"I, too," said s.e.xtus. "All Rome saw it. The cheap sorcerers are doing a fine trade. They declare it portends evil."
"Evil-but for whom?" Old Galen poured the powder he had sc.r.a.ped into a dish and blinked at him. "Affiliations in the realm of substance are confined to like ingredients. That law is universal. Like seeks like, begetting its own like. As for instance, sickness flows in channels of unwholesomeness, like water seeping through a marsh. Evil? What is evil but the likeness of a deed-its echo-its result-its aftermath? You see this powder? Marcia has ordered me to poison Commodus! What kind of aftermath should that deed have?"
s.e.xtus stared at him astonished. Galen went on mixing.
"Colorless it must be-flavorless-without smell-indetectible. These saviors of Rome prepare too much to save themselves! And I take trouble to save myself. Why?"
He stopped and blinked again at s.e.xtus, waiting for an answer.
"You are worth preserving, Galen."
"I dispute that. I am sentimental, which is idiocy in a man of my age.
But I will not kill him who is superior to any man in Rome."
"Idiocy? You? And you admire that monster?"
"As a monster, yes. He is at least wholehearted. As a monster he lacks neither strength of will nor sinew nor good looks; he is magnificent; he has the fear, the frenzy and the resolution of a splendid animal. We have only cowardice, the unenthusiasm and the indecision of base men. If we had the virtue of Commodus, no Commodus could ever have ruled Rome for half a day. But I am senile. I am sentimental. Rather than betray Marcia-and Pertinax-who would betray me for their own sakes; rather than submit my own old carca.s.s to the slave whom Marcia would send to kill me, I am doing what you see."
"Poison for Commodus?"
"No."
"Not for yourself, Galen?"
"No."
"For whom then?"
"For Pertinax."
s.e.xtus seized the plate on which the several ingredients were being mixed.
"Put that down," said Galen. "I will poison part of him-the mean part."
"Speak in plain words, Galen!"
"I will slay his indecision. He and Marcia propose; that I shall kill their monster. I shall mix a draught for Marcia to take to him-in case this, and in case that, and perhaps. In plain words, Commodus has sent for Livius and none knows how much Livius has told. Their monster writes and scratches out and rewrites long proscription lists, and Marcia trembles for her Christians. For herself she does not tremble. She has ten times Pertinax" ability to rule. If Marcia were a man she should be emperor! Our Pertinax is hesitating between inertia and doubt and dread of Cornificia"s ambition for him; between admiration of his own wife and contempt for her; between the subtleties of auguries and common sense; between trust and mistrust of us all, including Marcia and you and me; between the easy dignity of being governor of Rome and the uneasy palace-slavery of being Caesar; between doubt of his own ability to rule and the will to restore the republic."
"We all know Pertinax," said s.e.xtus. "He is diffident, that is all. He is modest. Once he has made his decision-"
Galen interrupted him
"Then let us pray the G.o.ds to make the rest of us immodest! The decision that he makes is this: If Commodus has heard of the conspiracy; if Commodus intends to kill him, he will then allow somebody else to kill Commodus! He will permit me, who am a killer only by professional mistake and not by intention, to be made to kill my former pupil with a poisoned drink! You understand, not even then will Pertinax take resolution by the throat and do his own work."
"So Pertinax shall drink this?"
"It is meant that Commodus shall drink it. That is, unless Commodus emerges from his sulks too soon and butchers all of us-as we deserve!"
"Have done with riddles, Galen! How will that affect Pertinax, except to make him emperor?"
"Nothing will make him emperor unless he makes himself," said Galen. "You will know tonight. We lack a hero, s.e.xtus. All conspirators resemble rats that gnaw and run, until one rat at last discovers himself Caesar of the herd by accident. Caius Julius Caesar was a hero. He was one mind bold and above and aloof. He saw. He considered. He took. His murderers were all conspirators, who ran like rats and turned on one another. So are we! Can you imagine Caius Julius Caesar threatening an old philosopher like me with death unless he mixed the poison for a woman to take to his enemy"s bedside? Can you imagine the great Julius hesitating to destroy a friend or spare an enemy?"
"Do you mean, they strike tonight, and haven"t warned me?"
"I have warned you."
"Marcia has been prepared these many days to kill me if I meant to strike," said s.e.xtus. "I can understand that; it is no more than a woman"s method to protect her bully. She accuses and defends him, fears and loves him, hates him and hates more the man who sets her free. But Pertinax-did he not bid you warn me?"
"No," said Galen. "Are you looking for n.o.bility? I tell you there is nothing n.o.ble in conspiracies. Pertinax and Marcia have used you. They will try to use me. They will blame me. They will certainly blame you. I advise you to run to your friends in the Aventine Hills. Thence hasten out of Italy. If Pertinax should fail and Commodus survives this night-"
"No, Galen. He must not fail! Rome needs Pertinax. That poison- phaugh! Is no sword left in Rome? Has Pertinax no iron in him? Better one of Marcia"s long pins than that unmanly stuff. Where is Narcissus?"
"I don"t know," said Galen. "Narcissus is another who will do well to protect himself. Commodus is well disposed toward him. Commodus might send for him-as he will surely send for me if belly-burning sets in. He and I would make a good pair to be blamed for murdering an emperor."
