +overwhelming in its effect. Two days after the publication of the edict +the high priest Macrinus, in the prime of vigour and manhood, suddenly +died. + +To narrate the confusion and horror within and without the temple on the +discovery of this fatal even; to describe the execrations and tumults of +the priests and the populace, who at once suspected the favoured and +ambitious Christians of causing, by poison, the death of their spiritual +ruler, might be interesting as a history of the manners of the times, +but is immaterial to the object of this chapter. We prefer rather to +trace the effect on the mind of Ulpius of his personal and private +bereavement; of this loss--irretrievable to him--of the master whom he +loved and the guardian whom it was his privilege to revere. + + +An illness of some months, during the latter part of which his +attendants trembled for his life and reason, sufficiently attested the +sincerity of the grief of Ulpius for the loss of his protector. During +his paroxysms of delirium the priests who watched round his bed drew +from his ravings many wise conclusions as to the effects that his +seizure and its causes were likely to produce on his future character; +but, in spite of all their penetration, they were still far from +appreciating to a tithe of its extent the revolution that his +bereavement had wrought in his disposition. The boy himself, until the +moment of the high priest's death, had never been aware of the depth of +his devotion to his second father. Warped as they had been by his +natural parent, the affectionate qualities that were the mainspring of +his nature had never been entirely destroyed; and they seized on every +kind word and gentle action of Macrinus as food which had been grudged +them since their birth. Morally and intellectually, Macrinus had been +to him the beacon that pointed the direction of his course, the judge +that regulated his conduct, the Muse that he looked to for inspiration. +And now, when this link which had connected every ramification of his +most cherished and governing ideas was suddenly snapped asunder, a +desolation sunk down upon his mind which at once paralysed its +elasticity and withered its freshness. He glanced back, and saw nothing +but a home from whose pleasures and affections his father's ambition had +exiled him for ever. He looked forward, and as he thought of his +unfitness, both from character and education, to mix in the world as +others mixed in it, he saw no guiding star of social happiness for the +conduct of his existence to come. There was now no resource left for +him but entirely to deliver himself up to those pursuits which had made +his home as a strange place to him, which were hallowed by their +connection with the lost object of his attachment, and which would +confer the sole happiness and distinction that he could hope for in the +wide world on his future life. + +In addition to this motive for labour in his vocation, there existed in +the mind of Ulpius a deep and settled feeling that animated him with +unceasing ardour for the prosecution of his cherished occupations. This +governing principle was detestation of the Christian sect. The +suspicion that others had entertained regarding the death of the high +priest was to his mind a certainty. He rejected every idea which +opposed his determined persuasion that the jealousy of the Christians +had prompted them to the murder, by poison, of the most powerful and +zealous of the Pagan priests. To labour incessantly until he attained +the influence and position formerly enjoyed by his relative, and to use +that influence and position, when once acquired, as the means of +avenging Macrinus, by sweeping every vestige of the Christian faith from +the face of the earth, were now the settled purposes of his heart. +Inspired by his determination with the deliberate wisdom which is in +most men the result only of the experience of years, he employed the +first days of his convalescence in cautiously maturing his future plans, +and impartially calculating his chances of success. This self- +examination completed, he devoted himself at once and for ever to his +life's great design. Nothing wearied, nothing discouraged, nothing +impeded him. Outward events passed by him unnoticed; the city's +afflictions and the city's triumphs spoke no longer to his heart. Year +succeeded to year, but Time had no tongue for him. Paganism gradually +sank, and Christianity imperceptibly rose, but change spread no picture +before his eyes. The whole outward world was a void to him, until the +moment arrived that beheld him successful in his designs. His +preparations for the future absorbed every faculty of his nature, and +left him, as to the present, a mere automaton, reflecting no principle, +and animated by no event--a machine that moved, but did not perceive--a +body that acted, without a mind that thought. + +Returning for a moment to the outward world, we find that on the death +of Jovian, in 364, Valentinian, the new Emperor, continued the system of +toleration adopted by his predecessor. On his death, in 375, Gratian, +the successor to the imperial throne, so far improved on the example of +the two former potentates as to range himself boldly on the side of the +partisans of the new faith. Not content with merely encouraging, both +by precept and by example, the growth of Christianity, the Emperor +further testified to his zeal for the rising religion by inflicting +incessant persecutions upon the rapidly decreasing advocates of the +ancient worship; serving, by these acts of his reign, as pioneer to his +successor, Theodosius the Great, in the religious revolution which that +illustrious opponent of Paganism was destined to effect. + + +The death of Gratian, in 383, saw Ulpius enrolled among the chief +priests of the temple, and pointed out as the next inheritor of the +important office once held by the powerful and active Macrinus. +Beholding himself thus secure of the distinction for which he had +laboured, the aspiring priest found leisure, at length, to look forth +upon the affairs of the passing day. From every side desolation +darkened the prospect that he beheld. Already, throughout many +provinces of the Empire, the temples of the gods had been overthrown by +the destructive zeal of the triumphant Christians. Already hosts of the +terrified people, fearing that the fate of their idols might ultimately +be their own, finding themselves deserted by their disbanded priests, +and surrounded by the implacable enemies of the ancient faith, had +renounced their worship for the sake of saving their lives and securing +their property. On the wide field of Pagan ruin there now rose but one +structure entirely unimpaired. The Temple of Serapis still reared its +head--unshaken, unbending, unpolluted. Here the sacrifice still +prospered and the people still bowed in worship. Before this monument of +the religious glories of ages, even the rising power of Christian +supremacy quailed in dismay. Though the ranks of its once multitudinous +congregations were now perceptibly thinned, though the new churches +swarmed with converts, though the edicts from Rome denounced it as a +blot on the face of the earth, its gloomy and solitary grandeur was +still preserved. No unhallowed foot trod its secret recesses; no +destroying hand was raised as yet against its ancient and glorious +walls. + +Indignation, but not despondency, filled the heart of Ulpius as he +surveyed the situation of the Pagan world. A determination nourished as +his had been by the reflections of years, and matured by incessant +industry of deliberation, is above all those shocks which affect a hasty +decision or destroy a wavering intention. Impervious to failure, +disasters urge it into action, but never depress it to repose. Its +existence is the air that preserves the vitality of the mind--the spring +that moves the action of the thoughts. Never for a moment did Ulpius +waver in his devotion to his great design, or despair of its ultimate +execution and success. Though every succeeding day brought the news of +fresh misfortunes for the Pagans and fresh triumphs for the Christians, +still, with a few of his more zealous comrades, he persisted in +expecting the advent of another Julian, and a day of restoration for the +dismantled shrines of the deities that he served. While the Temple of +Serapis stood uninjured, to give encouragement to his labours and refuge +to his persecuted brethren, there existed for him such an earnest of +success as would spur him to any exertion, and nerve him against any +peril. + +And now, to the astonishment of priests and congregations, the silent, +thoughtful, solitary Ulpius suddenly started from his long repose, and +stood forth the fiery advocate of the rights of his invaded worship. In +a few days the fame of his addresses to the Pagans who still attended +the rites of Serapis spread throughout the whole city. The boldest +among the Christians, as they passed the temple walls, involuntarily +trembled when they heard the vehemence of the applause which arose from +the audience of the inspired priest. Addressed to all varieties of age +and character, these harangues woke an echo in every breast they +reached. To the young they were clothed in all the poetry of the +worship for which they pleaded. They dwelt on the altars of Venus that +the Christians would lay waste; on the woodlands that the Christians +would disenchant of their Dryads; on the hallowed Arts that the +Christians would arise and destroy. To the aged they called up +remembrances of the glories of the past achieved through the favour of +the gods; of ancestors who had died in their service; of old forgotten +loves, and joys, and successes that had grown and prospered under the +gentle guardianship of the deities of old--while the unvarying burden of +their conclusion to all was the reiterated assertion that the +illustrious Macrinus had died a victim to the toleration of the +Christian sect. + + +But the efforts of Ulpius were not confined to the delivery of orations. +Every moment of his leisure time was dedicated to secret pilgrimages +into Alexandria. Careless of peril, regardless of threats, the +undaunted enthusiast penetrated into the most private meeting-places of +the Christians; reclaiming on every side apostates to the Pagan creed, +and defying the hostility of half the city from the stronghold of the +temple walls. Day after day fresh recruits arrived to swell the ranks +of the worshippers of Serapis. The few members of the scattered +congregations of the provinces who still remained faithful to the +ancient worship were gathered together in Alexandria by the private +messengers of the unwearied Ulpius. Already tumults began to take place +between the Pagans and the Christians; and even now the priest of +Serapis prepared to address a protest to the new Emperor in behalf of +the ancient religion of the land. At this moment it seemed probable +that the heroic attempts of one man to prop the structure of +superstition, whose foundations were undermined throughout, and whose +walls were attacked by brigands, might actually be crowned with success. + +But Time rolled on; and with him came inexorable change, trampling over +the little barriers set up against it by human opposition, and erecting +its strange and transitory fabrics triumphantly in their stead. In vain +did the devoted priest exert all his powers to augment and combine his +scattered band; in vain did the mighty temple display its ancient +majesty, its gorgeous sacrifices, its mysterious auguries. The spirit +of Christianity was forth for triumph on the earth--the last destinies +of Paganism were fast accomplishing. Yet a few seasons more of +unavailing resistance passed by, and then the Archbishop of Alexandria +issued his decree that the Temple of Serapis should be destroyed. + +At the rumour of their Primate's determination, the Christian fanatics +rose by swarms from every corner of Egypt, and hurried into Alexandria +to be present at the work of demolition. From the arid solitudes of the +desert, from their convents on rocks and their caverns in the earth, +hosts of rejoicing monks flew to the city gates, and ranged themselves +with the soldiery and the citizens, impatient for the assault. At the +dawn of morning this assembly of destroyers was convened, and as the sun +rose over Alexandria they arrived before the temple walls. + +The gates of the glorious structure were barred; the walls were crowded +with their Pagan defenders. A still, dead, mysterious silence reigned +over the whole edifice; and, of all the men who thronged it, one only +moved from his appointed place--one only wandered incessantly from point +to point, wherever the building was open to assault. Those among the +besiegers who were nearest the temple saw in this presiding genius of +the preparations for defence the object at once of their most malignant +hatred and their most ungovernable dread--Ulpius the priest. + +As soon as the Archbishop gave the signal for the assault, a band of +monks--their harsh, discordant voices screaming fragments of psalms, +their tattered garments waving in the air, their cadaverous faces +gleaming with ferocious joy--led the way, placed the first ladders +against the walls, and began the attack. From all sides the temple was +assailed by the infuriated besiegers, and on all sides it was +successfully defended by the resolute besieged. Shock after shock fell +upon the massive gates without forcing them to recede; missile after +missile was hurled at the building, but no breach was made in its solid +surface. Multitudes scaled the walls, gained the outer porticoes, and +slaughtered their Pagan defenders, but were incessantly repulsed in +their turn ere they could make their advantage good. Over and over +again did the assailants seem on the point of storming the temple +successfully, but the figure of Ulpius, invariably appearing at the +critical moment among his disheartened followers, acted like a fatality +in destroying the effect of the most daring exertions and the most +important triumphs. Wherever there was danger, wherever there was +carnage, wherever there was despair, thither strode the undaunted +priest, inspiring the bold, succouring the wounded, reanimating the +feeble. Blinded by no stratagem, wearied by no fatigue, there was +something almost demoniac in his activity for destruction, in his +determination under defeat. The besiegers marked his course round the +temple by the calamities that befell them at his every step. If the +bodies of slaughtered Christians were flung down upon them from the +walls, they felt that Ulpius was there. If the bravest of the soldiery +hesitated at mounting the ladders, it was known that Ulpius was +directing the defeat of their comrades above. If a sally from the +temple drove back the advanced guard upon the reserves in the rear, it +was pleaded as their excuse that Ulpius was fighting at the head of his +Pagan bands. Crowd on crowd of Christian warriors still pressed forward +to the attack; but though the ranks of the unbelievers were perceptibly +thinned, though the gates that defended them at last began to quiver +before the reiterated blows by which they were assailed, every court of +the sacred edifice yet remained in the possession of the besieged, and +was at the disposal of the unconquered captain who organised the +defence. + + +Depressed by the failure of his efforts, and horrified at the carnage +already perpetrated among his adherents, the Archbishop suddenly +commanded a cessation of hostilities, and proposed to the defenders of +the temple a short and favourable truce. After some delay, and +apparently at the expense of some discord among their ranks, the Pagans +sent to the Primate an assurance of their acceptance of his terms, which +were that both parties should abstain from any further struggle for the +ascendancy until an edict from Theodosius determining the ultimate fate +of the temple should be applied for and obtained. + +The truce once agreed on, the wide space before the respited edifice was +gradually cleared of its occupants. Slowly and sadly the Archbishop and +his followers departed from the ancient walls whose summits they had +assaulted in vain; and when the sun went down, of the great multitude +congregated in the morning a few corpses were all that remained. Within +the sacred building, Death and Repose ruled with the night, where +morning had brightly glittered on Life and Action. The wounded, the +wearied, and the cold, all now lay hushed alike, fanned by the night +breezes that wandered through the lofty porticoes, or soothed by the +obscurity that reigned over the silent halls. Among the ranks of the +Pagan devotees but one man still toiled and thought. Round and round +the temple, restless as a wild beast that is threatened in his lair, +watchful as a lonely spirit in a city of strange tombs, wandered the +solitary and brooding Ulpius. For him there was no rest of body--no +tranquility of mind. On the events of the next few days hovered the +fearful chance that was soon, either for misery or happiness, to +influence irretrievably the years of his future life. Round and round +the mighty walls he watched with mechanical and useless anxiety. Every +stone in the building was eloquent to his lonely heart--beautiful to his +wild imagination. On those barren structures stretched for him the loved +and fertile home; there was the shrine for whose glory his intellect had +been enslaved, for whose honour his youth had been sacrificed! Round and +round the secret recesses and sacred courts he paced with hurried +footstep, cleansing with gentle and industrious hand the stains of blood +and the defilements of warfare from the statues at his side. Sad, +solitary, thoughtful, as in the first days of his apprenticeship to the +gods, he now roved in the same moonlit recesses where Macrinus had +taught him in his youth. As the menacing tumults of the day had aroused +his fierceness, so the stillness of the quiet night awakened his +gentleness. He had combated for the temple in the morning as a son for +a parent, and he now watched over it at night as a miser over his +treasure, as a lover over his mistress, as a mother over her child! + +The days passed on; and at length the memorable morning arrived which +was to determine the fate of the last temple that Christian fanaticism +had spared to the admiration of the world. At an early hour of the +morning the diminished numbers of the Pagan zealots met their reinforced +and determined opponents--both sides being alike unarmed--in the great +square of Alexandria. The imperial prescript was then publicly read. +It began by assuring the Pagans that their priest's plea for protection +for the temple had received the same consideration which had been +bestowed on the petition against the gods presented by the Christian +Archbishop, and ended by proclaiming the commands of the Emperor that +Serapis and all other idols in Alexandria should immediately be +destroyed. + +The shout of triumph which followed the conclusion of the imperial edict +still rose from the Christian ranks when the advanced guard of the +soldiers appointed to ensure the execution of the Emperor's designs +appeared in the square. For a few minutes the forsaken Pagans stood +rooted to the spot where they had assembled, gazing at the warlike +preparations around them in a stupor of bewilderment and despair. Then +as they recollected how diminished were their numbers, how arduous had +been their first defence against a few, and how impossible would be a +second defence against many--from the boldest to the feeblest, a panic +seized on them; and, regardless of Ulpius, regardless of honour, +regardless of the gods, they turned with one accord and fled from the +place. + + +With the flight of the Pagans the work of demolition began. Even women +and children hurried to join in the welcome task of indiscriminate +destruction. No defenders on this occasion barred the gates of the +temple to the Christian hosts. The sublime solitude of the tenantless +building was outraged and invaded in an instant. Statues were broken, +gold was carried off, doors were splintered into fragments; but here for +a while the progress of demolition was delayed. Those to whom the +labour of ruining the outward structure had been confided were less +successful than their neighbours who had pillaged its contents. The +ponderous stones of the pillars, the massive surfaces of the walls, +resisted the most vigorous of their puny efforts, and forced them to +remain contented with mutilating that which they could not destroy--with +tearing off roofs, defacing marbles, and demolishing capitals. The rest +of the buildings remained uninjured, and grander even now in the +wildness of ruin than ever it had been in the stateliness of perfection +and strength. + +But the most important achievement still remained, the death-wound of +Paganism was yet to be struck--the idol Serapis, which had ruled the +hearts of millions, and was renowned in the remotest corners of the +Empire, was to be destroyed! A breathless silence pervaded the +Christian ranks as they filled the hall of the god. A superstitious +dread, to which they had hitherto thought themselves superior, overcame +their hearts, as a single soldier, bolder than his fellows, mounted by a +ladder to the head of the colossal statue, and struck at its cheek with +an axe. The blow had scarcely been dealt when a deep groan was heard +from the opposite wall of the apartment, succeeded by a noise of +retreating footsteps, and then all was silent again. For a few minutes +this incident stayed the feet of those who were about to join their +companion in the mutilation of the idol; but after an interval their +hesitation vanished, they dealt blow after blow at the statue, and no +more groans followed--no more sounds were heard, save the wild echoes of +the stroke of hammer, crowbar, and club, resounding through the lofty +hall. In an incredibly short space of time the image of Serapis lay in +great fragments on the marble floor. The multitude seized on the limbs +of the idol and ran forth to drag them in triumph through the streets. +Yet a few minutes more, and the ruins were untenanted, the temple was +silent--Paganism was destroyed! + +Throughout the ravaging course of the Christians over the temple, they +had been followed with dogged perseverance, and at the same time with +the most perfect impunity, by the only Pagan of all his brethren who had +not sought safety by flight. This man, being acquainted with every +private passage and staircase in the sacred building, was enabled to be +secretly present at each fresh act of demolition, in whatever part of +the edifice it might be perpetrated. From hall to hall, and from room +to room, he tracked with noiseless step and glaring eye the movements of +the Christian mob--now hiding himself behind a pillar, now passing into +concealed cavities in the walls, now looking down from imperceptible +fissures in the roof; but, whatever his situation, invariably watching +from it, with the same industry of attention and the same silence of +emotion, the minutest acts of spoliation committed by the most humble +follower of the Christian ranks. It was only when he entered with the +victorious ravagers into the vast apartment occupied by the idol Serapis +that the man's countenance began to give evidence of the agony under +which his heart was writhing within him. He mounted a private staircase +cut in the hollow of the massive wall of the room, and gaining a passage +that ran round the extremities of the ceiling, looked through a sort of +lattice concealed in the ornaments of the cornice. As he gazed down and +saw the soldier mounting, axe in hand, to the idol's head, great drops +of perspiration trickled from his forehead. His hot, thick breath +hissed through his closed teeth, and his hands strained at the strong +metal supports of the lattice until they bent beneath his grasp. When +the stroke descended on the image, he closed his eyes. When the +fragment detached by the blow fell on the floor, a groan burst from his +quivering lips. For one moment more he glared down with a gaze of +horror upon the multitude at his feet, and then with frantic speed he +descended the steep stairs by which he had mounted to the roof, and fled +from the temple. + + +The same night this man was again seen by some shepherds whom curiosity +led to visit the desecrated building, weeping bitterly in its ruined and +deserted porticoes. As they approached to address him, he raised his +head, and with a supplicating action signed to them to leave the place. +For the few moments during which he confronted them, the moonlight shone +full upon his countenance, and the shepherds, who had in former days +attended the ceremonies of the temple, saw with astonishment that the +solitary mourner whose meditations they had disturbed was no other than +Ulpius the priest. + +At the dawn of day these shepherds had again occasion to pass the walls +of the pillaged temple. Throughout the hours of the night the +remembrance of the scene of unsolaced, unpartaken grief that they had +beheld--of the awful loneliness of misery in which they had seen the +heart-broken and forsaken man, whose lightest words they had once +delighted to revere--inspired them with a feeling of pity for the +deserted Pagan, widely at variance with the spirit of persecution which +the spurious Christianity of their day would fain have instilled in the +bosoms of its humblest votaries. Bent on consolation, anxious to afford +help, these men, like the Samaritan of old, went up at their own peril +to succour a brother in affliction. They searched every portion of the +empty building, but the object of their sympathy was nowhere to be seen. +They called, but heard no answering sound, save the dirging of the winds +of early morning through the ruined halls, which but a short time since +had resounded with the eloquence of the once illustrious priest. Except +a few night-birds, already sheltered by the deserted edifice, not a +living being moved in what was once the temple of the Eastern world. +Ulpius was gone. + +These events took place in the year 389. In 390, Pagan ceremonies were +made treason by the laws throughout the whole Roman Empire. + +From that period the scattered few who still adhered to the ancient +faith became divided into three parties; each alike insignificant, +whether considered as openly or secretly inimical to the new religion of +the State at large. + +The first party unsuccessfully endeavoured to elude the laws prohibitory +of sacrifices and divinations by concealing their religious ceremonies +under the form of convivial meetings. + +The second preserved their ancient respect for the theory of Paganism, +but abandoned all hope and intention of ever again accomplishing its +practice. By such timely concessions many were enabled to preserve--and +some even to attain--high and lucrative employments as officers of the +State. + +The third retired to their homes, the voluntary exiles of every +religion; resigning the practice of their old worship as a necessity, +and shunning the communion of Christians as a matter of choice. + +Such were the unimportant divisions into which the last remnants of the +once powerful Pagan community now subsided; but to none of them was the +ruined and degraded Ulpius ever attached. + +For five weary years--dating from the epoch of the prohibition of +Paganism--he wandered through the Empire, visiting in every country the +ruined shrines of his deserted worship--a friendless, hopeless, solitary +man! + + +Throughout the whole of Europe, and all of Asia and the East that still +belonged to Rome, he bent his slow and toilsome course. In the fertile +valleys of Gaul, over the burning sands of Africa, through the sun- +bright cities of Spain, he travelled--unfriended as a man under a curse, +lonely as a second Cain. Never for an instant did the remembrance of +his ruined projects desert his memory, or his mad determination to +revive his worship abandon his mind. At every relic of Paganism, +however slight, that he encountered on his way, he found a nourishment +for his fierce anguish, and employment for his vengeful thoughts. +Often, in the little villages, children were frightened from their +sports in a deserted temple by the apparition of his gaunt, rigid figure +among the tottering pillars, or the sound of his hollow voice as he +muttered to himself among the ruins of the Pagan tombs. Often, in +crowded cities, groups of men, congregated to talk over the fall of +Paganism, found him listening at their sides, and comforting them, when +they carelessly regretted their ancient faith, with a smiling and +whispered assurance that a time of restitution would yet come. By all +opinions and in all places he was regarded as a harmless madman, whose +strange delusions and predilections were not to be combated, but to be +indulged. Thus he wandered through the Christian world; regardless +alike of lapse of time and change of climate; living within himself; +mourning, as a luxury, over the fall of his worship; patient of wrongs, +insults, and disappointments; watching for the opportunity that he still +persisted in believing was yet to arrive; holding by his fatal +determination with all the recklessness of ambition and all the +perseverance of revenge. + +The five years passed away unheeded, uncalculated, unregretted by +Ulpius. For him, living but in the past, hoping but for the future, +space held no obstacles--time was an oblivion. Years pass as days, +hours as moments, when the varying emotions which mark their existence +on the memory, and distinguish their succession on the dial of the +heart, exist no longer either for happiness or woe. Dead to all +freshness of feeling, the mind of Ulpius, during the whole term of his +wanderings, lay numbed beneath the one idea that possessed it. It was +only at the expiration of those unheeded years, when the chances of +travel turned his footsteps towards Alexandria, that his faculties burst +from the long bondage which had oppressed them. Then--when he passed +through those gates which he had entered in former years a proud, +ambitious boy, when he walked ungreeted through the ruined temple where +he had once lived illustrious and revered--his dull, cold thoughts arose +strong and vital within him. The spectacle of the scene of his former +glories, which might have awakened despair in others, aroused the +dormant passions, emancipated the stifled energies in him. The projects +of vengeance and the visions of restoration which he had brooded over +for five long years, now rose before him as realised already under the +vivid influence of the desecrated scenes around. As he stood beneath +the shattered porticoes of the sacred place, not a stone crumbling at +his feet but rebuked him for his past inaction, and strengthened him for +daring, for conspiracy, for revenge, in the service of the outraged gods. +The ruined temples he had visited in his gloomy pilgrimages now became +revived by his fancy, as one by one they rose on his toiling memory. +Broken pillars soared from the ground; desecrated idols reoccupied their +vacant pedestals; and he, the exile and the mourner, stood forth once +again the ruler, the teacher, and the priest. The time of restitution +was come; though his understanding supplied him with no distinct +projects, his heart urged him to rush blindly on the execution of his +reform. The moment had arrived--Macrinus should yet be avenged; the +temple should at last be restored. + +He descended into the city; he hurried--neither welcomed nor +recognised--through the crowded streets; he entered the house of a man +who had once been his friend and colleague in the days that were past, +and poured forth to him his wild determinations and disjointed plans, +entreating his assistance, and promising him a glorious success. But +his old companion had become, by a timely conversion to Christianity, a +man of property and reputation in Alexandria, and he turned from the +friendless enthusiast with indignation and contempt. Repulsed, but not +disheartened, Ulpius sought others who he had known in his prosperity +and renown. They had all renounced their ancient worship--they all +received him with studied coldness or careless disdain; but he still +persisted in his useless efforts. He blinded his eyes to their +contemptuous looks; he shut his ears to their derisive words. +Persevering in his self-delusion, he appointed them messengers to their +brethren in other countries, captains of the conspiracy that was to +commence in Alexandria, orators before the people when the memorable +revolution had once begun. It was in vain that they refused all +participation in his designs; he left them as the expressions of refusal +rose to their lips, and hurried elsewhere, as industrious in his +efforts, as devoted to his unwelcome mission, as if half the population +of the city had vowed themselves joyfully to aid him in his frantic +attempt. + + +Thus during the whole day he continued his labour of useless persuasion +among those in the city who had once been his friends. When the evening +came, he repaired, weary but not despondent, to the earthly paradise +that he was determined to regain--to the temple where he had once +taught, and where he still imagined that he was again destined to +preside. Here he proceeded, ignorant of the new laws, careless of +discovery and danger, to ascertain by divination, as in the days of old, +whether failure or success awaited him ultimately in his great design. + +Meanwhile the friends whose assistance Ulpius had determined to extort +were far from remaining inactive on their parts after the departure of +the aspiring priest. They remembered with terror that the laws affected +as severely those concealing their knowledge of a Pagan intrigue as +those actually engaged in directing a Pagan conspiracy; and their +anxiety for their personal safety overcoming every consideration of the +dues of honour or the claims of ancient friendship, they repaired in a +body to the Prefect of the city, and informed him, with all the +eagerness of apprehension, of the presence of Ulpius in Alexandria, and +of the culpability of the schemes that he had proposed. + +A search after the devoted Pagan was immediately commenced. He was +found the same night before a ruined altar, brooding over the entrails +of an animal that he had just sacrificed. Further proof of his guilt +could not be required. He was taken prisoner; led forth the next +morning to be judged, amid the execrations of the very people who had +almost adored him once; and condemned the following day to suffer the +penalty of death. + +At the appointed hour the populace assembled to behold the execution. +To their indignation and disappointment, however, when the officers of +the city appeared before the prison, it was only to inform the +spectators that the performance of the fatal ceremony had been +adjourned. After a mysterious delay of some weeks, they were again +convened, not to witness the execution, but to receive the +extraordinary announcement that the culprit's life had been spared, and +that his amended sentence now condemned him to labour as a slave for +life in the copper-mines of Spain. + +What powerful influence induced the Prefect to risk the odium of +reprieving a prisoner whose guilt was so satisfactorily ascertained as +that of Ulpius never was disclosed. Some declared that the city +magistrate was still at heart a Pagan, and that he consequently shrunk +from authorising the death of a man who had once been the most +illustrious among the professors of the ancient creed. Others reported +that Ulpius had secured the leniency of his judges by acquainting them +with the position of one of those secret repositories of enormous +treasure supposed to exist beneath the foundations of the dismantled +Temple of Serapis. But the truth of either of these rumours could never +be satisfactorily proved. Nothing more was accurately discovered than +that Ulpius was removed from Alexandria to the place of earthly torment +set apart for him by the zealous authorities, at the dead of night; and +that the sentry at the gate through which he departed heard him mutter +to himself, as he was hurried onward, that his divinations had prepared +him for defeat, but that the great day of Pagan restoration would yet +arrive. + +In the year 407, twelve years after the events above narrated, Ulpius +entered the city of Rome. + +He had not advanced far, before the gaiety and confusion in the streets +appeared completely to bewilder him. He hastened to the nearest public +garden that he could perceive, and avoiding the frequented paths, flung +himself down, apparently fainting with exhaustion, at the foot of a +tree. + + +For some time he lay on the shady resting-place which he had chosen, +gasping painfully for breath, his frame ever and anon shaken to its +centre by sudden spasms, and his lips quivering with an agitation which +he vainly endeavoured to suppress. So changed was his aspect, that the +guards who had removed him from Alexandria, wretched as was his +appearance even then, would have found it impossible to recognise him +now as the same man whom they had formerly abandoned to slavery in the +mines of Spain. The effluvia exhaled from the copper ore in which he +had been buried for twelve years had not only withered the flesh upon +his bones, but had imparted to its surface a livid hue, almost death- +like in its dulness. His limbs, wasted by age and distorted by +suffering, bent and trembled beneath him; and his form, once so majestic +in its noble proportions, was now so crooked and misshapen, that whoever +beheld him could only have imagined that he must have been deformed from +his birth. Of the former man no characteristic remained but the +expression of the stern, mournful eyes; and these, the truthful +interpreters of the indomitable mind whose emotions they seemed created +to express, preserved, unaltered by suffering and unimpaired by time, +the same look, partly of reflection, partly of defiance, and partly of +despair, which had marked them in those past days when the temple was +destroyed and the congregations of the Pagans dispersed. + +But the repose at this moment demanded by his worn-out body was even yet +denied to it by his untamed, unwearied mind, and, as the voice of his +old delusion spoke within him again, the devoted priest rose from his +solitary resting-place, and looked forth upon the great city, whose new +worship he was vowed to overthrow. + +'By years of patient watchfulness,' he whispered to himself, 'have I +succeeded in escaping successfully from my dungeon among the mines. Yet +a little more cunning, a little more endurance, a little more vigilance, +and I shall still live to people, by my own exertions, the deserted +temples of Rome.' + +As he spoke he emerged from the grove into the street. The joyous +sunlight--a stranger to him for years--shone warmly down upon his face, +as if to welcome him to liberty and the world. The sounds of gay +laughter rang in his ears, as if to woo him back to the blest enjoyments +and amenities of life; but Nature's influence and man's example were now +silent alike to his lonely heart. Over its dreary wastes still reigned +the ruthless ambition which had exiled love from his youth, and +friendship from his manhood, and which was destined to end its mission +of destruction by banishing tranquility from his age. Scowling fiercely +at all around and above him, he sought the loneliest and shadiest +streets. Solitude had now become a necessity to his heart. The 'great +gulph' of his unshared aspirations had long since socially separated him +for ever from his fellow-men. He thought, laboured, and suffered for +himself alone. + +To describe the years of unrewarded labour and unalleviated hardship +endured by Ulpius in the place of his punishment; to dwell on the day +that brought with it--whatever the season in the world above--the same +unwearying inheritance of exertion and fatigue; to chronicle the history +of night after night of broken slumber one hour, of wearying thought the +next, would be to produce a picture from the mournful monotony of which +the attention of the reader would recoil with disgust. It will be here +sufficient to observe, that the influence of the same infatuation which +had nerved him to the defence of the assaulted temple, and encouraged +him to attempt his ill-planned restoration of Paganism, had preserved +him through sufferings under which stronger and younger men would have +sunk for ever; had prompted his determination to escape from his +slavery, and had now brought him to Rome--old, forsaken, and feeble as +he was--to risk new perils and suffer new afflictions for the cause to +which, body and soul, he had ruthlessly devoted himself for ever. + + +Urged, therefore, by his miserable delusion, he had now entered a city +where even his name was unknown, faithful to his frantic project of +opposing himself, as a helpless, solitary man, against the people and +government of an Empire. During his term of slavery, regardless of his +advanced years, he had arranged a series of projects, the gradual +execution of which would have demanded the advantages of a long and +vigorous life. He no more desired, as in his former attempt at +Alexandria, to precipitate at all hazards the success of his designs. +He was now prepared to watch, wait, plot, and contrive for years on +years; he was resigned to be contented with the poorest and slowest +advancement--to be encouraged by the smallest prospect of ultimate +triumph. Acting under this determination, he started his project by +devoting all that remained of his enfeebled energies to cautiously +informing himself, by every means in his power, of the private, +political, and religious sentiments of all men of influence in Rome. +Wherever there was a popular assemblage, he attended it to gather the +scandalous gossip of the day; wherever there was a chance of overhearing +a private conversation, he contrived to listen to it unobserved. About +the doors of taverns and the haunts of discharged servants he lurked +noiseless as a shadow, attentive alike to the careless revelations of +intoxication or the scurrility of malignant slaves. Day after day +passed on, and still saw him devoted to his occupation (which, servile +as it was in itself, was to his eyes ennobled by its lofty end), until +at the expiration of some months he found himself in possession of a +vague and inaccurate fund of information, which he stored up as a +priceless treasure in his mind. He next discovered the name and abode +of every nobleman in Rome suspected even of the most careless attachment +to the ancient form of worship. He attended Christian churches, +mastered the intricacies of different sects, and estimated the +importance of contending schisms; gaining this collection of +heterogeneous facts under the combined disadvantages of poverty, +solitude, and age; dependent for support on the poorest public +charities, and for shelter on the meanest public asylums. Every +conclusion that he drew from all he learned partook of the sanguine +character of the fatal self-deception which had embittered his whole +life. He believed that the dissensions which he saw raging in the +Church would speedily effect the destruction of Christianity itself; +that, when such a period should arrive, the public mind would require +but the guidance of some superior intellect to return to its old +religious predilections; and that to lay the foundation for effecting in +such a manner the desired revolution, it was necessary for him-- +impossible though it might seem in his present degraded condition--to +gain access to the disaffected nobles of Rome, and discover the secret +of acquiring such an influence over them as would enable him to infect +them with his enthusiasm, and fire them with his determination. Greater +difficulties even than these had been overcome by other men. Solitary +individuals had, ere this, originated revolutions. The gods would +favour him; his own cunning would protect him. Yet a little more +patience, a little more determination, and he might still, after all his +misfortunes, be assured of success. + +It was about this period that he first heard, while pursuing his +investigations, of an obscure man who had suddenly arisen to undertake a +reformation in the Christian Church, whose declared aim was to rescue +the new worship from that very degeneracy on the fatal progress of which +rested all his hopes of triumph. It was reported that this man had been +for some time devoted to his reforming labours, but that the +difficulties attendant on the task that he had appointed for himself had +hitherto prevented him from attaining all the notoriety essential to the +satisfactory prosecution of his plans. On hearing this rumour, Ulpius +immediately joined the few who attended the new orator's discourses, and +there heard enough to convince him that he listened to the most +determined zealot for Christianity in the city of Rome. To gain this +man's confidence, to frustrate every effort that he might make in his +new vocation, to ruin his credit with his hearers, and to threaten his +personal safety by betraying his inmost secrets to his powerful enemies +in the Church, were determinations instantly adopted by the Pagan as +duties demanded by the exigencies of his creed. From that moment he +seized every opportunity of favourably attracting the new reformer's +attention to himself, and, as the reader already knows, he was at length +rewarded for his cunning and perseverance by being received into the +household of the charitable and unsuspicious Numerian as a pious convert +to the Christianity of the early Church. + + +Once installed under Numerian's roof, the treacherous Pagan saw in the +Christian's daughter an instrument admirably adapted, in his +unscrupulous hands, for forwarding his wild project of obtaining the ear +of a Roman of power and station who was disaffected to the established +worship. Among the patricians of whose anti-Christian predilections +report had informed him, was Numerian's neighbour, Vetranio the senator. +To such a man, renowned for his life of luxury, a girl so beautiful as +Antonina would be a bribe rich enough to enable him to extort any +promise required as a reward for betraying her while under the +protection of her father's house. In addition to this advantage to be +drawn from her ruin, was the certainty that her loss would so affect +Numerian as to render him, for a time at least, incapable of pursuing +his labours in the cause of Christianity. Fixed then in his detestable +purpose, the ruthless priest patiently awaited the opportunity of +commencing his machinations. Nor did he watch in vain. The victim +innocently fell into the very trap that he had prepared for her when she +first listened to the music of Vetranio's lute, and permitted her +treacherous guardian to become the friend who concealed her disobedience +from her father's ear. After that first fatal step every day brought +the projects of Ulpius nearer to success. The long-sought interview +with the senator was at length obtained; the engagement imperatively +demanded on the one side was, as we have already related, carelessly +accepted on the other; the day that was to bring success to the schemes +of the betrayer, and degradation to the honour of the betrayed, was +appointed; and once more the cold heart of the fanatic warmed to the +touch of joy. No doubts upon the validity of his engagement with +Vetranio ever entered his mind. He never imagined that powerful senator +could with perfect impunity deny him the impracticable assistance he had +demanded as his reward, and thrust him as an ignorant madman from his +palace gates. Firmly and sincerely he believed that Vetranio was so +satisfied with his readiness in pandering to his profligate designs, and +so dazzled by the prospect of the glory which would attend success in +the great enterprise, that he would gladly hold to the performance of +his promise whenever it should be required of him. In the meantime the +work was begun. Numerian was already, through his agency, watched by +the spies of a jealous and unscrupulous Church. Feuds, schisms, +treacheries, and dissensions marched bravely onward through the +Christian ranks. All things combined to make it certain that the time +was near at hand when, through his exertions and the friendly senator's +help, the restoration of Paganism might be assured. + +With the widest diversity of pursuit and difference of design, there was +still a strange and mysterious analogy between the temporary positions +of Ulpius and Numerian. One was prepared to be a martyr for the temple; +the other to be a martyr for the Church. Both were enthusiasts in an +unwelcome cause; both had suffered more than a life's wonted share of +affliction; and both were old, passing irretrievably from their fading +present on earth to the eternal future awaiting them in the unknown +spheres beyond. + +But here--with their position--the comparison between them ends. The +Christian's principle of action, drawn from the Divinity he served, was +love; the Pagan's, born of the superstition that was destroying him, was +hate. The one laboured for mankind; the other for himself. And thus +the aspirations of Numerian, founded on the general good, nourished by +offices of kindness, and nobly directed to a generous end, might lead +him into indiscretion, but could never degrade him into crime--might +trouble the serenity of his life, but could never deprive him of the +consolation of hope. While, on the contrary, the ambition of Ulpius, +originating in revenge and directed to destruction, exacted cruelty from +his heart and duplicity from his mind; and, as the reward for his +service, mocked him alternately throughout his whole life with delusion +and despair. + + +CHAPTER 7. THE BED-CHAMBER. + +It is now time to resume our chronicle of the eventful night which +marked the destruction of Antonina's lute and the conspiracy against +Antonina's honour. + + +The gates of Vetranio's palace were closed, and the noises in it were +all hushed; the banquet was over, the triumph of the Nightingale Sauce +had been achieved, and the daybreak was already glimmering in the +eastern sky, when the senator's favoured servant, the freedman Carrio, +drew back the shutter of the porter's lodge, where he had been dozing +since the conclusion of the feast, and looked out lazily into the +street. The dull, faint light of dawn was now strengthening slowly over +the lonely roadway and on the walls of the lofty houses. Of the groups +of idlers of the lowest class who had assembled during the evening in +the street to snuff the fragrant odours which steamed afar from +Vetranio's kitchens, not one remained; men, women, and children had long +since departed to seek shelter wherever they could find it, and to +fatten their lean bodies on what had been charitable bestowed on them of +the coarser relics of the banquet. The mysterious solitude and +tranquility of daybreak in a great city prevailed over all things. +Nothing impressed, however, by the peculiar and solemn attraction of the +scene at this moment, the freedman apostrophised the fresh morning air, +as it blew over him, in strong terms of disgust, and even ventured in +lowered tones to rail against his master's uncomfortable fancy for being +awakened after a feast at the approach of dawn. Far too well aware, +nevertheless, of the necessity of yielding the most implicit obedience +to the commands he had received to resign himself any longer to the +pleasant temptations of repose, Carrio, after yawning, rubbing his eyes, +and indulging for a few moments more in the luxury of complaint, set +forth in earnest to follow the corridors leading to the interior of the +palace, and to awaken Vetranio without further delay. + +He had not advanced more than a few steps when a proclamation, written +in letters of gold on a blue-coloured board, and hung against the wall +at his side, attracted his attention. This public notice, which delayed +his progress at the very outset, and which was intended for the special +edification of all the inhabitants of Rome, was thus expressed:-- + +'ON THIS DAY, AND FOR TEN DAYS FOLLOWING, THE AFFAIRS OF OUR PATRON +OBLIGE HIM TO BE ABSENT FROM ROME.' + +Here the proclamation ended, without descending to particulars. It had +been put forth, in accordance with the easy fashion of the age, to +answer at once all applications at Vetranio's palace during the +senator's absence. Although the colouring of the board, the writing of +the letters, and the composition of the sentence were the work of his +own ingenuity, the worthy Carrio could not prevail upon himself to pass +the proclamation without contemplating its magnificence anew. For some +time he stood regarding it with the same expression of lofty and +complacent approbation which we see in these modern days illuminating +the countenance of a connoisseur before one of his own old pictures +which he has bought as a great bargain, or dawning over the bland +features of a linen-draper as he surveys from the pavement his morning's +arrangement of the window of the shop. All things, however, have their +limits, even a man's approval of an effort of his own skill. +Accordingly, after a prolonged review of the proclamation, some faint +ideas of the necessity of immediately obeying his master's commands +revived in the mind of the judicious Carrio, and counselled him to turn +his steps at once in the direction of the palace sleeping apartments. + +Greatly wondering what new caprice had induced the senator to +contemplate leaving Rome at the dawn of day--for Vetranio had divulged +to no one the object of his departure--the freedman cautiously entered +his master's bed-chamber. He drew aside the ample silken curtains +suspended around and over the sleeping couch, from the hands of Graces +and Cupids sculptured in marble; but the statues surrounded an empty +bed. Vetranio was not there. Carrio next entered the bathroom; the +perfumed water was steaming in its long marble basin, and the soft +wrapping-cloths lay ready for use; the attendant slave, with his +instruments of ablution, waited, half asleep, in his accustomed place; +but here also no signs of the master's presence appeared. Somewhat +perplexed, the freedman examined several other apartments. He found +guests, dancing girls, parasites, poets, painters--a motley crew-- +occupying every kind of dormitory, and all peacefully engaged in +sleeping off the effects of the wine they had drunk at the banquet; but +the great object of his search still eluded him as before. At last it +occurred to him that the senator, in an excess of convivial enthusiasm +and jovial hospitality, might yet be detaining some favoured guest at +the table of the feast. + +Pausing, therefore, at some carved doors which stood ajar at one +extremity of a spacious hall, he pushed them open, and hurriedly entered +the banqueting-room beyond. + + +A soft, dim, luxurious light reigned over this apartment, which now +presented, as far as the eye could discern, an aspect of confusion that +was at once graceful and picturesque. Of the various lamps, of every +variety of pattern, hanging from the ceiling, but few remained alight. +From those, however, which were still unextinguished there shone a mild +brightness, admirably adapted to display the objects immediately around +them. The golden garlands and the alabaster pots of sweet ointment +which had been suspended before the guests during the banquet, still +hung from the painted ceiling. On the massive table, composed partly of +ebony and partly of silver, yet lay, in the wildest confusion, fragments +of gastronomic delicacies, grotesque dinner services, vases of flowers, +musical instruments, and crystal dice; while towering over all rose the +glittering dish which had contained the nightingales consumed by the +feasters, with the four golden Cupids which had spouted over them that +illustrious invention--the Nightingale Sauce. Around the couches, of +violet and rose colour, ranged along the table, the perfumed and gaily- +tinted powders that had been strewn in patterns over the marble floor +were perceptible for a few yards; but beyond this point nothing more was +plainly distinguishable. The eye roved down the sides of the glorious +chamber, catching dim glimpses of gorgeous draperies, crowded statues, +and marble columns, but discerning nothing accurately, until it reached +the half-opened windows, and rested upon the fresh dewy verdure now +faintly visible in the shady gardens without. There--waving in the +morning breezes, charged on every leaf with their burden of pure and +welcome moisture--rose the lofty pine-trees, basking in the recurrence +of the new day's beautiful and undying youth, and rising in reproving +contrast before the exhausted allurements of luxury and the perverted +creations of art which burdened the tables of the hall within. + +After a hasty survey of the apartment, the freedman appeared to be on +the point of quitting it in despair, when the noise of a falling dish, +followed by several partly suppressed and wholly confused exclamations +of affright, caught his ear. He once more approached the banqueting- +table, retrimmed a lamp that hung near him, and taking it in his hand, +passed to the side of the room whence the disturbance proceeded. A +hideous little negro, staring in ludicrous terror at a silver oven, half +filled with bread, which had just fallen beside him, was the first +object he discovered. A few paces beyond the negro reposed a beautiful +boy, crowned with vine leaves and ivy, still sleeping by the side of his +lyre; and farther yet, stretched in an uneasy slumber on a silken couch, +lay the identical object of the freedman's search--the illustrious +author of the Nightingale Sauce. + +Immediately above the sleeping senator hung his portrait, in which he +was modestly represented as rising by the assistance of Minerva to the +top of Parnassus, the nine Muses standing round him rejoicing. At his +feet reposed a magnificent white cat, whose head rested in all the +luxurious laziness of satiety on the edge of a golden saucer half filled +with dormice stewed in milk. The most indubitable evidences of the +night's debauch appeared in Vetranio's disordered dress and flushed +countenance as the freedman regarded him. For some minutes the worthy +Carrio stood uncertain whether to awaken his master or not, deciding +finally, however, on obeying the commands he had received, and +disturbing the slumbers of the wearied voluptuary before him. To effect +this purpose, it was necessary to call in the aid of the singing-boy; +for, by a refinement of luxury, Vetranio had forbidden his attendants to +awaken him by any other method than the agency of musical sounds. + +With some difficulty the boy was sufficiently aroused to comprehend the +service that was required of him. For a short time the notes of the +lyre sounded in vain. At last, when the melody took a louder and more +martial character, the sleeping patrician slowly opened his eyes and +stared vacantly around him. + +'My respected patron,' said the polite Carrio in apologetic tones, +'commanded that I should awaken him with the dawn; the daybreak has +already appeared.' + +When the freedman had ceased speaking, Vetranio sat up on the couch, +called for a basin of water, dipped his fingers in the refreshing +liquid, dried them abstractedly on the long silky curls of the singing- +boy who stood beside him, gazed about him once more, repeated +interrogatively the word 'daybreak', and sunk gently back upon his +couch. We are grieved to confess it--but the author of the Nightingale +Sauce was moderately inebriated. + + +A short pause followed, during which the freedman and the singing-boy +stared upon each other in mutual perplexity. At length the one resumed +his address of apology, and the other resumed his efforts on the lyre. +Once more, after an interval, the eyes of Vetranio lazily unclosed, and +this time he began to speak; but his thoughts--if thoughts they could be +called--were as yet wholly occupied by the 'table-talk' at the past +night's banquet. + +'The ancient Egyptians--oh, sprightly and enchanting Camilla--were a +wise nation!' murmured the senator drowsily. 'I am myself descended +from the ancient Egyptians; and, therefore, I hold in high veneration +that cat in your lap, and all cats besides. Herodotus--an historian +whose works I feel a certain gratification in publicly mentioning as +good--informs us, that when a cat died in the dwelling of an ancient +Egyptian, the owner shaved his eyebrows as a mark of grief, embalmed the +defunct animal in a consecrated house, and carried it to be interred in +a considerable city of Lower Egypt, called 'Bubastis'--an Egyptian word +which I have discovered to mean The Sepulchre of all the Cats; whence it +is scarcely erroneous to infer--' + +At this point the speaker's power of recollection and articulation +suddenly failed him, and Carrio--who had listened with perfect gravity +to his master's oration upon cats--took immediate advantage of the +opportunity now afforded him to speak again. + +'The equipage which my patron was pleased to command to carry him to +Aricia,' said he, with a strong emphasis on the last word, 'now stands +in readiness at the private gate of the palace gardens.' + +As he heard the word 'Aricia', the senator's powers of recollection and +perception seemed suddenly to return to him. Among that high order of +drinkers who can imbibe to the point of perfect enjoyment, and stop +short scientifically before the point of perfect oblivion, Vetranio +occupied an exalted rank. The wine he had swallowed during the night +had disordered his memory and slightly troubled his self-possession, but +had not deprived him of his understanding. There was nothing plebeian +even in his debauchery; there was an art and a refinement in his very +excesses. + +'Aricia--Aricia!' he repeated to himself, 'ah! the villa that Julia lent +to me at Ravenna! The pleasures of the table must have obscured for a +moment the image of my beautiful pupil of other days, which now revives +before me again as Love resumes the dominion that Bacchus usurped! My +excellent Carrio,' he continued, speaking to the freedman, 'you have +done perfectly right in awakening me; delay not a moment more in +ordering my bath to be prepared, or my man-monster Ulpius, the king of +conspirators and high priest of all that is mysterious, will wait for me +in vain! And you, Glyco,' he pursued, when Carrio had departed, +addressing the singing-boy, 'array yourself for a journey, and wait with +my equipage at the garden-gate. I shall require you to accompany me in +my expedition to Aricia. But first, oh! gifted and valued songster, let +me reward you for the harmonious symphony that has just awakened me. Of +what rank of my musicians are you at present, Glyco?' + +'Of the fifth,' replied the boy. + +'Were you bought, or born in my house?' asked Vetranio. + +'Neither; but bequeathed to you by Geta's testament,' rejoined the +gratified Glyco. + +'I advance you,' continued Vetranio, 'to the privileges and the pay of +the first rank of my musicians; and I give you, as a proof of my +continued favour, this ring. In return for these obligations, I desire +to keep secret whatever concerns my approaching expedition; to employ +your softest music in soothing the ear of a young girl who will +accompany us--in calming her terrors if she is afraid, in drying her +tears if she weeps; and finally, to exercise your voice and your lute +incessantly in uniting the name 'Antonina' to the sweetest harmonies of +sound that your imagination can suggest.' + +Pronouncing these words with an easy and benevolent smile, and looking +round complacently on the display of luxurious confusion about him, +Vetranio retired to the bath that was to prepare him for his approaching +triumph. + + +Meanwhile a scene of a very different nature was proceeding without, at +Numerian's garden-gate. Here were no singing-boys, no freedmen, no +profusion of rich treasures--here appeared only the solitary and +deformed figure of Ulpius, half hidden among surrounding trees, while he +waited at his appointed post. As time wore on, and still Vetranio did +not appear, the Pagan's self-possession began to desert him. He moved +restlessly backwards and forwards over the soft dewy grass, sometimes in +low tones calling upon his gods to hasten the tardy footsteps of the +libertine patrician, who was to be made the instrument of restoring to +the temples the worship of other days--sometimes cursing the reckless +delay of the senator, or exulting in the treachery by which he madly +believed his ambition was at last to be fulfilled; but still, whatever +his words or thoughts, wrought up to the same pitch of fierce, fanatic +enthusiasm which had strengthened him for the defence of his idols at +Alexandria, and had nerved him against the torment and misery of years +in his slavery in the copper mines of Spain. + +The precious moments were speeding irrevocably onwards. His impatience +was rapidly changing to rage and despair as he strained his eyes for the +last time in the direction of the palace gardens, and now at length +discerned a white robe among the distant trees. Vetranio was rapidly +approaching him. + +Restored by his bath, no effect of the night's festivity but its +exhilaration remained in the senator's brain. But for a slight +uncertainty in his gait, and an unusual vacancy in his smile, the +elegant gastronome might now have appeared to the closest observer +guiltless of the influence of intoxicating drinks. He advanced, radiant +with exultation, prepared for conquest, to the place where Ulpius +awaited him, and was about to address the Pagan with that satirical +familiarity so fashionable among the nobles of Rome in their +communications with the people, when the object of his intended +pleasantries sternly interrupted him, saying, in tones more of command +than of advice, 'Be silent! If you would succeed in your purpose, +follow me without uttering a word!' + +There was something so fierce and determined in the tones of the old +man's voice--low, tremulous, and husky though they were--as he uttered +those words, that the bold, confident senator instinctively held his +peace as he followed his stern guide into Numerian's house. Avoiding the +regular entrance, which at that early hour of the morning was +necessarily closed, Ulpius conducted the patrician through a small +wicket into the subterranean apartment, or rather outhouse, which was +his customary, though comfortless, retreat in his leisure hours, and +which was hardly ever entered by the other members of the Christian's +household. + +From the low, arched brick ceiling of this place hung an earthenware +lamp, whose light, small and tremulous, left all the corners of the +apartment in perfect obscurity. The thick buttresses that projected +inwards from the walls, made visible by their prominence, displayed on +their surfaces rude representations of idols and temples drawn in chalk, +and covered with strange, mysterious hieroglyphics. On a block of stone +which served as a table lay some fragments of small statues, which +Vetranio recognised as having belonged to the old, accredited +representations of Pagan idols. Over the sides of the table itself were +scrawled in Latin characters these two words, 'Serapis', 'Macrinus'; and +about its base lay some pieces of torn, soiled linen, which still +retained enough of their former character, both in shape, size, and +colour, to convince Vetranio that they had once served as the vestments +of a Pagan priest. Further than this the senator's observation did not +carry him, for the close, almost mephitic atmosphere of the place +already began to affect him unfavourably. He felt a suffocating +sensation in his throat and a dizziness in his head. The restorative +influence of his recent bath declined rapidly. The fumes of the wine he +had drunk in the night, far from having been, as he imagined, +permanently dispersed, again mounted to his head. He was obliged to +lean against the stone table to preserved his equilibrium as he faintly +desired the Pagan to shorten their sojourn in his miserable retreat. + + +Without even noticing the request, Ulpius hurriedly proceeded to erase +the drawings on the buttresses and the inscriptions on the table. Then +collecting the fragments of statues and the pieces of linen, he +deposited them in a hiding-place in the corner of the apartment. This +done, he returned to the stone against which Vetranio supported himself, +and for a few minutes silently regarded the senator with a firm, +earnest, and penetrating gaze. + +A dark suspicion that he had betrayed himself into the hands of a +villain, who was then plotting some atrocious project connected with his +safety or honour, began to rise on the senator's bewildered brain as he +unwillingly submitted to the penetrating examination of the Pagan's +glance. At that moment, however, the withered lips of the old man slowly +parted, and he began to speak. Whether as he looked on Vetranio's +disturbed countenance, and marked his unsteady gait, the heart of +Ulpius, for the first time since his introduction to the senator, +misgave him when he thought of their monstrous engagement; or whether +the near approach of the moment that was henceforth, as he wildly +imagined, to fix Vetranio as his assistant and ally, so powerfully +affected his mind that it instinctively sought to vent its agitation +through the natural medium of words, it is useless to inquire. Whatever +his motives for speech, the impressive earnestness of his manner gave +evidence of the depth and intensity of his emotions as he addressed the +senator thus:-- + +'I have submitted to servitude in a Christian's house, I have suffered +the contamination of a Christian's prayers, to gain the use of your +power and station when the time to employ them should arrive. The hour +has now come when my part of the conditions of our engagement is to be +performed; the hour will yet come when your part shall be exacted from +you in turn! Do you wonder at what I have done and what I will do? Do +you marvel that a household drudge should speak thus to a nobleman of +Rome? Are you astonished that I risk so much as to venture on enlisting +you--by the sacrifice of the girl who now slumbers above--in the cause +whose end is the restoration of our fathers' gods, and in whose service +I have suffered and grown old? Listen, and you shall hear from what I +have fallen--you shall know what I once was!' + +'I adjure you by all the gods and goddesses of our ancient worship, let me +hear you where I can breathe--in the garden, on the housetop, anywhere but +in this dungeon!' murmured the senator in entreating accents. + +'My birth, my parents, my education, my ancient abode--these I will not +disclose,' interrupted the Pagan, raising one arm authoritatively, as if +to obstruct Vetranio from approaching the door. 'I have sworn by my +gods, that until the day of restitution these secrets of my past life +shall remain unrevealed to strangers' ears. Unknown I entered Rome, and +unknown I will labour in Rome until the projects I have lived for are +crowned with success! It is enough that I confess to you that with +those sacred images whose fragments you have just beheld, I was once +lodged; that those sacred vestments whose remains you discerned at your +feet, I once wore. To attain the glories of the priesthood there was +nothing that I did not resign, to preserve them there was nothing I did +not perform, to recover them there is nothing that I will not attempt! +I was once illustrious, prosperous, beloved; of my glory, my happiness, +my popularity, the Christians have robbed me, and I will yet live to +requite it heavily at their hands! I had a guardian who loved me in my +youth; the Christians murdered him! A temple was under the rule of my +manhood; the Christians destroyed it! The people of a whole nation once +listened to my voice; the Christians have dispersed them! The wise, the +great, the beautiful, the good, were once devoted to me; the Christians +have made me a stranger at their doors, and outcast of their affections +and thoughts! For all this shall I take no vengeance? Shall I not plot +to rebuild my ruined temple, and win back, in my age, the honours that +adorned me in my youth?' + +'Assuredly!--at once--without delay!' stammered Vetranio, returning the +stern and inquiring gaze of the Pagan with a bewildered, uneasy stare. + + +'To mount over the bodies of the Christian slain,' continued the old +man, his sinister eyes dilating in anticipated triumph as he whispered +close at the senator's ear, 'to rebuild the altars that the Christians +have overthrown, is the ambition that has made light to me the +sufferings of my whole life. I have battled, and it has sustained me in +the midst of carnage; I have wandered, and it has been my home in the +desert; I have failed, and it has supported me; I have been threatened +with death, and it has preserved me from fear; I have been cast into +slavery, and it has made my fetters light. You see me now, old, +degraded, lonely--believe that I long neither for wife, children, +tranquility, nor possessions; that I desire no companion but my +cherished and exalted purpose! Remember, then, in the hour of +performance the promise you have now made to aid me in the achievement +of that purpose! Remember that you are a Pagan yourself! Feast, laugh, +carouse with your compeers; be still the airy jester, the gay companion; +but never forget the end to which you are vowed--the destiny of glory +that the restoration of our deities has in store for us both!' + +He ceased. Though his voice, while he spoke, never rose beyond a +hoarse, monotonous, half-whispering tone, all the ferocity of his abused +and degraded nature was for the instant thoroughly aroused by his +recapitulation of his wrongs. Had Vetranio at this moment shown any +symptoms of indecision, or spoken any words of discouragement, he would +have murdered him on the spot where they stood. Every feature in the +Pagan's seared and livid countenance expressed the stormy emotions that +were rushing over his heart as he now confronted his bewildered yet +attentive listener. His firm, menacing position; his poor and scanty +garments; his wild, shaggy hair; his crooked, distorted form; his stern, +solemn, unwavering gaze--opposed as they were (under the fitful +illumination of the expiring lamp and the advancing daylight) to the +unsteady gait, the vacant countenance, the rich robes, the youthful +grace of form and delicacy of feature of the object of his steady +contemplation, made so wild and strange a contrast between his patrician +ally and himself that they scarcely looked like beings of the same race. +Nothing could be more immense than the difference, more wild than the +incongruity between them. It was sickness hand-in-hand with health; +pain marshalled face to face with enjoyment; darkness ranged in +monstrous discordance by the very side of light. + +The next instant--just as the astonished senator was endeavouring to +frame a suitable answer to the solemn adjuration that had been addressed +to him--Ulpius seized his arm, and opening a door at the inner extremity +of the apartment, led him up some stairs that conducted to the interior +of the house. + +They passed the hall, on the floor of which still lay the fragments of +the broken lute, dimly distinguishable in the soft light of daybreak; +and ascending another staircase, paused at a little door at the top, +which Ulpius cautiously opened, and in a moment afterwards Vetranio was +admitted into Antonina's bed-chamber. + + +The room was of no great extent; its scanty furniture was of the most +ordinary description; no ornaments glittered on its walls; no frescoes +adorned its ceiling; and yet there was a simple elegance in its +appearance, an unobtrusive propriety in its minutest details, which made +it at once interesting and attractive to the eye. From the white +curtains at the window to the vase of flowers standing by the bedside, +the same natural refinement of taste appeared in the arrangement of all +that the apartment contained. No sound broke the deep silence of the +place, save the low, soft breathing, occasionally interrupted by a long, +trembling sigh, of its sleeping occupant. The sole light in the room +consisted of a little lamp, so placed in the middle of the flowers round +the sides of the vase that no extended or steady illumination was cast +upon any object. There was something in the decent propriety of all +that was visible in the bed-chamber; in the soft obscurity of its +atmosphere; in the gentle and musical sound that alone interrupted its +magical stillness, impressive enough, it might have been imagined, to +have awakened some hesitation in the bosom of the boldest libertine ere +he deliberately proceeded to intrude on the unprotected slumbers of its +occupant. No such feeling of indecision, however, troubled the thoughts +of Vetranio as he cast a rapid glance round the apartment which he had +ventured so treacherously to invade. The fumes of the wine he had +imbibed at the banquet had been so thoroughly resuscitated by the +oppressive atmosphere of the subterranean retreat he had just quitted, +as to have left him nothing of his more refined nature. All that was +honourable or intellectual in his character had now completely ceded to +all that was base and animal. He looked round, and perceiving that +Ulpius had silently quitted him, softly closed the door. Then advancing +to the bedside with the utmost caution compatible with the involuntary +unsteadiness of an intoxicated man, he took the lamp from the vase in +which it was half concealed, and earnestly surveyed by its light the +figure of the sleeping girl. + +The head of Antonina was thrown back and rested rather over than on her +pillow. Her light linen dress had become so disordered during the night +that it displayed her throat and part of her bosom, in all the dawning +beauties of their youthful formation, to the gaze of the licentious +Roman. One hand half supported her head, and was almost entirely hidden +in the locks of her long black hair, which had escaped from the white +cincture intended to confine it, and now streamed over the pillow in +dazzling contrast to the light bed-furniture around it. The other hand +held tightly clasped to her bosom the precious fragment of her broken +lute. The deep repose expressed in her position had not thoroughly +communicated itself to her face. Now and then her slightly parted lips +moved and trembled, and ever and anon a change, so faint and fugitive +that it was hardly perceptible, appeared in her complexion, breathing on +the soft olive that was its natural hue, the light rosy flush which the +emotions of the past night had impressed on it ere she slept. Her +position, in its voluptuous negligence, seemed the very type of Oriental +loveliness; while her face, calm and sorrowful in its expression, +displayed the more refined and sober graces of the European model. And +thus these two characteristics of two different orders of beauty, +appearing conjointly under one form, produced a whole so various and yet +so harmonious, so impressive and yet so attractive, that the senator, as +he bent over the couch, though the warm, soft breath of the young girl +played on his cheeks and waved the tips of his perfumed locks, could +hardly imagine that the scene before him was more than a bright, +delusive dream. + +While Vetranio was yet absorbed in admiration of her charms, Antonina's +form slightly moved, as if agitated by the influence of a passing dream. +The change thus accomplished in her position broke the spell that its +former stillness and beauty had unconsciously wrought to restrain the +unhallowed ardour of the profligate Roman. He now passed his arm round +her warm, slender figure, and gently raising her till her head rested on +his shoulder as he sat by the bed, imprinted kiss after kiss on the pure +lips that sleep had innocently abandoned to him. + +As he had foreseen, Antonina instantly awoke, but, to his unmeasured +astonishment, neither started nor shrieked. The moment she had opened +her eyes she had recognised the person of Vetranio; and that +overwhelming terror which suspends in its victims the use of every +faculty, whether of the body or the mind, had immediately possessed +itself of her heart. Too innocent to imagine the real motive that +prompted the senator's intrusion on her slumbers, where others of her +sex would have foreboded dishonour, she feared death. All her father's +vague denunciations against the enormities of the nobles of Rome rushed +in an instant over her mind, and her childish imagination pictured +Vetranio as armed with some terrible and mysterious vengeance to be +wreaked on her for having avoided all communication with him as soon as +she had gained possession of her lute. Prostrate beneath the petrifying +influence of her fears, motionless and powerless before him as its prey +before the serpent, she made no effort to move or speak; but looked up +steadfastly into the senator's face, her large eyes fixed and dilated in +a gaze of overpowering terror. + +Intoxicated though he was, the affrighted expression of the poor girl's +pale, rigid countenance did not escape Vetranio's notice; and he taxed +his bewildered brain for such soothing and reassuring expressions as +would enable him to introduce his profligate proposals with some chance +that they would be listened to and understood. + + +'Dearest pupil! Most beautiful of Roman maidens,' he began in the +husky, monotonous tones of inebriety, 'abandon your fears! I come +hither, wafted by the breath of love, to restore the worship of the--I +would say to bear you on my bosom to a villa--the name of which has for +the moment escaped my remembrance. You cannot have forgotten that it +was I who taught you to compose the Nightingale Sauce--or, no--let me +rather say to play upon the lute. Love, music, pleasure, all await you +in the arms of your attached Vetranio. Your eloquent silence speaks +encouragement to my heart. Beloved Anto--' + +Here the senator suddenly paused; for the eyes of the girl, which had +hitherto been fixed on him with the same expression of blank dismay that +had characterised them from the first, slowly moved in the direction of +the door. The instant afterwards a slight noise caught Vetranio's ear, +and Antonina shuddered so violently as he pressed her to his side that +he felt it through his whole frame. Slowly and unwillingly he withdrew +his gaze from the pale yet lovely countenance on which it had been +fixed, and looked up. + +At the open door, pale, silent, motionless, stood the master of the +house. + +Incapable, from the confusion of his ideas, of any other feeling than +the animal instinct of self-defence, Vetranio no sooner beheld +Numerian's figure than he rose, and drawing a small dagger from his +bosom, attempted to advance on the intruder. He found himself, however, +restrained by Antonina, who had fallen on her knees before him, and +grasped his robe with a strength which seemed utterly incompatible with +the slenderness of her form and the feebleness of her sex and age. + +The first voice that broke the silence which ensued was Numerian's. He +advanced, his face ghastly with anguish, his lip quivering with +suppressed emotions, to the senator's side, and addressed him thus:-- + +'Put up your weapon; I come but to ask a favour at your hands.' + +Vetranio mechanically obeyed him. There was something in the stern +calmness, frightful at such a moment, of the Christian's manner that +awed him in spite of himself. + +'The favour I would petition for,' continued Numerian, in low, steady, +bitter tones, 'is that you would remove your harlot there, to your own +abode. Here are no singing-boys, no banqueting-halls, no perfumed +couches. The retreat of a solitary old man is no place for such an one +as she. I beseech you, remove her to a more congenial home. She is +well fitted for her trade; her mother was a harlot before her!' + +He laughed scornfully, and pointed, as he spoke, to the figure of the +unhappy girl kneeling with outstretched arms at his feet. + +'Father, father!' she cried, in accents bereft of their native softness +and melody, 'have you forgotten me?' + +'I know you not!' he replied, thrusting her from him. 'Return to his +bosom; you shall never more be pressed to mine. Go to his palace; my +house is yours no longer! You are his harlot, not my daughter! I +command you--go!' + +As he advanced towards her with fierce glance and threatening demeanour, +she suddenly rose up. Her reason seemed crushed within her as she looked +with frantic earnestness from Vetranio to her father, and then back +again from her father to Vetranio. On one side she saw an enemy who had +ruined her she knew not how, and who threatened her with she knew not +what; on the other, a parent who had cast her off. For one instant she +directed a final look on the room, that, sad and lonely though it was, +had still been a home to her; and then, without a word or a sigh, she +turned, and crouching like a beaten dog, fled from the house. + + +During the whole of the scene Vetranio had stood so fixed in the +helpless astonishment of intoxication as to be incapable of moving or +uttering a word. All that took place during the short and terrible +interview between father and child utterly perplexed him. He heard no +loud, violent anger on one side, no clamorous petitioning for +forgiveness on the other. The stern old man whom Antonina had called +father, and who had been pointed out to him as the most austere +Christian in Rome, far from avenging his intrusion on Antonina's +slumber, had voluntarily abandoned his daughter to his licentious will. +That the anger or irony of so severe a man should inspire such an action +as this, or that Numerian, like his servant, was plotting to obtain some +strange mysterious favour from him by using Antonina as a bribe, seemed +perfectly impossible. All that passed before the senator was, to his +bewildered imagination, thoroughly incomprehensible. Frivolous, +thoughtless, profligate as he might be, his nature was not radically +base, and when the scene of which he had been the astounded witness was +abruptly terminated by the flight of Antonina, the look of frantic +misery fixed on him by the unfortunate girl at the moment of her +departure, almost sobered him for the instant, as he stood before the +now solitary father gazing vacantly around him with emotions of +uncontrollable confusion and dismay. + +Meanwhile a third person was now approaching to join the two occupants +of the bedchamber abandoned by its ill-fated mistress. Although in the +subterranean retreat to which he had retired on leaving Vetranio, Ulpius +had not noticed the silent entrance of the master of the house, he had +heard through the open doors the sound, low though it was, of the +Christian's voice. As he rose, suspecting all things and prepared for +every emergency, to ascend to the bedchamber, he saw, while he mounted +the lowest range of stairs, a figure in white pass rapidly through the +hall and disappear by the principal entrance of the house. He hesitated +for an instant and looked after it, but the fugitive figure had passed +so swiftly in the uncertain light of early morning that he was unable to +identify it, and he determined to ascertain the progress of events, now +that Numerian must have discovered a portion at least of the plot +against his daughter and himself, by ascending immediately to Antonina's +apartment, whatever might be the consequences of his intrusion at such +an hour on her father's wrath. + +As soon as the Pagan appeared before him, a sensible change took place +in Vetranio. The presence of Ulpius in the chamber was a positive +relief to the senator's perturbed faculties, after the mysterious, +overpowering influence that the moral command expressed in the mere +presence of the father and the master of the house, at such an hour, had +exercised over them. Over Ulpius he had an absolute right, Ulpius was +his dependant; and he determined, therefore, to extort from the servant +whom he despised an explanation of the mysteries in the conduct of the +master whom he feared, and the daughter whom he began to doubt. + +'Where is Antonina?' he cried, starting as if from a trance, and +advancing fiercely towards the treacherous Pagan. 'She has left the +room--she must have taken refuge with you.' + +With a slow and penetrating gaze Ulpius looked round the apartment. A +faint agitation was perceptible in his livid countenance, but he uttered +not a word. + +The senator's face became pale and red with alternate emotions of +apprehension and rage. He seized the Pagan by the throat, his eyes +sparkled, his blood boiled, he began to suspect even then that Antonina +was lost to him for ever. + +'I ask you again where is she?' he shouted in a voice of fury. 'If +through this night's work she is lost or harmed, I will revenge it on +you. Is this the performance of your promise? Do you think that I will +direct your desired restoration of the gods of old for this? If evil +comes to Antonina through your treachery, sooner than assist in your +secret projects, I would see you and your accursed deities all burning +together in the Christians' hell! Where is the girl, you slave? +Villain, where was your vigilance, when you let that man surprise us at +our first interview?' + +He turned towards Numerian as he spoke. Trouble and emergency gift the +faculties with a more than mortal penetration. Every word that he had +uttered had eaten its burning way into the father's heart. Hours of +narrative could not have convinced him how fatally he had been deceived, +more thoroughly than the few hasty expressions he had just heard. No +word passed his lips--no action betrayed his misery. He stood before +the spoilers of his home, changed in an instant from the courageous +enthusiast to the feeble, helpless, heart-broken man. + +Though all the ferocity of his old Roman blood had been roused in +Vetranio, as he threatened Ulpius, the father's look of cold, silent, +frightful despair froze it in his young veins in an instant. His heart +was still the impressible heart of youth; and, struck for the first time +in his life with emotions of horror and remorse, he advanced a step to +offer such explanation and atonement as he best might, when the voice of +Ulpius suspended his intentions, and made him pause to listen. + +'She passed me in the hall,' muttered the Pagan, doggedly. 'I did my +part in betraying her into your power--it was for you to hinder her in +her flight. Why did you not strike him to the earth,' he continued, +pointing with a mocking smile to Numerian, 'when he surprised you? You +are wealthy and a noble of Rome; murder would have been no crime in +you!' + +'Stand back!' cried the senator, thrusting him from the position he had +hitherto occupied in the door-way. 'She may be recovered even yet! All +Rome shall be searched for her!' + +The next instant he disappeared from the room, and the master and +servant were left together alone. + +The silence that now reigned in the apartment was broken by distant +sounds of uproar and confusion in the streets of the city beneath. +These ominous noises had arisen with the dawn of day, but the different +emotions of the occupants of Numerian's abode had so engrossed them, +that the turmoil in the outer world had passed unheeded by all. No +sooner, however, had Vetranio departed than it caught the attention of +Ulpius, and he advanced to the window. What he there saw and heard was +of no ordinary importance, for it at once fixed him to the spot where he +stood in mute and ungovernable surprise. + +While Ulpius was occupied at the window, Numerian had staggered to the +side of the bed which his ill-timed severity had made vacant, perhaps +for ever. The power of action, the capacity to go forth and seek his +child himself, was entirely suspended in the agony of her loss, as the +miserable man fell on his knees, and in the anguish of his heart +endeavoured to find solace in prayer. In the positions they severally +occupied the servant and the master long remained--the betrayer watching +at the window, the betrayed mourning at his lost daughter's bed--both +alike silent, both alike unconscious of the lapse of time. + +At length, apparently unaware at first that he was not alone in the +room, Numerian spoke. In his low, broken, tremulous accents, none of +his adherents would have recognised the voice of the eloquent preacher-- +the bold chastiser of the vices of the Church. The whole nature of the +man--moral, intellectual, physical--seemed fatally and completely +changed. + +'She was innocent, she was innocent!' he whispered to himself. 'And +even had she been guilty, was it for me to drive her from my doors! My +part, like my Redeemer's, was to teach repentance, and to show mercy! +Accursed be the pride and anger that drove justice and patience from my +heart, when I beheld her, as I thought, submitting herself without a +struggle or a cry, to my dishonour, and hers! Could I not have imagined +her terror, could I not have remembered her purity? Alas, my beloved, +if I myself have been the dupe of the wicked, what marvel is it that you +should have been betrayed as well! And I have driven you from me, you, +from whose mouth no word of anger ever dropped! I have thrust you from +my bosom, you, who were the adornment of my age! My death approaches, +and you will not be by to pardon my heavy offence, to close my weary +eyes, to mourn by my solitary tomb! God--oh God! If I am left thus +lonely on the earth, thou hast punished me beyond what I can bear!' + +He paused--his emotions for the instant bereft him of speech. After an +interval, he muttered to himself in a low, moaning voice--'I called her +harlot! My pure, innocent child! I called her harlot--I called her +harlot!' + + +In a paroxysm of despair, he started up and looked distractedly around +him. Ulpius still stood motionless at the window. At the sight of the +ruthless Pagan he trembled in every limb. All those infirmities of age +that had been hitherto spared him, seemed to overwhelm him in an +instant. He feebly advanced to his betrayer's side, and addressed him +thus:-- + +'I have lodged you, taught you, cared for you; I have never intruded on +your secrets, never doubted your word, and for all this, you have repaid +me by plotting against my daughter and deceiving me! If your end was to +harm me by assailing my child's happiness and honour you have succeeded! +If you would banish me from Rome, if you would plunge me into obscurity, +to serve some mysterious ambition of your own, you may dispose of me as +you will! I bow before the terrible power of your treachery! I will +renounce whatever you command, if you will restore me to my child! I am +helpless and miserable; I have neither heart nor strength to seek her +myself! You, who know all things and can dare all dangers, may restore +her to pardon and bless me, if you will! Remember, whoever you really +are, that you were once helpless and alone, and that you are still old, +like me! Remember that I have promised to abandon to you whatever you +desire! Remember that no woman's voice can cheer me, no woman's heart +feel for me, now that I am old and lonely, but my daughter's! I have +guessed from the words of the nobleman whom you serve, what are the +designs you cherish and the faith you profess; I will neither betray the +one nor assault the other! I thought that my labours for the Church +were more to me than anything on earth, but now, that through my fault, +my daughter is driven from her father's roof, I know that she is dearer +to me than the greatest of my designs; I must gain her pardon; I must +win back her affection before I die! You are powerful and can recover +her! Ulpius! Ulpius!' + +As he spoke, the Christian knelt at the Pagan's feet. It was terrible +to see the man of affection and integrity thus humbled before the man of +heartlessness and crime. + +Ulpius turned to behold him, then without a word he raised him from the +ground, and thrusting him to the window, pointed with flashing eyes to +the wide view without. + +The sun had arisen high in the heaven and beamed in dazzling brilliancy +over Rome and the suburbs. A vague, fearful, mysterious desolation +seemed to have suddenly overwhelmed the whole range of dwellings beyond +the walls. No sounds rose from the gardens, no population idled in the +streets. The ramparts on the other hand were crowded at every visible +point with people of all ranks, and the distant squares and +amphitheatres of the city itself, swarmed like ant-hills to the eye with +the crowds that struggled within them. Confused cries and strange wild +noises rose at all points from these masses of human beings. The whole +of Rome seemed the prey of a vast and universal revolt. + +Extraordinary and affrighting as was the scene at the moment when he +beheld it, it passed unheeded before the eyes of the scarce conscious +father. He was blind to all sights but his daughter's form, deaf to all +sounds but her voice; and he murmured as he looked vacantly forth upon +the wild view before him, 'Where is my child!