Andivius Hedulio: Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire

by Edward Lucas White

  CHAPTER V

  ENCOUNTERS

  Next morning I was wakened by a dash of cold water over me and sat up inbed dripping and angry. Tanno was bending over me.

  "I had to souse you," he explained. "I've been shaking you and yelling atyou and you stayed as fast asleep as before I touched you. Get up andlet's start for Rome."

  We enjoyed a brief rubdown and after Entedius joined us each relished asmall cup of mulled wine and one of Ofatulena's delicious little hot,crisp rolls.

  In the east courtyard we found our equipages and I descried my tenantsoutside the gate, all horsed and each muffled in a close rain-cloak,topped off by a big umbrella hat, its wide brim dripping all round itsedge, for the weather was atrocious; foggy mist blanketing all the worldunder a gray sky from which descended a thin, chilly drizzle.

  Hirnio was inspecting Tanno's litter and chatting with Tanno about it.

  "Never saw one with poles like this," he said. "All I have seen had onelong pole on each side, a continuous bar of wood from end to end. What'sthe idea of four poles, half poles you might call them, two on a side?"

  "You see," Tanno explained, "It is far harder to get sound, flawless,perfect poles full length. Then, too, full-length spare poles are verybothersome and inconvenient to carry. With a litter equipped in thisfashion one man can carry a spare pole, and they are much easier andquicker to put in if a pole snaps."

  "I should think," Hirnio remarked, "that the half-poles would pull out ofthe sockets."

  "Not a bit," said Tanno, "they clamp in at the end, this way. See? Theclamps fasten instantly and release at a touch, but hold tenaciously whenshut."

  Under the arcade my household had gathered to say farewell and wish megood luck. I spoke briefly to each and thanked Ofatulena for herdistinguished cookery, both in respect to the credit her masterpieces haddone me at dinner and also for the taste of her rolls, which yet lingeredin mouth and memory. Tanno also expressed his admiration of her powers.

  Last I said farewell to my old nurse and foster mother Uturia, who, when Iwas scarcely a year old, had closed the eyes of my dying mother, and notmuch later of my father, and who had not merely suckled me, but had beenalmost as my real mother to me in my childhood.

  She could not keep back her tears, as always at our partings; the more asshe had had dreams the night before and she took her dreams veryseriously.

  "Deary," she sobbed, "it has been revealed to me that you go into greatperils when you set out to-day. I saw danger all about you, danger frommen and danger from beasts. Beware of strangers, of narrow streets, ofwalled gardens, of plots, of secret conferences. All these threaten youespecially."

  I kissed her as heartily as if she had been my own mother.

  "Don't worry, Uturia," I said, "as long as I live I'll take care of youand if I die you shall be a free woman with a cottage and garden and threeslaves of your own."

  But she only sobbed harder, both as she clung to me and after I hadmounted.

  Tanno, of course, rolled into his litter and slid the panels against therain. His bearers were muffled up precisely like my tenants. So wasTanno's intendant, so was Hirnio, so was I. The entire caravan was a merecolumn of horses, cloaks and hats, not a man visible, all the faces hidunder the flapping hat-brims, no man recognizable.

  Hirnio and I led, next came Tanno in his litter, then his extra bearers,next his intendant on horseback, then my nine tenants, each horsed andleading a pack-mule, last the mounted servants, Tanno's, Hirnio's andmine, similarly leading pack-mules, in all twenty-seven men afoot, sixteenmounted and twelve led mules.

  As we strung out Tanno called to me:

  "Luck for us if we don't blunder into one of those ambushes we heard aboutat dinner last night. With all this cavalcade everybody we meet cannotfail to conjecture that so large a party can only be from either VillaVedia or Villa Satronia, such an escort misbefits anyone not of senatorialrank. If we do blunder into an ambush either side will know we are nottheir men and will assume we are of the other party. No one can recognizeanybody in this wet-weather rig. Any ambush will attack first andinvestigate afterwards or not at all."

