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Title: Vergilius
       A Tale of the Coming of Christ

Author: Irving Bacheller

Release Date: August 8, 2005 [EBook #16491]

Language: English

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Vergilius

A Tale of the Coming of Christ


By

Irving Bacheller





Author of

"Eben Holden" "D'ri and I" "Darrel of the Blessed Isles"





New York and London

Harper & Brothers Publishers

1904




Copyright, 1904, by IRVING BACHELLER.


All rights reserved.

Published August, 1904.




Vergilius

A Tale of the Coming of Christ




CHAPTER 1

Rome had passed the summits and stood looking into the dark valley of
fourteen hundred years.  Behind her the graves of Caesar and Sallust
and Cicero and Catullus and Vergil and Horace; before her centuries of
madness and treading down; round about her a multitude sickening of
luxury, their houses filled with spoil, their mouths with folly, their
souls with discontent; above her only mystery and silence; in her
train, philosophers questioning if it were not better for a man had he
never been born--deeming life a misfortune and extinction the only
happiness; poets singing no more of "pleasantries and trifles," but
seeking favor with poor obscenities.  Soon they were even to celebrate
the virtue of harlots, the integrity of thieves, the tenderness of
murderers, the justice of oppression.  Leading the caravan were types
abhorrent and self-opposed--effeminate men, masculine women, cheerful
cynics, infidel priests, wealthy people with no credit, patricians,
honoring and yet despising the gods, hating and yet living on the
populace.  Here was the spectacle of a republican empire, and an
emperor gathering power while he affected to disdain it.

The splendor of the capital had attracted from all nations the idle
rich, gamblers, speculators, voluptuaries, profligates, intriguers,
criminals.  To such an extreme had luxury been carried that nothing was
too sacred, nothing too costly to be enjoyed.  Digestion had become a
science, courtship an art, sleep a nightmare, comfort an
accomplishment, and the very act of living an industry.  Almost one may
say that the gods lived only in the imagination of the ignorant and the
jests of the learned.  In a growing patriciate home had become a
weariness, marriage a form, children a trouble, and the decline of
motherhood an alarming fact.  Augustus tried the remedy of legislation.
Henceforth marriage became a duty to the state.  As between men and
women, things were near a turning-point.  Woman cannot long endure
scorn nor the absence of veneration.  A law older than the tablets of
stone shall be her defence.  Love is the price of motherhood.  Soon or
late, unless it be mingled in some degree with her passion, the
wonderful gift is withdrawn and men cease to be born of her.  Slowly,
both the bitterness and the understanding of its loss turn the world to
virtue.  A new and lofty sentiment was appearing.  Woman, weary of her
part in the human comedy, had begun to inspire a love sublime as the
miracle in which she is born to act.

Happily, there were good people in Rome, even noble families, with whom
sacrifice had still a sacred power, and who practised the four virtues
of honor, bravery, wisdom, and temperance.  In rural Latium, rich and
poor clung to the old faith, and everywhere a plebeian feared alike the
assessor and the gods, and sacrificed to both.

It is no wonder the gods were falling when even Jupiter had been
outdone by a modest man who dwelt on the Palatine.  One might have seen
him there any day--a rather delicate figure with shiny blue eyes and
hair now turning gray.  He flung his lightning with unerring aim across
the great purple sea into Arabia, Africa, and Spain, and northward to
the German Ocean and eastward to the land of the Goths.  The genius of
this remarkable man had outdone the imagination of priest and poet.  A
genius for organization, like that of his illustrious uncle, gave to
Augustus a power greater than human hands had yet wielded.

A bit of gossip had travelled far and excited his curiosity.  It spoke
of a new king, with power above that of men, who was to conquer the
world.  Sayings of certain learned men came out of Judea into the land
of lost hope.  They told of the king of promise--that he would bring to
men the gift of immortal life, that the heavens would declare his
authority.  Superstitious to the blood and bone, not a few were
thrilled by the message.

The minds of thinking men were sad, fearful, and beset with curiosity.
"If there be no gods," they were wont to ask, "have we any hope and
responsibility?"  They studied the philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Zeno,
Epicurus, and were unsatisfied.

The nations were at peace, but not the souls of men.  A universal and
mighty war of the spirit was near at hand.  The skirmishers were
busy--patrician and plebeian, master and slave, oppressor and
oppressed.  Soon all were to see the line of battle, the immortal
captains, the children of darkness, the children of light, the
beginning of a great revolution.

Rome was like a weary child whose toys are gods and men, and who, being
weary of them, has yet a curiosity in their destruction.




CHAPTER 2

Those days it was near twelve o'clock by the great dial of history.
One day, about mid-afternoon, the old capital lay glowing in the
sunlight.  Its hills were white with marble and green with gardens, and
traced and spotted and flecked with gold; its thoroughfares were bright
with color--white, purple, yellow, scarlet--like a field of roses and
amarantus.

The fashionable day had begun; knight and lady were now making and
receiving visits.

Five litters and some forty slaves, who bore and followed them, were
waiting in the court of the palace of the Lady Lucia.  Beyond the walls
of white marble a noble company was gathered that summer day.  There
were the hostess and her daughter; three young noblemen, the purple
stripes on each angusticlave telling of knightly rank; a Jewish prince
in purple and gold; an old philosopher, and a poet who had been reading
love lines.  It was the age of pagan chivalry, and one might imperil
his future with poor wit or a faulty epigram.  Those older men had long
held the floor, and their hostess, seeking to rally the young knights,
challenged their skill in courtly compliment.

"O men, who have forgotten the love of women these days, look at her!"

So spoke the Lady Lucia--she that was widow of the Praefect Publius,
who fell with half his cohort in the desert wars.

She had risen from a chair of ebony enriched by cunning Etruscan
art--four mounted knights charging across its heavy back in armor of
wrought gold.  She stopped, facing the company, between two columns of
white marble beautifully sculptured.  Upon each a vine rose, limberly
and with soft leaves in the stone, from base to capital.  Her daughter
stood in the midst of a group of maids who were dressing her hair.

"Arria, will you come to me?" said the Lady Lucia.

The girl came quickly--a dainty creature of sixteen, her dark hair
waving, under jewelled fillets, to a knot behind.  From below the knot
a row of curls fell upon the folds of her outer tunic.  It was a filmy,
transparent thing--this garment--through which one could see the white
of arm and breast and the purple fillets on her legs.

"She is indeed beautiful in the yellow tunic.  I should think that
scarlet rug had caught fire and wrapped her in its flame," said the
poet Ovid.

"Nay, her heart is afire, and its light hath the color of roses," said
an old philosopher who sat by.  "Can you not see it shining through her
cheeks?"

"Young sirs," said the Lady Lucia, with a happy smile, as she raised
her daughter's hand, "now for your offers."

It was a merry challenge, and shows how lightly they treated a sacred
theme those days.

First rose the grave senator, Aulus Valerius Maro by name.

"Madame," said he, stepping forward and bowing low, "I offer my heart
and my fortune, and the strength of my arms and the fleetness of my
feet and the fair renown of my fathers."

The Lady Lucia turned to her daughter with a look of inquiry.

"Brave words are not enough," said the fair Roman maiden, smiling, as
her eyes fell.

Then came the effeminate Gracus, in head-dress and neckerchief, frilled
robe and lady's sandals.  He was of great sires who had borne the Roman
eagles into Gaul.

"Good lady," said he, "I would give my life."

"And had I more provocation," said Arria, raising a jewelled bodkin, "I
would take it."

Now the splendid Antipater, son of Herod the Great, was up and
speaking.  "I offer," said he, "my heart and wealth and half my hopes,
and the jewels of my mother, and a palace in the beautiful city of
Jerusalem."

"And a pretty funeral," the girl remarked, thoughtfully.  "Jerusalem is
half-way to Hades."

The Roman matron turned, and put her arm around the waist of the girl
and drew her close.  A young man rose from his chair and approached
them.  He was Vergilius, son of Varro, and of equestrian knighthood.
His full name was Quintus Vergilius Varro, but all knew the youth by
his nomen.  Tall and erect, with curly blond locks and blue eyes and
lips delicately curved, there was in that hall no ancestral mask or
statue so nobly favored.  He had been taught by an old philosopher to
value truth as the better part of honor--a view not common then, but
therein was a new light, spreading mysteriously.

"Dear Lady Lucia," said he, "I cannot amuse you with idle words.  I
fear to speak, and yet silence would serve me ill.  I offer not the
strength of my arms nor the fleetness of my feet, for they may fail me
tomorrow; nor my courage, for that has never been tried; nor the renown
of my fathers, for that is not mine to give; nor my life, for that
belongs to my country; nor my fortune, for I should blush to offer what
may be used to buy cattle.  I would give a thing greater and more
lasting than all of these.  It is my love."

The girl turned half away, blushing pink.  All had flung off the mask
of comedy and now wore a look of surprise.

"By my faith!" said the poet, "this young knight meant his words."

"A man of sincerity, upon my soul!" said the old philosopher.  "I have
put my hope in him, and so shall Rome.  A lucky girl is she, for has he
not riches, talent, honor, temperance, courage, and the beauty of a
god?  And was I not his teacher?"

"My brave Vergilius," the matron answered, "you are like the knights of
old I have heard my father tell of.  They had such a way with
them--never a smile and a melancholy look in their faces when they
spoke of love.  I give you the crown of gallantry, and, if she be
willing, you shall walk with her in the garden.  That is your reward."

Vergilius, advancing, took the girl's hand and kissed it.

"Will you go with me?" said he.

"On one condition," she answered, looking down at the folds of her
tunic.

"And it is?"

"That you will entertain me with philosophy and the poets," she
answered, with a smile.

"And with no talk of love," the matron added, as Arria took his arm.

They walked through the long hall of the palace, over soft rugs and
great mosaics, and between walls aglow with tints of sky and garden.
These two bore with them a tender feeling as they passed the figures of
embattled horse and host in carven wood, and mural painting and colored
mosaic and wrought metal--symbols of the martial spirit of the empire
now oddly in contrast with their own.  They came out upon a peristyle
overlooking an ample garden wherein were vines, flowers, and fruit
trees.

"You have a way of words," said she.  "It is almost possible to believe
you."

He stopped and for a long moment looked into her eyes.  "I love you,
sweet girl," he said, softly; "I love you.  As I live, I speak the
truth."

"And you a man!" she exclaimed, incredulously.

"Ay, strange as it may be, a Roman."

"My mother has told me," said she, looking down at her sandal, "that
when a man speaks, it is well to listen but never to believe."

"They are not easy to understand--these men and women," said he,
thoughtfully.  "Sometimes I think they would be nobler if they were
dumb as dogs.  Albeit I suppose they would find a new way of lying.
But, O sweet sister of Appius, try to believe me, though you believe no
other, and I--I shall believe you always."

"You had better not," said she, with a merry glance.

"I must."

"But you will doubt me soon, for I shall say that I do not love you."

For a little he knew not how to answer.  She turned away, looking off
at the Capitoline, where the toil and art of earth had wrought to show
the splendor of heaven.  Its beautiful, barbaric temples were glowing
in the sunlight.

"Life would be too serious if there were no dissimulation."  She looked
up at him as she spoke, and he saw a little quiver in her curved lips.

"That bow of your lips--I should think it fashioned by Praxiteles--and
it is for the arrows of truth."

"But a girl--she must deceive a little."

They were now among the vines.

"I do not understand you."

"Stupid fellow!" said she, in a whisper, as she turned, looking up at
him.  "Son of Varo, lovers are not ever to be trusted.  Shall I tell
you a story?  One day I was in the Via Sacra and a young man caught and
held me for a moment and tried to touch my lips--that boy, Antipater, a
good-looking wretch!"

She gave her shoulders a little shrug and drew her robe closer.  "He
had come out of the Basilica Julia, and I am sure he had been
over-drinking.  I cried 'Help!' and quickly a man came and stood
between us; and oh! young sir, as I live, it was our great father
Augustus, and Antipater knelt before him.

"'Young man,' said the father--and his eyes shone--'rise and look
yonder.  Do you see the citadel?  Under its marble floor there is a
grave.  It is that of one who kissed a vestal and was buried alive.
There are sacred people in Rome, and among them is this daughter of my
beloved Publius.  Go you to your palace, son of Herod, and, hereafter,
forget not that you are in Rome.'

"He was angry, and I, so frightened!  Then he took me home and said he
would be my father, and that in good time he would choose a husband for
me."

"The gods grant that he choose me."

"The gods forbid it, son of Varro."

"And why?"

Slowly and with assumed severity she spoke.
"Because--I--do--not--love--you."

"Cruel one!" said he, turning and biting his lips.  "Your words are as
the blow of the pilum."

"Have they indeed wounded you?"  She touched his hand with a look of
sympathy.

"They have made me sick at heart."

"Then would I not believe them," said she, tenderly, slipping her
slender fingers into his.

He pressed her hand.  "And do you, then, love me?"

"No--I--do--not--love--you."

"You are a strange people--you maidens of the capital," said he, taking
her hand in both of his.  "Rome has conquered everything save its
women."

She parted her tunic and stood looking down at her white bosom, and
with her delicate fingers brushed off a bit of dust which had fallen
from the vine above them.

"I do think much of love," said she, thoughtfully, still looking down
at her breast.

"And of me," he insisted.

"Nay, not of you," she answered, without delay.

"I shall know," said he, wistfully, "for I shall consult the fates.  I
have here a sacred coin.  An old dame found it when she was digging in
the side of Soracte.  See, it has on its face the head of Apollo, and
opposite is an arrow in a death-hand.  And the hag had an odd dream of
this coin, so she told me--that it fell out of the sky, and was,
indeed, from the treasury of the gods, and had in it a wonderful power
in all mysteries.  And one might tell by tossing it in the air and
noting its fall, if he were loved or hated by the first one he should
see after learning its answer.  I have never known it to fail.  If the
head is up you love me," said he, tossing the disk of metal.

