Vinicius, while hearing these words, was as pale as linen; but he listened with such attention that he seemed to divine at a glance what Nazarius had to say.
"Will they carry out other bodies from the prison?" inquired Petronius.
"About twenty died last night, and before evening more will be dead," said the youth. "We must go with a whole company, but we will delay and drop into the rear. At the first corner my comrade will get lame purposely. In that way we shall remain behind the others considerably. Ye will wait for us at the small temple of Libitina. May G.o.d give a night as dark as possible!"
"He will," said Niger. "Last evening was bright, and then a sudden storm came. To-day the sky is clear, but since morning it is sultry. Every night now there will be wind and rain."
"Will ye go without torches?" inquired Vinicius.
"The torches are carried only in advance. In every event, be near the temple of Libitina at dark, though usually we carry out the corpses only just before midnight."
They stopped. Nothing was to be heard save the hurried breathing of Vinicius. Petronius turned to him,-
"I said yesterday that it would be best were we both to stay at home, but now I see that I could not stay. Were it a question of flight, there would be need of the greatest caution; but since she will be borne out as a corpse, it seems that not the least suspicion will enter the head of any one."
"True, true!" answered Vinicius. "I must be there. I will take her from the coffin myself."
"Once she is in my house at Corioli, I answer for her," said Niger. Conversation stopped here. Niger returned to his men at the inn. Nazarius took a purse of gold under his tunic and went to the prison. For Vinicius began a day filled with alarm, excitement, disquiet, and hope.
"The undertaking ought to succeed, for it is well planned," said Petronius. "It was impossible to plan better. Thou must feign suffering, and wear a dark toga. Do not desert the amphitheatre. Let people see thee. All is so fixed that there cannot be failure. But-art thou perfectly sure of thy manager?"
"He is a Christian," replied Vinicius.
Petronius looked at him with amazement, then shrugged his shoulders, and said, as if in soliloquy,-
"By Pollux! how it spreads, and commands people"s souls. Under such terror as the present, men would renounce straightway all the G.o.ds of Rome, Greece, and Egypt. Still, this is wonderful! By Pollux! if I believed that anything depended on our G.o.ds, I would sacrifice six white bullocks to each of them, and twelve to Capitoline Jove. Spare no promises to thy Christ."
"I have given Him my soul," said Vinicius.
And they parted. Petronius returned to his cubiculum; but Vinicius went to look from a distance at the prison, and thence betook himself to the slope of the Vatican hill,-to that hut of the quarryman where he had received baptism from the hands of the Apostle. It seemed to him that Christ would hear him more readily there than in any other place; so when he found it, he threw himself on the ground and exerted all the strength of his suffering soul in prayer for mercy, and so forgot himself that he remembered not where he was or what he was doing. In the afternoon he was roused by the sound of trumpets which came from the direction of Nero"s Circus. He went out of the hut, and gazed around with eyes which were as if just opened from sleep.
It was hot; the stillness was broken at intervals by the sound of bra.s.s and continually by the ceaseless noise of gra.s.shoppers. The air had become sultry, the sky was still clear over the city, but near the Sabine Hills dark clouds were gathering at the edge of the horizon.
Vinicius went home. Petronius was waiting for him in the atrium.
"I have been on the Palatine," said he. "I showed myself there purposely, and even sat down at dice. There is a feast at the house of Vinicius this evening; I promised to go, but only after midnight, saying that I must sleep before that hour. In fact I shall be there, and it would be well wert thou to go also."
"Are there no tidings from Niger or Nazarius?" inquired Vinicius.
"No; we shall see them only at midnight. Hast noticed that a storm is threatening?"
"Yes."
"To-morrow there is to be an exhibition of crucified Christians, but perhaps rain will prevent it."
Then he drew nearer and said, touching his nephew"s shoulder,-"But thou wilt not see her on the cross; thou wilt see her only in Corioli. By Castor! I would not give the moment in which we free her for all the gems in Rome. The evening is near."
In truth the evening was near, and darkness began to encircle the city earlier than usual because clouds covered the whole horizon. With the coming of night heavy rain fell, which turned into steam on the stones warmed by the heat of the day, and filled the streets of the city with mist. After that came a lull, then brief violent showers.
"Let us hurry!" said Vinicius at last; "they may carry bodies from the prison earlier because of the storm."
"It is time!" said Petronius.
And taking Gallic mantles with hoods, they pa.s.sed through the garden door to the street. Petronius had armed himself with a short Roman knife called sicca, which he took always during night trips.
The city was empty because of the storm. From time to time lightning rent the clouds, illuminating with its glare the fresh walls of houses newly built or in process of building and the wet flag-stones with which the streets were paved. At last a flash came, when they saw, after a rather long road, the mound on which stood the small temple of Libitina, and at the foot of the mound a group of mules and horses.
"Niger!" called Vinicius, in a low voice.
"I am here, lord," said a voice in the rain.
"Is everything ready?"
"It is. We were here at dark. But hide yourselves under the rampart, or ye will be drenched. What a storm! Hail will fall, I think."
In fact Niger"s fear was justified, for soon hail began to fall, at first fine, then larger and more frequent. The air grew cold at once. While standing under the rampart, sheltered from the wind and icy missiles, they conversed in low voices.
"Even should some one see us," said Niger, "there will be no suspicion; we look like people waiting for the storm to pa.s.s. But I fear that they may not bring the bodies out till morning."
"The hail-storm will not last," said Petronius. "We must wait even till daybreak."
They waited, listening to hear the sound of the procession. The hail-storm pa.s.sed, but immediately after a shower began to roar. At times the wind rose, and brought from the "Putrid Pits" a dreadful odor of decaying bodies, buried near the surface and carelessly.
"I see a light through the mist," said Niger,-"one, two, three,-those are torches. See that the mules do not snort," said he, turning to the men.
"They are coming!" said Petronius.
The lights were growing more and more distinct. After a time it was possible to see torches under the quivering flames.
Niger made the sign of the cross, and began to pray. Meanwhile the gloomy procession drew nearer, and halted at last in front of the temple of Libitina. Petronius, Vinicius, and Niger pressed up to the rampart in silence, not knowing why the halt was made. But the men had stopped only to cover their mouths and faces with cloths to ward off the stifling stench which at the edge of the "Putrid Pits" was simply unendurable; then they raised the biers with coffins and moved on. Only one coffin stopped before the temple. Vinicius sprang toward it, and after him Petronius, Niger, and two British slaves with the litter.
But before they had reached it in the darkness, the voice of Nazarius was heard, full of pain,-
"Lord, they took her with Ursus to the Esquiline prison. We are carrying another body! They removed her before midnight."
Petronius, when he had returned home, was gloomy as a storm, and did not even try to console Vinicius. He understood that to free Lygia from the Esquiline dungeons was not to be dreamed of. He divined that very likely she had been taken from the Tullianum so as not to die of fever and escape the amphitheatre a.s.signed to her. But for this very reason she was watched and guarded more carefully than others. From the bottom of his soul Petronius was sorry for her and Vinicius, but he was wounded also by the thought that for the first time in life he had not succeeded, and for the first time was beaten in a struggle.
"Fortune seems to desert me," said he to himself, "but the G.o.ds are mistaken if they think that I will accept such a life as his, for example."
Here he turned toward Vinicius, who looked at him with staring eyes. "What is the matter? Thou hast a fever," said Petronius.
But Vinicius answered with a certain strange, broken, halting voice, like that of a sick child,-"But I believe that He-can restore her to me."
Above the city the last thunders of the storm had ceased.