Volume I Part 8 (2/2)
Scarcely then had the sad procession threaded the marble archway, before Catiline again asked loudly and imperiously,
”What is to be the next, I pray you? are we to sit here like old women by their firesides, croaking and whimpering till dinner time?”
”No! by the G.o.ds,” cried Aurelius, ”we have a race to come off, which I propose to win. Fuscus Aristius here, and I-we will start instantly, if no one else has the ground.”
”Away with you then,” answered the other; ”come sit by me, Arvina, I would say a word with you.”
Giving his horse to one of his grooms, the young man followed him without answer; for although it is true that Catiline was at this time a marked man and of no favorable reputation, yet squeamishness in the choice of a.s.sociates was never a characteristic of the Romans; and persons, the known perpetrators of the most atrocious crimes, so long as they were unconvicted, mingled on terms of equality, unshunned by any, except the gravest and most rigid censors. Arvina, too, was very young; and very young men are often fascinated, as it were, by great reputations, even of great criminals, with a pa.s.sionate desire to see them more closely, and observe the stuff they are made of. So that, in fact, Catiline being looked upon in those days much as a desperate gambler, a celebrated duellist, or a famous seducer of our own time, whom no one shuns though every one abuses, it was not perhaps very wonderful if this rash, ardent, and inexperienced youth should have conceived himself flattered by such notice, from one of whom all the world was talking; and should have followed him to a seat with a sense of gratified vanity, blended with eager curiosity.
The race, which followed, differed not much from any other race; except that the riders having no stirrups, that being a yet undiscovered luxury, much less depended upon jockeys.h.i.+p-the skill of the riders being limited to keeping their seats steadily and guiding the animals they bestrode-and much more upon the native powers, the speed and endurance of the coursers.
So much, however, was Arvina interested by the manner and conversation of the singular man by whose side he sat, and who was indeed laying himself out with deep art to captivate him, and take his mind, as it were, by storm, now with the boldest and most daring paradoxes; now with bursts of eloquent invective against the oppression and aristocratic insolence of the cabal, which by his shewing governed Rome; and now with sarcasm and pungent wit, that he saw but little of the course, which he had come especially to look at.
”Do you indeed ride so well, my Paullus?” asked his companion suddenly, as if the thought had been suggested by some observation he had just made on the compet.i.tors, as they pa.s.sed in the second circuit. ”So well, I mean, as Aurelius Victor said; and would you undertake the combat of the horse and spear with Caius Marcius?”
”Truly I would,” said Arvina, blus.h.i.+ng slightly; ”I have interchanged many a blow and thrust with young Varro, whom our master-at-arms holds better with the spear than Marcius; and I feel myself his equal. I have been practising a good deal of late,” he added modestly; ”for, though perhaps you know it not, I have been elected _decurio_;(12) and, as first chosen, leader of a troop, and am to take the field with the next reinforcements that go out to Pontus to our great Pompey.”
”The next reinforcements,” replied Catiline with a meditative air: ”ha!
that may be some time distant.”
”Not so, by Jupiter! my Sergius; we are already ordered to hold ourselves in readiness to march for Brundusium, where we shall s.h.i.+p for Pontus. I fancy we shall set forth as soon as the consular comitia have been held.”
”It may be so,” said the other; ”but I do not think it. There may fall out that which shall rather summon Pompey homeward, than send more men to join him. That is a very handsome dagger,” he broke off, interrupting himself suddenly-”where did you get it? I should like much to get me such an one to give to my friend Cethegus, who has a taste for such things. I wonder, however, at your wearing it so openly.”
Taken completely by surprise, Arvina answered hastily, ”I found it last night; and I wear it, hoping to find the owner.”
”By Hercules!” said the conspirator laughing; ”I would not take so much pains, were I you. But, do you hear, I have partly a mind myself to claim it.”
”No! you were better not,” said Paullus, gravely; ”besides, you can get one just like this, without risking any thing. Volero, the cutler, in the Sacred Way, near Vesta's temple, has one precisely like to this for sale.
He made this too, he tells me; though he will not tell me to whom he sold it; but that shall soon be got out of him, notwithstanding.”
”Ha! are you so anxious in the matter? it would oblige you, then, if I should confess myself the loser! Well, I don't want to buy another; I want this very one. I believe I must claim it.”
He spoke with an emphasis so singular; impressive, and at the same time half-derisive, and with so strangely-meaning an expression, that Paullus indeed scarcely knew what to think; but, in the mean time, he had recovered his own self-possession, and merely answered-
”I think you had better not; it would perhaps be dangerous!”
”Dangerous? Ha! that is another motive. I love danger! verily, I believe I must; yes! I must claim it.”
”What!” exclaimed Paullus, turning pale from excitement; ”Is it yours? Do you say that it is yours?”
”Look! look!” exclaimed Catiline, springing to his feet; ”here they come, here they come now; this is the last round. By the G.o.ds! but they are gallant horses, and well matched! See how the bay courser stretches himself, and how quickly he gathers! The bay! the bay has it for five hundred sesterces!”
”I wager you,” said a dissolute-looking long-haired youth; ”I wager you five hundred, Catiline. I say the gray horse wins.”
”Be it so, then,” shouted Catiline; ”the bay, the bay! spur, spur, Aristius Fuscus, Aurelius gains on you; spur, spur!”
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