"The gray stole; the slave woman who inquires for you. She waits her answer at the door," said the boy, his tongue loosened by the question.
"Let her come to me," commanded Sergius, and he threw himself down upon the deeply cushioned seat of a marble chair. Agathocles stood at his elbow, with an expression of anxiety on his face, and, in a moment more, the girl entered.
m.u.f.fled almost to the eyes, she glided forward, and the voice that addressed him was soft and musical.
"May the G.o.ds favour you, my lord! even as they have favoured me in permitting a sight of your improved health."
"You have been here often," began Sergius, "and I wished to see you and bid you bear my thanks to her who sent you."
Slowly the stole dropped from the eyes--very pretty eyes, that, joined with an equally pretty mouth, took on an expression of hurt astonishment.
"That _sent_ me?" she murmured, half sadly. "Ah, well; doubtless it is a matter of insolence for a poor slave girl to wish and ask concerning the health of the n.o.ble Sergius."
The tribune watched her closely and with mingled feelings. He had settled in his mind, from the moment of Agathocles" mention of the fact, that the slave woman who called must be sent by Marcia, and it was not without a pang of very poignant regret that he relinquished the idea. That he could not place this girl--one of a cla.s.s so far beneath the notice of a Roman of rank--was not strange, and yet the face seemed vaguely familiar to him, and--it was certainly little short of beautiful. A man flouted, or, still worse, ignored by a mistress at whose shrine he has worshipped, might well be pardoned a feeling of satisfaction that his well-being was a matter of interest to at least one pretty woman.
Meanwhile the girl stood before him, her arms hanging by her sides, her eyes modestly cast down, and her whole att.i.tude indicative of detected audacity and submissive despair. Agathocles had transferred his attention from his patient to the visitor, and his scrutiny seemed to trouble her.
"So it was yourself alone who desired to learn of my welfare," said Sergius, with a faint smile. "Believe me, my girl, no Roman is too n.o.ble to value the interest of beauty like yours."
There was just the suspicion of a laugh in the downcast eyes, but it sped away as swiftly as it came, and she made haste to answer:--
"Truly, my lord does not measure his own worth. There are many, as much above me in beauty as they are in rank; many who cannot venture to show the concern they doubtless feel. What has a poor slave girl to do with maidenly modesty--the plaything of any master who chooses to smile upon her for a moment?"
She spoke bitterly, and Sergius, half frowning, half smiling, reached out his hand. The contrast between this girl"s frankly spoken interest and the courted Marcia"s trivial indifference came to him more powerfully. What a fool a man was to waste himself on some haughty mistress who exacted all things and gave nothing! She had taken the hand he held out, and now, suddenly, he drew her to him, and kissed her.
Then he found new occasion to marvel over the strange ways of women.
As if awakened from a dream or a part in a comedy, to some instant and frightful peril, she wrenched herself from him and, wrapping her cloak around her face, turned and ran like a deer through the hallway and out into the street.
Sergius was dazed for a moment by the suddenness of it all; then he rose.
"Quick, Smyrnus!" he called to the boy who attended on the porter.
"Follow, and bring me word where she goes."
The delay had been short, and Smyrnus was swift of foot, but when he reached the street it was empty as far as he could see, and a dash to each corner of the house gave no better results. Inquiries, likewise, were unavailing, and he returned slowly and with shoulders that already seemed to tingle under the expected rods.
Meanwhile, Agathocles had essayed to exert his authority over the invalid, and was protesting volubly against the latter"s imprudence.
Sergius was in excellent humour, despite the escape of his conquest.
"Nonsense, my Agathocles," he began, half guiltily at first, but gaining confidence as he pursued his justification. "Do you not see, all this has done me more good than a score of days spent in dull reclining, with only nauseous draughts to mark the hours by? I have learned that I am a man again, with an interest in the Republic and myself. Surely such knowledge is worth a little risk. To-morrow, mark you, if the G.o.ds favour me, I shall descend into the Forum and see if nothing is to be effected against this rabble in the matter of the elections. Had she not magnificent eyes, my Agathocles? not those of the dull ox, as your Homer puts it, but rather of the startled fawn?"
