attempt; but at length he gained the upper floor, and his deliverer
exclaimed--
"Thanks, thanks, he is safe! By this good hand, too, that wrought your
misery. Oh! that a life of penitence and prayer might atone for my
guilt. It was a thought inspired by Heaven, prompted me to set on fire
that insatiate demon, to whom my taskmaster offered those wretched
victims, and every month a bride, on pain of his own destruction. What
might be the nature of that skeleton form, or their compact, thou
canst neither know nor understand. Even I, though nightly witnessing
horrors which have given to youth the aspect and decrepitude of age,
cannot explain. A connection, if not inseparable, yet intimate as body
and soul, existed between those demon-haunted bones and yon monster
who sought and accomplished my ruin. What I have seen must not, cannot
be told. My lips are for ever sealed. But the flames are fast gaining
on us. Let us hasten ere they prevent our retreat. The whole fabric
will shortly be enveloped, and every record of this diabolical
confederacy consumed. Go to thy lady-love. She is recovered, and as
one newly-awakened from some terrific dream. With the earliest dawn
hie thee to the prison lest _he_ escape. Let him be instantly secured.
When summoned, I will not fail to confront, to denounce the wretch. He
cannot penetrate yonder walls save by fraud or stratagem. How I have
escaped death is one of the mysteries which time perchance may never
develop. One might fancy the cunning leech who supplied the drug did
play me false. Instead of poison, mayhap, one of those potions of
which we have heard, that so benumb and stupify the faculties that for
a space they mimic death, nor can anything rouse or recover from its
influence until the appointed time be past."
They hurried away as he spoke. De Vessey could scarcely wait until
daylight. His first care was to secure the old sorcerer. He sought aid
from the police, and, as far as might be, revealed the dreadful
secret.
An immediate visit was made to the cell. On entering, its inmate was
in bed--a scorched, a blackened corpse!
It may be supposed the lover was not long in attending on his
mistress. She was free from disorder, and happily unconscious of what
had passed during the interval, save that an ugly dream had troubled
her. Nor was she aware that more than one night had elapsed. In a few
days afterwards De Vessey led her to the altar.
The mystery was never fully penetrated. That imposture and partial
insanity might be involved, and have the greatest share in its
development, is beyond doubt; but they cannot explain the whole of
these diabolical proceedings. That the powers of darkness may have
power over the bodies of wicked and abandoned men cannot be denied.
Whether this narration discloses another instance of such mysterious
agency our readers must determine.
What the painter knew was buried in eternal silence. The monks of La
Trappe received a brother whose vows were never broken!
THE CRYSTAL GOBLET.
A TALE OF THE EMPEROR SEVERUS.[22]
It was midnight--yet a light was burning in a small chamber situated
in one of the narrowest and least frequented streets of Eboracum, then
the metropolis of the world. York at that period being the residence
of the Emperor Severus, his court and family were conveyed hither; and
the government of the world transferred to an obscure island in the
west, once the _ultima Thule_[vi] of civilisation, its native inhabitants
hardly yet emerged from a state of barbarism, and addicted to the most
gross and revolting superstitions.
A lamp of coarse earthenware was fastened on a bronze stand, having
several beaks, and of a boat-like shape. Near it stood the oil-vase
for replenishing, almost empty--while the wicks, charred and heavy
with exuviae, looked as though for some time untrimmed. On the same
table was a Greek and a Coptic manuscript, an inkhorn, and the half of
a silver penny, the Roman _symbolum_. Breaking a peace of money as a
keepsake between two friends was, even at that period, a very ancient
custom. A brass rhombus, used by magicians, lay on a _cathedra_ or
easy chair, which stood as though suddenly pushed aside by its
occupier in rising hastily from his studies. An iron chest was near,
partly open, wherein papers and parchments lay tumbled about in
apparent disorder. Vellum, so white and firm as to curl even with the
warmth of the hand; purple skins emblazoned in gold and silver, and
many others, of rare workmanship, were scattered about with unsparing
profusion. It was evidently the study, the _librarium_ of some
distinguished person, and consisted of an inner chamber beyond the
court, having one window near the roof, and another opening into a
small garden behind. From the ceiling there hung a dried ape, a
lizard, and several uncouth, unintelligible reptiles, put together in
shapes that nature's most fantastic forms never displayed. Vases of
ointments, and unguents of strange odours, stood in rows upon a marble
slab on one side of the apartment. _Scrinia_, or caskets for the
admission of rolls and writing materials, were deposited on shelves,
forming a library of reference to the individual whose _sanctum_ we
are now describing: it was apparently undisturbed by any living
occupant save a huge raven, now roosting on a wooden perch, his head
buried under a glossy tissue of feathers, and to all appearance
immovable as the grinning and hideous things that surrounded him. A
magpie, confined in a cage above the door, was taught to salute those
who entered with the word "chaire" (Greek letters transcribed) a
Grecian custom greatly in vogue amongst the most opulent of the
Romans.