--where is my child!' + +'What is your child to me? What are the fortunes of affections of man +or woman, at such an hour as this?' cried the Pagan, as he stood by +Numerian, with features horribly animated by the emotions of fierce +delight and triumph that were raging within him at the prospect he +beheld. 'Dotard, look from this window! Listen to those voices! The +gods whom I serve, the god whom you and your worship would fain have +destroyed, have risen to avenge themselves at last! Behold those +suburbs, they are left desolate! Hear those cries--they are from Roman +lips! While your household's puny troubles have run their course, this +city of apostates has been doomed! In the world's annals this morning +will never be forgotten! THE GOTHS ARE AT THE GATES OF ROME!' + + +CHAPTER 8. THE GOTHS. + + +It was no false rumour that had driven the populace of the suburbs to +fly to the security of the city walls. It was no ill-founded cry of +terror that struck the ear of Ulpius, as he stood at Numerian's window. +The name of Rome had really lost its pristine terrors; the walls of +Rome, those walls which had morally guarded the Empire by their renown, +as they had actually guarded its capital by their strength, were +deprived at length of their ancient inviolability. An army of +barbarians had indeed penetrated for conquest and for vengeance to the +City of the World! The achievement which the invasions of six hundred +years had hitherto attempted in vain, was now accomplished, and +accomplished by the men whose forefathers had once fled like hunted +beasts to their native fastnesses, before the legions of the +Caesars--'The Goths were at the gates of Rome!' + +And now, as his warriors encamped around him, as he saw the arrayed +hosts whom his summons had gathered together, and his energy led on, +threatening at their doors the corrupt senate who had deceived, and the +boastful populace who had despised him, what emotions stirred within the +heart of Alaric! As the words of martial command fell from his lips, +and his eyes watched the movements of the multitudes around him, what +exalted aspirations, what daring resolves, grew and strengthened in the +mind of the man who was the pioneer of that mighty revolution, which +swept from one quarter of the world the sway, the civilisation, the very +life and spirit of centuries of ancient rule! High thoughts gathered +fast in his mind; a daring ambition expanded within him--the ambition, +not of the barbarian plunderer, but of the avenger who had come to +punish; not of the warrior who combated for combat's sake, but of the +hero who was vowed to conquer and to sway. From the far-distant days +when Odin was driven from his territories by the romans, to the night +polluted by the massacre of the hostages in Aquileia, the hour of just +and terrible retribution for Gothic wrongs had been delayed through the +weary lapse of years, and the warning convulsion of bitter strifes, to +approach at last under him. He looked on the towering walls before him, +the only invader since Hannibal by whom they had been beheld; and he +felt as he looked, that his new aspirations did not deceive him, that +his dreams of dominion were brightening into proud reality, that his +destiny was gloriously linked with the overthrow of Imperial Rome! + +But even in the moment of approaching triumph, the leader of the Goths +was still wily in purpose and moderate in action. His impatient +warriors waited but the word to commence the assault, to pillage the +city, and to slaughter the inhabitants; but he withheld it. Scarcely +had the army halted before the gates of Rome, when the news was +promulgated among their ranks, that Alaric, for purposes of his own, had +determined to reduce the city by a blockade. + +The numbers of his forces, increased during his march by the accession +of thirty thousand auxiliaries, were now divided into battalions, +varying in strength according to the service that was required of them. +These divisions stretched round the city walls, and though occupying +separate posts, and devoted to separate duties, were so arranged as to +be capable of uniting at a signal in any numbers, on any given point. +Each body of men was commanded by a tried and veteran warrior, in whose +fidelity Alaric could place the most implicit trust, and to whom he +committed the duty of enforcing the strictest military discipline that +had ever prevailed among the Gothic ranks. Before each of the twelve +principal gates a separate encampment was raised. Multitudes watched the +navigation of the Tiber in every possible direction, with untiring +vigilance; and not one of the ordinary inlets to Rome, however +apparently unimportant, was overlooked. By these means, every mode of +communication between the beleaguered city and the wide and fertile +tracts of land around it, was effectually prevented. When it is +remembered that this elaborate plan of blockade was enforced against a +place containing, at the lowest possible computation, twelve hundred +thousand inhabitants, destitute of magazines for food within its walls, +dependent for supplies on its regular contributions from the country +without, governed by an irresolute senate, and defended by an enervated +army, the horrors that now impended over the besieged Romans are as +easily imagined as described. + + +Among the ranks of the army that now surrounded the doomed city, the +division appointed to guard the Pincian Gate will be found, at this +juncture, most worthy of the reader's attention: for one of the +warriors appointed to its subordinate command was the young chieftain +Hermanric, who had been accompanied by Goisvintha through all the toils +and dangers of the march, since the time when we left him at the Italian +Alps. + +The watch had been set, the tents had been pitched, the defences had +been raised on the portion of ground selected to occupy every possible +approach to the Pincian Gate, as Hermanric retired to await by +Goisvintha's side, whatever further commands he might yet be entrusted +with, by his superiors in the Gothic camp. The spot occupied by the +young warrior's simple tent was on a slight eminence, apart from the +positions chosen by his comrades, eastward of the city gate, and +overlooking at some distance the deserted gardens of the suburbs, and +the stately palaces of the Pincian Hill. Behind his temporary dwelling +was the open country, reduced to a fertile solitude by the flight of its +terrified inhabitants; and at each side lay one unvarying prospect of +military strength and preparation, stretching out its animated confusion +of soldiers, tents, and engines of warfare, as far as the sight could +reach. It was now evening. The walls of Rome, enshrouded in a rising +mist, showed dim and majestic to the eyes of the Goths. The noises in +the beleaguered city softened and deepened, seeming to be muffled in the +growing darkness of the autumn night, and becoming less and less audible +as the vigilant besiegers listened to them from their respective posts. +One by one, lights broke wildly forth at irregular distances, in the +Gothic camp. Harshly and fitfully the shrill call of the signal +trumpets rang from rank to rank; and through the dim thick air rose, in +the intervals of the more important noises, the clash of heavy hammers +and the shout of martial command. Wherever the preparations for the +blockade were still incomplete, neither the approach of night nor the +pretext of weariness were suffered for an instant to hinder their +continued progress. Alaric's indomitable will conquered every obstacle +of nature, and every deficiency of man. Darkness had no obscurity that +forced him to repose, and lassitude no eloquence that lured him to +delay. + +In no part of the army had the commands of the Gothic king been so +quickly and intelligently executed, as in that appointed to watch the +Pincian Gate. The interview of Hermanric and Goisvintha in the young +chieftain's tent, was, consequently, uninterrupted for a considerable +space of time by any fresh mandate from the head-quarters of the camp. + +In outward appearance, both the brother and sister had undergone a +change remarkable enough to be visible, even by the uncertain light of +the torch which now shone on them as they stood together at the door of +the tent. The features of Goisvintha--which at the period when we first +beheld her on the shores of the mountain lake, retained, in spite of her +poignant sufferings, much of the lofty and imposing beauty that had been +their natural characteristic in her happier days--now preserved not the +slightest traces of their former attractions. Its freshness had +withered from her complexion, its fulness had departed from her form. +Her eyes had contracted an unvarying sinister expression of malignant +despair, and her manner had become sullen, repulsive, and distrustful. +This alteration in her outward aspect, was but the result of a more +perilous change in the disposition of her heart. The death of her last +child at the very moment when her flight had successfully directed her +to the protection of her people, had affected her more fatally than all +the losses she had previously sustained. The difficulties and dangers +that she had encountered in saving her offspring from the massacre; the +dismal certainty that the child was the only one, out of all the former +objects of her affection, left to her to love; the wild sense of triumph +that she experienced in remembering, that in this single instance her +solitary efforts had thwarted the savage treachery of the Court of Rome, +had inspired her with feelings of devotion towards the last of her +household which almost bordered on insanity. And, now that her beloved +charge, her innocent victim, her future warrior, had, after all her +struggles for his preservation, pined and died; now that she was +childless indeed; now that Roman cruelty had won its end in spite of all +her patience, all her courage, all her endurance; every noble feeling +within her sunk, annihilated at the shock. Her sorrow took the fatal +form which irretrievable destroys, in women, all the softer and better +emotions;--it changed to the despair that asks no sympathy, to the grief +that holds no communion with tears. + +Less elevated in intellect and less susceptible in disposition, the +change to sullenness of expression and abruptness of manner now visible +in Hermanric, resulted rather from his constant contemplation of +Goisvintha's gloomy despair, than from any actual revolution in his own +character. In truth, however many might be the points of outward +resemblance now discernible between the brother and sister, the +difference in degree of their moral positions, implied of itself the +difference in degree of the inward sorrow of each. Whatever the trials +and afflictions that might assail him, Hermanric possessed the healthful +elasticity of youth and the martial occupations of manhood to support +them. Goisvintha could repose on neither. With no employment but +bitter remembrance to engage her thoughts, with no kindly aspiration, +no soothing hope to fill her heart, she was abandoned irrevocably to the +influence of unpartaken sorrow and vindictive despair. + +Both the woman and the warrior stood together in silence for some time. +At length, without taking his eyes from the dusky, irregular mass before +him, which was all that night now left visible of the ill-fated city, +Hermanric addressed Goisvintha thus:-- + +'Have you no words of triumph, as you look on the ramparts that your +people have fought for generations to behold at their mercy, as we now +behold them? Can a woman of the Goths be silent when she stands before +the city of Rome?' + +'I came hither to behold Rome pillaged, and Romans slaughtered; what is +Rome blockaded to me?' replied Goisvintha fiercely. 'The treasures +within that city will buy its safety from our King, as soon as the +tremblers on the ramparts gain heart enough to penetrate a Gothic camp. +Where is the vengeance that you promised me among those distant palaces? +Do I behold you carrying that destruction through the dwellings of Rome, +which the soldiers of yonder city carried through the dwellings of the +Goths? Is it for plunder or for glory that the army is here? I +thought, in my woman's delusion, that it was for revenge!' + +'Dishonour will avenge you--Famine will avenge you--Pestilence will +avenge you!' + +'They will avenge my nation; they will not avenge me. I have seen the +blood of Gothic women spilt around me--I have looked on my children's +corpses bleeding at my feet! Will a famine that I cannot see, and a +pestilence that I cannot watch, give me vengeance for this? Look! Here +is the helmet-crest of my husband and your brother--the helmet-crest +that was flung to me as a witness that the Romans had slain him! Since +the massacre of Aquileia it has never quitted my bosom. I have sworn +that the blood which stains and darkens it, shall be washed off in the +blood of the people of Rome. Though I should perish under those +accursed walls; though you in your soulless patience should refuse me +protection and aid; I, widowed, weakened, forsaken as I am, will hold to +the fulfilment of my oath!' + +As she ceased she folded the crest in her mantle, and turned abruptly +from Hermanric in bitter and undissembled scorn. All the attributes of +her sex, in thought, expression, and manner, seemed to have deserted +her. The very tones she spoke in were harsh and unwomanly. + + +Every word she had uttered, every action she had displayed, had sunk +into the inmost heart, had stirred the fiercest passions of the young +warrior whom she addressed. The first national sentiment discoverable +in the day-spring of the ages of Gothic history, is the love of war; but +the second is the reverence of woman. This latter feeling--especially +remarkable among so fierce and unsusceptible a people as the ancient +Scandinavians--was entirely unconnected with those strong attaching +ties, which are the natural consequence of the warm temperaments of more +southern nations; for love was numbered with the base inferior passions, +in the frigid and hardy composition of the warrior of the north. It was +the offspring of reasoning and observation, not of instinctive sentiment +and momentary impulse. In the wild, poetical code of the old Gothic +superstition was one axiom, closely and strangely approximating to an +important theory in the Christian scheme--the watchfulness of an +omnipotent Creator over a finite creature. Every action of the body, +every impulse of the mind, was the immediate result, in the system of +worship among the Goths of the direct, though invisible interference of +the divinities they adored. When, therefore, they observed that women +were more submitted in body to the mysterious laws of nature and +temperament, and more swayed in mind by the native and universal +instincts of humanity than themselves, they inferred as an inevitable +conclusion, that the female sex was more incessantly regarded, and more +constantly and remarkably influenced by the gods of their worship, than +the male. Acting under this persuasion, they committed the study of +medicine, the interpretation of dreams, and in many instances, the +mysteries of communication with the invisible world, to the care of +their women. The gentler sex became their counsellors in difficulty, +and their physicians in sickness--their companions rather than their +mistresses,--the objects of their veneration rather than the purveyors +of their pleasures. Although in after years, the national migrations of +the Goths changed the national temperament, although their ancient +mythology was exchanged for the worship of Christ, this prevailing +sentiment of their earliest existence as a people never entirely +deserted them; but, with different modifications and in different forms, +maintained much of its old supremacy through all changes of manners and +varieties of customs, descending finally to their posterity among the +present nations of Europe, in the shape of that established code of +universal courtesy to women, which is admitted to be one great +distinguishing mark between the social systems of the inhabitants of +civilised and uncivilised lands. + +This powerful and remarkable ascendancy of the woman over the man, among +the Goths, could hardly be more strikingly displayed than in the +instance of Hermanric. It appeared, not only in the deteriorating +effect of the constant companionship of Goisvintha on his naturally +manly character, but also in the strong influence over his mind of the +last words of fury and disdain that she had spoken. His eyes gleamed +with anger, his cheeks flushed with shame, as he listened to those +passages in her wrathful remonstrance which reflected most bitterly on +himself. She had scarcely ceased, and turned to retire into the tent, +when he arrested her progress, and replied, in heightened and accusing +tones:-- + +'You wrong me by your words! When I saw you among the Alps, did I +refuse you protection? When the child was wounded, did I leave him to +suffer unaided? When he died, did I forsake him to rot upon the earth, +or abandon to his mother the digging of his grave? When we approached +Aquileia, and marched past Ravenna, did I forget that the sword hung at +my shoulder? Was it at my will that it remained sheathed, or that I +entered not the gates of the Roman towns, but passed by them in haste? +Was it not the command of the king that withheld me? and could I, his +warrior, disobey? I swear it to you, the vengeance that I promised, I +yearn to perform,--but is it for me to alter the counsels of Alaric? +Can I alone assault the city which it is his command that we should +blockade? What would you have of me?' + +'I would have you remember,' retorted Goisvintha, indignantly, 'that +Romans slew your brother, and made me childless! I would have you +remember that a public warfare of years on years, is powerless to stay +one hour's craving of private vengeance! I would have you less +submitted to your general's wisdom, and more devoted to your own wrongs! +I would have you--like me--thirst for the blood of the first inhabitant +of yonder den of traitors, who--whether for peace or for war--passes the +precincts of its sheltering walls!' + +She paused abruptly for an answer, but Hermanric uttered not a word. The +courageous heart of the young chieftain recoiled at the deliberate act of +assassination, pressed upon him in Goisvintha's veiled yet expressive +speech. To act with his comrades in taking the city by assault, to outdo in +the heat of battle the worst horrors of the massacre of Aquileia, would +have been achievements in harmony with his wild disposition and warlike +education; but, to submit himself to Goisvintha's projects, was a +sacrifice, that the very peculiarities of his martial character made +repugnant to his thoughts. Emotions such as these he would have +communicated to his companion, as they passed through his mind; but there +was something in the fearful and ominous change that had occurred in her +disposition since he had met her among the Alps,--in her frantic, unnatural +craving for bloodshed and revenge, that gave her a mysterious and powerful +influence over his thoughts, his words, and even his actions. He hesitated +and was silent. + +'Have I not been patient?' continued Goisvintha, lowering her voice to +tones of earnest, agitated entreaty, which jarred upon Hermanric's ear, +as he thought who was the petitioner, and what would be the object of +the petition,--' Have I not been patient throughout the weary journey +from the Alps? Have I not waited for the hour of retribution, even +before the defenceless cities that we passed on the march? Have I not +at your instigation governed my yearning for vengeance, until the day +that should see you mounting those walls with the warriors of the Goths, +to scourge with fire and sword the haughty traitors of Rome? Has that +day come? Is it by this blockade that the requital you promised me over +the corpse of my murdered child, is to be performed? Remember the +perils I dared, to preserve the life of that last one of my +household,--and will you risk nothing to avenge his death? His +sepulchre is untended and solitary. Far from the dwellings of his +people, lost in the dawn of his beauty, slaughtered in the beginning of +his strength, lies the offspring of your brother's blood. And the +rest--the two children, who were yet infants; the father, who was brave +in battle and wise in council--where are they? Their bones whiten on +the shelterless plain, or rot unburied by the ocean shore! Think--had +they lived--how happily your days would have passed with them in the +time of peace! how gladly your brother would have gone forth with you to +the chase! how joyfully his boys would have nestled at your knees, to +gather from your lips the first lessons that should form them for the +warrior's life! Think of such enjoyments as these, and then think that +Roman swords have deprived you of them all!' + +Her voice trembled, she ceased for a moment, and looked mournfully up +into Hermanric's averted face. Every feature in the young chieftain's +countenance expressed the tumult that her words had aroused within him. +He attempted to reply, but his voice was powerless in that trying +moment. His head drooped upon his heaving breast, and he sighed heavily +as, without speaking, he grasped Goisvintha by the hand. The object she +had pleaded for was nearly attained;--he was fast sinking beneath the +tempter's well-spread toils! + +'Are you silent still?' she gloomily resumed. 'Do you wonder at this +longing for vengeance, at this craving for Roman blood? I tell you that +my desire has arisen within me, at promptings from the voices of an +unknown world. They urge me to seek requital on the nation who have +widowed and bereaved me--yonder, in their vaunted city, from their +pampered citizens, among their cherished homes--in the spot where their +shameful counsels take root, and whence their ruthless treacheries +derive their bloody source! In the book that our teachers worship, I +have heard it read, that "the voice of blood crieth from the ground!" +This is the voice--Hermanric, this is the voice that I have heard! I +have dreamed that I walked on a shore of corpses, by a sea of blood--I +have seen, arising from that sea, my husband's and my children's bodies, +gashed throughout with Roman wounds! They have called to me through the +vapour of carnage that was around them;--'Are we yet unavenged? Is the +sword of Hermanric yet sheathed?' Night after night have I seen this +vision and heard those voice, and hoped for no respite until the day +that saw the army encamped beneath the walls of Rome, and raising the +scaling ladders for the assault! And now, after all my endurance, how +has that day arrived? Accursed be the lust of treasure! It is more to +the warriors, and to you, than the justice of revenge!' + +'Listen! listen!' cried Hermanric entreatingly. + +'I listen no longer!' interrupted Goisvintha. 'The tongue of my people +is as a strange language in my ears; for it talks but of plunder and of +peace, of obedience, of patience, and of hope! I listen no longer; for +the kindred are gone that I loved to listen to--they are all slain by +the Romans but you--and you I renounce!' + + +Deprived of all power of consideration by the violence of the emotions +awakened in his heart by Goisvintha's wild revelations of the evil +passion that consumed her, the young Goth, shuddering throughout his +whole frame, and still averting his face, murmured in hoarse, unsteady +accents: 'Ask of me what you will. I have no words to deny, no power to +rebuke you--ask of me what you will!' + +'Promise me,' cried Goisvintha, seizing the hand of Hermanric, and +gazing with a look of fierce triumph on his disordered countenance, +'that this blockade of the city shall not hinder my vengeance! Promise +me that the first victim of our righteous revenge, shall be the first +one that appears before you--whether in war or peace--of the inhabitants +of Rome!' + +'I promise,' cried the Goth. And those two words sealed the destiny of +his future life. + +During the silence that now ensued between Goisvintha and Hermanric, and +while each stood absorbed in deep meditation, the dark prospect spread +around them began to brighten slowly under a soft, clear light. The +moon, whose dull broad disk had risen among the evening mists arrayed in +gloomy red, had now topped the highest of the exhalations of earth, and +beamed in the wide heaven, adorned once more in her pale, accustomed +hue. Gradually, yet perceptibly, the vapour rolled,--layer by layer,-- +from the lofty summits of the palaces of Rome, and the high places of +the mighty city began to dawn, as it were, in the soft, peaceful, +mysterious light; while the lower divisions of the walls, the desolate +suburbs, and parts of the Gothic camp, lay still plunged in the dusky +obscurity of the mist, in grand and gloomy contrast to the prospect of +glowing brightness, that almost appeared to hover about them from above +and around. Patches of ground behind the tent of Hermanric, began to +grow partially visible in raised and open positions; and the song of the +nightingale was now faintly audible at intervals, among the solitary and +distant trees. In whatever direction it was observed, the aspect of +nature gave promise of the cloudless, tranquil night, of the autumnal +climate of ancient Italy. + +Hermanric was the first to return to the contemplation of the outward +world. Perceiving that the torch which still burnt by the side of his +tent, had become useless, now that the moon had arisen and dispelled the +mists, he advanced and extinguished it; pausing afterwards to look forth +over the plains, as they brightened slowly before him. He had been thus +occupied but a short time, when he thought he discerned a human figure +moving slowly over a spot of partially lightened and hilly ground, at a +short distance from him. It was impossible that this wandering form +could be one of his own people;--they were all collected at their +respective posts, and his tent he knew was on the outermost boundary of +the encampment before the Pincian Gate. + +He looked again. The figure still advanced, but at too great a distance +to allow him a chance of discovering, in the uncertain light around him, +either its nation, its sex, or its age. His heart misgave him as he +remembered his promise to Goisvintha, and contemplated the possibility +that it was some miserable slave, abandoned by the fugitives who had +quitted the suburbs in the morning, who now approached as a last +resource, to ask mercy and protection from his enemies in the camp. He +turned towards Goisvintha as the idea crossed his mind, and observed +that she was still occupied in meditation. Assured by the sight, that +she had not yet observed the fugitive figure, he again directed his +attention--with an excess of anxiety which he could hardly account for-- +in the direction where he had first beheld it, but it was no more to be +seen. It had either retired to concealment, or was now still advancing +towards his tent through a clump of trees that clothed the descent of +the hill. + +Silently and patiently he continued to look forth over the landscape; +and still no living thing was to be seen. At length, just as he began +to doubt whether his senses had not deceived him, the fugitive figure +suddenly appeared from the trees, hurried with wavering gait over the +patch of low, damp ground that still separated it from the young Goth, +gained his tent, and then with a feeble cry fell helplessly upon the +earth at his feet. + + +That cry, faint as it was, attracted Goisvintha's attention. She turned +in an instant, thrust Hermanric aside, and raised the stranger in her +arms. The light, slender form, the fair hand and arm hanging motionless +towards the ground, the long locks of deep black hair, heavy with the +moisture of the night atmosphere, betrayed the wanderer's sex and age in +an instant. The solitary fugitive was a young girl. + +Signing to Hermanric to kindle the extinguished torch at a neighbouring +watch-fire, Goisvintha carried the still insensible girl into the tent. +As the Goth silently proceeded to obey her, a vague, horrid suspicion, +that he shrunk from embodying, passed across his mind. His hand shook +so that he could hardly light the torch, and bold and vigorous as he +was, his limbs trembled beneath him as he slowly returned to the tent. + +When he had gained the interior of his temporary abode, the light of his +torch illuminated a strange and impressive scene. + +Goisvintha was seated on a rude oaken chest, supporting on her knees the +form of the young girl, and gazing with an expression of the most +intense and enthralling interest upon her pale, wasted countenance. The +tattered robe that had hitherto enveloped the fugitive had fallen back, +and disclosed the white dress, which was the only other garment she +wore. Her face, throat, and arms, had been turned, by exposure to the +cold, to the pure whiteness of marble. Her eyes were closed, and her +small, delicate features were locked in a rigid repose. But for her +deep black hair, which heightened the ghastly aspect of her face, she +might have been mistaken, as she lay in the woman's arms, for an +exquisitely chiseled statue of youth in death! + +When the figure of the young warrior, arrayed in his martial +habiliments, and standing near the insensible girl with evident emotions +of wonder and anxiety, was added to the group thus produced,--when +Goisvintha's tall, powerful frame, clothed in dark garments, and bent +over the fragile form and white dress of the fugitive, was illuminated +by the wild, fitful glare of the torch,--when the heightened colour, +worn features, and eager expression of the woman were beheld, here +shadowed, there brightened, in close opposition to the pale, youthful, +reposing countenance of the girl, such an assemblage of violent lights +and deep shades was produced, as gave the whole scene a character at +once mysterious and sublime. It presented an harmonious variety of +solemn colours, united by the exquisite artifice of Nature to a grand, +yet simple disposition of form. It was a picture executed by the hand +of Rembrandt, and imagined by the mind of Raphael. + +Starting abruptly from her long, earnest examination of the fugitive, +Goisvintha proceeded to employ herself in restoring animation to her +insensible charge. While thus occupied, she preserved unbroken silence. +A breathless expectation, that absorbed all her senses in one direction, +seemed to have possessed itself of her heart. She laboured at her task +with the mechanical, unwavering energy of those, whose attention is +occupied by their thoughts rather than their actions. Slowly and +unwillingly the first faint flush of returning animation dawned, in the +tenderest delicacy of hue, upon the girl's colourless cheek. Gradually +and softly, her quickening respiration fluttered a thin lock of hair +that had fallen over her face. A little interval more, and then the +closed, peaceful eyes suddenly opened, and glance quickly round the tent +with a wild expression of bewilderment and terror. Then, as Goisvintha +rose, and attempted to place her on a seat, she tore herself from her +grasp, looked on her for a moment with fearful intentness, and then +falling on her knees, murmured, in a plaintive voice,-- + +'Have mercy upon me. I am forsaken by my father,--I know not why. The +gates of the city are shut against me. My habitation in Rome is closed +to me for ever!' + + +She had scarcely spoken these few words, before an ominous change +appeared in Goisvintha's countenance. Its former expression of ardent +curiosity changed to a look of malignant triumph. Her eyes fixed +themselves on the girl's upturned face, in glaring, steady, spell-bound +contemplation. She gloated over the helpless creature before her, as +the wild beast gloats over the prey that it has secured. Her form +dilated, a scornful smile appeared on her lips, a hot flush rose on her +cheeks, and ever and anon she whispered softly to herself, 'I knew she +was Roman! Aha! I knew she was Roman!' + +During this space of time Hermanric was silent. His breath came short +and thick, his face grew pale, and his glance, after resting for an +instant on the woman and the girl, travelled slowly and anxiously round +the tent. In one corner of it lay a heavy battle-axe. He looked for a +moment from the weapon to Goisvintha, with a vivid expression of horror, +and then moving slowly across the tent, with a firm, yet trembling +grasp, he possessed himself of the arm. + +As he looked up, Goisvintha approached him. In one hand she held the +bloody helmet-crest, while she pointed with the other to the crouching +form of the girl. Her lips were still parted with their unnatural +smile, and she whispered softly to the Goth--'Remember your promise!-- +remember your kindred!--remember the massacre of Aquileia!' + +The young warrior made no answer. He moved rapidly forward a few steps, +and signed hurriedly to the young girl to fly by the door; but her +terror had by this time divested her of all her ordinary powers of +perception and comprehension. She looked up vacantly at Hermanric, and +then shuddering violently, crept into a corner of the tent. During the +short silence that now ensued, the Goth could hear her shiver and sigh, +as he stood watching, with all the anxiety of apprehension, Goisvintha's +darkening brow. + +'She is Roman--she is the first dweller in the city who has appeared +before you!--remember your promise!--remember your kindred!--remember +the massacre of Aquileia!' said the woman in fierce, quick, concentrated +tones. + +'I remember that I am a warrior and a Goth,' replied Hermanric, +disdainfully. 'I have promised to avenge you, but it must be on a man +that my promise must be fulfilled--an armed man, who can come forth with +weapons in his hand--a strong man of courage whom I will slay in single +combat before your eyes! The girl is too young to die, too weak to be +assailed!' + +Not a syllable that he had spoken had passed unheeded by the fugitive, +every word seemed to revive her torpid faculties. As he ceased she +arose, and with the quick instinct of terror, ran up to the side of the +young Goth. Then seizing his hand--the hand that still grasped the +battle-axe--she knelt down and kissed it, uttering hurried broken +ejaculations, as she clasped it to her bosom, which the tremulousness of +her voice rendered completely unintelligible. + +'Did the Romans think my children too young to die, or too weak to be +assailed?' cried Goisvintha. 'By the Lord God of Heaven, they murdered +them the more willingly because they were young, and wounded them the +more fiercely because they were weak! My heart leaps within me as I +look on the girl! I am doubly avenged, if I am avenged on the innocent +and the youthful! Her bones shall rot on the plains of Rome, as the +bones of my offspring rot on the plains of Aquileia! Shed me her +blood!--Remember your promise!--Shed me her blood!' + +She advanced with extended arms and gleaming eyes towards the fugitive. +She gasped for breath, her face turned suddenly to a livid paleness, the +torchlight fell upon her distorted features, she looked unearthly at +that fearful moment; but the divinity of mercy had now braced the +determination of the young Goth to meet all emergencies. His bright +steady eye quailed not for an instant, as he encountered the frantic +glance of the fury before him. With one hand he barred Goisvintha from +advancing another step; the other, he could not disengage from the girl, +who now clasped and kissed it more eagerly than before. + + +'You do this but to tempt me to anger,' said Goisvintha, altering her +manner with sudden and palpable cunning, more ominous of peril to the +fugitive than the fury she had hitherto displayed. 'You jest at me, +because I have failed in patience, like a child! But you will shed her +blood--you are honourable and will hold to your promise--you will shed +her blood! And I,' she continued, exultingly, seating herself on the +oaken chest that she had previously occupied, and resting her clenched +hands on her knees; 'I will wait to see it!' + +At this moment voices and steps were heard outside the tent. Hermanric +instantly raised the trembling girl from the ground, and supporting her +by his arm, advanced to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. He was +confronted the next instant by an old warrior of superior rank, attached +to the person of Alaric, who was followed by a small party of the +ordinary soldiery of the camp. + +'Among the women appointed by the king to the office of tending, for +this night, those sick and wounded on the march, is Goisvintha, sister +of Hermanric. If she is here, let her approach and follow me;' said the +chief of the party in authoritative tones, pausing at the door of the +tent. + +Goisvintha rose. For an instant she stood irresolute. To quit +Hermanric at such a time as this, was a sacrifice that wrung her savage +heart;--but she remembered the severity of Alaric's discipline, she saw +the armed men awaiting her, and yielded after a struggle to the +imperious necessity of obedience to the king's commands. Trembling with +suppressed anger and bitter disappointment, she whispered to Hermanric +as she passed him:-- + +'You cannot save her if you would! You dare not commit her to the +charge of your companions, she is too young and too fair to be abandoned +to their doubtful protection. You cannot escape with her, for you must +remain here on the watch at your post. You will not let her depart by +herself, for you know that she would perish with cold and privation +before the morning rises. When I return on the morrow I shall see her in +the tent. You cannot escape from your promise;--you cannot forget it,-- +you must shed her blood!' + +'The commands of the king,' said the old warrior, signing to his party +to depart with Goisvintha, who now stood with forced calmness awaiting +their guidance: 'will be communicated to the chieftain Hermanric on the +morrow. Remember,' he continued in a lower tone, pointing +contemptuously to the trembling girl; 'that the vigilance you have shown +in setting the watch before yonder gate, will not excuse any negligence +your prize there may now cause you to commit! Consult your youthful +pleasures as you please, but remember your duties! Farewell!' + +Uttering these words in a stern, serious tone, the veteran departed. +Soon the last sound of the footsteps of his escort died away, and +Hermanric and the fugitive were left alone in the tent. + +During the address of the old warrior to the chieftain, the girl had +silently detached herself from her protector's support, and retired +hastily to the interior of the tent. When she saw that they were left +together again, she advanced hesitatingly towards the young Goth, and +looked up with an expression of mute inquiry into his face. + +'I am very miserable,' said she, after an interval of silence, in soft, +clear, melancholy accents. 'If you forsake me now, I must die--and I +have lived so short a time on the earth, I have known so little +happiness and so little love, that I am not fit to die! But you will +protect me! You are good and brave, strong with weapons in your hands, +and full of pity. You have defended me, and spoken kindly of me--I love +you for the compassion you have shown me.' + + +Her language and actions, simple as they were, were yet so new to +Hermanric, whose experience of her sex had been almost entirely limited +to the women of his own stern impassive nation, that he could only reply +by a brief assurance of protection, when the suppliant awaited his +answer. A new page in the history of humanity was opening before his +eyes, and he scanned it in wondering silence. + + +'If that woman should return,' pursued the girl, fixing her dark, +eloquent eyes intently upon the Goth's countenance, 'take me quickly +where she cannot come. My heart grows cold as I look on her! She will +kill me if she can approach me again! My father's anger is very +fearful, but hers is horrible--horrible--horrible! Hush! already I hear +her coming back--let us go--I will follow you wherever you please--but +let us not delay while there is time to depart! She will destroy me if +she sees me now, and I cannot die yet! Oh my preserver, my +compassionate defender, I cannot die yet!' + +'No one shall harm you--no on shall approach you to-night--you are +secure from all dangers in this tent,' said the Goth, gazing on her with +undissembled astonishment and admiration. + +'I will tell you why death is so dreadful to me,' she continued, and her +voice deepened as she spoke, to tones of mournful solemnity, strangely +impressive in a creature so young. 'I have lived much alone, and have +had no companions but my thoughts, and the sky that I could look up to, +and the things on the earth that I could watch. As I have seen the +clear heaven and the soft fields, and smelt the perfume of flowers, and +heard the voices of singing-birds afar off, I have wondered why the same +God who made all this, and made me, should have made grief and pain and +hell--the dread eternal hell that my father speaks of in his church. I +never looked at the sun-light, or woke from my sleep to look on and to +think of the distant stars, but I longed to love something that might +listen to my joy. But my father forbade me to be happy! He frowned +even when he gave me my flower-garden--though God made flowers. He +destroyed my lute--though God made music. My life has been a longing in +loneliness for the voices of friends! My heart has swelled and trembled +within me, because when I walked in the garden and looked on the plains +and woods and high, bright mountains that were round me, I knew that I +loved them alone! Do you know now why I dare not die? It is because I +must find first the happiness which I feel God has made for me. It is +because I must live to praise this wonderful, beautiful world with +others who enjoy it as I could! It is because my home has been among +those who sigh, and never among those who smile! It is for this that I +fear to die! I must find companions whose prayers are in singing and in +happiness, before I go to the terrible hereafter that all dread. I dare +not die! I dare not die!' + +As she uttered these last words she began to weep bitterly. Between +amazement and compassion the young Goth was speechless. He looked down +upon the small, soft hand that she had placed on his arm while she +spoke, and saw that it trembled; he pressed it, and felt that it was +cold; and in the first impulse of pity produced by the action, he found +the readiness of speech which he had hitherto striven for in vain. + +'You shiver and look pale,' said he; 'a fire shall be kindled at the +door of the tent. I will bring you garments that will warm you, and +food that will give you strength; you shall sleep, and I will watch that +no one harms you.' + +The girl hastily looked up. An expression of ineffable gratitude +overspread her sorrowful countenance. She murmured in a broken voice, +'Oh, how merciful, how merciful you are!' And then, after an evident +struggle with herself, she covered her face with her hands, and again +burst into tears. + +More and more embarrassed, Hermanric mechanically busied himself in +procuring from such of his attendants as the necessities of the blockade +left free, the supplies of fire, food and raiment, which he had +promised. She received the coverings, approached the blazing fuel, and +partook of the simple refreshment, which the young warrior offered her, +with eagerness. After that she sat for some time silent, absorbed in +deep meditation, and cowering over the fire, apparently unconscious of +the curiosity with which she was still regarded by the Goth. At length +she suddenly looked up, and observing his eyes fixed on her, arose and +beckoned him to the seat that she occupied. + +'Did you know how utterly forsaken I am,' said she, 'you would not +wonder as you do, that I, a stranger and a Roman, have sought you thus. +I have told you how lonely was my home; but yet that home was a refuge +and a protection to me until the morning of this long day that is past, +when I was expelled from it for ever! I was suddenly awakened in my bed +by--my father entered in anger--he called me--' + +She hesitated, blushed, and then paused at the very outset of her +narrative. Innocent as she was, the natural instincts of her sex spoke, +though in a mysterious yet in a warning tone, within her heart, abruptly +imposing on her motives for silence that she could neither penetrate nor +explain. She clasped her trembling hands over her bosom as if to repress +its heaving, and casting down her eyes, continued in a lower tone:-- + +'I cannot tell you why my father drove me from his doors. He has always +been silent and sorrowful to me; setting me long tasks in mournful +books; commanding that I should not quit the precincts of his abode, and +forbidding me to speak to him when I have sometimes asked him to tell me +of my mother whom I have lost. Yet he never threatened me or drove me +from his side, until the morning of which I have told you. Then his +wrath was terrible; his eyes were fierce; his voice was threatening! He +bade me begone, and I obeyed him in affright, for I thought he would +have slain me if I stayed! I fled from the house, knowing not where I +went, and ran through yonder gate, which is hard by our abode. As I +entered the suburbs, I met great crowds, all hurrying into Rome. I was +bewildered by my fears and the confusion all around, yet I remember that +they called loudly to me to fly to the city, ere the gates were closed +against the assault of the Goths. And others jostled and scoffed at me, +as they passed by and saw me in the thin night garments in which I was +banished from my home!' + +Here she paused and listened intently for a few moments. Every +accidental noise that she heard still awakened in her the apprehension +of Goisvintha's return. Reassured by Hermanric and by her own +observation of all that was passing outside the tent, she resumed her +narrative after an interval, speaking now in a steadier voice. + +'I thought my heart would burst within me,' she continued, 'as I tried +to escape them. All things whirled before my eyes. I could not speak-- +I could not stop--I could not weep. I fled and fled I knew not whither, +until I sank down exhausted at the door of a small house on the +outskirts of the suburbs. Then I called for aid, but no one was by to +hear me. I crept--for I could stand no longer--into the house. It was +empty. I looked from the windows: no human figure passed through the +silent streets. The roar of a mighty confusion still rose from the +walls of the city, but I was left to listen to it alone. In the house I +saw scattered on the floor some fragments of bread and an old garment. +I took them both, and then rose and departed; for the silence of the +place was horrible to me, and I remembered the fields and the plains +that I had once loved to look on, and I thought that I might find there +the refuge that had been denied to me at Rome! So I set forth once more; +and when I gained the soft grass, and sat down beside the shady trees, +and saw the sunlight brightening over the earth, my heart grew sad, and +I wept as I thought on my loneliness and remembered my father's anger. + +'I had not long remained in my resting-place, when I heard a sound of +trumpets in the distance, and looking forth, I saw far off, advancing +over the plains, a mighty multitude with arms that glittered in the sun. +I strove, as I beheld them, to arise and return even to those suburbs +whose solitude had affrighted me. But my limbs failed me. I saw a +little hollow hidden among the trees around. I entered it, and there +throughout the lonely day I lay concealed. I heard the long tramp of +footsteps, as your army passed me on the roads beneath; and then, after +those hours of fear came the weary hours of solitude! + + +'Oh, those--lonely--lonely--lonely hours! I have lived without +companions, but those hours were more terrible to me than all the years +of my former life! I dared not venture to leave my hiding-place--I +dared not call! Alone in the world, I crouched in my refuge till the +sun went down! Then came the mist, and the darkness, and the cold. The +bitter winds of night thrilled through and through me! The lonely +obscurity around me seemed filled with phantoms whom I could not behold, +who touched me and rustled over the surface of my skin! They half +maddened me! I rose to depart; to meet my wrathful father, or the army +that had passed me, or solitude in the cold, bright meadows--I cared not +which!--when I discerned the light of your torch, the moment ere it was +extinguished. Dark though it then was, I found your tent. And now I +know that I have found yet more--a companion and a friend!' + +She looked up at the young Goth as she pronounced these words with the +same grateful expression that had appeared on her countenance before; +but this time her eyes were not dimmed by tears. Already her +disposition--poor as was the prospect of happiness which now lay +before it--had begun to return, with an almost infantine facility of +change, to the restoring influences of the brighter emotions. Already +the short tranquilities of the present began to exert for her their +effacing charm over the long agitations of the past. Despair was +unnumbered among the emotions that grew round that child-like heart; +shame, fear, and grief, however they might overshadow it for a time, +left no taint of their presence on its bright, fine surface. Tender, +perilously alive to sensation, strangely retentive of kindness as she +was by nature, the very solitude to which she had been condemned had +gifted her, young as she was, with a martyr's endurance of ill, and +with a stoic's patience under pain. + +'Do not mourn for me now,' she pursued, gently interrupting some broken +expressions of compassion which fell from the lips of the young Goth. +'If you are merciful to me, I shall forget all that I have suffered! +Though your nation is at enmity with mine, while you remain my friend, I +fear nothing! I can look on your great stature, and heavy sword, and +bright armour now without trembling! You are not like the soldiers +of Rome;--you are taller, stronger, more gloriously arrayed! You are +like a statue I once saw by chance of a warrior of the Greeks! You have +a look of conquest and a presence of command!' + +She gazed on the manly and powerful frame of the young warrior, clothed +as it was in the accoutrements of his warlike nation, with an expression +of childish interest and astonishment, asking him the appellation and +use of each part of his equipment, as it attracted her attention, and +ending her inquiries by eagerly demanding his name. + +'Hermanric,' she repeated, as he answered her, pronouncing with some +difficulty the harsh Gothic syllables--'Hermanric!--that is a stern, +solemn name--a name fit for a warrior and a man! Mine sounds worthless, +after such a name as that! It is only Antonina!' + +Deeply as he was interested in every word uttered by the girl, Hermanric +could no longer fail to perceive the evident traces of exhaustion that +now appeared in the slightest of her actions. Producing some furs from +a corner of the tent, he made a sort of rude couch by the side of the +fire, heaped fresh fuel on the flames, and then gently counselled her to +recruit her wasted energies by repose. There was something so candid in +his manner, so sincere in the tones of his voice, as he made his simple +offer of hospitality to the stranger who had taken refuge with him, that +the most distrustful woman would have accepted with as little hesitation +as Antonina; who, gratefully and unhesitatingly, laid down on the bed +that he had been spreading for her at her feet. + +As soon as he had carefully covered her with a cloak, and rearranged her +couch in the position best calculated to insure her all the warmth of +the burning fuel, Hermanric retired to the other side of the fire; and, +leaning on his sword, abandoned himself to the new and absorbing +reflections which the presence of the girl naturally aroused. + +He thought not on the duties demanded of him by the blockade; he +remembered neither the scene of rage and ferocity that had followed his +evasion of his reckless promise; nor the fierce determination that +Goisvintha had expressed as she quitted him for the night. The cares +and toils to come with the new morning, which would oblige him to expose +the fugitive to the malignity of her revengeful enemy; the thousand +contingencies that the difference of their sexes, their nations, and +their lives, might create to oppose the continuance of the permanent +protection that he had promised to her, caused him no forebodings. +Antonina, and Antonina alone, occupied every faculty of his mind, and +every feeling of his heart. There was a softness and a melody to his +ear in her very name! + + +His early life had made him well acquainted with the Latin tongue, but +he had never discovered all its native smoothness of sound, and elegance +of structure, until he had heard it spoken by Antonina. Word by word, +he passed over in his mind her varied, natural, and happy turns of +expression; recalling, as he was thus employed, the eloquent looks, the +rapid gesticulations, the changing tones which had accompanied those +words, and thinking how wide was the difference between this young +daughter of Rome, and the cold and taciturn women of his own nation. +The very mystery enveloping her story, which would have excited the +suspicion or contempt of more civilised men, aroused in him no other +emotions than those of wonder and compassion. No feelings of a lower +nature than these entered his heart towards the girl. She was safe +under the protection of the enemy and the barbarian, after having been +lost through the interference of the Roman and the senator. + +To the simple perceptions of the Goth, the discovery of so much +intelligence united to such extreme youth, of so much beauty doomed to +such utter loneliness, was the discovery of an apparition that dazzled, +and not of a woman who charmed him. He could not even have touched the +hand of the helpless creature, who now reposed under his tent, unless +she had extended it to him of her own accord. He could only think--with +a delight whose excess he was far from estimating himself--on this +solitary mysterious being who had come to him for shelter and for aid; +who had awakened in him already new sources of sensation; and who seemed +to his startled imagination to have suddenly twined herself for ever +about the destinies of his future life. + +He was still deep in meditation, when he was startled by a hand suddenly +laid on his arm. He looked up and saw that Antonina, whom he had +imagined to be slumbering on her couch, was standing by his side. + +'I cannot sleep,' said the girl in a low, awe-struck voice, 'until I +have asked you to spare my father when you enter Rome. I know that you +are here to ravage the city; and, for aught I can tell, you may assault +and destroy it to-night. Will you promise to warn me before the walls +are assailed? I will then tell you my father's name and abode, and you +will spare him as you have mercifully spared me? He has denied me his +protection, but he is my father still; and I remember that I disobeyed +him once, when I possessed myself of a lute! Will you promise me to +spare him? My mother, whom I have never seen and who must therefore be +dead, may love me in another world for pleading for my father's life!' + +In a few words, Hermanric quieted her agitation by explaining to her the +nature and intention of the Gothic blockade, and she silently returned +to the couch. After a short interval, her slow, regular breathing +announced to the young warrior, as he watched by the side of the fire, +that she had at length forgotten the day's heritage of misfortune in the +welcome oblivion of sleep. + + +CHAPTER 9. THE TWO INTERVIEWS. + +The time, is the evening of the first day of the Gothic blockade; the +place, is Vetranio's palace at Rome. In one of the private apartments +of his mansion is seated its all-accomplished owner, released at length +from the long sitting convened by the Senate on the occasion of the +unexpected siege of the city. Although the same complete discipline, +the same elegant regularity, and the same luxurious pomp, which +distinguished the senator's abode in times of security, still prevail +over it in the time of imminent danger which now threatens rich and poor +alike in Rome, Vetranio himself appears far from partaking the +tranquility of his patrician household. His manner displays an unusual +sternness, and his face an unwonted displeasure, as he sits, occupied by +his silent reflections and thoroughly unregardful of whatever occurs +around him. Two ladies who are his companions in the apartment, exert +all their blandishments to win him back to hilarity, but in vain. The +services of his expectant musicians are not put into requisition, the +delicacies on his table remain untouched, and even 'the inestimable +kitten of the breed most worshipped by the ancient Egyptians' gambols +unnoticed and unapplauded at his feet. All its wonted philosophical +equanimity has evidently departed, for the time at least, from the +senator's mind. + +Silence--hitherto a stranger to the palace apartments--had reigned +uninterruptedly over them for some time, when the freedman Carrio +dissipated Vetranio's meditations, and put the ladies who were with him +to flight, by announcing in an important voice, that the Prefect +Pompeianus desired a private interview with the Senator Vetranio. + +The next instant the chief magistrate of Rome entered the apartment. He +was a short, fat, undignified man. Indolence and vacillation were +legibly impressed on his appearance and expression. You saw, in a +moment, that his mind, like a shuttlecock, might be urged in any +direction by the efforts of others, but was utterly incapable of +volition by itself. But once in his life had the Prefect Pompeianus +been known to arrive unaided at a positive determination, and that was +in deciding a fierce argument between a bishop and a general, regarding +the relative merits of two rival rope-dancers of equal renown. + +'I have come, my beloved friend,' said the Prefect in agitated tones, +'to ask your opinion, at this period of awful responsibility for us all, +on the plan of operations proposed by the Senate at the sitting of to- +day! But first,' he hastily continued, perceiving with the unerring +instinct of an old gastronome, that the inviting refreshments on +Vetranio's table had remained untouched, 'permit me to fortify my +exhausted energies by a visit to your ever-luxurious board. Alas, my +friend, when I consider the present fearful scarcity of our provision +stores in the city, and the length of time that this accursed blockade +may be expected to last, I am inclined to think that the gods alone know +(I mean St. Peter) how much longer we may be enabled to give occupation +to our digestions and employment to our cooks. + +'I have observed,' pursued the Prefect, after an interval, speaking with +his mouth full of stewed peacock; 'I have observed, oh esteemed +colleague! the melancholy of your manner and your absolute silence +during your attendance to-day at our deliberations. Have we, in your +opinion, decided erroneously? It is not impossible! Our confusion at +this unexpected appearance of the barbarians may have blinded our usual +penetration! If by any chance you dissent from our plans, I beseech you +communicate your objections to me without reserve!' + +'I dissent from nothing, because I have heard nothing,' replied Vetranio +sullenly. 'I was so occupied by a private matter of importance during +my attendance at the sitting of the Senate, that I was deaf to their +deliberations. I know that we are besieged by the Goths--why are they +not driven from before the walls?' + +'Deaf to our deliberations! Drive the Goths from the walls!' repeated +the Prefect faintly. 'Can you think of any private matter at such a +moment as this? Do you know our danger? Do you know that our friends +are so astonished at this frightful calamity, that they move about like +men half awakened from a dream? Have you not seen the streets filled +with terrified and indignant crowds? Have you not mounted the ramparts +and beheld the innumerable multitudes of pitiless Goths surrounding us +on all sides, intercepting our supplies of provisions from the country, +and menacing us with a speedy famine, unless our hoped-for auxiliaries +arrive from Ravenna?' + +'I have neither mounted the ramparts, nor viewed with any attention the +crowds in the streets,' replied Vetranio, carelessly. + +'But if you have seen nothing yourself, you must have heard what others +saw,' persisted the Prefect; 'you must know at least that the legions we +have in the city are not sufficient to guard more than half the circuit +of the walls. Has no one informed you that if it should please the +leader of the barbarians to change his blockade into an assault, it is +more than probable that we should be unable to repulse him successfully? +Are you still deaf to our deliberations, when your palace may to-morrow +be burnt over your head, when we may be staved to death, when we may be +doomed to eternal dishonour by being driven to conclude a peace? Deaf +to our deliberations, when such an unimaginable calamity as this +invasion has fallen like a thunderbolt under our very walls! You amaze +me! You overwhelm me! You horrify me!' + + +And in the excess of his astonishment the bewildered Prefect actually +abandoned his stewed peacock, and advanced, wine-cup in hand, to obtain +a nearer view of the features of his imperturbable host. + +'If we are not strong enough to drive the Goths out of Italy,' rejoined +Vetranio coolly, 'you and the Senate know that we are rich enough to +bribe them to depart to the remotest confines of the empire. If we have +not swords enough to fight, we have gold and silver enough to pay.' + +'You are jesting! Remember our honour and the auxiliaries we still hope +for from Ravenna,' said the Prefect reprovingly. + +'Honour has lost the signification now, that it had in the time of the +Caesars,' retorted the Senator. 'Our fighting days are over. We have +had heroes enough for our reputation. As for the auxiliaries you still +hope for, you will have none! While the Emperor is safe in Ravenna, he +will care nothing for the worst extremities that can be suffered by the +people of Rome.' + +'But you forget your duties,' urged the astonished Pompeianus, turning +from rebuke to expostulation. 'You forget that it is a time when all +private interests must be abandoned! You forget that I have come here +to ask your advice, that I am bewildered by a thousand projects, forced +on me from all sides, for ruling the city successfully during the +blockade; that I look to you, as a friend and a man of reputation, to +aid me in deciding on a choice out of the varied counsels submitted to +me in the Senate to-day.' + +'Write down the advice of each senator on a separate strip of vellum; +shake all the strips together in an urn; and then, let the first you +take out by chance, be your guide to govern by in the present condition +of the city!' said Vetranio with a sneer. + +'Oh friend, friend! it is cruel to jest with me thus!' cried the +Prefect, in tones of lament; 'Would you really persuade me that you are +ignorant that what sentinels we have, are doubled already on the walls? +Would you attempt to declare seriously to me, that you never heard the +project of Saturninus for reducing imperceptibly the diurnal allowance +of provisions? Or the recommendation of Emilianus, that the people +should be kept from thinking on the dangers and extremities which now +threaten them, by being provided incessantly with public amusements at +the theatres and hippodromes? Do you really mean that you are +indifferent to the horrors of our present situation? By the souls of +the Apostles, Vetranio, I begin to think that you do not believe in the +Goths!' + +'I have already told you that private affairs occupy me at present, to +the exclusion of public,' said Vetranio impatiently. 'Debate as you +choose--approve what projects you will--I withdraw myself from +interference in your deliberations!' + + +'This,' murmured the repulsed Prefect in soliloquy, as he mechanically +resumed his place at the refreshment table, 'this is the very end and +climax of all calamities! Now, when advice and assistance are more +precious than jewels in my estimation, I receive neither! I gain from +none, the wise and saving counsels which, as chief magistrate of this +Imperial City, it is my right to demand from all; and the man on whom I +most depended is the man who fails me most! Yet hear me, oh Vetranio, +once again,' he continued, addressing the Senator, 'if our perils beyond +the walls affect you not, there is a weighty matter that has been +settled within them, which must move you. After you had quitted the +Senate, Serena, the widow of Stilicho, was accused, as her husband was +accused before her, of secret and treasonable correspondence with the +Goths; and has been condemned, as her husband was condemned, to suffer +the penalty of death. I myself discerned no evidence to convict her; +but the populace cried out, in universal frenzy, that she was guilty, +that she should die; and that the barbarians, when they heard of the +punishment inflicted on their secret adherent, would retire in dismay +from Rome. This also was a moot point of argument, on which I vainly +endeavoured to decide; but the Senate and the people were wiser than I; +and Serena was condemned to be strangled to-morrow by the public +executioner. She was a woman of good report before this time, and is +the adopted mother of the Emperor. It is now doubted by many whether +Stilicho, her husband, was ever guilty of the correspondence with the +Goths, of which he was accused; and I, on my part, doubt much that +Serena has deserved the punishment of death at our hands. I beseech +you, Vetranio, let me be enlightened by your opinion on this one point +at least!' + +The Prefect waited anxiously for an answer, but Vetranio neither looked +at him nor replied. It was evident that the Senator had not listened to +a word that he had said! + +This reception of his final appeal for assistance, produced the effect +on the petitioner, which it was perhaps designed to convey--the Prefect +Pompeianus quitted the room in despair. + +He had not long departed, when Carrio again entered the apartment, and +addressed his master thus: + +'It is grievous for me, revered patron, to disclose it to you, but your +slaves have returned unsuccessful from the search!' + +'Give the description of the girl to a fresh division of them, and let +them continue their efforts throughout the night, not only in the +streets, but in all the houses of public entertainment in the city. She +must be in Rome, and she must be found!' said the senator gloomily. + +Carrio bowed profoundly, and was about to depart, when he was arrested +at the door by his master's voice. + +'If an old man, calling himself Numerian, should desire to see me,' said +Vetranio, 'admit him instantly.' + +'She had quitted the room but a short time when I attempted to reclaim +her,' pursued the senator, speaking to himself; 'and yet when I gained +the open air, she was nowhere to be seen! She must have mingled +unintentionally with the crowds whom the Goths drove into the city, and +thus have eluded my observation! So young and so innocent! She must be +found! She must be found!' + +He paused, once more engrossed in deep and melancholy thought. After a +long interval, he was roused from his abstraction by the sound of +footsteps on the marble floor. He looked up. The door had been opened +without his perceiving it, and an old man was advancing with slow and +trembling steps towards his silken couch. It was the bereaved and +broken-hearted Numerian. + +'Where is she? Is she found?' asked the father, gazing anxiously round +the room, as if he had expected to see his daughter there. + +'My slaves still search for her,' said Vetranio, mournfully. + +'Ah, woe--woe--woe! How I wronged her! How I wronged her!' cried the +old man, turning to depart. + + +'Listen to me ere you go,' said Vetranio, gently detaining him. 'I have +done you a great wrong, but I will yet atone for it by finding for you +your child! While there were women who would have triumphed in my +admiration, I should not have attempted to deprive you of your daughter! +Remember when you recover her--and you shall recover her--that from the +time when I first decoyed her into listening to my lute, to the night +when your traitorous servant led me to her bed-chamber, she has been +innocent in this ill-considered matter. I alone have been guilty! She +was scarcely awakened when you discovered her in my arms, and my entry +into her chamber, was as little expected by her, as it was by you. I +was bewildered by the fumes of wine and the astonishment of your sudden +appearance, or I should have rescued her from your anger, ere it was too +late! The events which have passed this morning, confused though they +were, have yet convinced me that I had mistaken you both. I now know +that your child was too pure to be an object fitted for my pursuit; and +I believe that in secluding her as you did, however ill-advised you +might appear, you were honest in your design! Never in my pursuit of +pleasure did I commit so fatal an error, as when I entered the doors of +your house!' + +In pronouncing these words, Vetranio but gave expression to the +sentiments by which they were really inspired. As we have before +observed, profligate as he was by thoughtlessness of character and +license of social position, he was neither heartless nor criminal by +nature. Fathers had stormed, but his generosity had hitherto invariably +pacified them. Daughters had wept, but had found consolation on all +previous occasions in the splendour of his palace and the amiability of +his disposition. In attempting, therefore, the abduction of Antonina, +though he had prepared for unusual obstacles, he had expected no worse +results of his new conquest, than those that had followed, as yet, his +gallantries that were past. But, when--in the solitude of his own home, +and in the complete possession of his faculties--he recalled all the +circumstances of his attempt, from the time when he had stolen on the +girl's slumbers, to the moment when she had fled from the house; when he +remembered the stern concentrated anger of Numerian, and the agony and +despair of Antonina; when he thought on the spirit-broken repentance of +the deceived father, and the fatal departure of the injured daughter, he +felt as a man who had not merely committed an indiscretion, but had been +guilty of a crime; he became convinced that he had incurred the fearful +responsibility of destroying the happiness of a parent who was really +virtuous, and a child who was truly innocent. To a man, the business of +whose whole life was to procure for himself a heritage of unalloyed +pleasure, whose sole occupation was to pamper that refined sensuality +which the habits of a life had made the very material of his heart, by +diffusing luxury and awakening smiles wherever he turned his steps, the +mere mental disquietude attending the ill-success of his intrusion into +Numerian's dwelling, was as painful in its influence, as the bitterest +remorse that could have afflicted a more highly-principled mind. He +now, therefore, instituted the search after Antonina, and expressed his +contrition to her father, from a genuine persuasion that nothing but the +completest atonement for the error he had committed, could restore to +him that luxurious tranquility, the loss of which had, as he had himself +expressed it, rendered him deaf to the deliberations of the Senate, and +regardless of the invasion of the Goths. + +'Tell me,' he continued, after a pause, 'whither has Ulpius betaken +himself? It is necessary that he should be discovered. He may +enlighten us upon the place of Antonina's retreat. He shall be secured +and questioned.' + +'He left me suddenly; I saw him as I stood at the window, mix with the +multitude in the street, but I know not whither he is gone,' replied +Numerian; and a tremor passed over his whole frame as he spoke of the +remorseless Pagan. + +Again there was a short silence. The grief of the broken-spirited +father, possessed in its humility and despair, a voice of rebuke, before +which the senator, careless and profligate as he was, instinctively +quailed. For some time he endeavoured in vain to combat the silencing +and reproving influence, exerted over him by the very presence of the +sorrowing man whom he had so fatally wronged. At length, after an +interval, he recovered self-possession enough to address to Numerian +some further expressions of consolation and hope; but he spoke to ears +that listened not. The father had relapsed into his mournful +abstraction; and when the senator paused, he merely muttered to +himself--'She is lost! Alas, she is lost for ever!' + +'No, she is not lost for ever,' cried Vetranio, warmly. 'I have wealth +and power enough to cause her to be sought for to the ends of the earth! +Ulpius shall be secured and questioned--imprisoned, tortured, if it is +necessary. Your daughter shall be recovered. Nothing is impossible to +a senator of Rome!' + + +'I knew not that I loved her, until the morning when I wronged and +banished her!' continued the old man, still speaking to himself. 'I +have lost all traces of my parents and my brother--my wife is parted +from me for ever--I have nothing left but Antonina; and now too she is +gone! Even my ambition, that I once thought my all in all, is no +comfort to my soul; for I loved it--alas! unconsciously loved it-- +through the being of my child! I destroyed her lute--I thought her +shameless--I drove her from my doors! Oh, how I wronged her!--how I +wronged her!' + +'Remain here, and repose yourself in one of the sleeping apartments, +until my slaves return in the morning. You will then hear without delay +of the result of their search to-night,' said Vetranio, in kindly and +compassionate tones. + +'It grows dark--dark!' groaned the father, tottering towards the door; +'but that is nothing; daylight itself now looks darkness to me! I must +go: I have duties at the chapel to perform. Night is repose for you-- +for me, it is tribulation and prayer!' + +He departed as he spoke. Slowly he paced along the streets that led to +his chapel, glancing with penetrating eye at each inhabitant of the +besieged city who passed him on his way. With some difficulty he +arrived at his destination; for Rome was still thronged with armed men +hurrying backwards and forwards, and with crowds of disorderly citizens +pouring forth, wherever there was space enough for them to assemble. +The report of the affliction that had befallen him had already gone +abroad among his hearers, and they whispered anxiously to each other as +he entered the plain, dimly-lighted chapel, and slowly mounted the +pulpit to open the service, by reading the chapter in the Bible which +had been appointed for perusal that night, and which happened to be the +fifth of the Gospel of St. Mark. His voice trembled, his face was +ghastly pale, and his hands shook perceptibly as he began; but he read +on, in low, broken tones, and with evident pain and difficulty, until he +came to the verse containing these words: 'My little daughter lieth at +the point of death.' Here he stopped suddenly, endeavoured vainly for a +few minutes to proceed, and then, covering his face with his hands, sank +down in the pulpit and sobbed aloud. His sorrowing and startled audience +immediately gathered round him, raised him in their arms, and prepared +to conduct him to his own abode. When, however, they had gained the +door of the chapel, he desired them gently, to leave him and return to +the performance of the service among themselves. Ever implicitly +obedient to his slightest wishes, the persons of his little assembly, +moved to tears by the sight of their teacher's suffering, obeyed him, by +retiring silently to their former places. As soon as he found that he +was alone, he passed the door; and whispering to himself, 'I must join +those who seek her! I must aid them myself in the search!'--he mingled +once more with the disorderly citizens who thronged the darkened +streets. + + +CHAPTER 10. THE RIFT IN THE WALL. + +When Ulpius suddenly departed from Numerian's house on the morning of +the siege, it was with no distinct intention of betaking himself to any +particular place, or devoting himself to any immediate employment. It +was to give vent to his joy--to the ecstacy that now filled his heart to +bursting--that he sought the open streets. His whole moral being was +exalted by that overwhelming sense of triumph, which urges the physical +nature into action. He hurried into the free air, as a child runs on a +bright day in the wide fields; his delight was too wild to expand under +a roof; his excess of bliss swelled irrepressibly beyond all artificial +limits of space. + + +The Goths were in sight! A few hours more, and their scaling ladders +would be planted against the walls. On a city so weakly guarded as +Rome, their assault must be almost instantaneously successful. +Thirsting for plunder, they would descend in infuriated multitudes on +the defenceless streets. Christians though they were, the restraints of +religion would, in that moment of fierce triumph, be powerless with such +a nation of marauders against the temptations to pillage. Churches +would be ravaged and destroyed; priests would be murdered in attempting +the defence of their ecclesiastical treasures; fire and sword would +waste to its remotest confines the stronghold of Christianity, and +overwhelm in death and oblivion the boldest of Christianity's devotees! +Then, when the hurricane of ruin and crime had passed over the city, +when a new people were ripe for another government and another +religion--then would be the time to invest the banished gods of old Rome +with their former rule; to bid the survivors of the stricken multitude +remember the judgment that their apostacy to their ancient faith had +demanded and incurred; to strike the very remembrance of the Cross out +of the memory of man; and to reinstate Paganism on her throne of +sacrifices, and under her roof of gold, more powerful from her past +persecutions; more universal in her sudden restoration, than in all the +glories of her ancient rule! + +Such thoughts as these passed through the Pagan's toiling mind as, +unobservant of all outward events, he paced through the streets of the +beleaguered city. Already he beheld the array of the Goths preparing +the way, as the unconscious pioneers of the returning gods, for the +march of that mighty revolution which he was determined to lead. The +warmth of his past eloquence, the glow of his old courage, thrilled +through his heart, as he figured to himself the prospect that would soon +stretch before him--a city laid waste, a people terrified, a government +distracted, a religion destroyed. Then, arising amid this darkness and +ruin; amid this solitude, desolation, and decay, it would be his +glorious privilege to summon an unfaithful people to return to the +mistress of their ancient love; to rise from prostration beneath a +dismantled Church; and to seek prosperity in temples repeopled and at +shrines restored! + +All remembrance of late events now entirely vanished from his mind. +Numerian, Vetranio, Antonina, they were all forgotten in this memorable +advent of the Goths! His slavery in the mines, his last visit to +Alexandria, his earlier wanderings--even these, so present to his memory +until the morning of the siege, were swept from its very surface now. +Age, solitude, infirmity--hitherto the mournful sensations which were +proofs to him that he still continued to exist--suddenly vanished from +his perceptions, as things that were not; and now at length he forgot +that he was an outcast, and remembered triumphantly that he was still a +priest. He felt animated by the same hopes, elevated by the same +aspirations, as in those early days when he had harangued the wavering +Pagans in the Temple, and first plotted the overthrow of the Christian +Church. + +It was a terrible and warning proof of the omnipotent influence that a +single idea may exercise over a whole life, to see that old man +wandering among the crowds around him, still enslaved, after years of +suffering and solitude, degradation, and crime, by the same ruling +ambition, which had crushed the promise of his early youth! It was an +awful testimony to the eternal and mysterious nature of thought, to +behold that wasted and weakened frame; and then to observe how the +unassailable mind within still swayed the wreck of body yet left to it-- +how faithfully the last exhausted resources of failing vigour rallied +into action at its fierce command--how quickly, at its mocking voice, +the sunken eye lightened again with a gleam of hope, and the pale, thin +lips parted mechanically with an exulting smile! + +The hours passed, but he still walked on--whither or among whom he +neither knew nor cared. No remorse touched his heart for the +destruction that he had wreaked on the Christian who had sheltered him; +no terror appalled his soul at the contemplation of the miseries that he +believed to be in preparation for the city from the enemy at its gates. +The end that had hallowed to him the long series of his former offences +and former sufferings, now obliterated iniquities just passed, and +stripped of all their horrors, atrocities immediately to come. + +The Goths might be destroyers to others, but they were benefactors to +him; for they were harbingers of the ruin which would be the material of +his reform, and the source of his triumph. It never entered his +imagination that, as an inhabitant of Rome, he shared the approaching +perils of the citizens, and in the moment of the assault might share +their doom. He beheld only the new and gorgeous prospect that war and +rapine were opening before him. He thought only of the time that must +elapse ere his new efforts could be commenced--of the orders of the +people among whom he should successively make his voice heard--of the +temples which he should select for restoration--of the quarter of Rome +which should first be chosen for the reception of his daring reform. + + +At length he paused; his exhausted energies yielded under the exertions +imposed on them, and obliged him to bethink himself of refreshment and +repose. It was now noon. The course of his wanderings had insensibly +conducted him again to the precincts of his old, familiar dwelling- +place; he found himself at the back of the Pincian Mount, and only +separated by a strip of uneven woody ground, from the base of the city +wall. The place was very solitary. It was divided from the streets and +mansions above by thick groves and extensive gardens, which stretched +along the undulating descent of the hill. A short distance to the +westward lay the Pincian Gate, but an abrupt turn in the wall and some +olive trees which grew near it, shut out all view of objects in that +direction. On the other side, towards the eastward, the ramparts were +discernible, running in a straight line of some length, until they +suddenly turned inwards at a right angle and were concealed from further +observation by the walls of a distant palace and the pine trees of a +public garden. The only living figure discernible near this lonely +spot, was that of a sentinel, who occasionally passed over the ramparts +above, which--situated as they were between two stations of soldiery, +one at the Pincian Gate and the other where the wall made the angle +already described--were untenanted, save by the guard within the limits +of whose watch they happened to be placed. Here, for a short space of +time, the Pagan rested his weary frame, and aroused himself insensibly +from the enthralling meditations which had hitherto blinded him to the +troubled aspect of the world around him. + +He now for the first time heard on all sides distinctly, the confused +noises which still rose from every quarter of Rome. The same incessant +strife of struggling voices and hurrying footsteps, which had caught his +ear in the early morning, attracted his attention now; but no shrieks of +distress, no clash of weapons, no shouts of fury and defiance, were +mingled with them; although, as he perceived by the position of the sun, +the day had sufficiently advanced to have brought the Gothic army long +since to the foot of the walls. What could be the cause of this delay +in the assault; of this ominous tranquillity on the ramparts above him? +Had the impetuosity of the Goths suddenly vanished at the sight of Rome? +Had negotiations for peace been organised with the first appearance of +the invaders? He listened again. No sounds caught his ear differing in +character from those he had just heard. Though besieged, the city was +evidently--from some mysterious cause--not even threatened by an +assault. + +Suddenly there appeared from a little pathway near him, which led round +the base of the wall, a woman preceded by a child, who called to her +impatiently, as he ran on, 'Hasten, mother, hasten! There is no crowd +here. Yonder is the Gate. We shall have a noble view of the Goths!' + +There was something in the address of the child to the woman that gave +Ulpius a suspicion, even then, of the discovery that flushed upon him +soon after. He rose and followed them. They passed onward by the wall, +through the olive trees beyond, and then gained the open space before +the Pincian Gate. Here a great concourse of people had assembled, and +were suffered, in their proper turn, to ascend the ramparts in +divisions, by some soldiers who guarded the steps by which they were +approached. After a short delay, Ulpius and those around him were +permitted to gratify their curiosity, as others had done before them. +They mounted the walls, and beheld, stretched over the ground within and +beyond the suburbs, the vast circumference of the Gothic lines. + +Terrible and almost sublime as was the prospect of that immense +multitude, seen under the brilliant illumination of the noontide sun, it +was not impressive enough to silence the turbulent loquacity rooted in +the dispositions of the people of Rome. Men, women, and children, all +made their noisy and conflicting observations on the sight before them, +in every variety of tone, from the tremulous accents of terror, to the +loud vociferations of bravado. + + +Some spoke boastfully of the achievements that would be performed by the +Romans, when their expected auxiliaries arrived from Ravenna. Others +foreboded, in undissembled terror, an assault under cover of the night. +Here, a group abused, in low confidential tones, the policy of the +government in its relations with the Goths. There, a company of ragged +vagabonds amused themselves by pompously confiding to each other their +positive conviction, that at that very moment the barbarians must be +trembling in their camp, at the mere sight of the all-powerful Capital +of the World. In one direction, people were heard noisily speculating +whether the Goths would be driven from the walls by the soldiers of +Rome, or be honoured by an invitation to conclude a peace with the +august Empire, which they had so treasonably ventured to invade. In +another, the more sober and reputable among the spectators audibly +expressed their apprehensions of starvation, dishonour, and defeat, +should the authorities of the city be foolhardy enough to venture a +resistance to Alaric and his barbarian hosts. But wide as was the +difference of the particular opinions hazarded among the citizens, they +all agreed in one unavoidable conviction, that Rome had escaped the +immediate horrors of an assault, to be threatened--if unaided by the +legions at Ravenna--by the prospective miseries of a blockade. + +Amid the confusion of voices around him, that word 'blockade' alone +reached the Pagan's ear. It brought with it a flood of emotions that +overwhelmed him. All that he saw, all that he heard, connected itself +imperceptibly with that expression. A sudden darkness, neither to be +dissipated nor escaped, seemed to obscure his faculties in an instant. +He struggled mechanically through the crowd, descended the steps of the +ramparts, and returned to the solitary spot where he had first beheld +the woman and the child. + +The city was blockaded! The Goths were bent then, on obtaining a peace +and not on achieving a conquest! The city was blockaded! It was no +error of the ignorant multitude--he had seen with his own eyes the tents +and positions of the enemy, he had heard the soldiers on the wall +discoursing on the admirable disposition of Alaric's forces, on the +impossibility of obtaining the smallest communication with the +surrounding country, on the vigilant watch that had been set over the +navigation of the Tiber. There was no doubt on the matter--the +barbarians had determined on a blockade! + +There was even less uncertainty upon the results which would be produced +by this unimaginable policy of the Goths--the city would be saved! Rome +had not scrupled in former years to purchase the withdrawal of all +enemies from her distant provinces; and now that the very centre of her +glory, the very pinnacle of her declining power, was threatened with +sudden and unexpected ruin, she would lavish on the Goths the treasures +of the whole empire, to bribe them to peace and to tempt them to +retreat. The Senate might possibly delay the necessary concessions, +from hopes of assistance that would never be realised; but sooner or +later the hour of negotiation would arrive; northern rapacity would be +satisfied with southern wealth; and in the very moment when it seemed +inevitable, the ruin from which the Pagan revolution was to derive its +vigorous source, would be diverted from the churches of Rome. + +Could the old renown of the Roman name have retained so much of its +ancient influence as to daunt the hardy Goths, after they had so +successfully penetrated the empire as to have reached the walls of its +vaunted capital? Could Alaric have conceived so exaggerated an idea of +the strength of the forces in the city as to despair, with all his +multitudes, of storming it with success? It could not be otherwise! No +other consideration could have induced the barbarian general to abandon +such an achievement as the destruction of Rome. With the chance of an +assault the prospects of Paganism had brightened--with the certainty of +a blockade, they sunk immediately into disheartening gloom! + + +Filled with these thoughts, Ulpius paced backwards and forwards in his +solitary retreat, utterly abandoned by the exaltation of feeling which +had restored to his faculties in the morning, the long-lost vigour of +their former youth. Once more, he experienced the infirmities of his +age; once more he remembered the miseries that had made his existence +one unending martyrdom; once more he felt the presence of his ambition +within him, like a judgment that he was doomed to welcome, like a curse +that he was created to cherish. To say that his sensations at this +moment were those of the culprit who hears the order for his execution +when he had been assured of a reprieve, is to convey but a faint idea of +the fierce emotions of rage, grief, and despair, that now united to rend +the Pagan's heart. + +Overpowered with weariness both of body and mind, he flung himself down +under the shade of some bushes that clothed the base of the wall above +him. As he lay there--so still in his heavy lassitude that life itself +seemed to have left him--one of the long green lizards, common to Italy, +crawled over his shoulder. He seized the animal--doubtful for the +moment whether it might not be of the poisonous species--and examined +it. At the first glance he discovered that it was of the harmless order +of its race, and would have flung it carelessly from him, but for +something in its appearance which, in the wayward irritability of his +present mood, he felt a strange and sudden pleasure in contemplating. + +Through its exquisitely marked and transparent skin he could perceive +the action of the creature's heart, and saw that it was beating +violently, in the agony of fear caused to the animal by its imprisonment +in his hand. As he looked on it, and thought how continually a being so +timid must be thwarted in its humble anxieties, in its small efforts, in +its little journeys from one patch of grass to another, by a hundred +obstacles, which, trifles though they might be to animals of a higher +species, were yet of fatal importance to creatures constituted like +itself, he began to find an imperfect, yet remarkable analogy between +his own destiny and that of this small unit of creation. He felt that, +in its petty sphere, the short life of the humble animal before him must +have been the prey of crosses and disappointments, as serious to it, as +the more severed and destructive afflictions of which he, in his +existence, had been the victim; and, as he watched the shadow-like +movement of the little fluttering heart of the lizard, he experienced a +cruel pleasure in perceiving that there were other beings in the +creation, even down to the most insignificant, who inherited a part of +his misery, and suffered a portion of his despair. + +Ere long, however, his emotions took a sterner and a darker hue. The +sight of the animal wearied him, and he flung it contemptuously aside. +It disappeared in the direction of the ramparts; and almost at the same +moment he heard a slight sound, resembling the falling of several minute +particles of brick or light stone, which seemed to come from the wall +behind him. + +That such a noise should proceed from so massive a structure appeared +unaccountable. He rose, and, parting the bushes before him, advanced +close to the surface of the lofty wall. To his astonishment, he found +that the brickwork had in many places so completely mouldered away, that +he could move it easily with his fingers. The cause of the trifling +noise that he had heard was now fully explained: hundreds of lizards +had made their homes between the fissures of the bricks; the animal that +he had permitted to escape had taken refuge in one of these cavities, +and in the hurry of its flight had detached several of the loose +crumbling fragments that surrounded its hiding-place. + +Not content, however, with the discovery he had already made, he retired +a little, and, looking stedfastly up through some trees which in this +particular place grew at the foot of the wall, he saw that its surface +was pierced in many places by great irregular rifts, some of which +extended nearly to its whole height. In addition to this, he perceived +that the mass of the structure at one particular point, leaned +considerably out of the perpendicular. Astounded at what he beheld, he +took a stick from the ground, and inserting it in one of the lowest and +smallest of the cracks, easily succeeded in forcing it entirely into the +wall, part of which seemed to be hollow, and part composed of the same +rotten brickwork which had at first attracted his attention. + + +It was now evident that the whole structure, over a breadth of several +yards, had been either weakly and carelessly built, or had at some +former period suffered a sudden and violent shock. He left the stick in +the wall to mark the place; and was about to retire, when he heard the +footstep of the sentinel on the rampart immediately above. Suddenly +cautious, though from what motive he would have been at that moment +hardly able to explain, he remained in the concealment of the trees and +bushes, until the guard had passed onward; then he cautiously emerged +from the place; and, retiring to some distance, fell into a train of +earnest and absorbing thought. + +To account to the reader for the phenomenon which now engrossed the +Pagan's attention, it will be necessary to make a brief digression to +the history of the walls of Rome. + +The circumference of the first fortifications of the city, built by +Romulus, was thirteen miles. The greater part, however, of this large +area was occupied by fields and gardens, which it was the object of the +founder of the empire to preserve for arable purposes, from the +incursions of the different enemies by whom he was threatened from +without. As Rome gradually increased in size, its walls were +progressively enlarged and altered by subsequent rulers. But it was not +until the reign of the Emperor Aurelian (A.D. 270), that any +extraordinary or important change was effected in the defences of the +city. That potentate commenced the erection of walls, twenty-one miles +in circumference, which were finally completed in the reign of Probus +(A.D. 276), were restored by Belisarius (A.D. 537), and are to be seen +in detached portions, in the fortifications of the modern city, to the +present day. + +At the date of our story, then (A.D. 408), the walls remained precisely +as they had been constructed in the reigns of Aurelian and Probus. They +were for the most part made of brick; and in a few places, probably, a +sort of soft sandstone might have been added to the pervading material. +At several points in their circumference, and particularly in the part +behind the Pincian Hill, these walls were built in arches, forming deep +recesses, and occasionally disposed in double rows. The method of +building employed in their erection, was generally that mentioned by +Vitruvius, in whose time it originated, as 'opus reticulatum'. + +The 'opus reticulatum' was composed of small bricks (or stones) set +together on their angles, instead of horizontally, and giving the +surface of a wall the appearance of a sort of solid network. This was +considered by some architects of antiquity a perishable mode of +construction; and Vitruvius asserts that some buildings where he had +seen it used, had fallen down. From the imperfect specimens of it which +remain in modern times, it would be difficult to decide upon its merits. +That it was assuredly insufficient to support the weight of the bank of +the Pincian Mount, which rose immediately behind it, in the solitary +spot described some pages back, is still made evident by the appearance +of the wall at that part of the city, which remains in modern times bent +out of the perpendicular, and cracked in some places almost from top to +bottom. This ruin is now known to the present race of Italians, under +the expressive title of 'Il Muro Torto' or, The Crooked Wall. + +We may here observe that it is extremely improbable that the existence +of this natural breach in the fortifications of Rome was noticed, or if +noticed, regarded with the slightest anxiety or attention by the +majority of the careless and indolent inhabitants, at the period of the +present romance. It is supposed to have been visible as early as the +time of Aurelian, but is only particularly mentioned by Procopius, an +historian of the sixth century, who relates that Belisarius, in +strengthening the city against a siege of the Goths, attempted to repair +this weak point in the wall, but was hindered in his intended labour by +the devout populace, who declared that it was under the peculiar +protection of St. Peter, and that it would be consequently impious to +meddle with it. The general submitted without remonstrance to the +decision of the inhabitants, and found no cause afterwards to repent of +his facility of compliance; for, to use the translated words of the +writer above-mentioned, 'During the siege neither the enemy nor the +Romans regarded this place.' It is to be supposed that so extraordinary +an event as this, gave the wall that sacred character, which deterred +subsequent rulers from attempting its repair; which permitted it to +remain crooked and rent through the convulsions of the middle ages; and +which still preserves it, to attest the veracity of historians, by +appealing to the antiquarian curiosity of the traveller of modern times. + + +We now return to Ulpius. It is a peculiarity observable in the +characters of men living under the ascendancy of one ruling idea, that +they intuitively distort whatever attracts their attention in the outer +world, into a connection more or less intimate with the single object of +their mental contemplation. Since the time when he had been exiled from +the Temple, the Pagan's faculties had, unconsciously to himself, acted +solely in reference to the daring design which it was the business of +his whole existence to entertain. Influenced, therefore, by this +obliquity of moral feeling, he had scarcely reflected on the discovery +that he had just made at the base of the city wall, ere his mind +instantly reverted to the ambitious meditations which had occupied it in +the morning; and the next moment, the first dawning conception of a bold +and perilous project began to absorb his restless thoughts. + +He reflected on the peculiarities and position of the wall before him. +Although the widest and most important of the rents which he had +observed in it, existed too near the rampart to be reached without the +assistance of a ladder, there were others as low as the ground, which he +knew, by the result of the trial he had already made, might be +successfully and immensely widened by the most ordinary exertion and +perseverance. The interior of the wall, if judged by the condition of +the surface, could offer no insuperable obstacles to an attempt at +penetration so partial as to be limited to a height and width of a few +feet. The ramparts, from their position between two guard-houses, would +be unencumbered by an inquisitive populace. The sentinel, within the +limits of whose allotted watch it happened to fall, would, when night +came on, be the only human being likely to pass the spot; and at such an +hour his attention must necessarily be fixed--in the circumstances under +which the city was now placed--on the prospect beyond, rather than on +the ground below and behind him. It seemed, therefore, almost a matter +of certainty, that a cautious man, labouring under cover of the night, +might pursue whatever investigations he pleased at the base of the wall. + +He examined the ground where he now stood. Nothing could be more lonely +than its present appearance. The private gardens on the hill above it +shut out all communication from that quarter. It could only be +approached by the foot-path that ran round the Pincian Mount, and along +the base of the walls. In the state of affairs now existing in the +city, it was not probable that any one would seek this solitary place, +whence nothing could be seen, and where little could be heard, in +preference to mixing with the spirit-stirring confusion in the streets, +or observing the Gothic encampment from such positions on the ramparts +as were easily attainable to all. In addition to the secresy offered by +the loneliness of this patch of ground to whatever employments were +undertaken on it, was the further advantage afforded by the trees and +thickets which covered its lower end, and which would effectually screen +an intruder, during the darkness of night, from the most penetrating +observation directed from the wall above. + +Reflecting thus, he doubted not that a cunning and determined man might +with impunity so far widen any one of the inferior breaches in the lower +part of the wall as to make a cavity (large enough to admit a human +figure) that should pierce to its outer surface, and afford that liberty +of departing from the city and penetrating the Gothic camp which the +closed gates now denied to all the inhabitants alike. To discover the +practicability of such an attempt as this was, to a mind filled with +such aspirations as the Pagan's, to determine irrevocably on its +immediate execution. He resolved as soon as night approached to begin +his labours on the wall; to seek--if the breach were made good, and the +darkness favoured him--the tent of Alaric; and once arrived there, to +acquaint the Gothic King with the weakness of the materials for defence +within the city, and dilapidated condition of the fortifications below +the Pincian Mount, insisting, as the condition of his treachery, on an +assurance from the barbarian leader (which he doubted not would be +gladly and instantly accorded) of the destruction of the Christian +churches, the pillage of the Christian possessions, and the massacre of +the Christian priests. + + +He retired cautiously from the lonely place that had now become the +centre of his new hopes; and entering the streets of the city, proceeded +to provide himself with an instrument that would facilitate his +approaching labours, and food that would give him strength to prosecute +his intended efforts, unthreatened by the hindrance of fatigue. As he +thought on the daring treachery of his project, his morning's exultation +began to return to him again. All his previous attempts to organise the +restoration of Paganism sunk into sudden insignificance before his +present design. His defence of the Temple of Serapis, his conspiracy at +Alexandria, his intrigue with Vetranio, were the efforts of a man; but +this projected destruction of the priests, the churches, and the +treasures of a whole city, through the agency of a mighty army, moved by +the unaided machinations of a single individual, would be the dazzling +achievement of a god! + +The hours loitered slowly onward. The sun waned in the gorgeous heaven, +and set, surrounded by red and murky clouds. Then came silence and +darkness. The Gothic watch-fires flamed one by one into the dusky air. +The guards were doubled at the different posts. The populace were +driven from the ramparts, and the fortifications of the great city +echoed to no sound now but the tramp of the restless sentinel, or the +clash of arms from the distant guard-houses that dotted the long line of +the lofty walls. + +It was then that Ulpius, passing cautiously along the least-frequented +streets, gained unnoticed the place of his destination. A thick vapour +lay over the lonely and marshy spot. Nothing was now visible from it +but the dim, uncertain outline of the palaces above, and the mass, so +sunk in obscurity that it looked like a dark layer of mist itself, of +the rifted fortifications. A smile of exultation passed over the +Pagan's countenance, as he perceived the shrouding and welcome thickness +of the atmosphere. Groping his way softly through the thickets, he +arrived at the base of the wall. For some time he passed slowly along +it, feeling the width of the different rents wherever he could stretch +his hand. At length he paused at one more extensive than the rest, drew +from its concealment in his garments a thick bar of iron sharpened at +one end, and began to labour at the breach. + +Chance had led him to the place best adapted to his purpose. The ground +he stood on was only encumbered close to the wall by rank weeds and low +thickets, and was principally composed of damp, soft turf. The bricks, +therefore, as he carefully detached them, made no greater noise in +falling than the slight rustling caused by their sudden contact with the +boughs through which they descended. Insignificant as this sound was, +it aroused the apprehension of the wary Pagan. He laid down his iron +bar, and removed the thickets by dragging them up, or breaking them at +the roots, until he had cleared a space of some feet in extent before +the base of the wall. He then returned to his toilsome task, and with +hands bleeding from the wounds inflicted by the thorns he had grasped in +removing the thickets continued his labour at the brick-work. He +pursued his employment with perfect impunity; the darkness covered him +from observation; no one disturbed him by approaching the solitary scene +of his operations; and of the two sentinels who were placed near the +part of the wall which was the centre of all his exertions, one remained +motionless at the most distant extremity of his post, and the other +paced restlessly backwards and forwards on the rampart, singing a wild, +rambling song about war, and women, and wine, which, whatever liberty it +might allow to his organs of perception, effectually hindered the +vigilant exercise of his faculties of hearing. + +Brick after brick yielded to the vigorous and well-timed efforts of +Ulpius. He had already made a cavity, in an oblique direction, large +enough to creep through, and was preparing to penetrate still further, +when a portion of the rotten material of the interior of the wall +suddenly yielded in a mass to a chance pressure of his iron bar, and +slowly sunk down inwards into a bed which, judging by such faint sounds +as were audible at the moment, must have been partly water, and partly +marshy earth and rotten brick-work. After having first listened, to be +sure that the slight noise caused by this event had not reached the ears +or excited the suspicions of the careless sentinels, Ulpius crept into +the cavity he had made, groping his way with his bar, until he reached +the brink of a chasm, the depth of which he could not probe, and the +breadth of which he could not ascertain. + + +He lingered irresolute; the darkness around him was impenetrable; he +could feel toads and noisome animals crawling over his limbs. The damp +atmosphere of the place began to thrill through him to his very bones; +his whole frame trembled under the excess of his past exertions. Without +light, he could neither attempt to proceed, nor hope to discover the +size and extent of the chasm which he had partially laid open. The mist +was fast vanishing as the night advanced: it was necessary to arrive at +a resolution ere it would be too late. + +He crept out of the cavity. Just as he had gained the open air, the +sentinel halted over the very spot where the Pagan stood, and paused +suddenly in his song. There was an instant's interval of silence, +during which the inmost soul of Ulpius quailed beneath an apprehension +as vivid, as that which had throbbed in the heart of the despised +lizard, whose flight had guided him to his discovery at the wall. Soon, +however, he heard the voice of the soldier calling cheerfully to his +fellow sentinel, 'Comrade, do you see the moon? She is rising to cheer +our watch!' + +Nothing had been discovered!