"A conspiracy against the life of Caesar has been detected and reported. Its leader is said to be Egnatius Capito. As some informer, sponsored by Talponius Pulto, claims to have seen you in Capito"s company, you are implicated. Save yourself. Do not return home. Do not go to the Palace, order yourself carried immediately to the Querquetulan Gate. On the way there purchase a raincloak and an umbrella hat and whatever else may be needful for your journey.
Outside the _Porta Querquetulana_, in front of Plosurnia"s tavern, you will find one of the fastest horses in Italy, a blood-bay, noticeable for light-blue reins with silver bosses, his saddlecloth light-blue with a silver edge. Descend from your litter in front of the tavern, accost the man holding the horse, say to him:
""Is this the leopard-tamer"s horse?"
"He will reply:
""It is."
"Then say:
""I am the leopard-tamer."
"He will then allow one of your spare bearers to take the horse.
"Divest yourself of your toga then, not sooner. Equip yourself for your journey. Mount and order your bearers to take your empty litter home. Follow the Praenestine Highroad till it meets the _Via Labicana_. Then take the first crossroad to the Highroad to Tibur.
From Tibur press on to Ca.r.s.eoli. Prom there return to Villa Andivia as you judge best. Provide for yourself thereafter as best you may.
"Farewell."
I recognized Vedia"s handwriting. I trusted her implicitly. I was far more elated at her concern for me than I was depressed at my impending ruin.
Somehow the fact that she had taken the trouble not only to warn me, but to think out for me all the details of a plan of at least temporary escape, the inference that she hoped, hoped against hope, that I might be somehow saved, heartened me amazingly; so that I was rather inspirited at the prospect of adventure than daunted by the shadow of inescapable doom.
I gathered myself together, determined to take as much advantage as possible of Vedia"s warning, and of the respite it afforded me. I resolved to follow her suggestions. I had set out for the Palace unusually early. I had plenty of time. I ordered my bearers to carry me through the heart of the City down the whole length of the _Vicus Tuscus_ to the meat market.
I should, I suppose, have been in an agony of vain regrets; I rather expected from moment to moment to be drowned in an inundation of such sensations, I was more than a little surprised at my actual feelings. Here I was, hitherto a wealthy Roman n.o.bleman in excellent standing with my fellows, my superiors and the Prince; from now on a hunted fugitive and not likely to postpone my last hour more than a few days. I was, presumably, viewing the throbbing heart of glorious Rome for the last time. I should have felt chief mourner at my own funeral. Actually I relished, I hugely enjoyed, every pace of my progress through the filling streets, where the pa.s.sers-by and idlers were still fresh, and lively after a night"s sleep and where everything was irradiated by cheerful morning sunlight. I felt cheerful as the sunlight.
Beyond the Meat Market I had my bearers stop at the Temple of Fortune, which I entered, there I prayed fervently before the statue of the G.o.ddess.
When I was again out in the market I bought two live white hens, young and plump, and a.s.signed one of my relief-bearers to carry carefully the basket in which the old market-woman ensconced them, after I had paid her well for her basket as well as her hens.
Then I had my men carry me down the straight empty street along the southwest flank of the Circus Maximus. Half way along it I halted them before the Temple of Mercury. This I entered and, bidding one of the attendants lead me to the priest in charge at that hour, I requested him to offer for me the two white hens and beseech for me the favor of the G.o.d.
Outside I reentered my litter and made my bearers trot all the way round by the big and little Coelian Hills to the Querquetulan Gate. We pa.s.sed on this route many cheap shops. From one I bought a pair of horseman"s high boots, soft and supple and mud-proof. All the way I enjoyed hugely my outing and the sights and sounds around me. From another shop one of my reliefs brought me an umbrella hat which fitted me and a voluminous horseman"s raincloak which could not but protect anybody; at another I had bought for me a wallet; at another flint and steel in a good horn case, compact and neat.
Outside the Querquetulan Gate, which my bearers reached blown and sweating, although the reliefs had changed at short intervals, we had no difficulty in locating Plosurnia"s tavern. The holder of the bay horse with the blue and silver trappings recognized my pa.s.s-words and surrendered his charge to one of my extra bearers. At the tavern another lined my wallet with bread, sausages, olives, dried figs and cheese, while I was changing into horseman"s kit.
I put into the wallet my money, more than enough cash for my journey home, and Vedia"s letter. I then mounted, gave my boys their orders and set off at an easy canter. I knew I must show no signs of haste until I was on the Highroad, so I took my time about working round to it. Once on the _Via Tiburtina_, where hors.e.m.e.n at a tearing gallop, going in either direction, were too common a sight to cause any remarks, I let out my mettlesome mount and covered the remainder of the twenty-four miles to Tibur not long before noon.
