THE WATCHTOWER OF USELLA.
Our castle’s strength
Will laugh a siege to scorn.
MACBETH.
The watchtower in which Caius Crispus and his gang had taken refuge from
the legionaries, was one of those small isolated structures, many of which
had been perched in the olden time on the summits of the jutting crags, or
in the passes of the Appennines, but most of which had fallen long before
into utter ruin.
Some had been destroyed in the border wars of the innumerable petty
tribes, which, ere the Romans became masters of the peninsula, divided
among themselves that portion of Italy, and held it in continual turmoil
with their incessant wars and forays.
Some had mouldered away, by the slow hand of ruthless time; and yet more
had been pulled down for the sake of their materials, which now filled a
more useful if less glorious station, in the enclosures of tilled fields,
and the walls of rustic dwellings.
From such a fate the watchtower of Usella had been saved by several
accidents. Its natural and artificial strength had prevented its sack or
storm during the earlier period of its existence—the difficulty of
approaching it had saved its solid masonry from the cupidity of the rural
proprietors—and, yet more, its formidable situation, commanding one of the
great hill passes into Cisalpine Gaul, had induced the Roman government to
retain it in use, as a fortified post, so long as their Gallic neighbors
were half subdued only, and capable of giving them trouble by their
tumultuous incursions.
Although it had consisted, therefore, in the first instance, of little
more than a rude circular tower of that architecture called Cyclopean,
additions had been made to it by the Romans of a strong brick wall with a
parapet, enclosing a space of about a hundred feet in diameter, accessible
only by a single gateway, with a steep and narrow path leading to it, and
thoroughly commanded by the tower itself.
In front, this wall was founded on a rough craggy bank of some thirty feet
in height, rising from the main road traversing the defile, by which alone
it could be approached; for, on the right and left, the rocks had been
scarped artificially; and, in the rear, there was a natural gorge through
which a narrow but impetuous torrent raved, between precipices a hundred
feet in depth, although an arch of twenty foot span would have crossed the
ravine with ease.
Against the wall at this point, on the inner side, the Romans had
constructed a small barrack with three apartments, each of which had a
narrow window overlooking the bed of the torrent, no danger being
apprehended from that quarter.
Such was the place into which Crispus had retreated, under the guidance of
one of the Etruscan conspirators, after the attack of the Roman infantry;
and, having succeeded in reaching it by aid of their horses half an hour
before their pursuers came up, they had contrived to barricade the gateway
solidly with some felled pine trees; and had even managed to bring in with
them a yoke of oxen and a mule laden with wine, which they had seized from
the peasants in the street of the little village of Usella, as they
gallopped through it, goading their blown and weary animals to the top of
their speed.
It was singularly characteristic of the brutal pertinacity, and perhaps of
the sagacity also, of Caius Crispus, that nothing could induce him to
release the miserable Julia, who was but an incumbrance to their flight,
and a hindrance to their defence.
To all her entreaties, and promises of safety from his captors, and reward
from her friends, if he would release her, he had replied only with a
sneer; saying that he would ensure his own safety at an obolus’ fee, and
that, for his reward, he would trust noble Catiline.
"For the rest," he added, "imagine not that you shall escape, to rejoice
the heart of that slave Arvina. No! minion, no! We will fight ’till our
flesh be hacked from our bones, ere they shall make their way in hither;
and if they do so, they shall find thee—dead and dishonored! Pray,
therefore, if thou be wise, for our success."
Such might in part indeed have been his reasoning; for he was cruel and
licentious, as well as reckless and audacious; but it is probable that,
knowing himself to be in the vicinity of Catiline’s army, he calculated on
finding some method of conveying to him information of the prize that lay
within his grasp, and so of securing both rescue and reward.
If he had not, however, in the first instance thought of this, it was not
long ere it occurred to him; when he at once proceeded to put it into
execution.
Within half an hour of the entrance of the little party into this
semi-ruinous strong-hold, the legionary foot came up, about a hundred and
fifty men in number, but without scaling ladders, artillery, or engines.
Elated by their success, however, they immediately formed what was called
the _tortoise_, by raising their shields and overlapping the edges of them
above their heads, in such a manner as to make a complete penthouse, which
might defend them from the missiles of the besieged; and, under cover of
this, they rushed forward dauntlessly, to cut down the palisade with their
hooks and axes.
