"So I gave them up unto their own heart's lust: and they walked
in their own counsels."--PSALMS LXXXI. 12.
In the meanwhile the stage-hands, the smiths and carpenters had been
busily at work, setting the scene for the coming drama.
Huge gnarled tree-trunks were dragged into the arena, and so disposed as
to afford shelter either for man or beast. By a mechanical device a
stream of water some six foot wide was made to wind its course along the
sands, and groups of tall reeds and other aquatic plants were skilfully
arranged beside the banks of this improvised stream.
Soon the whole aspect of the arena was thus transformed into an open
piece of country with trees here and there, and tufts of grass, mounds
and monticules, with a stream and a reed-covered shore. The whole
beautifully arranged and with due regard for realism.
The people watched, highly pleased; now that the Emperor's pet panther
had appeared they were satisfied that a spectacle such as they loved was
about to be unfolded before them.
But soon the workmen were engaged on other work, the purport of which
could not at first be guessed. To understand it at all a vivid picture
of the huge arena must appear before the mind.
Down below there was the artificial landscape, the trees, the stream,
the sand and grass, and all around the massive marble walls rose to a
height of some twelve feet to the lowest tier of the tribunes, beyond
which sat row upon row in precipitous gradients two hundred thousand
spectators.
At about four feet from the ground a narrow ledge--formed by the
elaborate carving in the solid marble--ran right along the walls, and
between this ledge and the top of the wall there was a low colonnaded
arcade with deep niches set between the fluted columns.
From these niches the workmen now suspended short ladders of twisted
crimson silk, of sufficient strength to bear the weight of a man. They
affixed these to heavy steel rings imbedded in the bases of the columns,
and when the ladders were in position, they hung down low enough, that a
man--standing on the ledge below--could just contrive to seize the ends
and to swing himself aloft, up into the niche.
The public watched these preparations with breathless interest, for soon
their objects became evident. It was clear that those who were to be
exposed to an encounter with the panther would be given a fair chance of
escape. It was to be an even fight between man and beast.
A man hotly pursued by the brute could--if he were sufficiently
agile--leap upon the narrow ledge, seize the rope-ladder and climb up it
until he reached the safe haven of the niche, and could draw the ladder
in after him. And fear of death doth lend a man wondrous agility.
It looked in fact as if the coming struggle were all to be in favour of
the man and not of the beast, for the smooth surface of the walls and
the narrow ledge above the carvings could not afford foothold to an
enraged four-footed creature with sharp claws that would glance off the
polished marble.
The public--realising this--waxed impatient. The novel spectacle did
not, after all, promise to be to its liking. The panther would make but
a sorry show if it was not given a helpless victim or two to devour.
Murmurs of dissatisfaction rose from every side as the work proceeded,
and anon when all round the walls of the arena, the twelve ladders of
safety were firmly fixed, seeming mutely to deride the excitement of the
people, the murmur broke into angry cries.
But Caligula did not seem to heed either the murmur or those loud
expressions of discontent which, at other times, would probably have
maddened him with rage. He had watched the preparations with eager
interest and had himself once or twice shouted directions to the
workmen.
Now, when everything appeared complete, he turned to the tribune which
was next to his own, and his small bloodshot eyes wandered over the
assembly of patricians, of knights and of senators who were seated
there.
He called my lord Hortensius Martius to him and appeared to be pointing
out to him the advantages of the rope-ladders with obvious pride in the
ingenuity of the device. Young Escanes too was bidden to admire the
contrivance, which--it soon became evident--was the invention of the
Cæsar himself.
The public--still feeling dissatisfied--watched desultorily for a while
the doings in the imperial tribune. Then general interest was once more
aroused, when the workmen--slaves and legionaries--having finished their
preparations, hurried helter-skelter out of the arena.
The sliding doors of the panther's cage were being slowly drawn away.
For a few seconds the powerful brute remained wary, silent and cowering,
then with one mighty, savage snarl it bounded into the arena.
Supple, graceful and splendid it walked round in solemn majesty, its
flat head kept low to the ground, its sinuous body curving and winding
as it walked, like that of a snake.
The public watched it, fascinated by the perfect grace of its movements
and by the cruel ferocity of its tiny eyes.
Now at the eastern end of the Amphitheatre a small iron gate slowly
swung upon its hinges, and in the dark recess beyond it a couple of men
appeared. For a moment they stood there immovable, a closely huddled
mass, shoulder to shoulder, with round open eyes dilated with fear and a
cry of nameless terror still hovering unuttered on their lips.
They were hugely built men, with massive torso and legs bare, and
tow-coloured hair brought straight up to the crown of the head and
knotted there with a black band.
There was much shouting from the recess whence they had emerged, and
anon some vigorous prodding and pushing from behind. But they dug their
bare feet into the sand, refusing to move; arm against arm they made of
themselves a wall which fear of death kept rigid and horror made
unbreakable.
The public greeted them with mock applause. In them they had quickly
recognised the German barbarians whom the Cæsar had brought back from
his last expedition as prisoners of war; in truth they were hardened
malefactors who had been offered a chance of life in exchange for the
pitiable masquerade. But this the public did not know. To the two
hundred thousand holiday-makers, craning their necks to see the
miserable wretches, they were but the living proofs of the Cæsar's
prowess in the field. With ironical cheers they were bidden to advance,
even whilst at no great distance from them the black panther sitting on
its haunches was surveying them with lazy curiosity, licking its mighty
jaws.
Then the public grew impatient, and from the recess behind the two men
persuasion became more vigorous. Through the darkness behind the gates
there appeared the red glow of a brazier, there was a quick hissing
sound, an awful double howl of pain and the smell of burnt flesh filled
the air. The next moment the two men fell scrambling forward into the
arena, and the iron gate closed behind them with a thud.