CHAPTER XVI
THE CAVE
The late spring or early summer weather was hot and clear. We had beenpressing on feverishly and were heated, tired and sleepy, when, whilefollowing a faint track through dense woods, we took a wrong turn and soonfound that we had utterly lost our way. The sunlight was intenselybrilliant and the windless air sweltering. Stumbling over rocks andthrough bushes was exhausting. We came upon a little spring and quenchedour thirst. Standing by it and staring about we noticed what looked likean opening in an inconspicuous vine-clad cliff. It was, in fact, theentrance to a spacious and, apparently, extensive cave.
The outer opening was about the size of an ordinary door. Though it waswell masked by beeches above and cornel bushes below, such was theposition of the sun and so intense was the flood of light it poured downfrom the cloudless sky, that the inside of the cave, for some littledistance, was faintly discernible in the glimmer which penetrated there.After our eyes had become accustomed to the darkness we could make outfairly well the shape and proportions of the first considerable grotto.
From the outer opening a passage about a yard wide and two yards highextended straight into the cliff for about four yards. There it bentsharply to the right in an elbow. This offset extended three or four yardsand then bent to the left in a similar elbow, opening into a cavern morethan fifteen yards wide, twice as long or longer, and with a roof of dimwhite pendants like alabaster, no part of which was less than five yardsfrom the conveniently level, rather damp floor, while some parts of itwere lofty.
The two elbows in the entrance passage made it impossible to see into thiscavern from anywhere out in the woods, and impossible to see out fromanywhere inside it. Yet, as I said, so brilliant was the sunlight and sofavorable the position, of the sun at the moment of our entrance that,after the outer dazzle had faded from inside our eyes, we could make outthe form and size of this rocky hall.
To the right of the opening where the outer passage expanded, around ajutting shoulder of rock, we found a recess about three yards across andnearly as deep, in which we felt and smelt wood-ashes and charred, half-burnt wood. We groped among the damp charcoal, convincing ourselves thatmany good-sized fires had been made there, but none recently. We stoodback and regarded this recess, which was so placed that no gleam from anyfire, however large, kindled in it, could ever show outside the cave.Investigating the recess yet again Agathemer looked up and pointed. Aboveme, I saw sky. The recess was a natural fire-place with a natural chimneyfrom it, opening at a considerable height above.
To the right of the fire-place recess, round another smaller shoulder ofrock, was a perfectly vertical wall of smooth stone terminating just aboveour reach at an opening three yards wide or more. The top of the wall ofrock at the bottom of the opening was almost as straight as a door-sill.
At first we could descry in the walls of the cavern no other openings thanthe entrance, the chimney and this opening above our reach, unless oneboosted the other up. From under it we went all round the cave past thefire-place and the entrance. The floor was all damp or moist, no place fitfor us to lie down to sleep and we felt along the wall opposite the fire-place, where the light was too dim to see at all. After feeling for someyards we emerged or came round into a less dusky space, where we could seeto some extent and so on along the back wall of the cave opposite theentrance, later groping along the wall, when the light failed.
Some forty to forty-five yards from the entrance, at the far end of thisextensive grotto, we came upon a passage, two or three yards wide andabout as high, leading further back into the bowels of the mountain. Wegroped into it a few steps, but it sloped sharply downward and was wet, sowe retreated out of it, it being also pitch dark.
Returning along the other side of the cavern towards the fire-place wecame upon a narrow opening, less than a yard wide and not much over a yardhigh. It led into a passage which sloped upwards and was free frommoisture. Agathemer was for exploring it. I remonstrated. He insisted.After some expostulation I bade him stand at the opening, which was out ofsight of the gleam of daylight at the entrance, being behind a bigshoulder of rock further in than the fire-place. While he stood as I toldhim I went out towards the middle of the cavern floor till I could see thefireplace, though very dimly, and the entrance, quite clearly, by themellow glow at it from the outer sunshine reflected along the walls of thetwice bent entrance-passage.
When I had reached a position from which I could certainly see theentrance and from which, as Agathemer told me, I could be seen by him, Itold him I would stay there while he explored the little passage into theside of the cavern. I adjured him to be cautious and not venture himselfrecklessly in the pitch dark. He declared he could feel his way safelysome distance and be sure of returning. Then he crawled into the narrowopening.
