Bissula. English
Page 12
CHAPTER XII.
"But I suppose you did not think your uncle's life would besufficiently safe under my protection, Herculanus, since you were soeager to join us?" asked the Tribune.
Before the nephew could answer, Ausonius interrupted: "But--thank thegods--our campaign will be bloodless: the Barbarians have abandoned thecountry. Where can they have gone? What have you learned through yourspies of the movements of the enemy?"
"Nothing. That is the mysterious part of it. It seems as though theearth had swallowed them. They are said to have numerous subterraneanpassages and cellars, in which they conceal their provisions andthemselves in times of danger. We found it very difficult to obtainspies among our colonists on the southern shore. They know very wellthat we Romans come and go; the Alemanni remain in the country, andthey fear their vengeance. And deserters can no longer be had. Informer wars they were often mentioned. But the fact that there are norenegades shows that self-reliance is increasing and the dread or hopeof Rome is declining. I could get only two volunteers--for a large sumof money--to venture upon a reconnoitring expedition; the one who wentto the East returned without having seen a sign of the foe; the onedispatched to the North has not yet appeared. And unfortunately we havenot taken even one prisoner. Not a sign of a human footprint have weseen on the whole march along the lake. Once, it is true, I thought Isaw a light column of smoke rising from the dense growth of rusheswhich stretches for leagues into the lake, and ordered the troops tohalt; but the tiny cloud instantly vanished."
"I can understand the strategy of our admirable General only bycrediting him with an almost offensive degree of caution," sneered thecommander of the mailed horsemen. "By Hercules! Wherever they may hide,the Barbarians cannot be a day's march from us."
"Yes," Ausonius assented. "Yet I should think we might be strong enoughto seek them and drive them from their hiding places."
Saturninus frowned slightly. "Your nephew's opinion of my courage givesme no concern. But you, Prefect, have again forgotten that, by theEmperor's orders, we are not to disperse the Barbarians, but tosurround them and force them to submission. We are too weak for thisencircling, and must wait for the ships. Unless our fleet should blockthe lake, they will again escape, as they have often done, in theirboats. Stick to your hexameters, my Pierian friend, and leave theBarbarians to me: it will be better for all concerned."
"Except the Barbarians!" replied Ausonius smiling, extending his handto his friend.
"Who are probably the leaders of the enemy?"
"The Romans on the southern shore mention two names. The rest of theAlemanni provinces are mainly ruled by kings."
"So far do Germans carry royalty," nodded the learned Prefect. "Maythey always continue to be divided into numberless provinces undertheir hedge kings and village magistrates, whom each man obeys as muchas he chooses."
"It seems that this state of things has changed. Many provinces areunited in leagues, which hold together in peace as well as in war. Themen of Linzgau have no king now, it appears, only an aged count. But hemust be a man of powerful intellect, since the gray-haired Hariowaldhas been chosen commander-in-chief of all the provinces leagued againstus. True, we have not to deal solely with the Lentienses. Aftercenturies of folly these Barbarians are beginning to discover that'liberty,' that is, the privilege of doing what each man pleaseswithout regard to his neighbor, is, though a delightful, a somewhatdangerous pleasure, and that with such 'liberty' they will be foreverour bondmen, so long as one province looks on with malicious pleasurewhile we subjugate another with which it has had a quarrel--till itsown turn comes. Formerly they preferred to place their surplus of youngmen at our disposal rather than have them obey the commands of one oftheir own people, but for some time there has been a change; even thosesplendid soldiers, my Batavians, no longer wish to remain with me, andwill not renew their oath of service. We no longer hear the names ofnumberless small peoples: five or six great leagues fill the wholecountry from the Ister to the Suabian Sea. It has long made me uneasy.That old man is now the commander-in-chief of all the Germans alliedagainst us."
"Commander-in-chief of the Alemanni!"
"Don't laugh at them, Ausonius! Ay, this leadership of the woodland warhas cost us much blood and many a dear-bought victory, since the daysof that Quinctilius Varus. As the white-beard is said to be the head, ayoung relative of his is called the arm, the sword, the fire-brand ofthe conflict."
"What is his name?"
"Attalus."
"Adalo! That was one of Bissula's playmates. She often mentioned him. Isaw him frequently; he looked at me defiantly enough. Could it be he?"
"The women and men at our stations along the lake cannot say enough inpraise of his beauty and strength."
"Well, hitherto neither the warlike wisdom of the old man nor thewarlike zeal of the young one has showed itself," sneered Herculanus.
"Yes," laughed Ausonius. "Their wisdom is the resolve to run away, andtheir zeal the energy with which they execute the decision."
But the Tribune, with frowning brow, cried: "Such speeches drive awaythe goddess of victory and summon the avenger of foolhardiness. Jeerafter we have conquered--and even then, it is wiser not to do it.Nemesis sleeps lightly."
"If you cannot discover where the Barbarians are hiding, what will youdo?"
"Seek them until I do find them and bring them to a halt."
"But then," cried Herculanus, "let there be no treaties, no mercy,nothing save extermination. How often these faithless people havebroken the peace! Our legions are full of fury against the Barbarianswho, year after year, compel them to march through these horriblemarshy forests. Only the extirpation of the last German will give peaceto the Roman Empire." He clenched his fist threateningly.
"You have perhaps uttered words of prophecy," said Saturninusthoughtfully, "but in a different sense from what you intended."
"He has uttered abominable words!" cried Ausonius, filling his goblet."And they are utterly groundless. Ay, more than a century ago it lookedas if the Persians and Germans under Gallienus would flood the Easternand the Western Empire. But since that time Eternal Rome has grownyoung once more. Your brave countrymen, my Saturninus, the heroicIllyrian emperors, have curbed the barbarians on the Euphrates, theRhine, and the Ister. Diocletian has remodelled the internal affairs ofthe Empire; and so I might adapt to Rome's mastery of the world theproud words of my colleague Horace: 'He did not lack talent, but hepossessed little learning.'"
"Do they belong to poetry?" asked Saturninus doubtfully.
But the eager speaker, without hearing his words, continued: "What hesaid concerning the permanence and spread of his own renown I willapply to the glory of Rome: it will increase and grow, so long as thepriest ascends the hill to the Capitol with the silent Virgin. TheVestal," he added in explanation.
"H'm," observed the Illyrian, "only it's a pity that the hypothesis isno longer apt."
"What? How so?"
"The pious Constantine, of murderous memory (I hear they want tocanonize the assassin of his mother and his wife) prohibited orrestricted the offering of sacrifices at the Capitol, and your pupiland patron, Gratianus, recently abolished the Vestals."