Stories of the Olden Time Part 14

7. As wealth and luxury increased, the Romans added the bath-room to their other apartments. In the early ages they had bathed for comfort and cleanliness once a week, but the warm bath was apparently unknown to them. In time this became very common, and in the days of Cicero there were hot and cold baths, both public and private, which were well patronized. Some were heated by fires in flues, directly under the floors, which produced a vapor-bath. The bath was, however, considered a luxury, and at a later date it was held a capital offense to indulge in one on a religious holiday, and the public baths were closed when any misfortune happened to the republic.

8. Comfort and convenience united to take the cooking out of the atrium into a separate apartment known as the _culina_, or kitchen, in which was a raised platform on which coals might be burned, and the processes of broiling, boiling, and roasting might be carried on in a primitive manner, much like the arrangement still to be seen at Rome.

On the tops of the houses, after a while, terraces were planned for the purpose of basking in the sun, and sometimes they were furnished with shrubs, fruit-trees, and even fish-ponds. Often there were upward of fifty rooms in a house on a single floor; but in the course of time land became so valuable that other stories were added, and many lived in flats. A flat was sometimes called an _insula_, which meant, properly, a house not joined to another, and afterward was applied to hired lodgings. _Domus_, a house, meant a dwelling occupied by one family, whether it were an _insula_ or not.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Lares and Penates._]

9. The floors of these rooms were sometimes, but not often, laid with boards, and generally were formed of stones, tiles, bricks, or some sort of cement. In the richer dwellings they were often inlaid with mosaics of elegant patterns. The walls were often faced with marble, but they were usually adorned with paintings; the ceilings were left uncovered, the beams supporting the floor or the roof above being visible, though it was frequently arched over. The means of lighting either by day or night, were defective. The atrium was, as we have seen, lighted from above, and the same was true of other apartments, those at the side being illuminated from the larger ones in the middle of the house. There were windows, however, in the upper stories, though they were not protected by gla.s.s, but covered with shutters or lattice-work, and, at a later period, were glazed with sheets of mica. Smoking lamps, hanging from the ceiling or supported by candelabra, or candles gave a gloomy light by night in the houses, and torches without.

10. The sun was chiefly depended upon for heat, for there were no proper stoves, though braziers were used to burn coals upon, the smoke escaping through the aperture in the ceiling, and, in rare cases, hot-air furnaces were constructed below, the heat being conveyed to the upper rooms through pipes. There has been a dispute regarding chimneys, but it seems almost certain that the Romans had none in their dwellings, and indeed, there was little need of them for purposes of artificial warmth in so moderate a climate as theirs.

11. Such were some of the chief traits of the city-houses of the Romans. Besides these there were villas in the country, some of which were simply farm-houses, and others places of rest and luxury supported by the residents of cities. The farm-villa was placed, if possible, in a spot secluded from visitors, protected from the severest winds, and from the malaria of marshes, in a well-watered place, near the foot of a well-wooded mountain. It had accommodations for the kitchen, the wine-press, the farm superintendent, the slaves, the animals, the crops, and the other products of the farm. There were baths, and cellars for the wine and for the confinement of the slaves who might have to be chained.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Roman Villa._]

12. Varro thus describes life at a rural household: "Manius summons his people to rise with the sun, and in person conducts them to the scene of their daily work. The youths make their own bed, which labor renders soft to them, and supply themselves with water-pot, and lamp.

Their drink is the clear fresh spring; their fare bread, with onions as a relish. Everything prospers in house and field. The house is no work of art, but an architect might learn symmetry from it. Care is taken of the field that it shall not be left disorderly, and waste or go to ruin through slovenliness or neglect; and in return, grateful Ceres wards off damage from the produce, that the high-piled sheaves may gladden the heart of the husbandman. Here hospitality still holds good, the bread-pantry, the wine-vat, and the store of sausages on the rafter, lock and key are at the service of the traveler, and piles of food are set before him; contented, the sated guest sits, looking neither before him, nor behind, dozing by the hearth in the kitchen.

The warmest double wool sheepskin is spread as a couch for him. Here people still, as good burgesses, obey the righteous law which neither out of envy injures the innocent, nor out of favor pardons the guilty.

