anger sparkled in her eyes through their tears, and he had never before
thought her so fair. What majesty there was in this girl, whose simple
grace had made him more than once address her as "child"! She was like a
queen, an empress; perhaps she might become one. The idea struck him for
the first time. And that little hand which now fell--what soothing power
it had, how much he owed to it! How fervently he had wished but just now
to be understood by her, and to be thought better of by her than by the
rest! And this wish still possessed him. Nay, he was more strongly
attracted than ever to this creature, worthy as she was of the highest in
the land, and made doubly bewitching by her proud willfulness. That he
should see her for the last time seemed to him as impossible as that he
should never again see daylight; and yet her whole aspect announced that
her threat was serious.
His aggrieved pride and offended sense of absolute power struggled with
his love, repentance, and fear of losing her healing presence; but the
struggle was brief, especially as a mass of business to be attended to
lay before him like a steep hill to climb, and haste was imperative.
He went up to her, shaking his head, and said in the superior tone of a
sage rebuking thoughtlessness:
"Like all the rest of them--I repeat it. My demands had no object in
view but to make you happy and derive comfort from you. How hot must the
blood be which boils and foams at the contact of a spark! Only too like
my own; and, since I understand you, I find it easy to forgive you.
Indeed, I must finally express myself grateful; for I was in danger of
neglecting my duties as a sovereign for the sake of pleasing my heart.
Go, then, and rest, while I devote myself to business."
At this, Melissa forced herself to smile, and said, still somewhat
tearfully: "How grateful I am! And you will not again require me to
remain, will you, when I assure you that it is not fitting?"
"Unluckily, I am not in the habit of yielding to a girl's whims."
"I have no whims," she eagerly declared. "But you will keep your word
now, and allow me to withdraw? I implore you to let me go!"
With a deep sigh and an amount of self-control of which he would
yesterday have thought himself incapable, he let go her hand, and she
with a shudder thought that she had found the answer to the question he
had asked her. His eyes, not his words, had betrayed it; for a woman can
see in a suitor's look what color his wishes take, while a woman's eyes
only tell her lover whether or no she reciprocates his feelings.
"I am going," she said, but he remarked the deadly paleness which
overspread her features, and her colorless cheeks encouraged him in the
belief that, after a sleepless night and the agitations of the last few
hours, it was only physical exhaustion which made Melissa so suddenly
anxious to escape from him. So, saying kindly:
"'Till to-morrow, then," he dismissed her.
But when she had almost left the room, he added: "One thing more!
To-morrow we will try our zitherns together. After my bath is the time
I like best for such pleasant things; Adventus will fetch you. I am
curious to hear you play and sing. Of all sounds, that of the human
voice is the sweetest. Even the shouting of my legions is pleasing to
the ear and heart. Do you not think so, and does not the acclamation of
so many thousands stir your soul?"
"Certainly," she replied hastily; and she longed to reproach him for
the injustice he was doing the populace of Alexandria to benefit his
warriors, but she felt that the time was ill chosen, and everything
gave way to her longing to be gone out of the dreadful man's sight.
In the next room she met Philostratus, and begged him to conduct her to
the lady Euryale; for all the anterooms were now thronged, and she had
lost the calm confidence in which she had come thither.
CHAPTER XXII.
As Melissa made her way with the philosopher through the crowd,
Philostratus said to her: "It is for your sake, child, that these
hundreds have had so long to wait to-day, and many hopes will be
disappointed. To satisfy all is a giant's task. But Caracalla must do
it, well or ill."
"Then he will forget me!" replied Melissa, with a sigh of relief.
"Hardly," answered the philosopher. He was sorry for the terrified girl,
and in his wish to lighten her woes as far as he could, he said, gravely:
"You called him terrible, and he can be more terrible than any man
living. But he has been kind to you so far, and, if you take my advice,
you will always seem to expect nothing from him that is not good and
noble."
"Then I must be a hypocrite," replied Melissa. "Only to-day he has
murdered the noble Titianus."
"That is an affair of state which does not concern you," replied
Philostratus. "Read my description of Achilles. I represent him among
other heroes such as Caracalla might be. Try, on your part, to see him
in that light. I know that it is sometimes a pleasure to him to justify
the good opinion of others. Encourage your imagination to think the best
of him. I shall tell him that you regard him as magnanimous and noble."