It fell and lay at his feet.

"The head!" he exclaimed, with joy.

"Is it really blest of the gods?" she inquired, eagerly, her cheeks
aflame.  "Is it indeed blest?"

"So said the woman who gave it me."

"Now I shall toss it," said she, taking the coin.

"Ah! you would know if I love you," he answered.

The coin leaped high and fell and rolled along the marble walk.  Both
followed eagerly, he leading, and, as it stopped, he quickly covered
the bit of metal with his hand.

"Let me see!" said she, her hand upon his wrist.

"Do not look."

"Let me see it!" she insisted.

"Sweet sister of Appius, I beg of you, here on my knees, do not look at
the coin!  I will give you the white steeds from Cappadocia, but do not
look."

"Let me see it, I say, son of Varro!"  She was tugging at his wrist,
and now, indeed, there was a pretty pleading in her voice.  The words
were to him as pearls strung on a silken thread.

"Wait a little."

"I shall not wait."

"Sweet flower of Rome," said he, looking into her eyes, "I know that
you are mine now!  Your voice--it is like the love-call of the robin!"

"Stubborn boy!  Do you think I care for you?"  She stopped and looked
into his eyes.

"Else why should you wish to see the coin?" said he.  "But, look!  Upon
my soul it is false!"  A little silence followed.

"'Tis false!" he repeated.  "I swear the coin lies, for I do love you,
dearly."

"It does not lie," she whispered.

He put his arm about her.

"And I know," he answered, "why you think it cannot lie.  It said,
before, that you love me, and it was right."

She thrust him away gently, and, rising, as if stricken with sudden
fear of him, ran a few paces up the walk.  She turned quickly, and
looked back at him as he approached.  Her face had grown pale.

"I--I shall never speak with you again," she whispered.

"Oh, have mercy upon me, beautiful sister of Appius!" said the young
knight, and there was a note of despair in his voice.  "Have mercy upon
me!"

"Young sir," said she, retreating slowly, as he advanced, "I do not
love you--I do not love you."

She turned quickly, and ran to the peristyle, and, stopping not to
glance back at him, entered the great marble home of her fathers.

He stood a moment looking at the sun-glow behind roof and dome and
tower.  A bridge of light, spanning the hollow of the city, had laid
its golden timbers from hill to hill; and for a little the young man
felt as if he were drowning in the shadows under it.  He turned
presently and hurried into the palace.




CHAPTER 3

"He is more honored than Jupiter these days," the philosopher was
saying as Vergilius re-entered.

"Who?" inquired the young man.

"Who else but Caesar, and it is well.  The gods--who are they?"

"The adopted children of Vergil and Homer," said Appius, brother of
Arria, who had just returned from the baths.

"But our great father Augustus--who can doubt that he deserves our
worship?" said the philosopher, a subtle irony in his voice.  It was
this learned man who had long been the instructor of Vergilius.

"Who, indeed?" was the remark of another.

"But these gods!"

"At least they are not likely to cut off one's head," said Aulus.

"Speak not lightly of the gods," said Vergilius.  "They are still a
power with the people, and the people have great need of them.  What
shall become of Rome when the gods fall?"

"It shall sicken," said the philosopher, with a lift of his hand.  "You
that are young may live to see the end.  It shall be like the opening
of the underworld.  Our republic is false, our gods are false, and,
indeed, I know but one truth."

"And what may it be?" said another.

"We are all liars," he quickly answered.

"O tempora!" said the Lady Lucia.  "It is an evil day, especially among
men.  When Quinta Claudia went with her noble sisters to meet the
Idaean mother at Terracina they were able to find in Rome one virtuous
man to escort them.  But that was more than two hundred years ago."

"If one were to find him now, and he were to go," said the philosopher,
"by the gods above us!  I fear he would return a sad rake indeed."

"'Tis not a pleasant theme," said the Lady Lucia, by way of introducing
another.

"The dear old girl!" said young Gracus, in a low tone, as he turned to
the senator.  "Her hair is a lie, her complexion is a lie, her lips are
a lie."

"And her life is a lie," said the other.

"You enjoyed your walk?" asked the mother of Arria, addressing
Vergilius.

"The walk was a delight to me and its end a sorrow," he answered.

"And you obeyed me?"

"To the letter."  It is true, he thought, we are a generation of liars,
but how may one help it?  Then, quickly, a way seemed to suggest
itself, and he added: "Madame, forgive me.  I do now remember we had a
word or two about love; but, you see, I was telling the legend of this
coin.  It has the power to show one if he be loved."

"By tossing?"

"By tossing.  Head, yes; the reverse, no."

"Let me try."  She flung it to the oaken beams and it fell on the great
rug beside her.

"Madame, the hand is up," said Vergilius.  "I fear it is not
infallible."

"Let me see," she answered, stooping gravely to survey the coin.
Something passed between her and her pleasure, and for one second a
shadow wavered across her face.

"It is Death's hand, of course," she remarked, sadly.  "Love is for the
young and death is for the old."

"Old, madame!  Why, your cheeks have roses in them."

"Good youth, you are too frank," said she, with a quick glance about
her.  "Did the coin say that she loved you?"

"It did."

"And what did she say?"

The young man hesitated.

"Come, you innocent!  Of course, I knew that you would talk of nothing
but love.  What said she?"

"That she does not love me; but I am sure it is mere coquetry."

"Dear youth!  You have a cunning eye.  This very day speak, my brave
Vergilius--speak to her brother Appius.  To-night take him to dine with
you."

"I had so planned."

A gong of silver rang in the palace halls.  It was the signal to
prepare for dinner, and the guests made their farewells.  Soon Appius
and the young lover walked side by side in the direction of the
Palatine.

"And what have you been doing?" the former inquired, presently.

"Only dreaming."

"Of what?"

"Of love and happiness, and your sister."

"My sister?"

"Yes; I love her and wish to make her my wife."

"You have wealth and birth and wit and good prospects.  I can see no
objection to you.  But love--love is a thing for women to talk about."

"You are wrong, Appius.  I can feel it in my soul.  And, believe me, I
am no longer in Rome.  I have found the gateway of a better world--like
that heaven they speak of in the Trastevere--full of peace and beauty."

"You have, indeed, been dreaming," said the other.  "But, Vergilius,
there is one higher than I who shall choose her husband--the imperator.
Does he know you?"

"I have met him, of course, but do much fear he would not remember me."

"We may know shortly.  Every seventh day this year he has sat, like a
beggar, at his gate asking for alms.  To-day we shall see him there."

"It is an odd whim."

"Hush! you know the people as well as I, and he must please them," the
other whispered.  "He must conceal his power if he would live out his
time.  I will present you, and perhaps he may be gracious--ay, may even
bid you to his banquet."

"A modest home," said young Vergilius.

Now they were nearing the palace of that mild and quiet gentleman whose
name and title--Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus--had terrified
the world; whose delicate hands flung the levin of his power to the far
boundaries of India and upper Gaul, to the distant shores of Spain and
Africa, and into deserts beyond the Euphrates.

"Many a poor patrician has better furniture and more servants and a
nobler palace," said Appius.  "Rather plain wood, divans out of
fashion, rugs o'erworn; but you have seen them.  He alone can afford
that kind of thing."

"He has a fondness for old things."

"But not for old women, my dear fellow."

"Indeed!  And he is himself sixty-one."

"Hist--the imperator!  There, by the gate yonder."

An erect figure of a man rather above medium height, in a coarse, gray
toga, stood by one of the white columns.  Three Moorish children were
playing about his knees, and a senator was talking with him.

"My public services are familiar to you," said the senator, as the
young knights waited some twenty paces off.  "A gift of two hundred
thousand denarii would be fitting, and, if you will permit me to say
so, it would delight the populace.  Indeed, 'tis generally believed you
have already given me a large sum."

"But see that you do not believe it," blandly spake the strange
emperor, for albeit Rome was then a republic in name it was an empire
in fact, and Augustus, wielding the power of an emperor, refused the
title.  Turning, he began to play with the children.

"Great and beloved father!  I hope, at least, you will consider my
prayer."

"Good senator, I have considered.  You ask for two hundred thousand
denarii.  I can give you only the opportunity of earning them.  As to
myself, I am poor.  Look at me.  Even my time belongs to the people.
and it is passing, my dear senator--it is passing."

The importunate man saw the subtle meaning in these words and went his
way.

The emperor sat down, a child upon each knee, as the young men
approached him.  His head was bare and his fair, curly locks, growing
low upon his forehead, were now touched with gray.  He looked up at the
two, his eyes blue, brilliant, piercing.

"My beloved Appius," said he, in a gentle tone, as he rose.  "And
this--let me think--ah, it is Vergilius, the son of Varro."

"It is wonderful you should remember me," said Vergilius.

"Wonderful?  No.  I could tell your age, your misdeeds, your virtues,
and how often you failed to answer the roll-calls in Cappadocia.  Well,
I dare say they were pretty girls.  But I forget; I am to-day seeking
alms, my good children, for the poor of Rome.  I am as ten thousand of
the hungry standing before you here and asking for bread.  In their
name I shall receive, thankfully, what you may bestow."

Appius gave a handful of coins; Vergilius emptied his purse.

"'Tis not enough," said the latter.  "Your words have touched me.
To-night I shall send five thousand denarii to your palace."

"Well given, noble youth!  It is generous.  I like it in you.  Say that
I may have you to feast with me the first day before the ides--both of
you.  Say that I may have you."

"We humbly wait your commands," said Vergilius, kissing his hand.

"Now tell me, handsome son of Varro, have you found no pretty girl to
your liking?  Know you not, boy, 'tis time you married?"  He held the
hand of the young knight and spoke kindly, his cunning eyes aglow, and
smiled upon him, showing his teeth, set well apart.

"Such an one I have found, good sire.  Under the great purple dome
there is none more beautiful, and with your favor and that of the gods
I hope to make her my wife."

"Ah, then, I know her?"

"It is Arria, sister of Appius."

"And daughter of my beloved prefect.  You are ambitious, my good youth."

The emperor stood a moment, looking downward thoughtfully.  He felt his
retreating chin.  His smooth-shaven face, broad from bone to bone above
the cheeks, quickly grew stern.  His mind, which had the world for its
toy and which planned the building or the treading down of empires, had
turned its thought upon that little kingdom in the heart of the boy.
And he was thinking whether it should stand or fall.

"It may be impossible," said he, turning to the young man.  "Say no
more to her until--until I have thought of it."

And Appius observed, as he went away with his friend: "You will be a
statesman, my dear Vergilius; you gave him just the right dose of
religion, flattery, and silver."

"I must succeed or I shall have no heart to live," said the other,
soberly.




CHAPTER 4

That evening Vergilius went to feast with the young Herodian prince,
Antipater of Judea.  The son of Herod was then a tall, swarthy, robust
young man, who had come to see life in Rome and to finish his
education.  He would inherit the crown--so said they who knew anything
of Herodian politics; but he was a Jew, and deep in the red intrigue of
his father's house.  So, therefore, he was regarded in Rome with more
curiosity than respect.  Augustus himself had said that he would rather
be the swine of Herod than Herod's son, and he might have added that he
would rather be the swine of Antipater than his father.  But that was
before Augustus had learned that even his own household was unworthy of
full confidence.

Antipater had brought many slaves to Rome, and some of the noblest
horses in the empire.  He had hired a palace and built a lion-house,
where, before intimates, he was wont to display his courage and his
skill.  It had a small arena and was in the midst of a great garden.
There he kept a lion from northern Africa, a tiger, and a black leopard
from the Himalayas.  He was training for the Herodian prize at the
Jewish amphitheatre in Caesarea.  These great, stealthy cats in his
garden typified the passions of his heart.  If he had only fought these
latter as he fought the beasts he might have had a better place in
history.

Antipater had conceived a great liking for the sister of Appius.  Her
beauty had roused in him the great cats of passion now stalking their
prey.  He had sworn to his intimates that no other man should marry
her.  His gallantry was unwelcome, he knew that, and Appius had assured
him that a marriage was impossible; but the wild heart of the Idumean
held to its purpose.  And now its hidden eyes were gazing, catlike, on
Vergilius, the cause of its difficulty.  In Judea he would have known
how to act, but in Rome he pondered.

It had been a stormy day in the palace of Antipater.  He had crucified
a slave for disobedience and run a lance through one of his best horses
for no reason.  He came out of his bath a little before the hour of his
banquet, and two slaves, trembling with fear, followed him to his
chamber.  They put his tunic on him, and his sandals, and wound the
fillets that held them in place.  One of the slaves began brushing the
dark hair of his master while the other was rubbing a precious ointment
on his face and arms.

"Fool!" he shouted.  "Have I not told you never to bear upon my head?"

He jumped to his feet, black eyes flashing under heavy brows, and,
seizing a lance, broke the slave's arm with a blow and drove him out of
the chamber.  A few minutes later, in a robe of white silk and a yellow
girdle, he came into his banquet-hall with politeness, dovelike,
worshipful, and caressing.

"Noble son of Varro!" said he, smiling graciously, "it is a joy to see
you.  And you, brave Gracus; and you, Aulus, child of Destiny; and you,
my learned Manius; and you, Carus, favored of the Muses: I do thank you
all for this honor."

It was a brilliant company--gay youths all, who could tell the new
stories and loved to sit late with their wine.  As they waited for
dinner many tempting dishes were passed among them.  There were
oysters, mussels, spondyli, fieldfares with asparagus, roe-ribs,
sea-nettles, and purple shellfish.  When they came to their couches,
the dinner-table was covered with rare and costly things.  On platters
of silver and gold one might have seen tunny fishes from Chalcedon,
murcenas from the Straits of Gades, peacocks from Samos, grouse from
Phrygia, cranes from Melos.  Slaves were kept busy bringing boar's head
and sow's udder and roasted fowls, and fish pasties, and boiled teals.
Other slaves kept the goblets full of old wine.  Soon the banquet had
become a revel of song and laughter.  Suddenly Antipater raised a calix
high above his head.

