Part 35 (2/2)
”What do they say?”
”That the rabble is invading the hill. The miscreants have forced their way into the Forum. They have surrounded the palace of the Caesar and set fire within its precincts.”
”Ye G.o.ds!...” exclaimed Dea Flavia.
”Dost hear their shouts? the villains! the villains! Dost hear Jove's thunder, my beloved? His vengeance is nigh! May his curse descend on the villains and on their children.”
”Silence, woman!” commanded the Augusta peremptorily. ”Get me a robe--quickly--no, no! not that one,” she added, as Licinia, with trembling hands had s.n.a.t.c.hed up the gorgeous jewel-studded gown which Dea Flavia had worn the day before, ”a dark robe--haste, I tell thee! go thou fetch it and send Blanca quickly to me.”
Moaning and trembling, the woman endeavoured to obey and to make as much speed as her limbs, paralysed with terror, would allow her. She called to Blanca, who together with the Augusta's tire-women had her quarters close at hand, and the young girl hastened to her mistress's room whilst Licinia went in search of a dark-coloured robe.
”The praefect?” whispered Dea Flavia quickly, as soon as she felt a.s.sured that she was quite alone with her slave. ”Hast seen Dion or Nolus?”
”My brother spoke to me in the atrium just now, gracious mistress,”
replied Blanca, who seemed scarce less excited than her mistress, ”he and Dion heard a thud in the night, which roused them from a brief sleep which they had s.n.a.t.c.hed, for they were very tired ... their long hunt in the Amphitheatre....”
”Yes! yes! go on! I know that they slept ... and they heard a thud ...
what was it?”
”They ran to the resting-chamber, gracious lady, and found the praefect of Rome lying senseless on the floor.”
”Great Mother!... and what did they do?”
”They lifted him as best they could; for the praefect is over tall and mightily powerful. But they succeeded in laying him back on to the couch, and Dion ran to rouse the physician.”
”And now?”
”The physician hath given the praefect a drug to make him sleep, for it seems that fever was upon him with the pain of his wounds and he talked incoherently like one bereft of reason.”
”Hus.h.!.+...” interrupted Dea Flavia hurriedly, ”not before Licinia.”
Even as she spoke the old woman returned, carrying a robe of dove grey cloth, the darkest one that she could find. She had collected the tire-women round her, and they flocked in her wake like frightened sheep that have been driven into a pen. Licinia herself was evidently the prey of abject terror, for her teeth were chattering, and all the while that she helped her mistress to make a hasty toilet, she uttered low moans as if she were in pain.
”The traitors! the miscreants!” she murmured at intervals.
But Dea Flavia paid no heed to her. Her women had brought her fresh water, perfumes and fine cloths, and she was hastily bathing her face and hands. Then, she slipped on the dull-coloured robe and Licinia's trembling fingers fastened a girdle round her waist.
And all the while, from far away, came the dull sound of Jove's thunders hurled by his wrath, and above it as a constant din, like the roaring of a tempestuous sea, the hoa.r.s.e cries which--borne upon the wings of the oncoming storm--seemed to gain distinctness as their echo reached this distant house.
”Dost hear the cries, Blanca?” asked Dea Flavia, as the young slave, leaning out of the narrow window tried to peer out into the street.
”I hear them, gracious lady,” replied the girl in an awed whisper.
”And canst distinguish any words?”
<script>