The Unwilling Vestal Part 29

She explained.

Guntello, always parsimonious, asked a moderate sum for the purchase of a sabre and for road-money. She gave him ten times as much.

When he was gone, she felt, as at first, a painful numbness of exaltation. Almo was now certainly a dead man.

This mood suddenly inverted itself into an uncontrollable pa.s.sion f solicitude. Off she posted to Flexinna and confessed everything to Vocco. In a frenzy she demanded they again borrow Nemestronia's litter and that Vocco again accompany her to Aricia. To their expostulations she retorted that go she would, if not escorted by Vocco, then alone, if not disguised and in a borrowed litter, then in her own and openly, or openly in her carriage or afoot if need be; but go she would!

Flexinna succeeded in getting her to listen long enough to urge that there was no need for her to go personally, as Guntello would obey Vocco at sight of her signet ring, moreover that Guntello now had a long start and that only a swift horseman might hope to intervene in time. To these representations she yielded.

Vocco returned amazed and manifestly relieved. He had arrived too late.

Guntello was dead.

That night Brinnaria wept long and bitterly.

"The poor, brave, harmless, faithful fellow," she moaned. "Out of the malignity of my heart, in my pride and callousness, I sent him to an undeserved death! Oh, I am a wicked woman!" Strangely enough Guntello's death seemed to divert her mind entirely from the idea of avenging herself on Almo. From hating him, she came to realize that she had really loved him all the while, that she loved him unalterably. From thinking that she desired his death she came to dread acutely that, exhausted in body by more than a hundred fights in ten months and worn by the strain of ceaseless anxiety and vigilance, Almo might succ.u.mb to even a chance-brought adversary.

In this new mood she confided in Lutorius.

The good man was horrified.

"And I never suspected anything wrong!" he exclaimed. "At least you have been outwardly collected. n.o.body has suspected anything. But this is terrible. A Vestal should menace no man's life, should not desire any man's death. Far from it, her heart should be clean of hate, malice or envy."

"Never mind what I have been," said Brinnaria.

"No disasters have befallen Rome. There is no sign of any wrathfulness of the G.o.ds, or of their displeasure, and I am no longer as I was. That is all over, I am chastened. I desire harm to no one. Quite the reverse.

What fills my mind now is the thought that, sooner or later, Alma must perish at the hand of some challenger. I long to save him. I would move earth and sea to save him. Must a King of the Grove live and die King of the Grove? Is there no way to rescue him?"

"Consult the Emperor," said Lutorius. "He is Chief Pontiff of Rome."

CHAPTER XIX - COMFORT

COMMODUS received Brinnaria in the same palatial room in which she had so often conferred with his father. The majestic impression of the magnificent hall was, however, marred by the evidence of the young Emperor's chief interests. On one of the great chests lay a pair of boxing gloves, on another a quiver of arrows and two unstrung bows, on a third a bridle; a fourth was open and from it protruded a sheaf of those wooden swords which the Romans used for fencing-practice as we use foils. Commodus could never wholly free himself from his absorbing pa.s.sion for athletic sports.

He himself was a sort of artistic caricature of his father, being very like him in height, build, features and complexion, with similarly abundant hair and beard falling over his shoulders and bosom in long ringlets. But in place of the gravity, wisdom, intelligence and sympathy which had enn.o.bled the countenance of Aurelius, his face wore an expression of boyish frivolity, silly vanity, vapid stupidity and impatient selfishness.

Brinnaria had seen him countless times and often near at hand, not only close to her when both occupied their official seats in the Amphitheatre or the Circus, at horse-races or other shows, but almost at arm's length at various religious functions, processions, sacrifices and other acts of public worship. Necessarily they had often exchanged formal greetings, but never yet any other words.

He greeted her effusively, with a comical mixture of hobbledehoy clumsiness and imperial dignity.

"I'm glad you demanded an audience," he said, as she sat down; "we should have had a good talk long ago. You lambasted old Bambilio. That is one for you. A juicier story I never heard. You are made of pepper.

And you saved the retiarius, the year after I was born. I've often gloated over the story and wished I had been there to see. I was there when you had your embarra.s.sing experience and came through it so gallantly. I was proud of you, like everybody else. I remember it well.

And Father gave me special instructions about you, so emphatically that even scatter-brained as I am I have not forgotten them. I've been meaning to have a talk with you ever since I took up this Emperor job.

But you know how it is. Every day there are ready and waiting for me to do more things I really want to do than anyone man could get through in anyone day, and three-quarters of them I have to forego doing because of the pressure of my official duties. I can never seem to get time for half the sword-exercise and archery drill and driving practice I need, let alone for chats with heroines.

"I trust you'll accept my apologies.

"There! That is all the talking I mean to do. I'm going to listen, now.

Tell me what you want and I'll see your desire accomplished. I'll do anything for you, not only for your heroism and on account of Father's directions, but because of your horse-breeding. They say you're as good a judge of a horse as any man in Italy and I believe there are not a dozen to equal you.

"I've driven several pairs of your crack colts and they are paragon racers, docile as lambs and mettlesome as game-c.o.c.ks.

"There! I've gone on talking! But I am really going to stop now and listen. State your wishes."

"I'll have to make a long story of it," said Brinnaria, hesitatingly.