Ere long there came a footstep and a gentle summons at the door. The
bird gave the usual response; and straightway entered a stout muscular
figure, wrapped in a _chlamys_, fastened on the shoulder with a
richly-embossed _fibula_. Beneath was the usual light leathern
cuirass, covered with scales of shining metal; the centre, over the
abdomen, ornamented with a gorgon's head and other warlike devices; a
short sword being stuck in his girdle. From the lowest part hung
leathern straps, or _lambrequins_, highly wrought and embellished. He
wore breeches or drawers reaching to the knees, and his feet and the
lower part of the leg were covered with the _cothurnus_, a sort of
traveller's half-boot. A sumptuous mantle, made of leopard skin, was
thrown carelessly about his head, hardly concealing his features, for
the folds, relaxing in some measure as he entered, showed a youthful
countenance, yet dark and ferocious, indicating a character of daring
and vindictive energy, and a disposition where forgiveness or remorse
rarely tempered the fiercer passions. As he looked round the raven
raised his head on a sudden, and peering at him with that curious and
familiar eye so characteristic of the tribe, gave a loud and hollow
croak, which again arrested the notice of the intruder.
"Most auspicious welcome truly, ill-omened bird. Is thy master
visible?"
There was no reply; and the inquirer, after a cautious glance round
the chamber, sat down, evidently disconcerted by this unexpected
reception. Scarcely seated, he felt the clasp on his shoulder
suddenly risen, as though by an intruder from behind. Looking round,
he saw the raven with the bauble in his beak, hopping off with great
alacrity to his perch. The magpie set up a loud scream, as though
vexed he was not a participator in the spoil. The owner, angry at his
loss, pursued the thief, who defied every attempt to regain it,
getting far above his reach; ever and anon the same ominous croak
sounding dismally through the gloom by which he was concealed. Finding
it fruitless, the stranger gave up the pursuit, and again sat down,
examining carelessly the papers which lay open for perusal. But it
might seem these feathered guardians were entrusted with the care of
their master's chamber during his absence.
"Beware!" said the same querulous voice that before accosted him.
Looking up, he saw the magpie, his neck stretched to the utmost
through the bars of his cage, and in the act of repeating the
injunction.
"'Tis an ill augur to my suit," he muttered, hastily. "Destiny!"
Starting up at the word, which he spoke aloud, he clenched his hand.
"The inexorable gods may decree, but would it not be worthy of my
purpose to brave them; to render even fate itself subservient to me!"
He hurried to and fro across the chamber with an agitated step.
Suddenly he stood still in the attitude of listening. He drew the
folds of his mantle closer about his head, when, by another entrance,
there approached a tall majestic figure, clad in dark vestments, who,
without speaking, came near and stood before him. A veil of rich
net-work fell gracefully below his mantle, being in that era the
distinctive garb of soothsayers and diviners. His hair, for he was an
Asiatic, was twisted in the shape of a mitre, investing his form with
every advantage from outward appearances.
"I would know," said he, "by what right thou art at this untimely hour
an intruder on my privacy?"
"By a will which even thou darest not disobey," was the answer.
"It is past midnight. Knowest thou of my long watching, and the dark
portents of the stars?"
"Nay. But passing, I saw the door of the vestibule partly open. The
fates are propitious. I crossed the court, intending to consult the
most famous soothsayer in the emperor's dominions."
"Peradventure 'tis no accidental meeting. To-night I have read the
stars, the book of heaven. Comest thou not, blind mortal, at their
bidding?"
