The Roman Traitor Volume Ii Part 6

The woman's pa.s.sions, strange to relate, had been kindled at times, by the very cruelty and fury, which at other moments made her almost detest him.

There was a species of sublimity in the very atrocity of Catiline's wickedness, which fascinated her morbid and polluted fancy; and she almost admired the ferocity which tortured her, and from which, alone of mortal ills, she shrank appalled and unresisting.

And Catiline loved her, as well as he could love anything, loved her the more because she too, in some sort, had elicited his admiration; for she had crossed him many times, and once braved him, and, alone of human beings, he had not crushed her.

They were liker to mated tigers, which even in their raptures of affection, rend with the fang, and clutch with the unsheathed talon, until the blood and anguish testify the fury of their pa.s.sion, than to beings of human mould and nature.

Suddenly the traitor stopped short in his wild and agitated walk, and seemed to listen intently, although no sound came to the ears of the woman, who was no less on the alert than he, for any stir or rumor.

"It is"-he said at length, clasping his hands above his head-"it is the step of Arminius, the trusty gladiator-do you not hear it, Orestilla?"

"No," she replied, shaking her head doubtfully. "There is no sound at all.

My ear is quicker of hearing, too, than yours, Catiline, and if there were any step, I should be first to mark it."

"Tus.h.!.+ woman!" he made answer, glaring upon her fiercely. "It is my _heart_ that hears it."

"You have a heart, then!" she replied bitterly, unable even at that time to refrain from taunting him.

"And a hand also, and a dagger! and, by h.e.l.l and all its furies! I know not why I do not flesh it in you. I will one day."

"No, you will not," she answered very quietly.

"And wherefore not? I have done many a worse deed in my day. The G.o.ds would scarce punish me for that slaughter; and men might well call it justice.-Wherefore not, I say? Do you think I so doat on your beauty, that I cannot right gladly spare you?"

"Because," answered the woman, meeting his fixed glare, with a glance as meaning and as fiery, "because, when I find that you meditate it, I will act quickest. I know a drug or two, and an unguent of very sovereign virtue."

"Ha! ha!" The reckless profligate burst into a wild ringing laugh of triumphant approbation. "Ha! ha! thou mightst have given me a better reason. Where else should I find such a tigress? By all the G.o.ds! it is your clutch and claws that I prize, more than your softest and most rapturous caress! But hist! hist! now-do you not hear that step?"

"I do-I do," she replied, clasping her hands again, which she had unclinched in her anger-"and it _is_ Arminius' step! I was wrong to cross thee, Catiline; and thou so anxious! we shall hear now-we shall hear all."

Almost as she spoke, the German gladiator rushed into the room, heated and panting from his swift race; and, without any sign of reverence or any salutation, exclaimed abruptly,

"Catiline, it is over, ere this time! I saw them enter his house!"

The woman uttered a low choking shriek, her face flushed crimson, and then again turned paler than before, and she fell back on her cus.h.i.+oned seat, swooning with joy at the welcome tidings.

But Catiline flung both his arms abroad toward heaven, and cried aloud-"Ye G.o.ds, for once I thank ye! if there be G.o.ds indeed!" he added, with a sneer-"thou sawest them enter, ha?-thou art not lying?-By all the furies!

If you deceive me, I will take care that you see nothing more in this world."

"Catiline, these eyes saw them!"

"At length! at length!" he exclaimed, his eye flas.h.i.+ng, and his whole countenance glowing with fiendish animation, "and yet curses upon it!-that I could not slay him-that I should owe to any other hand my vengeance on my victim. Thou hast done well-ha! here is gold, Arminius! the last gold I own-but what of that, to-morrow-to-morrow, I will have millions! Away!

away! bold heart, arouse your friends and followers-to arms, to arms, cry havoc through the streets, and liberty and vengeance!"

While he was speaking yet, the door was again opened, and Cethegus entered with the others, dull, gloomy, and crest-fallen; but Catiline was in a state of excitement so tremendous, that he saw nothing but the men.

At one bound he reached Cethegus, and catching him by both hands-"How!" he exclaimed-"How was it?-quick, tell me, quick! Did he die hard? Did he die, conscious, in despair, in anguish?-Tell me, tell me, you tortured him in the slaying-tell me, he died a coward, howling and cursing fate, and knowing that I, _I_ slew him, and-speak Cethegus?-speak, man! By the G.o.ds!

you are pale! silent!-these are not faces fit for triumph! speak, man, I say, how died he?-show me his blood, Cethegus! you have not wiped it from your dagger, give me the blade, that I may kiss away the precious death-drops."