Here they speak no evil against their neighbors. Here they trespa.s.s not with their feet on the sacred hearth, but honor the G.o.ds with devotion and with sacrifices; throw to the familiar spirit his little bit of flesh into his appointed little dish, and when the master of the household dies accompany the bier with the same prayer with which those of his father and of his grandfather were borne forth."

_Arthur Gilman, M. A. "The Story of Rome."_ _Putnam's "Stories of the Nations Series."_

[Ill.u.s.tration]

MEDIaeVAL RECORD.

_x.x.xIII.--CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH._

1. Some time before Gregory became Pope, perhaps about the year 574, he went one day through the market at Rome, where, among other things, there were still men, women, and children to be sold as slaves. He saw there some beautiful boys who had just been brought by a slave-merchant, boys with a fair skin and long fair hair, as English boys then would have.

2. He was told that they were heathen boys from the Isle of Britain.

Gregory was sorry to think that forms which were so fair without should have no light within, and he asked again what was the name of their nation. "_Angles_," he was told. "_Angles_," said Gregory; "they have the faces of _angels_, and they ought to be made fellow-heirs of the angels in heaven. But of what province or tribe of the Angles are they?" "Of _Deira_," said the merchant. "_De ira!_" said Gregory; "then they must be delivered from the wrath of G.o.d. And what is the name of their king?" "_aella._" "_aella_; then _Alleluia_ shall be sung in his land."

3. Gregory then went to the Pope, and asked him to send missionaries into Britain, of whom he himself would be one, to convert the English.

The Pope was willing, but the people of Rome, among whom Gregory was a priest and was much beloved, would not let him go. So nothing came of the matter for some time.

4. We do not know whether Gregory was able to do anything for the poor English boys whom he saw in the market, but he certainly never forgot his plan for converting the English people. After a while he became Pope himself. Of course, he now no longer thought of going into Britain himself, as he had enough to do in Rome. But he now had power to send others. He therefore presently sent a company of monks, with one called Augustine at their head, who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and is called the Apostle of the English.

5. This was in 597. The most powerful king in Britain at this time was aethelbert, of Kent, who is said to have been lord over all the kings south of the Humber. This aethelbert had done what was very seldom done by English kings then or for a long time after; he had married a foreign wife, the daughter of Chariberth, one of the kings of the Franks, in Gaul.

6. Now, the Franks had become Christians; so when the Frankish queen came over to Kent, aethelbert promised that she should be allowed to keep to her own religion without let or hindrance. She brought with her, therefore, a Frankish bishop named Lindhard, and the queen and her bishop used to worship G.o.d in a little church near Canterbury, called Saint Martin's, which had been built in the Roman times. So you see that both aethelbert and his people must have known something about the Christian faith before Augustine came.

7. It does not, however, seem that either the king or any of his people had at all thought of turning Christians. This seems strange when one reads how easily they were converted afterward. One would have thought that Bishop Lindhard would have been more likely to convert them than Augustine, for, being a Frank, he would speak a tongue not very different from English, while Augustine spoke Latin, and, if he ever knew English at all, he must have learned it after he came into the island. I can not tell you for certain why this was.

Perhaps they did not think that a man who had merely come in the queen's train was so well worth listening to as one who had come on purpose all the way from the great city of Rome, to which all the West still looked up as the capital of the world.

8. So Augustine and his companions set out from Rome, and pa.s.sed through Gaul, and came into Britain, even as Caesar had done ages before. But this time Rome had sent forth men not to conquer lands, but to win souls. They landed first in the Isle of Thanet, which joins close to the east part of Kent, and thence they sent a message to King aethelbert, saying why they had come into his land. The king sent word back to them to stay in the isle till he had fully made up his mind how to treat them; and he gave orders that they should be well taken care of meanwhile.

9. After a little while he came himself into the isle, and bade them come and tell him what they had to say. He met them in the open air, for he would not meet them in a house, as he thought they might be wizards, and that they might use some charm or spell, which he thought would have less power out-of-doors. So they came, carrying an image of our Lord on the cross, wrought in silver, and singing litanies as they came. And when they came before the king, they preached the gospel to him and to those who were with him.

10. So King aethelbert hearkened to them, and he made answer like a good and wise man. "Your words and promises," said he, "sound very good unto me; but they are new and strange, and I can not believe them all at once, nor can I leave all that I and my fathers, and the whole English folk, have believed so long. But I see that ye have come from a far country to tell us that which ye yourselves hold for truth; so ye may stay in the land, and I will give you a house to dwell in and food to eat; and ye may preach to my folk, and if any man of them will believe as ye believe, I hinder him not."