  Had I heeded his chance words I might, even then, have saved myself. Butwhile my ears heard him my wits were deaf. I called back:

  "There are no ambushes. Each side spreads such rumors to discredit theother, but neither so much as thinks of ambush. If Xantha or Greia islocated, the clan concerned for her freedom will gather a rescue-party andthere may be fight over her, but there are no ambushes."

  At the foot of my road Hirnio and I turned to our left. Tanno from hislitter emitted a howl of protest.

  "Nothing," he yelled, "will induce me to traverse that road again. I toldyou so. You promised to take the other road. What do you mean?"

  "Don't worry, Opsitius," Hirnio reassured him. "We turned instinctivelyaccording to habit. You shall have your way. It is not much farther by theother road."

  "Anyhow," I added, "Martius is not in sight. He was to have been herebefore us. If we went this way we should have to wait for him. If we gothe other we shall most likely meet him at the fork of the road."

  We turned to our right towards Villa Vedia and Vediamnum. About half wayto the entrance to Villa Vedia, at the top of the hill between the twobridges, the rain for a brief interval fairly cascaded from the sky.During this temporary downpour, as we splashed along, we saw loom out ofthe rain, fog and mist the outline of what might have been an equestrianstatue, but which, as we drew up to it, we found a horse and rider,stationary and motionless to the south of the road, on a tiny knoll,facing the road and so close to it that I might have put out my right handand touched the horse's nose as we passed.

  Like everyone in our convoy the rider was enveloped in a rain-cloak andhis head and face hidden under a wide-brimmed umbrella hat. He saluted asI came abreast of him, but his salutation was merely a perfunctory wave ofa hand, an all-but-imperceptible nod and an inarticulate grunt.

  I barely caught a glimpse of his face, but I made sure he was no one I hadever seen before and equally sure that he was not a Sabine.

  When we reached the entrance of Villa Vedia, which was also the crossroaddown which Marcus Martius and his bride must come, there was no sign of atravelling carriage, nor any fresh ruts in the road.

  We halted and peered into the mist. Nothing was in sight on the road, butthere was a stir in the bushes by the roadside. Out of them appeared abare head, with a shock of tousled, matted, rain-soaked gray hair, ahatchet face, brow like a bare skull, bleared eyes, far apart and deepseton either side of a sharp hooked nose like the beak of a bird of prey,high cheekbones under the thin, dry, tight-drawn skin above the sunkencheeks, a wide, thin-lipped mouth and a chin like a ship's prow. The raintrickled down the face.

  Up it rose, till there was visible under it a lean stringy neck, atattered garment, and the outline of a gaunt, emaciated body, that of atall, spare, half-starved old woman.

  I recognized the Aemilian Sibyl, as all the countryside called her, an oldcrone who had, since before the memory of our oldest patriarchs, lived ina cave in the woods on the Aemilian Estate, supported by the gifts doledout to her by the kindness, respect or fear of the slaves and peasantryliving nearest her abode, for she had a local reputation for magicalpowers in the way of spells to cure or curse, charms for wealth or health,love philtres, fortune-telling, prophecy and good advice on all subjectslikely to cause uncertainty of mind in farm-life.

  She towered out of the dripping shrubberies and pointed a long skinnyfinger at me.

  "I know you under your cloak and hat, Hedulio," she wheezed. "Well for youif younger folk than I had such, eyes in their heads as I have in myspirit. I know you, Andivius Hedulio. You turn your face towards Reate,but you shall never see Reate this day. You might as well take the road toRome and be done with it, for to Rome you shall go, whether you will ornot. Whether you will or not, whatever road your feet take, you will findit leads you to Rome, whatever ship you take, no matter to what port shesteers, will
land you at Rome's Wharf. They say all roads lead to Rome.For you, in truth, every road leads to Rome, whether you face towards Romeor away from Rome.

  "Be warned! Yield to your fate! If you would have luck, go to Rome, abidein Rome; and if you must leave Rome, return to Rome.

