Already in the wake the Greek isles and mountain ridges had faded into night.
The oars dipped evenly, and the vessel sped forward at a speed equal to that of a modern Channel steamer.
At a signal from Lamia the mourners on the quarter-deck ceased to intone their wail.
He and Domitia stood in the bows and looked directly before them. They could see a large vessel ahead, of three banks of oars, but she floated immovable on the gently heaving, glassy sea. The oars were all shipped and she was making no way.
The deck sparkled with lights. Torches threw up red flames, lamps gave out a fainter yellow gleam. To the cordage lights had been suspended, and braziers burning on the quarter-deck, fed with aromatic woods, turned the water around to molten fire, and sent wafts of fragrance over the sea.
The twang of a lyre and the chirp of a feeble voice were faintly audible; and then, after a lull, ensued a musical shout of applause in rhythmic note.
It is the Augustus singing, said Lamia in a tone of smothered rage and mortification. And he has his band of adulators about him.
But why do not the rowers urge on the vessel? asked Domitia.
Because the piper giving the stroke would be committing high treason in drowning the song of the princely performer. By the Gods! the grinding of the oars in the rowlocks and the plash in the water would drown even his most supreme trills.
Hast thou seen him on the stage, Lamia?
The Gods forbid, answered the young man passionately, this fancy to be the first of singers and mimes had not come on him before I left Rome for Syria. To think of it, that he the head of the magistracy, of the army, of the senate, of the priesthood, should figure as Apollo, half naked, in a gold-powdered wig, and with painted cheeks before sniggering Greeks! The Gods deliver me from such a sight!
But you will behold it now. As we speed along we shall overtake this floating dramatic booth.
I will give her a wide berth, and stop my ears with wax, though, by the Gods! this is no siren song.
Domitia leaned over the side of the vessel.
Are they sharp, Lucius?
Are what sharp, Domitia?
The beaks.
Sharp as lancets.
And strong?
Strong as rams.
Then, Lucius, we will not give her wide berth. You loved my father. You regard me. You will do what I desire, for his sake and for mine.
What would you have of me?
Ram her!
Lucius Lamia started, and looked at the girl.
She laid her hand on his arm, and gripped it as with an iron vice.
Run her down, Lucius! Sink the accursed murderer and mountebank in the depths of the Ionian sea.
Lamia gasped for breath.
She looked up into his face.
Can it be done?
By Hercules! we could rip up her side.
Then do so.
He stood undecided.
Hearken to me. None will suspect our intention as we swiftly shoot up no, none in this vessel, only Eboracus must be in it. Suddenly we will round and ram and welt her; and send the new Orion with his fiddle to the fishes. By the Furies! We shall hear him scream. We shall see him beat the waves. Lucius, let me have a marline-spike to dash at him as he swims and split his skull and let out his brains for the fishes to banquet on them.
We risk all our lives.
What care I? My father, your friend, will be avenged.
Still Lamia stood in unresolve.
Lucius! I will twine my white arms about your neck, and will kiss you with my red lips, the moment his last scream has rung in my ears.
In the name of Vengeance then, said Lamia.
Eboracus I can count on, said Domitia.
There is the under-mate. If any one on board suspect our purpose, we are undone.
None need suspect, said the girl. Say that the prince is holding festival on board the trireme, and that it behoves us to salute. None will think other than that we are befooling ourselves like the rest. At the right moment, before any has a thought of thy purpose, call for the double-stroke, and trust Eboracus he will put the helm about, and in a moment we run her down.
Lamia walked to the quarter-deck, bade the mourning women go below. He extinguished the funeral torches, and threw the ashes from the tripod into the sea. Then the Artemis was no longer distinguishable by any light she bore.
Next Lamia walked aft, and in a restrained voice said:
The vessel of Cæsar is before us. We dare not pass without leave asked and granted.
All right, sir, said the second mate. Any orders below?
Keep on at present speed. When I call Slack, then let them slacken. When I call Double, then at once with full force double.
Right, sir. I will carry down instructions.
The mate went to the ladder and descended into the hold.
There were now left on deck only Lamia, Domitia, the steersman, Eboracus, one sailor and the physician, who was leaning over the bulwarks looking north at the glittering constellation of Cassiopeas Chair.
He was near the quarter-deck, in the fore part of the vessel, and had been unobserved in the darkness by Lamia and Domitia, till they returned aft.
Then the young man started as he observed him.
