Читать книгу Perpetua - A Story of Nimes in A.D. 213 - Baring-Gould Sabine - Страница 6

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THE chain of priests and priestesses could not restrain the mob that thrust forward to the great basin to see the result.

Exclamations of every description rose from the throng.

"He fell in!"

"Nay, he cast himself in. The god will withdraw the holy waters. It was impious. The fountain is polluted."

"Was it not defiled when a dead tomcat was found in it? Yet the fountain ceased not to flow."

"The maiden floats!"

"Why should the god pick out the handsomest girl? His blood is ice-cold. She is not a morsel for him," scoffed a red-faced senator.

"He rises! He is swimming."

"He has grappled the damsel."

"He is striking out! It is well I It is well!—"

"Encourage not the sacrilegious one! Thou makest thyself partaker in his impiety."

"What will the magistrates do?"

"Do?—curl up like woodlice and uncurl only when all is forgotten."

"He is a Christian."

"His father was a philosopher. He swears by the gods."

"He is an atheist."

"See! See! He is sustaining her head."

"She is not dead, she gasps."

"Body of Bacchus! how the water boils. The god is wroth."

"Bah! it boils no more now than it did yesterday."

In the ice-green water could be seen the young man with nervous arms, striking out. He held up the girl with one arm. The swell of the rising volumes of water greatly facilitated his efforts. Indeed, the upsurging flood had such force, that to die by drowning in it was a death by inches, for as often as a body went beneath the surface it was again propelled upwards.

In a minute he was at the breastwork, had one hand on it, then called: "Help, someone, to lift her out."

Thereupon the man clothed in brown wool put down his arms, clasped the half-conscious girl, and raised her from the water. Callipodius assisted, and between them she was lifted out of the basin. The priests and priestesses remonstrated with loud cries. But some of the spectators cheered. A considerable portion of the men ranged themselves beside the two who had the girl in their arms and prevented the ministers of Nemausus from recovering Perpetua from the hands of her rescuers.

The men of the upper town, Greek colonists or their descendants, looked superciliously and incredulously at the cult of the Gallic deity of the fountain. It was tolerated but laughed at, as something that belonged to a class of citizens that was below them in standing.

In another moment, Aemilius Lentulus had thrown himself upon the balustrade and stood facing the crowd, dripping from every limb, but with a laughing countenance.

Seeing that the mob was swayed by conflicting currents of feeling and opinion, knowing the people with whom he had to do, he stooped, whispered something into the ear of Callipodius, then, folding his arms, he looked smilingly around at the tossing crowd, and no sooner did he see his opportunity than, unclasping his arms, he assumed the attitude of an orator, and cried: "Men and brethren of the good city of Nemausus! I marvel at you that ye dare to set at nought the laws of imperial and eternal Rome. Are ye not aware that the god Claudius issued an edict with special application to Gaul, that for ever forbade human sacrifices? Has that edict been withdrawn? I have myself seen and read it graven in brass on the steps of the Capitoline Hill at Rome. So long as that law stands unrepealed ye are transgressors."

"The edict is fallen into desuetude, and desuetude abrogates a law!" called one man.

"Is it so? How many suffered under Nero, under Caius, because they transgressed laws long forgotten? Let some one inform against the priesthood of Nemausus, and carry the case to Rome."

A stillness fell on the assembly; the priests looked at one another.

"But see!" continued Aemilius, "I call you to witness this day. The god himself rejects such illegal offerings. Did you not perceive how he spurned the virgin from him when ye did impiously cast her into the holy urn? Does he not sustain life with his waters? Therefore say I that he seeks not to destroy it. Had he desired the sacrifice, then would he have gulped it down, and you would have seen the maiden no more. Not so. He rejected her; with his watery arms he repelled her. Every crystal wave he cast up was a renunciation. I saw it, and I leaped in to deliver the god from the mortal flesh that he refused. I appeal to you all again. To whom did the silver image cast the apple? Was it to the maiden destined to die? Nay, verily it was to her who was to live. The golden pippin was a fruit of life, whereby he designated such as he willed to live. Therefore I say that the god loveth life, and not death. Friends and citizens of Nemausus, ye have transgressed the law, and ye have violated the will of the divine Archegos, who founded our city, and by whose largesse of water we live."

Then one in the crowd shouted: "There is a virgin cast yearly from the bridge over the Rhodanus at Avenio."

"Ay! and much doth that advantage the bridge and the city. Did not the floods last November carry away an arch and inundate an entire quarter of the town? Was the divine river forgetful that he had received his oblation? or was he ungrateful for the favour? Naught that is god-like can be either."

"He demanded another life."

