Saul Of Tarsus Part 51

Agrippa and Caligula had moved from their position and were there, with a notary taking down the terms of a wager.

Apart from them stood a small but important man, frowning over a waxen tablet which a slave had cringingly handed him.

Tiberius looked at him, then at Agrippa. His brows lowered more, this time with irritation. It seemed that action had been formulated by circ.u.mstance and that the emperor was not to avoid a tiresome prosecution.

He put out his hand as the bearers bore him by and it touched the Roman on the shoulder. The man turned on his heel, but seeing who was near bowed profoundly. If he meant to speak to the emperor he was not given opportunity.

"Bind that man, Macro," Caesar said, nodding at Agrippa.

The lectica moved on. As it pa.s.sed up the opposite side Macro crossed to it and, puzzled and disturbed, bowed again.

"Caesar's pardon, but whom am I to bind?" he questioned.

"That man," Tiberius replied irritably, pointing to the Herod.

"Agrippa!" the astonished prefect exclaimed.

"I have said."

The lectica went on, up and around the curve of the ellipse, and back again to the cunicula. The few within the walls of the Hippodrome had gathered there in an interested and excited group. In the center stood Agrippa with manacles on his wrists and ankles. The charm and sparkle in his atmosphere were gone; even as Tiberius looked, he saw the cold, evil, vengeful countenance of the Asmonean Slave, the Terror of the Orient, Herod the Great, appear, like a face putting off a mask, behind the graceful features of his grandson. Tiberius was grimly satisfied; he felt the first interest in the arrest; he was always by choice a preferrer of n.o.ble game.

On either side of the prisoner stood a Roman soldier; aloof and pa.s.sive was Macro, but the earth had apparently opened and swallowed Caligula.

As the lectica approached, the crowd gave way and his captors permitted Agrippa to come nearer the emperor.

"At Caesar's command, I am arrested," he said evenly. "Will Caesar grant me the prisoner's privilege and tell me why?"

"Thy charioteer hath spoken, Agrippa," was the response. "The slave swears that on such and such a day he drove thee and Caligula to this place. Instead of horses you talked of kings, instead of bets, the succession. And thou madest moan that I was not dead so that Caligula could reign in my place!"

The jaws of many round about relaxed in horror. Agrippa's muscles made an involuntary start, but his face retained its calm. But the emperor caught the start.

"Forgot that unctuous bit of t.i.ttle-tattle when thou didst make Antonia bearer of thy boasts, eh?" he piped.

"My words have been distorted," Agrippa spoke, though he seemed to hate himself for offering a defense.

"Ah-r-r! Wilt thou snivel and deny?" Tiberius snarled.

The prince's manacled hands clenched and a glimmer of hate showed in his eyes. Caesar nodded; that was better.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The prince's manacled hands clenched]

"Agrippa, the king-maker!" he went on, "late mendicant from Judea; heir presumptive to the ax! Eh? Take him away! Macro, come thou to the palace to-night, and I'll deliver sentence!"

The gilded lectica moved on.

Twenty minutes later, Marsyas, white to the lips, his eyes enlarged and dangerous, sprang from a clump of myrtle by the roadside, after the litter had pa.s.sed up toward Tusculum and, thrusting a hand into Junia's chair, seized her arm.

"See that Tiberius forgets his audience with Macro to-night," he said to her. "See that he yearns after Capri, and returns to-morrow--or thou bringest upon me the pain of killing."

Terrified for the first time in her life, Junia shrank under the crus.h.i.+ng grip.

"Him or me!" she told herself. "I promise!" she whispered to Marsyas.

"But acquit me of blame. What could I do?"

"I have shown thee, now!" he said intensely, and was gone.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE ARM MADE BARE

Lydia went up on the housetop into the shade of the pavilion with the writing her father had put into her hand, and drawing the hangings on the east side of the pavilion to shut out the morning sun, sat down to read how Marsyas had revealed the evil tidings to the alabarch.

