The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Unwilling Vestal, by Edward Lucas White

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Title: The Unwilling Vestal

Author: Edward Lucas White

Release Date: July, 2004  [EBook #6070]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on November 1, 2002]

Edition: 10

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE UNWILLING VESTAL ***




Project Gutenberg Etext The Unwilling Vestal
by Edward Lucas White

Project Gutenberg editor's note:

First published in 1918, this book went through sixteen printings
before it ceased to be a money-maker for its publishers. It provides
a fascinating glimpse into a world most of us know nothing about.

It has been slightly re-edited for ease in reading as an e-text.
The author's spellings have been left alone even when they are
incorrect in English English, American English, and Latin.

End PG editor's note.

THE UNWILLING VESTAL




The Unwilling Vestal
A Tale of Rome under the Caesars


JACKET BLURB:



EDWARD LUCAS WHITE
Author of "El Supremo"

This book presents, for the first time in fiction, a correct and
adequate account of the Vestal Virgins, their powers and
privileges, as well as of many strange Roman customs and
beliefs.

The author combines the power of writing a rattling good story
with a sound and full knowledge of conditions of the life which he
is depicting. Mr. White brings to the history of Rome all the
picturesqueness and power which made his South American novel,
"El Supremo," so remarkable. The result is a vivid pageant of
imperial Rome and Roman life at the height of its power and splendor.

End of Jacket Blurb


PUBLISHERS' NOTE



Readers of <The Unwilling Vestal> who are not acquainted at first
hand with the lighter and more intimate literature of the Romans
may be surprised to discover that the lights of Roman high society
talked slang and were interested in horseracing. Most writers
who have tried to draw Roman society for us have been either
ignorant or afraid of these facts. The author of <The Unwilling
Vestal> is neither. He presents to us the upper class Romans
exactly as they reveal themselves in the literature of their day;
excitable, slangy, sophisticated and yet strangely credulous,
enthusiastic sportsmen, hearty eaters and drinkers, and
unblushingly keen on the trail of the almighty denarius. In a word,
very much like the most up-to-date American society of to-day.

The Publishers feel that it is only fair that it should be made
plain that the great difference between the Roman society folk
of <The Unwilling Vestal> and those appearing in other novels
is due to the author's thorough acquaintance with the people
and the period about which he is writing.

Incidentally, the Publishers wish to thank Mr. C. Powell
Minnegerode, the Curator of the Corcoran Gallery of Art of
Washington, D. C., for his permission to reproduce Leroux'
beautiful painting "The Vestal Tuccia" for use on the wrapper of
the volume.

[wrapper not available - PG ed.]

End of Publisher's Note


PREFACE by author



The title of this romance is likely to prejudice any reader
against it. There exists a popular delusion that fiction with
a classical setting is bound to be dull and lumbering, that it
is impossible for it to possess that quality of bravura slangily
denominated "punch." Anybody will be disabused of that notion
upon reading this story.

<<PG EDITOR'S NOTE: The slang is now, alas, over ninety
years old. It now sounds even more stilted than the classical
language does.>>

On the other hand, after having read it, almost any one will be
likely to imagine that a novel with so startling a heroine and with
incidents so bizarre cannot possibly be based on any sound and
genuine knowledge of its background; that the author has conjured
out of his fantasy not only his plot and chief characters, but also
their world; that he has created out and out not merely his Vestal,
but his Vestals, their circumstances and the life which they are
represented as leading: that he has manufactured his local color
to suit as he went along.

Nothing could be further from the actuality. The details of rule
and ritual, of dress and duties, of privileges and punishments are
set forth in accordance with a full first-hand and intimate
acquaintance with all available evidence touching the Vestals;
including all known inscriptions relating to them, every passage in
Roman or Greek literature in any way concerning them, the
inferences drawn from all existing or recorded sculptures and coins
which add to our knowledge of them, and every treatise written since
the revival of learning in Europe in which the Vestals are
discussed. The story contains no preposterous anachronisms or
fatuous absurdities. Throughout, it either embodies the known
facts or is invented in conformity with the known facts.

Any one to whom chapter twenty-one seems incredible should consult
an adequate encyclopedia article or an authoritative treatise on
physics and read up on the surface tension of liquids.


End of Preface by Author


Contents



Book I

The Rage of Disappointment

I.                 Precocity
II.                 Sieves
III.                 Stutterings
IV.                 Pestilence
V.                 Escapades
VI.                 Notoriety
VII.                 Audience

Book II

The Revolt of Despondency

VIII.         Scourging
IX.                 Alarms
X.                 Conference
XI.                 Farewell
XII.                 Observances
XIII.         Perversity
XIV.                 Amazement

Book III

The Rebellion of Desperation

XV.                 Rehabilitation
XVI.                 Vagary
XVII.         Recklessness
XVIII.         Fury
XIX.                 Comfort

Book IV

The Revulsion of Delight

XX.                Accusation
XXI.                Ordeal
XXII                Triumph
XXII.                Salvage





Book I






The Rage of Disappointment




Chapter I - Precocity



"Brinnaria!" he said severely, "you will marry any man
I designate."

"I never shall marry any man," she retorted positively, "except
the man I want to marry."

She gazed unflinchingly into her father's imperious eyes, wide-set
on either side of a formidable Roman nose. His return gaze was
less incensed than puzzled. All his life he had been habituated
to subserviency, had never met opposition, and to find it from his
youngest daughter, and she a mere child, amazed him. As she
faced him she appeared both resolute and tremulous. He looked
her up and down from the bright blue velvety leather of her little
shoes on which the gilt sole-edges and gilt laces glittered to the
red flower in her brown hair. Inside her clinging red robe the
soft outlines of her young shape swelled plump and healthy, yet
altogether she seemed to him but a fragile creature. Resistance
from her was incredible.

Perhaps this was one more of her countless whims. While he
considered her meditatively he did not move his mighty arms or
legs; the broad crimson stripe down his tunic rose and fell slowly
above his ample paunch and vaster chest as his breath came evenly;
on his short bull neck his great bullet head was as moveless as if
he had been one of the painted statues that lined the walls all
about. As the two regarded each other they could hear the faint
splash of the fountain in the tank midway of the courtyard.

Her father, a true Roman to his marrow, with all a Roman's
arbitrary instincts, reverted to the direct attack.

"You will marry Pulfennius Calvaster," he commanded.

"I will not!" she declared.

He temporized.

"Why not?" he queried.

The obstinacy faded from Brinnaria's handsome, regular face.
She looked merely reflective

"In the first place," she said, "because I despise him and hate
him worse than any young man I ever knew; I would not marry
Calvaster if he were the only man left alive. In the second place,
because, if all the men on earth were courting me at once, all
rich and all fascinating and Caius were poor and anything and
everything else that he isn't, I'd marry nobody ever except Caius.
You hear me, Father. Caius Segontius Almo is the only, only man
I'll ever marry. Nothing can shake my resolution, never."

She was breathing eagerly, her cheeks flushed a warm red through her
olive complexion, her eyes shining till tiny specks sparkled green and
yellow in the wide brown of her big irises.

Her father's jaw set.

"I've listened to you, daughter," he said. "Now you listen to
me. I have no objections to Almo; I rather like him. I have thought
of marrying you to him; if Segontius and I had not quarreled, we
might have arranged it. There is no possibility of it now. And
just now, for some reason or other, Pulfennius is keen on arranging
a marriage between you and Calvaster. His offers are too tempting
to be rejected and the chance is to good to be missed. Our properties
adjoin not only here and at Baiae, but also at Praeneste, at
Grumentum and at Ceneta. With our estates so marvellously
paired the marriage seems divinely ordained when one comes to think
it over. Don't be a fool. Anyhow, if you insist on making trouble
for yourself, it will do you no good. My mind is made up. You are
to marry Calvaster."

"I won't!" Brinnaria maintained

Her father smiled, a menacing smile

"Perhaps not," he said, "but there will be only one alternative.
Unless you agree to obey me I shall go at once to the Pontifex
and offer you for a Vestal."

Every trace of apprehension vanished from Brinnaria's expression.
She grinned saucily, almost impudently, at her father, and snapped
her fingers in his face.

"You can't scare me that way, Daddy!" she mocked him. "I know
better than that. There can be only six Vestals. You can offer, if
you like, but the Emperors themselves can't take me for a Vestal
while the six are alive."

The laugh muffled in her throat; she was fairly daunted. Never had
she seen her father's face so dark, so threatening. Not in all her
life had he so much as spoken harshly to her; she had been his pet
since she had begun to remember. But now, for one twinkling,
she feared a blow from him. She almost shrank back from him.

He did not move and he spoke softly.

"Rabulla died this morning before dawn," was all he said.

Instantly Brinnaria. was fluttering with panic.

"You aren't in earnest, Daddy!" she protested. "You can't be in
earnest. You're only fooling; you're only trying to frighten me.
You don't really mean it; oh, please, Daddy, say you don't really
mean it!"

"I really mean it," her father answered heavily. "I never meant
anything more genuinely in my life. You know my influence with
the Emperors and with the Pontifex of Vesta. You know that if I
made the proposal they would disregard any rival petitioners, would
override all unnecessary formalities, would have the matter
despatched at once. Unless you obey me you will be a Vestal
before sunset to-morrow."

Brinnaria was now fairly quivering with terror.

"Oh, Daddy!" she quivered, "you couldn't be so cruel. I'd rather
die than have to be a Vestal. I couldn't imagine any life so
terrible. Oh, Daddy, please say you are not in earnest."

He frowned.

"I swear," he said, "that I was never more in earnest. I say it
solemnly, as sure as my name is Marcus Brinnarius Epulo, I'll
have you made a Vestal unless you agree this moment to give up
all thoughts of Almo, to obey me about marrying Calvaster, and
to be properly polite to him and Pulfennius."

"Daddy!" Brinnaria cried. "Only don't have me made a Vestal and
I'll do anything. I'll forget there ever was an Almo. I'll be sweet
as honey to Pulfennius till he loves me better than Secunda, and
I'll marry Calvaster; I'll marry anybody. Why, Daddy, I'd marry
a boar pig rather than be a Vestal."

Her father smiled.

"I thought my little daughter would behave properly," he soothed
her, "and you are just in time. That may be your future husband
and father-in-law coming now."

In fact they were in a moment ushered in. Pulfennius was a tall
man, lean and loose-jointed, with straggling, greenish-gray hair;
a long, uneven head, broad at the skull and narrow at the chin;
puffy, white bags of flabby flesh under his eyes; irregular yellow
teeth and sagging cheeks that made his face look squarish. Calvaster
was a mere boy, with a leaden complexion, shifty gray eyes, thin
lips, and an expression at once sly and conceited.

"You come opportunely," said their host after the greetings had
been exchanged, "for you happen to find me alone with the very
daughter of whom you and I were talking. This is Brinnaria."

"This!" Pulfennius exclaimed. "This the girl we were talking about?
Impossible! Incredible! There must be some mistake."

"There is no mistake," his host assured him. "This is the girl we
were talking about, this is Brinnaria."

The visitor regarded her, respectfully standing now, her brown
eyes down-cast, the flush faded from her olive-skinned cheeks, her
arms hanging limply at her sides. She was tall for a girl and while
slenderly built was well muscled, a fine handsome figure in her red
robe.

"This!" he exclaimed again. "Indeed. So this is Brinnaria. I am
very glad to have seen her. And now having seen her, do you not
think that our business would be better transacted by us three males
together?"

"Certainly, if you prefer," Brinnarius asserted.

He patted Brinnaria and kissed her.

"Run away now, little girl," he said, "and wait in the peristyle
until I want you."

Brinnaria, once in the rear courtyard, instantly called:

"Guntello!"

Her call was answered by a great brute of a slave, bigger even
than her father, a gigantic Goth, pink-skinned, blue-eyed and
yellow-haired.

"Now listen to me, Guntello," his little mistress said, "for if
you make any mistake about my errand you'll get me into no end of
trouble."

The Goth, manifestly devoted to her, leaned his ear close and
grinned amiably. She repeated her directions twice and made him
repeat them after her in his broken Latin. When she was sure that
he understood, she despatched him with a whispered injunction:

"Hurry! Hurry!"

Meanwhile, in the gorgeous atrium, the fathers' conference had
continued. The moment she had gone Pulfennius said:

"I do not believe in discussing misunderstandings before females;
evidently there is some misunderstanding here. I want for my son
a bride younger than he is, even if he has to wait two or even
four years to claim her. You assured me that your daughter
Brinnaria was not yet ten years of age and you show me a grown
woman and tell me that she is Brinnaria. What is the explanation?"

"A very simple explanation," he was answered. "Merely that
Brinnaria is unusually well grown and well developed for her age.
I have seen other cases of early ripening in children and so must
you."

"I've seen girls grown beyond their years," Pulfennius admitted,
"but no case comparable to this. Why, man, that girl who has just
left us would be taken for over eighteen years old by any stranger
at first sight of her, and no one on earth could look at her
carefully and hazard the conjecture that she might possibly be
under sixteen."

"Quite so," his host agreed, "and the better you know Brinnaria
the more you wonder at her. She not only looks sixteen or eighteen
and acts as if she were that age, but she talks as if she were
that old and thinks as if she were even older, and she is actually
three full months, more than three months, to be precise three
months and twelve days, under ten years of age."

"Amazing!" spluttered Pulfennius, "astounding! inexplicable!"

"Don't you believe me?" Brinnarius queried sharply.

"Certainly I believe you," his guest disclaimed, "but I cannot
realize that it can be true; I am bewildered; I am dazed."

"Perhaps," the other suggested, "you would realize it better if
Quartilla added her assurances to mine."

"Oh," the other deprecated, "I do not require anybody's
corroboration to your statement. But if her mother is at home,
perhaps her presence would be as well for other reasons."

When summoned his host's wife appeared as a medium-sized woman,
neither plump nor slender, with a complexion neither brown nor
white, with yellow-brown hair, gray-brown eyes, and in every
outline, hue, and feature as neutral and inconspicuous a creature
as could be conceived of.

"Yes," Quartilla said, "everybody is surprised at Brinnaria's
growth. I was scared, when she first began to grow so fast, and
had special prayers offered and sacrifices made at the temples
of Youth and Health. Also I had a Babylonian seer consult the
stars concerning her birth-signs. Everybody said she was born to
long life, good health and great luck. But I can't fancy what ever
made her grow so. She was fed like her brothers and sisters and
she never seems to eat any heartier or any oftener. Till she was
two and a half she was just like any other child. But she has
grown more in seven years than any other child I ever knew of
ever grew in fourteen and she's so old for her years too. Not but
that she plays with dolls and toys and jacks; and she runs about
just like any other child of her age, in spite of her size; but
she says such grown-up things and she has such a womanly mind. She
understands the family accounts better than I do, is keen on
economy and could oversee the providing for the entire household.
She astonishes me over and over. But there is no doubt about her
age. Both my sisters were with me when she was born and
Nemestronia too. Ask any of the three. Or I can tell you a dozen
other ladies who know just as well. Brinnaria will not be ten
years old until the Ides of September."

"Wonderful! marvellous!" Pulfennius exclaimed. "Madam, you amaze
me. But if this is true so much the better. I had thought my boy
must wait two years or more for a wife, as I am determined that
no more of my sons shall marry wives of their own age, let alone
older. If your daughter is so young, she will just suit me, and
since she is already grown up we shall not have to wait for her
to grow up. We can arrange for the wedding for this month."

They chaffered a long time about the marriage settlement,Calvaster
sitting silent, biting his lips, staring about him and fidgetting;
Quartilla equally silent, but entirely placid, without the twitch
of a muscle or any shift of gaze; the two men doing all the talking.
Some of the talking was almost vehement, Pulfennius disclaiming
promises which his host declared he had made. Once they came to
a deadlock and then Brinnarius, his voice suddenly mild and soft,
mentioned Rabulla's death and his notion of offering Brinnaria for
her successor. At once Pulfennius became manageable and supple
and all eagerness for the happiness of the young couple.

When it seemed that they had reached an agreement on every point
Quartilla had her say.

"I think you will find Brinnaria everything you could wish as a
daughter-in-law. The most uncanny thing about her precocious
habits of thought is her tenacity of any resolve and her grave and
earnest attitude towards all questions of duty and propriety. She takes
clan traditions very seriously and is determined to comport herself
according to ancestral precedents. You will have no fault to find
with her respectfulness towards you and Herrania or with her
behavior as a wife. She will be circumspect in her deportment
towards all men and is sure to turn out an excellent housewife.
She has lofty inherited standards to live up to and she is deeply
devoted to them.

"This is the more to be wondered at since she is strangely
undignified in many ways. I trust this will wear off as she grows
up. It is only in this respect that Brinnaria has ever given me
any cause for concern. She is more like a boy than a girl in many
ways. She not only plays with boys and plays boys' games and
plays them as well as boys or better, not only climbs trees when
she is in the country, and rides bareback and goes fishing and
swimming in any stream or pool, and ranges the woods and cannot
be restrained; but also she will indulge in the wildest pranks, the
most unthinkable freaks, play rough practical jokes on anybody
and everybody, laugh out loud, shout and yell, gesticulate and
contort herself into undignified postures and act generally in an
uproarious and uncurbed fashion. She keeps up that sort of thing
even in town, and is boisterous and unexpected beyond anything I
ever heard of in any young girl She is most docile in all really
important things, but in respect to her jokings and shriekings
and carryings-on she is really beyond my control. She is never
openly disobedient, yet she is most ingenious at devising methods
for avoiding obedience. Sometimes I lose patience with Brinnaria.
But, when I really think it all over, there is no harm in any of it.
Strangers, however, would think her a very terrible girl; she
belies herself so. Any one becoming cognizant of some of her
vagaries would form a very unfavorable judgment of her and most
unjustly. In her heart she is anything but the wild creature she
makes herself appear. Her squawks of merriment, her rude
interruptions of her elders, her pert remarks, her sarcastic jokes,
are all the manifestations of mere overflowing animal spirits, of
warm-blooded youth and hearty health. She will tone down. She is
the most startling and incalculable child I ever heard of. No one
could anticipate her eccentricities. There is an originality of
invention about her pranks which amazes me. But I am sure she
will turn out all that I could wish."

"I trust so, indeed," said Pulfennius dryly. "I am grateful to you
for warning me; I promise not to misjudge her because of any
childish freakishness. And now it seems to me that we should
make the young lady herself a party of this conference and bring
the matter to a final settlement."

Brinnarius called a slave and bade him fetch Brinnaria.

Almost at once the fellow, a dark-skinned, obsequious Lydian,
returned looking scared and yet on the verge of laughter. He
could barely control his merriment, yet was plainly afraid to utter
what he had to say. His master ordered him to speak.

"Instead of coming with me," he said, "the young lady sent a
message. But I am afraid to give it to you. I am afraid of a
thrashing if I give the message as she gave it to me."

"Another of her jokes," her father growled. "You shan't suffer
for any of her impudence. Repeat her exact words; I'll hold you
excused, Dastor."

Dastor, reassured, grinned with anticipated enjoyment and said:

"She says she is sitting down and very comfortable where she is,
that she will not stand up till she feels inclined, and that if you
want to see her you can come to her, for she will not come to you."

For a moment there was a tense silence.

Pulfennius spoke first.

"If this is a sample of the sort of deportment which my future
daughter-in-law is expected to outgrow I might as well be shown
just what this kind of behavior is like. Let us acquiesce and go
to the little witch, if you do not object."


"I don't object at all to going," his host replied, "but I object to
her behavior; I'll make her smart for it. Come, let us have it
over with; I'll show you a submissive Brinnaria or I'll know the
reason why."

They stood up and from the open atrium passed into a narrow
passage lighted only from the two ends and so into the larger
courtyard with gleaming marble columns at each end and long
rows of them down each side. The tank under the open sky was
much larger than that in the atrium and had two fountains in it.
Pigeons cooed on the tiles of the roofs, and two or three of them
strutted on the mosaic pavement among the columns.

The party, dumbfounded and stunned, stood without voice or
movement, gazing at the picture before them.

The pavement was a cool grayish white in effect, for its mosaic
work was all of pale neutral tints. Above it the background was
all white,--white marble walls, the white marble polished pillars
of the peristyle, white marble entablature above them, the general
whiteness emphasized by the mere streak of red tiled roof visible
against the intense blue of the sky.

The only color in the picture was to the left of the tank and close
to it, where there had been set a big armchair upholstered in blue
tapestry. In it sat a tall, fair-haired, curly-headed lad, with
merry blue eyes. He wore a robe of pale green, the green of young
onion tops. Against that green the red of Brinnaria's gown showed
strident and glary, for Brinnaria was sitting on his lap. His arms
were round her waist, hers about his neck. She was slowly swinging
her blue-shod feet rhythmically and was kissing the lad audibly and
repeatedly. As her elders stood still, petrified, mute and
motionless with amazement, she imprinted a loud smack on the lad's
lips, laid her cheek roguishly to his and peered archly at them,
saying:

"Glad to see you again, Pulfennius; what do you think of me for a
daughter-in-law?"

"I do not think of you for a daughter-in-law," Pulfennius snarled
furiously.

He turned angrily to Brinnarius.

"What does this mean?" he queried.

His host echoed him.

"Brinnaria!" he called, imperatively. "What does this mean?"

"Mean?" she repeated. "It means that I am making the most of
Almo while I can. I love Almo; I've promised to forget him, to be
a good wife to Calvaster, and of course I'm going to keep my word.
>From the moment I'm married to Calvaster I'll never so much as
look at Almo, let alone touch him. So I'm touching him all I can
while I have the chance."

She paused, kissed Almo twice, lingeringly and loudly, and looked
up again.

"How's that for kissing, Calvaster?" she chirped. "Don't you
wish it was you?"

"Come, son!" Pulfennius spluttered, "let us be gone! This is no
place for us. We are being mocked and insulted."

"Nonsense, Pulfennius!" his host exclaimed. "Can't you see that
I had no part in this, that the minx devised it all by herself
expressly to thwart me? Don't let her have the satisfaction of
outmanoeuvering both of us. Don't let a mere prank of a child
spoil all our arrangements. She'll be a good wife as she says."

"A good wife!" Pulfennius snorted. 'I much doubt whether she
can now ever be a good wife to any man. I'm sure she'll never be
a wife to my son. You'd never convince me that she's fit to be
my son's wife. Make her a Vestal, indeed! She a Vestal? She's
much more likely to be something very different!"

"Do you mean to insinuate--" his host began.

"I mean to insinuate anything and everything appropriate to her
wanton behavior," Pulfennius raged.

The two men glared at each other in a silence through which could
be heard the cooing of the doves, the trickle of the two fountains,
Brinnaria's low chuckle and the faint lisping sound of three
distinct kisses.

"I beg your pardon!" spoke a voice behind them.

The four looked around.

"What brings you here, Segontius?" Brinnarius asked.

"One of my slaves brought me word," the intruder explained, "that
my son had entered this house. I knew you had not changed your
mind since you forbade him to cross your threshold, so I came here
at once to disclaim any share in his intrusion and to take him
home. I feared he might get into mischief."

"He has," Brinnarius replied, sententiously, "as you may see."

Brinnaria, entirely at her ease, hugged Almo rapturously and
kissed him repeatedly.

"And I thought," Segontius pursued, "that you would probably
smash every bone in his body if you caught him."

"I don't know why I haven't," spoke the big man reflectively.

"I know," shouted Pulfennius, "I can tell you. It is because this
whole comedy has been rehearsed between you just to make me
ridiculous. I know your way, your malignity, your tenacity of a
grudge, your pretence of reconciliation, your ingenuity, your
well-laid traps. I'll be revenged for this yet!"

"You won't live to be revenged," Brinnarius told him, "unless you
get out of here quick. I'll break every bone in your body, for
certain, if you address another word to me."

"Come, son, said Pulfennius, and shambled away.

"And now," spoke Segontius, "don't you think, Marcus, that you
and I had best forget our quarrels and be friends again? These
young folks were plainly meant for each other by all the gods
who favor lovers. Let us not stand in the way."

"Indeed, Lucius," spoke the big man, holding out his huge hand.
"I am of the same mind. But both of them deserve some punishment
for their presumption. They should wait four years at least before
they marry. My girl is too young."

"I agree," said Segontius, "and I'll send my boy to Falerii for
the present. That will keep them apart and ensure propriety of
behavior."

"That is well," growled Brinnarius, "and I'll send my girl to her
aunt Septima's."

Brinnaria sprang up.

"Aunt Septima's?" she cried. "Spinach and mallows and a tiny
roast lark for dinner every day. I'll starve to death And prim!
I'd almost as lief be a Vestal!"



Chapter II - Sieves



To her luxurious but austerely managed villa, Aunt Septima welcomed
Brinnaria with heartfelt, if repressed affection. Until the second
sunrise Brinnaria controlled herself. Then the good lady endured
her overgrown niece for some strenuous days, suffered impatiently
for a few more, but finally packed off to Rome "that unspeakable
child." At home again Brinnaria demanded pork and cabbage.

"My insides are as empty as the sky," she wailed. "Asparagus
is all very well, but it's none too filling, even if you can eat
all you want, and aunty says ten stalks is enough for any one meal.
Chicken-breast is good, hot or cold, but aunty would never let me
have a second helping. She wouldn't even let me have as much bread
as I wanted and only one little dish of strawberries. I filled up
on raw eggs, all I could find in the nests. But, my, six days of
raw eggs was five days too many for me. I'm wild for cabbage,
all I want, and pork, big hunks of it."

She got it and slept a sound night's sleep.

The next day she craved an outing on foot. Her mother, prone to
the shortest cut to peace on all occasions, acquiesced at once and
let her go out with her one-eyed maid, Utta.

Utta, born somewhere beyond the Rhine, had been brought to Rome
when a small child and had no memories except memories of Italy.
She was the most placid and acquiescent creature imaginable. Her
little mistress led her first of all to the nearest pastry-cook's
shop where the two ate till they could not swallow another crumb.

Brinnaria, like many eccentric children born to wealth and
position, had special favorites, almost cronies, among the lowly.
Chief among them was the old sieve-maker of the Via Sacra. To
his shop she made Utta lead her. Utta interposed no objection.
Utta never objected to anything. But in this case she was
especially complaisant, since opposite the sieve-maker's was a
fascinating embroidery shop, the keeper of which was entirely
willing, when he had no customers, to let Utta lounge on one of
his sofas and inspect embroideries to her heart's content. So
lounging, rapt in the contemplation of Egyptian appliqu‚s, Syrian
gold-thread borders, Spanish linen-work, silk flower patterns from
Cos, Parthian animal designs and Celtic cord-labyrinths after
originals in leather thongs, Utta could glance up from time to time
and make sure that her charge was safe with the sieve-maker.

Safe she would have been without any maid to watch her, for old
Truttidius adored her. He was a small, hale, merry, wizened man, his
seamed and wrinkled face brown as berry in spite of his lifelong habit
of indoor labor and comparative inertia. He had more than a little tact
and was an excellent listener. Brinnaria was entirely at ease with him.

His shop was rather large for those days, nearly fifteen feet wide and
fully twenty deep. It faced directly on the street, from which it was
separated only by the stone counter which occupied all the front except
a narrow entrance at one side. Above the counter projected the heavy
shutters which closed the shop at night and which, being hinged at the
top, were by day pushed upward and outward so as to form a sort of
pent like a wooden substitute for an awning. The entrance by the end
of the counter was closed by a solid little gate. Behind the counter
was the low stool from which Truttidius rose to chaffer with
customers, and on which, when not occupied in trading, he sat at
work, his bench and brazier by his side, his tools hanging on the
wall by his hand, orderly in their neat racks or on their neat
rows of hooks. Except for the trifling wall-space which they occupied,
the walls were hidden under sieves hanging close together; bronze
sieves, copper sieves, rush sieves with rims of white willow wood,
white horse-hair sieves whose hoops were stout ash, sieves of black
horse-hair stretched in rims of clean steamed oak and linen sieves
hooped about with birch. Sieves were piled on the counter, mostly
fancy sieves with hoops of carved wood strung with black and white
horse-hair interlaced in bold patterns, or copper sieves, polished
till they shone, they being most likely to catch the eyes of the
passing throng.

Brinnaria, sprawled on the sofa against the wall behind the
work-bench, surveyed her surroundings and sighed happily,
entirely at home. Truttidius was beating copper wire, a process
always fascinating to watch.

"I've had an awful time in the country with Aunt Septima,"
Brinnaria chatted, "and I had an awful scare before they sent
me to the country. Daddy threatened to make me a Vestal."

"In place of Rabulla?" Truttidius queried, glancing up.

"Yes," Brinnaria answered, "but I got off; my, but I was scared
though."

"You didn't want to be a Vestal?" Truttidius asked, eyeing her
over his work.

"Not I!" Brinnaria declared. "I can't think of anything worse
except being killed."

"Well," mused Truttidius, "there is no accounting for tastes. Most
girls would be wild with delight at the idea. But there would be
no sense in being a Vestal unless you wanted to be one."

"I don't," Brinnaria proclaimed emphatically, "but I have been
thinking about Vestals ever since Daddy threatened me and scared
me so; I've been thinking about Vestals and sieves. Did anybody
ever really carry water in a sieve, Truttidius?"

"Water in a sieve?" the old man exclaimed. "Not anybody that ever
I saw. What do you mean?"

"You must have heard the story of Tuccia, the Vestal," Brinnaria
wondered, wide-eyed. "She lived ages ago, before Hannibal invaded
Italy, when everything was different. They said she was bad and she
said it was a lie and they said she could not prove it was a lie and
she said she could. She said if she was all she ought to be the
Goddess would show it by answering her prayer. And she took a sieve
and walked down to the river, right by the end of the Sublician
bridge, where the stairs are on the right-hand side. And the five
other Vestals, and the flamens, and all the priests, and the Pontifex,
and the consuls went with her. And she stood on the lowest step
with her toes in the water and prayed out loud to the Goddess to
help her and show that she had told the truth and then she stooped
over and dipped up water with her sacrificing ladle and poured it
into the sieve and it didn't run through, and she dipped up more
and more until the sieve was half full of water, as if it had been
a pan. And then she hung her ladle at her girdle-hook and took
the sieve in both hands and carried the water all the way to the
temple. And everybody said that that proved that she had told
the truth.

"That's the story. Had you ever heard it?"

"Yes, little lady," Truttidius said, "I have heard it."

"What I want to know," Brinnaria pursued, "is this:
Is it a made-up story or is it a true story P"

Little lady," spoke Truttidius, "it is impious to
doubt the truth of pious stories handed down from days
of old."

"That isn't answering my question," said the practical Brinnaria.
"What I want you to tell me is to say right out plain do you believe
it. Did anybody really ever carry water in a sieve?"

"You must remember, dear little lady," the sieve-maker said,
"that she was a most holy priestess, most pleasing in the eyes
of her Goddess, that she was in dire straits and that she prayed
to the Goddess to aid her. The Goddess helped her votary; the
gods can do all things."

"The gods can do all things," Brinnaria echoed, her eyes flashing,
"but the gods don't do all things, not even for their favorites.
There are lots and lots of things no god ever did for any votary
or ever will. What I want to know is this: Is carrying water in a
sieve one of the things the gods not only can do but do do? Did
anybody ever carry water in a sieve truly?"

Truttidius smiled, his wrinkles doubling and quadrupling till
his face was all a network of tiny folds of hard, dry skin. He
put down his work and regarded his guest, his face serious after
the fading of his brief smile. The soft-footed sandalled throng
that packed the narrow street shuffled and padded by unnoticed.
No customer interrupted them. They might have been alone in a
Sibyl's cell on a mountain side.

"Little lady," spoke the sieve-maker, "you are, indeed, very old
for your age, not only in height and build, but in heart and mind.
What other child would bother her head about so subtle a problem?
What other child would perceive the verity at the heart of the puzzle
and put it so neatly in so few words? To you an old man cannot help
talking as to an experienced matron, because to you an old man can
talk as to a woman of sense. You deserve to be answered in the
spirit of the question."

He reflected. Brinnaria, fascinated and curious, hardly breathed
in her intentness, watching his face and waiting for his answer.

"Little lady," he said, after a long silence, "the gods can, indeed,
do all things. But as you have yourself perceived the gods do not
do all things, even for their favorites. The gods work miracles to
vindicate their votaries, but as you divine, each miracle is the
happening by the special ordinance of the gods of what might happen
even without their mandate, but which does not happen because it is
only once in countless ages that all the circumstances necessary to
bring about that sort of happening concur to produce so unusual
an effect. What folks call a miracle is the occurrence, by the
beneficent will of heaven, at just the right time and place, of what
might happen anywhere to any one, but almost never does happen
anywhere to any one, because it is so unlikely that all things
should conspire to bring about so unlikely a result.

"So of carrying water in a sieve.

"Anybody might carry water in a sieve any day. But very seldom,
oh, very, very seldom can it come to pass that the kind of person
capable of carrying water in a sieve can be just in the condition
of muscle and mood to do so and can at just that moment be in
possession of just the kind of sieve that will hold water and not
let it through. For an actual breathing woman of flesh and blood
to carry water in a real ordinary sieve of rush-fibres, or linen
thread or horsehair or metal wire, in such a sieve as pastry-cooks
use to sift their finest flour; for that to happen in broad daylight
under the open sky before a crowd of onlookers, that requires the
special intervention of the blessed gods, or of the most powerful
of them. And not even all of them together could make that happen
to a woman of ordinary quality of hand and eye, with a usual sieve,
as most sieves are."

"Explain!" Brinnaria half whispered, "what kind of woman could
actually carry water in a sieve and in what kind of a sieve, and
under what circumstances?"

"That's three questions," Truttidius counted, "and one at a time is
enough.

"In the first place, no god, not all the gods together, could give
any votary power to carry water in a sieve, be it rush or linen or
horse-hair or metal, of which the meshes had been first scrubbed
with natron or embalmers' salt or wood-ashes or fullers' earth.
Water would run through such a sieve, did even all the gods will
that it be retained. No one ever dipped a sieve into water and
brought it up with water in it and saw that water retained by the
meshes. Once wet the under side of a sieve and water will run
through to the last drop.

"But if a sieve were ever so little greasy or oily, not dripping
with oil or clogged with grease, but greasy as a working slave's
finger is greasy on a hot day; if such a sieve were free of any
drop of water on the underside, if into such a sieve water were
slowly and carefully poured, as you say that Tuccia in the story
ladled water into her sieve with her libation-dipper, then that
water might spread evenly over the meshes to the rim all around,
might deepen till it was as deep as the width of two fingers or of
three, and might be retained by the meshes even for an hour, even
while the sieve was carried over a rough road, up hill and down,
through crowded streets.

"But few are the women who could so carry a sieve of water or could
even so hold it that the water would not run through at once."

"How could the water be retained at all?" queried Brinnaria the
practical. "What is the explanation?"

Truttidius wrinkled up his face in deep thought.

"You have seen wine spilled at dinner," he illustrated. "You have
seen a drop of it or a splash of it fall on a sofa-cover, and you
have seen it soak in and leave an ugly stain?"

"Of course," Brinnaria agreed, "often and often."

"And then again, not very often," the sieve-maker went on, "you
see a patch of spilt wine stand up on a perfectly dry fabric and
remain there awhile without soaking in, its surface shining wet
and its edges gleaming round and smooth and curved, bright as a
star. Well, the retaining of water in a sieve by the open meshes
is like the momentary holding up of spilt wine on a woven fabric.
I can't explain any better, but the two happenings are similar,
only the not soaking in of the splashed liquid is far, oh, far more
frequent, countless, uncountable times more frequent, than
the sustaining of fluid in a sieve. But as the one can happen and
does, so the other could happen and might."

"I see," Brinnaria breathed. "You have made me see that. Now,
next point: How must the sieve be held?"

The old man smiled again.

"You keep close to the subject," he chuckled. "You talk like a
grandmother of consuls. You have a head on your shoulders."

"That does not answer my question," Brinnaria persisted.

"Your question is easily answered," he said. "For the miracle to
happen, in fact, the sieve must be held as level as the top rail of
a mason's T-shaped plumb-line frame, and as steady as if clamped
in a vise. For a woman to carry water in a sieve the weather must
be dry, for in damp weather the water would run through the meshes,
even if the threads or wires were just oily enough and not too oily,
even if the meshes were just the right size to favor the forming in
each mesh of a little pocket of water underneath, like the edges of
the upstanding drop of wine on a sofa-cushion. I don't know how
it comes to pass, but somehow, if all the conditions are right, little
bags of water form on the underside of a sieve, one to each mesh,
like drops after a rain hanging from the edge of my shop-shutters,
or from the mutules on the cornice of a temple. They are capable
of sustaining one or even two finger-thicknesses of water on the
upper side of the sieve-web. But if the sieve-web is unevenly woven
or unevenly stretched, it will not retain water an instant, and if the
sieve-web bags anywhere the water, even if the rest of the sieve-web
promises to retain it, will run through at that point. And even if
the sieve is perfect, the slightest tilt, the very slightest tilt, will
cause the little bags of water to break at the lowest point, and
so start all the water to running through. I know; I have tried; I
have seen the sieve hold up the water for some breaths. But for
the marvel to last any length of time, that would require the
intervention of the gods; that would be a miracle. For a woman
to hold a sieve so that it would retain water would mean that her
hand was as steady as the hand of a sleep-walker or of the priestess
of Isis in her trance in the great yearly mystery-festival. That
could happen seldom to any woman; such a woman would be rare."

"I see," Brinnaria barely whispered, so intent was she on the old
man's words. "Now, what kind of woman could do such a wonder?"

"A very exceptional and unusual kind of woman," the old man
declared. "Women, the run of them, are not steady-handed.
Even steady-handed women are easily distracted, their attention
is readily called away from any definite task. Even a woman usually
steady-handed would find her hand tremble if she were conscious
of guilt, even a woman high-hearted with her sense of her own
worthiness might glance aside at some one in a great crowd of
people about her, might let her thoughts wander.

"That is where the miracle would come in. Only a woman directly
favored by the mighty gods could so ignore the throng about her,
could so forget herself, could so concentrate all her faculties on
the receptacle she held, could so perfectly control her muscles or
could so completely let her muscles act undisturbed by her will,
could possess muscles capable of so long tension at so perfect
an adjustment."

"I see," Brinnaria sighed. "The thing may have happened in fact,
may happen again, but it could happen only once out of ten times
ten thousand times ten thousand chances. I understand. It is a
possibility in the ordinary course of events. It was a miracle if it
ever took place; it will be a miracle if it ever comes to pass again.
It is not impossible, but it's too improbable for anybody to believe
it could be, in fact."

"You have it," the sieve-maker assured her.

"I'm glad I have," she said. "Now it'll go out of my head and quit
bothering me. I've thought about it day and night ever since
Daddy threatened me. Now I'll forget it and sleep sound."


Chapter III - Stuttering



When Brinnaria returned from her outing she found waiting for her
her best friend, chum and crony, Flexinna, a girl four years older,
not so tall, decidedly more slender and much prettier. Brinnaria
was robustly handsome; Flexinna was delicately lovely, yet they
did not differ much in tints of hair, eyes or skin and might have
been sisters. In fact, they were not infrequently taken for sisters.

They chatted of their girlish interests and of local gossip and
family news, like any pair of girls, until Brinnaria described the
escapade that led to her rustication.

Flexinna's eyes were wide and wider as she listened.

"D-d-do-you really m-m-mean," she stuttered, "that you had a
c-c-chance to be a V-V-Vestal and d-d-didn't jump at it?"

"Jump at it!" exclaimed Brinnaria. "I jumped away from it! I
can't think of anything, except death, that would fill me with
more horror than the very idea of being made a Vestal. It makes
me shiver now just to speak of it."

"You're a f-f-fool," Flexinna declared, "the f-f-foolest kind of
a f-f-fool. This is the f-f-first f-f-foolish thing I ever knew you
to d-d-do. I always th-th-thought you s-s-so s-s-sensible, t-t-too.
And you've m-m-missed a ch-ch-chance to be a V-V-Vestal. I've
n-n-no p-p-patience with you. Any other g-g-girl would j-j-jump
at the ch-ch-chance."

"Jump at it!" cried Brinnaria. "Why?"

"Why?" sneered Flexinna, blazing with excitement. "Why, just think
what you've m-m-missed! You're as wild as I am to see
g-g-gladiators fight, k-k-keener than I am to see a real horse-race
in the circus, and you'll have to wait until you're g-g-grown up,
as I'll have to, before you s-s-see either. And you'd have g-g-gone
to every spectacle, from the very day you were t-t-taken, and not
have m-m-missed one. Think of it! F-F-Front seats in the circus,
front seats in the amphitheatre, all your life, or for thirty years
at least, for certain! And you've m-m-missed it. And that's not
half. Your lictor to c-c-clear the way for you whenever you g-g-go
out and your choice to g-g-go out in your litter with eight
b-b-bearers or in your c-c-carriage, your own c-c-carriage, all
your own, and the right to d-d-drive any where in the city any
d-d-day in the year. Oh, you f-f-fool, you s-s-silly f-f-fool!
A ch-ch-chance to be one of the s-s-seven m-m-most imp-p-portant
women in Rome, one of the s-s-six who are on a level with the
Empress, and you m-m-missed it! Fancy it; to b-b-be mistress of
an income so large that it m-m-makes you d-d-dizzy to think of it,
and you throw away the ch-ch-chance! To be able the m-m-moment
you were taken, to m-m-make your own w-w-will! To have every
legacy c-c-cadger in Rome running after you and m-m-making you
p-p-presents and d-d-doing you favors and angling for your n-n-notice
all your 1-l-life 1-1-long, and you m-m-miss the ch-ch-chance!"

"Yes," Brinnaria admitted, reflectively, "I have missed all that,
that's so. But that's not all there is to think of, when you think
about being a Vestal. I've missed a lot of fine privileges, mighty
valuable to any girl that would care for that sort of thing; but I've
escaped a lot of things that would go with those privileges. I love
bright colors, I always did and I look ghastly in white--I look like
a ghost. And I'd have had to wear white and nothing else, even
white flowers, like a corpse. And a Vestal has to keep her eyes on
the ground and walk slow and stately and stand straight and
dignified, and talk soft and low. I'd suffer, even if I could learn
all the tricks they teach them as well as Gargilia has. And I don't
believe I ever could. I'd keep my eyes cast down for a month or a
year and then, right in the middle of a sacrifice, I'd see something
funny, like the gander squawking under the feet of the pall-bearers
at poor old Gibba's funeral at the farm last summer, and I'd wink
at the head Vestal or roll my eyes at the whole congregation and
spoil the prayers; or, after keeping meek and mum for a year or so
I'd be so wild to laugh that I'd roar right out and break up the
whole service. I think I'm the last girl alive to be a Vestal. A
Vestal mustn't answer back or make a pun, no matter how good a
chance she gets. I just can't help cutting in, if I see a chance;
the words come out of my mouth before I know it, and, if I trained
myself to keep still and look as mild as a lamb, I'd be boiling
inside and sometime I'd burst out with a yell just to relieve my
feelings or I'd jab a shawl-pin into the Pontifex to see him jump,
or put out my toe and trip up somebody just to see him sprawl.
I couldn't help it. The more I'd bottle myself up the farther the
naughtiness in me would spurt when it burst through the skin.
I know. No Vestaling for me! I wasn't born for that trade!"

"Nonsense!" Flexinna disclaimed vigorously. "You'd g-g-get used
to the whole thing in a m-m-month and be the most s-s-statuesque
of the six in t-t-ten years. Think of it! I'm just raging inside at your
f-f-folly. To have the right to an interview with the Emperor
whenever you d-d-demand it, to see the m-m-magistrates' lictors
lower their fasces to you and s-s-stand aside at the s-s-salute and
let you p-p-pass whenever you m-m-meet them in p-p-public. To
live in one of the finest p-p-palaces in Rome, one of the most
m-m-magnificent residences on earth, to have the ch-ch-chance
at all that and m-m-miss it; I've no p-p-patience with you!"

"That's all very fine," Brinnaria countered, "but there's much to
be said on the other side. I've been in the Atrium. Aunt Septima
took me there to call on Causidiena. It's big, it's gorgeous, it's
luxurious, that's all true. But I love sunlight. I'd loathe living
in that hole in the ground; why, the shadow of the Palace falls
across the courtyard before noon and for all the rest of the day
it's gloomy as the bottom of a well. I heard Causidiena tell Aunt
Septima how shoes mould and embroideries mildew and what a time
they have with the inlays popping off the furniture on account of the
dampness and about the walls and lamp-standards sweating moisture.
I'd hate the dark, poky, cold place."

"Oh," Flexinna admitted, "there are d-d-drawbacks to any
s-s-situation in life, but, really the higher the s-s-station the
fewer the drawbacks. The p-p-plain truth is that being a Vestal
is the highest s-s-station in Rome except being an Empress. No
g-g-girl dare aspire to be an Empress; it would be treason. If any
g-g-girl d-d-dreams of it she k-k-keeps her d-d-dreams to herself.
But any g-g-girl has a right to aspire to be a Vestal, if she is
made perfect and is under ten and has her f-f-father and m-m-mother
noble and alive. You've got all that and you are offered what any
g-g-girl would envy you and you throw it away! I've no patience
with you."

"You forget," Brinnaria argued, "that I'm in love with Almo and
I'd have to give up Almo."

"Not f-f-forever," Flexinna retorted. "He's enough in love with
you to wait for you, to wait for you! You could have pledged him
to wait till your term of service was up and then you two could
have married just the same."

"Just the same!" Brinnaria echoed. "A lot of good it'd do me to
marry after I'd be an old wrinkled, gray-haired woman of forty,
dried up and withered."

"Nemestronia," Flexinna cited, "has married twice since she was
forty, and she's not withered yet, not by a great deal, even if she
is gray-haired and has a wrinkle or two."

"What's the use of arguing," Brinnaria summed up. "I hate the very
idea of being a Vestal. I'd hate the fact a million times more. I'd
hate it even if I were not in love with Almo, furiously in love
with Almo. Daddy says I've got to wait four years to marry him.
I roll around in bed and bite the pillows with rage to think of it,
night after night. A fine figure I'd cut trying to wait thirty
years for him. I'd swoon with longing for him and write him a note
or peep out of the temple to see him go by and then I'd get accused
of misbehavior, and accused is convicted for a Vestal; well, you
know it. I'd look fine being buried alive in a seven-by-five
underground stone cell, with half a pint of milk and a gill of wine
to keep me alive long enough to suffer before I starved to death
and a thimbleful of oil in a lamp to make me more scared of the
dark when the lamp burned out. No burial alive for me. I'm in
love. I'm too much in love to balance arguments. I'm not sorry I
missed my chance, as you call it. I'm glad I escaped; the chance
isn't missed for that matter. Rabulla's place hasn't been filled yet."

"Do you know who is g-g-going to be ch-ch-chosen to fill it?"
Flexinna asked. "You d-d-don't? The choice has about narrowed
d-d-down to that execrable, weasel-faced little M-M-Meffia."

"Meffia!" Brinnaria cried. "There's no one alive I despise as much
as that detestable ninny. I've a mind to chuck Almo and ask Daddy
to offer me, just to spite Meffia."

"Why d-d-don't you?" Flexinna stuttered. "D-d-do it n-n-now, right
n-n-now. You might be t-t-too late."

"Oh bosh," Brinnaria groaned. "What's the use of talking nonsense?
What would be the sense in my spoiling my life to spite Meffia? I
hate her. I'll hate to see her putting on airs as a Vestal, but I'd
hate worse to be a Vestal myself, and worst of all to lose Almo. I
just couldn't give up Almo."

"I wish I were you," Flexinna raged. "If I were only under ten and
d-d-didn't s-s-stutter, I'd d-d-do all I c-c-could to g-g-get
D-D-Daddy to offer m-m-me."

"Bosh!" Brinnaria sneered. "You're in love with Vocco and you
know you wouldn't even think of giving him up if you had the chance."

"Just wouldn't I!" Flexinna retorted. "I love Quintus dearly. But
if I had a ch-ch-chance to be a V-V-Vestal, I'd fling poor Quintus
hard and never regret him. Not I. Think of the influence a V-V-Vestal
has! Every man who wants p-p-promotion in the army or in the
fleet, or who wants an appointment to any office would set his
sisters and all his women relations to besieging me to use my
influence for him. Every temple-carver and shrine-painter in Rome
would have his wife showing me attentions. I know; I've heard
the talk.

"And b-b-besides, in all the Empire a Vestal is the nearest thing
to a p-p-princess we have. We read a lot about Egyptian princesses,
and Asiatic princesses and we hear about P-P-Parthian
p-p-princesses, but the only p-p-princesses we ever see are the
Vestals. They are the only p-p-princesses in the Empire, in Italy,
in Rome, the six of them. And you had a chance to be one of the
only six p-p-princesses in our world and you didn't take it. Oh,
you f-f-fool, you f-f-fool!"

They wrangled about their conflicting views for a long time.

It was only as Flexinna was leaving that she inquired casually:

"Have you heard what Rabulla d-d-died of?"

"No," said Brinnaria. "what was it?"

"Hadn't you heard?" Flexinna wondered. "It was the p-p-pestilence."


Chapter IV - Pestilence



Pestilence!

Brinnaria heard the word often during the next few days. Rome
talked of little else. It had begun with a few deaths along the
river front in the sailors' quarters, and among the stevedores
and porters of the grain-warehouses, southwest of the Aventine
Hill in the thirteenth ward. Next it came to notice when there
were many deaths along the Subura in the very centre of the city.
>From there the infection had spread to every wind. Panic seized
the people. There was an exodus of all who could afford it, to
their country estates, to the mountains, to the seaside. Brinnarius
and Quartilla discussed arrangements for their departure to his
mountain farm in the Sabine hills above Carsioli. Their difficulty
was to decide to whom to commit their great house in Rome. They
had no slave whom they implicitly trusted, and no one certainly
who would be willing to stay in the city. To close the house was
to invite burglary, for in the general panic watchmen were
unreliable and house-breakings were frequent. Into their
consultation Brinnaria thrust herself uninvited.

"Why don't you leave me in town?" she suggested.  "I hate the
country and I hate it near Carsioli worse than any neighborhood
I ever saw. I want to stay right here. I love Rome. And I'm not
afraid of pestilence. Nobody can die more than once and nobody
dies till the gods will it. There's more danger of dying of fright
and worry than of pestilence. Anyhow a pestilence never kills all
the people in a city, most of the towns- folk stay right at home
and keep alive all right. Half the people that die scare or fret
themselves to death. I won't fret or worry and I'll keep well here;
but if you take me with you I'll be miserable and chafe myself ill.
 I can run the house as well as mother can. Most of the slaves
worship me and will obey me for love, the rest are deadly afraid
of me and will not dare to disobey me. I'll keep order and I will
not waste a sesterce. Can't I stay, Father?"

Brinnarius knit his brows and looked at his wife. Her eyes
answered his.

"It would save a deal of trouble," he said, reflectively.

"It would make a deal of gossip," Quartilla declared. "All my
enemies would say that I am an unnatural mother, that I do not
love my youngest child, that I hate her, that I am exposing her
to certain death, that I am as bad as a murderess."

"Nonsense!" her husband retorted. "We can't bother about all the
malice of all the slanderers in Rome. Other people's daughters are
remaining. Lucconius means to stay here in Rome with his family.
If he ventures to keep Flexinna here we might venture to leave
Brinnaria behind."

"You might," that self-assertive child cut in, "and you know there
is really no use in taking me if I do not want to go. You know
how much trouble it will make for both of you."

Quartilla sighed.

"Perhaps we had best leave her," she said. "Certainly the house
will be safe and the slaves kept in order. I shan't have an
instant's anxiety about that. Then Brinnaria is so genuinely
brave that she will really not dread the pestilence, and all the
doctors say that there is nothing like that feeling to protect any
one from the danger. She makes me feel that she will be safe. I
don't believe I'll worry about that either."

"Fine!" Brinnaria squealed. "I'm to stay."

