The Last Days of Pompeii Page 10

  Chapter II

  TWO WORTHIES.

  IN the earlier times of Rome the priesthood was a profession, not oflucre but of honour. It was embraced by the noblest citizens--it wasforbidden to the plebeians. Afterwards, and long previous to thepresent date, it was equally open to all ranks; at least, that part ofthe profession which embraced the flamens, or priests--not of religiongenerally but of peculiar gods. Even the priest of Jupiter (the FlamenDialis) preceded by a lictor, and entitled by his office to the entranceof the senate, at first the especial dignitary of the patricians, wassubsequently the choice of the people. The less national and lesshonored deities were usually served by plebeian ministers; and manyembraced the profession, as now the Roman Catholic Christians enter themonastic fraternity, less from the impulse of devotion than thesuggestions of a calculating poverty. Thus Calenus, the priest of Isis,was of the lowest origin. His relations, though not his parents, werefreedmen. He had received from them a liberal education, and from hisfather a small patrimony, which he had soon exhausted. He embraced thepriesthood as a last resource from distress. Whatever the stateemoluments of the sacred profession, which at that time were probablysmall, the officers of a popular temple could never complain of theprofits of their calling. There is no profession so lucrative as thatwhich practises on the superstition of the multitude.

  Calenus had but one surviving relative at Pompeii, and that was Burbo.Various dark and disreputable ties, stronger than those of blood, unitedtogether their hearts and interests; and often the minister of Isisstole disguised and furtively from the supposed austerity of hisdevotions; and gliding through the back door of the retired gladiator, aman infamous alike by vices and by profession, rejoiced to throw off thelast rag of an hypocrisy which, but for the dictates of avarice, hisruling passion, would at all time have sat clumsily upon a nature toobrutal for even the mimicry of virtue.

  Wrapped in one of those large mantles which came in use among the Romansin proportion as they dismissed the toga, whose ample folds wellconcealed the form, and in which a sort of hood (attached to it)afforded no less a security to the features, Calenus now sat in thesmall and private chamber of the wine-cellar, whence a small passage ranat once to that back entrance, with which nearly all the houses ofPompeii were furnished.

  Opposite to him sat the sturdy Burbo, carefully counting on a tablebetween them a little pile of coins which the priest had just pouredfrom his purse--for purses were as common then as now, with thisdifference--they were usually better furnished!

  'You see,' said Calenus, that we pay you handsomely, and you ought tothank me for recommending you to so advantageous a market.'

  'I do, my cousin, I do,' replied Burbo, affectionately, as he swept thecoins into a leathern receptacle, which he then deposited in his girdle,drawing the buckle round his capacious waist more closely than he waswont to do in the lax hours of his domestic avocations. 'And by Isis,Pisis, and Nisis, or whatever other gods there may be in Egypt, mylittle Nydia is a very Hesperides--a garden of gold to me.'

  'She sings well, and plays like a muse,' returned Calenus; 'those arevirtues that he who employs me always pays liberally.'

  'He is a god,' cried Burbo, enthusiastically; 'every rich man who isgenerous deserves to be worshipped. But come, a cup of wine, oldfriend: tell me more about it. What does she do? she is frightened,talks of her oath, and reveals nothing.'

  'Nor will I, by my right hand! I, too, have taken that terrible oath ofsecrecy.'

  'Oath! what are oaths to men like us?'

  'True oaths of a common fashion; but this!'--and the stalwart priestshuddered as he spoke. 'Yet,' he continued, in emptying a huge cup ofunmixed wine, 'I own to thee, that it is not so much the oath that Idread as the vengeance of him who proposed it. By the gods! he is amighty sorcerer, and could draw my confession from the moon, did I dareto make it to her. Talk no more of this. By Pollux! wild as thosebanquets are which I enjoy with him, I am never quite at my ease there.I love, my boy, one jolly hour with thee, and one of the plain,unsophisticated, laughing girls that I meet in this chamber, allsmoke-dried though it be, better than whole nights of those magnificentdebauches.'

  'Ho! sayest thou so! To-morrow night, please the gods, we will havethen a snug carousal.'

  'With all my heart,' said the priest, rubbing his hands, and drawinghimself nearer to the table.

  At this moment they heard a slight noise at the door, as of one feelingthe handle. The priest lowered the hood over his head.