Before I had waited long enough to grow impatient, I heard him call:
"Why, I can see you!"
The voice came not from the direction of the opening into which he hadcrawled, but from near the fire-place.
"Where are you?" I called back.
"Over here," said he, "come towards me."
Advancing towards the voice and peering into the dimness, where the lightdispersed from the entrance made the darkness of the cavern just a littleless dark than blackness, I saw him standing on the sill, as it were, ofthe opening up in the wall, beyond the fire-place as one approached fromthe entrance, and above the vertical wall of rock.
He had found a passage just big enough to crawl through leading from theaperture up to this species of gallery-alcove. The passage curved and wasnot much over twenty yards long. He pulled me up to the gallery and wecrawled back together out of the aperture by which he had entered thepassage. The whole passage was dry, unlike the floor of the cave.
"I tell you what we ought to do," said Agathemer, "let us go outside andgather armfuls of small leafy boughs and twigs. These we can throw up intothat gallery-opening and make a fine bed there where it is dry. Then wecan get a good safe sleep, and we need a long sound sleep."
We did as he suggested till we had leaves enough for a good bed. Then weate, sparingly, for we had not much food in our wallets. After eating wewrapped ourselves in our cloaks and went to sleep; Agathemer with hiswallet beside him and his head on his arm, I with my wallet under my head.
I wakened with a hand over my mouth and with Agathemer's voice in my earsaying:
"Keep still! Lie still! Don't move or speak! Lie still!"
He spoke in a tense whisper, so low that I could hardly understand himwith his mouth against my ear, so full of terror that the tone of itstartled me wide awake.
My first impression was of a glaring orange light on the roof of thecavern and a diffused reflection of it or from it on the roof of ourgallery-alcove.
"Keep your head down!" Agathemer whispered. "If you turn over, turn overquietly."
I did turn over, very slowly, a muscle at a time and with greatprecautions to avoid rustling the leaves or twigs of the bed on which welay.
As soon as I turned over I perceived that a good, big fire must be burningon the fire-place and that the light on the cavern roof was the directglare from that, while the subdued glow on the roof of our alcove was thelight reflected from the farther wall of the cavern or from its roof.
As our alcove was separated from the fire by a jutting pillar of rock, nodirect light from the fire fell on its opening; it and we were well in theshadow. So shadowed we could hunch ourselves forward as far as we daredand peer down into the cave.
Its floor was littered with wallets, blankets, staffs and other foot-farers' gear. About it sat groups of men, every one with a sheath-knife ordagger in his belt. I counted forty and there were more out of sight roundthe shoulder of rock between our alcove and the fire-place.
We smelt flesh roasting or boiling. The squatting groups seemed busy withpreparations for a meal.
The men, except one lad like a shepherd, did not look Italian. Some struckme as Spanish, others as Gallic, one or two
as runaway slaves of mongrelancestry. Nearly all of them had the unmistakable carriage and bearing ofsoldiers, even specifically of soldiers of out-of-the-way garrisons, inthe mountains or on frontiers. Yet their behavior was tin-soldierly. Ijudged them discharged campaigners with an admixture of deserters andoutlaws. They all had travellers' umbrella hats, and all had thrown themoff; their cloaks were coarse and rough, many torn, but none patched,their tunics similar; their boots of Gallic fashion, coming up nearly tothe knee, like Sicilian hunting-boots. They were all black-haired andshock-headed, all swarthy, and most of them of medium height and solidlybuilt. They did not talk loud and they all talked at once, so that we madeout little of what was said and nothing informing.
I could not but remark that, although the weather was exceedingly hot andthe fire seemed large, it made no difference whatever in the feeling ofthe very slightly damp, gratefully cool and evenly mild air of the cavern.
Presently the food was ready and was distributed: goat's-flesh, roasted orbroiled, some sort of coarse bread or quickly-made cakes, wine aplenty,olives and figs. While they ate most of them sat in groups; some stood bytwos or threes; a few stood singly. From their looks, attitudes, thedirection in which they faced and other indications, we inferred thattheir chief was seated to the right of the fire, between it and us, withhis back to the pillar of rock and just out of sight of us around it. Someappeared to be standing in a half-circle before him, listening to him, orconversing with him. A few of the men ate alone, sitting, standing orwalking about.