"You run!" urged s.e.xtus. "Go now! Go to my camp in the Aventines. You will find Norba.n.u.s and two freedmen waiting near the Porta Capena; they are wearing farmers" clothes and look as if they came from Sicily. They know you. Say I bade them take you into hiding."
Galen smiled at him. "And you?" he asked.
"Narcissus shall smuggle me into the palace. It is I who will slay Commodus, lest Pertinax should stain his hands. If they prefer to turn on me, what matter? Pertinax, if he is to be Caesar, will do better not to mount the throne all b.l.o.o.d.y. Let him blame me and then execute me. Rome will reap the benefit. Marcia has the praetorian guard well under control, what with her bribes and all the license she has begged for them. Let Marcia proclaim that Pertinax is Caesar, the praetorian guard will follow suit, and the senate will confirm it so soon after daybreak that the citizens will find themselves obeying a new Caesar before they know the old one is dead! Then let Pertinax make new laws and restore the ancient liberties. I will die happy."
"O youth-insolence of youth!" said Galen, smiling. He resumed his mixing of the powders, adding new ingredients. "I was young once-young and insolent. I dared to try to tutor Commodus! But never in my long life was I insolent enough to claim all virtue for myself and bid my elders go and hide! You think you will slay Commodus? I doubt it."
"How so?"
s.e.xtus was annoyed. The youth in him resented that his altruism should be mocked.
"Pertinax should do it," Galen answered. "If Rome needed no more than philosophy and grammar, better make me Caesar! I was mixing my philosophy with surgery and medicine while Pertinax was sucking at his mother"s breast in a Ligurian hut. Rome, my son, is sick of too much mixed philosophy. She needs a man of iron-a riser to occasion-a cutter of Gordian knots, precisely as a sick man needs a surgeon. The senate will vote, as you say, at the praetorian guard"s dictation. You have been clever, my s.e.xtus, with your stirring of faction against faction. They are mean men, all so full of mutual suspicion as to heave a huge sigh when they know that Pertinax is Caesar, knowing he will overlook their plotting and rule without bloodshed if that can be done. But it can"t be! Unless Pertinax is man enough to strike the blow that shall restore the ancient liberties, then he is better dead before he tries to play the savior! We have a tyrant now. Shall we exchange him for a weak-kneed theorist?"
"Are you ready to die, Galen?"
"Why not? Are you the only Roman? I am not so old I have no virtue left. A little wisdom comes with old age, s.e.xtus. It is better to live for one"s country than to die for it, but since no way has been invented of avoiding death, it is wiser to die usefully than like a sandal thrown on to the rubbish-heap because the fashion changes."
"I wish you would speak plainly, Galen. I have told you all my secrets. You have seen me risk my life a thousand times in the midst of Commodus" informers, coming and going, interviewing this and that one, urging here, restraining there, denying myself even hope of personal reward. You know I have been whole-hearted in the cause of Pertinax. Is it right, in a crisis, to put me off with subtleties?"
"Life is subtle. So is virtue. So is this stuff," Galen answered, poking at the mixture with a bronze spoon. "Every man must choose his own way in a crisis. Some one"s star has fallen. Commodus"? I think not. That star blazed out of obscurity, and Commodus is not obscure. Mine? I am unimportant; I shall make no splendor in the heavens when my hour comes. Marcia"s? Is she obscure? Yours? You are like me, not born to the purple; when a sparrow dies, however diligently he has labored in the dirt, no meteors announce his fall. No, not Maternus, the outlaw, to say nothing of s.e.xtus, the legally dead man, can command such notice from the sky. That meteor was some one"s who shall blaze into fame and then die."
"Dark words, Galen!"
"Dark deeds!" the old man answered. "And a path to be chosen in darkness! Shall I poison the man whom I taught as a boy? Shall I refuse, and be drowned in the sewer by Marcia"s slaves? Shall I betray my friends to save my own old carca.s.s? Shall I run away and hide, at my age, and live hounded by my own thoughts, fearful of my shadow, eating charity from peasants? I can easily say no to all those things. What then? It is not what a man does not, but what he does that makes him or unmakes him. There is nothing left but subtlety, my s.e.xtus. What will you do? Go and do it now. Tomorrow may be too late."
s.e.xtus shrugged his shoulders, baffled and irritated. He had always looked to Galen for advice in a predicament. It was Galen, in fact, who had kept him from playing much more than the part of a spy-listening, talking, suggesting, but forever doing nothing violent.
"You know as well as I do, there is nothing ready," he retorted. "Long ago I could have had a thousand armed men waiting for a moment such as this to rally behind Pertinax. But I listened to you-"
"And are accordingly alive, not crucified!" said Galen. "The praetorian guard is well able to slaughter any thousand men, to uphold Commodus or to put Pertinax in the place of Commodus. Your thousand men would only decorate a thousand gibbets, whether Pertinax should win or lose. If he should win, and become Caesar, he would have to make them an example of his love of law and order, proving his impartiality by blaming them for what he never invited them to do. For mark this: Pertinax has never named himself as Commodus" successor. I warn you: there is far less safety for his friends than for his enemies, unless he, with his own hand, strikes the blow that makes him emperor."
"If Marcia should do it-?"
"That would be the end of Marcia."