The Roman Traitor, Vol. 1 Read online

  CHAPTER II.

  THE MEASURES.

  For what then do they pause? An hour to strike. MARINO FALIERO.

  The hours of darkness had already well nigh passed, and but for the thickstorm-clouds and the drizzling rain, some streaks of early dawn might havebeen seen on the horizon, when at the door of Marcus Laeca, in the lowgrovelling street of the Scythemakers--strange quarter for the residence ofa patrician, one of the princely Porcii--the arch-conspirator stood still,and glared around with keen suspicious eyes, after his hurried walk.

  It was, however, yet as black as midnight; nor in that wretched and basesuburb, tenanted only by poor laborious artizans, was there a singleartificial light to relieve the gloom of nature.

  The house of Laeca! How little would the passer-by who looked in those dayson its walls, decayed and moss-grown even then, and mouldering--how littlewould he have imagined that its fame would go down to the latest ages,imperishable through its owner's infamy.

  The house of Laeca! The days had been, while Rome was yet but young, whenit stood far aloof in the gay green fields, the suburban villa of theproud Porcian house. Time passed, and fashions changed. Low streets andsqualid tenements supplanted the rich fields and fruitful orchards, whichhad once rendered it so pleasant an abode. Its haughty lords abandoned itfor a more stately palace nigh the forum, and for long years it hadremained tenantless, voiceless, desolate. But dice, and wine, and women,mad luxury and boundless riot, had brought its owner down to indigence,and infamy and sin.

  The palace passed away from its inheritor. The ruin welcomed its lastlord.

  And here, meet scene for orgies such as it beheld, Rome's parricides werewont to hold their murderous assemblies.

  With a slow stealthy tread, that woke no echo, Cataline advanced to thedoor. There was no lamp in the cell of the atriensis; no sign ofwakefulness in any of the casements; yet at the first slight tap upon thestout oaken pannel, although it was scarce louder than the plash of thebig raindrops from the eaves, another tap responded to it from within, sofaint that it appeared an echo of the other. The rebel counted, as fast aspossible, fifteen; and then tapped thrice as he had done before, meetingthe same reply, a repetition of his own signal. After a moment's interval,a little wicket opened in the door, and a low voice asked "Who?" In thesame guarded tone the answer was returned, "Cornelius." Again the voiceasked, "Which?" and instantly, as Cataline replied, "the third," the doorflew open, and he entered.

  The Atrium, or wide hall in which he stood, was all in utter darkness;there was no light on the altar of the Penates, which was placed by the_impluvium_--a large shallow tank of water occupying the centre of the hallin all Roman houses--nor any gleam from the _tablinum_, or closed gallerybeyond, parted by heavy curtains from the audience chamber.

  There were no stars to glimmer through the opening in the roof above thecentral tank, yet the quick eye of the conspirator perceived, upon theinstant, that two strong men with naked swords, their points within ahand's breadth of his bosom, stood on each side of the doorway.

  The gate was closed as silently as it had given him entrance; was barredand bolted; and till then no word was interchanged. When all, however, wassecure, a deep rich voice, suppressed into a whisper, exclaimed "Sergius?""Ay!" answered Cataline. "Come on!" and without farther parley they stoleinto the most secret chambers of the house, fearful as it appeared of thesounds of their own footsteps, much more of their own voices.

  Thus with extreme precaution, when they had traversed several chambers,among which were an indoor _triclinium_, or dining parlor, and a vastpicture gallery, groping their way along in utter darkness, they reached asmall square court, surrounded by a peristyle or colonnade, containing adilapidated fountain. Passing through this, they reached a second diningroom, where on the central table they found a small lamp burning, and bythe aid of this, though still observing the most scrupulous silence,quickly attained their destination--a low and vaulted chamber entirelybelow the surface of the ground, accessible only by a stair defended bytwo doors of unusual thickness.

  That was a fitting place for deeds of darkness, councils of desperation,such as they held, who met within its gloomy precincts. The moisture,which dripped constantly from its groined roof of stone, had formedstalactites of dingy spar, whence the large gouts plashed heavily on thedamp pavement; the walls were covered with green slimy mould; theatmosphere was close and foetid, and so heavy that the huge waxen torches,four of which stood in rusty iron candelabra, on a large slab of granite,burned dim and blue, casting a faint and ghastly light on lineaments sogrim and truculent, or so unnaturally excited by the dominion of allhellish passions, that they had little need of anything extraneous torender them most hideous and appalling. There were some twenty-five menpresent, variously clad indeed, and of all ages, but evidently--though manyhad endeavoured to disguise the fact by poor and sordid garments--all ofthe higher ranks.