"Not so fast," her father rebuked her. "I haven't said yet that
you may stay. But if I say so, then you must stay. I'll not have
you changing your mind and deciding to leave Rome after we have
arranged to put you in charge here. It would make trouble indeed
to have you shutting up this house in a hurry and chasing after
us to Carsioli."

"Epulo!" his wife reproached him, "the child has her faults,
but changeableness is not one of them. She is the most resolute
child I ever knew. If you leave her, she will not fail us. If
she gives her word she will keep it. I never knew Brinnaria to
break an earnestly made promise."

"Will you promise?" her father asked her.

"I promise," Brinnaria shouted, "I pledge myself. I take oath.
I swear by my love of both of you, by my respect for our clan, by
my hopes of marrying Almo, that I'll stick it out here in Rome,
going out only when necessary, unless you send for me to come
away. If anything happens that makes me think I ought to leave
the city I shall send a message to you, but I shall not cross
the city boundaries nor relax my watch on this house without your
permission. I swear."

"That's enough, dearie," her father said, "enough and too much. If
your judgment tells you that you ought to flee from Rome, you have
my permission to send me a messenger; I know you will not resort to
that without real need. I rely on your judgment. The gods be with you,
child. You have taken a load of my shoulders, two loads, in fact."

Thereupon preparations for departure were pushed and soon after
sunrise on the next day Brinnaria found herself left to her own
resources, responsible for the welfare of a large retinue of
obsequious slaves, autocrat over them, and mistress of one of the
 largest private houses in Rome. She acquitted herself well of
her duties. She had been right in claiming that she was loved by
most and feared by the rest. Certainly she was trusted and respected
by all as if she had been five times her age. She made them as
comfortable as town-slaves could be and they knew it. To her they
accorded instant and implicit obedience. The life of the household
went on as smoothly as if the master had been at home. And its life
was not gloomy. Although the main subject of conversation was the
 pestilence, open forebodings were not indulged in and the house was
 outwardly cheerful.

Equally cheerful was Flexinna, whom Brinnaria saw daily. Neither of
them had the slightest fear of the pestilence and no member of
either household had shown the slightest symptoms of any kind of
 illness. Of the daily deaths among their large acquaintance or
among the nobilities of the city, they talked calmly, without any
 feeling of gloom or of dread, secure in the confidence of youth
and health.

On the tenth day after Brinnaria had been left to her own devices
 Flexinna visited her as usual. Early in their talk she said:

"D-D-Dossonia died last night."

"The Chief Vestal?" Brinnaria queried.

"Yes," Flexinna replied, a bright tear in each eye.

"She couldn't live forever," Brinnaria said. "She was ninety-four,
 wasn't she?"

"Ninety-four years and eight months yesterday," Flexinna replied.
"She had been Chief Vestal ever since C-C-Calpurnia P-P-Praetextata
 died, and that's fifty- six years ago. She had been Chief Vestal
longer than any ever and she had lived longer than any Vestal ever."

"Well," said Brinnaria, the practical, "she ought to have been
glad to go, and she stone blind for twenty years."

"Yes, I know," Flexinna rejoined, "but she was such an old d-d-dear,
she looked so much younger than her age, her face so healthy and
pink, and b-b-beautiful even with all its wrinkles, so calm and
placid and holy I loved to look at her sitting in her big chair
like a great white b-b-butterfly, so plump and handsome and soft-
looking. She always put out her hand to my face and recognized me
at the first t-t-touch, almost, and gave me her blessing so
b-b-beautifully. Sometimes Manlia let me read to the old dear,
and she always seemed to enjoy it so much. I'm real shaken at her
d-d-death. I really loved her."

"Everybody loved her," Brinnaria declared. "But everybody loves
 Causidiena too, and she's Chief Vestal now. She's not fat and
placid like Dossonia, but she is wonderfully dignified. My, I
admire that woman!"

"I wonder," Flexinna reflected, "who will be chosen in her p-p-place."

"Poor wretch!" Brinnaria commented. "I'm sorry for her, whoever
she is. Just think, she'll have to pair with that unspeakable
little muff of a Meffia. I hate that girl."

"Whoever she is," Flexinna continued, "she is sure to be chosen
and taken mighty quick. For with this p-p-pestilence in the city,
and all the trouble the P-P-Parthians are making in the East, of
the Marcomanni on the Rhine colonies, and the thunder-storms that
have raged about lately, there'll be need felt for all the p-p-prayers
 all the offer. They'll not leave the vacancy open long. I'll bet they
 have it filled by d-d-day after to-morrow. Old B-B-Bambilio is a
stickler for pious precision an observance of all ritual matters
and the Emperors are with him."

"Marcus is," Brinnaria agreed, pertly, "but Lucius doesn't care
what happens so long as he has his fun."

"You mustn't t-t-t-talk that way about the Emperors,"  Flexinna
 cautioned her. "If you were overheard you'd get into no end of
trouble. Anyhow, Verus defers to Aurelius in everything, so that
 whatever Aurelius wishes is as if both wished it. And there never
was a more p-p-pious Emperor than Aurelius. So the place is
certain to be filled p-p-promptly."

"At once, for sure," Brinnaria agreed. "I wonder who the victim
will be? Do you suppose it will be Occurnea?"

"It would have been Occurnea, I think," Flexinna said. "You know
it was a chance for a while whether she'd get it instead of Meffia.
But she's not eligible now. Her mother d-d-died yesterday."

"Tallentia, perhaps," Brinnaria hazarded.

"Impossible," Flexinna declared. "You remember how recklessly
she rode and how her horse f-f-fell on her. She has limped ever
since and always will."

"Cuppiena?" suggested Brinnaria.

"Not she," said Flexinna; "she has some k-k-kind of skin rash and
has lost almost all her hair."

"Sabbia," Brinnaria proposed.

"Her mother's d-d-dead too," Flexinna reminded her; "has been for
 months."

"Fremnia," came the next suggestion.

"She's off to Aquileia with her family," said Flexinna;  "they
all left the d-d-day your folks went."

"Eppia," ventured Brinnaria.

"She's ten years old now," Flexinna demurred. "She celebrated
her b-b-birthday three days before the Kalends. I was at the party."

"Pennasia, perhaps," Brinnaria suggested.

"D-d-deaf in one ear like her mother and grandmother," said
Flexinna, "and you know it."

"Licinia," Brinnaria ventured.

"She'd be the last they'd choose on account of the b-b-bad luck
Vestals of her family have had;" Flexinna reminded her. "The
very name suggests disgrace. Anyhow, she's in Baiae with her
p-p-people."

"Rentulana," came the next conjecture.

"Has a b-b-big wen on the side of her head," Flexinna proclaimed.

"Numledia?" came next.

"You've lost your memory, Brinnaria," said Flexinna, severely.
"She's got a b-b-big purple birthmark on her neck."

"Magnonia," Brinnaria proposed.

"She's far away, in Britain, with her father and mother; might as
well be out of the world."

Brinnaria was at a loss. She meditated. "Gavinna!" she said at
last.

"She has a bad squint and you know it," laughed Flexinna. "Why
don't you think of an eligible c-c-candidate?"

They tried a dozen more names, all of girls out of the city or
defective in some way, or with one parent dead.

"But who will it be?" Brinnaria wondered. "It's bound to be
somebody and quick."

She jumped to her feet.

She screamed.

"They'll take me! They'll take me! Oh, what am I to do, what am I
to do? I'm the only possible candidate in the city. And they'll be
after me the moment they run over the lists and find no one else
is in town."

She stood a moment, considering, then she called Guntello, and a
lean Caledonian slave called Intinco. She gave them each a
written journey-order to show to any patrol that questioned them, told
Guntello to take the best horse in the stable and to give the
next best to Intinco, bade Intinco ride to Carsioli and Guntello
to  Falerii, gave Guntello a letter for Almo and Intinco a letter
to her father and told them verbally, in case the letter was lost,
to make it plain that she was in danger of being taken for a Vestal
and bid her father come quickly to interfere and her lover to ride
fast to claim her in time. She enjoined both slaves to spur their
 horses, gave them money in case they needed to hire fresh mounts
and wound up:

"Kill Rhaebus, kill Xanthus, kill as many hired horses as need be,
ride without halt or mercy. Get there and get father and Almo here.
Be quick. You can't be too quick."

She watched them ride off at a sedate walk, for no man was allowed
to trot a horse in the streets of Rome. Both had assured her that
they would ride at full gallop from the moment they passed the gates.

Then began for Brinnaria a tense and anxious period of waiting.
Flexinna obtained her parents' permission and remained with her
friend. The entire household continued in good health and there
was nothing to distract t he two from their dread on the one hand
that the Pontifex might come to claim Brinnaria before Almo and her
 father arrived, and their hope on the other hand of seeing them
come in time.

On the whole the strain told on Flexinna more than on Brinnaria,
 who never once shed a tear, attended to her housewifely duties
calmly and steadily and talked little. Flexinna fidgeted constantly
and talked a good deal.

"If I were in your place," she said, "I shouldn't be waiting here
inertly for Faltonius to come and claim me. Instead of dispatching
messengers for your father and Almo, you ought to have left the
city at once and made your best speed for Carsioli yourself."

"I couldn't," Brinnaria declared, "and you know why. I passed my
word to stay in this house and not so much as to go out unless
some compelling necessity arose. I pledged myself not to leave here
 unless I sent a messenger saying I needed to leave and received
permission before I started. I took my oath not to cross the city
 limits without Father's consent. I can't break my oath and I
shouldn't break my word, even if I hadn't sworn in addition to
promising."

"You f-f-fool!" Flexinna declared.

"All members of our clan keep their word," said Brinnaria proudly.
"We do not ask whether it is advantageous to keep our word or
pleasant; when we have passed our word we keep it. I've given my
word and there's nothing to do but to wait for Almo and Daddy and
hope that both, or at least a message from Daddy will get here
before Faltonius."

"There is something else you might do," Flexinna suggested. "You
might easily arrange to be ineligible before Bambilio comes for
you."

"I shall," spoke the matter-of-fact Brinnaria. "The moment Daddy
and Almo come, I'll be Alma's wife in less time than it takes
to tell it and will be able to snap my fingers at Bambilio."

"Suppose he comes before your father," Flexinna suggested.

"I'd be a Vestal and all hope gone," said Brinnaria,

"I mean," said Flexinna, "suppose Almo comes before your father."

"I've thought of that," Brinnaria admitted. "But I'd hate to break
the record of which our family is so proud. None of our women
ever were so much as accused of any  misbehavior before marriage."

"I've no p-p-patience with you," Flexinna raged. 'You'll throw
away your life for a mere scruple. You risk being made a Vestal
every moment. Faltonius may be on the way here now. If I were
in your place I'd make sure. I'd not wait for Almo. Any lad would
do for me. You c-c-could make sure, if you had sense. Almo would
forgive you and marry you anyway. Your father would forgive you;
he'd never approve, I know."

"Not he!" Brinnaria proclaimed, "and he'll never have any such
dishonor to forgive. No man of our clan ever had reason to be
ashamed of his daughter or of his sister. I'll not be the first
to disgrace the clan. If Faltonius comes he'll find me as eligible
as the hour I was born, unless Daddy and Almo come in time for me
to be married first."

"At least," Flexinna persisted, "you might say no when he asks you.
That would stall the whole ceremony and give you t-t-time."

"Do you suppose," Brinnaria sneered, "that I haven't thought of
that? I'm tempted, of course. But that would be to advertise
myself a disgrace to the Pontifex during a solemn interrogatory."

"At least," Flexinna pleaded, "you might say you are over age. You
look sixteen to anybody, and no one would imagine you are under
 fourteen. You could halt the proceedings, at least, and gain
t-t-time."

"Faltonius has the lists," said Brinnaria wearily, "with all the
 birthdays sworn to by both parents for every girl on them and
attested by four excellent witnesses, besides. He'd know I was
lying and it would do me no good."

Flexinna changed the subject.

But when the next day dawned and neither Brinnarius nor Almo
appeared, she returned to the attack. Brinnaria was very pale,
very tense, but obdurate. She controlled herself, did not forget,
did not express her feelings, but she posted a slave at each street
 corner, right and left of the house-door, and had them look out
 for what she hoped and what she feared.

Dastor brought word that the Pontifex and his retinue were
approaching; three litters, each with eight bearers, preceded by
the lictor of the Chief Vestal.

Brinnaria, pale and tense, did her best to look collected and
 controlled. She succeeded well, heard calmly the announcement of
 her august visitors, ordered them shown into the atrium, and
received them with proper dignity. Her self-possession did not
desert her when she recognized in the train of the Pontifex her
rejected suitor Calvaster, sly, malignant and with an air of
suppressed elation.

Faltonius Bambilio, the Pontifex of Vesta, was a pursy, pudgy,
pompous old man, immensely self-important, almost ridiculous in
his fussiness, but clothed with a certain impressiveness by the
mere fact of his religious office. He gazed about him, stared at
Brinnaria, hemmed and hawed and threw himself into poses intended
to be stately.

With him was Causidiena, now Chief Vestal, a tall, spare woman
of about forty-five, her austere face kindly and reassuring, her
dark hair barely showing under her official head-dress, a statuesque
 figure in her white robes of office.

"My daughter," spoke Faltonius to Brinnaria, "Rome has but five
Vestals. I have come to take you into the vacant place. You have
been chosen, as best suited to this high dignity, from among those
whose names were on the lists of those fit for the office. Was it
proper that your name should be on the lists?"

"I believe so," spoke Brinnaria, weakly, almost in a whisper.

"Are you fit to be taken as a Vestal, my daughter?"

"I believe so," came the answer.

"Have you any blemish or defect of body, any impediment of speech,
any difficulty of hearing?"

Brinnaria's awe was wearing off, and the irritating pomposity of
Faltonius was producing its usual effect of arousing antagonism,
as it generally did in those he talked to. Brinnaria felt all her
wild self surge up in her.

"I'm sound as a two-year-old racing filly," she replied. "I'm
clean as fresh curd; I hear you perfectly and you can hear me
 perfectly."

Bambilio bristled like a bantam rooster.

"That is not the way for a Vestal to speak," he rebuked.

"I'm not a Vestal yet," Brinnaria retorted, "and that was my
answer to those questions. If you don't like it I don't care
a shred of bran."

"Come! come!" fussed Bambilio, "answer the interrogatories
properly."

"I have and I shall," Brinnaria maintained mutinously.

"Are you fit in mind and in faculties to be a Vestal?" he continued.

"Fit to be Flaminica or Empress," Brinnaria responded.

"Are you pure?" came the next query.

"As when I was born," said Brinnaria emphatically.

"What is your age?" the Pontifex queried his victim.

"I'll be ten on the Ides of next September," quoth his victim.

"Are your parents both alive?" he asked.

"They were the last time I heard of them," spoke Brinnaria flippantly.

"When was that?" he insisted.

"This is the twelfth day since they left Rome," said Brinnaria,
"and I've not heard from them since they sent a messenger back
from the ninth milestone on the road to Tibur."

Faltonius was irritating her more and more, and she added:

"They may both be dead by this time, for all I know."

"This will not do," spoke Faltonius. "We must be sure that they
are both alive."

"Find out," snapped Brinnaria.

Up spoke young Calvaster, his pasty face alight with a sort of
malicious glee.

"I passed Quartilla's travelling carriage at Varia last night.
Quartilla was alive and well. I passed Brinnarius this morning
at dawn, this side of Tibur. He was alive then and puffing."

"How did you get here ahead of him?" Brinnaria interjected.

"I am light built," Calvaster explained with obvious relish, "and
I rode the best horse in Italy. His mount labored heavily under
his load."

"Both parents are then alive," spoke Faltonius. "I hereupon and
hereby pronounce you in all respects fit to be taken as a Vestal.
Are you willing?"

"Not I!" Brinnaria fairly shouted.

"Not willing!" Faltonius cried, incredulous.

"Not a fibre of me!" she proclaimed emphatically.

"Wretched girl!" expostulated the Pontiff. "Have you no sense of
patriotism? Do you not realize your duty to your country, to the
Roman people, to Rome, to the Emperor, to all of us, to the
commonwealth? Do yon not realize Rome's need of you? Shall it be
said that Rome has need of one of her daughters and that her
 unnatural child refuses?"

"I have not refused," said Brinnaria. "I only said I was unwilling."

"It is the same thing," declared the bewildered ecclesiastic.

"Not a bit the same thing," Brinnaria disclaimed. "I know my duty
in this matter perfectly. Castor be good to me, I know it too well.
I know that a refusal would avail me nothing, if I did refuse. I
have not refused. I would not, even if I could escape by refusal I
realize my duty. If I am taken I shall be all that a Vestal is
expected to be, all that she must be to ensure the glory and
prosperity and safety of the city and the Empire. I shall not
fail the Emperor nor the Roman people, nor Rome. But I am
unwilling, and I said so. Little good it will do me. But I am no
liar, not even in the tightest place."

"Stand up, my daughter," said Faltonius, rising himself, suddenly
 clothed in dignity, a really impressive figure, in spite of his
 globular proportions.

Brinnaria stood, her eyes on the door to the vestibule, her face very
 pale, trembling a little, but controlled.

The Pontifex took her hand and spoke:

"As priestess of Vesta, to perform those rites which it is fitting
that a priestess of Vesta perform for the Roman People and the
citizens, as a girl who has been chosen properly, so I take you,
Beloved."

At the word "Beloved," which made her irretrievably a Vestal,
Brinnaria could not repress a little gasp. Her eyes no longer
watched the vestibule door. She looked at the Pontiff. He let
go her hand.

"You will now go with your servitor to be clothed as befits your
calling."

He indicated one of Causidiena's attendants, a solidly built
woman, like a Tuscan villager, who carried over her arm a mass of
fresh white garments and robes.

With her and Causidiena Brinnaria left the atrium; with them she
 presently returned, a slim white figure, her hair braided and
the six braids wound round her forehead like a coronet, above
them the folds of the plain square headdress of the Vestals.

"I thought," she said, "that my hair would be cut off."

"That will be after you are made at home in the Atrium of Vesta,"
spoke the Pontiff.

"And remember," he continued sternly, "that you are now a Vestal
and that young Vestals may not speak unless spoken to."

Brinnaria bit her lip.

At that moment they heard hoofs and voices outside, the door
burst open and Brinnarius entered.

"Too late, Daddy!" cried Brinnaria. "You can't help me now. I'm
not your little girl any more; I don't count as your daughter;
you don't count as my father; I'm daughter to the Pontifex from
now on. I'm a Vestal."

She was trembling, but she kept her countenance. Brinnarius
uttered no sound, the whole gathering was still and mute, the
noises of the street outside were plainly audible. They heard
horse-hoofs again, again the door flew open wide. In burst Almo,
wide-eyed and panting.

At him Brinnaria launched a sort of shriek of expostulation.

"Why couldn't you ride! You call yourself a horseman! And you've
come too late! I mustn't even kiss you good-bye. And I mustn't
speak to you, I mustn't see you, I mustn't so much as think
of you for thirty years, for thirty years, <for thirty years>!"


CHAPTER V - ESCAPADES



WHEN Brinnaria found herself actually domiciled in the House of
the Vestals she experienced an odd mingling of awe and elation.
The mere size of it was impressive, for it was nearly two hundred
feet wide and almost four hundred feet long. Also it stood alone,
bounded by four streets. Besides, it gained much dignity from its
location, near the southeast corner of the great Forum of Rome, that
most famous of all city squares, and under the very shadow of the
Imperial Palace, the walls of which towered nearly three hundred feet
above it, where it crouched as it were, on a site scooped out of the
huge flank of the Palatine Hill.

Completely as it was dominated by the enormous bulk of the Palace
it yet looked very large, having three lofty stories. Inside it was both
spacious and stately. Brinnaria was habituated to space and stateliness,
for her father's house had both, yet the Atrium of Vesta, as the House
of the Vestals was officially denominated, impressed her as vast and
splendid. That this immense and magnificent building was to be her home
gave her sense of her own importance that thrilled her through and
through. Its numerous retinue of deft and obsequious maid-servants added
to this impression. Brinnaria's personal attendants, entirely at her
beck and call and serving her alone, made up a considerable retinue by
themselves. She found herself, like each of the other Vestals, served by
a special waitress at table, by a waitress who had nothing to do but
look after her wants. Then she had a sort of maid-of-honor, who had no
duties except to act as companion, make herself agreeable, read aloud,
if requested, accompany her on her outings and help to pass her leisure
pleasantly. As she was a mere child in years she had a sort of governess
to instruct her in all those subjects in which a Roman girl of good
family was generally given lessons: correct reading; a smattering of
mathematics, about equivalent to the simple arithmetic of our days; some
knowledge of literature; a steady and efficient drill in reading and
talking Greek; instrumental music, similar to the guitar-playing of
modern times, and embroidery. She had a personal maid to bathe her,
arrange her hair and otherwise make her comfortable; also a special maid
to attend to her private apartment, which included what we would call a
sitting-room, a tiny bedroom, and a large bath-room. The largest room
was used mostly as a school-room for lessons with her instructress.
Outside the Atrium Brinnaria had her private stable, her carriages, her
coachman and ostlers, and her lictor, the red-cloaked runner, who
preceded her carriage, announced its coming and cleared the way for it
through the crowds of foot-passengers who thronged the streets of Rome.
Life in the Atrium was austere and formal, but in no respect ascetic.
The austerities extended only to attire and behavior. The decorations of
the courtyard, of the corridors and stairs, of the two hundred rooms,
were bewilderingly varied and overpoweringly gorgeous. Every appointment
of the Atrium was luxurious to the last degree; the furnishings were
beautiful and precious, every object a work of art; the bathrooms
cunningly devised for comfort, the beds deep and soft, scarcely less so
the sofas on which the Vestals reclined at their meals, the table
service of exquisite glass-ware and elaborately chased silver, the food
abundant and including every delicacy and rarity most appetizing and
enjoyable.

Except Meffia her co-Vestals were immediately liked and speedily
loved by Brinnaria. Meffia, a month older than herself and looking six
years younger, was a small, awkward, ungainly girl, with pale blue eyes,
pale yellow hair and babyish pink complexion. She had never had an ill
hour in her life, yet she always appeared ailing, shrank from any
effort, hated exercise and exertion and at every necessity for movement
asserted that she was tired, often that she felt weak. Brinnaria thought
her merely innately lazy and a natural shirk. The more she saw of her
the more her loathing for her and her hatred of her intensified.
Quite the reverse with the others. Manlia was a large young woman of
about twenty-two, a typical Roman aristocrat, her hair between dark
brown and black, her complexion swarthy, her figure abundant. Gargilia
was older than Manlia; a tall, slender creature with intensely black
hair and piercing black eyes that looked straight at you out of a face
healthfully tinted indeed, but of a whiteness which was the envy of half
the beauties in Rome. Numisia Maximilla was much like an older Manlia,
but sparer and of markedly haughty bearing and carriage. Causidiena,
newly become Chief Vestal, was a woman of about forty-five years of age,
mild, gentle, and charming, with cool gray eyes and glossy brown hair, a
being who aroused affection, inspired admiration and compelled love from
all her household.

She won Brinnaria's heart at once by telling her that she herself, when
she had first entered the Atrium of Vesta, had found it difficult to
learn the etiquette of the order, had wanted to shout and sing and laugh
out loud, to run up and down stairs instead of walking, to skip and
jump.

That Causidiena had triumphed over similar tendencies comforted
Brinnaria and helped her to try to overcome her own. Most difficult to
curb was her tendency to be rude to Meffia. This Causidiena noticed at
once and set herself to obliterate. Brinnaria unbosomed herself and
Causidiena listened so sympathetically that Brinnaria sat silent through
the long lecture that followed and was very submissive during a
searching interrogatory. She promised to comport herself as a Vestal
should.

"But," she said, "I shall suffer. That girl is unpleasant in ten
thousand ways, but the smell of her is the most unpleasant thing about
her. She's been tubbed and scrubbed and massaged and perfumed twice a
day ever since I came here and she smells worse than a polecat, anyhow,
all day long, even the moment after her maid has finished her toilet. A
whiff of Meffia sets me frantic. I'd be capable of any crime to get rid
of her."

More lecturing followed.

"But it's true!" Brinnaria maintained. "You can't help smelling her
yourself; she smells like nothing else on earth. It isn't the smell of a
dirty girl or of an ill girl, nor the smell of a girl at all or of any
kind of a human being. I can't describe it, but it's a thin sour smell,
sharp and shrill like the note of a cricket, if a sound and a smell can
be compared. It's horrible; it's not human."

More lecturing, a long session of lecturing, followed this outburst. At
the end of it the victim was meek and pliable, or so professed herself.
For at least five days Brinnaria kept up her effort to be comradely with
Meffia. By the sixth day she was completely exhausted and the two
avoided each other as before.

Agonies indeed Brinnaria suffered in her efforts to live up to
Causidiena's ideas of what she should be. On the whole she succeeded
pretty well and committed few errors of deportment. Outwardly she
controlled herself from the first; for, before her first cowed
sensations had worn off, her adoration of Causidiena had gained full
sway over her. Yet inwardly she suffered more and more acutely as time
went on, partly feeling that she must burst out in spite of herself,
partly dreading that she would.

At last, after many days, she perpetrated her first and most
undignified prank. It was a terrific occurrence, judged by the standards
of the Atrium.

The great peristyle of the House of the Vestals, including nearly
three-fourths of the whole courtyard, was beautified with a splendid
double colonnade, two tiers of pillars, one above the other, the lower
of delicately mottled Carystian marble wavily veined with green streaks
varying its whiteness, the upper of coral-red brecchia. Midway of the
court was a tank lined with marbles and always filled with clear water.

One morning Meffia, walking about the court, in her irritatingly
aimless fashion, passed between Brinnaria and the edge of the tank.
There was no earthly reason for her so doing, as Brinnaria was barely a
yard from the margin of the pool, and on the other side of Brinnaria was
the ample expanse of the pavement of the spacious court.

Brinnaria was exasperated by Meffia's proximity, by her
lackadaisical manner, by her shambling gait, by her sleep-walking
attitude, most of all by the peculiar thin, sour odor which Meffia
exhaled. At the sight of Meffia's elaborately disagreeable demeanor of
isolation, all Brinnaria's natural self began to boil in her; at the
whiff which assailed her nostrils she boiled over, all her uncurbed
instincts surging up at once. She put out one foot and gave Meffia a
push.

Meffia, with a squall and a great splash, fell into the tank.

She not only fell in, but she went under the water.

She went under and did not come up.

For an instant Brinnaria thought she was shamming to scare her;
but, in a twinkling she realized that Meffia had fainted.

Promptly she plunged in and rescued her victim.

Numisia, hurrying to the sound of Meffia's squawk, was horrified
at the sight of a dripping Vestal toiling up the steps of the tank
carrying over her shoulder another Vestal, equally dripping and limp as
a meal-sack, her arms and legs trailing horribly.

Agitation at Meffia's prolonged insensibility postponed inquiry as
to how she came to fall into the tank. It so happened that Causidiena
first questioned some of the maid-servants, who all hated Meffia and
liked Brinnaria. Therefore the ones interrogated told a story as much at
variance with the facts as they saw fit.

Brinnaria, after she was again dry-clad, quaked inwardly in
anticipation of Causidiena's wrath and suffered a good deal more at the
thought of her pained, silent displeasure. Hours passed, long hours
passed and nothing was said on the subject. From none of her sister
Vestals did she hear a word of reproach, not one of them behaved towards
her any differently from what was usual.

Finally one of the maids enlightened Brinnaria. Promptly she
sought a private audience with Causidiena. First she made sure that none
of the maids would suffer for their duplicity and partiality; then she
confessed.

The Chief Vestal was not wrathful, not even stern. She talked
mildly and gently, yet made Brinnaria feel very much ashamed of herself
and acutely penitent.

The end of the interview was that Causidiena said:

"You are such a robust child that you do not realize how frail
Meffia is. She is perfectly healthy, but is very easily unnerved or
exhausted. You have given her such a shock that she is unfit for duty.
Any Vestal is allowed to be ill for two nights and one day, if the
trouble seems trifling. But, if any Vestal is ill for a longer time, she
is promptly removed from the Atrium for nursing. I fear that Meffia may
not recover within the permitted time. I am most anxious that there
should be as few as possible cases of recorded illness in the Atrium
under my management. As you have caused the situation you must help me
to avoid what I fear. Go to Meffia and nurse her out of this and get her
about to-morrow morning."

"Castor be good to me!" Brinnaria cried. "Smell that girl for a
day and a night! Whew! Pretty severe punishment! But I deserve that and
worse. And I'll do anything for you, Causidiena."

Meffia hated Brinnaria cordially, yet she found her a deft,
tactful and silent nurse. But the very sight of Brinnaria was to her
an irritant tonic. She was entirely fit for duty the next day, not
 a trace of slackness, unwillingness or sullenness.

Causidiena early made up her mind that Brinnaria's intentions were
good and that she was far from planning her outbursts. She had herself
no prevision of what was coming, not an inkling of what was about to
happen, she blurted out her shocking remarks without herself knowing what
she was going to say and was overwhelmed with confusion when her own
ears heard the totally unexpected words which she had uttered; she
contemplated aghast the havoc she had wrought. Generally she made a
pretty fair attempt at demeaning herself as a Vestal should; but, every
once in a while, without warning, something of her old wild self surged
up in her and the speech was spoken or the action completed before she
realized she was about to speak or act at all.

One such freak gave her a sort of notoriety, brought her name to
the lips of every gossip in Rome.

She was as pleased with her privileges as a normal child of her
age with a set of new toys, as warily insistent on them as any
aristocrat of her build and appearance.

She learned the precise nature and extent of her prerogatives and
did her utmost to enjoy them all. Being an adept at accounts she
ascertained the character of the various estates and investments that
went to make up the great property which was her jointure as a Vestal,
made sure of the exact income from each of its components, also the
total amount; both how far she was allowed to have her way in spending
it and how soon she would be free of supervision in that respect. She
made her will before she had been a Vestal for a month, leaving all her
property to Almo, should she die before him; but the whole to the order
of Vestals if he died before her.

Of all her privileges the one she enjoyed most was the right to
drive where she pleased through the city in her private carriage, with
her lictor running ahead and clearing the way for it. Carriage-driving
within the city limits was restricted in Rome by severe regulations
rigorously enforced.* Ordinary travelling carriages might use only the
great main thoroughfares leading to the city gates. The owner of one,
unless he happened to live on one of those chief arteries of the
traffic, might not step from his house door into his carriage but must
have it halted at some point on the permitted avenues and must reach it
on foot or by litter. But there was no street or alley in Rome wide
enough for a carriage which a Vestal might not drive through; a. Vestal
might drive anywhere. Brinnaria was first taken out driving by
Causidiena and Numisia, then by the others in succession. Driving with
Meffia was no pleasure to her, but it was the etiquette of the order
that each Vestal in turn should offer the courtesy of her carriage to a
new member of the sisterhood.

        *In fact, wheeled vehicles except for those of the Emperor
        and the Vestals were forbidden in the city during the daytime.

After that formality had been complied with Brinnaria was
permitted to drive where she pleased, with what guest she chose, or
accompanied only by her official companion or by her maid.
Systematically she drove everywhere, once alone with her maid, once with
each of the other Vestals, often with her mother, often with Flexinna.
It gave her great pleasure to drive up the long zigzag approach to the
Capitol, where no human being save the Vestals and the Empress might be
driven, and where few Empresses had ever ventured to drive, to have her
carriage halted before the great Temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva,
where no carriage except the carriages of the Vestals had been seen for
more than a hundred years, to enter the temple and say her prayers. It
gave her even more pleasure to take her mother or Flexinna with her, as
was her privilege; to make them sharers in her right to be driven to
Rome's chief temple, to which all other Romans, even the Emperors, must
walk or be carried by litter-bearers.

She discovered another privilege of her position. Roman women of
the better classes never went out of doors alone. On the streets a lady,
if not companioned by one or more equals, was always accompanied by a
maid-servant. This had been the custom from time immemorial and had come
to have the force of a moral law. The sight of a woman of wealth and
position entirely alone in her carriage would have been startling, to
see a lady in her litter without a maid walking behind the bearers would
have been shocking: the spectacle of a lady alone on foot would have
given scandal.

But, by some survival of the simplicity of the manners in those
primitive days in which the order originated, the Vestals were
exceptions to this mandatory fashion. A Vestal might never go abroad on
foot, except in one of the solemn processions. But, in her litter or her
carriage, she might go anywhere in Rome unaccompanied, protected only by
her lictor and her bearers or coachman. This privilege, like many
others, marked the Vestals as being apart from and exalted above the
rest of woman-kind.

As soon as Brinnaria learned that she possessed this right she
proceeded to exercise it. Though she felt lonesome when driving alone
and enjoyed her outing far more when she had a companion, yet she drove
alone day after day, merely because it was her prerogative.
So driving she had, in one day, two thrilling experiences. She had
told her coachman to drive where he pleased and hardly noticed where she
was being driven.

Suddenly turning from a side street into one of the main
thoroughfares of the city, she encountered the co-Emperor Lucius Verus
with his official escort. It was during the busy days preceding his
departure for Antioch and his great campaign against the Parthians.
Verus, roused from his devotion to sport and pleasure, was feverish with
enthusiasm and full of mercurial energy. He bustled in and out of Rome,
inspecting camps, presiding at ceremonials and keeping everything in a
ferment.

That day he was returning from an inspection amid a large and
gorgeous retinue. Brinnaria had a blurred vision of splendid uniforms
and dazzling accoutrements. Her vision was blurred because her eyes
filled with tears; she turned hot and cold and almost fainted with
emotion, when the Emperor's twenty-four lictors lowered their fasces,
the whole procession halted, the escort and the Emperor himself swerved
their horses aside to let her pass and remained at the salute until she
had passed. The sudden realization of the importance of her official
position overwhelmed her.

As she drove on, when she recovered herself, she meditated on the
experience, and told herself that she must live up to her exalted
station, that she must never, never, never for such as one instant,
forget herself or behave otherwise than as became a Vestal.
On the very same drive, before she returned to the Atrium, she
completely forgot herself.

It was a hot, sultry afternoon and it suited her coachman to drive
homeward along the Subura, that thronged and unsavory Bowery of ancient
Rome. Three street urchins were teasing and maltreating a rough coated,
muddy little cur. Brinnaria called imperiously to her lictor to
interfere. He was too far ahead to hear her. Her coachman had all he
could do to control her mettlesome span of Spanish mares. She spoke to
the boys and they laughed at her. Before she knew it she had flung open
her carriage door, had leapt out, had cuffed soundly the ears of the
three dumbfounded gamins, and was back among her cushions, the dog in
her arms.

This escapade brought upon her a visit from the Pontifex of Vesta,
the semi-globular Faltonius Bambilio, diffusing pomposity. From him she
had to listen to a long lecture on deportment and to a reading of the
minutes of the meeting of the College of Pontiffs which had discussed
her public misbehavior.


CHAPTER VI - NOTORIETY



WITHIN a month she did far worse. She perpetrated, in fact, a deed
with the fame of which not only the city, but the Empire rang; made
herself notorious everywhere.

It was on the occasion of her introductory visit to the Colosseum
when, for the first time, she was a spectator at an exhibition of
fighting gladiators. She was in a high-strung state of elation and
anticipation. Going to the Amphitheatre, in itself, was a soul-stirring
experience. Meffia, to Brinnaria's joy, had been on duty that day, along
with Numisia. This alone was enough to put Brinnaria in a good humor.
Meffia's presence spoiled for her any sort of pleasure. Then, besides,
they drove to the Colosseum, not in their light carriages, but two by
two in their gorgeous state coaches, huge vehicles, of which the
woodwork was elaborately carved and heavily gilded and whose cushions
and curtains were all of that splendid official color, the imperial
purple. The name conveys to us a false impression, for the hue known
then as imperial purple was not what we should call a purple, but a
deep, dark crimson, like the tint of claret in a goblet.
Against a background of this magnificent color, the Vestals,
habited all in white, showed conspicuously. Their stately progress
through the streets, gazed at and pointed at by the admiring crowds,
was conducive to high spirits. Still more so was it to be ushered
obsequiously through cool corridors and up carpeted stairs to the
Vestals' private loge, a roomy space immediately to the right of the
imperial pavilion. To be inside the Colosseum at last set her eyes
dancing and her heart thumping; the anticipation of actually viewing the
countless fights of many hundreds of gladiators increased her
excitement; to be seated in front seats, with nothing but the carved
stone coping between her and the arena was most exhilarating of all. She
was delighted with her great, carved arm-chair, deeply cushioned and so
heavy that it was as firm on its solid oak legs as if bolted to the
stone floor. She settled herself in it luxuriously, gazed across the
smooth yellow sand, glanced up at the gay, parti-colored awning, and
then conned the vast audience, line after line of rose-crowned heads
rising tier above tier all about her.

She scanned the faces in the front row to left and right as far as
she could make them out clearly. She peered across the open space of the
arena, puckering her eyes to see better. When she caught sight of what
she was looking for she turned timidly, leaned past Manlia and asked
Causidiena:

"May I wave my hand to mother?"

"Certainly, my child," Causidiena assured her.

Brinnaria waved her little hand and was seen, and felt the thrill
of a general family handwaving in reply.

Suddenly she experienced a qualm of bashfulness, as if every one
in the enormous gathering were looking at her, watching her. She cast
down her eyes, wrapped her white robe close about her, hiding her hands
under it, and shrank into her arm-chair. For a while, for a long while,
she fanned herself nervously, very slowly, and striving to appear calm.
Gradually she became calm and laughed to herself at her own folly,
realizing that nobody was noticing her.

Nobody noticed her. Many spectators noticed the Vestals, but no
one noticed her individually. This she realized acutely before the day
was over.

At about the time when she began to feel herself at ease the
entrance of the Emperor and his suite distracted her attention from
herself. When the trumpet blew, announcing the approach of the Imperial
party, a hush fell on the vast audience and all eyes turned towards the
grand pavilion. When the trumpet blew the second time, just before the
Emperor came in sight, the hush deepened and the spectators watched
intently. When his head appeared as he mounted the stairs the audience
burst into the short, sharply staccato song of welcome, something like a
tuneful, sing-song college yell, with which Roman crowds greeted their
master. This vocal salute, a mere tag of eight or nine syllables, each
with its distinctive note, was repeated over and over until the Emperor
was seated.

Then the audience settled themselves into their seats. Brinnaria
had instinctively started to rise when she caught sight of the Emperor.
Manlia had put out a restraining hand. The Vestals, alone of all Romans,
remained seated in the presence of the Emperor, not even rising when he
appeared.

Marcus Aurelius was a tall, spare man of over forty years of age,
with abundant hair curling in long ringlets over his chest and
shoulders, and a full beard mingling with the carefully disposed curls.
He was a serious-faced man, careworn and solemn.

Brinnaria regarded him with interest. She had never seen him so
close and she felt a sudden fellow-feeling for him from the sense of
semi-equality with him that flooded through her at having remained
seated. She recalled vividly the half-dozen times she had watched from
balconies the passage of processions in which the Emperor took part, how
her mother had made her stand up the moment he came in sight and had
kept her standing until he was far away. Her sudden exaltation in social
position was borne in upon her with startling emphasis. Not even her
carriage rides had impressed her so tellingly with the sensation of her
own importance in the great world of Imperial Rome.

"How does he look to you?" Manlia asked. They were seated in the
order of their seniority, Causidiena on the right, then Gargilia,
Manlia next Brinnaria.

"He looks crushed under his responsibilities and anxieties,"
Brinnaria replied. "He looks depressed, even sad."

"He is all that, poor man," her neighbor agreed, "and no wonder in
these days. The Parthians are at us on the east, the Germans in the
north, and there have been more than twelve deaths in the palace each
day for twenty consecutive days now. This pestilence is enough to make
anybody sad."

"More than that," Brinnaria countered. "He looks irritated and
bored. Everybody else is alert and keyed up with anticipation. His eyes
are dull and he looks as if he wished that the show was over and he
could go home."

"You have read him right," Manlia told her. "He detests all kinds
of spectacles, takes no interest in races and hates beast-fights. Most
of all he loathes gladiatorial combats. Father has told me about it more
than once and Causidiena says the same thing. I can't understand it. I
never get tired of sword-fighting, myself. What I like about it is its
endless variety. I never saw any two fights exactly alike, never saw two
closely alike. Each fight is a spectacle by itself, entirely different
from any other. I don't mean the difference between the fighters in
respect to their equipment and appearance, though that contributes to
the variety also; I mean the difference in posture, method of defense
and attack, style of lunge and parry, and all that; and the countless
variations in form in the men, the subtle differences of character which
makes them face similar situations so very differently. You'll get the
feeling for it in a half a dozen shows and be as keen on it as the rest
of us.

"But the Emperor is different. Perhaps it's because he is such a
booky man and spends so much time in reading and study. But I think not.
There never was anybody more of a bookworm than Numisia and she is as
wild over the shows as any street-boy in Rome. Anyhow, whatever the
cause is, that is the way he is. He was more than surfeited with shows
before he was Emperor. While he was nothing but a boy, soon after he was
adopted and made Caesar, he often had to preside in the Circus or here,
when Hadrian was away travelling and Antonius and Verus were on the
frontiers. He used to bring his tutors with him and have two of them sit
on each side of him a little behind him. Then, after the shows had
started, he would put a tablet on his knee and write a theme or work out
a problem in geometry and when he had finished it, would pass it to one
of his tutors for comment, or he would have them make out sets of
questions on history or something else and he would write out the
answers the best he could. Sometimes he would read. All this he did as
calmly as if he were alone in a closed room with nothing to call off his
attention. Yet he was most careful to seem to watch the shows and would
look up every little while and gaze about the arena. But nothing ever
distracted him from his lessons. That is the kind he is. He simply never
cared for this sort of thing. He says that what oppresses him is the
maddening monotony of gladiatorial shows. Fancy anybody thinking sword-
fighting monotonous! But he does. He says every combat is just like
every other. All he sees in a fight is two men facing each other and one
being killed. He gets no thrills from the uncertainties of the outcome,
no pleasure from the dexterity and skill of the fighters. To him it's
just butchery, and the same kind of butchery over and over. He says he
might get some enjoyment out of a show if something novel would happen,
something he never saw before, something unexpected. But nothing ever
does."

Brinnaria regarded curiously this grave, earnest man, who derived
so little pleasure from the most coveted position on earth. She
continued to watch him until everybody turned to the procession around
the arena of all who were to fight that day, the invariable preliminary
of a gladiatorial show and always a splendid spectacle.
When the fights began Brinnaria felt at first an unexpected
tightening of the chest, as if a band were being drawn tight just under
her armpits. Her breath came short and hard and her heart thumped her
ribs.

The first sight of blood made her feel faint and the horrible
contortions just below her of a dying man, who writhed in strong
convulsions like a fish out of water, made her qualmish and sick.
But all that soon passed off. She was a Roman and the Romans were
professional killers, had been professional killers for a thousand
years. Success in hand to hand combat with any individual foe was every
male Roman's ideal of the crowning glory of human life; the thought of
it was in every Roman's mind from early childhood, every act of life was
a preparation for it. Their wives and sisters shared their enthusiasm
for fighting and their daughters inherited the instinct. Combat on the
field of battle was felt as the chief business of a man, to which all
other activities merely led up. By reflected light, as it were, every
kind of combat acquired a glamour in the thoughts of a Roman. The idea
of men killing men, of men being killed by men, was familiar to all
Romans, of whatever sex or age. Brinnaria was not affected as a modern
girl would be by the sight of blood or of death. The novelty revolted
her at first, but only briefly. Soon she was absorbed in the interest of
the fighting.

Almost at once her eye was caught by a young and handsome fighter
who reminded her strongly of Almo.

His adversary was that kind of gladiator known technically as a
secutor, a burly ruffian in complete armor, with huge shin-guards like
jack-boots, a kilt of broad leather straps hanging in two overlapping
rows, the upper set plated with bronze scales, a bronze corselet, and,
fitting closely to his shoulders, covering head and neck together, a
great, heavy helmet. He carried a large shield, squarish in shape, but
curving to fit him as if he were hiding behind a section of the outer
bark of a big tree. He was armed with a keen, straight bladed Spanish
sword.

Facing this portentous tower of metal was a gladiator of the sort
known as a retiarius, equipped solely with a long-handled, slender-
shafted trident, like a fisherman's eel-spear, and a voluminous, wide-
meshed net of thin cord. His only clothing was a scanty body-piece of
bright blue. His feet were small with high-arched insteps. Brinnaria
particularly noticed his perfectly shaped toes. His bare legs, body and
arms were in every proportion the perfection of form, the supple muscles
rippling exquisitely under his warm tanned skin. His face was almost
beautiful, with a round chin, thin curled lips, a straight nose, and a
wide brow. Its expression was lively, even merry, almost roguish, his
lips parted in an alert smile, his blue eyes sparkling. He seemed to
enjoy the game in which he was engaged, to be brimming over with self-
confidence, to anticipate success, to relish his foretaste of combat
with a sort of impish delight.

Roman children heard as much talk of gladiators as modern children
hear of baseball or cricket. Brinnaria knew perfectly well that the
betting on a set-to between such a pair was customarily five to three
against the secutor and on the retiarius. Yet she felt the sensation
usual with onlookers in such a case, the sensation purposed by the
device of pairing men so differently equipped, the sensation that the
mailed secutor was invincible and the naked retiarius helpless against
him. She was keyed up with interest.

In fact the combat was interesting. The secutor, of course, could
have disposed of his antagonist in a trice, if he had only been able to
reach him. But a clumsy, heavy secutor never could reach a nimble, agile
retiarius. The one Brinnaria was watching was more than usually light-
footed and skipped about his adversary in a taunting, teasing way. Again
and again he cast his net intentionally too short, merely to show how
easily he could recover it and escape his opponent's onset. He danced,
capered, pretended to be lame and that he could not avoid being
overtaken, led his pursuer on, out-manoeuvred him, derided him; twice he
lunged through the flapping straps of his kilt and grazed his thigh. The
secutor was barely scratched, but his blood trickled down his shin-guard
and he was limping.

Then, all in a flash, the retiarius pirouetted too rashly, slipped
on ton the sand, fell sprawling, failed to rise in time, and was slashed
deeply all down one calf. He rolled over in a last effort to escape, but
the secutor kicked him in the ribs and, before he could recover, sent
the trident spinning with a second kick and set his foot upon his
victim's neck. So standing he rolled his eyes over that part of the
audience nearest him to discover whether it was the pleasure of the
lookers-on that the defeated man should be killed or spared.

Now it so happened that nearly all the spectators in that part of
the audience were watching a far more exciting contest farther out in
the arena, where two Indian elephants, each manned by a crew of five
picked men, were clashing in a terrific struggle No one, except
Brinnaria, had any eyes for the plight of the young retiarius below them
The secutor beheld indifferent faces gazing over his head The few thumbs
he could see pointed outward. Brinnaria, to be sure, was holding out her
right arm, thumb flat, and doing her best to attract the secutor's
attention. She failed. He glanced, indeed, at the Vestals, but as three
of them sat impassive he missed Brinnaria's imperious gesture.
He prepared to put his foe to death. First, however, he looked
further along the front rows to make sure that he had the permission of
the general audience, since the occupants of the Imperial box and of the
Vestals loge seemed to ignore him.

Brinnaria perceived that he would probably not look again in her
direction; that as soon as his roving eyes came back from their
unhurried survey of the audience, he would deliver the fatal blow.
She quickly knotted the corner of her robe to the arm of her
chair, squirmed out of it, and threw it over the parapet. The robe of a
Roman lady was sleeveless and seamless, rather like a very long pair of
very thin blankets, all in one piece. Tied, as she had tied it, by one
corner, it made a sort of rope as it hung. She had acted so quickly that
no one noticed her, not even Manlia, who sat next her, staring
fascinatedly at the spectacle of the wrestling elephants and their
warring crews.

Grasping her robe firmly with both hands, escaping by a hair's-
breadth the despairing clutch of the horrified Manlia, Brinnaria half
vaulted, half rolled over the parapet, swung sailor-fashion to the rope
her robe formed, went down it, hand over hand, raced across the sand and
faced the victorious secutor.

He, although a foreigner and a savage, had been long enough in
Rome to know perfectly what a Vestal was and he recoiled from her in a
panic no less than he would have felt had the goddess Vesta herself come
down from the sky to balk him of his prey.

The next instant no one was regarding the death-struggle of the
elephants, nor any other of the scores of fights ended, ending, under
way or just begun. Every human being in the audience was staring at the
amazing spectacle of a Vestal virgin, clad only in her thin, clinging
tunic, standing over a fallen retiarius and facing an appalled and
dumbfounded secutor.

The place fell very still. So still that the shrill voice of a
street-gamin, a boy from the Via Sacra, was audible throughout the vast
enclosure from gallery to gallery. He yelled in his cutting falsetto:
"Good for you, Sis!"

But his neighbors silenced him at once and not even any other
ragamuffin lifted his voice. The audience were startled mute. They were
quite ready to applaud the girl's daring, but the shocking impropriety
of her breach of decorum struck them dumb.

The Emperor, roused from his meditations by the sudden hush,
looked about him for the cause of it and saw the situation. He leaned
forward, arm out, thumb flat against the extended fingers. The secutor
sheathed his sword.

Manlia, with great presence of mind, untied the dangling robe and
dropped it over the parapet. One of the arena attendants carried it to
Brinnaria and she put it on. But she would not stir and stood straddling
the fallen lad until one of the Emperor's aides came out of one of the
low doors in the arena-wall, crossed to her and assured her that the
defeated retiarius would be spared and cared for. Then she suffered
herself to be led back to her seat, by way of the door in the wall and
passages and stairs never meant for any Vestal to tread.

Not until they saw Brinnaria move off in charge of the staff-
officer did the audience let loose their pent-up feelings. The place
pulsated with a roar like that of a great waterfall in a deep gorge,
salvo after salvo of cheers swelling and merging. The deep boom
of their applause pursued Brinnaria and made her cower. The
people would never forget her now. They were in ecstasy. She
was their darling.


CHAPTER VII - AUDIENCE


ON the drive homeward from that unforgettable gladiatorial
exhibition Manlia and Gargilia shared the second state coach:
in the first sat Brinnaria by Causidiena.

"My child," Causidiena queried, "what ever made you do it?"

"I don't know," Brinnaria replied. "I did it before I thought."

"Well!" said her elder philosophically. "It is done now and
cannot be helped. But please try to remember that a Vestal is
expected to control herself at all times, never to act without
forethought, to reflect long before she acts, to do nothing
unusual, to be very sure in each instance that what she is about
to do is wholly becoming to a Vestal."

"I'll keep on trying," Brinnaria replied mutinously, "but I was
not constructed to be a Vestal. I always knew it; I know it now
and I am afraid I'll continue my blundering through the conventions.
I'm built that way."

She had to endure a second long lecture from Faltonius Bambilio.
She listened submissively enough, but vouchsafed not one word of
self-defence, rejoinder or comment; and, when urged to speak, she
was obstinately silent.

"My daughter," Faltonius droned at her, "remember that, since
your entrance into the order of Vestals, I stand to you in the
relation of parent to his own child. You should confide in me as
in your spiritual father."

"I should do nothing of the kind," Brinnaria refuted him. "I know
the statutes of the order better than that. Up to the days of the
Divine Augustus, the Pontifex Maximus inhabited the house next to
the house of the Vestals and stood in the closest relation of
fatherhood towards them. But since he went to live on the Palatine
and made us a present of his house we have occupied all this Atrium
 which was built in the place of the two houses. Since then no one
has been in the same intimate relation of control over us. The
Emperors have always held the office of Pontifex Maximus and as
such each Emperor has been the spiritual father of the Vestals.
The Emperor is my spiritual father and you are not."

"Your self-opinionated talk does you little credit," Faltonius retorted.
"Since you know so much you must know also that for many years
each Emperor has designated some priest as Pontifex of Vesta to
be his deputy and to stand in the closest relation of parental oversight
towards the members of your consecrated order; I am that deputy."

