Part 22 (1/2)
She remained crumpled, she collapsed, she slid off her chair to the floor of the box. She lay in a horrid heap unmistakable in its limpness.
The excitement had been too much for Meffia. She was stone dead.
BOOK III--THE REBELLION OF DESPERATION
CHAPTER XV - REHABILITATION
THE death of a Vestal, except from old age, was always regarded by the Roman populace as a sign of the G.o.ds' disfavor. The death of a young Vestal, sudden, unexpected and unexplained, could not but cause great uneasiness throughout all cla.s.ses of the population.
Moreover, gladiatorial exhibitions were part of the Roman public wors.h.i.+p, which largely proceeded on the naive a.s.sumption that the G.o.ds liked just about what men liked and that, the best way to please the G.o.ds and win their favor was to delight them with such spectacles as men enjoyed, acrobatic exhibitions, dramas, beast-fights, fights of beasts with men or of men with men, chariot-races and similar exciting displays, and so put the G.o.ds in a good humor. This underlying theory of diverting spectacles as a species of prayer and as the most effective kind of prayer was not so much definitely expressed by the Romans, as tacitly and unconsciously a.s.sumed. It was, nevertheless, entirely real and all Romans felt every public show as an act of public wors.h.i.+p, as a hallowed function.
Most Roman rites were held to be entirely vitiated if a death took place among the wors.h.i.+ppers during the course of the ceremony. To all solemnities at which only a few persons were present this applied without qualification and positively. Naturally a death among the crowd about a temple was held of much less import.
Still less could anyone regard a death amid the vast throng in the Colosseum or the Circus Maximus. So that Meffia's sudden end was not necessarily held a certain indication of the wrath of the G.o.ds. But, as the death of one of the most important functionaries present at the spectacle, it caused much concern. The dismay of the people the pontiffs tried to alleviate by all the means in their power, by consultation of the augurs, soothsayers and professional prophets, and by official consultation of the Sibylline Books. The general anxiety was somewhat allayed by their placards and proclamations, announcing that Meffia's death was wholly due to her personal weakness and was not to be regarded as a portent, in particular that it in no way indicated the wrath of the G.o.ds or their rejection of the pet.i.tion for public safety embodied in the spectacles celebrating the triumph of Aurelius.
The Temple and the Atrium of Vesta made up an inst.i.tution in which death was entirely disregarded. As no seriously ill Vestal was ever allowed to remain within the limits of the Atrium, but, as soon as alarming symptoms appeared, was removed from the Atrium and put in charge of relations or friends, so also the body of a dead Vestal was always turned over to the care of her family or connections. Though the Vestals, alone among Romans, possessed the privilege of being buried inside the walls of Rome, though their funerals were magnificent public processions, partic.i.p.ated in by all the functionaries of the state and lavishly provided at the public expense, yet the death itself was held to be a concern of the family of the dead Vestal, not of her surviving colleagues. The Vestals might mourn but the Atrium was never in mourning. Its routine went on as if nothing had happened; no sign of grief was displayed or even permitted; visitors were received as usual.
Among the first visitors to the Atrium on the morning after Almo's fight and Meffia's death was, naturally, Flexinna.
At the first word Brinnaria cut her short.
”I don't want to hear his name,” she declared. ”I'm done with him forever. I don't love him any longer; I don't care for him, even; I hate him. It does not concern me whether he recovers or not. I'd rather he wouldn't recover. The best thing for both of us would be for him to die anyhow. I wish he were dead; I wish one of those heavy men had killed him.”
”B-B-Brinnaria!” Flexinna remonstrated, ”you t-t-talk like a raving maniac! You look like a F-F-Fury!”
”I'm furious enough!” Brinnaria snarled, ”and I've plenty of good cause for being angry. Was ever woman on earth put in a position so invidious, so embarra.s.sing? Everybody knew of my rescue of the retiarius, thousands had seen me rescue him. Everybody knew of my involvement with Almo before I was taken for a Vestal, of our love for each other, of my expressed intention to marry him at the end of my service. Everybody recognized Almo.
”And there I was with the one man on earth in the jaws of death before my eyes and I with the power to save him if I chose and a hundred thousand people watching me to see what I would do. And because I had once before rescued a man in that same situation everybody expected me to do something unusual and spectacular to save Almo.
”If it had been any other man it would have been the most natural thing in the world for me to give the signal for mercy and n.o.body would have thought anything of it. But, because the man before me was the man I had expressed my intention of marrying at the end of my service, therefore, if I had tried to save him, that would be taken as a confession of my being actuated by the sort of interest which no Vestal has a right to feel for any man.
”A delightful situation to be placed in!
”And he must needs go out of his way to put me in that position! When all he had to do was to live the normal life of a Roman gentleman and all things would in time come right for both of us, he must needs strain the powers of human ingenuity, compel the forces of time and s.p.a.ce, of wind and wave to conspire to produce that situation and make me suffer those unnecessary agonies!
”Furious!
”Of course I'm furious.
”Never name him to me!”
When Lutorius Rusco, the new Pontifex of Vesta, called on her she was less explosive, but still fuming.
She received him in the large room at the east end of the peristyle of the Atrium, a sort of parlor which had on either side of it three very small rooms, the six, used as private offices by the six Vestals.
There each had her writing desk, and the cabinets in which she kept her important papers, letters and such possessions.
After they had exchanged greetings Lutorius motioned towards Brinnaria's little sanctum. Brinnaria bridled.