--he was still safe! But if he stayed at +the cavity till the mists faded before the moonlight, could he be +certain of preserving his security? He felt that he could not! + +What mattered a night more or a night less, to such a project as his? +Months might elapse before the Goths retired from the walls. It was +better to suffer delay than to risk discovery. He determined to leave +the place, and to return on the following night provided with a lantern, +the light of which he would conceal until he entered the cavity. Once +there, it could not be perceived by the sentinels above--it would guide +him through all obstacles, preserve him through all dangers. Massive as +it was, he felt convinced that the interior of the wall was in as +ruinous a condition as the outside. Caution and perseverance were +sufficient of themselves to insure to his efforts the speediest and +completest success. + +He waited until the sentinel had again betaken himself to the furthest +limits of his watch, and then softly gathering up the brushwood that lay +round him, he concealed with it the mouth of the cavity in the outer +wall, and the fragments of brick-work that had fallen on the turf +beneath. This done, he again listened, to assure himself that he had +been unobserved; then, stepping with the utmost caution, he departed by +the path that led round the slope of the Pincian Hill. + +'Strength--patience--and to-morrow night!' muttered the Pagan to +himself, as he entered the streets, and congregated once more with the +citizens of Rome. + + +CHAPTER 11. GOISVINTHA'S RETURN. + +It was morning. The sun had risen, but his beams were partially +obscured by thick heavy clouds, which scowled already over the +struggling brightness of the eastern horizon. The bustle and animation +of the new day gradually overspread the Gothic encampment in all +directions. The only tent whose curtain remained still closed, and +round which no busy crowds congregated in discussion or mingled in +labour, was that of Hermanric. By the dying embers of his watchfire +stood the young chieftain, with two warriors, to whom he appeared to be +giving some hurried directions. His countenance expressed emotions of +anxiety and discontent, which, though partially repressed while he was +in the presence of his companions, became thoroughly visible, not only +in his features, but in his manner, when they left him to watch alone +before his tent. + + +For some time he walked regularly backwards and forwards, looking +anxiously down the westward lines of the encampment, and occasionally +whispering to himself a hasty exclamation of doubt and impatience. With +the first breath of the new morning, the delighting meditations which +had occupied him by his watchfire during the darkness of the night had +begun to subside. And now, as the hour of her expected return gradually +approached, the image of Goisvintha banished from his mind whatever +remained of those peaceful and happy contemplation in which he had +hitherto been absorbed. The more he thought on his fatal promise--on +the nation of Antonina--on his duties to the army and the people to whom +he belonged, the more doubtful appeared to him his chance of permanently +protecting the young Roman without risking his degradation as a Goth, +and his ruin as a warrior; and the more sternly and ominously ran in his +ears the unassailable truth of Goisvintha's parting taunt--'You must +remember your promise, you cannot save her if you would!' + +Wearied of persisting in deliberations which only deepened his +melancholy and increased his doubts; bent on sinking in a temporary and +delusive oblivion the boding reflections that overcame him in spite of +himself, by seeking--while its enjoyment was yet left to him--the +society of his ill-fated charge, he turned towards his tent, drew aside +the thick, heavy curtains of skins which closed its opening, and +approached the rude couch on which Antonina was still sleeping. + +A ray of sunlight, fitful and struggling, burst at this moment through +the heavy clouds, and stole into the opening of the tent as he +contemplated the slumbering girl. It ran its flowing course up her +uncovered hand and arm, flew over her bosom and neck, and bathed in a +bright fresh glow, her still and reposing features. Gradually her limbs +began to move, her lips parted gently and half smiled, as if in welcome +to the greeting of the light; her eyes slightly opened, then dazzled by +the brightness that flowed through their raised lids, tremblingly closed +again. At length thoroughly awakened, she shaded her face with her +hands, and sitting up on the couch, met the gaze of Hermanric fixed on +her in sorrowful examination. + +'Your bright armour, and your glorious name, and your merciful words, +have remained with me even in my sleep,' said she, wonderingly; 'and +now, when I awake, I see you before me again! It is a happiness to be +aroused by the sun which has gladdened me all my life, to look upon you +who have given me shelter in my distress! But why,' she continued, in +altered and enquiring tones, 'why do you gaze upon me with doubting and +mournful eyes?' + +'You have slept well and safely,' said Hermanric, evasively, 'I closed +the opening of the tent to preserve you from the night-damps, but I have +raised it now, for the air is warming under the rising sun--' + +'Are you wearied with watching?' she interrupted, rising to her feet, +and looking anxiously into his face. But he spoke not in reply. His +head was turned towards the door of the tent. He seemed to be listening +for some expected sound. It was evident that he had not heard her +question. She followed the direction of his eyes. The sight of the +great city, half brightened, half darkened, as its myriad buildings +reflected the light of the sun, or retained the shadows of the clouds, +brought back to her remembrance her last night's petition for her +father's safety. She laid her hand upon her companion's arm to awaken +his attention, and hastily resumed:-- + +'You have not forgotten what I said to you last night? My father's name +is Numerian. He lives on the Pincian Mount. You will save him, +Hermanric--you will save him! You will remember your promise!' + +The young warrior's eyes fell as she spoke, and an irrepressible shudder +shook his whole frame. The last part of Antonina's address to him, was +expressed in the same terms as a past appeal from other lips, and in +other accents, which still clung to his memory. The same demand, +'Remember your promise,' which had been advanced to urge him to +bloodshed, by Goisvintha, was now proffered by Antonina, to lure him to +pity. The petition of affection was concluded in the same terms as the +petition of revenge. As he thought on both, the human pity of the one, +and the fiend-like cruelty of the other, rose in sinister and +significant contrast on the mind of the Goth, realising in all its +perils the struggle that was to come when Goisvintha returned, and +dispelling instantaneously the last hopes that he had yet ventured to +cherish for the fugitive at his side. + +'No assault of the city is commanded--no assault is intended. Your +father's life is safe from the swords of the Goths,' he gloomily +replied, in answer to Antonina's last words. + +The girl moved back from him a few steps as he spoke, and looked +thoughtfully round the tent. The battle-axe that Hermanric had secured +during the scene of the past evening, still lay on the ground, in a +corner. The sight of it brought back a flood of terrible recollections +to her mind. She started violently; a sudden change overspread her +features, and when she again addressed Hermanric, it was with quivering +lips and in almost inarticulate words. + +'I know now why you look on me so gloomily,' said she; 'that woman is +coming back! I was so occupied by my dreams and my thoughts of my +father and of you, and my hopes for days to come, that I had forgotten +her when I awoke! But I remember all now! She is coming back--I see +it in your sorrowful eyes--she is coming back to murder me! I shall die +at the moment when I had such hope in my life! There is no happiness +for me! None!--none!' + +The Goth's countenance began to darken. He whispered to himself several +times, 'How can I save her?' For a few minutes there was a deep +silence, broken only by the sobs of Antonina. He looked round at her +after an interval. She held her hands clasped over her eyes. The tears +were streaming through her parted fingers; her bosom heaved as if her +emotions would burst their way through it in some palpable form; and her +limbs trembled so, that she could scarcely support herself. +Unconsciously, as he looked on her, he passed his arm round her slender +form, drew her hands gently from her face, and said to her, though his +heart belied his words as he spoke, 'Do not be afraid--trust in me!' + +'How can I be calm?' she cried, looking up at him entreatingly; 'I was +so happy last night, so sure that you could preserve me, so hopeful +about to-morrow--and now I see by your mournful looks, I know by your +doubting voice, that to soothe my anguish you have promised me more than +you can perform! The woman who is your companion, has a power over us +both, that it is terrible even to think of! She will return, she will +withdraw all mercy from your heart, she will glare upon me with her +fearful eyes, she will kill me at your feet! I shall die after all I +have suffered and all I have hoped! Oh, Hermanric, while there is yet +time let us escape! You were not made to shed blood--you are too +merciful! God never made you to destroy! You cannot yearn towards +cruelty and woe, for you have aided and protected me! Let us escape! I +will follow you wherever you wish! I will do whatever you ask! I will +go with you beyond those far, bright mountains behind us, to any strange +and distant land; for there is beauty everywhere; there are woods that +may be dwelt in, and valleys that may be loved, on all the surface of +this wide great earth!' + +The Goth looked sadly on her as she paused; but he gave her no answer-- +the gloom was deepening over his heart--the false words of consolation +were silenced on his lips. + + +'Think how many pleasures we should enjoy, how much we might see!' +continued the girl, in soft, appealing tones. 'We should be free to +wander wherever we pleased; we should never be lonely; never be +mournful; never be wearied! I could listen to you day after day, while +you told me of the country where your people were born! I could sing +you sweet songs that I have learned upon the lute! Oh, how I have wept +in my loneliness to lead such a life as this! How I have longed that +such freedom and joy might be mine! How I have thought of the distant +lands that I would visit, of the happy nations that I would discover, of +the mountain breezes that I would breathe, of the shady places that I +would repose in, of the rivers that I would follow in their course, of +the flowers I would plant, and the fruits I would gather! How I have +hoped for such an existence as this! How I have longed for a companion +who might enjoy it as I should! Have you never felt this joy that I +have imagined to myself, you who have been free to wander wherever you +pleased? Let us leave this place, and I will teach it to you if you +have not. I will be so patient, so obedient, so happy! I will never be +sorrowful; never repining--but let us escape--Oh, Hermanric, let us +escape while there is yet time! Will you keep me here to be slain? Can +you drive me forth into the world alone? Remember that the gates of the +city and the doors of my home are now closed to me! Remember that I have +no mother, and that my father has forsaken me! Remember that I am a +stranger on the earth which was made for me to be joyful in! Think how +soon the woman who has vowed that she will murder me will return; think +how terrible it is to be in the fear of death; and while there is time +let us depart--Hermanric, Hermanric, if you have pity for me, let us +depart!' + +She clasped her hands, and looked up in his face imploringly. The +manner of Hermanric had expressed more to her senses, sharpened as they +were by peril, than his words could have conveyed, even had he confessed +to her the cause of the emotions of doubt and apprehension that +oppressed his mind. Nothing could more strikingly testify to the +innocence of her character and the seclusion of her life, than her +attempt to combine with her escape from Goisvintha's fury, the +acquisition of such a companion as the Goth. But to the forlorn and +affectionate girl who saw herself--a stranger to the laws of the social +existence of her fellow creatures--suddenly thrust forth friendless into +the unfriendly world, could the heart have naturally prompted any other +desire, than anxiety to secure the companion after having discovered the +protector? In the guilelessness of her character, in her absolute +ignorance of humanity, of the influence of custom, of the adaptation of +difference of feeling to difference of sex, she vainly imagined that the +tranquil existence she had urged on Hermanric, would suffice for the +attainment of her end, by presenting the same allurements to him, a +warrior and a Goth, that it contained for her--a lonely, thoughtful, +visionary girl! And yet, so wonderful was the ascendancy that she had +acquired by the magic of her presence, the freshness of her beauty, and +the novelty of her manner, over the heart of the young chieftain, that +he, who would have spurned from him with contempt any other woman who +might have addressed to him such a petition as Antonina's, looked down +sorrowfully at the girl as she ceased speaking, and for an instant +hesitated in his choice. + +At that moment, when the attention of each was fixed on the other, a +third person stealthily approached the opening of the tent, and +beholding them together thus, burst into a bitter, taunting laugh. +Hermanric raised his eyes instantly; but the sound of that harsh +unwomanly voice was all-eloquent to Antonina's senses. She hid her face +against the Goth's breast, and murmured breathlessly--'She has returned! +I must die! I must die!' + +She had returned! She perceived Hermanric and Antonina in a position, +which left no doubt that a stronger feeling than the mere wish to +protect the victim of her intended revenge, had arisen, during her +absence, in the heart of her kinsman. Hour after hour, while she had +fulfilled her duties by the beds of Alaric's invalided soldiery, had she +brooded over her projects of vengeance and blood. Neither the sickness +nor the death which she had beheld around her, had possessed an +influence powerful enough over the stubborn ferocity which now alone +animated her nature, to lure it to mercy or awe it to repentance. +Invigorated by delay, and enlarged by disappointment, the evil passion +that consumed her had strengthened its power, and aroused the most +latent of its energies, during the silent vigil that she had just held. +She had detested the girl on the evening before, for her nation; she now +hated her for herself. + +'What have you to do with the trappings of a Gothic warrior?' she cried, +in mocking accents, pointing at Hermanric with a long hunting-knife +which she held in her hand. 'Why are you here in a Gothic encampment? +Go, knock at the gates of Rome, implore her guards on your knees to +admit you among the citizens, and when they ask you why--show them the +girl there! Tell them that you love her, that you would wed her, that +it is nothing to you that her people have murdered your brother and his +children! And then, when you yourself have begotten sons, Gothic +bastards infected with Roman blood, be a Roman at heart yourself, send +your children forth to complete what your wife's people left undone at +Aquileia--by murdering me!' + +She paused and laughed scornfully. Then her humour suddenly changed, +she advanced a few steps, and continued in a louder and sterner tone:-- + + +'You have broken your faith; you have lied to me; you have forgotten +your wrongs and mine; but you have not yet forgotten my parting words +when I left you last night! I told you that she should be slain, and +now that you have refused to avenge me, I will make good my words by +killing her with my own hand! If you would defend her, you must murder +me. You must shed her blood or mine!' + +She stepped forward, her towering form was stretched to its highest +stature, the muscles started into action on her bare arms as she raised +them above her head. For one instant, she fixed her glaring eyes +steadily on the girl's shrinking form--the next, she rushed up and +struck furiously with the knife at her bare neck. As the weapon +descended, Hermanric caught her wrist. She struggled violently to +disengage herself from his grasp, but in vain. + +The countenance of the young warrior grew deadly pale, as he held her. +For a few minutes he glanced eagerly round the tent, in an agony of +bewilderment and despair. The conflicting interests of his duty towards +his sister, and his anxiety for Antonina's preservation, filled his +heart to distraction. A moment more he hesitated, and during that short +delay, the despotism of custom had yet power enough to prevail over the +promptings of pity. He called to the girl--withdrawing his arm which +had hitherto been her support,--'Go, have mercy on me, go!' + +But she neither heeded nor heard him. She fell on her knees at the +woman's feet, and in a low moaning voice faltered out:-- + +'What have I done that I deserve to be slain? I never murdered your +children; I never yet saw a child but I loved it; if I had seen your +children, I should have loved them!' + +'If I had preserved to this time the child that I saved from the +massacre, and you had approached him,' returned the woman fiercely, 'I +would have taught him to strike at you with his little hands! When you +spoke to him, he should have spat upon you for answer--even thus!' + +Trembling, exhausted, terrified as she was, the girl's Roman blood +rushed over her pale cheeks as she felt the insult. She turned towards +Hermanric, looked up at him appealingly, attempted to speak, and then +sinking lower upon the ground, wept bitterly. + +'Why do you weep and pray and mouth it at him?' shrieked Goisvintha, +pointing to Hermanric with her disengaged hand. 'He has neither courage +to protect you, nor honour to aid me. Do you think that I am to be +moved by your tears and entreaties? I tell you that your people have +slain my husband and my children, and that I hate you for that. I tell +you that you have lured Hermanric into love for a Roman and +unfaithfulness to me, and I will slay you for doing it! I tell you that +there is not a living thing of the blood of your country, or the name of +your nation, throughout the length and breadth of this empire, that I +would not destroy if I had the power! If the very trees on the road +hither could have had feeling, I would have torn the bark from their +stems with my own hands! If a bird, native of your skies, had flown +into my bosom from very tameness and sport, I would have crushed it dead +at my feet! And do you think that you shall escape? Do you think that +I will not avenge the deaths of my husband and my children upon you, +after this?' + +As she spoke, she mechanically unclenched her hands. The knife dropped +to the ground. Hermanric instantly stooped and secured it. For a +moment she stood before him released from his grasp, motionless and +speechless. Then, starting as if struck by a sudden idea, she moved +towards the opening of the tent, and, in tones of malignant triumph, +addressed him thus:-- + +'You shall not save her yet! You are unworthy of your nation and your +name! I will betray your cowardice and treachery to your brethren in +the camp!' And she ran to the outside of the tent, calling in a loud +voice to a group of young warriors who happened to be passing at a short +distance. 'Stay, stay! Fritigern--Athanaric--Colias--Suerid-- +Witheric--Fravitta! Hasten hitherward! Hermanric has a captive in his +tent--a prisoner whom it will rejoice to see! Hitherward! hitherward!' + + +The group she addressed contained some of the most turbulent and +careless spirits of the whole Gothic army. They had just been released +from their duties of the past night, and were at leisure to comply with +Goisvintha's request. She had scarcely concluded her address before +they turned and hurried eagerly up to the tent, shouting to Hermanric, +as they advanced, to make his prisoner visible to them in the open air. + +They had probably expected to be regaled by the ludicrous terror of some +Roman slave whom their comrade had discovered lurking in the empty +suburbs; for when they entered the tent, and saw nothing but the +shrinking figure of the unhappy girl, as she crouched on the earth at +Hermanric's feet, they all paused with one accord, and looked round on +each other in speechless astonishment. + +'Behold her!' cried Goisvintha, breaking the momentary silence. 'She is +the Roman prisoner that your man of valour there has secured for +himself! For that trembling child he has forgotten the enmities of his +people! She is more to him already than army, general, or companions. +You have watched before the city during the night; but he has stood +sentinel by the maiden of Rome! Hope not that he will share in your +toils, or mix in your pleasures more. Alaric and the warriors have lost +his services--his future king cringes there at his feet!' + +She had expected to arouse the anger and excite the jealousy of the +rough audience she addressed; but the result of her envenomed jeers +disappointed her hopes. The humour of the moment prompted the Goths to +ridicule, a course infinitely more inimical to Antonina's interests with +Hermanric than menaces or recrimination. Recovered from their first +astonishment, they burst into a loud and universal laugh. + +'Mars and Venus caught together! But, by St. Peter, I see not Vulcan +and the net!' cried Fravitta, who having served in the armies of Rome, +and acquired a vague knowledge there of the ancient mythology, and the +modern politics of the Empire, was considered by his companions as the +wit of the battalion to which he was attached. + +'I like her figure,' growled Fritigern, a heavy, phlegmatic giant, +renowned for his imperturbable good humour and his prowess in drinking. +'What little there is of it looks so limp that Hermanric might pack her +into his light baggage and carry her about with him on his shoulders +wherever he goes!' + +'By which process you would say, old sucker of wine-skins, that he will +attain the double advantage of always keeping her to himself, and always +keeping her warm,' interrupted Colias, a ruddy, reckless boy of sixteen, +privileged to be impertinent in consideration of his years. + +'Is she Orthodox or Arian?' gravely demanded Athanaric, who piqued +himself on his theological accomplishments and his extraordinary piety. + +'What hair she has!' exclaimed Suerid, sarcastically. 'It is as black +as the horse-hides of a squadron of Huns!' + +'Show us her face! Whose tent will she visit next?' cried Witheric, +with an insolent laugh. + +'Mine!' replied Fritigern, complacently. 'What says the chorus of the +song? + +'Money and wine Make beauty mine! + +I have more of both than any of you. She will come to my tent!' + +During the delivery of these clumsy jests, which followed one upon +another with instantaneous rapidity, the scorn at first expressed in +Hermanric's countenance became gradually replaced by a look of +irrepressible anger. As Fritigern spoke, he lost all command over +himself, and seizing his sword, advanced threateningly towards the easy- +tempered giant, who made no attempt to recede or defend himself, but +called out soothingly, 'Patience, man! patience! Would you kill an old +comrade for jesting? I envy you your good luck as a friend, not as an +enemy!' + + +Yielding to the necessity of lowering his sword before a defenceless +man, Hermanric was about to reply angrily to Fritigern, when his voice +was drowned in the blast of a trumpet, sounding close by the tent. The +signal that it gave was understood at once by the group of jesters still +surrounding the young Goth. They turned, and retired without an +instant's delay. The last of their number had scarcely disappeared, +when the same veteran who had spoken with Hermanric, on the departure of +Goisvintha the evening before, entered and thus addressed him:-- + +'You are commanded to post yourself with the division that now awaits +you, at a place eastward of your present position, which will be shown +you by a guide. Make ready at once--you have not an instant to delay.' + +As the words passed the old man's lips, Hermanric turned and looked on +Goisvintha. During the presence of the Goths in the tent, she had sat +listening to their rough jeers in suppressed wrath and speechless +disdain; now she rose and advanced a few steps. But there suddenly +appeared an unwonted hesitation in her gait; her face was pale; she +breathed fast and heavily. 'Where will you shelter her now?' she cried, +addressing Hermanric, and threatening the girl with her outstretched +hands. 'Abandon her to your companions, or leave her to me; she is lost +either way! I shall triumph--triumph!'-- + +At this moment her voice sank to an unintelligible murmur; she tottered +where she stood. It was evident that the long strife of passions during +her past night of watching, and the fierce and varying emotions of the +morning, suddenly brought to a crisis, as they had been, by her +exultation when she heard the old warrior's fatal message, had at length +overtasked the energies even of her powerful frame. Yet one moment more +she endeavoured to advance, to speak, to snatch the hunting knife from +Hermanric's hand; the next she fell insensible at his feet. + +Goaded almost to madness by the successive trials that he had undergone; +Goisvintha's furious determination to thwart him, still present to his +mind; the scornful words of his companions yet ringing in his ears; his +inexorable duties demanding his attention without reserve or delay; +Hermanric succumbed at last under the difficulties of his position, and +despairingly abandoned all further hope of effecting the girl's +preservation. Pointing to some food that lay in a corner of the tent, +and to the country behind, he said to her, in broken and gloomy accents, +'Furnish yourself with those provisions, and fly, while Goisvintha is +yet unable to pursue you. I can protect you no longer!' + +Until this moment, Antonina had kept her face hidden, and had remained +still crouching on the ground; motionless, save when a shudder ran +through her frame as she listened to the loud, coarse jesting of the +Goths; and speechless, except that when Goisvintha sank senseless to the +earth, she uttered an exclamation of terror. But now, when she heard +the sentence of her banishment proclaimed by the very lips which but the +evening before had assured her of shelter and protection, she rose up +instantly, cast on the young Goth a glance of such speechless misery and +despair, that he involuntarily quailed before it; and then, without a +tear or a sigh, without a look of reproach, or a word of entreaty, +petrified and bowed down beneath a perfect trance of terror and grief, +she left the tent. + +Hurrying his actions with the reckless energy of a man determined on +banishing his thoughts by his employments, Hermanric placed himself at +the head of his troop, and marched quickly onwards in an eastward +direction past the Pincian Gate. Two of his attendants who happened to +enter the tent after his departure, observing Goisvintha still extended +on the earth, proceeded to transport her to part of the camp occupied by +the women who were attached to the army; and then, the little sheltering +canopy which made the abode of the Goth, and which had witnessed so +large a share of human misery and so fierce a war of human contention in +so few hours, was left as silent and lonely as the deserted country in +which Antonina was now fated to seek a refuge and a home. + + +CHAPTER 12. THE PASSAGE OF THE WALL. + + +'A fair night this, Balbus! All moonlight and no mist! I was posted +last evening at the Ostian Gate, and was half choked by the fog.' + +'If you were posted last night at the Ostian Gate, you were better +placed than you are now. The ramparts here are as lonely as a ruin in +the provinces. Nothing behind us but the back of the Pincian Mount; +nothing before us but the empty suburbs; nothing at each side of us but +brick and stone; nothing at our posts but ourselves. May I be crucified +like St. Peter, if I believe that there is another place on the whole +round of the walls possessed of such solitary dulness as this!' + +'You are a man to find something to complain of, if you were lodged in +one of the palaces yonder. The place is solitary enough, it is true; +but whether it is dull or not depends on ourselves, its most honourable +occupants. I, for one, am determined to promote its joviality by the +very praiseworthy exertion of obliging you, my discontented friend, with +an inexhaustible series of those stories for which, I may say, without +arrogance, I am celebrated throughout the length and breadth of all the +barracks of Rome.' + +'You may tell as many stories as you please, but do not imagine that I +will make one of your audience.' + +'You are welcome to attend to me or not, as you choose. Though you do +not listen, I shall still relate my stories by way of practice. I will +address them to the walls, or to the air, or to the defunct gods and +goddesses of antiquity, should they happen at this moment to be hovering +over the city in a rage, as some of the unconverted would have us +believe; or to our neighbours the Goths, if they are seized with a +sudden desire to quite their encampments, and obtain a near view of the +fortifications that they are so discreetly unwilling to assault. Or, +these materials for a fit and decent auditory failing me, I will tell my +stories to the most attentive of all listeners--myself.' + +And the sentinel, without further delay, opened his budget of anecdotes, +with the easy fluency of of a man who possessed a well-placed confidence +in the perfection of his capacities for narration. Determined that his +saturnine colleague should hear him, though he would not give him his +attention, he talked in a raised voice, pacing briskly backwards and +forwards over the space of his allotted limits, and laughing with +ludicrous regularity and complacency at every jest that he happened to +make in the course of his ill-rewarded narrative. He little thought, as +he continued to proceed in his tale that its commencement had been +welcomed by an unseen hearer, with emotions widely different from those +which had dictated the observations of the unfriendly companion of his +watch. + +True to his determination, Ulpius, with part of the wages which he had +hoarded in Numerian's service, had procured a small lantern from a shop +in one of the distant quarters of Rome; and veiling its light in a piece +of coarse, thick cloth, had proceeded by the solitary pathway to his +second night's labour at the wall. He arrived at the breach, at the +commencement of the dialogue above related, and heard with delight the +sentinel's noisy resolution to amuse his companion in spite of himself. +The louder and the longer the man talked, the less probable was the +chance that the Pagan's labours in the interior of the wall would be +suspected or overheard. + +Softly clearing away the brushwood at the entrance of the hole that he +had made the night before, Ulpius crept in as far as he had penetrated +on that occasion; and then, with mingled emotions of expectation and +apprehension which affected him so powerfully, that he was for the +moment hardly master of his actions, he slowly and cautiously uncovered +his light. + + +His first glance was intuitively directed to the cavity that opened +beneath him. He saw immediately that it was less important, both in +size and depth, than he had imagined it to be. The earth at this +particular place had given way beneath the foundations of the wall, +which had sunk down, deepening the chasm by their weight, into the +yielding ground beneath them. A small spring of water (probably the +first cause of the sinking in the earth) had bubbled up into the space +in the brick-work, which bit by bit, and year by year, it had gradually +undermined. Nor did it remain stagnant at this place. It trickled +merrily and quietly onward--a tiny rivulet, emancipated from one prison +in the ground only to enter another in the wall, bounded by no grassy +banks, brightened by no cheerful light, admired by no human eye, +followed in its small course through the inner fissures in the brick by +no living thing but a bloated toad, or a solitary lizard: yet wending +as happily on its way through darkness and ruin, as its sisters who were +basking in the sunlight of the meadows, or leaping in the fresh breezes +of the open mountain side. + +Raising his eyes from the little spring, Ulpius next directed his +attention to the prospect above him. + +Immediately over his head, the material of the interior of the wall +presented a smooth, flat, hard surface, which seemed capable of +resisting the most vigorous attempts at its destruction; but on looking +round, he perceived at one side of him and further inwards, an +appearance of dark, dimly-defined irregularity, which promised +encouragingly for his intended efforts. He descended into the chasm of +the rivulet, crawled up on a heap of crumbling brick-work, and gained a +hole above it, which he immediately began to widen, to admit of his +passage through. Inch by inch, he enlarged the rift, crept into it, and +found himself on a fragment of the bow of one of the foundation arches, +which, though partly destroyed, still supported itself, isolated from +all connection with the part of the upper wall which it had once +sustained, and which had gradually crumbled away into the cavities +below. + +He looked up. An immense rift soared above him, stretching its tortuous +ramifications, at different points, into every part of the wall that was +immediately visible. The whole structure seemed, at this place, to have +received a sudden and tremendous wrench. But for the support of the +sounder fortifications at each side of it, it could not have sustained +itself after the shock. The Pagan gazed aloft, into the fearful breaches +which yawned above him, with ungovernable awe. His small, fitful light +was not sufficient to show him any of their terminations. They looked, +as he beheld them in dark relief against the rest of the hollow part of +the wall, like mighty serpents twining their desolating path right +upward to the ramparts above; and he, himself, as he crouched on his +pinnacle with his little light by his side, was reduced by the wild +grandeur, the vast, solemn gloom of the obscure, dusky, and fantastic +objects around him, to the stature of a pigmy. Could he have been seen +from the ramparts high overhead, as he now peered down behind his +lantern into the cavities and irregularities below him, he would have +looked, with his flickering light, like a mole led by a glow-worm. + +He paused to consider his next movements. In a stationary position, the +damp coldness of the atmosphere was almost insupportable, but he +attained a great advantage by his present stillness: he could listen +undisturbed by the noises made by the bricks which crumbled from under +him, if he advanced. + + +Ere long, he heard a thin, winding, long-drawn sound, now louder, now +softer; now approaching, now retreating; now verging towards shrillness, +now quickly returning to a faint, gentle swell. Suddenly this strange +unearthly music was interrupted by a succession of long, deep, rolling +sounds, which travelled grandly about the fissures above, like prisoned +thunderbolts striving to escape. Utterly ignorant that the first of +these noises was occasioned by the night wind winding through the rents +in the brick of the outer wall beyond him; and the second, by the echoes +produced in the irregular cavities above, by the footfall of the +sentries overhead--roused by the influence of the place, and the mystery +of his employment, to a pitch of fanatic exaltation, which for the +moment absolutely unsteadied his reason--filled with the frantic +enthusiasm of his designs, and the fearful legends of invisible beings +and worlds which made the foundation of his worship, Ulpius conceived, +as he listened to the sounds around and above, that the gods of +antiquity were now in viewless congregation hovering about him, and +calling to him in unearthly voices and in an unknown tongue, to proceed +upon his daring enterprise, in the full assurance of its near and +glorious success. + +'Roar and mutter, and make your hurricane music in my ears!' exclaimed +the Pagan, raising his withered hands, and addressing in a savage +ecstacy his imagined deities. 'Your servant Ulpius stops not on the +journey that leads him to your repeopled shrines! Blood, crime, danger, +pain--pride and honour, joy and rest, have I strewn like sacrifices at +your altars' feet! Time has whirled past me; youth and manhood have +lain long since buried in the hidden Lethe which is the portion of life; +age has wreathed his coils over my body's strength, but still I watch by +your temples and serve your mighty cause! Your vengeance is near! +Monarchs of the world, your triumph is at hand!' + +He remained for some time in the same position, looking fixedly up into +the trackless darkness above him, drinking in the sounds which-- +alternately rising and sinking--still floated round him. The trembling +gleam of his lantern fell red and wild upon his livid countenance. His +shaggy hair floated in the cold breezes that blew by him. At this +moment he would have appeared from a distance, like a phantom of fire +perishing in a mist of darkness; like a Gnome in adoration in the bowels +of the earth; like a forsaken spirit in a solitary purgatory, watching +for the advent of a glimpse of beauty, or a breath of air. + +At length he aroused himself from his trance, trimmed with careful hand +his guiding lantern, and set forward to penetrate the breadth of the +great rift he had just entered. + +He moved on in an oblique direction several feet, now creeping over the +tops of the foundation arches, now skirting the extremities of +protrusions in the ruined brick-work, now descending into dark slimy +rubbish-choked chasms, until the rift suddenly diminished in all +directions. + +The atmosphere was warmer in the place he now occupied; he could faintly +distinguish patches of dark moss, dotted here and there over the uneven +surface of the wall; and once or twice, some blades of long flat grass, +that grew from a prominence immediately above his head, were waved in +his face by the wind, which he could now feel blowing through the narrow +fissure that he was preparing to enlarge. It was evident that he had by +this time advanced to within a few feet of the outer extremity of the +wall. + +'Numerian wanders after his child through the streets,' muttered the +Pagan, as he deposited his lantern by his side, bared his trembling +arms, and raised his iron bar, 'the slaves of his neighbour the senator +are forth to pursue me. On all sides my enemies are out after me; but, +posted here, I mock their strictest search! If they would track me to +my hiding-place, they must penetrate the walls of Rome! If they would +hunt me down in my lair, they must assail me to-night in the camp of the +Goths! Fools! let them look to themselves! I seal the doom of their +city, with the last brick that I tear from their defenceless walls!' + +He laughed to himself as he thrust his bar boldly into the crevice +before him. In some places the bricks yielded easily to his efforts; in +others, their resistance was only to be overcome by the exertion of his +utmost strength. Resolutely and unceasingly he continued his labours; +now wounding his hands against the jagged surfaces presented by the +widening fissure; now involuntarily dropping his instrument from +ungovernable exhaustion; but, still working bravely on, in defiance of +every hindrance that opposed him, until he gained the interior of the +new rift. + +As he drew his lantern after him into the cavity that he had made, he +perceived that, unless it was heightened immediately over him, he could +proceed no further, even in a creeping position. Irritated at this +unexpected necessity for more violent exertion, desperate in his +determination to get through the wall at all hazards on that very night, +he recklessly struck his bar upwards with all his strength, instead of +gradually and softly loosening the material of the surface that opposed +him, as he had done before. + +A few moments of this labour had scarcely elapsed, when a considerable +portion of the brick-work, consolidated into one firm mass, fell with +lightning suddenness from above. It hurled him under it, prostrate on +the foundation arch which had been his support; crushed and dislocated +his right shoulder; and shivered his lantern into fragments. A groan of +irrepressible anguish burst from his lips. He was left in impenetrable +darkness. + +The mass of brick-work, after it had struck him, rolled a little to one +side. By a desperate exertion he extricated himself from under it--only +to swoon from the fresh anguish caused to him by the effort. + +For a short time he lay insensible in his cold dark solitude. Then, +reviving after this first shock, he began to experience in all their +severity, the fierce spasms, the dull gnawings, the throbbing torments, +that were the miserable consequences of the injury he received. His arm +lay motionless by his side--he had neither strength nor resolution to +move any one of the other sound limbs in his body. At one moment his +deep, sobbing, stifled respirations, syllabled horrible and half-formed +curses--at another, his panting breaths suddenly died away within him; +and then he could hear the blood dripping slowly from his shoulder, with +dismal regularity, into a little pool that it had formed already by his +side. + +The shrill breezes which wound through the crevices in the wall before +him, were now felt only on his wounded limb. They touched its surface +like innumerable splinters of thin, sharp ice; they penetrated his flesh +like rushing sparks struck out of a sea of molten lead. There were +moments, during the first pangs of this agony, when if he had been +possessed of a weapon and of the strength to use it, he would have +sacrificed his ambition for ever by depriving himself of life. + +But this desire to end his torments with his existence lasted not long. +Gradually, the anguish in his body awakened a wilder and stronger +distemper in his mind, and then the two agonies, physical and mental, +rioted over him together in fierce rivalry, divesting him of all +thoughts but such as were by their own agency created or aroused. + +For some time he lay helpless in his misery, alternately venting by +stifled groans the unalleviated torment of his wounds, and lamenting +with curses the failure of his enterprise, at the very moment of its +apparent success. At length, the pangs that struck through him seemed +to grow gradually less frequent; he hardly knew now from what part of +his frame they more immediately proceeded. Insensibly, his faculties of +thinking and feeling grew blunted; then he remained a little while in a +mysterious unrefreshing repose of body and mind; and then his disordered +senses, left unguided and unrestrained, became the victims of a sudden +and terrible delusion. + +The blank darkness around him appeared, after an interval, to be +gradually dawning into a dull light, thick and misty, like the +reflections on clouds which threaten a thunderstorm at the close of +evening. Soon, this atmosphere seemed to be crossed and streaked with a +fantastic trellis-work of white, seething vapour. Then the mass of +brick-work which had struck him down, grew visible at his side, enlarged +to an enormous bulk, and endued with a power of self-motion, by which it +mysteriously swelled and shrank, and raised and depressed itself, +without quitting for a moment its position near him. And then, from its +dark and toiling surface there rose a long stream of dusky shapes, which +twined themselves about the misty trellis-work above, and took the +prominent and palpable form of human countenances, marked by every +difference of age and distorted by every variety of suffering. + + +There were infantine faces, wreathed about with grave-worms that hung +round them like locks of filthy hair; aged faces, dabbled with gore and +slashed with wounds; youthful faces, seamed with livid channels, along +which ran unceasing tears; lovely faces, distorted into fixed +expressions of raging pain, wild malignity, and despairing gloom. Not +one of these countenances exactly resembled the other. Each was +distinguished by a revolting character of its own. Yet, however +deformed might be their other features, the eyes of all were preserved +unimpaired. Speechless and bodiless, they floated in unceasing myriads +up to the fantastic trellis-work, which seemed to swell its wild +proportions to receive them. There they clustered, in their goblin +amphitheatre, and fixed and silently they all glared down, without one +exception, on the Pagan's face! + +Meanwhile, the walls at the side began to gleam out with a light of +their own, making jagged boundaries to the midway scene of phantom +faces. Then the rifts in their surfaces widened, and disgorged +misshapen figures of priests and idols of the old time, which came forth +in every hideous deformity of aspect, mocking at the faces on the +trellis-work; while behind and over the whole, soared shapes of gigantic +darkness, robed in grim cloudy resemblances of skins such as were worn +by the Goths, and wielding through the quivering vapour, mighty and +shadow-like weapons of war. From the whole of this ghastly assemblage +there rose not the slightest sound. A stillness, as of a dead and ruined +world, possessed in all its quarters the appalling scene. The deep +echoes of the sentries' footsteps and the faint dirging of the +melancholy winds were no more. The blood that had as yet dripped from +his wound, made no sound now in the Pagan's ear; even his own agony of +terror was as silent as were the visionary demons who had aroused it. +Days, years, centuries, seemed to pass, as he lay gazing up, in a trance +of horror, into his realm of peopled and ghostly darkness. At last +nature yielded under the trial; the phantom prospect suddenly whirled +round him with fearful velocity, and his senses sought refuge from the +thraldom of their own creation in a deep and welcome swoon. + +Time had moved wearily onward, the chiding winds had many times waved +the dry locks of his hair to and fro about his brow, as if to bid him +awaken and arise, ere he again recovered his consciousness. Once more +aroused to the knowledge of his position and the sensation of his wound, +he slowly raised himself upon his uninjured arm, and looked wildly +around for the faintest appearance of a gleam of light. But the winding +and uneven nature of the track which he had formed to lead him through +the wall, effectually prevented the moonbeams, then floating into the +outermost of the cavities that he had made, from reaching the place +where he now lay. Not a single object was even faintly distinguishable +around him. Darkness hemmed him in, in rayless and triumphant +obscurity, on every side. + +The first agonies of the injury he had received had resolved themselves +into one dull, heavy, unchanging sensation of pain. The vision that had +overwhelmed his senses was now, in a vast and shadowy form, present only +to his memory, filling the darkness with fearful recollections, and not +with dismal forms; and urging on him a restless, headlong yearning to +effect his escape from the lonely and unhallowed sepulchre, the prison +of solitude and death, that his own fatal exertions threatened him with, +should he linger much longer in the caverns of the wall. + +'I must pass from this darkness into light--I must breathe the air of +the sky, or I shall perish in the damps of this vault,' he exclaimed in +a hoarse, moaning voice, as he raised himself gradually and painfully +into a creeping position; and turning round slowly, commenced his +meditated retreat. + +His brain still whirled with the emotions that had so lately overwhelmed +his mind; his right hand hung helplessly by his side, dragged after him +like a prisoner's chain, and lacerated by the uneven surface of the +ground over which it was slowly drawn, as--supporting himself on his +left arm, and creeping forward a few inches at a time--he set forth on +his toilsome journey. + +Here, he paused bewildered in the darkness; there, he either checked +himself by a convulsive effort from falling headlong into the unknown +deeps beneath him, or lost the little ground he had gained in labour and +agony, by retracing his way at the bidding of some unexpected obstacle. +Now he gnashed his teeth in anguish, now he cursed in despair, now he +was breathless with exhaustion; but still, with an obstinacy that had in +it something of the heroic, he never failed in his fierce resolution to +effect his escape. + + +Slowly and painfully, moving with the pace and the perseverance of the +tortoise, hopeless yet determined as a navigator in a strange sea, he +writhed onward and onward upon his unguided course, until he reaped at +length the reward of his long suffering, by the sudden discovery of a +thin ray of moonlight toiling through a crevice in the murky brickwork +before him. Hardly did the hearts of the Magi when the vision of 'the +star in the East' first dawned on their eyes, leap within them with a +more vivid transport, than that which animated the heart of Ulpius at +the moment when he beheld the inspiring and guiding light. + +Yet a little more exertion, a little more patience, a little more +anguish; and he stood once again, a ghastly and crippled figure, before +the outer cavity in the wall. + +It was near daybreak; the moon shone faintly in the dull, grey heaven; a +small, vaporous rain was sinking from the shapeless clouds; the waning +night showed bleak and cheerless to the earth, but cast no mournful or +reproving influence over the Pagan's mind. He looked round on his +solitary lurking place, and beheld no human figure in its lonely +recesses. He looked up at the ramparts, and saw that the sentinels +stood silent and apart, wrapped in their heavy watch-cloaks, and +supported on their trusty weapons. It was perfectly apparent that the +events of his night of suffering and despair had passed unheeded by the +outer world. + +He glanced back with a shudder upon his wounded and helpless limb; then +his eyes fixed themselves upon the wall. After surveying it with an +earnest and defiant gaze, he slowly moved the brushwood with his foot, +against the small cavity in its outer surface. + +'Days pass, wounds heal, chances change,' muttered the old man, +departing from his haunt with slow and uncertain steps. 'In the mines I +have borne lashes without a murmur--I have felt my chains widening, with +each succeeding day, the ulcers that their teeth of iron first gnawed in +my flesh, and have yet lived to loosen my fetters, and to close my +sores! Shall this new agony have a power to conquer me greater than the +others that are past? I will even yet return in time to overcome the +resistance of the wall! My arm is crushed, but my purpose is whole!' + + +CHAPTER 13. THE HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS. + +Retracing some hours, we turn from the rifted wall to the suburbs and +the country which its ramparts overlook; abandoning the footsteps of the +maimed and darkly-plotting Ulpius, our attention now fixes itself on the +fortunes of Hermanric, and the fate of Antonina. + +Although the evening had as yet scarcely closed, the Goth had allotted +to the warriors under his command their different stations for the night +in the lonely suburbs of the city. This duty performed, he was left to +the unbroken solitude of the deserted tenement which now served him as a +temporary abode. + +The house he occupied was the last of the wide and irregular street in +which it stood; it looked towards the wall beneath the Pincian Mount, +from which it was separated by a public garden about half a mile in +extent. This once well-thronged place of recreation was now totally +unoccupied. Its dull groves were brightened by no human forms; the +chambers of its gay summer houses were dark and desolate; the booths of +its fruit and flower-sellers stood vacant on its untrodden lawns. +Melancholy and forsaken, it stretched forth as a fertile solitude under +the very walls of a crowded city. + + +And yet there was a charm inexpressibly solemn and soothing in the +prospect of loneliness that it presented, as its flower-beds and trees +were now gradually obscured to the eye in the shadows of the advancing +night. It gained in its present refinement as much as it had lost of +its former gaiety; it had its own simple attraction still, though it +failed to sparkle to the eye with its accustomed illuminations, or to +please the ear by the music and laughter, which rose from it in times of +peace. As he looked forth over the view from the terrace of his new +abode, the remembrance of the employments of his past and busy hours +deserted the memory of the young Goth, leaving his faculties free to +welcome the reflections which night began insensibly to awaken and +create. + +Employed under such auspices, whither would the thoughts of Hermanric +naturally stray? + +From the moonlight that already began to ripple over the topmost +trembling leaves of the trees beyond him, to the delicate and shadowy +flowers that twined up the pillars of the deserted terrace where he now +stood, every object he beheld connected itself, to his vivid and +uncultured imagination, with the one being of whom all that was +beautiful in nature, seemed to him the eloquent and befitting type. He +thought of Antonina whom he had once protected; of Antonina whom he had +afterwards abandoned; of Antonina whom he had now lost! + +Strong in the imaginative and weak in the reasoning faculties; gifted +with large moral perception and little moral firmness; too easy to be +influenced and too difficult to be resolved, Hermanric had deserted the +girl's interests from an infirmity of disposition, rather than from a +determination of will. Now, therefore, when the employments of the day +had ceased to absorb his attention; now when silence and solitude led +his memory back to his morning's abandonment of his helpless charge, +that act of fatal impatience and irresolution inspired him with the +strongest emotions of sorrow and remorse. If during her sojourn under +his care, Antonina had insensibly influenced his heart, her image, now +that he reflected on his guilty share in their parting scene, filled all +his thoughts, at once saddening and shaming him, as he remembered her +banishment from the shelter of his tent. + +Every feeling which had animated his reflections on Antonina on the +previous night, was doubled in intensity as he thought on her now. +Again he recalled her eloquent words, and remembered the charm of her +gentle and innocent manner; again he dwelt on the beauties of her +outward form. Each warm expression; each varying intonation of voice +that had accompanied her petition to him for safety and companionship; +every persuasion that she had used to melt him, now revived in his +memory and moved in his heart with steady influence and increasing +power. All the hurried and imperfect pictures of happiness which she +had drawn to allure him, now expanded and brightened, until his mind +began to figure to him visions that had been hitherto unknown to +faculties occupied by no other images than those of rivalry, turbulence, +and strife. Scenes called into being by Antonina's lightest and +hastiest expressions, now rose vague and shadowy before his brooding +spirit. Lovely places of earth that he had visited and forgotten now +returned to his recollection, idealised and refined as he thought of +her. She appeared to his mind in every allurement of action, fulfilling +all the duties and enjoying all the pleasures that she had proposed to +him. He imagined her happy and healthful, journeying gaily by his side +in the fresh morning, with rosy cheek and elastic step; he imagined her +delighting him by her promised songs, enlivening him by her eloquent +words, in the mellow stillness of evening; he imagined her sleeping, +soft and warm and still, in his protecting arms--ever happy and ever +gentle; girl in years, and woman in capacities; at once lover and +companion, teacher and pupil, follower and guide! + +Such she might have been once! What was she now? + + +Was she sinking under her loneliness, perishing from exposure and +fatigue, repulsed by the cruel, or mocked by the unthinking? To all +these perils and miseries had he exposed her; and to what end? To +maintain the uncertain favour, to preserve the unwelcome friendship, of +a woman abandoned even by the most common and intuitive virtues of her +sex; whose frantic craving for revenge, confounded justice with +treachery, innocence with guilt, helplessness with tyranny; whose claims +of nation and relationship should have been forfeited in his estimation, +by the openly-confessed malignity of her designs, at the fatal moment +when she had communicated them to him in all their atrocity, before the +walls of Rome. He groaned in despair, as he thought on this, the most +unworthy of the necessities, to which the forsaken girl had been +sacrificed. + +Soon, however, his mind reverted from such reflections as these, to his +own duties and his own renown; and here his remorse became partially +lightened, though his sorrow remained unchanged. + +Wonderful as had been the influence of Antonina's presence and +Antonina's words over the Goth, they had not yet acquired power enough +to smother in him entirely the warlike instincts of his sex and nation, +or to vanquish the strong and hostile promptings of education and +custom. She had gifted him with new emotions, and awakened him to new +thought; she had aroused all the dormant gentleness of his disposition +to war against the rugged indifference, the reckless energy, that +teaching and example had hitherto made a second nature to his heart. +She had wound her way into his mind, brightening its dark places, +enlarging its narrow recesses, beautifying its unpolished treasures. +She had created, she had refined, during her short hours of +communication with him, but she had not lured his disposition entirely +from its old habits and its old attachments; she had not yet stripped +off the false glitter from barbarian strife, or the pomp from martial +renown; she had not elevated the inferior intellectual, to the height of +the superior moral faculties, in his inward composition. Submitted +almost impartially to the alternate and conflicting dominion of the two +masters, Love and Duty, he at once regretted Antonina, and yet clung +mechanically to his old obedience to those tyrannic requirements of +nation and name, which had occasioned her loss. + +Oppressed by his varying emotions, destitute alike of consolation and +advice, the very inaction of his present position sensibly depressed +him. He rose impatiently, and buckling on his weapons, sought to escape +from his thoughts, by abandoning the scene under the influence of which +they had been first aroused. Turning his back upon the city, he +directed his steps at random, through the complicated labyrinth of +streets, composing the extent of the deserted suburbs. + +After he had passed through the dwellings comprised in the occupation of +the Gothic lines, and had gained those situated nearer to the desolate +country beyond, the scene around him became impressive enough to have +absorbed the attention of any man not wholly occupied by other and more +important objects of contemplation. + +The loneliness he now beheld on all sides, was not the loneliness of +ruin--the buildings near him were in perfect repair; it was not the +loneliness of pestilence--there were no corpses strewn over the +untrodden pavements of the streets; it was not the loneliness of +seclusion--there were no barred windows, and few closed doors; it was a +solitude of human annihilation. The open halls were unapproached; the +benches before the wine-shops were unoccupied; remains of gaudy +household wares still stood on the counters of the street booths, +watched by none, bought by none; particles of bread and meat (treasures, +fated to become soon of greater value than silver and gold, to +beleaguered Rome) rotted here in the open air, like garbage upon +dunghills; children's toys, women's ornaments, purses, money, love- +tokens, precious manuscripts, lay scattered hither and thither in the +public ways, dropped and abandoned by their different owners, in the +hurry of their sudden and universal flight. Every deserted street was +eloquent of darling projects desperately resigned, of valued labours +miserably deserted, of delighting enjoyments irretrievably lost. The +place was forsaken even by those household gods of rich and poor, its +domestic animals. They had either followed their owners into the city, +or strayed, unhindered and unwatched, into the country beyond. Mansion, +bath, and circus, displayed their gaudy pomp and luxurious comfort in +vain; not even a wandering Goth was to be seen near their empty halls. +For, with such a prospect before them as the subjugation of Rome, the +army had caught the infection of its leader's enthusiasm for his exalted +task, and willingly obeyed his commands for suspending the pillage of +the suburbs, disdaining the comparatively worthless treasures around +them, attainable at any time, when they felt that the rich coffers of +Rome herself were now fast opening to their eager hands. Voiceless and +noiseless, unpeopled and unravaged, lay the far-famed suburbs of the +greatest city of the universe, sunk alike in the night of Nature, the +night of Fortune, and the night of Glory! + +Saddening and impressive as was the prospect thus presented to the eyes +of the young Goth, it failed to weaken the powerful influence that his +evening's meditations yet held over his mind. As, during the hours that +were passed, the image of the forsaken girl had dissipated the +remembrance of the duties he had performed, and opposed the +contemplation of the commands he was yet to fulfil, so it now denied to +his faculties any impressions from the lonely scene, beheld, yet +unnoticed, which spread around him. Still, as he passed through the +gloomy streets, his vain regrets and self-accusations, his natural +predilections and acquired attachments, ruled over him and contended +within him, as sternly and as unceasingly as in the first moments when +they had arisen with the evening, during his sojourn in the terrace of +the deserted house. + +He had now arrived at the extremest boundary of the buildings in the +suburbs. Before him lay an uninterrupted prospect of smooth, shining +fields, and soft, hazy, indefinable woods. At one side of him were some +vineyards and cottage gardens; at the other was a solitary house, the +outermost of all the abodes in his immediate vicinity. Dark and +cheerless as it was, he regarded it for some time with the mechanical +attention of a man more occupied in thought than observation,--gradually +advancing towards it in the moody abstraction of his reflections, until +he unconsciously paused before the low range of irregular steps which +led to its entrance door. + +Startled from its meditations by his sudden propinquity to the object +that he had unwittingly approached, he now, for the first time, examined +the lonely abode before him with real attention. + +There was nothing remarkable about the house, save the extreme +desolateness of its appearance, which seemed to arise partly from its +isolated position, and partly from the unusual absence of all decoration +on its external front. It was too extensive to have been the dwelling +of a poor man, too void of pomp and ornament to have been a mansion of +the rich. It might, perhaps, have belonged to some citizen, or +foreigner, or the middle class--some moody Northman, some solitary +Egyptian, some scheming Jew. Yet, though it was not possessed, in +itself, of any remarkable or decided character, the Goth experienced a +mysterious, almost an eager curiosity to examine its interior. He could +assign no cause, discover no excuse for the act, as he slowly mounted +the steps before him. Some invisible and incomprehensible magnet +attracted him to the dwelling. If his return had been suddenly +commanded by Alaric himself; if evidences of indubitable treachery had +lurked about the solitary place, at the moment when he thrust open its +unbarred door, he felt that he must still have proceeded upon his onward +course. The next instant he entered the house. The light streamed +through the open entrance into the gloomy hall; the night-wind, rushing +upon its track, blew shrill and dreary among the stone pillars, and in +the hidden crevices and untenanted chambers above. Not a sign of life +appeared, not a sound of a footstep was audible, not even an article of +household use was to be seen. The deserted suburbs rose without, like a +wilderness; and this empty house looked within, like a sepulchre--void +of corpses, and yet eloquent of death! + +There was an inexplicable fascination to the eyes of the Goth about this +vault-like, solitary hall. He stood motionless at its entrance, gazing +dreamily at the gloomy prospect before him, until a strong gust of wind +suddenly forced the outer door further backwards, and at the same moment +admitted a larger stream of light. + +The place was not empty. In a corner of the hall, hitherto sunk in +darkness, crouched a shadowy form. It was enveloped in a dark garment, +and huddled up into an indefinable and unfamiliar shape. Nothing +appeared on it, as a denoting sign of humanity, but one pale hand, +holding the black drapery together, and relieved against it in almost +ghastly contrast under the cold light of the moon. + + +Vague remembrances of the awful superstitions of his nation's ancient +worship, hurried over the memory of the young Goth, at the first moment +of his discovery of the ghost-like occupant of the hall. As he stood in +fixed attention before the motionless figure, it soon began to be +endowed with the same strange influence over his will, that the lonely +house had already exerted. He advanced slowly towards the crouching +form. + +It never stirred at the noise of his approach. The pale hand still held +the mantle over the compressed figure, with the same rigid immobility of +grasp. Brave as he was, Hermanric shuddered as he bent down and touched +the bloodless, icy fingers. At that action, as if endowed with instant +vitality from contact with a living being, the figure suddenly started +up. + +Then, the folds of the dark mantle fell back, disclosing a face as pale +in hue as the stone pillars around it; and the voice of the solitary +being became audible, uttering in faint, monotonous accents, these +words:-- + +'He has forgotten and abandoned me!--slay me if you will!--I am ready to +die!' + +Broken, untuned as it was, there yet lurked in that voice a tone of its +old music, there beamed in that vacant and heavy eye a ray of its native +gentleness. With a sudden exclamation of compassion and surprise, the +Goth stepped forward, raised the trembling outcast in his arms; and, in +the impulse of the moment quitting the solitary house, stood the next +instant on the firm earth, and under the starry sky, once more united to +the charge that he had abandoned--to Antonina whom he had lost. + +He spoke to her, caressed her, entreated her pardon, assured her of his +future care; but she neither answered nor recognised him. She never +looked in his face, never moved in his arms, never petitioned for mercy. +She gave no sign of life or being, saving that she moaned at regular +intervals in piteous accents:--'He has forgotten and abandoned me!' as +if that one simple expression comprised in itself, her acknowledgment of +the uselessness of her life, and her dirge for her expected death. + +The Goth's countenance whitened to his very lips. He began to fear that +her faculties had sunk under her trials. He hurried on with her with +trembling steps towards the open country, for he nourished a dreamy, +intuitive hope, that the sight of those woods and fields and mountains +which she had extolled to him, in her morning's entreaty for protection, +might aid in restoring her suspended consciousness, if she now looked on +them. + +He ran forward, until he had left the suburbs at least half a mile +behind him, and had reached an eminence, bounded on each side by high +grass banks and clustering woods, and commanding a narrow, yet various +prospect, of the valley ground beneath, and the fertile plains that +extended beyond. + +Here the warrior paused with his burden; and, seating himself on the +bank, once more attempted to calm the girl's continued bewilderment and +terror. He thought not on his sentinels, whom he had abandoned--on his +absence from the suburbs, which might be perceived and punished by an +unexpected visit, at his deserted quarters, from his superiors in the +camp. The social influence that sways the world; the fragile idol at +whose shrine pride learns to bow, and insensibility to feel; the soft, +grateful influence of yielding nature yet eternal rule--the influence of +woman, source alike of virtues and crimes, of earthly glories and +earthly disasters--had, in this moment of anguish and expectation, +silenced in him every appeal of duty, and overthrown every obstacle of +selfish doubt. He now spoke to Antonina as alluringly as a woman, as +gently as a child. He caressed her as warmly as a lover, as cheerfully +as a brother, as kindly as a father. He--the rough, northern warrior, +whose education had been of arms, and whose youthful aspirations had +been taught to point towards strife and bloodshed and glory--even he was +now endowed with the tender eloquence of pity and love--with untiring, +skilful care--with calm, enduring patience. + + +Gently and unceasingly he plied his soothing task; and soon, to his joy +and triumph, he beheld the approaching reward of his efforts, in the +slow changes that became gradually perceptible in the girl's face and +manner. She raised herself in his arms, looked up fixedly and vacantly +into his face, then round upon the bright, quiet landscape, then back +again more stedfastly upon her companion; and at length, trembling +violently, she whispered softly and several times the young Goth's name, +glancing at him anxiously and apprehensively, as if she feared and +doubted while she recognised him. + +'You are bearing me to my death,'--said she suddenly. 'You, who once +protected me--you, who forsook me!--You are luring me into the power of +the woman who thirsts for my blood!--Oh, it is horrible--horrible!' + +She paused, averted her face, and shuddering violently, disengaged +herself from his arms. After an interval, she continued:-- + +'Through the long day, and in the beginning of the cold night, I have +waited in one solitary place for the death that is in store for me! I +have suffered all the loneliness of my hours of expectation, without +complaint; I have listened with little dread, and no grief, for the +approach of my enemy who has sworn that she will shed my blood! Having +none to love me, and being a stranger in the land of my own nation, I +have nothing to live for! But it is a bitter misery to me to behold in +you the fulfiller of my doom; to be snatched by the hand of Hermanric +from the heritage of life that I have so long struggled to preserve!' + +Her voice had altered, as she pronounced these words, to an impressive +lowness and mournfulness of tone. Its quiet, saddened accents were +expressive of an almost divine resignation and sorrow; they seemed to be +attuned to a mysterious and untraceable harmony with the melancholy +stillness of the night-landscape. As she now stood looking up with +pale, calm countenance, and gentle, tearless eyes, into the sky whose +moonlight brightness shone softly over her form, the Virgin watching the +approach of her angel messenger could hardly have been adorned with a +more pure and simple loveliness, than now dwelt over the features of +Numerian's forsaken child. + +No longer master of his agitation; filled with awe, grief, and despair, +as he looked on the victim of his heartless impatience; Hermanric bowed +himself at the girl's feet, and, in the passionate utterance of real +remorse, offered up his supplications for pardon and his assurances of +protection and love. All that the reader has already learned--the +bitter self-upbraidings of his evening, the sorrowful wanderings of his +night, the mysterious attraction that led him to the solitary house, his +joy at once more discovering his lost charge--all these confessions he +now poured forth in the simple yet powerful eloquence of strong emotion +and true regret. + +Gradually and amazedly, as she listened to his words, Antonina awoke +from her abstraction. Even the expression of his countenance and the +earnestness of his manner, viewed by the intuitive penetration of her +sex, wrought with kind and healing influence on her mind. She started +suddenly, a bright flush flew over her colourless cheeks; she bent down, +and looked earnestly and wistfully into the Goth's face. Her lips +moved, but her quick convulsive breathing stifled the words that she +vainly endeavoured to form. + +'Yes,' continued Hermanric, rising and drawing her towards him again, +'you shall never mourn, never fear, never weep more! Though you have +lost your father, and the people of your nation are as strangers to you, +though you have been threatened and forsaken, you shall still be +beautiful--still be happy; for I will watch you, and you shall never be +harmed; I will labour for you, and you shall never want! People and +kindred--fame and duty, I will abandon them all to make atonement to +you!' + +Its youthful freshness and hope returned to the girl's heart, as water +to the long-parched spring, when the young warrior ceased. The tears +stood in her eyes, but she neither sighed nor spoke. Her frame trembled +all over with the excess of her astonishment and delight, as she still +steadfastly looked on him and still listened intently as he proceeded:-- + + +'Fear, then, no longer for your safety--Goisvintha, whom you dread, is +far from us; she knows not that we are here; she cannot track our +footsteps now, to threaten or to harm you! Remember no more how you +have suffered and I have sinned! Think only how bitterly I have +repented our morning's separation, and how gladly I welcome our meeting +of to-night! Oh, Antonina! you are beautiful with a wondrous +loveliness, you are young with a perfected and unchildlike youth, your +words fall upon my ear with the music of a song of the olden time; it is +like a dream of the spirits that my fathers worshipped, when I look up +and behold you at my side!' + +An expression of mingled confusion, pleasure, and surprise, flushed the +girl's half-averted countenance as she listened to the Goth. She rose +with a smile of ineffable gratitude and delight, and pointed to the +prospect beyond, as she softly rejoined:-- + +'Let us go a little further onward, where the moonlight shines over the +meadow below. My heart is bursting in this shadowy place! Let us seek +the light that is yonder; it seems happy like me!' + +They walked forward; and as they went, she told him again of the sorrows +of her past day; of her lonely and despairing progress from his tent to +the solitary house where he had found her in the night, and where she +had resigned herself from the first to meet a death that had little +horror for her then. There was no thought of reproach, no utterance of +complaint, in this renewal of her melancholy narration. It was solely +that she might luxuriate afresh in those delighting expressions of +repentance and devotion, which she knew that it would call forth from +the lips of Hermanric, that she now thought of addressing him once more +with the tale of her grief. + +As they still went onward; as she listened to the rude fervent eloquence +of the language of the Goth; as she looked on the deep repose of the +landscape, and the soft transparency of the night sky; her mind, ever +elastic under the shock of the most violent emotions, ever ready to +regain its wonted healthfulness and hope--now recovered its old tone, +and re-assumed its accustomed balance. Again her memory began to store +itself with its beloved remembrances, and her heart to rejoice in its +artless longings and visionary thoughts. In spite of all her fears and +all her sufferings, she now walked on blest in a disposition that woe +had no shadow to darken long, and neglect no influence to warp; still as +happy in herself; even yet as forgetful of her past, as hopeful for her +future, as on that first evening when we beheld her in her father's +garden, singing to the music of her lute. + +Insensibly as they proceeded, they had diverged from the road, had +entered a bye-path, and now stood before a gate which led to a small +farm house, surrounded by its gardens and vineyards, and, like the +suburbs that they had quitted, deserted by its inhabitants on the +approach of the Goths. They passed through the gate, and arriving at +the plot of ground in front of the house, paused for a moment to look +around them. + +The meadows had been already stripped of their grass, and the young +trees of their branches by the foragers of the invading army, but here +the destruction of the little property had been stayed. The house with +its neat thatched roof and shutters of variegated wood, the garden with +its small stock of fruit and its carefully tended beds of rare flowers, +designed probably to grace the feast of a nobleman or the statue of a +martyr, had presented no allurements to the rough tastes of Alaric's +soldiery. Not a mark of a footstep appeared on the turf before the +house door; the ivy crept in its wonted luxuriance about the pillars of +the lowly porch; and as Hermanric and Antonina walked towards the fish- +pond at the extremity of the garden, the few water-fowl placed there by +the owners of the cottage, came swimming towards the bank, as if to +welcome in their solitude the appearance of a human form. + + +Far from being melancholy, there was something soothing and attractive +about the loneliness of the deserted farm. Its ravaged outhouses and +plundered meadows, which might have appeared desolate by day, were so +distanced, softened, and obscured, by the atmosphere of night, that they +presented no harsh contrast to the prevailing smoothness and luxuriance +of the landscape around. As Antonina beheld the brightened fields and +the shadowed woods, here mingled, there succeeding each other, stretched +far onward and onward until they joined the distant mountains, that +eloquent voice of nature, whose audience is the human heart, and whose +theme is eternal love, spoke inspiringly to her attentive senses. She +stretched out her arms as she looked with steady and enraptured gaze +upon the bright view before her, as if she longed to see its beauties +resolved into a single and living form--into a spirit human enough to be +addressed, and visible enough to be adored. + +'Beautiful earth!' she murmured softly to herself, 'Thy mountains are +the watch-towers of angels, thy moonlight is the shadow of God!' + +Her eyes filled with bright, happy tears; she turned to Hermanric, who +stood watching her, and continued:-- + +'Have you never thought that light, and air, and the perfume of flowers, +might contain some relics of the beauties of Eden that escaped with Eve, +when she wandered into the lonely world? They glowed and breathed for +her, and she lived and was beautiful in them! They were united to one +another, as the sunbeam is united to the earth that it warms; and could +the sword of the cherubim have sundered them at once? When Eve went +forth, did the closed gates shut back in the empty Paradise, all the +beauty that had clung, and grown, and shone round her? Did no ray of +her native light steal forth after her into the desolateness of the +world? Did no print of her lost flowers remain on the bosom they must +once have pressed? It cannot be! A part of her possessions of Eden +must have been spared to her with a part of her life. She must have +refined the void air of the earth when she entered it, with a breath of +the fragrant breezes, and gleam of the truant sunshine of her lost +Paradise! They must have strengthened and brightened, and must now be +strengthening and brightening with the slow lapse of mortal years, +until, in the time when earth itself will be an Eden, they shall be made +one again with the hidden world of perfection, from which they are yet +separated. So that, even now, as I look forth over the landscape, the +light that I behold has in it a glow of Paradise, and this flower that I +gather a breath of the fragrance that once stole over the senses of my +first mother, Eve!' + +Though she paused here, as if in expectation of an answer, the Goth +preserved an unbroken silence. Neither by nature nor position was he +capable of partaking the wild fancies and aspiring thoughts, drawn by +the influences of the external world from their concealment in +Antonina's heart. + +The mystery of his present situation; his vague remembrance of the +duties he had abandoned; the uncertainty of his future fortunes and +future fate; the presence of the lonely being so inseparably connected +with his past emotions and his existence to come, so strangely +attractive by her sex, her age, her person, her misfortunes, and her +endowments; all contributed to bewilder his faculties. Goisvintha, the +army, the besieged city, the abandoned suburbs, seemed to hem him in +like a circle of shadowy and threatening judgments; and in the midst of +them stood the young denizen of Rome, with her eloquent countenance and +her inspiring words, ready to hurry him, he knew not whither, and able +to influence him, he felt not how. + +Unconsciously interpreting her companion's silence into a wish to change +the scene and the discourse, Antonina, after lingering over the view +from the garden for a moment longer, led the way back towards the +untenanted house. They removed the wooden padlock from the door of the +dwelling, and guided by the brilliant moonlight, entered its principal +apartment. + + +The homely adornments of the little room had remained undisturbed, and +dimly distinguishable though they now were, gave it to the eyes of the +two strangers, the same aspect of humble comfort which had probably once +endeared it to its exiled occupants. As Hermanric seated himself by +Antonina's side on the simple couch which made the principal piece of +furniture in the place, and looked forth from the window over the same +view that they had beheld in the garden, the magic stillness and novelty +of the scene now began to affect his slow perceptions, as they had +already influenced the finer and more sensitive faculties of the +thoughtful girl. New hopes and tranquil ideas arose in his young mind, +and communicated an unusual gentleness to his expression, an unusual +softness to his voice, as he thus addressed his silent companion:-- + +'With such a home as this, with this garden, with that country beyond, +with no warfare, no stern teachers, no enemy to threaten you; with +companions and occupations that you loved--tell me, Antonina, would not +your happiness be complete?' + +As he looked round at the girl to listen to her reply, he saw that her +countenance had changed. Their past expression of deep grief had again +returned to her features. Her eyes were fixed on the short dagger that +hung over the Goth's breast, which seemed to have suddenly aroused in +her a train of melancholy and unwelcome thoughts. When she at length +spoke, it was in a mournful and altered voice, and with a mingled +expression of resignation and despair. + +'You must leave me--we must be parted again,' said she; 'the sight of +your weapons has reminded me of all that until now I had forgotten, of +all that I have left in Rome, of all that you have abandoned before the +city walls. Once I thought we might have escaped together from the +turmoil and the danger around us, but now I know that it is better that +you should depart! Alas! for my hopes and my happiness, I must be left +alone once more!' + +She paused for an instant, struggling to retain her self-possession, and +then continued:-- + +'Yes, you must quit me, and return to your post before the city; for in +the day of assault there will be none to care for my father but you! +Until I know that he is safe, until I can see him once more, and ask him +for pardon, and entreat him for love, I dare not remove from the +perilous precincts of Rome! Return, then, to your duties, and your +companions, and your occupations of martial renown; and do not forget +Numerian when the city is assailed, nor Antonina, who is left to think +on you in the solitary plains!' + +She rose from her place, as if to set the example of departing; but her +strength and resolution both failed her, and she sank down again on the +couch, incapable of making another movement, or uttering another word. + +Strong and conflicting emotions passed over the heart of the Goth. The +language of the girl had quickened the remembrance of his half-forgotten +duties, and strengthened the failing influence of his old predilections +of education and race. Both conscience and inclination now opposed his +disputing her urgent and unselfish request. For a few minutes he +remained in deep reflection; then he rose and looked earnestly from the +window; then back again upon Antonina and the room they occupied. At +length, as if animated by a sudden determination, he again approached +his companion, and thus addressed her:-- + +'It is right that I should return. I will do your bidding, and depart +for the camp (but not till the break of day), while you, Antonina, +remain in concealment and in safety here. None can come hither to +disturb you. The Goths will not revisit the fields they have already +stripped; the husbandman who owns this dwelling is imprisoned in the +beleaguered city; the peasants from the country beyond dare not approach +so near to the invading hosts; and Goisvintha, whom you dread, knows not +even of the existence of such a refuge as this. Here, though lonely, +you will be secure; here you can await my return, when each succeeding +night gives me the opportunity of departing from the camp; and here I +will warn you beforehand, if the city is devoted to an assault. Though +solitary, you will not be abandoned--we shall not be parted one from the +other. Often and often I shall return to look on you, and to listen to +you, and to love you! You will be happier here, even in this lonely +place, than in the former home that you have lost through your father's +wrath!' + + +'Oh! I will willingly remain--I will joyfully await you!' cried the +girl, raising her beaming eyes to Hermanric's face. 