  Six or eight were among them, who feared not, nor were ashamed to appearthere in the full splendor of their distinctive garb as Senators,prominent among whom was the most rash and furious of them all, Cethegus.

  He, at the moment when the arch-conspirator, accompanied by Laeca and therest of those who had admitted him, entered the vault, was speaking withmuch energy and even fierceness of manner to three or four who stood aparta little from the rest with their backs to the door, listening withknitted brows, clenched hands, and lips compressed and bloodless, to histremendous imprecations launched at the heads of all who were for any,even the least, delay in the accomplishment of their dread scheme ofslaughter.

  One among them was a large stately looking personage, somewhat inclined tocorpulence, but showing many a sign of giant strength, and vigorunimpaired by years or habit. His head was large but well shaped, with abroad and massive forehead, and an eye keen as the eagle's when soaring inhis pride of place. His nose was prominent, but rather aquiline thanRoman. His mouth, wide and thick-lipped, with square and fleshy jaws, wasthe worst feature in his face, and indicative of indulged sensuality andfierceness, if not of cruelty combined with the excess of pride.

  This man wore the plain toga and white tunic of a private citizen; butnever did plebeian eye and lip flash with such concentrated haughtiness,curl with so fell a sneer, as those of that fallen consular, of thatdegraded senator, the haughtiest and most ambitious of a race neverdeficient in those qualities, he who, drunk with despairing pride, anddeceived to his ruin by the double-tongued Sibylline prophecies, aspiredto be that third Cornelius, who should be master of the world's mistress,Rome.

  The others were much younger men, for Lentulus was at that period alreadypast his prime, and these--two more especially who looked mere boys--hadscarcely reached youth's threshold; though their pale withered faces, andbrows seared deeply by the scorching brand of evil passions, showed thatin vice at least, if not in years, they had lived long already.

  Those two were senators in their full garniture, the sons of ServiusSylla, both beautiful almost as women, with soft and feminine features,and long curled hair, and lips of coral, from which in flippant andaffected accents fell words, and breathed desires, that would have madethe blood stop and turn stagnant at the heart of any one, not utterlypolluted and devoid of every humane feeling.

  This little knot seemed fierce for action, fiery and panting with thatwolfish thirst, to quench which blood must flow. But all the rest seemeddumb, and tongue-tied, and crest-fallen. The sullenness of fear brooded onevery other face. The torpor of despairing crime, already in its own fancybaffled and detected, had fallen on every other heart. For, at the fartherend of the room, whispering to his trembling hearers dubious and darksuspicions, with terror on his tongue, stood Cassius, exaggerating theadventures of the night.

  Such was the scene, when Cataline stalked into that bad conclave. Thefires of hell itself could send forth no more blasting glare, than shotfrom his dark eyes, as he beheld, and read at half a glance theirconsternation. Bitter and blighting wa
s the sneer upon his lip, as hestood motionless, gazing upon them for a little space. Then flinging hisarm on high and striding to the table he dashed his hand upon it, that itrang and quivered to the blow.

  "What are ye?" he said slowly, in tones that thrilled to every heart, sopiercing was their emphasis. "Men?--No, by the Gods! men rush on death forglory!--Women? They risk it, for their own, their children's, or theirlover's safety!--Slaves?--Nay! even these things welcome it for freedom, ormeet it with revenge! Less then, than men! than women, slaves, orbeasts!--Perish like cattle, if ye will, unbound but unresisting, all armedbut unavenged!--And ye--great Gods! I laugh to see your terror-blanched,blank visages. I laugh, but loathe in laughing! The destined dauntlesssacrificers, who would imbue your knives in senatorial, consular gore!kindle your altars on the downfallen Capitol! and build your temples onthe wreck of Empire! Ha! do you start? and does some touch of shame reddenthe sallow cheeks that courage had left bloodless? and do ye grasp yourdaggers, and rear your drooping heads? are ye men, once again? Why shouldye not? what do ye see, what hear, whereat to falter? What oracle, whatportent? Now, by the Gods! methought they spoke of victory and glory. Oncemore, what do ye fear, or wish? What, in the name of Hecate and Hades!What do ye wait for?"

  "A leader!" answered the rash Cethegus, excited now even beyond the boundsof ordinary rashness. "A day, a place, a signal!"