One of these, munching a while as he strolled back and forth, came andtook his stand behind and outside of the respectful half circle, standingfacing the fire. When he finished eating and his face quieted as he stoodthere silent, gazing at something out of our sight, all at once,simultaneously, I gripped Agathemer and he gripped me. The fellow wasCaulonius Pelops, two years before secretary to the overseer of my uncle'sestate near Consentia in Bruttium. He had run away not long before myuncle's death.
I stared at him, revolving in my mind the difference of the attitude ofmind towards runaway slaves of a former master who catches sight of arunaway from his estates and of the same being while pretending himself tobe a runaway. I could have laughed out loud at the contrast between thefeelings towards Pelops which I felt surge up in me and the feelings Ihoped for towards me, say in Tarrutenus Spinellus.
Pelops, of course, knew me perfectly, knew Agathemer as well, wouldrecognize either of us at sight. Therefore, if we were now discovered, wesaw lost all that we had thought to gain and thought we had gained by ourcrawl through the drain pipe and the other features of our escape up tonow. If Pelops set eyes on me, he, at least, would know that I was yetalive, he might tell all the band; if he told them, any one of them, evenif not he himself, might inform the authorities and put new life into thesearch for me, if it had not been abandoned, or revive it if it had; putevery spy in Italy on the alert to catch me: or even betray me to thenearest magistrate.
And Pelops had always disliked me and had always envied and hatedAgathemer. We were keyed up with anxiety.
Just as we recognized Pelops a tall, red-headed, sandy lout, with a longneck and a prominent gullet-knot, came forward into sight from thedirection of the entrance, apparently from beyond the fire. He put up hisright hand and called, slowly and clearly:
"Eating time is over: Now we hold council!"
The men speedily assembled in curving rows facing the fire and sat orstood as they pleased, all facing where we inferred that their leader sat,to the right of the fire-place out of our sight round the bulge of theshoulder of rock.
Between them and the fire, just far enough from it for him to be visibleto us, a burly shock-headed, black-haired southern Gaul took his stand.
Then we clearly heard a voice, which we inferred must be the leader's, avoice distinct and far-carrying, but a voice amazingly soft, mild andgentle, say:
"Council is called. Let all other men be silent. Caburus is to speak."
The burly Gaul began blusteringly, with a strong southern Gallic accentlike a Tolosan:
"It is no use, Maternus, trying to bamboozle us with your everlastingserenity. We decline to be fooled any longer. Somehow, by sorcery ormagic, you infused into us the greatest enthusiasm for your crazy project.You've dragged us over the Alps and into these Apennines. On the way we'vetalked matters over among ourselves. The nearer we get to Rome the crazierour errand seems. We have made fools of ourselves under your leadershiplong enough. We go no further.
"We admit that Commodus ought to be killed; we admit that, if he werekilled, it would be a good thing for all Gaul and for Spain and Britain,too, and, we suppose, for Italy and all the provinces. We also admit thatit would be a fine thing for us if we could kill Commodus, avoid gettingkilled or caught ourselves, and win the rewards we could properly hope forfrom the next Emperor, and the glory we'd have at home as successfulheroes.
"But, when free from the spell of your eloquence, we see no chance ofkilling the Emperor and surviving to reap the reward of our prowess: noneof surviving: not even any of killing him. You say you have a perfect andinfallible plan which you will reveal when the time comes. You may have aplan and it may be infallible and as certain of success as the sun iscertain of rising tomorrow and the day after. But we have followed you andyour secret plan long enough. We follow no further unless we know whatplan we are expected to take part in. We have all agreed to that and weall stick to that."
And the assemblage chorused:
"We have all agreed to that and we all stick to that."
Now, from, where we peered down from our hiding-place Maternus wasentirely out of sight. We could not see what attitude he took nor whatexpression his face wore. Yet, by the flickering light of the leapingfire, which flooded the cavern with its ruddy glare, we could plainly seethe effect of his personality on the assemblage. Even as their shouts ofassent to what Caburus had said still rang through the cave I could seethem half fawning, half cringing towards their chief.