"My noble friends," he shouted, "I bid you drink with me to Arria,
sister of Appius, and fairest daughter of Rome--"

Vergilius had quickly risen to his feet.  "Son of Herod," said he, with
dignity, "I am in your palace and have tasted of your meat, and am
therefore sacred.  You make your wine bitter when you mingle it with
the name of one so pure.  Good women were better forgotten at a
midnight revel."

A moment of silence followed.

"My intention was pure as she," Antipater answered, craftily.  "Be not
so jealous, my noble friend.  I esteem her as the best and loveliest of
women."

"Nay, not the loveliest," said the young Manius, an assessor in Judea.
"I sing the praise of Salome, sister of our noble prince.  Of all the
forms in flesh and marble none compare with this beautiful daughter of
the great king."

"May fairest women be for the best men," said Antipater, drinking his
wine.

In a dim light along the farther side of the dining-hall was a row of
figures, some draped, some nude, and all having the look of old marble.
Two lay in voluptuous attitudes, one sat on a bank of flowers, and
others stood upon pedestals.

There were all the varying forms of Venus represented in living flesh.
None, save Antipater and the slaves around him, knew that under each
bosom was a fearful and palpitating heart.  They were beautiful
slave-girls captured on the frontiers of Judea.  In spite of aching
sinew and muscle, they had to stand like stone to escape the
observation of evil eyes.  There was a cruelty behind that stony
stillness of the maidens, equal, it would seem, to the worst in Hades.

Slaves kept the wine foaming in every goblet, and fought and danced and
wrestled for the pleasing of that merry company, and the hours wore
away.  Suddenly the sound of a lyre hushed the revels.  All heard the
voice of a maiden singing, and turned to see whence it came.  A sweet
voice it was, trembling in tones that told of ancient wrong, in words
full of a new hope.  Had life and song come to one of those white
marbles yonder?  Voice and word touched the heart of Vergilius--he knew
not why; and this in part is the chant that stopped the revels of
Antipater:


  "Lift up my soul; let me not be ashamed---I trust
      in Thee, God of my fathers;
  Send, quickly send, the new king whose arrows
      shall fly as the lightning,
  Making the mighty afraid and the proud to bow
      low and the wicked to tremble.
  Soon let me hear the great song that shall sound
      in the deep of the heavens;
  Show me the lantern of light hanging low in
      the deep of the heavens."


The voice of the singer grew faint and the lyre dropped from her hands.
They could see her reeling, and suddenly she fell headlong to the rug
beneath her pedestal.  Antipater rose quickly with angry eyes.

"The accursed girl!" said he.  "A Galilean slave of my father.  She is
forever chanting of a new king."

Hot with anger and flushed with wine, he ran, cursing, and kicked the
shapely form that lay fainting at the foot of its pedestal.

"Fool!" he shouted.  "Know you not that I only am your king?  You shall
be punished; you shall enter the cage of the leopard."

He went no further.  Vergilius had rushed upon him and flung him to the
floor.  Antipater rose quickly and approached the young Roman, a devil
in his eyes.  Vergilius had a look of wonder and self-reproach.

"What have I done?" said he, facing the Jew.  "Son of Herod, forgive
me.  She is your slave, and I--I am no longer master of myself.  I
doubt not some strange god is working in me, for I seem to be
weak-hearted and cannot bear to see you kick her."

The declaration was greeted with loud laughter.  Antipater stood
muttering as he shook the skirt of his toga.

"'Tis odd, my goodfellows," said Vergilius, "but the other day I saw a
man scourging his lady's-maid.  Mother of the gods!  I felt as if the
blows were falling on my own back, and out went my hand upon his arm
and I begged him--I begged him to spare the girl."

All laughed again.

"You should have a doll and long hair," said Antipater, in a tone of
contempt.

The proud son of Varro stood waiting as the others laughed, his brows
and chin lifting a bit with anger.  When silence came he spoke slowly,
looking from face to face:

"If any here dare to question my courage, within a moment it shall be
proved upon him."

None spoke or moved for a breath.  Antipater answered, presently:

"I doubt not your courage, noble Vergilius, but if you will have it
tried I can show you a better way, and one that will spare your
friends.  Come, all of you."

As they were rising, the young Gracus remarked: "By Apollo!  I have not
taken my emetic."

"To forget that is to know sorrow," said another.

Slaves brought their outer robes and they followed the young prince.
He led them, between vines and fruit trees and beds of martagon and
mirasolus, to the lion-house in his garden.  Vergilius now understood
the test of courage to be put upon him.  The great beasts were asleep
in their cages, and Antipater prodded them with a lance.  A thunder in
their throats seemed to fill the air and shake the flames in the
lampadaria.  With sword and lance Antipater entered the arena, a space
barred high, about thirty feet square, upon which all the cages opened.

"The tiger!" he commanded.

Keepers lifted a metal gate, and the huge cat leaped away from their
lances, backed snarling to the end of his cage, and with a slow,
creeping movement put his head and fore-paws into the arena; then a
swift step or two, a lowering of the great head, and side-long he
stood, with eyes aglow and fangs uncovered, a low mutter in his mouth,
like the roar of a mighty harp-string.  Some fifteen feet away stood
the son of Herod, his lance poised.

"Never strike while your beast has a foot to the ground," said he,
keeping his gaze on the face of the tiger.  "He will be quick to move
and parry.  Wait until he is in the air, and then thrust your lance."

He made a feint with his weapon; the tiger darted half his length
aside, with a great, bursting roar, and, crouching low, stealthily felt
the ground beneath him.

"Watch him now," said the tall Antipater.  "He will leap soon."

Again he drove him forward, and then the beast turned, facing his
tormentor, and crouched low.  There, in a huge setting of bone and
muscle strangely fitted to its fierceness, with eyes of fire and feet
of deadly stealth, its back arched like a drawn bow, the wild heart of
the son of Herod seemed to be facing him.

"Look!" a slave shouted.  "He has bent his bow."

The haired lip of the beast quivered; great cords of muscle were drawn
tense.  Like a flash the bow sprang and the columns of bone beneath him
lifted, flinging his long, striped body in the air.  With cat-like
swiftness Antipater stepped aside, and while the huge beast was in
mid-air, thrust the lance into his heart.  He bore with all his
strength and rushed away, seizing an other weapon.  The big cat fell
and rose and struck at the clinging lance, and stood a second flooding
the floor with blood.  Then down he went shuddering to his death.  The
young men shouted loud their applause in honor of Herod's son.  While
the beast was dying slaves came and sanded the floor.  Then, presently,
they swept up the red sand, and tying a rope to the legs of the limp
tiger, dragged him away.  They had done this kind of work before, and
each knew his part.  Presently Antipater called two of them.

"Bring that girl Cyran--she that chants of her new king," said he, as
they ran to do his bidding.

"Noble prince, the strange god is again at work in me," said Vergilius,
with rising ire.  "I could not bear to see you put her with the
leopard; I should rather face him myself."

"You!" said the other, tauntingly, and with a shrewd purpose.  The
youths turned to see if Vergilius would really accept the challenge.
No man had ever faced a black leopard at close quarters without
suffering death or injury.

"I," said Vergilius, promptly.  "If it is amusement you desire, I can
supply it as well as she.  Surely I have more blood in me.  If you wish
only to feed the leopard--will I not make a better feast?"

A sound hushed them.  It was the slave-girl, singing as she came near:


  "Send, quickly send, the new king whose arrows
      shall fly as the lightning,
  Making the mighty afraid and the proud to bow
      low and the wicked to tremble.
  Soon let me hear the great song that shall sound
      in the deep of the heavens;
  Show me the lantern of light hanging low in
      the deep of the heavens."


She was fair to look upon as she came, led by the carnifex, her form,
draped in soft, transparent linen, like that of a goddess in its
outline, her face lighted even with that light of which she sang.

"The girl against a hundred denarii that you cannot live an hour in the
arena with him," said Antipater, hotly.

"I accept the wager," Vergilius calmly answered, laying off his robe
and seizing a lance.  He entered the arena and closed its gate behind
him.  "Drive the beast in upon me, son of Herod; and you, Gracus, be
ready to hand me another lance."

The black leopard spat fiercely and struck at the points that were put
upon it, the deep rumble in its throat swelling into loud crescendos.
Of a sudden it bounded through the gateway and stood a moment, baring
great fangs.  The animal threatened with long hisses.  Vergilius held
its eye, his lance raised.  The hissing ceased, the growl diminished,
the stealthy paws moved slowly.  Soon it rolled upon its side, purring,
and seemed to caress the floor with head and paws--a trick to divert
the gaze of Vergilius.  The Satanic eyes were ever on its foe.  As the
beast lay there, twisting and turning, the black fur seemed to wrap it
in the gloom of Tartarus, and the fire of the burning lake to shine
through its eyes.  While Vergilius stood motionless and alert, a slave
hurriedly entered the lion-house and spoke to Antipater.

"The imperator!" whispered the slave.  "He cannot wait; he must see you
quickly."

"Where?"

"In the palace hall."

Antipater hurried away.

The slave-girl went close to the barred arena.

"Young master," said she, in quick and eager words, "the lamps are
burning dimmer.  They will go out soon.  It is a trick.  You will not
be able to see and the leopard will rend you."

Antipater ran to the banquet-hall of his palace, where sat the emperor,
his chin resting thoughtfully on his hand.  The great Augustus did not
look up nor even change his attitude as the son of Herod came near and
bowed low and called him father.

"I have a plan," said the emperor thoughtfully, "--a pretty plan, my
young prince of--of--"

"Judea?" suggested the young prince.

"Oh, well, it matters not," the great father went on.  "You know that
fair Vergilius, son of Varro?  A headstrong, foolish youth he is, and I
fear much that he is like to die shortly.  What think you?"

The piercing eyes of Augustus were looking into those of the young man.

"My great father," said the latter, "I do not know."

"'Tis gross ignorance and unworthy of you," said Augustus, quickly, as
he rose.  "Well, I have bethought me of a pretty plan.  Your funeral
and his shall occur on the same day--a fine, great, amusing funeral,"
he added, thoughtfully.  "It shall be so.  Do not worry, I shall see
you well buried.  Ah, you are most impolite.  Why do you not ask me to
drink your health?  My pretty prince, you look most ill and have need
of my good wishes."

"Dominus!" said the other, trembling with anxiety.

"Dominus!" the old emperor shouted, angrily.  "Call me ass, if you
dare, but never call me 'Dominus.'"

"You honor me, great father," said the young man, his eyes staring with
terror, "but I beg you to excuse me for a little time."

"Ah, so you would leave me," said the sly emperor, in his mildest
tones.  "A most inhospitable wretch, indeed."

The tall Jew was now pale with fright.  His feeling showed in great
beads of perspiration.  He dared not to stay; he dared not to go.  He
was in a worse plight than Vergilius, now standing in the leopard's
cage.

"A most inhospitable prince," the bland emperor repeated, smiling with
amusement.  "You are in a hurry?"

"I am ill."

The emperor stood smiling as Antipater glided away.

"Run, you knave!" said the former to himself, with a chuckle of
satisfaction.  "Upon my soul! the Jew has already set his snare."

Then the gentle and cunning man, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus
Augustus, made his way to the entrance where lecticarii were waiting
with his litter.

"Can you hear the sound of running feet?" he inquired of the lady who
sat beside him as they went away.

"Yes.  What means it?"

He turned with a smile and a movement of his hand.  Then he answered
calmly:

"Death is chasing a man through the garden yonder."

While Antipater was running towards the lion-house, that small tragedy
of the arena was near its end.

The lights are burning low.  Two have flickered for a little and gone
out.  The young men are watching with eager eyes.

"I can bear it no longer," says one, rushing to the gate of the arena,
only to find that he could not open it.

The slave-girl utters a cry and steps forward and is caught and held by
the carnifex.

Vergilius urges the leopard.  He steps quickly, feinting with his
lance; the cat darts along the farther side of the arena, roaring.  Its
eyes glow fiery in the dusk.  The beast is become furious with
continued baiting.  Half the lamps are out and the light rapidly
failing as Antipater rushes through the door.  He falls beside the
arena, rises and opens the gate.

"A lance," he whispers, and it is quickly put in his hands.  "Come,
come quickly, son of Varro," he whispers again.  "The light is failing.
He will tear you into shreds.  Come through the gate here."

Vergilius had stopped, facing the leopard with lance raised.

"Not unless I have the wager," says he, calmly.

"You have won it," Antipater answers.  "Come, good friend, be quick, I
beg of you!"

Both moved backward through the gate, and before it closed there came a
fling of claws on the floor.  A black ball, bound hard with tightened
sinew, rose in the air and shot across the arena and shook the gate
which had closed in time to stop it.

"You are living, son of Varro, and I thank the God of my fathers,"
Antipater shouted, as he flung himself on a big divan, his breath
coming fast.  "I forgot the lights.  I thought of them suddenly, and
ran to save you.  If I had been running in the games I should have won
the laurel of Caesar."

"I was wrong--he could not have meant to slay me," thought Vergilius.
"Not by the paws of the leopard."

Cyran stood near the door, weeping.  Antipater rose and led her to
Vergilius.

"The girl is yours," said he.  "I am glad to be done with her.  Come,
all."

They followed him to the palace, and Vergilius bade the girl dress and
be ready to join his pedisequi in the outer hall.  She knelt before him
and kissed the border of his tunic.

"Oh, my young master!" said she, "I shall be of those who part the
briers in your way."  Then she hurried to obey him.

"I would speak with you, noble son of Varro," said Antipater, beckoning.

Vergilius followed to the deep atrium of the palace, where they stood
alone.

"You have one thing I desire, and I will pay you five thousand aurei to
relinquish it--five thousand aurei," the Jew whispered.

"And what is it you would buy of me, noble prince?"