  'Tush!' whispered the host, 'it is but the blind girl,' as Nydia openedthe door, and entered the apartment.

  'Ho! girl, and how durst thou? thou lookest pale--thou hast kept laterevels? No matter, the young must be always the young,' said Burbo,encouragingly.

  The girl made no answer, but she dropped on one of the seats with an airof lassitude. Her color went and came rapidly: she beat the floorimpatiently with her small feet, then she suddenly raised her face, andsaid with a determined voice:

  'Master, you may starve me if you will--you may beat me--you maythreaten me with death--but I will go no more to that unholy place!'

  'How, fool!' said Burbo, in a savage voice, and his heavy brows metdarkly over his fierce and bloodshot eyes; 'how, rebellious! Take care.'

  'I have said it,' said the poor girl, crossing her hands on her breast.

  'What! my modest one, sweet vestal, thou wilt go no more! Very well,thou shalt be carried.'

  'I will raise the city with my cries,' said she, passionately; and thecolor mounted to her brow.

  'We will take care of that too; thou shalt go gagged.'

  'Then may the gods help me!' said Nydia, rising; 'I will appeal to themagistrates.'

  'Thine oath remember!' said a hollow voice, as for the first timeCalenus joined in the dialogue.

  At these words a trembling shook the frame of the unfortunate girl; sheclasped her hands imploringly. 'Wretch that I am!' she cried, and burstviolently into sobs.

  Whether or not it was the sound of that vehement sorrow which broughtthe gentle Stratonice to the spot, her grisly form at this momentappeared in the chamber.

  'How now? what hast thou been doing with my slave, brute?' said she,angrily, to Burbo.

  'Be quiet, wife,' said he, in a tone half-sullen, half-timid; 'you wantnew girdles and fine clothes, do you? Well then, take care of yourslave, or you may want them long. Voe capiti tuo--vengeance on thyhead, wretched one!'

  'What is this?' said the hag, looking from one to the other.

  Nydia started as by a sudden impulse from the wall against which she hadleaned: she threw herself at the feet of Stratonice; she embraced herknees, and looking up at her with those sightless but touching eyes:

  'O my mistress!' sobbed she, 'you are a woman--you have had sisters--youhave been young like me, feel for me--save me! I will go to thosehorrible feasts no more!'

  'Stuff!' said the hag, dragging her up rudely by one of those delicatehands, fit for no harsher labor than that of weaving the flowers whichmade her pleasure or her trade; 'stuff! these fine scruples are not forslaves.'

  'Hark ye,' said Burbo, drawing forth his purse, and chinking itscontents: 'you hear this music, wife; by Pollux! if you do not break inyon colt with a tight rein, you will hear it no more.'

  'The girl is tired,' said Stratonice, nodding to Calenus; 'she will bemore docile when you next want her.'

  'You! you! who is here?' cried Nydia, casting her eyes round theapartment with so fearful and straining a survey, that Calenus rose inalarm from his seat.

  'She must see with those eyes!' muttered he.

  'Who is here! Speak, in heaven's name! Ah, if you were blind like me,you would be less cruel,' said she; and she again burst into tears.

  'Take her away,' said Burbo, impatiently; 'I hate these whimperings.'

  'Come!' said Stratonice, pushing the poor child by the shoulders. Nydiadrew herself aside, with an air to which resolution gave dignity.

  'Hear me,' she said; 'I
have served you faithfully--I who was broughtup--Ah! my mother, my poor mother! didst thou dream I should come tothis?' She dashed the tear from her eyes, and proceeded: 'Command me inaught else, and I will obey; but I tell you now, hard, stern, inexorableas you are--I tell you that I will go there no more; or, if I am forcedthere, that I will implore the mercy of the praetor himself--I have saidit. Hear me, ye gods, I swear!'

  The hag's eyes glowed with fire; she seized the child by the hair withone hand, and raised on high the other--that formidable right hand, theleast blow of which seemed capable to crush the frail and delicate formthat trembled in her grasp. That thought itself appeared to strike her,for she suspended the blow, changed her purpose, and dragging Nydia tothe wall, seized from a hook a rope, often, alas! applied to a similarpurpose, and the next moment the shrill, the agonized shrieks of theblind girl, rang piercingly through the house.