"They seemed to me more of the fox," said the physician, dryly, "being golden in colour and very cunning. I doubt you fathomed her smile, though wherefore she should seek--"
"Sacrilege! Agathocles," cried Sergius, gayly; "but here comes Smyrnus.
Well, boy, where is the lair of this fox of our good Agathocles?"
The terrified boy had thrown himself upon his face.
"I hastened with all speed, master," he protested. "At your word I flew, but she was gone, as if a G.o.d had s.n.a.t.c.hed her up, nor was there a pa.s.ser-by who had seen aught--"
Sergius was frowning ominously; then his face cleared.
"Doubtless that was it, Smyrnus," he said. "Your judicious piety is quicker than your heels in saving your back. If a G.o.d took her, he showed excellent taste, and it would be utter sacrilege to punish you for failing to learn her whereabouts. Come, Agathocles, be not so gloomy. Do you think it is Aesculapius who has come to your aid? He, at least, is no spruce, young rival. Be conciliatory, or I may, perhaps, venture to try my fortune even against--"
"I am rather of the opinion that some cunning Hermes has tricked Eros and Aesculapius and my Lord Lucius as well," said the physician. An expression of grim humour lurked in his face, and Sergius felt strangely uncomfortable.
"What is a physician if he talk not in the language of oracles," he said, querulously. "Well, you may send me to my couch now, if you will; but, mark you, to-morrow I go to the Forum."
XI.
POLITICS.
On the following day, Sergius, true to his purpose, ordered his litter to be brought, and, reclining as his weakness compelled, was borne down into the Forum crowded with its ma.s.s of turbulent and perspiring humanity. Nor was the temper of the rabble doubtful. On every side he heard arraignments of Fabius, and, through him, of all men guilty of good birth or riches. Under every portico, speakers were pouring forth harangues whose ignorance was only matched by their coa.r.s.eness and surpa.s.sed by their reckless malevolence. Once he bade his bearers set him down, near where one Quintus Baebius Herennius, a plebeian tribune and a relative of Varro"s, was holding forth to a sympathetic crowd.
"Do you not know, ye foolish Romans," cried the orator, alternately slapping his thigh, waving his arms, and casting up his eyes, "that this Hannibal was brought into Italy by these very n.o.bles, who are always desiring war? Can you not see how they are protracting the war, when you consider that one man of the people, our own Minucius, when he commanded the four legions, was sufficient for the enemy? Behold how this traitorous, this _n.o.ble_ Fabian schemed to expose the brave Minucius and two legions of the people to destruction, and only rescued the remnant that he might pose as their saviour and be saluted "father"
and "patron." There, indeed, was our Minucius at fault, as what honest, poor man is not, when confronted by the wiles of those bred to craft and trickery! See, too, how the consuls have followed the same dilatory measures, and can you doubt that it is all by agreement with these traitor n.o.bles? Know well, now, that this war will have no ending until a man of the people ends it--a real plebeian; a new man.
See you not that both consuls, by tarrying with the army, have set up an interregnum, that the wicked n.o.bles may the better influence your choice? But if you be true Romans, such as were those who camped upon the Sacred Hill, you will remember that one consulship, at least, is yours by law, and you will elect a man to fill it who is one of yourselves and who will spurn the rich, as they now seek to spurn you and me and all good men."
Sergius had listened to this harangue, and to the applause which greeted it, with mingled feelings of indignation and sorrow--sentiments to which was added surprise when he noted through the closed curtains of his litter that several patricians pa.s.sed by and smiled and nodded to the speaker while he poured forth his diatribes. Now, however, a new commotion seemed to agitate the throng, who, turning suddenly, ran pell-mell in one direction, almost overturning the litter--a catastrophe from which it was only saved by a vigorous use of the bearers" staves upon the heads of the nearest.