'I will never speak +mournfully to you again; I will never remind you more of all that I have +suffered, and all that I have lost! How merciful you were to me, when I +first saw you in your tent--how doubly merciful you are to me here! I +am proud when I look on your stature, and your strength, and your heavy +weapons, and know that you are happy in remaining with me; that you will +succour my father; that you will return from your glittering encampments +to this farm-house, where I am left to await you! Already I have +forgotten all that has happened to me of woe; already I am more joyful +than ever I was in my life before! See, I am no longer weeping in +sorrow! If there are any tears still on my cheeks, they are the tears +of gladness that every one welcomes--tears to sing and rejoice in!' + +She ceased abruptly, as if words failed to give expression to her new +delight. All the gloomy emotions that had oppressed her but a short +time before had now completely vanished; and the young, fresh heart, +superior still to despair and woe, basked as happily again in its native +atmosphere of joy as a bird in the sunlight of morning and spring. + +Then, when after an interval of delay their former tranquility had +returned to them, how softly and lightly the quiet hours of the +remaining night flowed onward to the two watchers in the lonely house! +How gladly the delighted girl disclosed her hidden thoughts, and poured +forth her innocent confessions, to the dweller among other nations and +the child of other impressions than her own! All the various reflections +aroused in her mind by the natural objects she had secretly studied, by +the mighty imagery of her Bible lore, by the gloomy histories of saints' +visions and martyrs' sufferings, which she had learnt and pondered over +by her father's side, were now drawn from their treasured places in her +memory, and addressed to the ear of the Goth. As the child flies to the +nurse with the story of its first toy; as the girl resorts to the sister +with the confession of her first love; as the poet hurries to the friend +with the plan of his first composition; so did Antonina seek the +attention of Hermanric with the first outward revealings enjoyed by her +faculties and the first acknowledgment of her emotions liberated from +her heart. + +The longer the Goth listened to her, the more perfect became the +enchantment of her words, half struggling into poetry, and her voice +half gliding into music. As her low, still, varying tones wound +smoothly into his ear, his thoughts suddenly and intuitively reverted to +her formerly expressed remembrances of her lost lute, inciting him to +ask her, with new interest and animation, of the manner of her +acquisition of that knowledge of song, which she had already assured him +that she possessed. + +'I have learned many odes of many poets,' said she, quickly and +confusedly avoiding the mention of Vetranio, which a direct answer to +Hermanric's question must have produced, 'but I remember none perfectly, +save those whose theme is of spirits and of other worlds, and of the +invisible beauty that we think of but cannot see. Of the few that I +know of these, there is one that I first learned and loved most. I will +sing it, that you may be assured I will not fail to you in my promised +art.' + +She hesitated for a moment. Sorrowful remembrances of the events that +had followed the utterance of the last notes she sang in her father's +garden, swelled within her, and held her speechless. Soon, however, +after a short interval of silence, she recovered her self-possession, +and began to sing, in low tremulous tones, that harmonised well with the +character of the words and the strain of the melody which she had +chosen. + +THE MISSION OF THE TEAR + + +I. + + The skies were its birth-place--the TEAR was the child + Of the dark maiden SORROW, by young JOY beguil'd; + It was born in convulsion; 'twas nurtur'd in woe; + And the world was yet young when it wander'd below. + + +II. + + No angel-bright guardians watch'd over its birth, + Ere yet it was suffer'd to roam upon earth; + No spirits of gladness its soft form caress'd; + SIGHS mourned round its cradle, and hush'd it to rest. + + +III. + + Though JOY might endeavour, with kisses and wiles, + To lure it away to his household of smiles: + From the daylight he lived in it turn'd in affright, + To nestle with SORROW in climates of night. + + +IV. + + When it came upon earth, 'twas to choose a career, + The brightest and best that is left to a TEAR; + To hallow delight, and bestow the relief + Denied by despair to the fulness of grief. + + +V. + + Few repell'd it--some bless'd it--wherever it came; + Whether soft'ning their sorrow, or soothing their shame; + And the joyful themselves, though its name they might fear, + Oft welcom'd the calming approach of the TEAR! + + +VI. + + Years on years have worn onward, as--watch'd from above-- + Speeds that meek spirit yet on its labour of love; + Still the exile of Heav'n, it ne'er shall away, + Every heart has a home for it, roam where it may! + +For the first few minutes after she had concluded the ode, Hermanric was +hardly conscious that she had ceased; and when at length she looked up +at him, her mute petition for approval had an eloquence which would have +been marred to the Goth at that moment, by the utterance of single word. +A rapture, an inspiration, a new life moved within him. The hour and +the scene completed what the magic of the song had begun. His +expression now glowed with a southern warmth; his words assumed a Roman +fervour. Gradually, as they discoursed, the voice of the girl was less +frequently audible. A change was passing over her spirit; from the +teacher, she was now becoming the pupil. + +As she still listened to the Goth, as she felt the birth of new feelings +within her while he spoke, her cheeks glowed, her features lightened up, +her very form seemed to freshen and expand. No intruding thought or +awakening remembrance disturbed her rapt attention. No cold doubt, no +gloomy hesitation, appeared in her companion's words. The one listened, +the other spoke, with the whole heart, the undivided soul. While a +world-wide revolution was concentrating its hurricane forces around +them; while the city of an Empire tottered already to its tremendous +fall; while Goisvintha plotted new revenge; while Ulpius toiled for his +revolution of bloodshed and ruin; while all these dark materials of +public misery and private strife seethed and strengthened around them, +they could as completely forget the stormy outward world, in themselves; +they could think as serenely of tranquil love; the kiss could be given +as passionately and returned as tenderly, as if the lot of their +existence had been cast in the pastoral days of the shepherd poets, and +the future of their duties and enjoyments was securely awaiting them in +a land of eternal peace! + + +CHAPTER 14. THE FAMINE. + +The end of November is approaching. Nearly a month has elapsed since +the occurrence of the events mentioned in the last chapter, yet still +the Gothic lines stretch round the city walls. Rome, that we left +haughty and luxurious even while ruin threatened her at her gates, has +now suffered a terrible and warning change. As we approach her again, +woe, horror, and desolation have already gone forth to shadow her lofty +palaces and to darken her brilliant streets. + + +Over Pomp that spurned it, over Pleasure that defied it, over Plenty +that scared it in its secret rounds, the spectre Hunger has now risen +triumphant at last. Day by day has the city's insufficient allowance of +food been more and more sparingly doled out; higher and higher has risen +the value of the coarsest and simplest provision; the hoarded supplies +that pity and charity have already bestowed to cheer the sinking people +have reached their utmost limits. For the rich, there is still corn in +the city--treasure of food to be bartered for treasure of gold. For the +poor, man's natural nourishment exists no more; the season of famine's +loathsome feasts, the first days of the sacrifice of choice to necessity +have darkly and irretrievably begun. + +It is morning. A sad and noiseless throng is advancing over the cold +flagstones of the great square before the Basilica of St. John Lateran. +The members of the assembly speak in whispers. The weak are tearful--the +strong are gloomy--they all move with slow and languid gait, and hold in +their arms their dogs or other domestic animals. On the outskirts of +the crowd march the enfeebled guards of the city, grasping in their +rough hands rare favourite birds of gaudy plumage and melodious note, +and followed by children and young girls vainly and piteously entreating +that their favourites may be restored. + +This strange procession pauses, at length, before a mighty caldron slung +over a great fire in the middle of the square, round which stand the +city butchers with bare knives, and the trustiest men of the Roman +legions with threatening weapons. A proclamation is then repeated, +commanding the populace who have no money left to purchase food, to +bring up their domestic animals to be boiled together over the public +furnace, for the sake of contributing to the public support. + +The next minute, in pursuance of this edict, the dumb favourites of the +crowd passed from the owner's caressing hand into the butcher's ready +grasp. The faint cries of the animals, starved like their masters, +mingled for a few moments with the sobs and lamentations of the women +and children, to whom the greater part of them belonged. For, in this +the first stage of their calamities, that severity of hunger which +extinguishes pity and estranges grief was unknown to the populace; and +though fast losing spirit, they had not yet sunk to the depths of +ferocious despair which even now were invisibly opening between them. A +thousand pangs were felt, a thousand humble tragedies were acted, in the +brief moments of separation between guardian and charge. The child +snatched its last kiss of the bird that had sung over its bed; the dog +looked its last entreaty for protection from the mistress who had once +never met it without a caress. Then came the short interval of agony +and death, then the steam rose fiercely from the greedy caldron, and +then the people for a time dispersed; the sorrowful to linger near the +confines of the fire, and the hungry to calm their impatience by a visit +to the neighbouring church. + +The marble aisles of the noble basilica held a gloomy congregation. +Three small candles were alone lighted on the high altar. No sweet +voices sang melodious anthems or exulting hymns. The monks, in hoarse +tones and monotonous harmonics, chanted the penitential psalms. Here +and there knelt a figure clothed in mourning robes, and absorbed in +secret prayer; but over the majority of the assembly either blank +despondency or sullen inattention universally prevailed. + +As the last dull notes of the last psalm died away among the lofty +recesses of the church, a procession of pious Christians appeared at the +door and advanced slowly to the altar. It was composed both of men and +women barefooted, clothed in black garments, and with ashes scattered +over their dishevelled hair. Tears flowed from their eyes, and they +beat their breasts as they bowed their foreheads on the marble pavement +of the altar steps. + + +This humble public expression of penitence under the calamity that had +now fallen on the city was, however, confined only to its few really +religious inhabitants, and commanded neither sympathy nor attention from +the heartless and obstinate population of Rome. Some still cherished +the delusive hope of assistance from the court at Ravenna; others +believed that the Goths would ere long impatiently abandon their +protracted blockade, to stretch their ravages over the rich and +unprotected fields of Southern Italy. But the same blind confidence in +the lost terrors of the Roman name, the same fierce and reckless +determination to defy the Goths to the very last, sustained the sinking +courage and suppressed the despondent emotions of the great mass of the +suffering people, from the beggar who prowled for garbage, to the +patrician who sighed over his new and unwelcome nourishment of simple +bread. + +While the penitents who formed the procession above described were yet +engaged in the performance of their unnoticed and unshared duties of +penance and prayer, a priest ascended the great pulpit of the basilica, +to attempt the ungrateful task of preaching patience and piety to the +hungry multitude at his feet. + +He began his sermon by retracing the principal occurrences in Rome since +the beginning of the Gothic blockade. He touched cautiously upon the +first event that stained the annals of the besieged city--the execution +of the widow of the Roman general Stilicho, on the unauthorised +suspicion that she had held treasonable communication with Alaric and +the invading army; he noticed lengthily the promises of assistance +transmitted from Ravenna, after the perpetration of that ill-omened act. +He spoke admiringly of the skill displayed by the government in making +the necessary and immediate reductions in the daily supplies of food; he +lamented the terrible scarcity which followed, too inevitably, those +seasonable reductions. He pronounced an eloquent eulogium on the noble +charity of Laeta, the widow of the Emperor Gratian, who, with her +mother, devoted the store of provisions obtained by their imperial +revenues to succouring, at that important juncture, the starving and +desponding poor: he admitted the new scarcity, consequent on the +dissipation of Laeta's stores; deplored the present necessity of +sacrificing the domestic animals of the citizens; condemned the enormous +prices now demanded for the last remnants of wholesome food that were +garnered up; announced it as the firm persuasion of every one that a few +days more would bring help from Ravenna; and ended his address by +informing his auditory that, as they had suffered so much already, they +could patiently suffer a little more, and that if, after this, they were +so ill-fated as to sink under their calamities, they would feel it a +noble consolation to die in the cause of Catholic and Apostolic Rome, +and would assuredly be canonised as saints and martyrs by the next +generation of the pious in the first interval of fertile and restoring +peace. + +Flowing as was the eloquence of this oration, it yet possessed not the +power of inducing one among those whom it addressed to forget the +sensation of his present suffering, and to fix his attention on the +vision of future advantage, spread before all listeners by the fluent +priest. With the same murmurs of querulous complaint, and the same +expressions of impotent hatred and defiance of the Goths which had +fallen from them as they entered the church, the populace now departed +from it, to receive from the city officers the stinted allowance of +repugnant food, prepared for their hunger from the caldron in the public +square. + +And see, already from other haunts in the neighbouring quarter of Rome +their fellow-citizens press onward at the given signal, to meet them +round the caldron's sides! The languid sentinel, released from duty, +turns his gaze from the sickening prospect of the Gothic camp, and +hastens to share the public meal; the baker starts from sleeping on his +empty counter, the beggar rises from his kennel in the butcher's vacant +out-house, the slave deserts his place by the smouldering kitchen-fire-- +all hurry to swell the numbers of the guests that are bidden to the +wretched feast. Rapidly and confusedly, the congregation in the basilica +pours through its lofty gates; the priests and penitents retire from the +altar's foot, and in the great church, so crowded but a few moments +before, there now only remains the figure of a solitary man. + + +Since the commencement of the service, neither addressed nor observed, +this lonely being has faltered round the circle of the congregation, +gazing long and wistfully over the faces that met his view. Now that +the sermon is ended, and the last lingerer has quitted the church, he +turns from the spot whence he has anxiously watched the different +members of the departing throng, and feebly crouches down on his knees +at the base of a pillar that is near him. His eyes are hollow, and his +cheeks are wan; his thin grey hairs are few and fading on his aged head. +He makes no effort to follow the crowd and partake their sustenance; no +one is left behind to urge, no one returns to lead him to the public +meal. Though weak and old, he is perfectly forsaken in his loneliness, +perfectly unsolaced in his grief; his friends have lost all trace of +him; his enemies have ceased to fear or to hate him now. As he crouches +by the pillar alone, he covers his forehead with his pale, palsied +hands, his dim eyes fill with bitter tears, and such expressions as +these are ever and anon faintly audible in the intervals of his heavy +sighs: 'Day after day! Day after day! And my lost one is not found! +my loved and wronged one is not restored! Antonina! Antonina!' + +Some days after the public distribution of food in the square of St. +John Lateran, Vetranio's favourite freedman might have been observed +pursuing his way homeward, sadly and slowly, to his master's palace. + +It was not without cause that the pace of the intelligent Carrio was +funereal and his expression disconsolate. Even during the short period +that had elapsed since the scene in the basilica already described, the +condition of the city had altered fearfully for the worse. The famine +advanced with giant strides; every succeeding hour endued it with new +vigour, every effort to repel it served but to increase its spreading +and overwhelming influence. One after another the pleasures and +pursuits of the city declined beneath the dismal oppression of the +universal ill, until the public spirit in Rome became moved alike in all +classes by one gloomy inspiration--a despairing defiance of the famine +and the Goths. + +The freedman entered his master's palace neither saluted nor welcomed by +the once obsequious slaves in the outer lodge. Neither harps nor +singing-boys, neither woman's ringing laughter nor man's bacchanalian +glee, now woke the echoes in the lonely halls. The pulse of pleasure +seemed to have throbbed its last in the joyless being of Vetranio's +altered household. + +Hastening his steps as he entered the mansion, Carrio passed into the +chamber where the senator awaited him. + +On two couches, separated by a small table, reclined the lord of the +palace and his pupil and companion at Ravenna, the once sprightly +Camilla. Vetranio's open brow had contracted a clouded and severe +expression, and he neither regarded nor addressed his visitor, who, on +her part, remained as silent and as melancholy as himself. Every trace +of the former characteristics of the gay, elegant voluptuary and the +lively, prattling girl seemed to have completely vanished. On the table +between them stood a large bottle containing Falernian wine, and a vase +filled with a little watery soup, in the middle of which floated a small +dough cake, sparingly sprinkled with common herbs. As for the usual +accompaniments of Vetranio's luxurious privacy, they were nowhere to be +seen. Poems, pictures, trinkets, lutes, all were absent. Even the +'inestimable kitten of the breed most worshipped by the ancient +Egyptians' appeared no more. It had been stolen, cooked, and eaten by a +runaway slave, who had already bartered its ruby collar for a lean +parrot and the unroasted half of the carcase of a dog. + +'I lament to confess it, O estimable patron, but my mission has failed,' +observed Carrio, producing from his cloak several bags of money and +boxes of jewels, which he carefully deposited on the table. 'The +Prefect has himself assisted in searching the public and private +granaries, and has arrived at the conclusion that not a handful of corn +is left in the city. I offered publicly in the market-place five +thousand sestertii for a living cock and hen, but was told that the race +had long since been exterminated, and that, as money would no longer buy +food, money was no longer desired by the poorest beggar in Rome. There +is no more even of the hay I yesterday purchased to be obtained for the +most extravagant bribes. Those still possessing the smallest supplies +of provision guard and hide them with the most jealous care. I have +done nothing but obtain for the consumption of the few slaves who yet +remain faithful in the house this small store of dogs' hides, reserved +from the public distribution of some days since in the square of the +Basilica of St. John.' + + +And the freedman, with an air of mingled triumph and disgust, produced +as he spoke his provision of dirty skins. + +'What supplies have we still left in our possession?' demanded Vetranio, +after drinking a deep draught of the Falernian, and motioning his +servant to place his treasured burden out of sight. + +'I have hidden in a secure receptacle, for I know not how soon hunger +may drive the slaves to disobedience,' rejoined Carrio, 'seven bags of +hay, three baskets stocked with salted horse-flesh, a sweetmeat-box +filled with oats, and another with dried parsley; the rare Indian +singing birds are still preserved inviolate in their aviary; there is a +great store of spices, and some bottles of the Nightingale Sauce yet +remain.' + +'What is the present aspect of the city?' interrupted Vetranio +impatiently. + +'Rome is as gloomy as a subterranean sepulchre,' replied Carrio, with a +shudder. 'The people congregate in speechless and hungry mobs at the +doors of their houses and the corners of the streets, the sentinels at +the ramparts totter on their posts, women and children are sleeping +exhausted on the very pavements of the churches, the theatres are +emptied of actors and audience alike, the baths resound with cries for +food and curses on the Goths, thefts are already committed in the open +and unguarded shops, and the barbarians remain fixed in their +encampments, unapproached by our promised legions from Ravenna, neither +assaulting us in our weakness, nor preparing to raise the blockade! Our +situation grows more and more perilous. I have great hopes in our store +of provisions; but--' + +'Cast your hopes to the court at Ravenna, and your beasts' provender to +the howling mob!' cried Vetranio with sudden energy. 'It is now too +late to yield; if the next few days bring us no assistance, the city +will be a human shambles! And think you that I, who have already lost +in this public suspension of social joys my pleasures, my employments, +and my companions, will wait serenely for the lingering and ignoble +death that must then threaten us all? No, it shall never be said that I +died starving with the herd, like a slave that his master deserts! +Though the plates in my banqueting hall must now be empty, my vases and +wine-cups shall yet sparkle for my guests! There is still wine in the +cellar, and spices and perfumes remain in the larder stores! I will +invite my friends to a last feast; a saturnalia in a city of famine; a +banquet of death, spread by the jovial labours of Silenus and his fauns! +Though the Parcae have woven for me the destiny of a dog, it is the hand +of Bacchus that shall sever the fatal thread!' + +His cheeks were flushed, his eyes sparkled; all the mad energy of his +determination appeared in his face as he spoke. He was no longer the +light, amiable, smooth-tongued trifler, but a moody, reckless, desperate +man, careless of every obligation and pursuit which had hitherto +influenced the easy surface of his patrician life. The startled +Camilla, who had as yet preserved a melancholy silence, ran towards him +with affrighted looks and undissembled tears. Carrio stared in vacant +astonishment on his master's disordered countenance; and, forgetting his +bundle of dogskins, suffered them to drop unheeded on the floor. A +momentary silence followed, which was suddenly interrupted by the abrupt +entrance of a fourth person, pale, trembling and breathless, who was no +other than Vetranio's former visitor, the Prefect Pompeianus. + +'I bid you welcome to my approaching feast of brimming wine-cups and +empty dishes!' cried Vetranio, pouring the sparkling Falernian into his +empty glass. 'The last banquet given in Rome, ere the city is +annihilated, will be mine! The Goths and the famine shall have no part +in my death! Pleasure shall preside at my last moments, as it has +presided at my whole life! I will die like Sardanapalus, with my loves +and my treasures around me, and the last of my guests who remains proof +against our festivity shall set fire to my palace, as the kingly +Assyrian set fire to his!' + + +'This is no season for jesting,' exclaimed the Prefect, staring round +him with bewildered eyes and colourless cheeks. 'Our miseries are but +dawning as yet! In the next street lies the corpse of a woman, and-- +horrible omen!--a coil of serpents is wreathed about her neck! We have +no burial-place to receive her, and the thousands who may die like her, +ere assistance arrives. The city sepulchres outside the walls are in +the hands of the Goths. The people stand round the body in a trance of +horror, for they have now discovered a fatal truth we would fain have +concealed from them--' Here the Prefect paused, looked round affrightedly +on his listeners, and then added in low trembling tones-- + +'The citizens are lying dead from famine in the streets of Rome!' + + +CHAPTER 15. THE CITY AND THE GODS. + +We return once more to the Gothic encampment in the suburbs eastward of +the Pincian Gate, and to Hermanric and the warriors under his command, +who are still posted at that particular position on the great circle of +the blockade. + +The movements of the young chieftain from place to place expressed, in +their variety and rapidity, the restlessness that was agitating his +mind. He glanced back frequently from the warriors around him to the +remote and opposite quarter of the suburbs, occasionally directing his +eyes towards the western horizon, as if anxiously awaiting the approach +of some particular hour of the coming night. Weary at length of pursuing +occupations which evidently irritated rather than soothed his +impatience, he turned abruptly from his companions, and advancing +towards the city, paced slowly backwards and forwards over the waste +ground between the suburbs and the walls of Rome. + +At intervals he still continued to examine the scene around him. A more +dreary prospect than now met his view, whether in earth or sky, can +hardly be conceived. + +The dull sunless day was fast closing, and the portentous heaven gave +promise of a stormy night. Thick, black layers of shapeless cloud hung +over the whole firmament, save at the western point; and here lay a +streak of pale, yellow light, enclosed on all sides by the firm, +ungraduated, irregular edges of the masses of gloomy vapour around it. +A deep silence hung over the whole atmosphere. The wind was voiceless +among the steady trees. The stir and action in the being of nature and +the life of man seemed enthralled, suspended, stifled. The air was +laden with a burdensome heat; and all things on earth, animate and +inanimate, felt the oppression that weighed on them from the higher +elements. The people who lay gasping for breath in the famine-stricken +city, and the blades of grass that drooped languidly on the dry sward +beyond the walls, owned the enfeebling influence alike. + +As the hours wore on and night stealthily and gradually advanced, a +monotonous darkness overspread, one after another, the objects +discernible to Hermanric from the solitary ground he still occupied. +Soon the great city faded into one vast, impenetrable shadow, while the +suburbs and the low country around them vanished in the thick darkness +that gathered almost perceptibly over the earth. And now the sole +object distinctly visible was the figure of a weary sentinel, who stood +on the frowning rampart immediately above the rifted wall, and whose +drooping figure, propped upon his weapon, was indicated in hard relief +against the thin, solitary streak of light still shining in the cold and +cloudy wastes of the western sky. + +But as the night still deepened, this one space of light faded, +contracted, vanished, and with it disappeared the sentinel and the line +of rampart on which he was posted. The rule of the darkness now became +universal. Densely and rapidly it overspread the whole city with +startling suddenness; as if the fearful destiny now working its +fulfilment in Rome had forced the external appearances of the night into +harmony with its own woe-boding nature. + + +Then, as the young Goth still lingered at his post of observation, the +long, low, tremulous, absorbing roll of thunder afar off became grandly +audible. It seemed to proceed from a distance almost incalculable; to +be sounding from its cradle in the frozen north; to be journeying about +its ice-girdled chambers in the lonely poles. It deepened rather than +interrupted the dreary, mysterious stillness of the atmosphere. The +lightning, too, had a summer softness in its noiseless and frequent +gleam. It was not the fierce lightning of winter, but a warm, fitful +brightness, almost fascinating in its light, rapid recurrence, tinged +with the glow of heaven, and not with the glare of hell. + +There was no wind--no rain; and the air was as hushed as if it slept +over chaos in the infancy of a new creation. + +Among the various objects displayed, instant by instant, by the rapid +lightning to the eyes of Hermanric, the most easily and most distinctly +visible was the broad surface of the rifted wall. The large, loose +stones, scattered here and there at its base, and the overhanging lid of +its broad rampart, became plainly though fitfully apparent in the brief +moments of their illumination. The lightning had played for some time +over that structure of the fortifications, and the bare ground that +stretched immediately beyond them, when the smooth prospect which it +thus gave by glimpses to view, was suddenly chequered by a flight of +birds appearing from one of the lower divisions of the wall, and +flitting uneasily to and fro at one spot before its surface. + +As moment after moment the lightning continued to gleam, so the black +forms of the birds were visible to the practised eye of the Goth-- +perceptible, yet evanescent, as sparks of fire or flakes of snow-- +whirling confusedly and continually about the spot whence they had +evidently been startled by some unimaginable interruption. At length, +after a lapse of some time, they vanished as suddenly as they had +appeared, with shrill notes of affright which were audible even above +the continuous rolling of the thunder; and immediately afterwards, when +the lightning alternated with the darkness, there appeared to Hermanric, +in the part of the wall where the birds had been first disturbed, a +small red gleam, like a spark of fire lodged in the surface of the +structure. Then this was lost; a longer obscurity than usual prevailed +in the atmosphere, and when the Goth gazed eagerly through the next +succession of flashes, they showed him the momentary and doubtful +semblance of a human figure, standing erect on the stones at the base of +the wall. + +Hermanric started with astonishment. Again the lightning ceased. In +the ardour of his anxiety to behold more, he strained his eyes with the +vain hope of penetrating the obscurity around him. The darkness seemed +interminable. Once again the lightning flashed brilliantly out. He +looked eagerly towards the wall--the figure was still there. + +His heart throbbed quickly within him, as he stood irresolute on the +spot he had occupied since the first peal of thunder had struck upon his +ear. Were the light and the man--one seen but for an instant, the other +still perceptible--mere phantoms of his erring sight, dazzled by the +quick recurrence of atmospheric changes through which it had acted? Or +did he indubitably behold a human form, and had he really observed a +material light? Some strange treachery, some dangerous mystery might be +engendering in the besieged city, which it would be his duty to observe +and unmask. He drew his sword, and, at the risk of being observed +through the lightning, and heard during the pauses in the thunder, by +the sentinel on the wall, resolutely advanced to the very foot of the +fortifications of hostile Rome. + +He heard no sound, perceived no light, observed no figure, as, after +several unsuccessful attempts to reach the place where they stood, he at +length paused at the loose stones which he knew were heaped at the base +of the wall. The next moment he was so close to it, that he could pass +his sword-point over parts of its rugged surface. He had scarcely +examined thus a space of more than ten yards, before his weapon +encountered a sharp, jagged edge; and a sudden presentiment assured him +instantly that he had found the spot where he had beheld the momentary +light, and that he stood on the same stone which had been occupied by +the figure of the man. + + +After an instant's hesitation, he was about to mount higher on the loose +stones, and examine more closely the irregularity he had just discovered +in the wall, when a vivid flash of lightning, unusually prolonged, +showed him, obstructing at scarcely a yard's distance his onward path, +the figure he had already distantly beheld from the plain behind. + +There was something inexpressibly fearful in his viewless vicinity, +during the next moment of darkness, to this silent, mysterious form, so +imperfectly shown by the lightning that quivered over its half-revealed +proportions. Every pulse in the body of the Goth seemed to pause as he +stood, with ready weapon, looking into the gloomy darkness, and wafting +for the next flash. It came, and displayed to him the man's fierce eyes +glaring steadily down upon his face; another gleam, and he beheld his +haggard finger placed upon his lip in token of silence; a third, and he +saw the arm of the figure pointing towards the plain behind him; and +then in the darkness that followed, a hot breath played upon his ear, +and a voice whispered to him, through a pause in the rolling of the +thunder--'Follow me.' + +The next instant Hermanric felt the momentary contact of the man's body, +as with noiseless steps he passed him on the stones. It was no time to +deliberate or to doubt. He followed close upon the stranger's +footsteps, gaining glimpses of his dark form moving onward before, +whenever the lightning briefly illuminated the scene, until they arrived +at a clump of trees, not far distant from the houses in the suburbs that +were occupied by the Goths under his own command. + +Here the stranger paused before the trunk of a tree which stood between +the city wall and himself, and drew from beneath his ragged cloak a +small lantern, carefully covered with a piece of cloth, which he now +removed, and holding the light high above his head, regarded the Goth +with a steady and anxious scrutiny. + +Hermanric attempted to address him first, but the appearance of the man, +barely visible though it was by the feeble light of his lantern, was so +startling and repulsive, that the half-formed words died away on his +lips. The face of the stranger was of a ghastly paleness; his hollow +cheeks were seamed with deep wrinkles; and his eyes glared with an +expression of ferocious suspicion. One of his arms was covered with old +bandages, stiff with coagulated blood, and hung paralysed at his side. +The hand that held the light trembled, so that the lantern containing it +vibrated continuously in his unsteady grasp. His limbs were lank and +shrivelled almost to deformity, and it was with evident difficulty that +he stood upright on his feet. Every member of his body seemed to be +wasting with a gradual death, while his expression, ardent and +forbidding, was stamped with all the energy of manhood, and all the +daring of youth. + +It was Ulpius! The wall was passed! The breach was made good! + +After a protracted examination of Hermanric's countenance and attire, +the man, with an imperious expression, strangely at variance with his +faltering voice, thus addressed him:-- + +'You are a Goth?' + +'I am,' rejoined the young chief; 'and you are--' + +'A friend of the Goths,' was the quick answer. + +An instant of silence followed. The dialogue was then again begun by +the stranger. + +'What brought you alone to the base of the ramparts?' he demanded, and +an expression of ungovernable apprehension shot from his eyes as he +spoke. + +'I saw the appearance of a man in the gleam of the lightning,' answered +Hermanric. 'I approached it, to assure myself that my eyes had not +deluded me, to discover--' + + +'There is but one man of your nation who shall discover whence I came +and what I would obtain,' interrupted the stranger fiercely; 'that man +is Alaric, your king.' + +Surprise, indignation, and contempt appeared in the features of the +Goth, as he listened to such a declaration from the helpless outcast +before him. The man perceived it, and motioning him to be silent, again +addressed him. + +'Listen!' cried he. 'I have that to reveal to the leader of your forces +which will stir the heart of every man in your encampment, if you are +trusted with the secret after your king has heard it from my lips! Do +you still refuse to guide me to his tent?' + +Hermanric laughed scornfully. + +'Look on me,' pursued the man, bending forward, and fixing his eyes with +savage earnestness upon his listener's face. 'I am alone, old, wounded, +weak,--a stranger to your nation,--a famished and a helpless man! +Should I venture into your camp--should I risk being slain for a Roman +by your comrades--should I dare the wrath of your imperious ruler +without a cause?' + +He paused; and then, still keeping his eyes on the Goth, continued in +lower and more agitated tones-- + +'Deny me your help, I will wander through your camp till I find your +king! Imprison me, your violence will not open my lips! Slay me, you +will gain nothing by my death! But aid me, and to the latest moment of +your life you will rejoice in the deed! I have words of terrible import +for Alaric's ear,--a secret in the gaining of which I have paid the +penalty thus!' + +He pointed to his wounded arm. The solemnity of his voice, the rough +energy of his words, the stern determination of his aspect, the darkness +of the night that was round them, the rolling thunder that seemed to +join itself to their discourse, the impressive mystery of their meeting +under the city walls, all began to exert their powerful and different +influences over the mind of the Goth, changing insensibly the sentiments +at first inspired in him by the man's communications. He hesitated, and +looked round doubtfully towards the lines of the camp. + +There was a long silence, which was again interrupted by the stranger. + +'Guard me, chain me, mock at me if you will,' he cried, with raised +voice and flashing eyes, 'but lead me to Alaric's tent! I swear to you +by the thunder pealing over our heads, that the words I would speak to +him will be more precious in his eyes than the brightest jewel he could +ravish from the coffers of Rome.' + +Though visibly troubled and impressed, Hermanric still hesitated. + +'Do you yet delay?' exclaimed the man, with contemptuous impatience. +'Stand back! I will pass on by myself into the very heart of your camp! +I entered on my project alone--I will work its fulfilment without help! +Stand back!' + +And he moved past Hermanric in the direction of the suburbs, with the +same look of fierce energy on his withered features which had marked +them so strikingly at the outset of his extraordinary interview with the +young chieftain. + + +The daring devotion to his purpose, the reckless toiling after a +dangerous and doubtful success, manifested in the words and actions of +one so feeble and unaided as the stranger, aroused in the Goth that +sentiment of irrepressible admiration which the union of moral and +physical courage inevitably awakens. In addition to the incentive to +aid the man thus created, an ardent curiosity to discover his secret +filled the mind of Hermanric, and further powerfully inclined him to +conduct his determined companion into Alaric's presence--for by such +proceeding only could he hope, after the man's firm declaration that he +would communicate in the first instance to no one but the king, to +penetrate ultimately the object of his mysterious errand. Animated, +therefore, by such motives as these, he called to the stranger to stop, +and briefly communicated to him his willingness to conduct him instantly +to the presence of the leader of the Goths. + +The man intimated by a sign his readiness to accept the offer. His +physical powers were now evidently fast failing, but he still tottered +painfully onward as they moved to the headquarters of the camp, +muttering and gesticulating to himself almost incessantly. Once only +did he address his conductor during their progress; and then with a +startling abruptness of manner, and in tones of vehement anxiety and +suspicion, he demanded of the young Goth if he had ever examined the +surface of the city wall before that night. Hermanric replied in the +negative; and they then proceeded in perfect silence. + +Their way lay through the line of encampment to the westward, and was +imperfectly lighted by the flame of an occasional torch or the glow of a +distant watch-fire. The thunder had diminished in frequency, but had +increased in volume; faint breaths of wind soared up fitfully from the +west, and already a few raindrops fell slowly to the thirsty earth. The +warriors not actually on duty at the different posts of observation had +retired to the shelter of their tents; none of the thousand idlers and +attendants attached to the great army appeared at their usual haunts; +even the few voices that were audible sounded distant and low. The +night-scene here, among the ranks of the invaders of Italy, was as +gloomy and repelling as on the solitary plains before the walls of Rome. + +Ere long the stranger perceived that they had reached a part of the camp +more thickly peopled, more carefully illuminated, more strongly +fortified, than that through which they had already passed; and the +liquid, rushing sound of the waters of the rapid Tiber now caught his +suspicious and attentive ear. They still moved onward a few yards; and +then paused suddenly before a tent, immediately surrounded by many +others, and occupied at all its approaches by groups of richly-armed +warriors. Here Hermanric stopped an instant to parley with the sentinel, +who, after a short delay, raised the outer covering of the entrance to +the tent, and the moment after the Roman adventurer beheld himself +standing by his conductor's side in the presence of the Gothic king. + +The interior of Alaric's tent was lined with skins, and illuminated by +one small lamp, fastened to the centre pole that supported its roof. +The only articles of furniture in the place were some bundles of furs +flung down loosely on the ground, and a large, rudely-carved wooden +chest, on which stood a polished human skull, hollowed into a sort of +clumsy wine-cup. A thoroughly Gothic ruggedness of aspect, a stately +Northern simplicity prevailed over the spacious tent, and was indicated +not merely in its thick shadows, its calm lights, and its freedom from +pomp and glitter, but even in the appearance and employment of its +remarkable occupant. + + +Alaric was seated alone on the wooden chest already described, +contemplating with bent brow and abstracted gaze some old Runic +characters, traced upon the carved surface of a brass and silver shield, +full five feet high, which rested against the side of the tent. The +light of the lamp falling upon the polished surface of the weapon-- +rendered doubly bright by the dark skins behind it--was reflected back +upon the figure of the Goth chief. It glowed upon his ample cuirass; it +revealed his firm lips, slightly curled by an expression of scornful +triumph; it displayed the grand, muscular formation of his arm, which +rested--clothed in tightly-fitting leather--upon his knee; it partly +brightened over his short, light hair, and glittered steadily in his +fixed, thoughtful, manly eyes, which were just perceptible beneath the +partial shadow of his contracted brow; while it left the lower part of +his body and his right hand, which was supported on the head of a huge, +shaggy dog couching at his side, shadowed almost completely by the thick +skins heaped confusedly against the sides of the wooden chest. He was +so completely absorbed in the contemplation of the Runic characters, +traced among the carved figures on his immense shield, that he did not +notice the entry of Hermanric and the stranger until the growl of the +watchful dog suddenly disturbed him in his occupation. He looked up +instantly, his quick, penetrating glance dwelling for a moment on the +young chieftain, and then resting steadily and inquiringly on his +companion's feeble and mutilated form. + +Accustomed to the military brevity and promptitude exacted by his +commander in all communications addressed to him by his inferiors, +Hermanric, without waiting to be interrogated or attempting to preface +or excuse his narrative, shortly related the conversation that had taken +place between the stranger and himself on the plain near the Pincian +Gate; and then waited respectfully to receive the commendation or incur +the rebuke of the king, as the chance of the moment might happen to +decide. + +After again fixing his eyes in severe scrutiny on the person of the +Roman, Alaric spoke to the young warrior in the Gothic language thus:-- + +'Leave the man with me--return to your post, and there await whatever +commands it may be necessary that I should despatch to you to-night.' + +Hermanric immediately departed. Then, addressing the stranger for the +first time, and speaking in the Latin language, the Gothic leader +briefly and significantly intimated to his unknown visitant that they +were now alone. + +The man's parched lips moved, opened, quivered; his wild, hollow eyes +brightened till they absolutely gleamed, but he seemed incapable of +uttering a word; his features became horribly convulsed, the foam +gathered about his lips, he staggered forward and would have fallen to +the ground, had not the king instantly caught him in his strong grasp, +and placed him on the wooden chest that he had hitherto occupied +himself. + +'Can a starving Roman have escaped from the beleaguered city?' muttered +Alaric, as he took the skull cup, and poured some of the wine it +contained down the stranger's throat. + +The liquor was immediately successful in restoring composure to the +man's features and consciousness to his mind. He raised himself from +the seat, dashed off the cold perspiration that overspread his forehead, +and stood upright before the king--the solitary, powerless old man +before the vigorous lord of thousands, in the midst of his warriors-- +without a tremor in his steady eye or a prayer for protection on his +haughty lip. + +'I, a Roman,' he began, 'come from Rome, against which the invader wars +with the weapon of famine, to deliver the city, her people, her palaces, +and her treasures into the hands of Alaric the Goth.' + +The king started, looked on the speaker for a moment, and then turned +from him in impatience and contempt. + +'I lie not,' pursued the enthusiast, with a calm dignity that affected +even the hardy sensibilities of the Gothic hero. 'Eye me again! Could +I come starved, shrivelled, withered thus from any place but Rome? +Since I quitted the city an hour has hardly passed, and by the way that +I left it the forces of the Goths may enter it to-night.' + +'The proof of the harvest is in the quantity of the grain, not in the +tongue of the husbandman. Show me your open gates, and I will believe +that you have spoken truth,' retorted the king, with a rough laugh. + +'I betray the city,' resumed the man sternly, 'but on one condition; +grant it me, and--' + +'I will grant you your life,' interrupted Alaric haughtily. + + +'My life!' cried the Roman, and his shrunken form seemed to expand, and +his tremulous voice to grow firm and steady in the very bitterness of +his contempt, as he spoke. 'My life! I ask it not of your power! The +wreck of my body is scarce strong enough to preserve it to me a single +day! I have no home, no loves, no friends, no possessions! I live in +Rome a solitary in the midst of the multitude, a pagan in a city of +apostates! What is my life to me? I cherish it but for the service of +the gods, whose instruments of vengeance against the nation that has +denied them I would make you and your hosts! If you slay me, it is a +sign to me from them that I am worthless in their cause. I shall die +content.' + +He ceased. The king's manner, as he listened to him, gradually lost the +bluntness and carelessness that had hitherto characterised it, and +assumed an attention and a seriousness more in accordance with his high +station and important responsibilities. He began to regard the stranger +as no common renegade, no ordinary spy, no shallow impostor, who might +be driven from his tent with disdain; but as a man important enough to +be heard, and ambitious enough to be distrusted. Accordingly, he +resumed the seat from which he had risen during the interview, and +calmly desired his new ally to explain the condition, on the granting of +which depended the promised betrayal of the city of Rome. + +The pain-worn and despondent features of Ulpius became animated by a +glow of triumph as he heard the sudden mildness and moderation of the +king's demand; he raised his head proudly, and advanced a few steps, as +he thus loudly and abruptly resumed:-- + +'Assure to me the overthrow of the Christian churches, the extermination +of the Christian priests, and the universal revival of the worship of +the gods, and this night shall make you master of the chief city of the +empire you are labouring to subvert!' + +The boldness, the comprehensiveness, the insanity of wickedness +displayed in such a proposition, and emanating from such a source, so +astounded the mind of Alaric, as to deprive him for the moment of +speech. The stranger, perceiving his temporary inability to answer him, +broke the silence which ensued and continued-- + +'Is my condition a hard one? A conqueror is all-powerful; he can +overthrow the worship, as he can overthrow the government of a nation. +What matters it to you, while empire, renown, and treasure are yours, +what deities the people adore? Is it a great price to pay for an easy +conquest, to make a change which threatens neither your power, your +fame, nor your wealth? Do you marvel that I desire from you such a +revolution as this? I was born for the gods, in their service I +inherited rank and renown, for their cause I have suffered degradation +and woe, for their restoration I will plot, combat, die! Assure me then +by oath, that with a new rule you will erect our ancient worship, and +through my secret inlet to the city I will introduce men enough of the +Goths to murder with security the sentinels at the guard-houses, and +open the gates of Rome to the numbers of your whole invading forces. +Think not to despise the aid of a man unprotected and unknown! The +citizens will never yield to your blockade; you shrink from risking the +dangers of an assault; the legions of Ravenna are reported on their way +hitherward. Outcast as I am, I tell it to you here, in the midst of +your camp--your speediest assurance of success rests on my discovery and +on me!' + +The king started suddenly from his seat. 'What fool or madman!' he +cried, fixing his eyes in furious scorn and indignation on the +stranger's face, 'prates to me about the legions of Ravenna and the +dangers of an assault! Think you, renegade, that your city could have +resisted me had I chosen to storm it on the first day when I encamped +before its walls? Know you that your effeminate soldiery have laid +aside the armour of their ancestors, because their puny bodies are too +feeble to bear its weight, and that the half of my army here trebles the +whole number of the guards of Rome? Now, while you stand before me, I +have but to command, and the city shall be annihilated with fire and +sword, without the aid of one of the herd of traitors cowering beneath +the shelter of its ill-defended walls!' + + +As Alaric spoke thus, some invisible agency seemed to crush, body and +mind, the lost wretch whom he addressed. The shock of such an answer as +he now heard seemed to strike him idiotic, as a flash of lightning +strikes with blindness. He regarded the king with a bewildered stare, +waving his hand tremulously backwards and forwards before his face, as +if to clear some imaginary darkness off his eyes; then his arm fell +helpless by his side, his head drooped upon his breast, and he moaned +out in low, vacant tones, 'The restoration of the gods--that is the +condition of conquest--the restoration of the gods!' + +'I come not hither to be the tool of a frantic and forgotten +priesthood,' cried Alaric disdainfully. 'Wherever I meet with your +accursed idols I will melt them down into armour for my warriors and +shoes for my horses; I will turn your temples into granaries and cut +your images of wood into billets for the watchfires of my hosts!' + +'Slay me and be silent!' groaned the man, staggering back against the +side of the tent, and shrinking under the merciless words of the Goth +like a slave under the lash. + +'I leave the shedding of such blood as yours to your fellow Romans,' +answered the king; 'they alone are worthy of the deed.' + +No syllable of reply now escaped the stranger's lips, and after an +interval of silence Alaric resumed, in tones divested of their former +fiery irritation, and marked by a solemn earnestness that conferred +irresistible dignity and force on every word that he uttered. + +'Behold the characters engraven there!' said he, pointing to the shield; +'they trace the curse denounced by Odin against the great oppressor, +Rome! Once these words made part of the worship of our fathers; the +worship has long since vanished, but the words remain; they seal the +eternal hatred of the people of the North to the people of the South; +they contain the spirit of the great destiny that has brought me to the +walls of Rome. Citizen of a fallen empire, the measure of your crimes +is full! The voice of a new nation calls through me for the freedom of +the earth, which was made for man, and not for Romans! The rule that +your ancestors won by strength their posterity shall no longer keep by +fraud. For two hundred years, hollow and unlasting truces have +alternated with long and bloody wars between your people and mine. +Remembering this, remembering the wrongs of the Goths in their +settlements in Thrace, the murder of the Gothic youths in the towns of +Asia, the massacre of the Gothic hostages in Aquileia, I come--chosen by +the supernatural decrees of Heaven--to assure the freedom and satisfy +the wrath of my nation, by humbling at its feet the power of tyrannic +Rome! It is not for battle and bloodshed that I am encamped before +yonder walls. It is to crush to the earth, by famine and woe, the pride +of your people and the spirit of your rulers; to tear from you your +hidden wealth, and to strip you of your boasted honour; to overthrow by +oppression the oppressors of the world; to deny you the glories of a +resistance, and to impose on you the shame of a submission. It is for +this that I now abstain from storming your city, to encircle it with an +immovable blockade!' + +As the declaration of his great mission burst thus from the lips of the +Gothic king, the spirit of his lofty ambition seemed to diffuse itself +over his outward form. His noble stature, his fine proportions, his +commanding features, became invested with a simple, primeval grandeur. +Contrasted as he now was with the shrunken figure of the spirit-broken +stranger, he looked almost sublime. + + +A succession of protracted shuddering ran through the Pagan's frame, but +he neither wept nor spoke. The unavailing defence of the Temple of +Serapis, the defeated revolution at Alexandria, and the abortive +intrigue with Vetranio, were now rising on his memory, to heighten the +horror of his present and worst overthrow. Every circumstance connected +with his desperate passage through the rifted wall revived, fearfully +vivid, on his mind. He remembered all the emotions of his first night's +labour in the darkness, all the miseries of his second night's torture +under the fallen brickwork, all the woe, danger, and despondency that +accompanied his subsequent toil--persevered in under the obstructions of +a famine-weakened body and a helpless arm--until he passed, in delusive +triumph, the last of the hindrances in the long-laboured breach. One +after another these banished recollections returned to his memory as he +listened to Alaric's rebuking words--reviving past infirmities, opening +old wounds, inflicting new lacerations. But, saving the shudderings +that still shook his body, no outward witness betrayed the inward +torment that assailed him. It was too strong for human words, too +terrible for human sympathy;--he suffered it in brute silence. +Monstrous as was his plot, the moral punishment of its attempted +consummation was severe enough to be worthy of the projected crime. + +After watching the man for a few minutes more, with a glance of pitiless +disdain, Alaric summoned one of the warriors in attendance; and, having +previously commanded him to pass the word to the sentinels, authorising +the stranger's free passage through the encampment, he then turned, and, +for the last time, addressed him as follows:-- + +'Return to Rome, through the hole whence, reptile-like, you emerged!-- +and feed your starving citizens with the words you have heard in the +barbarian's tent!' + +The guard approached, led him from the presence of the king, issued the +necessary directions to the sentinels, and left him to himself. Once he +raised his eyes in despairing appeal to the heaven that frowned over his +head; but still, no word, or tear, or groan, escaped him. He moved +slowly on through the thick darkness; and turning his back on the city, +passed, careless whither he strayed, into the streets of the desolate +and dispeopled suburbs. + + +CHAPTER 16. LOVE MEETINGS. + +Who that has looked on a threatening and tempestuous sky, has not felt +the pleasure of discovering unexpectedly a small spot of serene blue, +still shining among the stormy clouds? The more unwillingly the eye has +wandered over the gloomy expanse of the rest of the firmament, the more +gladly does it finally rest on the little oasis of light which meets at +length its weary gaze, and which, when it was dispersed over the whole +heaven, was perhaps only briefly regarded with a careless glance. +Contrasted with the dark and mournful hues around it, even that small +spot of blue gradually acquires the power of investing the wider and +sadder prospect with a certain interest and animation that it did not +before possess--until the mind recognises in the surrounding atmosphere +of storm an object adding variety to the view--a spectacle whose +mournfulness may interest as well as repel. + +Was it with sensations resembling these (applied, however, rather to the +mind than to the eye) that the reader perused those pages devoted to +Hermanric and Antonina? Does the happiness there described now appear +to him to beam through the stormy progress of the narrative as the spot +of blue beams through the gathering clouds? Did that small prospect of +brightness present itself, at the time, like a garden of repose amid the +waste of fierce emotions which encompassed it? Did it encourage him, +when contrasted with what had gone before, to enter on the field of +gloomier interest which was to follow? If, indeed, it has thus affected +him, if he can still remember the scene at the farm-house beyond the +suburbs with emotions such as these, he will not now be unwilling to +turn again for a moment from the gathering clouds to the spot of blue,-- +he will not deny us an instant's digression from Ulpius and the city of +famine to Antonina and the lonely plains. + +During the period that has elapsed since we left her, Antonina has +remained secure in her solitude, happy in her well-chosen concealment. +The few straggling Goths who at rare intervals appeared in the +neighbourhood of her sanctuary never intruded on its peaceful limits. +The sight of the ravaged fields and emptied granaries of the deserted +little property sufficed invariably to turn their marauding steps in +other directions. Day by day ran smoothly and swiftly onwards for the +gentle usurper of the abandoned farm-house. In the narrow round of its +gardens and protecting woods was comprised for her the whole circle of +the pleasures and occupations of her new life. + + +The simple stores left in the house, the fruits and vegetables to be +gathered in the garden, sufficed amply for her support. The pastoral +solitude of the place had in it a quiet, dreamy fascination, a novelty, +an unwearying charm, after the austere loneliness to which her former +existence had been subjected in Rome. And when evening came, and the +sun began to burnish the tops of the western tress, then, after the calm +emotions of the solitary day, came the hour of absorbing cares and happy +expectations--ever the same, yet ever delighting and ever new. Then the +rude shutters were carefully closed; the open door was shut and barred; +the small light--now invisible to the world without--was joyfully +kindled; and then, the mistress and author of these preparations +resigned herself to await, with pleased anxiety, the approach of the +guest for whose welcome they were designed. + +And never did she expect the arrival of that treasured companion in +vain. Hermanric remembered his promise to repair constantly to the +farm-house, and performed it with all the constancy of love and all the +enthusiasm of youth. When the sentinels under his command were arranged +in their order of watching for the night, and the trust reposed in him +by his superiors exempted his actions from superintendence during the +hours of darkness that followed, he left the camp, passed through the +desolate suburbs, and gained the dwelling where the young Roman awaited +him--returning before daybreak to receive the communications regularly +addressed to him, at that hour, by his inferior in the command. + +Thus, false to his nation, yet true to the new Egeria of his thoughts +and actions--traitor to the requirements of vengeance and war, yet +faithful to the interests of tranquility and love--did he seek, night +after night, Antonina's presence. His passion, though it denied him to +his warrior duties, wrought not deteriorating change in his disposition. +All that it altered in him it altered nobly. It varied and exalted his +rude emotions, for it was inspired, not alone by the beauty and youth +that he saw, but by the pure thoughts, the artless eloquence that he +heard. And she--the forsaken daughter, the source whence the Northern +warrior derived those new and higher sensations that had never animated +him until now--regarded her protector, her first friend and companion, +as her first love, with a devotion which, in its mingled and exalted +nature, may be imagined by the mind, but can be but imperfectly depicted +by the pen. It was a devotion created of innocence and gratitude, of +joy and sorrow, of apprehension and hope. It was too fresh, too +unworldly to own any upbraidings of artificial shame, any self- +reproaches of artificial propriety. It resembled in its essence, though +not in its application, the devotion of the first daughters of the Fall +to their brother-lords. + +But it is now time that we return to the course of our narrative; +although, ere we again enter on the stirring and rapid present, it will +be necessary for a moment more to look back in another direction to the +eventful past. + +But it is not on peace, beauty, and pleasure that our observation now +fixes itself. It is to anger, disease, and crime--to the unappeasable +and unwomanly Goisvintha, that we now revert. + +Since the day when the violence of her conflicting emotions had deprived +her of consciousness, at the moment of her decisive triumph over the +scruples of Hermanric and the destiny of Antonina, a raging fever had +visited on her some part of those bitter sufferings that she would fain +have inflicted on others. Part of the time she lay in a raving +delirium; part of the time in helpless exhaustion; but she never forgot, +whatever the form assumed by her disease, the desperate purpose in the +pursuit of which she had first incurred it. Slowly and doubtfully her +vigour at length returned to her, and with it strengthened and increased +the fierce ambition of vengeance that absorbed her lightest thoughts and +governed her most careless actions. + + +Report informed her of the new position, on the line of blockade, on +which Hermanric was posted, and only enumerated as the companions of his +sojourn the warriors sent thither under his command. But, though thus +persuaded of the separation of Antonina and the Goth, her ignorance of +the girl's fate rankled unintermittingly in her savage heart. Doubtful +whether she had permanently reclaimed Hermanric to the interests of +vengeance and bloodshed; vaguely suspecting that he might have informed +himself in her absence of Antonina's place of refuge or direction of +flight; still resolutely bent on securing the death of her victim, +wherever she might have strayed, she awaited with trembling eagerness +that day of restoration to available activity and strength which would +enable her to resume her influence over the Goth, and her machinations +against the safety of the fugitive girl. The time of her final and long- +expected recovery, was the very day preceding the stormy night we have +already described, and her first employment of her renewed energy was to +send word to the young Goth of her intention of seeking him at his +encampment ere the evening closed. + +It was this intimation which caused the inquietude mentioned as +characteristic of the manner of Hermanric at the commencement of the +preceding chapter. The evening there described was the first that saw +him deprived, through the threatened visit of Goisvintha, of the +anticipation of repairing to Antonina, as had been his wont, under cover +of the night; for to slight his kinswoman's ominous message was to risk +the most fatal of discoveries. Trusting to the delusive security of her +sickness, he had hitherto banished the unwelcome remembrance of her +existence from his thoughts. But, now that she was once more capable of +exertion and of crime, he felt that if he would preserve the secret of +Antonina's hiding-place and the security of Antonina's life, he must +remain to oppose force to force and stratagem to stratagem, when +Goisvintha sought him at his post, even at the risk of inflicting, by +his absence from the farm-house, all the pangs of anxiety and +apprehension on the lonely girl. + +Absorbed in such reflections as these, longing to depart, yet determined +to remain, he impatiently awaited Goisvintha's approach, until the +rising of the storm with its mysterious and all-engrossing train of +events forced his thoughts and actions into a new channel. When, +however, his interviews with the stranger and the Gothic king were past, +and he had returned as he had been bidden to his appointed sojourn in +the camp, his old anxieties, displaced but not destroyed, resumed their +influence over him. He demanded eagerly of his comrades if Goisvintha +had arrived in his absence, and received the same answer in the negative +from each. + +As he now listened to the melancholy rising of the wind and the +increasing loudness of the thunder, to the shrill cries of the distant +night-birds hurrying to shelter, emotions of mournfulness and awe +possessed themselves of his heart. He now wondered that any events, +however startling, however appalling, should have had the power to turn +his mind for a moment from the dreary contemplations that had engaged it +at the close of day. He thought of Antonina, solitary and helpless, +listening to the tempest in affright, and watching vainly for his long- +delayed approach. His fancy arrayed before him dangers, plots, and +crimes, robed in all the horrible exaggerations of a dream. Even the +quick, monotonous dripping of the rain-drops outside aroused within him +dark and indefinable forebodings of ill. The passion that had hitherto +created for him new pleasures was now fulfilling the other half of its +earthly mission, and causing him new pains. + +As the storm strengthened, as the darkness lowered deeper and deeper, so +did his inquietude increase, until at length it mastered the last feeble +resistance of his wavering firmness. Persuading himself that, after +having delayed so long, Goisvintha would now refrain from seeking him +until the morrow, and that all communications from Alaric, had they been +despatched, would have reached him ere this; unable any longer to combat +his anxiety for the safety of Antonina; determined to risk the worst +possibilities rather than be absent at such a time of tempest and peril +from the farm-house, he made a last visit to the stations of the +watchful sentinels, and quitted the camp for the night. + + +CHAPTER 17. THE HUNS. + +More than an hour after Hermanric had left the encampment, a man +hurriedly entered the house set apart for the young chieftain's +occupation. He made no attempt to kindle either light or fire, but sat +down in the principal apartment, occasionally whispering to himself in a +strange and barbarous tongue. + + +He had remained but a short time in possession of his comfortless +solitude, when he was intruded on by a camp-follower, bearing a small +lamp, and followed closely by a woman, who, as he started up and +confronted her, announced herself as Hermanric's kinswoman, and eagerly +demanded an interview with the Goth. + +Haggard and ghastly though it was from recent suffering and long +agitation, the countenance of Goisvintha (for it was she) appeared +absolutely attractive as it was now opposed by the lamp-light to the +face and figure of the individual she addressed. A flat nose, a swarthy +complexion, long, coarse, tangled locks of deep black hair, a beardless, +retreating chin, and small, savage, sunken eyes, gave a character almost +bestial to this man's physiognomy. His broad, brawny shoulders overhung +a form that was as low in stature as it was athletic in build; you +looked on him and saw the sinews of a giant strung in the body of a +dwarf. And yet this deformed Hercules was no solitary error of Nature-- +no extraordinary exception to his fellow-beings, but the actual type of +a whole race, stunted and repulsive as himself. He was a Hun. + +This savage people, the terror even of their barbarous neighbours, +living without government, laws, or religion, possessed but one feeling +in common with the human race--the instinct of war. Their historical +career may be said to have begun with their early conquests in China, +and to have proceeded in their first victories over the Goths, who +regarded them as demons, and fled at their approach. The hostilities +thus commenced between the two nations were at length suspended by the +temporary alliance of the conquered people with the empire, and +subsequently ceased in the gradual fusion of the interests of each in +one animating spirit--detestation of Rome. + +By this bond of brotherhood, the Goths and the Huns became publicly +united, though still privately at enmity--for the one nation remembered +its former defeats as vividly as the other remembered its former +victories. With various disasters, dissensions, and successes, they ran +their career of battle and rapine, sometimes separate, sometimes +together, until the period of our romance, when Alaric's besieging +forces numbered among the ranks of their barbarian auxiliaries a body of +Huns, who, unwillingly admitted to the title of Gothic allies, were +dispersed about the army in subordinate stations, and of whom the +individual above described was one of those contemptuously favoured by +promotion to an inferior command, under Hermanric, as a Gothic chief. + +An expression of aversion, but not of terror, passed over Goisvintha's +worn features as she approached the barbarian, and repeated her desire +to be conducted to Hermanric's presence. For the second time, however, +the man gave her no answer. He burst into a shrill, short laugh, and +shook his huge shoulders in clumsy derision. + +The woman's cheek reddened for an instant, and then turned again to +livid paleness as she thus resumed-- + +'I came not hither to be mocked by a barbarian, but to be welcomed by a +Goth! Again I ask you, where is my kinsman, Hermanric?' + +'Gone!' cried the Hun. And his laughter grew more wild and discordant +as he spoke. + +A sudden tremor ran through Goisvintha's frame as she marked the manner +of the barbarian and heard his reply. Repressing with difficulty her +anger and agitation, she continued, with apprehension in her eyes and +entreaty in her tones-- + +'Whither has he gone? Wherefore has he departed? I know that the hour +I appointed for our meeting here has long passed; but I have suffered a +sickness of many weeks, and when, at evening, I prepared to set forth, +my banished infirmities seemed suddenly to return to me again. I was +borne to my bed. But, though the woman who succoured me bid me remain +and repose, I found strength in the night to escape them, and through +storm and darkness to come hither alone--for I was determined, though I +should perish for it, to seek the presence of Hermanric, as I had +promised by my messengers. You, that are the companion of his watch, +must know whither he is gone. Go to him, and tell him what I have +spoken. I will await his return!' + + +'His business is secret,' sneered the Hun. 'He has departed, but +without telling me whither. How should I, that am a barbarian, know the +whereabouts of an illustrious Goth? It is not for me to know his +actions, but to obey his words!' + +'Jeer not about your obedience,' returned Goisvintha with breathless +eagerness. 'I say to you again, you know whither he is gone, and you +must tell me for what he has departed. You obey him--there is money to +make you obey me!' + +'When I said his business was secret, I lied not,' said the Hun, picking +up with avidity the coins she flung to him--'but he has not kept it +secret from me! The Huns are cunning! Aha, ugly and cunning!' + +Suspicion, the only refined emotion in a criminal heart, half discovered +to Goisvintha, at this moment, the intelligence that was yet to be +communicated. No word, however, escaped her, while she signed the +barbarian to proceed. + +'He has gone to a farm-house on the plains beyond the suburbs behind us. +He will not return till daybreak,' continued the Hun, tossing his money +carelessly in his great, horny hands. + +'Did you see him go?' gasped the woman. + +'I tracked him to the house,' returned the barbarian. 'For many nights +I watched and suspected him--to-night I saw him depart. It is but a +short time since I returned from following him. The darkness did not +delude me; the place is on the high-road from the suburbs--the first by- +path to the westward leads to its garden gate. I know it! I have +discovered his secret! I am more cunning than he!' + +'For what did he seek the farm-house at night?' demanded Goisvintha +after an interval, during which she appeared to be silently fixing the +man's last speech in her memory; 'are you cunning enough to tell me +that?' + +'For what do men venture their safety and their lives, their money and +their renown?' laughed the barbarian. 'They venture them for women! +There is a girl at the farm-house; I saw her at the door when the chief +went in!' + +He paused; but Goisvintha made no answer. Remembering that she was +descended from a race of women who slew their wounded husbands, +brothers, and sons with their own hands when they sought them after +battle dishonoured by a defeat; remembering that the fire of the old +ferocity of such ancestors as these still burnt at her heart; +remembering all that she had hoped from Hermanric, and had plotted +against Antonina; estimating in all its importance the shock of the +intelligence she now received, we are alike unwilling and unable to +describe her emotions at this moment. For some time the stillness in +the room was interrupted by no sounds but the rolling of the thunder +without, the quick, convulsive respiration of Goisvintha, and the +clinking of the money which the Hun still continued to toss mechanically +from hand to hand. + +'I shall reap good harvest of gold and silver after to-night's work,' +pursued the barbarian, suddenly breaking the silence. 'You have given +me money to speak--when the chief returns and hears that I have +discovered him, he will give me money to be silent. I shall drink to- +morrow with the best men in the army, Hun though I am!' + +He returned to his seat as he ceased, and began beating in monotonous +measure, with one of his pieces of money on the blade of his sword, some +chorus of a favourite drinking song; while Goisvintha, standing pale and +breathless near the door of the chamber, looked down on him with fixed, +vacant eyes. At length a deep sigh broke from her; her hands +involuntarily clenched themselves at her side; her lips moved with a +bitter smile; then, without addressing another word to the Hun, she +turned, and softly and stealthily quitted the room. + + +The instant she was gone, a sudden change arose in the barbarian's +manner. He started from his seat, a scowl of savage hatred and triumph +appeared on his shaggy brows, and he paced to and fro through the +chamber like a wild beast in his cage. 'I shall tear him from the +pinnacle of his power at last!' he whispered fiercely to himself. 'For +what I have told her this night, his kinswoman will hate him--I knew it +while she spoke! For his desertion of his post, Alaric may dishonour +him, may banish him, may hang him! His fate is at my mercy; I shall rid +myself nobly of him and his command! More than all the rest of his +nation I loathe this Goth! I will be by when they drag him to the tree, +and taunt him with his shame, as he has taunted me with my deformity.' +Here he paused to laugh in complacent approval of his project, +quickening his steps and hugging himself joyfully in the barbarous +exhilaration of his triumph. + +His secret meditations had thus occupied him for some time longer, when +the sound of a footstep was audible outside the door. He recognised it +instantly, and called softly to the person without to approach. At the +signal of his voice a man entered--less athletic in build, but in +deformity the very counterpart of himself. The following discourse was +then immediately held between the two Huns, the new-comer beginning it +thus:-- + +'Have you tracked him to the door?' + +'To the very threshold.' + +'Then his downfall is assured! I have seen Alaric.' + +'We shall trample him under our feet!--this boy, who has been set over +us that are his elders, because he is a Goth and we are Huns! But what +of Alaric? How did you gain his ear?' + +'The Goths round his tent scoffed at me as a savage, and swore that I +was begotten between a demon and a witch. But I remembered the time +when these boasters fled from their settlements; when our tribes mounted +their black steeds and hunted them like beasts! Aha, their very lips +were pale with fear in those days.' + +'Speak of Alaric--our time is short,' interrupted the other fiercely. + +'I answered not a word to their taunts,' resumed his companion, 'but I +called out loudly that I was a Gothic ally, that I brought messages to +Alaric, and that I had the privilege of audience like the rest. My voice +reached the ears of the king: he looked forth from his tent, and +beckoned me in. I saw his hatred of my nation lowering in his eye as we +looked on one another, but I spoke with submission and in a soft voice. +I told him how his chieftain whom he had set over us secretly deserted +his post; I told him how we had seen his favoured warrior for many +nights journeying towards the suburbs; how on this night, as on others +before, he had stolen from the encampment, and how you had gone forth to +track him to his lurking-place.' + +'Was the tyrant angered?' + +'His cheeks reddened, and his eyes flashed, and his fingers trembled +round the hilt of his sword while I spoke! When I ceased he answered me +that I lied. He cursed me for an infidel Hun who had slandered a +Christian chieftain. He threatened me with hanging! I cried to him to +send messengers to our quarters to prove the truth ere he slew me. He +commanded a warrior to return hither with me. When we arrived, the most +Christian chieftain was nowhere to be beheld--none knew whither he had +gone! We turned back again to the tent of the king; his warrior, whom +he honoured, spoke the same words to him as the Hun whom he despised. +Then the wrath of Alaric rose. "This very night," he cried, "did I with +my own lips direct him to await my commands with vigilance at his +appointed post! I would visit such disobedience with punishment on my +own son! Go, take with you others of your troop--your comrade who has +tracked him will guide you to his hiding-place--bring him prisoner into +my tent!" Such were his words! Our companions wait us without--lest he +should escape let us depart without delay.' + + +'And if he should resist us,' cried the other, leading the way eagerly +towards the door; 'what said the king if he should resist us?' + +'Slay him with your own hands.' + + +CHAPTER 18. THE FARM-HOUSE. + +As the night still advanced, so did the storm increase. On the plains +in the open country its violence was most apparent. Here no living +voices jarred with the dreary music of the elements; no flaming torches +opposed the murky darkness or imitated the glaring lightning. The +thunder pursued uninterruptedly its tempest symphony, and the fierce +wind joined it, swelling into wild harmony when it rushed through the +trees, as if in their waving branches it struck the chords of a mighty +harp. + +In the small chamber of the farm-house sat together Hermanric and +Antonina, listening in speechless attention to the increasing tumult of +the storm. + +The room and its occupants were imperfectly illuminated by the flame of +a smouldering wood fire. The little earthenware lamp hung from its usual +place in the ceiling, but its oil was exhausted and its light was +extinct. An alabaster vase of fruit lay broken by the side of the +table, from which it had fallen unnoticed to the floor. No other +articles of ornament appeared in the apartment. Hermanric's downcast +eyes and melancholy, unchanging expressions betrayed the gloomy +abstraction in which he was absorbed. With one hand clasped in his, and +the other resting with her head on his shoulder, Antonina listened +attentively to the alternate rising and falling of the wind. Her beauty +had grown fresher and more woman-like during her sojourn at the farm- +house. Cheerfulness and hope seemed to have gained at length all the +share in her being assigned to them by nature at her birth. Even at +this moment of tempest and darkness there was more of wonder and awe +than of agitation and affright in her expression, as she sat hearkening, +with flushed cheek and brightened eye, to the progress of the nocturnal +storm. + +Thus engrossed by their thoughts, Hermanric and Antonina remained silent +in their little retreat, until the reveries of both were suddenly +interrupted by the snapping asunder of the bar of wood which secured the +door of the room, the stress of which, as it bent under the repeated +shocks of the wind, the rotten spar was too weak to sustain any longer. +There was something inexpressibly desolate in the flood of rain, wind, +and darkness that seemed instantly to pour into the chamber through the +open door, as it flew back violently on its frail hinges. Antonina +changed colour, and shuddered involuntarily, as Hermanric hastily rose +and closed the door again, by detaching its rude latch from the sling +which held it when not wanted for use. He looked round the room as he +did so for some substitute for the broken bar, but nothing that was fit +for the purpose immediately met his eye, and he muttered to himself as +he returned impatiently to his seat: 'While we are here to watch it the +latch is enough; it is new and strong.' + +He seemed on the point of again relapsing into his former gloom, when +the voice of Antonina arrested his attention, and aroused him for the +moment from his thoughts. + +'Is it in the power of the tempest to make you, a warrior of a race of +heroes, thus sorrowful and sad?' she asked, in accents of gentle +reproach. 'Even I, as I look on these walls that are so eloquent of my +happiness, and sit by you whose presence makes that happiness, can +listen to the raging storm, and feel no heaviness over my heart! What +is there to either of us in the tempest that should oppress us with +gloom? Does not the thunder come from the same heaven as the sunshine +of the summer day? You are so young, so generous, so brave,--you have +loved, and pitied, and succoured me,--why should the night language of +the sky cast such sorrow and such silence over you?' + +'It is not from sorrow that I am silent,' replied Hermanric, with a +constrained smile, 'but from weariness with much toil in the camp.' + + +He stifled a sigh as he spoke. His head returned to its old downcast +position. The struggle between his assumed carelessness and his real +inquietude was evidently unequal. As she looked fixedly on him, with +the vigilant eye of affection, the girl's countenance saddened with his. +She nestled closer to his side and resumed the discourse in anxious and +entreating tones. + +'It is haply the strife between our two nations which has separated us +already, and may separate us again, that thus oppresses you,' said she; +'but think, as I do, of the peace that must come, and not of the warfare +that now is. Think of the pleasures of our past days, and of the +happiness of our present moments,--thus united, thus living, loving, +hoping for each other; and, like me, you will doubt not of the future +that is in preparation for us both! The season of tranquillity may +return with the season of spring. The serene heaven will then be +reflected on a serene country and a happy people; and in those days of +sunshine and peace, will any hearts among all the glad population be +more joyful than ours?' + +She paused a moment. Some sudden thought or recollection heightened her +colour and caused her to hesitate ere she proceeded. She was about at +length to continue, when a peal of thunder, louder than any which had +preceded it, burst threateningly over the house and drowned the first +accents of her voice. The wind moaned loudly, the rain splashed against +the door, the latch rattled long and sharply in its socket. Once more +Hermanric rose from his seat, and approaching the fire, placed a fresh +log of wood upon the dying embers. His dejection seemed now to +communicate itself to Antonina, and as he reseated himself by her side, +she did not address him again. + +Thoughts, dreary and appalling beyond any that had occupied it before, +were rising in the mind of the Goth. His inquietude at the encampment +in the suburbs was tranquillity itself compared to the gloom which now +oppressed him. All the evaded dues of his nation, his family, and his +calling; all the suppressed recollections of the martial occupation he +had slighted, and the martial enmities he had disowned, now revived +avengingly in his memory. Yet, vivid as these remembrances were, they +weakened none of those feelings of passionate devotion to Antonina by +which their influence within him had hitherto been overcome. They +existed with them--the old recollections with the new emotions--the +stern rebukings of the warrior's nature with the anxious forebodings of +the lover's heart. And now, his mysterious meeting with Ulpius; +Goisvintha's unexpected return to health; the dreary rising and furious +progress of the night tempest, began to impress his superstitious mind +as a train of unwonted and meaning incidents, destined to mark the fatal +return of his kinswoman's influence over his own actions and Antonina's +fate. + +One by one, his memory revived with laborious minuteness every incident +that had attended his different interviews with the Roman girl, from the +first night when she had strayed into his tent to the last happy evening +that he had spent with her at the deserted farm-house. Then tracing +further backwards the course of his existence, he figured to himself his +meeting with Goisvintha among the Italian Alps; his presence at the +death of her last child, and his solemn engagement, on hearing her +recital of the massacre at Aquileia, to avenge her on the Romans with +his own hands. Roused by these opposite pictures of the past, his +imagination peopled the future with images of Antonina again endangered, +afflicted, and forsaken; with visions of the impatient army, spurred at +length into ferocious action, making universal havoc among the people of +Rome, and forcing him back for ever into their avenging ranks. No +decision for resistance or resignation to flight presented itself to his +judgment. Doubt, despair, and apprehension held unimpeded sway over his +impressible but inactive faculties. The night itself, as he looked +forth on it, was not more dark; the wild thunder, as he listened to it, +not more gloomy; the name of Goisvintha, as he thought on it, not more +ominous of evil, than the sinister visions that now startled his +imagination and oppressed his weary mind. + + +There was something indescribably simple, touching, and eloquent in the +very positions of Hermanric and Antonina as they now sat together--the +only members of their respective nations who were united in affection +and peace--in the lonely farm-house. Both the girl's hands were clasped +over Hermanric's shoulder, and her head rested on them, turned from the +door towards the interior of the room, and so displaying her rich, black +hair in all its luxuriance. The head of the Goth was still sunk on his +breast, as though he were wrapped in a deep sleep, and his hands hung +listlessly side by side over the scabbard of his sheathed sword, which +lay across his knees. The fire flamed only at intervals, the fresh log +that had been placed on it not having been thoroughly kindled as yet. +Sometimes the light played on the white folds of Antonina's dress; +sometimes over the bright surface of Hermanric's cuirass, which he had +removed and laid by his side on the ground; sometimes over his sword, +and his hands, as they rested on it; but it was not sufficiently +powerful or lasting to illuminate the room, the walls and corners of +which it left in almost complete darkness. + +The thunder still pealed from without, but the rain and wind had +partially lulled. The night hours had moved on more swiftly than our +narrative of the events that marked them. It was now midnight. + +No sound within the room reached Antonina's ear but the quick rattling +of the door-latch, shaken in its socket by the wind. As one by one the +moments journeyed slowly onward, it made its harsh music with as +monotonous a regularity as though it were moved by their progress, and +kept pace with their eternal march. Gradually the girl found herself +listening to this sharp, discordant sound, with all the attention she +could have bestowed at other times on the ripple of a distant rivulet or +the soothing harmony of a lute, when, just as it seemed adapting itself +most easily to her senses, it suddenly ceased, and the next instant a +gust of wind, like that which had rushed through the open door on the +breaking of the rotten bar, waved her hair about her face and fluttered +the folds of her light, loose dress. She raised her head and whispered +tremulously to Hermanric-- + +'The door is open again--the latch has given way!' + +The Goth started from his reverie and looked up hastily. At that +instant the rattling of the latch recommenced as suddenly as it had +ceased, and the air of the room recovered its former tranquillity. + +'Calm yourself, beloved one,' said Hermanric gently; 'your fancy has +misled you--the door is safe.' + +He parted back her dishevelled hair caressingly as he spoke. Incapable +of doubting the lightest word that fell from his lips, and hearing no +suspicious or unwonted sound in the room, she never attempted to justify +her suspicions. As she again rested her head on his shoulder, a vague +misgiving oppressed her heart, and drew from her an irrepressible sigh; +but she gave her apprehensions no expression in words. After listening +for a moment more to assure himself of the security of the latch, the +Goth resumed insensibly the contemplations from which he had been +disturbed; once more his head drooped, and again his hands returned +mechanically to their old listless position, side by side, on the +scabbard of his sword. + +The faint, fickle flames still rose and fell, gleaming here and sinking +there, the latch sounded sharply in its socket, the thunder yet uttered +its surly peal, but the wind was now subsiding into fainter moans, and +the rain began to splash faintly and more faintly against the shutters +without. To the watchers in the farm-house nothing was altered to the +eye, and little to the ear. Fatal security! The last few minutes had +darkly determined their future destinies--in the loved and cherished +retreat they were now no longer alone. + +They heard no stealthy footsteps pacing round their dwelling, they saw +no fierce eyes peering into the interior of the farm-house through a +chink in the shutters, they marked no dusky figure passing through the +softly and quickly opened door, and gliding into the darkest corner of +the room. Yet, now as they sat together, communing in silence with +their young, sad hearts, the threatening figure of Goisvintha stood, +shrouded in congenial darkness, under their protecting roof and in their +beloved chamber, rising still and silent almost at their very sides. + +Though the fire of her past fever had raged again through her veins, and +though startling visions of the murders at Aquileia had flashed before +her mind as the wild lightning before her eyes, she had traced her way +through the suburbs and along the high-road, and down the little path to +the farm-house gate, without straying, without hesitating. Regardless +of the darkness and the storm, she had prowled about the house, had +raised the latch, had waited for a loud peal of thunder ere she passed +the door, and had stolen shadow-like into the darkest corner of the +room, with a patience and a determination that nothing could disturb. +And now, when she stood at the goal of her worst wishes, even now, when +she looked down upon the two beings by whom she had been thwarted and +deceived, her fierce self-possession did not desert her; her lips +quivered over her locked teeth, her bosom heaved beneath her drenched +garments, but neither sighs nor curses, not even a smile of triumph or a +movement of anger escaped her. + +She never looked at Antonina; her eyes wandered not for a moment from +Hermanric's form. The quickest, faintest gleam of firelight that +gleamed over it was followed through its fitful course by her eager +glance, rapid and momentary as itself. Soon her attention was fixed +wholly upon his hands, as they lay over the scabbard of his sword; and +then, slowly and obscurely, a new and fatal resolution sprung up within +her. The various emotions pictured in her face became resolved into one +sinister expression, and, without removing her eyes from the Goth, she +slowly drew from the bosom-folds of her garment a long sharp knife. + +The flames alternately trembled into light and subsided into darkness as +at first; Hermanric and Antonina yet continued in their old positions, +absorbed in their thoughts and in themselves; and still Goisvintha +remained unmoved as ever, knife in hand, watchful, steady, silent as +before. + +But beneath the concealment of her outward tranquillity raged a +contention under which her mind darkened and her heart writhed. Twice +she returned the knife to its former hiding-place, and twice she drew it +forth again; her cheeks grew paler and paler, she pressed her clenched +hand convulsively over her bosom, and leant back languidly against the +wall behind her. No thought of Antonina had part in this great strife +of secret emotions; her wrath had too much of anguish in it to be spent +against a stranger and an enemy. + +After the lapse of a few moments more, her strength returned--her +firmness was aroused. The last traces of grief and despair that had +hitherto appeared in her eyes vanished from them in an instant. Rage, +vengeance, ferocity, lowered over them as she crept stealthily forward +to the very side of the Goth, and, when the next gleam of the fire +played upon him, drew the knife fiercely across the back of his hands. +The cut was true, strong, and rapid--it divided the tendons from first +to last--he was crippled for life. + +At that instant the fire touched the very heart of the log that had been +laid on it. It crackled gaily; it blazed out brilliantly. The whole +room was as brightly illuminated as if a Christmas festival of ancient +England had been preparing within its walls! + +The warm, cheerful light showed the Goth the figure of his assassin, ere +the first cry of anguish had died away on his lips, or the first start +of irrepressible horror ceased to vibrate through his frame. The cries +of his hapless companion, as the whole scene of vengeance, treachery, +and mutilation flashed in one terrible instant before her eyes, seemed +not even to reach his ears. Once he looked down upon his helpless +hands, when the sword rolled heavily from them to the floor. Then his +gaze directed itself immovably upon Goisvintha, as she stood at a little +distance from him, with her blood-stained knife, silent as himself. + + +There was no fury--no defiance--not even the passing distortion of +physical suffering in his features, as he now looked on her. Blank, +rigid horror--tearless, voiceless, helpless despair, seemed to have +petrified the expression of his face into an everlasting form, +unyouthful and unhopeful--as if he had been imprisoned from his +childhood, and a voice was now taunting him with the pleasures of +liberty, from a grating in his dungeon walls. Not even when Antonina, +recovering from her first agony of terror, pressed her convulsive kisses +on his cold cheek, entreating him to look on her, did he turn his head, +or remove his eyes from Goisvintha's form. + +At length the deep steady accents of the woman's voice were heard +through the desolate silence. + +'Traitor in word and thought you may be yet, but traitor in deed you +never more shall be!' she began, pointing to his hands with her knife. +'Those hands, that have protected a Roman life, shall never grasp a +Roman sword, shall never pollute again by their touch a Gothic weapon! +I remembered, as I watched you in the darkness, how the women of my race +once punished their recreant warriors when they fled to them from a +defeat. So have I punished you! The arm that served not the cause of +sister and sister's children--of king and king's nation--shall serve no +other! I am half avenged of the murders at Aquileia, now that I am +avenged on you! Go, fly with the Roman you have chosen to the city of +her people! Your life as a warrior is at an end!' + +He made her no answer. There are emotions, the last of a life, which +tear back from nature the strongest barriers that custom raises to +repress her, which betray the lurking existence of the first rude social +feeling of the primeval days of a great nation, in the breasts of their +most distant descendants, however widely their acquirements, their +prosperities, or their changes may seem to have morally separated them +from their ancestors of old. Such were the emotions now awakened in the +heart of the Goth. His Christianity, his love, his knowledge of high +aims, and his experience of new ideas, sank and deserted him, as though +he had never known them. He thought on his mutilated hands, and no +other spirit moved within him, but the ancient Gothic spirit of +centuries back; the inspiration of his nation's early Northern songs and +early Northern achievements--the renown of courage and the supremacy of +strength. + +Vainly did Antonina, in the midst of the despair that still possessed +her, yearn for a word from his lips or a glance from his eyes; vainly +did her trembling fingers, tearing the bandages from her robe, stanch +the blood on his wounded hands; vainly did her voice call on him to fly +and summon help from his companions in the camp! His mind was far away, +brooding over the legends of the battle-fields of his ancestors, +remembering how, even in the day of victory, they slew themselves if +they were crippled in the fray, how they scorned to exist for other +interests than the interests of strife, how they mutilated traitors as +Goisvintha had mutilated him! Such were the objects that enchained his +inward faculties, while his outward senses were still enthralled by the +horrible fascination that existed for him in the presence of the +assassin by his side. His very consciousness of his existence, though +he moved and breathed, seemed to have ceased. + +'You thought to deceive me in my sickness, you hoped to profit by my +death,' resumed Goisvintha, returning contemptuously her victim's +glance. 