"No, no!" cried Melissa; "that would make everything worse."
But the philosopher interrupted her.
"Trust my riper experience. I know him. If you let him know your true
opinion of him, I will answer for nothing. My Achilles reveals the good
qualities with which he came into the world; and if you look closely you
may still find sparks among the ashes."
He here took his leave, for they had reached the vestibule leading to the
high-priest's lodgings, and a few minutes later Melissa found herself
with Euryale, to whom she related all that she had seen and felt. When
she told her older friend what Philostratus had advised, the lady stroked
her hair, and said: "Try to follow the advice of so experienced a man.
It can not be very difficult. When a woman's heart has once been
attached to a man--and pity is one of the strongest of human ties--the
bond may be strained and worn, but a few threads must always remain."
But Melissa hastily broke in:
"There is not a spider's thread left which binds me to that cruel man.
The murder of Titianus has snapped them all."
"Not so," replied the lady, confidently. "Pity is the only form of love
which even the worst crime can not eradicate from a kind heart. You
prayed for Caesar before you knew him, and that was out of pure human
charity. Exercise now a wider compassion, and reflect that Fate has
called you to take care of a hapless creature raving in fever and hard
to deal with. How many Christian women, especially such as call
themselves deaconesses, voluntarily assume such duties! and good is
good, right is right for all, whether they pray to one God or to several.
If you keep your heart pure, and constantly think of the time which shall
be fulfilled for each of us, to our ruin or to our salvation, you will
pass unharmed through this great peril. I know it, I feel it."
"But you do not know him," exclaimed Melissa, "and how terrible he can
be! And Diodoros! When he is well again, if he hears that I am with
Caesar, in obedience to his call whenever he sends for me, and if evil
tongues tell him dreadful things about me, he, too, will condemn me!"
"No, no," the matron declared, kissing her brow and eyes. "If he loves
you truly, he will trust you."
"He loves me," sobbed Melissa; "but, even if he does not desert me when I
am thus branded, his father will come between us."
"God forbid!" cried Euryale. "Remain what you are, and I will always be
the same to you, come what may; and those who love you will not refuse to
listen to an old woman who has grown gray in honor."
And Melissa believed her motherly, kind, worthy friend; and, with the new
confidence which revived in her, her longing for her lover began to stir
irresistibly. She wanted a fond glance from the eyes of the youth who
loved her, and to whom, for another man's sake, she could not give all
his due, nay, who had perhaps a right to complain of her. This she
frankly confessed, and the matron herself conducted the impatient girl to
see Diodoros.
Melissa again found Andreas in attendance on the sufferer, and she was
surprised at the warmth with which the high-priest's wife greeted the
Christian.
Diodoros was already able to be dressed and to sit up. He was pale
and weak, and his head was still bound up, but he welcomed the girl
affectionately, though with a mild reproach as to the rarity of her
visits.
Andreas had already informed him that Melissa was kept away by her
mediation for the prisoners, and so he was comforted by her assurance
that if her duty would allow of it she would never leave him again. And
the joy of having her there, the delight of gazing into her sweet, lovely
face, and the youthful gift of forgetting the past in favor of the
present, silenced every bitter reflection. He was soon blissfully
listening to her with a fresh color in his cheeks, and never had he seen
her so tender, so devoted, so anxious to show him the fullness of her
great love. The quiet, reserved girl was to-day the wooer, and with the
zeal called forth by her ardent wish to do him good, she expressed all
the tenderness of her warm heart so frankly and gladly that to him it
seemed as though Eros had never till now pierced her with the right
shaft.
As soon as Euryale was absorbed in conversation with Andreas, she offered
him her lips with gay audacity, as though in defiance of some stern
dragon of virtue, and he, drunk with rapture, enjoyed what she granted
him. And soon it was he who became daring, declaring that there would be
time enough to talk another day; that for the present her rosy mouth had
nothing to do but to cure him with kisses. And during this sweet give
and take, she implored him with pathetic fervor never, never to doubt her
love, whatever he might hear of her. Their older friends, who had turned
their backs on the couple and were talking busily by a window, paid no
heed to them, and the blissful conviction of being loved as ardently as
she loved flooded her whole being.
