A Struggle For Rome Volume Ii Part 54

He saw Cethegus the Prefect, who stood close to the statue of the Apostle, and appeared to be leaning against it. In front of him stood a second form, that of a slender woman, upon whose auburn hair fell the glittering light of the lantern.

"The lovely Queen of the Goths, by Eros and Anteros!" said the spy to himself. "No disagreeable meeting, be it for love or politics! Hark!

she speaks. What a pity that I came too late to hear the beginning of the conversation!"

"Therefore, mark well," he heard the Queen say, "the day after to-morrow some great danger is planned to take place on the road before the Tiburtinian Gate."

"Good; but what!" asked the voice of the Prefect.

"I could learn nothing more exactly. And I can communicate nothing more to you, even if I should hear anything. I dare not meet you here again, for----"

She now spoke in a lower tone.

Perseus pressed his ear hard against the c.h.i.n.k; his sword rattled against the stone, and immediately a ray of the lantern fell upon him.

"Hark!" cried a third voice--it was a female voice, that of the bearer of the lantern, who now showed herself in its rays as she quickly turned in the direction of the wall where stood the spy.

Perseus recognised a slave in Moorish costume.

For one moment all in the temple were silent.

Perseus held his breath. He felt that his life was at stake. For Cethegus grasped his sword.

"All is quiet," said the slave; "it must have been a stone falling on the iron-work outside."

"I can also go no more into the grave outside the Portuensian Gate. I fear that we have been followed."

"By whom?"

"By one who, as it seems, never sleeps--Earl Teja."

The Prefect's lips twitched.

"And he is also one of a secret company who have sworn an oath against the life of Belisarius; the attack on the Gate of St. Paul will be only a feint."

"'Tis well," said Cethegus reflectively.

"Belisarius could never escape, if he were not warned," continued the Queen. "They lie somewhere, I fear--but I do not know where--in ambush.

They have a superior force, Earl Totila commands them."

"I will take care to warn him!" said Cethegus slowly.

"If the plan should succeed!"

"Be not anxious. Queen. Rome is not less dear to me than to you. And if the next a.s.sault fail--they must renounce the siege, be they never so tough. And this Queen, is your doing. Let me this night--perhaps the last on which we meet--reveal to you my wonder and admiration. Cethegus does not easily admire, and where he must, he does not easily confess it. But--I admire you, Queen! With what death-despising temerity, with what demoniac cunning you have frustrated all the plots of the barbarians! Truly, Belisarius has done much--Cethegus more--but Mataswintha most."

"Would that you spoke truth!" said Mataswintha with sparkling eyes.

"And if the crown falls from the head of this culprit----"

"It is _your_ hand which has decided the fate of Rome. But, Queen, you cannot be satisfied with this alone. I have learned to know you these last few months--you must not be taken, a conquered Gothic Queen, to Byzantium. Such beauty, such a mind, such force of will must rule, and not serve, in Byzantium. Therefore reflect--when your tyrant is overthrown--will you not then follow the course which I have pointed out to you?"

"I have never yet thought of what will follow," she answered gloomily.

"But I have thought for you. Truly, Mataswintha"--and his eyes rested upon her with fervent admiration--"you are marvellously beautiful. I consider it as my greatest merit that even your beauty is not able to kindle my pa.s.sions and seduce me from my plans. But you are too beautiful, too charming, to live alone for hatred and revenge. When our aim is reached, then to Byzantium! You will then be more than Empress--you will be the vanquisher of the Empress!"

"When my aim is reached, my life is completed. Do you think I could bear the thought of having destroyed my people for mere ambition, for prudent ends? No--I did it only because I could no other. Revenge is now all to me, and----"

Just then there sounded loud and shrill from the front of the building, but yet within the walls, the cry of the screech-owl; once--twice--in rapid succession.

How amazed was Perseus to see the Prefect hurriedly press his finger upon the throat of the statue against which he was leaning, and to see it immediately and noiselessly divide into two parts.

Cethegus slipped, into the opening, which slowly closed again.

Mataswintha and Aspa sank upon the steps of the altar, as if in prayer.

"So it was a signal! Danger is near," thought the spy. "But where is the danger? and where the warner?"

And he turned and stepped from beneath the wall, looking to the left, on which side the Gothic camp was situated.

But in doing so he stepped into the moonlight, and in sight of Syphax, the Moor, who stood in an empty niche before the entrance of the building, and who, until now, had also been looking sharply in the direction of the camp.

From thence a man walked slowly forward.

His battle-axe glittered in the moonlight.

But Perseus saw a second weapon flash; it was the sword of the Moor, as he softly drew it from its sheath.

"Ha!" laughed Perseus; "before those two have done with each other, I shall be in Rome with my secret."

And he ran towards the gap in the wall of the court by which he had entered.

For a moment Syphax looked doubtfully to right and left. To the right he saw a man escaping, whom he had only now discovered; to the left a Gothic warrior, who was just entering the court of the temple. It was impossible to reach and kill both.

He suddenly called aloud:

"Teja, Earl Teja! Help, help! A Roman! Save the Queen! There, near the wall on the right--a Roman!"

In a moment Teja stood at Syphax's side.

"There!" cried Syphax. "I will protect the women in the church!" and he rushed into the temple.

"Stand, Roman!" cried Teja, and rushed after Perseus.

But Perseus would not stand. He ran along the wall; he reached the gap, but in his hurry he could not force himself through. With the strength of despair he swung himself up upon the wall, and was already drawing up his feet to jump down on the other side, when Teja cast his battle-axe, and struck him on the head.

Perseus, together with his secret, fell back dead.

Teja bent over him; he could distinctly see the features of the dead man.

"The Archon Perseus," he said, "the brother of Johannes."