It was the first moment of rest she had had since the messenger had arrived at daybreak with the letter which had flung Cypros into paroxysms of suffering and desperation. Now that the unhappy princess had yielded to the benign influence of a narcotic simple, Lydia had time for her own thoughts.

It was not the same Lydia that had danced on the Temple of Rannu.

Spiritual change as infallibly marks the countenance as physical change. The last of the half-skeptical, half-philosophical tolerant equanimity was gone from her face; the self-reliance had been transformed into a look of faith and believing, and a certain tranquillity, no less sweet and unshaken because it was sorrowful, no less patient because its hope was faint, made her forehead placid.

She read:

ROME, Kal. Jul. X, 790.

"TO THE MOST EXCELLENT ALABARCH, ALEXANDER LYSIMACHUS, GOVERNOR OF THE JEWS OF ALEXANDRIA, GREETING:

"It is my grief to inform thee that at the command of Caesar, my lord and patron, Herod Agrippa, hath been confined in the Praetorian Camp awaiting sentence for utterances p.r.o.nounced treasonous to Caesar.

"Immediately after the prince's arrest, one of the ladies of Caesar's train was stricken by an illness, resulting from the malarious airs of the Campagna, and the emperor ordered the immediate return to Capri.

"Inquiry among the emperor's ministers discloses the fact that he left no explicit instructions concerning the execution of a sentence upon Agrippa. It is noted in Rome that, owing to the multiplicity of his duties and the weariness of his mind, the emperor forgets readily, and is not pleased to be reminded of that which he hath forgotten to perform. Wherefore, if it please G.o.d to erase Agrippa from his mind, it shall be seen to, here in Rome, that no one recall the unfortunate prince to Caesar's attention.

"Canva.s.s among the fellows of Agrippa conducted by certain powers in the state reveals that the movement against the prince did not have its inception in Rome; however, many were not unwilling to have it come to pa.s.s because of the prince's aggressive political preferences. But now that he is at the edge of ruin, the insignificant activity in the capital hath fallen inert; those who contributed to it are alarmed, for the accomplishment of Agrippa's death will inevitably revert upon the heads of them who endangered him, should Caius Caligula be crowned.

"The movement against the prince, consummated by the charioteer Eutychus, had its inception, as I have said, not in Rome. The man stole of his master's wardrobe and ran away. When he was apprehended he claimed that he had information against Agrippa which concerned the life and welfare of Caesar. Piso, city prefect, bound the man and sent him to Tusculum, where, by the solicitations of Antonia, who was commanded by Agrippa, the emperor heard the charioteer's charge.

"Thou and I know, good my lord, that Eutychus is too clumsy a villain, too much of a coward, to invent and push this bold work himself, without support. Wherefore, I and others are convinced that he must have been inspired and aided by some secret and shrewd enemy outside of Rome. If the proconsul of Egypt is not yet informed of this disaster, do not trouble him with the information!

"It may a.s.sist thee to know that Eutychus, given ten stripes as earnest of Caesar's respect for him, and turned loose, eluded mine and Caligula's vengeance and immediately took s.h.i.+p for Alexandria. Expect him in the Brucheum.

"Know this, also. If Caesar forget and Agrippa live on, this enemy will grow restive and bestir himself again, wherefore it is the duty of them who love the prince to watch for any coiling which prepares for the stroke.

"For thine own comfort and for the comfort of his unhappy princess, I add here, though in peril to the prince's benefactor and to myself, that Agrippa's prison discomforts are alleviated, and kind usage secured him by the generous distribution of gold among them who surround him. It is not a difficult matter to secure him comparative comfort.

"Silas and I daily come to him with fresh clothing, and abundant food: he hath his own bedding and his daily bath. Through the influence of the praetorian prefect, obtained at great price by Antonia, none is permitted to p.r.o.nounce Agrippa's name outside the camp, on pain of extreme punishment--a clever pretense at abhorring a traitor which aims only at his defense.

"Thy part is to quiet, within thy powers, any work in Alexandria which may lead to Caesar's remembering Agrippa.