11. So he gave them a house to dwell in in the royal city of Canterbury, and he let them preach to the people. And, as they drew near to the city, they carried their silver image of the Lord Jesus, and sang litanies, saying, "We pray Thee, O Lord, let thy anger and thy wrath be turned away from this city, and from thy holy house, because we have sinned. Alleluia!"

12. Thus Augustine and his companions dwelt at Canterbury, and worshiped in the old church where the queen worshiped, and preached to the men of the land. And many men hearkened to them and were baptized, and before long King aethelbert himself believed and was baptized; and before the year was out there were added to the Church more than ten thousand souls.

_Freeman._

_x.x.xIV.--LEO THE SLAVE._

1. In A. D. 533, the Franks had fully gained possession of all the north of Gaul, except Brittany. Clovis had made them Christians in name, but they still remained horribly savage, and the life of the Gauls under them was wretched. The Burgundians and Visigoths, who had peopled the southern and eastern provinces, were far from being equally violent. They had entered on their settlements on friendly terms, and even showed considerable respect for the Roman-Gallic senators, magistrates, and higher clergy, who all remained unmolested in their dignity and riches. Thus it was that Gregory, Bishop of Langres, was a man of high rank and consideration in the Burgundian kingdom, whence the Christian Queen Clotilda had come; and even after the Burgundians had been subdued by the four sons of Clovis, he continued a rich and prosperous man.

2. After one of the many quarrels and reconciliations between these fierce brethren, there was an exchange of hostages for the observance of the terms of the treaty. These were not taken from among the Franks, who were too proud to submit to captivity, but from among the Gaulish n.o.bles, a much more convenient arrangement for the Frankish kings, who cared for the life of a "Roman" infinitely less than even for the life of a Frank. Thus many young men of senatorial families were exchanged between the domains of Theodoric to the south, and of Hildebert to the northward, and quartered among Frankish chiefs, with whom at first they had nothing more to endure than the discomfort of living as guests with such rude and coa.r.s.e barbarians.

3. But ere long fresh quarrels arose between Theodoric and Hildebert, and the unfortunate hostages were at once turned into slaves. Some of them ran away, if they were near the frontier; but Bishop Gregory was in the utmost anxiety about his nephew Attalus, who had been last heard of as being placed under the charge of a Frank who lived between Treves and Metz. The bishop sent emissaries to make secret inquiries, and they brought back the word that the unfortunate youth had been reduced to slavery, and was made to keep his master's herds of horses.

Upon this the uncle again sent off his messengers with presents for the ransom of Attalus; but the Frank rejected them, saying, "One of such high race can only be redeemed for ten pounds weight of gold."

4. This was beyond the bishop's means, and, while he was considering how to raise the sum, the slaves were all lamenting for their young lord, to whom they were much attached, till one of them, named Leo, the cook to the household, came to the bishop, saying to him, "If thou wilt give me leave to go, I will deliver him from captivity." The bishop replied that he gave free permission, and the slave set off for Treves, and there watched anxiously for an opportunity of gaining access to Attalus; but, though the poor young man, no longer daintily dressed, bathed, and perfumed, but ragged and squalid, might be seen following his herds of horses, he was too well watched for any communication to be held with him.

5. Then Leo went to a person, probably of Gallic birth, and said: "Come with me to this barbarian's house, and there sell me for a slave. Thou shalt have the money; I only ask thee to help me thus far." Both repaired to the Frank's abode, the chief among a confused collection of clay and timber huts, intended for shelter during eating and sleeping. The Frank looked at the slave, and asked him what he could do. "I can dress whatever is eaten at lordly tables," replied Leo. "I am afraid of no rival; I only tell thee the truth when I say that, if thou wouldst give a feast to the king, I could send it up in the neatest manner." "Ha!" said the barbarian, "the Sun's day is coming. I shall invite my kinsmen and friends. Cook me such a dinner as may amaze them, and make them say, 'We saw nothing better in the king's house.'" "Let me have plenty of poultry, and I will do according to my master's bidding," returned Leo.