So rapidly and impetuously had he spoken, heaping query on query, that Cethegus could not have answered, if he would. But, to say the truth, he was in little haste to do so. When Catiline ceased, however, which he did at length, from actual want of breath to enquire farther, he answered in a low smothered voice.

"He is not dead at all-he refused"--

"Not dead!" shrieked Catiline, for it was a shriek, though articulate, and one so piercing that it roused Aurelia from her swoon of joy-"Not dead!

Yon villain swore that he saw you enter-not dead!" he repeated, half incredulously-"By heaven and h.e.l.l! I believe you are jesting with me! Tell me that you have lied, and I-I-I will wors.h.i.+p you, Cethegus."

"His porter refused us entrance, and, as the door was opened, we saw in the Atrium the slaves of his household, and half a hundred of his clients, all armed from head to foot, with casque and corslet, pilum, broad-sword, and buckler. And, to complete the tale, as we returned into the street baffled and desperate, a window was thrown open in the banquet-hall above, and we might see the Consul, with Cato, and Marcellus, and Scipio, and a score of Consulars beside, gazing upon us in all the triumph of security, in all the confidence of success. We are betrayed, that is plain-our plans are all known as soon as they are taken, all frustrated ere acted! All is lost, Catiline, for what remains to do?"

"To dare!" answered the villain, all undaunted even by this reverse-"and, if need be, to die-but to despair, never!"

"But who can be the traitor?-where shall we look to find him?"

"Look there," exclaimed Catiline, pointing to the German gladiator, who stood all confounded and chap-fallen. "Look there, and you shall see one; and see him punished too! What ho! without there, ho! a dozen of you, if you would shun the las.h.!.+"

And, at the summons, ten or twelve slaves and freedmen rushed into the room in trepidation, almost in terror, so savage was the temper of the lord whom they served, and so merciless his wrath, at the most trivial fault or error.

"Drag that brute, hence!" he said, waving his hand toward the unhappy gladiator, "put out his eyes, fetter him foot and hand, and cast him to the congers in the fish-pond."

Without a moment's pause or hesitation, they cast themselves upon their miserable comrade; and, though he struggled furiously, and struck down two or three of the foremost, and shouted himself hoa.r.s.e, in fruitless efforts to explain, he was secured, and bound and gagged, within a shorter time than is required to describe it.

This done, one of the freedmen looked toward his dreaded master, and asked, with pale lips, and a faltering voice,

"Alive, Catiline?"

"Alive-and hark you, Sirrah, fasten his head above the water, that he die not too speedily. Those biggest congers will lug him manfully, Cethegus; we will go see the sport, anon. It will serve to amuse us, after this disappointment. There! away with him, begone!"

The miserable creature struggled desperately in his bonds, but in vain; and strove so terribly to speak, in despite his gag, that his face turned almost black, from the blood which rushed to every pore; but no sound could he utter, as he was dragged away, save a deep-mouthed groan, which was drowned by the laughter of the remorseless wretches, who gazed on his anguish with fiendish merriment; among which, hideous to relate, the thrilling sounds of Aurelia's silvery and contagious mirth were distinctly audible.

"He will take care to see more truly in Hades!" said Catiline, with his sardonic smile, as he was dragged out of the room, by his appalled and trembling fellows. "But now to business. Tell me, did you display any weapon? or do aught, that can be proved, to show your intent on the Consul?"

"Nothing, my Catiline," replied Cethegus, firmly.

"Nothing, indeed, Cethegus? By all our hopes! deceive me not!"

"By your head! nothing, Catiline."

"Then I care nothing for the failure!" answered the other. "Keep good hearts, and wear smiling faces! I will kill him myself to-morrow, if, like the scorpion, I must die in the deed."

"Try it not, Catiline. You will but fail-and"--

"Fail! who ever knew me fail, in vengeance?"

"No one!" said Orestilla-"and no one can hinder you of it. No! not the G.o.ds!"

"There are no G.o.ds!" exclaimed the Traitor, "and if there be, it were all one-I defy them!"

"Cicero says there is ONE, they tell me," said Cethegus, half mocking, half in earnest-"and he is very wise."

"Very!" replied the other, with his accustomed sneer-"Therefore that ONE may save him-if he can!"