by Mór Jókai
CHAPTER XI.
While in Rome pleasures alternated with horrors the troops commandedby Numerian marched over rough roads, amid severe privations, to theBosporus. Here they were joined by the fugitive Mesembrius who, whenhe left Rome, fled directly to Numerian.
No one had been able to see this noble Caesar for several weeks. Hesuffered severe pain in his eyes, and did not leave his tent.Mesembrius made his complaint to the leaders next in command. One,Diocletian, promised to avenge him, while the second, Aper, referredto Numerian and refrained from giving any opinion of his own.
"Then let me go to Numerian; if I speak to him, he will be the firstto draw his sword against his brother," urged the Senator.
"You cannot see him," replied Aper, placing himself before theentrance to Numerian's tent. "No one except myself is allowed to speakto him during his illness. He even gives his orders to the armythrough me alone."
Mesembrius sniffed the air suspiciously.
"Why does so strong a smell of musk and amber come from this tent?"
"Why?" repeated Aper, his face blanching. "Why do you desire to know,Senator?"
"What?" retorted Mesembrius; "because you lie, Aper, when you say thatNumerian issues his orders through you."
"What? What do you mean?" shouted the soldiers who had gathered aroundthe two.
"I mean that Numerian is no longer living!" cried Mesembrius inringing tones. "No, no, the strong odour of amber issuing from histent is only to disguise the scent of corruption, and Aper has longtaken advantage of you by issuing orders in Numerian's name."
The soldiers forced their way into Numerian's tent and found the oldman's words confirmed. Numerian had lain dead a long time; his bodywas far advanced in decomposition.
Aper was instantly put in chains by the soldiers on account of thisdeception; in the afternoon an empty throne was erected in the openfields for the election of a new Imperator.
Mesembrius walked through the ranks of the legions, recommendingDiocletian, whom the soldiers fairly forced to take his seat upon thethrone.
Then Aper was brought forward.
"I charge you, publicly and plainly," said Mesembrius, "with havingmurdered Numerian and betrayed us to Carinus."
"And we condemn you," roared the army with one voice.
"And I execute the sentence," said Diocletian, stabbing with his ownhand the prisoner sentenced by the troops.
In the midst of this wrathful mood Marcius arrived with the ordergiven to him by Manlius and, without knowing what had happened, hedelivered his appointment to the new Caesar.
"Who is this?" asked Diocletian, turning to Mesembrius.
"The Caesar's barber."
Diocletian turned smiling to the soldiers.
"Friends! Carinus provided for our beards and sent us a barber withthe rank of an Imperator; pray sit down before him and have yourselvesshaved. But do you take care not to cut my soldiers' faces, my littlefriend, for if they should try their big razors on you, you would fareill."
The soldiers, amid loud shouts of laughter, dragged Marcius off withthem, and made him shave their bristling beards.
Scarcely an hour later Aevius arrived with the command to dismiss halfthe army at once.
This enraged the Caesar and the whole body of troops. To assail theirinterests so boldly was presumptuous even from the Imperator.
"To the funeral pyre with the messenger and his message!" criedDiocletian, and the poet had already been bound to the huge pile oflogs when he sighed bitterly:
"O ye gods, must I, while still living, witness my own apotheosis?"
Diocletian laughed at the idea and ordered the poet to be brought downfrom the funeral pyre, contenting himself with putting him in thepillory, after which he sent him back to Rome with a messagedeclaring war against Carinus.
* * * * *
The thunderstorm was rising, though as yet it sent forth no lightning.
In Rome it was openly stated that the army sent to the West, filledwith mortal hatred of Carinus, had already reached the Ister, onlynothing was said of it in the Caesar's palace. There revelry wasperpetual and if, from time to time, any one alluded to Diocletian'sapproach, he was pitilessly derided.
"Who is this peasant?" asked Manlius. "Who ever heard his name amongthe patricians of Rome? Who knew his father? His mother, on thecontrary, was known by many. She was a slave in the house of SenatorAnulinus. Anulinus has a right to demand him as a fruit of hishousehold."