"A mere plaything!  A bouquet that will fade shortly and be flung
aside.  The thing happens to suit my fancy, and--and I can afford it."

In the moment of silence that followed this remark a stern look of
inquiry came into the face of Vergilius.

"Man, do you not know?  'Tis the sister of Appius," Antipater added,
lightly.

"Cur of Judea!" hissed the knight, his sword flashing out of its
scabbard, "I shall cut you down and fling you out to the dogs.  Fight
here and now.  I demand it!"

The young Roman spoke loudly and stood waiting.  Those others had heard
the challenge and were now coming near.  Antipater stood silent,
glaring, as had the leopard, with an evil leer at his foe, and thinking
no doubt of the warning of Augustus.  The stiff, straight hairs in his
mustache quivered as he turned slowly, watchfully, towards the others,
who were now standing near.  Since his funeral should occur on the same
day, how could he fight with Vergilius?

"You dare not," the latter added, fiercely; "and before these men I
denounce you as a coward--a coward who fears to raise a hand."

His arm was extended, his finger at the face of the Jew, now white with
passion.  Half a moment passed in which there was no word.

"You living carrion!" said the young knight, turning and walking away.
"I am done with you."

He took the hand of the poor slave Cyran, and walked to the farther
side of the atrium.  He turned, still white with anger as if
unsatisfied.

"Pet of harlots!" said he, fiercely.  "It is time for some one to stand
for the honor of good women.  If you do but speak her name again before
me I will run you through."

Receiving no answer, he departed with Cyran, while the others gathered
about their host.

There was a heavy rumble in the throat of Antipater--a tiger-like,
Herodian trait--and then a volley of oaths came out of it.  He trembled
with rage and flung his sword far across the dim atrium with a shout of
anger.  Like the great cats in his rage, he was like them also in his
methods of attack--sly and terrible, but with a deep regard for the
integrity of his own skin.  Sure of his advantage, he could be as brave
as when he faced the tiger.

He sat awhile muttering, his face between his hands.  Soon, having
calmed his passion, he rose and snarled: "Good sirs, never quarrel with
the pet of an emperor, for if one spares you the other will not."




CHAPTER 5

Arria and her mother sat with the emperor.  He was at home and in a
playful humor.  The hour of his banquet was approaching.  Soon he would
be summoned to receive his guests.

"Nay, but I am sure he loves me," the girl was saying.

The cunning emperor smiled and spoke very gently.  "Think you so, dear
child?  I will put him to the test.  Soon we shall know if he be worthy
of so great a prize.  I will try both his wit and his devotion, but
you--you cannot be here."

"And why, great father?"

"Think you it could be a test with your eye upon him?"

"Oh, but I must see it," said the girl.  "Unless I see it I shall not
know.  Let me be your slave and stand behind you in gray cloth.
Beloved father, I implore you, let me see the test."

"Ah, well," said the emperor, rising, with a smile.  "I shall know
nothing but that you have gone above-stairs to find Clia, mistress of
the robes.  Tell her to give you a box of tablets, and when I raise my
finger--so--they are to be delivered.  Away with you."

Arria left with a cry of joy, and presently Augustus went with the Lady
Lucia to meet his guests.

The "commands" of the emperor had given the hour of the banquet and
prescribed the dress to be worn.  Vergilius had waited anxiously for
the moment when he should again see the great god of Rome, who could
give or take away as he would.  Standing at the door of Caesar, he
wondered whether he were nearing the end of all pleasure or the gate of
paradise.  A plate of polished brass hung on its lintel, bearing in
large letters the word Salve.  A slave opened the door and took his
pallium.  Julia, that wayward daughter of Augustus, now three times
married but yet beautiful, met him in the inner hall, and together they
walked to the banquet-room.  There the emperor, limping slightly, came
to meet Vergilius, and there, also, were the guests, seven in number:
Appius and his mother, the Lady Lucia; Terentia, wife of the late
Maecenas; Manius, an assessor in Judea; Hortensius, legate of Spain;
Antipater, son of Herod the Great; and Aulus Valerius Maro, the senator.

"It enters my thought to say to you," said the emperor, aside, as he
put his hand upon the shoulder of Vergilius, "keep the number one in
your mind, so that by-and-by you can tell me what you make of it."

Slaves had covered the table with fish and fowl in dishes of unwrought
silver.  The guests reclined upon three great divans set around as many
sides of the table.  They ate resting on their elbows, and were so
disposed that each could see the host without turning.  The emperor
asked only for coarse bread, a morsel of fish, two figs, and a bit of
cheese.

"My good friends," said he, in a low voice, when the wine was served,
"we have with us an able officer in this young Manius, one of our
assessors in Jerusalem.  I ask you to drink his health.  Though I can
drink no wine, I can feel good sentiments."

One could not help remarking his fixed serenity of face and voice and
manner as he went on:

"Some time ago it came to my ear that he thought me a tyrant wallowing
in vulgar and ill-gotten luxury."

There was a little stir in those heads around the table, and in every
hand and face one might have seen evidence of quickened pulses.  The
young officer was now staring through deathly pallor.

"My friends, it is not strange," said the great Augustus, mildly.  "To
Jerusalem is quite two thousand miles; and, then he was very young when
he left the home of his fathers.  Am I not right, Manius?"

"Your words are both true and kindly," said the young man.

"And you are discerning," said the emperor, with a smile.  "Now, good
people, observe that I have invited our young officer to Rome for two
purposes: to show him, first, that I live no better than the poorest
nobleman; secondly, that I am only a servant of the people; for, since
he is an able officer, I shall resist my own will and keep him in the
public service."

"Bravo!" said they all, and clapped their hands.

A strange, inscrutable man was the emperor at that moment, the mildness
of a lamb in his voice and manner, the gleam of a serpent's eye under
his brows.  And that right hand of his, clinched now and quivering a
little, had it grasped a reaching, invisible serpent within him?
Kindly?  Yes, but with the kindness of a deep and subtle character who
saw in forbearance the best politics and the most effective discipline.
Lights were now aglow in a great candelabrum over the table and in many
tall lampadaria.

A slave, who was a juggler, came near and began to fill the gloom above
him with golden disks.  From afar came the music of flutes and
timbrels.  Julia retired presently, and returned soon with her pet
dwarf Cenopas.  She stood him on a large, round table, and the guests
greeted him with loud laughter as he looked down.  He had a hard,
unlovely face, that little dwarf.  He suggested to Vergilius unwelcome
thoughts of a new sort of Cupid--deformed, evil, and hideous--typifying
the degenerate passions of Rome.  There were in the quiver of this
Cupid arrows which carried the venom of the asp.  Some at the table
mocked his grinning face and made a jest of his deformity.  When he
could be heard he mimicked the speech and manners of public men.

"A Cupid with a knot in his back," said one.

"And if I were to aim an arrow at you," said the dwarf, quickly, "I'm
sure you'd have a pain in yours."

"My dear," said the gentle-mannered emperor, when the laughter had died
away, "I think we shall now give him the crown of folly and let him go."

"Between the greatest and the least of Romans," said his daughter,
rising and pointing at her father and then at the dwarf, "I am lost in
mediocrity."

A slave took the little creature in his arms and bore him away as if he
had been a pet dog.

"Tell me, young men," said the emperor, "have you no lines to read
us--you that have youth and beauty and sweethearts?  How is it with
you, good Vergilius?"

The young man shook his head.  "No," said he; "I have youth and a
sweetheart, but not the gift of poesy."

"No lines!  What are we coming to in this Rome of ours?  Are there no
more poets?  My dear friends, tell me, in the baths or the forum or the
theatre, or wherever the people congregate, do you hear of no youth
that has the divine gift of song?"

He paused for a little, but there was no reply.

"Then Rome is in evil days," said the great father, sadly.

"Why?"  It was the question of Gracus.

"Why, young man?  Because in every land there should be those who can
cherish the fear of the gods and make honor beautiful and love sacred
and valor a thing of imperishable fame.  I assure you, good people, one
poet is better," he paused, thoughtfully--"than ten thousand soldiers,"
he added.  "Who will bring me a poet?"

The gods are indeed helpless, thought Vergilius.  They must have poets
to do their work for them?  But he said nothing.

"The streets are full of poets," said Gracus.

"Those old men with long beards and stilted rubbish!" said Augustus,
"with tragedies that slay the hero and the hearer!  Bring me a poet,
and, remember, I shall honor him above all men.  Once I invited Horace
to dine with me, and got no answer.  He was a proud man"--this with a
merry smile.  "Again I invited him, and then he deigned to write me a
sentence, merely, and said: 'Thanks, I am happy out here on my farm.'
I did not know what to do, but I wrote a letter and said to the great
man: 'You may not desire my friendship, but that is no reason for my
failing to value yours.'  I am proud to say that he was my friend ever
after.  But I weary you."

A female slave, thickly veiled, stood behind him.  He made a signal and
she quickly put in his hand a little box of ivory, finely wrought.

"I have here," said the great father, "nine disks of wax.  You see they
are very small, but so they shall serve my purpose the better.  Will
each of you take one and retire from the table and write upon it the
thing he most desires?  Now, my dear friends, brevity is ever as the
point of the lance.  Wit is blunt and Truth half armed without it.  I
lay a test upon you."

All retired quickly, and, soon returning, dropped their wishes in the
box.  The playful emperor closed and shook it and withdrew a disk.

"I find here the word 'preference,'" said he, and all observed that his
keen eyes were calmly measuring the prince Antipater.  "It is a poor
word, and does you little honor, my young friend.  In mere preference
there is no merit.  Here is another, and it says 'more wine.'  Keep his
goblet full," he added, pointing to that of the senator, as all
laughed.  "Here is one says 'rest.'  Have patience, my good daughter, I
shall soon be done talking.  Another has on it the words 'your
health'--a charming compliment, dear Lady Lucia.  'Courage,' 'wisdom,'
'success,'" he added, reading from the tablets.  "Naturally, and who,
indeed, does not desire those things?  Here is one that says 'help'--a
great word, upon my soul!  He that prays for help and not for favor, if
he do his best, may have many good things--even 'courage,' 'wisdom,'
'success.'  Keep at work and you shall have my help, Appius, and, I
doubt not, that of the gods also.  Here is one--I like it best of
all--it is that of the modest young Vergilius.  He would have a
priceless thing.  And do you," he inquired, turning to the young
knight, "desire this above all things?  Think; there is the distinction
of place and power and honor--the ring of a legate would become you
well!"

"But, above all," said Vergilius, "I desire that I have written."

"Beautiful boy!" said the cunning emperor.  "'Tis so great a prize,
give me another test of your quality.  With one word you ask for one
thing.  To try your wit, I give you a theme so small it is next to
naught--the number one.  Tell us, and briefly as you may, what is in
it."

The young man rose and bowed low.  "One is in all numbers," said he,
"and unless all numbers are as one they are nothing.  I desire one
mistress for my heart, one purpose for my conduct, and one great master
for my country."

"The gods grant them!" said Augustus, leading the applause.

"And now I shall proclaim the word he has written.  It is 'Arria,' and
stands, I know well, for the sister of Appius."

He turned quickly to the still and silent figure of the slave behind
him.  All eyes were now watching her.

"Are you content?" he inquired.

Gray veil and robe fell away, revealing the beautiful sister of Appius.
Vergilius went quickly to her side.

"I declare them for each other!" said the emperor, as all rose and
gathered around the two.  He took the boy's hand.  "Come to me at ten
to-morrow," he added.

"But, O father of Rome!" said Arria, looking up at the great man, "how
long shall you detain him?"

"Give me half an hour, you love-sick maiden," said Augustus.  "He shall
be at your palace in good time."

"Come at the middle hour," said the Lady Lucia, her hand upon the arm
of Vergilius.

"The gods give you sleep," said the great father, as he bade them
good-night.

Beneath the laurels on their way to the gate, Gracus, who rode with
Antipater, said:

"And what of your oath, son of Herod?"

"But they are not yet married," the other answered, malevolently.
"Vergilius!  Bah!  He is the son of a praetor and I am the son of a
king.  Curse the old fox!  He never spoke to me after greetings, and
once when I glanced up at him I thought his keen eyes were looking
through me.

"Those eyes!  Jupiter!" said Gracus, "they drop a plummet into one."




CHAPTER 6

Now there were few barriers between the emperor and the people.  He
went to work in his study at an early hour and gave a patient hearing
to any but foolish men.  This morning he had been reading a long
address from the legate of Syria.  He had a way of dividing his thought
between reading and small affairs of the state.  His legate recited all
he had been able to learn of the new king they were now expecting in
Judea.  He told also of a plot which had baffled all his efforts and
which aimed to take the life of Herod and crown the king of prophecy
and divine power.

"We must have a spy of noble blood and bearing, of unswerving fidelity
and honor, and with some knowledge of the religion of Judea," said the
legate.  "Of course, you will not be able to find him, for where in all
the world, save yourself, good father, is there such a man?"

Augustus dropped the sheet of vellum and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"How about this young Vergilius--the handsome, clever, woman-loving
Vergilius?" he thought.  Then for a moment the cunning emperor laughed
silently.

Ever since he began to read the letter he had been conversing with his
daughter Julia.

"If you can propose a better candidate for the girl, I--" he paused,
looking intently at the letter--"I shall consider him," he added,
presently.

"She is beautiful," his daughter whispered.  "I know one who will give
to the state many thousand aurei."

"No need of hurry.  The young Vergilius will give what is better than
money, and then--"

The emperor paused again.

"And then?" it was the inquiry of Julia.

"He will forget her and she will grow weary and yield.  There's time
enough, and time"--he took a little mirror from the table and looked
down upon it--"can accomplish many things," he added.  "It will have
the assistance of fame and honor and new faces.  Now go, I beg of you,
and leave me to my work."


A delegation of Jews--petty merchants of the Trastevere--were leaving
as Vergilius entered.  The emperor, now alone save for his young
caller, rose and gave him a sprig of laurel.

