The sultry heat of an African summer day still brooded over the whole
grove, although the sun had long since sunk into the sea, and the brief
twilight had passed into the darkness of night. But the full moon was
already rising above the palm-trees, pouring her magical light over
trees, bushes, meadows, and water; over the marble statues which
gleamed fantastically out of the darkest, blackish-green masses of
shrubbery; and over the buildings, which were principally of white or
light-colored stone.
In the more distant portions of the grove Diana's soft silvery light
ruled alone, and here deep, chaste silence reigned, interrupted only
here and there by the note of some night bird. But near the gate, in
the two great main buildings, and on the turf and in the gardens
surrounding them, the noisy uproar of many thousands filled the air.
All the instruments known at the time were playing discordantly,
drowning one another. Cries of pleasure, drunkenness, even rage and
angry conflict, were heard in the Roman, the Greek, the Moorish, and
especially the Vandal tongue; for perhaps the largest and certainly the
noisiest "guests of the grove," as the companions in these pleasures
called themselves, belonged to the race of conquerors, who here gave
vent to all their longing and capacity for pleasure.
Two men, wearing the German costume, were walking down the broad street
to the Circus. The dress was conspicuous here, for nearly all the
Vandals, except the royal family, had either exchanged the German garb,
nay, even the German weapons, for Roman ones, or for convenience,
effeminacy, love of finery, adopted one or another article of Roman
attire. These two men, however, had German cloaks, helmets, and
weapons.
"What frantic shouts! What pushing and crowding!" said the elder, a man
of middle height, whose shrewd, keen eyes were closely scanning
everything that was passing around him.
"And it is not the Romans who shout and roar most wildly and
frenziedly, but our own dear cousins," replied the other.
"Was I not right, friend Theudigesel? Here, among the people
themselves, we shall learn more, obtain better information, in a single
night, than if we exchanged letters with this book-learned King for
many months."
"What we see here with our own eyes is almost incredible!"
Just at that moment loud cries reached their ears from the gate behind
them. Two negroes, naked except for an apron of peacock feathers about
their loins, were swinging gold staves around their woolly heads,
evidently trying to force a passage for a train behind them.
"Make way," they shouted constantly; "make way for the noble,
Modigesel."
But they could not succeed in breaking through the crowd; their calls
only attracted more curious spectators. So the eight Moors behind, who
were clad, or rather _un_clad, in the same way, were compelled to set
down their swaying burden, a richly gilded, half open litter. Its back
was made of narrow purple cushions, framed and supported by ivory rods;
white ostrich feathers and the red plumage of the flamingo nodded from
the knobs of the ivory.
"Ho, my friend,"--the younger man addressed the occupant of the litter,
a fair-haired Vandal about twenty-seven years old in a gleaming silk
robe, richly ornamented with gold and gems,--"are the nights here
always so gay?"
The noble was evidently surprised that any one should presume to accost
him so unceremoniously. Listlessly opening a pair of sleepy eyes, he
turned to his companion; for beside him now appeared a young woman,
marvellously beautiful, though almost too fully developed, in a
splendid robe, but overloaded with ornament. Her fair skin seemed to
gleam with a dull yellow lustre; the expression of the perfect
features, as regular as though carved by rule, yet rigid as those of
the Sphinx, had absolutely no trace of mind or soul, only somewhat
indolent but not yet sated sensuousness: she resembled a marvellously
beautiful but very dangerous animal. So her charms exerted a power that
was bewildering, oppressive, rather than winning. The Juno-like figure
was not ornamented, but rather hung and laden, with gold chains,
circlets, rings, and disks.
"O-oh-a-ah! I say, Astarte!" lisped her companion, in an affected
whisper. He had heard from a Graeco-Roman dandy in Constantinople that
it was fashionable to speak too low to be understood. "Scarecrows,
those two fellows, eh?" And, sighing over the exertion, he pushed up
the thick chaplet of roses which had slipped down over his eyes. "Like
the description of Genseric and his graybeards! Just see--ah--one has a
wolfskin for a cloak. The other is carrying--in the Grove of Venus--a
huge spear!--You ought to show yourselves--over yonder--in the
Circus--for money, monsters!"
The younger stranger drew his sword wrathfully. "If you knew to whom
you were--"
But the older man motioned him to keep silence.
"You must have come a long distance, if you ask such questions," the
Vandal went on, evidently amused by the appearance of the foreigners.
"It is the same always in this grove of the goddess of love. Only
possibly it may be a trifle gayer to-night. The richest nobleman in
Carthage celebrates his wedding. And he has invited the whole city."
The beauty at his side raised herself a little. "Why do you waste time
in talking to these rustics? Look, the lake is already shining with red
light. The gondola procession is beginning. I want to see handsome
Thrasaric."
And--at this name--the inanimate features brightened, the large, dark,
impenetrable eyes darted an eager, searching glance into the distance,
then the long lashes fell. She leaned her head back on the purple
cushions; the black hair was piled up more than two hands high and
clasped by five gold circlets united by light silver chains, yet the
magnificent locks, thick as they were, were so stiff and coarse in
texture that they resembled the hair of a horse's mane.
"Can't you content yourself for the present, Astarte, with the less
handsome Modigisel?" shouted her companion, with a strength of voice
that proved the affectation of his former lisping whisper. "You are
growing too bold since your manumission." And he nudged her in the side
with his elbow. It was probably meant for an expression of tenderness.
But the Carthaginian slightly curled her upper lip, revealing only her
little white incisors. It was merely a light tremor, but it recalled
the huge cats of her native land, especially when at the same time,
like an angry tiger, she shut her eyes and threw back her splendid
round head a little, as if silently vowing future vengeance.
Modigisel had not noticed it.
"I will obey, divine mistress," he now lisped again in the most
affected tone. "Forward!" Then as the poor blacks--he had adopted the
fashionable tone so completely--really did not hear him at all, he now
roared like a bear: "Forward, you dogs, I tell you!" striking, with a
strength no one would have expected from the rose-garlanded dandy, the
nearest slave a blow on the back which felled him to the ground. The
man rose again without a sound, and with the seven others grasped the
heavily gilded poles; the litter soon vanished in the throng.
"Did you see _her_?" asked the wearer of the wolf-skin.
"Yes. She is like a black panther, or like this country: beautiful,
passionate, treacherous, and deadly. Come, Theudigisel! Let us go to
the lake too. Most of the Vandals are gathering there. We shall have an
opportunity to know them thoroughly. Here is a shorter foot-path,
leading across the turf."
"Stay! don't stumble, my lord! What is lying there directly across the
way?"
"A soldier--in full armor--a Vandal!"
"And sound asleep in the midst of all this uproar."
"He must be very drunk."
The older man pushed the prostrate figure with the handle of his spear.
"Who are you, fellow?"
"I?--I?" The startled warrior propped himself on one elbow; he was
evidently trying to think. "I believe I am--Gunthamund, son of
Guntharic."
"What are you doing here?"
"You see. I am on guard. What are you laughing at? I am on guard to
prevent any carousing in the grove. Where are the others? Have you no
wine? I am horribly thirsty." And he sank back in the tall soft grass.
"So these are the guards of the Vandals! Do you still counsel, my brave
duke, as you advised,--beyond the sea?"
The other, shaking his head, followed silently. Both vanished in the
throng of people who were now pressing from every direction toward the
lake.