Part 34 (1/2)

”Did Nolus and Dion find it difficult to approach the praefect's body?”

”They had to parley with the aedile who was in command, and to give him all the money which my gracious mistress did entrust to them for that purpose.”

”After which the aedile made no demur ... and asked no questions?”

”The aedile took the money, gracious lady, and Dion said that he asked no further questions, but allowed the praefect to be borne away.”

”That is well,” said Dea Flavia, after a brief moment of silence, whilst the girl stood awaiting her further pleasure. ”Thou, Blanca, hath served me faithfully, so have Nolus and Dion, my slaves. Ye have earned your reward, and though I am grieved to part from good servants like you, yet will I fulfil my promise, even as I have given it to you. From this hour, thou, Blanca, art a freewoman, and Nolus thy brother, and Dion, thy future husband, are freemen, and the sum of six hundred aurei shall be given unto you to-morrow--two hundred unto each--and may you live long and prosper and be happy, for you have served me well.”

Blanca fell upon her knees and kissed the coverlet on which reposed her mistress; but Dea Flavia did not seem to see her. She was squatting on her heels, with body and head erect, and slowly now, like the rosy kiss of dawn upon the snow-clad hills of Etruria, a faint crimson glow spread over her pale cheeks.

Blanca waited irresolute, not liking to leave her mistress before she could be a.s.sured that sleep had descended at last on those weary lids.

The hour was very late, close upon midnight, and yet the city was not asleep. That constant murmur--like unto the breaking of angry waves--still sent its sinister echo through the still night air, and even in the house of Dea Flavia it seemed that hundreds of eyes were still open, fear having chased sleep away. There was a sound--like the buzzing of bees--that came from the slaves' quarters beyond the peristyle, and from the studio, which lay the other side of the atrium, came the sound of m.u.f.fled footsteps gliding over the mosaic of the floor.

”Go to bed now, child,” said Dea Flavia at last, ”thou hast earned thy rest ... and ... stay! Tell Dion and Nolus to remain in the studio, and there to spend the night. They must be ready to go to the praefect if he calls.... Go!”

Then as the girl made ready to obey, the Augusta put out her hand to detain her.

”Wait! Hast seen Licinia?”

”No, gracious lady.”

”She is not hovering somewhere near my room?... or in the atrium?”

”No, gracious lady.”

”And the night-watchers?”

”They are in the vestibule, gracious lady.”

”And all my women?”

”They are all in bed and asleep.”

”That is well. Thou canst go.”

Blanca's naked little feet made no sound as she crossed the room, and went out by the door which led to the sleeping-chamber of the Augusta's women.

Dea Flavia waited for a while, straining her ears to catch every sound which came from this portion of her palace.

Her sleeping-chamber, together with all those on this floor gave directly on the atrium, which formed a large irregular square in the centre of this portion of the house. The north side of it was taken up with the Augusta's apartments and those of her women, the south side with the reception rooms and with the studio and its attendant vestibules, whilst the main vestibule of the house and the first peristyle gave on either end.

From the main vestibule came the subdued hum of voices, and throughout the house there was that feeling of wakefulness so different to the usual placid hush of night.

Dea Flavia held her breath whilst she listened attentively. In the vestibule it was the night watchmen who were talking, discussing, no doubt, the many events of the day: and that sound--like the buzzing of bees--showed that the women were awake and gossiping, and that up in the slaves' quarters tongues were still wagging, despite Blanca's a.s.surance and the overseer's sharp discipline. But on the other side of the atrium, where were the reception halls and the studio, everything was still.

The young girl threw herself back upon her bed. Sleep refused to visit her this night; the thin streak of silvery moon, which persistently peeped in through the curtain, flicked the tiny atoms in the air until they a.s.sumed quaint, minute shapes of their own, like unto crawling panthers and grotesque creatures crowned with a golden halo, and brandis.h.i.+ng a mock thunderbolt in one hand and a dagger in the other.

Then suddenly all these shapes would vanish, smothered beneath a cloak, and Dea Flavia, still wide awake, would feel drops of moisture at the roots of her hair, and her whole body, as if sinking into a black abyss, where monsters yelled and wild beasts roared and huge, black, snake-like creatures tore the flesh off human bones.

The hours of the night sped on, borne on the weighted feet of anguish and of horror. Gradually, one by one, the sounds in and about the house died away; the slaves in their quarters must have turned over on their rough pallets and gone to sleep, the women close by had done gossiping, only from the vestibule came the slow measured tread of the watchmen guarding the Augusta's house, and from far away that ceaseless, rumbling noise which meant that discontent was awake and astir.