  "And hearken to my words, let them sink deep into your mind, remember themand heed them; beware of a man with a hooked nose, beware of secretconferences, beware of plots, walled gardens, beware of narrow streets,for these will be your undoing."

  Agathemer had edged his horse along the roadside the length of ourcavalcade and had joined me. He dismounted, strode to the hag and held outhis hand to her, some silver pieces on its palm, saying:

  "My master thanks you for your warning and offers you these as a guerdon."

  "Greek!" she screamed. "I warn not for guerdons, but at the behest of theGod of Prophecy. Begone with your silver! Silver I scorn and gold and allthe treasures of mankind's folly and all the joys of mankind's life. I amthe Sibyl!"

  And she tramped off through the crackling underbrush till the trees hidher and the noise of her going died away, till she was so far off that weheard the rain drops drip from the boughs and the horses fret at theirbits.

  So at a standstill, as we stared expectantly up the crossroad, we saw comeinto sight, not a travelling carriage, but a horseman, looming huge out ofthe fog, a vast bulk of a man on a big black horse like a farm work-horse.

  He drew rein and saluted civilly, tilting up his hat. His face was ruddy,his eyes blue, his expression that of a mountaineer from a village orsmall town.

  "I have lost my way," he said. "My name is Murmex Lucro. I come fromNersae and am bound for Rome. I was told of a short cut that should havebrought me out on the Salarian Road near Trebula. But I must have taken awrong turn, for I was wholly at a loss at dusk yesterday and so camped inthe woods by a spring. I have not met a human being since daylight. Wheream I and how can I reach the Via Salaria?"

  "You are not far from it," Hirnio told him. "We are bound for Rome and ifyou join us you can reach Via Salaria with us by the road on which we aregoing. Should you prefer to follow the road along which we have come,which is rough, but less roundabout, you can, by taking every turn to theright, reach the Via Salaria some miles nearer Rome than where our roadwill bring us out on it."

  "I'll join your cavalcade, if you have no objection," the stranger said.

  Hirnio and I expressed our entire willingness to have his company.

  Hirnio asked him:

  "Are you in any way related to Murmex Frugi?"

  "He was my father," Murmex replied, simply.

  "Was!" Hirnio repeated. "The word strikes ominously on my ear. Someonefrom this neighborhood, I forget who, was in Nersae since the roads becamefit for travelling this spring and returned from there, or perhaps somewayfarer from Nersae stopped with someone hereabouts. At any rate we heardhe had seen Murmex Frugi still hale and sound, even at his advanced age."

  "My father," said Murmex, "was still hale and sound on the Kalends of Mayand for a day or two thereafter. He fell ill with a cough and fever, anddied after only two nights' illness, on the Nones of May, barely more thana month ago."

  "He lived to a green old age," said Hirnio, "and must have enjoyed everymoment of his life."

  "He seemed to," said Murmex.

  "And I conjecture," I put in, "that he was proud of his son."

  "He seemed so," Murmex admitted, "but he was never a tenth as proud of meas I of him."

  "It is an honor," I said, "to be the son of the greatest gladiator of ourfathers' days, of the man esteemed the best swordsman Italy ever saw liveout his term of service and live to retire on his savings."

  "It is," Murmex said, as simply as before.

  Here we were interrupted by a yell from Tanno, as he leaned out of hislitter.

  "Are we going to take root here," he bawled, "like Phaethon's sisters? Wewere supposed to be journeying to Rome. We appear to be bound for Hades;we shall certainly reach it if we continue sinking into your Sabine mud!"

  "Martius agreed to wait for me, if I was late," I shouted back to him. "Iagreed to wait for him; I keep my word. If you choose, we'll get out ofyour way and let you pass on. We can catch up with you."

  "Bah!" he roared. "No going it alone on a Sabine road for me! I'm tied toyou hand and foot. But this waiting in the rain is no fun! Did you noticethat man on horseback we passed on the road?"

  "I did," I called back.

  "Do you know who he is?"

  "Never set eyes on him before," I replied.

  "Do you know what he is?"