"I have neither skill nor knowledge in the art"----
The stranger hesitated, as though he had as lief the conversation was
resumed by the diviner himself.
"Thy father. What of him?" said the Chaldean, with a look as though he
had penetrated his inmost thoughts.
"True, 'tis mine errand," said the intruder. "But the event?"
"The augury is not complete!"
"Thine auguries are like my good fortune--long in compassing. The best
augur, I trow, is this good steel. I would sooner trust it than the
best thou canst bestow."
"Rash mortal! Impatience will be thy destruction. Listen!"
The raven hopped down upon his shoulder. A low guttural sound appeared
to come from this ill-omened bird. The augur bent his ear. Sounds
shaped themselves into something like articulation, and the following
couplet was distinctly heard:--
"While the eagle is in his nest, the eaglet shall not prevail;
Nor shall the eagle be smitten in his eyrie."
"Azor," said the warrior, clenching his sword, "these three times hast
thou mocked me, and by the immortal gods thou diest!"
"Impious one! I could strike thee powerless as the dust thou treadest
on. Give me the bauble," said he, addressing the raven. The bird
immediately gave the clasp he had purloined into his master's hand.
"This shall witness between us," continued he. "Dare to lift thy hand,
the very palace shall bear testimony to thy treason--that thou hast
sought me for purposes too horrible even for thy tongue to utter.
Hence! When least expected I may meet thee. If it had not been for thy
mother's sake, and for my vow, the emperor ere this had been privy to
it."
Stung with rage and disappointment, he put back his weapon, and with
threats and imprecations departed.
On a couch inlaid with ivory and pearl, within a vaulted chamber in
the Praetorian Palace of the royal city, lay the emperor, in a coverlid
of rich stuff. Disease had crushed his body, but the indomitable
spirit was unquenched. Tossing and disturbed, at length he started
from his bed. Calling to his chamberlain, he demanded if there had not
been footsteps in the apartment. The ruler of the world, whose nod
could shake the nations, and whose word was the arbiter of life or
death to millions of his fellow-men, lay here--startled at the passing
of a sound, the falling of a shadow! His face, whose chief
characteristic was power--that strength and determination of spirit
which all acknowledge, and but few comprehend--was furrowed with
deeper marks than care had wrought. Sixty years had moulded the steady
and inflexible purpose of his soul in lines too palpable to be
misunderstood. His beard was short and grizzled; and a swarthy hue,
betraying his African birth, was now become sallow, and even sickly in
the extreme; but an eagle eye still beamed in all its fierceness and
rapacity from under his scanty brows. His nose was not of the Roman
sort, like the beak of that royal bird, but thick and even clumsy,
lacking that sharp and predacious intellect generally associated with
forms of this description.
Such was Septimus Severus, then styled on a coin just struck
"BRITANNICVS MAXIMVS," in commemoration of a great victory gained over
the Caledonians, whom he had driven beyond Adrian's Wall. Though
suffering from severe illness, he was carried in a horse-litter; and,
marching from York at the head of his troops, penetrated almost to the
extremity of the island, where he subdued that fierce and intractable
nation the Scots. Returning, he left his son Caracalla to superintend
the building of a stone wall across the island in place of the earthen
ramparts called Adrian's; a structure, when completed, that
effectually resisted the inroads of those barbarians for a
considerable period.
He called a third time to Virius Lupus, one, the most confidential of
his attendants, to whom many of the most important secrets of the
state were entrusted.
"Thrice have I heard it, Virius. Again and again it seems to mock and
elude my grasp." He paused, the officer yet listening with becoming
reverence. The emperor continued, more like one whose thoughts had
taken utterance than as if he were addressing the individual before
him.
"When I led the Pannonian legions to victory; when Rome opened her
gates at my command; when I fought my way through blood to the
throne--I quailed not then! Now--satiated with power, careless of
fame, the prospects of life closed, and for ever--when all that is
left for me to do is to die--behold, I tremble at the shaking of a
leaf! I start even at the footstep that awakes me!"
"Long live the emperor!" said the cringing secretary. Interrupting
him, as he would have proceeded with the customary adulations, the
emperor again continued as though hardly noticing his presence--
"Caracalla yet remains with the army. Once I censured the misguided
clemency of Marcus, who by an act of justice might have prevented the
miseries that his son Caligula brought upon the empire; and yet I,
even I," said the haughty monarch, bitterly, "nourish the very
weakness that in others I despise!"