6. Accordingly, he was purchased for twelve gold-pieces, and on the Sunday, as Bishop Gregory of Tours, who tells the story, explains, that the barbarians called the Lord's day, he produced a banquet after the most approved Roman fashion, much to the surprise and delight of the Franks, who had never tasted such delicacies before, and complimented their host upon them all the evening. Leo gradually became a great favorite, and was placed in authority over the other slaves, to whom he gave out their portions of broth and meat. But from the first he had not shown any recognition of Attalus, and had signed to him that they must be strangers to one another.

7. A whole year pa.s.sed away in this manner, when one day Leo wandered, as if for pastime, into the plain where Attalus was watching the horses, and sitting down on the ground at some paces off, and with his back toward his young master so that they might not be seen talking together, he said: "This is the time for thoughts of home! When thou hast led the horses to the stable to-night, sleep not. Be ready at the first call!"

8. That day the Frank lord was entertaining a large number of guests, among them his daughter's husband, a jovial young man, given to jesting.

On going to rest he fancied he should be thirsty at night, and called Leo to place a pitcher of hydromel by his bedside. As the slave was setting it down, the Frank looked slyly from under his eyelids and said in joke, "Tell me, my father-in-law's trusty man, wilt thou not some night take one of his horses and run away to thine own home?"

9. "Please G.o.d, it is what I mean to do this very night," answered the Gaul, so undauntedly that the Frank took it as a jest, and answered, "I shall look out, then, that thou dost not carry off anything of mine," and then Leo left him, both laughing.

10. All were soon asleep, and the cook crept out to the stable, where Attalus usually slept among the horses. He was broad awake now, and ready to saddle the two swiftest; but he had no weapon, except a small lance, so Leo boldly went back to his master's sleeping hut, and took down his sword and shield, but not without awakening him enough to ask who was moving. "It is I, Leo," was the answer; "I have been to call Attalus to take out the horses early. He sleeps as hard as a drunkard." The Frank went to sleep again, quite satisfied, and Leo, carrying out the weapons, soon made Attalus feel like a free man and a n.o.ble once more.

11. They pa.s.sed unseen out of the inclosure, mounted their horses and rode along the great Roman road from Treves as far as the Meuse, but they found the bridge guarded, and were obliged to wait till night, when they cast their horses loose, and swam the river, supporting themselves on boards that they had found on the bank. They had as yet had no food since the supper at their master's, and were thankful to find a plum-tree in the wood, with fruit, to refresh them in small degree, before they lay down for the night. The next morning they went on in the direction of Rheims, carefully listening whether there were any sounds behind, until, on the broad, hard-paved causeway, they heard the trampling of horses. Happily a bush was near, behind which they crept, and here the riders actually halted for a few moments to arrange their harness. Men and horses were both those they feared, and they trembled at hearing one say: "Woe is me that those rogues have made off, and have not been caught! On my salvation, if I catch them, I will have one hung, and the other chopped into little bits!"

12. It was no small comfort to hear the trot of the horses resumed, and soon dying away in the distance. That same night, the two faint, hungry, weary travelers, foot-sore and exhausted, came stumbling into Rheims, looking about for some person still awake, to tell them the way to the house of the priest Paul, a friend of Attalus's uncle. They found it just as the church-bell was ringing for matins, a sound that must have seemed very like home to these members of an episcopal household. They knocked, and in the morning twilight met the priest going to his earliest Sunday-morning service. Leo told his young master's name, and how they had escaped, and the priest's first exclamation was a strange one: "My dream is true! This very night I saw two doves, one white and one black, who came and perched on my hand."

13. The good man was overjoyed, but he scrupled to give them any food, as it was contrary to the Church's rules for the fast to be broken before ma.s.s; but the travelers were half-dead with hunger, and could only say, "The good Lord pardon us, for, saving the respect due to his day, we must eat something, since this is the fourth day since we have touched bread or meat." The priest, upon this, gave them some bread and wine, and after hiding them carefully, went to church, hoping to avert suspicion. But their master was already at Rheims, making strict search for them, and learning that Paul the priest was a friend of the Bishop of Langres, he went to the church, and there questioned him closely. But the priest succeeded in guarding his secret, and though he incurred much danger--as the Salic law is very severe against concealers of runaway slaves--he kept Attalus and Leo for two days, till the search was over, and their strength restored, so that they could proceed to Langres. There they were welcomed like men risen from the dead; the bishop wept on the neck of Attalus, and was ready to receive Leo as a slave no more, but a friend and deliverer.