The Legendary and Poetical Remains of John Roby Part 42

Ere long, there came a footstep,--and a gentle summons at the door. The bird gave the usual response; and straightway entered a stout muscular figure, wrapped in a _chlamys_, fastened on the shoulder with a richly-embossed _fibula_. Beneath, was the usual light leathern cuira.s.s, covered with scales of s.h.i.+ning metal; the centre, over the abdomen, ornamented with a gorgon's head, and other warlike devices; a short sword, being stuck in his girdle. From the lowest part hung leathern straps, or _lambrequins_ highly wrought and embellished. He wore breeches or drawers, reaching to the knees, and his feet and the lower part of the leg were covered with the _cothurnus_, a sort of traveller's half-boot. A sumptuous mantle, made of leopard skin, was thrown carelessly about his head, hardly concealing his features; for the folds relaxing in some measure as he entered, showed a youthful countenance; yet dark and ferocious, indicating a character of daring and vindictive energy; and a disposition where forgiveness or remorse rarely tempered the fiercer pa.s.sions. As he looked round, the raven raised his head on a sudden, and peering at him with that curious and familiar eye, so characteristic of the tribe, gave a loud and hollow croak, which again arrested the notice of the intruder.

"Most auspicious welcome truly, ill omened bird. Is thy master visible?"

There was no reply; and the inquirer, after a cautious glance round the chamber, sat down, evidently disconcerted by this unexpected reception.

Scarcely seated, he felt the clasp on his shoulder suddenly risen, as though by an intruder from behind. Looking round, he saw the raven with the bauble in his beak, hopping off with great alacrity to his perch.

The magpie set up a loud scream as though vexed he was not a partic.i.p.ator in the spoil. The owner, angry at his loss, pursued the thief, who defied every attempt to regain it; getting far above his reach; ever and anon the same ominous croak sounding dismally through the gloom by which he was concealed. Finding it fruitless, the stranger gave up the pursuit, and again sat down, examining carelessly the papers which lay open for perusal. But it might seem these feathered guardians were entrusted with the care of their master's chamber during his absence.

"Beware!" said the same querulous voice, that before accosted him.

Looking up, he saw the magpie, his neck stretched to the utmost through the bars of his cage, and in the act of repeating the injunction.

"'Tis an ill augur to my suit," he muttered hastily. "Destiny!" Starting up at the word, which he spake aloud, he clenched his hand.

"The inexorable G.o.ds may decree, but would it not be worthy of my purpose to brave them; to render even fate itself subservient to me!"

He hurried to and fro across the chamber with an agitated step. Suddenly he stood still, in the att.i.tude of listening. He drew the folds of his mantle closer about his head, when by another entrance, there approached a tall majestic figure, clad in dark vestments, who without speaking, came near and stood before him. A veil of rich net-work fell gracefully below his mantle, being in that era, the distinctive garb of soothsayers and diviners. His hair, for he was an Asiatic, was twisted in the shape of a mitre, investing his form with every advantage from outward appearances.

"I would know," said he, "by what right thou art at this untimely hour, an intruder on my privacy?"

"By a will, which even thou darest not disobey," was the answer.

"It is past midnight. Knowest thou of my long watching, and the dark portents of the stars?"

"Nay! But pa.s.sing, I saw the door of the vestibule partly open. The fates were propitious. I crossed the court, intending to consult the most famous soothsayer in the emperor's dominions."

"Peradventure 'tis no accidental meeting. To-night I have read the stars, the book of heaven. Comest thou not, blind mortal at their bidding?"

"I have neither skill nor knowledge in the art----,"

The stranger hesitated, as though he had as lief the conversation was resumed by the diviner himself.

"Thy father. What of him?" said the Chaldean, with a look, as though he had penetrated his inmost thoughts.

"True, 'tis mine errand," said the intruder. "But the event?"

"The augury is not complete!"

"Thine auguries are like my good fortune,--long in compa.s.sing. The best augur I trow, is this good steel. I would sooner trust it than the best thou canst bestow."

"Rash mortal. Impatience will be thy destruction.--Listen!"

The raven hopped down upon his shoulder. A low guttural sound appeared to come from this ill-omened bird. The augur bent his ear. Sounds shaped themselves into something like articulation, and the following couplet was distinctly heard:--

"While the eagle is in his nest, the eaglet shall not prevail, Nor shall the eagle be smitten in his eyrie."

"Azor," said the warrior, clenching his sword, "these three times hast thou mocked me, and by the immortal G.o.ds thou diest!"

"Impious one! I could strike thee powerless as the dust thou treadest on. Give me the bauble," said he, addressing the raven. The bird immediately gave the clasp he had purloined into his master's hand.

"This shall witness between us," continued he. "Dare to lift thy hand, the very palace shall bear testimony to thy treason--that thou hast sought me for purposes too horrible even for thy tongue to utter. Hence.

When least expected I may meet thee. If it had not been for thy mother's sake, and for my vow, the emperor ere this had been privy to it."

Stung with rage and disappointment, he put back his weapon, and with threats and imprecations departed.