Only now and then did the thought of Caesar trouble for a moment the
rapture of that hour, like a hideous form appearing out of distant
clouds. She felt prompted indeed to tell her lover everything, but it
seemed so difficult to make him understand exactly how everything had
happened, and Diodoros must not be distressed. And, indeed, intoxicated
as he was with heated passion, he made the attempt impossible.
When he spoke it was only to assure her of his love; and when the lady
Euryale at last called her to go, and looked in the girl's glowing face,
Melissa felt as though she were snatched from a rapturous dream.
In the anteroom they were stopped by Andreas. Euryale had indeed
relieved his worst fears, still he was anxious to lay before the girl the
question whether she would not be wise to take advantage of this very
night to make her escape. She, however, her eyes still beaming with
happiness, laid her little hand coaxingly on his bearded mouth, and
begged him not to sadden her high spirits and hopes of a better time by
warnings and dismal forecasts. Even the lady Euryale had advised her to
trust fearlessly to herself, and sitting with her lover she had acquired
the certainty that it was best so. The freedman could not bear to
disturb this happy confidence, and only impressed on Melissa that she
should send for him if ever she needed him. He would find her a hiding-
place, and the lady Euryale had undertaken to provide a messenger. He
then bade them godspeed, and they returned to the high-priest's dwelling.
In the vestibule they found a servant from the lady Berenike; in his
mistress's name he desired Euryale to send Melissa to spend the night
with her.
This invitation, which would remove Melissa from the Serapeum, was
welcome to them both, and the matron herself accompanied the young girl
down a private staircase leading to a small side-door. Argutis, who had
come to inquire for his young mistress, was to be her escort and to bring
her back early next morning to the same entrance.
The old slave had much to tell her. He had been on his feet all day. He
had been to the harbor to inquire as to the return of the vessel with the
prisoners on board; to the Serapeum to inquire for her; to Dido, to give
her the news. He had met Alexander in the forenoon on the quay where the
imperial galleys were moored. When the young man learned that the
trireme could not come in before next morning at the soonest, he had set
out to cross the lake and see Zeus and his daughter. He had charged
Argutis to let Melissa know that his longing for the fair Agatha gave him
no peace.
He and old Dido disapproved of their young master's feather-brain, which
had not been made more steady and patient even by the serious events of
this day and his sister's peril; however, he did not allow a word of
blame to escape him. He was happy only to be allowed to walk behind
Melissa, and to hear from her own lips that all was well with her, and
that Caesar was gracious.
Alexander, indeed, had also told the old man that he and Caesar were
"good friends"; and now the slave was thinking of Pandion, Theocritus,
and the other favorites of whom he had heard; and he assured Melissa
that, as soon as her father should be free, Caracalla would be certain to
raise him to the rank of knight, to give him lands and wealth, perhaps
one of the imperial residences on the Bruchium. Then he, Argutis, would
be house steward, and show that he knew other things besides keeping the
workroom and garden in order, splitting wood, and buying cheaply at
market.
Melissa laughed and said he should be no worse off if only the first wish
of her heart were fulfilled, and she were wife to Diodoros; and Argutis
declared he would be amply content if only she allowed him to remain with
her.
But she only half listened and answered absently, for she breathed faster
as she pictured to herself how she would show Caesar, on whom she had
already proved her power, that she had ceased to tremble before him.
Thus they came to the house of Seleukus.
A large force had taken up their quarters there. In the pillared hall
beyond the vestibule bearded soldiers were sitting on benches or
squatting in groups on the ground, drinking noisily and singing, or
laughing and squabbling as they threw the dice on the costly mosaic
pavement. A riotous party were toping and reveling in the beautiful
garden of the impluvium round a fire which they had lighted on the velvet
turf. A dozen or so of officers had stretched themselves on cushions
under one of the colonnades, and, without attempting to check the wild
behavior of their men, were watching the dancing of some Egyptian girls
who had been brought into the house of their involuntary host. Although
Melissa was closely veiled and accompanied by a servant, she did not
escape rude words and insolent glances. Indeed, an audacious young
praetorian had put out his hand to pull away her veil, but an older
officer stopped him.
