Volume I Part 33 (2/2)
”That does not matter; tell it to us,” said Kallistratos, putting his hands into the luke-warm water, which was now handed round in Corinthian bronze vessels; ”perhaps we can find the point.”
”The hero of my story,” began Furius, ”is the handsomest of all the Goths.”
”Ah, the young Totila,” interrupted Piso, and gave his cameo-decorated cup to be filled with iced wine.
”The same. I have known him for years, and like him exceedingly, as all must who have ever looked into his sunny face; not to speak of the fact”--and here the shadow of some grave remembrance flitted across the Corsican's face, as he hesitated--”that I am under an obligation to him.”
”It seems that you are in love with the fair-haired youth,” said Ma.s.surius sarcastically, and throwing to the slave he had brought with him a kerchief full of Picentinian biscuits, to take home with him.
”No; but he has been very friendly to me, as he is to every one with whom he comes into contact; and very often he had the harbour-watch in the Italian ports where I landed.”
”Yes, he has rendered great services to the Gothic navy,” said Lucius Licinius.
”As well as to their cavalry,” concurred Marcus. ”The slender youth is the best rider in his nation.”
”Well, I met him last in Neapolis. We were well-pleased to meet, but it was in vain that I pressed him to share our merry suppers on board my s.h.i.+p.”
”Oh, those suppers are both celebrated and ill-famed,” observed Balbus; ”you have always the most fiery wines.”
”And the most fiery girls,” added Ma.s.surius.
”However that may be, Totila always pleaded business, and was not to be persuaded. Imagine that! business after the eighth hour in Neapolis, when the most industrious are lazy! Naturally, it was only an excuse. I promised myself to find out his pranks, and, at evening, loitered near his house in the Via Lata. And truly, the very first evening he came out, looking carefully about him, and, to my surprise, in disguise. He was dressed like a gardener, with a travelling-cap well drawn down over his face, and a cloak folded closely about him. I dogged his footsteps.
He went straight through the town to the Porta Capuana. Close to the gate stands a large tower, inhabited by the gate-keeper, an old patriarchal Jew, whom King Theodoric, on account of his great fidelity, entrusted with the office of warder. My Goth stood still before the house, and gently clapped his hands. A little side-door, which I had not remarked before, opened noiselessly, and Totila slipped in like an eel.”
”Ho, ho!” interrupted Piso eagerly, ”I know both the Jew and his child Miriam--a splendid large-eyed girl! The most beautiful daughter of Israel, the pearl of the East! Her lips are red as pomegranates, her eyes are deep sea-blue, her cheeks have the rosy bloom of the peach.”
”Well done, Piso,” said Cethegus, smiling; ”your poem is very beautiful.”
”No,” he answered, ”Miriam herself is living poetry.”
”The Jewess is proud,” grumbled Ma.s.surius, ”she scorned my gold with a look as if no one had ever bought a woman before.”
”So the haughty Goth,” said Lucius Licinius, ”who walks with an air as if he earned all heaven's stars upon his curly head, has condescended to a Jewess.”
”So I thought, and I determined, at the next opportunity, to laugh at the youth for his predilection for musk. But nothing of the sort! A few days later, I was obliged to go to Capua. I started before daybreak to avoid the heat. I drove out of the town through the Porta Capuana, just as it was dawning, and as I rattled over the hard stones before the Jews' tower, I thought with envy of Totila, and said to myself that he was then lying in the embrace of two white arms. But at the second milestone from the gate, walking towards the town, with two empty flower-baskets hanging over his breast and back, dressed in a gardener's costume, just as before, whom should I meet but Totila!
Therefore he was not lying in Miriam's arms; the Jewess was not his sweetheart, but perhaps his confidante; and who knows where the flower that this gardener cherishes blooms? The lucky fellow! Only consider that on the Via Capuana stand all the villas and pleasure-houses of the first families of Neapolis, and that in these gardens flourish and bloom the loveliest of women.”
”By my genius!” cried Lucius Licinius, lifting his wreathed goblet, ”in that region live the most beautiful women of Italia--cursed be the Goths!”
”No,” shouted Ma.s.surius, glowing with wine, ”cursed be Kallistratos and the Corsican! who offer us strange love-stories, as the stork offered the fox food from narrow-necked flasks. Now, O mine host, let your girls in, if you have ordered any. You need not excite our expectation any further.”
”Yes, yes! the girls! the dancers! the players!” cried the young guests all together.
”Hold!” said the host. ”When Aphrodite comes, she must tread upon flowers. This gla.s.s I dedicate to thee, Flora!”
He sprang up, and dashed a costly crystal cup against the tabled ceiling, so that it broke with a loud ring. As soon as the gla.s.s struck the ceiling, the whole of it opened like a trap-door, and a thick rain of flowers of all kinds fell upon the heads of the astonished guests; roses from Paestum, violets from Thurii, myrtles from Tarentum; covering with scented bunches the tesselated floor, the tables, the cus.h.i.+ons, and the heads of the drinkers.
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