"It is given," she answered. "Citizens of Rome, the right is mine, as you all know, to set this criminal free. Let no man lay hands on him."

"He is free! he is free!" shouted several persons from among the crowd.

"The ancient laws of Rome must be supported."

The guards and some others seemed unwilling to be disappointed of their prey, but the lictors kept them off; and some, evidently recognising Eros as a Christian, gathering round, bore him off out of sight just as Gaius and his companions arrived on the spot. They dared not disallow the claim made by Marcia, for it had been the privilege of the vestals from time immemorial, should they meet a criminal going to execution, to demand his release, provided the encounter was accidental, and that such was the case in this instance there appeared to be no doubt.

Marcia proceeded on her way, and Gaius, who was not altogether displeased at the occurrence, as he hoped to recover his slave, returned to the college.

CHAPTER TEN.

THE TRIAL OF THE VESTAL.

The vestal Coelia was summoned to undergo her trial before the college of pontiffs seated in council.

She stood looking pale but undaunted in their presence. The pontiff Coecus was her judge, and at the same time one of her accusers. With the others she was not allowed to be confronted.

She acknowledged without hesitation that the sacred fire had gone out while under her charge, and she condescended so far to defend herself as to remind Coecus that it was in consequence of his holding her for so long a time in conversation. She confessed also that she had been reading a book held in respect by the Nazarenes, and she claimed the right of a free-born Roman to peruse the work, which was one well known to be approved of by the emperor.

"You may have a right to read that or any other work, but not to imbibe the principles of that accursed sect which it advocates," answered Coecus; "and that you do hold them you have acknowledged to me."

"And I pray for grace that I may hold them to the end," replied Coelia, looking the pontiff calmly in the face as she held her hands clasped hanging down before her.

"She admits that the sacred fire was extinguished in consequence of her carelessness," exclaimed Coecus, turning to the other pontiffs; "nor does she express the slightest regret at her horrible sin. One guilty of so terrible a crime is capable of committing any other wickedness, however odious; and that she has done so, and that she has broken her vows, has been proved by the witnesses we have examined. That she is no longer worthy of being numbered among the vestals of Rome, I have already placed sufficient evidence before you."

Coecus read over the false accusation which had been brought against the vestal. The guilty partic.i.p.ator of her crime had escaped, he observed, but would undoubtedly be captured. Still, from the oaths of the several witnesses--which he named--her guilt was evident.

A flush mantled on the brow of the young vestal as she heard herself accused of a crime so foreign to her nature; yet she did not quail before that of her stern judge and accuser.

"You know, and these my other judges know, that I am innocent," she said, in a voice which trembled but slightly. "If I am to be put to death, I am ready to die, if you have a right to destroy me, as a Roman maiden, with fame unsullied; I am guilty only of no longer believing in the G.o.ddess to whom in my childhood and ignorance my vows were made. I confess myself a Christian, and confess also that I desire to escape from longer serving the false G.o.ddess in whom you pretend to believe.

But I indignantly deny the terrible accusation brought against me, which you yourself know to be utterly false."

"Away with the girl: terror has made her mad!" cried the enraged pontiff, forgetting the dignity of his position, and shaking his fists fiercely at the accused maiden.

Coelia did not reply, but raising her hands to heaven--the only time she had altered the position which she had from the first maintained--she implored that protection which He in whom she believed was able and willing to afford.

She did not deign to plead to her cruel judges. She saw clearly that, for some object of their own, they had pre-determined on her destruction. She calmly waited to hear what more they had to say.

Coecus, standing up, p.r.o.nounced her doom--that which from time immemorial had been inflicted on vestals who had been guilty of breaking their vows.

Her garments--worn by the vestals--and badges of office were to be taken from her, and she was to be habited as a corpse, placed in a litter, and borne through the Forum, attended by her relatives and friends, with all the ceremony of a real funeral. Then she was to be carried to the Campus Sceleratus, situated close to the Colline Gate, just within the city walls. In this spot a small vault underground, as in other cases, would have been prepared. It would contain a couch, a lamp, and a table, with a jar of water and a small amount of food.

Had the Pontifex Maximus been in Rome, it would have been his duty to take a chief part in the ceremony. Having lifted up his hands, he would have opened the litter, led forth the culprit, and placed her on the steps of the ladder by which she would be compelled to descend to the subterranean cell, and he would there have delivered her over to the common executioner and his a.s.sistants. They would lead her down into her living tomb, draw up the ladder, and then fill in the pa.s.sage to the vault with earth so as to make the surface level with the surrounding ground.