Yet his voice, when he spoke, was not harsh or domineering, but, whileperfectly audible, as bland and placid as a girl's.
"Please remember," he said, "that a plan such as I have conceived, whileit is, if carried out as designed, as certain of success as the swoop ofthe hawk upon the hare, is certain of success only while it is not onlyundreamed of by its object but totally unsuspected by anyone outside ofour band. The success of our project depends on no one having any inklingof any such project, far less having an inkling of what kind of a projectit is.
"For your sakes and for your sakes only have I kept the details of myplans locked in my own bosom. You are venturing your lives to help me tothe realization of my hopes of setting free the world. Your lives must notbe risked needlessly. Little will be the risk any of you will run incarrying out my plans, so ingeniously are they conceived. But thatsmallness of risk can be attained only if the nature of the project isunknown to anyone save myself up to the latest possible moment beforeputting it into effect. Every day, every hour, which elapses between thegiving of my instructions and their execution increases the danger of ourbetrayal. We must have guides, we must, occasionally, induct into oursociety new associates. Not one of these can be a danger to us as long asthe methods by which we are to effect our purpose is unknown except to me.I propose no loitering in Rome. I mean to arrive at the right spot at theright hour, at the hour of opportunity, to strike and to vanish beforeanyone save ourselves knows that the blow has been struck. Only thus canwe succeed, only thus can we escape. Upon my silence our success depends.Once I speak, every day, every hour makes it more likely that someone willbetray to some outsider the nature of our plot or even its details. Thenwe shall certainly fail and perish."
Thereupon ensued a long wrangle in which Caburus repeated that Maternushad said all that before and Maternus repeated the same argument in otherwords and brought up other similar arguments. The crowd, while swayed byMaternus, appeared to lean more and more to the opinions of Caburus. Itbecame manifes
t that they would break away and disperse unless Maternusrevealed his intentions. He was, apparently, quick to sense the situationand finally yielded.
"I have three separate plans," he said, "and I mean to prepare to use allthree, so that, if the first fails the second may succeed; if both thefirst and second fail I may hope to succeed with the third.
"I mean to reach Rome two days before the Festival of Cybele and for allof us to get a sound night's sleep. Then, on the eve of the great day,most of you may wander about the city sight-seeing; Caburus and I and afew with us will buy or hire costumes for the Festival.
"As we have all heard, the wildest license in costumes is permitted on theday of the celebration. Everybody dresses up as extravagantly as possible.More than that it is so customary for jokers to dress up in burlesque ofnotables that such assumptions of the costumes of officials are merelylaughed at and the wearers of them are never arrested or even reprimanded.
"Caburus and I will buy at old-clothing shops or hire from costumers castoff uniforms of the privates of the Praetorian Guard. Two squads of us,all volunteers and approved as boldest, strongest and quickest, will dressup as Praetorians. One will be led by Caburus and I myself shall lead theother.
"Caburus and his men will mingle with the crowd along the line of themorning procession. The procession is so long, its route is so jammed withsight-seeing rabble, the rabble is permitted so close to the line of theprocession, so many wonders and marvels form part of the procession, thereis so much interest in gazing at them, that it is possible that Caburusmay see a chance to achieve our object. I shall leave it to him whether togive whatever signal he may agree on with his men, or to withhold it. Ifhe sees an opportunity, that will mean that, in his judgment, there is agood chance of killing the tyrant and getting away unrecognized. You knowhow cautious Caburus is: you will run no risk if he does not give thesignal and little if he does.
"Now, Caburus, what do you think of this plan?"
Not being able to watch Maternus making his speech, I, while straining myears to catch his softly uttered words, had kept my eyes on Caburus, hadmarvelled to see the dogged spirit of opposition and surly disaffectionfade out of his expression, to see interest and excitement take theirplace.
"I think," he shouted, "that you are a marvel! I don't wonder that youwanted to conceal this plan till the last possible moment. It is so goodthat I already want to tell it to somebody, just to see his amazement. Butwe'll keep your secret! And as to your plan, I'll risk it. No Gaul with adrop of sporting blood in his veins would hesitate to embrace theopportunity to try to carry out so ingenious, so promising a plan.
