THE LAGOONS
The men who carried and surrounded Æmilius proceeded in rapid march,
chanting a rhythmic song, through the town till they emerged on a sort of
quay beside a wide‐spreading shallow lagoon. Here were moored numerous
rafts.
“Now, sir,” said one of the men, as Æmilius leaped to the ground, “if you
will take my advice, you will allow us to convey you at once to Arelate.
This is hardly a safe place for you at present.”
“I must thank you all, my gallant fellows, for your timely aid. But for
you I should have been forced to eat of the dedicated cakes, and such as
are out of favor with the god—or, rather, with the priesthood that lives
by him, as cockroaches and black beetles by the baker—such are liable to
get stomach aches, which same stomach aches convey into the land where are
no aches and pains. I thank you all.”
“Nay, sir, we did our duty. Are not you patron of the Utriculares?”
“I am your patron assuredly, as you did me the honor to elect me. If I
have lacked zeal to do you service in time past, henceforward be well
assured I will devote my best energies to your cause.”
“We are beholden to you, sir.”
“I to you—the rather.”
Perhaps the reader will desire to understand who the wind‐bag men were who
had hurried to the rescue of Æmilius. For the comprehension of this
particular, something must be said relative to the physical character of
the country.
The mighty Rhône that receives the melted snows of the southern slope of
the Bernese Oberland and the northern incline of the opposed Pennine Alps
receives also the drain of the western side of the Jura, as well as that
of the Graian and Cottian Alps. The Durance pours in its auxiliary flood
below Avignon.
After a rapid thaw of snow, or the breaking of charged rain clouds on the
mountains, these rivers increase in volume, and as the banks of the Rhône
below the junction of the Durance and St. Raphael are low, it overflows
and spreads through the flat alluvial delta. It would be more exact to say
that it was wont to overflow, rather than that it does so now. For at
present, owing to the embankments thrown up and maintained at enormous
cost, the Rhône can only occasionally submerge the low‐lying land, whereas
anciently such floods were periodical and as surely expected as those of
the Nile.
The overflowing Rhône formed a vast region of lagoons that extended from
Tarascon and Beaucaire to the Gulf of Lyons, and spread laterally over the
Crau on one side to Nîmes on the other. Nîmes itself stood on its own
river, the Vistre, but this fed marshes and “broads” that were connected
with the tangle of lagoons formed by the Rhône.
Arelate, the great emporium of the trade between Gaul and Italy, occupied
a rocky islet in the midst of water that extended as far as the eye could
reach. This tract of submerged land was some sixty miles in breadth by
forty in depth, was sown with islets of more or less elevation and extent.
Some were bold, rocky eminences, others were mere rubble and sand‐banks
formed by the river. Arelate or Arles was accessible by vessels up and
down the river or by rafts that plied the lagoons, and by the canal
constructed by Marius, that traversed them from Fossoe Marino. As the
canal was not deep, and as the current of the river was strong, ships were
often unable to ascend to the city through these arteries, and had to
discharge their merchandise on the coast upon rafts that conveyed it to
the great town, and when the floods permitted, carried much to Nemausus.
As the sheets of water were in places and at periods shallow, the rafts
were made buoyant, though heavily laden, by means of inflated skins and
bladders placed beneath them.
As the conveyance of merchandise engaged a prodigious number of persons,
the raftsmen had organized themselves into the guild of Utriculares, or
Wind‐bag men, and as they became not infrequently involved in contests
with those whose interests they crossed, and on whose privileges they
infringed, they enlisted the aid of lawyers to act as their patrons, to
bully their enemies, and to fight their battles against assailants. Among
the numerous classic monumental inscriptions that remain in Provence,
there are many in which a man of position is proud to have it recorded
that he was an honorary member of the club of the inflated‐skin men.
Nemausus owed much of its prosperity to the fact that it was the trade
center for wool and for skins. The Cevennes and the great limestone
plateaux that abut upon them nourished countless herds of goats and flocks
of sheep, and the dress of everyone at the period being of wool the demand
for fleeces was great; consequently vast quantities of wool were brought
from the mountains of Nîmes, whence it was floated away on rafts sustained
by the skins that came from the same quarter.
