CALLISTA IN DURANCE.
We will hope that the reader, as well as Agellius, is attracted by the
word Callista, and wishes to know something about her fate; nay, perhaps
finds fault with us as having suffered him so long to content himself with
the chance and second-hand information which Jucundus or Juba has
supplied. If we have been wanting in due consideration for him, we now
trust to make up for it.
When Callista, then, had so boldly left the cottage to stop the intruders,
she had in one important point reckoned without her host. She spoke Latin
fluently, herself, and could converse with the townspeople, most of whom
could do the same; but it was otherwise with the inhabitants of the
country, numbers of whom, as we have said, were in Sicca on the day of the
outbreak. The two fellows, whom she went out to withstand, knew neither
her nor the Latin tongue. They were of a race which called itself
Canaanite, and really was so; huge, gigantic men, who looked like the sons
of Enac, described in Holy Writ. They knew nothing of roads or fences, and
had scrambled up the hill as they could, the shortest way, and, being free
from the crowd, with far more expedition than had they followed the beaten
track. She and they could not understand each other’s speech; but her
appearance spoke for her, and, in consequence, they seized on her as their
share of the booty, and without more ado, carried her off towards Sicca.
As they came up by a route of their own, so they returned, and entered the
city by a gate more to the south, not the Septimian; a happy circumstance,
as otherwise she would have stood every chance of being destroyed in that
wholesale massacre which the soldiery inflicted on the crowd as it
returned.
These giants, then, got possession of Callista, and she entered Sicca upon
the shoulder of one of them, who danced in with no greater inconvenience
than if he was carrying on it a basket of flowers, or a box of millinery.
Here the party met with the city police, who were stationed at the gate.
“Down with your live luggage, you rascals,” they said, in their harsh
Punic; “what have you to do with plunder of this kind? and how came you by
her?”
“She’s one of those Christian rats, your worship,” answered the fellow,
who, strong as he was, did not relish a contest with some dozen of armed
men. “Long live the Emperor! We’ll teach her to eat asses’ heads another
time, and brew fevers. I found her with a party of Christians. She’s
nothing but a witch, and she knows the consequences.”
“Let her go, you drunken animal!” said the constable, still keeping his
distance. “I’ll never believe any woman is a Christian, let alone so young
a one. And now I look at her, so far as I can see by this light, I think
she’s priestess of one of the great temples up there.”
“She can turn herself into anything,” said the other of her capturers,
“young or old. I saw her one night near Madaura, a month ago, in the tombs
in the shape of a black cat.”
“Away with you both, in the name of the Suffetes of Sicca and all the
magistracy!” cried the official. “Give up your prisoner to the authorities
of the place, and let the law take its course.”
But the Canaanites did not seem disposed to give her up, and neither party
liking to attack the other, a compromise took place. “Well,” said the
guardian of the night, “the law must be vindicated, and the peace
preserved. My friends, you must submit to the magistrates. But since she
happens to be on your shoulder, my man, let her even remain there, and we
depute you, as a beast of burden, to carry her for us, thereby to save us
the trouble. Here, child,” he continued, “you’re our prisoner; so you
shall plead your own cause in the _popina_ there. Long live Decius, pious
and fortunate! Long live this ancient city, colony and municipium! Cheer
up, my lass, and sing us a stave or two, as we go; for I’ll pledge a
_cyathus_ of unmixed, that, if you choose, you can warble notes as sweet
as the manna gum.”
Callista was silent, but she was perfectly collected, and ready to avail
herself of any opportunity to better her condition. They went on towards
the Forum, where a police-office, as we now speak, was situated, but did
not reach it without an adventure. The Roman military force at Sicca was
not more than a century of men; the greater number were at this moment at
the great gate, waiting for the mob; a few, in parties of three and four,
were patrolling the city. Several of these were at the entrance of the
Forum when the party came up to it; and it happened that a superior
officer, who was an assistant to what may be called the military president
of the place, a young man, on whom much of the duty of the day had
devolved, was with the soldiers. She had known him as a friend of her
brother’s, and recognised him in the gloom, and at once took advantage of
the meeting.
“Help,” she said, “gentlemen! help, Calphurnius! these rascals are
carrying me off to some den of their own.”
The tribune at once knew her voice. “What!” he cried, with great
astonishment, “what, my pretty Greek! You most base, infamous, and
unmannerly scoundrels, down with her this instant! What have you to do
with that young lady? You villains, unless you would have me crack your
African skulls with the hilt of my sword, down with her, I say!”
There was no resisting a Roman voice, but prompt obedience is a rarity,
and the ruffians began to parley. “My noble master,” said the constable,
“she’s our prisoner. Jove preserve you, and Bacchus and Ceres bless you,
my lord tribune! and long life to the Emperor Decius in these bad times.
But she is a rioter, my lord, one of the ringleaders, and a Christian and
a witch to boot.”
“Cease your vile gutturals, you animal!” cried the officer, “or I will ram
them down your throat with my pike to digest them. Put down the lady,
beast. Are you thinking twice about it? Go, Lucius,” he said to a private,
“kick him away, and bring the woman here.”
Callista was surrendered, but the fellow, sullen at the usage he had met
with, and spiteful against Calphurnius, as the cause of it, cried out
maliciously, “Mind what you are at, noble sir, it’s not our affair; you
can fry your own garlic. But an Emperor is an Emperor, and an Edict is an
Edict, and a Christian is a Christian; and I don’t know what high places
will say to it, but it’s your affair. Take notice,” he continued, as he
got to a safer distance, raising his voice still higher, that the soldiers
might hear, “yon girl is a Christian priestess, caught in a Christian
assembly, sacrificing asses and eating children for the overthrow of the
Emperor, and the ruin of his loyal city of Sicca, and I have been
interrupted in the discharge of my duty—I, a constable of the place. See
whether Calphurnius will not bring again upon us the plague, the murrain,
the locusts, and all manner of _larvæ_ and _maniæ_ before the end of the
story.”
This speech perplexed Calphurnius, as it was intended. It was impossible
he could dispose of Callista as he wished, with such a charge formally
uttered in the presence of his men. He knew how serious the question of
Christianity was at that moment, and how determined the Imperial
Government was on the eradication of its professors; he was a good
soldier, devoted to head-quarters, and had no wish to compromise himself
with his superiors, or to give bystanders an advantage over him, by
setting a prisoner at liberty without inquiry, who had been taken in a
Christian’s house. He muttered an oath, and said to the soldiers, “Well,
my lads, to the Triumviri with her, since it must be so. Cheer up, my star
of the morning, bright beam of Hellas, it is only as a matter of form, and
you will be set at liberty as soon as they look on you.” And with these
words he led the way to the _Officium_.
But the presiding genius of the _Officium_ was less accommodating than he
had anticipated. It might be that he was jealous of the soldiery, or of
their particular interference, or indignant at the butchery at the great
gate, of which the news had just come, or out of humour with the day’s
work, and especially with the Christians; at any rate, Calphurnius found
he had better have taken a bolder step, and have carried her as a prisoner
to the camp. However, nothing was now left for him but to depart; and
Callista fell again into the hands of the city, though of the superior
functionaries, who procured her a lodging for the night, and settled to
bring her up for examination next morning.
The morning came, and she was had up. What passed did not transpire; but
the issue was that she was remanded for a further hearing, and was told
she might send to her brother, and acquaint him where she was. He was
allowed one interview with her, and he came away almost out of his senses,
saying she was bewitched, and fancied herself a Christian. What precisely
she had said to him, which gave this impression, he could hardly say; but
it was plain there must be something wrong, or there would not be that
public process and formal examination which was fixed for the third day
afterwards.