"Agrippa, or I am a landsman!" a sailor shouted. "Fugitive from debtors, or I am a pirate!"
"Jews!" another woman screamed; "coming to collect usury!"
A howl of rage, threatening and lawless, greeted this cry, out of which rose the sailor"s voice with a shout of laughter.
"Usury! Ha, ha! He has not a denarius on him that is not borrowed!"
The Jewish prince had lived a life of diverse fortune, but never until then had he been the object of popular scorn. A surprise was aroused in him as great as his indignation; he stood transfixed with emotion.
Cypros, thoroughly terrified, came out from among her servants and clung to his arm. On her the eyes of the fishwives alighted.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Cypros, thoroughly terrified, clung to his arm (missing from book)]
"Look! Look!" they cried. "Sparing us our husbands by hiding her beauty! The rag over her face! Bah! for a plaster of mud!"
"Fish-scales will serve as well," another cried, s.n.a.t.c.hing up a handful and throwing it at the princess.
"Have mine, too, Ba.s.sia! Thou art a better thrower than I!" a third shouted, handing up her basket.
"Be sure of your aim, Ba.s.sia!"
The uproar became general.
"A handful for the simpering hand-maid, too!"
"Don"t miss the she-Herod!"
"Fall to, wives; don"t leave it all to Ba.s.sia!"
""Way for the proconsul!"--a distant roar came up from the water"s edge.
"Bilge-water in my jar, there, mate; it will mix their perfumes!"
""Way for the proconsul!" the distant roar insisted.
"Don"t soil the proconsul, women!"
""Ware, Ba.s.sia! The proconsul is coming!"
"Perpol! he will not see! He is the best Jew-baiter in all Alexandria!
Sure aim, O Phoebus of the bow!"
""Way for the proconsul!"
"Pluto take the legionaries; here they come!"
"One more pitch at them, though Caesar were coming!"
"No privileges exclusive for thyself, Ba.s.sia! _Habet_! More scales!"
"Scales; sh.e.l.ls; water! Scales; sh--"
"Fish-heads! _Habet_!"
"Entrails--"
""Way for the proconsul!"
"Directly, comrades! Sh.e.l.ls, water!"
"Ow! You hit a soldier!"
"Bad aim, Ba.s.sia!"
"The legionaries! Scatter!"
The centurion at the head of a column now appeared, with his bra.s.ses dripping with dirty water, threw up his sword and shouted. The column flung itself out of line and went into the mob with pilum b.u.t.t or point as the spirit urged.
Pell-mell, tumbling, screaming, scrambling, the wharf-litter fled, parting in two bodies as it pa.s.sed Agrippa"s demoralized group, one half plunging off the masonry on the sands or into the water, the other scattering out over the great expanse of dock. The soldiers pressed after, and, following in the s.p.a.ce they had cleared, came a chariot, a legate in full armor driving, his charioteer crouching on his haunches in the rear of the car.
His apparitors brought up against Agrippa"s party. They did not hesitate at the rank of the strangers; it was part of the blockade.
Eutychus took to his heels and Silas went down under a blow from a reversed javelin. Agrippa, besmirched with the missiles of his late a.s.sailants and blazing with fury, breasted the soldiers and cursed them fervently. Two of them sprang upon him, and Cypros, screaming wildly, threw off her veil and seized the foremost legionary.
The legate pulled up his horses and looked at the struggle. Cypros"
bared face was presented to him. With a cry of astonishment, he threw down the lines and leaped from the chariot.
"Back, comrades!" he shouted, running toward them. "Touch her not!
Unhand the man! Ho! Domitius, call off your tigers!"
"How now, Flaccus!" Agrippa raged. "Is this how you receive Roman citizens in Alexandria?"
The legate stopped short and his face blackened.
"Agrippa, by the furies! I knew the lady, but--" with a motion of his hand he seemed to put off his temper and to recover himself. "Tut, tut! Herod, you will not waste good serviceable wrath on an Alexandrian uproar when you have lived among them a s.p.a.ce. They are no more to be curbed than the Nile overflow, and are as natural to the place. But curse them, they shall answer for this! Welcome to Alexandria! Beshrew me, but the sight of your lady"s face makes me young again! Come, come; bear me no ill will. Be our guest, Herod, and we shall make back to you for all this mob"s inhospitality. Ah, my lady, what say you? Urge my pardon for old time"s sake!"
He turned his face, which filled with more sincerity toward Cypros than was visible in his voluble cordiality to Agrippa. Cypros, supported by the trembling Drumah, put her hand to her forehead and tried to smile bravely.
"But thou hast saved us, n.o.ble Flaccus; why should we bear thee ill will? Blessed be thou for thy timely coming, else we had been killed!"
Agrippa, still smoldering, with Silas at his feet, alternately brushing the prince"s dress and rubbing his bruises, took the word from Cypros.
"What do Roman citizens, arriving in Alexandria, and no proconsul to meet them? Perchance Rome"s sundry long missing citizens have been lost here!" intimated Agrippa.
"Ho, no! They never kill except under provocation. Yet I shall have a word with the wharf-master and the praetor. But come, have my chariot, lady. Apparitor," addressing one of his guards, "send hither conveyance for my guests!"
"Thy pardon and thanks, Flaccus," Agrippa objected shortly, "we are expected by the alabarch."
"Then, by the Horae, he should have been here to meet you. Forget him for his discourtesy and come with me. Beseech your husband, sweet lady; you were my confederate in the old days."
She smiled, in a pleased way. "But we did not inform the alabarch when we expected to arrive," she answered. "He hath not failed us."