  "No," I answered, "I do not. What is he, according to your conjecture?"

  "I'm not depending on any conjectures," Tanno bellowed, "I know to acertainty."

  "Then tell us," I called.

  "Not here!" cried Tanno. "I'll tell you later."

  He pulled his head inside his litter.

  We again stared up the crossroad. Nothing was in sight.

  "It seems to me," Hirnio again addressed Murmex, "that not only yourfather was a Nersian, but also Pacideianus and that I have heard that healso was living in retirement at Nersae."

  "He is yet," rejoined Murmex, laconically.

  "Then you know him?" Hirnio queried.

  "My mother," said Murmex, "is his sister."

  "Your uncle!" cried Hirnio, "son to one of the two greatest retiredgladiators in Italy, nephew to the other! Living in the same town withthem! Did either of them ever teach you anything of sword play?"

  "Both of them," said Murmex, "taught me everything they knew of swordplay, from the day I could hold a toy lath sword."

  "Hercules!" I cried, "and what did they say of your proficiency?"

  "My father with his last breath," said Murmex solemnly, "and my unclePacideianus as he bade me farewell, told me that I am the best swordsmanalive."

  "Why have you never," I asked, "tried your luck in the arena?"

  "My father forbade me," Murmex explained. "He bade me wait. He trowed agrown man was worth ten growing lads, and he said so and stuck to that. Onhis death-bed he told me I was almost seasoned. After we buried him I feltI could abide Nersae no longer. Uncle agreed with me that I had bestfollow my instincts. I fare to Rome to seek my fortune as a swordsman onthe sand in the amphitheatres."

  "You have fallen into good company," I said, "for I can bring you at onceto the Emperor's notice."

  "I should be most grateful," said Murmex.

  At that instant we heard an halloo from the road and saw a horseman appearout of the mist, then a travelling carriage behind him. It was Martius.When he was near enough I could see his grave, handsome, mediocre face farback in the carriage, and beside it Marcia's; small, delicate, shell-pink,her intense blue eyes bright even in that blurred gloomy daylight, shiningclose together over her little aquiline nose.

  We conferred and he agreed to fall in behind Tanno's extra bearers,between them and my farmers, Tanno's intendant getting in front of thelitter where he normally belonged.

  We got properly into line as arranged and plodded on down the road.

  Just outside of Vediamnum was, as Tanno had related, the village idiot,guarding his flock of goats. He mowed and gibbered at us and then spokesome intelligible words, as he occasionally did.

  "I know you, Hedulio," he called. "You can't hide yourself under that hatnor inside that raincloak. I know you, Hedulio. But nobody but an idiotwould ever recognize you inside that rig and with all this escort. I knowyou, you aren't Vedius Vindex, you aren't Satronius Sabinus. You'reAndivius Hedulio. I know you. But nobody else will guess who you are.Nobody else around here is an idiot!"

  Again, as with Tanno's utterance when we were leaving my villa, the wordsfell on my ears but did not penetrate to my thinking consciousness. Had Inoted what I heard, had I thought instantaneously of what the idiot'swords really signified, I might even then have saved myself.

  We plodded on, a long cavalcade of horsemen and bevy of men afoot,convoying a shut lit
ter and a closed travelling carriage.

  Round the turn of the road, after passing the idiot and his goats, withthe brawling stream of the Bran Brook, now swollen to a respectable littleriver, on our left, with the wooded hills rising on our right, we enteredthe long, narrow winding single street of Vediamnum, a paved lane alongthe close-crowded tall stone houses built against the hillside on thenortheast, with the stream along it to the southwest, and houses wedgedbetween the street and the stream, brokenly, for about half of its length,with open intervals between.

  As we entered the village I saw ahead on the street not a human form, sawno face at any door of any house. I wondered over this, wondereduncomprehendingly. I had never seen the street of Vediamnum. whollydeserted, not even in rains much harder than that which descended on us.Still wondering, still uncomprehending, when we were far enough into thevillage for the travelling carriage to be already between the firsthouses, I saw fall across the roadway, in front of me, two stout trunks oftrimmed trees, straight like pine trees; I heard the crash as they jarredon the stones of the stream-side wall, I saw them quiver as they settled;breast high and shoulder high from house-wall to house-wall, effectuallyblocking the highway.