The lady Berenike's rooms had so far not been intruded on; for Macrinus,
the praetorian prefect, who knew Berenike through her brother-in-law the
senator Coeranus, had given orders that the women's apartments were to be
exempt from the encroachments of the quartermaster of the body-guard.
Breathing rapidly and with a heightened color, Melissa at last entered
the room of Seleukus's wife.
The matron's voice was full of bitterness as she greeted her young
visitor with the exclamation "You look as if you had fled to escape
persecution! And in my house, too! Or"--and her large eyes flashed
brightly--"or is the blood-hound on the track of his prey? My boat is
quite ready--" When Melissa denied this, and related what had happened,
Berenike exclaimed: "But you know that the panther lies still and gathers
himself up before he springs; or, if you do not, you may see it to-morrow
at the Circus. There is to be a performance in Caesar's honor, the like
of which not even Nero ever saw. My husband bears the chief part cf the
cost, and can think of nothing else. He has even forgotten his only
child, and all to please the man who insults us, robs and humiliates us!
Now that men kiss the hands which maltreat them, it is the part of women
to defy them. You must fly, child! The harbor is now closed, but it
will be open again to-morrow morning, and, if your folks are set free in
the course of the day, then away with you at once! Or do you really hope
for any good from the tyrant who has made this house what you now
see it?"
"I know him," replied Melissa, "and I look for nothing but the worst."
At this the elder woman warmly grasped the girl's hand, but she was
interrupted by the waiting woman Johanna, who said that a Roman officer
of rank, a tribune, craved to be admitted.
When Berenike refused to receive him, the maid assured her that he was a
young man, and had expressed his wish to bring an urgent request to the
lady's notice in a becoming and modest manner.
On this the matron allowed him to be shown in to her, and Melissa hastily
obeyed her instructions to withdraw into the adjoining room.
Only a half-drawn curtain divided it from the room where Berenike
received the soldier, and without listening she could hear the loud voice
which riveted her attention as soon as she had recognized it.
The young tribune, in a tone of courteous entreaty, begged his hostess to
provide a room for his brother, who was severely wounded. The sufferer
was in a high fever, and the physician said that the noise and rattle of
vehicles in the street, on which the room where he now lay looked out,
and the perpetual coming and going of the men, might endanger his life.
He had just been told that on the side of the women's apartments there
was a row of rooms looking out on the impluvium, and he ventured to
entreat her to spare one of them for the injured man. If she had a
brother or a child, she would forgive the boldness of his request.
So far she listened in silence; then she suddenly raised her head and
measured the petitioner's tall figure with a lurid fire in her eye. Then
she replied, while she looked into his handsome young face with a half-
scornful, half-indignant air: "Oh, yes! I know what it is to see one we
love suffer. I had an only child; she was the joy of my heart. Death--
death snatched her from me, and a few days later the sovereign whom
you serve commanded us to prepare a feast for him. It seemed to him
something new and delightful to hold a revel in a house of mourning.
At the last moment--all the guests were assembled--he sent us word that
he himself did not intend to appear. But his friends laughed and reveled
wildly enough! They enjoyed themselves, and no doubt praised our cook
and our wine. And now--another honor we can duly appreciate!--he sends
his praetorians to turn this house of mourning into a tavern, a wine-
shop, where they call creatures in from the street to dance and sing.
The rank to which you have risen while yet so young shows that you are of
good family, so you can imagine how highly we esteem the honor of seeing
your men trampling, destroying, and burning in their camp-fires
everything which years of labor and care had produced to make our little
garden a thing of beauty. Only look down on them! Macrinus, who
commands you, promised me, moreover, that the women's apartments should
be respected. No praetorian, whether common soldier or commander,' and
here she raised her voice, "shall set foot within them! Here is his
writing. The prefect set the seal beneath it in Caesar's name."
"I know of the order, noble lady," interrupted Nemesianus, "and should be
the last to wish to act against it. I do not demand, I only appeal
humbly to the heart of a woman and a mother.'
"A mother!" broke in Berenike, scornfully; "yes! and one whose soul
your lord has pierced with daggers--a woman whose home has been
dishonored and made hateful to her. I have enjoyed sufficient honor now,
and shall stand firmly on my rights."
"Hear but one thing more," began the youth, timidly; but the lady
Berenike had already turned her back upon him, and returned with a proud
and stately carriage to Melissa in the adjoining apartment.
