Volume Ii Part 32 (1/2)
”Another time for this;” he said, ”Catiline. There are tidings from Rome; which-”
”To Tartarus with thy tidings! Let them tarry!”
”They will not tarry, Catiline,” replied the smith, who was as pale as a ghost and almost trembling-”least of all for such painted woman's flesh as this is!”
”Get thee away! It were better, wiser, safer to stand between the Lion and his prey, than between Catiline and Julia.”
”Then have it!” shouted the smith. ”All is discovered! all undone!
Lentulus and Cethegus, Gabinius and Statilius, and Caeparius all dead by the hangman's noose in the Tullianum!”
”The idiots! is that all? thy precious tidings! See! how I will avenge them.” And he struggled to shake himself free from the grasp of Crispus.
But the smith held him firmly, and replied, ”It is not all, Catiline.
Metellus Celer is within ten leagues of the camp, at the foot of the mountains. We have no retreat left into Gaul. Come! come! speak to the soldiers! You can deal with this harlotry hereafter.”
Catiline glared upon him, as if he would have stabbed him to the heart; but seeing the absolute necessity of enquiring into the truth of this report, he turned to leave the room.
”The G.o.ds be praised! the G.o.ds have spoken loud! The G.o.ds have saved me!”
cried Julia falling on her knees. ”Are there no G.o.ds now, O Catiline?”
”To Hades! with thy G.o.ds!” and, striking the unhappy girl a coward blow, which felled her to the ground senseless, he rushed from the room with his confederate in crime, barring the outer door behind him.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE RESCUE.
Speed, Malise, speed, the dun deer's hide On fleeter foot was never tied.
LADY OF THE LAKE.
Scarcely had the door closed behind Catiline, who rushed forth torch in hand, as if goaded by the furies of Orestes, when half a dozen stout men, sheathed in the full armor of Roman legionaries, sprang out of the brushwood on the gorge's brink, and seizing the ropes which had hung idle during that critical hour, hauled on them with such energetical and zealous power, that the ladder was drawn across the chasm with almost lightning speed.
The hooks, with which its outer end was garnished, caught in the crevices of the ruined wall, and a slender communication was established, although the slight structure which bridged the abyss was scarcely capable of supporting the weight of a human being.
The soldiers, accustomed, as all Roman soldiers were, to all the expediences and resources of warfare, had prepared planks which were to be run forward on the ladder, in order to construct a firm bridge. For the plan of the besiegers, until interrupted by Catiline's arrival, had been to take the stronghold in reverse, while a false attack in front should be in progress, and throwing ten or twelve stout soldiers into the heart of the place, to make themselves masters of it by a coup-de-main.
This well-devised scheme being rendered unfeasible by the sudden charge of Catiline's horse, and the rout of the legionaries, the small subaltern's detachment which had been sent round under Lucia's guidance-for it was she, who had discerned the means of pa.s.sing the chasm, while lying in wait to a.s.sist Julia, and disclosed it to the centurion commanding-had been left alone, and isolated, its line of retreat cut off, and itself without a leader.
The singular scenes, however, which they had witnessed, the interest which almost involuntarily they had been led to take in the fate of the fair girl, her calm and dauntless fort.i.tude, and above all the atrocious villainy of Catiline, had inspired every individual of that little band with an heroic resolution to set their lives upon a cast, in order to rescue one who to all of them was personally unknown.
In addition to this, the discovery of Lucia's s.e.x-for they had believed her to be what she appeared, a boy-which followed immediately on the loss of her Phrygian bonnet, and the story of her bitter wrongs, which had taken wind, acted as a powerful incentive to men naturally bold and enterprising.
For it is needless to add, that with the revelation of her s.e.x, that of her character as the arch-traitor's child and victim went, as it were, hand in hand.
They had resolved, therefore, on rescuing the one, and revenging the other of these women, at any risk to themselves whatsoever; and now having waited their opportunity with the accustomed patience of Roman veterans, they acted upon it with their habitual skill and celerity.
But rapid as were their movements, they were outstripped by the almost superhuman agility of Lucia, who, knowing well the character of the human fiend with whom they had to contend, his wondrous prompt.i.tude in counsel, his lightning speed in execution, was well a.s.sured that there was not one moment to be lost, if they would save Arvina's betrothed bride from a fate worse than many deaths.