"And you don't need a second plan or third plan. This plan, under myleadership, is certain to succeed."
At this a scrawny, tow-headed, long-armed, long-legged fellow sprang tohis feet.
"I don't agree with that at all," he vociferated.
"Just because the first plan pleases Caburus is no reason why we shouldnot hear the other two plans also."
This utterance started a long discussion, from which Agathemer and Ilearned nothing except that there was much insubordination among the menfollowing Maternus and that the scrawny objector was named Torix.
The upshot of the discussion was a general agreement that Maternus oughtto disclose all three plans.
Maternus then resumed:
"The second plan is already known to Cossedo and it need not be known toanyone else, as he alone is concerned and he, if Caburus decides not tomake his attempt, will attempt his alone, without any assistance fromanyone and without endangering anyone else; in fact without endangeringhimself. I myself thought of this plan, which is so ingenious that, if itsucceeds, no one will ever know how Commodus came to his death; it iffails no one will ever suspect that it was tried at all.
"You have all been wondering how Cossedo came to be with us. Many of youhave jeered him; many of you have protested to me. But I know what I amdoing. Cossedo can do other things besides walk the tight-rope, jugglefive balls at once, and stand on his head on the back of a gallopinghorse. He is just the right man to carry out my idea, which neither I norany other of us could put into effect. As Cossedo approves the plan; as heis to try it alone, no one else need know it."
"Just so," cried the red-headed lout who had heralded the council, comingforward into the fire-light. "I can try it and I may do it. If I do it,Commodus will be a corpse. If I fail, no one will know I have tried. Andit is a jewel of a plan."
And he stood on his hands, feet waggling in the air, apparently from mereexuberance of spirits. Standing up again, he threw three flip-flopsforward, then two backward, then turned a half a dozen cart wheels, duringwhich gyrations he passed out of our field of view.
Torix sulkily agreed that the second plan remain unknown except toMaternus and Cossedo, the assemblage not supporting him when he pressedfor its disclosure. But he was insistent about the third plan.
"The third plan," said Maternus, "is merely the first plan over again,except that I lead instead of Caburus and that we try after dark insteadof by day. From all I can hear the opportunity will be even better bytorchlight in the gardens about the temple than it will be by day in thejammed streets. I mean to be as cautious as I expect Caburus to be: thereis no use making an attempt unless a really promising chance presentsitself. If I see an opening I'll kill the monster myself, and I do notexpect to need any help from anybody, except a little jostling in thecrowd to increase the confusion. As rigged up in Praetorian uniforms wewill be laughed at and indulged. Either in the noonday swelter or in thetorchlit darkness it ought to be easy to pass from aping, mimicking andburlesquing Praetorians to personating and counterfeiting Praetorians.Once mistaken for real guards we ought to be able to get close toCommodus. Then in the torchlight it should be easy for me to finish himand for you others to escape. I shall not think of escape until the deedis done. Then I'll escape, if I can, but I shall let no thought of escapeinterfere with my doing what I purpose."
This speech was acclaimed by everyone except Torix. He said:
"All this is most ingenious. But there is in this plan one flaw which noone has noted. I suppose that you, Maternus, evolved this really promisingidea from pondering on what Claudius told us. All the hearsay about Romeand its festivals which ever came to the ears of all of us put together isas nothing at all compared with what Claudius told us in two months.Claudius had lived in Rome, Claudius knew every alley in Rome. WithClaudius to pilot us we might have hoped to succeed. But Claudius is dead,dead somewhere in the Alps, where he is no use to us. He had seen theEmperor, he knew him by sight. Not one of us does. And, as Claudius toldus, at the Festival of Cybele, as at several other religious festivals,the Emperor does not wear his official robes, so that anyone may recognizehim, but appears in the garb of a priest of the deity celebrated, as HighPriest or Assistant High Priest, or as a dignitary of some other degree,the rank in the hierarchy varying with the deity worshipped.
