The Unwilling Vestal Part 31

"And now," said Commodus, "since I have done what you wanted and you are pleased, may I ask a favor of you? You can do something for me that no one else can and if you promise it will set my mind at rest to some extent."

Brinnaria earnestly promised to do her best.

"I am troubled," said the Emperor, "very much troubled. You know how rumors get about among people, starting no one knows where; and how, when such a notion is abroad, nothing on earth can counteract it.

"Well, there's a story going about of an oracle, an oracle which says that the Republic reached its acme under Trajan, that the Empire kept up its prosperity under Hadrian and my Grandfather and Father, but that the glory of Rome is fated to fade and wane and that its decline will date from my taking over the Principiate.

"I am worried about it. I have sent to Delphi and Dodona and every other oracle from Olisipo to Pattala, but I can find no record of any such oracle having been uttered. The people, however, credit it as if it came from Delphi.

"I've had a hundred oracles consulted about the matter, Delphi too. They all hedge; not one is clear. But they all speak of an impending disaster that may be averted by watchfulness. And they all hint darkly at some danger to the Palladium; they all mention it somehow; most of them allude unmistakably to the Temple of Vesta; some of them manifestly refer to the Atrium; all of them speak of fire.

"Now I know that the sacred fire will be cared for by you and Manlia and Gargilia and Numisia as well as ever it was since Numa. Causidiena is too old to count and Terentia is too young, but in the four of you I have complete confidence as far as the fire is concerned.

"About the Palladium I don't feel so sure. The six terra-cotta chests are so exactly alike and the five counterfeits are so like the real statue that I am afraid the precautions taken to baffle an intruding thief might confuse you Vestals in a crisis.

"Do you know the real Palladium from the five dummies?"

"I do," said Brinnaria; "we all do. When I had been a Vestal five years Causidiena showed me the Palladium. No Vestal is ever shown it until she is over fifteen. Like all other young Vestals I was made to spend hours in the inner storeroom, blindfolded, learning to recognize the real Palladium by touch.

"The differences between the original and the copies are very small, mostly in the carving of the folds of the gown. But every young Vestal is drilled until she can recognize the genuine relic by touch, one hundred times out of one hundred times, and until she can similarly discriminate the terra-cotta chest that contains it from the other five chests. I could tell the Palladium from the imitations instantly any time."

"You relieve me," said Commodus. "I've wanted to talk about this to all you Vestals, but I've been ashamed to broach the subject. Since you confided in me I feel no hesitation about confiding in you."

"I promise you," said Brinnaria, "that the Palladium will never be stolen, lost, or come to any harm if I can prevent it, and I believe I can. I pledge you my word."

"I feel better," said Commodus.

"And I want to say," Brinnaria added, "that I have always felt a special interest in the Palladium. Ever since I was old enough to share all the duties and all the responsibilities of a Vestal, my feelings have been particularly engaged with the Palladium. There is something tremendous and crushing in the thought of being in charge of four of the seven objects on the safety of which depends the safety of Rome and the prosperity of the Republic. Whenever Causidiena has shown them to us younger Vestals I have felt the strongest emotions at the sight of the jar containing the ashes of Orestes, of the antique gold canister which protects the plain, gold-mounted ivory sceptre of Priam, of the lapis-lazuli casket which enshrines the tatters remaining of Ilione's veil; but more than at sight of them I have trembled with awe to look at that little statuette, no longer than my forearm, and to think that if it were destroyed the Empire would crumble and Rome would perish. You maybe sure I shall do all I can to keep safe the precious treasure committed to my charge."

"I feel sure you will," said Commodus.

BOOK IV--THE REVULSION OF DELIGHT

CHAPTER XX - ACCUSATION

AFTER Almo's redemption and his departure for Syria Brinnaria calmed down. Her feverish activity abated and vanished. She ceased to take any interest in the speed of her litter-bearers or of her carriage-teams.

She took her outings for their own sake, not merely to feel herself transported rapidly from somewhere to anywhere. She kept an oversight of her stock-farms, but she left the management of them almost entirely to her bailiffs. On music she spent more of her time and in it she took an intenser delight.

Life in the Atrium altered chiefly through the growing up of Terentia, whose fifteenth birthday was celebrated soon after Almo left Italy, and by the steady waning of Causidiena's eyesight. She could still recognize familiar persons when between her and the strong light of a door or window in the daytime; she could still place pieces of wood on the fire, if it was burning well. But she was plainly verging on total blindness.

Except in so far as it was modified by pride in Terentia and solicitude for Causidiena, life in the Atrium flowed on as it had for centuries.

Reports from Almo were uniformly good. From the first he displayed all the qualifications requisite for a commander in chief. For him everything promised well.