  At the same instant there sounded a chorus of yells, shouts, calls, cheersand commands; and men poured out of the house doors, out of the alleysbetween the houses, up the river bank in the unbuilt intervals; menhatless and cloakless, clad only in their tunics, men with clubs, withstaffs, with staves, with bludgeons, with cudgels, men yelling:

  "Greia! Greia! Rescue Greia! Club 'em! Brain 'em! Chase 'em! Vediusforever! At 'em boys! Mustard's the word! Make 'em run! Rescue Posis!"

  They clubbed us. They clubbed the horses, they clubbed the mules, theyclubbed the bearers and their reliefs. They gave us no time to explain,and though I yelled out who I was and who was with me, though Hirnio andTanno and Martius yelled similarly, their explanations were unheard in thehubbub or unheeded. Also our effort to explain was brief. Swathed as wewere in our cloaks the hot gush of rage that flamed up in us drove usinstinctively to free our arms and fight.

  Now anyone might suppose that it would be an easy matter for some eighteenhorsemen to ride down and scatter a mob of varlets afoot. So it would bein the open, when the riders were aware of the attack and ready to meetit. We were taken wholly by surprise whereas our assailants were ready andagreed. For a moment it looked like a rout for us, our horses and mulesrearing and kicking, our whole caravan in confusion, jammed togetherhiggledy-piggledy, with all our attackers headed for the carriage,mistaking Marcia for Greia.

  Marcia never screamed, never moved, sat still and silent, apparently calmand placid.

  They all but dragged her out of the carriage.

  In fact we should indubitably have been frightfully mauled and Marciacarried off had it not been for Murmex and Tanno.

  At first onset Tanno had yelled explanations; but almost with his firstyell he rolled out of his litter, snatched a spare pole from a relief, andwith it laid about him; Murmex did the like. The two of them, one on theright of the litter and carriage, the other on the left, bore the wholeshock of our attackers' first rush and alone delayed it.

  Somehow, probably by Tanno's orders, perhaps by their own instincts, thereliefs with the other poles handed them to Hirnio and me as wedismounted. Three of the clever blacks caught our horses and Murmex's.Others detached the poles from the litter and the four biggest bearersseized them and used them vigorously.

  Thus, actually quicker than it takes to tell of it, eight powerful,skillful and justly incensed men on our side were plying litter polesagainst the cudgels of our attackers.

  I was severely bruised before I warmed up to my work; when I did warm up Ilaid a man flat with every blow of the pole I wielded.

  When my adversaries had had a sufficient taste of my skill to cause themto draw away from me, as far as they could in that press of men, horsesand mules, and I had cleared a space around me, I looked about.

  Agathemer, light built as he was, had wrenched a bludgeon from some Vedianand was wielding it not ineffectually.

  Hirnio was doing his part in the fighting like a gentleman and an expert.

  But Murmex and Tanno chiefly caught my eye.

  It was wonderful to see Tanno fight. Every swing of his pole cracked on askull. Men fell about him by twos and threes, one on the other.

  If Tanno was wonderful Murmex was marvellous. Never had I seen a manhandle a staff so rapidly and effectively.

  By this time my nine tenants were afoot, and uncloaked. Now a Sabinefarmer, afoot or horsed, is never without his trusty staff of yew or hollyor thorn. These the nine used to admiration, if less miraculously thanTanno and Murmex.

  Since there were now a round dozen skilled fencers plying their staffs onour side, and four huge and mighty Nubians doing their best (with no meanskill of their own, either) to assist us, we soon were on the way tovictory.

  The remnant of our adversaries still on their feet fled; fled up thealleys between the houses, into the houses, down the bank towards thestream or into the stream, over the barricade of the twin logs.