  "Have them, then, all," replied the other, still half scornfully. "Lo! Iam here to lead; the field of Mars will give a place; the consularelections an occasion; the blood of Cicero a signal!"

  "Be it so!" instantly replied Cethegus; "be it so! thou hast spoken, asthe times warrant, boldly; and upon my head be it, that our deeds shallrespond to thy daring words, with equal daring!"

  And a loud hum of general assent succeeded to his stirring accents; and aquick fluttering sound ran through the whole assemblage, as every man,released from the constraint of deep and silent expectation, altered hisposture somewhat, and drew a long breath at the close. But the conspiratorpaused not. He saw immediately the effect which had been made upon theminds of all, by what had passed. He perceived the absolute necessity offollowing that impulse up to action, before, by a revulsion no less suddenthan the late change from despondency to fierceness, their minds shouldagain subside into the lethargy of doubt and dismay.

  "But say thou, Sergius," he continued, "how shall it be, and who shallstrike the blow that is to seal Rome's liberty, our vengeance?"

  "First swear we!" answered Cataline. "Laeca, the eagle, and the bowl!"

  "Lo! they are here, my Sergius," answered the master of the house, drawingaside a piece of crimson drapery, which covered a small niche or recess inthe wall, and displaying by the movement a silver eagle, its pinions wideextended, and its talons grasping a thunderbolt, placed on a pedestal,under a small but exquisitely sculptured shrine of Parian marble. Beforethe image there stood a votive lamp, fed by the richest oils, a mightybowl of silver half filled with the red Massic wine, and many _paterae_, orsacrificial vessels of a yet richer metal.

  "Hear, bird of Mars, and of Quirinus"--cried Cataline, without a pause,stretching his hands toward the glittering effigy--"Hear thou, and bepropitious! Thou, who didst all-triumphant guide a yet greater thanQuirinus to deeds of might and glory; thou, who wert worshipped by thecharging shout of Marius, and consecrated by the gore of Cimbric myriads;thou, who wert erst enshrined on the Capitoline, what time the proudpatricians veiled their haughty crests before the conquering plebeian;thou, who shalt sit again sublime upon those ramparts, meet aery for thineunvanquished pinion; shalt drink again libations, boundless libations ofrich Roman life-blood, hot from patrician hearts, smoking from everykennel! Hear and receive our oaths--listen and be propitious!"

  He spoke, and seizing from the pedestal a sacrificial knife, which laybeside the bowl, opened a small vein in his arm, and suffered the warmstream to gush into the wine. While the red current was yet flowing, hegave the weapon to Cethegus, and he did likewise, passing it in his turnto the conspirator who stood beside him, and he in like manner to thenext, till each one in his turn had shed his blood into the bowl, whichnow mantled to the brim with a foul and sacrilegious mixture, the richestvintage of the Massic hills, curdled with human gore.

  Then filling out a golden goblet for himself, "Hear, God of war," criedCataline, "unto whose minister and omen we offer daily worship; hear,mighty Mars, the homicide and the avenger; and thou, most ancient goddess,hear, Nemesis! and Hecate, and Hades! and all ye powers of darkness,Furies and Fates, hear ye! For unto ye we swear, never to quench thetorch; never to sheath the brand; till all our foes be prostrate, till notone drop shall run in living veins of Rome's patricians; till not onehearth shall warm; one roof shall shelter; till Rome shall be likeCarthage, and we, like mighty Marius, lords and spectators of herdesolation! We swear! we taste the consecrated cup! and thus may his bloodflow, who shall, for pity or for fear, forgive or fail or falter--his ownblood, and his wife's, and that of all his race forever! May vultures teartheir eyes, yet fluttering with quick vision; may wolves tug at theirheart-strings, yet strong with vigorous life; may infamy be theirinheritance, and Tartarus receive their spirits!"

  And while he spoke, he sipped the cup of horror with unreluctant lips, anddashed the goblet with the residue over the pedestal and shrine. And therewas not one there who shrank from that foul draught. With ashy cheeksindeed, but knitted brows, and their lips reeking red with theabomination, but fearless and unfaltering, they pledged in clear andsolemn tones, each after each, that awful imprecation, and cast theirgoblets down, that the floor swam in blood; and grasped each others'hands, sworn comrades from that hour even to the gates of hell.