"Nay. He was indignant that the fools of Avenio should continue to treat him as though he were a wild beast that had to be glutted, and not as a god. All you parents that fear for your children; such of you as have already lost your daughters, or have trembled for them, combine, and with one voice proclaim that you will no more suffer this. Look to the urn of the divine Nemausus. See how evenly the ripples run. Dip your fingers in the water, and feel how passionless it is. Has he blown forth a blast of seething water and steam, like the hot springs of Aquae Sextiae? Has his fountain clouded with anger? Was the god powerless to avenge the act when I plunged in? If he had desired the death of this maiden, would he have suffered me, a mortal, to pluck her from his gelid lips? Make room on Olympus, O ye gods, and prepare a throne for Common Sense, and let her have dominion over the minds of men."

"There is no such god," called one in the crowd.

"Ye know her not, so besotted are ye."

"He blasphemes; he mocks the holy and immortal ones."

"It is ye who mock them, when ye make of them as great clowns as yourselves. The true eternal gods laugh to hear me speak the truth. Look at the sun, look at the water with its many

twinkling smiles. The gods approve what I say. Nay, hear even the divine fountain, with his wavelets clapping applause."

Whilst the young man thus harangued and amused the populace, Baudillas and Quinta, assisted by two female slaves of the latter, removed the drenched, dripping and half-drowned girl. They bore her, with the utmost despatch, out of the crowd, down a side walk of the city gardens, to a bench, on which they laid her till she had sufficiently recovered to open her eyes and recognise those who surrounded her.

Then said the widow to one of the servants: "Run, Petronilla, and bid the steward send porters with a litter. We must convey Perpetua as speedily as possible from hence, lest there be a riot and the ministers of the devil stir up the people to insist upon again casting her into the water."

"By your leave, lady," said Baudillas, "I would advise that at first she should not be conveyed to your house, but to mine. It is probable, should that happen which you fear, that the populace may make a rush to your dwelling in their attempt to get hold of the lady your daughter. It were well that she remained for a while concealed in my house. Send for the porters to bring the litter at a later hour, when falls the night."

"You are right," said Quinta, "it shall be so."

"As in the Acts of the Blessed Apostles it is related that the craftsmen who lived by making silver shrines for Diana stirred up the people of Ephesus, so may it be now. There are many who get their living by the old religion, many whose position and influence depend on its maintenance, and such will not lightly allow a slight to be cast on their superstition, like as has been offered this day. By evenfall we shall know the humour of the people. Young lady, lean on my arm and let me conduct thee to my lodging. There canst thou abide till it is safe for thee to depart."

Then the brown-habited man took the maiden's arm.

Baudillas was a deacon of the Church in Nemausus, a man somewhat advanced in life. His humility, and perhaps also his lack of vigour of character, prevented his aspiring to a higher office. Moreover he was an admirable minister of the Church as deacon, at a period when the office was mainly one of keeping the registers of the sick and poor, and of distributing alms among such as were in need.

The deacon was the treasurer of the Church, and he was a man selected for his business habits and practical turn of mind. By his office he was more concerned with the material than the spiritual distresses of men. Nevertheless he was of the utmost value to the bishops and presbyters, for he was the feeler, groping among the poorest, entering into the worst haunts of misery and vice, quick to detect tokens of desire for better things, and ready to make use of every opening for giving rudimentary instruction.

Those who occupied the higher grades in the Church, even at this early period, were for the most part selected from the cultured and noble classes; not that the Church had respect of persons, but because of the need there was of possessing men who could penetrate into the best houses, and who, being related to the governing classes, might influence the upper strata of society as well as that which was below. The great houses, with their families of slaves in the city, and of servile labourers on their estates, possessed vast influence for good or evil. A believing master could flood with light a whole population that depended on him, and was certain to treat his slaves with Christian humanity. The slaves belonging to a great man were numbered by thousands. On the other hand it occasionally happened that it was through a poor slave that the truth reached the heart of a master or mistress.

Baudillas led the girl, now shivering with cold, from the garden, and speedily reached a narrow street. Here the houses on each side were lofty, unadorned, and had windows only in the upper storeys, arched with brick and unglazed. In cold weather they were closed with shutters.

The pavement of the street was of cobble stones and rough. No one was visible, no sound issued from the houses, save only from one whence came the rattle of a loom, and a dog chained at a door barked furiously as the little party went by.

"This is the house," said Baudillas, and he struck against a door.

After some waiting a bar was withdrawn within, and the door, that consisted of two valves, was opened by an old slightly lame slave.

"Pedo," said the deacon, "has all been well?"

"All is well, master," answered the man.

"Enter ladies," said Baudillas. "My house is humble and out of repair, but it was once notable. Enter and rest you awhile. I will bid Pedo search for a change of garments for Perpetua."

"Hark!" exclaimed Quinta. "I hear a sound like the roar of the sea."

"It is the voice of the people. It is a roar like that for blood that goes up from the amphitheatre,"