"Sit here," said he, resuming his seat and pausing for a little to
study a sheet of vellum in his hands.  He continued, without raising
his eyes: "I have another test for you, my fair son.  You shall be
assistant procurator in Jerusalem, with rank of tribune.  It may be you
shall have command of the castle.  Three days from now take the south
road with Manius and a troop of horse.  This court of Herod--of course,
I am speaking kindly, my dear Vergilius--but, you may know, it is a
place of mysteries, and there are many things I do not need to _say_ to
_you_."

The old emperor, leaning forward, touched the arm of the young man and
gave him a cunning glance.

"A cipher," he added, passing the sheet of vellum.  "It will be known
to you and to me only.  You will understand what I wish to know.  You
shall have command of a cohort."

Vergilius thought for a second of that strange overhauling of Manius
the night before, and of the shrewdness of the great father in
returning him, kindly, to his task, with a pair of eyes to keep watch
of him.

"With all my heart I thank you," said the young knight.  "But--my
beloved father--I was hoping to marry and--and know the path of peace."

"But I am sure you will wait two years--only two years," said the
other, rising with extended hands.  "There is time enough; and
remember, whether to peace or war, your path is that of duty.
Farewell!"

It was a way he had of commanding, kindly but inexorable, and Vergilius
knew it.  Again he spoke as the knight turned away.

"This young Antipater--do you know him?"

"Not well."

"But, possibly, well enough," said the emperor, with a knowing look.
Then, casually: "Oh, there is yet a little matter--that new king the
Jews are looking for--if he should come, I suppose he will report to
me, but--but let me know what you learn.  Study the Jewish faith and
discover what this hope is founded upon."  Then he turned quickly and
went away.

This "little matter" counted much with the shrewd emperor.  Kings were
his puppets, and if there were to be a new one he must, indeed,
consider what to do with him.  Yet he had shame of his interest in
"that foolish gossip" of an alien race.  Therefore he put it only as a
trifling after-thought.  But he had a way of talking with his eyes, and
the alert youth read them well.

That elation of the young lover now had its boundary of thoughtfulness.
Going down the Palatine, he was also descending his hill of happiness.
Below him, in the Forum, he could see the golden mile-stone of
Augustus, now like a pillar of fire in the sunlight; he could see the
beginning of those many roads radiating from it to far peripheries of
the empire.  Tens of thousands had turned their backs upon it, leaving
with slow feet, some to live in distant, inhospitable lands, some to
die of fever and the sword, some to return forgotten of their kindred,
and some few with laurels of renown; but all of these many who went
away were leaving, for long or forever, love and home and peace.

"The army is sucking our blood, and Hate grows while Love is starving,"
Vergilius reflected, as he went along, while a hideous, unwelcome
thought grew slowly, creeping over him.  This golden mile-stone was the
centre of a great spider-web laced by road and sea way to the far
corners of the empire; and that cunning, alert man--who was he but the
spider?

"And I--what am I, now, but one of his flies caught in the mighty web?"
he thought.  "Love and its peace have come to me and I shall know
them--for three days--and perhaps no longer."

His wealth and rank and influence might, if used with diplomacy, have
kept him at home, for, after all, he was a Varro; but Arria had been
used to press him into bondage.

"Another test!"  he said to himself.  "Ah, what a cunning old fox!  He
needed a spy, and one of character and noble blood.  How well he tested
my cleverness!  And now I am his, body and soul."




CHAPTER 7

While Vergilius, going slowly, was thinking of these things, Vanity,
the only real goddess who, in Rome, managed the great theatre of
fashion, had her stage set for a love scene.  It was to occur in the
triclinium, or great banquet-hall, of a palace--that of the Lady Lucia.
There were portrait-masks and mural paintings on either wall; ancestral
statues of white marble stood in a row against the red wall; there were
seats and divans of ebony enriched by cunning hands; lamp-holders of
wrought metal standing high as a man's head, and immense violet rugs on
the floor.  The heroine wore a white robe banded low with purple, and
her jewelled hair was in fillets of gold.  There was always a pretty
artfulness in the match-making of a patrician beauty and her mother.
Indeed, life had grown far from elemental emotions.

"Now, when he enters," said the girl, turning to the Lady Lucia, "I
shall bring him here at once and sit down by this heap of cushions, and
then--Oh, god of my heart!  What shall I do with that big man--what
shall I say to him?"

"My dear, he will speak, and then you will know what to say," said the
matron.  "Only do not let him know that you love him--at least, not for
a time yet."

"Too late; I fear he knows it now--the wretch!" said Arria, rubbing her
cheeks to make them glow.

"But mind you hold him off, and do not let him caress you for an hour
at least.  One kiss and one only."

"One!" the girl repeated, with contempt.  "How ungenerous are the old!"

"Hard to count are a lover's kisses," her mother answered, with a sigh.
"But you can use them up in a day.  Really, you can use them up all in
a day."

"A day full of kisses!  Oh, heart of me!  Think of it!" said the
beautiful girl, covering her face a moment.  "I will not have the
yellow cushions," she added, quickly.  "Here, take these and bring me
two violet ones, and that cushion of gauze filled with rose leaves.  I
will have that in my lap when we are sitting here.  Now what do you
think of the colors?" she demanded.

"Beautiful!  And best of all that in your cheeks.  I doubt not he will
worship you."

"Or he is no kind of a man," said Arria, thoughtfully.  "Oh, son of
Varro! come, I am waiting.  If he takes me in his arms, what shall I
do?"

"Thrust him aside--tell him that you do not like it."

"And what shall I do if he does not?"

"Bid him go at once.  We have no need of any half-men."

"But he will," said the girl, with a worried look.  "He shall embrace
me--he shall, or--or I will bid my brother kill him.  Oh, wretch!"  She
jumped to her feet with a merry cry.  "I have an idea," she added,
clapping her hands.  "When the sunlight falls on the floor yonder, I
will get up and dance in it."

"A pretty trick!" said her mother.

"Oh, son of Varro! why do you not come?" said the girl, impatiently.
"I love him so I could die for him--I could die for him!  Perhaps he
loves me not and I shall never see him again."

She hurried to the outer court, whispering anxiously: "Come, son of
Varro.  Oh, come quickly, son of Varro!"

When Vergilius arrived Arria was waiting for him there in the court of
the palace.  Her white silk rustled as she ran to meet him.  Her cheeks
had the pink of roses and her eyes a glow in them like that of
diamonds.  She stopped as he came near, and turned away.

"Tears?" said he, leaning down, with his arms about her.  "Oh, love,
let me see your face!"

She turned quickly with a little toss of her head and took a step
backward.

"You shall not call me love," said she--"not yet.  You have not told me
that you love me."

"I told all who were at the palace of the great father."

"But you have not told me, son of Varro."

"I do love you."  He was approaching.

"Hush!  Not now," she answered, taking his hand in hers--temporizing.
"Come, I will race with you."

She ran, leading him, with quick, pattering feet through an inner hall
and up the long triclinium.  There, presently, she threw herself upon
the heap of cushions.

"Now, sit," said she, draping her robe and then feeling her hair that
was aglow with jewels.

A graceful and charming creature was this child of the new empire, a
noble beauty in her face and form, the value of a small kingdom on her
body.  "Not so near," said she, as he complied.  "Now, son of my
father's friend, say what you will and quickly."

"I love you," he began to say.

"Wait," she whispered, stopping him as she turned, looking up and down
the great hall.  "It is for me alone.  I will not share the words with
any other.  Now tell me--tell me, son of Varro," she whispered, moving
nearer; "tell me at once."

"I love you, sweet girl, above gods and men.  You are more to me than
crowns of laurel and gold, more than all that is in the earth and
heavens.  My heart burns when I look at you."

He hesitated, pressing her hand upon his lips.

"Is that all?" said she, with a pretty sadness, looking down at the
golden braces on her fan.  "Now, say it again, all, slowly."

She might as well have told a bird how he should sing.

He went on all unconscious of her command, his words lighted by the
fire in his heart.  They were as waters rippling in the sun-glow.

"Without you there is no light in the heavens, no beauty in the earth,
no hope or glory in the future, no joy in my heart.  My sword threatens
me, dear love, when I think of losing you."

She turned, quickly, with almost a look of surprise.

"It is beautiful," said she, with a sigh; "but is there no more?
Think, dear, noble knight; do think of more!"

She was near forgetting her plan.  He took her in his arms and kissed
her.

"Think--think of more," said she, "and I will dance the tourina."

There was a note of gladness in her voice.  It rang merry as a girdle
of silver bells.  Now, on the floor near them was a golden square of
sunlight, and, tabret in hand, she sprang up and began to dance in it.
She moved swiftly back and forth, her arms extended, her white robe
flowing above the sapphires in each purple fillet on her ankles.

"Now, dear Vergilius, tell me, why do you love me?" she said, throwing
herself upon the cushions near him with glowing cheeks.

"Because you are Arria.  Because Arria is you.  Because I must, for
your pure and noble heart and for your beauty," said he.  "When I look
upon you I forget my dreams of war and conquest; I think only of peace
and love and have no longer the heart to slay.  Oh, sweet Arria!  I
feel as if I should fling my swords into the Tiber."

"Oh, my love! could I make you throw your swords into the Tiber I
should be very happy."  Her eyes had turned serious and thoughtful.
Her girlish trickery had come to an end.  Vanity retired, now, and Love
had sole command.

He put his arms about her and rained kisses upon her face, her hair,
her eyes.  "Say it all again, dear Vergilius--say it a hundred times,"
she whispered.

"My dear one, I love you more than I can say.  Now am I prepared to
speak in deeds, in faithfulness, in devotion."

"But, once more, why do you love me?  Why me?" said she, moving aside
with an air of preoccupation, her chin resting upon her hand, her elbow
upon the gauze pillow of rose leaves in her lap.  "Is it my beauty more
than myself?"

"No," he answered; "your beauty is intoxicating, and I thank the gods
for it, but your sweet self, your soul, is more, far more to me than
your grace and all your loveliness."

She had dreamed of such love but never hoped for it, and now all the
pretty tricks she had thought of had become as the mummery of fools.
She sat in silence for a little space, her eyes upon her girdle, and a
new and serious look came into her face.

"I shall try, then," said she, presently--"I shall try to be noble.
But shall you--shall you truly throw your swords into the Tiber?"

"Would I might," said he, sadly.  "And now I must tell you--"  He
paused, and Arria turned quickly, her lips trembling as her color faded.

"In three days I go to Jerusalem," he added, "by command of the
emperor."

"For how long?" she whispered, her eyes taking years upon them as the
seconds flew.

"For two years."

Quickly she hid her face in the cushions and her body quivered.  That
old, familiar cry, which had in it the history and the doom of Rome,
rang in the great halls around them--that cry of forsaken women.

"The iron foot is upon us," said he.  "Do not let it tread you down as
it has other women.  Be my vestal and guard the holy fire of love."

Then he told of Cyran, the slave-girl, and added: "I leave her in your
care.  Every day she will cause you to think of me."




CHAPTER 8

It was near the middle hour of the night.  Many, just out of
banquet-hall, theatre, and circus, thronged the main thoroughfares of
the capital.  Cries of venders, ribald songs, shouts of revelry, the
hurrying of many feet roused the good people who, wearied by other
nights of dissipation, now sought repose.  They turned, uneasily,
reflecting that to-morrow they would have their revenge.

Antipater had dined with but a single guest--a young priest, who,
arriving that very day from Damascus, had sought the palace of his
countryman.  The service at his table had not pleased the prince.
Leaping from his couch, he struck down a slave and ordered his
crucifixion.  It was a luckless Arab, who many times had unwittingly
offended his master.

Now the son of Herod lay asleep where, a little time ago, he had been
feasting.  Manius, who had just entered the palace of his friend, came
into the banquet-hall.  He touched the arm of Antipater, who started
with a curse and rose with an apology.

"I was dreaming of foes and I see a friend," he muttered.  "Forgive me,
noble Manius."

The prince pulled a golden bell-cord that shone against the green
pargeting of the wall.

"Now to our business," he whispered, turning to the officer.

They crossed the atrium, descended a stairway, and threw open a barred
door.  They were now in a gloomy passage between walls of marble.
Antipater halted, presently, and tapped with his seal ring on a metal
door.  Then a rattle of bolts and the door swung open.

"Now," Antipater whispered, "are you of the same mind?"

"I am."

"And again you swear secrecy?"

"I do."

Without more delay they entered a room walled with white marble and
lighted by candles.  A bearded Jew, in a scarlet cloak embroidered with
gold, rose to greet them.

"To John ben Joreb I present the noble Manius," said Antipater.

"Blessings of the one God be upon thee," said Ben Joreb, bowing low.

"And the favor of many gods on thee," said the assessor.  "From
Jerusalem?"

"Nay, from Damascus."

Antipater stirred the fire in iron braziers on either side of the room,
and then bade them recline beside him at a small table whereon a supper
waited.

"Ben Joreb has good news of our plan," said he, turning to Manius.

"It prospers," said the priest.  "Our council is now in thirty cities."

"And the king is better," said Manius.  "He will not soon perish of
infirmity."

"But you tell me that my father suffers?"

Antipater started nervously.  A long, weird wail from the Arab dying on
a cross in the garden flooded down the flues.

"A hundred deaths a day," said Ben Joreb.

"I have been talking with Manius," Antipater answered.  "He thinks it
would be a mercy to--"

He was interrupted again.  That tremulous, awful cry for mercy found
its way to his ear.  It seemed to mock the sacred word.  Antipater
jumped to his feet, cursing.

"I will put an end to that," said he, rushing to the door and flinging
it back and running down the passage.

Manius turned to Ben Joreb.

"What is there in the howling of that slave?" he whispered.  "I am
weak-hearted."

"I take it for a sign," the other answered, gravely.  "It is written,
'Thy spirit shall be as the candle of the Lord,' and, again, 'Thou
shall hearken to the cry of anguish.'"

In a few moments Antipater returned.