  A long and impressive silence followed. For every heart there, even of theboldest, recoiled as it were for a moment on itself, not altogether inregret or fear, much less in anything approaching to compunction orremorse; but in a sort of secret horror, that they were now involvedbeyond all hope of extrication, beyond all possibility of turning back orhalting! And Cataline, endowed with almost superhuman shrewdness, andhimself quite immovable of purpose, perceived the feelings that actuatedall the others--which he felt not, nor cared for--and called on Laeca tobring wine.

  "Wine, comrades," he exclaimed, "pure, generous, noble wine, to wash awaythe rank drops from our lips, that are more suited to our blades! to makeour veins leap cheerily to the blythe inspiration of the God! and last,not least, to guard us from the damps of this sweet chamber, which aloneof his bounteous hospitality our Porcius has vouchsafed to us!" And on theinstant, the master--for they dared trust no slaves--bore in two earthenvases, one of strong Chian from the Greek Isle of the Egean, the other ofFalernian, the fruitiest and richest of the Italian wines, not much unlikethe modern sherry, but having still more body, and many cyathi, ordrinking cups; but he brought in no water, wherewith the more temperateancients were wont to mix their heady wines, even in so great a ratio asnine to one of the generous liquor.

  "Fill now! fill all!" cried Cataline, and with the word he drained abrimming cup. "Rare liquor this, my Marcus," he continued; "whence had'stthou this Falernian? 'tis of thine inmost brand, I doubt not. In whoseconsulship did it imbibe the smoke?"

  "The first of Caius Marius."

  "Forty-four years, a ripe age," said Cethegus, "but twill be better fortyyears hence. Strange, by the Gods! that of the two best things on earth,women and wine, the nature should so differ. The wine is crude still, whenthe girl is mellow; but it is ripe, long after she is----"

  "Rotten, by Venus!"--interposed Caeparius, swearing the harlot's oath;"Rotten, and in the lap of Lamia!"

  "But heard ye not," asked Cataline, "or hearing, did ye not accept theomen!--in whose first Consulship this same Falernian jar was sealed?"

  "Marius! By Hercules! an omen! oh, may it turn out well!" exclaimed thesuperstitious Lentulus.

  "Sayest thou, my Sura? well! drink we to the omen, and may we to thevalour and the principles of Marius unite the fortunes of his rival--ofall
-triumphant Sylla!"

  A burst of acclamations replied to the happy hit, and seeing now his aimentirely accomplished, Cataline checked the revel; their blood was up; nofear of chilling counsels!

  "Now then," he said, "before we drink like boon companions, let us consultlike men; there is need now of counsel; that once finished"----

  "Fulvia awaits me," interrupted Cassius, "Fulvia, worth fifty revels!"

  "And me Sempronia," lisped the younger and more beautiful of the twinSylla.

  "Meanwhile," exclaimed Autronius, "let us comprehend, so shall we need nofarther meetings--each of which risks the awakening of suspicion, and itmay well be of discovery. Let us now comprehend, that, when the timecomes, we may all perform our duty. Speak to us, therefore, Sergius."

  No farther exhortation was required; for coolly the conspirator arose toset before his desperate companions, the plans which he had laid sodeeply, that it seemed scarcely possible that they should fail; and not abreath or whisper interrupted him as he proceeded.