"I have no desire to confide in a deputy," Brinnaria told him,
"or to consider the deputy as my real spiritual father. If I feel
 inclined to confide I'll make my confidences to my genuine
spiritual father, not to his understrapper."

Bambilio was piqued and spoke sourly.

"The Emperor," he said, "will be far from pleased with my report
of you."

"It will make no difference to me or to him what you report or
whether you make any report or not," spoke Brinnaria. "I'm going
to have a talk with him myself."

"Doubtless," Bambilio meditated. "He has sent for you to rebuke
you."

"He has done nothing of the kind," she retorted vigorously. "He
has more sense. And if he had sent for me I should not have gone.
I know my rights. If he wanted to talk to me, he'd have to come
to me here. But as, in this case, I wanted to talk to him, I have
asked for an audience and the day and the hour have been fixed.
I am to have an audience to-morrow morning. And now, as I am to
talk to him myself, I see no reason why I should spend more time
being bored by his deputy. If you please, I should be obliged if
you would terminate this interview."

Astounded and dumb, Faltonius bowed himself out.

Causidiena suggested that she accompany Brinnaria on her visit to
the Palace.

"It would be lovely to have you with me," Brinnaria said, "and I
am ever so grateful for your offer. You are a dear and I love you.
I shall want you and wish for you all the way there, all the time
I am there and all the way back. I shall be scared to death. But
I must go alone. In the first place it is my right, if I were only
six years old, to have audience with the Emperor alone whenever I
ask for it and as often as I ask for it. I am not going to abate
an iota of my rights merely for my own comfort. In the second place,
I must go through this unhelped and unsupported all by myself. I know
 it; I must fight it out alone and come through alone. He'll be
sympathetic, if I deserve it. If I don't deserve sympathy from him
I don't deserve it from you, nor your company and your countenance,
either."

Scared Brinnaria was, but even through her worst qualms of panic
she was uplifted by an elating sense of her own importance. Not
her encounter with Verus and his retinue, not her having remained
seated when Aurelius entered the Colosseum had so poignantly made
 her realize how exalted was a Vestal. She drove to the Palace
alone, not in her light carriage, but in her huge state coach,
feeling very small in her white robes amid all that crimson
upholstery, but also feeling herself a very great personage.

Her reception at the Palace made her feel even more so. The
magnificence of the courtyard in which her coach came to a
standstill, the ceremonial of turning out the guard in her
honor, the formality with which she was conducted from corridor
to corridor and from hail to hail, the immensity and gorgeousness
 of the vast audience hall in which she was finally left alone
with the Emperor; all these did not so much overwhelm her as exalt
her. She felt herself indeed a princess.

The Emperor greeted Brinnaria kindly, was as sympathetic as possible
and put her at her ease at once. He soothed her, made her seat
herself comfortably and said:

"Don't worry about what you have done. You are certainly the most
 startling Vestal since Gegania, but you have really done nothing
actually wrong. So do not agitate yourself about what cannot be
altered. The question which concerns me is, what will you do next?"

"I think," said Brinnaria, "that the next thing I shall do will
be to procure a good strong rope and hang myself."

"My child," the shocked Emperor exclaimed, "you really should not
speak so flippantly of so dreadful an idea!"

"I'm not a particle flippant this time," Brinnaria declared. "I
know I am often flippant, but not now, not a bit. I am just as
serious as life and death. I have thought of nothing but suicide
since Trebellius conducted me back to my seat. I can't get the
idea out of my head and that is why I have come to you."

"Tell me all about it from the beginning," the Emperor said,
comfortingly. "What put the notion into your head?"

"In the beginning," said Brinnaria, "you know that I didn't want
to be a Vestal."

"Yes, I know," he assured her.

"Well," she went on, "now I am a Vestal and must serve out my
thirty years, I'm really trying to do my best to be all I ought
to be. I really am. I've tried hard to be sedate and grave and
collected and reticent and slow-spoken, and all the rest of it.
And I think I haven't done badly most of the time. But after all,
I'm myself and I can't be changed. Every once in a while myself
boils up in me under the scum of convention I've spread on top
of the cauldron, so to speak. I don't mean to let go and be natural
 and spontaneous. I've done the awful thing before I know I'm
going to do it. I didn't mean to pour the pork gravy over old
Gubba's head; but she looked so funny I just did it without knowing
 what I was going to do. I didn't mean to throw Manlia's pet
monkey out of the window on to Moccilo's head. But her shock of
red curls looked to be just the place on which to drop little
Dito, and I dropped Dito before I thought. It's just the same way
about all the other dreadful things I do. I don't mean to do them,
but I do do them."

"Don't worry," the Emperor said, "you'll outgrow all that."

"I trust I may," Brinnaria sighed, "but how about the harm I'm
doing as I go along?"

"You haven't done any harm, not any harm that matters," the
Emperor soothed her.

"Are you perfectly sure of that?" she persisted. "If you could
make me perfectly sure of that, I should feel a great deal better.
Are you sure?"

"I can't see any real harm in your pranks," the Emperor said. "I
certainly should not encourage you to continue or repeat such
conduct or to revert to it, but I see no real harm in it."

"You think I have not unfitted myself for my duties?"

The Emperor meditated.

"To a certainty," he said, "if your conduct was intentional, if
you thought up these pranks of yours and perpetrated them, with
deliberate consciousness of what you were about to do, I should
hold you gravely unfitted for your position. But you are manifestly
 sincere in your efforts to be all you ought to be and are trying
genuinely to overcome your tendencies and to outgrow your
coltishness. I am of the opinion that, if you curb yourself from
now on, you have done no harm."

"Do you think," Brinnaria insisted, "that if you called a meeting
of all the colleges of pontiffs and put the question to them,
that they would make the same answer you have made?"

"You amazing child!" Aurelius exclaimed. "Why should you assume
the attitude of advocate against yourself" Why suggest a synod to
 discuss your conduct and express an official opinion on it? Is
 not my opinion enough? Even if I saw fit to call a synod and
all the members of it held the same views and expressed them never
so cogently, do you not realize that, if my views were contrary to
theirs, it would be my view that would prevail; that it would not
 only be my privilege and my right but my imperative duty to
override any opposition and to enforce my decision? Are you not
satisfied with the opinions of the man who is at once Emperor
and Chief Pontifex of Rome?"

"But," Brinnaria persisted, "I am not at all sure that you are
speaking as Emperor and Chief Pontifex. To me you seem to speak
as a kindly husband and father very sympathetic towards another
man's little daughter who comes to you in deep trouble of spirit."

"You amazing child!" the Emperor repeated. "You talk as if you were
 forty years old. Tell me precisely what is troubling you, for I must
 have failed to fathom it, and be sure I shall reply officially as
Emperor and Pontifex."

"What troubles me," said Brinnaria, "is the dread that my wild and
tomboyish behavior may be as displeasing to the Goddess as
 coquettishness or wantonness. I am in terror for fear my
ministrations may be unpleasant to her, may be sacrilegious, may
not only fail to win her blessing upon Rome but may draw down her
curse upon all of us. I never thought of that until I stood there
all alone out in the arena, astraddle of that beautiful boy whom
I just had to save, feeling all of a sudden horribly naked in my
one thin, clinging undergarment, with two hundred thousand eyes
staring at me. It came over me with a rush that I was not only
never going to be fit for a Vestal but that I wasn't fit for a
Vestal and I hadn't been fit for a Vestal; that I not only was
going to do harm, not only was doing harm, but had done harm. If
the Parthians are devastating the frontier along the Euphrates and
 the Marcommani and the Quadi are storming the outposts along the
Danube and the Rhine, perhaps that is because my presence in the
Atrium is an offence in the eyes of Vesta, my prayers an affront
to my Goddess, my care of her altar-fire an insult to her. I
tremble to think of it. And I cannot get it out of my head. I
wake up in the dark and think of it and it keeps me awake,
sometimes, longer than I ever lay awake in the dark in my life.
It scares me. I am a Vestal to bring prosperity and glory to the
Empire, to pray prayers that will surely be answered. Suppose the
Goddess is deaf to my prayers because I am unworthy to pray to her?
Suppose that my prayers infuriate her because I am vile in her
sight? Suppose I am causing disaster to the Empire? I keep thinking
all that. Do you wonder that I think of suicide, of hanging myself,
like the two Oculatas?"

"My child!" Aurelius cut in. "You have not done anything that
justifies your comparing yourself to the Oculata sisters."

"We'll come back to that later," Brinnaria replied. "Just now let us
 stick to the point. Do you think my fears justified or not?"

"Decidedly not," the Emperor rejoined, without an instant's
hesitation, "and I speak not as a soft-hearted parent who sees the
soul of his own daughter looking at him out of the eyes of every
little girl whose heart troubles her, I speak as the guardian of
the interests of the Empire, as the warder of the destinies of Rome.

"Your misbehavior has certainly been grave, I admit; and, if done
 maliciously, would entail all the harm you imagine. But the Goddess
can see not only your actions but your thoughts. Your scruples do
you high credit. I will not say you are as pleasing to the Goddess
as would be a grave and sedate ministrant, but I do solemnly decide
and declare that you need have no further dread of any past, present
or future harm to the Empire or to Rome from your past behavior,
if you honestly try to err no more. This is my official decision.
Be at peace in your heart."

Brinnaria drew a deep breath.

"You certainly comfort me," she said, "but I just know I'll boil
over again and not once, but many times."

"Vesta will comprehend," he said, "if your derelictions are less
and less frequent and less and less violent; if you succeed a
little better from month to month and from year to year. She will
not be pleased with your lapses, if you lapse again, but she will
be pleased at your struggles with yourself and with your good
intentions. She will smile upon your ministrations and hearken to
your petitions. Be comforted."

"I am," said Brinnaria, "as far as that trifle goes, but now we come
 to my real and chief concern. Suppose I am as detestable in the
sight of my Goddess as the Oculata sisters were, and for a similar
reason; suppose I ought to hang myself as dead as they hanged
themselves. Oughtn't I, then, to hang myself?"

"You incredible creature !" Aurelius cried. "I've met women by the
 thousand, by the tens of thousands, but never a girl like you.
What do you mean? What can you mean? You cannot mean what you seem
to mean. Explain yourself. Be explicit. Tell me all about what is
troubling you. I'll understand and put your mind at ease."

"I trust you may," Brinnaria sighed, "but I dread that you cannot.
I mean just what I seem to mean."

"Impossible!" the Emperor cried, "a child of ten, but a few
months out of her mother's care and those few months in the care
of Causidiena! And I wouldn't believe it of you if you were twice
your age."

"Oh," said Brinnaria, "I haven't acted like Caparronia and the two
 Oculatas, and I shouldn't if I were never so much left to myself.
But you said yourself that Vesta can read my thoughts and I knew
that without your telling me so. Suppose that my thoughts are as
abominable in the sight of my Goddess as was the behavior of those
three unfortunates? Oughtn't I to hang myself and be done with
myself?"

"Indubitably," said the Emperor, "if the facts were as your words
imply. But you are just frightening yourself to death with vapors
like a child afraid of its own shadow. Be explicit, be definite,
and I can put you at peace with yourself at once and permanently."

Brinnaria drew a deep breath.

"To begin with," she said, "you know that, before I was taken for
a Vestal, I was plighted to Caius Segontius Almo."

"Certainly, I knew that," Aurelius replied. "All Rome knew of his
 ride from Falerii and of his arriving just too late."

"You knew I was in love with him?"

"I assumed that," the Emperor told her.

"Well," she said, a pathetic break in her voice, "I can't make
myself stop loving Almo. I always have loved him, I always shall,
I love him now."

"I assumed that too," the Emperor said. "All Rome knows of his
resolve to remain unmarried, to wait thirty years for you, to
marry you the very day you are free. I assumed that he would not
be so constant unless he believed you equally constant. No harm
in that! You have a right to marry at the end of your service
and a right to look forward to it."

"That is what troubles me," Brinnaria said. "I cannot feel that
I have a right to look forward to it."

"Now listen to me," said the Emperor. "Few Vestals have left the
Atrium at the end of their thirty years. Not every one that has
left has married, the third Terentia withdrew at the end of her
term and did not marry, nor did the only Licinia who ever completed
 her service. But Appellasia married and so did Quetonia and
Seppia. Others have married after their service, though it is
thought unlucky. The right to leave the order implies the right
to marry after leaving. The right to leave implies the right to
mean to leave, to plan to leave, to look forward to leaving and
 marrying. You have that right, like any other Vestal. Does that
satisfy you?"

"It does not," Brinnaria asserted. "I know a Vestal has a right
to leave and marry and to plan to leave and marry. But, after thirty
 years of service, or nearly thirty years of service, to plan to
leave and marry and to look forward to it for a few days or months
 appear to me very different from looking forward to it from the
first hour of my service, and knowing not only that I mean to marry,
but just the man I mean to marry, and loving him all the time, and
 longing for him. I can't help it; I feel that way, and I dread
that I am not an acceptable ministrant and I tremble for fear of
the consequences to you and to Rome. I think I ought to hang myself
and be done with it. You haven't comforted me a bit."

The Emperor stood up.

"Sit still !" he commanded, sharply.

He paced up and down the huge audience hail; paced its full length
three times each way.

Then he reseated himself.

"Do you sleep soundly?" he queried.

"Like a top, mostly," said Brinnaria. "I go to sleep the instant
I put my head on the pillow. Generally I sleep all night long
until my maid wakes me up in the morning. Many nights, but not
every night, nor most nights, I wake up with a dreadful start, as
if I had had a nightmare, and lie there quaking for fear I am
ruining Rome. But even then I generally go to sleep again pretty
quick."

"Do you think of Almo when you wake up in the dark?" he pursued.

"Mighty little," she declared. "In the dark all I can think of is
Rome and my duty. I often reflect how immediately and how greatly
being taken for a Vestal changes a girl and alters, not only her
outlook on life and her ways of thinking, but also her feelings.
It has cooled and steadied me more than I could have believed.
When Daddy quarrelled with Segontius and told me he would not let
me marry Caius I used to feel as if I were going to suffocate, used
to feel that way sometimes for hours at a time, used to suffer
horribly, used to wake up in the dark and feel as if, if I could
not get to Almo right then, at once, I should die, as if I should
be choked to death by the thumping of my heart. I used to feel that
way at dinner, when out visiting any time of day, for hours. I
never feel that way now. And after Daddy and Segontius made up their
 quarrel and it was arranged that I was to marry Almo, I used to
feel as if it would kill me to wait four years, I used to grit my
teeth to think of it, of waiting four years for him; used to think
of it an day long, no matter what I was doing. And I used to wake
up in the dark and roll round in bed and bite the bed-clothes
with rage at the thought of the long waiting ahead of me. I wanted
Almo the way you want a drink, just before noon of a hot day,
when you have been travelling since before sunrise and the carriage
creaks and jolts and the road is all dusty and there is no wind
and you feel as if you would rather die than go any longer without
 a drink. I used to want that way to be married to Almo.

"I never feel that way now. I want him and I want to be married
to him, but I look forward to it as I look forward to the next
race-day at the Circus or the next fight of gladiators at the
Colosseum, as a desirable and delightful time sure to come but
by no means to be hurried, as something I can very well do without
until the time comes. The thought of Almo is always somewhere
back in my mind ready to come forward when I have nothing else to
think of. But I think of him placidly and calmly and never when on
duty nor when at my lessons nor when at meals. And at night, never."

"My daughter," said Aurelius, smiling at her, "listen well to me. I
 speak as Chief Pontifex and as Emperor of Rome. I command you to
forget your qualms and to banish your fears. Officially as Chief
Pontifex I judge you a ministrant most acceptable to your Goddess,
as a most fit and suitable Vestal. I judge that no girl naturally
 austere, frigid and self-contained could be half so pleasing to
Vesta as a tempestuous child like you who curbs her temper and
schools her outward behavior all she can in the effort to be all
she ought to be; whose feelings even tame themselves without any
effort of hers in the holy atmosphere of the Atrium.

"Manifestly you are telling the truth about your acts, your
impulses and your thoughts, 1 judge you a pure-minded, clean-hearted
 Vestal, most suitable for her duties. Vesta understands and is
glad of your good intentions and pleased with your struggles to
 master yourself. You are most acceptable to her. You will bring
no curses on Rome, but your prayers will be heard and you will
bring many blessings on the Empire. Be comforted!"

"I am," said Brinnaria simply, "and I shall stay comforted."






BOOK II

THE REVOLT OF DESPONDENCY




CHAPTER VIII - SCOURGING



AFTER her audience with the Emperor, Brinnaria felt more at peace
with herself, succeeded better in curbing her native wildness,
incurred less and less disapprobation and won increasingly the
respect and affection of her elders. Her outbursts were less
frequent and less violent; she learned to hold her tongue, to
appear calm, to stand with dignity, to move with deliberation.
Her admiration for Causidiena and Numisia and of their statuesque
 attitudes and queenly movements helped her a great deal by both
 conscious and unconscious imitation. It helped her more to find
that she was succeeding better than Meffia. At first Brinnaria
had been notably more prone than Meffia to assume gawky or ungainly
postures, and, as she was the bigger of the two, she was the more
conspicuous.

Before long she began to improve in her bearing, but Meffia did
not. Brinnaria held herself erect, head up and shoulders back.
Meffia slouched and sagged along, a semi-boneless creature, her
clothing hanging on her baggily and unbecomingly.

The difference was particularly noticeable at meals.

In the Roman world all well-to-do people lay down to meals
luxuriously extended on broad sofas. Brinnaria had always had
trouble about her meal-time attitudes, and her mild easy-going
mother had often had to speak to her and bid her remember herself.
In the Atrium she had found her legs kept up their old habits of
getting into strange postures, her feet seemed distressingly in
 evidence, and her knees always in the wrong place.

Causidiena, tactful and sympathetic, solved the problem of how to
influence her by getting her to watch Meffia and to contrast her
with Manlia and Gargilia.

They were almost as statuesque as their two elders, who reclined
at table in attitudes scarcely less majestic than those of the
Fates on the Parthenon pediment. Meffia sprawled uncouthly and
was forever spreading her knees apart, generally with one up in
the air. Her postures were so disgusting that Brinnaria was hot
all over with determination not to be like Meffia.

She succeeded.

Great was her exultation when she perceived that it was no longer
 Brinnaria and Meffia who gave cause for concern to Causidiena, but
Meffia and Brinnaria, great her triumph when she made sure that
Causidiena had ceased worrying about her, or worried only at long
 intervals, but was perpetually solicitous concerning Meffia.

Meffia was indeed a cause of solicitude. She was stupid, slow and
idle about her lessons, tearful on the slightest provocation, inert
at all times and generally ailing, though never actually ill. She
never looked clean, no matter how faithfully her maid toiled over
her; she could somehow reduce, in an amazingly short time, the
neatest attire to the semblance of mussed and rumpled rags; she
slouched and shambled rather than walked, she lolled rather than sat.

Her hands were feeble and ineffective, her writing remained a
childish scrawl, no matter how much she was made to practice, she
 dropped things continually and frequently spilt her food at
meal-time. Most of all was her awkwardness manifest in the temple.

The temple was circular, its roof supported by eighteen splendid
marble columns, the intervals between which were walled up to the
height of not much more than five feet, the space from the top of
the low wall to the roof being filled in with magnificent lattices
of heavy cast bronze; so that the temple was a pleasant, breezy
place on warm days, but very draughty in chilly weather and bitterly
cold in winter. It contained no statue, nor any other object of
worship, except in the center of its floor the circular altar on
which burned the sacred fire, solemnly extinguished and ceremonially
rekindled on each first of March, the New Year's day of the primitive
 Roman Calendar, but which must never at any other time be permitted
to go out, upon whose continual burning depended the prosperity of
Rome, according to the belief implicitly held by all Romans from the
earliest days until Brinnaria's time, and for centuries after. The
extinction of the perpetual fire, whether by accident or by neglect,
was looked upon as a presage of frightful disaster to the nation,
as an omen of impending horrors, almost as the probable cause of
national misfortunes. Without qualification or doubt the people of
 Brinnaria's world believed that, as long as Vesta's holy fire
burned steadily and brightly, Rome was assured the favor and
protection of her gods; that, should it die out, their wrath was
certain to be manifested in terrible afflictions involving the
entire population.

The care of the fire was the chief duty of Brinnaria and her five
associates, as it had been of their predecessors for more than nine
hundred years. As maple was the sacred wood in the Roman ritual,
maple only was used for the holy fire. The size of the pieces used
and their shape was also a matter of immemorial ordinance. Each
piece was about a cubit long, about the length of the forearm of
an average adult, measured from elbow to finger-tips. Each piece
must be wedge-shaped, with the bark on the rounded side and the
other two sides meeting at a sharp edge where had been the heart
of the trunk or branch from which it had been cut. Each piece must
have been clean cleft with a strong sweep of the axe. The pieces
varied from sections of stout trunks to mere slivers from slender
boughs. All were of dry, well-seasoned wood, carefully prepared.

The placing of these on the fire was a matter of ritual and might
be done no otherwise than as prescribed. It was quite a delicate
art to lay the necessary piece in just the right place and at just
the right angle; it required more than a little good sense and
discretion to know just when a piece was required, for the fire
must not burn violently nor must it smoulder, it must be steady
but not strong. This discretion, this good sense, Meffia was slow
to acquire. The art of laying the wood properly she acquired very
imperfectly. She did it well enough under direction; but, even with
Causidiena watching her, she was likely to drop the piece of wood
on the floor, or, what was worse, to drop it on the fire instead
of laying it on. The scattering of ashes on the floor of the temple
was held unseemly, that live coals should fall from the Altar was
 considered almost sacrilegious. Meffia, more than once, perpetrated
such appalling blunders. Very tardily did she learn her duties; only
 after four years could she be trusted to take her regular turn in
care of the fire and to stand her watch of half a night each time
her turn came between sunset and sunrise.

During these four years she had grown into a not unpersonable young
woman, for Roman girls were generally young women at fourteen years
of age. She was never ruddy or robust, always pale, delicate-looking
and fragile-seeming, never actually ill, but usually ailing, peevish,
 limp and querulous. Life in the Atrium largely consisted in the
effort to keep Meffia well, to make sure that she was not overtired,
to foresee and forestall opportunities for her to blunder, to
repair the consequences of her mistakes, generally to protect
and guide her.

In the same four years Brinnaria had developed into a muscular girl,
tall, amply fleshed, robust, rosy, full of healthy vigor, lithe and
strong. She was radiantly handsome, knew it, and was proud of it. Her
 duties she knew to the last, least detail, and Causidiena trusted her
 quite as much as Manlia or Gargilia.

One spring night it was Mafia's watch until midnight, at which time
Brinnaria was to relieve her. It was the custom that, at the end
of her watch, the Vestal) on duty made sure that the fire was
burning properly and then left it and herself waked her relief,
it being entirely inconceivable that, under roof and protected all
 round by bronze lattices, a properly burning fire could go out in
the brief space of time required to leave the temple, enter the
court-yard, cross it, ascend the stairs and for the relieving Vestal
to reach the temple by the same path reversed.

Brinnaria was a sound sleeper. She woke in the pitch dark with the
instant conviction that she had slept long past midnight, with a
sudden qualm of apprehension, of boding, almost of terror.

She was a methodical creature for all her wildness, and very neat
 in her habits. By touch, almost without groping, she dressed in
the dark. Silently she slipped out of her room, noiselessly she
closed the door, softly she groped her way to the stairs, down
the stairs out into the courtyard to the corner of the colonnade.

There, a pace or two beyond the pillars, under the open sky,
she peered up.

The gray light of dawn was faintly hinted in the blackish canopy
of cloud above her.

Swiftly she flitted the length of the court, whisking past the
dimly-seen columns; swiftly she traversed the three small rooms
at its eastern end, panting she plunged through the dark doorway
into the dark temple.

There was no flicker of fire-light on the carved and gilded
panels of the lofty ceiling; the ceiling, in fact, was invisible,
 unguessable in the gloom.

There was no glow upon the altar, not even a glimmer of redness
through the ashes.

Brinnaria held her hand over the ashes. Nowhere could she discern
more than the merest hint of warmth.

On the back of her hands, as on the back of her neck, she could
feel the chill of the faintly stirring dawn wind that breathed
through the bronze lattices and across the temple interior.

She felt among the wood piled ready, found a slender sliver of a
cleft branchlet, and methodically ploughed the ashes across and
across. She did bring to the surface a faint redness, but not
even one coal which could have been blown into sufficient heat
to start a flame on her splinter of dry maple.

A sound assailed her ears.

Meffia snoring!

Guided by the gurgling noise she found Meffia crumpled in a heap
on the mosaic floor against the base of one of the pillars.

Brinnaria kicked her once viciously and shook her repeatedly.

Slowly, dazedly, Meffia half awoke, whining:

"Where am I?" she gasped.

"In the temple!" Brinnaria replied.

"Oh!" Meffia exclaimed, "what has happened?"

"You went to sleep, you little fool," Brinnaria raged at her,
"and the fire has gone out."

"Oh! what shall we do?" wailed Meffia, "what shall we do?"

"Do?" snarled Brinnaria. "It's plain enough what you have to do.
Go to your room, go to bed and go' to sleep, stay asleep, keep
your mouth shut, say nothing, pretend you woke me at midnight,
pretend you had nothing to do with the fire going out, pretend
you know nothing about it, keep your face straight, keep mum,
leave the rest to me!"

"But," wailed Meffia, "if they think you let the fire go out
you'll be scourged for it."

"Well," snapped Brinnaria, "what's that to you? Go to bed."

"But," Meffia insisted, "I let it go out. I ought to take the
blame, not you. I ought to be scourged with you."

"You insufferable little idiot," Brinnaria hurled at her, "you
never could stand a flogging, you'd die of it most likely. To a
certainty you'd be ill, and have to be sent off to be nursed and
kept away for a month or more to recover. I won't have Causidiena
 worried with any such performances. And as sure as the fire is
out, you'd behave like the poor creature you are. You'd scream
and howl and faint and shame us all.

"No flogging of you if I can help it!

"Now, go to bed!"

"But," protested Meffia, "why need either of us be flogged? I have
 tinder and flint and steel in my room. We could light the fire
and no one ever know it."

"You imbecile child! You silly baby! You wicked, horrible, sacrilegious
 girl!" Brinnaria stormed. "You irreligious, atheistical, blasphemous
wretch! To save your hide you'd desecrate the temple, pollute the Altar,
 anger Vesta, make all our prayers in vain, bring down curses without
 count on Rome and all of us. Be silent! Don't you dare to speak
another word! Off to bed with you!"

"But," Meffia trembled, "you hate me; why do you take my
punishment?"

"I don't hate you," hissed Brinnaria. "I despise you! And I've told
you why I'm going to take the licking. Off to bed with you !"

"But," Meffia still persisted, "what will you do?"

"Do?" whispered Brinnaria. "Do? Why I'll curl up where you've
left a warm spot on the floor and go to sleep and sleep till
some one finds me. I can sleep any time."

"But think of the scourging!" Meffia insisted.

"I shan't," Brinnaria maintained. "I shan't think of it a moment.
I never did mind a licking. It's bad enough while it lasts, but
soon over. No licking will worry me. I'll sleep like a top. Now
to bed with you, or I'll break every bone in your worthless body!"
 Meffia started to speak again; Brinnaria caught her gullet in one
 strong, young hand, clutched her neck with the other, and craftily
 pressed one thumb behind one of Meffia's ears.

Meffia squeaked like a snared rabbit.

"There!" Brinnaria whispered fiercely. "Now you know how badly I
can hurt you when I try. If you let on that it was you and not I
that let the fire go out what I did to you then won't amount to
anything to what I'll do to you. I'll kill you. Promise you'll
keep mum."

"I promise," gasped Meffia.

"Go to bed!" Brinnaria hissed.

Meffia went.

Brinnaria, left alone, did all she could to make the ashes on the
Altar look like the remains of a fire that had died out of itself,
to efface all signs of her efforts to find live coals under the
ashes. She judged that she had succeeded pretty well.

Then she composed herself on the floor and was asleep in ten breaths.

There Manlia found her when the daylight was already strong.

When wakened Brinnaria merely remarked:

"It can't be helped. I always did sleep too sound." That day was
a gloomy day in Rome. The report was noised abroad that the holy
fire had gone out and a chill of horror spread through all classes
of the population, from the richest to the poorest.

The Romans were very far from being what they are represented to
have been by unsympathetic modern writers on them. Practically
all modern writers have been unsympathetic with the Romans, for
the Romans were Pagans and all modern writers on them have been
more or less Christians, chiefly interested in Pagans because most
 Pagans were in the later centuries converted to Christianity. With
that fact in the foreground of their thoughts and with the
utterances of Roman skeptics and dilettantes well in view, most
modern writers assert what they sincerely believe, that the Romans
had only the vaguest and most lukewarm religious faith, and no
vivid devout convictions at all.

The facts were entirely the other way. There were agnostics among
the cultured leisure classes, there were unbelievers of various
degrees everywhere in the towns and cities. But the mass of the
population, not only universally, all over the countryside, but
collectively in the urban centers, believed in their gods as
implicitly as they believed in heat and cold, birth and death,
fire and water, pleasure and pain. Government, from the Roman
point of view, was a partnership between the Roman people, as
represented by their senate, and the gods. Under the Republic
every election had appeared to the Romans who participated in
it to be a rite for ascertaining what man would be most pleasing
to the gods to fill the position in question. Under the Empire the
 selection of a new Emperor, whether a confirmation by the senate
of the previous Emperor's accredited heir, or an acclamation by the
 army of the soldiers' favorite, appeared to the Romans as the
 determination of the gods' preference for a particular individual
 as their chief partner.

The choice of war or peace, of battle or maneuvering for delay,
seemed to the Romans the taking of the advice of the gods, who
manifested their injunctions by various signs, by the appearance
of the liver, heart, lungs and kidneys of the cattle and sheep
sacrificed, by the flight of birds, by the shape of the flames of
altar-fires, all regarded as definite answers to explicit questions;
who also made suggestions or gave warnings by means of earthquakes,
floods, conflagrations, pestilences, eclipses, by the aurora
borealis, by any sort of strange happening.

The extinction of the sacred fire in the Temple of Vesta was looked
upon as a categorical warning that the behavior of the Romans or of
some part of them or the conduct of the government was so displeasing
 to the gods that the Empire would come to a sudden end unless matters
 were at once corrected. All Romans believed that as implicitly as they
 believed that food would keep them alive or that steel could kill them.

Therefore the days after Meffia let the fire go out were gloomy days
in Rome. The report of a great defeat for their army, with a terrible
 slaughter of their best soldiers would not have depressed the crowds
 more.

The people were as dazed, numb and silent as after the first news
of a terrific disaster. Every kind of public amusement or diversion
was postponed, merry-making ceased everywhere, the wildest and most
 reckless felt no inclination towards frivolity, even the games of
 children were checked and repressed, gravity and solemnity enveloped
 the entire city and its vast suburbs. The men talked soberly, as
if at a funeral; while for women of every degree, but especially
for the matrons of the upper classes, the three ensuing days were
days of prayer and fasting.

For the Pontiffs they were anxious and busy days.

Both Emperors were away from Rome, Lucius Verus in
Greece, on his way home from Antioch and the great
victories of his three years' campaign against the Parthians,
Marcus Aurelius in Germany hastening from point to point
along the headwaters of the Rhine and Danube, desperately
resisting the pertinacious attacks of the Marcomanni. The
Pontiffs were without their chief and acted under the leadership
of Faltonius Bambilio, Pontifex of Vesta, the busiest and most
anxious of them all. In consultation with the august College of
Pontiffs, hastily assembled at the Regia, a splendid building
occupying the site of Numa's rustic palace, near the great Forum
and close to the Temple of Vesta, he arranged for the necessary
ceremonial of expiation and atonement.

Besides the fasting of the women all over the city, besides their
day-long and night-long prayers, besides the sacrifices which
each matron must personally offer in her own house, besides
the sacrifices which must be offered for the matrons in the
Temple of Castor and in the less popular women's temples in
every quarter of the city, there must he public sacrifices of cattle,
sheep and swine, there must be solemn and gorgeous processions;
every sort of ceremonial traditionally supposed to mitigate the
wrath of the gods, to placate them, to win their favor, must be
carried out with every detail of care, with the utmost magnificence.

Meanwhile, and above all, the negligent Vestal must be punished;
and at once the sacred fire must be ritually rekindled.

The ritual rekindling worried and exhausted Bambilio not a little.

The procedure was traditional and rigidly prescribed in every detail.
The sacred fire might not be rekindled by anything so modern as a
flint and steel, far less by anything so much more modern as a burning
glass.

The primitive fire drill must be used and the fresh fire produced by the
friction of wood on wood.

The ritual prescribed that a plank of apple wood, about two inches
thick, about two feet wide and about three feet long, should be placed on a
firm support, upon which it would rest solidly without any tendency to joggle.
At its middle was bored a small circular depression, about the size of a man's
thumb-nail and shallow. Into this was thrust the tapered end of a round rod
of maple wood about as thick as a large man's thumb. The upper end of the
rod fitted freely into a socket in a ball of maple wood of suitable size to be
held in the left hand and pressed down so as to press the lower end of the
rod into the hole in the apple wood plank. Round the middle of the rod was
looped a bow-string kept taut by a strong bow. By grasping the bow in his
right hand and sawing it back and forth, the operator caused the rod to whirl
round, first one way and then the other, with great velocity. The friction of its
lower end soon heated up the hole in the apple-wood plank, and round that
were piled chips of dry apple-wood, which, if the operator was strong and
skilled, soon burst into flame.

Bambilio was fat and clumsy. Before he had succeeded he was dripping
with perspiration, limp with weariness and ready to faint. But succeed he
did. The quart or more of apple-wood chips burst into flame at last;
Causidiena, standing ready with the prescribed copper sieve, caught
the blazing chips as they were tilted off the plank, conveyed them to the
Altar, placed maple splinters on them, and soon had the sacred fire
burning properly.

The punishment of the guilty Vestal was even more a matter of
concern, of trepidation. She must be scourged that very night,
and, as in respect to the rekindling of the fire, every detail of
what must be done was prescribed by immemorial tradition,
long since committed to writing, among the statutes of the order.

The scourging must be done by the Pontiff himself.

The scourge must be one with a maple-wood handle and three
thongs of leather made from the hide of a roan heifer. In each
thong were knotted the tiny, horny half-hoofs of a newborn
white lamb, eight to a thong, twenty-four in all. These bits of horny
hoof tore and cut terribly the bare back of the victim. It was
prescribed that the scourge must be laid on vigorously, not lightly.

The Vestal scourged must be entirely nude. As it would have
been sacrilege unspeakable for a man to see the ankle or shoulder
of a Vestal, let alone her entire body, it was enjoined that the
scourging take place at midnight, in a shut room, and that a
woolen curtain should hang between the Pontifex and his victim.

Bambilio was terribly wrought up at the prospect of the
perplexing and delicate duty before him. He was fat and
short-winded and would suffer from the effort of laying on
the blows. He was as pious as possible and quaked inwardly
with the dread that, in spite of the dark room and the curtain,
he might catch a glimpse of his victim and bring down the
wrath of the gods on himself and on Rome. And, apart from all
else, he was shame-faced and hot and cold at the idea of being
in the same room, even in a darkened room screened by a
curtain, with a naked Vestal. He blushed and shuddered. To
be sure, it was prescribed that one other Vestal was to be in the
room, on the same side of the curtain as the victim, to say
when the scourging had continued long enough and the negligent
Vestal had been sufficiently punished. But this comforted Bambilio
very little.

He wished the ordeal over.

At midnight he stood in the dark, close to the curtain. The darkness
was not as dark as he should have liked. Some ghost of a glimmer of
starshine filtered into the room and he could make out the shape of
the curtain. He waited, scourge in hand.

Presently Numisia spoke, told him that Brinnaria was prepared
for her beating, took his left hand and guided it in the dark. He
felt the curtain's edge against his wrist, felt a warm soft elbow,
grasped it, and at once gained a notion of the direction in which
he was to lay on his blows.

He struck round the other side of the curtain and felt that the
scourge met its mark, but slantingly and draggingly. He tried
again and seemed to do better.

For the third blow he made the scourge whistle through the air.

"Hit harder, you old fool," spoke Brinnaria, "you're barely
tapping me!" That made him angry and Brinnaria experienced
as severe a scourging as any fat old gentleman could have compassed.

She did not shriek, sob or whimper: not a sound escaped her.
She suffered, suffered acutely, particularly when one of the
lamb hoofs struck a second time on a bleeding gash in her back
or on a swollen weal. But her physical pain was drowned in a
rising tide of anger and wrath. She felt the long repressed,
half-forgotten tomboy, hoyden Brinnaria surging up in her and
gaining mastery. She fairly boiled with rage, she blazed and
flamed inwardly with a conflagration of resentment. It was all
she could do not to tear down the curtain, spring on Bambilio,
wrench his scourge from his hand and lay it on him. She kept still
and silent, but she felt her inward tornado of emotion gaining strength.

When Numisia spoke Bambilio let go Brinnaria's arm and stepped
back a pace. "My daughter," he said, "you have been punished
enough. Your punishment is accomplished. This is sufficient."

Then Brinnaria spoke, in a voice tense, not with pain, but with fury:

"You won't hit me again?"

"No, my daughter," said Bambilio, "no more."

"You have quite done beating me?" she demanded.

"Quite done," he replied.

Then, unexpectedly to herself, Brinnaria's wrath boiled over.

"Then," she fairly yelled at him, "I'm going to begin beating you.
Shut your eyes. I'm going to pull down the curtain!"

Numisia made a horrified grab at Brinnaria and missed her.
Brinnaria gave her a push; Numisia slipped, fell her length
on the floor, struck her head and either fainted or was stunned.

Bambilio, his eyes tight shut, the instant after Numisia's head
cracked the floor, heard snap the string supporting the curtain.

He shut his eyes tighter.

He felt the scourge wrenched from his limp fingers, felt the back
of his neck grasped by a muscular young hand, felt the impact of
the twenty-four sheep-hoofs on his back.

Through his clothing they stung and smarted.

There came another blow and another. Bambilio tried to get away,
but he dreaded unseemly contact with a naked Vestal and did not
succeed in his efforts.

The blows fell thick and fast. He was an old man exhausted by a
long day of excitement and by his exertions while scourging Brinnaria.

His knees knocked together, he gasped, he snorted: the pain of the
blows made him feel faint; he collapsed on the floor.

Then Brinnaria did beat him, till the blood ran from his back almost
as from hers, beat him till the old man fainted dead away.

When her arm was tired she gave him a kick, threw the scourge
on him and groped for Numisia.

Numisia had sat up.

"My child," she said, "why did you do it?"

"I don't know," snarled Brinnaria. "I was furious. I did it before
I thought. Are you hurt?"

"No," said Numisia. "Don't tell anyone you pushed me. I'll never tell.
I don't blame you, dear." She fainted again.

Causidiena, waiting under the colonnade of the courtyard, was
appalled to descry in the gloom a totally naked Brinnaria, a mass
of clothing hanging over her arm.

"My child," she protested, "why did you not put on your clothes?"

"I don't care who sees me!" Brinnaria retorted. "I'm boiling hot;
I'm all over sweat and blood and my back's cut to ribbons."

"What are you going to do?" Causidiena queried.

"I'm going to bed," Brinnaria replied. "Please send Utta to me
and tell her to bring the turpentine jug and the salt box."

"My dear," Causidiena objected, "you'll never endure the pain!"

"Yes, I shall," Brinnaria maintained. "I'll set my teeth and stand
the smart. I don't mean to have a festered back. I'll have Utta
rub me with salt and turpentine from neck to hips; I'll be asleep
before she's done rubbing."

"I'll come and see she does it properly," Causidiena said.

"Better not," said Brinnaria. "Numisia and Bambilio need
you worse than I do."

"Why?" queried Causidiena.

"After Bambilio was done beating me," Brinnaria explained calmly,
"I beat him. Numisia tried to stop me and somehow fell on the floor
and was stunned. She came to after I was done with Bambilio, but she
fainted again. I beat him till he is just a lump of raw meat, eleven-twelfths
dead, wallowing in his blood like a sausage in a plate of gravy."

"My child!" Causidiena cried, "this is sacrilege!"

"Not a bit of it!" Brinnaria maintained, a tall, white shape in the
star-shine, waving her armful of clothing.

"I have pored over the statutes of the order. It was incumbent
on me to keep still and silent all through my licking. But I defy
you or any other Vestal or any Pontiff or Flamen or either of
the Emperors to show me a word on the statutes of the order or
in any other sacred writing that forbids a Vestal, after her thrashing,
to beat the Pontifex to red pulp. I have. You'd better go help him; he
might die. And poor Numisia needs reviving. I'm all right; send me
Utta and the salt and turpentine, and I'll be fit for duty in a day or two."

"You terrible child!" said Causidiena.


CHAPTER IX - ALARMS



THE next year was the year of the great pestilence. Pestilence,
indeed, had ravaged Italy for five consecutive summers previous
to that year. But the great pestilence, for two centuries afterwards
spoken of merely as "the pestilence," fell in the nine hundred and
nineteenth year after the founding of Rome, the year 166 of our era,
when Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus had been co-Emperors
for a little more than five years and Brinnaria had been almost five
years a Vestal. It devastated the entire Empire from Nisibis in upper
Mesopotamia to Segontium, opposite the isle of Anglesea. Every
farm, hamlet and village suffered; in not one town did it leave more
than half the inhabitants alive; few cities escaped with so much as a
third of the population surviving. Famine accompanied the pestilence
in all the western portions of the Roman world, and from famine
perished many whom the plague had spared.

This disaster was, in fact, the real deathblow to Rome's greatness
and from it dates the decline of the Roman power. It broke the
tradition of civilization and culture which had grown from the
small beginnings of the primitive Greeks and Etruscans more
than two thousand years before. During all those two thousand
years there had been a more or less steady and a scarcely interrupted
development of the agriculture, manufactures, arts, skill, knowledge
and power of the mass of humanity about the Mediterranean Sea;
men who fought with shields and spears and swords, also with
arrows and slings, believed in approximately the same sort of gods;
wore clothing rather wrapped round them than upholstered on their
bodies as with us; reclined on sofas at meals; lived mostly out of
doors all the year round; built their houses about courtyards, and
made rows of columns the chief feature of their architecture, and
sheltering themselves in colonnades, sunny or shady according to
the time of the year, the chief feature of their personal comfort. Up
to the year of the great pestilence that civilization had prospered, had
produced a long series of generals, inventors, architects, sculptors,
painters, musicians, poets, authors, and orators. Everywhere men
had shown self-confidence, capacity, originality, power and competence
and had achieved success for two thousand years.

The great pestilence of 166 so depleted the population that Rome never
again pushed forward the boundaries of her Empire. Some lucky
armies won occasional victories, but Rome never again put on the
field an overwhelming army for foreign conquest, never again could
fully man, even defensively, the long line of her frontiers.

All classes of the people suffered, but most of all the rich, the
well-to-do, the educated and the cultured classes of the towns and
cities. And the main point of difference between the great pestilence
and the others which had preceded it was the universality of its
incidence. For two thousand years pestilence had occurred at intervals,
but previously not everywhere at once.

If one country suffered others did not; if half the Mediterranean world,
even, was devastated, the other half escaped. From the immune regions
competence and capacity had flowed into the ruined areas and
civilization had gone on. But the great pestilence left no district
unharmed. In six months it killed off all the brains and skill, all the
culture and ingenuity in the Empire. There were so few capable men
left in any line of activity that the next generation grew up practically
untaught. The tradition of two thousand years was broken. In all the
Mediterranean world, until centuries later, descendants of the savage
invaders developed their new civilization on the ruins of the old; no
man ever again made a great speech, wrote a great book or play or
poem, painted a good picture, carved a good statue, or contrived a good
campaign or battle. The brains of the Roman world died that year, the
originality of the whole nation was killed at once, the tradition broke off.

Of course, the survivors did not realize the finality of the disaster, but
they did realize its magnitude. In Italy, fed almost wholly by imported
food, the famine was most severe. In Italy the pestilence was most virulent.
Men disputed as to whether the great army of Lucius Verus, returned
home from its splendid victories in Parthia, had brought with it a form
of pestilence worse than that of the five previous years, or whether the
returned soldiers had merely been a specially easy prey to the pestilence
already abroad in Rome. Whichever was true, the veterans died like
flies. So did the residents of Rome. Whole blocks of tenements were
emptied of their last occupier and stood wholly vacant; many palaces
of the wealthy were left without so much as a guardian, the last inmate
dead; the splendid furnishings, even the silver plate, untouched in every
room; for the plague had so ravaged Rome that there were not even
robbers and thieves left to steal To the survivors, since genuine piety
as they knew it was all but universal among the Romans, it was some
small comfort, a faint ray of hope, a sign that the gods were not
inexorably wrathful, that, after Rabulla's death, there was no case of
pestilence in the Atrium, not even among the servitors, that no Vestal so
much as sickened. Through it all the six remained hale and sound.

But when the plague abated, only Manlia had any living relations left her.
The other five had lost every kinsman and kinswoman, to the ninth and
tenth degree.

Brinnaria's parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins were
all among the victims. This left her grave and sobered with grief, with
no trace of her girlish wildness apparent.

It also left her enormously rich, one of the wealthiest women in Rome.

Not a tenth so wealthy, but still very rich, it left Almo, Vocco and Flexinna,
all of whom survived.

As the plague had been rife, worse each year, for some seasons before
the year of the great pestilence, so, ebbing yearly, it continued for some
years after its acme. As soon as the worst was manifestly over the life
of Rome began to revive to some degree, the city dwellers plucked up
heart, the refugees began to return to their town houses, hunger and
terror were forgotten, industry and commerce rallied, bustle and activity
increased from day to day, and, slowly indeed, but steadily, Rome
returned to its normal activity and appearance. The survivors
reconstructed their life on the old lines, the streets and squares
were again thronged, the public baths, those vast casinos of ancient
club-life, were daily crowded with idlers.

The repopulation of the city brought into it many rich families from
towns all over the Roman world.

Their influx sent up the price of large residences and caused much
activity in the renting and selling of properties suitable for the homes
of people of ample means.

Brinnaria, without a male relation of even the remotest degree, came
to lean more and more on Vocco, the husband of her chum Flexinna.
He was a young man of not unpleasing appearance and of courtly
manners, but very haughty, reserved and silent by nature; and exceedingly
spare, lean and wiry, with black hair and brows, a complexion as if
tanned and weatherbeaten and an habitual frown. He was fond of Brinnaria
and unbent to her more than to most of his acquaintances. She treated him
as a sort of honorary cousin and turned over to him many details of the
care of her large and scattered property. He took upon himself in her
interest the sale or management of her distant estates, found for them
capable overseers or purchasers at advantageous prices, bought slaves
where they were needed, arranged for the marketing of the more
important products and accounted to her for the proceeds.

About her town properties he had more trouble and some exasperation,
for he found the apparently practical and unsentimental Brinnaria oddly
unwilling to disturb the contents of the palaces in which her kinsmen had
lived and died. She was naturally a good business woman and all her
instincts urged her to increase her capital and her income by every means
within her power and at every opportunity. Yet, when Vocco came to
her with offers of high prices for the various buildings which she had
inherited he could induce her to arrange for the sale only of the smaller
and less valuable houses, or of those tenements which had been owned
merely to rent, but had never been inhabited by any members of the
Brinnarian clan. At the suggestion of preparing for sale any of the
palaces of her near kinsfolk she balked; from the barest hint towards
moving the furniture in her father's home she recoiled in horror.

Vocco found himself faced by invincible femininity, with the possession
of which he would not have credited Brinnaria. At first he was irritated.
As he missed sale after sale he became more and more aggravated. But
he kept his temper, held his tongue and waited for Brinnaria's mood to
alter. Her sentimentality gradually waned as the prices offered steadily
mounted. After long hesitation she gave orders to sell at auction the
furniture from the house of a distant cousin, and to rent the house. That
broke the spell. One by one the late abodes of the Brinnarii were cleared
and sold; sold furniture and all, cleared and rented, or rented furnished.

The former dwellings of her aunts and uncles she was reluctant to disturb.
She felt a sort of sacredness about these splendid houses where she had
been merry as a child. When at last she made up her mind to part with
one she would not give the order to sell it until she had gone over it herself
and selected some pieces of furniture which she specially valued. Vocco
tried to dissuade her, but she would not listen to him.

Her visit to the vast, empty palace had a most depressing effect on her.
All her grief at her countless bereavements rushed back over her in a
flood and overwhelmed her. She would not allow a stick of furniture
to be moved and withdrew her consent to the sale.

Vocco was patient and silent.

After a time this mood, too, wore off.

She had that particular dwelling emptied and sold and, once that first step
taken, under the pressure of hugely profitable offers, sold all the other
properties.

In each case she insisted on inspecting the houses room by room before
anything was moved. After the first she had no hysterical qualms, did
not show any outward emotion, selected what she meant to keep for
herself, ordered the sale of the rest, remained calm through it all.

Finally Vocco came to her with a most tempting offer for her childhood
home. Brinnaria took a night to think it over.

She had not entered the place since her father's funeral. He had been
the last of the family to die, three months after his wife, and some days
after his last surviving son. During the lengthy interval the palace had
stood shut fast, cared for only by a few slaves, and those not lifelong
family servants, but recent purchases; for the pestilence had carried
off with their masters nearly all the home-bred house slaves.

At the thought of going through the deserted halls and silent rooms
Brinnaria winced. But she nerved herself up to it. She named a day
on which she meant to face the ordeal, asked Vocco to order the
palace swept and dusted, and announced to Guntello, almost the
sole survivor of her father's personal servitors, that he was to
accompany her.

When the day came she set out, not in her carriage, but in her litter
 with eight Cilician bearers, her lictor running ahead and Guntello
and Utta walking behind.

She began her survey accompanied by Guntello and Utta. But when she
came to the nursery and schoolroom she sent the two away, told them
to wait for her in the peristyle, shut herself in and had a long, hard
cry; precisely as if she had been, as of old, a little girl hurt or angry
or vexed. After she had wept till no more tears flowed she felt relieved
and comforted.

She called Utta, had her bring water, bathed her face and sent the
maid away again.

Then she resolutely examined room after room. The second floor took
a long while, for there were many doors to open and close for the last time.

There was a third floor, a feature possessed by few dwellings in Rome
in ancient times. The Imperial Palace, which later towered to even
seven stories, was unique in Brinnaria's time, in the possession of
five superposed floors. The great palace of Sallust, near the Salarian
Gate, had but three.

To the third floor she mounted. Before she had investigated half the
rooms she found a door fast. What was more, as she tried it, she
thought she heard a sound, as of human movement, inside that room.

Brinnaria was no weakling. Methodically she tried that door with her
full, young strength, tried it all along its edge opposite its hinges, tried it
at the middle, at the top, at the bottom. She made sure the door was not
stuck or jammed; she was convinced that it was bolted within the room.

She leaned over the railing of the gallery and called Guntello.

The odd note in her voice brought that faithful giant up the stairs, two
steps at a time; the beams of the house, even the marble steps of the
stair, seemed to quiver under his tread.

She had him try the door. He agreed that it was bolted.

"Can you break it in?" she queried.

Guntello laughed. "Without half trying, little Mistress," he replied.

Brinnaria's voice came hard and sharp.

"You in that room!" she called, "unbolt that door and come out, or
it will be the worse for you. I'll count ten and then order the door
burst open." She began to count.

She heard the bolt shot back.

She nodded to Guntello.

He gave the door a push.

Before them stood Calvaster, his attitude and countenance expressing
cringing cowardice, cloaked by ill-assumed effrontery. He did not speak,
trying to appear unconcerned.

"What are you doing in my house?" Brinnaria demanded.

"I do not wonder that you are astonished to see me here and angry
as well," Calvaster replied, "but the explanation is simple. I learned
that you were proposing to sell the property. I had a curiosity to see it
as it is. I found means to slip in and go over the building. I counted on
leaving before you arrived. I miscalculated, that is all. Awkward for
both of us, but unintentional on my part."

