Part 47 (2/2)
”Then do I take my leave of thee, O Caesar,” retorted Taurus Antinor coldly. ”For here alone, with but twenty men to guard thee, I can do naught to save thy person from outrage.”
”If I were quite sure that I could trust thee....”
”That is for thee to decide. I have offered thee my services ... an thou'lt not accept them I crave thy leave to go.”
”No, no, do not leave me, praefect,” cried Caligula with despair, clinging now with all his might to this arm, which every instinct in him told him was staunch in his defence. ”Do not leave me ... I'll do as thou dost advise.... I'll don a slave's garb ... and slip out into the street in thy wake ... and ... after that...?”
”Thou'lt find temporary shelter in an humble house on the Aventine.
There thou canst rest for a few days even while thy legions, distant from here but three days' march, I believe, do approach the city.”
”Yes, yes! my legions,” cried the Caesar in a hoa.r.s.e whisper. ”I had nigh forgotten them. They are not far ... if I could but reach them....”
A sudden fire of malicious hatred once more lit up the dull misery of his face.
”At the head of my legions I can soon show this miserable rabble who is the master of Rome.”
”At the head of thy legions, O Caesar,” retorted Taurus Antinor firmly, ”and preceded by a proclamation of universal pardon for all the events of the past few days, thou wilt make thine entry into Rome amidst the rejoicings of thy people.”
”Pardon!” hissed Caligula through set teeth. ”Never!”
”Yet is a proclamation of universal pardon necessary for thy safety,”
said Taurus Antinor with solemn earnestness. ”As soon as I have placed thee under the protection of that sheltering roof on the Aventine, I would return to Rome with thy proclamation, and with the news that in three days' time thou wouldst enter the city at the head of thy people.
The people, frightened at first, would imagine that divine interference had led thee triumphantly out of danger, thy clemency would allay their fears and fire their enthusiasm; they would soon make ready to welcome thee with rejoicings. But without thy promise of pardon fear would gain the mastery over those who led this rebellion, and fear quickly would beget despair. In their terror of thy coming vengeance they might oppose thy coming, and such is the temper of the people just now that all the strength of thy legions--half-spent in this last expedition--might be powerless against it; thy chosen soldiers even might turn against thee.”
The Caesar was silent, and even in this dim light it was easy to read on his ghastly face the inner workings of his tortuous mind--rage, malice, a raging thirst for revenge fought against his own cowardice and the steady influence which the praefect's calm and firm att.i.tude was exercising over him, much against his will.
”Time is precious, O Caesar,” continued Taurus Antinor earnestly; ”the people will not wait. The shadows of evening will soon be drawing in and the storm has not yet wholly pa.s.sed away. The hour is propitious now, an thou wilt accept my service, we can slip away and mingle with the few straggling groups of malcontents before the crowd has again rushed the hill. An thou wilt not tarry and canst brace thyself up to indifferent demeanour in the streets, I swear to thee that thou wilt be under safe shelter in an hour.”
”If I but dared to trust myself so entirely in thy keeping....”
Taurus Antinor shrugged his broad shoulders with marked contempt for his forbearance was threatening to give way.
”Is there anyone else,” he asked, ”whom thou wouldst rather trust? Name him then, O Caesar, and, alive or dead, I'll bring him to thy presence within the hour.”
But to this the Caesar made no reply. He knew better than anyone could tell him that the man whom he had called a traitor, whom he had twice tried basely to kill, was the one man in the entire patriciate of Rome who would be true to him. Even madmen have such instincts at times.
Caligula knew that he was doomed, the cries from below could leave no doubt in his mind that, isolated as he was, cut off not only from his legions but even from his guard, nothing could save him from the fury of vengeance which threatened him from his entire people.
A wave of fatality swept over his maniacal sense of terror. He knew and felt that if this man was a traitor then indeed could nothing save him; and he knew and felt at the same time that while he was under this man's protection no great harm could come to him.
Gradually this sense of fatality got the mastery over his cowardice, and as Taurus Antinor watched the twitchings of that distorted face, he could note that insensibly a resolution to follow his advice had found its way in this madman's brain.
”I'll come with thee,” said Caligula at last, and now his voice sounded more firm, even whilst his hands released their grip on the praefect's arm and his short body straightened itself out upon his trembling limbs.
”I'll come with thee, but may thy flesh wither on thy bones, thy hands be palsied and thine eyes become sightless if thou hast a thought of betraying thy Caesar.”
To this senseless speech Taurus Antinor vouchsafed no reply.
”Then I pray thee,” he said quietly, ”wait here a while till I find the necessary garments for thy disguise and mine, and also pen, ink and parchment.”
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