'You trusted in the night, and the darkness, and the storm; you +were secure in your boldness, in your strength, in the secrecy of this +lurking-place that you have chosen for your treachery, but your +stratagems and your expectations have failed you! At Aquileia I learnt +to be wily and watchful as you! I discovered your desertion of the +warriors and the camp; I penetrated the paths to your hiding-place; I +entered it as softly as I once departed from the dwelling where my +children were slain! In my just vengeance I have treated you as +treacherously as you would have treated me! Remember your murdered +brother; remember the child I put into your arms wounded and received +from them dead; remember your broken oaths and forgotten promises, and +make to your nation, to your duties, and to me, the atonement--the last +and the only one--that in my mercy I have left in your power--the +atonement of death.' + + +Again she paused, and again no reply awaited her. Still the Goth +neither moved nor spoke, and still Antonina--kneeling unconsciously upon +the sword, now useless to him for ever--continued to stanch the blood on +his hands with a mechanical earnestness that seemed to shut out the +contemplation of every other object from her eyes. The tears streamed +incessantly down her cheeks, but she never turned towards Goisvintha, +never suspended her occupation. + +Meanwhile, the fire still blazed noisily on the cheerful hearth; but the +storm, as if disdaining the office of heightening the human horror of +the farm-house scene, was rapidly subsiding. The thunder pealed less +frequently and less loudly, the wind fell into intervals of noiseless +calm, and occasionally the moonlight streamed, in momentary brightness, +through the ragged edges of the fast breaking clouds. The breath of the +still morning was already moving upon the firmament of the stormy night. + +'Has life its old magic for you yet?' continued Goisvintha, in tones of +pitiless reproach. 'Have you forgotten, with the spirit of your people, +the end for which your ancestors lived? Is not your sword at your feet? +Is not the knife in my hand? Do not the waters of the Tiber, rolling +yonder to the sea, offer to you the grave of oblivion that all may seek? +Die then! In your last hour be a Goth; even to the Romans you are +worthless now! Already your comrades have discovered your desertion; +will you wait till you are hung for a rebel? Will you live to implore +the mercy of your enemies, or, dishonoured and defenceless, will you +endeavour to escape? You are of the blood of my family, but again I say +it to you--die!' + +His pale lips trembled; he looked round for the first time at Antonina, +but his utterance struggled ineffectually, even yet, against unyielding +despair. He was still silent. + +Goisvintha turned from him disdainfully, and approaching the fire sat +down before it, bending her haggard features over the brilliant flames. +For a few minutes she remained absorbed in her evil thoughts, but no +articulate word escaped her; and when at length she again abruptly broke +the silence, it was not to address the Goth or to fix her eyes on him as +before. + +Still cowering over the fire, apparently as regardless of the presence +of the two beings whose happiness she had just crushed for ever as if +they had never existed, she began to recite, in solemn, measured, +chanting tones, a legend of the darkest and earliest age of Gothic +history, keeping time to herself with the knife that she still held in +her hand. The malignity in her expression, as she pursued her +employment, betrayed the heartless motive that animated it, almost as +palpably as the words of the composition she was repeating: thus she +now spoke:-- + + 'The tempest-god's pinions o'ershadow the sky, + The waves leap to welcome the storm that is nigh, + Through the hall of old Odin re-echo the shocks + That the fierce ocean hurls at his rampart of rocks, + As, alone on the crags that soar up from the sands, + With his virgin SIONA the young AGNAR stands; + Tears sprinkle their dew on the sad maiden's cheeks, + And the voice of the chieftain sinks low while he speaks: + + "Crippled in the fight for ever, + Number'd with the worse than slain; + Weak, deform'd, disabled!--never + Can I join the hosts again! + With the battle that is won + AGNAR'S earthly course is run! + + "When thy shatter'd frame must yield, + If thou seek'st a future field; + When thy arm, that sway'd the strife, + Fails to shield thy worthless life; + When thy hands no more afford + Full employment to the sword; + Then, preserve--respect thy name; + Meet thy death--to live is shame! + Such is Odin's mighty will; + Such commands I now fulfil!"' + +At this point in the legend, she paused and turned suddenly to observe +its effect on Hermanric. All its horrible application to himself +thrilled through his heart. His head drooped, and a low groan burst +from his lips. But even this evidence of the suffering she was +inflicting failed to melt the iron malignity of Goisvintha's +determination. + + +'Do you remember the death of Agnar?' she cried. 'When you were a +child, I sung it to you ere you slept, and you vowed as you heard it, +that when you were a man, if you suffered his wounds you would die his +death! He was crippled in a victory, yet he slew himself on the day of +his triumph; you are crippled in your treachery, and have forgotten your +boy's honour, and will live in the darkness of your shame! Have you +lost remembrance of that ancient song? You heard it from me in the +morning of your years; listen, and you shall hear it to the end; it is +the dirge for your approaching death!' + +She continued-- + + "SIONA, mourn not!--where I go + The warriors feel nor pain nor woe; + They raise aloft the gleaming steel, + Their wounds, though warm, untended heal; + Their arrows bellow through the air + In showers, as they battle there; + In mighty cups their wine is pour'd, + Bright virgins throng their midnight board! + + "Yet think not that I die unmov'd; + I mourn the doom that sets me free, + As I think, betroth'd--belov'd, + On all the joys I lose in thee! + To form my boys to meet the fray, + Where'er the Gothic banner streams; + To guard thy night, to glad thy day, + Made all the bliss of AGNAR'S dreams-- + Dreams that must now be all forgot, + Earth's joys have passed from AGNAR'S lot! + + "See, athwart the face of light + Float the clouds of sullen Night! + Odin's warriors watch for me + By the earth-encircling sea! + The water's dirges howl my knell; + 'Tis time I die--Farewell-Farewell!" + + 'He rose with a smile to prepare for the spring, + He flew from the rock like a bird on the wing; + The sea met her prey with a leap and a roar, + And the maid stood alone by the wave-riven shore! + + The winds mutter'd deep, with a woe-boding sound, + As she wept o'er the footsteps he'd left on the ground; + And the wild vultures shriek'd, for the chieftain who spread + Their battle-field banquets was laid with the dead!' + +As, with a slow and measured emphasis, Goisvintha pronounced the last +lines of the poem she again approached Hermanric. But the eyes of the +Goth sought her no longer. She had calmed the emotions that she had +hoped to irritate. Of the latter divisions of her legend, those only +which were pathetic had arrested the lost chieftain's attention, and the +blunted faculties of his heart recovered their old refinement as he +listened to them. A solemn composure of love, grief, and pity appeared +in the glance of affection that he now directed on the girl's despairing +countenance. Years of good thoughts, an existence of tender cares, an +eternity of youthful devotion spoke in that rapt, momentary, eloquent +gaze, and imprinted on his expression a character ineffably beautiful +and calm--a nobleness above the human, and approaching the angelic and +divine. + +Intuitively Goisvintha followed the direction of his eyes, and looked, +like him, on the Roman girl's face. A lowering expression of hatred +replaced the scorn that had hitherto distorted her passionate features. +Mechanically her hand again half raised the knife, and the accents of +her wrathful voice once more disturbed the sacred silence of affection +and grief. + +'Is it for the girl there that you would still live?' she cried sternly. +'I foreboded it, coward, when I first looked on you! I prepared for it +when I wounded you! I made sure that when my anger again threatened +this new ruler of your thoughts and mover of your actions, you should +have lost the power to divert it from her again! Think you that, +because my disdain has delayed it, my vengeance on her is abandoned? +Long since I swore to you that she should die, and I will hold to my +purpose! I have punished you; I will slay her! Can you shield her from +the blow to-night, as you shielded her in your tent? You are weaker +before me than a child!' + +She ceased abruptly, for at this moment a noise of hurrying footsteps +and contending voices became suddenly audible from without. As she +heard it, a ghastly paleness chased the flush of anger from her cheeks. +With the promptitude of apprehension she snatched the sword of Hermanric +from under Antonina, and ran it through the staples intended to hold the +rude bar of the door. The next instant the footsteps sounded on the +garden path, and the next the door was assailed. + +The good sword held firm, but the frail barrier that it sustained +yielded at the second shock and fell inwards, shattered, to the floor. +Instantly the gap was darkened by human forms, and the firelight glowed +over the repulsive countenances of two Huns who headed the intruders, +habited in complete armour and furnished with naked swords. + +'Yield yourself prisoner by Alaric's command,' cried one of the +barbarians, 'or you shall be slain as a deserter where you now stand!' + +The Goth had risen to his feet as the door was burst in. The arrival of +his pursuers seemed to restore his lost energies, to deliver him at once +from an all-powerful thraldom. An expression of triumph and defiance +shone over his steady features when he heard the summons of the Hun. +For a moment he stooped towards Antonina, as she clung fainting round +him. His mouth quivered and his eye glistened as he kissed her cold +cheek. In that moment all the hopelessness of his position, all the +worthlessness of his marred existence, all the ignominy preparing for +him when he returned to the camp, rushed over his mind. In that moment +the worst horrors of departure and death, the fiercest rackings of love +and despair, assailed but did not overcome him. In that moment he paid +his final tribute to the dues of affection, and braced for the last time +the fibres of manly dauntlessness and Spartan resolve! + +The next instant he tore himself from the girl's arms, the old hero- +spirit of his conquering nation possessed every nerve in his frame, his +eye brightened again gloriously with its lost warrior-light, his limbs +grew firm, his face was calm, he confronted the Huns with a mien of +authority and a smile of disdain, and, as he presented to them his +defenceless breast, not the faintest tremor was audible in his voice, +while he cried in accents of steady command-- + +'Strike! I yield not!' + +The Huns rushed forward with fierce cries, and buried their swords in +his body. His warm young blood gushed out upon the floor of the +dwelling which had been the love-shrine of the heart that shed it. +Without a sigh from his lips or a convulsion on his features, he fell +dead at the feet of his enemies; all the valour of his disposition, all +the gentleness of his heart, all the vigour of his form, resolved in one +humble instant into a senseless and burdensome mass! + +Antonina beheld the assassination, but was spared the sight of the death +that followed it. She fell insensible by the side of her young +warrior--her dress was spotted with his blood, her form was motionless +as his own. + +'Leave him there to rot! His pride in his superiority will not serve +him now--even to a grave!' cried the Hun leader to his companions, as he +dried on the garments of the corpse his reeking sword. + +'And this woman,' demanded one of his comrades, 'is she to be liberated +or secured?' + +He pointed as he spoke to Goisvintha. During the brief scene of the +assassination, the very exercise of her faculties seemed to have been +suspended. She had never stirred a limb or uttered a word. + +The Hun recognised her as the woman who had questioned and bribed him at +the camp. 'She is the traitor's kinswoman and is absent from the tents +without leave,' he answered. 'Take her prisoner to Alaric; she will +bear us witness that we have done as he commanded us. As for the girl,' +he continued, glancing at the blood on Antonina's dress, and stirring +her figure carelessly with his foot, 'she may be dead too, for she +neither moves nor speaks, and may be left like her protector to lie +graveless where she is. For us, it is time that we depart--the king is +impatient of delay.' + + +As they led her roughly from the house, Goisvintha shuddered, and +attempted to pause for a moment when she passed the corpse of the Goth. +Death, that can extinguish enmities as well as sunder loves, rose awful +and appealing as she looked her last at her murdered brother, and +remembered her murdered husband. No tears flowed from her eyes, no +groans broke from her bosom; but there was a pang, a last momentary pang +of grief and pity at her heart as she murmured while they forced her +away--'Aquileia! Aquileia! have I outlived thee for this!' + +The troops retired. For a few minutes silence ruled uninterruptedly +over the room where the senseless girl still lay by the side of all +that was left to her of the object of her first youthful love. But ere +long footsteps again approached the farm-house door, and two Goths, +who had formed part of the escort allotted to the Hun, approached the +young chieftain's corpse. Quickly and silently they raised it in their +arms and bore it into the garden. There they scooped a shallow hole +with their swords in the fresh, flower-laden turf, and having laid the +body there, they hastily covered it, and rapidly departed without +returning to the house. + +These men had served among the warriors committed to Hermanric's +command. By many acts of frank generosity and encouragement, the young +chieftain had won their rough attachment. They mourned his fate, but +dared not obstruct the sentence, or oppose the act that determined it. +At their own risk they had secretly quitted the advancing ranks of their +comrades, to use the last privilege and obey the last dictate of human +kindness; and they thought not of the lonely girl as they now left her +desolate, and hurried away to reassume their appointed stations ere it +was too late. + +The turf lay caressingly round the young warrior's form; its crushed +flowers pressed softly against his cold cheek; the fragrance of the new +morning wafted its pure incense gently about his simple grave! Around +him flowered the delicate plants that the hand of Antonina had raised to +please his eye. Near him stood the dwelling, sacred to the first and +last kiss that he had impressed upon her lips; and about him, on all +sides, rose the plains and woodlands that had engrossed, with her image, +the devotion of all her dearest thoughts. He lay, in his death, in the +midst of the magic circle of the best joys of his life! It was a fitter +burial-place for the earthly relics of that bright and generous spirit +than the pit in the carnage-laden battle-field, or the desolate +sepulchres of a northern land! + + +CHAPTER 19. THE GUARDIAN RESTORED. + +Not long is the new-made grave left unwatched to the solemn guardianship +of Solitude and Night. More than a few minutes have scarcely elapsed +since it was dug, yet already human footsteps press its yielding +surface, and a human glance scans attentively its small and homely +mound. + +But it is not Antonina, whom he loved; it is not Goisvintha, through +whose vengeance he was lost, who now looks upon the earth above the +young warrior's corpse. It is a stranger, an outcast; a man lost, +dishonoured, abandoned--it is the solitary and ruined Ulpius who now +gazes with indifferent eyes upon the peaceful garden and the eloquent +grave. + +In the destinies of woe committed to the keeping of the night, the pagan +had been fatally included. The destruction that had gone forth against +the body of the young man who lay beneath the earth had overtaken the +mind of the old man who stood over his simple grave. The frame of +Ulpius, with all its infirmities, was still there, but the soul of +ferocious patience and unconquerable daring that had lighted it grandly +in its ruin was gone. Over the long anguish of that woeful life the +veil of self-oblivion had closed for ever! + + +He had been dismissed by Alaric, but he had not returned to the city +whither he was bidden. Throughout the night he had wandered about the +lonely suburbs, striving in secret and horrible suffering for the +mastery of his mind. There did the overthrow of all his hopes from the +Goths expand rapidly into the overthrow of the whole intellect that had +created his aspirations. There had reason burst the bonds that had so +long chained, perverted, degraded it! At length, wandering hither and +thither, he had dragged the helpless body, possessed no longer by the +perilous mind, to the farm-house garden in which he now stood, gazing +alternately at the upturned sods of the chieftain's grave and the red +gleam of the fire as it glowed from the dreary room through the gap of +the shattered door. + +His faculties were fatally disordered rather than utterly destroyed. +His penetration, his firmness, and his cunning were gone; but a wreck of +memory, useless and unmanageable--a certain capacity for momentary +observation still remained to him. The shameful miscarriage in the tent +of Alaric, which had overthrown his faculties, had passed from him as an +event that never happened, but he remembered fragments of his past +existence--he still retained a vague consciousness of the ruling purpose +of his whole life. + +These embryo reflections, disconnected and unsustained, flitted to and +fro over his dark mind as luminous exhalations over a marsh--rising and +sinking, harmless and delusive, fitful and irregular. What he remembered +of the past he remembered carelessly, viewing it with as vacant a +curiosity as if it were the visionary spectacle of another man's +struggles and misfortunes and hopes, acting under it as under a +mysterious influence, neither the end nor the reason of which he cared +to discover. For the future, it was to his thoughts a perfect blank; +for the present, it was a jarring combination of bodily weariness and +mental repose. + +He shuddered as he stood shelterless under the open heaven. The cold, +that he had defied in the vaults of the rifted wall, pierced in the +farm-house garden; his limbs, which had resisted repose on the hard +journey from Rome to the camp of the Goths, now trembled so that he was +fain to rest them on the ground. For a short time he sat glaring with +vacant and affrighted eyes upon the open dwelling before him, as though +he longed to enter it but dare not. At length the temptation of the +ruddy firelight seemed to vanquish his irresolution; he rose with +difficulty, and slowly and hesitatingly entered the house. + +He had advanced, thief-like, but a few steps, he had felt but for a +moment the welcome warmth of the fire, when the figure of Antonina, +still extended insensible upon the floor, caught his eye; he approached +it with eager curiosity, and, raising the girl on his arm, looked at her +with a long and rigid scrutiny. + +For some moments no expression of recognition passed his lips or +appeared on his countenance, as, with a mechanical, doting gesture of +fondness, he smoothed her dishevelled hair over her forehead. While he +was thus engaged, while the remains of the gentleness of his childhood +were thus awfully revived in the insanity of his age, a musical string +wound round a small piece of gilt wood fell from its concealment in her +bosom; he snatched it from the ground--it was the fragment of her broken +lute, which had never quitted her since the night when, in her innocent +grief, she had wept over it in her maiden bed-chamber. + +Small, obscure, insignificant as it was, this little token touched the +fibre in the Pagan's shattered mind which the all-eloquent form and +presence of its hapless mistress had failed to reach; his memory flew +back instantly to the garden on the Pincian Mount, and to his past +duties in Numerian's household, but spoke not to him of the calamities +he had wreaked since that period on his confiding master. His +imagination presented to him at this moment but one image--his servitude +in the Christian's abode; and as he now looked on the girl he could +regard himself but in one light--as 'the guardian restored'. + +'What does she with her music here?' he whispered apprehensively. 'This +is not her father's house, and the garden yonder looks not from the +summit of the hill!' + +As he curiously examined the room, the red spots on the floor suddenly +attracted his attention. A panic, a frantic terror seemed instantly to +overwhelm him. He rose with a cry of horror, and, still holding the +girl on his arm, hurried out into the garden trembling and breathless, +as if the weapon of an assassin had scared him from the house. + + +The shock of her rough removal, the sudden influence of the fresh, cold +air, restored Antonina to the consciousness of life at the moment when +Ulpius, unable to support her longer, laid her against the little heap +of turf which marked the position of the young chieftain's grave. Her +eyes opened wildly; their first glance fixed upon the shattered door and +the empty room. She rose from the ground, advanced a few steps towards +the house, then paused, rigid, breathless, silent, and, turning slowly, +faced the upturned turf. + +The grave was all-eloquent of its tenant. His cuirass, which the +soldiers had thought to bury with the body that it had defended in +former days, had been overlooked in the haste of the secret interment, +and lay partly imbedded in the broken earth, partly exposed to view--a +simple monument over a simple grave! Her tearless, dilated eyes looked +down on it as though they would number each blade of grass, each morsel +of earth by which it was surrounded! Her hair waved idly about her +cheeks, as the light wind fluttered it; but no expression passed over +her face, no gestures escaped her limbs. Her mind toiled and quivered, +as if crushed by a fiery burden; but her heart was voiceless, and her +body was still. + +Ulpius had stood unnoticed by her side. At this moment he moved so as +to confront her, and she suddenly looked up at him. A momentary +expression of bewilderment and suspicion lightened the heavy vacancy of +despair which had chased their natural and feminine tenderness from her +eyes, but it disappeared rapidly. She turned from the Pagan, knelt down +by the grave, and pressed her face and bosom against the little mound of +turf beneath her. + +No voice comforted her, no arm caressed her, as her mind now began to +penetrate the mysteries, to probe the darkest depths of the long night's +calamities! Unaided and unsolaced, while the few and waning stars +glimmered from their places in the sky, while the sublime stillness of +tranquillised Nature stretched around her, she knelt at the altar of +death, and raised her soul upward to the great heaven above her, charged +with its sacred offering of human grief! + +Long did she thus remain; and when at length she arose from the ground, +when, approaching the Pagan, she fixed on him her tearless, dreary eyes, +he quailed before her glance, as his dull faculties struggled vainly to +resume the old, informing power that they had now for ever lost. +Nothing but the remembrance aroused by his first sight of the fragment +of the lute lived within even yet, as he whispered to her in low, +entreating tones-- + +'Come home--come home! Your father may return before us--come home!' + +As the words 'home' and 'father'--those household gods of the heart's +earliest existence--struck upon her ears, a change flashed with electric +suddenness over the girl's whole aspect. She raised her wan hands to +the sky; all her woman's tenderness repossessed itself of her heart; and +as she again knelt down over the grave, her sobs rose audibly through +the calmed and fragrant air. + +With Hermanric's corpse beneath her, with the blood-sprinkled room +behind her, with a hostile army and a famine-wasted city beyond her, it +was only through that flood of tears, that healing passion of gentle +emotions, that she rose superior to the multiplied horrors of her +situation at the very moment when her faculties and her life seemed +sinking under them alike. Fully, freely, bitterly she wept, on the +kindly and parent earth--the patient, friendly ground that once bore the +light footsteps of the first of a race not created for death; that now +holds in its sheltering arms the loved ones, whom, in mourning, we lay +there to sleep; that shall yet be bound to the farthermost of its +depths, when the sun-bright presence of returning spirits shines over +its renovated frame, and love is resumed in angel perfection at the +point where death suspended it in mortal frailness! + +'Come home--your father is awaiting you--come home!' repeated the Pagan +vacantly, moving slowly away as he spoke. + + +At the sound of his voice she started up, and clasping his arm with her +trembling fingers, to arrest his progress, looked affrightedly into his +seared and listless countenance. As she thus gazed on him she appeared +for the first time to recognise him. Fear and astonishment mingled in +her expression with grief and despair as she sunk at his feet, moaning +in tones of piercing entreaty-- + +'O Ulpius!--if Ulpius you are--have pity on me and take me to my father! +My father! my father! In all the lonely world there is nothing left to +me but my father!' + +'Why do you weep to me about your broken lute?' answered Ulpius, with a +dull, unmeaning smile; 'it was not I that destroyed it!' + +'They have slain him!' she shrieked distractedly, heedless of the +Pagan's reply. 'I saw them draw their swords on him! See, his blood is +on me--me!--Antonina, whom he protected and loved! Look there; that is +a grave--his grave--I know it! I have never seen him since; he is +down--down there! under the flowers I grew to gather for him! They slew +him; and when I knew it not, they have buried him!--or you--you have +buried him! You have hidden him under the cold garden earth! He is +gone!--Ah, gone, gone--for ever gone!' + +And she flung herself again with reckless violence on the grave. After +looking steadfastly on her for a moment, Ulpius approached and raised +her from the earth. + +'Come!' he cried angrily, 'the night grows on--your father waits!' + +'The walls of Rome shut me from my father! I shall never see my father +nor Hermanric again!' she cried, in tones of bitter anguish, remembering +more perfectly all the miseries of her position, and struggling to +release herself from the Pagan's grasp. + +The walls of Rome! At those words the mind of Ulpius opened to a flow +of dark remembrances, and lost the visions that had occupied it until +that moment. He laughed triumphantly. + +'The walls of Rome bow to my arm!' he cried, in exulting tones; 'I +pierced them with my good bar of iron! I wound through them with my +bright lantern! Spirits roared on me, and struck me down, and grinned +upon me in the thick darkness, but I passed the wall! The thunder +pealed around me as I crawled along the winding rifts; but I won my way +through them! I came out conquering on the other side! Come, come, +come, come! We will return! I know the track, even in the darkness! I +can outwatch the sentinels! You shall walk in the pathway that I have +broken through the bricks! + +The girl's features lost for a moment their expression of grief, and +grew rigid with horror, as she glanced at his fiery eyes, and felt the +fearful suspicion of his insanity darkening over her mind. She stood +powerless, trembling, unresisting, in his grasp, without attempting to +delude him into departure or to appease him into delay. + +'Why did I make my passage through the wall?' muttered the Pagan in a +low, awe-struck voice, suddenly checking himself, as he was about to +step forward. 'Why did I tear down the strong brick-work and go forth +into the dark suburbs?' + +He paused, and for a few moments struggled with his purposeless and +disconnected thoughts; but a blank, a darkness, an annihilation +overwhelmed Alaric and the Gothic camp, which he vainly endeavoured to +disperse. He sighed bitterly to himself--'It is gone!' and still +grasping Antonina by the hand, drew her after him to the garden gate. + +'Leave me!' she shrieked, as he passed onward into the pathway that led +to the high-road. 'Oh, be merciful, and leave me to die where he has +died!' + +'Peace! or I will rend you limb by limb, as I rent the stones from the +wall when I passed through it!' he whispered to her in fierce accents, +as she struggled to escape him. 'You shall return with me to Rome! You +shall walk in the track that I have made in the rifted brick-work!' + + +Terror, anguish, exhaustion, overpowered her weak efforts. Her lips +moved, partly in prayer and partly in ejaculation; but she spoke in +murmurs only, as she mechanically suffered the Pagan to lead her onward +by the hand. + +They paced on under the waning starlight, over the cold, lonely road, +and through the dreary and deserted suburbs,--a fearful and discordant +pair! Coldly, obediently, impassively, as if she were walking in a +dream, the spirit-broken girl moved by the side of her scarce-human +leader. Disjointed exclamation, alternating horribly between infantine +simplicity and fierce wickedness, poured incessantly from the Pagan's +lips, but he never addressed himself further to his terror-stricken +companion. So, wending rapidly onward, they gained the Gothic lines; +and here the madman slackened his pace, and paused, beast-like, to glare +around him, as he approached the habitations of men. + +Still not opposed by Antonina, whose faculties of observation were +petrified by her terror into perfect inaction, even here, within reach +of the doubtful aid of the enemies of her people, the Pagan crept +forward through the loneliest places of the encampment, and, guided by +the mysterious cunning of his miserable race, eluded successfully the +observation of the drowsy sentinels. Never bewildered by the darkness-- +for the moon had gone down--always led by the animal instinct co- +existent with his disease, he passed over the waste ground between the +hostile encampment and the city, and arrived triumphant at the heap of +stones that marked his entrance to the rifted wall. + +For one moment he stopped, and turning towards the girl, pointed proudly +to the dark, low breach he was about to penetrate. Then, drawing her +half-fainting form closer to his side, looking up attentively to the +ramparts, and stepping as noiselessly as though turf were beneath his +feet, he entered the dusky rift with his helpless charge. + +As they disappeared in the recesses of the wall, Night--the stormy, the +eventful, the fatal!--reached its last limit; and the famished sentinel +on the fortifications of the besieged city roused himself from his +dreary and absorbing thoughts, for he saw that the new day was dawning +in the east. + + +CHAPTER 20. THE BREACH REPASSED. + +Slowly and mournfully the sentinel at the rifted wall raised his eyes +towards the eastern clouds as they brightened before the advancing dawn. +Desolate as was the appearance of the dull, misty daybreak, it was yet +the most welcome of all the objects surrounding the starving soldier on +which he could fix his languid gaze. To look back on the city behind +him was to look back on the dreary charnel-house of famine and death; to +look down on the waste ground without the walls was to look down on the +dead body of the comrade of his watch, who, maddened by the pangs of +hunger which he had suffered during the night, had cast himself from the +rampart to meet a welcome death on the earth beneath. Famished and +despairing, the sentinel crouched on the fortifications which he had now +neither strength to pace nor care to defend, yearning for the food that +he had no hope to obtain, as he watched the grey daybreak from his +solitary post. + +While he was thus occupied, the gloomy silence of the scene was suddenly +broken by the sound of falling brick-work at the inner base of the wall, +followed by faint entreaties for mercy and deliverance, which rose on +his ear, strangely mingled with disjointed expression of defiance and +exultation from a second voice. He slowly turned his head, and, looking +down, saw on the ground beneath a young girl struggling in the grasp of +an old man, who was hurrying her onward in the direction of the Pincian +Gate. + + +For one moment the girl's eye met the sentinel's vacant glance, and she +renewed, with a last effort of strength, and a greater vehemence of +supplication, her cries for help; but the soldier neither moved nor +answered. Exhausted as he was, no sight could affect him now but the +sight of food. Like the rest of the citizens, he was sunk in a heavy +stupor of starvation--selfish, reckless, brutalised. No disasters could +depress, no atrocities rouse him. Famine had torn asunder every social +tie, had withered every human sympathy among his besieged fellow- +citizens, and he was famishing like them. + +At the moment when the dawn had first appeared, could he have looked +down by some mysterious agency to the interior foundations of the wall, +from the rampart on which he kept his weary watch, such a sight must +then have presented itself as would have aroused even his sluggish +observation to rigid attention and involuntary surprise. + +Winding upward and downward among jagged masses of ruined brick-work, +now lost amid the shadows of dreary chasms, now prominent over the +elevations of rising arches, the dark irregular passages broken by +Ulpius in the rotten wall would then have presented themselves to his +eyes; not stretching forth in dismal solitude, not peopled only by the +reptiles native to the place, but traced in all their mazes by human +forms. Then he would have perceived the fierce, resolute Pagan, moving +through darkness and obstacles with a sure, solemn progress, drawing +after him, like a dog devoted to his will, the young girl whose hapless +fate had doomed her to fall into his power. Her half-fainting figure +might have been seen, sometimes prostrate on the higher places of the +breach, while her fearful guide descended before her into a chasm +beyond, and then turned to drag her after him to a darker and a lower +depth yet; sometimes bent in supplication, when her lips moved once more +with a last despairing entreaty, and her limbs trembled with a final +effort to escape from her captor's relentless grasp. While still, +through all that opposed him, the same fierce tenacity of purpose would +have been invariably visible in every action of Ulpius, constantly +confirming him in his mad resolution to make his victim the follower of +his progress through the wall, ever guiding him with a strange instinct +through every hindrance, and preserving him from every danger in his +path, until it brought him forth triumphant, with his prisoner still in +his power, again free to tread the desolate streets and mingle with the +famine-stricken citizens of Rome. + +And now when, after peril and anguish, she once more stood within the +city of her home, what hope remained to Antonina of obtaining her last +refuge under her father's roof, and deriving her solitary consolation +from the effort to regain her father's love? With the termination of +his passage through the breach in the wall had ended every recollection +associated with it in the Pagan's shattered memory. A new blank now +pervaded his lost faculties, desolate as that which had overwhelmed them +in the night when he first stood in the farm-house garden by the young +chieftain's grave. He moved onward, unobservant, unthinking, without +aim or hope, driven by a mysterious restlessness, forgetting the very +presence of Antonina as she followed him, but still mechanically +grasping her hand, and dragging her after him he knew not whither. + +And she, on her part, made no effort more for deliverance. She had seen +the sentinel unmoved by her entreaties, she had seen the walls of her +father's house receding from her longing eyes, as Ulpius pitilessly +hurried her father and farther from its distant door; and she lost the +last faint hope of restoration, the last lingering desire of life, as +the sense of her helplessness now weighed heaviest on her mind. Her +heart was full of her young warrior, who had been slain, and of her +father, from whom she had parted in the hour of his wrath, as she now +feebly followed the Pagan's steps, and resigned herself to a speedy +exhaustion and death in her utter despair. + + +They turned from the Pincian Gate and gained the Campus Martius; and +here the aspect of the besieged city and the condition of its doomed +inhabitants were fully and fearfully disclosed to view. On the surface +of the noble area, once thronged with bustling crowds passing to and fro +in every direction as their various destinations or caprices might lead +them, not twenty moving figures were now discernible. These few, who +still retained their strength or the resolution to pace the greatest +thoroughfare of Rome, stalked backwards and forwards incessantly, their +hollow eyes fixed on vacancy, their wan hands pressed over their mouths; +each separate, distrustful, and silent; fierce as imprisoned madmen; +restless as spectres disturbed in a place of tombs. + +Such were the citizens who still moved over the Campus Martius; and, +besetting their path wherever they turned, lay the gloomy numbers of the +dying and the dead--the victims already stricken by the pestilence which +had now arisen in the infected city, and joined the famine in its work +of desolation and death. Around the public fountains, where the water +still bubbled up as freshly as in the summer-time of prosperity and +peace, the poorer population of beleaguered Rome had chiefly congregated +to expire. Some still retained strength enough to drink greedily at the +margin of the stone basins, across which others lay dead--their heads +and shoulders immersed in the water--drowned from lack of strength to +draw back after their first draught. Children mounted over the dead +bodies of their parents to raise themselves to the fountain's brim; +parents stared vacantly at the corpses of their children alternately +floating and sinking in the water, into which they had fallen +unsuccoured and unmourned. + +In other parts of the place, at the open gates of the theatres and +hippodromes, in the unguarded porticoes of the palaces and the baths lay +the discoloured bodies of those who had died ere they could reach the +fountains--of women and children especially--surrounded in frightful +contrast by the abandoned furniture of luxury and the discarded +inventions of vice--by gilded couches--by inlaid tables--by jewelled +cornices--by obscene picture and statues--by brilliantly framed, gaudily +tinted manuscripts of licentious songs, still hanging at their +accustomed places on the lofty marble walls. Farther on, in the by- +streets and the retired courts, where the corpse of the tradesman was +stretched on his empty counter; where the soldier of the city guard +dropped down overpowered ere he reached the limit of his rounds; where +the wealthy merchant lay pestilence-stricken upon the last hoards of +repulsive food which his gold had procured; the assassin and the robber +might be seen--now greedily devouring the offal that lay around them, +now falling dead upon the bodies which they had rifled but the moment +before. + +Over the whole prospect, far and near, wherever it might extend, +whatever the horrors by which it might be occupied, was spread a blank, +supernatural stillness. Not a sound arose; the living were as silent as +the dead; crime, suffering, despair, were all voiceless alike; the +trumpet was unheard in the guard-house; the bell never rang from the +church; even the thick, misty rain, that now descended from the black +and unmoving clouds, and obscured in cold shadows the outlines of +distant buildings and the pinnacle tops of mighty palaces, fell +noiseless to the ground. The sky had no wind; the earth no echoes--the +pervading desolation appalled the eye; the vast stillness weighed dull +on the ear--it was a scene as of the last-left city of an exhausted +world, decaying noiselessly into primeval chaos. + +Through this atmosphere of darkness and death, along these paths of +pestilence and famine; unregarding and unregarded, the Pagan and his +prisoner passed slowly onward towards the quarter of the city opposite +the Pincian Mount. No ray of thought, even yet, brightened the dull +faculties of Ulpius; still he walked forward vacantly, and still he was +followed wearily by the fast-failing girl. + +Sunk in her mingled stupor of bodily weakness and mental despair, she +never spoke, never raised her head, never looked forth on the one side +or the other. She had now ceased even to feel the strong, cold grasp of +the Pagan's hand. Shadowy visions of spheres beyond the world, arrayed +in enchanting beauty, and people with happy spirits in their old earthly +forms, where a long deathless existence moved smoothly and dreamily +onward, without mark of time or taint of woe, were opening before her +mind. She lost all memory of afflictions and wrongs, all apprehension +of danger from the madman at whose mercy she remained. And thus she +still moved feebly onward as the will of Ulpius guided her, with no +observation of her present peril, and no anxiety for her impending fate. + + +They passed the grand circular structure of the Pantheon, entered the +long narrow streets leading to the banks of the river, and finally +gained the margin of the Tiber--hard by the little island that still +rises in the midst of its waters. Here, for the first time, the Pagan +paused mechanically in his course, and vacantly directed his dull, +dreamy eyes on the prospect before him, where the walls, stretching +abruptly outward from their ordinary direction, enclosed the Janiculum +Hill, as it rose with its irregular mass of buildings on the opposite +bank of the river. + +At this sudden change from action to repose, the overtasked energies +which had hitherto gifted the limbs of Antonina with an unnatural power +of endurance, abruptly relaxed. She sank down helpless and silent; her +head drooped towards the hard ground, as towards a welcome pillow, but +found no support, for the Pagan's iron grasp of her hand remained +unyielding as ever. Infirm though he was, he appeared at this moment to +be unconscious that his prisoner was now hanging at his side. Every +association connected with her, every recollection of his position with +her in her father's house, had vanished from his memory. A darker +blindness seemed to have sunk over his bodily perceptions; his eyes +rolled slowly to and fro over the prospect before him, but regarded +nothing; his panting breaths came thick and fast; his shrunk chest +heaved as if some deep, dread agony were pent within it--it was evident +that a new crisis in his insanity was at hand. + +At this moment one of the bands of marauders--the desperate criminals of +famine and plague--who still prowled through the city, appeared in the +street. Their trembling hands sought their weapons, and their haggard +faces brightened, when they first discerned the Pagan and the girl; but +as they approached nearer they saw enough in the figures of the two, at +a glance, to destroy their hopes of seizing on them either plunder or +food. For an instant they stood by their intended victims, as if +debating whether to murder them only for murder's sake, when the +appearance of two women, stealthily quitting a house farther on in the +street, carrying a basket covered by some tattered garments, attracted +their attention. They turned instantly to follow the bearers of the +basket, and again Ulpius and Antonina were left alone on the river's +bank. + +The appearance of the assassins had been powerless, as every other sight +or event in the city, in arousing the faculties of Ulpius. He had +neither looked on them nor fled from them when they surrounded him; but +now when they were gone he slowly turned his head in the direction by +which they had departed. His gaze wandered over the wet flagstones of +the street, over two corpses stretched on them at a little distance, +over the figure of a female slave who lay forsaken near the wall of one +of the houses, exerting her last energies to drink from the turbid rain- +water which ran down the kennel by her side; and still his eyes remained +unregardful of all that they encountered. The next object which by +chance attracted his vacant attention was a deserted temple. This +solitary building fixed him immediately in contemplation--it was +destined to open a new and a warning scene in the dark tragedy of his +closing life. + +In his course through the city he had passed unheeded many temples far +more prominent in situation, far more imposing in structure, than this. +It was a building of no remarkable extent or extraordinary beauty. Its +narrow porticoes and dark doorway were more fitted to repel than to +invite the eye; but it had one attraction, powerful above all glories of +architecture and all grandeur of situation to arrest in him those +wandering faculties whose sterner and loftier aims were now suspended +for ever; it was dedicated to Serapis--to the idol which had been the +deity of his first worship, and the inspiration of his last struggle +for the restoration of his faith. The image of the god, with the three- +headed monster encircled by a serpent, obedient beneath his hand, was +carved over the portico. + + +What flood of emotions rushed into the vacant mind of Ulpius at the +instant when he discerned the long-loved, well-known image of the +Egyptian god, there was nothing for some moments outwardly visible in +him to betray. His moral insensibility appeared but to be deepened as +his gaze was now fixed with rigid intensity on the temple portico. Thus +he continued to remain motionless, as if what he saw had petrified him +where he stood, when the clouds, which had been closing in deeper and +deeper blackness as the morning advanced, and which, still charged with +electricity, were gathering to revive the storm of the past night, burst +abruptly into a loud peal of thunder over his head. + +At that warning sound, as if it had been the supernatural signal awaited +to arouse him, as if in one brief moment it awakened every recollection +of all that he had resolutely attempted during the night of thunder that +was past, he started into instant animation. His countenance +brightened, his form expanded, he dropped the hand of Antonina, raised +his arm aloft towards the wrathful heaven in frantic triumph, then +staggering forwards, fell on his knees at the base of the temple steps. + +Whatever the remembrances of his passage through the wall at the Pincian +Hill, and of the toil and peril succeeding it, which had revived when +the thunder first sounded in his ear, they now vanished as rapidly as +they had arisen, and left his wandering memory free to revert to the +scenes which the image of Serapis was most fitted to recall. +Recollections of his boyish enjoyments in the temple at Alexandria, of +his youth's enthusiasm, of the triumphs of his early manhood--all +disjointed and wayward, yet all bright, glorious, intoxicating--flashed +before his shattered mind. Tears, the first that he had shed since his +happy youth, flowed quickly down his withered cheeks. He pressed his +hot forehead, he beat his parched hand in ecstasy on the cold, wet steps +beneath him. He muttered breathless ejaculations, he breathed strange +murmurs of endearment, he humbled himself in his rapturous delight +beneath the walls of the temple like a dog that has discovered his lost +master and fawns affectionately at his feet. Criminal as he was, his +joy in his abasement, his glory in his miserable isolation from +humanity, was a doom of degradation pitiable to behold. + +After an interval his mood changed. He rose to his feet, his trembling +limbs strengthened with a youthful vigour as he ascended the temple +steps and gained its doorway. He turned for a moment, and looked forth +over the street, ere he entered the hallowed domain of his distempered +imagination. To him the cloudy sky above was now shining with the +radiance of the sun-bright East. The death-laden highways of Rome, as +they stretched before him, were beautiful with lofty trees, and populous +with happy figures; and along the dark flagstones beneath, where still +lay the corpses which he had no eye to see, he beheld already the +priests of Serapis with his revered guardian, his beloved Macrinus of +former days, at their head, advancing to meet and welcome him in the +hall of the Egyptian god. Visions such as these passed gloriously +before the Pagan's eyes as he stood triumphant on the steps of the +temple, and brightened to him with a noonday light its dusky recesses +when, after his brief delay, he turned from the street and disappeared +through the doorway of the sacred place. + +The rain poured down more thickly than before; the thunder, once +aroused, now sounded in deep and frequent peals as Antonina raised +herself from the ground and looked around her, in momentary expectation +that the dreaded form of Ulpius must meet her eyes. No living creature +was visible in the street. The forsaken slave still reclined near the +wall of the house where she had first appeared when the Pagan gained the +approaches to the temple; but she now lay there dead. No fresh bands of +robbers appeared in sight. An uninterrupted solitude prevailed in all +directions as far as the eye could reach. + +At the moment when Ulpius had relinquished his grasp of her hand, +Antonina had sunk to the ground, helpless and resigned, but not +exhausted beyond all power of sensation or all capacity for thought. +While she lay on the cold pavement of the street, her mind still pursued +its visions of a speedy death, and a tranquil life-in-death to succeed +it in a future state. But, as minute after minute elapsed, and no harsh +voice sounded in her ear, no pitiless hand dragged her from the ground, +no ominous footsteps were audible around her, a change passed gradually +over her thoughts; the instinct of self-preservation slowly revived +within her, and, as she raised herself to look forth on the gloomy +prospect, the chances of uninterrupted flight and present safety +presented by the solitude of the street, aroused her like a voice of +encouragement, like an unexpected promise of help. + + +Her perception of outer influences returned; she felt the rain that +drenched her garments; she shuddered at the thunder sounding over her +head; she marked with horror the dead bodies lying before her on the +stones. An overpowering desire animated her to fly from the place, to +escape from the desolate scene around, even though she should sink +exhausted by the effort in the next street. Slowly she arose--her limbs +trembled with a premature infirmity; but she gained her feet. She +tottered onward, turning her back on the river, passed bewildered +between long rows of deserted houses, and arrived opposite a public +garden surrounding a little summer-house, whose deserted portico offered +both concealment and shelter. Here, therefore, she took refuge, +crouching in the darkest corner of the building, and hiding her face in +her hands, as if to shut out all view of the dreary though altered +scenes which spread before her eyes. + +Woeful thoughts and recollections now moved within her in bewildering +confusion. All that she had suffered since Ulpius had dragged her from +the farm-house in the suburbs--the night pilgrimage over the plain--the +fearful passage through the wall--revived in her memory, mingled with +vague ideas, now for the first time aroused, of the plague and famine +that were desolating the city; and, with sudden apprehensions that +Goisvintha might still be following her, knife in hand, through the +lonely streets; while passively prominent over all these varying sources +of anguish and dread, the scene of the young chieftain's death lay like +a cold weight on her heavy heart. The damp turf of his grave seemed +still to press against her breast; his last kiss yet trembled on her +lips; she knew, though she dared not look down on them, that the spots +of his blood yet stained her garments. + +Whether she strove to rise and continue her flight; whether she crouched +down again under the portico, resigned for one bitter moment to perish +by the knife of Goisvintha--if Goisvintha were near; to fall once more +into the hands of Ulpius--if Ulpius were tracking her to her retreat,-- +the crushing sense that she was utterly bereaved of her beloved +protector--that the friend of her brief days of happiness was lost to +her for ever--that Hermanric, who had preserved her from death, had been +murdered in his youth and his strength by her side, never deserted her. +Since the assassination in the farm-house, she was now for the first +time alone; and now for the first time she felt the full severity of her +affliction, and knew how dark was the blank which was spread before +every aspiration of her future life. + +Enduring, almost eternal, as the burden of her desolation seemed now to +have become, it was yet to be removed, ere long, by feelings of a +tenderer mournfulness and a more resigned woe. The innate and innocent +fortitude of disposition, which had made her patient under the rigour of +her youthful education, and hopeful under the trials that assailed her +on her banishment from her father's house; which had never deserted her +until the awful scenes of the past night of assassination and death rose +in triumphant horror before her eyes; and which, even then, had been +suspended but not destroyed--was now destined to regain its healing +influence over her heart. As she still cowered in her lonely refuge, +the final hope, the yearning dependence on a restoration to her father's +presence and her father's love, that had moved her over the young +chieftain's grave, and had prompted her last effort for freedom when +Ulpius had dragged her through the passage in the rifted wall, suddenly +revived. + + +Once more she arose, and looked forth on the desolate city and the +stormy sky, but now with mild and unshrinking eyes. Her recollections +of the past grew tender in their youthful grief; her thoughts for the +future became patient, solemn, and serene. Images of her first and her +last-left protector, of her old familiar home, of her garden solitude on +the Pincian Mount, spread beautiful before her imagination as resting- +places to her weary heart. She descended the steps of the summer-house +with no apprehension of her enemies, no doubt of her resolution; for she +knew the beacon that was now to direct her onward course. The tears +gathered full in her eyes as she passed into the garden; but her step +never faltered, her features never lost their combined expression of +tranquil sorrow and subdued hope. So she once more entered the perilous +streets, and murmuring to herself, 'My father! my father!' as if in +those simple words lay the hand that was to guide, and the providence +that was to preserved her, she began to trace her solitary way in the +direction of the Pincian Mount. + +It was a spectacle--touching, beautiful, even sublime--to see this young +girl, but a few hours freed, by perilous paths and by criminal hands, +from scenes which had begun in treachery, only to end in death, now +passing, resolute and alone, through the streets of a mighty city, +overwhelmed by all that is poignant in human anguish and hideous in +human crime. It was a noble evidence of the strong power over the world +and the world's perils, with which the simplest affection may arm the +frailest being--to behold her thus pursuing her way, superior to every +horror of desolation and death that clogged her path, unconsciously +discovering in the softly murmured name of 'father', which still fell at +intervals from her lips, the pure purpose that sustained her--the steady +heroism that ever held her in her doubtful course. The storms of heaven +poured over her head--the crimes and sufferings of Rome darkened the +paths of her pilgrimage; but she passed firmly onward through all, like +a ministering spirit, journeying along earthly shores in the bright +inviolability of its merciful mission and its holy thoughts--like a ray +of light living in the strength of its own beauty, amid the tempest and +obscurity of a stranger sphere. + +Once more she entered the Campus Martius. Again she passed the public +fountains, still unnaturally devoted to serve as beds for the dying and +as sepulchres for the dead; again she trod the dreary highways, where +the stronger among the famished populace yet paced hither and thither in +ferocious silence and unsocial separation. No word was addressed, +hardly a look was directed to her, as she pursued her solitary course. +She was desolate among the desolate; forsaken among others abandoned +like herself. + +The robber, when he passed her by, saw that she was worthless for the +interests of plunder as the poorest of the dying citizens around him. +The patrician, loitering feebly onward to the shelter of his palace +halls, avoided her as a new suppliant among the people for the charity +which he had not to bestow, and quickened his pace as she approached him +in the street. Unprotected, yet unmolested, hurrying from her +loneliness and her bitter recollections to the refuge of her father's +love, as she would have hurried when a child from her first apprehension +of ill to the refuge of her father's arms, she gained at length the foot +of the Pincian Hill--at length ascended the streets so often trodden in +the tranquil days of old! + +The portals and outer buildings of Vetranio's palace, as she passed +them, presented a striking and ominous spectacle. Within the lofty +steel railings, which protected the building, the famine-wasted slaves +of the senator appeared reeling and tottering beneath full vases of wine +which they were feebly endeavouring to carry into the interior +apartments. Gaudy hangings drooped from the balconies, garlands of ivy +were wreathed round the statues of the marble front. In the midst of +the besieged city, and in impious mockery of the famine and pestilence +which were wasting it, hut and palace, to its remotest confines, were +proceeding in this devoted dwelling the preparations for a triumphant +feast! + +Unheedful of the startling prospect presented by Vetranio's abode, her +eyes bent but in one absorbing direction, her steps hurrying faster and +faster with each succeeding instant, Antonina approached the home from +which she had been exiled in fear, and to which she was returning in +woe. Yet a moment more of strong exertion, of overpowering +anticipation, and she reached the garden gate! + +She dashed back the heavy hair matted over her brows by the rain; she +glanced rapidly around her; she beheld the window of her bed-chamber +with the old simple curtain still hanging at its accustomed place; she +saw the well-remembered trees, the carefully tended flower-beds, now +drooping mournfully beneath the gloomy sky. Her heart swelled within +her, her breath seemed suddenly arrested in her bosom, as she trod the +garden path and ascended the steps beyond. The door at the top was +ajar. With a last effort she thrust it open, and stood once more-- +unaided and unwelcomed, yet hopeful of consolation, of pardon, of love-- +within her first and last sanctuary, the walls of her home! + + +CHAPTER 21. FATHER AND CHILD. + +Forsaken as it appears on an outward view, during the morning of which +we now write, the house of Numerian is yet not tenantless. In one of +the sleeping apartments, stretched on his couch, with none to watch by +its side, lies the master of the little dwelling. We last beheld him on +the scene mingled with the famishing congregation in the Basilica of St. +John Lateran, still searching for his child amid the confusion of the +public distribution of food during the earlier stages of the misfortunes +of besieged Rome. Since that time he has toiled and suffered much; and +now the day of exhaustion, long deferred, the hours of helpless +solitude, constantly dreaded, have at length arrived. + +From the first periods of the siege, while all around him in the city +moved gloomily onward through darker and darker changes, while famine +rapidly merged into pestilence and death, while human hopes and purposes +gradually diminished and declined with each succeeding day, he alone +remained ever devoted to the same labour, ever animated by the same +object--the only one among all his fellow-citizens whom no outward event +could influence for good or evil, for hope or fear. + +In every street of Rome, at all hours, among all ranks of people, he was +still to be seen constantly pursuing the same hopeless search. When the +mob burst furiously into the public granaries to seize the last supplies +of corn hoarded for the rich, he was ready at the doors watching them as +they came out. When rows of houses were deserted by all but the dead, +he was beheld within, passing from window to window, as he sought +through each room for the treasure that he had lost. When some few +among the populace, in the first days of the pestilence, united in the +vain attempt to cast over the lofty walls the corpses that strewed the +street, he mingled with them to look on the rigid faces of the dead. In +solitary places, where the parent, not yet lost to affection, strove to +carry his dying child from the desert roadway to the shelter of a roof; +where the wife, still faithful to her duties, received her husband's +last breath in silent despair--he was seen gliding by their sides, and +for one brief instant looking on them with attentive and mournful eyes. +Wherever he went, whatever he beheld, he asked no sympathy and sought no +aid. He went his way, a pilgrim on a solitary path, an unregarded +expectant for a boon that no others would care to partake. + +When the famine first began to be felt in the city, he seemed +unconscious of its approach--he made no effort to procure beforehand the +provision of a few days' sustenance; if he attended the first public +distributions of food, it was only to prosecute his search for his child +amid the throng around him. He must have perished with the first feeble +victims of starvation, had he not been met, during his solitary +wanderings, by some of the members of the congregation whom his piety +and eloquence had collected in former days. + +By these persons, who entreaties that he would suspend his hopeless +search he always answered with the same firm and patient denial, his +course was carefully watched and his wants anxiously provided for. Out +of every supply of food which they were enabled to collect, his share +was invariably carried to his abode. They remembered their teacher in +the hour of his dejection, as they had formerly reverenced him in the +day of his vigour; they toiled to preserve his life as anxiously as they +had laboured to profit by his instructions; they listened as his +disciples once, they served him as his children now. + +But over these, as over all other offices of human kindness, the famine +was destined gradually and surely to prevail. The provision of food +garnered up by the congregation ominously lessened with each succeeding +day. When the pestilence began darkly to appear, the numbers of those +who sought their afflicted teacher at his abode, or followed him through +the dreary streets, fatally decreased. + + +Then, as the nourishment which had supported, and the vigilance which +had watched him, thus diminished, so did the hard-tasked energies of the +unhappy father fail him faster and faster. Each morning as he arose, +his steps were more feeble, his heart grew heavier within him, his +wanderings through the city were less and less resolute and prolonged. +At length his powers totally deserted him; the last-left members of his +congregation, as they approached his abode with the last-left provision +of food which they possessed, found him prostrate with exhaustion at his +garden gate. They bore him to his couch, placed their charitable +offering by his side, and leaving one of their number to protect him +from the robber and the assassin, they quitted the house in despair. + +For some days the guardian remained faithful to his post, until his +sufferings from lack of food overpowered his vigilance. Dreading that, +in his extremity, he might be tempted to take from the old man's small +store of provision what little remained, he fled from the house, to seek +sustenance, however loathsome, in the public streets; and thenceforth +Numerian was left defenceless in his solitary abode. + +He was first beheld on the scenes which these pages present, a man of +austere purpose, of unwearied energy; a valiant reformer, who defied all +difficulties that beset him in his progress; a triumphant teacher, +leading at his will whoever listened to his words; a father, proudly +contemplating the future position which he destined for his child. Far +different did he now appear. Lost to his ambition, broken in spirit, +helpless in body, separated from his daughter by his own act, he lay on +his untended couch in a death-like lethargy. The cold wind blowing +through his opened window awakened no sensations in his torpid frame; +the cup of water and the small relics of coarse food stood near his +hand, but he had no vigilance to discern them. His open eyes looked +steadfastly upward, and yet he reposed as one in a deep sleep, or as one +already devoted to the tomb; save when, at intervals, his lips moved +slowly with a long and painfully drawn breath, or a fever flush tinged +his hollow cheek with changing and momentary hues. + +While thus in outward aspect appearing to linger between life and death, +his faculties yet remained feebly vital within him. Aroused by no +external influence, and governed by no mental restraint, they now +created before him a strange waking vision, palpable as an actual event. + +It seemed to him that he was reposing, not in his own chamber, but in +some mysterious world, filled with a twilight atmosphere, inexpressibly +soothing and gentle to his aching sight. Through this mild radiance he +could trace, at long intervals, shadowy representations of the scenes +through which he had passed in search of his lost child. The gloomy +streets, the lonely houses abandoned to the unburied dead, which he had +explored, alternately appeared and vanished before him in solemn +succession; and ever and anon, as one vision disappeared ere another +rose, he heard afar off a sound as of gentle, womanly voices, murmuring +in solemn accents, 'The search has been made in penitence, in patience, +in prayer, and has not been pursued in vain. The lost shall return--the +beloved shall yet be restored!' + +Thus, as it had begun, the vision long continued. Now the scenes +through which he had wandered passed slowly before his eyes, now the +soft voices murmured pityingly in his ear. At length the first +disappeared, and the last became silent; then ensued a long vacant +interval, and then the grey, tranquil light brightened slowly at one +spot, out of which he beheld advancing towards him the form of his lost +child. + +She came to his side, she bent lovingly over him; he saw her eyes, with +their old patient, childlike expression, looking sorrowfully down upon +him. His heart revived to a sense of unspeakable awe and contrition, to +emotions of yearning love and mournful hope; his speech returned; he +whispered tremulously, 'Child! child! I repented in bitter woe the wrong +that I did to thee; I sought thee, in my loneliness on earth, through +the long day and the gloomy night! And now the merciful God has sent +thee to pardon me! I loved thee; I wept for thee.' + + +His voice died within him, for now his outward sensations quickened. He +felt warm tears falling on his cheeks; he felt embracing arms clasped +round him; he heard tenderly repeated, 'Father! speak to me as you were +wont; love me, father, and forgive me, as you loved and forgave me when +I was a little child!' + +The sound of that well-remembered voice--which had ever spoken kindly +and reverently to him; which had last addressed him in tones of +despairing supplication; which he had hardly hoped to hear again on +earth--penetrated his whole being, like awakening music in the dead +silence of night. His eyes lost their vacant expression; he raised +himself suddenly on the couch; he saw that what had begun as a vision +had ended as a reality; that his dream had proved the immediate fore- +runner of its own fulfilment; that his daughter in her bodily presence +was indeed restored; and his head drooped forward, and he trembled and +wept upon her bosom, in the overpowering fulness of his gratitude and +delight. + +For some moments Antonina, calming with the resolute heroism of +affection her own thronging emotions of awe and affright, endeavoured to +soothe and support her fast-failing parent. Her horror almost +overwhelmed her, as she thought that now, when, through grief and peril, +she was at last restored to him, he might expire in her arms; but even +yet her resolution did not fail her. The last hope of her brief and +bitter life was now the hope of reviving her father, and she clung to it +with the tenacity of despair. + +She calmed her voice while she spoke to him; she entreated him to +remember that his daughter had returned to watch over him, to be his +obedient pupil as in days of old. Vain effort! Even while the words +passed her lips, his arms, which had been pressed over her, relaxed; his +head grew heavier on her bosom. In the despair of the moment, she tore +herself from him, and looked round to seek the help that none were near +to afford. The cup of water, the last provision of food, attracted her +eye. With quick instinct she caught them up. Hope, success, salvation, +lay in those miserable relics. She pressed the food into his mouth; she +moistened his parched lips, his dry brow, with the water. During one +moment of horrible suspense she saw him still insensible; then the vital +functions revived; his eyes opened again and fixed famine-struck on the +wretched nourishment before him. He devoured it ravenously; he drained +the cup of water to its last drop; he sank back again on the couch. But +now the torpid blood moved once more in his veins; his heart beat less +and less feebly: he was saved. She saw it as she bent over him--saved +by the lost child in the hour of her return! It was a sensation of +ecstatic triumph and gratitude which no woeful remembrances had power to +embitter in its bright, sudden birth. She knelt down by the side of the +couch, almost crushed by her own emotions. Over the grave of the young +warrior she had raised her heart to Heaven in agony and grief, and now +by her father's side she poured forth her whole soul to her Creator in +trembling ejaculations of thankfulness and hope. + +Thus--the one slowly recovering whatever of life and vigour yet +continued in his weakened frame, the other still filled with her all- +absorbing emotions of gratitude--the father and daughter long remained. +And now, as morning waned towards noon, the storm began to subside. +Gradually and solemnly the vast thunder-clouds rolled asunder, and the +bright blue heaven beyond appeared through their fantastic rifts. The +lessening rain-drops fell light and silvery to the earth, and breeze and +sunshine were wafted at fitful intervals over the plague-tainted +atmosphere of Rome. As yet, subdued by the shadows of the floating +clouds, the dawning sunbeams glittered softly through the windows of +Numerian's chamber. They played, warm and reviving, over his worn +features, like messengers of resurrection and hope from their native +heaven. Life seemed to expand within him under their fresh and gentle +ministering. Once more he raised himself, and turned towards his child; +and now his heart throbbed with a healthful joy, and his arms closed +round her, not in the helplessness of infirmity, but in the welcome of +love. + +His words, when he spoke to her, fell at first almost inarticulately +from his lips--they were mingled together in confused phrases of +tenderness, contrition, thanksgiving. All the native enthusiasm of his +disposition, all the latent love for his child, which had for years been +suppressed by his austerity, or diverted by his ambition, now at last +burst forth. + +Trembling and silent in his arms, Antonina vainly endeavoured to return +his caresses and to answer his words of welcome. Now for the first time +she knew how deep was her father's affection for her; she felt how +foreign to his real nature had been his assumed severity in their +intercourse of former days; and in the quick flow of new feelings and +old recollections produced by the delighting surprise of the discovery, +she found herself speechless. She could only listen eagerly, +breathlessly, while he spoke. His words, faltering and confused though +they were, were words of endearment which she had never heard from him +before; they were words which no mother had ever pronounced beside her +infant bed, and they sank divinely consoling over her heart, as messages +of pardon from an angel's lips. + +Gradually Numerian's voice grew calmer. He raised his daughter in his +arms, and bent wistfully on her face his attentive and pitying eyes. +'Returned, returned!' he murmured, while he gazed on her, 'never again +to depart! Returned, beautiful and patient, kinder and more tender than +ever! Love me and pardon me, Antonina. I sought for you in bitter +loneliness and despair. Think not of me as what I was, but as what I +am! There were days when you were an infant, when I had no thought but +how to cherish and delight you, and now those days have come again. You +shall read no gloomy task-books; you shall never be separated from me +more; you shall play sweet music on the lute; you shall be all garlanded +with flowers which I will provide for you! We will find friends and +glad companions; we will bring happiness with us wherever we are seen. +God's blessing goes forth from children like you--it has fallen upon +me--it has raised me from the dead! My Antonina shall teach me to +worship, as I once taught her. She shall pray for me in the morning, +and pray for me at night; and when she thinks not of it, when she +sleeps, I shall come softly to her bedside, and wait and watch over her, +so that when she opens her eyes they shall open on me--they are the eyes +of my child who has been restored to me--there is nothing on earth that +can speak to me like them of happiness and peace!' + +He paused for a moment, and looked rapturously on her face as it was +turned towards him. His features partially saddened while he gazed, and +taking her long hair, still wet and dishevelled from the rain, in his +hands, he pressed it over his lips, over his face, over his neck. Then, +when he saw that she was endeavouring to speak, when he beheld the tears +that were now filling her eyes, he drew her closer to him, and hurriedly +continued in lower tones-- + +'Hush! hush! No more grief, no more tears! Tell me not whither you +have wandered--speak not of what you have suffered; for would not every +word be a reproach to me? And you have come to pardon and not to +reproach! Let not the recollection that it was I who cast you off be +forced on me from your lips; let us remember only that we are restored +to each other; let us think that God has accepted my penitence and +forgiven me my sin, in suffering my child to return! Or, if we must +speak of the days of separation that are past, speak to me of the days +that found you tranquil and secure; rejoice me by telling me that it was +not all danger and woe in the bitter destiny which my guilty anger +prepared for my own child! Say to me that you met protectors as well as +enemies in the hour of your flight--that all were not harsh to you as I +was--that those of whom you asked shelter and safety looked on your face +as on a petition for charity and kindness from friends whom they loved! +Tell me only of your protectors, Antonina, for in that there will be +consolation; and you have come to console!' + +As he waited for her reply he felt her tremble on his bosom, he saw the +shudder that ran over her frame. The despair in her voice, though she +only pronounced in answer to him the simple words, 'There was one'--and +then ceased, unable to proceed--penetrated coldly to his heart. + +'Is he not at hand?' he hurriedly resumed. 'Why is he not here? Let us +seek him without delay. I must humble myself before him in my +gratitude. I must show him that I was worthy that my Antonina should be +restored.' + + +'He is dead!' she gasped, sinking down in the arms that embraced her, as +the recollections of the past night again crowded in all their horror on +her memory. 'They murdered him by my side. O father! father! he loved +me; he would have reverenced and protected you!' + +'May the merciful God receive him among the blessed angels, and honour +him among the holy martyrs!' cried the father, raising his tearful eyes +in supplication. 'May his spirit, if it can still be observant of the +things of earth, know that his name shall be written on my heart with +the name of my child; that I will think on him as on a beloved +companion, and mourn for him as a son that has been taken from me!' + +He ceased, and looked down on Antonina, whose features were still hidden +from him. Each felt that a new bond of mutual affection had been +created between them by what each had spoken; but both now remained +silent. + +During this interval the thoughts of Numerian wandered from the +reflections which had hitherto occupied him. The few mournful words +which his daughter had spoken had been sufficient to banish its fulness +of joy from his heart, and to turn him from the happy contemplation of +the present to the dark recollections of the past. Vague doubts and +fears now mingled with his gratitude and hope, and involuntarily his +thoughts reverted to what he would fain have forgotten for ever--to the +morning when he had driven Antonina from her home. + +Baseless apprehensions of the return of the treacherous Pagan and his +profligate employer, with the return of their victim--despairing +convictions of his own helplessness and infirmity rose startlingly in +his mind. His eyes wandered vacantly round the room, his hands closed +trembling over his daughter's form; then, suddenly releasing her, he +arose as one panic-stricken, and exclaiming, 'The doors must be +secured--Ulpius may be near--the senator may return!' endeavoured to +cross the room. But his strength was unequal to the effort; he leaned +back for support against the wall, and breathlessly repeating, 'Secure +the doors--Ulpius, Ulpius!' he motioned to Antonina to descend. + +She trembled as she obeyed him. Remembering her passage through the +breach in the wall, and her fearful journey through the streets of Rome, +she more than shared her father's apprehensions as she descended the +stairs. + +The door remained half open, as she had left it when she entered the +house. Ere she hurriedly closed and barred it, she cast a momentary +glance on the street beyond. The gaunt figures of the slaves still +moved wearily to and fro, amid the mockery of festal preparation in +Vetranio's palace; and here and there a few ghastly figures lay on the +ground contemplating them in languid amazement. Over all other parts of +the street the deadly tranquillity of plague and famine still prevailed. + +Hurriedly ascending the steps, Antonina hastened to assure her father +that she had obeyed his commands, and that they were now secure from all +intrusion from without. But, during her brief absence, a new and more +ominous prospect of calamity had presented itself before the old man's +mind. + +As she entered the room, she saw that he had returned to his couch, and +that he was holding before him the little wooden bowl which had +contained his last supply of food, and which was now empty. He addressed +not a word to her when he heard her enter; his features were rigid with +horror and despair as he looked down on the empty bowl; he muttered +vacantly, 'It was the last provision that remained, and it was I that +exhausted it! The beasts of the forest carry food to their young, and I +have taken the last morsel from my child!' + + +In an instant the utter desolateness of their situation--forgotten in +the first joy of their meeting--forced itself with appalling vividness +upon Antonina's mind. She endeavoured to speak of comfort and hope to +her father; but the fearful realities of the famine in the city now rose +palpably before her, and suspended the vain words of solace on her lips. +In the midst of still populous Rome, within sight of those surrounding +plains where the creative sun ripened hour by hour the vegetation of the +teeming earth, where field and granary displayed profusely their +abundant stores, the father and daughter now looked on each other, as +helpless to replace their exhausted provision of food as if they had +been abandoned on the raft of the shipwrecked in an unexplored sea, or +banished to a lonely island whose inland products were withered by +infected winds, and around whose arid shores ran such destroying waters +as seethe over the 'Cities of the Plain'. + +The silence which had long prevailed in the room, the bitter reflections +which still held the despairing father and the patient daughter +speechless alike, were at length interrupted by a hollow and melancholy +voice from the street, pronouncing, in the form of a public notice, +these words:-- + +'I, Publius Dalmatius, messenger of the Roman Senate, proclaim, that in +order to clear the streets from the dead, three thousand sestertii will +be given by the Prefect for every ten bodies that are cast over the +walls. This is the true decree of the Senate.' + +The voice ceased; but no sound of applause, no murmur of popular tumult +was heard in answer. Then, after an interval, it was once more faintly +audible as the messenger passed on and repeated the decree in another +street; and then the silence again sank down over all things more +awfully pervading than before. + +Every word of the proclamation, when repeated in the distance as when +spoken under his window, had clearly reached Numerian's ears. His mind, +already sinking in despair, was riveted on what he had heard from the +woe-boding voice of the herald, with a fascination as absorbing as that +which rivets the eye of the traveller, already giddy on the summit of a +precipice, upon the spectacle of the yawning gulfs beneath. When all +sound of the proclamation had finally died away, the unhappy father +dropped the empty bowl which he had hitherto mechanically continued to +hold before him, and glancing affrightedly at his daughter, groaned to +himself: 'The corpses are to be cast over the walls--the dead are to be +flung forth to the winds of heaven--there is no help for us in the city. +O God, God!--she may die!--her body may be cast away like the rest, and +I may live to see it!' + +He rose suddenly from the couch; his reason seemed for a moment to be +shaken as he tottered to the window, crying, 'Food! food!--I will give +my house and all it contains for a morsel of food. I have nothing to +support my own child--she will starve before me by tomorrow if I have no +food! I am a citizen of Rome--I demand help from the Senate! Food! +food!' + +In tones declining lower and lower he continued to cry thus from the +window, but no voice answered him either in sympathy or derision. Of +all the people--now increased in numbers--collected in the street before +Vetranio's palace, no one turned even to look on him. For days and days +past, such fruitless appeals as his had been heard, and heard +unconcernedly, at every hour and in every street of Rome--now ringing +through the heavy air in the shrieks of delirium; now faintly audible in +the last faltering murmurs of exhaustion and despair. + +Thus vainly entreating help and pity from a populace who had ceased to +give the one or to feel the other, Numerian might long have remained; +but now his daughter approached his side, and drawing him gently towards +his couch, said in tender and solemn accents: 'Remember, father, that +God sent the ravens to feed Elijah, and replenished the widow's cruse! +He will not desert us, for He has restored us to each other, and has +sent me hither not to perish in the famine, but to watch over you!' + + +'God has deserted the city and all that it contains!' he answered +distractedly. 'The angel of destruction has gone forth into our +streets, and death walks in his shadow! On this day, when hope and +happiness seemed opening before us both; our little household has been +doomed! The young and the old, the weary and the watchful, they strew +the streets alike--the famine has mastered them all--the famine will +master us--there is no help, no escape! I, who would have died +patiently for my daughter's safety, must now die despairing, leaving her +friendless in the wide, dreary, perilous world; in the dismal city of +anguish, of horror, of death--where the enemy threatens without, and +hunger and pestilence waste within! O Antonina! you have returned to me +but for a little time; the day of our second separation draws near!' + +For a few moments his head drooped, and his sobs choked his utterance; +then he once more rose painfully to his feet. Heedless of Antonina's +entreaties, he again endeavoured to cross the room, only again to find +his feeble powers unequal to sustain him. As he fell back panting upon +a seat, his eyes assumed a wild, unnatural expression--despair of mind +and weakness of body had together partially unhinged his faculties. +When his daughter affrightedly approached to soothe and succour him, he +impatiently waved her back; and began to speak in a dull, hoarse, +monotonous voice, pressing his hand firmly over his brow, and directing +his eyes backwards and forwards incessantly, on object after object, in +every part of the room. + +'Listen, child, listen!' he hastily began. 'I tell you there is no food +in the house, and no food in Rome!--we are besieged--they have taken +from us our granaries in the suburbs, and our fields on the plains-- +there is a great famine in the city--those who still eat, eat strange +food which men sicken at when it is named. I would seek even this, but +I have no strength to go forth into the byways and force it from others +at the point of the sword! I am old and feeble, and heart-broken--I +shall die first, and leave fatherless my good, kind daughter, whom I +sought for so long, and whom I loved as my only child!' + +He paused for an instant, not to listen to the words of encouragement +and hope which Antonina mechanically addressed to him while he spoke, +but to collect his wandering thoughts, to rally his failing strength. +His voice acquired a quicker tone, and his features presented a sudden +energy and earnestness of expression, as if some new project had flashed +across his mind, when, after an interval, he continued thus:-- + +'But though my child shall be bereaved of me, though I shall die in the +hour when I most longed to live for her, I must not leave her helpless; +I will send her among my congregation who have deserted me, but who will +repent when they hear that I am dead, and will receive Antonina among +them for my sake! Listen to this--listen, listen! You must tell them +to remember all that I once revealed to them of my brother, from whom I +parted in my boyhood--my brother, whom I have never seen since. He may +yet be alive, he may be found--they must search for him; for to you he +would be father to the fatherless, and guardian to the unguarded--he may +now be in Rome, he may be rich and powerful--he may have food to spare, +and shelter that is good against all enemies and strangers! Attend, +child, to my words: in these latter days I have thought of him much; I +have seen him in dreams as I saw him for the last time in my father's +house; he was happier and more beloved than I was, and in envy and +hatred I quitted my parents and parted from him. You have heard nothing +of this; but you must hear it now, that when I am dead you may know you +have a protector to seek! So I received in anger my brother's farewell, +and fled from my home--(those days were well remembered by me once, but +all things grow dull on my memory now). Long years of turmoil and +change passed on, and I never met him; and men of many nations were my +companions, but he was not among them; then much affliction fell upon +me, and I repented and learnt the fear of God, and went back to my +father's house. Since that, years have passed--I know not how many. I +could have told them when I spoke of my former life to him--to my +friend, when we stood near St. Peter's, ere the city was besieged, +looking on the sunset, and speaking of the early days of our +companionship; but now my very remembrance fails me; the famine that +threatens us with separation and death casts darkness over my thoughts; +yet hear me, hear me patiently--for your sake I must continue!' + +'Not now, father--not now! At another time, on a happier day!' murmured +Antonina, in tremulous, entreating tones. + + +'My home, when I arrived to look on it, was gone,' pursued the old man +sadly, neither heeding nor hearing her. 