"I don't believe half of that rigmarole," snapped Brinnaria.

"It is all true, nevertheless," Calvaster asserted with an air of injured
innocence.

"One thing is plain, anyhow," Brinnaria declared. "You bribed one
of my slaves. Which one did you bribe?"

Calvaster kept his lips pressed tight together.

"March him downstairs, Guntello," Brinnaria commanded.

Calvaster winced and made. as if to dodge. Big as he was Guntello
was wonderfully quick. In a flash he had the intruder by the neck.
Utterly helpless Calvaster was marched down the stairs.

In the courtyard Brinnaria had brought before her the half dozen
slaves who had charge of the empty house. They stood in a row
fidgeting and glancing at each other.

"Now," she demanded of Calvaster, "point out which one you bribed."
Calvaster remained motionless and mute.

"Hurt him, Guntello," said Brinnaria.

Guntello applied a few. simple twists and squeezes, such as schoolboys
of all climes employ on their victims.

Calvaster yielded at once and indicated one of the suspects.

"Throw him out, Guntello," said Brinnaria.

When Guntello returned he cheerfully inquired, with the easy
assurance of an indulged favorite.

"Shall I kill Tranio, Mistress?"

"No!" said Brinnaria viciously. "I wouldn't have a toad killed on
the word of that contemptible scoundrel. Give Tranio a moderate
beating and hand him over to Olynthides to be sold at auction
without a character." Her survey of her former home and her
selection of the ornaments, pictures, statues, articles of furniture
and other objects which she desired reserved for herself she
completed with an air less of melancholy than of puzzled thought.

She was off duty for all of that day and night and was to dine with
Flexinna and Vocco. In the course of the pestilence they had inherited
a magnificent abode on the Esquiline. In particular it had a private
bath with a large swimming-pool. The Vestals were the only ladies
in Rome who might not enjoy the magnificent public baths, to which
all Roman society flocked every afternoon, somewhat as we moderns
throng a beach at a fashionable seaside resort. Brinnaria, who
loved swimming, felt the deprivation keenly. The Atrium had
luxurious baths, but no swimming-pool. Whenever Brinnaria dined
with Flexinna she particularly enjoyed the swim the two always
took together before dinner. On that afternoon, while they were
revelling in the water, Brinnaria told Flexinna of her adventure.

"I can't conjecture," she said, "what motive brought him there.
I have been racking my brains about it ever since it happened
and it is an enigma to me."

"No riddle to me," Flexinna declared. "It's as c-c-clear as d-d-daylight."

"If you are so sure," said Brinnaria, "explain. I have no guess even."

"Why," expounded Flexinna, "he was there to c-c-collect evidence
against you. He hates you because you wouldn't marry him and he
is t-t-tenaciously resolved to be revenged. He is on the lookout for
anything that might d-d-discredit you. He hoped to spy on an interview
b-b-between you and Almo, for he surmised that you would arrange
to have Almo meet you in the empty house!"

"The nasty beast!" cried Brinnaria, shocked. "How dare he?"

"Oh, b-b-be sensible," Flexinna admonished her. "You know the
k-k-kind he is. He's b-b-bound to impute to everybody what he
would d-d-do in their p-p-place. Any man under the same
circumstances would jump at the same suspicions."

"But why?" queried Brinnaria, bewildered and angry.

"Think a minute," said Flexinna. "To suspect all women is a
c-c-convention, almost an axiom, with most men. All men like
C-C-Calvaster assume that every married woman is interested
in some man b-b-besides her husband, or in almost any man,
and if married women are under suspicion, on the assumption
that one husband is not enough, of c-c-course you Vestals,
who haven't even a husband, are doubly under suspicion."

"Bah!" snarled Brinnaria, "you make me cross!"

"Facts are facts," Flexinna summed up.

Brinnaria did not retort. She had climbed out of the tank and
was seated on the edge, the drops streaming off her in rivulets,
watching the ripples her toes' made in the water.

"Facts are facts," she echoed, "and conjectures are merely
conjectures; what is more, conjectures ought to have some
basis in fact. You assert, as if you know it to he true, that
Calvaster expected Almo to meet me to-day. But Almo is
at Falerii."

"No, he's not," Flexinna retorted; "he's b-b-been in t-t-town
t-t-ten d-d-days and has had the old house on the C-C-Carinae
reopened. He's settling d-d-down to live in Rome."

Brinnaria flushed.

"I think," she said, scrambling to her feet, "that he might
have had enough consideration for me to stay in the country."

"So d-d-do I," said Flexinna.



CHAPTER X - CONFERENCE



SOME months later, during one of the brief and infrequent
breathing spells in his ten years' fight to beat off the raids of
the Marcomanni and other Germanic tribes, Aurelius returned
from the Rhine frontier to Rome. As soon as she was
reasonably sure that the Emperor was rested from the fatigues
of his journey and had disposed of the worst of his accumulated
routine duties, Brinnaria sought a second audience with the
chief of the nation.

She was then a tall, grave girl of nineteen, looking and behaving
like a woman of twenty-five. Very handsome she was, full-fleshed
without a trace of plumpness, fun breasted without a hint of
overabundance. Her brown hair, now grown long again after
its ceremonial shearing at her entrance into the order of Vestals,
was so dark that it was almost black. Arranged in the six braids
traditional for Vestals and wound round her head like a coronet
it became her notably. Her complexion was creamy, with a
splendid brilliant color that came and went in her cheeks. Her
expression of face was an indescribable blend of kindliness and
haughtiness towards others, of austerity and cheerfulness
inwardly, of intellectuality and comprehension towards life at
large. She had acquired the statuesqueness of the conventional
Vestal attitudes and movements, but she sat and stood so that
all beholders felt a vivid impression of her vitality, of reserve
strength, incomparably beyond anything possessed by her five
colleagues.

Her stately pacing as she walked always appeared the conscious
restraint of what, of itself, would have been a swinging stride. She
wore her clothes with an unanalyzable difference, with a sort of
effrontery, as Calvaster put it in talking of her to his cronies.

On her way to the palace, erect in her white robe amid the gorgeous
crimson hangings of her gilded state coach, she meditated on the
great dissimilarity between the feelings with which she had gone
to her first audience with the Emperor and those with which she
now approached his abode. Then she had been palpitating with
conscientious scruples and childish dreads, now she was sure
of herself and of her errand; then she had thought chiefly of her
mother and of the traditions of her family and clan, now not
only her mother was dead, but the whole family of the Epulones
had perished except herself and the Brinnarian clan was
represented by but three families, her relationship to which was
fainter than any assignable degree of cousinship; then she had
been full of elation at her lofty position in the world, now she
was perfectly at home in her environment and felt no emotion
at the thought of it.

At the palace she found herself in the same vast room, alone
with a somewhat older and graver Emperor, now sole ruler
of their world since the death of his colleague, Lucius Verus.
He greeted her kindly, with an air of effort to conceal his
weariness, and when both were seated asked her errand.

"In the first place," she said, "I want you to tell me whether
you are satisfied with the reports you have had of me."

Aurelius half smiled.

"I am well pleased in respect to all your actions but one," he said.
"You have certainly done better than I expected or hoped. You
have curbed your wild nature so well that, of late years, you have
behaved altogether as a Vestal should. Even earlier your conduct
was creditable, since from the very day of your promise to me,
your outbursts were less and less frequent and also less and less
violent. Once only have you acted so that I felt displeased when
I heard what you had done and feel somewhat displeased even yet."

"I suppose," Brinnaria ruminated, "you mean my larruping Bambilio."

"Yes," Aurelius admitted. "That was in a sense unforgivable. Had
I been in Rome at the time I must have animadverted upon it with
the greatest severity."

"If you had been in Rome at the time," spoke Brinnaria boldly, "I
should not have been flogged by any mere deputy Pontifex of Vesta.
It would have been incumbent upon you, as Pontifex Maximus,
yourself to give me my ceremonial scourging. To you I should
have been, of course, as submissive after my beating as while it
was going on. No harm would have been done."

The Emperor smiled more than a half smile.

"I am not sure," he said, "that any harm was done, anyhow."

"What!" cried Brinnaria. "You excuse me? You defend me?"

"Softly! Softly!" the Emperor caveatted, raising his hand. "I do
not acquit you nor exonerate you. But I do make allowances.
And we must distinguish. We must not confuse the causes of my
disapprobation of what you did with my reasons for believing
that no harm resulted. Nor, for that matter, must we confound
with either of them those qualities in yourself and those
circumstances of the case which make me feel, illogically perhaps,
but very possibly, more inclined to thank you than to censure you."

"Castor be good to me!" cried Brinnaria. "Am I dreaming?"

"Don't interrupt, you disrespectful minx," the Emperor laughed;
"this is a lecture. Hear it out.

"In the first place you were technically right in saying that there
is not one word in any sacred writing or in the pronouncements
of the Pontiffs or the statutes of the Vestals to forbid a flogged
Vestal from beating her scourger. Just as Solon in the code of
laws which he drew up for the Athenians prescribed no penalty
for the slayer of his father or mother, because, as he explained
when the omission was pointed out to him, he had thought that
no child would ever kill its parents; so no framer of rubrics ever
foresaw the necessity of forbidding what no one conceived of as
possible. All persons were assumed to be too much in awe of
Pontiffs, for anyone to dare to raise a hand against any Pontiff,
least of all a Vestal against her spiritual father. The world had
to wait for a Brinnaria to demonstrate that the unimaginable
could come to pass.

"Yet the very fact that it was nowhere written down that you
must not do it makes your act all the worse. It was monstrous.

"But fortunately it was not sacrilegious. The person of the
Pontifex of Vesta is not sacrosanct and a blow inflicted on
him is not to be rated as impious. Your act called for no
expiation, personal or official. It did not desecrate him, or
you, nor the place where it occurred.

"Besides, I cannot resist admitting to you,"--and the Emperor
smiled an unmistakable smile--"that this particular Pontiff of
Vesta is farther from being sacrosanct than any of his predecessors.
As far as I can learn, Faltonius is a worthy man, pious and
scrupulous. But he is absurdly unfitted for his office in appearance
and in manner. The self-importance he assumes, the pomposity
with which he performs his duties, would be too great even for
an Emperor. He irritates all of us. All of us have wished, secretly
or openly, many, many times, that Bambilio would be soundly
thrashed. He has been. You did it. The story was too good to keep.
It has not, of course, been allowed to leak out, and become
common property. But it is known to all the Flamens, Augurs and Pontiffs.

"I need not describe to you the feelings of my colleagues, nor my own.
To hint them is perhaps too much; to particularize them would be
unseemly. I may say, however, that just as street-boys acclaim you
by shouting:

"'That's the girl that saved the dog;' just as all over the Empire
you are talked of as the lady who rescued the retiarius; so at any
festival or ceremonial in which the Vestals take part, many a
dignitary is likely to nudge his neighbor, indicate you and whisper:

"'That's the priestess who walloped Bambilio!' You are not infamous,
you are famous.

"As for myself I am the more inclined to feel indulgent towards you
because I understand how you felt. You were boiling with rage at
being struck by any one, as any noble girl would be. Yet you
would have controlled your fury but for the fact that you knew
that you yourself had done nothing to deserve chastisement,
that you were suffering for another's fault."

"What!" cried Brinnaria.

"Oh, yes," Aurelius continued, easily. "Causidiena and I are quite
agreed on that point. Neither she nor I have questioned Meffia,
and we do not mean to; partly because we are sure enough, without
any admission from her; partly because the matter is best left as it
is, without any further notice. But, with the exception of Meffia, it
is quite certain that, from the Vestals themselves down to the last
slave-girl, every resident of the Atrium believes that not you but
Meffia let the fire go out, and that you took the blame due her.
And we can all conjecture your motives, as we all applaud them.

"Meffia might never have survived a scourging, might have been
ailing for months. Rome wants no sick Vestals nor dead Vestals.
Causidiena is grateful to you, all the Atrium is grateful, I am grateful."

"But," said Brinnaria, wide-eyed, "I had supposed that, if Meffia
was suspected, there would be an inquisition and testimony under
oath and that it would be obligatory that the Vestal actually at
fault must be scourged."

"For once," the Emperor smiled, "you have failed to read
accurately the statutes of the order. It is positively refreshing.
I was beginning to feel that you were altogether too accurate.
In fact the scourging of a delinquent Vestal is a mere
disciplinary regulation, designed to assure the maintenance
of the fire. It is not in the nature of a mandatory atonement.
It has nothing in common with an act of expiation. It has
nothing to do with placating or propitiating the Goddess.
It has no likeness whatever to the punishment of a guilty Vestal."

"That reminds me," said Brinnaria, "of what I came for.
I'm as grateful as possible for what you have said to me,
surprised that Causidiena and you so easily saw through my
deception, delighted that you take it as you have, more than
delighted to find you so kindly disposed towards me. I need
all the kindness you can feel towards me. I want to come
to the point, to the reason why I am here. I want you to
answer me this question :'Suppose I were accused of the
worst possible misconduct, formally accused before you,
what then?"

"Then," said Aurelius, "you would have a fair trial."

"I believe I should," said Brinnaria. "You would be perfectly
fair and entirely just. And a fair trial would be a novelty. Almost
never has an accused Vestal had a fair trial."

"Not even if acquitted?" the Emperor suggested slyly.

"No," Brinnaria retorted vigorously. "Even most of those
absolved were not tried fairly. Postumia was, if the records from
so long ago are to be trusted. The first trial of the third Licinia
was perfectly fair, the minutes are very full and there is no shade
of bias in the discussion of her many interviews with Crassus,
while the court was plainly genuinely amused at his greed for
desirable real-estate and at his artifices to induce her to sell
cheap. Fabia, in the same year, was justly treated. But most of
the other acquittals were quite as bad as most of the convictions
 to my mind. I can discover almost no trial where both sides
had a full hearing, where the judges tried to get at the facts
and kept their attention on the evidence, where the finding
as the expression of the opinions rather than of the partiality
of the Pontiffs. Almost every verdict on record, it seems to me,
was dictated by favoritism or influence or prejudice or wrath."

"You seem to think you know a great deal about the subject of
trials of Vestals," Aurelius remarked.

"I feel justified in thinking so," Brinnaria maintained. "Where
the minutes of the court have perished, as, of course, in the case
of all the trials before the capture and burning of the city by
the Gauls, I have read what records remain. Where the court
records are extant I have pored over every word of the minutes
of the proceedings and of every document attached."

"That is more than ever I found time to do," Aurelius meditated.
"Your conclusions ought to be of interest. What are they?"

Brinnaria drew a deep breath and went on. "I am convinced,"
she said, "that sometimes the accused received what she deserved,
but generally by accident. The judges were swayed by politics or
expediency or clan-feeling or popular clamor or self-interest, not
by reason.

"Nobody could form any judgment, at this distance of time, about
the guilt or innocence of Oppia or Opimia or Popilia or Porphilia
or Orbilia or Orbinia or whatever her real name was, it all happened
so long ago. But Minucia and Sextilia and Floronia and the rest
were just victims of judicial ferocity, as far as I can make out."

"You are then of the opinion," the Emperor asked, "that there never
was a guilty Vestal?"

"No," Brinnaria replied judicially, "I don't go as far as that. Varonilla
was probably depraved and with her the two Oculatas. I don't think
their suicides prove anything against them, for a woman is just as
likely to hang herself because she despairs of a fair hearing as
because she is conscious of guilt. What weighs with me is that they
were brought up in the dissolute times of Messalina and Nero and
that their relatives were leaders of the most profligate set in Rome,
cronies of Vitellius and his coterie. But although Cornelia was bred
and raised in the same social atmosphere, I am quite as sure of her
innocence as all the world was the day she was buried and as
everybody has been ever since. Domitian just murdered her without
a trial, for political reasons and for moral effect. So likewise
Marcia and the second Licinia were judicially murdered by that
fierce old Cassius Longinus Ravilla. He was elected to convict
them, not to try them, and he conducted the trial not to arrive
at a fair verdict, but to force a conviction. He had some excuse,
for their acquittal on their former trial had been brought about
by idiotic bribing and family influence. On the face of the evidence
at both trials they were clearly blameless. What ruined them was
their trying to shield Aurelia, surely the worst Vestal on record,
for she had everything in her favor, ancestry, upbringing and
surroundings; she was beyond doubt innately vicious. She was
the only Vestal ever justly convicted and justly punished, in my
opinion. All the others were irreproachable women, doomed to
a frightful fate by prejudiced judges. In general, an accused
Vestal is as good as condemned, the whole population so dreads
the results of acquitting an unclean priestess. And it is the
easiest thing in the world for a Vestal to be accused. Refuse
to sell a farm for half its value, snub a bore, order a slave
flogged for some unbearable blunder, and the result is the
same; false accusation with perjured witnesses and a quick
conviction most likely to follow."

"The subject seems to have occupied your mind a great deal,"
Aurelius ruminated.

"Do you wonder?" Brinnaria flamed at him. "What in all the
tragic, dramatic history of Rome is half so dramatic or a tenth
so tragic as the burial of a Vestal? In all our centuries of ferocity,
what seems half so cruel?

"I know that cruelty played no part in the invention of burial alive
as a punishment for a convicted Vestal. I know that no caitiff could be
found so vile as to dare to lay hands on a Vestal, no ruffian so reckless
as to venture to end her life by sword or axe, by strangling or
drowning. The most impious miscreant has too much fear of the
gods to injure a consecrated priestess. The only way to dispose
of a delinquent Vestal is to bury her alive. But the cruelty of it
makes me choke. I think of the last hours of each of those who
were punished, of their thoughts as the time drew near, of their
feelings alone in the dark waiting for death to release them from
their sufferings.

"I think of these underground cells as they are now, out there
under that awful unkempt, ragged waste lot by the Colline Gate.
I think of the skeletons mouldering on the mouldering cots, of the
bones, the fragments of crumbling bones, the dust of crumbled
bones on the stone floors, as they have been for hundreds of years,
as they will be for thousands of years to come. The cot cannot
yet have decayed from under what is left of poor Cornelia; her
bones must still be entire and in order on the webbing; Aurelia's
bones must be whole yet and Licinia's and Marcia's; of Floronia
there can hardly be left a trace by now, where Minucia died there
can be only an empty stone cell. Do you wonder that the subject
haunts me?"

"I do and I do not," Aurelius replied. "I've let you relieve your
mind by talking yourself tired. Now listen to me. I think I understand
you perfectly. When you came to me before the novel responsibilities
of your office had worn on your nerves and you were quivering
with dread for fear you might be an unworthy priestess. Now the
perils of your situation are wearing on your nerves and you are
brooding over the possibility of accusation, trial, conviction and
burial alive.

"I sympathize with you. As an Emperor I am exposed to the
perpetual danger of assassination. You would be amazed if I
detailed to you my various narrow escapes from death at the hands
of disappointed seekers after preferment, of incompetent officials,
of knaves with grievances of every conceivable and inconceivable
variety and of fools with no grievance at all. You would be
astonished if I merely reckoned the occasions on which I have
just missed being killed. It gets on my nerves, more or less, of
course. But I strive to bear up and remain calm and I succeed
more or less. I keep before me the fact that as an Emperor I
am obnoxious to countless hatreds from fancied slights and to
uncountable schemes of revenge. I reflect that the danger is
inseparable from the state of my being an Emperor. I try to
be philosophical about it.

"So you must attempt to remain placid under the strain of the
knowledge that you are exposed to perpetual danger of a horrible
death from conviction on false accusation. It is part of the
condition of being a Vestal. If anything goes wrong in the way
of earthquake, flood, famine, pestilence, conflagrations or
defeats, the populace are likely to cry out that some Vestal
is unclean and bringing down on the Empire the wrath of the
gods. That nothing of the kind has occurred during our recent
afflictions has been clearly due to the holiness of Dossonia and
Causidiena and to their reputation for strict discipline. But the
danger of popular outcry is always real. Then there is the fact
that far too large a proportion of our population are dissolute
and that, among the dissolute-minded, all Vestals are under
suspicion because they are the only women among our nobility
who remain unmarried long after they have reached
marriageable years. You must learn to take all this as a matter
of course and to go sedately about your duties.

"Of course, I lessen my danger by keeping about me many trusty
guards. It is right that you should appeal to me in your anxiety.
I shall do what I can to lessen your danger. I believe in you. If
you were accused before me it would take notably plain and
convincing evidence to make me believe anything against you.
I shall put my opinion of you on record among my papers of
instructions to my successor. I shall declare it to all the Chief
Pontiffs. I shall verbally and in writing make it clear to all
concerned that you seem to me all you should be, that you
are in an unusually difficult and delicate position and that in
case of accusation all presumption should be in favor of your
innocence and against the sincerity of your accusers.

"And now I think that ought to satisfy you and cover all the
general considerations. Let us come to the special consideration
that interests me chiefly. You have never come to me because
you became gradually unnerved by brooding which had no
specific origin or cause:

"Tell me plainly and outspokenly what has happened to you
lately to fill your mind with thoughts of buried Vestals, trials,
accusations and terrors?"

Brinnaria thereupon related her encounter with Calvaster
and her conversation with Flexinna.

The Emperor stroked his beard and reflected.

"I have never liked Calvaster," he said, "and if I had been
in the city to consider recommendations for appointments
he would, assuredly, never have become a member of Rome's
hierarchy. I deem him gravely unsuited for even the most
minor grade of Pontiff. He appears to me to be mean-spirited,
narrow-minded and base. I am inclined to believe of him all
that you impute. But, even to such as Calvaster, we should be
just. You complained, a while ago, that the judges of the
Vestals had ignored both the facts and the evidence. Let us
weigh the evidence and stick to the facts. The only fact you
present is that you caught Calvaster lurking in your house.
You confess that you were completely puzzled as to what
motive brought him there. Your friend surmises an
explanation which disgusts, insults and alarms you. You
instantly credit it completely, think and act as if it were
unquestionably true. I am prejudiced against Calvaster, as
I have told you, yet I am by no means ready to admit that
your beliefs about him are evidence against him, more
particularly as they rest solely on Flexinna's ingenious
conjectures. The notion is plausible and it is entirely
congruent with Calvaster's character as I imagine it.
Yet it is, after all, merely a plausible surmise. I am just
as inclined to accept Calvaster's own explanation; he is
an inquisitive busybody.

"My verdict is that you need feel no alarm."

"But I do," Brinnaria maintained; "I do not feel safe with
Calvaster anywhere about."

The Emperor reflected.

"The peace of mind of a Vestal," he said, "is a matter of such
importance to the state that I should not hesitate about ordering
Calvaster banished to some comfortable and healthy island
and there detained permanently, were it not that the fellow has
made himself almost indispensable. The pestilence has carried
off practically all the adepts at interpretation of the sacred
writings, the prophetic books, the rubrics and rituals of the
various temples, the statutes of the brotherhoods and other
orders of the hierarchy. Only Numerius Aproniarius remains
of the older experts, and he is afflicted by an incurable and
loathsome disease which he cannot long survive. Of the
younger men only Calvaster has displayed any aptitude for
learning this delicate and complex art, only he has attained
any reputation. He is, in the circumstances, indispensable, I
cannot banish him merely to please you. You will have to
endure Calvaster."

Brinnaria pulled a wry face, as in her mutinous girlhood. She
felt entirely at ease with Aurelius.

"I perceive that I must endure him," she said, "but if you cannot
banish Calvaster, perhaps you'll oblige me by banishing Almo."

"Almo!" the Emperor exclaimed, "what can you have against
that gallant lad? Have you turned against him? I thought you
were unshakably resolved to marry him, thought you loved him
unalterably!"

"I shall marry him, if we both live," Brinnaria replied, "and
most unalterably love him. But I love life and daylight and fresh
air and my full meals even more. I have a splendid appetite, I
loath stuffy places, I hate the dark. The idea of being shut in
an underground cell to suffocate slowly or starve to death even
more slowly goes against my gorge. I see myself in my mind's
eye climbing down that ladder, like poor Cornelia, I see myself
stretched out on my cot, watching the ladder being pulled up by
the executioner, watching the workmen fitting in the last stone
of the vault. I imagine myself staring at the wick of the lamp
and wondering how long the oil will last and debating whether
it would be better to blow out the light and save the oil to drink
and so live longer in the dark, or to let the lamp burn out and
have the discomfort of the light a little longer. I fancy myself
conning over the trifle of bread, milk, fruit and wine left on
the stone slab, and speculating as to how long they'll keep me alive.

"Bah!

"No burial alive for me.

"Acquittal on a trial is a poor way for a Vestal to escape the
worst possible fate, a last resort, at best, and an unchancy reliance,
even as a last resort. A far better way is never to be tried, and the
best way never to be tried is never to be accused. You've been
good enough to tell me that if I were accused you'd be predisposed
to favor me in all possible ways and that you'll give instructions
as to your opinion of me. Any directions of yours would be respected
by any heir of yours. But you yourself have just remarked how
slender is an Emperor's hold on life or on power. I may survive
both yourself and your son. I might be tried before men we should
never think of now. I must arrange so that I shall never be tried
at all, I must live so that I shall never be accused.

"Now I am unlikely ever to be accused in relation to any man except
Almo. Everybody knows I mean to marry Almo when my service is
at an end, everybody knows he means to marry me, everybody knows
we are in love with each other. That puts me in the most delicate
position any Vestal ever was placed in. I have been extremely
careful. I have never spoken to Almo since I was taken for a
Vestal, have never met him except by accident, have never set
eyes on him except against my will; have never even written a
letter to him or received one from him. I have been, I think, wise,
judicious and controlled. But Almo has not behaved well towards me."

"Indeed!" Aurelius interjected. "You surprise me! What has he done?"

Brinnaria flushed.

"A girl in love," she said, "is a fool, but she has sense enough to
conceal her foolishness. A man is different. I suppose men are
made that way and can't help themselves. But a man in love is
not only a fool, but he parades his foolishness. Almo sent me
messages by all sorts of mutual acquaintances, by his people
and mine, by Flexinna, by Nemestronia, by Vocco, begging me
to exchange letters with him. I was angry and said so and
repeatedly sent him word that he was most foolish and most
inconsiderate. I sent him word that if he wanted to please me
he'd ignore my existence and stay as far from me as possible.

"He actually begged his father to be allowed to come to Rome.
His father had the good sense to keep him at Falerii. Now that
all his relatives are dead and he is his own master he has come
to Rome. If he had any real consideration for me he'd go to
Aquileia, at least he might be satisfied with a popular resort like
Baiae or a place like Capua; Capua has enough baths and shows
and horse-races and gladiators for anybody.

"But he must come to Rome, when a spark of sense and decency
would tell him to keep as far away as he could. It stands to
reason that I could never be accused of misconduct with him
if he had never been within a hundred miles of me since I was
taken for a Vestal.

"But he must needs come to Rome. He has opened his house on
the Carinae and had it put in order and has settled down to such
a life here as is usual with wealthy leisured idlers. He has bought
additional furniture, as if his father's house wasn't stuffed with
everything magnificent, he has bought curios and antiques and
statuary and pictures and books. He spends most of his time in
the barracks of his favorite gladiatorial company or at the stables
of the Greens, and the rest of it at the afternoon baths. I sent
Vocco to him to protest and to urge him to leave Rome for my
sake. The selfish wretch said he loved me and always would,
but he just could not live anywhere except at Rome. He stays
here, in defiance of my wishes and against all reason."

"That is not what I should have expected of him," the Emperor
meditated. "I am surprised and far from pleased. I shall certainly
find means to relieve your mind as far as he is concerned."

"There is worse yet to tell," Brinnaria went on. "You'd think that,
if he must stay in Rome he'd at least have the decency to keep
away from me and from places where he is likely to encounter me.
He does just the reverse. He haunts me, he waylays me. He prowls
up and down the Via Sacra and the Via Nova, he stands in the
moonlight and stares up at the outside windows of the Atrium;
on festival days he waits outside of our entrance to the Colosseum
or of the Circus Maximus to watch me enter; on any day he loiters
about the portal of the Atrium to watch me come out to my litter
or my carriage, he dogs me on my airings."

"Hercules!" Aurelius exclaimed. "This is too bad!"

"Too bad indeed," Brinnaria pursued; "it would be bad enough from
anybody in his position, from him it is ten times worse than from anyone
else. You know how individual Almo is, how almost peculiar he looks,
how no one would mistake him for anyone else or forget him or fail to
recognize him. I have often tried to analyze the factors that go to make
him look so striking, but I cannot. He is perfectly proportioned in every
measurement, yet, somehow, he has a long-armed and long-legged
appearance different from that of any young man in Rome, he gives
almost the effect of reminding one of a spider or of a grasshopper
or of a daddy-long-legs. It makes him the most conspicuous, the most
recognizable man in all Rome. Why, if your son were to mingle in
a crowd, habited like any other boy in that crowd and Almo did the
same, and nobody in the crowd had any reason to expect to see either,
Almo would most likely be noticed sooner than Antoninus, recognized
more generally, more readily, further off and quicker."

"You are right," Aurelius mused, "I never thought of that, but Almo
is unforgettable, striking and arresting to the eye beyond any lad in
our nobility."

"And being what he is," Brinnaria raged, "he must needs arrange
that nearly every crowd I am in should see him at the same time as
me. Already thousands of reputable Romans must remember seeing
us at the same glance. Before long the majority will be ready to
recall, if the subject is broached, that they have habitually seen
him wherever they saw me. Some one will start the talk and presently
all Rome will buzz with the gossip that we are continually seen
together. A charming state of affairs for me if some busybody or
some enemy of mine raises the question of my fitness for my holy
duties! I have protested. I've had Vocco go to Almo and urge all
these considerations on him, and the silly boy says he can't live
without seeing me, that he longs for the sight of me so he cannot
control himself. How's that for lover's folly? One minute he can't
live away from Rome, he loves Rome more than he loves me; the
next minute I'm the one object on earth which he must behold or
die. I've no patience with such imbecility."

"And I have very little," said the Emperor; "just enough to imagine
a better way of disburdening you and of disposing of Almo than
banishing him would be. The lad is far too good to be wasting his
time with the horse-jockeys and charioteers and ostlers of the Greens,
or brutalizing himself with the companionship of ruffianly
prize-fighters, belonging to this or that speculator in the flesh of
ferocious savages. He must find some outlet for his energies and
interests and is carried away by the fashionable mania, which is
corrupting our whole population, especially our young nobles, and
which, even at his tender age, fills the thoughts of my son, to the
despair of his tutors.

"All Almo needs is worthy occupation. I'll put the sea between
him and you and so put your mind at rest. I'll make a man of
him at the same time. I'll appeal to his pride and his patriotism.
Rome needs such keen-minded, capable youths on the frontiers.
I'll not give him too hard or too unpleasant employment, not
relegate him to Britain or Dacia or Syria. I'll send him to
Africa to chase the desert nomads who are harrying the borders
of Numidia and Mauretania. He can gain credit there without
danger, can learn to command men and to know the great game
of war. Nepte and Bescera are pleasant little cities--he will be
comfortable between campaigns. I'll see he sets out the day after
to-morrow, at latest."



 CHAPTER XI - FAREWELL



Two days later, Brinnaria had a visit from Flexinna. Flexinna's
eyes were dancing.

 "G-G-Guess where I've been," she challenged.

 "I'm not good at guessing," Brinnaria parried; "better tell me."

 "I've b-b-been to the Palace," Flexinna revealed.

 "What took you there?" Brinnaria queried, surprised.

 "I was sent for," Flexinna declared, elated.

 "Who'd you see?" Brinnaria enquired.

 "The Emperor himself," proclaimed Flexinna triumphantly.

 Brinnaria was very much astonished.

 "Better tell me the whole story," she suggested.

 "Not much story," said Flexinna. "Aurelius t-t-told me that
he wanted t-t-to see you again and that, as a formal visit from
the Emperor as P-P-Pontifex Maximus at the Atrium was
unusual and was likely to c-c-cause g-g-gossip, whereas
you Vestals are c-c-continually at the Palace to ask favors
for all sorts of people who p-p-pester you to use your
influence with the Emperor, he thought it b-b-best to suggest
that you apply for an audience t-t-to-morrow. He said he
wanted the intimation c-c-conveyed to you as unobtrusively
as p-p-possible and d-d-desired p-p-particularly that no one
should ever know or g-g-guess that it had b-b-been g-g-given.
So he sent for me, as your b-b-best friend, since he was sure
I would never t-t-tell anybody.

 "B-B-Better send along your application for an audience. It
was p-p-plain to me that he has something agreeable to t-t-tell
you. His face was just as g-g-grave as usual but his eyes sparkled
at me, as d-d-different as p-p-possible from their habitual dull filmed
appearance. He was all k-k-kindliness and anticipation."

 "I'm willing to take the hint, of course," Brinnaria replied.

 Next morning she found Aurelius most cordial and informal in his
greeting to her.

 "I've been investigating Almo," he said, "and I am more than pleased
with all I can learn of him. I see no reason for not telling you that, from
the very day you were taken as a Vestal, some of the most expert,
secret and trustworthy men in the employ of the information department
have had no other duties than to keep close watch upon you and Almo.
I have been over all the papers relating to him and to you, I have talked
with the men themselves. They all assure me that never once have you
and Almo met since he reached your father's house a half hour too late.
They also report that, in the course of his injudicious moonings about
your haunts, he has always kept at a respectful distance. And except
for those same loverly danglings about places where he might catch
glimpses of you, I can find nothing against the lad. Everybody speaks
most highly of him. His former tutors and preceptors are enthusiastic
in their laudations of his capacities, abilities, diligence and attainments
in all matters pertaining to books and study. About Falerii he was
regarded as a fine specimen of a young nobleman, huntsman and swimmer,
good at all rustic sports, as haughty as the proudest when he was given
good cause to assert himself, but habitually affable, unassuming and sunny
tempered. Towards his father's tenants and slaves he was most kindly and
nothing could be more to any man's credit than his downright heroic
behavior from the very day the pestilence appeared on his estates, all
through the frightful period of its raging about Falerii, until the
neighborhood had somewhat recovered after the plague had abated.

 "The most extraordinary feature of the reports about him is that they
all agree as to his amazing devotion to you. All persons who know him
or know of him are unanimous in the opinion that he has never taken
the slightest personal interest in any human being except yourself; all
are emphatic in stating that he has certainly never manifested any
affection for anyone else. This is unprecedented. I never heard of such
another case. There is nothing astonishing about a young Roman
declaring that he would remain unmarried for thirty years in order to
mate, ultimately, with the girl of his choice. There is nothing wonderful
about his keeping his word. But any other youth I ever heard of would
have consoled himself variously, and variedly. Almo's austere
celibacy is a portent in our world and altogether marvellous. It lifts his
affair with you out of the humdrum atmosphere of to-day and puts it on
a level with the legendary stories of heroic times, with the life-long
fidelities of the Milesian tales.

 "Under the stress of such severe and unflinching self isolation I do
not wonder that his broodings drove him to overstep the bounds of
common sense, that he was irresistibly compelled to leave Falerii,
to come to Rome, to loiter where he might, at least, behold you at
a distance. I shall make sure that he does so no longer. This very
day he sets out for Carthage, Theveste and the deserts to the south
beyond the lagoons of Nepte. But I cannot be angry with him for
being unable to restrain his longing at least to set eyes on you. And
I see no reason why you two, who have not exchanged a word in
more than nine years, should not meet here in this room and say
farewell to each other before I put the Mediterranean between you."

 Brinnaria sprang up.

 "I see many reasons," she declared, "and my feelings are all against
seeing Almo until my service as a Vestal is ended."

 "I can well believe," came the answer, "that you feel that way at the
first presentation of the idea. But I am your Emperor and also Chief
Pontiff of Rome. I am engaged at present in solving the problem of
ow best to ensure peace of mind to one of Rome's Vestals. To ensure
her peace of mind I am about to relegate her future husband to
important duties on a far frontier of the Empire. I judge that he
will better perform his duties, that she will better perform hers, if
she bids him farewell in my presence. I am a lover of wisdom and
a student of wisdom.* I believe I possess some pretensions to wisdom.
Will you not defer to me in this? I am of the opinion that he will worry
less about you and you less about him if you see each other once
before your twenty years of certain separation begins."

        *The wisdom of Marcus Aurelius was recognized during
        his lifetime and is highly regarded even today, over 1900
        years later. His book, <Meditations>, remains in print
        and is available through Project Gutenberg at
        http://promo.net/cgi-promo/pg/t9.cgi?entry=2680&full=
        yes&ftpsite=http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/

 Brinnaria looked mutinous and gazed at the Emperor in silence. In
silence he waited for her to speak. At last she said, curtly:

 "I bow to your authority."

 The Emperor struck his silver gong and a page appeared.
Aurelius gave a brief order. A few moments later Almo was
ushered in. After his formal salute to the Emperor he stood
silent, his eyes fixed on Brinnaria.

 They made a fine picture. The ceiling of the immense hall was
a barrel-vault, of which the beams were stuccoed in cream-white,
picked out with gilding, while between them the depth of each
soffit was colored an intense deep blue, against which stood out
a great gilt rosette. The mighty pilasters, whose gilded capitals
supported the vaulting, were of many-veined dark yellow marble,
polished and gleaming like the slabs of pale yellow marble which
panelled the interspaces. The high-moulded wainscot was of red
and green porphyry, somberly smooth and shining. Against it,
below the wall-panels, were set great chests of carved and gilded
wood, while about the bases of the pilasters were placed groups
of settees and armchairs, similarly carved and gilded and richly
upholstered. The floor was paved with an intricate mosaic of
parti-colored bits of marble, its expanse broken only by the
great gorgeous carpet before the throne, by the chair set for
Brinnaria, by the onyx table, supported on sculptured monsters
like griffons, beside the throne, and by the throne itself, a curule
seat of ivory mounted with gold, its crimson cushion glowing,
set far out in the room.

 Before the throne stood Aurelius, his head bare, the long ringlets
of his hair and beard sweeping his shoulders and his bosom, one
foot a trifle advanced, the gold eagle embroidered on his sky-blue
buskin showing beneath the crimson silk robes, lavishly embroidered
with a complicated pattern of winding vines, bright blue and green,
edged with gold, which the etiquette of the time imposed upon even
a philosophically austere Emperor; on his right Brinnaria, erect
and tense in her white official habit, her square white headdress
all but hiding her coronet of dark braids, her veil pushed back
from her flushed face; the tassels and ribbons of her head-band,
her great pearl necklace, the big pearl brooch that fastened the
folds of her headdress where they crossed on her breast, and the
bunch of fresh white flowers which it clasped, rising and falling
with the heaving of her bosom; facing her, splendid in the gilded
armor and scarlet cloak of a commander of irregular cavalry, Almo.

 "You know why I have sent for you," Aurelius reminded him.
"Speak out."

 Like a school-boy repeating a lesson by rote, Alma spoke.

 "Brinnaria," he said, "the Emperor has remonstrated with
me on my recent folly. I am sincerely ashamed of myself and I
wish to apologize to you for my lack of self-control and for my
lack of consideration for you. I leave Rome before sunset and
shall not return until I may return without danger to you."

 Aurelius looked at Brinnaria.

 "Caius," she said, "I forgive you. I trust that you will win
promotion and honor where you are going and I am sure
that you will do your duty to the Empire. May the blessing of
all the gods be on you and may you return to me safe and well."

 "And may I find you safe and well when I return," spoke
Almo. "Farewell, Brinnaria."

 "Farewell, Caius," said she.

 The Emperor nodded and Almo bowed himself out.

 "Do you know," said Aurelius, when they were alone, "I have been
thinking over what you said about Almo's peculiar notability of looks.
It puzzles me as it puzzles you. He is not merely of distinguished
appearance, he is unusual, striking, unforgettable, conspicuous.
I have talked about it to several of my gentlemen-in-waiting,
equerries and orderlies. They have seen him lately about the stables
of the Greens. They all say that he is, in fact, as normally
proportioned as any youth alive, but they confirm what you
said about his long-legged appearance. Julianus used almost
the same word you used, said Almo looked 'Grasshoppery.'
They all say Almo is precisely the most unmistakable, the most
readily and quickly recognizable youth in all our young nobility."

Brinnaria rose to go. Aurelius bent on her a kindly smile.

 "I have been talking about you with Faustina," he said. "We
are both much interested by the strangeness of your fate, by
the difficulty and delicacy of your situation and by the wonderful
constancy of you both. Faustina and I are a most united pair,
never happy out of each other's company and very proud of our
domestic felicity. We are, if I may use the word, rather prone to
gloat over it, and, while continually congratulating ourselves and
each other, we cannot but mourn the infrequency of such happiness
throughout our Italian nobility. There are few matrons in Rome as
serenely happy as your friend Flexinna, few indeed who find all
their happiness in children, husband and household. And of those
who really enjoy their homes most are remarried after a divorce,
or even after two or more. Our society suffers from a plague
worse than the pestilence itself, a plague of greed for excitement,
eagerness for novelty, of peevishness and fickleness.

 "In this unhealthy atmosphere such households as Vocco's are
most notable. And that you, who seem by nature fitted for just
such blessedness as has befallen Flexinna, should have been
robbed of it by a strange series of peculiar circumstances wins
for you our interest and our solicitude. Still more are our hearts
drawn towards you by your unwavering fidelity, alike to your
present duties and all that they imply and to that love which you
have had to put away and forget, to the ideal of that felicity
which you have had to postpone so far.

 "Faustina desires an interview with you. She is now in the amber
gallery. I shall have you conducted there, if you do not object."

Brinnaria could not very well object and after an equerry, very
stately in his garb of duty, and two gaudily clad pages had escorted
her through what seemed like miles of corridors, she found herself
alone with the Empress.

 The Empress she had so far seen infrequently and spoken with only
seldom. It was impossible to be a Vestal, in the heyday of Rome's
Imperial times, and not meet and know the Empress of Rome.
Brinnaria had seen her whenever they were both present at the
Circus or the Amphitheatre; had been close to her at all important
state functions; had occasionally dined with her at formal Palace
banquets, when the curved sofa about the Empress' table was
always occupied by the Empress, the wives of the chief Flamens
and the Vestals; but had hardly ever exchanged a word with her.

 Faustina was endowed with the general healthiness with which
Roman noblewomen were blessed. But she had had the bad luck
to suffer from many and severe illnesses. These and her slow
recoveries from them had kept her away from very many official
functions and public festivals. Numerous had been the occasions
on which Aurelius had appeared without her. When she was well,
indeed, they were always together, if possible. A great proportion
of his time, however, was occupied with official duties of such a
nature that, according to Roman etiquette, no woman could
participate in them. During such enforced separations Faustina
sought amusement. And with the overflowing energy and abounding
vigor which she displayed between her illness, she threw herself
into the whirl of her pleasures with such impetuosity, there was
so much rollicking and roistering about her favorite diversions
that she attracted to herself and kept around her just those
elements of Roman society with which the Vestals were least
likely to mingle, professional idlers, and what we moderns would
call the fast set. Naturally, therefore, Brinnaria and Faustina had
never had any familiar intercourse. This was their first real
conversation.

 Faustina was not a large woman. She was of medium height,
slender and graceful. She was noted for the originality of her
coiffures, which made the most of her magnificent hair. Her
hair Brinnaria noticed the moment her eyes fell on her.

 Her habitual expression of haughtiness and boredom had
vanished from the Empress's face and she was all kindliness and solicitude.

 Faustina put her at her ease at once.

 "I have always been so sorry," she began, "that I was ill the day
you climbed over the balustrade of the podium and rescued the
retiarius. I've missed many a sight I regretted, I miss so much by
falling ill again and again, but I never missed a sight I regretted
missing more than that. Nothing more worth seeing ever happened
in the Colosseum."

 "I was terribly ashamed when I found what I had done," said Brinnaria.

 "Of course you were," the Empress agreed.

 This broke the ice between them and Faustina led her into a long
talk about all her past, her love affair, her life as a Vestal, her
bereavements, her embarrassing circumstances, her future, her hopes.

 Brinnaria left the Empress, feeling that she had found a real
friend and also feeling comforted at heart.


Chapter XII -Observances



 BRINNARIA found that, with Almo definitely and permanently
out of the way, she did not worry about Calvaster. She also found
that she did not worry about Almo and that her glimpse of him
had rather calmed her feelings. She confessed as much to Aurelius
when she had a third audience with him before he left for the
Rhine frontier, and she thanked him for his insistence.

 With her mind at peace Brinnaria settled more and more into
the routine of her life and enjoyed it more and more.

 She came to feel keenly the spiritual significance of every
detail of the ritual observances in which she took part. Besides
the maintenance of the sacred fire, the Vestals had many
obligatory duties. Every sacrifice of the Roman public worship
involved the sprinkling of the sacred meal upon the head of
the victim, if a live animal was offered, or upon the fire, if
the sacrifice was bloodless. Early in each ceremony one of
the small boys assisting the priest carried around to all the
participants in the act of worship a maple-wood box
containing the holy meal; from it each worshipper ladled
a small portion into the palm of his right hand; at a specified
point in the course of the ceremonial each participant
sprinkled the meal as prescribed.

The holy meal was made of very coarsely ground wheat, a
sort of grits, salted and toasted. It was prepared by the Vestals
according to immemorial custom. They were supplied with
a sufficient quantity of heads of wheat, the best of the produce
of two of their estates, one near Caere, the other near
Lanuvium. These wheat ears were packed in baskets and
stored on the farms in dry, airy barns. There they were
kept drying and hardening their grains until the next spring.
Then the allotted baskets were brought into Rome. On the
seventh of May, after a ceremonial of prayer, the three elder
Vestals began going over these wheat-ears, sorting out those
entirely perfect, and placing them in larger baskets shaped
like the big earthen jars in which the Romans commonly
tored wheat, olives, oil, wine and other similar supplies.
On the next day the wheat from the first day's selection
of ears was separated from the straw, beards and chaff,
was roasted and coarsely ground. The resultant groats
were then put away in great earthen jars in the outer
storeroom of the temple. On the third day they again
selected wheat ears, on the fourth they again prepared
wheat-grits, arid so on alternately for eight days. By the
evening of the eighth day they had stored enough groats
to make the sacred meal for one year's ceremonies of the
entire Roman ritual.

 The salt with which they salted the holy meal was prepared
with similar invariable formality. Crude salt, obtained from
evaporated sea-water out of the sand-pits on the seashore
near Lavinium, was conveyed to the Atrium in small two-handled
earthenware jars. This coarse, dirty, dark-colored salt was
dissolved by the three younger Vestals in boiling water, which
water might not be obtained from the lead pipes which
connected the Atrium with the general water-supply of the
city's aqueducts, but must be drawn by the Vestals themselves
and carried by them in the earthenware jars from the famous
fountain of Jaturna, at which Castor and Pollux were fabled
to have watered their white horses after bringing to Rome
the news of the victory at Lake Regillus. The solution was
purified by repeated boilings, the impurities being gotten rid
of by successive careful decantings of the liquid from one vessel
into another, so that the sediment might be left behind as the
top part was poured off. When sufficiently boiled down the
solution was recrystallized in shallow earthenware pans.
The resulting slabs of salt were harder than the pans and
were freed from them by breaking the earthenware with
an ancient stone hammer, said to have been captured by
AEneas himself from a king of Ardea. The slabs of salt were
sawed into pieces with an iron saw, the pieces were pounded
in a mortar, the fine salt was thrown into an earthenware
bowl and dried out in a kiln. When dried a little powdered
gypsum was stirred through it to prevent it from again
becoming moist. It was then stored in a tall jar with a tight
lid, which was kept in the outer storeroom of the temple,
along with the jars of meal. Three times a year, on the
ninth of June, on the thirteenth of September and on the
fifteenth of February, with solemn prayers the Vestals
mixed the prepared salt with the prepared grits, the
resultant mixture being the sacred meal.

On each First of March the fire in the temple was allowed to
go out and was solemnly rekindled by the friction of maple
wood on apple wood, as when the fire went out by accident.
The temple was then decorated with fresh boughs of green
laurel, after the boughs put up the year before had been removed.

On May fifteenth the Vestals were the chief figures in a solemn
procession of the entire Roman hierarchy to the Sublician bridge,
from which the Vestals threw into the Tiber thirty dolls made of
rushes, fifteen representing men, fifteen women, each about two
feet high.

 This offering to the river of effigies of men and women
commemorated the primitive human sacrifices by which the
river was each year placated, that it might not drown more by floods.

 On June fifth the inner storeroom of the temple was opened
and its treasures inspected by the Pontifex wearing his antique
vestments. With him entered always also the Chief Vestal clad
in her austere habit with all her badges of office. They were
attended by the other Vestals, who went through traditional
pacings, haltings and prayers. The Temple of Vesta was an
enclosure from which all men were rigidly excluded. The only
exceptions to this immemorial taboo were a few of the more
important Pontiffs, and they might only enter on specified festal
days, and then must be in their full regalia. Also, in general, the
temple was closed against all women except the Vestals and
their assistants. It was open, however, from sunrise on the
morning of each seventh of June until sunset on the evening
of the fourteenth of June. During this period it was incumbent
upon every Roman matron to visit the temple. And each
worshipper must walk the entire distance from her home to
the temple and must leave her house barefoot, barefoot she
must walk from the temple to her home. Only illness excused
a Roman woman from this religious duty. Few ever omitted
it from indifference.

 During these eight days the temple was thronged.

 During these eight days also fell the great yearly festival of
Vesta, on the ninth of June, on which day also all millers kept
holiday, with processions and picnics to which the mill-donkeys
were led decorated with wreaths of flowers and strings of tiny,
crisp-baked rolls.

 On June fifteenth the temple was ceremonially cleaned and the
sweepings and the ashes collected from the sacred fire for the
year past were solemnly carried in a stately procession to a
prescribed spot on the slope of the Capitol where a great pit
was closed by a heavy maple-wood door. In this pit the ashes
were reverently buried.

 Besides these observances of their special cult the Vestals took
part in nearly every important sacrifice, procession and festival
of the public worship of Rome. They were busy women and
among them Brinnaria was anything but idle. She never found
time hang heavy on her hands.

 So busied with her duties she passed three peaceful years,
contented and happy. There was but one drawback to life in
the Atrium from Brinnaria's point of view. That drawback
was Meffia. Meffia was never ill but never well. Everything
tired her. It tired her to walk upstairs, to stand for any length
of time, to do anything. She was forever sitting down to rest
or lying down to rest. Excitement exhausted her totally. She
was a perpetual worry to the other Vestals.

 Otherwise Brinnaria was very happy. Through Flexinna
she had frequent news of Almo. Ancient Rome had no institution,
public or private, in any way corresponding to our post office.
But routes of trade and travel by land and sea were well defined
and traffic along them fairly regular, on the most used routes
almost continual. There were private organizations, vaguely
resembling our modern express companies, which forwarded
merchandise along the main-travelled routes and even into
remote regions. Their messengers took charge of bales, boxes
and packages of all sizes and also of letters. The service on
the roads of Africa, from Bescera, Nepte and Putea along
the frontier of the desert, through Lambese, Capsa and
Thysdrus, to Carthage, by well-built vehicles with frequent
relays of horses on the excellent highroads was fairly good.
The ships from Sicily plied with almost the regularity of our
ocean-liners. Roads and road-service in Sicily were of a high
quality of excellence. The transit to Italy at Messina was a
sort of ferry. Italy was served by a network of roads always
busy. Almo's letters to Flexinna were fairly regular and Vocco
heard frequently from his friends among Almo's brother
officers and sometimes from his military superiors.

 Almo was an immediate and brilliant success as a leader of
scouting expeditions, cavalry dashes, and, within a year, of
raids in considerable force. His men adored him at once; his
fellow-officers found him excellent company, unassuming and
companionable, his commanders came early to rely on him.
He won an excellent reputation and was universally regarded
as a young officer of great promise, likely to rise to high position
and not unlikely to become famous.

 This kind of news delighted Brinnaria and promoted her
peace of mind. In great contentment she went about her duties,
loving them more and more from month to month, preparing
the blessed salt, assisting at sacrifices, participating in processions.