The courtiers laughed at the jest.
"You must know him, Manlius?"
"I have never seen him. I used to be where danger threatened, and Inever saw Diocletian. I know him because I was told that he always ledthe rearguard when we were marching forward, and the vanguard when wewere retiring."
Peals of laughter greeted the words.
"And what is the character of his army?" he was asked.
"It is a valiant, obedient body. It has killed three of itsImperators. As for its courage and fearlessness, it is peerless inthose qualities, for it retreated from the banks of the Tigris withouthaving seen an enemy. When I tell you that I myself was the greatesthero among them, you can judge of the rest."
"And your news of victories?"
"Were two-thirds inventions. Although we sometimes gained one, we owedit to our superior numbers; but the army must now be greatly reducedby desertion and disease."
This sycophantic nation liked nothing better than to hear the soldiersslandered, and therefore Manlius even slandered himself.
When Diocletian's army approached so close, however, that there couldno longer be any doubt as to the danger, the imperial generalsurgently pressed the Imperator to prepare for war, and Carinusgathered his troops from the European provinces.
Suddenly the rumour spread that Carinus would command his army inperson. He could be seen at two military exercises, the reviews of thetroops. Manlius was always at his side, constantly stimulating hisvanity or his jealousy by entreating him not to leave the victories tohis leaders or commit the course of the campaign to their knowledgeand prudence.
"The victorious general is a new foe," Manlius was in the habit ofsaying, and the Imperator assumed the chief command of the assembledforces, and produced no bad effect mounted on his grey charger andclad in a suit of gold armour, with a purple striped violet mantlefloating around his shoulders.
On the day before the departure of the army, the leaders went to allthe temples in turn, offering sacrifices everywhere, even on thealtars of the Egyptian gods. Manlius assisted in bringing the animalsselected for victims to the haruspex.
The populace listened in solemn devotion to the augur's words.
Quaterquartus extended his arms and, with closed eyes, said, in deeptones:
"This battle will ruin the enemy of Rome."
True, he did not say whom he considered the enemy of Rome--whetherDiocletian or Carinus.
At last the imperial procession reached Cybele's temple. Amid adeafening uproar of drums and blaring trumpets, the franticpriestesses were dancing in the open portico, stabbing their bodieswith knives, muttering with foaming lips incomprehensible words, andwhirling around till, overcome by giddiness, they fell to the floor.
Suddenly a shriek, shriller, more terrible than any other sound inthis inharmonious uproar, rang above the din; a shriek so piercing, soheart-rending, that every one gazed trembling in the direction of thesound.
A woman's tall figure stood beneath the pillars; a long white mantle,which she clutched with both hands, floated from her head to her feet.
"Woe betide thee, Rome! Woe betide ye, Roman people! Woe betide thee,Imperator of Rome!"
The woman came out into the portico and, as she fixed her cold,expressionless eyes upon the throng, Carinus, seized with horror,grasped the hand of Manlius, who stood by his side.
"That is Glyceria."
Manlius also shrank back in terror.
The madwoman, with the face of a prophetess, stood upon the steps ofthe
temple.
"Woe to those born on Roman soil, the children who must atone for thesins of the fathers, and the fathers upon whom the curse of theirchildren falls. O Roma! The stars of ruin will appear in thy sky, andthe earth will tremble beneath thee! Horror will dwell within thywalls, and peace will remain far distant. Foes will trample thee undertheir feet, foreign nations will show thee thy banners which they havewrested from thee, thou wilt beseech Barbarian enemies to grant theethe bare gift of life, and thy greatest foes will dwell within thywalls, for they are thine own emperors! The air, corrupted by thecurses uttered, will bring the plague upon ye, miserable mortals!Those whom famine spares will perish in battle; those whom the searejects the earth will swallow! O Rome, thou queen of nations, thouwilt be orphaned; thou wilt vanish like the star that falls into thewaves; nothing will be left of thee save the memory of thy sins, andthe grass which will grow over thy palaces; even thy gods willdisappear from thy temples so that, in thy despair, thou canst pray tono one!"
