THE FALSE BROTHER.
We must take our reader back a few steps in the history of Torquatus. On
the morning after his fall, he found, on awaking, Fulvius at his
bed-side. It was the falconer, who, having got hold of a good hawk, was
come to tame him, and train him to strike down the dove for him, in
return for a well-fed slavery. With all the coolness of a practised
hand, he brought back to his memory every circumstance of the preceding
night’s debauch, his utter ruin, and only means of escape. With
unfeeling precision he strengthened every thread of the last evening’s
web, and added many more meshes to it.
The position of Torquatus was this: if he made one step towards
Christianity, which Fulvius assured him would be fruitless, he would be
at once delivered to the judge, and cruelly punished with death. If he
remained faithful to his compact of treason, he should want for nothing.
“You are hot and feverish,” at last concluded Fulvius; “an early walk,
and fresh air, will do you good.”
The poor wretch consented; and they had hardly reached the Forum, when
Corvinus, as if by accident, met them. After mutual salutations, he
said: “I am glad to have fallen in with you; I should like to take you,
and show you my father’s workshop.”
“Workshop?” asked Torquatus with surprise.
“Yes, where he keeps his tools; it has just been beautifully fitted up.
Here it is, and that grim old foreman, Catulus, is opening the doors.”
They entered into a spacious court with a shed round it, filled with
engines of torture of every form. Torquatus shrunk back.
“Come in, masters, don’t be afraid,” said the old executioner. “There is
no fire put on yet, and nobody will hurt you, unless you happen to be a
wicked Christian. It’s for them we have been polishing up of late.”
“Now, Catulus,” said Corvinus, “tell this gentleman, who is a stranger,
the use of these pretty toys you have here.”
Catulus, with good heart, showed them round his museum of horrors,
explaining every thing with such hearty good-will, and no end of jokes
not quite fit for record, that in his enthusiasm he nearly gave
Torquatus practical illustrations of what he described, having once
almost caught his ear in a pair of sharp pincers, and another time
brought down a mallet within an inch of his teeth.
The rack, a large gridiron, an iron chair with a furnace in it for
heating it, large boilers for hot oil or scalding-water baths; ladles
for melting lead, and pouring it neatly into the mouth; pincers, hooks
and iron combs of varied shapes, for laying bare the ribs; scorpions, or
scourges armed with iron or leaden knobs; iron collars, manacles and
fetters of the most tormenting make; in fine, swords, knives, and axes
in tasteful varieties,[116] were all commented upon with true relish,
and an anticipation of much enjoyment,
[Illustration: _Plumbatæ._ Whips made of brass chains to which are
attached leaden balls.]
[Illustration: _Volsellæ_, Tweezers or Tongs.]
[Illustration: _Uncus_, or hook.]
[Illustration: _Pectines ferrei._ Iron Comb.]
[Illustration: _Uncus_, or hook.]
[Illustration: Instruments of Torture used against the Christians. From
Roller’s “Catacombes de Rome.”]
in seeing them used on those hard-headed and thick-skinned Christians.
Torquatus was thoroughly broken down. He was taken to the baths of
Antoninus, where he caught the attention of old Cucumio, the head of the
wardrobe department, or capsarius, and his wife Victoria, who had seen
him at church. After a good refection, he was led to a gambling-hall in
the Thermæ, and lost, of course. Fulvius lent him money, but for every
farthing, exacted a bond. By these means, he was, in a few days,
completely subdued.
Their meetings were early and late; during the day he was left free,
lest he should lose his value, through being suspected by Christians.
Corvinus had determined to make a tremendous dash at them, so soon as
the Edict should have come out. He therefore exacted from Torquatus, as
his share of the compact, that the spy should study the principal
cemetery where the pontiff intended to officiate. This Torquatus soon
ascertained; and his visit to the cemetery of Callistus was in
fulfilment of his engagement. When that struggle between grace and sin
took place in his soul, which Severus noticed, it was the image of
Catulus and his hundred plagues, with that of Fulvius and his hundred
bonds, that turned the scale in favor of perdition. Corvinus, after
receiving his report, and making from it a rough chart of the cemetery,
determined to assail it, early, the very day after the publication of
the Decree.
Fulvius took another course. He determined to become acquainted, by
sight, with the principal clergy, and leading Christians, of Rome. Once
possessed of this knowledge, he was sure no disguise would conceal them
from his piercing eyes; and he would easily pick them up, one by one. He
therefore insisted upon Torquatus’s taking him as his companion, to the
first great function that should collect many priests and deacons round
the Pope. He overruled
[Illustration: Christ and His Apostles, from a picture in the
Catacombs.]
every remonstrance, dispelled every fear; and assured Torquatus, that
once in, by his password, he should behave perfectly like any Christian.
Torquatus soon informed him, that there would be an excellent
opportunity at the coming ordination, in that very month of December.