"And one sixty times better worth listening to than ninety-nine out of a hundred of the long stories folks bore me with, I'll wager," said Commodus. "If it is long we'll get to the end quicker by beginning at once. And take your time, I'll talk to you till dark, if need be. You are ent.i.tled to all of my time you choose to claim." Brinnaria began at the beginning and rehea.r.s.ed her story fully, Commodus listening without much fidgeting and interrupting only to say now and then:

"Yes, I know about that. I remember that." When she came to Almo's escape from Britain the Emperor slapped his thigh and emitted a sound between a grunt and a squawk.

"The joke is on me!" he guffawed. "Just like me! Father told me particularly about his injunctions to Opstorius, and Pertinax himself reminded me about Almo after Father's death. But it all went out of my head and I never thought of it from the moment Pertinax bowed himself out until this very instant. I'll make up to you for my forgetfulness, I promise you. Go on." Upon her telling of Almo's idling at inns after he ran away from Fregellae, Commodus cut in with:

"I liked Almo, what little I saw of him, but I had forgotten him.

You make me remember him, make me recall trifling things about him, att.i.tudes, smiles, tones of his voice, witty replies, quips. I liked him. But I like him better than ever from what you tell me of him. I understand him. I know just how he feels. I long, sometimes, to chuck Emperorizing and go off alone, with no responsibilities, and have a really good time hobn.o.bbing with the good fellows the world is full of.

I envy him. I dream of doing it, but he cut loose and did it. Good for Almo." At first mention of the King of the Grove Commodus leapt up from his throne, strode up and down the room and clapped his hands.

Two pages rushed in.

"Get out!" he shouted. "I wasn't clapping for you." He paced the room like a caged tiger.

"Think of it!" he exclaimed. "Think of it! Your lad certainly has fire in his belly, yes and brains in his head, too! Think of it! He thought it all out up there in the raw all-day mists, thought it all out, and he works towards his purpose like a pattern diplomat, like a born general, like a Scipio, like a cat after a bird! Has himself sold as a slave, bides his time, puts himself in the pink of condition, watches his opportunity.

"Think of it! Disconsolate because he couldn't marry you, moody because he has to wait so long, he seeks comfort in challenging the King of the Grove. Oh, I love him! Only a prince of good fellows would have thought of it. No ordinary adventure would divert him. He picks out the most hazardous venture possible. Oh, I love him!"

When she narrated her interchange of clothing with Flexinna and her litter-journey, Commodus looked grave. The loutishness vanished from his att.i.tude and expression. He became wholly an Emperor.

"Out of Rome, outside the walls, beyond the Pomoerium all night!" he exclaimed. "That sounds bad. You were fool-hardy, too reckless entirely.

Why that is impiety. That amounts to sacrilege!" As with Flexinna, Brinnaria reminded him of the Vestals' flight after the disaster at the Allia and of their sojourn at Caere, again emphasizing the contrast between their unreprehended departure and the scrupulous steadfastness of the Flamen of Jupiter.

"You have me!" he acknowledged. "Your contentions are sound. But, all the same, even if it was merely a violation of rule, still, it is a mighty serious matter. It is a good thing for you that I like you, that my Father trusted you so notably, and gave me such explicit and emphatic injunctions about you, that you have made a clean breast of it all to me. If I had known nothing more about you than I know of Manlia or Gargilia, if I had learned of your escapade from anyone but you, I'd have had you formally accused, tried, convicted and buried alive with the utmost dispatch.

"As things are, after all Father had to say about you, after his detailing to me your several conversations with him, I understand, I sympathize, I am convinced of the innocence of your feeling for Almo, of the austerity with which you have banished from you all thoughts unbefitting a Vestal and have postponed your antic.i.p.ations of marriage until your service shall have come to an end, I believe in the impeccable correctness of your att.i.tude.

"But, without that, even having learnt of your prank from yourself, I should have thought it necessary to lay the facts before the College of Pontiffs and ask their opinion. It looks fishy, stravaging all over the landscape after dark with a cavalier beside your litter all night long. I comprehend, I condone, I judge that you have not impaired your qualifications for your high office. I have no qualms. But it is well for you that Father instructed me. Go on, tell me the rest." Over the fight he rubbed his hands and chirruped with delight, and, when she spoke of the King's harem, he burst into roars of laughter, rolling himself on his throne, slapping his thighs, holding his ribs.

"Oh you women," he gurgled, "you are all alike, you Vestals as much as the rest! The fire of womanhood smoulders under your icy composure like the fires of Etna under her mantle of snow.

"You more than most Vestals, of course. You are a real human being, you are! So you went out to save him, even if you lost your life trying, even if you were buried alive for it, and you came back hot, red hot, to have him killed, and the sooner the better, it couldn't be too soon for you.

"Oh, I'm glad you came. I haven't been entertained like this since I was made Emperor. Go on!" When she uttered the word f.a.gutal and told of her visit to the rookery he had another fit of laughter and exhausted himself with mirth.

When she narrated the repeated failures of the champions she had suborned and Almo's uniform success, Commodus was in ecstasy.

"He's the boy for my money," he cried. "He's worth all the trouble you've had with him. You'll get a husband worth waiting for. He's one in a million. One hundred and five bouts in ten months and victor in all of them! He's a jewel, a pearl I I'd do anything for you, as I told you, I'd keep myself on the rack day and night for you and him. You are a pair! There's not on earth the match for the two of you!"

At the end of her story he said: