Volume Ii Part 14 (1/2)
Meanwhile, unconscious of what had occurred behind them, and eager only to arrive at Rome as speedily as possible, the ladies journeyed onward, with full hearts, in silence, and in sorrow.
There is a deep dark gorge in the mountain chain, through which this road lay, nearly a mile in length; with a fierce torrent on one hand, and a sheer face of craggy rocks towering above it on the other. Beyond the torrent, the chesnut woods hung black and gloomy along the precipitous slopes, with their ragged tree-tops distinctly marked against the clear obscure of the nocturnal sky.
Midway this gorge, a narrow broken path comes down a cleft in the rocky wall on the right hand side, as you go toward Rome, by which through a wild and broken country the Flaminian way can be reached, and by it the district of Etruria and the famous Val d'Arno.
They had just reached this point, and were congratulating themselves, on having thus accomplished the most difficult part of their journey, when the messenger, who rode in front, uttered a long clear whistle.
The tw.a.n.g of a dozen bowstrings followed, from some large blocks of stone which embarra.s.sed the pa.s.s at the junction of the two roads, and both the Thracians who preceded the carnage, went down, one of them killed outright, the other, with his horse shot dead under him.
”Ho! Traitor!” shouted the latter, extricating himself from the dead charger, and hurling his javelin with fatal accuracy at the false slave, ”thou at least shalt not boast of thy villainy! Treachery! treachery! Turn back, Hortensia! Fly, avus! to me! to me, comrades!”
But with a loud shout, down came young Aulus Fulvius, from the pa.s.s, armed, head to foot, as a Roman legionary soldier-down came the gigantic smith Caius Crispus, and fifteen men, at least, with blade and buckler, at his back.
The slaves fought desperately for their mistress' liberty or life; but the odds were too great, both in numbers and equipment; and not five minutes pa.s.sed, before they were all cut down, and stretched out, dead or dying, on the rocky floor of the dark defile.
The strife ended, Aulus Fulvius strode quickly to the carpentum, which had been overturned in the affray, and which his lawless followers were already ransacking.
One of these wretches, his own namesake Aulus, the sword-smith's foreman, had already caught Julia in his licentious grasp, and was about to press his foul lips to her cheek, when the young patrician s.n.a.t.c.hed her from his arms, and pushed him violently backward.
”Ho! fool and villain!” he exclaimed, ”Barest thou to think such dainties are for thee? She is sacred to Catiline and vengeance!”
”This one, at least, then!” shouted the ruffian, making at Hortensia.
”Nor that one either!” cried the smith interposing; but as Aulus, the foreman, still struggled to lay hold of the Patrician lady, he very coolly struck him across the bare brow with the edge of his heavy cutting sword, cleaving him down to the teeth-”Nay! then take that, thou fool.”-Then turning to Fulvius, he added; ”He was a brawler always, and would have kept no discipline, now or ever.”
”Well done, smith!” replied Aulus Fulvius. ”The same fate to all who disobey orders! We have no time for dalliance now; it will be day ere long, and we must be miles hence ere it dawns! Bind me Hortensia, firmly, to yon chesnut tree, stout smith; but do not harm her. We too have mothers!” he added with a singular revulsion of feeling at such a moment.
”For you, my beauty, we will have you consoled by a warmer lover than that most shallow-pated fool and sophist, Arvina. Come! I say come! no one shall harm you!” and without farther words, despite all her struggles and remonstrances, he bound a handkerchief tightly under her chin to prevent her cries, wrapped her in a thick crimson pallium, and springing upon his charger, with the a.s.sistance of the smith, placed her before him on the saddle-cloth, and set off a furious pace, through the steep by-path, leaving the defile tenanted only by the dying and the dead, with the exception of Hortensia, who rent the deaf air in vain with frantic cries of anguish, until at last she fainted, nature being too weak for the endurance of such prolonged agony.
About an hour afterward, she was released and carried to her Roman mansion, alive and unharmed in body, but almost frantic with despair, by the party of slaves who had come up, too late to save her Julia, under the guidance of the young unknown.
He, when he perceived that his efforts had been useless, and when he learned how Julia had been carried off by the conspirators, leaving the party to escort Hortensia, and bear their slaughtered comrades homeward, rode slowly and thoughtfully away, into the recesses of the wild country whither Aulus had borne his captive, exclaiming in a low silent voice with a clinched hand, and eyes turned heavenward, ”I will die, ere dishonor reach her! Aid me! aid me, thou Nemesis-aid me to save, and avenge!”
CHAPTER IX.
THE MULVIAN BRIDGE.
Under which king, Bezonian? Speak, or die!
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.
On that same night, and nearly at the same hour wherein the messenger of Aulus Fulvius arrived at the Latin villa, there was a splendid banquet given in a house near the forum.
It was the house of Decius Brutus, unworthy bearer of a time-honored name, the husband of the infamous Semp.r.o.nia.
At an earlier hour of the evening, a great crowd had been gathered round the doors, eager to gaze on the amba.s.sadors of the Highland Gauls, who, their mission to Rome ended unsuccessfully, feasted there for the last time previous to their departure.
As it grew dark, however, tired of waiting in the hope of seeing the plaided warriors depart, the throng had dispersed, and with exception of the city watches and the cohorts, which from hour to hour perambulated them, the streets were unusually silent, and almost deserted.