Under these conditions Brinnaria throve. Her natural vigor had always been such that she never had showed any outward signs of the strain to which she had been subjected. Uniformly she had looked handsome and healthy. But now, if anything, she looked healthier and handsomer than ever. She was then thirty-two years old. At ten years of age she had looked eighteen, at eighteen she had looked twenty-four. At thirty-two she still looked no more than twenty-five. Her hair was abundant and glossy, her eyes bright, her cheeks rosy; she was neither slender nor plump, but a well-muscled, graceful woman, decidedly young-looking, and altogether statuesque in build and carriage, but very much alive in her springy suppleness.

About a year after Almo's departure for Syria Lutorius came to see her one morning, his face grave.

He indicated that they had best confer alone. In her tiny sanctum he came straight to the point.

"Daughter," he said, "my news is as bad as possible. You are formally accused of the worst misconduct."

"Why look so gloomy?" said Brinnaria. "That is comic, not tragic. Who's the fool accuser?"

"Calvaster, as you might conjecture," he answered; "and grieve to have to inform you," he added, "that this is no laughing matter."

"Pooh!" said Brinnaria. "I'm not a bit afraid of Calvaster. Aurelius gave Commodus emphatic injunctions about me. And he went into details.

Commodus can't have forgotten his reprimand to Calvaster nor his categorical threat."

"I fear," said Lutorius, "that his father's instructions on that particular point are not well to the front of the Emperor's mind."

"Well, anyhow," said Brinnaria, "everybody knows my preoccupation with Almo and everybody saw my behavior in the Amphitheatre. I feel pretty safe in respect to my general reputation. As to particulars, I've been vigilantly careful to keep away from Almo. Except twice, in the presence of Aurelius, I haven't been within speaking distance of him in twenty-two years. Between the fact that no one can prove that I have had anything to do with him and the improbability that anyone would suspect me of interest in any other man, let alone misconduct with any other man, I feel entirely secure."

Lutorius wagged his head.

"You are accused of misconduct with another man," he said.

"Absurd!" said Brinnaria, "easy to confute. Who is the man?"

"Not so easy to confute, I fear," said Lutorius. "The man named is Quintus Istorius Vocco."

"Whew!" cried Brinnaria, springing to her feet and snapping her fingers.

"That is ingenious! That will give me trouble! I didn't credit Calvaster with that much sense. I never thought of anyone looking askance at my relations with Quintus. I've never taken any precautions as to when I was with him or how long or where. I've treated him as an honorary brother, seeing I have no brothers of my own left alive. Flexinna has been such a sister to me, that we have disregarded Quintus almost as if he were a slave or a statue or a picture on the wall or another woman.

Whew!"

"You perceive," said Lutorius, "that the situation, in general, is very serious?"

"I do, indeed!" admitted Brinnaria.

"Serious as it is in general," he went on, "it is still more serious in particular. Your excursion to Aricia was by no means as much a secret as you have all along supposed. I, for instance, knew of it before you confessed it to me."

"How was that?" Brinnaria inquired.

"Numisia," he explained, "saw you go out in Flexinna's clothes and recognized you. She entered your room and talked with Flexinna. She summoned me and we conferred. We both loved you and we both believed in you. We were solicitous for the cult, but we were nearly as much solicitous for you. We agreed that we were almost fully warranted in a.s.suming your entire innocence of heart and that your impulsive behavior would not alienate the good will of the G.o.ddess. We decided to take it upon ourselves to judge you blameless and to shield you. Utta was instructed never to let you know that Numisia had seen Flexinna; Flexinna, of course, fell in with our plans. Numisia made every arrangement that would prevent any more from learning the secret and would make your return easy.

"After you came back safe our decision seemed justified. I talked with Vocco and learned that nothing had occurred to render your exposure likely, except your encounter with Calvaster. As we heard nothing from Calvaster we felt entirely successful. It turns out that he was only biding his time. He has formally accused you before the College of Pontiffs, alleging in general your long-continued familiarity with Vocco, and, in particular, your having been outside of Rome after midnight in Vocco's company."

"Whew," Brinnaria exclaimed, "this is indeed serious! I feel myself strangling or starving in a vaulted cell. What am I to do?"

"See Commodus first of all," said Lutorius.

In the short interval since her former audience, those traits of which he had previously shown the merest traces had rapidly developed in Commodus into fixed characteristics. He had become what he remained until his end, an odd mingling of loutish, peevish school-boy, easy-going, self-indulgent athlete and superst.i.tious, suspicious despot.

"To begin with," he said, "I want you to understand that I like you, that I haven't forgotten that you rescued the retiarius, whopped Bambilio and behaved like a trump when Father tested you. I'm for you.