Trembling with horror, Sophronia stood on the threshold of Carinus'
apartment.
The spectacle before her seemed to her eyes more terrible than the
torture chambers of the prison and the dens of the wild beasts.
Drunken slaves lay on the floor, singing and touching goblets with
drunken senators; men, rouged and clad in women's garments, were
singing to the accompaniment of harps indecent dithyrambics, while
they had twined the feminine anadem upon their heads with oak leaves,
the simple ornament of civic virtue. The most prominent magistrates,
consuls, prefects, tribunes, disguised as fauns and satyrs, were
dancing with girls robed in transparent tissues, whose cheeks and
eyes were glowing with the unholy fires of sensual passion; and in the
midst of this diabolical revel lay Carinus, himself the greatest
disgrace of his own imperial purple. The effect of the wine and the
emotions roused by the scenes of this orgy were visible on his face;
his hair was dripping with the perfumed salves that had been rubbed
into it.
Sophronia shuddered at this scene, which, wherever she turned her
eyes, showed the same figures; and for the first time in her life she
forgot to call upon the name of God, who is always nearest when the
danger is greatest. But who could think of God's presence where the
devil's altars are erected?
In trembling terror the Christian maiden seized her gold _balteus_, as
it were from instinct, without remembering her sister's hint. But no
sooner did she feel the hilt of the dagger in her hand than she
regained her strength of soul. In an instant she was once more the
brave, resolute Roman, and without waiting to be led, she passed
boldly through the circling dancers, and with her tall figure drawn up
to its full height, stood proudly before Carinus.
"Is it you whom they call in Rome the Augustus?" she asked with
infinite contempt.
Carinus, smiling, raised himself on his couch, and motioned to the
noisy revellers to be quiet.
"Since when has the word 'Augustus' in the Roman tongue meant shame
and loathsomeness?" Sophronia boldly continued, gazing defiantly at
Carinus. "What accursed destiny sent you to Rome to gather around you
everything that is abominable, everything that is accursed, and bring
to sovereignty the sins transmitted to you from the temples of your
gods? Do you not feel the trembling of the earthquake under your
feet; do you not hear the muttering of heaven's thunder? Does not the
roar of millions of approaching barbarians rouse you from your
slumber, that you may learn that you are not the lord, but only dust
upon the earth, which at a single breath of God will pass away and
become the dust which buries you?"
Carinus turned to Aevius, saying:
"By Paphia, you did not deceive me. This is a wonderful creature.
There, there, beautiful maiden, rage on, be wrathful; upbraiding only
heightens your beauty, and the more you reproach me the more ardent my
love becomes."
"You will repent some day amid eternal flames! Above you is throned an
invisible God, who reads the thoughts of your heart; and as you now
see laughing faces around you, you will behold on the Day of Judgment
features tortured and distorted by pain, and you yourself will not be
otherwise."
"By the Pantheon! This figure is still lacking in the ranks of the
gods. Aevius, bring a sculptor. Build a temple, place the statue of
this goddess in it, and call her _Venus bellatrix_."
An artist belonging to the court instantly pressed forward, seized a
stylus and waxed paper, and Sophronia, with chaste indignation,
perceived that while Aevius was turning her indignant words into rhyme,
the sculptor was trying to catch the movements of her superb figure.
The young girl instantly stopped speaking; not another word did she
utter, not a feature of her face moved.
"Hasten your work, Sextus, if you wish to sketch the _Venus
bellatrix_," said Carinus. "In an hour this figure will be _Venus
victa_."
As he spoke, he glided nearer to the girl like a hungry serpent, and
fixed his eyes greedily upon her face.
Sophronia stood cold and motionless as a statue.
"Well, why do you not continue to rage? Be furious! It increases the
rapture that fills my heart a hundredfold; rave, curse, blaspheme. I
will kiss and embrace you, and be frantic with bliss."
The patrician's daughter made no reply; not a feature stirred.
"Ah, do you seek to chill me by the coldness of your face? You
doubtless perceived that the flush of shame which crimsoned it, the
flames of your wrath were joy to me, and now, merely to rob me of my
sweetest pleasure, you choose to behave as if shame and anger had
vanished from your cheeks? Slaves, tear the garments from her limbs!"
Sophronia silently drew the dagger from beneath her girdle, and looked
fearlessly around the circle of faces.
Carinus remained fixed in the attitude in which this unexpected
movement had surprised him. Every one stood still as if spellbound.
Aevius alone did not lose his presence of mind. With a smooth smile on
his false lips, he glided nearer to the maiden.
"Fairest virgin, do not forget that you are a Christian. Your God
punishes sternly those who open the gates of death by force; and your
religion regards it a sin to kill yourself or any other mortal, while
it requires you to endure whatever God has decreed, whether it be
death by torture or an hour of bliss in the arms of the Caesar. Do not
forget that you are a Christian, and that many Christian women have
borne this form of martyrdom before you."
The drawn dagger trembled in Sophronia's hand.
Aevius moved a step nearer.
"Remember that you are a Christian," he said, casting a swift glance
at the dagger to wrest it by a bold spring from the maiden's hand.
"But I am also a Roman!" cried Sophronia, as she recalled her sister's
words; and with the speed of lightning she buried the steel in her
heart.
The blow was dealt with a sure hand, and the blade pierced the strong
heart to its hilt. The Roman prized her honour more than her
salvation.
The next instant she sank dying on the floor, composing the folds of
her garments with her last strength, that even in death she might not
betray the grace of her figure to unholy eyes.