Between the bridge over the Anio and Tibur are a number of hilltops, from each of which one has a fine view of Rome, if the weather is clear and bright. The weather was very bright and clear and the views very fine. At each hilltop I checked my mount, wheeled him and remained so for sometime, contemplating the magnificence I might never see again, the glory upon which my gaze, most likely, would never again feast. I should have felt my eyes fill with tears at each of these prospects, the viewing of which was, each time, in the nature of a last farewell. Yet, somehow, most irrationally, I felt anything but dejected, rather hopeful and full of conjectures about my future, instead of being filled with forebodings of doom, with sorrow for my hard fate.
BOOK II
DISAPPEARANCE
CHAPTER X
ESCAPE
At Tibur I put up at a clean little inn I had known of since boyhood, but which I had never before entered or even seen, so that I felt safe there and reasonably sure to pa.s.s as a traveller of no rank whatever. My knowledge of country ways, too, enabled me to behave like a landed proprietor of small means.
After a hearty lunch I pushed boldly on up the Valerian Highway and covered the twenty-two miles between Tibur and Ca.r.s.eoli without visibly tiring my mount. He was no more winded nor lathered than any traveller"s horse should be at the end of a day on the road. At Ca.r.s.eoli I again knew of a clean, quiet inn, and there I dined and slept.
Thence I intended to follow the rough country roads along the Tolenus.
Stream-side roads are always bad, so I allowed two days more in which to reach home, and I could hardly have done it quicker. The night after I left Ca.r.s.eoli I camped by a tributary of the Tolenus in a very pretty little grove. From Ca.r.s.eoli on the weather was fine.
About the third hour of the day, on the fifth day before the Kalends of September, of a fair, bright morning, I came to my own estate. On the road nearing it I had met no one. I met no one along the woodland tracks leading into my property from that side: on my estate I met no one save just as I was about to enter my villa. Then I encountered Ofatulenus, bailiff of the Villa Farm. He, of course, was amazed to see me. I bade him mention to no one, not even to his wife, that I had returned home.
"Be secret!" I enjoined.
He nodded.
I believed he would be dumb. Give me a Sabine to keep a secret; I"d back any Sabine against any other sort of human being.
Ofatulenus took my horse and swore that no one outside of the stable should know it was there or suspect it. I told him to lock the trappings in the third locker in my harness-room, which locker I knew should be empty.
I got from the stable to my villa without encountering any human being.
Outside I found Agathemer, as I had hoped I would, sunning himself on the terrace.
He was even more amazed than Ofatulenus and began to exclaim. I silenced him and questioned him as to his health. He told me that his back was entirely healed and that, while any effort still caused him not a little pain, he was capable of the customary activities of his normal life.
I then told him why I had returned home. He listened in silence, except that he here and there put in a query when I omitted some detail in my excitement.
When he understood my situation thoroughly he asked:
"And what do you propose to do?"
"I propose," I said, "to live here un.o.btrusively, visiting no one, receiving no one and, by all the means in our power, arranging that as few persons as possible may know of my presence here. There is not the faintest scintilla of hope in my doing anything whatever. But if I merely exist without calling attention to my existence there may be some hope for me. No man accused as I am is ever allowed an opportunity to clear himself: but it has often happened that, by keeping away from Rome for a time, a man in my situation has given his friends a chance to use their influence in his behalf, to gain the ear of someone powerful at Court, to get an unbia.s.sed hearing for what they had to say, to prove his complete innocence and rehabilitate him. Vedia and Tanno will do all they can for me. I have hosts of friends, not a few of whom will aid Vedia and Tanno as far as they are able. By keeping quiet here I shall give my friends a chance to save me, if I can be saved. If not, I shall here await such orders as may be sent me, or my arrest, if I am to be seized."
"Is that your whole plan?" Agathemer queried.
"All," I said.
"May I speak?" he asked. "May I speak out my full mind?"
"Certainly!" I agreed. "Speak!"
"If you stay here as you propose," he said, "you will be arrested not later than tomorrow and haled to your death, if not butchered at sight. At most the centurion in charge might allow you an hour in which to commit suicide. But if you remain here inactive your death is certain, you will never see two sunrises.
"But I agree with you that your friends will do what they can and I heartily believe that Opsitius and Vedia will move sky, earth and sea and Hades beneath all, as far as their powers go, to save you. If they have any chance of succeeding they will need more time than Perennis will give them. If you stay here you will be dead before they can so much as lay plans to gain them the ear of Saoteros and Anteros or some other Palace favorite, let along groping through all the complicated intrigues necessary to arrange for an audience with the Emperor when he might be in a compliant humor.
"Your plan means certain death for you. I think I can save you if you will put yourself in my hands. Will you?"