 Also interest in music and enjoyment of music came to play more
and more a part in her spiritual life. As a child she had hated music
and had been in continual conflict with her musical governesses.
Even after she entered the Atrium her aversion to learning
anything about music had given Causidiena a great deal of trouble.
Later Brinnaria was docile, but the reverse of enthusiastic. Only
after Almo's departure for Africa did music begins to mean anything
to her.

 But one keyed instrument was known to the ancients. That was a
form of organ, in effect and appearance not very dissimilar to a small
portable modern organ, with one bank of keys. Its mechanism, however,
was very different in respect to the construction of the pipe stops and
bellows. In particular, the steady flow of air to the pipes was obtained
from the pressure of water, and a receptacle partly filled with water
was an essential part of every Roman organ. From this feature it
was called the water-organ. The Emperor Nero had been a notable
performer on the water-organ and had interested himself in some
improvements in its mechanism.

 As with the modern organ, so with the Roman water-organ, the
sonorous, sustained and resonant notes lent themselves naturally to
the expression of religious emotion.

 Religious emotions, Brinnaria, at this period of her life, felt to an
overwhelming extent. She expressed them in long colloquies with
Numisia and Causidiena, in a tendency to be unnecessarily careful
about her duties, to pet her daily routine, as it were; and in an
awakening to the charms of music in general and of organ music
in particular. She developed into a capable performer on the
water-organ, bought for herself the finest to be found in all Rome,
had it set up in the Atrium in place of the old one which had
belonged to the order of Vestals, and sat before it for hours
at a time.

 Her solitary communings with her favorite instrument became
her chief solace when she was: low-spirited, which was seldom,
and her favorite diversion when she was high-spirited, which was
often. Moreover, her rendition of well-known airs and he
 improvisings came to be a great pleasure to all the inmates of the
Atrium, most of all to Causidiena.

 Besides her many duties and her indoor amusements, Brinnaria
found time for much activity outside the Atrium. She had kept up
her girlish friendship for the sieve-maker Truttidius, and saw
him occasionally, sometimes ordering her litter halted before
his shop and leaning out to ask after his health and that of his
family. Truttidius had an ailing household, though he himself was
always well and never seemed to get any older.

 From her talks with Truttidius she came to take a personal
interest in the welfare of the countless tenants in her many
properties in the poorer quarters of the city. She visited some
of them-a sort of approach to modern slumming by the
philanthropic rich. Such actions on the part of a landowner
and such an attitude of mind from any rich person toward the
poor was very unusual in the ancient world. Her behavior in
this regard won Brinnaria a sort of fame among the poor, as
if she were a live goddess moving among them.

 She had a healthy love of mere enjoyment too. Except when she
happened to be on duty watching the sacred fire, she never
missed a theatrical performance, a gladiatorial display or an
exhibition of chariot-racing in anyone of the vast race-courses
flanked by tiers of stone-seats, which the Romans called circuses.
At all shows, whether of scenic artists, fighting men or speeding
horses, the Vestals had specified seats, as good as the best.

 Besides these formal pleasures, she took great delight in mixing
in society merely for society's sake. Moderns are likely to imagine
that the Vestals of ancient Rome were nuns or something like
nuns. They were nothing of the sort. They were maiden ladies of
wealth and position whose routine duties brought them into
familiar association with all the men important in the Roman
government, hierarchy, nobility and gentry and with their wives
and daughters. They were women of such importance in their
world that their acquaintance was sought by all who had any
pretensions to being entitled to meet them and by shoals of social
bounders who had none. Their influence was so powerful that
they were unremittingly sought, waylaid, pursued and besieged
by persons who hoped to enlist their interest in the appointment
or promotion of this, that or the other connection or relative; by
the same persons they were continually overwhelmed with
presents of flowers, fruit, delicacies, dainties, ornaments, laces,
garments, pieces of furniture, horses, slaves, and of anything
and everything capable of being made a present of in the Roman
world; likewise with social invitations-chiefly to dinners, banquets
and feasts. Invitations to banquets and dinners Brinnaria seldom
declined, unless her duties made acceptance impossible or the
invitation came from people beneath her notice. As she had said
to Aurelius, she had an excellent appetite. She had an epicurean
tendency from her early years and was fond of oysters,
sweetbreads, eels, thrushes, turbot and other articles of food
esteemed as delicacies by the Romans. But she was a hearty eater
and consumed generous portions of roast meats, particularly of
pork, which even in late imperial times was the staple of Roman
diet. She never lost her childish relish for boiled pork and cabbage,
for bacon, for ham, hot or cold. She was by no means a glutton,
ate deliberately and daintily, and while she ate, joined in the
general conversation or even led it. She had a quick wit and a
sharp tongue and her sallies were acclaimed. She was sought
after as a guest not merely because she was a Vestal, but for
herself, for her gaiety and her unexpected utterances.

 On the whole she preferred informal dinners to formal banquets
and liked better to dine with her friends than with the most
luxurious entertainers in Roman society.

 With Vocco and Flexinna she dined frequently, three times a
month at least and generally oftener. Brinnaria loved children,
especially babies, and there was always a baby in the Istorian
household--Flexinna's babies were all healthy and grew famously.
Of the six children, Brinnaria could not have told which she
loved or which loved her most. Her arrivals were always heralded
with shouts of glee, her romps with the children always put her in
a good humor, her swim with Flexinna sharpened an appetite
which needed no edge, while the cosiness and informality of
Flexinna's dining-room, where each of the three had undivided
possession of one entire sofa, made it certain that nothing marred
her enjoyment.


 CHAPTER XIII - Perversity



ABOUT three years after her farewell to Almo, on entering
Vocco's house one afternoon, Brinnaria had a presentiment
of something wrong. The children were as vociferous and as
whimsical as usual, but there was a nameless difference in
Flexinna's expression and bearing. As soon as they were
alone in their bath, after she had had one good plunge in the
pool, Brinnaria, treading water in the deepest part of the tank,
shaking her head like a wet spaniel, demanded:

 "What is the matter? There's something wrong. You might as
well tell me."

 But Flexinna put her off and laughed at her insistence.

 To Brinnaria the laughter seemed forced and so did the talk
at dinner. No sooner was the dinner over and the tray of figs,
almonds and pomegranates and other fruit on the table, than
she whispered to Flexinna:

 "Tell the servants to stay out. I want to talk." Flexinna signed
to Vocco and they exchanged glances.

 "Why did you keep up the farce so long?" Brinnaria sneered.
"I saw through it from the first."

 "We were afraid," Vocco apologized, "that what I have to tell
you would spoil your appetite."

 "It would take something pretty bad to spoil my appetite,"
Brinnaria reflected. "Is Almo dead?"

 ?Not so b-b-bad as that," spoke Flexinna.

 "Tell me, Quintus," Brinnaria breathed.

 Vocco fidgeted.

 "It's an amazing story," he began.

 "All his story, all my story, all our story," Brinnaria cut in, "is
amazing. Leave out the comments and tell the story."

 "While Almo was away on the expedition against the nomads of
the plateau," Vocco narrated, "Pennasius fell ill, was allowed to
resign his governorship and Grittonius took his place. On Almo's
return Grittonius complimented him most highly and promised
him any reward he asked for. Almo amazed him by asking for a
full and honorable discharge from the army. Grittonius
expostulated with him but Almo held him to his promise. In
spite of the governor's appeals to his pride and to his patriotism
he insisted, and Grittonius gave him his full official discharge.
At once Almo applied for permission to sell himself as a slave.
This so astounded Grittonius that he made him repeat the
application before witnesses and give his reasons. Almo
explained that he had always been devoted to horseracing
and that he wanted formally and regularly to article himself
to one of the racing companies as a charioteer; that he had
always craved that life and had longed for it more and more
as his career as a soldier went on. He said there was no use
in his continuing a life he detested, nor missing the happiness
he anticipated as a charioteer.

"Grittonius had him examined by a committee of the most reputed
physicians of the province. They reported Almo entirely sane.
Grittonius wanted to hold the matter over until he had special
permission from the Emperor. Almo craftily maintained that
Grittonius had been made governor with the fullest powers
on all lines specifically to save the Emperor from being bothered
about such trifles. Grittonius yielded. The necessary papers
were drawn up, all the depositions were made out in duplicate.
Every formality was fulfilled and Almo was publicly sold as a
slave in the market place of Hippo."

"What company did he enter?" Brinnaria queried.

"Veppius did not state," Vocco replied; "he merely said that
Almo sailed the next day for Spain."

"The fool!" Brinnaria cried. "The three fools; a fool of a Veppius
to write so vaguely, a fool of a governor to be persuaded so easily
and Almo the biggest fool of all!

"What a fool of a lover I have! Are all men like that?
I'm as much in love with him as he with me and I can
behave myself decently and keep outwardly calm and
observe the conventions of life. Why can't he be decent?
How can it comfort a man in love to throw away a
splendid career, abandon a great income and vanish
from the ken of all who love him? What madness is
this with which the gods afflict him? Oh, I could tear
my hair with rage!"

To trace Almo everything was done that could be done.
Vocco himself set out at once for Hippo. He found that
Almo had been sold to a Greek slave-dealer named
Olynthides, brother of the well-known dealer at Rome.
He found Olynthides a small man with a club-foot. He
said he remembered the matter, that he had been employed
to buy Almo and resell him for cash, especially to conceal
the real purchaser.

When Vocco expressed astonishment Olynthides said:

 "There is nothing to be surprised at, the thing happens every
day. It is a regular feature of slave-trading. There are all
sorts of reasons why a man wants a slave without any past.
Such sales are customary and habitual."

 When pressed further he retorted:

 "Of course I did not ask the buyer's name; equally of course,
I did not take any note of him, it was my business to forget him.
I didn't notice him when he came into the courtyard, there are
always knots of people coming in all day, looking over the slaves
I offer for sale, and going out again. He came in like anybody else
and looked over my stock. When he spoke to me he had a servant
with him carrying a stout leather bag. He indicated Almo and
asked his price. I named it.

 "'Cash sale,' says he; 'no papers except a bare sale certificate.'

 "'Done,' says I.

 "He counted out the cash from his servant's bag and I gave him
the customary certificate, with a description of Almo and the statement:

 "'Sold on this day and date for cash' and my signature and seal.
That was all there was to it."

 When Vocco was persistent, Olynthides averred that he had
"heard" that the purchaser's name was Jegius and that he
came from Cadiz. Vocco could not discover anyone in Hippo
who had ever heard of a slave-dealer named Jegius.

 When Vocco returned to Rome with his report Brinnaria set in
motion all the forces of her world which could be utilized under
the circumstances. Aurelius was on the Rhine frontier, but
Brinnaria had, by this time, a close acquaintance with all important
court officers and was on terms of the utmost cordiality with the
officials who governed Rome in the Emperor's absence. They
sympathized with her and put at her disposal all the machinery
of the government secret service. They agreed with her that the
matter must be kept quiet, there must be no proclamations,
posters, no rewards offered by crier or placard, no publishing
of descriptions. With emphatic injunctions of secrecy they
sent warnings to every provincial governor, to every local
magistrate, to the aldermen of every free city, to institute
unobtrusive investigations and to keep unostentatious watch.
Brinnaria insisted that these mandates should be sent all over
the Empire, pointing out that no one could conjecture what
port of the Mediterranean or of the Black Sea might be the
destination of any nameless trading ship. But, with special
care, full orders were distributed throughout Spain.

 Towards Spain, likewise, Brinnaria directed the energies of those
organizations of the ancient world which were analogous to our
modern private detective bureaus, and upon Spain she focussed
the energies of the managers of the racing companies.

 These great corporations were among the most important
money-making enterprises of the Roman world. They maintained
luxurious headquarters in the most congested business districts
of the capital. They had offices adjacent to each of the circuses,
they possessed huge congeries of buildings utilized as stables
for their crack racers and barracks for their charioteers, and
provided with spacious courtyards for training their teams.
Outside of Rome they had similar offices and training-stables
in every city and in most towns of any size or wealth. Besides
they owned countless stud-farms, estates and ranches in
every province of the Empire and maintained an army of
herdsmen, ostlers and drovers to convoy their horses by land
and whole fleets of ships to transport them by sea.

 They were joint-stock companies, and while many smaller
ones existed in various parts of the Empire and a few even
at Rome, the small concerns were insignificant and generally
ignored. When one spoke of the racing-companies one meant
the six great companies whose central organizations were
domiciled at Rome and whose ramifications penetrated every
district of the Empire. These were known, after the racing-colors
of their jockeys, as the Greens, the Blues, the Reds, the Whites,
the Crimsons and the Golds. The Reds and the Whites were the
oldest companies, the Crimsons and the Golds were companies
established in the heyday of the Empire by coteries of millionaires,
the Blues and the Greens were the largest, the wealthiest and
the most popular, especially the Greens. In the Greens, somewhere,
Brinnaria expected to find Almo, as he had been enthusiastic
about the Greens from boyhood. He had been wearing their leek-green
colors the day she had sat in his lap in her father's courtyard. He
had haunted their training-stables during his brief sojourn at Rome
before Aurelius sent him to Africa, he had inherited a big block of
stock in the Greens. In the Greens, likewise, Brinnaria owned stock;
and, having entered into inheritances from more than seventy
different wealthy relatives who had died during the pestilence, she
happened to own stock in every one of the six great companies. She
had personal friends among the directors of each of the six.
Therefore it was especially easy for her to enlist their help in her
efforts to find Almo. It would have been easy, anyhow, since to be
able to oblige a Vestal was a refreshing novelty for almost anyone
at Rome and to find a Vestal seeking one's influence and one's help,
equally novel and refreshing; generally the shoe was on the other
foot--most persons in public life in Rome were used to attempting
to enlist the help and the interests of the Vestals for their purposes
and were generally utterly at a loss for any means of requital, if
the interest of a Vestal was enlisted and her help obtained.

 Consequently all that the racing-companies could do to find Almo
was done as well as all that could be done by the private detective
agencies and by government officials.

 All that was done was utterly in vain. No trace of Almo could be
discovered after he had sailed from Hippo with Jegius.
No slave-dealer named Jegius could be found nor anyone who knew
such a slave-dealer. No clue, no ghost of a clue came to light. The
Greens, like the other companies, could find among their
charioteers, their jockeys, their free employees, their slaves,
no individual in the least answering to descriptions of Almo.
All governmental efforts, all professional efforts, all private
efforts, all Vocco's efforts, all Brinnaria's efforts, were
completely baffled.

 Almo had completely vanished.

 When Aurelius, passing through Rome on his way from the
Rhine frontier to Syria, was in his capital for a brief period,
Brinnaria had an audience with him.

 "Daughter!" he said, "it is all my fault. I should have given
Grittonius explicit injunctions about the boy. But the assaults
of the Marcomanni were particularly furious just at that time;
I was feverishly hurrying from point to point along the frontier;
I accepted the resignation of Pennasius; by letter. I appointed
Grittonius by letter; I assumed that Grittonius would have
sense; I assumed that Pennasius would impart to him his secret
instructions. I erred by inadvertence; I should have set a special
watch on the boy. But I never thought of it. He was doing so well
and he seemed so interested in his work. He was wonderfully
fitted for frontier duty along the desert. I was watching him
with keen interest; each report of him gave me greater pleasure.
I do not hesitate to tell you that I had him in my mind's eye to
command this very expedition which I must now command
myself, as there is no other man in the Empire fit to take
charge of it.

 "Is it not a shame that a man whom the Empire needs, who
had before him so splendid an opportunity, who was fitting
himself for so brilliant a career, should throw it all away from
mere perversity? Yet I am not wrathful against him; I see
many reasons for sympathizing with him.

 "Rigid and unflinching celibacy affects different individuals
very differently. Some it does not affect at all, apparently.
It does not seem to affect you. You are as plump and rosy, as
healthy and alert, as happy and normal a young woman, to all
appearance, as could be found among matrons of your age in
all the Empire. Celibacy seems to agree with you.

 "Manifestly it did not agree with Almo. It got on his nerves somehow.
That is the most probable explanation of his eccentric vagary. Don't be
discouraged. He'll turn up somewhere, after a while, safe and sound
and none the worse for his experiences."

 Brinnaria, in fact, was not discouraged. She resolutely and
unweariedly prosecuted her efforts to find Almo. Nor was she
despondent. She scouted the suggestion that he might be dead.
She kept up her spirits, did not mope or brood and never lost
her hearty appetite. She was the life of the dinners she attended
nd as talkative and witty as ever.

 But the strain affected her greatly. She was outwardly
controlled, statuesque and dignified, but the inward turmoil of
emotion that surged through her manifested itself in an
unremitting activity. She slept well and soundly, but rose early
and kept on the go. Besides her duties, her music and her
participation in social gatherings, she must needs find other
outlets for her energy, other means to pass her time and
distract her thoughts.

 In the course of her dealings with the racing companies she
became interested in them not merely as means towards locating
Almo, but for themselves. She became particularly interested in
their stables, their jockeys and their horses. There was no bar
of religious tradition or of social custom which hindered a Vestal
from freely mingling with men visibly in the open daylight in
public. Visiting the stables of the racing companies had long been
a fad with Rome's social leaders, men and women alike. Brinnaria
availed herself of her freedom in this regard and followed her
inclination. She haunted the training-stables of all six corporations,
but mostly of the Greens, always in company with Manlia, or
Flexinna, or Nemestronia or some other of her women friends;
she visited the barracks almost daily, chatted with the charioteers,
grooms and ostlers, watched the exercising of the teams,
inspected the stalls, conned the racers.

 She made herself an excellent judge of a jockey and a better
judge of a horse.

 She interested herself in the methods by which the companies
obtained and selected their animals. She became an adept on
the entire subject of horse-raising. It engrossed her thoughts.

 Then she herself took over the management of several of her
estates in the environs of Rome; of all, in fact, which were near
enough for her to visit personally. She redistributed the force of
slaves that managed them, sold some, bought others and fitted up
the properties as stud-farms. Herself she selected the brood
mares and stallions with which to stock these estates. She herself
laid down the principles guiding their management and she herself
dictated the methods of breeding them. She herself superintended
the carrying out of her orders, visiting each estate frequently and
inspecting everything carefully and intelligently.

 Her first offering of two-year-olds sold at good prices. She was
encouraged, felt herself completely an adept, and would take
no one's word about anything relating to horses, relying solely
on her own judgment.

 All this would have subjected her to much reprehension had
Faltonius Bambilio survived. But he had died just about the time
of Almo's disappearance. His son, also named Faltonius Bambilio,
had taken up a political rather than a priestly life and was not to
be thought of as his successor. In his place Aurelius, on his way
to Syria, had nominated Lutorius Rusco, a man who impressed
everyone at first sight, and more and more the better anyone knew
him, as the paragon of a Pontifex. He was not lacking in ecclesiastical
unction, but did not wallow in it as had Bambilio. He was pious,
but did not think it necessary to advertise it day and night unremittingly.
He was not lax in religious matters, but he was no stickler for minute
trifles. He inspired confidence by every characteristic of his appearance
and behavior. He was a man somewhat over medium height, well built,
neither heavy nor large, with an unusually dignified bearing and carriage,
not a hint of self-assertion and with a genially comprehending smile.
It was impossible not to confide in him and unthinkable that confiding
in him should ever be regretted. Brinnaria confided in him and never
regretted it.

 Of Almo's disappearance she talked to him freely; freely also she
talked of her feelings for Almo. He was as sympathetic and
comprehending as the Emperor and Empress and he encouraged her
to hope that Almo was yet alive, which she sometimes doubted.

 Of her stock farms he said to her:

 "I should certainly not have advised any woman to enter upon
such an enterprise, least of all a Vestal. I know of no other member
of our hierarchy who has any similar interests, except Calvaster,
whose haunting of the gladiatorial schools and association with
trainers of gladiators has given some scandal. Some people
would call your horse-breeding unseemly for a Vestal. But I see
no harm in it. I have talked with Causidiena and it is clear that
you do not neglect or skimp your duties, that you give them full
time and close attention. Your leisure is your own to do with as
you please. And your immediate success appears an evidence
that, to say the least, your undertakings give no offence to the gods."

 During the latter months of Bambilio's oversight Brinnaria had
felt restive and as if some inward force was forever driving her
to feverish activities; under the care of Lutorius she became
placid and thought less of her stock-raising, journeys to and
fro to her estates, talks with grooms and such like activitie
 and devoted herself with more cool ardor to her duties.


 CHAPTER XIV - AMAZEMENT



AURELIUS returned from Syria with his victorious army in the
nine hundred and twenty-ninth year of Rome, 176 of our era,
ten years after the great pestilence. He had merely crushed a
local rebellion, but a vast coalition of nomadic Arab tribes of
the desert had been allied with the rebels, and to the Romans
it seemed that their Emperor had won a great victory in a mighty
campaign. Aurelius humored their mood, and with good
judgment, for they needed all the encouragement possible. He
arranged to have his return celebrated by shows of all kinds,
theatrical performances, fights of gladiators, beast fights,
horse-races uncountable and above all, by that thrilling
procession of a victor and his armed soldiers through the
city along the Sacred Street, up to the great temple on the
Capitol, which was the highest honor an army and a
commander could receive at the hands of the Roman
government, which signalized a notable victory over notable
odds, which was called a triumph. Of triumphs Rome had
seen fewer than three hundred in more than nine hundred years.
Not one of the three hundred had been as magnificent as the
triumph of Aurelius.

 Its auxiliary spectacles were similarly magnificent. In particular
the gladiatorial shows surpassed anything within the memory of
the oldest living spectator.

 Causidiena, whose eyes troubled her greatly, found that watching
the triumphal procession caused her so much pain that she absented
herself from the remaining shows. To all of these, races, beast-fights
and combats of gladiators, she insisted that the other five Vestals
should go together. The arrangement was unusual, but no one could
object, for no one would hint or even think that the sacred fire
would be in any danger of going out with such a Chief Vestal
as Causidiena caring for it or that she needed any other Vestal to
assist her. Likewise her five colleagues were genuinely pleased
that not one of them would miss any part of the shows.

 As the number was odd, Causidiena decreed that they should be
conveyed to the spectacles each in her own state coach, attended
by her maid of honor. The maids, of course, did not sit with the
Vestals, but had seats far back with the populace.

 In their luxurious private box in the Colosseum the five Vestals sat
in the ample front row arm-chairs. They were seated not according
to seniority, but Numisia in the middle, Meffia and Brinnaria, as the
youngest, on either side of her, Gargilia next Meffia, and Manlia next Brinnaria.

 In the Imperial loge near them Aurelius, now for more than a year
a widower, presided over the games, clad in his gorgeous silk robes
and attended by his fifteen-year-old son Antoninus, afterward known
by his nickname of "Commodus." The four tiers of the Colosseum
were packed with spectators, pontiffs, senators, nobles, ambassadors
 magistrates and other notables in the front seats along the coping
of the arena wall, lesser notables in the first tier, well-to-do persons
in the second tier, traders and manufacturers and such like in the
third tier and the commonalty in the fourth.

 Besides the ninety thousand seated spectators* many thousand more
stood in the galleries, in the openings of the stairways, in any place
where a foothold could be found and from which a view could be
obtained. The outlook from the Vestals' box was across the level
sand to the gigantic curve of seats, all hidden under their occupants,
so that the interior of the Amphitheatre was a vast expanse of
flower-crowned heads, eager faces and waving fans.

        *The author forgets himself. Earlier in the book he
        describes an audience of 100,000 as Brinnaria tells
        the emperor how she felt down on the sand in her
        shift, with "two hundred thousand eyes" (implying
        one hundred thousand people) staring at her. In fact,
        the Colosseum could handle an audience of about
        45 to 50 thousand. -- GB ed.


 During that second day of gladiatorial fighting Manlia had several
times said to Brinnaria:

 "Is there anything wrong? Are you ill? You do not seem yourself!"
Each time Brinnaria had positively denied that anything was wrong
and had asserted that she was entirely herself.

 About the middle of the afternoon, the arena was filled with pairs
of gladiators, all the couples fighting simultaneously. Each pair had
with it a trainer, called a lanista, who watched, guided or checked
the fighting.

 The contending pairs were of a kind much liked by the Romans,
because of the excitement they afforded, each pair consisting of a
light-built, light-armed, nimble expert pitted against a heavily built,
heavily armed ruffian, the two supposed to be equally matched, the
strength and weapons of the one fully balanced by the skill and
agility of the other.

 Viewing fights of this kind Manlia felt rather than heard or saw
a change in Brinnaria next her, felt her stiffen and grow silent,
rigid and tense. Manlia glanced at her, followed her gaze and
became interested in the fight Brinnaria was watching. Before
them, not immediately below them, but some distance out in the
arena, fought a conspicuous pair of gladiators. One was a great
hulking full-armored brute of a Goth, helmeted and corseleted,
kilted in bronze-plated leather straps, booted, as it were, with
ample shin-guards of thick hide, bronze-plated like the straps
of his flapping kilt. He carried a big oval shield and threatened
with a long straight sword his adversary, a Roman in every
outline, a slender young man, barefoot, bare-legged, kilted
with the scantiest form of gladiator's body-piece and apron,
clad in a green tunic and carrying only the small round shield
and short sabre of a Thracian. He wore a helmet like a skull
cap with a broad nose-guard that amounted to a mask, above
which were small openings for his eyes.

 Conning this pair Manlia's attention was riveted by the slighter man.
He was very light on his feet, jaunty of bearing and, as it were,
ablaze with self-confidence.

 Manlia, who was an expert judge of sword-fighting, perceived
at once that he was a master of his art. His method for the
moment was to hold back, lead his opponent on and bide his
time. His attitudes and movements bespoke the most perfect
knowledge of sword play in all its finest details. But what most
held Manlia's attention was his beauty of form and a strange
something about him, a long-armed, long-legged appearance.
She turned to Brinnaria.

 "I should have sworn," she said, "that there was not in all the
world another man like Segontius Almo. But that Thracian is a
duplicate of him, as like him as if he were his twin brother."

"More like him than a twin brother," Brinnaria replied, her
voice muffled and choked. "I've been watching him ever since
he came in. I recognized him in the procession this morning.
That is Almo."

"Almo!" breathed Manlia, in a horrified whisper.

 "Yes, Almo!" hissed Brinnaria.

 "What shall we do?" quavered Manlia.

 "Do?" snorted Brinnaria, "do nothing."

"But we can pray," Manlia panted. "We can pray. Surely you
are praying, Brinnaria?"

"I am praying," came the answer, in a viperish whisper. "I'm
praying he may be killed."

"Killed!" Manlia gasped.

 "Yes, killed," repeated Brinnaria, viciously. "Killing is what he
deserves, mere killing is too good for him. If he wanted to commit
suicide why couldn't he do it decently at once and privately
without all this elaborate machinery of selling himself as a slave,
and lying about his intentions and disgracing himself by becoming
a prize-fighter and exposing himself to getting killed in public?
Why couldn't he get killed at Treves or Lyons or Aquileia?
Why must he humiliate me by this exhibition of himself before
me and all Rome? The quicker he is killed the better. I'm praying
he'll be killed at once."

"Oh, Brinnaria!" groaned the horrified Manlia.

 The Thracian was not killed in that first fight; he was never in
any danger of being killed. He played with his man as a cat plays
with a mouse; held him off without an effort, caught the attention
of all the nearby spectators; won their interest by the perfection
of his sword-play; and aroused their enthusiasm by that nameles
 quality which marks off, from even the best drilled talent, the
man who is a born genius in his line.

 He pinked his victim between corselet and helmet, so lightly that
only those spectators watching most closely saw the lunge, so
effectually that the man died almost as he fell.

 "You must have prayed for him to win; I did," spoke Manlia.

 "I didn't," Brinnaria snapped. "I prayed for him to be killed. I
wish he had been. I'm not the only one who has recognized him.
Aurelius has and he has told Antoninus; I watched him."

"How could you?" Manlia exclaimed. "How could you watch
anything but Almo?"

"I could and I did," Brinnaria asseverated. "I'm looking all
ways at once, just now. The news is all over the Imperial loge
already. They are looking at me as well as at him. I hope he'll
be killed this next bout." The lanista, in fact, at once matched
Almo with another full-armed giant. Again Almo gave an
exhibition of perfect swordsmanship. The Romans were as
quick to appreciate form in fighting as we moderns are to
applaud our best bail players; they recognized pre-eminence
in the swordman's art, as we acclaim the skill of a crack
baseball pitcher or cricket bowler.

 Almo caught the eye of spectator after spectator, till most
of the audience on that side of the arena were watching the
fight in which he took part to the exclusion of everything else
that was going on. He displayed that perfect balance of all the
mental and physical faculties, that instantaneous co-ordination
of eye, brain and muscle, which only an occasional phenomenon
can attain to. He made no mistakes, bore himself like a dancer
on a tight-rope, circled about his adversary, warded off all his
thrusts, lunges and rushes, turned aside his long sword with
his small round shield without a trace of effort, and at his
leisure found a joint in his body armor and pierced his heart
with an ostentatiously difficult lunge delivered with the acme
of apparent ease.

 "There," sighed Manlia, "I prayed hard."

"So did I," Brinnaria murmured, "but I prayed the other way.
He ought to have been killed already. Numisia has recognized
him and he has been recognized by three or four nobles along
the coping. The rumor is spreading from each of them and
running through the audience." Manlia, in fact, looking about
 was aware of an unusual stir among the spectators, of notes
being handed along and read, of whisperings, callings, signs,
pointings; of messengers worming their way from row to row
and from tier to tier.

 Almo won his third bout. While it was in progress Manlia
had seen one of the Emperor's orderlies enter the arena from
one of the small doors in the wall and confer with the chief
lanista, who directed the fighting.

 By the time Almo began a fourth bout half the audience was
looking at him or at Brinnaria. There were thousands present
who had survived the pestilence, who had been present fifteen
years before when she had let herself down into the arena and
had rescued the retiarius. They remembered her spectacular
interference and were curious as to how she would now comport
herself. Brinnaria, erect and calm, fanned herself placidly.

 Almo won his fourth bout.

 By this time the arrangements of the lanistas had been so far
modified that, instead of a great throng of fighters, there were,
in the whole immense arena, not more than twenty pairs.

 With scarcely a breathing space Almo was pitted against a
fifth adversary. By the time he had disposed of him the entire
audience, fully a hundred thousand souls, were as well aware of
what was going on as was Brinnaria herself. She was pale, but
entirely collected. To Manlia she whispered venomously:

 "Castor be thanked, he is certain to be killed, Aurelius has
attended to that." In fact the Roman sense of fair play was
offended when the lanista gave Almo a mere moment of
rest and then set against him a sixth antagonist. Murmurs
ran from tier to tier, there were hoots and cat-calls.

 Aurelius put up his hand and the people became still.

 It was not often that the entire throng in the Colosseum
focussed its attention on anyone fighter. That happened
now. The dozen or more other pairs of fighters were
ignored, all eyes were on Almo and his opponent--all eyes
that did not stray towards Brinnaria.

 Almo was not showing any signs of weariness, but he
was plainly husbanding his strength. The sixth bout was
tame--seldom had the Amphitheatre displayed so mild
a set to. The heavy-armed man had seen Almo dispose
of five like himself, he was timid; Almo was not timid,
but he was cautious. The result was a tedious exhibition
of fencing for position, each sword monotonously
caught on the other shield. At the end Almo slashed his
opponent's wrist, feinted, pretended to be unable to avoid
a clumsy thrust, slipped inside the big man's guard and
drove his sabre deep under his arm-pit.

 The Colosseum rang with cheers.

 Without so much as a sponging down or a mouthful of wine
Almo was faced by a seventh fresh swordsman in complete
armor. This time there were no caterwaulings or groans.
Even the upper gallery had recognized Almo or been told
who he was, even the populace had remembered or had
been informed of the relation between Almo and Brinnaria.
Everybody had recalled or been reminded of her rescue
of the retiarius.

 The audience collectively comprehended that Aurelius meant
Almo to be defeated and put at an adversary's mercy before
Brinnaria, that he was testing her.

 The habitual hubbub, hum, and buzz of undertones was
checked to a very unusual degree, the Amphitheatre became
almost still.

 But when Almo fairly duplicated his first bout and neatly,
almost without effort, cut his victim's throat, the audience
cheered him vociferously.

 Louder, if possible did they acclaim his calm and adequate
strategy against his eighth antagonist.

 A ninth and a tenth were promptly put beyond power to
hurt him by wounds ingeniously disabling, but far from deadly.

 The eleventh bout was more tedious than the sixth.

 Almo divined some greater strength or skill in this
adversary and played him warily. When the audience
was bored to the point of being almost ready to call
for something diverting Almo slaughtered his man
with a terrible wound between his corselet and kilt.

 The twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth antagonists
Almo plainly despised. He stood almost still, hardly
altering the position of his feet except to turn as the
huge barbarians circled ponderously about him. Each
he brought down with his first lunge.

 As the fifteenth bout began the audience was manifestly
impatient and restive. But they were not bored. That one
Thracian, almost without rest, should successively dispose
of fourteen antagonists, in the fullest armor, was a notable
feat. The perfect form of Almo's fighting was even more
notable. At each victory the audience cheered him till
they were hoarse. They seemed to cheer quite spontaneously
and to need the relief for their feelings. But also they
seemed to mean to give him as long a rest as was in
their power. They were all for him.

 But no man could go on fighting continually without fatigue.
In his fifteenth bout Almo moved heavily.

 The other man was unusually quick for a big man. He handled
his big sword deftly. After much sparring he was too quick
for Almo, and the point of his slender blade scratched Almo's
splay vizor, nicked his chin, and tore a long shallow slash in the
skin of his right breast.

 Blood welling through it stained the green of Almo's tunic;
blood dropping from his chin spotted the bright green.

 The populace groaned.

 Manlia prayed.

 Brinnaria, under scrutiny of two hundred thousand eyes, sat
erect, fanned herself steadily, and gazed straight before her.
To all appearance she was as indifferent to Almo as if he
did not exist.

 After that Alma moved like a sleep-walker or a man in a
dream, dully and dazedly.

 The big man feinted and lunged cleverly. The point of his
weapon ripped Alma's thigh on the outside above the knee.
No man could stand up after such a wound. He went down,
his shield under him.

 From all around the arena, from every tier, automatically,
thousands of arms shot out, thumb flat. Instantly every arm
whipped back and was hidden under its owner's robe. All
realized that expression of sympathy was not their business.
A hush fell. Everybody looked at the Emperor and at Brinnaria.

 Brinnaria sat erect in her arm-chair, fanning herself evenly,
staring straight across the arena. The same instinct, the same
curiosity which actuated the rest of the audience, restrained
the Vestals from giving the sign of mercy. All felt that the
matter concerned only Aurelius and Brinnaria, that for anyone
else to interfere would be flouting the Emperor.

 Brinnaria, white as a corpse, dizzy and numb, kept up the
unvarying motion of her fan. Otherwise she was perfectly still.

 The victor rolled his eyes along the rows of spectators. He
got no inkling of their feelings.

 He gazed at the Vestals. The audience saw him gaze that way.
Brinnaria ignored him. Almo and all the world.

 The victor looked toward the Emperor.

 Aurelius held out his right hand, thumb out.

 The lanista removed Almo's helmet. If anyone had doubted
his identity the doubt was dispelled among all near enough
to make out his face.

 The victor put one foot on Almo's chest. Almo stretched his neck.

 Brinnaria sat there, tense, pale, but as collected as if she had
no interest in what was going on.

 The savage standing over Alma glanced a second time towards
the Emperor.

 Aurelius was holding his arm at full stretch over the coping,
thumb flat against the extended fingers.

 Brinnaria knew that she had won, that Aurelius had put her
to the test before all Rome, that she had stood the test, that
all Rome was witness. Her fingers clutched the handle of
her fan. She could hardly feel it in her grasp.

 The big man took his foot from Almo's chest.

 The audience broke into howls of applause, gust after gust
of cheers, roaring like a storm wind in a forest.

 Brinnaria saw the arena, saw the spectators, through a film
of mist, through a gray veil, through a fog of blackness. She
realized that, for the first time in her life, she was on the verge
of fainting. Mechanically she looked about her. Her glance fell
on Meffia crumpled in her arm-chair.

 That steadied her. If Meffia had fainted, she would not, she
would not.

 She did not faint. She fanned herself steadily as she watched
the lanistas help Almo to hobble from the arena. When he was
gone her attention returned to Meffia. Gargilia and Numisia
were trying to rouse her.

 She remained crumpled, she collapsed, she slid off her chair
to the floor of the box. She lay in a horrid heap unmistakable
in its limpness. The excitement had been too much for Meffia.
She was stone dead.


 BOOK III



 THE REBELLION OF DESPERATION




 CHAPTER XV - REHABILITATION



 THE death of a Vestal, except from old age, was always regarded
by the Roman populace as a sign of the gods' disfavor. The death
of a young Vestal, sudden, unexpected and unexplained, could not
but cause great uneasiness throughout all classes of the population.

 Moreover, gladiatorial exhibitions were part of the Roman public
worship, which largely proceeded on the naive assumption that the
gods liked just about what men liked and that, the best way to please
the gods and win their favor was to delight them with such spectacles
as men enjoyed, acrobatic exhibitions, dramas, beast-fights, fights
of beasts with men or of men with men, chariot-races and similar
exciting displays, and so put the gods in a good humor. This
underlying theory of diverting spectacles as a species of prayer
and as the most effective kind of prayer was not so much definitely
expressed by the Romans, as tacitly and unconsciously assumed.
It was, nevertheless, entirely real and all Romans felt every public
show as an act of public worship, as a hallowed function.

 Most Roman rites were held to be entirely vitiated if a death
took place among the worshippers during the course of the
ceremony. To all solemnities at which only a few persons were
present this applied without qualification and positively. Naturally
a death among the crowd about a temple was held of much less import.

 Still less could anyone regard a death amid the vast throng in the
Colosseum or the Circus Maximus. So that Meffia's sudden end
was not necessarily held a certain indication of the wrath of the
gods. But, as the death of one of the most important functionaries
present at the spectacle, it caused much concern. The dismay of
the people the pontiffs tried to alleviate by all the means in their
power, by consultation of the augurs, soothsayers and
professional prophets, and by official consultation of the Sibylline
Books. The general anxiety was somewhat allayed by their
placards and proclamations, announcing that Meffia's death
was wholly due to her personal weakness and was not to be
regarded as a portent, in particular that it in no way indicated
the wrath of the gods or their rejection of the petition for public
safety embodied in the spectacles celebrating the triumph of Aurelius.

 The Temple and the Atrium of Vesta made up an institution in
which death was entirely disregarded. As no seriously ill Vestal
was ever allowed to remain within the limits of the Atrium, but,
as soon as alarming symptoms appeared, was removed from the
Atrium and put in charge of relations or friends, so also the body
of a dead Vestal was always turned over to the care of her family
or connections. Though the Vestals, alone among Romans,
possessed the privilege of being buried inside the walls of Rome,
though their funerals were magnificent public processions,
participated in by all the functionaries of the state and lavishly
provided at the public expense, yet the death itself was held to
be a concern of the family of the dead Vestal, not of her surviving
colleagues. The Vestals might mourn but the Atrium was never
in mourning. Its routine went on as if nothing had happened; no
sign of grief was displayed or even permitted; visitors were
received as usual.

 Among the first visitors to the Atrium on the morning after
Almo's fight and Meffia's death was, naturally, Flexinna.

 At the first word Brinnaria cut her short.

 "I don't want to hear his name," she declared. "I'm done
with him forever. I don't love him any longer; I don't care for
him, even; I hate him. It does not concern me whether he
recovers or not. I'd rather he wouldn't recover. The best
thing for both of us would be for him to die anyhow. I wish
he were dead; I wish one of those heavy men had killed him."

"B-B-Brinnaria!" Flexinna remonstrated, "you t-t-talk like
a raving maniac! You look like a F-F-Fury!"

"I'm furious enough!" Brinnaria snarled, "and I've plenty of
good cause for being angry. Was ever woman on earth put in
a position so invidious, so embarrassing? Everybody knew of
my rescue of the retiarius, thousands had seen me rescue him.
Everybody knew of my involvement with Almo before I was
taken for a Vestal, of our love for each other, of my expressed
intention to marry him at the end of my service. Everybody
recognized Almo.

 "And there I was with the one man on earth in the jaws of
death before my eyes and I with the power to save him if I
chose and a hundred thousand people watching me to see
what I would do. And because I had once before rescued a
man in that same situation everybody expected me to do
something unusual and spectacular to save Almo.

"If it had been any other man it would have been the most
natural thing in the world for me to give the signal for mercy
and nobody would have thought anything of it. But, because
the man before me was the man I had expressed my intention
of marrying at the end of my service, therefore, if I had tried
to save him, that would be taken as a confession of my being
actuated by the sort of interest which no Vestal has a right to
feel for any man.

 "A delightful situation to be placed in!

 "And he must needs go out of his way to put me in that position!
When all he had to do was to live the normal life of a Roman
gentleman and all things would in time come right for both of
us, he must needs strain the powers of human ingenuity, compel
the forces of time and space, of wind and wave to conspire to
produce that situation and make me suffer those unnecessary agonies!

 "Furious!

 "Of course I'm furious.

 "Never name him to me!"

When Lutorius Rusco, the new Pontifex of Vesta, called on her
she was less explosive, but still fuming.

 She received him in the large room at the east end of the peristyle
of the Atrium, a sort of parlor which had on either side of it three
very small rooms, the six, used as private offices by the six Vestals.
There each had her writing desk, and the cabinets in which she
kept her important papers, letters and such possessions.

 After they had exchanged greetings Lutorius motioned towards
Brinnaria's little sanctum. Brinnaria bridled.

"I've nothing to say that we cannot say out here," she advertised,
"and I do not want to hear anything that cannot be said out here."

Lutorius was tactful and had his way. When they were alone, he
said:

 "You were magnificent! You behaved splendidly. You could
not have done better. We are all proud of you, from the Emperor
down to the lowest slumgullion, every single Roman of us. You
are certainly the most popular woman alive and your popularity
is now of a sort to last as long as you live, complete and
unqualified. You were popular before, but with considerable
reservations. The hierarchy liked you, but were not sure that they
ought to approve a Vestal who had perpetrated such exploits as
yours, particularly your trouncing poor old Faltonius. The nobility
admired you, but shook their heads over your stock-farming. The
populace were enthusiastic about you, but, like the upper classes,
were uneasy because of your expressed intention to marry at the
end of your service and to marry a specified man, who had been
your boyish lover. All classes acclaimed you as a woman, but
nearly everybody was dubious about you as a Vestal.

 "Now nobody has any hesitation about feeling that you are all
a Vestal should be, a priestess whose prayers are certain to be
heard and answered."

Brinnaria made a wry face.

 "My prayers were not heard yesterday," she sighed. "Almo
was not killed. I was praying hard to have him dead and have
it all over with and done with forever."

Lutorius turned on her a slow, benignant, indulgent smile.

 "Daughter," he said, "you must remember that you are not
the only Vestal. Four Vestals were praying that Almo be saved,
each praying not only with her lips but with every fibre of her
being. And your heart and soul were praying silently with them
and against the fierce prayers of your lips."

"It is not so," she denied. "Every fibre of me was praying as
my lips prayed. My prayers were genuine."

"I am sure you thought so," Lutorius agreed. "It was natural
for you to feel that way. You were very angry. But your anger
will wear off."

"My anger may," Brinnaria admitted, "but never my
resentment and my disgust."

"Only time can prove whether your forecast is correct," the Pontiff
soothed her, "but are you justified even in being resentful? Ought
you not rather to be thankful that chance or fate or the direct
intervention of the gods working through Almo gave you the
precious opportunity to free yourself from the shadow of an
imputation that lay upon you from your entrance into the order?
Rome vaguely suspected you of too warm an interest in Almo.
Much of Rome had seen and all Rome had heard of your theatrical
rescue of a gladiator totally unknown to you. All Rome knew your
impulsive nature. All Rome has now seen you perfectly controlled
and outwardly calm with Almo on the verge of death before your
eyes. Everybody has watched you ignore him and show less interest
in his fate than you once manifested towards a casual savage.
Your outward observance of the conventions under such trying
circumstances has abolished any qualms the people felt because
of your many past unconventionalities. This puts you in a very strong
position toward any possible accusation or trial. You know how
earnestly you have talked to me of your dread of such contingencies.
Ought you not, after thinking it over, to forget your anger against
Almo and to feel positively grateful for the opportunity so to exalt
ourself?"

"Perhaps I ought," Brinnaria mused. "The value to me of the
results I had not thought of, but admit it now that you expound it.
But I am not grateful. I suffered too much. I am still smarting
with indignation.

 "And, apart from any remains of anger, I ache with the humiliation
of it all. Think of the infamy, of the degradation Almo has brought
on himself!"

Lutorius pursed his lips.

 "There is a certain social stigma upon any man who has joined
a prize-fighting gang," he conceded, "but the obloquy resulting
from having been a gladiator has greatly attenuated amid the
loose manners of our day. Nothing that becomes fashionable
remains disgraceful. The social disgrace of it has greatly
lessened as the thing has become more usual, and freemen who
have been gladiators are rather acclaimed and sought after than
condemned and shunned. They win a sort of vogue, if successful
fighters.

 "The treatment of such persons has greatly changed in recent
years. Even since I began to remember there has been an all
but universal alteration in the general attitude towards such
cases--they have become too numerous for the old feelings to
survive. Not only Roman citizens have entered gladiatorial
schools, risen high in the profession, fought countless fights,
served out their time as prize-fighters, and returned to their
families, but noblemen have done so, even senators. Vescularius
is as much a senator as if he had not won seventy-eight bouts
in three years."

"I know it," Brinnaria admitted, "and I have thought over all
that. But I am old-fashioned in my feelings even if I have often
been the reverse in my behavior. I am revolted at the thought
of Almo as a professional cut-throat--I was insulted at the
sight of him in the arena. I feel that by his abasement of himself
he has obliterated my love for him. It is as if he had never existed.
I shall not marry him, even if we both outlive my obligatory
term of service. I shall never marry anybody. I shall die a Vestal."

"You feel that way now, of course," Lutorius agreed, "but
you will get over it, though you do not think so now."

"I do not believe I shall ever get over it," Brinnaria declared.
"So many things rankle in my thoughts, the small things even
more than what is more important. I grind my teeth over the
mere legal consequences of his having been a gladiator. He
will forfeit half the properties he inherited and he can never
hold any office, civil or military."

"All that," said Lutorius, "the Emperor will attend to in full.
And your thinking of such trifles shows that you even yet
care more for Almo than you admit to yourself.

 "You must let me tell you about him. He is in the care of the
best physicians in Rome. They assure me that he will recover,
that his face will show but the merest trace of a scar, no
disfigurement whatever, and that he will walk without the
slightest limp. He is comfortable and convalescing nicely.
I am going to bring you news of him daily, whether you
think you want it or not, and you are going to listen to me
because I tell you to."

Brinnaria, for once in her life, was submissive and silent.

 Not many days later the Pontiff greeted her with a contented smile.

 "Almo," he said, "is now practically recovered. He is well
enough to have enjoyed brief visits from several of his former
cronies. He is in his house on the Carinae, and it is besieged by
all the fashionables of Rome, not only his boyhood friends and
acquaintances, but people who never spoke to him. Everybody
is rushing to call on him.

 "He is a free man again. At an intimation of the Emperor's wishes
Elufrius became as supple as possible and all willingness to oblige.
He asked a huge price for Almo's release, and no wonder, for
after the advertisement you gave him, Almo could have commanded
fabulous fees for all future fights and the profits accruing to
Elufrius must have been enormous. So Elufrius had to be paid a
large sum, but nothing compared to even one year's accumulation
of revenue from Almo's estates administered by his agents. So
Almo will never feel that. The papers have all been drawn, signed
and sealed. The cash has been paid. Almo is no longer a member
of a gladiatorial band.

 "And, at a word from the Emperor, the Senate framed and passed
a decree relieving Almo of all the legal disabilities inhering in his
past. He has been restored to his former rank in the nobility, has
been confirmed in the possession of all inheritances which he might
otherwise have forfeited, has been declared free from all stain and
entirely fit to hold any office in the service of the Republic. The decree
has been engrossed, sealed and signed by the Emperor. Almo is a
nobleman as before. Are you pleased?"

"I am," Brinnaria confessed.

 Lutorius nodded.

 "Now, do not take umbrage," he said, "at what I am about to ask.
If you must say no, say no without being offended. May I tell the
Emperor what you have said to me?"

"Certainly," Brinnaria authorized him. "Aurelius is so good a
friend to me that sometimes I think he is the best friend I have
on earth."

After an interval of some days the Pontiff hinted that the Emperor
desired to see her. Brinnaria's disposition to stand upon ceremony
and to insist on her full rights as a Vestal had waned as she grew
to maturity. In her dealing with Aurelius she had long laid it aside
altogether and likewise with Lutorius, both were so unassuming,
so manifestly actuated by the sincerest regard for her. Now she
obediently sent in her application for an audience with the Emperor.

 It was accorded her about twenty days after Almo's fight.
Aurelius came straight to the point.

 "Daughter," he said, "I want you to tell me the entire truth. You can
confide in me without reservation and you should do so without hesitation,
since I ask it.

 "What I wish you to tell me is this: Has your lover's behavior
effaced your regard for him, as you asserted to Lutorius, or were
you self-deceived? Is everything at an end between you and will
you ignore his existence in future and remain a Vestal for life
or have your feelings overcome your displeasure and are you again
thinking of him and of your future as you did in the past?"

"Castor be good to me," Brinnaria confessed. "I did think his
folly had alienated me from him forever, but the more I brood
over it all the more I realize that no matter what he has done
or does or will do I love him just as genuinely as if he deserved it,
and as far as I can judge I shall love him to the last breath I draw.
I am ashamed of my weakness, but I foresee that, when my service
is over, I shall be just as eager to marry him as if he had been all
he ought to have been."

"You please me," said Aurelius, "particularly in the way you put it.

 "I am not in the habit of giving a second chance to any man. But
Almo's case is so peculiar and the circumstances so unusual and
my interest in him is so compelling that I am going to make an
exception in respect to him. I shall give him another opportunity
as an officer. I have reflected where to send him and I have
concluded to relegate him to Britain. There, in the north, our
frontier, pushed far beyond the former line, is ceaselessly
attacked by the Caledonian savages. My predecessor's great
earthwork needs larger garrisons. There Almo will find occupation
and may rehabilitate himself. There he will be under the watch
of Opstorius, who is a stern and scrupulous governor. He sets
out this very day.

 "Now is the time for me to speak to you of Calvaster. Calvaster,
unfortunately, is as indispensable as ever, even more so. My
impulse was to banish him, but I had to forego the idea. I contented
myself with summoning him to my presence and telling him in so
many words that the slightest suspicion of any further machinations
by him against you or Almo would draw down on him the unescapable
consequences of my severest displeasure. By that admonition, and
by his chagrin at the unexpected and unwelcome outcome of his
plot, I think him sufficiently punished. Also I think him thoroughly
cowed. He will make no further attempt to trouble you.

 "It appears that when he was touring Spain, inspecting the copies
of the sacred books at all the chief temples of the five provinces, he
recognized Almo in the arena at Corduba. He at once used all the
influence in his power to arrange that Elufrius should bring his
gang of fighters to Rome and that their bouts should be so managed
that Almo would be saved to fight before you as he did. Almo
himself found this out through Elufrius since he became again a
free man and in control of his fortune, and it took a great deal of
money and the participation of a great many experts to uncover
and prove the facts. Proved they have been to my satisfaction
and Calvaster's confusion.

 "Almo had expected to serve his three years in Spain and was as
dismayed as possible when he found he was to be transferred to
Rome. But an articled gladiator has taken oath to submit to anything,
specifying death, torture, burning, wounding, flogging and more
besides, an articled gladiator cannot object to fighting anywhere.
Almo had to acquiesce.

 "And now, having heard that it was not wholly his fault that you
were so cruelly tried before all of us, will you not agree to say farewell
to him a second time?"