'Other houses were built where +my father's house had stood; no man could tell me of my parents and my +brother; then I returned, and my former companions grew hateful in my +eyes; I left them, and they followed me with persecution and scorn.-- +Listen, listen!--I set forth secretly in the night, with you, to escape +them, and to make perfect my reformation where they should not be near +to hinder it; and we travelled onward many days until we came to Rome, +and I made my abode there. But I feared that my companions whom I +abhorred might discover and persecute me again, and in the new city of +my dwelling I called myself by another name than the name that I bore; +thus I knew that all trace of me would be lost, and that I should be +kept secure from men whom I thought on only as enemies now. Go, child! +go quickly!--bring your tablets and write down the names that I shall +tell you; for so you will discover your protector when I am gone! Say +not to him that you are the child of Numerian--he knows not the name; +say that you are the daughter of Cleander, his brother, who died longing +to be restored to him. Write--write carefully, Cleander!--that was the +name my father gave to me; that was the name I bore until I fled from my +evil companions and changed it, dreading their pursuit! Cleander! write +and remember, Cleander! I have seen in visions that my brother shall be +discovered: he will not be discovered to me, but he will be discovered +to you! Your tablets--your tablets!--write his name with mine--it is--' + +He stopped abruptly. His mental powers, fluctuating between torpor and +animation--shaken, but not overpowered by the trials which had assailed +them--suddenly rallied, and resuming somewhat of their accustomed +balance, became awakened to a sense of their own aberration. His vague +revelations of his past life (which the reader will recognise as +resembling his communications on the same subject to the fugitive land- +owner, previously related) now appeared before him in all their +incongruity and uselessness. His countenance fell--he sighed bitterly +to himself: 'My reason begins to desert me!--my judgment, which should +guide my child--my resolution, which should uphold her, both fail me! +How should my brother, since childhood lost to me, be found by her? +Against the famine that threatens us I offer but vain words! Already +her strength declines; her face, that I loved to look on grows wan +before my eyes! God have mercy upon us!--God have mercy upon us!' + +He returned feebly to his couch; his head declined on his bosom; +sometimes a low groan burst from his lips, but he spoke no more. + +Deep as was the prostration under which he had now fallen, it was yet +less painful to Antonina to behold it than to listen to the incoherent +revelations which had fallen from his lips but the moment before, and +which, in her astonishment and affright, she had dreaded might be the +awful indications of the overthrow of her father's reason. As she again +placed herself by his side, she trembled to feel that her own weariness +was fast overpowering her; but she still struggled with her rising +despair--still strove to think only of capacity for endurance and +chances of relief. + +The silence in the room was deep and dismal while they now sat together. +The faint breezes, at long intervals, drowsily rose and fell as they +floated through the open window; the fitful sunbeams alternately +appeared and vanished as the clouds rolled upward in airy succession +over the face of heaven. Time moved sternly in its destined progress, +and Nature varied tranquilly through its appointed limits of change, and +still no hopes, no saving projects, nothing but dark recollections and +woeful anticipations occupied Antonina's mind; when, just as her weary +head was drooping towards the ground, just as sensation and fortitude +and grief itself seemed declining into a dreamless and deadly sleep, a +last thought, void of discernible connection or cause, rose suddenly +within her--animating, awakening, inspiring. She started up. 'The +garden, father--the garden!' she cried breathlessly. 'Remember the food +that grows in our garden below! Be comforted, we have provision left +yet--God has not deserted us!' + +He raised his face while she spoke; his features assumed a deeper +mournfulness and hopelessness of expression; he looked upon her in +ominous silence, and laid his trembling fingers on her arm to detain +her, when she hurriedly attempted to quit the room. + + +'Do not forbid me to depart,' she anxiously pleaded. 'To me every +corner in the garden is known; for it was my possession in our happier +days--our last hopes rest in the garden, and I must search through it +without delay! Bear with me,' she added, in low and melancholy +tones--'bear with me, dear father, in all that I would now do! I have +suffered, since we parted, a bitter affliction, which clings dark and +heavy to all my thoughts--there is no consolation for me but the +privilege of caring for your welfare--my only hope of comfort is in the +employment of aiding you!' + +The old man's hand had pressed heavier on her arm while she addressed +him; but when she ceased it dropped from her, and he bent his head in +speechless submission to her entreaty. + +For one moment she lingered, looking on him silent as himself; the next, +she left the apartment with hasty and uncertain steps. + +On reaching the garden, she unconsciously took the path leading to the +bank where she had once loved to play secretly upon her lute and to look +on the distant mountains reposing in the warm atmosphere which summer +evenings shed over their blue expanse. How eloquent was this little +plot of ground of the quiet events now for ever gone by!--of the joys, +the hopes, the happy occupations, which rise with the day that +chronicles them, and pass like that day, never to return the same!-- +which the memory alone can preserve as they were, and the heart can +never resume but in a changed form, divested of the presence of the +companion of the incident of the departed moment, which formed the charm +of the past and makes the imperfection of the present. + +Tender and thronging were the remembrances which the surrounding +prospect called up, as the sad mistress of the garden looked again on +her little domain! She saw the bank where she could never more sit to +sing with a renewal of the same feelings which had once inspired her +music; she saw the drooping flowers that she could never restore with +the same childlike enjoyment of the task which had animated her in +former hours! Young though she still was, the emotions of the youthful +days that were gone could never be revived as they had once existed! As +waters they had welled up, and as waters they had flowed forth, never to +return to their source! Thoughts of these former years--of the young +warrior who lay cold beneath the heavy earth--of the desponding father +who mourned hopeless in the room above--gathered thick at her heart as +she turned from her flower-beds--not, as in other days, to pour forth +her happiness to the music of her lute, but to search laboriously for +the sustenance of life. + +At first, as she stooped over those places in the garden where she knew +that fruits and vegetables had been planted by her own hand, her tears +blinded her. She hastily dashed them away, and looked eagerly around. + +Alas! others had reaped the field from which she had hoped abundance! +In the early days of the famine Numerian's congregation had entered the +garden, and gathered for him whatever it contained; its choicest and its +homeliest products were alike exhausted; withered leaves lay on the +barren earth, and naked branches waved over them in the air. She +wandered from path to path, searching amid the briars and thistles, +which already cast an aspect of ruin over the deserted place; she +explored its most hidden corners with the painful perseverance of +despair; but the same barrenness spread around her wherever she turned. +On this once fertile spot, which she had entered with such joyful faith +in its resources, there remained but a few poor decayed roots, dropped +and forgotten amid tangled weeds and faded flowers. + +She saw that they were barely sufficient for one scanty meal as she +collected them and returned slowly to the house. No words escaped her, +no tears flowed over her cheeks when she reascended the steps--hope, +fear, thought, sensation itself had been stunned within her from the +first moment when she had discovered that, in the garden as in the +house, the inexorable famine had anticipated the last chances of relief. + +She entered the room, and, still holding the withered roots, advanced +mechanically to her father's side. During her absence his mental and +bodily faculties had both yielded to wearied nature--he lay in a deep, +heavy sleep. + + +Her mind experienced a faint relief when she saw that the fatal +necessity of confessing the futility of the hopes she had herself +awakened was spared her for a while. She knelt down by Numerian, and +gently smoothed the hair over his brow; then she drew the curtain across +the window, for she feared even that the breeze blowing through it might +arouse him. + +A strange, secret satisfaction at the idea of devoting to her father +every moment of the time and every particle of the strength that might +yet be reserved for her; a ready resignation to death in dying for him-- +overspread her heart, and took the place of all other aspirations and +all other thoughts. + +She now moved to and fro through the room with a cautious tranquillity +which nothing could startle; she prepared her decayed roots for food +with a patient attention which nothing could divert. Lost, through the +aggravated miseries of her position, to recent grief and present +apprehension, she could still instinctively perform the simple offices +of the woman and the daughter, as she might have performed them amid a +peaceful nation and a prosperous home. Thus do the first-born +affections outlast the exhaustion of all the stormy emotions, all the +aspiring thoughts of after years, which may occupy, but which cannot +absorb, the spirit within us; thus does their friendly and familiar +voice, when the clamour of contending passions has died away in its own +fury, speak again, serene and sustaining as in the early time, when the +mind moved secure within the limits of its native simplicity, and the +heart yet lay happy in the pure tranquillity of its first repose! + +The last scanty measure of food was soon prepared; it was bitter and +unpalatable when she tasted it--life could barely be preserved, even in +the most vigorous, by provision so wretched; but she set it aside as +carefully as if it had been the most precious luxury of the most +abundant feast. + +Nothing had changed during the interval of her solitary employment--her +father yet slept; the gloomy silence yet prevailed in the street. She +placed herself at the window, and partially drew aside the curtain to +let the warm breezes from without blow over her cold brow. The same +ineffable resignation, the same unnatural quietude, which had sunk down +over her faculties since she had entered the room, overspread them +still. Surrounding objects failed to impress her attention; +recollections and forebodings stagnated in her mind. A marble composure +prevailed over her features. Sometimes her eyes wandered mechanically +from the morsels of food by her side to her sleeping father, as her one +vacant idea of watching for his service, till the feeble pulses of life +had throbbed their last, alternately revived and declined; but no other +evidences of bodily existence or mental activity appeared in her. As +she now sat in the half-darkened room, by the couch on which her father +reposed--her features pale, calm, and rigid, her form enveloped in cold +white drapery--there were moments when she looked like one of the +penitential devotees of the primitive Church, appointed to watch in the +house of mourning, and surprised in her saintly vigil by the advent of +Death. + +Time flowed on--the monotonous hours of the day waned again towards +night; and plague and famine told their lapse in the fated highways of +Rome. For father and child the sand in the glass was fast running out, +and neither marked it as it diminished. The sleeper still reposed, and +the guardian by his side still watched; but now her weary gaze was +directed on the street, unconsciously attracted by the sound of voices +which at length rose from it at intervals, and by the light of the +torches and lamps which appeared in the great palace of the senator +Vetranio, as the sun gradually declined in the horizon, and the fiery +clouds around were quenched in the vapours of the advancing night. +Steadily she looked upon the sight beneath and before her; but even yet +her limbs never moved; no expression relieved the blank, solemn +peacefulness of her features. + +Meanwhile, the soft, brief twilight glimmered over the earth, and showed +the cold moon, poised solitary in the starless heaven; then, the +stealthy darkness arose at her pale signal, and closed slowly round the +City of Death! + + +CHAPTER 22. THE BANQUET OF FAMINE. + +Of all prophecies, none are, perhaps, so frequently erroneous as those +on which we are most apt to venture in endeavouring to foretell the +effect of outward events on the characters of men. In no form of our +anticipations are we more frequently baffled than in such attempts to +estimate beforehand the influence of circumstance over conduct, not only +in others, but also even in ourselves. Let the event but happen, and +men, whom we view by the light of our previous observation of them, act +under it as the living contradictions of their own characters. The +friend of our daily social intercourse, in the progress of life, and the +favourite hero of our historic studies, in the progress of the page, +astonish, exceed, or disappoint our expectations alike. We find it as +vain to foresee a cause as to fix a limit for the arbitrary +inconsistencies in the dispositions of mankind. + +But, though to speculate upon the future conduct of others under +impending circumstances be but too often to expose the fallacy of our +wisest anticipations, to contemplate the nature of that conduct after it +has been displayed is a useful subject of curiosity, and may perhaps be +made a fruitful source of instruction. Similar events which succeed +each other at different periods are relieved from monotony, and derive +new importance from the ever-varying effects which they produce on the +human character. Thus, in the great occurrence which forms the +foundation of our narrative, we may find little in the siege of Rome, +looking at it as a mere event, to distinguish it remarkably from any +former siege of the city--the same desire for glory and vengeance, +wealth and dominion, which brought Alaric to her walls, brought other +invaders before him. But if we observed the effect of the Gothic +descent upon Italy on the inhabitants of her capital, we shall find +ample matter for novel contemplation and unbounded surprise. + +We shall perceive, as an astonishing instance of the inconsistencies of +the human character, the spectacle of a whole people resolutely defying +an overwhelming foreign invasion at their very doors, just at the period +when they had fallen most irremediably from the highest position of +national glory to the lowest depths of national degradation; resisting +an all-powerful enemy with inflexible obstinacy, for the honour of the +Roman name, which they had basely dishonoured or carelessly forgotten +for ages past. We shall behold men who have hitherto laughed at the +very name of patriotism, now starving resolutely in their country's +cause; who stopped at no villainy to obtain wealth, now hesitating to +employ their ill-gotten gains in the purchase of the most important of +all gratifications--their own security and peace. Instances of the +unimaginable effect produced by the event of the siege of Rome on the +characters of her inhabitants might be drawn from all classes, from the +lowest to the highest, from patrician to plebeian; but to produce them +here would be to admit too long an interruption in the progress of the +present narrative. If we are to enter at all into detail on such a +subject, it must be only in a case clearly connected with the actual +requirements of our story; and such a case may be found, at this +juncture, in the conduct of the senator Vetranio, under the influence of +the worst calamities attending the blockade of Rome by the Goths. + +Who, it may be asked, knowing the previous character of this man, his +frivolity of disposition, his voluptuous anxiety for unremitting +enjoyment and ease, his horror of the slightest approaches of affliction +or pain, would have imagined him capable of rejecting in disdain all the +minor chances of present security and future prosperity which his +unbounded power and wealth might have procured for him, even in a +famine-stricken city, and rising suddenly to the sublime of criminal +desperation, in the resolution to abandon life as worthless the moment +it had ceased to run in the easy current of all former years? Yet to +this determination had he now arrived; and, still more extraordinary, in +this determination had he found others, of his own patrician order, to +join him. + + +The reader will remember his wild announcement of his intended orgie to +the Prefect Pompeianus during the earlier periods of the siege; that +announcement was now to be fulfilled. Vetranio had bidden his guests to +the Banquet of Famine. A chosen number of the senators of the great +city were to vindicate their daring by dying the revellers that they had +lived; by resigning in contempt all prospect of starving, like the +common herd, on a lessening daily pittance of loathsome food; by making +their triumphant exit from a fettered and ungrateful life, drowned in +floods of wine, and lighted by the fires of the wealthiest palace of +Rome! + +It had been intended to keep this frantic determination a profound +secret, to let the mighty catastrophe burst upon the remaining +inhabitants of the city like a prodigy from heaven; but the slaves +intrusted with the organisation of the suicide banquet had been bribed +to their tasks with wine, and in the carelessness of intoxication had +revealed to others whatever they heard within the palace walls. The +news passed from mouth to mouth. There was enough in the prospect of +beholding the burning palace and the drunken suicide of its desperate +guests to animate even the stagnant curiosity of a famishing mob. + +On the appointed evening the people dragged their weary limbs from all +quarters of the city towards the Pincian Hill. Many of them died on the +way; many lost their resolution to proceed to the end of their journey, +and took shelter sullenly in the empty houses on the road; many found +opportunities for plunder and crime as they proceeded, which tempted +them from their destination; but many persevered in their purpose--the +living dragging the dying along with them, the desperate driving the +cowardly before them in malignant sport, until they gained the palace +gates. It was by their voices, as they reached her ear from the street, +that the fast-sinking faculties of Antonina had been startled, though +not revived; and there, on the broad pavement, lay these citizens of a +fallen city--a congregation of pestilence and crime--a starving and an +awful band! + +The moon, brightened by the increasing darkness, now clearly illuminated +the street, and revealed, in a narrow space, a various and impressive +scene. + +One side of the roadway in which stood Vetranio's palace was occupied, +along each extremity, as far as the eye could reach at night, by the +groves and outbuildings attached to the senator's mansion. The palace +grounds, at the higher and farther end of the street--looking from the +Pincian Gate--crossed it by a wide archway, and then stretched backward, +until they joined the trees of the little garden of Numerian's abode. +In a line with this house, but separated from it by a short space, stood +a long row of buildings, let out floor by floor to separate occupants, +and towering to an unwieldy altitude; for in ancient Rome, as in modern +London, in consequence of the high price of land in an over-populated +city, builders could only secure space in a dwelling by adding +inconveniently to its height. Beyond these habitations rose the trees +surrounding another patrician abode; and beyond that the houses took a +sudden turn, and nothing more was visible in a straight line but the +dusky, indefinite objects of the distant view. + + +The whole appearance of the street before Vetranio's mansion, had it +been unoccupied by the repulsive groups now formed in it, would have +been eminently beautiful at the hours of which we now write. The nobly +symmetrical frontage of the palace itself, with its graceful succession +of long porticoes and colossal statues, contrasted by the picturesquely +irregular appearance of the opposite dwelling of Numerian and the lofty +houses by its side; the soft, indistinct masses of foliage running +parallel along the upper ends of the street, terminated and connected by +the archway garden across the road, on which was planted a group of tall +pine-trees, rising in gigantic relief against the transparent sky; the +brilliant light streaming across the pavement from Vetranio's gaily- +curtained windows, immediately opposed by the tranquil moonlight which +lit the more distant view--formed altogether a prospect in which the +natural and the artificial were mingled together in the most exquisite +proportions--a prospect whose ineffable poetry and beauty might, on any +other night, have charmed the most careless eye and exalted the most +frivolous mind. But now, overspread as it was by groups of people gaunt +with famine and hideous with disease; startled as it was, at gloomy +intervals, by contending cries of supplication, defiance, and despair-- +its brightest beauties of Nature and Art appeared but to shine with an +aspect of bitter mockery around the human misery which their splendour +disclosed. + +Upwards of a hundred people--mostly of the lowest orders--were +congregated before the senator's devoted dwelling. Some few among them +passed slowly to and fro in the street, their figures gliding shadowy +and solemn through the light around them; but the greater number lay on +the pavement before the wall of Numerian's dwelling and the doorways of +the lofty houses by its side. Illuminated by the full glare of the +light from the palace windows, these groups, huddled together in the +distorted attitudes of suffering and despair, assumed a fearful and +unearthly appearance. Their shrivelled faces, their tattered clothing, +their wan forms, here prostrate, there half-raised, were bathed in a +steady red glow. High above them, at the windows of the tall houses, +now tenanted in every floor by the dead, appeared a few figures (the +mercenary guardians of the dying within) bending forward to look out +upon the palace opposite--their haggard faces showing pale in the clear +moonlight. Sometimes their voices were heard calling in mockery to the +mass of people below to break down the strong steel gates of the palace, +and tear the full wine-cup from its master's lips. Sometimes those +beneath replied with execrations, which rose wildly mingled with the +wailing of women and children, the moans of the plague-stricken, and the +supplications of the famished to the slaves passing backwards and +forwards behind the palace railings for charity and help. + +In the intervals, when the tumult of weak voices was partially lulled, +there was heard a dull, regular, beating sound, produced by those who +had found dry bones on their road to the palace, and were pounding them +on the pavement, in sheltered places, for food. The wind, which had +been refreshing during the day, had changed at sunset, and now swept up +slowly over the street in hot, faint gusts, plague-laden, from the East. +Particles of the ragged clothing on some prostrate forms lying most +exposed in its course waved slowly to and fro, as it passed, like +banners planted by Death on the yielding defences of the citadel of +Life. It wound through the open windows of the palace, hot and +mephitic, as if tainted with the breath of the foul and furious words +which it bore onward into the banqueting-hall of the senator's reckless +guests. Driven over such scenes as now spread beneath it, it derived +from them a portentous significance; it seemed to blow like an +atmosphere exuded from the furnace-depths of centre earth, breathing +sinister warnings of some deadly convulsion in the whole fabric of +Nature over the thronged and dismal street. + +Such was the prospect before the palace, and such the spectators +assembled in ferocious anxiety to behold the destruction of the +senator's abode. Meanwhile, within the walls of the building, the +beginning of the fatal orgie was at hand. + +It had been covenanted by the slaves (who, during the calamities in the +besieged city, had relaxed in their accustomed implicit obedience to +their master with perfect impunity), that, as soon as the last labours +of preparation were completed, they should be free to consult their own +safety by quitting the devoted palace. Already some of the weakest and +most timid of their numbers might be seen passing out hastily into the +gardens by the back gates, like engineers who had fired a train, and +were escaping ere the explosion burst forth. Those among the menials +who still remained in the palace were for the greater part occupied in +drinking from the vases of wine which had been placed before them, to +preserve to the last moment their failing strength. + + +The mockery of festivity had been extended even to their dresses--green +liveries girt with cherry-coloured girdles arrayed their wasted forms. +They drank in utter silence. Not the slightest appearance of revelry or +intoxication prevailed among their ranks. Confusedly huddled together, +as if for mutual protection, they ever and anon cast quick glances of +suspicion and apprehension upon some six or eight of the superior +attendants of the palace, who walked backwards and forwards at the outer +extremity of the hall occupied by their comrades, and occasionally +advancing along the straight passages before them to the front gates of +the building, appeared to be exchanging furtive signals with some of the +people in the street. Reports had been vaguely spread of a secret +conspiracy between some of the principal of the slaves and certain +chosen ruffians of the populace, to murder all the inmates of the +palace, seize on its treasures, and, opening the city gates to the +Goths, escape with their booty during the confusion of the pillage of +Rome. Nothing had as yet been positively discovered; but the few +attendants who kept ominously apart from the rest were unanimously +suspected by their fellows, who now watched them over their wine-cups +with anxious eyes. Different as was the scene among the slaves still +left in the palace from the scene among the people dispersed in the +street, the one was nevertheless in its own degree as gloomily +suggestive of some great impending calamity as the other. + +The grand banqueting-hall of the palace, prepared though it now was for +festivity, wore a changed and melancholy aspect. + +The massive tables still ran down the whole length of the noble room, +surrounded by luxurious couches, as in former days, but not a vestige of +food appeared upon their glittering surfaces. Rich vases, flasks, and +drinking-cups, all filled with wine, alone occupied the festal board. +Above, hanging low from the ceiling, burnt ten large lamps, +corresponding to the number of guests assembled, as the only procurable +representatives of the hundreds of revellers who had feasted at +Vetranio's expense during the brilliant nights that were now passed for +ever. At the lower end of the room, beyond the grand door of entrance, +hung a thick black curtain, apparently intended to conceal mysteriously +some object behind it. Before the curtain burnt a small lamp of yellow +glass, raised upon a high gilt pole, and around and beneath it, heaped +against the side walls, and over part of the table, lay a various and +confused mass of rich objects, all of a nature more or less inflammable, +and all besprinkled with scented oils. Hundreds of yards of gorgeously +variegated hangings, rolls upon rolls of manuscripts, gaudy dresses of +all colours, toys, utensils, innumerable articles of furniture formed in +rare and beautifully inlaid woods, were carelessly flung together +against the walls of the apartment, and rose high towards its ceiling. + +On every part of the tables not occupied by the vases of wine were laid +gold and jewelled ornaments which dazzled the eye by their brilliancy; +while, in extraordinary contrast to the magnificence thus profusely +displayed, there appeared in one of the upper corners of the hall an old +wooden stand covered by a coarse cloth, on which were placed one or two +common earthenware bowls, containing what my be termed a 'mash' of +boiled bran and salted horseflesh. Any repulsive odour which might have +arisen from this strange compound was overpowered by the various +perfumes sprinkled about the room, which, mingling with the hot breezes +wafted through the windows from the street, produced an atmosphere as +oppressive and debilitating, in spite of its artificial allurements to +the sense of smell, as the air of a dungeon or the vapours of a marsh. + +Remarkable as was the change in the present appearance of the +banqueting-hall, it was but the feeble reflection of the alteration for +the worse in the aspect of the host and his guests. Vetranio reclined +at the head of the table, dressed in a scarlet mantle. An embroidered +towel with purple tassels and fringes, connected with rings of gold, +fell over his breast, and silver and ivory bracelets were clasped round +his arms. But of the former man the habiliments were all that remained. +His head was bent forward, as if with the weakness of age; his emaciated +arms seemed barely able to support the weight of the ornaments which +glittered on them; his eyes had contracted a wild, unsettled expression; +and a deadly paleness overspread the once plump and jovial cheeks which +so many mistresses had kissed in mercenary rapture in other days. Both +in countenance and manner the elegant voluptuary of our former +acquaintance at the Court of Ravenna was entirely and fatally changed. +Of the other eight patricians who lay on the couches around their +altered host--some wild and reckless, some gloomy and imbecile--all had +suffered in the ordeal of the siege, the famine, and the pestilence, +like him. + +Such were the members of the assemblage, represented from the ceiling by +nine of the burning lamps. The tenth and last lamp indicated the +presence of one more guest who reclined a little apart from the rest. + + +This man was hump-backed; his gaunt, bony features were repulsively +disproportioned to his puny frame, which looked doubly contemptible, +enveloped as it was in an ample tawdry robe. Sprung from the lowest +ranks of the populace, he had gradually forced himself into the favour +of his superiors by his skill in coarse mimicry, and his readiness in +ministering to the worst vices of all who would employ him. Having lost +the greater part of his patrons during the siege, finding himself +abandoned to starvation on all sides, he had now, as a last resource, +obtained permission to participate in the Banquet of Famine, to enliven +it by a final exhibition of his buffoonery, and to die with his masters, +as he had lived with them--the slave, the parasite, and the imitator of +the lowest of their vices and the worst of their crimes. + +At the commencement of the orgie, little was audible beyond the clash of +the wine-cups, the low occasional whispering of the revellers, and the +confused voices of the people without, floating through the window from +the street. The desperate compact of the guests, now that its execution +had actually begun, awed them at first in spite of themselves. At +length, when there was a lull of all sounds--when a temporary calm +prevailed over the noises outside--when the wine-cups were emptied, and +left for a moment ere they were filled again--Vetranio feebly rose, and, +announcing with a mocking smile that he was about to speak a funeral +oration over his friends and himself, pointed to the wall immediately +behind him as to an object fitted to awaken the astonishment or the +hilarity of his moody guests. + +Against the upper part of the wall were fixed various small statues in +bronze and marble, all representing the owner of the palace, and all +hung with golden plates. Beneath these appeared the rent-roll of his +estates, written in various colours on white vellum, and beneath that, +scratched on the marble in faint irregular characters, was no less an +object than his own epitaph, composed by himself. It may be translated +thus:-- + + Stop, Spectator! + If thou has reverently cultivated the pleasures of the taste, + pause amid these illustrious ruins of what was once + a palace, + and peruse with respect on this stone + the epitaph of VETRANIO, a senator. + He was the first man who invented a successful + nightingale sauce; + his bold and creative genius added much, + and would have added more, to + THE ART OF COOKERY; + but, alas for the interests of science! + he lived in the days when the Gothic barbarians besieged + THE IMPERIAL CITY; + famine left him no matter for gustatory experiment; + and pestilence deprived him of cooks to enlighten! + Opposed at all points by the force of adverse circumstances, + finding his life of no further use to the culinary + interests of Rome, + he called his chosen friends together to assist him, + conscientiously drank up every drop of wine remaining + in his cellars, + lit the funeral pile of himself and his guests, + in the banqueting-hall of his own palace, + and died, as he had lived, + the patriotic CATO + of his country's gastronomy! + +'Behold!' cried Vetranio, pointing triumphantly to the epitaph--'behold +in every line of those eloquent letters at once the seal of my resolute +adherence to the engagement that unites us here, and the foundation of +my just claim to the reverence of posterity on the most useful of the +arts which I exercised for the benefit of my species! Read, friends, +brethren, fellow-martyrs of glory, and, as you read, rejoice with me +over the hour of our departure from the desecrated arena, no longer +worthy the celebration of the Games of Life! Yet, ere the feast +proceeds, hear me while I speak--I make my last oration as the arbiter +of our funeral sports, as the host of the Banquet of Famine! + + +'Who would sink ignobly beneath the slow superiority of starvation, or +perish under the quickly glancing steel of the barbarian conqueror's +sword, when such a death as ours is offered to the choice?--when wine +flows bright, to drown sensation in oblivion, and a palace and its +treasures furnish alike the scene of the revel and the radiant funeral +pile? The mighty philosophers of India--the inspired Gymnosophists-- +died as we shall die! Calanus before Alexander, Zamarus in the presence +of Augustus, lit the fires that consumed them! Let us follow their +glorious example! No worms will prey upon our bodies, no hired mourners +will howl discordant at our funerals! Purified in the radiance of +primeval fire, we shall vanish triumphant from enemies and friends--a +marvel to the earth, a vision of glory to the gods themselves! + +'Is it a day more or a day less of life that is now of importance to us? +No; it is only towards the easiest and the noblest death that our +aspirations can turn! Among our number there is now not one whom the +care of existence can further occupy! + +'Here, at my right hand, reclines my estimable comrade of a thousand +former feasts, Furius Balburius Placidus, who, when we sailed on the +Lucrine Lake, was wont to complain of intolerable hardship if a fly +settled on the gilded folds of his umbrella; who languished for a land +of Cimmerian darkness if a sunbeam penetrated the silken awnings of his +garden-terrace; and who now wrangles for a mouthful of horseflesh with +the meanest of his slaves, and would exchange the richest of his country +villas for a basket of dirty bread! O Furius Balburius Placidus, of +what further use is life to thee? + +'There, at my left, I discern the changed though still expressive +countenance of the resolute Thascius, he who chastised a slave with a +hundred lashes if his warm water was not brought immediately at his +command; he whose serene contempt for every member of the human species +by himself once ranked him among the greatest of human philosophers; +even he now wanders through his palace unserved, and fawns upon the +plebeian who will sell him a measure of wretched bran! Oh, admired +friend, oh, rightly reasoning Thascius, say, is there anything in Rome +which should delay thee on thy journey to the Elysian Fields? + +'Farther onward at the table, drinking largely while I speak, I behold, +O Marcus Moecius Moemmius, thy once plump and jovial form!--thou, in +former days accustomed to rejoice in the length of thy name, because it +enabled thy friends to drink the more in drinking a cup to each letter +of it, tell me what banqueting-hall is now open to thee but this?--and +thus desolate in the city of thy social triumphs, what should disincline +thee to make of our festal solemnity thy last revel on earth? + +'Thou, too, facetious hunchback, prince of parasites, unscrupulous +Reburrus, where, but at this banquet of famine, will thy buffoonery now +procure for thee a draught of reviving wine? Thy masters have abandoned +thee to thy native dunghill! No more shalt thou wheedle for them when +they borrow, or bully for them when they pay! No more charges of +poisoning or magic shalt thou forge to imprison their troublesome +creditors! Oh, officious sycophant, thy occupations are no more! Drink +while thou canst, and then resign thy carcass to congenial mire! + +'And you, my five remaining friends, whom--little desirous of further +delay--I will collectively address, think on the days when the suspicion +of an infectious malady in any one of your companions was sufficient to +separate you from the dearest of them; when the slaves who came to you +from their palaces underwent long ceremonies of ablution before they +approached your presence; and remembering this, reflect that most, +perhaps all of us, now meet here plague-tainted already; and then say, +of what advantage is it to languish for a life which is yours no longer? + +'No, my friends, my brethren of the banquet; feeling that when life is +worthless it is folly to live, you cannot shrink from the lofty +resolution by which we are bound, you cannot pause on our joyful journey +of departure from the scenes of earth--I wrong you even by a doubt! Let +me now, rather, ask your attention for a worthier subject--the +enumeration of the festal ceremonies by which the progress of the +banquet will be marked. That task concluded, that last ceremony of my +last welcome to you these halls duly performed, I join you once more in +your final homage to the deity of our social lives--the God of Wine! + + +'It is not unknown to you--learned as you are in the jovial antiquities +of the table--that it was, among some of the ancients, a custom for a +master-spirit of philosophy to preside--the teacher as well as the +guest--at their feasts. This usage it has been my care to revive, and, +as this four meeting is unparalleled in its heroic design, so it was my +ambition to bid to it one unparalleled, either as a teacher or a guest. +Fired by an original idea, unobserved of my slaves, aided only by my +singing-boy, the faithful Glyco, I have succeeded in placing behind that +black curtain such an associate of our revels as you have never feasted +with before, whose appearance at the fitting moment must strike you +irresistibly with astonishment, and whose discourse--not of human wisdom +only--will be inspired by the midnight secrets of the tomb. By my side, +on this parchment, lies the formulary of questions to be addressed by +Reburrus, when the curtain is withdrawn, to the Oracle of the Mysteries +of other Spheres. + +'Before you, behold in those vases all that remains of my once well- +stocked cellars, and all that is provided for the palates of my guests! +We sit at the Banquet of Famine, and no coarser sustenance than +inspiring wine finds admittance at the Bacchanalian board. Yet, should +any among us, in his last moments, be feeble enough to pollute his lips +with nourishment alone worthy of the vermin of the earth, let him seek +the wretched and scanty table, type of the wretched and scanty food that +covers it, placed yonder in obscurity behind me. There will he find (in +all barely sufficient for one man's poorest meal) the last morsels of +the vilest nourishment left in the palace. For me, my resolution is +fixed--it is only the generous wine-cup that shall now approach my lips! + +'Above me are the ten lamps, answering to the number of my friends here +assembled. One after another, as the wine overpowers us, those burning +images of life will be extinguished in succession by the guests who +remain proof against our draughts; and the last of these, lighting this +torch at the last lamp, will consummate the banquet, and celebrate its +glorious close, by firing the funeral pile of my treasures heaped yonder +against my palace walls! If my powers fail me before yours, swear to me +that whoever among you is able to lift the cup to his lips after it has +dropped from the hands of the rest, will fire the pile! Swear it by +your lost mistresses, your lost friends, your lost treasures!--by your +own lives, devoted to the pleasures of wine and the purification of +fire!' + +As, with flashing eyes and flushed countenance, Vetranio sank back on +his couch, his companions, inflamed with the wine they had already +drunk, arose cup in hand, and turned towards him. Their voices, +discordantly mingled, pronounced the oath together; then, as they +resumed their former positions, their eyes all turned towards the black +curtain in ardent expectation. + +They had observed the sinister and sarcastic expression of Vetranio's +eye as he spoke of his concealed guest; they knew that the hunchback +Reburrus possessed, among his other powers of buffoonery, the art of +ventriloquism; and they suspected the presence of some hideous or +grotesque image of a heathen god or demon in the hidden recess, which +the jugglery of the parasite was to gift with the capacity of speech. +Blasphemous comments upon life, death, and immortality were eagerly +awaited. The general impatience for the withdrawal of the curtain was +perceived by Vetranio, who, waving his hand for silence, authoritatively +exclaimed-- + +'The hour has not yet arrived. More draughts must be drunk, more +libations poured out, ere the mystery of the curtain is revealed! Ho, +Glyco!' he continued, turning towards the singing-boy, who had silently +entered the room, 'the moment is yours! Tune your lyre, and recite my +last ode, which I have addressed to you! Let the charms of Poetry +preside over the feast of Death!' + +The boy advanced, trembling; his once ruddy face was colourless and +haggard; his eyes were fixed with a look of rigid terror on the black +curtain; his features palpably expressed the presence within him of some +secret and overwhelming recollection which had crushed all his other +faculties and perceptions. Steadily, almost guiltily, averting his face +from his master's countenance, he stood by Vetranio's couch, a frail and +fallen being, a mournful spectacle of perverted docility and degraded +youth. + +Still true, however, to the duties of his vocation, he ran his thin, +trembling fingers over the lyre, and mechanically preluded the +commencement of the ode. But during the silence of attention which now +prevailed, the confused noises from the people in the street penetrated +more distinctly into the banqueting-room; and at this moment, high above +them all--hoarse, raving, terrible, rose the voice of one man. + +'Tell me not,' it cried, 'of perfumes wafted from the palace!--foul +vapours flow from it!--see, they sink, suffocating over me!--they bathe +sky and earth, and men who move around us, in fierce, green light!' + +Then other voices of men and women, shrill and savage, broke forth in +interruption together:--'Peace, Davus! you awake the dead about you!' +'Hide in the darkness; you are plague-struck; your skin is shrivelled; +your gums are toothless!' 'When the palace is fired you shall be flung +into the flames to purify your rotten carcass!' + +'Sing!' cried Vetranio furiously, observing the shudders that ran over +the boy's frame and held him speechless. 'Strike the lyre, as Timotheus +struck it before Alexander! Drown in melody the barking of the curs who +wait for our offal in the street!' + +Feebly and interruptedly the terrified boy began; the wild continuous +noises of the moaning voices from without sounding their awful +accompaniment to the infidel philosophy of his song as he breathed it +forth in faint and faltering accents. It ran thus:-- + +TO GLYCO + + Ah, Glyco! why in flow'rs array'd? + Those festive wreaths less quickly fade + Than briefly-blooming joy! + Those high-prized friends who share your mirth + Are counterfeits of brittle earth, + False coin'd in Death's alloy! + + The bliss your notes could once inspire, + When lightly o'er the god-like lyre + Your nimble fingers pass'd, + Shall spring the same from others' skill-- + When you're forgot, the music still + The player shall outlast! + + The sun-touch'd cloud that mounts the sky, + That brightly glows to warm the eye, + Then fades we know not where, + Is image of the little breath + Of life--and then, the doom of Death + That you and I must share! + + Helpless to make or mar our birth, + We blindly grope the ways of earth, + And live our paltry hour; + Sure, that when life has ceased to please, + To die at will, in Stoic ease, + Is yielded to our pow'r! + + Who, timely wise, would meanly wait + The dull delay of tardy Fate, + When Life's delights are shorn? + No! When its outer gloss has flown, + Let's fling the tarnish'd bauble down + As lightly as 'twas worn. + +'A health to Glyco! A deep draught to a singer from heaven come down +upon earth!' cried the guests, seizing their wine-cups, as the ode was +concluded, and draining them to the last drop. But their drunken +applause fell noiseless upon the ear to which it was addressed. The +boy's voice, as he sang the final stanza of the ode, had suddenly +changed to a shrill, almost an unearthly tone, then suddenly sank again +as he breathed forth the last few notes; and now as his dissolute +audience turned towards him with approving glances, they saw him +standing before them cold, rigid, and voiceless. The next instant his +fixed features were suddenly distorted, his whole frame collapsed as if +torn by an internal spasm--he fell back heavily to the floor. Those +around approached him with unsteady feet, and raised him in their arms. +His soul had burst the bonds of vice in which others had entangled it; +the voice of Death had whispered to the slave of the great despot, +Crime--'Be free!' + +'We have heard the note of the swan singing its own funeral hymn!' said +the patrician Placidus, looking in maudlin pity from the corpse of the +boy to the face of Vetranio, which presented for the moment an +involuntary expression of grief and remorse. + + +'Our miracle of beauty and boy-god of melody has departed before us to +the Elysian fields!' muttered the hunchback Reburrus, in harsh, +sarcastic accents. + +Then, during the short silence that ensued, the voices from the street, +joined on this occasion to a noise of approaching footsteps on the +pavement, became again distinctly audible in the banqueting-hall. +'News! news!' cried these fresh auxiliaries of the horde already +assembled before the palace. 'Keep together, you who still care for your +lives! Solitary citizens have been lured by strange men into desolate +streets, and never seen again! Jars of newly salted flesh, which there +were no beasts left in the city to supply, have been found in a +butcher's shop! Keep together! Keep together!' + +'No cannibals among the mob shall pollute the body of my poor boy!' +cried Vetranio, rousing himself from his short lethargy of grief. 'Ho! +Thascius! Marcus! you who can yet stand! let us bear him to the funeral +pile! He has died first--his ashes shall be first consumed!' + +The two patricians arose as the senator spoke, and aided him in carrying +the body to the lower end of the room, where it was laid across the +table, beneath the black curtain, and between the heaps of drapery and +furniture piled up against each of the walls. Then, as his guests +reeled back to their places, Vetranio, remaining by the side of the +corpse, and seizing in his unsteady hands a small vase of wine, +exclaimed in tones of fierce exultation: 'The hour has come--the +Banquet of Famine has ended--the Banquet of Death has begun! A health +to the guest behind the curtain! Fill--drink--behold!' + +He drank deeply from the vase as he ceased, and drew aside the black +drapery above him. A cry of terror and astonishment burst from the +intoxicated guests as they beheld in the recess now disclosed to view +the corpse of an aged woman, clothed in white, and propped up on a high, +black throne, with the face turned towards them, and the arms +(artificially supported) stretched out as if in denunciation over the +banqueting-table. The lamp of yellow glass, which burnt high above the +body, threw over it a lurid and flickering light; the eyes were open, +the jaw had fallen, the long grey tresses drooped heavily on either side +of the white hollow cheeks. + +'Behold!' cried Vetranio, pointing to the corpse--'Behold my secret +guest! Who so fit as the dead to preside at the Banquet of Death? +Compelling the aid of Glyco, shrouded by congenial night, seizing on the +first corpse exposed before me in the street, I have set up there, +unsuspected by all, the proper idol of our worship, and philosopher at +our feast! Another health to the queen of the fatal revels--to the +teacher of the mysteries of worlds unseen--rescued from rotting +unburied, to perish in the consecrated flames with the senators of Rome! +A health!--a health to the mighty mother, ere she begin the mystic +revelations! Fill--drink!' + +Fired by their host's example, recovered from their momentary awe, +already inflamed by the mad recklessness of debauchery, the guests +started from their couches, and with Bacchanalian shouts answered +Vetranio's challenge. The scene at this moment approached the +supernatural. The wild disorder of the richly laden tables; the wine +flowing over the floor from overthrown vases; the great lamps burning +bright and steady over the confusion beneath; the fierce gestures, the +disordered countenances of the revellers, as they waved their jewelled +cups over their heads in frantic triumph; and then the gloomy and +terrific prospect at the lower end of the hall--the black curtain, the +light burning solitary on its high pole, the dead boy lying across the +festal table, the living master standing by his side, and, like an evil +spirit, pointing upward in mockery to the white-robed corpse of the +woman, as it towered above all in its unnatural position, with its +skinny arms stretched forth, with its ghastly features appearing to move +as the faint and flickering light played over them,--produced together +such a combination of scarce-earthly objects as might be painted, but +cannot be described. It was an embodiment of a sorcerer's vision--an +apocalypse of sin triumphing over the world's last relics of mortality +in the vaults of death. + + +'To your task, Reburrus!' cried Vetranio, when the tumult was lulled; +'to your questions without delay! Behold the teacher with whom you are +to hold commune! Peruse carefully the parchment in your hand; question, +and question loudly--you speak to the apathetic dead!' + +For some time before the disclosure of the corpse, the hunchback had +been seated apart at the end of the banqueting-hall opposite the black- +curtained recess, conning over the manuscript containing the list of +questions and answers which formed the impious dialogue he was to hold, +by the aid of his powers of ventriloquism, with the violated dead. When +the curtain was withdrawn he had looked up for a moment, and had greeted +the appearance of the sight behind it with a laugh of brutal derision, +returning immediately to the study of his blasphemous formulary which +had been confided to his care. At the moment when Vetranio's commands +were addressed to him he arose, reeled down the apartment towards the +corpse, and, opening the dialogue as he approached it, began in loud +jeering tones: 'Speak, miserable relict of decrepit mortality!' + +He paused as he uttered the last word, and gaining a point of view from +which the light of the lamp fell full upon the solemn and stony features +of the corpse, looked up defiantly at it. In an instant a frightful +change passed over him, the manuscript dropped from his hand, his +deformed frame shrank and tottered, a shrill cry of recognition burst +from his lips, more like the yell of a wild beast than the voice of a +man. + +The next moment, when the guests started up to question or deride him, +he turned slowly and faced them. Desperate and drunken as they were, +his look awed them into utter silence. His face was deathlike in hue, +as the face of the corpse above him--thick drops of perspiration +trickled down it like rain--his dry glaring eyes wandered fiercely over +the startled countenances before him, and, as he extended towards them +his clenched hands, he muttered in a deep gasping whisper: 'Who has +done this? MY MOTHER! MY MOTHER!' + +As these few words--of awful import though of simple form--fell upon the +ears of those whom he addressed, such of them as were not already sunk +in insensibility looked round on each other almost sobered for the +moment, and all speechless alike. Not even the clash of the wine-cups +was now heard at the banqueting-table--nothing was audible but the +sound, still fitfully rising and falling, of the voices of terror, +ribaldry, and anguish from the street; and the hoarse convulsive accents +of the hunchback, still uttering at intervals his fearful identification +of the dead body above him: 'MY MOTHER! MY MOTHER!' + +At length Vetranio, who was the first to recover himself, addressed +the terrified and degraded wretch before him, in tones which, in spite +of himself, betrayed, as he began, an unwonted tremulousness and +restraint. 'What, Reburrus!' he cried, 'are you already drunken to +insanity, that you call the first dead body which by chance I +encountered in the street, and by chance brought hither, your mother? +Was it to talk of your mother, whom dead or alive we neither know nor +care for, that you were admitted here? Son of obscurity and inheritor +of rags, what are your plebeian parents to us!' he continued, +refilling his cup, and lashing himself into assumed anger as he spoke. +'To your dialogue without delay, or you shall be flung from the +windows to mingle with your rabble-equals in the street!' + + +Neither by word nor look did the hunchback answer the senator's menaces. +For him, the voice of the living was stifled in the presence of the +dead. The retribution that had gone forth against him had struck his +moral, as a thunderbolt might have stricken his physical being. His +soul strove in agony within him, as he thought on the awful fatality +which had set the dead mother in judgment on the degraded son--which had +directed the hand of the senator unwittingly to select the corpse of the +outraged parent as the object for the infidel buffoonery of the reckless +child, at the very close of his impious career. His past life rose +before him, for the first time, like a foul vision, like a nightmare of +horror, impurity, and crime. He staggered up the room, groping his way +along the wall, as if the darkness of midnight had closed round his +eyes, and crouched down by the open window. Beneath him rose the evil +and ominous voices from the street; around him spread the pitiless array +of his masters; before him appeared the denouncing vision of the corpse. + +He would have remained but a short time unmolested in his place of +refuge, but for an event which now diverted from him the attention of +Vetranio and his guests. Drinking furiously to drown all recollection +of the catastrophe they had just witnessed, three of the revellers had +already suffered the worst consequences of an excess, which their +weakened frames were ill-fitted to bear. One after another, at short +intervals, they fell back senseless on their couches; and one after +another, as they succumbed, the three lamps burning nearest to them were +extinguished. The same speedy termination to the debauch seemed to be +in reserve for the rest of their companions, with the exception of +Vetranio and the two patricians who reclined at his right hand and his +left. These three still preserved the appearance of self-possession, +but an ominous change had already overspread their countenances. The +expression of wild joviality, of fierce recklessness, had departed from +their wild features; they silently watched each other with vigilant and +suspicious eyes; each in turn, as he filled his wine-cup, significantly +handled the torch with which the last drinker was to fire the funeral +pile. As the numbers of their rivals decreased, and the flame of lamp +after lamp was extinguished, the fatal contest for a suicide supremacy +assumed a present and powerful interest, in which all other purposes and +objects were forgotten. The corpse at the foot of the banqueting-table, +and the wretch cowering in his misery at the window, were now alike +unheeded. In the bewildered and brutalised minds of the guests, one +sensation alone remained--the intensity of expectation which precedes +the result of a deadly strife. + +But ere long--awakening the attention which might otherwise never have +been aroused--the voice of the hunchback was heard, as the spirit of +repentance now moved within him, uttering, in wild, moaning tones, a +strange confession of degradation and sin--addressed to none; +proceeding, independent of consciousness or will, from the depths of his +stricken soul. He half raised himself, and fixed his sunken eyes upon +the dead body, as these words dropped from his lips: 'It was the last +time that I beheld her alive, when she approached me--lonely, and +feeble, and poor--in the street, beseeching me to return to her in the +days of her old age and her solitude, and to remember how she had loved +me in my childhood for my very deformity, how she had watched me +throughout the highways of Rome, that none should oppress or deride me! +The tears ran down her cheeks, she knelt to me on the hard pavement, and +I, who had deserted her for her poverty, to make myself a slave in +palaces among the accursed rich, flung down money to her as to a beggar +who wearied me, and passed on! She died desolate; her body lay +unburied, and I knew it not! The son who had abandoned the mother never +saw her more, until she rose before him there--avenging, horrible, +lifeless--a sight of death never to leave him! Woe, woe to the accursed +in his deformity, and the accursed of his mother's corpse!' + +He paused, and fell back again to the ground, grovelling and speechless. +The tyrannic Thascius, regarding him with a scowl of drunken wrath, +seized an empty vase, and poising it in his unsteady hand, prepared to +hurl it at the hunchback's prostrate form, when again a single cry--a +woman's--rising above the increasing uproar in the street, rang shrill +and startling through the banqueting-hall. The patrician suspended his +purpose as he heard it, mechanically listening with the half-stupid, +half-cunning attention of intoxication. 'Help! help!' shrieked the +voice beneath the palace windows--'he follows me still--he attacked my +dead child in my arms! As I flung myself down upon it on the ground, I +saw him watching his opportunity to drag it by the limbs from under me-- +famine and madness were in his eyes--I drove him back--I fled--he +follows me still!--save us, save us!' + + +At this instant her voice was suddenly stifled in the sound of fierce +cries and rushing footsteps, followed by an appalling noise of heavy +blows, directed at several points, against the steel railings before the +palace doors. Between the blows, which fell slowly and together at +regular intervals, the infuriated wretches, whose last exertions of +strength were strained to the utmost to deal them, could be heard +shouting breathlessly to each other: 'Strike harder, strike harder! the +back gates are guarded against us by our comrades admitted to the +pillage of the palace instead of us. You who would share the booty, +strike firm! the stones are at your feet, the gates of entrance yield +before you.' + +Meanwhile a confused sound of trampling footsteps and contending voices +became audible from the lower apartments of the palace. Doors were +violently shut and opened--shouts and execrations echoed and re-echoed +along the lofty stone passages leading from the slaves' waiting-rooms to +the grand staircase; treachery betrayed itself as openly within the +building as violence still proclaimed itself in the assault on the gates +outside. The chief slaves had not been suspected by their fellows +without a cause; the bands of pillage and murder had been organised in +the house of debauchery and death; the chosen adherents from the street +had been secretly admitted through the garden gates, and had barred and +guarded them against further intrusion--another doom than the doom they +had impiously prepared for themselves was approaching the devoted +senators, at the hands of the slaves whom they had oppressed, and the +plebeians whom they had despised. + +At the first sound of the assault without and the first intimation of +the treachery within, Vetranio, Thascius, and Marcus started from their +couches; the remainder of the guests, incapable either of thought or +action, lay, in stupid insensibility, awaiting their fate. These three +men alone comprehended the peril that threatened them, and, maddened +with drink, defied, in their ferocious desperation, the death that was +in store for them. 'Hark! they approach, the rabble revolted from our +rule,' cried Vetranio scornfully, 'to take the lives that we despise and +the treasures that we have resigned! The hour has come; I go to fire +the pile that involves in one common destruction our assassins and +ourselves!' + +'Hold!' exclaimed Thascius, snatching the torch from his hand; 'the +entrance must first be defended, or, ere the flames are kindled, the +slaves will be here! Whatever is movable--couches, tables, corpses--let +us hurl them all against the door!' + +As he spoke he rushed towards the black-curtained recess, to set the +example to his companions by seizing the corpse of the woman; but he had +not passed more than half the length of the apartment, when the +hunchback, who had followed him unheeded, sprang upon him from behind, +and, with a shrill cry, fastening his fingers on his throat, hurled him +torn and senseless to the floor. 'Who touches the body that is mine?' +shrieked the deformed wretch, rising from his victim, and threatening +with his blood-stained hands Vetranio and Marcus, as they stood +bewildered, and uncertain for the moment whether first to avenge their +comrade or to barricade the door--'The son shall rescue the mother! I +go to bury her! Atonement! Atonement!' + +He leaped upon the table as he spoke, tore asunder with resistless +strength the cords which fastened the corpse to the throne, seized it in +his arms, and the next instant gained the door. Uttering fierce, +inarticulate cries, partly of anguish and partly of defiance, he threw +it open, and stepped forward to descend, when he was met at the head of +the stairs by the band of assassins hurrying up, with drawn swords and +blazing torches, to their work of pillage and death. He stood before +them--his deformed limbs set as firmly on the ground as if he were +preparing to descend the stairs at one leap--with the corpse raised high +on his breast; its unearthly features were turned towards them, its bare +arms were still stretched forth as they had been extended over the +banqueting-table, its grey hair streamed back and mingled with his own: +under the fitful illumination of the torches, which played red and wild +over him and his fearful burden, the dead and the living looked joined +to each other in one monstrous form. + + +Huddled together, motionless, on the stairs, their shouts of vengeance +and fury frozen on their lips, the assassins stood for one moment, +staring mechanically, with fixed, spell-bound eyes, upon the hideous +bulwark opposing their advance on the victims whom they had expected so +easily to surprise. The next instant a superstitious panic seized them; +as the hunchback suddenly moved towards them to descend, the corpse +seemed to their terror-stricken eyes to be on the eve of bursting its +way through their ranks. Ignorant of its introduction into the palace, +imagining it, in the revival of their slavish fears, to be the spectral +offspring of the magic incantations of the senators above, they turned +with one accord and fled down the stairs. The sound of their cries of +fear grew fainter and fainter in the direction of the garden as they +hurried through the secret gates at the back of the building. Then the +heavy, regular tamp of the hunchback's footsteps, as he paced the +solitary corridors after them, bearing his burden of death, became +audible in awful distinctness; then that sound also died away and was +lost, and nothing more was heard in the banqueting-room save the sharp +clang of the blows still dealt against the steel railings from the +street. + +But now these grew rare and more rare in their recurrence; the strong +metal resisted triumphantly the utmost efforts of the exhausted rabble +who assailed it. As the minutes moved on, the blows grew rapidly +fainter and fewer; soon they diminished to three, struck at long +intervals; soon to one, followed by deep execrations of despair; and, +after that, a great silence sank down over the palace and the street, +where such strife and confusion had startled the night-echoes but a few +moments before. + +In the banqueting-hall this rapid succession of events--the marvels of a +few minutes--passed before Vetranio and Marcus as visions beheld by +their eyes, but neither contained nor comprehended by their minds. +Stolid in their obstinate recklessness, stupefied by the spectacle of +the startling perils--menacing yet harmless, terrifying though +transitory--which surrounded them, neither of the senators moved a +muscle or uttered a word, from the period when Thascius had fallen +beneath the hunchback's attack, to the period when the last blow against +the palace railings, and the last sound of voices from the street, had +ceased in silence. Then the wild current of drunken exultation, +suspended within them during this brief interval, flowed once more, +doubly fierce, in its old course. Insensible, the moment after they had +passed away, to the warning and terrific scenes they had beheld, each +now looked round on the other with a glance of triumphant levity. +'Hark!' cried Vetranio, 'the mob without, feeble and cowardly to the +last, abandon their puny efforts to force my palace gates! Behold our +banqueting-tables still sacred from the intrusion of the revolted +menials, driven before my guest from the dead, like a flock of sheep +before a single dog! Say, O Marcus! did I not well to set the corpse at +the foot of our banqueting-table? What marvels has it not effected, +borne before us by the frantic Reburrus, as a banner of the hosts of +death, against the cowardly slaves whose fit inheritance is oppression, +and whose sole sensation is fear! See, we are free to continue and +conclude the banquet as we had designed! The gods themselves have +interfered to raise us in security above our fellow-mortals, whom we +despise! Another health, in gratitude to our departed guest, the +instrument of our deliverance, under the auspices of omnipotent Jove!' + +As Vetranio spoke, Marcus alone, out of all the revellers, answered his +challenge. These two--the last-remaining combatants of the strife-- +having drained their cups to the health proposed, passed slowly down +each side of the room, looking contemptuously on their prostrate +companions, and extinguishing every lamp but the two which burnt over +their own couches. Then returning to the upper end of the tables, they +resumed their places, not to leave them again until the fatal rivalry +was finally decided, and the moment of firing the pile had actually +arrived. + +The torch lay between them; the last vases of wine stood at their sides. +Not a word escaped the lips of either, to break the deep stillness +prevailing over the palace. Each fixed his eyes on the other, in stern +and searching scrutiny, and cup for cup, drank in slow and regular +alternation. The debauch, which had hitherto presented a spectacle of +brutal degradation and violence, now that it was restricted to two men +only--each equally unimpressed by the scenes of horror he had beheld, +each vying with the other for the attainment of the supreme of +depravity--assumed an appearance of hardly human iniquity; it became a +contest for a satanic superiority of sin. + +For some time little alteration appeared in the countenances of either +of the suicide-rivals; but they had now drunk to that final point of +excess at which wine either acts as its own antidote, or overwhelms in +fatal suffocation the pulses of life. The crisis in the strife was +approaching for both, and the first to experience it was Marcus. +Vetranio, as he watched him, observed a dark purple flush overspreading +his face, hitherto pale, almost colourless. His eyes suddenly dilated; +he panted for breath. The vase of wine, when he strove with a last +effort to fill his cup from it, rolled from his hand to the floor. The +stare of death was in his face as he half-raised himself and for one +instant looked steadily on his companion; the moment after, without word +or groan, he dropped backward over his couch. + +The contest of the night was decided! The host of the banquet and the +master of the palace had been reserved to end the one and to fire the +other! + +A smile of malignant triumph parted Vetranio's lips as he now arose and +extinguished the last lamp burning besides his own. That done, he +grasped the torch. His eyes, as he raised it, wandered dreamily over +the array of his treasures, and the forms of his dead or insensible +fellow-patricians around him, to be consumed by his act in annihilating +fire. The sensation of his solemn night-solitude in his fated palace +began to work in vivid and varying impressions on his mind, which was +partially recovering some portion of its wonted acuteness, under the +bodily reaction now produced in him by the very extravagance of the +night's excess. His memory began to retrace confusedly the scenes with +which the dwelling that he was about to destroy had been connected at +distant or at recent periods. At one moment the pomp of former +banquets, the jovial congregation of guests since departed or dead, +revived before him; at another, he seemed to be acting over again his +secret departure from his dwelling on the night before his last feast, +his stealthy return with the corpse that he had dragged from the street, +his toil in setting it up in mockery behind the black curtain, and +inventing the dialogue to be spoken before it by the hunchback. Now his +thoughts reverted to the minutest circumstances of the confusion and +dismay among the members of his household when the first extremities of +the famine began to be felt in the city; and now, without visible +connection or cause, they turned suddenly to the morning when he had +hurried through the most solitary paths in his grounds to meet the +betrayer Ulpius at Numerian's garden gate. Once more the image of +Antonina--so often present to his imagination since the original was +lost to his eyes--grew palpable before him. He thought of her, as +listening at his knees to the sound of his lute; as awakening, +bewildered and terrified, in his arms; as flying distractedly before her +father's wrath; as now too surely lying dead, in her beauty and her +innocence, amid the thousand victims of the famine and the plague. + +These and other reflections, while they crowded in whirlwind rapidity on +his mind, wrought no alteration in the deadly purpose which they +suspended. His delay in lighting the torch was the unconscious delay of +the suicide, secure in his resolution ere he lifts the poison to his +lips--when life rises before him as a thing that is past, and he stands +for one tremendous moment in the dark gap between the present and the +future--no more the pilgrim of Time--not yet the inheritor of Eternity! + +So, in the dimly lighted hall, surrounded by the victims whom he had +hurried before him to their doom, stood the lonely master of the great +palace; and so spoke within him the mysterious voices of his last +earthly thoughts. Gradually they sank and ceased, and stillness and +vacancy closed like dark veils over his mind. Starting like one +awakened from a trance he once more felt the torch in his hand, and once +more the expression of fierce desperation appeared in his eyes as he lit +it steadily at the lamp above him. + +The dew was falling pure to the polluted earth; the light breezes sang +their low daybreak anthem among the leaves to the Power that bade them +forth; night had expired, and morning was already born of it, as +Vetranio, with the burning torch in his hand, advanced towards the +funeral pile. + + +He had already passed the greater part of the length of the room, when a +faint sound of footsteps ascending a private staircase which led to the +palace gardens, and communicated with the lower end of the banqueting- +hall by a small door of inlaid ivory, suddenly attracted his attention. +He hesitated in his deadly purpose, listening to the slow, regular +approaching sound, which, feeble though it was, struck mysteriously +impressive upon his ear in the dreary silence of all things around him. +Holding the torch high above his head, as the footsteps came nearer, he +fixed his eyes in intense expectation upon the door. It opened, and the +figure of a young girl clothed in white stood before him. One moment he +looked upon her with startled eyes; the next the torch dropped from his +hand, and smouldered unheeded on the marble floor. It was Antonina! + +Her face was overspread with a strange transparent paleness; her once +soft, round cheeks had lost their girlish beauty of form; her +expression, ineffably mournful, hopeless, and subdued, threw a simple, +spiritual solemnity over her whole aspect. She was changed, awfully +changed to the profligate senator from the being of his former +admiration; but still there remained in her despairing eyes enough of +the old look of gentleness and patience, surviving through all anguish +and dread, to connect her, even as she was now, with what she had been. +She stood in the chamber of debauchery and suicide between the funeral +pile and the desperate man who was vowed to fire it, a feeble, helpless +creature, yet powerful in the influence of her presence, at such a +moment and in such a form, as a saving and reproving spirit, armed with +the omnipotence of Heaven to mould the purposes of man. + +Awed and astounded, as if he beheld an apparition from the tomb, +Vetranio looked upon this young girl--whom he had loved with the least +selfish passion that ever inspired him; whom he had lamented as long +since lost and dead with the sincerest grief he had ever felt; whom he +now saw standing before him at the very moment ere he doomed himself to +death, altered, desolate, supplicating--with emotions which held him +speechless in wonder, and even in dread. While he still gazed upon her +in silence, he heard her speaking to him in low, melancholy, imploring +accents, which fell upon his ear, after the voices of terror and +desperation that had risen around him throughout the night, like tones +never addressed to it before. + +'Numerian, my father, is sinking under the famine,' she began; 'if no +help is given to him, he may die even before sunrise! You are rich and +powerful; I have come to you, having nothing now but his life to live +for, to beg sustenance for him!' She paused, overpowered for the +moment, and bent her eyes wistfully on the senator's face. Then seeing +that he vainly endeavoured to answer her, her head drooped upon her +breast, and her voice sank lower as she continued:-- + +'I have striven for patience under much sorrow and pain through the long +night that is past; my eyes were heavy and my spirit was faint; I could +have rendered up my soul willingly in my loneliness and feebleness to +God who gave it, but that it was my duty to struggle for my life and my +father's, now that I was restored to him after I had lost all beside! I +could not think, or move, or weep, as, looking forth upon your palace, I +watched and waited through the hours of darkness. But, as morning +dawned, the heaviness at my heart was lightened; I remembered that the +palace I saw before me was yours; and, though the gates were closed, I +knew that I could reach it through your garden that joins to my father's +land. I had none in Rome to ask mercy of but you; so I set forth +hastily, ere my weakness should overpower me, remembering that I had +inherited much misery at your hands, but hoping that you might pity me +for what I had suffered when you saw me again. I came wearily through +the garden; it was long before I found my way hither; will you send me +back as helpless as I came? You first taught me to disobey my father in +giving me the lute; will you refuse to aid me in succouring him now? He +is all that I have left in the world! Have mercy upon him!--have mercy +upon me!' + + +Again she looked up in Vetranio's face. His trembling lips moved, but +still no sound came from them. The expression of confusion and awe yet +prevailed over his features as he pointed slowly towards the upper end +of the banqueting-table. To her this simple action was eloquent beyond +all power of speech; she turned her feeble steps instantly in the +direction he had indicated. + +He watched her, by the light of the single lamp that still burnt, +passing--strong in the shielding inspiration of her good purpose--amid +the bodies of his suicide companions without pausing on her way. Having +gained the upper end of the room, she took from the table a flask of +wine, and from the wooden stand behind it the bowl of offal disdained by +the guests at the fatal banquet, returning immediately to the spot where +Vetranio still stood. Here she stopped for a moment, as if about to +speak once more; but her emotions overpowered her. From the sources +which despair and suffering had dried up, the long-prisoned tears once +more flowed forth at the bidding of gratitude and hope. She looked upon +the senator, silent as himself, and her expression at that instant was +destined to remain on his memory while memory survived. Then, with +faltering and hasty steps, she departed by the way she had come; and in +the great palace, which his evil supremacy over the wills of others had +made a hideous charnel-house, he was once more left alone. + +He made no effort to follow or detain her as she left him. The torch +still smouldered beside him on the floor, but he never stooped to take +it up; he dropped down on a vacant couch, stupefied by what he had +beheld. That which no entreaties, no threats, no fierce violence of +opposition could have effected in him, the appearance of Antonina had +produced--it had forced him to pause at the very moment of the execution +of his deadly design. + +He remembered how, from the very first day when he had seen her, she had +mysteriously influenced the whole progress of his life; how his ardour +to possess her had altered his occupations, and even interrupted his +amusements; how all his energy and all his wealth had been baffled in +the attempt to discover her when she fled from her father's house; how +the first feeling of remorse that he had ever known had been awakened +within him by his knowledge of the share he had had in producing her +unhappy fate. Recalling all this; reflecting that, had she approached +him at an earlier period, she would have been driven back affrighted by +the drunken clamour of his companions; and had she arrived at a later, +would have found his palace in flames; thinking at the same time of her +sudden presence in the banqueting-hall when he had believed her to be +dead, when her appearance at the moment before he fired the pile was +most irresistible in its supernatural influence over his actions--that +vague feeling of superstitious dread which exists intuitively in all +men's minds, which had never before been aroused in his, thrilled +through him. His eyes were fixed on the door by which she had departed, +as if he expected her to return. Her destiny seemed to be portentously +mingled with his own; his life seemed to move, his death to wait at her +bidding. There was no repentance, no moral purification in the emotions +which now suspended his bodily faculties in inaction; he was struck for +the time with a mental paralysis. + +The restless moments moved onward and onward, and still he delayed the +consummation of the ruin which the night's debauch had begun. Slowly +the tender daylight grew and brightened in its beauty, warmed the cold +prostrate bodies in the silent hall, and dimmed the faint glow of the +wasting lamp; no black mist of smoke, no red glare of devouring fire +arose to quench its fair lustre; no roar of flames interrupted the +murmuring morning tranquillity of nature, or startled from their heavy +repose the exhausted outcasts stretched upon the pavement of the street. +Still the noble palace stood unshaken on its firm foundations; still the +adornments of its porticoes and its statues glittered as of old in the +rays of the rising sun; and still the hand of the master who had sworn +to destroy it, as he had sworn to destroy himself, hung idly near the +torch which lay already extinguished in harmless ashes at his feet. + + +CHAPTER 23. THE LAST EFFORTS OF THE BESIEGED. + + +We return to the street before the palace. The calamities of the siege +had fallen fiercely on those who lay there during the night. From the +turbulent and ferocious mob of a few hours since, not even the sound of +a voice was now heard. Some, surprised in a paroxysm of hunger by +exhaustion and insensibility, lay with their hands half forced into +their mouths, as if in their ravenous madness they had endeavoured to +prey upon their own flesh. Others now and then wearily opened their +languid eyes upon the street, no longer regardful, in the present +extremity of their sufferings, of the building whose destruction they +had assembled to behold, but watching for a fancied realisation of the +visions of richly spread tables and speedy relief called up before them, +as if in mockery, by the delirium of starvation and disease. + +The sun had as yet but slightly risen above the horizon, when the +attention of the few among the populace who still preserved some +perception of outward events was suddenly attracted by the appearance of +an irregular procession--composed partly of citizens and partly of +officers of the Senate, and headed by two men--which slowly approached +from the end of the street leading into the interior of the city. This +assembly of persons stopped opposite Vetranio's palace; and then such +members of the mob who watched them as were not yet entirely abandoned +by hope, heard the inspiring news that the procession they beheld was a +procession of peace, and that the two men who headed it were the +Spaniard, Basilius, a governor of a province, and Johannes, the chief of +the Imperial notaries--appointed ambassadors to conclude a treaty with +the Goths. + +As this intelligence reached them, men who had before appeared incapable +of the slightest movement now rose painfully, yet resolutely, to their +feet, and crowded round the two ambassadors as round two angels +descended to deliver them from bondage and death. Meanwhile, some +officers of the Senate, finding the front gates of the palace closed +against them, proceeded to the garden entrance at the back of the +building, to obtain admission to its owner. The absence of Vetranio and +his friends from the deliberations of the government had been attributed +to their disgust at the obstinate and unavailing resistance offered to +the Goths. Now, therefore, when submission had been resolved upon, it +had been thought both expedient and easy to recall them peremptorily to +their duties. In addition to this motive for seeking the interior of +the palace, the servants of the Senate had another errand to perform +there. The widely rumoured determination of Vetranio and his associates +to destroy themselves by fire, in the frenzy of a last debauch-- +disbelieved or disregarded while the more imminent perils of the city +were under consideration--became a source of some apprehension and +anxiety to the acting members of the Roman council, now that their minds +were freed from part of the responsibility which had weighed on them, by +their resolution to treat for peace. + +Accordingly, the persons now sent into the palace were charged with the +duty of frustrating its destruction, if such an act had been really +contemplated, as well as the duty of recalling its inmates to their +appointed places in the Senate-house. How far they were enabled, at the +time of their entrance into the banqueting-hall, to accomplish their +double mission, the reader is well able to calculate. They found +Vetranio still in the place which he had occupied since Antonina had +quitted him. Startled by their approach from the stupor which had +hitherto weighed on his faculties, the desperation of his purpose +returned; he made an effort to tear from its place the lamp which still +feebly burned, and to fire the pile in defiance of all opposition. But +his strength, already taxed to the utmost, failed him. Uttering +impotent threats of resistance and revenge, he fell, swooning and +helpless, into the arms of the officers of the Senate who held him back. +One of them was immediately dismissed, while his companions remained in +the palace, to communicate with the leaders of the assembly outside. +His report concluded, the two ambassadors moved slowly onward, +separating themselves from the procession which had accompanied them, +and followed only by a few chosen attendants--a mournful and a degraded +embassy, sent forth by the people who had once imposed their dominion, +their customs, and even their language, on the Eastern and Western +worlds, to bargain with the barbarians whom their fathers had enslaved +for the purchase of a disgraceful peace. + + +On the departure of the ambassadors, all the spectators still capable of +the effort repaired to the Forum to await their return, and were joined +there by members of the populace from other parts of the city. It was +known that the first intimation of the result of the embassy would be +given from this place; and in the eagerness of their anxiety to hear it, +in the painful intensity of their final hopes of deliverance, even death +itself seemed for a while to be arrested in its fatal progress through +the ranks of the besieged. + +In silence and apprehension they counted the tardy moments of delay, and +watched with sickening gaze the shadows lessening and lessening, as the +sun gradually rose in the heavens to the meridian point. + +At length, after an absence that appeared of endless duration, the two +ambassadors re-entered Rome. Neither of them spoke as they hurriedly +passed through the ranks of the people; but their looks of terror and +despair were all-eloquent to every beholder--their mission had failed. + +For some time no member of the government appeared to have resolution +enough to come forward and harangue the people on the subject of the +unsuccessful embassy. After a long interval, however, the Prefect +Pompeianus himself, urged partly by the selfish entreaties of his +friends, and partly by the childish love of display which still adhered +to him through all his present anxieties and apprehensions, stepped into +one of the lower balconies of the Senate-house to address the citizens +beneath him. + +The chief magistrate of Rome was no longer the pompous and portly +personage whose intrusion on Vetranio's privacy during the commencement +of the siege has been described previously. The little superfluous +flesh still remaining on his face hung about it like an ill-fitting +garment; his tones had become lachrymose; the oratorical gestures, with +which he was wont to embellish profusely his former speeches, were all +abandoned; nothing remained of the original man but the bombast of his +language and the impudent complacency of his self-applause, which now +appeared in contemptible contrast to his crestfallen demeanour and his +disheartening narrative of degradation and defeat. + +'Men of Rome, let each of you exercise in his own person the heroic +virtues of a Regulus or a Cato!' the prefect began. 