The archipelago that studded the fresh‐water sea was inhabited by
fishermen, and these engaged in the raft‐carriage. The district presented
a singular contrast of high culture and barbarism. In Arles, Nîmes,
Narbonne there was a Greek element. There was here and there an infusion
of Phœnician blood. The main body of the people consisted of the dusky
Ligurians, who had almost entirely lost their language, and had adopted
that of their Gaulish conquerors, the Volex. These latter were
distinguished by their fair hair, their clear complexions, their stalwart
frames. Another element in the composite mass was that of the colonists.
After the battle of Actium, Augustus had rewarded his Egypto‐Greek
auxiliaries by planting them at Nemausus, and giving them half the estates
of the Gaulish nobility. To these Greeks were added Roman merchants,
round‐headed, matter‐of‐fact looking men, destitute of imagination, but
full of practical sense.
These incongruous elements that in the lapse of centuries have been fused,
were, at the time of this tale, fairly distinct.
“You are in the right, my friends,” said Æmilius. “The kiln is heated too
hot for comfort. It would roast me. I will go even to Arelate, if you will
be good enough to convey me thither.”
“With the greatest of pleasure, sir.”
Æmilius had an office at Arles. He was a lawyer, but his headquarters were
at Nemausus, to which town he belonged by birth. He represented a good
family, and was descended from one of the colonists under Agrippa and
Augustus. His father was dead, and though he was not wealthy, he was well
off, and possessed a villa and estates on the mountain sides, at some
distance from the town. In the heats of summer he retired to his villa.
On this day of March there had been a considerable gathering of raftsmen
at Nemausus, who had utilized the swollen waters in the lagoons for the
conveyance of merchandise.
Æmilius stepped upon a raft that seemed to be poised on bubbles, so light
was it on the surface of the water, and the men at once thrust from land
with their poles.
The bottom was everywhere visible, owing to the whiteness of the limestone
pebbles and the sand that composed it, and through the water darted
innumerable fish. The liquid element was clear. Neither the Vistre nor the
stream from the fountain brought down any mud, and the turbid Rhône had
deposited all its sediment before its waters reached and mingled with
those that flowed from the Cebennæ. There was no perceptible current. The
weeds under water were still, and the only thing in motion were the
darting fish.
The raftmen were small, nimble fellows, with dark hair, dark eyes and
pleasant faces. They laughed and chatted with each other over the incident
of the rescue of their patron, but it was in their own dialect,
unintelligible to Æmilius, to whom they spoke in broken Latin, in which
were mingled Greek words.
Now and then they burst simultaneously into a wailing chant, and then
interrupted their song to laugh and gesticulate and mimic those who had
been knocked over by their wind‐bags.
As Æmilius did not understand their conversation and their antics did not
amuse him, he lay on the raft upon a wolfskin that had been spread over
the timber, looking dreamily into the water and at the white golden
flowers of the floating weeds through which the raft was impelled. The
ripples caused by the displacement of the water caught and flashed the sun
in his eyes like lightning.
His mind reverted to what had taken place, but unlike the raftmen he did
not consider it from its humorous side. He wondered at himself for the
active part he had taken. He wondered at himself for having acted without
premeditation. Why had he interfered to save the life of a girl whom he
had not known even by name? Why had he been so indiscreet as to involve
himself in a quarrel with his fellow‐citizens in a matter in no way
concerning him? What had impelled him so rashly to bring down on himself
the resentment of an influential and powerful body?
The youth of Rome and of the Romanized provinces was at the time of the
empire very blasé. It enjoyed life early, and wearied rapidly of pleasure.