He dashed away the sweat from his brow, ashamed of the weakness he
could not quell.
"He hath sought your life," said the wily sycophant.
"He hath. Traitor! parricide! the distinctions he would have earned.
But my better genius triumphed, and history hath been spared this
infamy. It may be, this temporary exile from our court with the
northern army shall tame his spirit to submission. My life or his,
once the bitter alternative, may yet be avoided."
"But may not his presence with the army be impolitic, should he turn
the weapon wherewith you have girded him to your own hurt?"
"'Tis an evil choice; whichever way I turn, mischief is before me."
"Were it not best that he be recalled?"
"What? To plot and practise against my life! To mount upon my reeking
body to the throne! He will not reign with Geta. The proud boy
disdains a divided empire. And was not mine own soul fashioned in the
same mould? When Niger would have ruled in Syria, and Albinus in
Britain, I scattered their legions to the winds, and levelled their
hopes with their pride. 'Tis nature; and shall I, the author of his
being, punish him for mine own gift?"
He raised himself on his couch. The fierce blaze of ambition broke the
dark cloud of bodily infirmities, and the monarch and the tyrant again
dilated his almost savage features.
The secretary, used to these fiery moods, stood awaiting his commands.
The emperor, as though exhausted, sank down on his pillow,
exclaiming--
"I have governed the world, but I cannot govern a wayward heart!"
Thus did he often lament, and provoke himself the more with these vain
regrets; forgetting that, if he had exercised the same firmness in his
private as public capacity, the government of his own house would have
been easy as the government of the world.
"Virius Lupus, there is danger--and to-night. As I have told thee, the
stars do betoken mischief. But the peril is at my threshold. Let
Caracalla remain; so shall we avert his weapon. Should the assassin
come, it will not be with the blow of a parricide. Thou mayest retire
to thy couch, but first let the guards be doubled, the watchword and
countersign changed. And, hark thee, tell the tribune that he look
well to the _tessera_, and have the right count from the inspectors.
Should despatches come from Rome, let the messenger have immediate
audience."
Again the emperor stretched himself on the couch, and again his
slumbers were interrupted. A murmur was heard along the halls and
passages where the guards were stationed. The noise grew louder,
approaching the very door of the royal chamber. The monarch started as
from a dream, and the door at that moment opened. The Chaldean
soothsayer stood before him.
"Azor!" said the emperor, "at this hour? What betides such unseemly
greeting?"
"Caesar trembles on his throne; but the world quakes not! The angel of
death is at thy door. Caracalla hath returned."
"Returned? Surely thy wits are disturbed. Caracalla! Ay, even
yesterday, we had despatches from the camp."
"Howbeit, he is at thy threshold. The sound of his feet is behind me."
"Impossible! the mischief is not from him."
"Even now I looked in the crystal, and behold"----The soothsayer
paused. Horror was gathering on his features. The light suspended
above him began to quiver; and as it waved to and fro his countenance
assumed a tremulous and distorted expression.
Severus watched the result with no little anxiety. The magician drew a
crystal cup from his girdle. Looking in apparently with great alarm,
he presented it at arm's length to the emperor, who beheld a milky
cloud slowly undulating within the vessel.
"Take this," said the soothsayer, "and tell me what thou seest."
The monarch took it at his bidding. The cloud seemed to be clearing
away, as the morning mist before the sun.
"I see nothing," said the emperor, "but a silver clasp at the bottom."
"And the owner?"
"As I live," said the astonished parent, drawing forth a
curiously-embossed clasp from the goblet, and holding it out to the
light, "this token of rare workmanship did the empress present to
Caracalla ere he departed. Whence came it? and wherefore hast thou
brought it hither?"
"A silent witness to my word. Within the hour thy son returns;
and"----The seer's voice grew more ominous whilst he spake. "Beware!
there's mischief in the wind. The raven scents his prey afar off!"
"If in this thou art a true prophet I will give thee largess; but if a
lying spirit of divination possess thee, my power is swift to punish
as to reward."