In this they would have probably succeeded, for the arrows and ordinary
missiles of the defenders rebounded and rolled down innocuous from the
tough brass-bound bull-hides; and the rebels were already well nigh in
despair, when Caius Crispus, who had been playing his part gallantly at
the barricade, and had stabbed two or three of the legionaries with his
pilum, in hand to hand encounter, through the apertures of the grating,
rushed up to the battlements, covered with blood and dust, and shouting—
"Ho! by Hercules! this will never do, friends. Give me yon crow-bar—So!
take levers, all of you, and axes! We must roll down the coping on their
heads,"—applied his own skill and vast personal strength to the task. In
an instant the levers were fixed, and grasping his crow-bar with gigantic
energy, he set up his favorite chaunt, as cheerily as he had done of old
in his smithy on the Sacred Way—
"Ply, ply, my boys, now ply the lever!
Heave at it, heave at it, all! Together!
Great Mars, the war God, watches ye laboring
Joyously. Joyous watches"—
But his words were cut short by a thundering crash; for, animated by his
untamed spirit, his fellows had heaved with such a will at the long line
of freestone coping, that, after tottering for a few seconds, and reeling
to and fro, it all rushed down with the speed and havoc of an avalanche,
drowning all human sounds with the exception of one piercing yell of
anguish, which rose clear above the confused roar and clatter.
"Ho! by the Thunderer! we have smashed them beneath their tortoise, like
an egg in its shell! Now ply your bows, brave boys! now hurl your
javelins! Well shot! well shot indeed, my Niger! You hit that high-crested
centurion full in the mouth, as he called on them to rally, and nailed his
tongue to his jaws. Give me another pilum, Rufus! This," he continued, as
he poised and launched it hurtling through the air, "This to the
ensign-bearer!" And, scarce was the word said, ere the ponderous missile
alighted on his extended shield, pierced its tough fourfold bull-hide, as
if it had been a sheet of parchment; drove through his bronze cuirass, and
hurled him to the ground, slain outright in an instant. "Ha! they have got
enough of it! Shout, boys! Victoria! Victoria!"
And the wild cheering of the rebels pealed high above the roar of the
torrent, striking dismay into the soul of the wretched Julia.
But, although the rebels had thus far succeeded, and the legionaries had
fallen back, bearing their dead and wounded with them, the success was by
no means absolute or final; and this no man knew better than the
swordsmith.
He watched the soldiers eagerly, as they drew off in orderly array into
the hollow way, and after a short consultation, posting themselves
directly in front of the gate with sentinels thrown out in all directions,
lighted a large watch fire in the road, with the intention, evidently, of
converting the storm into a blockade.
A few moments afterward, he saw a soldier mount the horse of the slain
centurion, and gallop down the hill in the direction of Antonius’ army,
which was well known to be lying to the south-eastward. Still a few
minutes later a small party was sent down into the village, and returned
bringing provisions, which the men almost immediately began to cook, after
having posted a chain of videttes from one bank to the other of the
precipitous ravine, so as to assure themselves that no possibility of
escape was left to the besieged in any direction, by which they conceived
escape to be practicable.
"Ha!" exclaimed Crispus, as he watched their movements, "they will give us
no more trouble to-night, but we will make sure of them by posting one
sentinel above the gate, and another on the head of the watch-tower. Then
we will light us a good fire in the yard below, and feast there on the
beef and wine of those brute peasants. The legionaries fancy that they can
starve us out; but they know not how well we are provided. Hark you, my
Niger. Go down and butcher those two beeves, and when they are flayed and
decapitated, blow me a good loud trumpet blast and roll down the heads
over the battlements. Long ere we have consumed our provender, Catiline
will be down on them in force! I go to look around the place, and make all
certain."
And, with the words, he ascended to the summit of the old watch-tower and
stood there for many minutes, surveying the whole conformation of the
country, and all the defences of the place, with a calm and skilful eye.
The man was by no means destitute of certain natural talents, and an
aptitude for war, which, had it been cultivated or improved, might
possibly have made him a captain. He speedily perceived, therefore, that
the defences were tenable so long only as no ladders or engines should be
brought against them; which he was well assured would be done, within
twenty-four hours at the latest. He knew also that want of provisions must
compel him to surrender at discretion before many days; and he felt it to
be very doubtful whether, without some strong effort on their part
Catiline would hear at all of their situation, until it should be entirely
too late.