In the flood-tide of her revulsion of feeling Brinnaria could refuse
Aurelius nothing. The Emperor gave a signal and Almo was ushered
in as he had been six years before.

 Brinnaria's eager scrutiny could detect no limp in his gait, could
barely descry the scar on his chin, even when she knew so well where
to look for it. She noted that he looked well, vigorous and very
handsome in his gilded armor and scarlet cloak. She contrasted their
magnificent surroundings with the rough frontier to which he was
going.

 Almo tried to speak and choked.

 "Caius," she said, "the Emperor has told me how it all came
about. Don't ask me to forgive; I ask your pardon for misconceiving
you; I have nothing to forgive in you. If you are what I believe
you to be I shall never have to forgive anything from you. Go, and
with the help of the blessed gods, prove yourself all you ought to
be. Farewell!"

And Almo, as he bowed, managed to say:

 "Farewell!"



Chapter XVI - VAGARY



TERENTIA FLAVOLA, who was taken as a Vestal to fill Meffia's
place, was a really beautiful girl.

Her hair was golden hair in fact, not merely in name; her eyes were
an intense, bright blue; her complexion was exquisite, the delicate
texture and perfect whiteness of her skin emphasized by the healthful
coloring which came and went on her cheeks. Every one of the Vestals
fell in love with her at once, most of all Brinnaria.

Besides her good looks Terentia had a charming disposition, a pretty
unconsciousness of herself and a winning deferentialness towards her
elders. The combination made her irresistible.

Also she was an interesting child, being amazingly precocious, not
as Brinnaria had been, in growth and behavior, for she was a complete
child in all respects, but in being what moderns call an infant prodigy.
Infant prodigies in ancient times displayed their unusual powers
chiefly by recitations, mostly of poems, which they learned by rote
and repeated with very little understanding of what they rehearsed.
More than most of her kind Terentia comprehended what she
declaimed, but she knew by heart many poems entirely beyond her
childish grasp. At barely eight years of age she was able to reel off
without hesitation or effort anyone of an amazingly long list. With
little prompting she could recite some of the longest narrative poems
in Latin literature and she needed prompting only to give her the
cue words at the beginning of each book and of each important episode.

Besides her amazing powers as a reciter she was already proficient
in Greek, talked it easily and knew many poems in that language,
which all educated Romans spoke and which was used more than
Latin at Court.

But her chief distinction came from her capability as a musician. In
music she was not only an infant prodigy, but very much of a born
genius. Her memory for any composition she heard once was unfailingly
accurate; her rendition of anything she knew was more than perfect,
since to perfection of rendition she added sympathetic interpretation.
She was already reputed the best female performer on the lyre, the
most popular instrument in ancient times. The lyre had an effect
something between that of a guitar and a harp, with some of the
characteristics of the modern banjo, zither and mandolin.

Since the lyre was looked upon as frivolous and unsuited to the
gravity of a Vestal, Brinnaria introduced Terentia to the organ.
This instrument the child had heard, but had not learned to play,
as organs were expensive in those days, whereas Terentia's
family, although of the most ancient nobility, were in very
straitened circumstances.

To the organ Terentia took with great enthusiasm, and in performing
on it she soon surpassed her teacher.

Brinnaria's playing on the water-organ was similar to the piano
music of a modern girl who has mostly taught herself and who
plays largely by ear; Terentia played it as a born genius in our
days plays her piano, with impeccable exactitude, inimitable
individuality and compelling charm. Her organ recitals were soon
a chief feature of the social life in the Atrium, each thronged by
the most fashionable ladies in Rome, who competed for invitations.
Her vogue in no way spoiled Terentia, who played with just as
much zest for her co-inmates of the Atrium, or when she was
entirely alone amusing herself at the organ. Teaching her, playing
with her, listening to her, took up a good deal of Brinnaria's time
and came to be a great solace and comfort to her.

Even more was this abundance of good music a solace and a
comfort to Causidiena, for, like Dossonia, her predecessor, like
so many former Chief Vestals, Causidiena was going blind
from some disorder slow, painless and obscure, altogether baffling
to the best medical and surgical skill.*

        *Clearly cataracts. As a matter of fact they WERE
        sometimes treated even this long ago, but the treatments
        did not meet with much success, and Causidiena probably
        would not have cared to take the risk.

For much of the ritual of Vesta and much of the participation
of the Vestals in the public worship in general, the presence of
the Chief Vestal was essential.

She was the Vestal, the others were only her assistants and in training
to succeed her. But as Causidiena became less and less able to see, all
matters which could be attended to by others devolved more and more
upon Numisia. Among her colleagues Numisia had greatest confidence
in Brinnaria, so that Brinnaria's duties occupied her insistently.

Besides her ritual duties and her music she kept up her interest in
horse-racing; in fact, she became more and more devoted to this pastime,
which Lutorius countenanced, but which her detractors characterized
as indelicate.

The success of her venture was notable. She became an important local
dealer in racers. Her colts, sold at well-advertised auctions, were sought
after, were competed for, brought fancy prices, won many races, came
to have a reputation that spread beyond the city, over all Italy, even into
the provinces. Her career as a stock farmer was brilliant, meteoric,
phenomenal.

Between her duties, her music and her horse-breeding Brinnaria's
mind was pretty well occupied. She had no time to brood and passed
six contented and almost happy years.

She had reason for happiness in the fact that reports from Almo were
uniformly good. To Flexinna he wrote at intervals and his letters
reached their destination without much irregularity. In those days
communication with Britain was by no means so easy as with Africa.
Gaul was a country well Romanized and very populous, busy and
prosperous. All across it were good roads, excellent bridges and
frequent post houses. But between Italy and Gaul were the Alps,
where the winter snows blocked the roads for months at a time and
where avalanches and floods suspended traffic at unpredictable
intervals at all times of the year. The only sure road uniting Italy
and Gaul was not through the Alps but past them along the sea-coast,
and that was roundabout.

At the other end of Gaul the sea interposed a barrier which the
Romans found annoying. In the state of seamanship in those ages
a head-wind was an insuperable obstacle. As long as the wind
blew the wrong way there was nothing to do but wait for the
wind to change. High winds made navigation altogether impossible.
Between storms and head-winds, on more than half the days in
the year attempting the passage of the channel was not to be
thought of. Moreover, bitter experience had taught the Romans
that the weather-signs of the Mediterranean were not to be
relied on when one dealt with Atlantic weather conditions. In
particular they found that a clear sky, a light breeze, warm air
and a calm sea in the morning not infrequently heralded a terrible
storm before dusk.

Consequently their attempts to cross from Gaul to Britain or
from Britain to Gaul were restricted to occasions when, at and
after sunset, the sky was clear, the sea calm and the wind
favorable. Only under those circumstances could they be reasonably
sure of the conditions remaining unaltered until the transit was
accomplished. In practice about sixty-five nights in a year promised
well for traffic. With sea transit so restricted, communication
with Britain was infrequent, and news of Almo irregular.

Besides his letters to Flexinna he wrote occasionally to Vocco.
Vocco also had hopes of hearing from some of his comrades in
arms. But as Valentia was a place of semi-exile for incompetent,
illiterate, drunken and reckless officers, small reliance could
be placed on any such channel of news.

Therefore, with Brinnaria's knowledge and at her expense,
Vocco had arranged to have an unremitting watch kept on
Almo by skillful hirelings of the Imperial information department.
These men sent messages whenever it was possible, and their
reports were consistently favorable.

The frontier of Caledonia offered no such opportunities for
distinction and promotion as the outskirts of the Sahara had
afforded. Military duty from the Forth to the Clyde was
monotonous and wearisome. But, considering his environment,
Almo did very well. He was liked by his companions, loved by
his subordinates and worshipped by his men. What there was
to do he did capably, and in his leisure, among comrades who
guzzled wine and gambled like madmen, he was always sober
and never abused the dice, which were an inevitable social
feature of all Roman outpost existence.

Aurelius spent the last four years of his life along the headwaters
of the Danube and Rhine, where the rising tide of Germanic
migrations beat incessantly at the outworks of the Empire.
His death at Vienna occurred when Brinnaria was twenty-nine
years old and had been nineteen years a Vestal. He was
succeeded by his son Antoninus, whose obliging disposition
and easy-going manners made him exceedingly popular with
his cronies, the young fops, dandies and sports of Roman
society, and led to his being known among them as "the good fellow,"
which nickname of "Commodus" soon supplanted his given
names and official titles, on the lips first of the Romans, then
of the Italians, soon of all his subjects everywhere.

Commodus was not in Rome when his father died and it was
therefore not possible for Brinnaria to have an audience with
him. She dreaded that a change of governors in Britain might
work unfavorably for Almo.

In consultation with Vocco she did what she could, through the
city Prefect in charge of Rome during the Emperor's absence,
and through other officials, to make sure that any new governor
of Britain would be fully informed of the secret instructions
which Aurelius had given Opstorius concerning Almo. She also
did all that was possible to have Commodus reminded of the
matter. This was difficult at a distance and a delicate undertaking
at any time and in any place, no Emperor ever relishing the
assumption that he need be reminded of anything, while the
necessity for emphasis and secrecy at one and the same time
taxed the best ingenuity. With the great influence possessed
by the Vestals, they hoped that they had succeeded.

But when Commodus had been Emperor a little over a year,
Brinnaria, as she descended from her carriage at Vocco's door,
felt a thrill of vague foreboding. On entering the house her
premonition of something wrong intensified. At first sight
Flexinna's face confirmed her suspicions. However, she asked
no questions and worked off her feelings by a series of high dives,
followed by fancy-stroke swimming under water. She came up
from her tenth plunge sufficiently exhausted to feel to some
extent soothed.

As they composed themselves on the dining-sofas Vocco and
Flexinna exchanged glances. Brinnaria did not wait for either to speak.

"I am afraid," she said, "that my appetite is not as reliable as
it was ten years ago. I think we had best eat our dinner first and
discuss our bad news afterwards." Vocco and Flexinna looked
distinctly relieved.

Brinnaria's appetite seemed excellent. She ate abundantly, and,
after the dinner tray was removed and the dessert tray brought
in, she relished a half a dozen of her favorite purple figs.
Savoring her glass of Vocco's exquisite Setian wine she asked:

"What has gone wrong, Quintus?"

"Just precisely what we feared has happened," Vocco replied.
"In spite of all our efforts Hostidius appears to have known
nothing whatever about Almo's peculiar past or of the special
instructions Aurelius gave Opstorius.

"Almo has practically repeated the vagary he perpetrated at
Hippo. He induced Hostidius to give him a full, honorable discharge
from the army and later wheedled the governor into authorizing
him to have himself sold as a slave."

"What maggot can he have in his brain," Brinnaria burst in,
"that he is so fascinated with the idea of being sold as a slave?
What earthly basis can there be for the enticement it holds out
to him? Being sold as a slave is universally regarded as the
worst fate that can befall a man in life. What makes the prospect
of life as a slave so alluring to him?"

"Flexinna and I have been debating that point," said Vocco, "but
we cannot so much as think up a conjecture.

"As to the facts there can be no doubt. He was publicly sold in the
marketplace of Eboracum."

"At least," Brinnaria breathed, "we have not lost track of him
this time."

"We have not," Vocco answered, "and I'll wager we shall not."

"Is it prize-fighting again?" Brinnaria queried, "or is it really
charioteering this time?"

"Neither," said Vocco. "I must say it sounds like lunacy. But
all Almo's words and all the small details of his behavior show
no signs of derangement. Up to the last report he slept well, ate
well, looked well, talked sensibly, in respect to all minor matters
acted like a rational being, and seemed to thrive. But what he
did in the large sense appears incredible.

"He had himself advertised for sale as an expert farm overseer,
was bought by a prosperous proprietor whose properties are
situated in the southwestern part of Britain and there, near
Ischalis, he has settled down to the management of a large
estate; large at least for that part of the world. He was giving
excellent satisfaction in his dealings with the slaves and by his
knowledge of budding, grafting, transplanting and of all the
mysteries of gardening, orchard lore, and of agriculture in general."

"Yes," Brinnaria reflected, "he was keen on all that sort of
thing while he was at the villa near Falerii. Such knowledge,
gained in boyhood, sinks in deep and is never forgotten. He is
not playing a part or pretending; he is really enjoying farm life.
But what kink in his head makes him fancy that he prefers to
enjoy it as a slave rather than as a free man? That puzzles me.
Why be sold as a slave in order to bask in rural delights when
he could buy the ten largest estates in Britain and never feel
the outlay? When after his honorable discharge from the
army he was at liberty to remain in Britain openly and to do
as he liked? Can you see through it?"

Flexinna and Vocco agreed that they saw no glimmer of light.

"At least," Brinnaria summed up, "he is in Britain and we can
arrange to prevent his leaving the island. Certainly we can have
him watched, wherever he goes."

Vocco at once set about making the arrangements to ensure
that Almo would not leave Britain. Within a half year he had
to report that their efforts had been futile.

"We were too late," he said. "He did not remain at Ischalis a
year. Egnatius Probus, of Fregellae, had been in Britain more
than ten years as adviser to the tax-department. His health had
given way and he was taking the waters at Aquae Solis. He was
an acquaintance of Almo's owner and went down to Ischalis
after his water-cure had had its effect and he felt better. While
visiting and idling at Ischalis he took a fancy to Almo, offered
a high price for him and bought him. He returned home by
way of Marseilles and from there by ship to Puteoli. He is
now on his estates near Fregellae and Almo is his head
overseer, in charge of the entire place. He has been there
three months already."

Brinnaria fidgeted on her sofa, for, as on the previous occasion,
Vocco had imparted his news after dinner.

"Give me another goblet of that Setian you bought from Zaelis,"
she said. "I'm getting to be a confirmed wine-bibber. At
every piece of bad news I need a bracer."

After she had emptied her glass, she burst out:

"If Almo is acting as villicus of an estate near Fregellae he
must be living with some slave-woman or other."

"He is not," Vocco informed her. "I made careful inquiries
on just that point and got my information from two different
sources. Almo told Egnatius that he was a woman-hater
and could not endure a woman about him. Egnatius
humored him and he is acting villicus without any villica.
The wife of the assistant overseer does whatever is
necessary in the way of prayers and sacrifices and
such duties of a villica. She and her husband occupy
the overseer's house and Almo is living in the hut
meant for the assistant villicus."

"Did anybody ever hear the like!" exclaimed Brinnaria.

Vocco's agents verified this news and made it quite certain
that Almo was masquerading as a slave and as a villicus of
a fine estate in lower Latium, near Fregellae, southeast of
Rome on the Latin highroad, about half way between Capua
and the capital.

Brinnaria found herself very much in a quandary, and
discussions with Flexinna and Vocco, however lengthy
and however often repeated, left her just where she started.
They could not decide whether it was best to do nothing or
to interfere, and whether, if they were to interfere, what
form their intervention should take.

Should Vocco travel to Fregellae and force an interview with
Almo and try to appeal to his better self? If so, should he do so
without apprizing Egnatius of the real name and origin of his
overseer? Or should they enlighten Egnatius under a pledge
of secrecy and afterwards decide whether or not to make an
attempt to recall Almo to his natural way of life? Should they
do any of these things without appealing to the Emperor or
would it be better first to inform Commodus? They debated
over and over every line of conduct any one of them could
suggest. After all complete inaction and entire secrecy seemed best.

This view was confirmed when Brinnaria consulted Celsianus,
the most reputed physician of Rome. She had already confided
in Lutorius, who informed Celsianus, arranged for an interview
and was present at it.

The great man said: "Almo is not necessarily or even probably
deranged. On the face of what you tell me the most unfavorable
conjecture I could form would be that he has resolved to
commit suicide. You will say that the idea is absurd, that suicide
is easy and that the means are always at hand, which is quite true.

"But there are cases, more numerous than you could fancy,
of persons who make up their minds to bring about their end
in some unimaginable manner, of which nobody but themselves
would ever have thought. Then they lay complicated plans and
by devious ways approach their purpose. If they are thwarted
or diverted, they never end their lives in any other fashion than
by the special method they have devised.

"I am inclined to think that Almo's entrance into a gang of
sword-fighters was caused by some such intention, that he is
alive because the circumstances he looked forward to never
conspired to give him just the kind of death he preferred. I am
inclined to think that he is now working towards some unthinkable
exit from life.

"But I am not much disposed to think his such a case at all.
It may be a mere whim of self-torment, or it may be spontaneous
yielding to a genuine liking for the life he is living. What one
human being likes cannot be realized by other human beings,
in many cases.

"My advice is to let him entirely alone. If you interfere you may
precipitate his suicide, if he meditates suicide. By calling in the
help of the Emperor or of his owner or both, you may destroy
the chances, the very good chances, of his returning to his full
senses. Men in his state of mind are often sane in all respects,
and, if unsettled, are deranged only in one particular. They are
generally wholly reasonable on all points except as to their fad
of the moment. If that wears off they are entirely rational. Let
him alone. Watch him, but take no other steps."

This advice seemed simple enough, but carrying it out proved
more of a strain than Brinnaria could have foreseen. The knowledge
that Almo was in Italy, near Fregellae, actually in Latium and
within seventy miles of Rome, that he was living in the hut of an
under-farm-bailiff, that he perhaps purposed some eccentric method
of suicide proved racking to her nerves. She became irritable and
fidgety, her music failed to solace or comfort her and sometimes
almost bored her. She groped blindly for something to distract
her mind.

First she had a brief but violent attack of solicitude for her pauper
tenants. She found entertainment in visiting her slum properties
and in endeavoring to alleviate the condition of their inmates. They
were far from grateful. To have a Vestal, clad in the awe-inspiring
dignity of her white robes, with all her badges of office, six braids,
headdress, headband, tassels, ribbons, brooch and all descend from
her dazzlingly upholstered carriage and invade the courtyard of their
hive was thrilling but still more disconcerting to a swarm of slum
spawn. They bragged of the honor for the rest of their lives and strutted
over it for months, but they were unaffectedly relieved to see her depart.

Her inquiries as to their means of livelihood were excruciatingly
embarrassing. The Roman populace, all freemen with their wives and
children, were legally entitled to free seats at the spectacles and to
cooked rations from the government cook-shops in their precinct.
They throve on their free rations. Of their own efforts they had merely
to clothe themselves and pay the rent of their quarters. Cash for
rent and garments they obtained in whatever way happened to be
easiest, often by dubious means. As to their resources they were reticent.

In particular, Brinnaria was unable to cajole any admission, by word
or silence, from any dweller in one of her largest rookeries, and they
were better off than any tenants she had, too. What was more, not
one of their neighbors would impart any information about them. .

Brinnaria's curiosity was aroused. She bethought herself of
Truttidius, the sieve-maker, and of his intimate knowledge of
all the dens and lairs in the city.

She asked him. He laughed.

"On the Fagutal?" he made sure, "at the second corner beyond
the end of the Subura?"

He laughed again.

Then he tactfully explained that the tenants in that particular
congeries of buildings were professional secret cut-throats,
good enough husbands and fathers and amicable among
themselves, but earning an honest livelihood by putting out
of the way any persons displeasing to anybody able to pay
for their services.

Brinnaria abruptly ceased slumming.

All the more she threw herself into her horse-breeding. She
visited her stud-farms oftener; and, oddly enough, as the result
of her overwrought state of mind, the management of the farms
themselves came to mean less to her than the means of reaching
them and returning. She paid close attention to the make of
her road-carriage, to the speed and pace of her roadsters. She
bought picked teams of blooded mares, selecting them especially
for their ability to keep up a fast walk without breaking pace.
She boasted that she had six spans of mares, any one of which
could, at a walk, outdistance any team in Rome owned by
anybody else.

By specializing in fast-walking cattle she saved much time in
passing from the Atrium to the city gates and in returning.

Outside the city her mares displayed their capacity for other
paces than the walk. She saw to it that her coachman kept
them at their utmost speed. The sight of her tearing along a
highway became familiar everywhere throughout the suburban
countryside. She made a hobby of extremely fast driving
and of buying fast mares.

Also she fell into another fad, at the time all the rage, invented
since the accession of Commodus and made fashionable by the
young Emperor. Some popinjay had conceived a whim for travelling
by litter instead of in his carriage. It was far less expeditious and
far more expensive. But the notion took. All at once every fop in
Roman society must needs take his country outings, go to his
villa and come back from it, not in his carriage but in his litter.
The plea was that a carriage jolted and that riding in a litter was
less tiring. There was something in that, for carriage springs had
not been invented in those days. But mostly it was just a craze
among the very wealthy, as distinguishing them from people
who could afford but one set of litter-bearers. An ordinary
four-man litter could be used only for going about the city--longer
distances were impossible, and excursions into the country
soon tired out eight bearers. For road travelling one must have
sixteen bearers, two sets relieving each other in turn. Brinnaria
bought sixteen gigantic negroes and tested them on her
inspections of her stock-farms. She tried German bearers,
Goths and Cilicians. Her bearers became famous for their speed
and endurance. If she heard of any squad reputed better than
hers, she bought it at any price, until, not counting the teams
of bearers belonging to the Palace, there was only one gang in
Rome which she envied. She tried to purchase them but could
not. They belonged to her mother's friend Nemestronia.

Nemestronia always had been a wonder and was a marvel.
She was one of the wealthiest women in Rome and had never
been ill a moment in her life. A very beautiful girl, she had
kept her looks and a wonderful singing voice, still clear and
sweet when she was over sixty. She had been, since within
a year after her first marriage, one of the social leaders of
Rome. She had become the social leader of Rome, her influence
almost equal to that of the Empress. She had outlived three
empresses and had reigned unquestioned in the social world
for over fifty years, yet had not an enemy in Rome. Everybody
loved Nemestronia. At the time of the litter craze she had
already celebrated her eighty-first birthday, was plump,
rosy, merry and spry, always ready for any amusement, and
was living happily with her fifth husband.

She prided herself on her litter-bearers and with her unerring
social instinct anticipated the caprice of her world and provided
herself with three sets of carriers, sixteen to a set. One gang,
of brawny Cappadocians, outclassed any but the Emperor's own.

These Brinnaria tried to buy, tried in vain. Nemestronia was willing
to exchange, if she could do so to her advantage. But sell she would
not. Amid her opulence no sum could tempt her.

Brinnaria fumed and drove her horses almost to death, urged her
litter-men almost to exhaustion. But, with all her haste, care
outpaced her steeds or carriers. She gnawed her heart out.

Only at Vocco's house, amid Flexinna's bevy of youngsters, did
she find peace of mind.

Even there, at last, care followed her.

When Alma had been more than a year at Fregellae, Brinnaria,
visiting Flexinna about the middle of May, scented more trouble.
As they lay down to dinner she said:

"The occasion, I perceive, calls for an extra supply of wine.
Let it be the old Falernian this time and have the mixture strong."
After they had eaten, none any too heartily, Vocco told his news.

Almo had left his master's estate without a permit, in plain words
had gone off like any runaway slave and had thereby exposed himself
to the penalties incurred by a fugitive. Egnatius had taken the usual
steps to recapture him, but neither he nor the authorities had any
clue to Almo's whereabouts. As far as they were concerned he had
vanished.

He had not, however, eluded the vigilance of Brinnaria's agents,
of the men Vocco had employed to keep him in view. They understood
that Egnatius was to be kept in ignorance of their activity, and gave
no aid to the police of the neighborhood in their efforts to retake him.
They had reported only to Vocco.

Almo had money with him and at Arpinum had garbed himself decently
for the road. He avoided the main highway and wandered along
by-roads, zigzagging and circling about. He idled at inns, sometime
for days in one place, often in small towns, oftener at road-houses
between.

He was then near Atina.

At intervals during June and July Vocco gave Brinnaria reports
about Almo. He seemed to enjoy the society of the casual travellers
he met at small inns and of the local frequenters of them. He got
on famously with everybody. Nowhere was he suspected of being
a runaway slave and naturally, for he had the unmistakable carriage
and bearing of a born freeman. The hue and cry Egnatius had set
loose after him was active wherever he went, but he sat under
placards offering rewards for his capture and no one applied the
description to him.

Early in June he was at Casinum and Interamna, before it ended
at Fundi and Privernum. In July he passed through Setia, Ulubrae,
Norba and Cora. Early in August he was idling at Velitrae,
playing quoits in the inn-yard morning after morning.

He seemed to like Velitrae. He stayed there longer than anywhere else.



Chapter XVII - RECKLESSNESS



ON the fifteenth of that same August, not long after noon,
Brinnaria was much surprised by a call from Flexinna.

"The most amazing weather that ever was," Flexinna stated.
"I never heard of such, everybody says nobody ever heard of the
like. Even Nemestronia says she never saw or heard of anything
to compare to it. The densest imaginable fog, as white as milk.
You c-c-can't see across a street, you c-c-can hardly see the
bearers in front of your litter."

"I noticed it in the courtyard," Brinnaria replied, "and it is
thicker than usual. But we often have morning fogs and I
have seen several almost as dense as this."

"Nothing unusual in a fog d-d-down hereabouts and along the
river," Flexinna admitted. "B-B-But this fog is most unusual.
It is all over the whole city. I have lived on the Esquiline ever
since I was b-b-born and I never saw a fog up there except
p-p-perhaps a whiff just about sunrise and then only in wisps.
This fog is high up on the Esquiline, as d-d-dense as along the
river. I know the fog is all over the city b-b-because I sent two
slaves to the P-P-Pincian and two to the Aventine, and they
reported that it is just as b-b-bad everywhere as here and at
home. And I met Satronius Satro, just b-b-back from B-B-Baiae.
He slept at B-B-Bovillae last night and he says the fog is just as
b-b-bad all the way from B-B-Bovillae. He says it is heavy over
the whole c-c-country for miles. It amounts to a portent."

"Flexinna," said Brinnaria, "you never came here and at
this time of day, to talk about the weather."

"I d-d-didn't know how to b-b-begin," Flexinna admitted.

"What has Almo done now?" Brinnaria queried.

"He left Velitrae day before yesterday," said Flexinna, "and
went to Aricia. Yesterday he challenged the K-K-King of the
G-G-Grove."

"Just as Celsianus conjectured," Brinnaria groaned. "Some
unthinkable method of suicide. Is he dead?"

"No," Flexinna replied. "He's very much alive."

"Then he is the King of the Grove!" Brinnaria cried.

"They haven't fought yet," Flexinna informed her.

"Impossible!" Brinnaria exclaimed. "Or there is something
wrong with your information. There is only one way to challenge
the King of the Grove and that is to enter the Grove with a
weapon. Almost as many men as women go to worship at
the Temple of Diana in the Grove by the Lake; the King
of the Grove never notices any unarmed man. But let a
man with a weapon of any kind, spear, sword, or what not,
even a club, step over the boundary line of the Grove and
that act of entrance there with a weapon constitutes a
challenge to the King of the Grove; at sight of an armed
man the King or the Grove attacks him. They fight then
and there till one is killed. The survivor is the King of the Grove.

"The challenger is supposed to pluck a twig from the sacred
oak-tree and the act of picking the branch is supposed to be
the challenge. But, in practice, the King of the Grove watches
the sacred oak so carefully, that nobody remembers any
challenger who succeeded in pulling a twig unless he won the fight.

"That is the only way to challenge the King of the Grove.
Everybody knows that."

"That is just what I always thought," Flexinna confessed,
"b-b-but, it seems we are b-b-both mistaken. There is another
way to challenge the K-K-King of the G-G-Grove; that is to
go to the Dictator of Aricia and enter formal challenge. In that
c-c-case, the Dictator notifies the K-K-King of the G-G-Grove
that he must face the challenger at midnight next d-d-day.
Meanwhile, the challenger is entertained in the t-t-town-hall
of Aricia. He is b-b-bathed, p-p-provided with fresh c-c-clothing,
g-g-given whatever food he asks for and accommodated with a
c-c-comfortable b-b-bed for the night after his challenge. Then,
when he has had a g-g-good chance to sleep all night and has
had at least four g-g-good meals, he is c-c-conducted by the
aldermen to the G-G-Grove just b-b-before midnight. The
aldermen t-t-take with them two ancient shields, p-p-precisely
alike, and two ancient Amazonian b-b-battle-axes, also p-p-precisely
alike, which are k-k-kept among the t-t-treasures in the strong
room of the t-t-town hall at Aricia. The challenger plucks a
t-t-twig from the sacred oak. Then he and the K-K-King of the
G-G-Grove face each other in the open space b-b-before it. A
shield and a b-b-battle-axe are handed to each. Then they wait
for the word of the Dictator of Aricia. At the word they fight.

"That is the other way to challenge the K-K-King of the
G-G-Grove."

Flexinna, as generally happened, had been shown at once up
to Brinnaria's private apartment and had walked straight into
Brinnaria's bedroom. In that small room they sat facing each other.

"Then they fight at midnight to-night," Brinnaria deduced.

"Yes," Flexinna corroborated.

"How did you come here?" her friend queried.

"In Nemestronia's litter," the visitor answered. "I b-b-borrowed it."

"With her Cappadocian bearers?" queried Brinnaria.

"Eighteen, of them," said Flexinna; "two extras."

"How on earth did you come to do that?" Brinnaria wondered.

"I had a notion," Flexinna explained, "of trying to get to the
G-G-Grove by the Lake b-b-before the fight. I thought
p-p-perhaps Almo would listen to me if I c-c-could see him in
t-t-time."

"Did you tell Quintus?" Brinnaria demanded.

"Of c-c-course," said Flexinna. "He wanted to go alone,
b-b-but I said Almo would not listen to him, so I p-p-persuaded
him to let me t-t-try. I c-c-couldn't think of riding, of c-c-course,
as I am. He wouldn't even hear of my d-d-driving, said I might
as well hang myself and be d-d-done with it as risk the jar of
a t-t-travelling c-c-carriage. I said I'd use my litter. He said our
b-b-bearers c-c-could never g-g-get there in t-t-time for me to
hope to d-d-do any g-g-good. I said I'd b-b-borrow Nemestronia's
fastest gang. He said he c-c-could g-g-go and c-c-come b-b-back
on a horse quicker than any litter c-c-could reach the G-G-Grove.
I repeated that Almo would certainly p-p-pay no attention to him,
b-b-but might listen to me. So I b-b-borrowed Nemestronia's litter.
Shall I g-g-go? Shall I start at once?"

"No!" Brinnaria cut her off. "Let me think. Sixteen miles?
They could do it in a little over five hours, if everything went just
right. They'd take at least eight hours for the return journey. You
wouldn't be back at the Appian gate before sunrise. It would be a
hungry job."

"I thought of that," Flexinna informed her. "I'm always ravenous
when I'm this way* and c-c-can never g-g-go from one meal to
the next. I had a k-k-kid-skin of wine p-p-put in the litter and b-b-bread
and cheese and fruit."

        *In other words, she's pregnant. --PG ed.

"You did!" cried Brinnaria. "Where is Vocco?"

"On horseback b-b-beside the litter," said Flexinna, "waiting
for your d-d-decision."

"I've made it," Brinnaria proclaimed.

"Shall I g-g-go t-t-try?" enquired Flexinna.

"No!" Brinnaria fairly shouted, pulling off her headdress.

"What shall I d-d-do then?" Flexinna queried.

"Undress," Brinnaria ordered, "undress quick!" Flexinna
stared at her, horrified.

"What for?" she quavered.

"Undress first and ask afterwards," Brinnaria commanded.
"Undress, woman, undress!" She was tearing off her clothes
as she talked.

"Can't you see, you fool!" she hissed. "The gods have made it
all easy. The densest fog Rome ever saw and all over the
country-side, a curtained litter with the fastest bearers alive
right at my door, my best friend on horseback beside it, drink
and food enough and to spare, me off duty till to-morrow noon
 and you here to change clothes with me. I put on your clothes
and go save Almo."

"You'll be outside Rome all night," Flexinna objected.
"That's sacrilege."

"Not a bit of it," Brinnaria retorted. "I know a regulation
from a taboo. When the Gauls captured Rome the Flamen
of Jupiter went up into the Capitol with the garrison. He might
not leave Rome, it would have been impious. But the other flamens
nd the Vestals left Rome, the Vestals were months at Caere. It
is not impiety for a Vestal to be outside the city walls over
night, it is merely forbidden by the rules. I'm going."

"You might as well g-g-go b-b-bury yourself alive and b-b-be
d-d-done with it," Flexinna protested. "You're certain to
b-b-be found out. It's sure d-d-death for you."

"Hang the risk!" Brinnaria snarled. "I never realized how
much I loved Almo till you brought this news. I don't care
whether I live or die or what death I die, if I can only save him.

"And the risk is too small to think of. All you have to do is to stay
abed and keep still. Utta will never tell and she won't let anyone
in. Numisia will not suspect anything: any Vestal has the right
to twenty-four hours abed and no questions asked, Meffia spent
one day out of ten in bed. Manlia takes a day's rest a dozen times
a year. Even I have done it several times, when I was sore all
over with jolting too long at full gallop over our so-called perfect
roads. I was abed all day about a month ago, and certainly I
rove hard enough and long enough yesterday and I was in the
Temple half the night. I'll be back here long before noon to-morrow.

"Don't you see how easy it is? Flexinna has called on Brinnaria
to-day, as usual, except the hour. And Flexinna often calls on
Brinnaria at odd hours. Flexinna makes a short call and goes
out to her litter. Flexinna makes an excursion into the country
in a litter with drawn curtains, her husband riding by it. Nobody
can take any notice of that. Flexinna returns from her outing, calls
at once on Brinnaria, pays a brief call, goes out, gets into her litter
and goes home. Brinnaria, refreshed by twenty-four hours abed,
goes about her duties. The plan simply can't fail." She had on all
Flexinna's clothes by the end of her explanation and was adjusting
er two veils, one over her face, the other tied over the broad-brimmed
travelling-hat, so that the edges of the brim, drawn down on either
side, almost met under her chin and her face was lost in it.

Flexinna continued to protest feebly, but Brinnaria made her
compose herself in the bed.

"You can have anything you want to eat," she reminded her,
"and as much as you want, any time."

Utta came at the first signal.

"Now listen," Brinnaria instructed her, "I am in that bed
and I am going to stay there until the lady who has just called
on me comes back. That will be tomorrow morning. I am tired
and need rest, the same as I did the day after the axle broke and
I barked my knee in the gravel. I am not going out now; oh, no
 the lady going out is the lady who called on me. Do you understand?"

Utta understood.

Flexinna, quaking in the bed, prayed under her breath.

"For Castor's sake," was her farewell, "d-d-don't forget to
s-s-stutter." In a fashionable costume of brilliant pink silk with
pearly gray trimmings, feeling horribly conspicuous, but unaccosted
and, as far as she could judge, unnoticed, Brinnaria descended the
stairs, traversed the courtyard and passed the portal. Just outside,
in the nook left by the angle of the wall enclosing the Temple, she
found the litter set down clear of the throng that surged and jostled
ceaselessly up and down the Holy Street. The bearers stood about it,
one holding Vocco's horse; all, like the street-crowd, vague and unreal
in the fog. Through the fog Vocco strode towards her and checked,
amazed. She put her fingers to the folds of the veil over her lips.

"C-C-Careful," she warned him, laboriously stuttering. "I am
Flexinna come back. Now for Aricia, as fast as the b-b-bearers
can hoof it."

Vocco, dazed, helped her into the litter, gave the order and mounted
his horse.

Composed in her litter, Brinnaria's sensations were all of the strangeness
of the outlook; fog blurring the outlines of familiar buildings; fog hiding
the landmarks she looked for, fog wrapping her round till she could
hardly see the front pair of carriers tramping ahead or even Vocco
beside her on his horse; fog concealing all the wide prospect of the levels
south of Rome, fog so thick that they positively groped their way through
the towns along the road, fog so dense that she could not discern the
gradations by which afternoon melted into evening and dusk into darkness.

When they were clear of the city Vocco ranged his horse alongside the
litter and expostulated with Brinnaria, talking Greek that the bearers
might not understand.

"The best thing you can do," he said, "is to give up this harebrained
adventure and merely swing round through the suburbs for some hours
and return to the Atrium by some other gate."

"Not I," she replied in her hardest tone.

"How do you expect to succeed in speaking to Almo?" he asked.

"I leave that to you," she said; "you must manage to see the
Dictator of Aricia and tell him that you have with you a lady in
a litter who must speak to the challenger before the fight."

"I'll attempt the commission," said Vocco, "and I'll do my utmost,
but I hold it impossible."

"In any case," spoke Brinnaria, "I keep on even if I have to expose
myself and be recognized in Aricia."

Vocco gave up the effort to influence her.

The roads joining the Appian Way were paved with similar blocks
of the same sort of stone. In the fog they went wrong three several
times where side-roads branched off at a thin angle. In each case
they failed to discover their mistake until they had gone on for some
distance; in each case they had to retrace their steps for fear of
getting wholly lost if they tried a cross-road; in each case they wasted
much time.

Twice the leading bearers were all but trampled on by the recklessly
driven horses of careless drivers. Both times the mix-up delayed them.

Just beyond Bovillae they had a third collision, in which one pole of
the litter was snapped and two of the bearers injured. It barely
missed resulting in a free-fight. All of Vocco's tact was needed to
allay the feelings on both sides. By great good luck he succeeded
in getting a substitute litter-pole from a near-by inn without too
much publicity.

The delays caused by missing the road and by collisions had cut
down the margin of time they had hoped for at Aricia. This last
misfortune delayed them so much that it seemed unlikely that
they could reach the Grove until midnight.

In fact, before they reached Aricia, the road was alive with parties
of celebrants, men and women, but no children, every man carrying
a lighted torch, nearly every man accompanied by a slave with an
armful or a back-load of spare torches, all moving in the same
direction with them.

With torch-bearing crowds the streets of Aricia were jammed. From
gate to gate of the town they crawled, wading slowly through the
press of revellers. Along the road to the Grove they were as a chip
floated along on a tide of torchbearers, for the parties of worshippers
converging to their great local yearly festival from Tusculum, Tibur,
Cora, Pometia, Lanuvium and Ardea formed a continuous procession,
their pulsing torch-flames looking strange and blurred through the fog.

When they reached the top of the ridge enclosing the Lake, Vocco
dismounted and trusted his roan to one of Nemestronia's extra bearers,
as horses were not allowed within the Grove or its precincts.

Not much before midnight the bearers swung sharply at the brink of
the cliff and plunged down the steep narrow road cut along its face.
Brinnaria felt the dampness of the lake air on her cheek.

By the Lake the fog was, if possible, more impenetrable than elsewhere.
The Grove, the lodging for the cripples and invalids who thronged the
place to be cured, the vast halls about the temple, the temple itself,
all were doubly whelmed in the darkness and the mist.

Brinnaria made out only the six channelled vermilion columns of the
temple portico and the black boughs of the sacred oak. These, to right
and left of the temple area, showed vaguely in the light of thousands
of torches in the hands of the throng packed about it.

Respect for a closed litter with sixteen bearers accompanied by a
gentleman in a Senator's robes won them a way through the crowd,
the torches surging in waves of flame as they ploughed through.

When they reached the margin of the open space, Brinnaria, choking
with the realization that she had arrived too late, peered between the
drawn curtains of her litter and saw the pavement of the temple-area
bright under the splendor of the torch-rays; saw a dozen young women,
dressed in gowns of a startling deep orange, standing in a row clear
of the torch-bearing crowd; saw the five aldermen of Aricia in their
official robes, grouped about the square marble altar; saw before the
altar a circular space of clipped turf midway of the area pavement,
saw standing on it to the right of the altar the King of the Grove, clad
in his barbaric smock of dingy undyed black wool, his three-stranded
necklace of raw turquoises broad on his bosom, the fox-tails of his
fox-skin cap trailing by his ears; saw facing him Almo, bare-kneed,
his hunting-boots of soft leather like chamois-skin coming half way
up to his calves, his leek-green tunic covering him only to mid-thigh,
his head bare, his right hand waving an oak bough.

After she recognized Almo and glimpsed the bough in his hand she
hardly looked at him. She stared, fascinated, at the white marble
altar on which, as an offering to Diana of the Underworld, the
victor of the fight would lay the corpse of his victim.

The Dictator of Aricia, chief of the Aldermen, raised his hand.
>From somewhere in the darkness behind the dozen simpering
wenches appeared two slaves, each carrying a small round shield
and a double-headed battle-axe. The shields had painted on each
a horse, the battle-axes were of the pattern always seen in pictures
of the legendary Amazons. The blade of each axe-head was shaped
like a crescent moon. From the inner side projected a flat, thick
shank, by which the blade was fastened to the helve. The curve
of each blade made almost a half circle, the tips of the crescents
almost touched the haft between them, so that their outer
cutting-edges made a nearly complete circle of razor-sharp steel,
from which protruded the keen spear-head tipping the shaft.

Two of the aldermen received these accoutrements from the slaves.
Brinnaria noticed that one of the other aldermen held the broad,
gold-mounted, jeweled scabbard containing the great scimitar
with which the King of the Grove kept girt, waking or sleeping.
She even noted how its belt trailed from his hands and the shine
of its gloss-leather in the torch-rays.

The two aldermen handed a shield and an axe to each contestant.
One took from Almo the oak-bough and passed it to the Dictator.

The two champions fitted the shields on their arms, balanced
them, and hefted their battle-axes. Each assumed the posture
that suited him best, his feet well under him. So they stood
facing each other, waiting for the signal.

The King of the Grove was a stocky, solidly-built ruffian of
medium height and weight. Almo seemed much taller and
very much slenderer and lighter. His delicate features and
thin nose contrasted strangely to the high cheek-bones,
small, close-set eyes, and wide, flat nostrils of his antagonist.

The Dictator waved the oak-bough and shouted.

The two champions warily approached each other.

Each kept his left foot forward; each crouched, as it were,
inside the shield tight against his shoulder; each held his
axe aloft.

Each struck, each dodged, Almo awkwardly, his axe trailing
behind him after it missed.

The stocky man thought he saw his chance and whirled his
weapon, bringing it down in a terrible sweep. Craftily Almo
caught it against his shield, just below the upper rim, horribly
it grated against the bronze plating of the shield, with the full
weight of the mighty swing it buried itself in the sod.

The force of his blow carried the assailant with it so that he
almost fell face forward on the sward.

Before he could recover himself Almo's ready axe swung.

Brinnaria saw it flash in the air. Then she saw the fox-skin
cap in two halves, a horrid red void between.

"Oh Vocco," she called, "t-t-take me home, t-t-take me home."
At that volcanic instant, at the bitterest moment of her life,
what kept back her tears was her tendency to laugh at the
fact, that, ill the midst of her agony, she did not forget to stutter.


CHAPTER XVIII - FURY



 THE darkness of the night, the impenetrability of the fog and
the weariness of the bearers all contributed to impede their
return journey. While on her way and buoyed up by her wild
purpose, Brinnaria had been able to rest herself by dozing
along the roadway and had remembered to keep up her
strength with food and wine. After they had turned back she
could not have swallowed anything, if she had thought to try,
and the nearest she came to sleep was an uneasy drowse
which seemed a long nightmare. The Cappadocians, famous
for their strength, endurance and indifference to wakefulness,
exertion, hunger or thirst, were also astute foragers. On their
way from Rome the reliefs had invaded every inn they passed
and, lavishly provided with small coins by Vocco, had
provisioned themselves abundantly. These supplies they handed
over to their fellows when they took up the litter. All the way
back the spare carriers, plodding behind, munched their
provender and conversed in undertones. The bearers,
necessarily flagging, trudged leadenly.

 Through it all Brinnaria was haunted by her memory of
two pictures.

 One was of the row of saffron-clad hussies watching the fight.

 The King of the Grove was the only legal polygamist in Italy.
Concomitant with the barbarous and savage conditions
determining his tenure of the office as High Priest in the
Grove by the Lake of Diana of the Underworld, congruent
with his outlandish attire and ornaments, he had the right
to have twelve wives at once. Seldom had a King of the
Grove failed to avail himself of the privilege; and, indeed,
to have twelve wives was regarded as incumbent upon him,
as necessary to his proper sanctity and as indispensable
to maintain the curative potencies of the locality, which
restored to health each year an army of sufferers.

 He had the power to repudiate any wife at any time, to dismiss her
and expel her from the Grove. Any former wife of his, when
expelled or after leaving the Grove of her own accord, became
a free woman with all the privileges of a liberated slave. Most of
his ex-wives, however, elected to remain in the Grove and
formed a sort of corps of official nurses for the sick who
flocked there to be cured. In practice the King of the Grove
usually repudiated any wife who lost her youthful charms.

 His wives were commonly, like himself, truant slaves.

 Fugitive male slaves were an ever-present feature of country
life in all parts of the ancient world, as tramps are in modern
times. A female runaway, however, was a distinct rarity. But
the sanctuary afforded them by the Grove encouraged them
about Aricia and many fled to it. If young and comely they
became wives of its King. Also slave-girls were constantly
being presented to him by grateful convalescents, who had
come to the Grove as invalids or cripples and had left it
hale and sound. Thus the twelve wives of the King were
always as vital and buxom a convocation of wenches as
could be found anywhere.

 The spectacle they had made haunted Brinnaria.

 They had been so utterly callous, so completely indifferent,
so merely curious to see which contestant was to be their
future master, so vacant-mindedly giggling and nudging
each other. The impression they had made on her nauseated
her, while the memory of their red cheeks, full contours,
youthfulness and undeniable animal charm enraged her.

 The other picture which had branded itself on her memory
was the sight of Almo, straightening up after stooping over
his butchered predecessor, clasping the triple turquoise
necklace about his throat.

 Almo was King of the Grove.

 At that thought and at the recollection of the dozen jades
wriggling and smirking, her blood boiled.

 By the margin of the cliff Vocco had had much ado finding
his horse. On the road back to Aricia they passed through
many parties of belated worshippers. As the torch festival
kept up until dawn that town was open all night. Unquestioned
they passed in at a wide-open gate, through torch-lit, but almost
deserted streets, out at another wide-set gate.

 In the Roman world travelling by night was almost unexistent.
Only imperial couriers and civilians driven by some dire stress
kept on their way after sunset. In general travellers halted for
the night at some convenient inn or town, or camped by the
road if darkness overtook them far from any hostelry. But on
the night of the yearly festival of Diana, many parties were
abroad. Between Aricia and Bovillae they met several convoys,
and about half-way they were overtaken and passed by a rapidly
driven carriage, and somewhat tater by a troop of horsemen,
trotting restrainedly, one of them on a white horse which showed
rather distinctly, even in the fog and darkness.

 Near Bovillae they overtook the same band of horsemen, halted
about the wreck of two travelling carriages which had crashed
together in the fog. Two of the horses lay dead on the stones,
killed to put them out of their misery. From curb to curb the
pavement was cluttered with pieces of wreckage and the carcasses
of the horses. The roadway was completely blocked and the
bearers, at first, could find no way around the obstacle.

 Some women were wailing over a little boy whose leg had
been crushed and who was uttering frightful shrieks. The
child screamed so terribly that Brinnaria impulsively leaned
half-way out of her litter, carried away by her sympathies.
Close beside her she saw the white horse and astride of it,
vague in the mist, but unmistakable in his lop-sided, bony
leanness, outlined against the glare of the torches behind
him, she recognized Calvaster.

 Instantly she shrank behind her litter curtains.

 Almost at once a relief bearer who had gone to scout
reported a free path through the fields by the road.

 They continued on their way.

 Bovillae, not being one of the towns participating in the Festival
of Diana, was closed for the night, its gates shut fast, its walls
dark. Going round it was a trying detour over rough cross-roads.

 After they were again on the Appian Road they were for a
second time overtaken by the same band of horsemen. When
their hoof-beats had grown faint in the distance ahead,
Vocco ranged his horse alongside the litter and asked:

 "Did you notice the man on the white horse?"

 "I recognized him," said Brinnaria briefly.

 The fog held all the way to the Appian Gate, which they reached
as some watery sun-rays struggled through the mist, held until
they reached the Atrium.

 Out of her litter tumbled Brinnaria in Flexinna's rumpled finery,
feeling unescapably recognizable, even inside her double veil and
under her broad-brimmed, tied-down travelling hat.

 But the heavy-built, sinewy slave-woman who guarded the portal
of the Atrium passed her in without remark. She met no one on
her way up to her suite, where she found Utta squatted outside
her bedroom door.

 Flexinna was incredulously delighted, pathetically overjoyed to
see her.

 "You have a wonderful larder here," she said. "Every single
thing I asked for was b-b-brought me at once. I d-d-didn't
have any appetite, b-b-but I had to have food. And I g-g-got it."

Promptly she put on her own clothing and was gone.

 In a trice Brinnaria was flat on her back in bed with Utta
massaging her vigorously and methodically. After one
comprehensive rubbing she went off for hot milk, hot
wine, honey, barley-meal and spices. The posset she
brewed she compelled her mistress to swallow. Then
she gently massaged her until she was asleep. Thanks
to these attentions Brinnaria, after some four hours
abed, was able to reappear in the Temple looking not
much unlike a Vestal who had enjoyed twenty-four
hours of unbroken repose.

 Numisia appeared to suspect nothing. Certainly she
remonstrated with her and begged her not to exhaust
herself so by hard riding.

 After that first sleep, induced by fatigue and by Utta's
ministrations, Brinnaria slept little. She tossed and turned.
Before her eyes was continually the recollection of that row
of saffron-clad minxes, of their exuberant health, heartiness
and rollicking vivacity.

 The memory of them suffocated her. In the Atrium she had
to conceal her inward convulsions of rage, had to appear
calm, placid and collected.

 The effort made her the more explosive when she was at
Flexinna's and could speak out. She stormed.

 Flexinna let her talk herself hoarse. But no amount of talking
relieved her. Whatever she said, no matter how often she had
said it, she wound up the same way:

 "Here I am, packed in ice, so to speak, for thirty years and
there he is, King of the Grove, with twelve wives, twelve wives,
<twelve wives>!"

Jealousy, in its most furious form, is not a mild malady, even
in our days, and in women of northern ancestry and cold blood.
Brinnaria was a hot-blooded Latin and the pulses of her heart
were earthquakes of fire. The Romans were a ferocious and
sanguinary stock. Even among the most delicately nurtured
women love turned quickly into hate and solicitude might in
a brief time give place to the thirst for vengeance.

 Brinnaria struggled with herself for some days.

 Then she bade her coachman drive her to the Fagutal.
Her appearance among her tenants caused general trepidation,
as usual.

 When the clustering drabs and brats discovered that she felt
no present interest in women and children, but that she
demanded speech with the men, the elder men, their dismay
deepened into acute consternation.

 Since she would take no denial some dotards and striplings
were routed out and the patriarch of the clan was thrust
forward. He looked senile from his slippered feet to the
shine on his bald-pate, he was blear-eyed and hard of
hearing, but he understood plain Latin when he heard it,
he knew of old the signs he read in the flash of her eyes,
the set of her jaw and every feature as she stood or moved.
Also no dog ever had a keener scent for game than he
for business.

 He shouted in the slang of his caste.

 The women and children vanished.

 Promptly a chair was brought, carefully dusted and she was
invited to seat herself. Before her cringed, in attitudes of
obsequious deference, a group of as hulking, truculent, ruthless
villains as could have been found anywhere on earth. Just out
of earshot of a low-voiced conversation, stood younger men,
sentinels, to keep all others at a distance.

 The patriarch's son, recognized chief of the brotherhood,
an appallingly inhuman brute, acted as spokesman.

 At the first word their wary expression altered to one of
brotherly comprehension. There was a man to be killed.
Pride in their vocation shone all over them. Yes, they knew
of the King of the Grove, who did not? and they especially,
since the patriarch's grandfather, great-grandfather to the
spokesman, had at an advanced age ended his life in the
Grove, after years as its priest, having become King late
in life, the last of a long series of challengers whom the
Emperor Caligula had suborned against an insufferable
and all but invincible hierophant.

 Could they find a swashbuckler willing to assail the
present incumbent?

 Of a surety and what was more able to vanquish anybody.

 Could it be arranged secretly?

 No human being would ever suspect that she knew anything
about the matter; what was more, the most inquisitive would
never divine that they themselves had any hand in the change
of priests at Aricia.