  "Were I not certain of the men," he said, "to whom I speak, I could saymany things that should arouse you, so that you should catch with fieryeagerness at aught that promised a more tolerable position. I couldrecount the luxuries of wealth which you once knew; the agonies of povertybeneath which, to no purpose, you lie groaning. I could point out youractual inability to live, however basely--deprived of character andcredit--devoid of any relics of your fortunes! weighed to the very earth bydebts, the interest alone of which has swallowed up your patrimonies, andgapes even yet for more! fettered by bail-bonds, to fly which is infamy,and to abide them ruin! shunned, scorned, despised, and hated, if notfeared by all men. I could paint, to your very eyes, ourselves in rags orfetters! our enemies in robes of office, seated on curule chairs, swayingthe fate of nations, dispensing by a nod the wealth of plunderedprovinces! I could reverse the picture. But, as it is, your presentmiseries and your past deeds dissuade me. Your hopelessness and daring,your wrongs and valor, your injuries and thirst of vengeance, warn me,alike, that words are weak, and exhortation needless. Now understand withme, how matters stand. The stake for which we play, is fair before youreyes:--learn how our throw for it is certain. The consular elections, asyou all well know, will be held, as proclaimed already, on the fifteenthday before the calends of November. My rivals are Sulpicius, Muraena, andSilanus. Antonius and Cicero will preside--the first, my friend! a bold andnoble Roman! He waits but an occasion to declare for us. Now, mark me.Caius Manlius--you all do know the man, an old and practised soldier, ascar-seamed veteran of Sylla,--will on that very day display yon eagle totwenty thousand men, well armed, and brave, and desperate as ourselves, atFiesole. Septimius of Camerinum writes from the Picene district, thatthirty thousand slaves will rise there at his bidding; while Caius Julius,sent to that end into Apulia, has given out arms and nominated leaders totwice five thousand there. Ere this, they have received my mandate tocollect their forces, and to march on that same day toward Rome. Threeseveral armies, to meet which there is not one legion on this side ofCisalpine Gaul! What, then, even if all were peace in Rome, what thencould stand against us? But there shall be that done here, here in thevery seat and heart, as I may say, of Empire, that shall dismay andparalyse all who would else oppose us. Cethegus, when the centuries areall assembled in the field of Mars, with fifteen hundred gladiators wellarmed and exercised even now, sets on the guard in the Janiculum, andbeats their standard down. Then, while all is confusion, Statilius andGabinius with their households,--whom, his work done, Cethegus will joinstraightway--will fire the city in twelve several places, break open theprison doors, and crying "Liberty to slaves!" and "Abolition of alldebts!"--rush diverse throughout the streets, still gathering numbers asthey go. Meanwhile, with Lentulus and Cassius, the clients of your housesbeing armed beneath their togas with swords and breast-plates, and casquesready to be donned, I will make sure of Cicero and the rest. Havoc, andslaughter, and flames every where will make the city ours. Then ye, whohave no duty set, hear, and mark this: always to kill is to do something!the more, and nobler, so much the better deed! Remembering this, that sonshave ready access to their sires, who for the most part are theirbitterest foes! and that to spare none we are sworn--how, and how deeply,it needs not to remind you. More words are bootless, since to all here itmust be evident that these things, planned thus far with deep and prudentcouncil, once executed with that dauntless daring, which alone stands forarmor, and for weapons, and, by the Gods! for bulwarks of defence, mustwin us liberty and glory, more over wealth, and luxury, and power, inwhich names is embraced the sum of all felicity. Therefore, now, I exhortyou not; for if the woes which you would shun, the prizes which you shallattain, exhort you not, all words of man, all portents of the Gods, aredumb, and voiceless, and in vain! Mark the day only, and remember, that ifnot ye, at least your sires were Romans and were men!"

  "Bravely, my Sergius, hast thou spoken, and well done!" cried at onceseveral voices of the more prominent partisans.

  "By the Gods! what a leader!" whispered Longinus Cassius to his neighbor.

  "Fabius in council," cried Cethegus, "Marcellus in the field!"

  "Moreover, fellow-soldiers," exclaimed Lentulus, "hear this: although hejoin not with us now, through policy, Antonius, the Consul, is in heartours, and waits but for the first success to declare himself for the causein arms. Crassus, the rich--Caesar, the people's idol--have heard ourcounsels, and approve them. The first blow struck, their influence, theirnames, their riches, and their popularity, strike with us--trustierfriends, by Pollux! and more potent, than fifty thousand swordsmen!"

  A louder and more general burst of acclamation and applause than thatwhich had succeeded Cataline's address, burst from the lips of all, asthose great names dropped from the tongue of Lentulus; and one voice criedaloud--it was the voice of Curius, intoxicated as it were with presenttriumph--

  "By all the Gods! Rome is our own! our own, even now, to portion out amongour friends, our mistresses, our slaves!"

  "Not Rome--but Rome's inheritance, the world!" exclaimed another. "If wewin, all the universe is ours--and see how small the stake; when, if wefail"--

  "By Hades, we'll not fail!" Cataline interrupted him, in his deeppenetrating tones. "We cannot, and we will not! and now, for I waxsomewhat weary, we will break up this conclave. We meet at the comitia!"

  "And the Slave?" whispered Cethegus, with an inquiring accent, in hisear--"the Slave, my Sergius?"

  "Will tell no tales of us," replied the other, with a hoarse laugh,"unless it be to Lamia."

  Thus they spoke as they left the house; and ere the day had yet begun toglimmer with the first morning twilight--so darkly did the clouds stillmuster over the mighty city--went on their different ways toward theirseveral homes, unseen, and, as they fondly fancied, unsuspected.