Manlius remained with Carinus to amuse him; he taught the dancing
girls the dazzling arts of the Indian bayaderes, and conquered Aevius
by producing on every occasion, and at every toast, distiches more apt
and beautiful than the court poet could fabricate.
During a single evening Carinus gave the now universally envied
favourite a hundred thousand sestertiae, and, when he learned from him
that the Teutonic women, by means of a special kind of soap, dyed
their hair amber-yellow, he promised Manlius to appoint him Governor
of Gallia that he might send him some of this soap which turned the
hair yellow--at that period a hue ridiculously fashionable in the
aristocratic society of Rome.
The banquet lasted a long time. True, it was only afternoon out of
doors, but any one who did not know that the feast had begun in the
morning would have supposed it was already midnight.
Carinus poured the wine that remained in the drinking horn upon the
floor, in token that he drank some one's health, and then handed it to
Manlius.
"To the health of the beautiful Glyceria!"
"And to yours, Carinus," replied Manlius, giving his own in exchange.
"Manlius," said Carinus, the blood mounting to his face, "do you know
that I have already had one husband of Glyceria slain?"
"You did well, Carinus; but for that I could not become the second."
"Do you know why I had him killed?"
"Because he concealed his wife from you. Fool! Have the gods created
a sun that some one may take possession of it and allow others no
share in its light? Those who snatch a beautiful woman from the world,
and then demand that she shall be loved by no one else, are thieves
and robbers!"
"It might seem strange to you, Manlius, if I should take you at your
word. You must know that I love your wife madly."
"That is your affair, Carinus. I do not keep her locked up. The way to
her is open to every one."
"It is easy for you to play the magnanimous. She herself secludes
herself sufficiently. While hundreds of thousands of men tremble at a
wave of my hand, all my power cannot win the love of this one woman."
"And how Glyceria _can_ love! Ah, Carinus, I know that when, in the
evening, the door opens to me which you always find closed, you would
joyfully permit me to occupy your throne and reign in your stead so
long as you fill my place as bridegroom."
Carinus sprang up as if an electric spark had thrilled him.
"_Hecataea!_ I will take you at your word! Take my throne, command my
slaves, my empire in my name, have my favourites killed, make the
lowest in Rome the highest, empty my treasure-houses, and, for all
this, merely give me the key of your bridal-chamber."
"The bargain is made; here is my hand. Give me the parchment and
stylus. Listen to what I write to Glyceria, and send it to her
dwelling: 'Goddess of my love! I shall spend the hours between evening
and morning with you. My heart longs for your words of consolation.
The cypress-branch has wounded my brow; your rose-wreath may subdue
its flames. When the evening star, the lamp of lovers, begins to
shine, extinguish yours that, if tears should dim my eyes, you may not
see them, but only feel my kisses. Until dawn I shall be with you, and
in possession of my happiness. Your languishing husband, Manlius
Sinister.' Send this letter by a slave, and put on this ring, which
you must show at the door. Then you will be admitted, and Glyceria's
women will conduct you where she awaits you."
Carinus listened greedily to every word from Manlius, who coolly
handed him the ring and the letter. Trembling in every limb, he could
not speak, but motioned to a slave to deliver Manlius' letter to
Glyceria.
The courtiers whispered together in astonishment.
"What a fortunate man you are," Aevius whispered in the ear of the new
favourite. "Why did not I have the good luck to possess Glyceria's
love, that I might cast it from me with the same indifference?"
The slave soon returned with a letter from Glyceria to Manlius.
The latter handed it to the Caesar:
"It is yours; read it!"
Carinus, with trembling hands, unrolled the parchment; his eyes
sparkled as he read:
"Manlius! Your lines quiver in my hand. A thousand emotions are raging
in my heart; fear, longing, holy horrour, and wild love. I am under
the ban of an irresistible spell. I wish you might not come, but if
you do, I shall be unable to resist you. I feel within my breast the
power and the desire to destroy the whole world, but at a breath from
you all my strength fails; I am nothing more than a weak, loving
woman, who loses her reason in her love. Oh, do not come! Glyceria."
"That means: 'Oh, come!'" said Manlius laughing, propping himself
carelessly on one elbow upon his couch.
Carinus ordered his _lectica_ to be brought, and had himself lifted
into it.
"No man has ever done that," whispered the barber, filled with envy;
"given up his own bride to another."
"Meanwhile you are the ruler of Rome," said Carinus to Manlius. "Let
the fellow who writes my name come. Whatever you command, I command.
Reign over my kingdom."
"And you over my heaven."
The slaves closed the purple curtains of the _lectica_, raised it on
their shoulders, and withdrew with the Caesar.
The trembling courtiers, with humble faces, gathered around the youth
whom the Imperator's crazy whim had made for an hour the master of the
world.
Manlius stretched himself comfortably upon the cushions of the
imperial couch, sought among the throng of courtiers the man who was
trembling most violently, and beckoned to him.
It was Marcius, the barber; by virtue of imperial favour, Praefectus
Praetorio.
"You are the commander of the praetorians?" asked Manlius.
"Yes, my imperial master," stammered the barber, rolling his eyes.
Manlius laughed.
"So you really consider me the Caesar? If I _were_ the Imperator, I
would have you beheaded because you mocked at my face; but call me
your friend. I know your merits."
"O my Lord!"