He began, therefore, at once, to look about him for means of despatching
an envoy, nothing doubting that succor would be sent to him instantly,
could the arch traitor be informed, that the lovely Julia was a prisoner
awaiting his licentious pleasure.
Descending from the battlements, he proceeded at once to the barrack rooms
in the rear, hoping to find some possibility of lowering a messenger into
the bed of the stream, or transporting him across the ravine, unseen by
the sentinels of the enemy.
Then, casting open a door of fast decaying wood-work, he entered the first
of the low mouldering unfurnished rooms; and, stepping across the paved
floor with a noiseless foot, thrust his head out of the window and gazed
anxiously up and down the course of the ravine.
He became satisfied at once that his idea was feasible; for the old wall
was built, at this place, in salient angles, following the natural line of
the cliffs; and the window of the central room was situated in the bottom
of the recess, between two jutting curtains, in each of which was another
embrasure. It was evident, therefore, that a person lowered by the middle
window, into the gorge beneath, would be screened from the view of any
watchers, by the projection of the walls; and Crispus nothing doubted but
that, once in the bottom of the ravine, a path might be found more or less
difficult by which to reach the upper country.
Beyond the ravine rose many broken knolls covered with a thick undergrowth
of young chesnut hollies, wild laurels, and the like; and through these, a
winding road might be discovered, penetrating the passes of the hills, and
crossing the glen at a half mile’s distance below on a single-arched brick
bridge, by which it joined the causeway occupied by the legionaries.
Having observed so much, Caius Crispus was on the point of withdrawing his
head, forgetting all about his prisoner, who, on their entrance into this
dismantled hold, had been thrust in hither, as into the place where she
would be most out of harm’s way, and least likely to escape.
But just as he was satisfied with gazing, the lovely face of Julia, pale
as an image of statuary marble, with all her splendid auburn hair unbound,
was advanced out of the middle window; evidently looking out like himself
for means of escape. But to her the prospect was not, as to him,
satisfactory; and uttering a deep sigh she shook her head sadly, and wrung
her hands with an expression of utter despair.
"Ha! ha! my pretty one, it is too deep, I trow!" cried Crispus, whom she
had not yet observed, with a cruel laugh, "Nothing, I swear, without wings
can descend that abyss; unless like Sappho, whom the poets tell us of, it
would put an end to both love and life together. No! no! you cannot escape
thus, my pretty one; and, on the outside, I will make sure of you. For the
rest I will send you some watch cloaks for a bed, some supper, and some
wine. We will not starve you, my fair Julia, and no one shall harm you
here, for I will sleep across your door, myself, this night, and ere
to-morrow’s sunset we shall be in the camp with Catiline."
He was as good as his word, for he returned almost immediately, bringing a
pile of watch-cloaks, which he arranged into a rude semblance of a bed,
with a pack saddle for the pillow, in the innermost recess of the inner
room, with some bread, and beef broiled hastily on the embers, and some
wine mixed with water, which last she drank eagerly; for fear and anxiety
had parched her, and she was faint with thirst.
Before he went out, again he looked earnestly from the unlatticed window,
in order to assure himself that she had no means of escape. Scarce was he
gone, before she heard the shrill blast of the Roman trumpets blown
clearly and scientifically, for the watch-setting; and, soon afterward,
all the din and bustle, which had been rife through the livelong day, sank
into silence, and she could hear the brawling of the brook below chafing
and raving against the rocks which barred its bed, and the wind murmuring
against the leafless treetops.
Shortly after this, it became quite dark; and after sitting musing awhile
with a sad and despairing heart, and putting up a wild prayer to the Gods
for mercy and protection, she went once more and leaned out of the window,
gazing wistfully on the black stones and foamy water.