Sergius thrust aside the curtains and half raised himself to see the cause of the disturbance. The brightly fullered gown of a candidate flashed before his eyes, and then he recognized Varro standing upon a silversmith"s counter, smiling this way and that, grasping the hands of those nearest, kissing his own to the very outskirts of the mob, and all the while crying out, to the promptings of his nomenclator: "Greeting to you, Marcus!" "Health, Quintus!" "Commend me to your brother, my Caius--yes, to be sure--when he shall return from the army.
Ah! friends, when I am consul, there will be a hasty returning from such foolish wars. You shall see the African fork-bearers winding through the Forum."
"And that is the first word of truth I have heard from you, Varro, or from your Herennius here," cried Sergius, who had risen and now stood, pale and gaunt, beside his litter. "With you and such as you to command, we may well look to see the African fork-bearers winding through the Forum--yes, and pillaging amid its ruins."
A roar of vituperation drowned whatever answer the candidate might have made, as, with brandished clubs, cleavers, knives, styli--any weapon that could be s.n.a.t.c.hed up from the booths--the nearest score of the crowd made a dash at the presumptuous n.o.ble.
The litter-bearers were st.u.r.dy fellows, and their staves were stout, but the contest was far too unequal. One had gone down with a deep gash in the shoulder, and the others were quickly forced back upon their master.
Sergius stood with his back to one of the square pillars of peperino, with folded arms and pale face upon which hovered a smile of ineffable scorn. He recognized his peril: the fate that had befallen many n.o.ble Romans in the election riots of the Republic; but his sentiment was rather one of indifference than of perturbation, and he was about to order his slaves to give up their hopeless defence, in order that the crowd might let them, at least, go without further hurt, when an entirely unexpected diversion brought him relief and safety.
Varro had viewed the attack upon his critic with a pleasure that he scarcely tried to conceal. He kept begging his adherents to be moderate and abstain from violence, but in so low a voice that his counsels could not be heard except by those immediately around him, and were entirely inaudible to the howling a.s.sailants to whom they were presumably addressed. Another voice, however, a shrill, female voice, came suddenly to Sergius" ears:--
"Would that my brother could come to life and command another fleet, that the streets might be less crowded!"
Sergius recognized, in a rich litter that was tossed hither and thither by the billows of the mob, the face of the sister of that Publius Claudius who had lost for Rome the naval battle off Drepanum. The mob, too, recognized her, and the scornful speech bit deeply. All around arose a cry of--
"To the aediles with her! To the aediles! She has rejoiced in the death of our brothers! May the G.o.ds curse the n.o.ble!" and, in a moment, Sergius found himself alone but for his bruised and bleeding servants, while the tide of riot swept up the Forum, bearing the litter upon its tossing crests, and the virago within continued to scream out her defiance and contempt.
Varro remained, surrounded by a few friends, and, as Sergius approached, he drew himself up, as if to reenforce his courage with a sense of his importance. The tribune was about to pa.s.s him without a word; but the demagogue, emboldened by this seeming unwillingness for an encounter, placed himself in his path.
"Did you hear the kindly wishes that the great express for the health of their poorer countrymen?" he began, tauntingly.
"It is like your kind, Varro," replied Sergius, speaking slowly and in tones of profound contempt, "to attribute to our party any intemperance of a single opponent; but do you also credit us with the virtues of individuals? I might with better grace attribute the murderous attack just made--and with your connivance--upon myself, to the party of the people. That I do not do so, you may lay to a moderation and magnanimity that are not learned in the tradesman"s booth or the butcher"s shambles."
Varro flushed crimson, and he looked from side to side, as if to call upon his friends for new violence; but a company of young patricians were descending from the Comitia, and his fellows were dull of comprehension.