"I have summoned the carnifex," said he, bolting the door and resuming
his place at the table.  "I was saying to you, good Manius, that my
friend here, Ben Joreb, would think it a great mercy to remove him."

"A great mercy!" Ben Joreb answered; "a man's mercy to him; a God's
mercy to his people."

"And what think you?" said Antipater, turning to Manius.

"I agree; 'twould be a mercy, but a risky enterprise," said the Roman.

"I would risk my head to save him a day of pain," said the treacherous
son of Herod.  "You love him not as I do or you would brave all to end
his misery."

There was now half a moment filled with a long, piercing cry from
beyond the walls of the palace until Antipater spoke, a tiger look in
his face again.  "Put the lance into him, my good carnifex," he
growled, striking with clinched fist.  "Again, now; and again, and
again."

He listened for a breath, and as silence came he added, "There, that
will do."

Neither spoke for a little time.

"I wish I could make you feel how dearly I love my father," he went on,
addressing his friends now and hiding his claws with revolting guile
and all unconscious that he had shown them.

Again a breath of silence, in which Manius thought of the black leopard
when he lay making those playful and caressing movements on the floor.
And there came to the heart of Ben Joreb a fear that this man might
prove more terrible than his father.

"We feel it," said Manius, with inner smiles that showed not upon his
face.

"Then be servants of my love."

"And of our own welfare?"

"Certainly!  You shall each have a palace in Jerusalem and fifty
thousand aurei; and you, Manius, shall command the forces on land and
sea, and you, John ben Joreb, of the tribe of Aaron, shall be
high-priest."

"I agree," said Manius, an overwhelming cupidity in the words.

"And I agree," said the Jew, who had entered upon this intrigue with
motives of patriotism, and now, although suspicious of the result, was
committed beyond a chance of turning.

"Angels of mercy!" Antipater exclaimed, rising and taking a hand of
each in his.  "My love shall be ever a shield and weapon for you.  One
other thing.  The couriers who bring to Rome news of my father's
death--bid them hurry and take with them, also, word of the illness of
that dog Vergilius.  After they leave let him not linger in needless
pain--do you understand me?  For that, I say, each of you shall have
five thousand aurei added to his wealth."

The others nodded.

"Now take this--it may be useful," whispered the prince of Judea,
handing a little golden box to the assessor.  "There is something in it
will hasten the effect of wine--a fine remedy for a weary land, good
Manius.  He that makes it a friend shall have no enemies.  Hold, let me
think.  That old fox on the hill yonder has a thousand eyes and his
ears are everywhere.  Not a word, Manius, after we leave this door.  In
yon passage turn to the right.  Walk until your head touches the
ceiling, then creep to the door.  Open it and use your ears.  If no one
is passing, go straight ahead.  You will come to a gate on the Via
Sacra.  You," he added, turning to Ben Joreb, "shall leave by the main
gate."

When both had gone, this prince of Judea walked across the inner hall
of his palace and flung himself on the cushions of a great divan.

A swarthy eunuch came near him on tip-toe.

"Begone!"  The word burst from the lips of Antipater in a hoarse growl,
and, like a tiger's paw, his hand struck the cushions in front of him.
As he lay blinking drowsily, his chin upon his hands, there was still
in his face and attitude a suggestion of the monster cat.

And he thought fondly of his wreaking of vengeance when he should be
crowned the great king of prophetic promise--of the fury of armies, of
the stench of the slain, of the cry of the ravished, of "mountains
melting in blood."




CHAPTER 9

It was the fifth anniversary of that resolution of the senate fathers
to consecrate the altar of Peace.  Pilgrims thronged the city, and some
had journeyed far.  Tens of thousands surrounded the great monument,
immense and beautiful beyond any in the knowledge of men.  It
signalized a remarkable state of things--the world was at peace.  More
than seven centuries before that day an idea had entered the heart of a
prophet; now it was in the very heart of the world.  This heap of
marble, under pagan gods, had given it grand, if only partial,
expression.  There was no symbol of war in the long procession of its
upper frieze, and its lower was like a sculptured song of peace wrought
in fruits and bees and birds and blossoms.  Here was a mighty plant
flowering twice a year and giving its seed to the four winds.  Every
July and January its erection was celebrated in the imperial republic.

Vergilius stood beside the emperor that day when, at the Ars Pacis
Augustas, he addressed the people.

"I have been reading," he said, "the words of a certain dreamer of
Judea, who, in the olden time, wrote of a day when swords should be
beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks, and when peace
should reign among the nations of the earth.  Well, give me an army for
a hundred years, good people, and then I may voice the will of the gods
that iron be used no more to plough its way in living flesh, but only
to turn the furrow and to prune the tree.  Meanwhile, believe me, every
man must learn to love honor and virtue, and to respect his neighbor,
and the gods above all."

A hundred years!  The playful emperor knew not how quickly a man passes
and how slowly, how exceeding slowly, moves the great procession of
mankind.  But so it befell; the very right hand of Jupiter had helped
in the sowing of that seed which, as it grew, was to lift the
foundations of his power.

Vergilius left the scene with Augustus.  They rode away in the royal
litter.

"In all the great cities men are speaking to-day of the value of peace
and honor," said the subtle emperor--a sceptic in religion, a cynic in
philosophy, a rake in private life, and a conqueror who commanded
"peace" with a trained army of four hundred and fifty thousand men.

"It is a great thing to do," said the young knight.

"Give me men enough to say it, and if they grow not weary I will bring
the world to believe that the sun is only the breast-plate of Jupiter,"
said Augustus.  "Honor and peace are good things--do not forget that,
my young friend.  Give the words to your tongue, not flippantly, but
with a sober eye, and often, my brave knight--often.  You leave
to-morrow--have you made ready?"

"Ready but for the leave-taking;" this with a sigh.

"It ill becomes you to be cast down.  Shake your heart with
laughter--it will roll away the stone of regret.  Buy a fool, my young
friend.  For five thousand denarii you may obtain a most excellent
fool."

He knew the price of all, from the hewer of wood to the crowned king,
but only he could afford a slave like that.

"I should prefer a wise man," said the young knight.

"Philosophers are more expensive," the father continued,
craftily--"twenty thousand denarii, and dear at that.  They will teach
you little but discontent.  I recommend a grammarian."

The old emperor turned his cunning eyes upon the face of Vergilius.

"Forty thousand, at least, for a good one," he added; "but a youth of
your talent should remember the value of immortal fame."  Word and look
were a hint to the young man that he should prepare himself with all
diligence for an active career in the senate.  The youth understood
their meaning and was a trifle comforted.  There was no promise nor the
least warrant for a claim--it was only the emperor's way of guiding.

They were now passing a row of shops on the Via Claudia.  The emperor,
putting his hand out of the door, motioned to his lecticarii and they
halted.

"Come with me," said the great man.  They left the litter and entered a
large shop.  There Augustus bought many gifts for the young man--new
arms, a beautiful corselet, a girdle of the look of knitted gold--for
the Roman wore a girdle in Judea--articles of apparel suited to the
climate of the Far East.  The shop had filled with people, who tried to
cover their curiosity by the purchase of trifles.

"This cloth would make a fine toga," said the shopkeeper.

The emperor surveyed it closely.

"Let me hold it up to the light and then you will see its texture," the
other continued.

"You are a hard master," said Augustus.

"You would have us walk on the house-tops to show the fineness of our
togas?  It is enough.  Let us pass, good people."

A cheer, starting at the shop door, went to the far sides of the city.
It signified that the emperor was out among the people and in his best
mood.

Their nomenclator cleared a way for them to the litter and they sat
down again, facing each other, the emperor and the boy.

"If I had your riches," the great man remarked, as they went on, "I
wonder what I should do with them."

"You jest with me, good father," said Vergilius.

"Nay, but I envy you; for have you not youth and love and the beauty of
Apollo?"

He laid his hand upon the arm of the boy, and there was in his voice
and manner a gentleness to make one regret that he lived not in a
better time; for, perhaps, after all, he was what he had to be as the
ruthless conqueror of a savage world.

"And I--what have I but burdens I dare not lay aside?  When I sleep,
even, they press upon me.  I am weary--but if I should let them fall,
what, think you, would happen?"

His keen eyes, seeing before them, possibly, the great down-rush to
madness, pressed a glance into the very soul of the young man.  The
latter started to reply, but with a look the emperor forbade him.

"Think, good youth--learn to think.  It will profit you--there is so
little competition.  By-and-by Rome will need you."

Gently, forcefully this teacher of statesmen had given the young knight
his first lesson.  It was nearing its end now.  The litter had stopped
hard by the gate of the Lady Lucia.

"I wonder how you knew my destination," said Vergilius.

"You credit me with small discernment.  Learn to know things that are
not told you--it is the beginning of wisdom."




CHAPTER 10

Arria met them in the atrium.  She saw not the great father of Rome,
but only her lover, and ran to him with a little cry of delight.

The playful emperor mounted a chair and stood looking down at them.

"I am so small here in the presence of this great king," said he, as
they turned to him.  "Were my head as high as the ceiling I am sure I
should not be seen."

"What long, good father?" said Arria, bowing low.

"Love!  'Tis better, I have heard, to be ruler of one than of many.
You give him kisses, little tyrant, and me not a glance."

He looked down, smiling at the pretty maiden.

"Because 'tis he I love," said she, her cheeks red with blushes, her
eyes upon her sandals.  "You--you have been cruel."

"I am sadly out of favor," said Augustus, playfully, stepping to the
floor.  "If the great king dared, I am sure he would cut off my head,
now.  Let him not condemn me without trial.  Remember the law of Rome."

"You are sending my love away."  Her voice trembled as she spoke.

"And happy are you, sweet girl, to have so much to give to your
country."

There was a moment of silence.  Then said the emperor: "Be merry.  'Tis
not for long."

"'Tis a thousand years!" said she, sadly.

He was fond of the young, and her frank innocence appealed to all best
in the heart of the old emperor.  He turned to greet the Lady Lucia.

"Come with me, son of Varro," said Arria, taking the arm of her lover
and leading him away.  "It will soon be to-morrow."

"And I am acquitted?"  So spoke the emperor.

"You are condemned to the company of my mother," said Arria, quickly.

She wore a tunic of the color of violets, with not a jewel.  Now she
led her lover to a heap of yellow cushions in the triclinium.

"Dear Vergilius," said she, turning to him with a serious look as they
sat down; "tell me again--say to me again how you love me."  She held
his hand against her cheek and her eyes looked into his.

"Oh, my beloved!  I have thought of naught else since I saw you.  I
have heard your pretty feet and the rustle of your tunic in my dreams;
I have felt the touch of your hands; every moment I have seen your
face--now glowing with happiness, now white and lovely with sorrow.
And, dear, I love its sorrow--I confess to you that I love its sorrow
better than its happiness.  I saw in your sad eyes, then, a thing
dearer than their beauty.  It told me that you felt as I feel--that you
would live and, if need be, die for the love of me."

The girl listened thoughtfully, and moved close to her lover; he took
her in his arms.  She had dreamed of many things to say, but now she
only whispered to him, her lips against his ear, the simple message: "I
love you, I love you, I love you."  Then: "But I forgot," said she,
pushing him away, a note of fear in her voice.  She straightened the
folds of her tunic, and drew the transparent silk close to her full,
white bosom.  It was all unconscious as the trick of a wooing bird.

"And what did you forget?" he inquired.

"That you are you, and a man," said she, sighing.  "In some way it
is--it is such a pity, I dare not suffer you to caress me.  And
yet--and yet, I do love it."

"And your lips," said he, embracing her, "they are to me as the gate of
Elysium!"

"It may be we are now in the islands of the blest and know them not,"
she whispered.

She tried to draw herself away.

"I will not let you go.  Indeed, I cannot let you go."

"And I am glad," she answered, with a little laugh, her hand caressing
his brow.  "I do love the feel of your arms and your lips--beautiful
son of Varro!"

"I will not let you go until--until you have promised to be my bride.
Think, the term is only two years."

"Be it one or many, I will be your bride," said she.  "And although you
were never to return, yet would I always wait for you and think of this
day."

She drew herself away and sat thoughtful, her chin upon her hands.

"Now are you most beautiful," said he, "with that little touch of
sorrow in your face.  It gives me high thoughts to look at you."

While they were thus sitting a woman, well past middle age, came into
their presence.  She stopped near the feet of Arria.  It was her
grandmother, the Lady Claudia, once a beauty of the great capital, now
gray and wrinkled, but still erect with patrician pride.

Vergilius had risen quickly, bowed low, and kissed her hand.

"I often saw you, son of my friend, when you were a child," said she.
"I remember when you were young you went away with the legions."

"To learn the art of war," he answered.

"Sit down, dear grandmother," said the girl, as he brought a chair.
"Now let her hear you tell me why it is that you have chosen me, dear
Vergilius--let her hear you."

"I know not.  Perhaps because your beauty, sweet girl, is like the
snare of the fowler and brought me to your hand.  Then something in
your eyes captured the heart of me--something better than beauty.  It
is the light of your soul.  Love and peace and innocence and gentleness
and all good are in it.  That is why."

The two embraced each other.  The Lady Claudia rose and came and put
her hands upon them, and her voice trembled with emotion.

"They are beautiful," said she, "the kisses of the young, and their
words are as the music of Apollo's lyre.  I thank the gods I have seen
it all again.  But you are going away to-morrow.  Son of Varro, be not
as other men.  Remember it is not well for women to live apart from the
men they love."

"I leave at daybreak," said the young knight.  "'Tis for two years, so
said the emperor; for 'only' two years."

"She shall not be as others I have known," said the Lady Claudia.  "It
is an evil time, good youth; but, remember, as men are so are women.
Last night I dreamed a wonderful dream of you two, and of a sweet,
immortal love between men and women.  Some say the dreams of men are,
indeed, the plans of the gods.  Pray to them.  It may be they will give
you this great love."