"Nothing," she said to herself sadly, repeating Caius Crispus’ words,
"could descend hence, without wings, and live. It is too true! alas! too
true!—" she paused for a moment, and then, while a flash of singular
enthusiastic joy irradiated all her pallid lineaments, she exclaimed, "but
the Great Gods be praised? one can leap down, and die! Let life go! what
is life? since I can thus preserve my honor!" She paused again and
considered; then clasped her hands together, and seemed to be on the point
of casting herself into that awful gulf; but she resisted the temptation,
and said, "Not yet! not yet! There is hope yet, on earth! and I will live
awhile, for hope and for Paullus. I can do this at any time—of this
refuge, at least, they cannot rob me. I will live yet awhile!" And with
the words she turned away quietly, went to the pile of watch-cloaks, and
lying down forgot ere long her sorrows and her dread, in calm and innocent
slumber.
She had not been very long asleep, however, when a sound from without the
door aroused her; and, as she started to her feet, Caius Crispus looked
into the cell with a flambeau of pine-wood blazing in his right hand, to
ascertain if she was still within, and safe under his keeping.
"You have been sleeping, ha!" he exclaimed. "That is well, you must be
weary. Will you have more wine?"
"Some water, if you will, but no wine. I am athirst and feverish."
"You shall have water."
And thrusting the flambeau into the earth, between the crevices in the
pavement, he left the room abruptly.
Scarce was he gone, leaving the whole apartment blazing with a bright
light which rendered every object within clearly visible to any spectator
from the farther side of the ravine, before a shrill voice with something
of a feminine tone, was heard on the other brink, exclaiming in suppressed
tones—
"Hist! hist! Julia?"
"Great Gods! who calls on Julia?"
"Julia Serena, is it thou?"
"Most miserable I!" she made answer. "But who calls me?"
"A friend—be wary, and silent, and you shall not lack aid."
But Julia heard the heavy step of the swordsmith approaching, and laying
her finger on her lips, she sprang back hastily from the window, and when
her gaoler entered, was busy, apparently, in arranging her miserable bed.
It was not long that he tarried; for after casting one keen glance around
him, to see that all was right; he freed her of his hated presence, taking
the torch along with him, and leaving her in utter darkness.
As soon as his footstep had died away into silence, she hurried back to
the embrasure, and gazed forth earnestly; but the moon had not yet risen,
and all the gulf of the ravine and the banks on both sides were black as
night, and she could discern nothing.
She coughed gently, hoping to attract the attention of her unknown friend,
and to learn more of her chances of escape; but no farther sound or signal
was made to her; and, after watching long in hope deferred, and anxiety
unspeakable, she returned to her sad pallet and bathed her pillow with hot
tears, until she wept herself at length into unconsciousness of suffering,
the last refuge of the wretched, when they have not the christian’s hope
to sustain them.
She was almost worn out with anxiety and toil, and she slept soundly,
until the blowing of the Roman trumpets in the pass again aroused her; and
before she had well collected her thoughts so as to satisfy herself where
she was and wherefore, the shouts and groans of a sudden conflict, the
rattling of stones and javelins on the tiled roof, the clang of arms, and
all the dread accompaniments of a mortal conflict, awoke her to a full
sense of her situation.
The day lagged tediously and slow. No one came near her, and, although she
watched the farther side of the gorge, with all the frantic hope which is
so near akin to despair, she saw nothing, heard nothing, but a few
wood-pigeons among the leafless tree-tops, but the sob of the torrent and
the sigh of the wintry wind.
At times indeed the long stern swell of the legionary trumpets would again
sound for the assault, and the din of warfare would follow it; but the
skirmishes were of shorter and shorter duration, and the tumultuous
cheering of the rebels at the close of every onslaught, proved that their
defence had been maintained at least, and that the besiegers had gained no
advantage.
It was, perhaps, four o’clock in the afternoon; and the sun was beginning
to verge to the westward, when, just after the cessation of one of the
brief attacks—by which it would appear that the besiegers intended rather
to harass the garrison and keep them constantly on the alert, than to
effect anything decided—the sound of armed footsteps again reached the
ears of Julia.
A moment afterward, Caius Crispus entered the room hastily, accompanied by
Niger and Rufus, the latter bearing in his hand a coil of twisted rope,
manufactured from the raw hide of the slaughtered cattle, cut into narrow
stripes, and ingeniously interwoven.
"Ha!" he exclaimed, starting for a moment, as he saw Julia. "I had
forgotten you. We have been hardly pressed all day, and I have had no time
to think of you; but we shall have more leisure now. Are you hungry,
Julia?"