'A treaty with the +barbarians is out of our power. It is the scourge of the empire, Alaric +himself, who commands the invading forces! Vain were the dignified +remonstrances of the grave Basilius, futile was the persuasive rhetoric +of the astute Johannes, addressed to the slaughtering and vainglorious +Goth! On their admission to his presence, the ambassadors, anxious to +awe him into a capitulation, enlarged, with sagacious and commendable +patriotism, on the expertness of the Romans in the use of arms, their +readiness for war, and their vast numbers within the city walls. I +blush to repeat the barbarian's reply. Laughing immoderately, he +answered, "The thicker the grass, the easier it is to cut!" + +'Still undismayed, the ambassadors, changing their tactics, talked +indulgently of their willingness to purchase a peace. At this proposal, +his insolence burst beyond all bounds of barbarous arrogance. "I will +not relinquish the siege," he cried, "until I have delivered to me all +the gold and silver in the city, all the household goods in it, and all +the slaves from the northern countries." "What then, O King, will you +leave us?" asked our amazed ambassadors. "YOUR LIVES!" answered the +implacable Goth. Hearing this, even the resolute Basilius and the wise +Johannes despaired. They asked time to communicate with the Senate, and +left the camp of the enemy without further delay. Such was the end of +the embassy; such the arrogant ferocity of the barbarian foe!' + +Here the Prefect paused, from sheer weakness and want of breath. His +oration, however, was not concluded. He had disheartened the people by +his narrative of what had occurred to the ambassadors; he now proceeded +to console them by his relation of what had occurred to himself, when, +after an interval, he thus resumed:-- + + +'But even yet, O citizens of Rome, it is not time to despair! There is +another chance of deliverance still left to us, and that chance has been +discovered by me. It was my lot, during the absence of the ambassadors, +to meet with certain men of Tuscany, who had entered Rome a few days +before the beginning of the siege, and who spoke of a project for +relieving the city which they would communicate to the Prefect alone. +Ever anxious for the public welfare, daring all treachery from strangers +for advantage of my office, I accorded to these men a secret interview. +They told me of a startling and miraculous event. The town of Neveia, +lying, as you well know, in the direct road of the barbarians when they +marched upon Rome, was protected from their pillaging bands by a tempest +of thunder and lightning terrible to behold. This tempest arose not, as +you may suppose, from an accidental convulsion of the elements, but was +launched over the heads of the invaders by the express interference of +the tutelary deities of the town, invocated by the inhabitants, who +returned in their danger to the practice of their ancient manner of +worship. So said the men of Tuscany; and such pious resources as those +employed by the people of Neveia did they recommend to the people of +Rome! For my part, I acknowledge to you that I have faith in their +project. The antiquity of our former worship is still venerable in my +eyes. The prayers of the priests of our new religion have wrought no +miraculous interference in our behalf: let us therefore imitate the +example of the inhabitants of Neveia, and by the force of our +invocations hurl the thunders of Jupiter on the barbarian camp! Let us +trust for deliverance to the potent interposition of the gods whom our +fathers worshipped--those gods who now, perhaps, avenge themselves for +our desertion of their temples by our present calamities. I go without +delay to propose to the Bishop Innocentius and to the Senate, the public +performance of solemn ceremonies of sacrifice at the Capitol! I leave +you in the joyful assurance that the gods, appeased by our returning +fidelity to our altars, will not refuse the supernatural protection +which they accorded to the people of a provincial town to the citizens +of Rome!' + +No sounds either of applause or disapprobation followed the Prefect's +notable proposal for delivering the city from the besiegers by the +public apostasy of the besieged. As he disappeared from their eyes, the +audience turned away speechless. An universal despair now overpowered +in them even the last energies of discord and crime; they resigned +themselves to their doom with the gloomy indifference of beings in whom +all mortal sensations, all human passions, good or evil, were +extinguished. The Prefect departed on his ill-omened expedition to +propose the practice of Paganism to the bishop of a Christian church; +but no profitable effort for relief was even suggested, either by the +government or the people. + +And so this day drew in its turn towards a close--more mournful and more +disastrous, more fraught with peril, misery, and gloom, than the days +that had preceded it. + +The next morning dawned, but no preparations for the ceremonies of the +ancient worship appeared at the Capitol. The Senate and the bishop +hesitated to incur the responsibility of authorising a public +restoration of Paganism; the citizens, hopeless of succour, heavenly or +earthly, remained unheedful as the dead of all that passed around them. + +There was one man in Rome who might have succeeded in rousing their +languid energies to apostasy; but where and how employed was he? + +Now, when the opportunity for which he had laboured resolutely, though +in vain, through a long existence of suffering, degradation, and crime, +had gratuitously presented itself more tempting and more favourable than +even he in his wildest visions of success had ever dared to hope--where +was Ulpius? Hidden from men's eyes, like a foul reptile, in his +lurking-place in the deserted temple--now raving round his idols in the +fury of madness, now prostrate before them in idiot adoration--weaker +for the interests of his worship, at the crisis of its fate, than the +weakest child crawling famished through the streets--the victim of his +own evil machinations at the very moment when they might have led him to +triumph--the object of that worst earthly retribution, by which the +wicked are at once thwarted, doomed, and punished, here as hereafter, +through the agency of their own sins. + + +Three more days passed. The Senate, their numbers fast diminishing in +the pestilence, occupied the time in vain deliberations or in moody +silence. Each morning the weary guards looked forth from the ramparts, +with the fruitless hope of discerning the long-promised legions from +Ravenna on their way to Rome; and each morning devastation and death +gained ground afresh among the hapless besieged. + +At length, on the fourth day, the Senate abandoned all hope of further +resistance and determined on submission, whatever might be the result. +It was resolved that another embassy, composed of the whole acting +Senate, and followed by a considerable train, should proceed to Alaric; +that one more effort should be made to induce him to abate his ruinous +demands on the conquered; and that if this failed, the gates should be +thrown open, and the city and the people abandoned to his mercy in +despair. + +As soon as the procession of this last Roman embassy was formed in the +Forum, its numbers were almost immediately swelled, in spite of +opposition, by those among the mass of the people who were still able to +move their languid and diseased bodies, and who, in the extremity of +their misery, had determined at all hazards to take advantage of the +opening of the gates, and fly from the city of pestilence in which they +were immured, careless whether they perished on the swords of the Goths +or languished unaided on the open plains. All power of enforcing order +had long since been lost; the few soldiers gathered about the senators +made one abortive effort to drive the people back, and then resigned any +further resistance to their will. + +Feebly and silently the spirit-broken assembly now moved along the great +highways, so often trodden, to the roar of martial music and the shouts +of applauding multitudes, by the triumphal processions of victorious +Rome; and from every street, as it passed on, the wasted forms of the +people stole out like spectres to join it. + +Among these, as the embassy approached the Pincian Gate, were two, +hurrying forth to herd with their fellow-sufferers, on whose fortunes in +the fallen city our more particular attention has been fixed. To +explain their presence on the scene (if such an explanation be required) +it is necessary to digress for a moment from the progress of events +during the last days of the siege to the morning when Antonina departed +from Vetranio's palace to return with her succour of food and wine to +her father's house. + +The reader is already acquainted, from her own short and simple +narrative, with the history of the closing hours of her mournful night +vigil by the side of her sinking parent, and with the motives which +prompted her to seek the palace of the senator, and entreat assistance +in despair from one whom she only remembered as the profligate destroyer +of her tranquility under her father's roof. It is now, therefore, most +fitting to follow her on her way back through the palace gardens. No +living creature but herself trod the grassy paths, along which she +hastened with faltering steps--those paths which she dimly remembered to +have first explored when in former days she ventured forth to follow the +distant sounds of Vetranio's lute. + +In spite of her vague, heavy sensations of solitude and grief, this +recollection remained painfully present to her mind, unaccountably +mingled with the dark and dreary apprehension which filled her heart as +she hurried onward, until she once more entered her father's dwelling; +and then, as she again approached his couch, every other feeling became +absorbed in a faint, overpowering fear, lest, after all her perseverance +and success in her errand of filial devotion, she might have returned +too late. + + +The old man still lived--his weary eyes opened gladly on her, when she +aroused him to partake of the treasured gifts from the senator's +banqueting table. The wretched food which the suicide-guests had +disdained, and the simple flask of wine which they would have carelessly +quaffed at one draught, were viewed both by parent and child as the +saving and invigorating sustenance of many days. After having consumed +as much as they dared of their precarious supply, the remainder was +carefully husbanded. It was the last sign and promise of life to which +they looked--the humble yet precious store in which alone they beheld +the earnest of their security, for a few days longer, from the pangs of +famine and the separation of death. + +And now, with their small provision of food and wine set like a beacon +of safety before their sight, a deep, dream-like serenity--the sleep of +the oppressed and wearied faculties--arose over their minds. Under its +mysterious and tranquilising influence, all impressions of the gloom and +misery in the city, of the fatal evidences around them of the duration +of the siege, faded away before their perceptions as dim retiring +objects, which the eye loses in vacancy. + +Gradually, as the day of the first unsuccessful embassy declined, their +thoughts began to flow back gently to the world of bygone events which +had crumbled into oblivion beneath the march of time. Her first +recollections of her earliest childhood revived in Antonina's memory, +and then mingled strangely with tearful remembrances of the last words +and looks of the young warrior who had expired by her side, and with +calm, solemn thoughts that the beloved spirit, emancipated from the +sphere of shadows, might now be hovering near the quiet garden-grave +where her bitterest tears of loneliness and affliction had been shed, or +moving around her--an invisible and blessed presence--as she sat at her +father's feet and mourned their earthly separation! + +In the emotions thus awakened, there was nothing of bitterness or +agony--they calmed and purified the heart through which they moved. She +could now speak to the old man, for the first time, of her days of +absence from him, of the brief joys and long sorrows of her hours of +exile, without failing in her melancholy tale. Sometimes her father +listened to her in sorrowful and speechless attention; or spoke, when +she paused, of consolation and hope, as she had heard him speak among +his congregation while he was yet strong in his resolution to sacrifice +all things for the reformation of the Church. Sometimes resigning +himself to the influence of his thoughts, as they glided back to the +times that were gone, he again revealed to her the changing events of +his past life--not as before, with unsteady accents and wandering eyes; +but now with a calmness of voice and a coherence of language which +forbade her to doubt the strange and startling narrative that she heard. + +Once more he spoke of the image of his lost brother (as he had parted +from him in his boyhood) still present to his mind; of the country that +he had quitted in after years; of the name that he had changed--from +Cleander to Numerian--to foil his former associates, if they still +pursued him; and of the ardent desire to behold again the companion of +his first home, which now, when his daughter was restored to him, when +no other earthly aspiration but this was unsatisfied, remained at the +close of his life, the last longing wish of his heart. + +Such was the communion in which father and daughter passed the hours of +their short reprieve from the judgment of famine pronounced against the +city of their sojourn; so did they live, as it were, in a quiet interval +of existence, in a tranquil pause between the toil that is over and the +toil that is to come in the hard labour of life. + +But the term to these short days of repose after long suffering and +grief was fast approaching. The little hoard of provision diminished as +rapidly as the stores that had been anxiously collected before it; and, +on the morning of the second embassy to Alaric, the flask of wine and +the bowl of food were both emptied. The brief dream of security was +over and gone; the terrible realities of the struggle for life had begun +again! + +Where or to whom could they now turn for help? The siege still +continued; the food just exhausted was the last food that had been left +on the senator's table; to seek the palace again would be to risk +refusal, perhaps insult, as the result of a second entreaty for aid, +where all power of conferring it might now but too surely be lost. Such +were the thoughts of Antonina as she returned the empty bowl to its +former place; but she gave them no expression in words. + + +She saw, with horror, that the same expression of despair, almost of +frenzy, which had distorted her father's features on the day of her +restoration to him, now marked them again. Once more he tottered +towards the window, murmuring in his bitter despondency against the +delusive security and hope which had held him idle for the interests of +his child during the few days that were past. But, as he now looked out +on the beleaguered city, he saw the populace hastening along the gloomy +street beneath, as rapidly as their wearied limbs would carry them, to +join the embassy. He heard them encouraging each other to proceed, to +seize the last chance of escaping through the open gates from the +horrors of famine and plague; and caught the infection of the +recklessness and despair which had seized his fellow-sufferers from one +end of Rome to the other. + +Turning instantly, he grasped his daughter's hand and drew her from the +room, commanding her to come forth with him and join the citizens in +their flight, ere it was too late. Startled by his words and actions, +she vainly endeavoured, as she obeyed, to impress her father with the +dread of the Goths which her own bitter experience taught her to feel, +now that her only protector among them lay cold in the grave. With +Numerian, as with the rest of the people, all apprehension, all doubt, +all exercise of reason, was overpowered by the one eager idea of +escaping from the fatal precincts of Rome. + +So they mingled with the throng, herding affrightedly together in the +rear of the embassy, and followed in their ranks as best they might. + +The sun shone down brightly from the pure blue sky; the wind bore into +the city the sharp threatening notes of the trumpets from the Gothic +camp, as the Pincian Gate was opened to the ambassadors and their train. +With one accord the crowd instantly endeavoured to force their way out +after them in a mass; but they now moved in a narrow space, and were +opposed by a large reinforcement of the city guard. After a short +struggle they were overpowered, and the gates were closed. Some few of +the strongest and the foremost of their numbers succeeded in following +the ambassadors; the greater part, however, remained on the inner side +of the gate, pressing closely up to it in their impatience and despair, +like prisoners awaiting their deliverance, or preparing to force their +escape. + +Among these, feeblest amid the most feeble, were Numerian and Antonina, +hemmed in by the surrounding crowd, and shut out either from flight from +the city or a return to home. + + +CHAPTER 24. THE GRAVE AND THE CAMP. + +While the second and last embassy from the Senate proceeds towards the +tent of the Gothic king, while the streets of Rome are deserted by all +but the dead, and the living populace crowd together in speechless +expectation behind the barrier of the Pincian Gate, an opportunity is at +length afforded of turning our attention towards a scene from which it +has been long removed. Let us now revisit the farm-house in the +suburbs, and look once more on the quiet garden and on Hermanric's +grave. + +The tranquility of the bright warm day is purest around the retired path +leading to the little dwelling. Here the fragrance of wild flowers rises +pleasantly from the waving grass; the lulling, monotonous hum of insect +life pervades the light, steady air; the sunbeams, intercepted here and +there by the clustering trees, fall in irregular patches of brightness +on the shady ground; and, saving the birds which occasionally pass +overhead, singing in their flight, no living creature appears on the +quiet scene, until, gaining the wicket-gate which leads into the farm- +house garden, we look forth upon the prospect within. + +There, following the small circular footpath which her own persevering +steps have day by day already traced, appears the form of a solitary +woman, pacing slowly about the mound of grassy earth which marks the +grave of the young Goth. + + +For some time she proceeds on her circumscribed round with as much +undeviating, mechanical regularity, as if beyond that narrow space rose +a barrier which caged her from ever setting foot on the earth beyond. +At length she pauses in her course when it brings her nearest to the +wicket, advances a few steps towards it, then recedes, and recommences +her monotonous progress, and then again breaking off on her round, +finally succeeds in withdrawing herself from the confines of the grave, +passes through the gate, and following the path to the high-road, slowly +proceeds towards the eastern limits of the Gothic camp. The fixed, +ghastly, unfeminine expression on her features marks her as the same +woman whom we last beheld as the assassin at the farm-house, but beyond +this she is hardly recognisable again. Her formerly powerful and +upright frame is bent and lean; her hair waves in wild, white locks +about her shrivelled face; all the rude majesty of her form has +departed; there is nothing to show that it is still Goisvintha haunting +the scene of her crime but the savage expression debasing her +countenance and betraying the evil heart within, unsubdued as ever in +its yearning for destruction and revenge. + +Since the period when we last beheld her, removed in the custody of the +Huns from the dead body of her kinsman, the farm-house had been the +constant scene of her pilgrimage from the camp, the chosen refuge where +she brooded in solitude over her fierce desires. Scorning to punish a +woman whom he regarded as insane for an absence from the tents of the +Goths which was of no moment wither to the army or to himself, Alaric +had impatiently dismissed her from his presence when she was brought +before him. The soldiers who had returned to bury the body of their +chieftain in the garden of the farm-house, found means to inform her +secretly of the charitable act which they had performed at their own +peril, but beyond this no further intercourse was held with her by any +of her former associates. + +All her actions favoured their hasty belief that her faculties were +disordered, and others shunned her as she shunned them. Her daily +allowance of food was left for her to seek at a certain place in the +camp, as it might have been left for an animal too savage to be +cherished by the hand of man. At certain periods she returned secretly +from her wanderings to take it. Her shelter for the night was not the +shelter of her people before the walls of Rome; her thoughts were not +their thoughts. Widowed, childless, friendless, the assassin of her +last kinsman, she moved apart in her own secret world of bereavement, +desolation, and crime. + +Yet there was no madness, no remorse for her share in accomplishing the +fate of Hermanric, in the dark and solitary existence which she now led. +From the moment when the young warrior had expiated with his death his +disregard of the enmities of his nation and the wrongs of his kindred, +she thought of him only as of one more victim whose dishonour and ruin +she must live to requite on the Romans with Roman blood, and matured her +schemes of revenge with a stern resolution which time, and solitude, and +bodily infirmity were all powerless to disturb. + + +She would pace for hours and hours together, in the still night and in +the broad noonday, round and round the warrior's grave, nursing her +vengeful thoughts within her, until a ferocious anticipation of triumph +quickened her steps and brightened her watchful eyes. Then she would +enter the farm-house, and, drawing the knife from its place of +concealment in her garments, would pass its point slowly backwards and +forwards over the hearth on which she had mutilated Hermanric with her +own hand, and from which he had advanced, without a tremor, to meet the +sword-points of the Huns. Sometimes, when darkness had gathered over the +earth, she would stand--a boding and menacing apparition--upon the grave +itself, and chaunt, moaning to the moaning wind, fragments of obscure +Northern legends, whose hideous burden was ever of anguish and crime, of +torture in prison vaults, and death by the annihilating sword--mingling +with them the gloomy story of the massacre at Aquileia, and her fierce +vows of vengeance against the households of Rome. The forager, on his +late return past the farm-house to the camp, heard the harsh, droning +accents of her voice, and quickened his onward step. The venturesome +peasant from the country beyond, approaching under cover of the night to +look from afar on the Gothic camp, beheld her form, shadowy and +threatening, as he neared the garden, and fled affrighted from the +place. Neither stranger nor friend intruded on her dread solitude. The +foul presence of cruelty and crime violated undisturbed the scenes once +sacred to the interests of tenderness and love, once hallowed by the +sojourn of youth and beauty! + +But now the farm-house garden is left solitary, the haunting spirit of +evil has departed from the grave, the footsteps of Goisvintha have +traced to their close the same paths from the suburbs over which the +young Goth once eagerly hastened on his night journey of love; and +already the walls of Rome rise--dark, near, and hateful--before her +eyes. Along these now useless bulwarks of the fallen city she wanders, +as she has often wandered before, watching anxiously for the first +opening of the long-closed gates. Let us follow her on her way. + +Her attention was now fixed only on the broad ramparts, while she passed +slowly along the Gothic tents towards the encampment at the Pincian +Gate. Arrived there, she was aroused for the first time from her apathy +by an unwonted stir and confusion prevailing around her. She looked +towards the tent of Alaric, and beheld before it the wasted and +crouching forms of the followers of the embassy awaiting their sentence +from the captain of the Northern hosts. In a few moments she gathered +enough from the words of the Goths congregated about this part of the +camp to assure her that it was the Pincian Gate which had given egress +to the Roman suppliants, and which would therefore, in all probability, +be the entrance again thrown open to admit their return to the city. +Remembering this, she began to calculate the numbers of the conquered +enemy grouped together before the king's tent, and then mentally added +to them those who might be present at the interview proceeding within-- +mechanically withdrawing herself, while thus occupied, nearer and nearer +to the waste ground before the city walls. + +Gradually she turned her face towards Rome: she was realising a daring +purpose, a fatal resolution, long cherished during the days and nights +of her solitary wanderings. 'The ranks of the embassy,' she muttered, +in a deep, thoughtful tone, 'are thickly filled. Where there are many +there must be confusion and haste; they march together, and know not +their own numbers; they mark not one more or one less among them.' + +She stopped. Strange and dark changes of colour and expression passed +over her ghastly features. She drew from her bosom the bloody helmet- +crest of her husband, which had never quitted her since the day of his +death; her face grew livid under an awful expression of rage, ferocity, +and despair, as she gazed on it. Suddenly she looked up at the city-- +fierce and defiant, as if the great walls before her were mortal enemies +against whom she stood at bay in the death-struggle. + +'The widowed and the childless shall drink of thy blood!' she cried, +stretching out her skinny hand towards Rome, 'though the armies of her +nation barter their wrongs with thy people for bags of silver and gold! +I have pondered on it in my solitude, and dreamed of it in my dreams! I +have sworn that I would enter Rome, and avenge my slaughtered kindred, +alone among thousands! Now, now, I will hold to my oath! Thou blood- +stained city of the coward and the traitor, the enemy of the +defenceless, and the murderer of the weak! thou who didst send forth to +Aquileia the slayers of my husband and the assassins of my children, I +wait no longer before thy walls! This day will I mingle, daring all +things, with thy returning citizens and penetrate, amid Romans, the +gates of Rome! Through the day will I lurk, cunning and watchful, in +thy solitary haunts, to steal forth on thee at nights, a secret minister +of death! I will watch for thy young and thy weak once in unguarded +places; I will prey, alone in the thick darkness, upon thy unprotected +lives; I will destroy thy children, as their fathers destroyed at +Aquileia the children of the Goths! Thy rabble will discover me and +arise against me; they will tear me in pieces and trample my mangled +body on the pavement of the streets; but it will be after I have seen +the blood that I have sworn to shed flowing under my knife! My +vengeance will be complete, and torments and death will be to me as +guests that I welcome, and as deliverers whom I await!' + +Again she paused--the wild triumph of the fanatic on the burning pile +was flashing in her face--suddenly her eyes fell once more upon the +stained helmet-crest; then her expression changed again to despair, and +her voice grew low and moaning, when she thus resumed:-- + + +'I am weary of my life; when the vengeance is done I shall be delivered +from this prison of the earth--in the world of shadows I shall see my +husband, and my little ones will gather round my knees again. The living +have no part in me; I yearn towards the spirits who wander in the halls +of the dead.' + +For a few minutes more she continued to fix her tearless eyes on the +helmet-crest. But soon the influence of the evil spirit revived in all +its strength; she raised her head suddenly, remained for an instant +absorbed in deep thought, then began to retrace her steps rapidly in the +direction by which she had come. + +Sometimes she whispered softly, 'I must be doing ere the time fail me: +my face must be hidden and my garments changed. Yonder, among the +houses, I must search, and search quickly!' Sometimes she reiterated +her denunciations of vengeance, her ejaculations of triumph in her +frantic project. At the recapitulation of these the remembrance of +Antonina was aroused; and then a bloodthirsty superstition darkened her +thoughts, and threw a vague and dreamy character over her speech. + +When she spoke now, it was to murmur to herself that the victim who had +twice escaped her might yet be alive; that the supernatural influences +which had often guided the old Goths, on the day of retribution, might +still guide her; might still direct the stroke of her destroying +weapon--the last stroke ere she was discovered and slain--straight to +the girl's heart. + +Thoughts such as these--wandering and obscure--arose in close, quick +succession within her; but whether she gave them expression in word and +action, or whether she suppressed them in silence, she never wavered or +halted in her rapid progress. Her energies were braced to all +emergencies, and her strong will suffered them not for an instant to +relax. + +She gained a retired street in the deserted suburbs, and looking round +to see that she was unobserved, entered on of the houses abandoned by +its inhabitants on the approach of the besiegers. Passing quickly +through the outer halls, she stopped at length in one of the sleeping +apartments; and here she found, among other possessions left behind in +the flight, the store of wearing apparel belonging to the owner of the +room. + +From this she selected a Roman robe, upper mantle, and sandals--the most +common in colour and texture that she could find--and folding them up +into the smallest compass, hid them under her own garments. Then, +avoiding all those whom she met on her way, she returned in the +direction of the king's tent; but when she approached it, branched off +stealthily towards Rome, until she reached a ruined building half-way +between the city and the camp. In this concealment she clothed herself +in her disguise, drawing the mantle closely round her head and face; and +from this point--calm, vigilant, determined, her hand on the knife +beneath her robe, her lips muttering the names of her murdered husband +and children--she watched the high-road to the Pincian Gate. + +There for a short time let us leave her, and enter the tent of Alaric, +while the Senate yet plead before the Arbiter of the Empire for mercy +and peace. + +At the moment of which we write, the embassy had already exhausted its +powers of intercession, apparently without moving the leader of the +Goths from his first pitiless resolution of fixing the ransom of Rome at +the price of every possession of value which the city contained. There +was a momentary silence now in the great tent. At one extremity of it, +congregated in a close and irregular group, stood the wearied and +broken-spirited members of the Senate, supported by such of their +attendants as had been permitted to follow them; at the other appeared +the stately forms of Alaric and the warriors who surrounded him as his +council of war. The vacant space in the middle of the tent was strewn +with martial weapons, separating the representatives of the two nations +one from the other; and thus accidentally, yet palpably, typifying the +fierce hostility which had sundered in years past, and was still to +sunder for years to come, the people of the North and the people of the +South. + +The Gothic king stood a little in advance of his warriors, leaning on +his huge, heavy sword. His steady eye wandered from man to man among +the broken-spirited senators, contemplating, with cold and cruel +penetration, all that suffering and despair had altered for the worse in +their outward appearance. Their soiled robes, their wan cheeks, their +trembling limbs were each marked in turn by the cool, sarcastic +examination of the conqueror's gaze. Debased and humiliated as they +were, there were some among the ambassadors who felt the insult thus +silently and deliberately inflicted on them the more keenly for their +very helplessness. They moved uneasily in their places, and whispered +among each other in low and bitter accents. + +At length one of their number raised his downcast eyes and broke the +silence. The old Roman spirit, which long years of voluntary frivolity +and degradation had not yet entirely depraved, flushed his pale, wasted +face as he spoke thus:-- + +'We have entreated, we have offered, we have promised--men can do no +more! Deserted by our Emperor and crushed by pestilence and famine, +nothing is now left to us but to perish in unavailing resistance beneath +the walls of Rome! It was in the power of Alaric to win everlasting +renown by moderation to the unfortunate of an illustrious nation; but he +has preferred to attempt the spoiling of a glorious city and the +subjugation of a suffering people! Yet let him remember, though +destruction may sate his vengeance, and pillage enrich his hoards, the +day of retribution will yet come. There are still soldiers in the +empire, and heroes who will lead them confidently to battle, though the +bodies of their countrymen lie slaughtered around them in the streets of +pillaged Rome!' + +A momentary expression of wrath and indignation appeared on Alaric's +features as he listened to this bold speech; but it was almost +immediately replaced by a scornful smile of derision. + +'What! ye have still soldiers before whom the barbarian must tremble for +his conquests!' he cried. 'Where are they? Are they on their march, or +in ambush, or hiding behind strong walls, or have they lost their way on +the road to the Gothic camp? Ha! here is one of them!' he exclaimed, +advancing towards an enfeebled and disarmed guard of the Senate, who +quailed beneath his fierce glance. 'Fight, man!' he loudly continued; +'fight while there is yet time, for imperial Rome! Thy sword is gone-- +take mine, and be a hero again!' + +With a rough laugh, echoed by the warriors behind him, he flung his +ponderous weapon as he spoke towards the wretched object of his sarcasm. +The hilt struck heavily against the man's breast; he staggered and fell +helpless to the ground. The laugh was redoubled among the Goths; but +now their leader did not join in it. His eye glowed in triumphant scorn +as he pointed to the prostrate Roman, exclaiming-- + +'So does the South fall beneath the sword of the North! So shall the +empire bow before the rule of the Goth! Say, as ye look on these Romans +before us, are we not avenged of our wrongs? They die not fighting on +our swords; they live to entreat our pity, as children that are in +terror of the whip!' + + +He paused. His massive and noble countenance gradually assumed a +thoughtful expression. The ambassadors moved forward a few steps-- +perhaps to make a final entreaty, perhaps to depart in despair; but he +signed with his hand in command to them to be silent and remain where +they stood. The marauder's thirst for present plunder, and the +conqueror's lofty ambition of future glory, now stirred in strong +conflict within him. He walked to the opening of the tent, and +thrusting aside its curtain of skins, looked out upon Rome in silence. +The dazzling majesty of the temples and palaces of the mighty city, as +they towered before him, gleaming in the rays of the unclouded sunlight, +fixed him long in contemplation. Gradually, dreams of a future dominion +amid those unrivalled structures, which now waited but his word to be +pillaged and destroyed, filled his aspiring soul, and saved the city +from his wrath. He turned again toward the shrinking ambassadors--in a +voice and look superior to them as a being of a higher sphere--and spoke +thus:-- + +'When the Gothic conqueror reigns in Italy, the palaces of her rulers +shall be found standing for the places of his sojourn. I will ordain a +lower ransom; I will spare Rome.' + +A murmur arose among the warriors behind him. The rapine and +destruction which they had eagerly anticipated was denied them for the +first time by their chief. As their muttered remonstrances caught his +ear, Alaric instantly and sternly fixed his eyes upon them; and, +repeating in accents of deliberate command, 'I will ordain a lower +ransom; I will spare Rome,' steadily scanned the countenances of his +ferocious followers. + +Not a word of dissent fell from their lips; not a gesture of impatience +appeared in their ranks; they preserved perfect silence as the king +again advanced towards the ambassadors and continued-- + +'I fix the ransom of the city at five thousand pounds of gold; at thirty +thousand pounds of silver.' + +Here he suddenly ceased, as if pondering further on the terms he should +exact. The hearts of the Senate, lightened for a moment by Alaric's +unexpected announcement that he would moderate his demands, sank within +them again as they thought on the tribute required of them, and +remembered their exhausted treasury. But it was no time now to +remonstrate or to delay; and they answered with one accord, ignorant +though they were of the means of performing their promise, 'The ransom +shall be paid.' + +The king looked at them when they spoke, as if in astonishment that men +whom he had deprived of all freedom of choice ventured still to assert +it by intimating their acceptance of terms which they dared not decline. +The mocking spirit revived within him while he thus gazed on the +helpless and humiliated embassy; and he laughed once more as he resumed, +partly addressing himself to the silent array of the warriors behind +him-- + +'The gold and silver are but the first dues of the tribute; my army +shall be rewarded with more than the wealth of the enemy. You men of +Rome have laughed at our rough bearskins and our heavy armour, you shall +clothe us with your robes of festivity! I will add to the gold and +silver of your ransom, four thousand garments of silk, and three +thousand pieces of scarlet cloth. My barbarians shall be barbarians no +longer! I will make patricians, epicures, Romans of them!' + +The members of the ill-fated embassy looked up as he paused, in mute +appeal to the mercy of the triumphant conqueror; but they were not yet +to be released from the crushing infliction of his rapacity and scorn. + +'Hold!' he cried, 'I will have more--more still! You are a nation of +feasters;--we will rival you in your banquets when we have stripped you +of your banqueting robes! To the gold, the silver, the silk, and the +cloth, I will add yet more--three thousand pounds weight of pepper, your +precious merchandise, bought from far countries with your lavish +wealth!--see that you bring it hither, with the rest of the ransom, to +the last grain! The flesh of our beasts shall be seasoned for us like +the flesh of yours!' + +He turned abruptly from the senators as he pronounced the last words, +and began to speak in jesting tones and in the Gothic language to the +council of warriors around him. Some of the ambassadors bowed their +heads in silent resignation; others, with the utter thoughtlessness of +men bewildered by all that they had seen and heard during the interview +that was now close, unhappily revived the recollection of the broken +treaties of former days, by mechanically inquiring, in the terms of past +formularies, what security the besiegers would require for the payment +of their demands. + + +'Security!' cried Alaric fiercely, instantly relapsing as they spoke +into his sterner mood. 'Behold yonder the future security of the Goths +for the faith of Rome!' and flinging aside the curtain of the tent, he +pointed proudly to the long lines of his camp, stretching round all that +was visible of the walls of the fallen city. + +The ambassadors remembered the massacre of the hostages of Aquileia, and +the evasion of the payment of tribute-money promised in former days, and +were silent as they looked through the opening of the tent. + +'Remember the conditions of the ransom,' pursued Alaric in warning +tones, 'remember my security that the ransom shall be quickly paid! So +shall you live for a brief space in security, and feast and be merry +again while your territories yet remain to you. Go! I have spoken--it +is enough!' + +He withdrew abruptly from the senators, and the curtain of the tent fell +behind them as they passed out. The ordeal of the judgment was over; +the final sentence had been pronounced; the time had already arrived to +go forth and obey it. + +The news that terms of peace had been at last settled filled the Romans +who were waiting before the tent with emotions of delight, equally +unalloyed by reflections on the past or forebodings for the future. +Barred from their reckless project of flying to the open country by the +Goths surrounding them in the camp, shut out from retreating to Rome by +the gates through which they had rashly forced their way, exposed in +their helplessness to the brutal jeers of the enemy while they waited in +a long agony of suspense for the close of the perilous interview between +Alaric and the Senate, they had undergone every extremity of suffering, +and had yielded unanimously to despair when the intelligence of the +concluded treaty sounded like a promise of salvation in their ears. + +None of the apprehensions aroused in the minds of their superiors by the +vastness of the exacted tribute now mingled with the unreflecting +ecstasy of their joy at the prospect of the removal of the blockade. +They arose to return to the city from which they had fled in dismay, +with cries of impatience and delight. They fawned like dogs upon the +ambassadors, and even upon the ferocious Goths. On their departure from +Rome they had mechanically preserved some regularity in their progress, +but now they hurried onward without distinction of place or discipline +of march--senators, guards, plebeians, all were huddled together in the +disorderly equality of a mob. + +Not one of them, in their new-born security, marked the ruined building +on the high-road; not one of them observed the closely-robed figure that +stole out from it to join them in their rear; and then, with stealthy +footstep and shrouded face, soon mingled in the thickest of their ranks. +The attention of the ambassadors was still engrossed by their +forebodings of failure in collecting the ransom; the eyes of the people +were fixed only on the Pincian Gate; their ears were open to no sounds +but their own ejaculations of delight. Not one disguised stranger only, +but many, might now have joined them in their tumultuous progress, alike +unquestioned and unobserved. + +So they hastily re-entered the city, where thousands of heavy eyes were +strained to look on them, and thousands of attentive ears drank in their +joyful news from the Gothic camp. Then were heard in all directions the +sounds of hysterical weeping and idiotic laughter, the low groans of the +weak who died victims of their sudden transport, and the confused +outbursts of the strong who had survived all extremities, and at last +beheld their deliverance in view. + +Still silent and serious, the ambassadors now slowly penetrated the +throng on their way back to the Forum; and as they proceeded the crowd +gradually dispersed on either side of them. Enemies, friends, and +strangers, all whom the ruthless famine had hitherto separated in +interests and sympathies, were now united together as one family, by the +expectation of speedy relief. + + +But there was one among the assembly that was now separating who stood +alone in her unrevealed emotions, amid the rejoicing thousands around +her. The women and children in the throng, as, preoccupied by their own +feeling, they unheedfully passed her by, saw not the eager, ferocious +attention in her eyes, as she watched them steadily till they were out +of sight. Within their gates the stranger and the enemy waited for the +treacherous darkness of night, and waited unobserved. Where she had +first stood when the thick crowd hemmed her in, there she still +continued to stand after they slowly moved past her and space grew free. + +Yet beneath this outward calm and silence lurked the wildest passions +that ever raged against the weak restraint of human will; even the firm +self-possession of Goisvintha was shaken when she found herself within +the walls of Rome. + +No glance of suspicion had been cast upon her; not one of the crowd had +approached to thrust her back when she passed through the gates with the +heedless citizens around her. Shielded from detection, as much by the +careless security of her enemies as by the stratagem of her disguise, +she stood on the pavement of Rome, as she had vowed to stand, afar from +the armies of her people--alone as an avenger of blood! + +It was no dream; no fleeting, deceitful vision. The knife was under her +hand; the streets stretched before her; the living beings who thronged +them were Romans; the hours of the day were already on the wane; the +approach of her vengeance was as sure as the approach of darkness that +was to let it loose. A wild exultation quickened in her the pulses of +life, while she thought on the dread projects of secret assassination +and revenge which now opposed her, a solitary woman, in deadly enmity +against the defenceless population of a whole city. + +As her eyes travelled slowly from side to side over the moving throng; +as she thought on the time that might still elapse ere the discovery and +death--the martyrdom in the cause of blood--which she expected and +defied, would overtake her, her hands trembled beneath her robe, and she +reiterated in whispers to herself: 'Husband, children, brother--there +are five deaths to avenge! Remember Aquileia! Remember Aquileia!' + +Suddenly, as she looked from group to group among the departing people, +her eyes became arrested by one object; she instantly stepped forwards, +then abruptly restrained herself and moved back where the crowd was +still thick, gazing fixedly ever in the same direction. She saw the +victim twice snatched from her hands--at the camp and in the farm- +house--a third time offered to her grasp in the streets of Rome. + +The chance of vengeance last expected was the chance that had first +arrived. A vague, oppressing sensation of awe mingled with the triumph +at her heart--a supernatural guidance seemed to be directing her with +fell rapidity, through every mortal obstacle, to the climax of her +revenge! + +She screened herself behind the people; she watched the girl from the +most distant point; but concealment was now vain--their eyes had met. +The robe had slipped aside when she suddenly stepped forward, and in +that moment Antonina had seen her. + +Numerian, moving slowly with his daughter through the crowd, felt her +hand tighten round his, and saw her features stiffen into sudden +rigidity; but the change was only for an instant. Ere he could speak, +she caught him by the arm, and drew him forward with convulsive energy. +Then, in accents hardly articulate, low, breathless, unlike her wonted +voice, he heard her exclaim, as she struggled on with him, 'She is +there--there behind us! to kill me, as she killed him! Home! home!' + +Exhausted already, through long weakness and natural infirmity, by the +rough contact of the crowd, bewildered by Antonina's looks and actions, +and by the startling intimation of unknown peril, conveyed to him in her +broken exclamations of affright, Numerian's first impulse, as he hurried +onward by her side, led him to entreat protection and help from the +surrounding populace. But even could he have pointed out to them the +object of his dread amid that motley throng of all nations, the appeal +he now made would have remained unanswered. + + +Of all the results of the frightful severity of privation suffered by +the besieged, none were more common than those mental aberrations which +produced visions of danger, enemies, and death, so palpable as to make +the persons beholding them implore assistance against the hideous +creation of their own delirium. Accordingly, most of those to whom the +entreaties of Numerian were addressed passed without noticing them. +Some few carelessly bid him remember that there were no enemies now; +that the days of peace were approaching; and that a meal of good food, +which he might soon expect to enjoy, was the only help for a famished +man. No one, in that period of horror and suffering, which was now +drawing to a close, saw anything extraordinary in the confusion of the +father and the terror of the child. So they pursued their feeble flight +unprotected, and the footsteps of Goisvintha followed them as they went. + +They had already commenced the ascent of the Pincian Hill, when Antonina +stopped abruptly, and turned to look behind her. Many people yet +thronged the street below; but her eyes penetrated among them, sharpened +by peril, and instantly discerned the ample robe and the tall form, +still at the same distance from them, and pausing as they had paused. +For one moment, the girl's eyes fixed in the wild, helpless stare of +terror on her father's face; but the next, that mysterious instinct of +preservation, which is co-existent with the instinct of fear--which +gifts the weakest animal with cunning to improve its flight, and takes +the place of reason, reflection, and resolve, when all are banished from +the mind--warned her against the fatal error of permitting the pursuer +to track her to her home. + +'Not there! not there!' she gasped faintly as Numerian endeavoured to +lead her up the ascent. 'She will see us as we enter the doors!-- +through the streets! Oh, father, if you would save me! we may lose her +in the streets!--the guards, the people are there! Back! back!' + +Numerian trembled as he marked the terror in her looks and gestures; but +it was vain to question or oppose her. Nothing short of force could +restrain her,--no commands or entreaties could draw from her more than +the same breathless exclamation: 'Onward, father; onward, if you would +save me!' She was insensible to every sensation but fear, incapable of +any other exertion than flight. + +Turning and winding, hurrying forward ever at the same rapid pace, they +passed unconsciously along the intricate streets that led to the river +side; and still the avenger tracked the victim, constant as the shadow +to the substance; steady, vigilant, unwearied, as a bloodhound on a hot +scent. + +And now, even the sound of the father's voice ceased to be audible in +the daughter's ears; she no longer felt the pressure of his hand, no +longer perceived his very presence at her side. At length, frail and +shrinking, she again paused, and looked back. The street they had +reached was very tranquil and desolate: two slaves were walking at its +further extremity. While they were in sight, no living creature +appeared in the roadway behind; but as soon as they had passed away, a +shadow stole slowly forward over the pavement of a portico in the +distance, and the next moment Goisvintha appeared in the street. + +The sun glared down fiercely over her dark figure as she stopped and for +an instant looked stealthily around her. She moved to advance, and +Antonina saw no more. Again she turned to renew her hopeless flight; +and again her father--perceiving only as the mysterious cause of her +dread a solitary woman, who, though she followed, attempted not to +arrest, or even to address them--prepared to accompany her to the last, +in despair of all other chances of securing her safety. + +More and more completely did her terror now enchain her faculties, as +she still unconsciously traced her rapid way through the streets that +led to the Tiber. It was not Numerian, not Rome, not daylight in a +great city, that was before her eyes: it was the storm, the +assassination, the night at the farm-house, that she now lived through +over again. + + +Still the quick flight and the ceaseless pursuit were continued, as if +neither were ever to have an end; but the close of the scene was, +nevertheless, already at hand. During the interval of the passage +through the streets, Numerian's mind had gradually recovered from its +first astonishment and alarm; at length he perceived the necessity of +instant and decisive action, while there was yet time to save Antonina +from sinking under the excess of her own fears. Though a vague, awful +foreboding of disaster and death filled his heart, his resolution to +penetrate at once, at all hazards, the dark mystery of impending danger +indicated by his daughter's words and actions, did not fail him; for it +was aroused by the only motive powerful enough to revive all that +suffering and infirmity had not yet destroyed of the energy of his +former days--the preservation of his child. There was something of the +old firmness and vigour of the intrepid reformer of the Church, in his +dim eyes, as he now stopped, and enclosing Antonina in his arms, +arrested her instantly in her flight. + +She struggled to escape; but it was faintly, and only for a moment. Her +strength and consciousness were beginning to abandon her. She never +attempted to look back; she felt in her heart that Goisvintha was still +behind, and dared not to verify the frightful conviction with her eyes. +Her lips moved; but they expressed an altered and a vain petition: +'Hermanric! O Hermanric!' was all they murmured now. + +They had arrived at the long street that ran by the banks of the Tiber. +The people had either retired to their homes or repaired to the Forum to +be informed of the period when the ransom would be paid. No one but +Goisvintha was in sight as Numerian looked around him; and she, after +having carefully viewed the empty street, was advancing towards them at +a quickened pace. + +For an instant the father looked on her steadily as she approached, and +in that instant his determination was formed. A flight of steps at his +feet led to the narrow doorway of a small temple, the nearest building +to him. + +Ignorant whether Goisvintha might not be secretly supported by +companions in her ceaseless pursuit, he resolved to secure this place +for Antonina, as a temporary refuge at least; while standing before it, +he should oblige the woman to declare her purpose, if she followed them +even there. In a moment he had begun the ascent of the steps, with the +exhausted girl by his side. Arrived at the summit, he guided her before +him into the doorway, and stopped on the threshold to look round again. +Goisvintha was nowhere to be seen. + +Not duped by the woman's sudden disappearance into the belief that she +had departed from the street--persisting in his resolution to lead his +daughter to a place of repose, where she might most immediately feel +herself secure, and might therefore most readily recover her self- +possession, Numerian drew Antonina with him into the temple. He +lingered there for a moment, ere he departed to watch the street from +the portico outside. + +The light in the building was dim,--it was admitted only from a small +aperture in the roof, and through the narrow doorway, where it was +intercepted by the overhanging bulk of the outer portico. A crooked pile +of dark heavy-looking substances on the floor, rose high towards the +ceiling in the obscure interior. Irregular in form, flung together one +over the other in strange disorder, for the most part dusky in hue, yet +here and there gleaming at points with a metallic brightness, these +objects presented a mysterious, indefinite, and startling appearance. +It was impossible, on a first view of their confused arrangement, to +discover what they were, or to guess for what purpose they could have +been pile together on the floor of a deserted temple. From the moment +when they had first attracted Numerian's observation, his attention was +fixed on them, and as he looked a faint thrill of suspicion--vague, +inexplicable, without apparent cause or object--struck chill to his +heart. + + +He had moved a step forward to examine the hidden space at the back of +the pile, when his further advance was instantly stopped by the +appearance of a man who walked forth from it dressed in the floating, +purple-edged robe and white fillet of the Pagan priests. Before either +father or daughter could speak, even before they could move to depart, +he stepped up to them, and, placing his hand on the shoulder of each, +confronted them in silence. + +At the moment when the stranger approached, Numerian raised his hand to +thrust him back, and, in so doing, fixed his eyes on the man's +countenance, as a ray of light from the doorway floated over it. +Instantly his arm remained outstretched and rigid, then it dropped to +his side, and the expression of horror on the face of the child became +reflected, as it were, on the face of the parent. Neither moved under +the hand of the dweller in the temple when he laid it heavily on each, +and both stood before him speechless as himself. + + +CHAPTER 25. THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH. + +It was Ulpius. The Pagan was changed in bearing and countenance as well +as in apparel. He stood more firm and upright; a dull, tawny hue +overspread his face; his eyes, so sunken and lustreless in other days, +were now distended and bright with the glare of insanity. It seemed as +if his bodily powers had renewed their vigour, while his mental +faculties had declined towards their ruin. + +No human eye had ever beheld by what foul and secret means he had +survived through the famine, on what unnatural sustenance he had +satisfied the cravings of inexorable hunger; but there, in his gloomy +shelter, the madman and the outcast had lived and moved, and suddenly +and strangely strengthened, after the people of the city had exhausted +all their united responses, lavished in vain all their united wealth, +and drooped and died by thousands around him! + +His grasp still lay heavy on the father and daughter, and still both +confronted him--silent, as if death-struck by his gaze; motionless, as +if frozen at his touch. His presence was exerting over them a fatal +fascination. The power of action, suspended in Antonina as she entered +their ill-chosen refuge, was now arrested in Numerian also; but with him +no thought of the enemy in the street had any part, at this moment, in +the resistless influence which held him helpless before the enemy in the +temple. + +It was a feeling of deeper awe and darker horror. For now, as he looked +upon the hideous features of Ulpius, as he saw the forbidden robe of +priesthood in which the Pagan was arrayed, he beheld not only the +traitor who had successfully plotted against the prosperity of his +household, but the madman as well,--the moral leper of the whole human +family--the living Body and the dead Soul--the disinherited of that +Divine Light of Life which it is the awful privilege of mortal man to +share with the angels of God. + +He still clasped Antonina to his side, but it was unconsciously. To all +outward appearance he was helpless as his helpless child, when Ulpius +slowly removed his grasp from their shoulders, separated them, and +locking the hand of each in his cold, bony fingers, began to speak. + +His voice was deep and solemn, but his accents, in their hard, unvarying +tone, seemed to express no human emotion. His eyes, far from +brightening as he spoke, relapsed into a dull, vacant insensibility. The +connection between the action of speech and the accompanying and +explaining action of look which is observable in all men, seemed lost in +him. It was fearful to behold the death-like face, and to listen at the +same moment to the living voice. + +'Lo! the votaries come to the temple!' murmured the Pagan. 'The good +servants of the mighty worship gather at the voice of the priest! In +the far provinces, where the enemies of the gods approach to profane the +sacred groves, behold the scattered people congregating by night to +journey to the shrine of Serapis! Adoring thousands kneel beneath the +lofty porticoes, while within, in the secret hall where the light is +dim, where the air quivers round the breathing deities on their +pedestals of gold, the high priest Ulpius reads the destinies of the +future, that are unrolled before his eyes like a book!' + + +As he ceased, and, still holding the hands of his captives, looked on +them fixedly as ever, his eyes brightened and dilated again; but they +expressed not the slightest recognition either of father or daughter. +The delirium of his imagination had transported him to the temple at +Alexandria; the days were revived when his glory had risen to its +culminating point, when the Christians trembled before him as their +fiercest enemy, and the Pagans surrounded him as their last hope. The +victims of his former and forgotten treachery were but as two among the +throng of votaries allured by the fame of his eloquence, by the +triumphant notoriety of his power to protect the adherents of the +ancient creed. + +But it was not always thus that his madness declared itself: there were +moments when it rose to appalling frenzy. Then he imagined himself to +be again hurling the Christian assailants from the topmost walls of the +besieged temple, in that past time when the image of Serapis was doomed +by the Bishop of Alexandria to be destroyed. His yells of fury, his +frantic execrations of defiance were heard afar, in the solemn silence +of pestilence-stricken Rome. Those who, during the most fatal days of +the Gothic blockade, dropped famished on the pavement before the little +temple, as they endeavoured to pass it on their onward way, presented a +dread reality of death, to embody the madman's visions of battle and +slaughter. As these victims of famine lay expiring in the street, they +heard above them his raving voice cursing them for Christians, +triumphing over them as defeated enemies destroyed by his hand, +exhorting his imaginary adherents to fling the slain above on the dead +below, until the bodies of the besiegers of the temple were piled, as +barriers against their living comrades, round its walls. Sometimes his +frenzy gloried in the fancied revival of the foul and sanguinary +ceremonies of Pagan superstition. Then he bared his arms, and shouted +aloud for the sacrifice; he committed dark and nameless atrocities--for +now again the dead and the dying lay before him, to give substance to +the shadow of his evil thoughts; and Plague and Hunger were as creatures +of his will, and slew the victim for the altar ready to his hands. + +At other times, when the raving fit had passed away, and he lay panting +in the darkest corner of the interior of the temple, his insanity +assumed another and a mournful form. His voice grew low and moaning; +the wreck of his memory--wandering and uncontrollable--floated back, far +back, on the dark waters of the past; and his tongue uttered fragments +of words and phrases that he had murmured at his father's knees-- +farewell, childish wishes that he had breathed in his mother's ear-- +innocent, anxious questions which he had addressed to Macrinus, the high +priest, when he first entered the service of the gods at Alexandria. +His boyish reveries--the gentleness of speech and poetry of thought of +his first youthful days, were now, by the unsearchable and arbitrary +influences of his disease, revived in his broken words, renewed in his +desolate old age of madness and crime, breathed out in unconscious +mockery by his lips, while the foam still gathered about them, and the +last flashes of frenzy yet lightened in his eyes. + +This unnatural calmness of language and vividness of memory, this +treacherous appearance of thoughtful, melancholy self-possession, would +often continue through long periods, uninterrupted; but, sooner or +later, the sudden change came; the deceitful chain of thought snapped +asunder in an instant; the word was left half uttered; the wearied limbs +started convulsively into renewed action; and as the dream of violence +returned and the dream of peace vanished, the madman rioted afresh in +his fury; and journeyed as his visions led him, round and round his +temple sanctuary, and hither and thither, when the night was dark and +death was busiest in Rome, among the expiring in deserted houses, and +the lifeless in the silent streets. + + +But there were other later events in his existence that never revived +within him. The old familiar image of the idol Serapis, which had drawn +him into the temple when he re-entered Rome, absorbed in itself and in +its associated remembrances all that remained active of his paralysed +faculties. His betrayal of his trust in the house of Numerian, his +passage through the rifted wall, his crushing repulse in the tent of +Alaric, never for a moment occupied his wandering thoughts. The clouds +that hung over his mind might open to him parting glimpses of the toils +and triumphs of his early career; but they descended in impenetrable +darkness on all the after-days of his dreary life. + +Such was the being to whose will, by a mysterious fatality, the father +and child were now submitted; such the existence--solitary, hopeless, +loathsome--of their stern and wily betrayer of other days! + +Since he had ceased speaking, the cold, death-like grasp of his hand had +gradually strengthened, and he had begun to look slowly and inquiringly +round him from side to side. Had this change marked the approaching +return of his raving paroxysm, the lives of Numerian and Antonina would +have been sacrificed the next moment; but all that it now denoted was +the quickening of the lofty and obscure ideas of celebrity and success, +of priestly honour and influence, of the splendour and glory of the +gods, which had prompted his last words. + +He moved suddenly, and drew the victims of his dangerous caprice a few +steps farther into the interior of the temple; then led them close up to +the lofty pile of objects which had first attracted Numerian's eyes on +entering the building. 'Kneel and adore!' cried the madman fiercely, +replacing his hands on their shoulders and pressing them to the +ground--'You stand before the gods, in the presence of their high +priest!' + +The girl's head sank forward, and she hid her face in her hands; but her +father looked up tremblingly at the pile. His eyes had insensibly +become more accustomed to the dim light of the temple, and he now saw +more distinctly the objects composing the mass that rose above him. + +Hundreds of images of the gods, in gold, silver, and wood--many in the +latter material being larger than life; canopies, vestments, furniture, +utensils, all of ancient Pagan form, were heaped together, without order +or arrangement, on the floor, to a height of full fifteen feet. + +There was something at once hideous and grotesque in the appearance of +the pile. The monstrous figures of the idols, with their rude carved +draperies and symbolic weapons, lay in every wild variety of position, +and presented every startling eccentricity of line, more especially +towards the higher portions of the mass, where they had evidently been +flung up from the ground by the hand that had raised the structure. + +The draperies mixed among the images and the furniture were here coiled +serpent-like around them, and there hung down towards the ground, waving +slow and solemn in the breezes that wound through the temple doorway. +The smaller objects of gold and silver, scattered irregularly over the +mass, shone out from it like gleaming eyes; while the pile itself, seen +in such a place under a dusky light, looked like some vast, misshapen +monster--the gloomy embodiment of the bloodiest superstitions of +Paganism, the growth of damp airs and teeming ruin, of shadow and +darkness, of accursed and infected solitude! + +Even in its position, as well as in the objects of which it was +composed, the pile wore an ominous and startling aspect; its crooked +outline, expanding towards the top, was bent over fearfully in the +direction of the doorway; it seemed as if a single hand might sway it in +its uncertain balance, and hurl it instantly in one solid mass to the +floor. + +Many toilsome hours had passed away, long secret labour had been +expended in the erection of this weird and tottering structure; but it +was all the work of one hand. Night after night had the Pagan entered +the deserted temples in the surrounding streets, and pillaged them of +their contents to enrich his favoured shrine: the removal of the idols +from their appointed places, which would have been sacrilege in any +meaner man, was in his eyes the dread privilege of the high priest +alone. + + +He had borne heavy burdens, and torn asunder strong fastenings, and +journeyed and journeyed again for hours together over the same gloomy +streets, without loitering in his task; he had raised treasures and +images one above another; he had strengthened the base and heightened +the summit of this precious and sacred heap; he had repaired and +rebuilt, whenever it crumbled and fell, this new Babel that he longed to +rear to the Olympus of the temple roof, with a resolute patience and +perseverance that no failure or fatigue could overcome. + +It was the dearest purpose of his dreamy superstition to surround +himself with innumerable deities, as well as to assemble innumerable +worshippers; to make the sacred place of his habitation a mighty +Pantheon, as well as a point of juncture for the scattered congregations +of the Pagan world. This was the ambition in which his madness expanded +to the fiercest fanaticism; and as he now stood erect with his captives +beneath him, his glaring eyes looked awe-struck when he fixed them on +his idols; he uplifted his arms in solemn, ecstatic triumph, and in low +tones poured forth his invocations, wild, intermingled, and fragmentary, +as the barbarous altar which his solitary exertions had reared. + +Whatever was the effect on Numerian of his savage and confused +ejaculations, they were unnoticed, even unheard, by Antonina; for now, +while the madman's voice softened to an undertone, and while she hid all +surrounding objects from her eyes, her senses were awakened to sounds in +the temple which she had never remarked before. + +The rapid current of the Tiber washed the foundation walls of one side +of the building, within which the clear, lulling bubble of the water was +audible with singular distinctness. But besides this another and a +shriller sound caught the ear. On the summit of the temple roof still +remained several rows of little gilt bells, originally placed there, +partly with the intention of ornamenting this portion of the outer +structure, partly in order that the noise they produced, when agitated +by the wind, might scare birds from settling in their flight on the +consecrated edifice. The sounds produced by these bells were silvery +and high pitched; now, when the breeze was strong, they rang together +merrily and continuously; now, when it fell, their notes were faint, +separate, and irregular, almost plaintive in their pure metallic +softness. But, however their tone might vary under the capricious +influences of the wind, it seemed always wonderfully mingled within the +temple with the low, eternal bubbling of the river, which filled up the +slightest pauses in the pleasant chiming of the bells, and ever +preserved its gentle and monotonous harmony just audible beneath them. + +There was something in this quaint, unwonted combination of sounds, as +they were heard in the vaulted interior of the little building, +strangely simple, attractive, and spiritual; the longer they were +listened to, the more completely did the mind lose the recollection of +their real origin, and gradually shape out of them wilder and wilder +fancies, until the bells as they rang their small peal seemed like happy +voices of a heavenly stream, borne lightly onward on its airy bubbles, +and ever rejoicing over the gliding current that murmured to them as it +ran. + +Spite of the peril of her position, and of the terror which still fixed +her speechless and crouching on the ground, the effect on Antonina of +the strange mingled music of the running water and the bells was +powerful enough, when she first heard it, to suspend all her other +emotions in a momentary wonder and doubt. She withdrew her hands from +her face, and glanced round mechanically to the doorway, as if she +imagined that the sounds proceeded from the street. + +When she looked, the declining sun, gliding between two of the outer +pillars which surrounded the temple, covered with a bright glow the +smooth pavement before the entrance. A swarm of insects flew drowsily +round and round in the warm mellow light; their faint monotonous humming +deepened, rather than interrupted, the perfect silence prevailing over +all things without. + + +But a change was soon destined to appear in the repose of the quiet, +vacant scene; hardly a minute had elapsed while Antonina still looked on +it before she saw stealing over the sunny pavement a dark shadow, the +same shadow that she had last beheld when she stopped in her flight to +look behind her in the empty street. At first it slowly grew and +lengthened, then it remained stationary, then it receded and vanished as +gradually as it had advanced, and then the girl heard, or fancied that +she heard, a faint sound of footsteps, retiring along the lateral +colonnades towards the river side of the building. + +A low cry of horror burst from her lips as she sank back towards her +father; but it was unheeded. The voice of Ulpius had resumed in the +interval its hollow loudness of tone; he had raised Numerian from the +ground; his strong, cold grasp, which seemed to penetrate to the old +man's heart, which held him motionless and helpless as if by a fatal +spell, was on his arm. + +'Hear it! hear it!' cried the Pagan, waving his disengaged hand as if he +were addressing a vast concourse of people--'I advance this man to be +one of the servants of the high priest! He has travelled from a far +country to the sacred shrine; he is docile and obedient before the altar +of the gods; the lot is cast for his future life; his dwelling shall be +in the temple to the day of his death! He shall minister before me in +white robes, and swing the smoking censer, and slay the sacrifice at my +feet!' + +He stopped. A dark and sinister expression appeared in his eyes as the +word 'sacrifice' passed his lips; he muttered doubtingly to +himself--'The sacrifice!--is it yet the hour of the sacrifice?'--and +looked round towards the doorway. + +The sun still shone gaily on the outer pavement; the insects still +circled slowly in the mellow light; no shadow was now visible; no +distant footsteps were heard; there was nothing audible but the happy +music of the bubbling water, and the chiming, silvery bells. + +For a few moments the madman looked out anxiously towards the street, +without uttering a word or moving a muscle. The raving fit was nearly +possessing him again, as the thought of the sacrifice flashed over his +darkened mind; but once more its approach was delayed. + +He slowly turned his head in the direction of the interior of the +temple. 'The sun is still bright in the outer courts,' he murmured in +an undertone, 'the hour of the sacrifice is not yet! Come!' he +continued in a louder voice, shaking Numerian by the arm. 'It is time +that the servant of the temple should behold the place of the sacrifice, +and sharpen the knife for the victim before sunset! Arouse thee, +bondman, and follow me!' + +As yet, Numerian had neither spoken, nor attempted to escape. The +preceding events, though some space has been occupied in describing +them, passed in so short a period of time, that he had not hitherto +recovered from the first overwhelming shock of the meeting with Ulpius. +But now, awed though he still was, he felt that the moment of the +struggle for freedom had arrived. + +'Leave me, and let us depart!--there can be no fellowship between us +again!' he exclaimed with the reckless courage of despair, taking the +hand of Antonina, and striving to free himself from the madman's grasp. +But the effort was vain; Ulpius tightened his hold and laughed in +triumph. 'What! the servant of the temple is in terror of the high +priest, and shrinks from walking in the place of the sacrifice!' he +cried. 'Fear not, bondman! The mighty one, who rules over life and +death, and time and futurity, deals kindly with the servant of his +choice! Onward! onward! to the place of darkness and doom, where I +alone am omnipotent, and all others are creatures who tremble and obey! +To thy lesson, learner! by sunset the victim must be crowned!' + +He looked round on Numerian for an instant, as he prepared to drag him +forward, and their eyes met. In the fierce command of his action, and +the savage exultation of his glance, the father saw repeated in a wilder +form the very attitude and expression which he had beheld in the Pagan +on the morning of the loss of his child. All the circumstances of that +miserable hour--the vacant bed-chamber--the banished daughter--the +triumph of the betrayer--the anguish of the betrayed--rushed over his +mind, and rose up before it vivid as a pictured scene before his eyes. + + +He struggled no more; the powers of resistance in mind and body were +crushed alike. He made an effort to remove Antonina from his side, as +if, in forgetfulness of the hidden enemy without, he designed to urge +her flight through the open door, while the madman's attention was yet +distracted from her. But, beyond this last exertion of the strong +instinct of paternal love, every other active emotion seemed dead within +him. + +Vainly had he striven to disentangle the child from the fate that might +be in store for the parent. To her the dread of the dark shadow on the +pavement was superior to all other apprehensions. She now clung more +closely to her father, and tightened her clasp round his hand. So, when +the Pagan advanced into the interior of the temple, it was not Numerian +alone who followed him to the place of sacrifice, but Antonina as well. + +They moved to the back of the pile of idols. Behind it appeared a high +partition of gilt and inlaid wood reaching to the ceiling, and +separating the outer from the inner part of the temple. A low archway +passage, protected by carved gates similar to those at the front of the +building, had been formed in the partition, and through this Ulpius and +his prisoners now passed into the recess beyond. + +This apartment was considerably smaller than the first hall of the +temple which they had just left. The ceiling and the floor both sloped +downwards together, and here the rippling of the waters of the Tiber was +more distinctly audible to them than in the outer division of the +building. At the moment when they entered it the place was very dark; +the pile of idols intercepted even the little light that could have been +admitted through its narrow entrance; but the dense obscurity was soon +dissipated. Dragging Numerian after him to the left side of the recess, +Ulpius drew back a sort of wooden shutter, and a vivid ray of sunlight +immediately streamed in through a small circular opening pierced in this +part of the temple. + +Then there became apparent, at the lower end of the apartment, a vast +yawning cavity in the wall, high enough to admit a man without stooping, +but running downwards almost perpendicularly to some lower region which +it was impossible to see, for no light shot upwards from this +precipitous artificial abyss, in the darkness of which the eye was lost +after it had penetrated to the distance of a few feet only from the +opening. At the base of the confined space thus visible appeared the +commencement of a flight of steps, evidently leading far downwards into +the cavity. On the abruptly sloping walls, which bounded it on all +sides, were painted, in the brilliant hues of ancient fresco, +representations of the deities of the mythology--all in the attitude of +descending into the vault, and all followed by figures of nymphs bearing +wreaths of flowers, beautiful birds, and other similar adjuncts of the +votive ceremonies of Paganism. The repulsive contrast between the +bright colours and graceful forms presented by the frescoes, and the +perilous and gloomy appearance of the cavity which they decorated, +increased remarkably the startling significance in the character of the +whole structure. Its past evil uses seemed ineradicably written over +every part of it, as past crime and torment remain ineradicably written +on the human face; the mind imbibed from it terrifying ideas of deadly +treachery, of secret atrocities, of frightful refinements of torture, +which no uninitiated eye had ever beheld, and no human resolution had +ever been powerful enough to resist. + +But the impressions thus received were not produced only by what was +seen in and around this strange vault, but by what was heard there +besides. The wind penetrated the cavity at some distance, and through +some opening that could not be beheld, and was apparently intercepted in +its passage, for it whistled upwards towards the entrance in shrill, +winding notes, sometimes producing another and nearer sound, resembling +the clashing of many small metallic substances violently shaken +together. The noise of the wind, as well as the bubbling of the current +of the Tiber, seemed to proceed from a greater distance than appeared +compatible with the narrow extent of the back part of the temple, and +the proximity of the river to its low foundation walls. + + +It was evident that the vault only reached its outlet after it had wound +backwards, underneath the building, in some strange complication of +passages or labyrinth of artificial caverns, which might have been built +long since as dungeons for the living, or as sepulchres for the dead. + +'The place of the sacrifice--aha! the place of the sacrifice!' cried the +Pagan exultingly, as he drew Numerian to the entrance of the cavity, and +solemnly pointed into the darkness beneath. + +The father gazed steadily into the chasm, never turning now to look on +Antonina, never moving to renew the struggle for freedom. Earthly loves +and earthly hopes began to fade away from his heart--he was praying. +The solemn words of Christian supplication fell in low, murmuring sounds +from his lips, in the place of idolatry and bloodshed, and mingled with +the incoherent ejaculations of the madman who kept him captive, and who +now bent his glaring eyes on the darkness of the vault, half forgetful, +in the gloomy fascination which it exercised even over him, of the +prisoners whom he held at its mouth. + +The single ray of light, admitted from the circular aperture of the +wall, fell wild and fantastic over the widely-differing figures of the +three, as they stood so strangely united together before the abyss that +opened beneath them. The shadows were above and the shadows were +around; there was no light in the ill-omened place but the one vivid ray +that streamed over the gaunt figure of Ulpius, as he still pointed into +the darkness; over the rigid features of Numerian, praying in the +bitterness of expected death; and over the frail youthful form of +Antonina as she nestled trembling at her father's side. It was an +unearthly and a solemn scene! + +Meanwhile the shadow which the girl had observed on the pavement before +the doorway of the temple now appeared there again, but not to retire as +before; for, the instant after, Goisvintha stealthily entered the outer +apartment of the building left vacant by its first occupants. She +passed softly around the pile of idols, looked into the inner recess of +the temple, and saw the three figures standing together in the ray of +light, gloomy and motionless, before the mouth of the cavity. Her first +glance fixed on the Pagan, whom she instinctively doubted and dreaded, +whose purpose in keeping captive the father and daughter she could not +divine; her next was directed on Antonina. + +The girl's position was a guarded one; still holding her father's hand, +she was partly protected by his body; and stood unconsciously beneath +the arm of Ulpius, as it was raised while he grasped Numerian's +shoulder. Marking this, and remembering that Antonina had twice escaped +her already, Goisvintha hesitated for a moment, and then, with cautious +step and lowering brow, began to retire again towards the doorway of the +building. 'Not yet--not yet the time!' she muttered, as she resumed her +former lurking-place; 'they stand where the light is over them--the girl +is watched and shielded--the two men are still on either side of her! +Not yet the moment of the blow; the stroke of the knife must be sure and +safe! Sure, for this time she must die by my hand! Safe, for I have +other vengeance to wreak besides the vengeance on her! I, who have been +patient and cunning since the night when I escaped from Aquileia, will +be patient and cunning still! If she passes the door, I slay her as she +goes out; if she remains in the temple--' + +At the last word, Goisvintha paused and gazed upward; the setting sun +threw its fiery glow over her haggard face; her eye brightened fiercely +in the full light as she looked. 'The darkness is at hand!' she +continued; 'the night will be thick and black in the dim halls of the +temple; I shall see her when she shall not see me!--the darkness is +coming; the vengeance is sure!' + +She closed her lips, and with fatal perseverance continued to watch and +wait, as she had resolutely watched and waited already. The Roman and +the Goth; the opposite in sex, nation, and fate; the madman who dreamed +of the sanguinary superstitions of Paganism before the temple altar, and +the assassin who brooded over the chances of bloodshed beneath the +temple portico, were now united in a mysterious identity of expectation, +uncommunicated and unsuspected by either--the hour when the sun vanished +from the heaven was the hour of the sacrifice for both! + +**** + +There is now a momentary pause in the progress of events. Occurrences +to be hereafter related render it necessary to take advantage of this +interval to inform the reader of the real nature and use of the vault in +the temple wall, the external appearance of which we have already +described. + +The marking peculiarity in the construction of the Pagan religion may be +most aptly compared to the marking peculiarity in the construction of +the pagan temples. Both were designed to attract the general eye by the +outward effect only, which was in both the false delusive reflection of +the inward substance. + +In the temple, the people, as they worshipped beneath the long +colonnades, or beheld the lofty porticoes from the street, were left to +imagine the corresponding majesty and symmetry of the interior of the +structure, and were not admitted to discover how grievously it +disappointed the brilliant expectations which the exterior was so well +calculated to inspire; how little the dark, narrow halls of the idols, +the secret vaults and gloomy recesses within, fulfilled the promise of +the long flights of steps, the broad extent of pavement, the massive +sun-brightened pillars without. So in the religion, the votary was +allured by the splendour of processions; by the pomp of auguries; by the +poetry of the superstition which peopled his native woods with the +sportive Dryads, and the fountains from which he drank with their +guardian Naiads; which gave to mountain and lake, to sun and moon and +stars, to all things around and above him, their fantastic allegory, or +their gracious legend of beauty and love: but beyond this, his first +acquaintance with his worship was not permitted to extend, here his +initiation concluded. He was kept in ignorance of the dark and +dangerous depths which lurked beneath this smooth and attractive +surface; he was left to imagine that what was displayed was but the +prelude to the future discovery of what was hidden of beauty in the +rites of Paganism; he was not admitted to behold the wretched +impostures, the loathsome orgies, the hideous incantations, the bloody +human sacrifices perpetrated in secret, which made the foul, real +substance of the fair exterior form. His first sight of the temple was +not less successful in deceiving his eye than his first impression of +the religion in deluding his mind. + +With these hidden and guilty mysteries of the Pagan worship, the vault +before which Ulpius now stood with his captives was intimately +connected. + +The human sacrifices offered among the Romans were of two kinds; those +publicly and those privately performed. The first were of annual +recurrence in the early years of the Republic; were prohibited at a +later date; were revived by Augustus, who sacrificed his prisoners of +war at the altar of Julius Caesar; and were afterwards--though +occasionally renewed for particular purposes under some subsequent +reigns--wholly abandoned as part of the ceremonies of Paganism during +the later periods of the empire. + +The sacrifices perpetrated in private were much longer practised. They +were connected with the most secret mysteries of the mythology; were +concealed from the supervision of government; and lasted probably until +the general extinction of heathen superstition in Italy and the +provinces. + +Many and various were the receptacles constructed for the private +immolation of human victims in different parts of the empire--in its +crowded cities as well as in its solitary woods--and among all, one of +the most remarkable and the longest preserved was the great cavity +pierced in the wall of the temple which Ulpius had chosen for his +solitary lurking-place in Rome. + + +It was not merely as a place of concealment for the act of immolation, +and for the corpse of the victim, that the vault had been built. A +sanguinary artifice had complicated the manner of its construction, by +placing in the cavity itself the instrument of the sacrifice; by making +it, as it were, not merely the receptacle, but the devourer also of its +human prey. At the bottom of the flight of steps leading down into it +(the top of which, as we have already observed, was alone visible from +the entrance in the temple recess) was fixed the image of a dragon +formed in brass. + +The body of the monster, protruding opposite the steps almost at a right +angle from the wall, was moved in all directions by steel springs, which +communicated with one of the lower stairs, and also with a sword placed +in the throat of the image to represent the dragon's tongue. The walls +around the steps narrowed so as barely to admit the passage of the human +body when they approached the dragon. At the slightest pressure on the +stair with which the spring communicated, the body of the monster bent +forward, and the sword instantly protruded from its throat, at such a +height from the steps as ensure that it should transfix in a vital part +the person who descended. The corpse, then dropping by its own weight +off the sword, fell through a tunnelled opening beneath the dragon, +running downward in an opposite direction to that taken by the steps +above, and was deposited on an iron grating washed by the waters of the +Tiber, which ran under the arched foundations of the temple. The +grating was approached by a secret subterranean passage leading from the +front of the building, by which the sacrificing priests were enabled to +reach the dead body, to fasten weights to it, and opening the grating, +to drop it into the river, never to be beheld again by mortal eyes. + +In the days when this engine of destruction was permitted to serve the +purpose for which the horrible ingenuity of its inventors had +constructed it, its principal victims were young girls. Crowned with +flowers, and clad in white garments, they were lured into immolating +themselves by being furnished with rich offerings, and told that the +sole object of their fatal expedition down the steps of the vault was to +realise the pictures adorning its walls (which we have described a few +pages back), by presenting their gifts at the shrine of the idol below. + +At the period of which we write, the dragon had for many years--since +the first prohibitions of Paganism--ceased to be fed with its wonted +prey. The scales forming its body grew gradually corroded and loosened +by the damp; and when moved by the wind which penetrated to them from +beneath, whistling up in its tortuous course through the tunnel that ran +in one direction below, and the vault of the steps that ascended in +another above, produced the clashing sound which has been mentioned as +audible at intervals from the mouth of the cavity. But the springs +which moved the deadly apparatus of the whole machine being placed +within it, under cover, continued to resist the slow progress of time +and of neglect, and still remained as completely fitted as ever to +execute the fatal purpose for which they had been designed. + +The ultimate destiny of the dragon of brass was the destiny of the +religion whose bloodiest superstitions it embodied: it fell beneath the +resistless advance of Christianity. Shortly after the date of our +narrative, the interior of the building beneath which it was placed +having suffered from an accident, which will be related farther on, the +exterior was dismantled, in order that its pillars might furnish +materials for a church. The vault in the wall was explored by a monk +who had been present at the destruction of other Pagan temples, and who +volunteered to discover its contents. With a torch in one hand, and an +iron bar in the other, he descended into the cavity, sounding the walls +and the steps before him as he proceeded. For the first and the last +time the sword protruded harmless from the monster's throat when the +monk pressed the fatal stair, before stepping on it, with his iron bar. +The same day the machine was destroyed and cast into the Tiber, where +its victims had been thrown before it in former years. + +***** + + +Some minutes have elapsed since we left the father and daughter standing +by the Pagan's side before the mouth of the vault; and as yet there +appears no change in the several positions of the three. But already, +while Ulpius still looks down steadfastly into the cavity at his feet, +his voice, as he continues to speak, grows louder, and his words become +more distinct. Fearful recollections associated with the place are +beginning to stir his weary memory, to lift the darkness of oblivion +from his idle thoughts. + +'They go down, far down there!' he abruptly exclaimed, pointing into the +black depths of the vault, 'and never arise again to the light of the +upper earth! The great Destroyer is watchful in his solitude beneath, +and looks through the darkness for their approach! Hark! the hissing of +his breath is like to the clash of weapons in a deadly strife!' + +At this moment the wind moved the loose scales of the dragon. During an +instant Ulpius remained silent, listening to the noise they produced. +For the first time an expression of dread appeared on his face. His +memory was obscurely reviving the incidents of his discovery of the +deadly machinery in the vault when he first made his sojourn in the +temple, when--filled with the confused remembrance of the mysterious +rites and incantations, the secret sacrifices which he had witnessed and +performed at Alexandria--he had found and followed the subterranean +passage which led to the iron grating beneath the dragon. As the wind +lulled again, and the clashing of the metal ceased with it, he began to +give these recollections expression in words, uttering them in slow, +solemn accents to himself. + +'I have seen the Destroyer; the Invisible has revealed himself to me!' +he murmured. 'I stood on the iron bars; the restless waters toiled and +struggled beneath my feet as I looked up into the place of darkness. A +voice called to me, "Get light, and behold me from above! Get light! +get light!" Sun, and moon, and stars gave no light there! but lamps +burnt in the city, in the houses of the dead, when I walked by them in +the night-time; and the lamp gave light when sun, and moon, and stars +gave none! From the top steps I looked down, and saw the Powerful One in +his golden brightness; and approached not, but watched and listened in +fear. The voice again!--the voice was heard again!--"Sacrifice to me in +secret, as thy brethren sacrifice! Give me the living where the living +are, and the dead where the dead!" The air came up cold, and the voice +ceased, and the lamp was like sun, and moon, and stars--it gave no light +in the place of darkness!' + +While he spoke, the loose metal again clashed in the vault, for the wind +was strengthening as the evening advanced. 'Hark! the signal to prepare +the sacrifice!' cried the Pagan, turning abruptly to Numerian. 'Listen, +bondman! the living and the dead are within our reach. The breath of +the Invisible strikes them in the street and in the house; they stagger +in the highways, and drop at the temple steps. When the hour comes we +shall go forth and find them. Under my hand they go down into the +cavern beneath. Whether they are hurled dead, or whether they go down +living, they fall through to the iron bars, where the water leaps and +rejoices to receive them! It is mine to sacrifice them above, and thine +to wait for them below, to lift the bars and give them to the river to +be swallowed up! The dead drop down first, the living that are slain by +the Destroyer follow after!' + +Here he paused suddenly. Now, for the first time, his eye rested on +Antonina, whose very existence he seemed hitherto to have forgotten. A +revolting smile of mingled cunning and satisfaction instantly changed +the whole character of his countenance as he gazed on her and then +looked round significantly to the vault. 'Here is one,' he whispered to +Numerian, taking her by the arm. 'Keep her captive--the hour is near!' + +Numerian had hitherto stood unheedful while he spoke; but when he +touched Antonina the bare action was enough to arouse the father to +resistance--hopeless though it was--once more. He shook off the grasp +of Ulpius from the girl's arm, and drew back with her--breathless, +vigilant, desperate--to the side-wall behind him. + +The madman laughed in proud approval. 'My bondman obeys me and seizes +the captive!' he cried. 'He remembers that the hour is near and loosens +not his hold! Come,' he continued, 'come out into the hall beyond!--it +is time that we watch for more victims for the sacrifice till the sun +goes down. The Destroyer is mighty and must be obeyed!' + + +He walked to the entrance leading into the first apartment of the +temple, and then waited to be followed by Numerian, who, now for the +first time separated from Ulpius, remained stationary in the position he +had last occupied, and looked eagerly around him. No chance of escape +presented itself; the mouth of the vault on one side, and the passage +through the partition on the other, were the only outlets to the place. +There was no hope but to follow the Pagan into the great hall of the +temple, to keep carefully at a distance from him, and to watch the +opportunity of flight through the doorway. The street, so desolate when +last beheld, might now afford more evidence that it was inhabited. +Citizens, guards might be passing by, and might be summoned into the +temple--help might be at hand. + +As he moved forward with Antonina, such thoughts passed rapidly through +the father's mind, unaccompanied at the moment by the recollection of +the stranger who had followed them from the Pincian Gate, or of the +apathy of the famished populace in aiding each other in any emergency. +Seeing that he was followed as he had commanded, Ulpius passed on before +them to the pile of idols; but a strange and sudden alteration appeared +in his gait. He had hitherto walked with the step of a man--young, +strong, and resolute of purpose; now he dragged one limb after the other +as slowly and painfully as if he had received a mortal hurt. He +tottered with more than the infirmity of his age, his head dropped upon +his breast, and he moaned and murmured inarticulately in low, long-drawn +cries. + +He had advanced to the side of the pile, half-way towards the doorway of +the temple, when Numerian, who had watched with searching eyes the +abrupt change in his demeanour, forgetting the dissimulation which might +still be all-important, abandoned himself to his first impulse, and +hurriedly pressing forward with Antonina, attempted to pass the Pagan +and escape. But at the moment Ulpius stopped in his slow progress, +reeled, threw out his hands convulsively, and seizing Numerian by the +arm, staggered back with him against the side-wall of the temple. The +fingers of the tortured wretch closed as if they were never to be +unlocked again--closed as if with the clutch of death, with the last +frantic grasp of a drowning man. + +For days and nights past he had toiled incessantly under the relentless +tyranny of his frenzy, building up higher and higher his altar of idols, +and pouring forth his invocations before his gods in the place of the +sacrifice; and now, at the moment when he was most triumphant in his +ferocious activity of purpose, when his fancied bondman and his fancied +victim were most helpless at his command--now, when his strained +faculties were strung to their highest pitch, the long-deferred paroxysm +had seized him, which was the precursor of his repose, of the only +repose granted by his awful fate--a change (the mournful change already +described) in the form of his insanity. For at those rare periods when +he slept, his sleep was not unconsciousness, not rest: it was a trance +of hideous dreams--his tongue spoke, his limbs moved, when he slumbered +as when he woke. It was only when his visions of the pride, the power, +the fierce conflicts, and daring resolutions of his maturer years gave +place to his dim, quiet, waking dreams of his boyish days, that his +wasted faculties reposed, and his body rested with them in the +motionless languor of perfect fatigue. Then, if words were still +uttered by his lips, they were as murmurs of an infant--happy sleep; for +the innocent phrases of his childhood which they then revived, seemed +for a time to bring with them the innocent tranquillity of his childhood +as well. + +'Go! go!--fly while you are yet free!' cried Numerian, dropping the hand +of Antonina, and pointing to the door. But for the second time the girl +refused to move forward a step. No horror, no peril in the temple could +banish for an instant her remembrance of the night at the farm-house in +the suburbs. She kept her head turned towards the vacant entrance, fixed +her eyes on it in the unintermitting watchfulness of terror, and +whispered affrightedly, 'Goisvintha! Goisvintha!' when her father +spoke. + + +The clasp of the Pagan's fingers remained fixed and deathlike as at +first; he leaned back against the wall, as still as if life and action +had for ever departed from him. The paroxysm had passed away; his face, +distorted but the moment before, was now in repose, but it was a repose +that was awful to look on. Tears rolled slowly from his half-closed +eyes over his seamed and wrinkled cheeks--tears which were not the +impressive expression of mental anguish (for a vacant and unchanging +smile was on his lips), but the mere mechanical outburst of the physical +weakness that the past crisis of agony had left behind it. Not the +slightest appearance of thought or observation was perceptible in his +features: his face was the face of an idiot. + +Numerian, who had looked on him for an instant, shuddered and averted +his eyes, recoiling from the sight before him. But a more overpowering +trial of his resolution was approaching, which he could not avoid. Ere +long the voice of Ulpius grew audible once more; but now its tones were +weak, piteous, almost childish, and the words they uttered were quiet +words of love and gentleness, which dropping from such lips, and +pronounced in such a place, were fearful to hear. The temple and all +that was in it vanished from his sight as from his memory. Swayed by +the dread and supernatural influences of his disease, the madman passed +back in an instant over the dark valley of life's evil pilgrimage to the +long-quitted precincts of his boyish home. While in bodily presence he +stood in the place of his last crimes, the outcast of reason and +humanity, in mental consciousness he lay in his mother's arms, as he had +lain there ere yet he had departed to the temple at Alexandria; and his +heart communed with her heart, and his eyes looked on her as they had +looked before his father's fatal ambition had separated for ever parent +and child! + +'Mother!