A tribune bent forward to kiss the maniac's hand, and ask in a timidvoice:
"What result dost thou predict for the battle to which Carinus is justmarching?"
Glyceria heard the question, and looked gloomily at the soldiers.
"Fear nothing! Destroy, set brother against brother, whoever mayconquer--Rome has lost. If Carinus is victor, he will uproot halfRome; if Diocletian conquers, he will destroy the other half, andboth are well deserved. March to battle, mad nation; shed thy blood,kill thy sons, let them die in tortures and remain unburied. Whentheir souls flutter away in the autumn mist, they will be forgotten.Men, behold your wives clasped in the arms of others, your housesburned, your children dragged to slavery, and know that there is noworld where ye can find compensation. Go! Die accursed anddespairing!"
Amid terrible convulsions, she sank down on the steps of the templeand, with outstretched arms, cursed the Roman people even while herlips were almost incapable of speech.
"Take back your curse!" shouted the flamen Dialis, rushing up to herand seizing her hand.
With her last strength Glyceria raised herself, her eyes rolled wildlyover the throng and, once more summoning all the bitterness of herheart, she raised both hands and extending them over the multitudeshrieked:
"Be accursed!"
With these words she fell back lifeless, her staring eyes, even indeath, fixed upon Manlius.
CHAPTER XII.
The armies of the imperial rivals met between Belgrade and Szeudro.The Imperator Carinus' troops were perfectly fresh; Diocletian'slegions were wearied by fatiguing marches.
Carinus ordered his tent to be pitched on the top of a hill, whence,at Manlius's side, he watched the conflict.
The result was for a long time doubtful. Diocletian's skill andexperience as a general held the superior numbers of the foe in check.
"Your leaders are good for nothing," cried Manlius; "Diocletian'scentre might be broken by a general, resolute assault, for his weakestlegions are stationed there, and then half his wing would be lost."
"Make the necessary arrangements yourself," said Carinus.
"Forward with the reserve, tribunes!" shouted Manlius. "The foreignlegions must be sacrificed; let them be hewn down, and then on withthe Triarians. Send against the Phrygian cavalry the German bands, whomust hamstring the horses with their long swords. Let no one remainhere. March forward with all your men. I alone can guard the Caesar."
The result of these orders was an immediate change in the tide ofbattle. Diocletian perceived that a skilled commander, who knew theweaknesses of his army, was opposing him; he hastily gave the signalfor retreat to save his force from destruction.
Standing in the entrance of his tent Carinus watched the progress ofthe conflict. His troops were everywhere driving the enemy beforethem, his cavalry was pressing onward.
The flush of triumph glowed upon his face, every feature was radiantwith the pride of victory, his heart throbbed with joy.
"I have conquered!" he exclaimed, wild with delight, clapping hishands.
"But I, too, have conquered," said a bitter, terrible voice behindhim, and the Caesar felt an iron hand seize his arm and drag him intothe tent.
Carinus, startled, glanced back and saw the gloomy face of Manlius,who was crushing his arm with one hand, and in the other held a drawnsword.
"What do you want?" asked the Imperator in alarm.
"Do you remember, Carinus, the girl who killed herself before youreyes to escape your embrace? That girl was my promised wife. Do youknow what I want now?"
"Manlius, you are jesting. What do you want of me? Why do you terrifyme?"
"I could have killed you often when, overpowered by drunkenness, youlay in a sound sleep, in the intoxication of your crimes, but I wishedto await the moment when you were happy, when you had reached thesummit of your renown, before I slew you."
"Mercy! Help!"
"No one can hear your call; the shouts of joy drown your whimpering.Do you hear the cries of triumph and the glorification of your namerising on all sides? Do you hear the universal cheer: 'Long liveCarinus?'--Now, _die_, Carinus!"
The next moment another horseman rode among the exulting troops; hisright hand waved a lance from whose point gazed down the head of theconquering Imperator.
The victorious troops surrendered to Diocletian.
THE END.