"It is here--it is in her soul and mine!" the youth declared, his arm
about Arria.  "It has prepared us for any trial--even parting."

"I have so much happiness already," said the girl.  "So much--it will
keep me through many years."

"Then it is the great love, and I thank the gods I have seen it," said
the Lady Claudia.  "Who may say where it shall end?"  She came near
them as she spoke and offered her cheek to the boy.  He kissed her, and
she went away with tears upon her face.

"Now you are brave and strong with this great love in you," said
Vergilius.  "Let it bear you up as I leave the palace.  Promise you
will not cry out.  If you do, my beloved, I shall hear always the sound
of mourning when I think of you."

"Then I shall not weep," said she, bravely, but with a little quiver in
her voice.

She knew the old story of a young man's love--how often he went away
with sweet words, to return, if ever, hardened to stern trials and
bloody work, his vows long forgotten.

"For your sake, dear Vergilius, I will be calm," she added.

"Now sit here," said he, as he led her to the heap of cushions, "just
as I saw you a little time ago.  Rest your chin upon your hands.
There; now your soul is in your eyes.  Let me see only this picture as
I go."

He took a handful of her curls and let them fall upon her shoulders.
Then he crowned her with a sprig of vervain from a vase near by.

"I will not weep--I will not weep," she repeated, her voice trembling
as he touched her hair.

He moved backward slowly, as one might leave a queen.  Her eyes
followed him, and suddenly she rose and flew to his arms again.

"I will not weep--I will not weep," said she, brokenly.  Again he held
her to his breast.

"Though you get fame and glory, forget not love," she whispered.

"Dear one," he exclaimed, kissing her, "this hour shall be in every day
of my life."

"But with adventures and battles and the praise of kings it is so easy
to forget."

"But with one so noble and so beautiful at home it will be easy to
remember.  Let us be brave.  I am only a woman myself to-day.  Help me
to be a man."

He led her again to the cushions, and she sat as before--a picture,
now, beyond all art, sublime indeed with love and sorrow and
trustfulness and repression.  It was that look of abnegation upon her
that he remembered.

"I shall not rise nor speak again, dear son of Varro," said she.  "You
shall know that my love for you has made me strong.  See, dear love.
Look at my face and see how brave I am."  Her voice, now calm, had in
it some power that touched him deeply.  It was the great, new love
between men and women---forerunner of the mighty revolution.

He stood silent, looking down at her.  The song of a nightingale rang
in the great halls.  He turned and brought a lyre that lay on a table
near them.  She took it in her hands.  Then it seemed as if her sorrow
fell upon the strings, and in their music was the voice of her soul.

He bowed before her, whispering a prayer; he put all his soul into one
long look and quickly went away.

Then she rose and ran to the end of the banquet-hall.  "I can hear his
voice," she whispered.  "No, I must not go--I must not go."

A moment followed in which there came to her a sound of distant voices.
She stilled her sobs and listened.  She ran towards the loved voice and
checked her eager feet.

She stood a moment with arms extended.  The sound grew fainter and a
hush fell.  She ran to the white statue of the little god Eros, and,
kneeling, threw her arms around the shapely form and wept bitterly.




CHAPTER 11

The dark was lifting as Vergilius entered the Field of Mars.  There
were lanterns about his litter, and far and near, in lines and
clusters, he could see lights on the plain, some moving, some standing
still.  Hard by the Tiber he joined a small troop of horse, and
vaulting on the shaft of his lance, mounted a white charger.  Manius
wheeled into place beside him at the head of the column.  A quaestor
called the roll.

"Ready?" Vergilius inquired, turning to Manius.

"All ready," the other answered.

Then a trumpet sounded and those many feet had begun the long journey
to Jerusalem.  They made their way to the Forum.  Scores of women and
children of the families of those departing had gathered by the golden
mile-stone.  The troop halted.  Those who had been waiting in the dank,
chill air sought to press in among the horses.  It was hard to keep
them back.  Vergilius, full of his own sorrow, felt for them and gave
them good time.  A little group, in gray paenula and veils, were
watching from without the crowd.  He moved aside, beckoning to them.

"Make your farewells," said he, as they came near.  "We shall be off in
a moment."

A beautiful white hand was extended to him.  He took it in his, and
then quickly pressed it to his lips.

"Farewell, dear love!" he whispered.

A quick pressure answered him, and the veiled figure turned away.  Then
a trumpet-call, a flash of blue vexilla and silver eagles in the air,
and, a moment later, some eighty hoofs were drumming in the Appian Way.
For a little the horsemen heard them that were left behind, wailing.

"It is like a sticking of pigs to leave a lot of plebeian women," said
Manius, when the sound was far out of hearing.

"An arrow in the heart of the soldier, but I think it good," said
Vergilius.  "For a time, at least, Rome will be dear to him."

There were forty men riding in the troop, all lancers, saving a few
slingers and bowmen.  They rattled over the hard Way at a pace of
fifteen miles an hour.  It was an immense, rock-paved road--this Appian
Way--straight, wide, and level, flinging its arches over fen, river,
and valley, and breaking through hill and mountain to the distant sea.
No citizen might bring his horse upon it unless a diploma had been
granted him--it was, indeed, for the larger purposes of the government.
After two hours they drew up at a posting-house and changed horses.
They rode this mount some forty miles, halting at a large inn, its
doors flush with the road.  A transport and postal train bound for Rome
was expected shortly, and, before eating, Vergilius wrote a letter and
had it ready when the wagons came rattling in a deep-worn rut, behind
teams of horses moving at a swift gallop.  There were five wagons in
the train, bearing letters and light merchandise from the south.  Hard
by was one of the wheelwright-shops that lined the great thoroughfare.
The train stopped only a moment for water and a new wheel, then rushed
along on its way to the capital.  A light meal of bread and porridge,
half an hour of rest, and again, with new horses, the troop was in full
career.  A sense of loneliness grew in the heart of the youth as he
journeyed.  Lover and soldier had fought their duel, and the latter was
outdone.  But the lover's courage was now sorely tried.  Every mounted
courier hastening to Rome on the south road bore a letter from the
young man to her he loved.  He met a legion of infantry going north,
and envied every soldier, sweating under a set pace of four miles to
the hour and a burden of sixty pounds--shield, helmet, breast-plate,
pilum, swords, intrenching tools, stakes for a palisade, and corn for
seventeen days.

A trireme was waiting for them on the Adriatic Sea, and Vergilius,
Manius, and their escort sailed to northwestern Macedonia, mounted
horses again, galloping over the great highway to Athens; crossed by
trireme to Ephesus, thence to Antioch by the long sea-road, and,
agreeably with orders, they began to leave their men at forts along the
frontier.

Events on the way filled him with contempt for his country and for
himself.  Here and there he met people travelling under imperial passes
that gave them the use of the road and a right of free levy for
subsistence, often much abused.  These travellers were people of
leisure from the large cities, wont to stretch their power to the point
of robbery.  He saw them seizing slaves and cattle from terrified
agrarians; he saw Manius strike a man down for resenting insults to his
daughter; he saw the deadly toil of the oarsmen, the bitter punishment
of the cross.

His heart was now sore and sensitive.  Was it the new love which had
flung off its shield of sternness and left it exposed to every lash
that flew?  The misery of others afflicted him.  Thoughts of injustice
grew into motives of action, the loss of faith into the gain of
unutterable longing.  Who were these gods who heard not the cry of the
weak and were ever on the side of the strong?  Were they only in those
hands of power that flung their levin from the Palatine?  Could he, who
had learned to love innocence and purity, love also the foul harpy
which Rome had become?  It seemed to him difficult to reconcile the
love of Arria and the love of Rome.  Was the time not, indeed, overdue
when the wicked should tremble and the proud should bow themselves,
according to that song of the slave-girl?

From Antioch they turned southward, passing the cloistered plain paved
with polished marble, and hurried to Damascus.  Thence they rode to
Jerusalem.  The troop had dwindled to a squad of six, and came slowly
into the ancient capital at dawn.  From afar they could hear bugles at
the castle of Antonia.

"They are changing the guard," Manius remarked.

Having entered the city gates, they passed throngs of cattle and their
drivers and many worshippers hurrying to the temple.  One of the latter
stopped, and, pointing to the eagles and the medallion of Augustus on
their signa, shouted loudly:

"I thank Thee, O God, and the God of my fathers, that I am not of them
who provoke Thine anger with the graven image."

A chant of many voices from the temple roof floated over the plain,
saying:

"The light has come as far as Hebron."

Vergilius turned, looking up at the splendid Doric temple of Jerusalem.
As he looked, the sun's rays fell on a great, golden lantern before a
thicket of high columns in its eastern portico.  It was the signal for
another outburst of trumpets.

"They are now making incense for the nostrils of Jehovah," said Manius.
"Soon they will offer him one of the most beautiful lambs in Judea."

In a few moments they drew up at the castle of Antonia.  News of their
coming had reached Jerusalem by courier, three days before.  The
captain of the guard repeated part of the introduction.

"Vergilius, son of Varro, sent by the great father?" said he, in a tone
of inquiry.

"And worn with much riding," said the young knight.

"I have a message for you.  It is from the king."

"He would see me at once," said Vergilius, having read it.

"The sooner you go the more gracious you will be like to find him,"
said Manius, with a smile.

"My apparel!  It is on the transport and has not yet arrived."

"But you have arrived, and forget not you are in the land of Herod--a
most impatient king."

"He will not know, however, that we have come," Vergilius answered.

"Friend of Caesar," said the captain of the guard, "within an hour he
will know everything you have done since you entered the city--whither
you went, to whom you spoke, and what you said, and perhaps even what
you thought."




CHAPTER 12

The characters of Herod and Augustus were as far apart as their
capitals.  Extremes of temperament were in these two.  The Roman was
cold, calm, of unfailing prudence; the Jew hot-blooded, reckless, and
warmed by a word into startling and frank ferocity.  The one was keen
and delicate, the other blunt and robust.  The emperor was a fox, the
king a lion.  Herod and his people were now worried with mutual
distrust.  He had no faith in any man, and no man--not even the emperor
by whose sufferance he held the crown--had any faith in him.  The king
feared the people and the people feared the king.

Herod began his career with good purposes.  An erect, powerful, and
handsome youth of Arabic and Idumaean blood, brave with lance and
charger, he raided the bandit chieftain Hezekias and slew him, with all
his followers.  The Sanhedrim thought not of his valor but only of the
ancient law he had broken.  They put him on trial for usurping the
power of life and death.  In the midst of his peril he escaped, taking
with him the seed of those dark revenges which, when he got the crown,
destroyed all save a single member of the old court of justice and the
confidence of his people.

His household became the scene of bloody intrigues which even stirred
the tongue of Caesar with contempt.  Herod became the dupe of a
designing sister, of base flatterers, and of an evil and ambitious son.
They undermined his confidence in all who deserved it.  His beloved
wife Mariamne, his two sons Alexander and Aristobulus, and many others
of exceptional good repute in the kingdom were unjustly put to death.
Then, swiftly, as he penetrated the maze of plot and counterplot, those
who had fooled him began to fall before his wrath.  He was now, indeed,
a forlorn, loveless, and terrible creature.

Many thought him afflicted with madness.  There were noble folk in
Jerusalem who said they had seen the body of Mariamne embalmed in
honey, above the king's chamber, where every day he could look upon it.
Some had seen him wandering about the palace at night with a candle,
mourning over his loss and raging at his own folly.  Some had seen him
so shaken by remorse that he roared like a lion goaded by hunger and
the lance.  At such a time it was, indeed, a peril to come before him.
Plots against his life had worried him, and, distrusting his helpers,
he was wont to go about the city in disguise seeking information.
Twice he had forgiven Antipater, his favorite son, for crimes in the
royal household.

Now, in his seventy-sixth year, the king was, indeed, sorely pressed
with trouble.  Jerusalem was the centre of a plot formidable and
far-reaching.  Its object was, in part, clear to him, or so he thought,
and with some reason.  It seemed to aim at his removal and the crowning
of a mysterious king of prophecy, who, many said, was now waiting the
death of Herod.  It baffled him.  He saw signs that many had their
heads together in this plot.  So far, however, he had not been able to
lay hands upon them.  There were many theories about the new king.
They were strange and conflicting and zealously put forth.  They
differed as to whether he were yet born and as to his divinity, his
character, and his purposes.  The Sanhedrim held that when he came into
the world there would be certain signs and portents seen of all men.
This conflict of authority increased the confusion of Herod.  When
Vergilius came to his capital the king was mired on the very edge of
the great mystery.

Powers of darkness ruled the city of Jerusalem.  The sword, the lance,
the dagger, and the wheel were wreaking vengeance and creating new
perils while they were removing old ones.  The king had tried vainly to
repair the past.  He gave freely to the poor; he erected gorgeous
places of amusement; he built the new temple and a great palace in the
upper city.  The splendor of the latter structures had outdone the
imperator.  No shape born of barbaric dreams, to be slowly spread upon
the earth in marble and gold, had so taxed the cunning and the patience
of human hands.  Such, in brief, were the character, the troubles, the
home, and the city of Herod.




CHAPTER 13

In travel-worn garb Vergilius went early to see the king.  Accustomed
to the grandeur of Rome itself, he yet saw with astonishment the
beautiful groves, the lakes, canals, and fountains sparkling in the
sunlight which surrounded the great marble palace of Herod.  In the
shadow of its many towers, each thirty cubits high, Vergilius began to
feel some dread of this terrible king.  At least fifty paces from the
door of his chamber, in the great hall above-stairs, he could hear the
growl of the old lion.  In Herod was the voice of wrath and revenge and
terror.  His words came rolling out in a deep, husky, guttural tone, or
leaped forth hissing with anger.  Some officials stood by the king's
door with fear and dread upon their faces.  A young woman of singular
beauty was among them.

"O Salome, daughter of Herod," said one, "the king would have you come
to-morrow.  He is in ill humor with the plotters."