--come back, mother!' he whispered. 'I was not asleep: I saw +you when you came in, and sat by my bedside, and wept over me when you +kissed me! Come back, and sit by me still! I am going away, far away, +and may never hear your voice again! How happy we should be, mother, if +I stayed with you always! But it is my father's will that I should go +to the temple in another country, and live there to be a priest; and his +will must be obeyed. I may never return; but we shall not forget one +another! I shall remember your words when we used to talk together +happily, and you shall still remember mine!' + +Hardly had the first sentence been uttered by Ulpius when Antonina felt +her father's whole frame suddenly tremble at her side. She turned her +eyes from the doorway, on which they had hitherto been fixed, and looked +on him. The Pagan's hand had fallen from his arm: he was free to +depart, to fly as he had longed to fly but a few minutes before, and yet +he never stirred. His daughter touched him, spoke to him, but he +neither moved nor answered. It was not merely the shock of the abrupt +transition in the language of Ulpius from the ravings of crime to the +murmurs of love--it was not merely astonishment at hearing from him, in +his madness, revelations of his early life which had never passed his +lips during his days of treacherous servitude in the house on the +Pincian Hill, that thus filled Numerian's inmost soul with awe, and +struck his limbs motionless. There was more in all that he heard than +this. The words seemed as words that had doomed him at once and for +ever. His eyes, directed full on the face of the madman, were dilated +with horror, and his deep, gasping, convulsive breathings mingled +heavily, during the moment of silence that ensued, with the chiming of +the bells above and the bubbling of the water below--the lulling music +of the temple, playing its happy evening hymn at the pleasant close of +day. + +'We shall remember, mother!--we shall remember!' continued the Pagan +softly, 'and be happy in our remembrances! My brother, who loves me +not, will love you when I am gone! You will walk in my little garden, +and think on me as you look at the flowers that we have planted and +watered together in the evening hours, when the sky was glorious to +behold, and the earth was all quiet around us! Listen, mother, and kiss +me! When I go to the far country, I will make a garden there like my +garden here, and plant the same flowers that we have planted here, and +in the evening I will go out and give them water at the hour when you go +out to give my flowers water at home; and so, though we see each other +no more, it will yet be as if we laboured together in the garden as we +labour now!' + + +The girl still fixed her eager gaze on her father. His eyes presented +the same rigid expression of horror; but he was now wiping off with his +own hand, mechanically, as if he knew it not, the foam which the +paroxysms had left round the madman's lips, and, amid the groans that +burst from him, she could hear such words as, 'Lord God!--mercy, Lord +God! Thou, who hast thus restored him to me--thus, worse than dead!-- +mercy! mercy!' + +The light on the pavement beneath the portico of the temple was fading +visibly--the sun had gone down. + +For the third time the madman spoke, but his tones were losing their +softness; they were complaining, plaintive, unutterably mournful; his +dreams of the past were already changing. 'Farewell, brother--farewell +for years and years!' he cried. 'You have not given me the love that I +gave you. The fault was not mine that our father loved me the best, and +chose me to be sent to the temple to be a priest at the altar of the +gods! The fault was not mine that I partook not in your favoured +sports, and joined not the companions whom you sought; it was our +father's will that I should not live as you lived, and I obeyed it! You +have spoken to me in anger, and turned from me in disdain; but farewell +again, Cleander--farewell in forgiveness and in love!' + +He might have spoken more, but his voice was drowned in one long shriek +of agony which burst from Numerian's lips, and echoed discordantly +through the hall of the temple, and he sank down with his face to the +ground at the Pagan's feet. The dark and terrible destiny was +fulfilled. The enthusiast for the right and the fanatic for the wrong; +the man who had toiled to reform the Church, and the man who had toiled +to restore the Temple; the master who had received and trusted the +servant in his home, and the servant who in that home had betrayed the +master's trust--the two characters, separated hitherto in the sublime +disunion of good and bad, now struck together in tremendous contact, as +brethren who had drawn their life from one source, who as children had +been sheltered under the same roof! + +Not in the hours when the good Christian succoured the then forsaken +Pagan, wandering homeless in Rome, was the secret disclosed; no chance +word of it was uttered when the deceiver told the feigned relation of +his life to the benefactor whom he was plotting to deceive, or when, on +the first morning of the siege, the machinations of the servant +triumphed over the confidence of the master: it was reserved to be +revealed in the words of delirium, at the closing years of madness, when +he who discovered it was unconscious of all that he spoke, and his eyes +were blinded to the true nature of all that he saw; when earthly voices +that might once have called him back to repentance, to recognition, and +to love, were become to him as sounds that have no meaning; when, by a +ruthless and startling fatality, it was on the brother who had wrought +for the true faith that the whole crushing weight of the terrible +disclosure fell, unpartaken by the brother who had wrought for the +false! But the judgments pronounced in Time go forth from the tribunal +of that Eternity to which the mysteries of life tend, and in which they +shall be revealed--neither waiting on human seasons nor abiding by human +justice, but speaking to the soul in the language of immortality, which +is heard in the world that is now, and interpreted in the world that is +to come. + +Lost, for an instant, even the recollection that Goisvintha might still +be watching her opportunity from without, calling despairingly on her +father, and vainly striving to raise him from the ground, Antonina +remembered not, in the overwhelming trial of the moment, the revelations +of Numerian's past life that had been disclosed to her in the days when +the famine was at its worst in Rome. The name of 'Cleander', which she +had then heard her father pronounce, as the name that he had abandoned +when he separated himself from the companions of his sinful choice, +passed unheeded by her when the Pagan unconsciously uttered it. She saw +the whole scene but as a fresh menace of danger, as a new vision of +terror, more ominous of ill than all that had preceded it. + + +Thick as was the darkness in which the lulling and involuntary memories +of the past had enveloped the perceptions of Ulpius, the father's +piercing cry of anguish seemed to have penetrated it with a sudden ray +of light. The madman's half-closed eyes opened instantly and fixed, +dreamily at first, on the altar of idols. He waved his hands to and fro +before him, as if he were parting back the folds of a heavy veil that +obscured his sight; but his wayward thoughts did not resume as yet their +old bias towards ferocity and crime. When he spoke again, his speech +was still inspired by the visions of his early life--but now of his +early life in the temple at Alexandria. His expressions were more +abrupt, more disjointed than before; yet they continued to display the +same evidence of the mysterious, instinctive vividness of recollection, +which was the result of the sudden change in the nature of his insanity. +His language wandered (still as if the words came from him undesignedly +and unconsciously) over the events of his boyish introduction to the +service of the gods, and, though confusing them in order, still +preserved them in substance, as they have been already related in the +history of his 'apprenticeship to the temple'. + +Now he was in imagination looking down once more from the summit of the +Temple of Serapis on the glittering expanse of the Nile and the wide +country around it; and now he was walking proudly through the streets of +Alexandria by the side of his uncle, Macrinus, the high priest. Now he +was wandering at night, in curiosity and awe, through the gloomy vaults +and subterranean corridors of the sacred place; and now he was +listening, well pleased, to the kindly greeting, the inspiring praises +of Macrinus during their first interview. But at this point, and while +dwelling on this occasion, his memory became darkened again; it vainly +endeavoured to retrace the circumstances attending the crowning evidence +of the high priest's interest in his pupil, and anxiety to identify him +completely with his new protector and his new duties, which had been +displayed when he conferred on the trembling boy the future distinction +of one of his own names. + +And here, let it be remembered, as a chief link in the mysterious chain +of fatalities which had united to keep the brothers apart as brethren +after they had met as men, that both had, from widely different causes, +abandoned in after-life the names which they bore in their father's +house; that while one, by his own act and for his own purpose, +transformed himself from Cleander, the associate of the careless and the +criminal, to Numerian, the preacher of the Gospel and reformer of the +Church, the other had (to quote the words of the fourth chapter), +'become from the boy Emilius the student Ulpius,' by the express and +encouraging command of his master, Macrinus, the high priest. + +While the Pagan still fruitlessly endeavoured to revive the events +connected with the change in his designation on his arrival in +Alexandria, and, chafing under the burden of oblivion that weighed upon +his thoughts, attempted for the first time to move from the wall against +which he had hitherto leaned; while Antonina still strove in vain to +recall her father to the recollection of the terrible exigencies of the +moment as he crouched prostrate at the madman's feet--the doorway of the +temple was darkened once more by the figure of Goisvintha. She stood on +the threshold, a gloomy and indistinct form in the fading light, looking +intently into the deeply shadowed interior of the building. As she +marked the altered positions of the father and daughter, she uttered a +suppressed ejaculation of triumph; but, while the sound passed her lips, +she heard, or thought she heard, a noise in the street behind. Even now +her vigilance and cunning, her deadly, calculating resolution to await +in immovable patience the fitting time for striking the blow +deliberately and with impunity, did not fail her. Turning instantly, +she walked to the top step of the temple, and stood there for a few +moments, watchfully surveying the open space before her. + + +But in those few moments the scene in the building changed once more. +The madman, while he still wavered between relapsing into the raving fit +and continuing under the influence of the tranquil mood in which he had +been prematurely disturbed, caught sight of Goisvintha when her approach +suddenly shadowed the entrance to the temple. Her presence, momentary +though it was, was for him the presence of a figure that had not +appeared before; that had stood in a strange position between the shade +within and the faint light without; it was a new object, presented to +his eyes while they were straining to recover such imperfect faculties +of observation as had been their wont, and it ascendancy over him was +instantaneous and all-powerful. + +He started, bewildered like a deep sleeper suddenly awoke; violent +shudderings ran for a moment over his frame; then it strengthened again +with its former unnatural strength; the demon raged within him in +renewed fury as he tore his robe which Numerian held as he lay at his +feet from the feeble grasp that confined it, and, striding up to the +pile of idols, stretched out his hands in solemn deprecation. 'The high +priest has slept before the altar of the gods!' he cried loudly, 'but +they have been patient with their well-beloved; their thunder has not +struck him for his crime! Now the servant returns to his service--the +rites of Serapis begin!' + +Numerian still remained prostrate, spirit-broken; he slowly clasped his +hands together on the floor, and his voice was now to be heard, still +supplicating in low and stifled accents, as if in unceasing prayer lay +his last hope of preserving his own reason. 'God! Thou art the God of +Mercy; be merciful to him!' he murmured. 'Thou acceptest of repentance; +grant repentance to him! If at any time I have served Thee without +blame, let the service be counted to him; let the vials of Thy wrath be +poured out on me!' + +'Hark! the trumpet blows for the sacrifice!' interrupted the raving +voice of the Pagan, as he turned from the altar, and extended his arms +in frenzied inspiration. 'The roar of music and the voice of exultation +soar upward from the highest mountain-tops! The incense smokes, and in +and out, and round and round, the dancers whirl about the pillars of the +temple! The ox for the sacrifice is without spot; his horns are gilt; +the crown and fillet adorn his head. The priest stands before him naked +from the waist upwards; he heaves the libation out of the cup; the blood +flows over the altar! Up! up! tear forth with reeking hands the heart +while it is yet warm, futurity is before you in the quivering entrails, +look on them and read! read!' + +While he spoke, Goisvintha had entered the temple. The street was still +desolate; no help was at hand. + +Not advancing at once, she concealed herself near the door behind a +projection in the pile of idols, watching from it until Ulpius, in the +progress of his frenzy, should turn away from Antonina, whom he stood +fronting at this instant. But she had not entered unperceived; Antonina +had seen her again. And now the bitterness of death, when the young die +unprotected in their youth, came over the girl, and she cried in a low +wailing voice, as she knelt by Numerian's side: 'I must die, father, I +must die, as Hermanric died! Look up at me, and speak to me before I +die!' + +Her father was still praying; he heard nothing, for his heart was +bleeding in atonement at the shrine of his boyish home, and his soul +still communed with its Maker. The voice that followed hers was the +voice of Ulpius. + +'Oh, beautiful are the gardens round the sacred altars, and lofty the +trees that embower the glittering shrines!' he exclaimed, rapt and +ecstatic in his new visions. 'Lo, the morning breaks, and the spirits +of light are welcomed by a sacrifice! The sun goes down behind the +mountain, and the beams of evening tremble on the victim beneath the +knife of the adoring priest! The moon and stars shine high in the +firmament, and the Genii of Nights are saluted in the still hours with +blood!' + +As he paused, the lament of Antonina was continued in lower and lower +tones: 'I must die, father, I must die!' And with it murmured the +supplicating accents of Numerian: 'God of Mercy! deliver the helpless +and forgive the afflicted! Lord of Judgment! deal gently with Thy +servants who have sinned!' While, mingling with both in discordant +combination, the strange music of the temple still poured on its lulling +sound--the rippling of the running waters and the airy chiming of the +bells! + + +'Worship!--emperors, armies, nations, glorify and worship me!' shouted +the madman, in thunder-tones of triumph and command, as his eye for the +first time encountered the figure of Numerian prostrate at his feet. +'Worship the demi-god who moves with the deities through spheres unknown +to man! I have heard the moans of the unburied who wander on the shores +of the Lake of the Dead--worship! I have looked on the river whose +black current roars and howls in its course through the caves of +everlasting night--worship! I have seen the furies lashed by serpents +on their wrinkled necks, and followed them as they hurled their torches +over the pining ghosts! I have stood unmoved in the hurricane-tumult of +hell--worship! worship! worship!' + +He turned round again towards the altar of idols, calling upon his gods +to proclaim his deification, and at the moment when he moved, Goisvintha +sprang forward. Antonina was kneeling with her face turned from the +door, as the assassin seized her by her long hair and drove the knife +into her neck. The moaning accents of the girl, bewailing her +approaching fate, closed in one faint groan; she stretched out her arms, +and fell forward over her father's body. + +In the ferocious triumph of the moment, Goisvintha raised her arm to +repeat the stroke; but at that instant the madman looked round. 'The +sacrifice--the sacrifice!' he shouted, leaping at one spring like a wild +beast at her throat. She struck ineffectually at him with the knife, as +he fastened his long nails in her flesh and hurled her backwards to the +floor. Then he yelled and gibbered in frantic exultation, set his foot +on her breast, and spat on her as she lay beneath him. + +The contact of the girl's body when she fell--the short but terrible +tumult of the attack that passed almost over him--the shrill, deafening +cries of the madman, awoke Numerian from his trance of despairing +remembrance, aroused him in his agony of supplicating prayer. He looked +up. + +The scene that met his eyes was one of those scenes which crush every +faculty but the faculty of mechanical action--before which, thought +vanishes from men's minds, utterance is suspended on their lips, +expression is paralysed on their faces. The coldness of the tomb seemed +breathed over Numerian's aspect by the contemplation of the terrible +catastrophe: his eyes were glassy and vacant, his lips parted and +rigid; even the remembrance of the discovery of his brother seemed lost +to him as he stooped over his daughter and bound a fragment of her robe +round her neck. The mute, soulless, ghastly stillness of death looked +settled on his features, as, unconscious now of weakness or age, he rose +with her in his arms, stood motionless for one moment before the +doorway, and looked slowly round on Ulpius; then he moved forward with +heavy regular steps. The Pagan's foot was still on Goisvintha's breast +as the father passed him; his gaze was still fixed on her; but his cries +of triumph were calmed; he laughed and muttered incoherently to himself. + +The moon was rising, soft, faint, and tranquil, over the quiet street as +Numerian descended the temple steps with his daughter in his arms, and, +after an instant's pause of bewilderment and doubt, instinctively +pursued his slow, funereal course along the deserted roadway in the +direction of home. Soon, as he advanced, he beheld in the moonlight, +down the long vista of the street at its termination, a little +assemblage of people walking towards him with calm and regular progress. +As they came nearer, he saw that one of them held an open book, that +another carried a crucifix, and that others followed these two with +clasped hands and drooping heads. And then, after an interval, the +fresh breezes that blew towards him bore onward these words, slowly and +reverently pronounced:-- + +'Know, therefore, that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity +deserveth. + +'Canst thou, by searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the +Almighty to perfection?' + +Then the breeze fell, the words grew indistinct, but the procession +still moved forward. As it came nearer and nearer, the voice of the +reader was again plainly heard:-- + +'If iniquity be in thy hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness +dwell in thy tabernacles. + +'For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be +steadfast, and shalt not fear; + +'Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that +pass away: + +And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, +thou shalt be as the morning.' + +The reader stopped and closed the book; for now Numerian had met the +members of the little procession, and they looked on him standing +voiceless before them in the clear moonlight, with his daughter's head +drooping over his shoulder as he carried her in his arms. + +There were some among those who gathered round him whose features he +would have recognised at another time as the features of the surviving +adherents of his former congregation. The assembly he had met was +composed of the few sincere Christians in Rome, who had collected, on +the promulgation of the news that Alaric had ratified terms of peace, to +make a pilgrimage through the city, in the hopeless endeavour, by +reading from the Bible and passing exhortation, to awaken the reckless +populace to a feeling of contrition for their sins, and of devout +gratitude for their approaching deliverance from the horrors of the +siege. + +But now, when Numerian confronted them, neither by word nor look did he +express the slightest recognition of any who surrounded him. To all the +questions addressed to him, he replied by hurried gestures that none +could comprehend. To all the promises of help and protection heaped +upon him in the first outbreak of the grief and pity of his adherents of +other days, he answered but by the same dull, vacant glance. It was +only when they relieved him of his burden, and gently prepared to carry +the senseless girl among them back to her father's house, that he spoke; +and then, in faint entreating tones, he besought them to let him hold +her hand as they went, so that he might be the first to feel her pulse +beat--if it yet moved. + +They turned back by the way they had come--a sorrowful and slow-moving +procession! As they passed on, the reader again opened the Sacred Book; +and then these words rose through the soothing and heavenly tranquillity +of the first hours of night:-- + +'Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not +thou the chastening of the Almighty: + +'For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make +whole.' + + +CHAPTER 26. RETRIBUTION. + +As, in the progress of Life, each man pursues his course with the +passions, good and evil, set, as it were, on either side of him; and +viewing their results in the actions of his fellow-men, finds his +attention, while still attracted by the spectacle of what is noble and +virtuous, suddenly challenged by the opposite display of what is mean +and criminal--so, in the progress of this narrative, which aims to be +the reflection of Life, the reader who has journeyed with us thus far, +and who may now be inclined to follow the little procession of Christian +devotees, to walk by the side of the afflicted father, and to hold with +him the hand of his ill-fated child, is yet, in obedience to the +conditions of the story, required to turn back for awhile to the +contemplation of its darker passages of guilt and terror--he must enter +the temple again; but he will enter it for the last time. + +The scene before the altar of idols was fast proceeding to its fatal +climax. + + +The Pagan's frenzy had exhausted itself in its own fury--his insanity +was assuming a quieter and a more dangerous form; his eye grew cunning +and suspicious; a stealthy deliberation and watchfulness appeared in all +his actions. He now slowly lifted his foot from Goisvintha's breast, +and raised his hands at the same time to strike her back if she should +attempt to escape. Seeing that she lay senseless from her fall, he left +her; retired to one of the corners of the temple, took from it a rope +that lay there, and returning, bound her arms behind her at the hands +and wrists. The rope cut deep through the skin--the pain restored her +to her senses; she suffered the sharp agony in her own body, in the same +place where she had inflicted it on the young chieftain at the farm- +house beyond the suburbs. + +The minute after, she felt herself dragged along the ground, farther +into the interior of the building. The madman drew her up to the iron +gates of the passage through the partition, and fastening the end of the +rope to them, left her there. This part of the temple was enveloped in +total darkness--her assailant addressed not a word to her--she could not +obtain even a glimpse of his form, but she could hear him still laughing +to himself in hoarse, monotonous tones, that sounded now near, and now +distant again. + +She abandoned herself as lost--prematurely devoted to the torment and +death that she had anticipated; but, as yet, her masculine resolution +and energy did not decline. The very intensity of the anguish she +suffered from the bindings at her wrists, producing a fierce bodily +effort to resist it, strengthened her iron-strung nerves. She neither +cried for help nor appealed to the Pagan for pity. The gloomy fatalism +which she had inherited from her savage ancestors sustained her in a +suicide-pride. + +Ere long the laughter of Ulpius, while he moved slowly hither and +thither in the darkness of the temple, was overpowered by the sound of +her voice--deep, groaning, but yet steady--as she uttered her last +words--words poured forth like the wild dirges, the fierce death-songs +of the old Goths when they died deserted on the bloody battle-field, or +were cast bound into deep dungeons, a prey to the viper and the asp. +Thus she spoke:-- 'I swore to be avenged! while I went forth from +Aquileia with the child that was killed and the child that was wounded; +while I climbed the high wall in the night-time, and heard the tumult of +the beating waves near the bank where I buried the dead; while I +wandered in the darkness over the naked heath and through the lonely +forest; while I climbed the pathless sides of the mountains, and made my +refuge in the cavern by the waters of the dark lake. + +'I swore to be avenged! while the warriors approached me on their march, +and the roaring of the trumpets and the clash of the armour sounded in +my ears; while I greeted my kinsman, Hermanric, a mighty chieftain, at +the king's side, among the invading hosts; while I looked on my last +child, dead like the rest, and knew that he was buried afar from the +land of his people, and from the others that the Romans had slain before +him. + +'I swore to be avenged! while the army encamped before Rome, and I stood +with Hermanric, looking on the great walls in the misty evening; while +the daughter of the Roman was a prisoner in our tent, and I eyed her as +she lay on my knees; while for her sake my kinsman turned traitor, and +withheld my hand from the blow; while I passed unseen into the lonely +farm-house to deal judgment on him with my knife; while I saw him die +the death of a deserter at my feet, and knew that it was a Roman who had +lured him from his people, and blinded him to the righteousness of +revenge. + +'I swore to be avenged! while I walked round the grave of the chieftain +who was the last of my race; while I stood alone out of the army of my +people in the city of the slayers of my babes; while I tracked the +footsteps of the Roman who had twice escaped me, as she fled through the +street; while I watched and was patient among the pillars of the temple, +and waited till the sun went down, and the victim was unshielded for the +moment to strike. + + +'I swore to be avenged! and my oath has been fulfilled--the knife that +still bleeds drops with her blood; the chief vengeance has been wreaked! +The rest that were to be slain remain for others, and not for me! For +now I go to my husband and my children; now the hour is near at hand +when I shall herd with their spirits in the Twilight World of Shadows, +and make my long-abiding place with them in the Valley of Eternal +Repose! The Destinies have willed it--it is enough!' + +Her voice trembled and grew faint as she pronounced the last words. The +anguish of the fastenings at her wrists was at last overpowering her +senses--conquering, in spite of all resistance, her stubborn endurance. +For a little while yet she spoke at intervals, but her speech was +fragmentary and incoherent. At one moment she still gloried in her +revenge, at another she exulted in the fancied contemplation of the +girl's body still lying before her, and her hands writhed beneath their +bonds in the effort to repossess themselves of the knife and strike +again. But soon all sounds ceased to proceed from her lips, save the +loud, thick, irregular breathings, which showed that she was yet +conscious and yet lived. + +Meanwhile the madman had passed into the inner recess of the temple, and +had drawn the shutter over the opening in the wall, through which light +had been admitted into the place when Numerian and Antonina first +entered it. Even the black chasm formed by the mouth of the vault of +the dragon now disappeared, with all other objects, in the thick +darkness. But no obscurity could confuse the senses of Ulpius in the +temple, whose every corner he visited in his restless wanderings by +night and by day alike. Led as if by a mysterious penetration of sight, +he traced his way unerringly to the entrance of the vault, knelt down +before it, and placing his hands on the first of the steps by which it +was descended, listened, breathless and attentive, to the sounds that +rose from the abyss--listened, rapt and unmoving, a formidable and +unearthly figure--like a magician waiting for a voice from the oracles +of Hell--like a spirit of Night looking down into the mid-caverns of the +earth, and watching the mysteries of subterranean creation, the giant +pulses of Action and Heat, which are the life-springs of the rolling +world. + +The fitful wind whistled up, wild and plaintive; the river chafed and +bubbled through the iron grating below; the loose scales of the dragon +clashed as the night breezes reached them: and these sounds were still +to him as the language of his gods, which filled him with a fearful +rapture, and inspired him, in the terrible degradation of his being, as +with a new soul. He listened and listened yet. Fragments of wild +fancies--the vain yearnings of the disinherited mind to recover its +divine birthright of boundless thought--now thrilled through him, and +held him still and speechless where he knelt. + +But at length, through the gloomy silence of the recess, he heard the +voice of Goisvintha raised once more, and in hoarse, wild tones calling +aloud for light and help. The agony of pain and suspense, the awful +sense of darkness and stillness, of solitary bondage and slow torment, +had at last effected that which no open peril, no common menace of +violent death could have produced. She yielded to fear and despair-- +sank prostrate under a paralysing, superstitious dread. The misery that +she had inflicted on others recoiled in retribution on herself, as she +now shuddered under the consciousness of the first emotions of helpless +terror that she had ever felt. + +Ulpius instantly rose from the vault, and advanced straight through the +darkness to the gates of the partition; but he passed his prisoner +without stopping for an instant, and hastening into the outer apartment +of the temple, began to grope over the floor for the knife which the +woman had dropped when he bound her. He was laughing to himself once +more, for the evil spirit was prompting him to a new project, tempting +him to a pitiless refinement of cruelty and deceit. + +He found the knife, and returning with it to Goisvintha, cut the rope +that confined her wrists. Then she became silent when the first +sharpness of her suffering was assuaged; he whispered softly in her ear, +'Follow me, and escape!' + + +Bewildered and daunted by the darkness and mystery around her, she +vainly strained her eyes to look through the obscurity as Ulpius drew +her on into the recess. He placed her at the mouth of the vault, and +here she strove to speak; but low, inarticulate sounds alone proceeded +from her powerless utterance. Still there was no light; still the +burning, gnawing agony at her wrists (relieved but for an instant when +the rope was cut) continued and increased; and still she felt the +presence of the unseen being at her side, whom no darkness could blind, +and who bound and loosed at his arbitrary will. + +By nature fierce, resolute, and vindictive under injury, she was a +terrible evidence of the debasing power of crime, as she now stood, +enfeebled by the weight of her own avenging guilt, upraised to crush her +in the hour of her pride; by the agency of Darkness, whose perils the +innocent and the weak have been known to brave; by Suspense, whose agony +they have resisted; by Pain, whose infliction they have endured in +patience. + +'Go down, far down the steep steps, and escape!' whispered the madman, +in soft, beguiling tones. 'The darkness above leads to the light below! +Go down, far down!' + +He quitted his hold of her as he spoke. She hesitated, shuddered, and +drew back; but again she was urged forward, and again she heard the +whisper, 'The darkness above leads to the light below! Go down, far +down!' + +Despair gave the firmness to proceed, and dread the hope to escape. Her +wounded arms trembled as she now stretched them out and felt for the +walls of the vault on either side of her. The horror of death in utter +darkness, from unseen hands, and the last longing aspiration to behold +the light of heaven once more, were at their strongest within her as she +began slowly and cautiously to tread the fatal stairs. + +While she descended, the Pagan dropped into his former attitude at the +month of the vault, and listened breathlessly. Minutes seemed to elapse +between each step as she went lower and lower down. Suddenly he heard +her pause, as if panic-stricken in the darkness, and her voice ascended +to him, groaning, 'Light! light! oh, where is the light!' He rose up, +and stretched out his hands to hurl her back if she should attempt to +return; but she descended again. Twice he heard her heavy footfall on +the steps--then there was an interval of deep silence--then a sharp, +grinding clash of metal echoed piercingly through the vault, followed by +the noise of a dull, heavy fall, faintly audible far beneath--and then +the old familiar sounds of the place were heard again, and were not +interrupted more. The sacrifice to the Dragon was achieved! + +***** + +The madman stood on the steps of the sacred building, and looked out on +the street shining before him in the bright Italian moonlight. No +remembrance of Numerian and Antonina, and of the earlier events in the +temple, remained within him. He was pondering imperfectly, in vague +pride and triumph, over the sacrifice that he had offered up at the +shrine of the Dragon of brass. Thus secretly exulting, he now remained +inactive. Absorbed in his wandering meditations, he delayed to trace +the subterranean passages leading to the iron grating where the corpse +of Goisvintha lay washed by the waters, as they struggled onward through +the bars, and waiting but his hand to be cast into the river, where all +past sacrifices had been engulphed before it. + +His tall solitary figure was lit by the moonlight streaming through the +pillars of the portico; his loose robes waved slowly about him in the +wind, as he stood firm and erect before the door of the temple: he +looked more like the spectral genius of departed Paganism than a living +man. But, lifeless though he seemed, his quick eye was still on the +watch, still directed by the restless suspicion of insanity. Minute +after minute quietly elapsed, and as yet nothing was presented to his +rapid observation but the desolate roadway, and the high, gloomy houses +that bounded it on either side. It was soon, however, destined to be +attracted by objects which startled the repose of the tranquil street +with the tumult of action and life. + + +He was still gazing earnestly on the narrow view before him, vaguely +imagining to himself, the while, Goisvintha's fatal descent into the +vault, and thinking triumphantly of her dead body that now lay on the +grating beneath it, when a red glare of torchlight, thrown wildly on the +moon-brightened pavement, whose purity it seemed to stain, caught his +eye. + +The light appeared at the end of the street leading from the more +central portion of the city, and ere long displayed clearly a body of +forty or fifty people advancing towards the temple. The Pagan looked +eagerly on them as they came nearer and nearer. The assembly was +composed of priests, soldiers, and citizens--the priests bearing +torches, the soldiers carrying hammers, crowbars, and other similar +tools, or bending under the weight of large chests secured with iron +fastenings, close to which the populace walked, as if guarding them with +jealous care. This strange procession was preceded by two men, who were +considerably in advance of it--a priest and soldier. An expression of +impatience and exultation appeared on their pale, famine-wasted +countenances, as they approached the temple with rapid steps. + +Ulpius never moved from his position, but fixed his piercing eyes on +them as they advanced. Not vainly did he now stand, watchful and +menacing, before the entrance of his gloomy shrine. He had seen the +first degradations heaped on fallen Paganism, and he was now to see the +last. He had immolated all his affections and all his hopes, all his +faculties of body and mind, his happiness in boyhood, his enthusiasm in +youth, his courage in manhood, his reason in old age, at the altar of +his gods; and now they were to exact from him, in their defence, lonely +criminal, maddened, as he already was in their cause, more than all +this! The decree had gone forth from the Senate which devoted to +legalised pillage the treasures in the temples of Rome. + +Rulers of a people impoverished by former exactions, and comptrollers +only of an exhausted treasury, the government of the city had searched +vainly among all ordinary resources for the means of paying the heavy +ransom exacted by Alaric as the price of peace. The one chance of +meeting the emergency that remained was to strip the Pagan temples of +the mass of jewelled ornaments and utensils, the costly robes, the idols +of gold and silver which they were known to contain, and which, under +that mysterious hereditary influence of superstition, whose power it is +the longest labour of truth to destroy, had remained untouched and +respected, alike by the people and the senate, after the worship that +they represented had been interdicted by the laws, and abandoned by the +nation. + +This last expedient for freeing Rome from the blockade was adopted +almost as soon as imagined. The impatience of the starved populace for +the immediate collection of the ransom allowed the government little +time for the tedious preliminaries of deliberation. The soldiers were +provided at once with the necessary implements for the task imposed on +them; certain chosen members of the senate and the people followed them, +to see that they honestly gathered in the public spoil; and the priests +of the Christian churches volunteered to hallow the expedition by their +presence, and led the way with their torches into every secret apartment +of the temples where treasure might be contained. At the close of the +day, immediately after it had been authorised, this strange search for +the ransom was hurriedly commenced. Already much had been collected; +votive offerings of price had been snatched from the altars, where they +had so long hung undisturbed; hidden treasure-chests of sacred utensils +had been discovered and broken open; idols had been stripped of their +precious ornaments and torn from their massive pedestals; and now the +procession of gold-seekers, proceeding along the banks of the Tiber, had +come in sight of the little temple of Serapis, and were hastening +forward to empty it, in its turn, of every valuable that it contained. + +The priest and the soldier, calling to their companions behind to hurry +on, had now arrived opposite the temple steps, and saw confronting them +in the pale moonlight, from the eminence on which he stood, the weird +and solitary figure of Ulpius--the apparition of a Pagan in the gorgeous +robes of his priesthood, bidden back from the tombs to stay the hand of +the spoiler before the shrine of his gods. + +The soldier dropped his weapon to the ground, and, trembling in every +limb, refused to proceed. But the priest, a tall, stern, emaciated man, +went on defenceless and undaunted. He signed himself solemnly with the +cross as he slowly ascended the steps; fixed his unflinching eyes on the +madman, who glared back on him in return; and called aloud in a harsh, +steady voice: 'Man or demon! in the name of Christ, whom thou deniest, +stand back!' + +For an instant, as the priest approached him, the Pagan averted his eyes +and looked on the concourse of people and the armed soldiers rapidly +advancing. His fingers closed round the hilt of Goisvintha's knife, +which he had hitherto held loosely in his hand, as he exclaimed in low, +concentrated tones, 'Aha! the siege--the siege of Serapis!' The priest, +now standing on the same step with him, stretched out his arm to thrust +him back, and at that moment received the stroke of the knife. He +staggered, lifted his hand again to sign his forehead with the cross, +and, as he raised it, rolled back dead on the pavement of the street. + +The soldier, standing motionless with superstitious terror a few feet +from the corpse, called to his companions for help. Hurling his bloody +weapon at them in defiance, as they ran in confusion to the base of the +temple steps, Ulpius entered the building, and locked and chained the +gates. + +Then the assembled people thronging round the corpse of the priest, +heard the madman shouting in his frenzy, as if to a great body of +adherents round him, to pour down the molten lead and the scorching +sand; to hurl back every scaling ladder planted against the walls; to +massacre each prisoner who was seized mounting the ramparts to the +assault; and as they looked up to the building from the street, they saw +at intervals, through the bars of the closed gates, the figure of Ulpius +passing swift and shadowy, his arms extended, his long grey hair and +white robes streaming behind him, as he rushed round and round the +temple reiterating his wild Pagan war-cries as he went. The enfeebled, +superstitious populace trembled while they gazed--a spectre driven on a +whirlwind would not have been more terrible to their eyes. + +But the priest among the crowd, roused to fury by the murder of one of +their own body, revived the courage of those around them. Even the +shouts of Ulpius were now overpowered by the sound of their voices, +raised to the highest pitch, promising heavenly and earthly rewards-- +salvation, money, absolution, promotion--to all who would follow them up +the steps and burst their way into the temple. Animated by the words of +the priests, and growing gradually confident in their own numbers, the +boldest in the throng seized a piece of timber lying by the river side, +and using it as a battering-ram, assailed the gate. But they were +weakened with famine; they could gain little impetus, from the necessity +of ascending the temple steps to the attack; the iron quivered as they +struck it, but hinge and lock remained firm alike. They were preparing +to renew the attempt, when a tremendous shock--a crash as if the whole +heavy roof of the building had fallen in--drove them back in terror to +the street. + +Recalled by the sight of the armed men, the priests and the attendant +crowd of people who were advancing to invade his sanctuary, to the days +when he had defended the great Temple of Serapis at Alexandria, against +enemies similar in appearance, though far superior in numbers; persuaded +in the revival of these, the most sanguinary visions of his insanity, +that he was still resisting the Christian fanatics, supported by his +adherents in his sacred fortress of former years, the Pagan displayed +none of his accustomed cunning and care in moving through the darkness +around him. He hurried hither and thither, encouraging his imaginary +followers, and glorying in his dreams of slaughter and success, +forgetful in his frenzy of all that the temple contained. + + +As he pursued his wild course round and round the altar of idols, his +robe became entangled, and was torn by the projecting substances at one +corner of it. The whole overhanging mass tottered at the moment, but +did not yet fall. A few of the smaller idols, however, at the outside +dropped to the ground, and with them an image of Serapis, which they +happened partially to support--a heavy monstrous figure, carved life- +size in wood, and studded with gold, silver, and precious stones--fell +at the Pagan's feet. But this was all--the outer materials of the +perilous structure had been detached only at one point; the pile itself +still remained in its place. + +The madman seized the image of Serapis in his arms, and passed blindly +onward with it through the passage in the partition into the recess +beyond. At that instant the shock of the first attack on the gates +resounded through the building. Shouting, as he heard it, 'A sally! a +sally! men of the Temple, the gods and the high priest lead you on!' and +still holding the idol before him, he rushed straight forward to the +entrance, and struck in violent collision against the backward part of +the pile. + +The ill-balanced, top-heavy mass of images and furniture of many temples +swayed, parted, and fell over against the gates and the wall on either +side of them. Maimed and bleeding, struck down by the lower part of the +pile, as it was forced back against the partition when the upper part +fell, the fury of Ulpius was but increased by the crashing ruin around +him. He struggled up again into an erect position; mounted on the top +of the fallen mass--now spread out at the sides over the floor of the +building, but confined at one end by the partition, and at the other by +the opposite wall and the gates--and still clasping the image of Serapis +in his arms, called louder and louder to 'the men of the Temple' to +mount with him the highest ramparts and pour down on the besiegers the +molten lead! + +The priests were again the first men to approach the gates of the +building after the shock that had been heard within it. The struggle +for the possession of the temple had assumed to them the character of a +holy warfare against heathenism and magic--a sacred conflict to be +sustained by the Church, for the sake of her servant who had fallen a +martyr at the outset of the strife. Strong in their fanatical boldness, +they advanced with one accord close to the gates. Some of the smaller +images of the fallen pile had been forced through the bars, behind which +appeared the great idols, the broken masses of furniture, the long robes +and costly hangings, all locked together in every wild variety of +position--a chaos of distorted objects heaped up by an earthquake! +Above and further inward, the lower part of the Pagan's robe was faintly +discernible through the upper interstices in the gate, as he stood, +commanding, on the summit of his prostrate altar, with his idol in his +arms. + +The priests felt an instant conviction of certain triumph when they +discerned the cause of the shock that had been heard within the temple. +One of their number snatched up a small image that had fallen through to +the pavement where he stood, and holding it before the people below, +exclaimed exultingly-- + +'Children of the Church! the mystery is revealed! Idols more precious +than this lie by hundreds on the floor of the temple! It is no demon, +but a man, one man, who still defies us within!--a robber who would +defraud the Romans of the ransom of their lives!--the pillage of many +temples is around him. Remember now, that the nearer we came to this +place the fewer were the spoils of idolatry that we gathered in; the +treasure which is yours, the treasure which is to free you from the +famine, has been seized by the assassin of our holy brother; it is there +scattered at his feet! To the gates! To the gates again! Absolution +for all their sins to the men who burst in the gates!' + +Again the mass of timber was taken up; again the gates were assailed; +and again they stood firm--they were now strengthened, barricaded by the +fallen pile. It seemed hopeless to attempt to break them down without a +reinforcement of men, without employing against them the heaviest +missiles, the strongest engines of war. + + +The people gave vent to a cry of fury as they heard from the temple the +hollow laughter of the madman triumphing in their defeat. The words of +the priest, in allaying their superstitious fears, had aroused the +deadly passions that superstition brings forth. A few among the throng +hurried to the nearest guard-house for assistance, but the greater part +pressed closely round the temple--some pouring forth impotent +execrations against the robber of the public spoil, some joining the +priests in calling on him to yield. But the clamour lasted not long; it +was suddenly and strangely stilled by the voice of one man in the crowd, +calling loudly to the rest to fire the temple! + +The words were hardly spoken ere they were repeated triumphantly on all +sides. 'Fire the temple!' cried the people ferociously. 'Burn it over +the robber's head! A furnace--a furnace! to melt down the gold and +silver ready to our hands! Fire the temple! Fire the temple!' + +Those who were most active among the crowd (which was now greatly +increased by stragglers from all parts of the city) entered the houses +behind them, and returned in a few minutes with every inflammable +substance that they could collect in their hands. A heap of fuel, two +or three feet in height, was raised against the gates immediately, and +soldiers and people pressed forward with torches to light it. But the +priest who had before spoken waved them back. 'Wait!' he cried; 'the +fate of his body is with the people, but the fate of his soul is with +the Church!' + +Then, turning to the temple, he called solemnly and sternly to the +madman, 'Thy hour is come! repent, confess, and save thy soul!' + +'Slay on! slay on!' answered the raving voice from within. 'Slay, till +not a Christian is left! Victory! Serapis! See, they drop from our +walls!--they writhe bleeding on the earth beneath us! There is no +worship but the worship of the gods! Slay! Slay on!' + +'Light!' cried the priest. 'His damnation be on his own head! +Anathema! Maranatha! Let him die accursed!' + +The dry fuel was fired at once at all points--it was an anticipation of +an 'Auto da Fe', a burning of a heretic, in the fifth century! As the +flames rose, the people fell back and watched their rapid progress. The +priests, standing before them in a line, stretched out their hands in +denunciation against the temple, and repeated together the awful +excommunication service of the Roman Church. + +***** + +The fire at the gates had communicated with the idols inside. It was no +longer on his prostrate altar, but on his funeral pile that Ulpius now +stood; and the image that he clasped was the stake to which he was +bound. A red glare, dull at first, was now brightening and brightening +below him; flames, quick and noiseless, rose and fell, and rose again, +at different points, illuminating the interior of the temple with fitful +and changing light. The grim, swarthy forms of the idols seemed to sway +and writhe like living things in torment, as fire and smoke alternately +displayed and concealed them. A deadly stillness now overspread the +face and form of the Pagan, as he looked down steadfastly on the deities +of his worship engendering his destruction beneath him. His cheek--the +cheek which had rested in boyhood on his mother's bosom--was pressed +against the gilded breast of the god Serapis, his taskmaster in life-- +his pillow in death! + +'I rise! I rise to the world of light, with my deities whom I have +served!' he murmured; 'the brightness of their presence is like a +flaming fire; the smoke of their breath pours forth around me like the +smoke of incense! I minister in the Temples of the Clouds; and the +glory of eternal sunlight shines round me while I adore! I rise! I +rise!' + +The smoke whirled in black volumes over his head; the fierce voice of +the fast-spreading fire roared on him; the flames leapt up at his feet-- +his robes kindled, burst into radiant light, as the pile yawned and +opened under him. + +***** + + +Time had passed. The strife between the Temple and the Church was +ended. The priests and the people had formed a wider circle round the +devoted building; all that was inflammable in it had been burnt; smoke +and flame now burst only at intervals through the gates, and gradually +both ceased to appear. Then the crowd approached nearer to the temple, +and felt the heat of the furnace they had kindled, as they looked in. + +The iron gates were red hot--from the great mass behind (still glowing +bright in some places, and heaving and quivering with its own heat) a +thin, transparent vapour rose slowly to the stone roof of the building, +now blackened with smoke. The priests looked eagerly for the corpse of +the Pagan; they saw two dark, charred objects closely united together, +lying in a chasm of ashes near the gate, at a spot where the fire had +already exhausted itself, but it was impossible to discern which was the +man and which was the idol. + +The necessity of providing means for entering the temple had not been +forgotten while the flames were raging. Proper implements for forcing +open the gates were now at hand, and already the mob began to dip their +buckets in the Tiber, and pour water wherever any traces of the fire +remained. Soon all obstacles were removed; the soldiers crowded into the +building with spades in their hands, trampled on the black, watery mire +of cinders which covered what had once been the altar of idols, and +throwing out into the street the refuse ashes and the stone images which +had remained unconsumed, dug in what was left, as in a new mine, for the +gold and silver which the fire could not destroy. + +The Pagan had lived with his idols, had perished with his idols!--and +now where they were cast away, there he was cast away with them. The +soldiers, as they dug into fragments the black ruins of his altar, +mingled him in fragments with it! The people, as they cast the refuse +thrown out to them into the river, cast what remained of him with what +remained of his gods! And when the temple was deserted, when the +citizens had borne off all the treasure they could collect, when nothing +but a few heaps of dust was left of all that had been burnt, the night- +wind blew away before it the ashes of Ulpius with the ashes of the +deities that Ulpius had served! + + +CHAPTER 27. THE VIGIL OF HOPE. + +A new prospect now opens before us. The rough paths through which we +have hitherto threaded our way grow smoother as we approach their close. +Rome, so long dark and gloomy to our view, brightens at length like a +landscape when the rain is past and the first rays of returning sunlight +stream through the parting clouds. Some days have elapsed, and in those +days the temples have yielded all their wealth; the conquered Romans +have bribed the triumphant barbarians to mercy; the ransom of the fallen +city has been paid. + +The Gothic army is still encamped round the walls, but the gates are +opened, markets for food are established in the suburbs, boats appear on +the river and waggons on the highroads, laden with provisions, and +proceeding towards Rome. All the hidden treasure kept back by the +citizens is now bartered for food; the merchants who hold the market +reap a rich harvest of spoil, but the hungry are filled, the weak are +revived, every one is content. + +It is the end of the second day since the free sale of provisions and +the liberty of egress from the city have been permitted by the Goths. +The gates are closed for the night, and the people are quietly +returning, laden with their supplies of food, to their homes. Their +eyes no longer encounter the terrible traces of the march of pestilence +and famine through every street; the corpses have been removed, and the +sick are watched and sheltered. Rome is cleansed from her pollutions, +and the virtues of household life begin to revive wherever they once +existed. Death has thinned every family, but the survivors again +assemble together in the social hall. Even the veriest criminals, the +lowest outcasts of the population, are united harmlessly for a while in +the general participation of the first benefits of peace. + + +To follow the citizens to their homes; to trace in their thoughts, +words, and action the effect on them of their deliverance from the +horrors of the blockade; to contemplate in the people of a whole city, +now recovering as it were from a deep swoon, the varying forms of the +first reviving symptoms in all classes, in good and bad, rich and poor-- +would afford matter enough in itself for a romance of searching human +interest, for a drama of the passions, moving absorbingly through +strange, intricate, and contrasted scenes. But another employment than +this now claims our care. It is to an individual, and not to a divided +source of interest, that our attention turns; we relinquish all +observations on the general mass of the populace to revert to Numerian +and Antonina alone--to penetrate once more into the little dwelling on +the Pincian Hill. + +The apartment where the father and daughter had suffered the pangs of +famine together during the period of the blockade, presented an +appearance far different from that which it had displayed on the +occasion when they had last occupied it. The formerly bare walls were +now covered with rich, thick hangings; and the simple couch and scanty +table of other days had been exchanged for whatever was most luxurious +and complete in the household furniture of the age. At one end of the +room three women, attended by a little girl, were engaged in preparing +some dishes of fruit and vegetables; at the other, two men were occupied +in low, earnest conversation, occasionally looking round anxiously to a +couch placed against the third side of the apartment, on which Antonina +lay extended, while Numerian watched by her in silence. The point of +Goisvintha's knife had struck deep, but, as yet, the fatal purpose of +the assassination had failed. + +The girl's eyes were closed; her lips were parted in the languor of +suffering; one of her hands lay listless on her father's knee. A slight +expression of pain, melancholy in its very slightness, appeared on her +pale face, and occasionally a long-drawn, quivering breath escaped her-- +nature's last touching utterance of its own feebleness! The old man, as +he sat by her side, fixed on her a wistful, inquiring glance. Sometimes +he raised his hand, and gently and mechanically moved to and fro the +long locks of her hair, as they spread over the head of the couch; but +he never turned to communicate with the other persons in the room--he +sat as if he saw nothing save his daughter's figure stretched before +him, and heard nothing save the faint, fluttering sound of her +breathing, close at his ear. + +It was now dark, and one lamp hanging from the ceiling threw a soft +equal light over the room. The different persons occupying it presented +but little evidence of health and strength in their countenances, to +contrast them in appearance with the wounded girl; all had undergone the +wasting visitation of the famine, and all were pale and languid, like +her. A strange, indescribable harmony prevailed over the scene. Even +the calmness of absorbing expectation and trembling hope, expressed in +the demeanour of Numerian, seemed reflected in the actions of those +around him, in the quietness with which the women pursued their +employment, in the lower and lower whispers in which the men continued +their conversation. There was something pervading the air of the whole +apartment that conveyed a sense of the solemn, unworldly stillness which +we attach to the abstract idea of religion. + +Of the two men cautiously talking together, one was the patrician, +Vetranio; the other, a celebrated physician of Rome. + +Both the countenance and manner of the senator gave melancholy proof +that the orgie at his palace had altered him for the rest of his life. +He looked what he was, a man changed for ever in constitution and +character. A fixed expression of anxiety and gloom appeared in his +eyes; his emaciated face was occasionally distorted by a nervous, +involuntary contraction of the muscles; it was evident that the +paralysing effect of the debauch which had destroyed his companions +would remain with him to the end of his existence. No remnant of his +careless self-possession, his easy, patrician affability, appeared in +his manner, as he now listened to his companion's conversation; years +seemed to have been added to his life since he had headed the table at +'The Banquet of Famine'. + + +'Yes,' said the physician, a cold, calm man, who spoke much, but +pronounced all his words with emphatic deliberation,--'Yes, as I have +already told you, the wound in itself was not mortal. If the blade of +the knife had entered near the centre of the neck, she must have died +when she was struck. But it passed outwards and backwards; the large +vessels escaped, and no vital part has been touched.' + +'And yet you persist in declaring that you doubt her recovery!' +exclaimed Vetranio, in low, mournful tones. + +'I do,' pursued the physician. 'She must have been exhausted in mind +and body when she received the blow--I have watched her carefully; I +know it! There is nothing of the natural health and strength of youth +to oppose the effects of the wound. I have seen the old die from +injuries that the young recover, because life in them was losing its +powers of resistance; she is in the position of the old!' + +'They have died before me, and she will die before me! I shall lose +all--all!' sighed Vetranio bitterly to himself. + +'The resources of our art are exhausted,' continued the other; 'nothing +remains but to watch carefully and wait patiently. The chances of life +or death will be decided in a few hours; they are equally balanced now.' + +'I shall lose all!--all!' repeated the senator mournfully, as if he +heeded not the last words. + +'If she dies,' said the physician, speaking in warmer tones, for he was +struck with pity, in spite of himself, at the spectacle of Vetranio's +utter dejection, 'if she dies, you can at least remember that all that +could be done to secure her life has been done by you. Her father, +helpless in his lethargy and his age, was fitted only to sit and watch +her, as he has sat and watched her day after day; but you have spared +nothing, forgotten nothing. Whatever I have asked for, that you have +provided; the hangings round the room, and the couch that she lies on, +are yours; the first fresh supplies of nourishment from the newly-opened +markets were brought here from you; I told you that she was thinking +incessantly of what she had suffered, that it was necessary to preserve +her against her own recollections, that the presence of women about her +might do good, that a child appearing sometimes in the room might soothe +her fancy, might make her look at what was passing, instead of thinking +of what had passed--you found them, and sent them! I have seen parents +less anxious for their children, lovers for their mistresses, than you +for this girl.' + +'My destiny is with her,' interrupted Vetranio, looking round +superstitiously to the frail form on the couch. 'I know nothing of the +mysteries that the Christians call their "Faith", but I believe now in +the soul; I believe that one soul contains the fate of another, and that +her soul contains the fate of mine!' + +The physician shook his head derisively. His calling had determined his +philosophy--he was as ardent a materialist as Epicurus himself. + +'Listen,' said Vetranio; 'since I first saw her, a change came over my +whole being; it was as if her life was mingled with mine! I had no +influence over her, save an influence for ill: I loved her, and she was +driven defenceless from her home! I sent my slaves to search Rome night +and day; I exerted all my power, I lavished my wealth to discover her; +and, for the first time in this one effort, I failed in what I had +undertaken. I felt that through me she was lost--dead! Days passed on; +life weighed weary on me; the famine came. You know in what way I +determined that my career should close; the rumour of the Banquet of +Famine reached you as it reached others!' + +'It did,' replied the physician. 'And I see before me in your face,' he +added, after a momentary pause, 'the havoc which that ill-omened banquet +has worked. My friend, be advised!--abandon for ever the turmoil of +your Roman palace, and breathe in tranquillity the air of a country +home. The strength you once had is gone never to return--if you would +yet live, husband what is still left.' + + +'Hear me,' pursued Vetranio, in low, gloomy tones. 'I stood alone in my +doomed palace; the friends whom I had tempted to their destruction lay +lifeless around me; the torch was in my hand that was to light our +funeral pile, to set us free from the loathsome world! I approached +triumphantly to kindle the annihilating flames, when she stood before +me--she, whom I had sought as lost and mourned as dead! A strong hand +seemed to wrench the torch from me; it dropped to the ground! She +departed again; but I was powerless to take it up; her look was still +before me; her face, her figure, she herself, appeared ever watching +between the torch and me!' + +'Lower!--speak lower!' interrupted the physician, looking on the +senator's agitated features with unconcealed astonishment and pity. +'You retard your own recovery,--you disturb the girl's repose by +discourse such as this.' + +'The officers of the senate,' continued Vetranio, sadly resuming his +gentler tones, 'when they entered the palace, found me still standing on +the place where we had met! Days passed on again; I stood looking out +upon the street, and thought of my companions whom I had lured to their +death, and of my oath to partake their fate, which I had never +fulfilled. I would have driven my dagger to my heart; but her face was +yet before me, my hands were bound! In that hour I saw her for the +second time; saw her carried past me--wounded, assassinated! She had +saved me once; she had saved me twice! I knew that now the chance was +offered me, after having wrought her ill, to work her good; after +failing to discover her when she was lost, to succeed in saving her when +she was dying; after having survived the deaths of my friends at my own +table, to survive to see life restored under my influence, as well as +destroyed! These were my thoughts; these are my thoughts still-- +thoughts felt only since I saw her! Do you know now why I believe that +her soul contains the fate of mine? Do you see me, weakened, shattered, +old before my time; my friends lost, my fresh feelings of youth gone for +ever; and can you not now comprehend that her life is my life?--that if +she dies, the one good purpose of my existence is blighted?--that I lose +all I have henceforth to live for?--all, all!' + +As he pronounced the concluding words, the girl's eyes half unclosed, +and turned languidly towards her father. She made an effort to lift her +hand caressingly from his knee to his neck; but her strength was unequal +even to this slight action. The hand was raised only a few inches ere +it sank back again to its old position; a tear rolled slowly over her +cheek as she closed her eyes again, but she never spoke. + +'See,' said the physician, pointing to her, 'the current of life is at +its lowest ebb! If it flows again, it must flow to-night.' + +Vetranio made no answer; he dropped down on the seat near him, and +covered his face with his robe. + +The physician, beholding the senator's situation, and reflecting on the +strange hurriedly-uttered confession which had just been addressed to +him, began to doubt whether the scenes through which his patron had +lately passed had not affected his brain. Philosopher though he was, +the man of science had never observed the outward symptoms of the first +working of good and pure influences in elevating a degraded mind; he had +never watched the denoting signs of speech and action which mark the +progress of mental revolution while the old nature is changing for the +new; such objects of contemplation existed not for him. He gently +touched Vetranio on the shoulder. 'Rise,' said he, 'and let us depart. +Those are around her who can watch her best. Nothing remains for us but +to wait and hope. With the earliest morning we will return.' + +He delivered a few farewell directions to one of the women in +attendance, and then, accompanied by the senator, who, without speaking +again, mechanically rose to follow him, quitted the room. After this, +the silence was only interrupted by the sound of an occasional whisper, +and of quick, light footsteps passing backwards and forwards. Then the +cooling, reviving draughts which had been prepared for the night were +poured ready into the cups; and the women approached Numerian, as if to +address him, but he waved his hand impatiently when he saw them; and +then they too, in their turn, departed, to wait in an adjoining +apartment until they should be summoned again. + + +Nothing changed in the manner of the father when he was left alone in +the chamber of sickness, which the lapse of a few hours might convert +into the chamber of death. He sat watching Antonina, and touching the +outspread locks of her hair from time to time, as had been his wont. It +was a fair, starry night; the fresh air of the soft winter climate of +the South blew gently over the earth, the great city was sinking fast +into tranquillity, calling voices were sometimes heard faintly from the +principal streets, and the distant noises of martial music sounded +cheerily from the Gothic camp as the sentinels were posted along the +line of watch; but soon these noises ceased, and the stillness of Rome +was as the stillness round the couch of the wounded girl. + +Day after day, and night after night, since the assassination in the +temple, Numerian had kept the same place by his daughter's side. Each +hour as it passed found him still absorbed in his long vigil of hope; +his life seemed suspended in its onward course by the one influence that +now enthralled it. At the brief intervals when his bodily weariness +overpowered him on his melancholy watch, it was observed by those around +him that, even in his short dreaming clumbers, his face remained ever +turned in the same direction, towards the head of the couch, as if drawn +thither by some irresistible attraction, by some powerful ascendancy, +felt even amid the deepest repose of sensation, the heaviest fatigue of +the overlaboured mind, and worn, sinking heart. He held no +communication, save by signs, with the friends about him; he seemed +neither to hope, to doubt, nor to despair with them; all his faculties +were strung up to vibrate at one point only, and were dull and +unimpressible in every other direction. + +But twice had he been heard to speak more than the fewest, simplest +words. The first time, when Antonina uttered the name of Goisvintha, on +the recovery of her senses after her wound, he answered eagerly by +reiterated declarations that there was nothing henceforth to fear; for +he had seen the assassin dead under the Pagan's foot on leaving the +temple. The second time, when mention was incautiously made before him +of rumours circulated through Rome of the burning of an unknown Pagan +priest, hidden in the temple of Serapis, with vast treasures around him, +the old man was seen to start and shudder, and heard to pray for the +soul that was now waiting before the dread judgment-seat; to murmur +about a vain restoration and a discovery made too late; to mourn over +horror that thickened round him, over hope fruitlessly awakened, and +bereavement more terrible than mortal had ever suffered before; to +entreat that the child, the last left of all, might be spared--with many +words more, which ran on themes like these, and which were counted by +all who listened to them but as the wanderings of a mind whose higher +powers were fatally prostrated by feebleness and grief. + +One long hour of the night had already passed away since parent and +child had been left together, and neither word nor movement had been +audible in the melancholy room. But, as the second hour began, the +girl's eyes unclosed again, and she moved painfully on the couch. +Accustomed to interpret the significance of her slightest actions, +Numerian rose and brought her one of the reviving draughts that had been +left ready for use. After she had drunk, when her eyes met her father's +fixed on her in mute and mournful inquiry, her lips closed, and formed +themselves into an expression which he remembered they had always +assumed when, as a little child, she used silently to hold up her face +to him to be kissed. The miserable contrast between what she was now +and what she had been them, was beyond the passive endurance, the +patient resignation of the spirit-broken old man; the empty cup dropped +from his hands, he knelt down by the side of the couch and groaned +aloud. + +'O father! father!' cried the weak, plaintive voice above him. 'I am +dying! Let us remember that our time to be together here grows shorter +and shorter, and let us pass it as happily as we can!' + +He raised his head, and looked up at her, vacant and wistful, forlorn +already, as if the death-parting was over. + + +'I have tried to live humbly and gratefully,' she sighed faintly. 'I +have longed to do more good on the earth than I have done! Yet you will +forgive me now, father, as you have always forgiven me! You have been +patient with me all my life; more patient than I have ever deserved! +But I had no mother to teach me to love you as I ought, to teach me what +I know now, when my death is near, and time and opportunity are mine no +longer!' + +'Hush! hush!' whispered the old man affrightedly; 'you will live! God +is good, and knows that we have suffered enough. The curse of the last +separation is not pronounced against us! Live, live!' + +'Father,' said the girl tenderly, 'we have that within us which not +death itself can separate. In another world I shall still think of you +when you think of me! I shall see you even when I am no more here, when +you long to see me! When you go out alone, and sit under the trees on +the garden bank where I used to sit; when you look forth on the far +plains and mountains that I used to look on; when you read at night in +the Bible that we have read in together, and remember Antonina as you +lie down sorrowful to rest; then I shall see you! then you will feel +that I am looking on you! You will be calm and consoled, even by the +side of my grave; for you will think, not of the body that is beneath, +but of the spirit that is waiting for you, as I have often waited for +you here when you were away, and I knew that the approach of the evening +would bring you home again!' + +'Hush! you will live!--you will live!' repeated Numerian in the same +low, vacant tones. The strength that still upheld him was in those few +simple words; they were the food of a hope that was born in agony and +cradled in despair. + +'Oh, if I might live!' said the girl softly, 'if I might live but for a +few days yet, how much I have to live for!' She endeavoured to bend her +head towards her father as she spoke; for the words were beginning to +fall faintly and more faintly from her lips--exhaustion was mastering +her once again. She dwelt for a moment now on the name of Hermanric, on +the grave in the farm-house garden; then reverted again to her father. +The last feeble sounds she uttered were addressed to him; and their +burden was still of consolation and of love. + +Soon the old man, as he stooped over her, saw her eyes close again-- +those innocent, gentle eyes which even yet preserved their old +expression while the face grew wan and pale around them--and darkness +and night sank down over his soul while he looked. 'She sleeps,' he +murmured in a voice of awe, as he resumed his watching position by the +side of the couch. 'They call death a sleep; but on her face there is +no death!' + +The night grew on. The women who were in attendance entered the room +about midnight, wondering that their assistance had not yet been +required. They beheld the solemn, unruffled composure on the girl's +wasted face; the rapt attention of Numerian, as he ever preserved the +same attitude by her side; and went out again softly without uttering a +word, even in a whisper. There was something dread and impressive in +the very appearance of this room, where Death, that destroys, was in +mortal conflict with Youth and Beauty, that adorn, while the eyes of one +old man watched in loneliness the awful progress of the strife. + +Morning came, and still there was no change. Once, when the lamp that +lit the room was fading out as the dawn appeared, Numerian had risen and +looked close on his daughter's face--he thought at that moment that her +features moved; but he saw that the flickering of the dying light on +them had deceived him; the same stillness was over her. He placed his +ear close to her lips for an instant, and then resumed his place, not +stirring from it again. The slow current of his blood seemed to have +come to a pause--he was waiting as a man waits with his head on the +block ere the axe descends--as a mother waits to hear that the breath of +life has entered her new-born child. + + +The sun rose bright in a cloudless sky. As the fresh, sharp air of the +early dawn warmed under its spreading rays, the women entered the +apartment again, and partly drew aside the curtain and shutter from the +window. The beams of the new light fell fair and glorifying on the +girl's face; the faint, calm breezed ruffled the lighter locks of her +hair. Once this would have awakened her; but it did not disturb her +now. + +Soon after the voice of the child who sojourned with the women in the +house was heard beneath, in the hall, through the half-opened door of +the room. The little creature was slowly ascending the stairs, singing +her faltering morning song to herself. She was preceded on her approach +by a tame dove, bought at the provision market outside the walls, but +preserved for the child as a pet and plaything by its mother. The bird +fluttered, cooing, into the room, perched upon the head of the couch, +and began dressing its feathers there. The women had caught the +infection of the old man's enthralling suspense; and moved not to bid +the child retire, or to take away the dove from its place--they watched +like him. But the soft, lulling notes of the bird were powerless over +the girl's ear, as the light sunbeam over her face--still she never +woke. + +The child entered, and pausing in her song, climbed on to the side of +the couch. She held out one little hand for the dove to perch upon, +placed the other lightly on Antonina's shoulder, and pressed her fresh, +rosy lips to girl's faded cheek. 'I and my bird have come to make +Antonina well this morning,' she said gravely. + +The still, heavily-closed eyelids moved!--they quivered, opened, closed, +then opened again. The eyes had a faint, dreaming, unconscious look; +but Antonina lived! Antonina was awakened at last to another day on +earth! + +Her father's rigid, straining gaze still remained fixed upon her as at +first, but on his countenance there was a blank, an absence of all +appearance of sensation and life. The women, as they looked on Antonina +and looked on him, began to weep; the child resumed very softly its +morning song, now addressing it to the wounded girl and now to the dove. + +At this moment Vetranio and the physician appeared on the scene. The +latter advanced to the couch, removed the child from it, and examined +Antonina intently. At length, partly addressing Numerian, partly +speaking to himself, he said: 'She has slept long, deeply, without +moving, almost without breathing--a sleep like death to all who looked +on it.' + +The old man spoke not in reply, but the women answered eagerly in the +affirmative. + +'She is saved,' pursued the physician, leisurely quitting the side of +the couch and smiling on Vetranio; 'be careful of her for days and days +to come.' + +'Saved! saved!' echoed the child joyfully, setting the dove free in the +room, and running to Numerian to climb on his knees. The father glanced +down when the clear young voice sounded in his ear. The springs of joy, +so long dried up in his heart, welled forth again as he saw the little +hands raised towards him entreatingly; his grey head drooped--he wept. + +At a sign from the physician the child was led from the room. The +silence of deep and solemn emotion was preserved by all who remained; +nothing was heard but the suppressed sobs of the old man, and the faint, +retiring notes of the infant voice still singing its morning song. And +now one word, joyfully reiterated again and again, made all the burden +of the music-- + +'SAVED! SAVED!' + + +THE CONCLUSION. 'UBI THESAURUS IBI COR.' + + +Shortly after the opening of the provision markets outside the gates of +Rome, the Goths broke up their camp before the city and retired to +winter quarters in Tuscany. The negotiations which ensued between +Alaric and the Court and Government at Ravenna, were conducted with +cunning moderation by the conqueror, and with infatuated audacity by the +conquered, and ultimately terminated in a resumption of hostilities. +Rome was besieged a second and a third time by 'the barbarians'. On +the latter occasion the city was sacked, its palaces were burnt, its +treasures were seized; the monuments of the Christian religion were +alone respected. + +But it is no longer with the Goths that our narrative is concerned; the +connection with them which it has hitherto maintained closes with the +end of the first siege of Rome. We can claim the reader's attention for +historical events no more--the march of our little pageant, arrayed for +his pleasure, is over. If, however, he has felt, and still retains, +some interest in Antonina, he will not refuse to follow us, and look on +her again ere we part. + +More than a month had passed since the besieging army had retired to +their winter quarters, when several of the citizens of Rome assembled +themselves on the plains beyond the walls, to enjoy one of those rustic +festivals of ancient times, which are still celebrated, under different +usages, but with the same spirit, by the Italians of modern days. + +The place was a level plot of ground beyond the Pincian Gate, backed by +a thick grove of pine trees, and looking towards the north over the +smooth extent of the country round Rome. The persons congregated were +mostly of the lower class. Their amusements were dancing, music, games +of strength and games of chance; and, above all, to people who had +lately suffered the extremities of famine, abundant eating and +drinking--long, serious, ecstatic enjoyment of the powers of mastication +and the faculties of taste. + +Among the assembly were some individuals whose dress and manner raised +them, outwardly at least, above the general mass. These persons walked +backwards and forwards together on different parts of the ground as +observers, not as partakers in the sports. One of their number, +however, in whatever direction he turned, preserved an isolated +position. He held an open letter in his hand, which he looked at from +time to time, and appeared to be wholly absorbed in his own thoughts. +This man we may advantageously particularise on his own account, as well +as on account of the peculiarity of his accidental situation; for he was +the favoured minister of Vetranio's former pleasures--'the industrious +Carrio'. + +The freedman (who was last introduced to the reader in Chapter XIV., as +exhibiting to Vetranio the store of offal which he had collected during +the famine for the consumption of the palace) had contrived of late +greatly to increase his master's confidence in him. On the organisation +of the Banquet of Famine, he had discreetly refrained from testifying +the smallest desire to save himself from the catastrophe in which the +senator and his friends had determined to involve themselves. Securing +himself in a place of safety, he awaited the end of the orgie; and when +he found that its unexpected termination left his master still living to +employ him, appeared again as a faithful servant, ready to resume his +customary occupation with undiminished zeal. + +After the dispersion of his household during the famine, and amid the +general confusion of the social system in Rome, on the raising of the +blockade, Vetranio found no one near him that he could trust but +Carrio--and he trusted him. Nor was the confidence misplaced: the man +was selfish and sordid enough; but these very qualities ensured his +fidelity to his master as long as that master retained the power to +punish and the capacity to reward. + + +The letter which Carrio held in his hand was addressed to him at a +villa--from which he had just returned--belonging to Vetranio, on the +shores of the Bay of Naples, and was written by the senator from Rome. +The introductory portions of this communication seemed to interest the +freedman but little: they contained praises of his diligence in +preparing the country-house for the immediate habitation of its owner, +and expressed his master's anxiety to quit Rome as speedily as possible, +for the sake of living in perfect tranquillity, and breathing the +reviving air of the sea, as the physicians had counselled. It was the +latter part of the letter that Carrio perused and re-perused, and then +meditated over with unwonted attention and labour of mind. It ran +thus:-- + +'I have now to repose in you a trust, which you will execute with +perfect fidelity as you value my favour or respect the wealth from which +you may obtain your reward. When you left Rome you left the daughter of +Numerian lying in danger of death: she has since revived. Questions +that I have addressed to her during her recovery have informed me of +much in her history that I knew not before; and have induced me to +purchase, for reasons of my own, a farm-house and its lands, beyond the +suburbs. (The extent of the place and its situation are written on the +vellum that is within this.) The husbandman who cultivated the property +had survived the famine, and will continue to cultivate it for me. But +it is my desire that the garden, and all that it contains, shall remain +entirely at the disposal of Numerian and his daughter, who may often +repair to it; and who must henceforth be regarded there as occupying my +place and having my authority. You will divide your time between +overlooking the few slaves whom I leave at the palace in my absence, and +the husbandman and his labourers whom I have installed at the farm; and +you will answer to me for the due performance of your own duties and the +duties of those under you--being assured that by well filling this +office you will serve your own interests in these, and in all things +besides.' + +The letter concluded by directing the freedman to return to Rome on a +certain day, and to go to the farm-house at an appointed hour, there to +meet his master, who had further directions to give him, and who would +visit the newly acquired property before he proceeded on his journey to +Naples. + +Nothing could exceed the perplexity of Carrio as he read the passage in +his patron's letter which we have quoted above. Remembering the +incidents attending Vetranio's early connection with Antonina and her +father, the mere circumstances of a farm having been purchased to +flatter what was doubtless some accidental caprice on the part of the +girl, would have little perplexed him. But that this act should be +followed by the senator's immediate separation of himself from the +society of Numerian's daughter; that she was to gain nothing after all +from these lands which had evidently been bought at her instigation, but +the authority over a little strip of garden; and yet, the inviolability +of this valueless privilege should be insisted on in such serious terms, +and with such an imperative tone of command as the senator had never +been known to use before--these were inconsistencies which all Carrio's +ingenuity failed to reconcile. The man had been born and reared in +vice; vice had fed him, clothed him, freed him, given him character, +reputation, power in his own small way--he lived in it as in the +atmosphere that he breathed; to show him an action, referable only to a +principle of pure integrity, was to set him a problem which it was +hopeless to solve. And yet it is impossible, in one point of view, to +pronounce him utterly worthless. Ignorant of all distinctions between +good and bad, he thought wrong from sheer inability to see right. + +However his instructions might perplex him, he followed them now--and +continued in after days to follow them--to the letter. If to serve +one's own interests be an art, of that art Carrio deserved to be head +professor. He arrived at the farm-house, not only punctually, but +before the appointed time, and calling the honest husbandman and the +labourers about him, explained to them every particular of the authority +that his patron had vested in him, with a flowing and peremptory +solemnity of speech which equally puzzled and impressed his simple +audience. He found Numerian and Antonina in the garden when he entered +it. The girl had been carried there daily in a litter since her +recovery, and her father had followed. They were never separated now; +the old man, when his first absorbing anxiety for her was calmed, +remembered again more distinctly the terrible disclosure in the temple, +and the yet more terrible catastrophe that followed it, and he sought +constant refuge from the horror of the recollection in the presence of +his child. + + +The freedman, during his interview with the father and daughter, +observed, for once, an involuntary and unfeigned respect; but he spoke +briefly, and left them together again almost immediately. Humble and +helpless as they were, they awed him; they looked, thought, and spoke +like beings of another nature than his; they were connected, he knew not +how, with the mystery of the grave in the garden. He would have been +self-possessed in the presence of the Emperor himself, but he was uneasy +in theirs. So he retired to the more congenial scene of the public +festival which was in the immediate neighbourhood of the farm-house, to +await the hour of his patron's arrival, and to perplex himself afresh by +a re-perusal of Vetranio's letter. + +The time was now near at hand when it was necessary for the freedman to +return to his appointed post. He carefully rolled up his note of +instructions, stood for a few minutes vacantly regarding the amusements +which had hitherto engaged so little of his attention, and then, +turning, he proceeded through the pine-grove on his way back. We will +follow him. + +On leaving the grove, a footpath conducted over some fields to the farm- +house. Arrived here, Carrio hesitated for a moment; then moved slowly +onward to await his master's approach in the lane that led to the +highroad. At this point we will part company with him, to enter the +garden by the wicket-gate. + +The trees, the flower-beds, and the patches of grass, all remained in +their former positions--nothing had been added or taken away since the +melancholy days that were past; but a change was visible in Hermanric's +grave. The turf above it had been renewed, and a border of small +evergreen shrubs was planted over the track which Goisvintha's footsteps +had traced. A white marble cross was raised at one end of the mound; +the short Latin inscription on it signified--'PRAY FOR THE DEAD'. + +The sunlight was shining calmly over the grave, and over Numerian and +Antonina as they sat by it. Sometimes when the mirth grew louder at the +rustic festival, it reached them in faint, subdued notes; sometimes they +heard the voices of the labourers in the neighbouring fields talking to +each other at their work; but, besides these, no other sounds were loud +enough to be distinguished. There was still an expression of the +melancholy and feebleness that grief and suffering leave behind them on +the countenances of the father and daughter; but resignation and peace +appeared there as well--resignation that was perfected by the hard +teaching of woe, and peace that was purer for being imparted from the +one to the other, like the strong and deathless love from which it grew. + +There was something now in the look and attitude of the girl, as she sat +thinking of the young warrior who had died in her defence and for her +love, and training the shrubs to grow closer round the grave, which, +changed though she was, recalled in a different form the old poetry and +tranquillity of her existence when we first saw her singing to the music +of her lute in the garden on the Pincian Hill. No thoughts of horror and +despair were suggested to her as she now looked on the farm-house scene. +Hers was not the grief which shrinks selfishly from all that revives the +remembrance of the dead: to her, their influence over the memory was a +grateful and a guardian influence that gave a better purpose to the +holiest life, and a nobler nature to the purest thoughts. + +Thus they were sitting by the grave, sad yet content; footsore already +on the pilgrimage of life, yet patient to journey farther if they +might--when an unusual tumult, a noise of rolling wheels, mingled with a +confused sound of voices, was heard in the lane behind them. They +looked round, and saw that Vetranio was approaching them alone through +the wicket-gate. + +He came forward slowly; the stealthy poison instilled by the Banquet of +Famine palpably displayed its presence within him as the clear sunlight +fell on his pale, wasted face. He smiled kindly as he addressed +Antonina; but the bodily pain and mental agitation which that smile was +intended to conceal, betrayed themselves in his troubled voice as he +spoke. + + +'This is our last meeting for years--it may be our last meeting for +life,' he said; 'I linger at the outset of my journey, but to behold you +as guardian of the one spot of ground that is most precious to you on +earth--as mistress, indeed, of the little that I give you here!' He +paused a moment and pointed to the grave, then continued: 'All the +atonement that I owe to you, you can never know--I can never tell!-- +think only that I bear away with me a companion in the solitude to which +I go in the remembrance of you. Be calm, good, happy still, for my +sake, and while you forgive the senator of former days, forget not the +friend who now parts from you in some sickness and sorrow, but also in +much patience and hope! Farewell!' + +His hand trembled as he held it out; a flush overspread the girl's cheek +while she murmured a few inarticulate words of gratitude, and, bending +over it, pressed it to her lips. Vetranio's heart beat quick; the +action revived an emotion that he dared not cherish; but he looked at +the wan, downcast face before him, at the grave that rose mournful by +his side, and quelled it again. Yet an instant he lingered to exchange +a farewell with the old man, then turned quickly, passed through the +gate, and they saw him no more. + +Antonina's tears fell fast on the grass beneath as she resumed her +place. When she raised her head again, and saw that her father was +looking at her, she nestled close to him and laid one of her arms round +his neck: the other gradually dropped to her side, until her hand +reached the topmost leaves of the shrubs that grew round the grave. + +***** + +Shall we longer delay in the farm-house garden? No! For us, as for +Vetranio, it is now time to depart! While peace still watches round the +walls of Rome; while the hearts of the father and daughter still repose +together in security, after the trials that have wrung them, let us quit +the scene! Here, at last, the narrative that we have followed over a +dark and stormy track reposes on a tranquil field; and here let us cease +to pursue it! + +So the traveller who traces the course of a river wanders through the +day among the rocks and precipices that lead onward from its troubled +source; and, when the evening is at hand, pauses and rests where the +banks are grassy and the stream is smooth. + + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins + diff --git a/old/ntnna11.zip b/old/ntnna11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7eeef0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ntnna11.zip |