For her only reply she pointed to the food yet untouched, which he had
brought to her on the previous evening, and shook her head sadly; but
uttered not a word.
"Well! well!" he exclaimed, "we have no time to talk about such matters
now; but eat you shall, or I will have you crammed, as they stuff
fat-livered geese! Come, Niger, we must lose no minute. If they attack
again, and miss me from the battlements, they will be suspecting
something, and will perhaps come prying to the rear.—Have you seen any
soldiers, girl, on this side? I trow you have been gazing from the window
all day long in the hope of escaping, but I suppose you will not tell me
truly."
"If I tell you not truly, I shall hold my peace. But I will tell you, that
I have seen no human being, no living thing, indeed; unless it be a
thrush, and three wood pigeons, fluttering in the treetops yonder."
"That is a lie, I dare be sworn!" cried Niger. "If it had been the truth
she would not have breathed a word of it to us. Beside which, it is too
cool altogether!"
"By Mulciber my patron! if I believed so, it should go hardly with her;
but it matters not. Come, we must lose no time."
And passing into the central room of the three, they made one end of the
rope fast about the waist of Niger, and the other to an upright mullion in
the embrasure, which, although broken half way up, afforded ample purchase
whereby to lower him into the chasm.
This done, the man clambered out of the window very coolly, going
backward, as if he were about to descend a ladder; but, when his face was
on the point of disappearing below the sill, as he hung by his hands
alone, having no foothold whatever, he said quietly, "If I shout, Caius
Crispus, haul me up instantly. I shall not do so, if there be any path
below. But if I whistle, be sure that all is right. Lower away. Farewell."
"Hold on! hold on, man!" replied Crispus quickly, "turn yourself round so
as to bring your back to the crag’s face, else shall the angles of the
rock maim, and the dust blind you. That’s it; most bravely done! you are a
right good cragsman."
"I was born among the crags, at all events," answered the other, "and I
think now that I am going to die among them. But what of that? One must
die some day! Fewer words! lower away, I say, I am tired of hanging here
between Heaven and Tartarus!"
No words were spoken farther, by any of the party; but the smith with the
aid of Rufus paid out the line rapidly although steadily, hand under hand,
until the whole length was run out with the exception of some three or
four feet.
Just at this moment, when Crispus was beginning to despair of success, and
was half afraid that he had miscalculated the length of the rope, the
strain on it was slackened for a moment, and then ceased altogether.
The next instant a low and guarded whistle rose from the gorge, above the
gurgling of the waters, but not so loud as to reach any ears save those
for which it was intended.
A grim smile curled the swordsmith’s lip, and his fierce eye glittered
with cruel triumph. "We are safe now.—Catiline will be here long before
daybreak. Your prayers have availed us, Julia; for I doubt not," he added,
with malicious irony, "that you have prayed for us."
Before she had time to reply to his cruel sarcasm, a fresh swell of the
besiegers’ trumpets, and a loud burst of shouts and warcries from the
battlement announced a fresh attack. The smith rushed from the room
instantly with Rufus at his heels, and Julia had already made one step
toward the window, intending to attempt the perilous descent, alone and
unaided, when Crispus turned back suddenly, crying,
"The Rope! the Rope! By the Gods! do not leave the rope! She hath enough
of the Amazon’s blood in her to attempt it—"
"Of the _Roman’s_ blood, say rather!" she exclaimed, springing toward the
casement, half maddened in perceiving her last hope frustrated.
Had she reached it, she surely would have perished; for no female head and
hands, how strong and resolute so ever, could have descended that frail
rope, and even if they could, the ruffian, rather than see her so escape,
would have cut it asunder, and so precipitated her to the bottom of the
rocky chasm.
But she did not attain her object; for Caius Crispus caught her with both
arms around the waist and threw her so violently to the after end of the
room, that, her head striking the angle of the wall, she was stunned for
the moment, and lay almost senseless on the floor, while the savage, with
a rude brutal laugh at her disappointment, rushed out of the room, bearing
the rope along with him.
Scarce had he gone, however, when, audible distinctly amid the dissonant
danger of the fray, the same feminine voice, which she had heard on the
previous night, again aroused her, crying "Hist! hist! hist! Julia."