 How could this be accomplished?

 In countless ways. One might find a discontented slave, mighty
and skilled with weapons, and reveal to him a means of bettering
his condition, or one might bribe the owner of a capable slave
to wink at his running away, or if no fit slave could be found,
a suitable freeman might be induced to become a slave under
a master also in the plot. It was easy, merely a matter of money.

 How much money would be needed?

 That would depend. If they could cajole a slave the job would
call only for cash for the instigators!" expenses, for journey-money
and for a good sabre for the challenger, and at the last a bonus
for all concerned. If a slave-owner had to be bribed, more cash
and more money for bonuses would be required. If a freeman
had to be employed the enterprise would be still more expensive.
It was all a matter of money, above all, of cash.

 Cash was forthcoming.

 Brinnaria returned to the Atrium by a circuitous drive out the
Tiber Gate, round through the suburbs and in at the River Gate.
She needed fresh air. All the way, all the afternoon, all the wakeful
night, she was in an eery state of icy, numb exaltation. It was all
over--Almo was a dead man, she had avenged herself, she had
vindicated the proprieties, her wrath was righteous, her vengeance
laudable. This tense condition of her nerves lasted for some days.

 According to stipulation the messenger from the tenements on
the Fagutal was a decently clad woman of inconspicuously
respectable appearance. She came after an interval of about
ten days. She was apologetic. Their first champion had perished.

 Twice more she brought the same message. Then Brinnaria
ventured a second visit to the unsavory locality. She was
sarcastic. The chief was abashed.

 This, he said, was evidently a task unexpectedly difficult.
The more certain was it that they would measure up to the
requirements. They felt that their time-honored reputation
was at stake.

 There followed for Brinnaria an exciting, a wearing autumn
and winter. For some months messages came to her at about
nine-day intervals, all of the same tenure. Towards mid-winter,
on a mild fair day, she risked a third expostulation with her
hirelings. On an apologetic and humiliated rabble she poured
her scorn.

 Thereafter the messages came thicker, about one every four
days, but monotonously unwelcome. Brinnaria set her teeth
and sent all the money asked for.

 Meanwhile her wrath, her jealousy, her thirst for vengeance
steadily waned and their place was largely taken by admiration
for Almo's incredible skill and by a sort of pride in him.

 But again and again the vision of the twelve baggages returned
to her and she steeled her heart. One warm June morning she
lost patience and burst in on her gang of cut-throats.

 Inundated by a cascade of vitriolic denunciations and stinging
sneers they hung their heads, too limp to utter a protest. The
patriarch was weeping openly.

 Turned from anger to curiosity she found the rookery was in
mourning. Their chief, the apple of their eye, aghast at the failures
of his minions, had himself undertaken to redeem their honor. For
him they grieved. They owned themselves beaten. They had
scoured Italy, had sent against Almo every promising bully in
the fifteen districts. Their best young men had gone, lastly their
adored leader. They could do no more; Almo was invincible.

 Brinnaria, reflecting that, after all, she was to blame for their
dejection and woe, that, after all, they had done their best,
distributed what cash she had with her and promised them
a lavish apportionment of gold.

 As she went she realized, as they realized, that the place would
never see her again.

 Next morning she sent for Guntello. That faithful Goth, stil
 huge, mighty and terrific, came, mild as a pet bulldog.

 "Go kill him!" she commanded.

 "Certainly, Little Mistress," he acquiesced, "but whom am I to kill?"

She explained.

 Guntello, always parsimonious, asked a moderate sum for the
purchase of a sabre and for road-money. She gave him ten times
as much.

 When he was gone, she felt, as at first, a painful numbness of
exaltation. Almo was now certainly a dead man.

 This mood suddenly inverted itself into an uncontrollable passion
f solicitude. Off she posted to Flexinna and confessed everything to
Vocco. In a frenzy she demanded they again borrow Nemestronia's
litter and that Vocco again accompany her to Aricia. To their
expostulations she retorted that go she would, if not escorted by
Vocco, then alone, if not disguised and in a borrowed litter, then in
her own and openly, or openly in her carriage or afoot if need be;
but go she would!

 Flexinna succeeded in getting her to listen long enough to urge
that there was no need for her to go personally, as Guntello would
obey Vocco at sight of her signet ring, moreover that Guntello now
had a long start and that only a swift horseman might hope to
intervene in time. To these representations she yielded.

 Vocco returned amazed and manifestly relieved. He had
arrived too late. Guntello was dead.

 That night Brinnaria wept long and bitterly.

 "The poor, brave, harmless, faithful fellow," she moaned.
"Out of the malignity of my heart, in my pride and callousness,
I sent him to an undeserved death! Oh, I am a wicked woman!"
Strangely enough Guntello's death seemed to divert her mind
entirely from the idea of avenging herself on Almo. From
hating him, she came to realize that she had really loved him
all the while, that she loved him unalterably. From thinking
that she desired his death she came to dread acutely that,
exhausted in body by more than a hundred fights in ten
months and worn by the strain of ceaseless anxiety and
vigilance, Almo might succumb to even a chance-brought
adversary.

 In this new mood she confided in Lutorius.

 The good man was horrified.

 "And I never suspected anything wrong!" he exclaimed. "At
least you have been outwardly collected. Nobody has
suspected anything. But this is terrible. A Vestal should
menace no man's life, should not desire any man's death.
Far from it, her heart should be clean of hate, malice or envy."

"Never mind what I have been," said Brinnaria.

 "No disasters have befallen Rome. There is no sign of any
wrathfulness of the gods, or of their displeasure, and I am no
longer as I was. That is all over, I am chastened. I desire harm
to no one. Quite the reverse. What fills my mind now is the
thought that, sooner or later, Alma must perish at the hand
of some challenger. I long to save him. I would move earth and
sea to save him. Must a King of the Grove live and die King of
the Grove? Is there no way to rescue him?"

"Consult the Emperor," said Lutorius. "He is Chief Pontiff of Rome."


 CHAPTER XIX - COMFORT



 COMMODUS received Brinnaria in the same palatial room in which
she had so often conferred with his father. The majestic impression of
the magnificent hall was, however, marred by the evidence of the
young Emperor's chief interests. On one of the great chests lay a
pair of boxing gloves, on another a quiver of arrows and two unstrung
bows, on a third a bridle; a fourth was open and from it protruded a
sheaf of those wooden swords which the Romans used for fencing-practice
as we use foils. Commodus could never wholly free himself from his
absorbing passion for athletic sports.

 He himself was a sort of artistic caricature of his father, being very
like him in height, build, features and complexion, with similarly
abundant hair and beard falling over his shoulders and bosom in
long ringlets. But in place of the gravity, wisdom, intelligence and
sympathy which had ennobled the countenance of Aurelius, his face
wore an expression of boyish frivolity, silly vanity, vapid stupidity
and impatient selfishness.

 Brinnaria had seen him countless times and often near at hand, not
only close to her when both occupied their official seats in the
Amphitheatre or the Circus, at horse-races or other shows, but
almost at arm's length at various religious functions, processions,
sacrifices and other acts of public worship. Necessarily they had
often exchanged formal greetings, but never yet any other words.

 He greeted her effusively, with a comical mixture of hobbledehoy
clumsiness and imperial dignity.

 "I'm glad you demanded an audience," he said, as she sat down;
"we should have had a good talk long ago. You lambasted old
Bambilio. That is one for you. A juicier story I never heard. You are
made of pepper. And you saved the retiarius, the year after I was
born. I've often gloated over the story and wished I had been there
to see. I was there when you had your embarrassing experience
and came through it so gallantly. I was proud of you, like everybody
else. I remember it well. And Father gave me special instructions
about you, so emphatically that even scatter-brained as I am I have
not forgotten them. I've been meaning to have a talk with you ever
since I took up this Emperor job. But you know how it is. Every day
there are ready and waiting for me to do more things I really want
to do than anyone man could get through in anyone day, and
three-quarters of them I have to forego doing because of the pressure
of my official duties. I can never seem to get time for half the
sword-exercise and archery drill and driving practice I need, let
alone for chats with heroines.

 "I trust you'll accept my apologies.

 "There! That is all the talking I mean to do. I'm going to listen,
now. Tell me what you want and I'll see your desire accomplished.
I'll do anything for you, not only for your heroism and on account
of Father's directions, but because of your horse-breeding. They
say you're as good a judge of a horse as any man in Italy and I believe
there are not a dozen to equal you.

 I've driven several pairs of your crack colts and they are paragon
racers, docile as lambs and mettlesome as game-cocks.

 "There! I've gone on talking! But I am really going to stop now and
listen. State your wishes."

"I'll have to make a long story of it," said Brinnaria, hesitatingly.

 "And one sixty times better worth listening to than ninety-nine out
of a hundred of the long stories folks bore me with, I'll wager," said
Commodus. "If it is long we'll get to the end quicker by beginning
at once. And take your time, I'll talk to you till dark, if need be. You
are entitled to all of my time you choose to claim." Brinnaria began
at the beginning and rehearsed her story fully, Commodus listening
without much fidgeting and interrupting only to say now and then:

 "Yes, I know about that. I remember that." When she came to
Almo's escape from Britain the Emperor slapped his thigh and
emitted a sound between a grunt and a squawk.

 "The joke is on me!" he guffawed. "Just like me! Father told me
particularly about his injunctions to Opstorius, and Pertinax
himself reminded me about Almo after Father's death. But it
all went out of my head and I never thought of it from the
moment Pertinax bowed himself out until this very instant.
I'll make up to you for my forgetfulness, I promise you. Go
on." Upon her telling of Almo's idling at inns after he ran away
from Fregellae, Commodus cut in with:

 "I liked Almo, what little I saw of him, but I had forgotten him.
You make me remember him, make me recall trifling things about
him, attitudes, smiles, tones of his voice, witty replies, quips. I liked
him. But I like him better than ever from what you tell me of him.
I understand him. I know just how he feels. I long, sometimes, to
chuck Emperorizing and go off alone, with no responsibilities,
and have a really good time hobnobbing with the good fellows
the world is full of. I envy him. I dream of doing it, but he cut
loose and did it. Good for Almo." At first mention of the King
of the Grove Commodus leapt up from his throne, strode up
and down the room and clapped his hands.

 Two pages rushed in.

 "Get out!" he shouted. "I wasn't clapping for you." He
paced the room like a caged tiger.

 "Think of it!" he exclaimed. "Think of it! Your lad certainly
has fire in his belly, yes and brains in his head, too! Think of it!
He thought it all out up there in the raw all-day mists, thought it
all out, and he works towards his purpose like a pattern diplomat,
like a born general, like a Scipio, like a cat after a bird! Has
himself sold as a slave, bides his time, puts himself in the pink of
condition, watches his opportunity.

 "Think of it! Disconsolate because he couldn't marry you, moody
because he has to wait so long, he seeks comfort in challenging the
King of the Grove. Oh, I love him! Only a prince of good fellows
would have thought of it. No ordinary adventure would divert him.
He picks out the most hazardous venture possible. Oh, I love him!"

When she narrated her interchange of clothing with Flexinna and
her litter-journey, Commodus looked grave. The loutishness vanished
from his attitude and expression. He became wholly an Emperor.

 "Out of Rome, outside the walls, beyond the Pomoerium all night!"
he exclaimed. "That sounds bad. You were fool-hardy, too reckless
entirely. Why that is impiety. That amounts to sacrilege!" As with
Flexinna Brinnaria reminded him of the Vestals' flight after the
disaster at the Allia and of their sojourn at Caere, again emphasizing
the contrast between their unreprehended departure and the scrupulous
steadfastness of the Flamen of Jupiter."

"You have me!" he acknowledged. "Your contentions are sound. But,
all the same, even if it was merely a violation of rule, still, it is a mighty
serious matter. It is a good thing for you that I like you, that my Father
trusted you so notably, and gave me such explicit and emphatic injunctions
about you, that you have made a clean breast of it all to me. If I had
known nothing more about you than I know of Manlia or Gargilia,
if I had learned of your escapade from anyone but you, I'd have had
you formally accused, tried, convicted and buried alive with the
utmost dispatch.

 "As things are, after all Father had to say about you, after his
detailing to me your several conversations with him, I understand,
I sympathize, I am convinced of the innocence of your feeling for
Almo, of the austerity with which you have banished from you all
thoughts unbefitting a Vestal and have postponed your anticipations
of marriage until your service shall have come to an end, I believe in
the impeccable correctness of your attitude.

 "But, without that, even having learnt of your prank from yourself,
I should have thought it necessary to lay the facts before the College
of Pontiffs and ask their opinion. It looks fishy, stravaging all over
the landscape after dark with a cavalier beside your litter all night
long. I comprehend, I condone, I judge that you have not impaired
your qualifications for your high office. I have no qualms. But it is
well for you that Father instructed me. Go on, tell me the rest."
Over the fight he rubbed his hands and chirruped with delight,
and, when she spoke of the King's harem, he burst into roars of
laughter, rolling himself on his throne, slapping his thighs,
holding his ribs.

 "Oh you women," he gurgled, "you are all alike, you Vestals
as much as the rest! The fire of womanhood smoulders under
your icy composure like the fires of Etna under her mantle of snow.

 "You more than most Vestals, of course. You are a real
human being, you are! So you went out to save him, even
if you lost your life trying, even if you were buried alive for
it, and you came back hot, red hot, to have him killed, and
the sooner the better, it couldn't be too soon for you.

 "Oh, I'm glad you came. I haven't been entertained like
this since I was made Emperor. Go on!" When she uttered
the word Fagutal and told of her visit to the rookery he had
another fit of laughter and exhausted himself with mirth.

 When she narrated the repeated failures of the champions
she had suborned and Almo's uniform success, Commodus
was in ecstasy.

 "He's the boy for my money," he cried. "He's worth all
the trouble you've had with him. You'll get a husband
worth waiting for. He's one in a million. One hundred
and five bouts in ten months and victor in all of them!
He's a jewel, a pearl I I'd do anything for you, as I told
you, I'd keep myself on the rack day and night for you
and him. You are a pair! There's not on earth the match
for the two of you!"

At the end of her story he said:

 "You have not gone to all this trouble and taken up so much
of my time and confided to me all the secrets of your heart merely
to ease your mind. There's something you want me to do, some
help you expect to gain from me. You have given me no inkling
of what it is. What is it? Speak out!"

"He is certain to be killed sooner or later," she said, wringing
her hands. "I want you to help me to save him."

"Save him!" Commodus echoed. "Isn't he competent to save
himself? Hasn't he convinced you of his ability to protect
himself--Sooner or later? Much later, very much later. And
he's more likely to be killed by old age than by any weapon
in the hands of any man.

 "I'll never understand women. No man can, I suppose.
You're bent, bound and resolved that he must die. You
pour out gold like water to compass his death. You have
Italy ransacked for dexterous cutthroats. He never turns
a hair. It's easy for him as for a Molossian dog to kill
wolves. He enjoys it; disposes of every man who dare face
him. You can't find another bravo to take the risk, not for
any money! Then, when he has proved himself the best
fighter in Italy, you face about and all of a sudden you
are in a wax for fear some one may kill him!

 "Nobody will ever kill him. You and I saw him dispose
of more than a dozen expert gladiators, one after the other;
you saw how daintily and adroitly he did, it. You have just
described his fight with his predecessor. It was over
almost before it was begun. The incumbent was a dead
man from the moment he faced Almo. Both knew it, too,
and, since then he has done for the pick of the blackguards
from all Italy. If Ravax and his gang could find no one to
face him, there is none; if no man of that crew could best
him, not Ravax himself, no man can best him. Don't you see?"

"No, I don't," she said. "It will be just like his fights in the
arena. No matter how often he wins, he is bound to lose at last."

"Don't you believe it," Commodus argued. "I remember
him well. I was wild over him just after Father's triumph
and saw a good deal of him before he set out for Britain.
I was then no such all-round expert at weapon-play as I
have become since, but I was good for my age. I fenced
with him repeatedly and I know his quality. I had all the
best swordsmen in the capital pitted against him and not
one of them was his match. Murmex Lucro did not come
to Rome till after Father's death. So I never saw Murmex
and Almo fence. But let me tell you this: Murmex is the
only man alive who can fence with me for points and make
anything like my score. And Almo is the only man alive,
except me, who is fit to face Murmex on equal terms.
There are only two men on earth who could kill Almo
in a fight with any kind of weapons--Murmex is one
and I am the other.

 "Why, Almo is as safe in the Grove as I am in the Palace.
Don't you worry about him. Nobody will kill him; take it
from me, I know."

Brinnaria, with a sharp intake of her breath, gazed about
the room and collected herself to resume her argument and
make her next point.

 "Do you concede," she queried, "that I have the right to be
solicitous about Almo's life?"

"Father said so," Commodus replied, "and I never knew
him to be wrong. I took that opinion from him and I see
no reason to change it."

 "Do you concede," she pressed him, "that I have the right
to looking forward to marrying him at the end of my service?"

"Like Father, I do," he admitted.

 "How can I ever marry him," she demanded, "if he remains
King of the Grove?"

The young Emperor laughed merrily.

 "Don't you worry about that, either," he said. "I told you I'd
do anything for you and I meant it. I told you I'd do anything
for Almo, and I meant that too. But, as things are, doing what
you want and what is good for him will be doing just what I
most want myself. I have a frightfully poor memory. Barely
seven years ago my Father triumphed after what was
thought a complete, decisive and crushing victory over
Avidius Cassius and a huge confederation of nomadic
tribes. Cassius was certainly abolished; he was buried.
But after scarcely five years the desert nomads were as
active as ever and they have grown so pertinacious and
cocky that something must be done. I don't want to go
myself, and I feel no confidence in my ability to
accomplish anything if I went. I have been on the rack
to decide whom to send. I can't afford to send some
bungler who'd mismanage and let the sand-hills
devour a half a dozen of my best legions.

"My councillors and I have found no promising candidate.
All the while I have been cudgelling my brains trying to
remember something Father told me. I distinctly recalled
that he said that he had in view the very paragon of a
commander to dispatch against Avidius, but that some
occurrence made it impossible to send him and he had
to go himself. I couldn't for the life of me recollect what
had happened to hinder the man going or what the man's
name was. Since it was a verbal communication from
Father I had no memorandum and no one else had
ever known it.

 "Now I remember that Almo was the man and that his
infatuation with the life of a gladiator was what prevented.

 "Do you see what I mean? I shall not have to go to Syria
and I'll send the very best man for that job who can be found
on earth. If anybody knows what I'm doing they'll say that
Almo is a lunatic and I am another to send him. But nobody
will ever know and if everybody knows, what do I care.
Father knew a good man when he saw one. I'll take his
word for it that Almo proved himself the greatest genius
for desert fighting that the Republic has produced in a
hundred years. And I'll follow my own intuition that a
swashbuckler whose own thoughts prompted him to
challenge the King of the Grove as a cure for tedium,
who had the nerve to carry out the idea and the skill
to win a hundred and six fights in ten months must be
a good all-round man and a real man clear through.
I take it that being put in supreme command of a great
expedition will brush the cobwebs from Almo's brain
and restore him to himself. Do you follow my idea?"

"I cannot conjecture," Brinnaria replied, "how you
expect to carry it out."

"Simple enough," said Commodus. "I'm not the man
my Father was, not by a great deal. I am a natural
all-round athlete, but I was never born to be an
Emperor. All the same, when I buckle down to my job,
I'm not such a bad hand at it. If I have a talk with
Almo I'll swing him my way without half trying."

"But," Brinnaria interposed, "even you, even as
Emperor and Chief Pontiff, cannot free a man
who has become King of the Grove. There is no
record of any form of exauguration for a Priest
of Diana of the Underworld. There would be an
outcry. Once King of the Grove a man must live
out his life as King of the Grove."

 Commodus grinned a school-boy grin.

 "My dear," he said, "there are more ways of killing a
dog besides choking him to death on fresh curds."

Brinnaria stared.

 "You talk," he said, "as if you had gone over all the records.
Don't you recall two cases where a King of the Grove died
without being killed?"

"Yes," she admitted.

 "Well," he continued, "what was done?"

"Two challengers were brought forward," she said, "and
they fought each other."

"Just so," said he, "and don't you recall one case where a
King of the Grove disappeared and was believed to have
run away, but was never found, nor any trace of him?"

"I remember that, too," she agreed.

 "Well," he pressed her, "what was done in that case?"

"Two challengers fought each other that time also,"
she allowed.

 "Well," he summed up, "that's what we'll have done now.
Almo will vanish. He's good at it, he's had practice. Two
challengers can be found easily enough."

"But," she cavilled, wide-eyed, "there's all the difference
in the world between egging on two challengers after the
post is vacant and arranging to vacate the post. What
you propose would be sacrilege, impiety."

"Don't you worry about that!" he soothed her. "The priesthood
at Aricia is no part of our hierarchy; the safety of Rome in no
way depends on its sanctity. It is important enough for the nine
towns that share the cult, but it concerns no others. It's an
alien cult, anyhow. Whether Orestes brought it to Aricia
or Hippolytus or who else makes no difference, nor the
tradition that it is four hundred years older than Rome.
It's a disgrace to Italy and it exists on sufferance. Father
told me that Grandfather and he were both in half a mind
to have it suppressed as the Bacchanals were suppressed.
The curative repute of the Grove stood in the way. As for
me, if it were not for the sporting character of the King's
tenure, I'd see to it that Almo would be the last King. I feel
free to do as I please in any matter that concerns it."

Brinnaria said nothing.

He resumed:

 "Leave it all to me. I'll go to Aricia myself; I'll expostulate with
Almo; I'll appeal to his manhood, to his pride, to his patriotism.
Ten to one he's disillusioned by this time, sick of his job and
ready to listen to reason. He'll promise to obey me and he'll
obey me.

 "The rest will be managed by men who will make no mistakes. They'll
find two challengers each much like Almo in build and appearance.
One dark night Almo will slip off in charge of the men I delegate for
that duty; the two challengers will be guided so that each thinks he
is fighting the King of the Grove. Whichever survives will be rigged
up in the customary toggery. There will be a corpse properly offered
on the altar. Nobody will suspect anything."

About a month later Lutorius conveyed to her a hint from the
Emperor. She at once applied for an audience.

 Commodus was as expansive as a boy who has had a good
day's fishing.

 "It's all over," he said, "and everything went off just as I foresaw
and planned. Almo was disgusted and tractable. We found two
desperadoes of suitable make. While we steered them at each
other Almo slipped out. Besides you, your two friends, your agents,
Lutorius and myself, no one knows that Almo was ever King of
the Grove. I had him brought to the Palace and Lucro and I had
no end of good fun fencing with him. I had the Senate pass a
decree relieving him of all and sundry legal consequences of
having been sold as a slave in Britain. I had him choose a full
staff of the best possible aides, orderlies and such. He is off to
Syria. I did not send for you until I had word that he had not
only sailed from Brundisium but had actually landed at
Dyrrhachium. I anticipate that the job I have sent him on will
take all of six years. Just about when your service is drawing
to an end he will return to Rome covered with glory and loaded
with loot. The nomads have been plundering our cities and have
accumulated in their strongholds immense amounts of treasure.
He'll get it back. Meantime your mind should be at peace."

Brinnaria was properly grateful and expressed her feelings
fervently.

 "And now," said Commodus, "since I have done what you
wanted and you are pleased, may I ask a favor of you? You
can do something for me that no one else can and if you
promise it will set my mind at rest to some extent."

Brinnaria earnestly promised to do her best.

 "I am troubled," said the Emperor, "very much troubled. You
know how rumors get about among people, starting no one
knows where; and how, when such a notion is abroad, nothing
on earth can counteract it.

 "Well, there's a story going about of an oracle, an oracle
which says that the Republic reached its acme under Trajan,
that the Empire kept up its prosperity under Hadrian and
my Grandfather and Father, but that the glory of Rome is
fated to fade and wane and that its decline will date from
my taking over the Principiate.

 "I am worried about it. I have sent to Delphi and Dodona
and every other oracle from Olisipo to Pattala, but I can
find no record of any such oracle having been uttered. The
people, however, credit it as if it came from Delphi.

 "I've had a hundred oracles consulted about the matter,
Delphi too. They all hedge; not one is clear. But they all
speak of an impending disaster that may be averted by
watchfulness. And they all hint darkly at some danger to
the Palladium; they all mention it somehow; most of them
allude unmistakably to the Temple of Vesta; some of
them manifestly refer to the Atrium; all of them speak of fire.

 "Now I know that the sacred fire will be cared for by you
and Manlia and Gargilia and Numisia as well as ever it
was since Numa. Causidiena is too old to count and
Terentia is too young, but in the four of you I have complete
confidence as far as the fire is concerned.

 "About the Palladium I don't feel so sure. The six terra-cotta
chests are so exactly alike and the five counterfeits are so like
the real statue that I am afraid the precautions taken to baffle
an intruding thief might confuse you Vestals in a crisis.

 "Do you know the real Palladium from the five dummies?"

"I do," said Brinnaria; "we all do. When I had been a Vestal
five years Causidiena showed me the Palladium. No Vestal is
ever shown it until she is over fifteen. Like all other young
Vestals I was made to spend hours in the inner storeroom,
blindfolded, learning to recognize the real Palladium by touch.

 "The differences between the original and the copies are very
small, mostly in the carving of the folds of the gown. But every
young Vestal is drilled until she can recognize the genuine relic
by touch, one hundred times out of one hundred times, and until
she can similarly discriminate the terra-cotta chest that contains
it from the other five chests. I could tell the Palladium from the
imitations instantly any time."

"You relieve me," said Commodus. "I've wanted to talk about this
to all you Vestals, but I've been ashamed to broach the subject.
Since you confided in me I feel no hesitation about confiding in you."

"I promise you," said Brinnaria, "that the Palladium will never
be stolen, lost, or come to any harm if I can prevent it, and I
believe I can. I pledge you my word."

"I feel better," said Commodus.

 "And I want to say," Brinnaria added, "that I have always felt
a special interest in the Palladium. Ever since I was old enough
to share all the duties and all the responsibilities of a Vestal,
my feelings have been particularly engaged with the Palladium.
There is something tremendous and crushing in the thought of
being in charge of four of the seven objects on the safety of which
depends the safety of Rome and the prosperity of the Republic.
Whenever Causidiena has shown them to us younger Vestals I
have felt the strongest emotions at the sight of the jar containing
the ashes of Orestes, of the antique gold canister which protects
the plain, gold-mounted ivory sceptre of Priam, of the lapis-lazuli
casket which enshrines the tatters remaining of Ilione's veil; but
more than at sight of them I have trembled with awe to look at
that little statuette, no longer than my forearm, and to think
that if it were destroyed the Empire would crumble and Rome
would perish. You maybe sure I shall do all I can to keep safe
the precious treasure committed to my charge."

"I feel sure you will," said Commodus.






 BOOK IV



 THE REVULSION OF DELIGHT




CHAPTER XX - ACCUSATION



AFTER Almo's redemption and his departure for Syria Brinnaria
calmed down. Her feverish activity abated and vanished. She
ceased to take any interest in the speed of her litter-bearers or
of her carriage-teams. She took her outings for their own sake,
not merely to feel herself transported rapidly from somewhere
to anywhere. She kept an oversight of her stock-farms, but she
left the management of them almost entirely to her bailiffs.
On music she spent more of her time and in it she took an
intenser delight.

 Life in the Atrium altered chiefly through the growing up of
Terentia, whose fifteenth birthday was celebrated soon after
Almo left Italy, and by the steady waning of Causidiena's
eyesight. She could still recognize familiar persons when
between her and the strong light of a door or window in
the daytime; she could still place pieces of wood on the fire,
if it was burning well. But she was plainly verging on total
blindness. Except in so far as it was modified by pride in
Terentia and solicitude for Causidiena, life in the Atrium
flowed on as it had for centuries.

 Reports from Almo were uniformly good. From the first
he displayed all the qualifications requisite for a commander
in chief. For him everything promised well.

 Under these conditions Brinnaria throve. Her natural vigor
had always been such that she never had showed any outward
signs of the strain to which she had been subjected. Uniformly
she had looked handsome and healthy. But now, if anything,
she looked healthier and handsomer than ever. She was then
thirty-two years old. At ten years of age she had looked
eighteen, at eighteen she had looked twenty-four. At thirty-two
she still looked no more than twenty-five. Her hair was
abundant and glossy, her eyes bright, her cheeks rosy; she
was neither slender nor plump, but a well-muscled, graceful
woman, decidedly young-looking, and altogether statuesque
in build and carriage, but very much alive in her springy
suppleness.

 About a year after Almo's departure for Syria Lutorius came
to see her one morning, his face grave.

 He indicated that they had best confer alone. In her tiny sanctum
he came straight to the point.

 "Daughter," he said, "my news is as bad as possible. You are
formally accused of the worst misconduct."

"Why look so gloomy?" said Brinnaria. "That is comic, not
tragic. Who's the fool accuser?"

 "Calvaster, as you might conjecture," he answered; "and
 grieve to have to inform you," he added, "that this is no
laughing matter."

"Pooh!" said Brinnaria. "I'm not a bit afraid of Calvaster.
Aurelius gave Commodus emphatic injunctions about me.
And he went into details. Commodus can't have forgotten
his reprimand to Calvaster nor his categorical threat."

"I fear," said Lutorius, "that his father's instructions on
that particular point are not well to the front of the Emperor's
mind."

"Well, anyhow," said Brinnaria, "everybody knows my
preoccupation with Almo and everybody saw my behavior
in the Amphitheatre. I feel pretty safe in respect to my
general reputation. As to particulars, I've been vigilantly
careful to keep away from Almo. Except twice, in the
presence of Aurelius, I haven't been within speaking
distance of him in twenty-two years. Between the fact
that no one can prove that I have had anything to do
with him and the improbability that anyone would suspect
me of interest in any other man, let alone misconduct
with any other man, I feel entirely secure."

Lutorius wagged his head.

 "You are accused of misconduct with another man," he said.

 "Absurd!" said Brinnaria, "easy to confute. Who is the man?"

"Not so easy to confute, I fear," said Lutorius. "The man
named is Quintus Istorius Vocco."

"Whew!" cried Brinnaria, springing to her feet and snapping
her fingers. "That is ingenious! That will give me trouble!
I didn't credit Calvaster with that much sense. I never thought
of anyone looking askance at my relations with Quintus. I've
never taken any precautions as to when I was with him or
how long or where. I've treated him as an honorary brother,
seeing I have no brothers of my own left alive. Flexinna has
been such a sister to me, that we have disregarded Quintus
almost as if he were a slave or a statue or a picture on the
wall or another woman. Whew!"

"You perceive," said Lutorius, "that the situation, in general,
is very serious?"

 "I do, indeed!" admitted Brinnaria.

 "Serious as it is in general," he went on, "it is still more
serious in particular. Your excursion to Aricia was by no
means as much a secret as you have all along supposed.
I, for instance, knew of it before you confessed it to me."

"How was that?" Brinnaria inquired.

 "Numisia," he explained, "saw you go out in Flexinna's
clothes and recognized you. She entered your room and
talked with Flexinna. She summoned me and we conferred.
We both loved you and we both believed in you. We were
solicitous for the cult, but we were nearly as much solicitous
for you. We agreed that we were almost fully warranted in
assuming your entire innocence of heart and that your
impulsive behavior would not alienate the good will of
the Goddess. We decided to take it upon ourselves to judge
you blameless and to shield you. Utta was instructed never
to let you know that Numisia had seen Flexinna; Flexinna,
of course, fell in with our plans. Numisia made every
arrangement that would prevent any more from learning
the secret and would make your return easy.

 "After you came back safe our decision seemed justified.
I talked with Vocco and learned that nothing had occurred
to render your exposure likely, except your encounter with
Calvaster. As we heard nothing from Calvaster we felt
entirely successful. It turns out that he was only biding
his time. He has formally accused you before the College
of Pontiffs, alleging in general your long-continued
familiarity with Vocco, and, in particular, your having
been outside of Rome after midnight in Vocco's company."

"Whew," Brinnaria exclaimed, "this is indeed serious! I
feel myself strangling or starving in a vaulted cell. What
am I to do?"

"See Commodus first of all," said Lutorius.

 In the short interval since her former audience, those traits
of which he had previously shown the merest traces had rapidly
developed in Commodus into fixed characteristics. He had
become what he remained until his end, an odd mingling
of loutish, peevish school-boy, easy-going, self-indulgent
athlete and superstitious, suspicious despot.

 "To begin with," he said, "I want you to understand that I
like you, that I haven't forgotten that you rescued the retiarius,
whopped Bambilio and behaved like a trump when Father
tested you. I'm for you. Your colts are the cream of Italian
stud-farms. You are a wonderful woman, all round. But, as a
Vestal, you have your weak points. I remember Father's
instructions about you and I have all that in mind. Besides,
I know that I, as Chief Pontiff, have the right to make my
own decision about any such matter and to brush aside
anybody else's opinion and anybody else's interpretation
of the evidence. Also my impulse is to make use of my
prerogative, dismiss the accusation against you, reiterate
Father's warning to Calvaster and get the whole thing off
my mind. I don't like Calvaster and I don't value him an
atom. They say he's indispensable, but if he irritates me
ever so little more I'll dispense with him and I'll wager
the Republic will get on without him. You see that I am
strong on your side and almost on the point of deciding
in your favor.

 "But I hesitate. This case of yours worries me more than
anything that has come up since I took over the Principiate.
I cannot make up my mind.

 "I'm not the man I was a year ago. I'm shaken. Father told
me that the most wearing feature of his being Emperor was
his recurring escapes from assassination. I had my first
escape just after your audience with me. It jarred me
horribly. The fool barely missed finishing me. The
experience made me take precautions and so no other
miscreant has come so near to doing for me. But the
repetitions have grown monotonous. I always thought
highly of your lad, and I've often wondered how he
managed to get any sleep or swallow any food while
he was King of the Grove, but I think immeasurably
more of him since I've been through something faintly
similar. He deserves the best of life and I hope he'll get
his heart's desire and marry you at the end of your service.

 "You see how enthusiastically I am on your side.

 "But there is much to be considered.

 "If this were a question of judging a two-year-old filly
I'd need no man's advice and I'd listen to no man's opinion.
I'm better fitted to judge a horse than any man alive. It
would be the same if it were a question of refereeing a
sword-bout or a boxing-mill or a wrestling-match or
anything of the kind. I know all about such things and
I know that I am a judge superior to anybody on earth.
I'm a born all-round athlete and everybody knows it and
recognizes me as a past master.

 "But as an Emperor, as Chief Pontiff, such is not at all the
case. I feel a fumbler, a bungler. I grope. I suspect that the
judgment of my advisers is better than mine. What is worse,
I know that they think so. I am surrounded by men pre-eminent
in their specialties, who look on me as a green boy placed by
mere chance in a position which I fail to fill adequately. They
watch me like hawks, they expect to see me blunder, they
raise eyebrows at each other, they exchange glances. It
rattles me. I wish I had Alexander's nerve. He was as young
as I am and he brooked no opposition, but rammed his
opinions down his councillors' throats from the hour
when he became King. But I haven't his nerve, not by
a long shot. I had as good teachers as he had, too. But,
Hercules be good to me, I never could learn anything
out of a book.

 "As a charioteer, or a swordsman I'm as confident as a
lion. As an Emperor I'm as cowardly as a jackal. It's the
effect of the prophecies and auguries and oracles and such.
They all hint at my impairing the prosperity of the Republic
or diminishing the power of the Empire. It gallies me when
I see two old bald heads wink at each other; I know they
are thinking:

 "'What did I tell you! Here's this young fool ruining Rome,
just as the oracle prophesies.' "It gets on my nerves.

"I daren't decide the matter on my own judgment.

 "Besides, there's the danger of assassination hanging
over me. All the men who have tried so far have been
highly educated magnates of lofty principles. They
seem to feel I am an unworthy Prince and that to kill
me would be a service to the state. It galls me to think
of it, and me doing my best for the Republic and the
Empire, denying myself hours of pleasure daily, missing
races and all kinds of contests and toiling over documents
and estimates and statistics. But it is true. If I decide this
case of yours, ten to one any number of self-righteous
nobles will say to themselves:

 "'Here is this lout on the way to destroy the foundations of
Rome's greatness. Rome must be saved from him. My duty
is clear. He must be put out of the way.' "Nice situation for
me. I dare not let loose any such possible fanaticism for my
own destruction.

 "And apart from any qualms about my qualifications to judge,
apart from any dread of the consequences to myself, of
absolving you, there is my sense of duty to Rome. Here are
these cursed ambiguous oracles hinting some harm to Rome,
mentioning fire and the Temple of Vesta and the Palladium.
Perhaps what they mean is just the possible wrath of Vesta
at an unworthy priestess. How can I tell?

 "You see why I hesitate?"

Brinnaria nodded. She judged it no time to speak, and,
had she wished to speak she could hardly have done so.

 "I might not have hesitated," Commodus resumed, "if
Calvaster had come to me. But he pops up in a full meeting
of the College of Pontiffs and says he saw you, after midnight
and before dawn, on the Appian Road, between Aricia and
Bovillae, in a litter that didn't belong to you and with Vocco
on horseback beside it. That puts all the Pontiffs in possession
of the facts and on the watch to see how I'll decide, if I do
decide. Calvaster made sure of proving those facts, for he
had two highly respectable and respected nobles to swear
that they were with him and saw Vocco and the litter and
knew the litter for Nemestronia's. That he had any number
of witnesses to swear to the frequency of your visits to
Vocco's house, your habit of dining there and the freedom
with which you treated him.

 "My impulse was to tell Calvaster I disbelieved any story
he fathered, that I had my Father's instructions discrediting
him, that I knew all about your intimacy with Flexinna and
her husband, that I knew all about your excursion to Aricia
and why you went and that I approved and that was the end
of it. I have told you why I hesitated.

 "But I was inclined that way. I have talked with Lutorius and
Causidiena and Numisia. They feel towards you as my Father felt.
They believe in you and in your worthiness as a priestess, and
they minimize your irregularities. I sent for Flexinna and talked
with her. She deserves consideration, if only because she is the
mother of the largest family to be found among our nobility, even
among our gentry. She hoots at the idea of anything improper
between you and Vocco, in act or thought. She evidently tells
the truth. It is plain that she and Vocco are a devoted pair,
that you and he never did anything wrong or thought of anything
wrong. I sent for Vocco and talked with him. I am all but clear
what I should do, but I am not quite clear.

 "Now, there are only two ways to settle this: one is for me to
settle it myself and out of hand. The other is to have a formal
trial of you before the College of Pontiffs.

 "If you are tried you'll be condemned. All you can say of the
innocence of your intimacy with Vocco, all you can say of the
innocence of your regard for Almo, all I can say of my Father's
high esteem of you, of his injunctions regarding you, will not
avail to save you. The Pontiffs will not heed the considerations
which were so plain to Father and are so plain to me and
Lutorius and Numisia. They will say it makes no difference
whether you went to Aricia because of solicitude for Almo
or on account of an intrigue with Vocco. They will hold
that such a manifestation of interest in Almo proves you
almost as unfit to be a Vestal as if it were certain that you
were philandering with Vocco.

 "In particular they will hold that there might be room to
absolve you had you openly gone to save Almo in your full
regalia and in your own carriage, or your own litter, with
your lictor before you; but that while the fact of your being
out of Rome all night in a litter is damning enough, the
appearance of duplicity and underhanded secrecy given
to the proceeding by your being disguised in another
woman's clothing and carried in a borrowed litter
makes terribly against you.

 "Of course I could impose my will on the Pontiffs, but I
should hesitate to override their decision, even more than
I hesitate to decide the case myself, and for the reasons
I have given.

 "Yet I must say I could forget my dread of assassination
and ignore any opinionated contempt I might evoke, if I
could be sure in my own heart that I am doing what is best
for Rome; I should be as arrogant an Emperor as ever Domitian
was if only I felt confident that my instincts are right. My
instincts all urge me to act as an Emperor and a Pontifex
Maximus and settle this matter out of hand, once and for all.

 "But I hesitate. I can't make up my mind. All I need is a sign
that you are as acceptable to Vesta as I believe you are. I have
tried to satisfy myself, to elicit some sign of the Goddess' will,
but no sign has been vouchsafed me. I've had the Sibylline
Books consulted, which is a trying matter with Calvaster left
out of the consulting board; I have sent to every oracle within
reach, have put questions to all the sibyls in all the caves of
Italy, have called in a rabble of Etruscan soothsayers, every
haruspex and auspex in Etruria, I believe. They all hedge.
They are all vague. They are all indefinite. They give me no help!

 "Now, I like you; I like Almo; I like both of you and I respect you;
I believe in you. I'd hate to wake up and call for any breakfast I
had a whim for and look at it and smell it and think of you, all
alone in the dark in a vaulted cell six foot under the rubbish of
that garbage-dump out by the Colline Gate. And I hate the
thought of the bother and worry of a trial. I want to put my foot
down and assert my will and be done with it all. But, as I've said
a dozen times already, I hesitate. Chiefly I hesitate because I am
resolute to do my duty to Rome according to my lights. I feel I
am right, but I am not quite man enough to follow my feelings.
If I could have some plain sign that Vesta understands and
condones your past irregularities as I do, that Vesta approves
of you and is pleased with you as I am, if I could feel Vesta
corroborating my feelings, if I could evoke an unmistakable
token of her will, I'd not hesitate. I'd scout the suggestion of
a trial; I'd squelch Calvaster; I'd absolve you."

Brinnaria looked straight into his goggling, bloodshot eyes.

 "Would you consider it an unmistakable sign," she said, "a
plain token of my acceptability to my Goddess, of her esteem
for me, if Vesta gave me power to carry water in a sieve?"

Commodus goggled his eyes at her even more than habitually.

 "Carry water in a sieve," he cried, "as Tuccia did?"

"There is a legend," said Brinnaria. sedately, "that some Vestal
once proved her holiness by carrying water in a sieve. And the
story is connected with Tuccia in popular tradition. But if it was
ever done some other Vestal did it. Poor Tuccia was innocent,
as far as I can judge from the minutes of her trial. But she was
not absolved, by intervention of Vesta or of her judges. She was
condemned and buried. You can read the verdict as well as the
details of the proceedings in the records. And what is left of poor
Tuccia is now in one of those tiny vaulted cells under the Wicked
Field. You will find, along with the documents of her case, the bill
for the wages of the mason who completed the vault after she
had descended the ladder and the affidavits of the sentinels who
patrolled the spot day and night for a month, according to custom."

 "Never mind who did it or didn't do it, or whether it ever was
done at all before," said Commodus, "if I saw you carry water
in a sieve I'd hold it a plain sign of Vesta's particular favor to
you, of your special acceptability to her, of the correctness
of my intuitions about you and about this whole wretched
business.

 "Do I understand you to offer to demonstrate your innocence
by carrying water in a sieve?"

"That is my offer!" said Brinnaria.

 "But," he protested, "the thing can't be done. It's impossible!
Better stand your chance of a trial."

"I am sure," said Brinnaria, "that my Goddess will not desert
me. I know I am innocent and acceptable to her. She knows me
and will give me the power to prove my worthiness. She will no
 fail me. I know I can do it."

"Do I understand you to offer to do it in broad daylight before me
and the whole College of Pontiffs, Calvaster and all?"

"In sight of all Rome," said Brinnaria, "if all Rome could crowd
near enough to see."

"Do I understand you," said the Emperor, "to stake your life on
the venture, and, just as you would expect full absolution if you
succeed, so to expect a rigid and severely stern trial before me
and the College of Pontiffs, with your failure counting against
you, if you fail in the attempt?"

"That is my understanding," said Brinnaria, unflinching, her
clear eyes on his face, her cheeks neither flushed nor blanched,
her expression calm, her pose easy, her voice unfaltering.

 "Hercules be good to me!" cried Commodus. "That is a first
class game sporting offer! I like you, girl! I like the idea. I see
my way to a decision. I glimpse a method of banishing my
hesitation. I'll take you. If you agree, clasp hands, like a man."

Brinnaria stood up and put out her hand.

 "For life or death," said the Emperor.

 They clasped hands.

 "Done!' said Commodus.


 CHAPTER XXI - ORDEAL



 THE next day Commodus, officially, in his full regalia as Emperor
and Pontifex Maximus, convoyed by a magnificent retinue of
gorgeously apparelled gentlemen-in-waiting, equerries, aides,
orderlies and pages, and of gaudily uniformed guards, paid a
formal visit to the Atrium.

 He was received by Lutorius, Causidiena. and Numisia, who
had been in close conference most of the previous afternoon
and until late at night and again most of the morning from
dawn. Causidiena, on account of her failing sight, was escorted
by Manlia and Gargilia.

 After the exchange of ceremonious greetings Commodus asked:

 "Where is Brinnaria? Why isn't she here?"

"We thought best," Causidiena replied, "that she should not be
present at our conference."

"As to part of it I quite agree," said the Emperor. "Fairness to
her requires that much of what we have to say should be said in
her absence, as she must be free from any suspicion of
participation in some of our arrangements. But part of
what we have to say she must hear and some details I must
talk over with her. Send for her, and meanwhile, sit down,
all of you, sit down, I say."

Manlia and Gargilia departed to summon Brinnaria.

 When she came and had seated herself the Emperor said:

 "I've been thinking over this matter ever since you left me.
Precious little else did I do yesterday and mighty little sleep
did I get last night. I'm not clear yet altogether, but I see
daylight on several points.

 "What you propose is more or less like interpreting the
significance of the appearances seen in the victim's intestines
after a sacrifice for a specific object; it amounts to asking a
definite question of your Goddess and getting a yes or no answer.

"That is one way to regard it and seems to me correct from
the religious point of view.

 "But there is another point of view and another way to regard
it, not less correct, it seems to me.

 "This is a sort of a sporting proposal, like a dicing contest,
or any kind of match or wager.

 "Now in such matters, it is important, it is of the utmost
importance, that there should be no differences of opinion
between the principals or among the backers or lookers-on
after the contest or during its progress; particularly that
no unexpected differences of opinion should crop up after
starting the set of actions which determine the decision.
To avoid all such untoward possibilities, every detail
must be settled in advance before the matter comes to a test.

 "Now, treating your appeal to Vesta not only as a solemn
invocation of the Goddess, but also as a sporting chance,
I intend to have a definite, unquestionable understanding
beforehand on every debatable point.

 "You see what I mean?

 "Some of the points we others will settle without you, but
we shall begin with those which you must settle or share in settling.

 "I and Lutorius, Causidiena and Numisia are to be the
witnesses to the stipulations and our agreement on any
point is to prove that point. I propose to make it impossible
for there to be any misunderstanding or disagreement
among the four of us, to make it certain that we four
think, speak and act unanimously on all points whatever.
Nothing must be assumed, everything must be explicit.

 "To begin with, is this a fair statement of your proposal?

 "You maintain that you are a worthy priestess of Vesta
and wholly acceptable to her. You propose to demonstrate
this by asking of her the power to carry water in a sieve
in the sight of the whole College of Pontiffs and of such
other persons as I may see fit to have present at the test.
If you fail you will expect to be tried for misconduct.
If you succeed you will expect to be then and there
absolved from all accusations and imputations
connected with your deportment or behavior.

 "Is that a fair statement of your proposal?"

"It is," Brinnaria replied.

 "What kind of water do you propose to carry?" Commodus
asked. "Spring water, rain-water from a tank, aqueduct-water,
or what?"

"I assumed," said Brinnaria, "that I would carry water from
the river, in accordance with the legend of my predecessor:
Father Tiber being himself one of our gods, one of the sternest
to evildoers, yet to the righteous most kindly and helpful."

"Excellent!" said the Emperor. "My notion precisely.
That is settled. I accordingly appoint as the place of your
test the Marble Quay, since the porticoes flanking it shut
out the mob and protect the Quay from intruding eyes,
and since the space enclosed by them is ample for the
assemblage of the College of Pontiffs, the Senate and the
Court officials. Are you satisfied with that place?"

"I am," said Brinnaria.

 "In what kind of a sieve do you propose to carry water?"
came the next question.

 "A sieve," said Brinnaria, "is a sieve."

 "Not at all," Commodus objected. "There are sieves
and sieves."

"Well, of course," Brinnaria reflected, "I do not mean a
broken, worn-out or imperfect sieve, nor one incompetently made."

"Just so," the Emperor amplified. "You propose to carry
water in a sieve with a circular rim, without any hole,
crevice or crack in it and with a web stretched taut on
the rim, evenly woven and of the finest mesh."

"That expresses my unformed idea," said Brinnaria.

 "Did you mean a linen sieve," the Emperor asked, "or a
horse-hair sieve, or a metal sieve?"

"That," said Brinnaria, "can make no difference, if it
fulfills the conditions you have just specified. I leave the
choice of material to you."

"That is the correct attitude for you," said Commodus,
"and does you credit.

 "And now I think we four will settle the other details
without you. Do you agree to that?"

"No!" Brinnaria objected. "I think I should be a party
to the settling of several other details."

"What are they?" Commodus queried.

 "In the first place," said Brinnaria, "there should be the
clearest understanding as to how much water I must carry."

"What do you mean?" the Emperor asked.

 "Well," Brinnaria expounded, "a drop of water the size of
my thumb-nail would not be enough, I presume. That would
not be considered as demonstrating my innocence. You
would expect me to carry more water than that. On the
other hand, to exact that I carry a sieve full of water to
the top of the rim, as if it were a pan, would be unfair to me."

"I see," said Commodus. "I should lay down the condition
that the water must cover the web of the sieve entirely
and touch the rim all round, and that it should be a
finger-breadth deep. Deeper than that it need not be, that
depth would prove the favor of your Goddess as plainly
as if you carried all Tiber. Is that all? If not, what next?"

"Next," she said, "it ought to be definitely agreed how far
I must carry the sieve with the water in it."

"You do not need to carry it at all," said Commodus. "If
you stand up and hold the sieve of water as high as your
chin, you will have proved the favor of your Goddess for you."

Lutorius, tactful and bland, here spoke up.

 "Your Majesty," he said, "I doubt whether that will confute
Brinnaria's enemies or even convince the majority of the Pontiffs."

"What does it signify?" the Emperor demanded, "whether
anybody else is convinced, if I am satisfied?"

"Nothing whatever, your Majesty," said Lutorius, "if
you take that view of the matter."

"Perhaps," Commodus admitted, "there may be
something in your suggestion. Suppose we make
the stipulation that she must carry the sieve of
water from the brink of the river to the top of the steps."

"The number of steps," Lutorius reminded him, "varies
at different points along the Marble Quay."

 "True," the Emperor admitted. "Let us specify the
middle stair, which has seven steps, if I mistake not.
Do you agree to that?" he asked Brinnaria.

 "I agree," she concluded.

 After Brinnaria had gone, Commodus resumed:

 "Now we must decide," he said, "what kind of a sieve she
is to use."

Causidiena spoke up, her all but sightless eyes strained towards the Emperor.

 "Lutorius and Numisia and I have talked over that question,"
she said. "It seems to me that it would be unfair to her for us
to decide on a metal sieve. They are always coarse and the
apertures between the wires are comparatively large. It seems
to us that no one could carry water in a copper sieve, not even
by a miracle.

 "The meshes of linen sieves are the smallest of any made, but
the linen does not seem to have much sustaining power. We feel
that with a linen sieve not only Brinnaria would be, as Lutorius
expressed it, severely handicapped for water-carrying, but that,
as he also said, I fear irreverently, that Vesta herself would be
too much handicapped in respect to miracle-working."

"A mighty sensible remark," Commodus cut in, "and one
with which I concur. You are more of a sport than I thought
you, Lutorius."

"Considering only the construction of sieves," Causidiena
continued, "we were of the opinion that a horsehair sieve
would be the fairest. The hairs are coarser than linen threads
and finer than copper wires and the apertures between are
similarly of medium size, as sieves go.

 "Besides, we have ascertained that horse-hair sieves are by
far the most usual kind. We are told that in most sieve-shops
in Rome all the linen sieves and copper sieves sold do not
amount to one-third the horsehair sieves."