  That barricade made it impossible for us to go on. The number of men laidlow, some of whom were reviving from their stunned condition and crawlingor staggering away from under the hoofs of the crazed horses and mules,made it unthinkable that any explanation of the mistake which had led tothe fracas could be possible, or if possible, that explanation couldquench the fires of animosity which blazed in the breasts of allconcerned.

  With one accord, without any conference or the exchange of a word, ourparty made haste to escape from Vediamnum before our assailants ralliedfor a second onset. No horse or mule was hamstrung or lamed, no man hadbeen knocked senseless. All of us were more or less bruised and sore, somewere bleeding, two of my tenants had blood pouring from torn scalps, butevery man, horse and mule was fit to travel.

  We carried, lifted, dragged or rolled out of the way the disabled Vediansin the roadbed, making sure that not one was killed, we somehow got thetravelling carriage turned round, no small feat in that narrow space; wereadjusted the litter-poles, Tanno climbed in, Hirnio and Murmex and Imounted, Tanno's extra litter bearers led my farmers' horses and mules andwe set off on our retreat, my nine tenants, even with two of them halfscalped, forming a rearguard of entirely competent bludgeoners; certainlythey must have impressed the Vedians as adequate, for no face so much asshowed at a doorway until we were clear of the village and my tenantsremounted. Then came a few derisive yells after us as the mist cut off ourview of the nearest houses.

  We made haste, you may be sure. Outside of the village we passed the idiotand his goats. He mowed and grinned at us, but uttered no word. We saw noother human figure till we had passed the entrance to Villa Vedia and feltsafer. Nor did we pass anyone between that cross-road and the foot of myroad, save only the same immobile horseman on the same knoll, in the sameposition, and, apparently, at precisely the same spot, as if he wereindeed an equestrian statue. His salutation was as curt as before.

  At the foot of my road we held a consultation. Hirnio advised returning tomy villa and demanding an apology from Vedius, even instituting legalproceedings at Reate if he did not make an apology and enter a disclaimer.But Tanno, Martius and all my tenants, even the two with cracked heads,were for going on, and, of course, Murmex, who talked as if he had been amember of our company from the first.

  "Hercules be good to me," Tanno cried, "to get out of this cursedneighborhood I am willing even to face the horrors of the bit of road Isuffered on as I came up. Let us be off on our road to Rome."

  "With all my heart," I said. "But first tell me who or what is thatvoiceless and moveless horseman we passed twice between here and thecrossroads. You said you knew."

  "I do know," Tanno grunted, "and I'm not fool enough to blurt it out on acountry road, either. Let's be off. Attention! Form ranks! Ready! Forward!March!"

  Off we set, ordering our caravan as at first, except that Agathemer rodeby me, with
Hirnio and Murmex in advance.

  We plodded down the muddy road, through the fine, continuous drizzle,wrapped in our cloaks, all the world about us helmed in fog, mist andrain, the trees looming blurred and gray-green in the wet air.

  Without meeting any wayfarers, with little talk among ourselves, we hadpassed the entrance to Villa Satronia and were no great distance from theSalarian Highway, when, where the road traversed a dense bit of woodland,the trees of which met overhead, the underbrush on both sides of the roadsuddenly rang with yells and was alive with excited men.

  It was almost the duplicate of our experience in Vediamnum, save that ourassailants were more numerous and shouted:

  "Xantha, Xantha, rescue Xantha!"

  "Satronius forever! Eat 'em alive, boys! Get Xantha! Get Xantha!" and suchlike calls.

  This time we had an infinitesimally longer warning, as the bushes to rightand left of the road were further apart than had been the houses liningthe streets of Vediamnum; also we reacted more quickly to the yells,having heard the like such a short time before.

  The fight was fully joined all along the line and was raging with noadvantage for either side, when I missed a parry and knew no more.