She sprang to her feet, and gained the window in a moment, and there, on
the other verge of the chasm, near twenty feet distant from the window at
which she stood, she discovered the figure of a slender dark-eyed and
dark-complexioned boy, clad in a hunter’s tunic, and bearing a bow in his
hand, and a quiver full of arrows on his shoulder.
She had never seen that boy before; yet was there something in his
features and expression that seemed familiar to her; that sort of vague
resemblance to something well known and accustomed, which leads men to
suppose that they must have dreamed of things which mysteriously enough
they seem to remember on their first occurrence.
The boy raised his hand joyously, and cried aloud, without any fear of
being heard, well knowing that all eyes and ears of the defenders of the
place were turned to the side when the fight was raging, "Be of good
cheer; you are saved, Julia. Paullus is nigh at hand, but ere he come, _I_
will save you! Be of good courage, watch well these windows, but seem to
be observing nothing."
And with the words, he turned away, and was lost to her sight in an
instant, among the thickly-set underwood. Ere long, however, she caught a
glimpse of him again, mounted upon a beautiful white horse, and gallopping
like the wind down the sandy road, which wound through the wooded knolls
toward the bridge below.
Again she lost him; and again he glanced upon her sight, for a single
second, as he spurred his fleet horse across the single arch of brick, and
dashed into the woods on the hither side of the torrent.
Two weary hours passed; and the sun was nigh to his setting, and she had
seen, heard nothing more. Her heart, sickening with hope deferred, and all
her frame trembling with terrible excitement, she had almost begun to
doubt, whether the whole appearance of the boy might not have been a mere
illusion of her feverish senses, a vain creation of her distempered fancy.
Still, fiercer than before, the battle raged without, and now there was no
intermission of the uproar; to which was added the crashing of the roofs
beneath heavy stones, betokening that engines of some kind had been
brought up from the host, or constructed on the spot.
At length, however, her close watch was rewarded. A slight stir among the
evergreen bushes on the brink of the opposite cliff caught her quick eye,
and in another moment the head of a man, not of the boy whom she had seen
before, nor yet, as her hope suggested, of her own Paullus, but of an
aquiline-nosed clean-shorn Roman soldier, with an intelligent expression
and quick eye, was thrust forward.
Perceiving Julia at the window, he drew back for a second; and the boy
appeared in his place, and then both showed themselves together, the
soldier holding in his hand the bow and arrows of the hunter youth.
"He is a friend," said the boy, "do all that he commands you."
But so fiercely was the battle raging now, that it was his signs, rather
than his words, which she comprehended.
The next moment, a gesture of his hand warned her to withdraw from the
embrasure; and scarcely had she done so before an arrow whistled from the
bow and dropped into the room, having a piece of very slender twine
attached to the end of it.
Perceiving the intention at a glance, the quick witted girl detached the
string from the shaft without delay, and, throwing the latter out of the
window lest it should betray the plan, drew in the twine, until she had
some forty yards within the room, when it was checked from the other side,
neither the soldier nor the youth showing themselves at all during the
operation.
This done, however, the boy again stood forth, and pitched a leaden
bullet, such as was used by the slingers of the day, into the window.
Perceiving that the ball was perforated, she secured it in an instant to
the end of the clue, which she held in her hand, and, judging that the
object of her friends was to establish a communication from their side,
cast it back to them with a great effort, having first passed the twine
around the mullion, by aid of which Crispus had lowered down his
messenger.
The soldier caught the bullet, and nodded his approbation with a smile,
but again receded into the bushes, suffering the slack of the twine to
fall down in an easy curve into the ravine: so that the double
communication would scarce have been perceived, even by one looking for
it, in the gathering twilight.
The boy’s voice once more reached her ears, though his form was concealed
among the shrubbery. "Fear nothing, you are safe," he said, "But we can do
no more until after midnight, when the moon shall give us light to rescue
you. Be tranquil, and farewell."—
Be tranquil!—tranquil, when life or death—honor or infamy—bliss or
despair, hung on that feeble twine, scarce thicker than the spider’s web!
hung on the chance of every flying second, each one of which was bringing
nigher and more nigh, the hoofs of Catiline’s atrocious band.