Breathing hard, as if stunned by her words, the tribune remained standing
on the threshold where the terrible lady had vanished from his sight, and
then, striving to regain his composure, pushed back the curling locks
from his brow. But scarcely had Berenike entered the other room than
Melissa whispered to her: "The wounded man is the unfortunate Aurelius,
whose face Caracalla wounded for my sake."
At this the lady's eyes suddenly flashed and blazed so strangely that the
girl's blood ran cold. But she had no time to ask the reason of this
emotion, for the next moment the queenly woman grasped the weaker one by
the wrist with her strong right hand, and with a commanding "Come with
me," drew her back into the room they had just quitted. She called to
the tribune, whose hand was already on the door, to come back.
The young man stood still, surprised and startled to see Melissa; but the
lady Berenike said, calmly, "Now that I have learned the honor that has
been accorded to you, too, by the master whom you so faithfully serve,
the poor injured man whom you call your brother shall be made welcome
within these walls. He is my companion in suffering. A quiet, airy
chamber shall be set apart for him, and he shall not lack careful
attention, nor anything which even his own mother could offer him.
Only two things I desire of you in return: that you admit no one of your
companions-in-arms, nor any man whatever, into this dwelling, save only
the physician whom I shall send to you. Furthermore, that you do not
betray, even to your nearest friend, whom you found here besides myself."
Under the mortification that had wounded his brotherly heart, Aurelius
Nemesianus had lost countenance; but now he replied with a soldier's
ready presence of mind: "It is difficult for me to find a proper answer
to you, noble lady. I know right well that I owe you my warmest thanks,
and equally so that he whom you call our master has inflicted as deep a
wrong on us as on you; but Caesar is still my military chief."
"Still!" broke in Berenike. "But you are too youthful a tribune for me
to believe that you took up the sword as a means of livelihood."
"We are sons of the Aurelia," answered Nemesianus, haughtily, "and it is
very possible that this day's work may be the cause of our deserting the
eagles we have followed in order to win glory and taste the delights of
warfare. But all that is for the future to decide. Meanwhile, I thank
you, noble lady, and also in the name of my brother, who is my second
self. On behalf of Apollinaris, too, I beg you to pardon the rudeness
which we offered to this maiden--"
"I am not angry with you any more," cried Melissa, eagerly and frankly,
and the tribune thanked her in his own and his brother's name.
He began trying to explain the unfortunate occurrence, but Berenike
admonished him to lose no time. The soldier withdrew, and the lady
Berenike ordered her handmaiden to call the housekeeper and other
serving-women. Then she repaired quickly to the room she had destined
for the wounded man and his brother. But neither Melissa nor the other
women could succeed in really lending her any help, for she herself put
forth all her cleverness and power of head and hand, forgetting nothing
that might be useful or agreeable in the nursing of the sick. In that
wealthy, well-ordered house everything stood ready to hand; and in less
than a quarter of an hour the tribune Nemesianus was informed that the
chamber was ready for the reception of his brother.
The lady then returned with Melissa to her own sleeping apartment, and
took various little bottles and jars from a small medicine-chest, begging
the girl at the same time to excuse her, as she intended to undertake the
nursing of the wounded man herself. Here were books, and there Korinna's
lute. Johanna would attend to the evening meal. Tomorrow morning they
could consult further as to what was necessary to be done; then she
kissed her guest and left the room.
Left to herself, Melissa gave herself up to varying thoughts, till
Johanna brought her repast. While she hardly nibbled at it, the
Christian told her that matters looked ill with the tribune, and that the
wound in the forehead especially caused the physician much anxiety. Many
questions were needed to draw this much from the freedwoman, for she
spoke but little. When she did speak, however, it was with great
kindliness, and there lay something so simple and gentle in her whole
manner that it awakened confidence. Having satisfied her appetite,
Melissa returned to the lady Berenike's apartment; but there her heart
grew heavy at the thought of what awaited her on the morrow. When, at
the moment of leaving, Johanna inquired whether she desired anything
further, she asked her if she knew a saying of her fellow-believers,
which ran, "The fullness of time was come."
"Yes, surely," returned the other; "our Lord himself spoke them, and Paul
wrote them to the Galatians."