"Now not one of us, who have never set eyes on him, can tell Commodus, inthe garb of a priest of Cybele, from any other priest of Cybele. We haveno reasonable assurance of recognizing the mark at which we aim. Thus wehave only a small chance of success, by sunlight or torchlight."
This utterance started another wrangle; the men, apparently, about equallydivided as backers of Maternus and of Torix. As I lay listening to thishubbub someone stepped on the calf of my leg, his foot slipped off of it,and he fell on top of me, with a smothered exclamation.
"Who are you?" he demanded, adding some words which I did not catch. Itseemed that another man was occupied similarly with Agathemer. The manwho had fallen on me, in the act of scrambling up, yelled out:
"Here are two men lying and listening and they do not seem to belong tous. They do not respond to the pass-word."
At that every voice stilled and every face turned to our alcove-balconywhere our captors, now four, gripped us and had lifted us to our knees.
"Throw 'em down!" came a chorus of voices, "throw 'em down!"
Down we were thrown, none too tenderly, but we landed without breaking anybones.
Two men clutched each of us and haled us towards the fire. There we hadour first glimpse of Maternus, who sat on a pack, his back against therock, not too close to the fire, the light of which played on his leftcheek.
He looked plump and lazy.
"Strip them," he commanded.
As he was being obeyed somebody did something to the fire which increasedthe light it gave.
"Turn them round," Maternus commanded. "Humph," he commented, "by theirfaces they are a Roman gentleman and his Greek secretary; by their backsthey are fugitive slaves with bad records."
"They are both branded," added Torix, who had been inspecting us.
"Where?" queried Maternus. "I don't see any brand marks."
"On the left shoulder, each of them," Torix replied.
"Humph!" Maternus commented, "rascally slaves and indulgent master, orcanny owner of valuable, if restive, property."
Just as he said this there was a yell at our left and Caulonius Pelopsrushed in from somewhere beyond the firelight, probably from outside thecave.
"Here's the solution of our dilemma," he cried. "We are all right now.We've two men who know Commodus by sight. This is Andivius Hedulio, myformer master's nephew, and the other is his secretary, Agathemer."
"What, in the name of Mithras," Maternus breathed, "is your master'snephew doing in a cave in the Apennines, with his back all scourge-marksand a runaway-slave brand on his shoulder?"
Then ensued a long series of questions and answers, in the course of whichAgathemer and I pretty well told our story.
Maternus asked the assemblage whether they believed us and the consensuswas that they believed us and Pelops, who reminded them that Claudius hadread to them lists of those involved in conspiracies, who had beenexecuted or banished and their properties confiscated; that my name hadbeen among those he read; and that he, Pelops, had then told about me; allof which most of them did not recollect at all, and the few who claimed torecollect it recollected only vaguely.
Maternus, in his mild way, suggested that we would make valuable additionsto their association. Torix opposed the idea, but Maternus pointed outthat no one of them had as much to gain by the Emperor's death as I had:that after it I might hope to be restored to my rank and wealth, and that,after my miseries, I ought to hate Commodus more viciously than any ofthem. The assemblage approved, and, while throat-cutting was notmentioned, as that was the obvious alternative, Agathemer and I took oathas brothers in the confraternity.
Upon this we were released and our wallets, cloaks, hats and staffs, whichhad been deposited before Maternus, were restored to us. But Maternusinformed us that no member of the band was allowed any money of his own.We must give up to him any coins we had.
Agathemer spread his cloak, spread mine on it, and upon it I emptied mywallet, that all might see its contents. I was allowed to retaineverything, except the denarii. Agathemer did the like, with the likeresult. But at the sight of his flageolet there were exclamations andquestions. He kept it out when he repacked his belongings, only giving thecoins to Maternus. After we had fed he played tunes on it, to the delightof the whole band. It seemed to me they would never let him stop playingthat flageolet and I was desperately drowsy.
At last all were for sleep. Maternus decreed that Agathemer and I mightclimb up again on the dry shelf where we had been found. Neither he norany of the band seemed to object to, or indeed to notice, the dampness ofthe cave floor.
Agathemer and I slept at once. Our precious amulet-bags, of course, hadnot been investigated, or so much as suspected, and were safe on our neck-thongs.
Andivius Hedulio: Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire Page 17