Caesar left Capri and roved along the Italian coast in his splendid barges, or approached by land close to Rome, even to spend the night just without her walls, or in Tusculum, Ostia, Antium or Baiae. He dragged his court with him, by this time deserted of all upright men, and circling, slinking, making sorties and retiring, he brought up at last in the villa of Lucullus on Misenum with all his unclean party.
Macro in attendance upon Caesar had left a tribune in Rome as a post of despatch from which necessary information could be communicated to the prefect in Misenum. The tribune, a sour old praetorian, with more integrity than graciousness, charged to protect Agrippa"s interests for Macro"s sake, now that Caligula was prince imperial, was empowered with not a little of the prefect"s authority, which he administered with a kind of slavish awe of it.
So, when a young Alexandrian Jew, giving the name of Justin Cla.s.sicus, bearing a letter of introduction from the Proconsul of Egypt, applied for a tessera which would give him admission to Misenum, the tribune refused, declaring that the visitor must be indorsed by a Roman of rank and in good odor with the emperor. Cla.s.sicus took his departure, a.s.suring the tribune that he would go to Baiae where young Tiberius lived in his father"s villa, and get the indors.e.m.e.nt of the lad, to whom Flaccus was notedly a partizan.
As soon as Cla.s.sicus had departed, the tribune rushed a messenger to Marsyas, with Macro"s signet which would command horses at posts between Rome and Misenum, and informed the young man what menaced the Herod.
Marsyas did not tarry for preparation. He knew that Cla.s.sicus would go by the common route, by sea from Ostia, and that the overland route was only, by the luckiest of circ.u.mstances, the speedier.
Before the messenger had returned to the tribune, Marsyas was on the road to Misenum.
A day later, he pa.s.sed the picket thrown out a hundred paces from the actual precincts of the villa of Lucullus, but when he offered his tessera to the praetorian posted at its inner walls, the soldier did not lower his short sword. Marsyas, who had come to know many of the praetorians, looked in surprise at the man.
"Turn back, good sir," the man said. "None enters the lines to-day."
While he knew that it was useless to ask the sentinel why the arbitrary order was in force, the question leaped to his lips before he could stop it. His voice was eager.
"What pa.s.seth within?"
The soldier shook his head. Marsyas drew away a s.p.a.ce and thought. He knew that the little Tiberius was an exception to every law laid down by Caesar; Cla.s.sicus could not have armed himself with a more potent name. Caligula"s friends, even Macro"s friends, might be barred, not the friends of the little beloved Tiberius.
The obstruction was dangerous.
He knew that he had to deal with Cla.s.sicus.
The bitterness in his heart rose up and smothered his distress: for the moment he lost sight of Agrippa"s peril, his hope against Saul of Tarsus and his fear for Lydia, in the all-overwhelming rancor against the man who was setting foot upon all the purposes in the young Essene"s life.
While he stood wrestling with a mighty impulse to kill Cla.s.sicus, a courier in a well-known livery bowed beside him.
"The Lady Junia sends thee greeting and would see thee in her father"s house."
Marsyas turned readily and followed the servant.
He had come to look upon the Roman woman as a counselor, of whom he had some serviceable ideas out of the many he had not adopted. He knew that if he crossed her threshold to find distressing tidings within, he was sure of finding an attempt at alleviation at the same time. He might come forth vexed with all his friends, hating more hotly his enemies, but less amazed at sin in general. He had not learned to apologize for the world, nor even to believe in it; he had simply come to accept it as a necessary and irremediable evil. The general condemnation of his skepticism had not left her untouched, but he felt, nevertheless, that no one was so bad that another much worse could not be found. Junia, therefore, occupied a position of lesser blame. She was charitable and amiable, and whatever she had done that failed to measure up to his Jewish standard of virtue had been overshadowed by her usefulness.
He was led toward a little inclosure of lattice-work and vines on the summit of a knoll, from which the imperial demesnes were visible.
Between the screen and the brink of the eminence was earth enough for the foothold of an olive, and its dark crown reached over and shaded the s.p.a.ce within. There was a single marble exedra with feet and arms of carven claws, and through the interstices of the vinery and the farther shade and foliage of the new spring, the insula of Euodus arose white and graceful. The sunshine lay in brilliant mosaics over the thick sod, and above, lozenges of blue showed where the light had entrance. The breeze from the warm bay went soft-footed through the trees, and for the moment Marsyas felt that all the friendliness which the world held for him had been caught and pent in the little garden.
Junia was there, luxuriously bestowed in the cushions of the stone seat. She made room for him beside her, but he took one of the pillows and, dropping it on the gra.s.s, sat at her feet.
He looked at her with expectancy in his eyes.
"O my Junia," he said, "why dost thou wear that eager, uninformed look, as if thou wouldst say, "Tell me quickly what news thou hast!" when thou knowest invariably I bring no cheer!"
"Hear him!" she cried. "Shall I look thus: "Here comes Marsyas, bearing evil tidings and craving comfort, for he does not care for me except when I may do something for him?""
"Of a truth, dost thou not say that in thy heart?" he insisted.
"No! I say this: "Yonder young man is much in debt to me, but my requital when I ask it will be equal to his debt." Wherefore, I shall serve on till the sum is equal."
"Thou speakest truly when thou sayest I am in debt to thee, but if thou hast in thy heart something which thou wouldst have me do, command me now!"
"Perchance when I see what brought thee to Misenum, to-day," she smiled.
"If thou canst help me, Junia, I shall owe thee a life!"
"Thy life, Marsyas?"
"No; Agrippa"s--or the life of Justin Cla.s.sicus!"
"How now!" she cried, and there was more genuine interest in her soft voice than she had previously shown. "What hath stirred thee against Cla.s.sicus?"
At that moment an indistinct shout of great volume, as of many men cheering behind walls, interrupted him. He turned his head quickly in the direction of the palace.
"What pa.s.seth within?" he asked; "why will they not admit me?"
"Nothing, nothing," she said hurriedly, "or at least only an important ceremony which none but Caesar can perform; Macro does not wish him to be interrupted. Go on with thy story!"
"Flaccus hath sent a messenger to the emperor--a messenger that commands the favor of the little Prince Tiberius."
"Who told thee?" she asked.
"Well?" she inquired.
He studied the look on her face and felt that it was strangely composed for the a.s.sumed eagerness in her voice.
"The tribune refused him the tessera which he must have to approach the emperor"s abode, and required that he produce the indors.e.m.e.nt of some notable Roman before he return again. The messenger went away boasting that he would get it of the little Tiberius."
"He will!" she a.s.sented, "for little Tiberius is not on the promontory to-day, and the sentries without dare not refuse the lad"s signet!"
Marsyas frowned and looked down: he was perplexed that she did not help.
"Is there no way to shut him out of Misenum?" he asked.
"Caesar"s pa.s.sport is as much a command as Caesar"s denial--when the little Tiberius delivers it," she repeated.
"But can I not reach Macro?"
"No," she said decisively. "Macro"s powers pale before the lad"s."
Was she at the end of her ingenuity, or her willingness, he asked himself.
"He will get to the emperor, then, if he start?" His desperation grew under the lady"s easy irony.
"Unless thou or some other of Agrippa"s friends disable him permanently with a bodkin, or a storm deliver him up to the Nereids."
Marsyas" hands clenched: he moved as if to rise, but she slipped her hands through the bend of his elbow and let them r.e.t.a.r.d him, more by their presence than by actual strength.