"I know, and will reward them. You are accustomed to bleed people, so
you will make a good soldier; you are skilled in arranging the hair,
which indicates your talent for commander-in-chief; and understand how
to pluck out hairs coolly, from which I perceive that you are stern
and impartial. I am not satisfied with the leaders of the army in the
East, Numerian and Diocletian, and I therefore appoint you general of
these troops. You will set out at once for Thrace. Honourable
_Defraudator_! Sign our name to the document."
Marcius's brain fairly reeled under the burden of his new dignities.
The courtiers were rigid with astonishment, and calculated that if
Manlius began to reward thus those who had mocked him, he would
perhaps raise to the very heavens those who had looked at him with
smiles. The appointment was made out. The secretary signed the Caesar's
name, and Marcius, with a very important face, retired at once,
carrying his commission.
Urged by envy and jealousy, Aevius pressed forward to Manlius. The
latter saw his struggle and beckoned to him.
"You will be Praefectus Praetorio in Marcius's place, and distribute
four thousand talents among this valiant band, whose sole duty
consists in guarding our person. To be able to reward these men richly
continually, we will lessen the numbers of the outside army. Why
should we keep foreign countries garrisoned with our legions, pay
Roman gold for Roman steel, and give the leaders opportunity to rebel
against us? In an hour you will depart for Thrace, bearing our command
to Numerian and Diocletian to dismiss half the army at once, and the
sum thus saved I place at your free disposal, my noble friends. Write
down my words, honourable _Defraudator_!"
A frantic shout of joy greeted Manlius' speech. The courtiers rushed
to him, raised him on their shoulders, and amid the accompaniment of
music and thundering cheers, bore him around the room. The fury of
intoxication had risen to madness, Senators were no longer to be
distinguished from actors, dancers and hetaerae, slaves and bacchantes
mingled in the hall, wine flowed from the skins upon the floor, the
lamps were extinguished with it, and darkness covered the foul scene.
The only window in the apartment was a round one in the ceiling which
admitted the fresh air. When the last lamp was extinguished, the
senseless revellers saw with terror that the window above their heads
now gave light. What if the sky had kindled into terrible flames to
illumine with its awful glare the hell beneath!
The horrible tumult of the orgy ceased as if by magic, and through the
doors, suddenly flung wide open, rushed a slave, calling in a
trembling voice the message of terror:
"Save yourselves! Rome is burning!"
Through the round window the crimson glow shone like the flames of
the Day of Judgment upon the evil beings caught in the midst of their
sins.
* * * * *
When Carinus showed the ring, he was conducted without delay to
Glyceria's apartments.
The palace already stood wrapped in silence and darkness. Carinus felt
rustling garments brush him in the corridors, soft hands guided him
and, amid low laughter, led him through quiet rooms until at last he
clasped a hand at whose electric pressure his blood began to seethe,
and a familiar voice faltered with a tenderness never heard before:
"Manlius! So you came?"
It was Glyceria--cruelly deceived Glyceria.
"I expected you, and yet I hoped you would not come," she whispered
softly. "Do you feel the tremour of my hand in your clasp? It is
quivering with love and fear. Love robbed me of my senses. One word
of tenderness from your lips made my soul your slave--all that, during
my whole life, I had concentrated in a single thought, the goal of my
longing which I had never hoped to possess, the joy of which I had
always dreamed, but never hoped would be mine--I now embrace! I do not
understand it. This is not the day or the hour in which we ought to
speak of love, but you mentioned it, and can the woman who loves
choose the hour for answering the question?"
Carinus stole the caresses of the loving woman.
"Yet, O Manlius! I trembled lest you might come only to mock me, only
to play a cruel game with me, obtain the deepest secrets of my heart
and then jeer at me for them. No. You cannot do that. You cannot
trample in the dust the only feeling which I have kept unsullied amid
the ruin of my life. Can you hate me because I love you? And if you
hate me, would you not slay, rather than mock me?"
Carinus silently drew the trembling figure toward him and covered her
cheeks and lips with fervent kisses.
Glyceria, in blissful delusion, yielded to his embrace, and in her
happiness had almost silenced the warning voice in her heart, when
Carinus' cheek suddenly touched hers, and she discovered that his face
was beardless.
The most terrible thought darted through Glyceria's brain.
"Ha! Who are you? You are not Manlius. Be accursed! You are Carinus."
And, wresting herself with the strength of despair from the Caesar's
arms, she rushed toward the opposite side of the room and disappeared
behind the curtains of the niche which concealed her couch, drawing
the heavy folds together and hastily fastening the cords.
"You will not escape me!" shrieked Carinus, dashing in the fury of his
passion toward the curtains, and tearing them down, while he tore
apart the knot which confined the cords with his teeth.
But these few seconds had sufficed for Glyceria to light a vessel
filled with some inflammable fluid and, at the instant Carinus
succeeded in forcing the curtains apart, she poured the flaming
contents over her couch and, while the blaze caught the light
draperies, she herself sprang with a single bound upon the bed, now
burning around her, whence like a terrible, destroying vision she
shouted to the terror-stricken Augustus:
"Now, come!"
The next moment the hall was wrapped in flames. Like the fiend who
gained an entrance into Heaven and was forced to fly thence, Carinus
fled from the destroying fire, while Glyceria, seizing a burning
coverlet, rushed from room to room, setting fire to each, and,
dragging costly garments into the main hall, kindled those too.
In a few minutes the whole palace was in flames and, at the end of an
hour, a sea of fire was rolling through Rome.
Carinus had been borne back to his palace senseless.
Glyceria fled that same night to the temple of Cybele.