The Legendary and Poetical Remains of John Roby Part 46

The dumb sentinel again took charge of him, and led him away by many intricate pa.s.sages towards the entrance, where it seems the goldsmith had directed him on presenting the signet of Caracalla. The person who took charge of him was a dumb eunuch, a slave in the service of the empress.

But the terrors of death were upon the wretched victim. He knew the centurion would a.s.suredly be at hand to receive his report, and he could not escape. He had not brought back one word of intelligence; and, being blindfolded, he knew not whither he had been taken. The writing he carried would a.s.suredly be unintelligible, save to those for whom it was intended. His mission, he could perceive, had utterly failed. The centurion would not be able to profit by any thing he had brought back, and must, inevitably, according to his pledge, at once render him up to the soothsayer. Whilst ruminating on his hard fate, a sudden thought crossed him. There was little probability of success; but, at all events, it might operate as a diversion in his favour, and the design was immediately executed. Skulking for a moment behind the slave, he tore off the bandage, and tripped up the heels of his conductor. Before the latter could recover himself, the Briton's gripe was on his throat.

"Now, slave, thou art my prisoner! Lead on, or, by this good sword, thou diest!"

The torch he carried was, luckily, not extinguished in the fall. The eunuch, almost choaking, made a sign that he would obey. With the drawn blade at his throat, the slave went on; but Cedric, ever wary, and with that almost instinctive sagacity peculiar to man in his half-civilised state, kept a tiger-like watch on every movement of his prisoner, which enabled him to detect the fingers of the slave suddenly raised to his lips, and a shrill whistle would have consigned him over to certain and immediate destruction; but he struck down the uplifted hand with a blow which made his treacherous conductor crouch and cringe almost to the ground.

"Another attempt," said Cedric, "and we perish together!"

The wily slave looked all penitence and submission. Silently proceeding, apparently through the underground avenues of the palace, Cedric was momentarily expecting his arrival at the place where the centurion kept watch. A flight of steps now brought them to a s.p.a.cious landing-place.

Suddenly a lamp was visible, and beneath it sat a number of soldiers, the emperor's body-guard. They gave way as the eunuch pa.s.sed by, followed by Cedric, his sword still drawn. Several of these groups were successively cleared: the guide, by a countersign, was enabled to thread his way through every obstacle that presented itself. The Briton's heart misgave him as they approached a vestibule, before which a phalanx of the guards kept watch. Here he thought it prudent to sheath his weapon, though he still followed the eunuch, as his only remaining chance of escape. Even here they were instantly admitted, and without any apparent hesitation. The door turned slowly on its pivot, and Cedric found himself in a richly decorated chamber, where, by the light of a single lamp, and with the smell of perfumed vapour in his nostrils, he saw a figure in costly vestments reclining on a couch. The slave prostrated himself.

"What brings thee from thy mistress at this untimely hour? A message from the empress?"

Here the speaker raised himself from the couch, and the slave, with great vehemence, made certain signs, which the wondering Briton understood not.

"Ah!" said the emperor, his eyes directly levelled at the supposed culprit; "thou hast found the thief who, in the confusion of yesternight, bore away the magic cup. Bring him hither, that I may question him ere his carcase be sent to the beasts."

The doomed wretch was now fairly in the paws of the very tyrant he had so long dreaded. The death, which by every stratagem he had striven to avoid, was now inevitable. He was betrayed by means of the very device he had, as he thought, so craftily adopted; but still his natural sagacity did not forsake him, even in this unexpected emergency. As he prostrated himself, presenting the cup he had stowed away safely in his cloak, he still kept a wary eye on the slave who had betrayed him. He saw him preparing to depart; and, knowing that his only hope of deliverance lay in preventing his guide from giving warning to the conspirators they had just left, Cedric, with a sudden spring, leaped upon him like a tiger, even in presence of the monarch.

The latter, astounded at this unexpected act of temerity, was for a few moments inactive. This pause was too precious to be lost. Desperation gave him courage, and Cedric addressed the dread ruler of the world even whilst he clutched the gasping traitor.

"Here, great monarch, here is the traitor; and if I prove him not false, on my head be the recompense!"