"That ought to settle that point," said Commodus. "No one
can cavil if we use the commonest kind of sieve, of medium
fineness and of normal make.

"As to the question of procuring one we must arrange that
Brinnaria may feel wholly secure that it has not been tampered
with by some enemy of hers, and, on the other hand, that all
persons whatever, to whomsoever hostile or friendly, or
wholly indifferent, may be at once and forever certain that
neither Brinnaria nor any partisan of hers has had any access
to it before the test. Have you any suggestions to make?"

"Yes," Causidiena replied. "Lutorius and Numisia and I
have debated that point and have come to a conclusion
which we think you might approve. The best sieve-maker
in Rome is Caius Truttidius Falcifer, a tenant of one of
our shops on the Holy Street. Not only are his wares
reputed the best-made sieves produced in Rome, but he
sells more than anyone else and carries a larger stock
than can be found in the possession of any other dealer.
He is sieve-maker to the Atrium, like his father before
him. His horse-hair sieves are the closest and finest of
their kind. We use them to sift the flour for our ceremonial
cakes. I had some brought to show you. Where are they,
Numisia?"

Numisia rose and took from an onyx console a flattish
dish-like basket of gilt wicker, containing a number
of square cakes. In size and on account of the ridges
on them, each looked much like the joined four
fingers of a man's hand.

 Commodus took one, broke it and munched a piece.

 "Very good," he said. "If the excellence of the pastry
demonstrates the virtue of the sieve let us consider it
proved. I do not see, however, what the cakes have to
do with it. But I am entirely willing to agree that Brinnaria
is to use a horse-hair sieve made by Truttidius.

"Now, how are we to select the particular sieve so as to
convince all concerned that it is a normal sieve chosen
at random and not one doctored for the occasion ?"

"Our idea," said Lutorius, "was to arrange that Truttidius
be present with a number of horse-hair sieves, practically
with his whole stock of his best, and that one of those be
chosen before the whole College of Pontiffs, perhaps by
your Majesty, perhaps by some one of the altar-boys,
blindfolded, if you like that idea, or in any other manner
which seems good to you."

"That," said the Emperor, "is an excellent suggestion.
But would not there be some difficulty in carrying to the
Marble Quay so large a number of sieves at once,
particularly just when it will be crowded with notables
and the neighboring squares and streets choked, even
jammed, with their equipages? We should not want
to present a numerous gang of sieve-carrying slaves. But
if more than two sieves are trusted to each slave, there
will be danger of the sieves being damaged in transit.
We might find it difficult to select one sufficiently perfect."

"We have thought of that," said Lutorius, "and have devised
a solution which we think you might accept. I have arranged
to have Truttidius convey some eighty horse-hair sieves to
the water-front of the Marble Quay in a flat-bottomed
row-boat, such as are used for bringing vegetables to the
quays of the Forum Olitorium. The oarsmen can keep the
boat nearly stationary off any point of the Quay indicated,
and the selection can be made in sight of the official
assemblage of all the Senators and Pontiffs."

"That," said Commodus, "is an excellent suggestion.
Have it carried out and see to it that only we four know
of it and that no one but the sieve-maker and his assistants
have anything to do with conveying the sieves from his
shop to the boat and that only the boatmen, the sieve-maker
and his assistants are in the boat, that no one else has been
in the boat. I'll detail any number of men you ask for to
escort the sieve-maker and his convoy.

 "I'll have the river policed and all possible traffic suspended.
Any craft that are let through the cordons of police-boats
will be made to follow the other side of the river. We'll have
nothing off the Marble Quay except the boat-load of sieves
and the patrol-boats." He sighed.

 "I believe," he said, "that that is all except fixing the day
and the hour."

"I suggest," said Lutorius, "the day after to-morrow, the
eighteenth day before the Kalends of September, the
twenty-third anniversary of Brinnaria's entrance into
the order of Vestals, and, I regret to say, the second
anniversary of her night expedition to Aricia."

"That suits me," said Commodus.

 "And the hour?" Numisia queried.

 "Noon," said the Emperor.

 Accordingly it was settled that Brinnaria was to face her ordeal
at midday on August fifteenth of the nine hundred and
thirty-seventh year after the founding of Rome, 184 of our era.

 That night Numisia, conferring with Brinnaria, concluded
by saying:

 "Truttidius enjoined me to remind you to be very careful
not to touch the web of the sieve with your fingers. Also he
says that, if anybody's finger touches the web of the sieve
as it is being handed to you, you are to decline to accept it
and to demand another."

"I understand that already," said Brinnaria.

 The Marble Quay was that part of the embankment along
the left bank of the Tiber which was used by the Emperors
of Rome for embarking on their state barges and for landing
from them whenever they took part in one of the gorgeous
river processions. Also it was used by all members of the
Imperial household for starting on excursions by water or
when returning from them. It was situated below the north
corner of the Aventine Hill, not far from the square end of
the Circus Maximus, close to the round Temple of Hercules
and near the meat market. Every trace of it has long since
vanished, its precious marbles having offered most tempting
plunder for builders of every century since the fall of Rome.

 In its glory it was a space about two hundred feet long and
nearly a hundred feet wide, bounded by a gentle hollow curve
along the river, and enclosed on the other three sides by
magnificent colonnaded porticoes.

 The shafts of the columns were of black Lucullean marble
and fully forty feet high. Their capitals and bases were of
green porphyry, the entablature they carried of red porphyry
and the wall behind them of yellow Numidian marble. The
area was paved with slabs of pinkish and light greenish marble
while the copings of the Quay and the steps leading down to
the water were of coral red marble, a building material
extremely rare and very costly.

 At noon on the fifteenth of August the area, lined all round
just before the colonnade by a double rank of Pretorian
guards, gorgeous in their trappings of red gloss leather,
gilded metal and scarlet cloth, was thronged with Senators,
Pontiffs and officials of the Imperial Court, to the number
of nearly a thousand.

 Midway of the crowd, near the head of the middle water-stair,
a part of the pavement, ringed about by the lucky dignitaries
in the front row of spectators, was left free. In it, by the
water-steps, were grouped a selection of Pontiffs, all the
Flamens, four Vestals and the Emperor. The yellow river
was almost free of craft; along the other bank some barges
were being warped up-stream; nearby only patrol boats
were visible.

 Brinnaria, standing alert and springily erect, her white
habit dazzlingly fresh, fresh as the white flowers clasped
at her bosom by her big pearl brooch, looked like a
care-free young matron who had had a long night's
sleep and a good breakfast. Commodus, looking her up
nd down, mentally contrasted her easy pose and the
rosiness of her smiling face with the tense statuesqueness
and austere, almost grim countenances of her three
colleagues. He noticed that her three-strand pearl
necklace seemed to become her more than theirs
became the other three and that she wore her square,
white headdress with an indefinable difference, that
there was a difference in the very hang of her headband
and in the way its tassels lay on her bosom. He noted
two unusual adjuncts to her attire; a long, rough towel
through her girdle and a gold sacrificial dipper thrust
in beside it.

 "Are you ready?" he asked her.

 She looked him full in the face and slowly raised her
left arm, stiffly straight, hand extended, palm down,
until her finger-tips were almost level with his face and
not a foot from it. Holding it so at full stretch she asked:

 "What do you think of that? Am I ready?"

Commodus regarded her finger-tips, her face, and
again her finger-tips:

 "Hercules be good to me !" he exclaimed. "Not a tremble,
not a waver, not a quiver. You are mighty cool. You've
plenty of confidence. I take it you are ready."

"I am," said Brinnaria. "Where is that sieve?"

>From behind her spoke Calvaster. "I have a sieve here."

Commodus rounded on him like an angry mastiff.

 "Who authorized you to speak?" he demanded. "You act
as if you were Emperor. You are merely a minor Pontiff.
Remember that and speak when you are spoken to."

Calvaster, abashed but persistent, stammered:

 "I merely offered a sieve."

"None of your concern to offer a sieve," Commodus
growled. "You insult all of us and me most of all. Do
you take me to be so unfair as to subject this lady to
her test with a sieve brought and offered by her accuser?"

Calvaster was dumb.

 "Show me that sieve," the Emperor commanded.

 Calvaster produced from under his robes a copper-hooped
sieve strung with linen.

 Commodus handed it to Brinnaria.

 "What do you think of that sieve?" he inquired.

 Brinnaria held it up to the light and looked through the
web; held it level, upside down, and looked along the web.

 "It is very irregularly woven," she pronounced; "some
of the meshes are three times the size of others. It is
very unevenly strung, it bags in two places." She held it
up to her face a moment.

 "Also," she concluded, "it has been scrubbed with
wood-ashes and fuller's-earth. Vesta herself could not
carry water in that sieve."

"Give it back to me!" the Emperor ordered.

 He eyed it as she had, sniffed at it like a dog at a mouse-hole,
and glared over it at Calvaster.

 "You advertise yourself to all the world," he snarled, "as
an unworthy Pontiff and a contemptible caitiff. You attempt
to entrap me into the meanest unfairness! You pose as a
public-spirited citizen solicitous about the sanctity of the
worship of Vesta and I find you a pettifogging wretch
actuated by spite and malice. You desire not a fair test,
but the ruin of a woman you are low-minded enough to
hate. Eugh!" With one of his excesses of unconventional
energy he flung the sieve far out over the river. It sailed
whirling through the air, splashed in the water and sank
out of sight.

 "For the price of one dried bean, I'd order you thrown
after it," said Commodus to Calvaster.

 He beckoned one of his aides.

 "Signal that boat!" he commanded.

 A broad blunt-ended cargo-boat, rather guided than
propelled by its four heavy oars, came drifting down
with the current. Its gunwale was hung with horsehair
sieves. Up from the thwarts stood many poles, each with
cross-pieces, every cross-piece hung with sieves. Its
oarsmen edged it nearer and nearer to the Quay and
slowed its motion until it was almost stationary
opposite the stair, scarcely an arm's-length from the
lowest step.

 When it was close the Emperor spoke to Numisia:

 "Choose any sieve you see."

Numisia indicated the sieve on the forward arm of the
second cross-piece of the fourth pole from the bow.

 Lutorius, at the Emperor's bidding, called the directions
to Truttidius, who, bowed and bent with age until he looked
almost like a clothed ape, wizened so that his leathery,
wrinkled face was like a dried apple, was standing near
the middle of the boat.

 "Go down the steps," said Commodus to Brinnaria,
"and yourself take the sieve from him." Brinnaria, on
the lower step, reached over the water, and grasped
the rim of the sieve which Truttidius held out to her. She
held it up to the light. Its web was of black and white
horse-hair, each thread alternately of a different color.
It was made for bolting the finest flour and the tiny
apertures between the hairs were all of a size and
scarcely broader than the hairs themselves.

 She scrutinized the sieve from several angles and
then looked back at the Emperor.

 "Are you satisfied with that sieve?" he queried.

 "I am satisfied with this sieve," spoke Brinnaria,
loud and clear.

 "I want to see close," said Commodus, coming down
the steps.

 Brinnaria, holding the sieve in both hands, lifted it
towards the blue sky. "O Vesta!" she prayed aloud,
"O my dear Goddess, manifest your divinity, succor
your votary! To prove me pleasing and acceptable in
your eyes, grant me the miraculous power to carry
up these stairs water from this river in the sieve
which I hold!" She lowered her arms and holding the
sieve in her left hand knelt on one knee on the lowest
step, spread her towel over the other knee and took
from her belt the sacrificial dipper. With that she
scooped up half a ladleful of Tiber water. On the
towel spread over her knee she carefully dried the
bottom of the dipper.

 Holding it just outside the rim of the sieve she glanced
up at Commodus.

 "Go on," he said.

 She smiled.

 "If you want to see me fail," she said, "talk to me. If
you want to see me carry water in this sieve, let me alone."

"I'm dumb*," said he.

        *"Dumb" at this time meant unable to speak.
                --PG editor

 She eyed the sieve to make sure that it was level and
steady. Commodus, also eyeing it, judged it both steady
and level.

 She brought the ladle over the rim of the sieve and lowered
it until it all but touched the middle of the web.

 She tilted the ladle slowly, slowly she poured its contents
over its lip.

 She lifted it clear:

 On the web of the sieve lay a silver disk, as it were, of
water, round-edged and shining.

 "Hercules be good to me!" cried Commodus.

 "Keep quiet!" she admonished him. "You'll put me off."
She dipped up a ladleful of water, flirted half the water
out, wiped the bottom of the ladle on her knee and brought
it cautiously over the sieve, cautiously she lowered it until
it nearly touched the shining disk of water, cautiously she
tilted it, cautiously she let its contents flow over its lip.

 The disk of water spread. She repeated the process. The
disk of water spread.

 Again and again she repeated the process.

 The disk of water became a film hiding nearly all
the web of the sieve.

 Commodus noticed that, as she dipped up each ladleful
of water, she watched the dipper out of the corner of her
eye, as it were, with a sort of partial, sidelong glance, but
that all the while her gaze was intent on the sieve.

 He noticed other details of her procedure.

 "You never pour twice in the same place," he commented.

 Rigid as a statue, the sieve in her hand as unmoving as if
clamped in a vise, Brinnaria spoke:

 "If I take my eyes off the sieve," she rebuked him, "it will
tilt in my hand and the water will run through. If you make
me look round you'll destroy me. You are not fair."

"I'm dumb," said Commodus again, apologetically.

 As she poured in the next dipper-load, the film of water
touched the rim of the sieve at one point.

 Commodus heard a sharp intake of Brinnaria's breath.

 The next half-ladleful she poured near the spot where
the water touched the sieve-rim.

 Round near the hoop she dribbled in half-ladleful after
half-ladleful until the web of the sieve was entirely covered.

 She had moved slowly from the first dip into the river.
But now, since she could not see any part of the web of
the sieve, she moved yet more slowly.

 Commodus began to be impatient.

 "That is plenty of water," he said.

 "Do you, as Pontifex Maximus," she uttered, "certify
that the water now in this sieve is as deep as you stipulated ?"

"I," said Commodus in a loud voice, "as Emperor and
as Pontifex Maximus, here certify before all men that the
water now supported by the web of that sieve is enough
to demonstrate the favor of Vesta towards you and your
impeccable integrity."

"Back away," said Brinnaria, "I'm going to stand up."
She thrust the handle of the ladle through her belt,
brushed the towel from her knee and with her right
hand also she grasped the sieve. Holding it now in
both hands, her eyes on it, she very slowly, inch by inch,
rose to her feet. When she was erect, she very slowly
drew back her left foot until her two feet were close together.

 "Back away," she repeated. "I'm going to turn round."
Slowly she pivoted on her firm feet until she was standing
with her back to the river.

 Commodus at the top of the steps stared down at her.

 "Back away," she reiterated, "I'm coming up the steps."
Up the steps she came, very slowly. Planted on her right
foot she would almost imperceptibly raise and advance
her left foot. When it was firm on the step, she would
gradually shift her weight to that foot, would very
deliberately straighten up and very carefully draw up
her right foot until both feet were together. So standing
she would breathe several times before she repeated
the process.

 When she was standing firm on the top step on the
level of the Quay platform, she raised both hands until
the sieve was level with her chin.

 "You have won," Commodus exclaimed. "You have
demonstrated your Goddess's favor. The test is over."

An arm's length away stood Calvaster.

 "It's a trick!" he cried. "That is not water."

"Not water!" cried Brinnaria.

 All the forgotten tomboy of her childish girlhood surged
up within her. The obsolete hoydenishness inside her exploded.

 "Not water!" she cried, and smashed the sieve over his head.

 The rim on his shoulders, his head protruding from the torn
eb, frayed ends of broken horse-hair sticking up round his
neck, the water trickling down his clothing and dripping
from his thin locks, from his big flaring ears, from the end
of his long nose, his face rueful and stultified, he presented
a sufficiently absurd appearance.

 Commodus, like the overgrown boy he was, burst into
roars of laughter. The Pontiffs laughed, the Senators
laughed, even Manlia and Gargilia laughed.

 "It's a trick!" Calvaster repeated.

 On the face of Commodus mirth gave place to wrath.

 "Isn't that enough water for you?" he roared. "Anybody
would think, the way you behave, that I am the minor Pontiff
and you the Emperor. I'll teach you!" He turned and
beckoned a centurion of the guard.

 With his file of men he came on the double quick.

 "Seize that man!" the Emperor commanded.

 Two of the Pretorians gripped Calvaster by the elbows.

 "March him out there to the edge," came the next
order, the Emperor gesturing towards the quay-front
on his right.

 At the brink of the platform the Pretorians paused.

 "Grab him with both your hands," the Emperor commanded,
"and pitch him into the river." Over went Calvaster with
a mighty splash.

 As all Romans were excellent swimmers he came to the
surface almost at once. A few strokes in front of him was
the boat with the sieves. To it he swam and Truttidius
hauled him aboard and located him on a thwart.

 After the general merriment had waned and the laughter
had abated Commodus faced the assemblage and raised his hand.

 Into the ensuing silence he spoke not as a blundering
lad nor as a sportsman, but as a ruler. For the moment,
in fact, he looked all the Emperor.

 "We have all beheld," he said, "a miracle marvellous and
convincing. As Prince of the Republic, as Chief Pontiff of
Rome, I proclaim this Priestess cleared of all imputations
whatever. Manifestly she is dear to Vesta, and worthy of
the favor she has shown her. Henceforward let no man
dare to smirch her with any slur or slander."


 CHAPTER XXII - TRIUMPH



 IN recognition of Brinnaria's complete and incontrovertible
vindication Commodus decreed an unusually sumptuous
state banquet at the Palace, inviting to it all the most important
personages of the capital, including the more distinguished
senators, every magistrate, the higher Pontiffs, the Flamens
in a body and most of his personal cronies.

 While old-fashioned households, such as that of Vocco and
Flexinna, clung to the antique Roman habit of lying down
to meals on three rectangular dining-sofas placed on three
sides of a square-topped table, this arrangement had long
been supplanted at Court by a newer invention. The mere
fact that, from of old, it had been looked upon as the worst
sort of bad manners to have more than three diners on a sofa,
and as scarcely less ridiculous to have fewer than three, had
made the custom vexatious in the extreme, as it constrained
all entertainers to arrange for nine guests or eighteen or
twenty-seven and ruled out any other more convenient
intermediate numbers. In the progressive circles of society
and at the Palace, the tables were circular, each supported
from the center by one standard with three feet, and each table
was clasped, as it were, by a single ample C-shaped sofa on
which any number of guests from four to twelve could
conveniently recline.

 At the Palace banquet in honor of Brinnaria, three tables
only were set on the Imperial dais at the head of the dining
hall. On one side of the Emperor's table was that where
feasted the higher Flamens and Pontiffs, the sofa of the
other was occupied by the young Empress, by the wives
of the higher Flamens, and by the four Vestals present.

 Brinnaria declared that her appetite was as good as on the
day when she had returned home from her exile to Aunt
Septima's villa.

 After two public advertisements of the Emperor's favor
and esteem she was entirely free from any sort of worry.
Her enemies were few, merely Calvaster and his parasites,
and they were thoroughly cowed and curbed their tongues.
Not only no defamation of her but not even an innuendo
gained currency in the gossip of the city during the
remainder of her term of service.

 Quite the other way. Her fame as a Vestal whose prayers
were sure to be heard, at first a source of natural pride
and gratification to her, came to be a burden, even a
positive misery. There was an immemorial belief that
if a Vestal could be induced to pray for the recapture
of an escaped slave, such a runaway, if within the
boundaries of Rome, would be overcome by a sort
of inward numbness which would make it impossible
for him to cross the city limits, so that the retaking of
such fugitives became easy, as it was only necessary
to search the wards for them. City owners of escaped
slaves besieged Brinnaria for years and as it was reported
that her intercessions were invariably effective, her fame
increased and petitions for her assistance pestered her.

 She bore the annoyance resignedly, reflecting that, while
she was in such repute, no one was likely to impugn her
honor.

 Life in the Atrium, for the ensuing six years, altered little.
Causidiena, within three years after Brinnaria's ordeal,
became totally blind. Care of her devolved particularly
upon Terentia, of whom she was dotingly fond.

 The routine duties of the maintenance of the sacred fire
those two shared, for Causidiena, even stone blind, never
required anyone's assistance to tell her the condition of the
altar-fire and could care for it and feed it even alone, judging
its needs by the sensations of her outstretched hands, never
burning herself, never letting brands or ashes fall on the
Temple floor. But in all other matters Causidiena and
Terentia were concerned only when their participation
was demanded by canonical regulations, Terentia devoting
herself to attendance on Causidiena, while Causidiena
officiated only when the presence of the Chief Vesta
 was indispensable.

 For Numisia, Gargilia, Manlia and Brinnaria, their main
concern was to arrange that Causidiena should have as little
as possible to do and that Terentia might devote as much as
possible of her time to entertaining Causidiena. This was
not easy to accomplish, for Causidiena's mind was perfectly
clear, her knowledge of every inch of the Atrium enabled
her to move about it unhesitatingly at all hours of the day
and night, her sense of duty urged her to do all that she
had ever done when her sight was perfect, and, like
most blind persons, she resented any reference, expressed
or implied, to her infirmity. Consideration for her called
for almost superhuman tact and dexterity. To the best of
their ability the four strove to shield her without her being
able to perceive their sedulity. To the charm of Terentia's
music she, moreover, yielded readily. Music, as never before,
occupied the leisure of the Atrium.

 During these years Brinnaria was almost entirely happy.
Her duties, her solicitude for Causidiena, her affection for
Terentia, her delight in her own and Terentia's music filled
up most of her time.

 Her horse-breeding continued to interest her, but her interest
was milder and far from absorbing. She kept it up largely
because she regarded her outings as imperatively necessary
to maintain her health, while aimless outings bored her.

 As when younger, she dined out very often and regularly
with Vocco and Flexinna. But since Calvaster's accusation,
she never visited Flexinna alone, always in company with
another Vestal, usually Terentia, so that her dinners at
Flexinna's became restricted to evenings on which she
and Terentia were both off duty. Terentia, who was
passionately fond of small children, revelled in her visits
to Flexinna's house, where there were children of all
ages in abundance, all ready to make friends, all diverting,
all pleased at being petted, and, as Flexinna said:

 "Not a stutterer among 'em."

>From Almo news came frequently through Flexinna.

 His campaign, deliberately prepared and relentlessly
carried out, progressed evenly and without any reverse.

 The nomads nowhere withstood his legions and their
attendant cloud of allied cavalry; one after the other
their strongholds were reached and stormed, methodically
and unhurriedly he reduced tribe after tribe to submission,
his prestige growing from season to season and from year
to year.

 When Brinnaria's term of service was drawing to an end
and only about eleven months of it remained, all Roman
society was convulsed by what was variously referred to
as the Calvaster scandal, the great poisoning trial or the
murder of Pulfennia.

 Pulfennia Ulubrana, one of Calvaster's great-aunts, was a
dwarfish creature, humpbacked and clubfooted.

 She was an only child and her parents, in spite of her
deformities, were devoted to her. They lavished on her
everything that fondness could suggest, and, as they were
very wealthy, she not only lived but enjoyed life in her
way and to a very considerable extent.

 To begin with she never had an ill hour or an ache or
a pain from her earliest years. Then, like many cripples,
she had great vitality and a wonderfully alert mind. Amid
the small army of maids, governesses, tutors, pages,
litter-bearers, and so on, with which her parents surrounded
her she did not become merely peevish, exacting and
overbearing, as might have been expected. Even the
services of her personal physician, of three expert
readers to read aloud to her and of a half dozen musicians
to divert her whenever she pleased, did not spoil her. She
was imperious enough, self-willed and obstinately resolute
to have her own way in all matters, but she had a great
deal of common-sense, realized what was possible and
what impossible and was considerate of her entire retinue,
even of such unimportant slave-girls as her three masseuses.

 She was greedy of all sorts of knowledge and acquired an
education altogether unusual for a Roman woman.

 Withal she was feminine in her tastes, spent much time
on embroidery and was justly proud of her complex and
beautiful productions in this womanly art. She overcame
her disabilities to a great extent and, with no lack of
conveyances, became a figure almost as well-known in
oman society as Nemestronia herself.

 As she had an accommodating disposition, an excellent
appetite and a witty tongue, she was a welcome guest
at banquets and went about a great deal. Also she
entertained lavishly.

 She survived the pestilence and, like so many of the
remnants of the nobility, found herself solitary and
enormously wealthy.

 Her vast estates she managed herself and she knew to a
sesterce the value of every piece of property, the justifiable
expenses of maintaining each, and the income each should
yield. Self-indulgent as she was and moreover an inveterate
gambler, she grew richer every year.

 Like all childless Romans of independent means she was
the object of unblushing and overwhelming attentions from
countless legacy cadgers. She enjoyed the game, accepted
everything offered in the way of gifts, services or invitations,
and, moreover, played up to it, for she was forever destroying
her last will and making a new one. Each was read aloud
to a concourse of expectant and envious legatees. Each
specified scores of legacies of no despicable amount, and
yet more numerous sops to numerous acquaintances. In
every will Calvaster, her nearest relative and favorite
grandnephew, was named as chief legatee.

 She kept on making wills, and, what was more, she kept
on living. Naturally her wealth, her eccentricities, her amazing
healthiness and her obstinate vitality were subjects of general
remark by all the gossips of the capital.

 One night, an hour or two after midnight, she was seized
with violent internal pains, and, in spite of the ministrations
of her private physician, died before dawn.

 In Rome any sudden death was likely to be attributed to
poison. In her case the indications, from the Roman point
of view, all converged on the inference that she had been
poisoned. No-one questioned the conclusion.

 Calvaster was immediately suspected. The evidence against
him would not suffice to put in jeopardy any one in our days.
To the Romans it seemed sufficient to justify his incarceration
and trial. He had more to gain by the old lady's death than
anybody else. He had been chronically in need of money and
there had been much friction between him and Pulfennia on
this point. She had always provided for his necessities, but had
always insisted on scrutinizing every item in his accounts, and
on being convinced of his need for every sesterce she gave
him. She had supported him, but by an irritating dole of small
sums. He had joked with his cronies about her hold on life. He
had been heard to say that he would be glad when she was
gone. He had bought various drugs from various apothecaries,
though none within a year of her death and none used merely
as a poison. Under torture some of her slaves and some of his
slaves told of his having tried to induce them to put poison in
her food.

 Roman society promptly divided into two camps on the question
of his guilt or innocence. The subject was debated with vehemence,
even with acrimony. He had been a disagreeable creature from
childhood and had made many enemies. On the other hand, great
numbers of fair-minded people asserted that no man, however
distasteful to themselves, should be convicted on such flimsy evidence.

 His trial was watched with great interest, and when he was
convicted and an appeal was successful and a retrial ordered,
upper class Rome seethed with altercations. The case, by
common consent, was tabooed as a subject of conversation
at all social gatherings; feeling ran so high that it was possible
to mention the matter only between intimate friends.

 Naturally Flexinna and Brinnaria, Terentia and Vocco
discussed the case frequently. To her friends' amazement
Brinnaria maintained that she did not feel convinced of
Calvaster's guilt.

 "I always despised him and hated him," she said, "and I
despise and hate him as much as ever, if not more. He certainly
has been my worst enemy and he came very near to ruining me.
But I see no reason why hate should blind me in judging his case.
I should be glad to have him plainly convicted and put to death.
It would please me. But I am not pleased at his present plight. I
am not convinced of his guilt. I don't believe any slave evidence
given under torture. A tortured slave will say anything he thinks
likely to relax his sufferings or please his questioners. And I see
no proof of Calvaster's guilt in the other evidence. Everybody
buys such drugs as he bought. And suppose he did joke about
Pulfennia's tenacity to life, who wouldn't? I don't believe it is
proved that she died of poison anyway. People who have never
been ill are reckless eaters. Look at me, I am. She may have
died of indigestion or stomach-ache or what not. I'd do anything
I could to save him, now."

"D-D-Do you mean to say," spoke Flexinna, "that if you
encountered him being led out to execution, you'd reprieve him?”

"A Vestal can't use her prerogative of reprieving criminals," said
Brinnaria, "unless she encounters by accident a criminal being
led to execution. She can't lay in wait for one. Any suspicion
of collusion vitiates her privilege. The encounter must be unforeseen."

"Suppose," said Flexinna, "you did meet C-C-Calvaster on his
way to execution, wouldn't you g-g-gloat over him and watch
him on his way and not interfere?"

"No, I should not, I should interfere," said Brinnaria, "and
anyhow, what is the use of supposing? Suppose the moon
fell on your front teeth, would you stop stuttering?"

In June of 191 Almo returned from Syria, completely
victorious and much acclaimed. He brought with him
his veteran legions and was received with every mark
of the Emperor's favor. After his official reception he
at once left Rome for Falerii, where he was to remain
until the last day of Brinnaria's service.

 Meanwhile his house on the Carinae was opened and
put in order under Flexinna's supervision.

 On August 14th, Lutorius, Causidiena, Numisia and
Brinnaria had a long conference as to the details of her
wedding, which was to take place on August 16th.

 The subject needed not a little discussion, as the circumstances
were unusual. Having no parents, nor indeed any near
connections, it was inevitable that the wedding should vary
a great deal from what was customary.

 It was decided that on leaving the Atrium after her exauguration,
she should spend one night as the guest of Nemestronia; that on
the next day she should go to Vocco's house and be married
from there; but that in the ceremonies, Lutorius, who had been
her spiritual father for many years, should take the part which
her own father would have taken had he been alive. It was also
decided that the wedding feast should be at Almo's house,
after the wedding-procession, instead of at Vocco's before,
as it would have been if she had living parents and was being
married from her home.

 Lutorius, who had a warm personal affection for Brinnaria,
had been hovering about her, as it were, for some days, and
on this last full day of her service he kept, so to speak, fluttering
in and out of the Atrium, repeatedly returning to confer about
some trifle or other which he had forgotten.

 So it happened that he was approaching the portal as she
came out for her afternoon airing.

 "You have your light carriage, to-day, I see," he said.
"Yesterday you had out your state coach. Why the difference?"

Brinnaria, settling herself among her cushions, leaned out
towards him as he stood beside the vehicle, holding on to the
tires, his arms stiff, a hand on each wheel.

 "This," she said, "is merely a constitutional. Yesterday I
took my last outing with all my special privileges as a Vestal,
drove all over Rome in my state coach, drove up to the
Capitol, and, in a fashion, said farewell to the advantages
of my office."

"How do you feel about it all?" he asked.

 Brinnaria pulled a wry face and laughed a forced laugh.

 "I am finding out," she said, "why so few Vestals ever
leave the order. When I realize that, after to-day, I shall
have no lictor to clear the streets for me, that I may go
out in my litter daily, but even so without a runner ahead,
that I may never again drive through Rome, that I have
been driven up to the Capitol for the last time and may go
there hereafter only afoot or in my litter, I am almost ready
to change my mind, give up freedom and matrimony and
Almo and all and cling to my privileges. When it comes
over me that, as I go out to-day, the lictors of any magistrate
will salute me, even the lictors of the Emperor, whereas after
to-morrow noon there will be no salutes for me, I understand
why most Vestals live out their lives in the order."

"There is time still to change your mind and stay with us,"
he said, smiling.

 Brinnaria laughed a perfectly natural laugh.

 "No danger," she said; "my heart is Almo's as always."

"And now, if you have nothing urgent to discuss, I'm off!"

"Where to?" asked Lutorius.

 "I don't care," said Brinnaria, "I don't even want to know.
Give the coachman any orders that come into your head,
sketch a round-about drive for me. I'm in the humor to have
nothing on my mind."

Lutorius, with a comprehending smile, whispered to the
coachman, who mounted his tiny seat.

 Almost at once Brinnaria was lost in thought and jolted through
the streets oblivious to her surroundings, not even seeing what
was before her eyes.

 From her muse she was roused by the halting of the carriage.

 Amazed, she looked up.

 Still more amazed, she recognized, standing near the head
of the off-horse, the state-executioner.

 This repulsive public character, tolerated but despised and
loathed, was the last living creature in or about Rome who
would dare to approach a Vestal.

 At sight of him she was inundated with a hot flood of wrath.
She was about to call to her lictor, to demand why the carriage
had stopped and rebuke him for being so negligent as to
allow so unsavory a being to come so near her.

 Then she saw between her and the executioner, just in front of
that official, a kneeling figure.

 She recognized Calvaster.

 Also she saw the guards and executioner's assistants
grouped about the two.

 It came over her that she had encountered, wholly by accident,
this gloomy convoy, and that before her, beseeching her for a
reprieve, begging for a mere day and night more of life, knelt
her inveterate, furtive enemy.

 She raised her hand and looked the executioner full in the eyes.

 "Send him back," she commanded. "He is reprieved until
this hour to-morrow." The guards dragged off Calvaster,
babbling his pitiful gratitude.

 "Drive home," said Brinnaria to her coachman.


 CHAPTER XXIII - SALVAGE



 THE exauguration of a Vestal, by which canonical ritual she
was formally released from her obligations of chastity and
service and became free to go where she liked and to marry
or to remain unmarried as she preferred, was a brief and
simple ceremony. But it required the presence of all the
Vestals, of the major Flamens, of many Pontiffs, of the entire
College of Augurs and of the Emperor himself as Pontifex
Maximus. Commodus, who was impatient of anything
which curtailed the time he might lavish on athletic
amusements, arrived precisely at noon, at the very last
minute. The moment he had entered the Atrium he hurried
the ceremony. It was soon over and Brinnaria no longer a
Vestal, but a free woman.

 It had been arranged that immediately after her exauguration
her successor should be taken as a Vestal there in the Atrium
by Commodus himself as Chief Pontiff. Little difficulty had
been encountered as to selecting a candidate, since a most
suitable child had been offered by her parents, people of
xcellent family and of unblemished reputation. Her name
was Campia Severina, and she was a small girl, just seven
years old, plump, with a round full-moon of a face, a
leaden-pasty complexion, and a most un-Roman nose,
flat, broad and snub.

 Commodus, prompted by Lutorius, droned through the
required questions and showed manifest relief when he
pronounced the word "Beloved" and the second ceremony
was over.

 He was, however, not wholly a loutish and unmannerly
Emperor, but could be tactful and gracious when his interest
was aroused. He took time to speak to each of the Vestals;
complimented Terentia on her music and spoke of the
Empress's admiration of her organ-playing, had a brief but
kindly commendation for Manlia and Gargilia; praised
Numisia highly for her efficient discharge of the duties
devolving on her, and condoled with Causidiena on her
blindness and feebleness, wording what he said so
dexterously that she could not but feel cheered and comforted.

 Then, aside from the assemblage of Pontiffs, Augurs, Flamens
and the rest, he spoke privately with Brinnaria:

 "I'm sorry to lose you," he said; "I felt comfortable about the
Palladium as long as you were a Vestal. Numisia is a woman
to be relied on too, and Gargilia and Manlia are capable
creatures, but not one of the three is your equal in any respect
and they are but three; the others are a corpse, a doll and an infant.

 "Understand I'm not growling at your departure, I am trying
to convey to you how highly I esteem you. I'll advertise it to
all the world by having you and your husband, the moment
you are married, put on the official roster of my personal
friends who have the right of access to me at all times and
can go in and out of the Palace at their pleasure.

 "As to your wedding, I'm sorry I gave you my promise to
stay away from it. I think that this recent notion of yours
that the marriage of an ex-Vestal is an ill-omened occasion,
like a funeral, is morbid and baseless. Every Vestal has a
right to leave the order at the end of her term of service
and to marry if she pleases. The right is indubitable. Nothing
that is right is ill-omened. I think that an ex-Vestal's wedding
ought to be regarded precisely as the wedding of anybody
else. The most I'll concede is, that it might be likened to the
wedding of a widow, considering her service as a sort of
first marriage. That is my judgment, not merely as a man
but as Chief Pontiff.

 "My impulse is to revoke my pledge and to do all I can
to make your wedding a grand affair. But I'm too good
a betting man to break a promise. Besides, though I
impugn your arguments as an ex-Vestal, I respect your
personal preference for a quiet wedding. I'll not insist
on being invited to the banquet, and, so far from taking
part in the procession, I'll not even peep at it down a
side street. I'll keep inside the Palace.

 "But I want you to release me from my promise in one
small detail. I want to be present at Vocco's to see you two
break and eat the old-fashioned cake, and I want to be
first to sign your marriage register. I promise to leave as
soon as I have signed the register."

Brinnaria, of course, could not but acquiesce.

 "Good for you!" said the Emperor, "and thank you too.
I'll keep away from the procession, but that won't make
any difference in the throngs you'll find along your route.
They'll jam the streets and you'll have to plough your way
through. No Emperor could ever call out more sight-seers
than will the wedding of Brinnaria the water-carrier."
He then went out into the street which his escort blocked,
and departed, accompanied by his coterie of boxers,
wrestlers, swordsmen, jockeys and such-like, convoyed
by a large and gorgeous retinue of pages, runners, guards
nd lictors.

 Immediately after his departure Brinnaria said her farewells
and set out for Nemestronia's.

 Next morning, as she descended from her litter at Vocco's
door, a Vestal's carriage drove up and Gargilia got out.

 "You're surprised to see me at this hour," she said, "and
I don't wonder." When they were indoors and seated with
Flexinna she explained:

 "We have been having a terrible night at the Atrium and
the worst sort of luck this morning. That little fool of a
Campia is the most complete cry-baby and the most
homesick little wretch I ever saw or heard of. She
has sobbed herself ill and screamed us all out of a night's
sleep. Terentia and Manlia were up half the night with her
and she waked me and Causidiena.

 "The result is that Causidiena has had one of her semi-fainting
spells and is in her arm-chair for the day, poor Manlia has one
of her splitting headaches and Terentia is almost as bad. I never
saw the Atrium in such a state. Campia goes to sleep off and
on from exhaustion, but she wakes up howling and keeps
blubbering and whining and sniveling. I left both Terentia
and Manlia in tears. They are so vexed to think that to-morrow
they will be entirely well, but for to-day there is absolutely
nothing for it but they must both keep abed and in the dark.

 "Numisia sent me to tell you that she will be at your wedding,
will walk in the procession and will be at the banquet, but that
I must be on duty in the Temple. So we'll just have to have our
chat now and when I leave we shall not see each other again
for the present."

As she climbed into her carriage she said:

 "I'm sorry you haven't a bright wedding day."

"So am I," said Brinnaria, glancing up at the gray canopy
of rainless cloud which hid the sky; "any day is a good day
to be married on, but I hoped for sunshine."

Commodus, faithful to the spirit of his promise, came to
Vocco's house with the smallest possible official retinue.
He was in the best humor, affable and genial, and cast no
chill of formality over the ceremony. He was the first to
set his signature to the marriage register, signing in his
sprawling school-boy hand. Then he stood aside and
looked on while Flexinna, as matron of honor, led
Brinnaria to Almo and joined their right hands, while
they seated themselves side by side on the traditional
cushioned stools, while the Flamen of Jupiter offered
on the house-altar the old-fashioned contract-cake,
and said the formal prayers for the happiness of the
bride and groom; while the Flamen's assistant, one
of Flexinna's older boys, carried the cake to Almo
and Brinnaria and each broke off a piece and ate it,
she uttering the old-time formula:

 "Where you are Caius I am Caia."

Above the voices of the guests Commodus' could be
distinguished shouting with them:

 "Good luck! Good luck!"

In the silence that followed he warned:

 "Now, no rising, no bowing. I'm not here to spoil this
wedding, I came to enjoy it. No bowing, I tell you, no rising.
Let me get out like an ordinary man."

Into the gathering dusk he vanished with his retinue.

 As soon as he was gone the arrangement for the procession
began, the slaves lit their torches and grouped themselves
outside the house-door, the flute players struck up a tune,
Flexinna's thirteen-year-old boy lit his white-thorn torch at
the altar-fire, her eleven-year-old and nine-year-old, as pages
of honor, caught Brinnaria by the hands and led her out at
the door. So led by the two little boys, their brother with the
white-thorn torch walking before her, she passed through
the streets to Almo's house, Nemestronia and Flexinna
on either side of Almo, close behind her, Vocco and the
other guests following.

 The people made good the Emperor's prophecy.

 From house-door to house-door the streets were packed
with crowds eager to see her pass and loud to acclaim her.
Through cheers, good wishes, loud jokes, merry longs and
cries of "Talassio! Talassio!" she passed along the upper
part of the Fagutal, and past the flank of the Baths of Titus
to the Carinae.

 Her bridal dress of pearl-gray, with the flame-colored bridal
veil, reminded her more than a little of that costume of
Flexinna's which she had worn to Aricia and back, only
that was mostly pink, this mostly gray.

 She looked well in it and wore the six braids and the headband
more naturally than most brides, having been habituated to
them for thirty years, since all Vestals always wore the bridal coiffure.

 At the doorway of Almo's house, the bearer of the white-thorn
torch halted and faced about inside the door, his two little
brothers let go her hands, Almo himself caught her up clear
of the pavement and swung her clear of the door-sill. As he
held her in the air, nestling to him, she repeated the formula:

 "Where you are Caius, I am Caia."

 When he set her down inside the house she was at last a
married woman.

 She turned and watched the scramble for the white-thorn
torch which its bearer first put out and then threw among
the crowd after the slaves had also put out their torches.

 So watching, Almo's arm about her, she became aware of a
strange something in the look of the crowd and of the street.

 "What makes it so light?" she asked Almo. "Why are the
tops of their heads all bright that way?"

Lutorius, who was near them, explained:

 "There is a big fire somewhere the other side of the
Capitol. I noticed it at the top of the street. The Capitol
stood out black, the outline of both temples plain as in the
daylight, against the red smoke behind it."

"Send some of the slaves," said Brinnaria, "to find out
where the fire is, and let us lie down to dinner. I'm as
hungry as a wolf." And like a true Roman she began
with a trifle of three hard-boiled eggs, merely to take
the edge off her appetite.

 There were six tables set in Almo's dining-room and
an ample crescent-shaped sofa to each. The sixty guests
made the big room buzz with talk and echo with laughter.

 Nemestronia called across to Brinnaria:

 "Now you have what you've always wanted. You're a
married woman at last."

"And I'll soon have what I've wanted almost as much,"
Brinnaria replied.

 "What's that?" several voices called.

 "Two desires," Brinnaria explained, "haunted me all the
while I was a Vestal. One was the longing for a horseback ride.
I used to revel in galloping bareback. I haven't been astraddle
of a horse for thirty years. It won't be many days now before
I shall enjoy a good canter on a good horse.

 "Then, by to-morrow night, I trust, I shall have had a fine
long swim with my husband and six hundred other couples
in the big basin of one of the City Baths.

 "Words could not tell you how I have longed to go swimming
in the public baths with the rest of my kind, as a lady should."

The messengers returned with the news that the fire had started near
the round end of the Flaminian Circus, close to the Temple of
Bellona. Before a strong wind it had spread both ways, had caught
everything in the north slope of the Capitol between it and Trajan's
Forum: the silver-smiths' shops were all ablaze; to the south it had
crept between the slope of the Capitol and the theatre of Marcellus
and was sweeping over the booths of the Vegetable Market.

 "It is the biggest fire in our time," said Lutorius.

 "Where will it stop?" queried Numisia.

 Both sent their lictors to make further report.

 Before the dinner was half over they returned, with messengers
from the Atrium. The conflagration was roaring up the Vicus
Jugarius and Gargilia was alarmed.

 Lutorius and Numisia hastily excused themselves, called for their
shoes and went off; he in his litter and she in her carriage.

 As Brinnaria was about to cut the wedding cake her former
lictor, Barbo, thrust himself into the dining-hall, frantic with
concern, and narrated how the fire was beyond any hope of
control and was already devouring the Basilica Argentaria
and Basilica Julia.

 "Lutorius has had the sacred fire carried out of the Temple
in a copper pan by Gargilia and Manlia," he said, "and Terentia
and Numisia, with little Campia, were helping Causidiena
along the Holy Street. Causidiena had an earthenware
casket in her arms. I saw them turn the corner to their right
into Pearl-Dealers Lane. They are safe in the Palace by now."

"Safe in the Palace?" Brinnaria echoed.

 "Yes," Barbo repeated. "Safe in the Palace. They say that the
Temple and the Atrium must burn, nothing can save them."

"The Temple!" cried Brinnana. "Fire! And everybody ill
except Gargilia and Numisia! And all they could think of
would be saving that dear old blind saint and that contemptible
cry-baby. Ten to one they have missed the Palladium and
taken one of the dummies by mistake!

 "O, Almo, I must go save the Palladium!"

Of course Almo protested.

 "Don't hinder me," she begged. "Go I must, whether you
object or not. We'd never forgive ourselves if to-morrow
we learned too late that the Vestals missed the true
Palladium in the confusion, whereas I might have saved
it if I had tried. They may have taken the real Palladium;
 I may be too late now to save it if they made a mistake,
but I am bound to try."

He shut his lips, but she read his eyes.

 "That is like my hero," she said. "Patriotism first, self last.

"Barbo," she called, "run before me and clear the way as
if I were still a Vestal. It's illegal, but it will work."

 She started for the house-door and then paused.

 "Have you any fire buckets?" she asked Almo. "Then have
two of the slaves each fill a bucket and keep close behind us."

Amid the prayers and blessings of the wedding-guests, they
went out hand in hand, the two slaves with leather
water-buckets behind them, Barbo ahead, bellowing:

 "Room for Brinnaria Epulonia! Room for Brinnaria
Epulonia!" At the street corner, before they started down
the slope of the Carinae, they had before them a wide
view over the city directly towards the Capitol. Between
them and the Capitol Hill they could see the buildings
about the Great Forum all one sea of flames.

 "The Basilica AEmilia is on fire," said Brinnaria, "and
the Temple of Augustus is just catching. We shall be in
time; our Temple won't catch before we get there.

 "Run, let's run."

Run they did, the crowds making way at Barbo's loud
adjurations. In their wedding finery, she with her veil
wrapped round her head like a market-woman's shawl,
they ran, hand in hand between the great Temple of Venus
and Rome, black on their right hand against the reddened
clouds, and the vast Colosseum on their left, all orange
in the glare, the gilding on its awning poles glimmering.

 Up the Sacred Street they passed, running when they could,
ploughing through the crowds when the crowd was too thick.

 By the time they passed through the Arch of Titus they
were running, panting and gasping, through a hail of warm
ashes, hot cinders, glowing embers, blazing bits of wood,
flaming brands.

 At the corner of the Pearl-Dealers Exchange Almo halted,
detaining her by her gripped left hand.

 "It is no use," he said; "we are too late. You might pass
the portal of the Atrium alive, but you'd never get back
alive. And I doubt if you could reach the portal through
this heat. You'd scorch to death."

"I shall reach the portal," Brinnaria declared, firmly. "But
I'm not coming back through it. Listen to me and don't
forget. I'm going to make a dash for the portal. I can reach it,
our Temple has not caught yet, the bronze-tile roof will hold
the fire off the beams some time. This end of the Temple of
Augustus has not blazed yet; I can see the cornice.

 "Once inside the Atrium I'll not try to come back this way,
I'll find the Palladium or make sure it is not there; then I'll
run upstairs to the south-east corner. Those rooms are on
a level with the pavement of the New Street."

"But," Almo interrupted, "there isn't an opening towards
the New Street. The outer wall of the Atrium towards the
Palace is all blank wall to the cornice, not even a
ventilation hole anywhere."

"I know," she rebuked him; "keep still and listen. I'll run
into the third room from the corner. All that end of the
Atrium is of brick and cement, not a beam anywhere and the
ceilings are vaulted; the fire will be a long time reaching me
there. You go up Pearl Dealers' Lane to the corner of the
New Street. From the corner measure thirty-eight feet along
the New Street. At that point have a hole smashed through
the wall. There are hordes of firemen about with their axes,
sledge-hammers and pick-axes. They'll hack a hole through
for you in no time. The wall is thin there; we had a temporary
door made there three years ago for the plumbers when they
were putting in the new bath-rooms.

 "Now, every moment is precious. Hold my hand and help
me to make my dash for the portal, but drop my hand and
turn back at the portal; no man may enter the Atrium,
except a Pontiff or a workman. When I squeeze your fingers,
drop my hand and make your dash back.

 "Don't try to check me, husband; self last and patriotism
first, for every Roman of us all. We have waited thirty
years for each other and we've hardly had time for three
kisses yet. But if we must lose each other to save Rome,
then we must.

 "If I fail, good-bye!" Then she turned and called the
trembling slaves to come nearer.

 She ordered:

 "Dash that water over us, one over him, one over me.
Don't waste any, pour it on our heads. Now go where you please!"

Dripping, hand in hand, they ran over the cinder-strewn
pavement, under the rain of blazing fragments, up the
Sacred Street, between the furnace-hot walls.

 Under the long arcade they were safe.

 At its further end she had to face a dash of some ten yards
through the blazing brands, the very air seeming on fire.

 "I'm afraid I" she cried. "Be brave, Almo, and give me
courage!" Her fingers pressed his, their hands parted.

 Her hands over her face she dashed forward.

 He saw her vanish through the portal.

 He ran back.

 Inside the Atrium Brinnaria turned to her right, passed
through a small door, traversed four dark rooms and groped,
kneeling on the floor.

 Her fingers found five earthenware caskets in a row.

 Swiftly she felt them.

 The third she opened.

 Carefully she fingered the statuette inside, running the tips
of her finger-ends along the carved folds of the gown, over
the helmet, over the fingers clasping the spear.

 With the statuette in her hands she stood up. Tearing off her
veil she wrapped the statuette in it.

 Back she went to the peristyle, and ran round it to her right.
Under the roof of the colonnade she was safe from the rain
of brands, but even in there the heat was appalling. She felt
as if the very marble columns must crumble beside her as she ran.

 At the far corner of the courtyard she dashed through a door
and ran up two flights of stairs; a short flight in front of her,
and a longer flight to her left from the landing of the first.
At the top of the stairs she passed through four rooms. In
the fifth, lighted from behind her through a door by an orange
glow from the glare of the conflagration, she sank down on
the floor against its farther wall.

 Almost at once she was on her feet, recoiling from the wall.
It quivered with the shock of blows from the outside.

 A shower of plaster and bits of brick stung her face and
spattered all over her.

 She saw the point of a pick-axe shine an instant in the
fire-glare.

 "I'm here," she called. "I'm safe. Take your time. It's not
hot in here yet." The excited blows thudded on the wall.
The sledges broke a hole as big as her head, four times as
big as her head.

 "Take your time!" she repeated. "There is no hurry now."
Soon she could see the torches outside, the faces of the
firemen, Almo's face.

 "No!" she said, "I won't be dragged through a crevice.
There is plenty of time. Dig that hole bigger!" When it was
large enough to suit her she bade her rescuers back away.

 "No man must touch what I carry," she warned.

 Outside, in Almo's arms, she was hurried through winding
alleys, up narrow stone stairways, to the Palace.

 At the end of a deep, dark passageway between high walls
Lutorius, with some of the Emperor's aides, was waiting
for them at a small door. He guided them to where they
were eagerly expected. As they threaded the corridors,
they heard, at first far off, then closer and closer, the
sound of a child wailing, bawling, blubbering. Even in
the Palace, Campia was an irrepressible cry-baby.

 In the chapel of the Statue of Victory they found the
Vestals, the Empress and the Emperor.

 "I've got it safe," Brinnaria proclaimed.

 "I'm a frightful-looking bride," she added, "wet as a
drowned pup, scorched all over, all my hair burnt off;
I must look a guy."

"Never mind that," said Commodus; "you can't get home
to-night, the conflagration is still spreading. I doubt if the
firemen can save the Colosseum. It would take you till daylight
to work your way round the districts which are in confusion.
You'll sleep here. I've had Trajan's own private suite made
ready for you two, as soon as the first messenger told me
of your gallantry. You'll find an army of maids and such
waiting for you. Go make yourselves comfortable.

 " The bedroom of Rome's greatest Emperor is none too
ood for you. Nothing is too good for you, Brinnaria.

 "You've saved the Palladium, and me, and the Empire
and the Republic and Rome."






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