When voice of man can bid the waves be tranquil, while the north-wester is
tossing their ruffian tops, and when the billows slumber at his bidding,
then may the comforter assay, with some chance of success, to still the
throbbings of the human heart, convulsed by such hopes, such terrors, as
then were all but maddening the innocent and tranquil heart of Julia.
Tranquil she could not be; but she was calm and self-possessed, and
patient.
Hour after hour lagged away; and the night fell black as the pit of
Acheron, and still by the glare of pale fires and torches, the lurid light
of which she could perceive from her windows, reflected on the heavens,
the savage combatants fought on, unwearied, and unsparing.
Once only she went again to that window, wherefrom hung all her hopes; so
fearful was she, that Crispus might find her there, and suspect what was
in process.
With trembling fingers she felt for the twine, fatal as the thread of
destiny should any fell chance sever it; and in its place she found a
stout cord, which had been quietly drawn around the mullion, still hanging
in a deep double bight, invisible amid the gloom, from side to side of the
chasm.
And now, for the first time, she comprehended clearly the means by which
her unknown friends proposed to reach her. By hauling on one end of the
rope, any light plank or ladder might be drawn over to the hither from the
farther bank, and the gorge might so be securely bridged, and safely
traversed.
Perceiving this, and fancying that she could distinguish the faint clink
of a hammer among the trees beyond the forest knoll, she did indeed become
almost tranquil.
She even lay down on her couch, and closed her eyes, and exerted all the
power of her mind to be composed and self-possessed, when the moment of
her destiny should arrive.
But oh! how day-long did the minutes seem; how more than year-long the
hours.
She opened her curtained lids, and lo! what was that faint pale lustre,
glimmering through the tree-tops on the far mountain’s brow?—all glory to
Diana, chaste guardian of the chaste and pure! it was the signal of her
safety! it was! it was the ever-blessed moon!—
Breathless with joy, she darted to the opening, and slowly, warily
creeping athwart the gloomy void, she saw the cords drawn taught, and
running stiffly, it is true, and reluctantly, but surely, around the
mouldering stone mullion; while from the other side, ghost-like and pale,
the skeleton of a light ladder, was advancing to meet her hand as if by
magic.
Ten minutes more and she would be free! oh! the strange bliss, the
inconceivable rapture of that thought! free from pollution, infamy! free
to live happy and unblemished! free to be the beloved, the honored bride
of her own Arvina.
Why did she shudder suddenly? why grew she rigid with dilated eyes, and
lips apart, like a carved effigy of agonized surprise?—
Hark to that rising sound, more rapid than the rush of the stream, and
louder than the wailing of the wind! thick pattering down the rocky gorge!
nearer and nearer, ’till it thunders high above all the tumult of the
battle! the furious gallop of approaching horse, the sharp and angry clang
of harness!—
Lo! the hot glare, outfacing the pale moonbeam, the fierce crimson blaze
of torches gleaming far down the mountain side, a torrent of rushing fire!
Hark! the wild cheer, "Catiline! Catiline!" to the skies! mixed with the
wailing blast of the Roman trumpets, unwillingly retreating from the
half-won watchtower!—
"Pull for your lives!" she cried, in accents full of horror and appalling
anguish—"Pull! pull! if ye would not see me perish!"—
But it was all too late. Amid a storm of tumultuous acclamation, Catiline
drew his panting charger up before the barricaded gateway, which had so
long resisted the dread onset of the legionaries, and which now instantly
flew open to admit him. Waving his hand to his men to pursue the
retreating infantry, he sprang down from his horse, uttering but one word
in the deep voice of smothered passion—"Julia!"—
His armed foot clanged on the pavement, ere the bridge was entirely
withdrawn; for they, who manned the ropes, now dragged it back, as
vehemently as they had urged forward a moment since.
"Back from the window, Julia!"—cried the voice—"If he perceive the ropes,
all is lost! Trust me, we never will forsake you! Meet him! be bold! be
daring! but defy him not!"—
Scarce had she time to catch the friendly admonition and act on it, as she
did instantly, before the door of the outer room was thrown violently
open; and, with his sallow face inflamed and fiery, and his black eye
blazing with hellish light, Catiline exclaimed, as he strode in hot haste
across the threshold,
"At last! at last, I have thee, Julia!"