On a couch inlaid with ivory and pearl, within a vaulted chamber in the Praetorian Palace of the royal city, lay the emperor, in a coverlid of rich stuff. Disease had crushed his body, but the indomitable spirit was unquenched. Tossing and disturbed, at length he started from his bed.

Calling to his chamberlain, he demanded if there had not been footsteps in the apartment. The ruler of the world, whose nod could shake the nations, and whose word was the arbiter of life or death to millions of his fellow-men, lay here--startled at the pa.s.sing of a sound, the falling of a shadow! His face, whose chief characteristic was power,--that strength and determination of spirit which all acknowledge, and but few comprehend--was furrowed with deeper marks than care had wrought. Sixty years had moulded the steady and inflexible purpose of his soul in lines too palpable to be misunderstood. His beard was short and grizzled; and a swarthy hue, betraying his African birth, was now become sallow, and even sickly in the extreme; but an eagle eye still beamed in all its fierceness and rapacity from under his scanty brows. His nose was not of the Roman sort, like the beak of that royal bird, but thick and even clumsy, lacking that sharp and predacious intellect generally a.s.sociated with forms of this description.

Such was Septimus Severus, then styled on a coin just struck, "BRITANNICVS MAXIMVS," in commemoration of a great victory gained over the Caledonians, whom he had driven beyond Adrian's wall. Though suffering from severe illness, he was carried in a horse-litter; and, marching from York at the head of his troops, penetrated almost to the extremity of the island, where he subdued that fierce and intractable nation the Scots. Returning, he left his son Caracalla to superintend the building of a stone wall across the island, in place of the earthen ramparts called Adrian's;--a structure, when completed, that effectually resisted the inroads of those barbarians for a considerable period.

He called a third time to Virius Lupus, one, the most confidential of his attendants, to whom many of the most important secrets of the state were entrusted.

"Thrice have I heard it Virius. Again, and again, it seems to mock and elude my grasp." He paused: the officer yet listening with becoming reverence. The Emperor continued, more like one whose thoughts had taken utterance, than as if he were addressing the individual before him.

"When I led the Pannonian legions to victory; when Rome opened her gates at my command; when I fought my way through blood to the throne,--I quailed not then! Now,--satiated with power, careless of fame, the prospects of life closed, and for ever,--when all that is left for me to do is to die,--behold, I tremble at the shaking of a leaf! I start, even at the footstep that awakes me!"

"Long live the Emperor!" said the cringing secretary. Interrupting him, as he would have proceeded with the customary adulations, the emperor again continued as though hardly noticing his presence.

"Caracalla yet remains with the army. Once I censured the misguided clemency of Marcus, who, by an act of justice might have prevented the miseries that his son Caligula brought upon the empire; and yet I, even I," said the haughty monarch, bitterly, "nourish the very weakness that in others I despise!"

He dashed away the sweat from his brow, ashamed of the weakness he could not quell.

"He hath sought your life," said the wily sycophant.

"He hath!--Traitor! parricide! the distinctions he would have earned.

But my better genius triumphed, and history hath been spared this infamy. It may be, this temporary exile from our court, with the northern army, shall tame his spirit to submission. My life or his, once the bitter alternative, may yet be avoided."

"But may not his presence with the army be impolitic, should he turn the weapon wherewith you have girded him to your own hurt?"

"'Tis an evil choice; whichever way I turn, mischief is before me."

"Were it not best that he be recalled?"

"What! to plot and practise against my life? To mount upon my reeking body to the throne! He will not reign with Geta. The proud boy disdains a divided empire.--And was not mine own soul fas.h.i.+oned in the same mould? When Niger would have ruled in Syria, and Albinus in Britain, I scattered their legions to the winds, and levelled their hopes with their pride. 'Tis nature: and shall I, the author of his being, punish him for mine own gift?"

He raised himself on his couch. The fierce blaze of ambition broke the dark cloud of bodily infirmities, and the monarch and the tyrant again dilated his almost savage features.

The secretary, used to these fiery moods, stood awaiting his commands.

The emperor, as though exhausted, sunk down on his pillow, exclaiming,--

"I have governed the world, but I cannot govern a wayward heart!"

Thus did he often lament, and provoke himself the more with these vain regrets; forgetting that, if he had exercised the same firmness in his private as public capacity, the government of his own house would have been easy as the government of the world.

"Virius Lupus there is danger,--and to-night. As I have told thee, the stars do betoken mischief. But the peril is at my threshold. Let Caracalla remain; so shall we avert his weapon. Should the a.s.sa.s.sin come, it will not be with the blow of a parricide. Thou mayst retire to thy couch, but, first, let the guards be doubled, the watchword and countersign changed. And, hark thee, tell the tribune that he look well to the _tessera_, and have the right count from the inspectors. Should despatches come from Rome, let the messenger have immediate audience."

Again the emperor stretched himself on the couch, and again his slumbers were interrupted. A murmur was heard along the halls and pa.s.sages where the guards were stationed. The noise grew louder, approaching the very door of the royal chamber. The monarch started, as from a dream, and the door at that moment opened. The Chaldaean soothsayer stood before him.

"Azor!" said the Emperor, "at this hour? What betides such unseemly greeting?"

"Caesar trembles on his throne; but the world quakes not! The angel of death is at thy door. Caracalla hath returned."