"And I with him," said she, stamping her foot.

An usher had presented Vergilius at the door.  As Herod's daughter
proudly turned away, she came face to face with the young Roman noble.
For one moment their eyes held each other.  A chamberlain approached
Vergilius, whispered a few inquiries, and then led him before the king.
Herod was having a bad day.

"Traitors!" he hissed.  In a voice like the menacing growl of a savage
beast he added: "May their eyes rot in their heads!  Go!  I have heard
enough, bearer of evil tidings."

Far down the great chamber in which half a cohort could have stood
comfortably, in a carved chair on a dais, under a vault and against a
background of blue, Babylonian tapestry, sat the king.  A priest had
bowed low and was now leaving his presence.  The chamberlain announced,
in a loud voice, "Vergilius, son of Varro, of Rome, and officer of the
fatherly and much-beloved Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus."

The king sat erect, a purple tarboosh and crown of wrought gold upon
his head.  As Vergilius approached, the dark, suspicious eyes of Herod
were surveying him from under long, quivering tufts of gray hair.  His
great body, in its prime, must have been like that of Achilles.

"Stand where you are, son of Varro," said the king, as he moved
nervously.  His broad shoulders were beginning to bend a little under
their burden of trouble and disease.  The harrow of pain and passion
had roughened his face with wrinkles.  His manner was alert and
watchful.

"Have you seen my son?" he inquired, quickly.

"Yes, great sire, and he was well."

"And is he not comely?"

"Ay, and brave with his lance."

"And a born king," said Herod.  "I have fixed my heart upon him.  I
have no other to love--but the great imperator.  And how is he?"

"I left him well, good sire."

"Stand a moment, son of Varro," said the king, with an impatient
gesture.  An attendant approached him and spoke in a low tone.  Herod,
snarled like a huge cat when the lance threatens.

"Break him on the rack," he muttered; "and unless he tell, crucify
him--crucify him.  He shall do me no further injury.  That priest
Lugar, bring him back to me.  Quickly now, bring him to me!"

The attendant hurried away, soon returning with him who had retired as
Vergilius entered the king's chamber.

"Saw you the men of learning in Ascalon?" the king demanded.

"I did."

"What said they?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Out with it," said the king, fiercely.  "Must I put every man upon the
rack?  Speak, and that you may tell the truth I shall not demand their
names."

"They, also, look for the new king," said Lugar.  "Many believe he is
already born.  They say that on your death he will declare himself."

"And they, too, pray for my death?"

"Most earnestly, my beloved king."

"Traitors!" said Herod, and as he spoke his powerful hands were tearing
his kerchief into rags.  "I shall soon change the burden of their
prayers.  Go tell them this: the day I die two of the wisest men from
every city in the kingdom shall die also.  Go everywhere, and tell
these learned doctors they had best pray for my good health."

The priest bowed before his king and retired.  The pagan noble looked
up at this ruler of the land of the one God and felt a thrill of
horror.  Herod, turning quickly, beckoned to the young knight, his
wrinkles quivering with anger.  Now, indeed, he was like a lion at bay.

"Ha-a!" he roared, and his head bent slowly and his voice fell to a low
rumble as he continued.  "'Tis an evil time in Jerusalem.  I weary of
this long fight with traitors.  They grind their points; they stir
poison; they swarm in the streets.  They rob me of my friends, and
now--now they seek alliance with Jehovah to rob me of my throne.  'Tis
well you should know and beware.  I have a plan which will make them
desire my good health.  Report to Quirinus, and remember"--he took a
hand of the youth in both of his with a fawning movement--"I have need
of friends."

That very day an order went forth that certain of the learned men of
every city be assembled in the amphitheatre at Jericho, and be there
confined to wait the further pleasure of the king.  It was a bold plan
through which Herod hoped to confound his enemies and insure his
safety.  He decreed that on the day of his death all these men should
be executed.




CHAPTER 14

Among the orderlies at the castle was one David, a young Jew, whose
face and bearing had attracted the eye of Vergilius.  There was in both
something admirable  and familiar.  Straightway the tribune chose the
young Jew for his own service, and soon held him in high esteem.
Together they set out one morning, with a troop of horse, bound for the
southern limit of Samaria.  Thus quickly orders had arrived from the
emperor.  They sent Vergilius on a journey to inspect roads and report
"as to hopes, plans, and theories of import to the king."

That morning as they left the old city, Vergilius and the young Jew
rode abreast.

"Tell me," said the former, presently, "what know you of the new king?"

"Of him I have thought much and know little," said David.  "My mother
taught me to look for him.  That was before the evil days."

"And you learned what of her?"

"Little save the long hope.  She taught me an old chant of the coming.
If you wish, I will sing it."

Being bidden, he sang, as she had sung who hushed the revels of
Antipater, of signs and fears and of arrows to fly as the lightning.
Words, melody, emotion, the note of inveterate wrong, were those of the
slave-girl.

"The same nose and blue eyes, and fair, curly locks--the same feeling
and chant of faith," said Vergilius, thoughtfully.  "Did you not live
in Galilee and suffer ill fortune?"

"We lived in Galilee, and, by-and-by, were as those hurled into
Gehenna."

"And have you a sister in Rome?"

"I have a sister, but know not where she may be.  Cyran the Beloved, so
my mother called her."

Then Vergilius told his companion how he had won her from the son of
Herod and left her in the keeping of Arria.  David wept as he listened.

When the tale was finished he spoke bitterly: "'Twas she--the Beloved.
My father was put to death, his property seized, his wife and children
dragged to captivity.  My heart is faint with sorrow.  God!  I weary of
thy slowness.

  "Send, quickly send the new king, whose arrows
      shall fly as the lightning
  Making the mighty afraid and the proud to bow
      low and the wicked to tremble."


For a moment they rode in silence.  David was first to speak.

"Forgive me," said he, with fear of his imprudence.  "My tongue has
gone too far.  I am true to Herod, being his debtor, for he gave me
freedom.  But I am of the house of David."

"Fear not," said Vergilius.  "Never shall I betray the broken hearted.
I give you friendship."

"And I give you gratitude," was the answer of the Jew.

"I am as a child here in Judea and seek understanding.  You shall be my
teacher."

For a time neither spoke; soon David asked: "Will you tell me of her my
sister is now serving?"

"Of all the daughters of Rome she is noblest.  We love each other.  Ah,
friend!  'Tis a wonder--this great love.  My tongue halts when I think
of it."

He paused, in meditation.

"I have heard much of it here in Judea--a love that exalts the soul,"
said David.

"And changes the heart of man with all that is in it.  My love has
filled me with a tender feeling for all women; it has made me to hate
injustice and even to complain of the gods."

"To complain of the gods!" said David, turning and looking into the
face of his friend.

"It does seem to me they set a bad example and are too childish for the
work they have to do, but still--still I bow before them."

"I do not understand you," said David.

"They are given to spite, anger, vanity, lust, revenge, and idleness.
Caesar is greater than they.  He has learned self-control.  And this
new king of your faith, who, you tell me, is to conquer the world--he
is no better."

"And why think you so?"

"He is to conquer the world.  Good sir, it has been conquered--how many
times!  He shall make the mighty afraid--have they not often trembled
with fear and perished by the sword?  He shall fling arrows of just
revenge, as if our old earth were not already soaked in the blood of
the wicked.  Ah, my David, I wonder not you long for a king of the
sword and the arrow.  Revenge is ever the dream of the oppressed.  But
I have dreamed of a greater king."

"Tell me who?"

"He would be like this love in me," said Vergilius.  "If it were to go
abroad--if it were only to find the hearts of the mighty--what, think
you, would happen?"

"Ay, if it were to go from friend to friend and from neighbor to
neighbor," said the young Jew, "it would indeed conquer the world."

"And there would be neither war nor injustice."

"Tell me," said David.  "Are there many lovers like you in Rome?"

"Some half a score that I have heard of, and I doubt not there be many."

"'Tis the candle of the Lord--the preparation of the heart of man,"
said David.  "I do believe his arrow shall be that of love."

"This feeling in me has kindled a great desire," said Vergilius.  "I
burn for knowledge."

Then said the young Jew: "Let us find my kinsman, Zacharias--a priest
of holy life and great learning.  Through his aged wife a miracle has
been accomplished.  I learn that she has given birth, and many have
journeyed far to see the child.  There be some who say that he is,
indeed, the king of promise, albeit I have no such opinion."

"Why?"

"There shall be signs in the deep of the heavens, and we have not seen
them."

"Where may we find the priest?"

"In the village of Ain Karim, yonder."

They could see its low dwellings and the dome of its synagogue.  The
Roman halted near the abode of Zacharias, while David took their
followers to the inn.  Suddenly the young Roman saw an aged priest
approaching with a child in his arms.

"I have a message for you," said the man of God, stopping near the
Roman officer.

"And I seek it," said Vergilius, looking at the long, gray beard of the
venerable priest.

"It is borne in upon me to say to you that the kingdom of heaven is at
hand."

"Tell me of the king," said Vergilius.  "I do thirst for knowledge."

"He shall be the prince of peace."

Vergilius looked thoughtfully at the old priest, who now sat down as if
weary.

"And he shall conquer with the sword?"

"Nay, but as it is written, 'he shall judge among the nations and shall
rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares
and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.'"

Now the Roman was alert to hear.  His ideal, which had taken form at
the altar of peace and grown with his love, was being set up before him.

"But the nations are stubborn," said he.  "Tell me, O wise and learned
man, how shall he subdue them?"

"By the love of God, almighty and ever-lasting."

"God, almighty and everlasting," said Vergilius.  "I know him not."

"I do but defile myself to speak with you, worshipper of idols,"
sternly spake the priest.  "And yet I am constrained to instruct you.
Listen--there is a power which even Rome has not been able to conquer.
Know you what power it is?"

The young tribune was recounting the peoples of the earth, when
Zacharias continued:

"'Tis the God of the Jews.  Rome has conquered his people, but mark how
he stands.  And what is there of wrong that his law cannot remedy?
Tell me, is there no injustice in your land?"

"There is much," said the young Roman.

"And so I know--but name it."

"Well, for one thing, men torture and kill their slaves."

"And in the law of the one God 'tis written, 'Thou shalt not kill.'"

After a thoughtful moment Vergilius added: "And the strong prey upon
the weak, seizing their property and holding it for their own."

"And the one God commands, 'Thou shalt not steal'; and again, 'Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox,
nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.'"

"But you have injustice, also, in Judea."

"Ay, because there be evil men who obey not the law of God.  But
presently they shall be put to shame.  Here is he that is come to
prepare the way of the Lord."

The child was now asleep, his head on his father's knee.

"John," said the priest, tenderly looking down.

But the little one continued to sleep, and a wonderful peace and beauty
had come upon him.

"And this new king--whence shall he come and how shall we know him?"
the young Roman persisted.

"Conceived of God, he is now in the womb of his mother," said the
priest.  "Soon--very soon, he shall enter the gate of the world.  The
ground is ready and he shall be like a sower, and his seed shall be
love, and peace shall be his harvest.  If ye would know him, behold
this face."

He touched the brow of the child.  "Son of darkness," he continued,
"look upon the son of light!  The faith of Mizraim or the wisdom of
Hillel could show you no more.  Do you see the new light shining within
this lovely veil of flesh?  Look, and you shall know the fashion of his
countenance, and that his hand shall make no wound."

The priest rose, and, lifting the child in his arms, went away, saying,
"His peace be with you."

The young Roman stood looking at the sweet face that lay on the
shoulder of him departing.  The great hope of Judea had entered his
heart--the hope of a just king to rule the nations and point the way to
eternal life.

On his return he bought a statue representing a beautiful young boy.
He set it up in his chamber, and, kneeling, prayed to it as the one God
who forbade killing and theft and every evil practice of men.  He
prayed for understanding; he prayed, also, that he might see her he
loved.  But this new God seemed as deaf to his entreaty as had been
those of the pagan temples.  Groping for light, he turned to the young
David.  Then first he learned that God, being jealous, hated the image
of everything that has the breath of life.  His understanding had
diminished, for, in this matter, the one God was like the many.  He
questioned the Jew.  "Wonder not," said his friend, "that God hates the
symbol of ancient error.  It has been as a cloud upon the sun."

Vergilius had taken a palace and filled it with treasures, for,
possibly, he had thought, some day she would see all.  Now its noble
statues were sent away--a kind of sacrifice to the God of the Jews.
But there was one he could not part with--a copy of the lovely Venus of
Alcamenes which his mother had sent to him.  He concealed her in a
closet, contenting himself with a furtive glance at her now and then.
He set up in his fancy a giant of benevolent face, and humbly sought
his favor.  Still he had no success.

Lying at table one night with Manius and Ben Joreb, he sought counsel
of the latter.

"He that hath his prayer hath prayed wisely," said the priest.  "You
have much to learn."

"How, and of whom?" said Vergilius.

"There is in Jerusalem a council of learned men.  They expound the
Scripture and study all mysteries of the faith."

"And who are they?"

"I would I knew.  Being wise, they are unknown."

"Unknown!"

"So I have heard.  They have knowledge of him who is to come, and Herod
is very jealous."

"True," said Vergilius.  "I would I were of them who know."

"If it may be so you shall have word tomorrow," said the priest.

Promptly Manius relieved the tension of curiosity.

"Vergilius, I drink to you--the new commander of the cohorts," said he,
rising.

"I reserve my thanks for more information," said Vergilius.

"It will come," said Manius, who then left with the priest in his
company.

Soon the former added, in a low tone: "He may be of some value before
he dies."

"Ah, yes, but he will die young," said the other.




CHAPTER 15

Next day among his letters were two of value in the history of
Vergilius--one from the procurator, apprising him of his appointment to
command the cohorts, the other a communication with no signature, the
source of which was, in his view, quite apparent.  This latter one gave
him the greater satisfaction.  It conveyed, in formal script, the
following message:


"TO ONE SEEKING WISDOM IN PRAYER