"I heed not either. Do I serve thee for lucre? Look thee, in less time
than I would occupy in telling thee on't I could fill thy palace with
gold and silver!--and do I covet thy paltry treasures? The kingdoms of
this world are his whom I serve, and shall I seek thy perishing
honours? Behold, I leave this precious goblet as my pledge. I must
away. Thou shalt render it back on my return. I would not part with
that treasure for the dominion of the Caesars. Beware thou let it not
forth from thy sight, for there be genii who are bound to serve its
possessor, and peradventure it shall give thee warning when evil
approaches."
The soothsayer departed, and the emperor laid the crystal goblet on a
table opposite his couch. He clapped his hands, and the chief
secretary approached.
"What said our messenger from the north? Read again the despatch they
brought yesterday."
The secretary drew forth a roll from his cabinet, and read as
follows:--
"Again the supreme gods have granted victory to our legions. Favoured
by the darkness and their boats, the barbarians attacked us from three
separate points. Led on by Fingal and his warriors, whom beforetime we
erroneously reported to be slain, they crossed over to the station
where we had pitched our tents. But the Roman eagle was yet watchful.
Though retreating behind our last defences, we left not the field
until a thousand, the choicest of our foes, bit the dust. Morning
showed us the red-haired chief and his bards, but they were departing,
and their spears were glittering on the mountains."
"Enough!" said the emperor. "Caracalla tarries yet with the camp. Our
person is not menaced by his hand. Prithee, send a brasier hither. The
night is far spent, and slumber will not again visit these eyelids."
A bronze tripod was brought supported by sphinxes, the worship of Isis
being a fashionable idolatry at that period. Charred wood was then
placed in a round dish pierced with holes, and perfumes thrown in to
correct the smell. The emperor commanded that he should be left alone.
Covering his shoulders with a richly-embroidered mantle, he took from
behind his pillow a Greek treatise on the occult sciences, to the
study of which he was passionately addicted.
It is said of him by historians that he was guided by his skill in
judicial astrology to the choice of the reigning empress, having lost
his first wife when governor of the Lyonnese Gaul. Finding that a lady
of Emesa in Syria, one Julia Domna, had what was termed "a royal
nativity," he solicited and obtained her hand, thus making the
prophecy the means of its accomplishment.
A woman of great beauty and strong natural acquirements, she was at
the same time the patron of all that was noble and distinguished in
the philosophy and literature of the age. It was even said that
secretly she was a favourer of the Christians. Be this as it may, we
do not find she ever became a professor of the faith.
Sleep, that capricious guest which comes unbidden but not invited, was
just stealing over the monarch's eyelids when the roll fell from his
grasp. The unexpected movement startled him. His eye fell on the
bright crystal opposite. He thought a glimmer was moving in the glass.
He remembered the words of the sage, and his eye was riveted on the
mystic goblet. A sudden flash was reflected from it. He started
forward, when a naked sword fell on the couch: the stroke he only
escaped by having so accidentally changed his place! The glass had
revealed the glitter of the blade behind him, and he was indebted to a
few inches of space for his life!
Looking round, he beheld a masked figure preparing to repeat the
stroke. Severus, with his usual courage and presence of mind, threw
his mantle across the assassin's sword. He cried out, and the chamber
was immediately filled with guards; but whether from treachery or
inadvertence, the traitor was nowhere to be found. He had escaped,
leaving his weapon entangled in the folds of the mantle. On
examination, the emperor's surprise was visibly increased when he
recognised the sword as one belonging to Caracalla! The soothsayer's
prediction was apparently fulfilled. To the emperor's superstitious
apprehensions the crystal goblet was charged with his safety. But lo!
on being sought for, the charmed cup was gone!
* * * * *
The next morning, as the sun was just rising over the green wolds, and
the fresh air came brisk and sharply on the traveller's cheek, a
stranger was noticed loitering through the narrow streets of the
imperial city. He had passed the great Galcarian or western gate, from
which the statue of the reigning emperor on that memorable morning was
found razed from its pedestal. The outer and inner faces of the gate
were whitened for the writing of edicts and proclamations by the
government scribes, and likewise for the public notices of minor
import, these being daubed on the walls with various degrees of skill,
in red or black pigments, according to the nature of the decrees that
were issued by the praetor, and the caprice of the artist.