Was it possible that the man had overheard the words spoken? There was nothing in the attitude or manner of the physician to show that he entertained alarm. Lamia resolved on keeping an eye upon him that he did not communicate with the crew.
Luke returned aft when the young people came in that direction, and seated himself quietly on a bench.
Eboracus was rapidly communicated with and gained.
The Artemis flew forward, noiselessly, save for the plunge of the oars and the hiss of the foam, as it rushed by like milk, and from the hold sounded the muffled note of the symphonicius or piper.
Every moment the vessel neared the imperial galley, and sounds of revelry became audible. Nothing showed that any on board were aware of the approach of a Liburnian.
It was now seen that tables were spread on the deck of the Imperial vessel, and that the prince and his attendants, and indeed the entire crew were engaged in revelry.
Between the courses which were served, Nero ascended the quarter-deck, and sang or else delivered a recitation from a Greek tragedian, or a piece of his own composition.
If the approach of the bireme was observed, which did not seem to be the case, it caused no uneasiness. The Emperors vessel had been accompanied by a convoy, but the ships had been dispersed by the storm; and the bireme, if perceived, was doubtless held to be one of the fleet.
And now Helios, the confidant of Nero, had ascended the quarter-deck to his master, and began to declaim the speech of the attendant in the Electra descriptive of the conquests of Orestes applying the words, by significant indications to the prince returning a victor from the Grecian games.
He, having come to the glorious pageantry of the sports in Greece, entered the lists to win the Delphic prizes, he, the admired of every eye. And having started from his goal in wondrous whirls he sped along the course, and bore away the of all coveted prize of victory. But that I may tell thee in few words amidst superfluity I have never known such a man of might and deeds as he and he bowed and waved his hands towards Nero.
A roar of applause broke out, interrupted by a cry from Nero who suddenly beheld a dark ship plunge out of the night and come within the radiance of the lights on board his vessel.
Meanwhile, on the Artemis, with set face sat Eboracus, guiding the head of the Liburnian as directed. He could see the twinkling lights, and hear the sounds of rejoicing.
Meanwhile, on the Artemis, with set face sat Eboracus, guiding the head of the Liburnian as directed. He could see the twinkling lights, and hear the sounds of rejoicing.
Slack speed, called Lamia.
Slack your oars, down into the hold.
There was a pause all oars held poised for a moment.
Double! shouted Lamia.
Double your oars! down the ladder.
Instantly the water hissed about the bows, and the oars plunged.
Eboracus by a violent movement threw himself and his entire weight on the handle of one paddle, so as to turn the bireme about, and ram her midships into the Imperial trireme, when suddenly, without a word, Luke had drawn a knife through the thong that restrained the paddle, and instantly the pedalion leaped out of place, and would have gone overboard, had not the physician caught and retained it.
Immediately the direction of the Artemis was altered and in place of running into the trireme, she swerved and swung past the Imperial galley without touching her.
Nero, white with alarm and rage shrieked from the quarter-deck,
Who commands?
Then to those by him, Pour oil on the flames.
At once from the braziers, tongues of brilliant light leaped high into the air.
The name! yelled the furious prince.
Then came the reply:
Cnæus Domitius Corbulo.
And by the glare he saw, standing by the mast, distinct against the darkness of the night behind, the form of a man and the face was the face of the murdered general.
Nero staggered back and would have fallen unless caught by Helios.
The dead pursue me, he gasped. Wife, mother, brother, and now, Corbulo!
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SWORD OF THE DEAD
It is well done, said Eboracus in an undertone to the physician; Otherwise there had been the cross for you and me. The thong broke.
I severed it, said Luke.
That I saw, said the slave, I shall report that it yielded. One must obey a master even to the risk of the cross. Didst see the noble Lamia, how ready he was? He assumed the mask of my dead master and we have slipped by and sent a shiver through the whole company of the Trireme, and the August too, I trow, for they have thought us the Ship of the Dead.
After a pause he said, In my home we hold that all souls go to sea in a phantom vessel; and sail away to the West, to the Isles of the Blessed. At night a dark ship with a sail as a thundercloud comes to the shore, and those near can hear the dead in trains go over the beach and enter the ghostly vessel, till she is laden, and then she departs.
The Artemis made her way without disaster to Rhegium, and thence coasted up Italy to the port of Rome. She had gained on the Imperial vessel, that was delayed at Brundusium to collect the scattered fleet. Nero would not land until he reached Neapolis, and then not till all his wreaths and golden apples, as well as his entire wardrobe of costumes and properties had arrived.