Here the hapless vestal, deprived of all marks of respect ordinarily paid to the spirits of the departed, would be left to perish miserably by starvation, should terror not have previously deprived her of life.

Such was the doom p.r.o.nounced on Coelia.

She heard it unmoved, and walked with unfaltering steps between two of the officers of the pontiff, to be delivered back to Fausta, the Vestalis Maxima, who was in waiting to receive her. Not an expression of pity escaped the lips of the old vestal, although she knew as well as Coecus that Coelia was innocent of the graver crime of which she was charged. But her heart had become hardened and scathed; not a grain of sympathy for her fellow-creatures remained in her bosom.

She believed she was acting in a way pleasing to the G.o.ddess she served; and she would have been ready to sacrifice her nearest relatives, if by so doing she would have advanced the cause of idolatry. She was aware that she no longer retained the affection of any of the vestals under her charge. Marsh and irritable, she ruled them with a rod of iron; and believed that the service of the temple was never so faithfully performed as it had been since she became its princ.i.p.al priestess.

Fausta has since had countless imitators, most of whom have been as completely deceived as she was.

Coelia was conducted back to the cell in which she had before been confined, beneath the floor of the temple, where only the coa.r.s.est viands were allowed her to sustain nature. She was guarded night and day by two vestals, who were directed to summon a.s.sistance should they require it. Coecus was satisfied that the death of the vestal would prove to the mult.i.tude that the ancient religion of Rome was still paramount, notwithstanding the predilections of the emperor in favour of Christianity, and the privileges he was inclined to grant to the Nazarenes. He therefore hardened his heart against all feeling of pity at the terrible fate about to be inflicted on the innocent maiden, and now prepared, with all the energy of his nature, to make arrangements for the grand procession about to take place, and which he had resolved should precede the cruel ceremony he had determined to carry out. He was well aware that the Emperor Constantine would forbid so barbarous an act; but as he was engaged in the East in building his new city, it was impossible for him to hear of it for a long time to come, and although, when he became cognisant of what had occurred, he would undoubtedly blame the pontiffs, Coecus believed that he and the other members of the college had yet sufficient influence in Rome to set even Augustus himself at defiance.

The day broke bright and beautiful. All the altars in the temples and the shrines in the streets were gaily decorated with wreaths and flowers; while banners and gaily-coloured cloths were hung out from the windows, or over the walls of the private houses, in the streets through which the procession was to pa.s.s. As usual, numbers of religious mendicants--belonging to a brotherhood devoted to begging--with huge satchels on their backs, and figures of G.o.ds or demiG.o.ds in their hands, were on foot, eager to collect contributions from the mult.i.tude a.s.sembled on the occasion. The members of several other heathen brotherhoods also might have been seen hurrying through the city, to take their part in the spectacle.

Now the procession streamed forth from the temple of Flora, which formed one of a line of magnificent temples extending from the Flavian amphitheatre to the north of the Palatine and Capitoline hills--that of Rome and Venus being the most easterly, and nearest to the amphitheatre.

As it appeared, shouts of joy and applause were raised by the mult.i.tude. There had been no lack of persons ready to perform the duty of carrying the banners and figures of the G.o.ds and the G.o.ddesses.

Coecus had also secured the a.s.sistance of as large a number of the female part of the population as he could collect, for he believed that could he keep them attached to the old faith, there would be less danger of their husbands becoming its opponents. Some hundreds of dames and damsels dressed in white, their heads adorned with glittering jewels and bright wreaths, issued from the temple, scattering handfuls of flowers before and around them. Bands of musicians performed their most lively airs suited to the occasion; vast numbers of young children, dressed likewise in white, with floral ornaments, chanted at intervals hymns in honour of the G.o.ddess. Priests also, of numerous temples, with shorn crowns, there were, carrying banners or figures of the G.o.ds they served, or sacred relics. The heathen magistrates and officers of state had willingly consented to attend and exhibit themselves in the procession, although the Christians had universally refused, under any pretence, to take a part in the idolatrous performance. Coecus, as he watched the pageant winding its enormous length along the streets, the banners and gilded statues glittering in the sun, before he took his accustomed place with his brother pontiffs, felt satisfied that the larger portion of the population of Rome still sided with them.

