Part 51 (2/2)
”Wilt be happy as a freedman, Folces?”
”Yes, Augusta,” replied the man simply, ”for then I shall be at liberty to follow Taurus Antinor as his servant.”
She sat quite silently after this, her tear-stained eyes fixed into vacancy. Folces was on his knees waiting to be dismissed. It was some little while before she remembered his presence, then in a gentle voice she bade him go.
”Shall I take a message back to my master?” he asked humbly. ”I could find him, I think, if I had a message.”
”I have no message,” she said; ”go, good Folces.”
CHAPTER x.x.xV
”We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”--ST. LUKE XVII. 10.
Half an hour later Dea Flavia Augusta was in the tablinium. She had received Caius Nepos, the praetorian praefect, Marcus Ancyrus, the elder, my lords Hortensius Martius, Philippus Decius and the others, and they, who had heard so many conflicting rumours throughout the morning and were beginning to quake with fear, for none of the rumours were rea.s.suring, were grouped trembling and expectant around her.
”My lords,” she began as soon as she had received their obsequious greetings, ”I know not if you have heard the news. The Caesar hath succeeded in quitting Rome; he is on his way to rejoin his legions and nothing can stand in the way of his progress. In a few days from now he will make his State re-entry into the city, and the city will resound from end to end with rejoicings in his honour.”
”We had all heard the news, Augusta,” said Caius Nepos who was vainly trying to steady his voice and to appear calm and dignified, ”and also that a proclamation of pardon hath preceded the entry of the Caesar into Rome and hath been affixed to the rostrum of the great Augustus by the consul-major himself this morning.”
”And what do you make of all this, my lords?” she asked.
”That some G.o.ds of evil have been at work,” muttered young Escanes between set teeth, ”and spirited the tyrannical madman out of the way for the further scourging of his people.”
”The spirit, my lords,” she interposed quietly, ”that led my kinsman to safety last night was one which actuated the n.o.blest patrician in Rome to do his duty loyally by the Caesar.”
”Then curse him for a traitor,” muttered Caius Nepos, whose cheeks had become white with terror.
”He was no traitor to you, my lords,” she retorted hotly, ”for he was not one of you. He was true to the oath which he had rendered to the Caesar; aye, even to the Caesar whom we, my lords, all of us here present had been ready to betray.”
Then as she saw nothing but sullen faces around her and not a word broke the silence that ensued, she continued more calmly:
”Yesterday you came to me, my lords, with proposals of treachery to which I, alas, did listen because in my heart I had already chosen one man who I felt was worthy to rule over this great Empire. I had made my choice and myself offered him the imperium, the throne of Augustus and the sceptre of the Caesars.... But he refused it all, my lords, and went forth in the night to place himself body and heart at the Caesar's service.”
”And his name, O Augusta?” queried Ancyrus, the elder.
”He hath name Taurus Antinor and was once praefect of Rome.”
”He is dead!” broke in Hortensius Martius hotly.
”He lived long enough, my lord,” she retorted, ”to show us all our duty.”
There was silence after that, for many a heart was beating spasmodically with fear or with hope. My lord Hortensius Martius sat on a low stool, with his elbow on his knee, his chin buried in his hand.
His eyes, glowing with dull and sullen hatred, searched the face of Dea Flavia, trying to read what went on behind the pure, straight brow and those liquid blue eyes, deep as the fathomless sea.
”What is to be done?” said Ancyrus, the elder, with a pitiable look of perplexity directed at the Augusta.
<script>