Then only did he come ashore, and he did so to commence a triumphal progress through the Peninsula, the like of which was never seen before nor will be seen again.
This was on the 19th March, the anniversary of the murder of his mother. On the same day a letter was put into his hands announcing the revolt of the legions in Gaul and the proclamation of Galba, at that time Governor of Spain.
So engrossed, however, was his mind with preparation for his theatrical procession, that he paid no heed to the news, nor was he roused till he read the address of Vindex, who led the revolt, denouncing him as a miserable fiddler.
This touched him to the quick, and he addressed an indignant despatch to the Senate, demanding that Vindex should be chastised, and appealed to the prizes he had gained as testimony to his musical abilities.
So he started for Rome.
Eighteen hundred and eight heralds strutted before him, bearing in their hands the crowns that had been awarded him and announcing when and how he had succeeded in winning the award.
He entered Rome in this leisurely manner, in a triumphal chariot, wearing a purple robe, embroidered with gold, an olive garland about his head. Beside him a harper struck his instrument and chanted his praises.
The houses were decorated with festoons, the streets were strewn with saffron; singing birds, comfits, flowers were scattered by the people before him. If the Senate expected that now the prince was in Rome, he would attend to business, it was vastly mistaken. His first concern was to arrange for a splendid exhibition in which he might gratify the public with a finished study of his acting and singing.
Solicitude about his triumph, his voice, his reception, had so completely filled the shallow mind of Nero, that he gave no further thought to the vessel that had shot out of the darkness, nearly fouled his galley, and which had been apparently commanded by one of his noblest victims.
Longa Duilia arrived on the Gabian estate, with the corpse of her husband, her daughter, Lucius Lamia, and her entire family, as the company of household slaves was termed, without accident and without deter.
Gabii lay eleven miles from Rome at the foot of one of the spurs of the Alban mountains. The town stood on a small knoll rising out of the Campagna. The stone of which it was built was dark, being a volcanic peperino; it was perhaps one of the least attractive sites for a country residence, which a Roman noble could have selected; but this was not without its advantage, when Emperors acted as did Ahab, and cut off those whose villas and vineyards attracted their covetous eyes.
A lake occupied the crater of an extinct volcano; the water was dark as ink, but this was due rather to the character of the bottom, than to depth, which was inconsiderable.
The villa and its gardens lay by the waters edge. The old city not flourishing, but maintaining a languid existence, was famous for nothing but a peculiarity in girding the toga adopted by the men, by the dinginess of its building stone, and by its temple of Juno, an object of pilgrimage when the deities of other shrines had proved unwilling or unable to help, a sort of pis-aller of devotion.
Longa Duilia hated the place; it was dull, and she would never have frequented it, had it not been the fashion at the period for all people of good family to affect a love of retirement into the country, and to pretend a taste for simplicity of rural life. Some fine fops had their chambers of poverty to which on occasions they retired, to lie on mats upon the ground, and eat pulse out of common earthenware. Such periods of self-denial added zest to luxury.
Domitia, on the other hand, was attached to the place. It was associated with the innocent pleasures of earliest childhood. Its spring flowers were the loveliest she had ever culled, its June strawberries the most delicious she had ever eaten. And the lake teeming with char gave opportunities for boating and fishing.
Here was the family burial-place; and here Corbulo was to be burnt, and then his ashes collected and consigned to the mausoleum.
Messengers had been sent forth to invite the attendance of all relations, acquaintances and dependents.
The invitation was couched, according to unalterable custom, in antiquated terms, hardly intelligible. When on the day appointed for the ceremony, vast numbers were collected, the funeral procession started.
First went the musicians under the conduct of a Master of the Ceremonies. By law, the number of flautists was limited to ten.
Then followed the professional mourners, hired for the occasion from the temple of Libitina, the priests of which were the licensed undertakers. These mourners chanted the nænia, a lament composed for the purpose of lauding the acts of the deceased and of reciting his honors. When they paused at the conclusion of a strophe, horns and trumpets brayed. Immediately after the wailers walked a train of actors, one of whom was dressed in the insignia of the deceased and wore a mask representing him. He endeavored to mimic each peculiarity of the man he personated, and buffoons around by their antics and jests provoked the spectators to laughter. This farcical exhibition was calculated to moderate the excessive grief superinduced by the lament of the wailers.