Volume I Part 4 (1/2)
They turned the corner of the entrance:
”Rusticiana!” cried the whole a.s.sembly.
”A woman in our meeting!” exclaimed the jurist. ”It is against the statutes, the laws.”
”Yes, Scaevola; but the laws are made for the league, not the league for the laws. And you would never have believed from _me_, that which you now see with your own eyes.”
He laid the widow's hand within the trembling right hand of Albinus.
”Look! Rusticiana forgives! Who will now resist?”
Vanquished and overruled, all remained silent. For Cethegus all further proceedings seemed to have lost interest. He retired into the background with Rusticiana. But the priest now said:
”Albinus is a member of the league.”
”And the oath that he swore to the tyrant?” hesitatingly asked Scaevola.
”Was forced, and he is absolved from it by Holy Church. But now it is time to depart. Let us only conclude the most pressing business. Here, Licinius, is the plan of the fortress of Neapolis: you must have it copied by to-morrow; it goes to Belisarius. Here, Scaevola, letters from Byzantium, from Theodora, the pious wife of Justinian: you must answer them. Here, Calpurnius, is an a.s.signment of half a million _solidi_ from Albinus: you will send them to the Frankish major domus; he has great influence with his king. Here, Pomponius, is a list of the patriots in Dalmatia; you know men and things there, take notice if important names are omitted. And be it known to all of you, that, according to news received to-day from Ravenna, the hand of the Lord lies heavy on the tyrant. Deep melancholy, too tardy remorse for all his sins, oppresses him, and the consolations of the true faith have not yet penetrated into his soul. Have patience but a little while; the angry voice of the Judge will soon summon him; then comes the day of freedom. At the next Ides, at the same hour, we shall meet here again.
The blessing of the Lord be with you!”
A motion of his hand dismissed the a.s.sembly; the young priests came out of the side-pa.s.sage with torches, and led the members, each one singly, in different directions, to the secret exits of the Catacombs.
CHAPTER IV.
Silverius, Cethegus, and Rusticiana went together up the steps which led to the crypt of the basilica of St. Sebastian. From thence they pa.s.sed through the church into the adjoining house of the archdeacon.
On arriving there, Silverius convinced himself that all the inhabitants of the house were asleep, with the exception of an old slave, who was watching in the atrium near a half-extinguished lamp. At a sign from his master he lighted a silver lamp which stood near him, and pressed a secret spring in the marble wainscot of the room.
A slab of marble turned on its hinges and allowed the priest who had taken up the lamp to pa.s.s, with his two companions, into a small, low chamber, and then quickly and noiselessly closed behind them, leaving no trace of an opening.
The small chamber, now simply adorned by a tall wooden crucifix, a fall-stool, and a few plain Christian symbols on a golden background, had evidently, as the cus.h.i.+oned shelf which ran round the walls showed, served for those small banquets of one or two guests, whose unrestrained comfort Horace has so often celebrated in song. At the time of which I speak it was the private chamber in which the archdeacon brooded over his most secret priestly or worldly plans.
Cethegus silently seated himself on the _lectus_ (a small couch), throwing the superficial glance of a critic at a Mosaic picture inserted into the opposite wall. While the priest was occupied in pouring wine from an amphora with large curving handles into some cups which stood ready, and placing a metal dish of fruit on the bronze tripod table, Rusticiana stood opposite Cethegus, measuring him with an expression of astonishment and indignation.
Scarcely forty years of age, this woman showed traces of a rare--and rather manly--beauty, which had suffered less from time than from violent pa.s.sions. Here and there her raven-black braids were streaked with white, not grey, and strong lines lay round the mobile corners of her mouth.
She leaned her left hand on the table, and meditatively stroked her brow with her right, while she gazed at Cethegus. At last she spoke.
”Tell me, tell me, Cethegus, what power is this that you have over me?
I no more love you. I ought to hate you. I do hate you. And yet I must involuntarily obey you, like a bird under the fascinating eye of a snake. And you place my hand, _this_ hand, in that of that miserable man! Say, you evil-doer, what is this power?”
Cethegus was inattentively silent. At last, leaning back, he said: ”Habit, Rusticiana, habit.”
”Truly, 'tis habit! The habit of a slavery that has existed ever since I can remember. It was natural that as a girl I should admire the handsome son of our neighbours; that I believed in your love was excusable, did you not kiss me? And who could--at that time--know that you were incapable of loving anything--even yourself? That the wife of Boethius did not smother the mad pa.s.sion which, as if in sport, you again fanned into a flame, was a sin; but G.o.d and the Church have forgiven it. But that I should still, after knowing for years your utter heartlessness, when the glow of pa.s.sion is extinguished in my veins, that I should still most blindly follow your demoniac will--that is folly enough to make me laugh aloud.”
And she laughed wildly, and pressed her right hand to her brow.
The priest stopped in his domestic occupations and looked stealthily at Cethegus. He was intensely interested.