It became skeptical as to virtue, and looked on the world of men with
cynical contempt. It was selfish, sensual, cruel. But in Æmilius there was
something nobler than what existed in most; the perception of what was
good and true was not dead in him; it had slept. And now the face of
Perpetua looked up at him out of the water. Was it her beauty that had so
attracted him as to make him for a moment mad and cast his cynicism aside,
as the butterfly throws away the chrysalis from which it breaks? No,
beautiful indeed she was, but there was in her face something
inexpressible, undefinable, even mentally; something conceivable in a
goddess, an aura from another world, an emanation from Olympus. It was
nothing that was subject to the rule. It was not due to proportion; it
could be seized by neither painter nor sculptor. What was it? That puzzled
him. He had been fascinated, lifted out of his base and selfish self to
risk his life to do a generous, a noble act. He was incapable of
explaining to himself what had wrought this sudden change in him.
He thought over all that had taken place. How marvelous had been the
serenity with which Perpetua had faced death! How ready she was to cast
away life when life was in its prime and the world with all its pleasures
was opening before her! He could not understand this. He had seen men die
in the arena, but never thus. What had given the girl that look, as though
a light within shone through her features? What was there in her that made
him feel that to think of her, save with reverence, was to commit a
sacrilege?
In the heart of Æmilius there was, though he knew it not, something of
that same spirit which pervaded the best of men and the deepest thinkers
in that decaying, corrupt old world. All had acquired a disbelief in
virtue because they nowhere encountered it, and yet all were animated with
a passionate longing for it as the ideal, perhaps the unattainable, but
that which alone could make life really happy.
It was this which disturbed the dainty epicureanism of Horace, which gave
verjuice to the cynicism of Juvenal, which roused the savage bitterness of
Perseus. More markedly still, the craving after this better life, on what
based, he could not conjecture, filled the pastoral mind of Virgil, and
almost with a prophet’s fire, certainly with an aching desire, he sang of
the coming time when the vestiges of ancient fraud would be swept away and
the light of a better day, a day of truth and goodness would break on the
tear‐ and blood‐stained world.
And now this dim groping after what was better than he had seen; this
inarticulate yearning after something higher than the sordid round of
pleasure; this innate assurance that to man there is an ideal of spiritual
loveliness and perfection to which he can attain if shown the way—all this
now had found expression in the almost involuntary plunge into the
Nemausean pool. He had seen the ideal, and he had broken with the regnant
paganism to reach and rescue it.
“What, my Æmilius! like Narcissus adoring thine incomparable self in the
water!”
The young lawyer started, and an expression of annoyance swept over his
face. The voice was that of Callipodius.
“Oh, my good friend,” answered Æmilius, “I was otherwise engaged with my
thoughts than in thinking of my poor self.”
“Poor! with so many hides of land, vineyards and sheep‐walks and olive
groves! Aye, and with a flourishing business, and the possession of a
matchless country residence at Ad Fines.”
“Callipodius,” said the patron, “thou art a worthy creature, and lackest
but one thing to make thee excellent.”
“And what is that?”
“Bread made without salt is insipid, and conversation seasoned with
flattery nauseates. I have heard of a slave who was smeared with honey and
exposed on a cross to wasps. When thou addressest me I seem to feel as
though thou wast dabbing honey over me.”
“My Æmilius! But where would you find wasps to sting you?”
“Oh! they are ready and eager—and I am flying them—all the votaries of
Nemausus thou hast seen this day. As thou lovest me, leave me to myself,
to rest. I am heavy with sleep, and the sun is hot.”
“Ah! dreamer that thou art. I know that thou art thinking of the fair
Perpetua, that worshiper of an——”
“Cease; I will not hear this.” Æmilius made an angry gesture. Then he
started up and struck at his brow. “By Hercules! I am a coward, flying,
flying, when she is in extreme peril. Where is she now? Maybe those
savages, those fools, are hunting after her to cast her again into the
basin, or to thrust poisoned cakes into her mouth. By the Sacred Twins! I
am doing that which is unworthy of me—that for which I could never
condone. I am leaving the feeble and the helpless, unassisted, unprotected
in extremity of danger. Thrust back, my good men! Thrust back! I cannot to
Arelate. I must again to Nemausus!”