  Afterwards I was told that I fell stunned from a blow on the head and lay,bleeding not only from a terrific scalp wound but also from a dozen otherabrasions, until the fight was over, our assailants routed and completelyput to flight, and Tanno with the rest of the pursuers returned to thetravelling carriage and litter to find Marcia, pink and pretty and placid,seated as she had been when she left home, and me, weltering in a pool ofblood.

  A dozen Satronians lay stunned. Tanno reckoned two of them dead men.

  I was the only man seriously hurt on our side.

  Agathemer was for convoying me home.

  Tanno hooted at the idea, expatiating on the distance from Reate and theimprobability of such a town harboring a competent physician, on thenumber of excellent surgeons in Rome, on the advisability of getting meout of the locality afflicted with our Vedian-Satronian feud, and so on.

  He had me bandaged as best might be and composed in his litter.

  He took my horse.

  To me the journey to Rome was and is a complete blank. I was mostlyinsensible, and, when I showed signs of consciousness, was delirious. Irecall nothing except a vague sense of endless pain, misery and horror. Ihave no memory of anything that occurred on the road after I was hit onthe head, nor of the first night at Vicus Novus nor of the second atEretum. I first came to myself about the tenth hour of the third day, whenwe were but a short distance from Rome and in full sight of it. The viewof Rome, from any eminence outside the city from which a view of it may behad, has always seemed to me the most glorious spectacle upon which aRoman may feast his eyes. As a boy my tutors had yielded to myimportunities and had escorted me to every one of those elevations nearthe city famous as viewpoints. As a lad I had ridden out to each manytimes, whenever the weather promised a fine view, to delight my soul withthe aspect of the great city citizenship in which was my dearest heritage.To have been born a Roman was my chief pride; to gaze at Rome, to exult atthe beauty of Rome, was my keenest delight.

  More even than the acclaimed viewpoints, to which residents like me andvisitors from all the world flocked on fine afternoons, did I esteem thoseplaces on the roads radiating from Rome where a traveller faring Romewardcaught his first sight of the city; or those points where, if one road hadseveral hill-crests in succession, one had the best view possible anywherealong the road.

  Of the various roads entering Rome it always appeared to my judgment thatthe Tiburtine Highway afforded the most charming views of the city.

  But, along the Salarian Highway, are several rises at the top of each ofwhich one sees a fascinating picture when looking towards Rome. Of thesemy favorite was that from the crest of the ascent after one crosses theAnio, just after passing Antemnae, near the third milestone.

  This view I love now as I have always loved it, as I loved it when a boy.To halt on that crest of the road, of a fair, still, mild, brilliantafternoon when the sun is already visibly declining and its rays fallslanting and mellow; to view the great city bathed in the warm, evenlight, its pinnacles, tower-roofs, domes, and roof-tiles flashing andsparkling in the late sunshine, all of it radiant with the magical glow ofan Italian afternoon, to see Rome so vast, so grandiose, so majestic, sowinsome, so lovely; to know that one owns one's share in Rome, that one ispart of Rome; that, I conceive, confers the keenest joy of which the humanheart is capable.

  It so happened that Tanno had his litter opened, that I might get all theair possible, and the curtains looped back tightly. Somehow, at the verycrest of that rise on the Salarian Road, on a perfect afternoon, about thetenth hour, I came to myself.

  I was aching in every limb and joint, I was sore over every inch of mysurface, I was all one jelly of bruises, my head and my left shin hurt meacutely. More than all that I was permeated by that nameless horror whichcomes from weakness and a high fever.

  Now it would be impossible to convey, by any human words, the strangenessof my sensations. My sufferings, my illness, my distress of mind envelopedme and permeated me with a general misery in which I could not but loathelife, the world and anything I saw, and I saw before me the mostmagnificent, the most noble, the most inspiriting sight the world affords.

  At the instant of reviving I was overwhelmed by my sensations, by myrecollections of the two fights and of all they meant to me of misfortuneand disaster, and I was more than overwhelmed by the glory spread beforeme. I went all hot and cold inside and all through me and lostconsciousness.

  After this lapse I was not conscious of anything until I began to be dimlyaware that I was in my own bed in my own bedroom, in my own house andtended by my own personal servants.

