Part 26 (1/2)
Cornelia laughed hysterically.
”Touch me!” she shouted; and in her grasp shone a small bright dagger.
Lentulus fell back. There was something about his niece that warned him to be careful.
”Wretched girl!” he commanded, ”put down that dagger.”
”I will not,” and Cornelia stood resolutely, confronting her two persecutors; her head thrown back, and the light making her throat and face s.h.i.+ne white as driven snow.
There was very little chivalry among the ancients. Lentulus deliberately clapped his hands, and two serving-men appeared.
”Take that dagger from the Lady Cornelia!” commanded the master. The men exchanged sly glances, and advanced to accomplish the disarming.
But before they could catch Cornelia's slender wrists in their coa.r.s.e, rough hands, and tear the little weapon from her, there were cuts and gashes on their own arms; for the struggle if brief was vicious.
Cornelia stood disarmed.
”You see what these mock heroics will lead to,” commented Lentulus, with sarcastic smile, as he observed his order had been obeyed.
”_You_ will see!” was her quick retort.
”_Hei! hei!_” screamed one of the slaves an instant later, sinking to the floor. ”Poison! It's running through my veins! I shall die!”
”You will die,” repeated Cornelia, in ineffable scorn, spurning the wretch with her foot. ”Lie there and die! Cease breathing; sleep! And that creature, Ahen.o.barbus, yonder, shall sleep his sleep too, ere he work his will on me! Ha! ha! Look at my handiwork; the other slave is down!”
”Girl! Murderess!” raged Lentulus. ”What is this? You have slain these men.”
”I have slain your slaves,” said Cornelia, resolutely folding her arms; ”the poison on the dagger was very swift. You did excellently well, Lucius, not to come near me.” And she picked up the dagger, which the slave, writhing in agony, had dropped.
”Do you wish to attack me again? _Phy!_ I have more resources than this. This venom works too quickly. See, Syrax is already out of his misery; and his fellow will soon be beyond reach of woe. When I strike _you_, Lucius Ahen.o.barbus, you shall die slowly, that I may enjoy your pain. What need have I of this weapon?” And she flung the dagger across the carpet so that it struck on the farther wall. ”Pick it up, and come and kill me if you wis.h.!.+ Drusus lives, and in him I live, for him I live, and by him I live. And you--and you are but as evil dreams in the first watch of a night which shall be forgotten either in sweet unending slumbers, or the brightness of the morning. And now I have spoken. Do with me as it lies in your power to do; but remember what power is mine. _Vale!_”
And Cornelia vanished from the darkened hall. The two men heard the click of the door, and turned and gazed blankly into one another's faces.
”The G.o.ds defend me, but I shall be yoked to one of the Dirae!”
stammered Ahen.o.barbus.
Chapter XI
The Great Proconsul
I
The plot was foiled. Drusus was unquestionably safe. So long as Flaccus had the affidavits of Phaon's confession and the depositions of the captured gladiators stored away in his strong-box, neither Lucius Ahen.o.barbus nor the ever versatile Pratinas would be likely to risk a new conspiracy--especially as their intended victim had carefully drawn up a will leaving the bulk of his property to t.i.tus Mamercus and aemilia. Drusus had no near relatives, except Fabia and Livia; unless the Ahen.o.barbi were to be counted such; and it pleased him to think that if aught befell him the worthy children of his aged defender would acquire opulence.
But after the excitement was over, after Phaon had been brought up from the inn at Gabii to Praeneste, and there had the truth wormed out of him by the merciless cross-examination of Curio and Flaccus; after the freedman had been suffered to depart with a warning and threat to his prompters, after the captured gladiators had been crucified along the roadway leading toward Rome, and the wreck left in the atrium of the villa caused by the attack had been cleared away,--after all this, then the reaction came. Drusus, indeed, found that though the sun shone bright, its brightness was not for him. He had friends in plenty; but not such friends as he needed--as his heart craved. Truth to tell, he was one of those more delicate natures to whom the average pity and the ordinary demonstrations of sympathy come with an offending jar, and open, not heal, long-festering wounds. Curio was kind, but could only hold out the vaguest hopes that, for the present at least, anything would compel the consul-elect to consent to his niece's marriage with a mortal enemy. Flaccus took the same position.
The hard-headed man of money thought that Drusus was a visionary, to be so distraught over the loss of a wife--as if the possession of a fortune of thirty odd millions did not make up for every possible calamity. Antonius was still less happy in his efforts at consolation.
This das.h.i.+ng young politician, who had been equally at home basking in the eyes of the young Egyptian princess, Cleopatra, eight years before, when he was in the East with Aulus Gabinius, or when fighting the Gauls as he had until recently under his uncle, the great proconsul,--had now been elected Tribune of the Plebs for the coming year; and was looking forward to a prosperous and glorious career in statecraft. He had had many a love intrigue, and made such matters a sort of recreation to the real business of life. Why Drusus--who certainly had very fair worldly prospects before him--should not console himself for one unsuccessful pa.s.sage of arms with Cupid, by straightway engaging in another, he could not see. He plainly intimated to his friend that there were a great many women, almost if not quite as good looking as Cornelia, who would survey him with friendly eyes if he made but a few advances. And Drusus, wounded and stung, was thrown back on himself; and within himself he found very little comfort.
Although he believed himself safe at last from the wiles of Ahen.o.barbus and his Greek coadjutors, there was still a great dread which would steal over Drusus lest at any moment a stroke might fall.