He said this in a tone of such earnestness and anxiety that the emperor was suddenly diverted from his purpose of summoning his attendants. He saw the favourite slave of the empress writhing in the gripe of the barbarian; but the events of the last few hours had awakened suspicions which the lightest accusations might confirm. He remembered his son's guilt, the facility of his escape; and it might be that treason stood on the very threshold, ready to strike. He determined to sift the matter; and, the guard now summoned, the parties were separated,--each awaiting the fiat of the monarch.

"Where is Virius Lupus?" was the emperor's first inquiry.

"He hath not returned from the apartments of the empress."

"Let this slave be bound," cried Cedric. "Force him to conduct you even to the place whence, blindfold, he hath just led me; and if you find not a nest of traitors, my own head shall be the forfeit."

Dark and fearful was the flash that shot from the emperor's eye on the devoted eunuch. Pale and trembling he fell on his knees, supplicating, with uplifted hands, for mercy. He knew it was vain to dissemble.

"And what wert thou doing in such perilous company?" inquired the emperor, turning to Cedric, and in a voice which made him shrink.

"Let the centurion, Diogenes Verecundus, be sought out. He waits my return by the Forum Gate. To him the city owes a discovery of this plot, and Rome her monarch!"

The faithful centurion was soon found. The eunuch conducted them secretly to the vault. The conspirators were seized in the very height of their antic.i.p.ated success. The roll containing the names of the leaders, the plan of attack, and the disposition of the rebellious troops, was discovered; and the morning sun darted a fearful ray on the ghastly and bleeding heads uplifted on the walls and battlements of the imperial palace.

But with misplaced clemency the monster Caracalla was again pardoned.

The centurion Diogenes Verecundus was raised to the dignity of s.e.xumvir.

The only reward claimed by the generous and st.u.r.dy Briton was an act of immunity for his master, who was merely dismissed from his post and banished the kingdom.

FOOTNOTES:

[N] Aldborough.

[O] Lubinus in Juven. p. 294.

APPENDIX.

One morning, during Mr. Roby's stay at Keswick, in September 1849, it was reported that the floating island in the lake was making its appearance. He immediately took a boat, and we hastened with a friend to the spot. The island was plainly to be seen at a short distance below the surface of the water, nearly approaching it in some parts, in others gradually retreating beyond our sight. It was easily touched with a stick, and appeared covered with vegetation. We grappled up with the boat-hook, and brought away, as a memento of our visit, a specimen of the _Isoetes Lacustris_ (European quill-wort), a plant which grows abundantly at the bottom of the lakes in this district. The boatmen rowed carefully about, afraid of pa.s.sing over the island, lest the boat should run aground. It gave a strange feeling thus to find land coming up where, a few days before, we had floated in deep water. It did not rise any higher, but, after continuing for a day or two in the state just described, sank gradually to its old position at the bottom of the lake. The last time it was visible, some years since, it rose above the surface.

It lies at some distance from the sh.o.r.e on the Barrow side of the lake, between the Barrow landing and Lodore. It was near the former spot that we gathered the _Circaea Alpina_ (Alpine Enchanter's Nightshade) in fruit, growing side by side with the _Silene Maritima_ (Sea Campion).

The botanical reader will, perhaps, feel an interest in the notice of two or three other localities of the rarer plants. In the same direction, high up among the rocks, near Ashness Gill, Mr. Roby found the _Oxyria reniformis_ (Kidney-shaped Mountain-sorrel.) The _Salix Herbacaea_ (Least Willow), the smallest of British trees, and _Lycopodium Alpinum_ (Savin-leaved Club-moss), on Skiddaw, their well known habitat; the latter plant also, with the _Alchemilla Alpina_ (Alpine Lady's-mantle), its silvery leaves glistening in the sun, on the mountain-side opposite Honister Crag. In the wild and shady nooks of Borrowdale, the _Polypodium Phegopteris_ (Pale Mountain-polypody) and the _P. Dryopteris_ (Tender Three-branched Polypody), growing in charming profusion. And on Dunmail Raise, and on the precipitous descent of the Stake between Langdale Pikes and Bowfell, the golden stars of the _Saxifriga Azoides_ (Yellow Mountain-saxifrage) were still sparkling, where a little moisture allowed them to flourish.

THE END.