  Strangely enough this second awakening was as different as possible frommy momentary revival near Antemnae. Then I had been appalled by the rushof varying sensations, crowding memories, conflicting emotions anddaunting forebodings, each of which seemed as distinct, vivid and keen asevery other of the uncountable swarm of impressions: I had felt acutelyand cared extremely. Now every memory and sensation was blurred, nothought of the future intruded, I accepted without internal questioningswhatever was done for me, and lay semi-conscious, incurious andindifferent. Mostly I dozed half-conscious. I was almost in a stupor, atpeace with myself and all the world, wretched, yet acquiescing in mywretchedness, not rebellious nor recalcitrant.

  This semi-stupor gradually wore off, my half-consciousness between longsleeps growing less and less blurred, my faculties more alive, mypersonality emerging.

  When I came entirely to myself I found Tanno seated by my bed.

  "You're all right now, Caius," he said, "I have kept away till Galen saidyou were well enough for me to talk to you."

  "Galen?" I repeated, "have I been as ill as all that?"

  "Not ill," Tanno disclaimed, "merely bruised. You are certainly a portentin a fight. I never saw you fight before, never saw you practice at reallyserious fencing, never heard anybody speak of you as an expert, or as afighter. But I take oath I never saw a man handle a stave as you did. Youwere quicker than lightning, you seemed in ten places at once, you were asreckless as a Fury and as effectual as a thunderbolt. You laid men out bytwos and threes. But jammed as you were in a press of enemies you were hitoften and hard, so often and so hard that, after you were downed by a blowon the head, you never came to until I had you where you are."

  "Yes I did," I protested, "I came to on the hilltop this side ofAntemnae."

  "Not enough to tell any of us about it," he soothed me. "Anyhow, you aremending now and will soon be yourself."

  I was indifferent. My mind was not yet half awake.

  "Did I fight as well as you say?" I asked, "or are you flattering me?"

  "No flattery, my boy," he said. "You are a portent."

  Then he told me of the result of the fight with the Satronians, of theircomplete discomfiture and ro
ut, of how he had brought me to Rome, seen meproperly attended and looked after my tenants.

  "They are having the best time," he said, "they ever had in all theirlives."

  And he told me where he had them lodged and which sights of Rome they hadseen from day to day.

  "Just as soon as I had seen to you and them," he said, "I called on dearold Nemestronia and told her of your condition. She is full of solicitudefor you and will overwhelm you with dainties as soon as you are wellenough to relish any."

  He did not mention Vedia and I was still too dazed, too numb, too weak,too acquiescent to ask after her, or even to think of asking after her orto notice that he had not mentioned her.

  "While I was talking to Nemestronia," Tanno said, "I took care to warn herabout that cursed leopard. She would not agree to cage it, at least notpermanently. She did agree to cage it at night and said she would not letit have the run of her palace even by day, as it has since she first gotit, but would keep it shut up in the shrubbery garden, as she calls it,where they usually feed it and where you and I have seen it crawl up onits victims and pounce on them."

  I could not be interested in leopards, or Nemestronia or even in Vedia, ifhe had mentioned Vedia. I fell into a half doze. Just on the point ofgoing fast asleep I half roused, queerly enough.

  "Caius!" I asked, "do you remember that man on horseback we passed in therain between my road entrance and Vediamnum?"

  "You can wager your estate I remember him!" Tanno replied.

  "What sort of man was he?" I queried, struggling with my tendency tosleep. "You said you knew."

  "I do know," Tanno asserted, "I cannot identify him, though I havequestioned those who should know and who are safe. I should know his name,but I cannot recall it or place him. But I know his occupation. He is aprofessional informer in the employ of the palace secret service, anImperial spy.

  "Now what in the name of Mercury was he doing in the rain, on a Sabineroadside? I cannot conjecture."

  This should have roused me staring wide awake.

  But I was too exhausted to take any normal interest in anything.

  "I can't conjecture either," I drawled thickly.