Gaius alone, as he walked along, muttered not a few expressions of discontent. "To say the least of it, these processions are a bore," he grumbled. "They may please the mob, but sensible men ridicule them; and we who superintend them, and have thus to parade through the streets, have become the laughing-stock of all the wise men and philosophers. It will in no way benefit us, notwithstanding the trouble we take in the matter: how completely I have failed of convincing my young nephew of the advisability of the worship of the immortal G.o.ds his running away and refusing to return is strong evidence. As to putting to death this poor girl Coelia, I do not half like it. The emperor will visit us with his anger should her Christian friends prove her innocence, as they are sure to attempt doing. They are wonderfully active in defending their own friends, when they can do so by means of the law, without having recourse to force. This may be on account of their mean and timid spirits; though it is said that they fight well in battle, and that the emperor places great dependence on their courage and fidelity. Well, well, 'Times change, and we must change with them,' as one of our poets sings; but for my part I would rather have retained our old-fashioned ways. What has endured so long must be the best. The oldest religion cannot but be the right one, at all events most suited to the mult.i.tude, while it has not failed to bring a copious revenue into our coffers, and that, after all, is the matter of chief consequence to us. All the accounts, however, which come from Byzantium show that Augustus is becoming more and more inclined to favour these Christians. I wish that Coecus hid not been so obstinate, and would at once have consented to abandon our failing cause."

When pa.s.sing close to the Arch of Constantino, which had been erected after the visit of the emperor to Rome close to the Flavian amphitheatre, he glanced up at it with a look of contempt. "What can be expected of our Romans nowadays, when the whole architectural talent of our city can only produce a monstrosity like that!" he observed to a brother pontiff walking next to him. "'The times are changed, and we must change with them,'" he repeated, "if we wish to retain our position."

The other pontiff only shook his head, and groaned.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

RELEASED.

As the procession moved along towards the Sacra Via, Gaius observed a number of persons of a better cla.s.s standing aloof, and watching it with looks far removed from admiration. Although the most earnest Christians kept away from such exhibitions, there were several people of good position who he knew had embraced the new faith, while there were others, among whom he recognised a poet, an architect, a sculptor, two or three philosophers, and some other men of intellect, who, although not Christians, he suspected had no belief in the immortal G.o.ds of Rome, as they were wont to look with most supreme contempt on spectacles such as that in which he was taking a part.

"There they stand, sneering at us," he muttered; "perhaps they come to look as they believe it to be for the last time at our G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses parading our city; but they are mistaken,--our old divinities will hold their places still in the faith and affections of the people, albeit they may be habited in somewhat different garments."

Now and then the eye of Gaius caught that of some young gallant, who nodded to him familiarly, and smiled at his evident annoyance as he endeavoured to keep up his dignity. The procession moved along towards the Capitoline Hill, on which stood the great temple of Jupiter, where the chief ceremonies of the day were to be performed. The people waved garlands, and shouted, the more devout prostrating themselves before the statues as they pa.s.sed along, until the hill was gained. Coecus had taken care to have a large number of animals ready for the sacrifice, so that the people might not be stinted in their expected portions of meat.

He well knew that they chiefly valued these ceremonies for the food they were certain to obtain after them.

The procession once more filed off through the streets, depositing the figures of the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses in their respective temples and shrines; but the business of the day was not over. Coecus and his brother pontiffs had undertaken to superintend a ceremony of a very different character.

On arriving at the temple of Vesta they there found Fausta prepared for the part she was to play. Within the court was seen a litter closely covered in, borne by men with shrouded faces, and habited in dark robes.

Its appearance was lugubrious in the extreme.

"Have you prepared the guilty creature for her just doom?" asked Coecus of the Vestalis Maxima.

"She awaits you in her cell," answered Fausta; "but you have not as yet inflicted the scourging--which, according to the ancient custom, she should suffer."

"We will omit it in her case," answered Coecus, with whom his brother pontiffs had previously pleaded, even their minds revolting at causing one so young and innocent to suffer such degradation. "It would of necessity have to be inflicted in private; therefore, no one will know whether or not she has suffered. No object therefore will be gained,"

observed Coecus.

"Are we in these days thus to neglect our ancient customs?" exclaimed Fausta. "That she is young and beautiful is no reason why she should escape the punishment which is her due."

The pontiff made no reply; perhaps even he discerned the love of cruelty which the remark of the ancient priestess exhibited.

"I am thankful I have not to submit to the discipline which the old virgin is inclined to inflict on her disciples," muttered Gaius. "I would as lief see a tigress deprived of her cubs placed in charge of a flock of sheep as a band of young maidens given to the custody of a bitter old woman like Fausta. If they were not inclined to act naughtily before, they would be driven to do so, in very despair, when subject to her tender mercies."