A Captive of the Roman Eagles Part 8

"Put no restraint on yourself on my account. I prefer them too. They have the advantage of suiting the metre better, at least most of them.

Where is Saturninus?"

"Gone already. He left word that you might follow: you could not miss the way. See, there are the helmets of the last men in his rear-guard.

His countryman Decius commands them."

"I see. Forward! How beautifully the morning light smiles upon us. Help me, unconquered sun-G.o.d!"

He put spurs to his horse and, followed by a brilliant train of mounted men, dashed down the hill and through the Porta Princ.i.p.alis Dextra eastward, toward the sun. A guide had sought the best path at the earliest dawn, marking it by placing at certain s.p.a.ces small stones carried in bags by the pioneers who accompanied and watched him.

The Prefect of Gaul soon reached the path trodden by Adalo a few days before, which led to Suomar's lonely forest dwelling. With a throbbing heart he recognized the familiar spot: the little hill, the broad-branched oak, the neighboring spring: nothing had changed in the few years, except that another piece of tilled land had been wrested by fire from the primeval forest.

At the fence which inclosed the court-yard he sprang from his horse; he had ordered his escort to halt at the oak-tree. The blood suffused his face, so intense was his anxiety. The narrow gate in the palisade stood ajar. Entering the yard, he uttered a cry of joyful astonishment: a little flower garden had been laid out beside the door of the house; he recognized with emotion in the gay blossoms, now in the full bloom of summer, the seeds and slips which he had given the child in Arbor, nay, even ordered from Gaul. Italian and Gallic flowers and shrubs, evidently tended by loving hands, splendid roses and evergreen yews greeted him in thick beds, and also small fruit-trees. Pontine cherries, Picentinian apples, Aquitanian pears, had grown as high as the door.

"Yes, yes," said Ausonius, smiling, "how everything has grown and blossomed in five years!" Then something whirred over his head; from openings in the stable-roof a whole flock of dainty little blue-gray doves flew across the garden to the neighboring field of oats. "See,"

cried Ausonius, looking after them. "My Lycian rock-doves from Burdigala! How that one pair has multiplied!"

He hesitated to enter the house. Doubtless he told himself that the hope of finding her he sought was faint, nay futile. But here everything seemed to bear witness to her presence; there on the bench before the dwelling lay--he knew them well--the delicate garden shears which he had sent to her from Vindonissa. He did not wish to cross the threshold and rob himself of every hope.

The clank of armor came from the open door: a centurion belonging to Hercula.n.u.s's troop approached, bowing respectfully. "Everything is empty, _vir ill.u.s.ter_, the Tribune sends word. And we are to ask you--we are burning all the Barbarians' houses--whether this too--"

"Let it remain uninjured."

The man nodded with a look of pleasure. "I am glad to obey the order.

It would have been a hard task to destroy this home. Umbrian roses, Picentinian mallows, like those which grow around my parents' house in Spoletium, in the midst of the Barbarians' marshes! Who can have wrought this miracle?"

"A poet," replied Ausonius, smiling, "and the fourth, the youngest, of the Graces. So Saturninus was here himself?"

"Yes, but even before him your nephew, with me. Hercula.n.u.s searched everywhere carefully, nay, greedily. He forbade my accompanying him. I was obliged to wait at the entrance."

"The good fellow! He wanted to bring her to me himself, to surprise me--"

"Directly after Hercula.n.u.s left, Saturninus dashed up."

"Where did the troop go from here?"

"Yonder into the forest, keeping to the left, steadily to the left, away from the lake. Otherwise horses and men would sink in the mora.s.s.

You will find sentinels posted in the woods every three hundred paces.

I, with three men, form the commencement of the chain here."

"See that the yard and garden are not injured. I'll promise in return a jug of the best wine."

With these words he turned away, mounted his horse and, followed by his escort, rode toward the left across the tilled land and meadows surrounding the dwelling to the entrance of the neighboring wood, where the helmets and spears of the next sentinels glittered brightly in the suns.h.i.+ne.

But Hercula.n.u.s had not been content with thoroughly searching the deserted house. He had also carefully examined the neighborhood for some trace of the vanished girl. He was soon unable to ride farther through the tangled underbrush; so, leaping from his horse, he gave his Mauritanian roan charger into the care of the only man he had permitted to accompany him, and glided on foot through the thicket. A sort of path which he had discovered with much difficulty and followed for some distance suddenly ended.

While vainly searching for the stones and bits of wood which hitherto, though at long distances, had marked the direction of the way, he saw plainly in the marshy ground of the forest the imprint of human footsteps. And the people who had pa.s.sed here were not Romans: the troops had never yet pressed so far eastward. Besides, the prints were not like those made by the seeker's own heavy Roman marching shoes: he intentionally trod lightly close beside the marks he had found, but how different was the track! His deep footprints instantly filled with the reddish-yellow marsh-water, which oozed from the ground at the least pressure. But within a short time some one had walked by here barefooted with a lighter tread. Indeed, not one person, but several.

For besides one mark which seemed to belong to a child, always one step behind was a somewhat heavier and broader impression, and invariably at the right of it a narrow but deep little hole filled with water, as if made by the sharp end of a staff, while partly at the left, partly two paces in advance, a man's heavier tread seemed unmistakable.

The Roman followed the footprints with eager zeal; if he did not find those whom he sought, he would have the credit of being the first to discover the direction in which the Barbarians had fled. Suddenly the traces appeared to vanish, in front of a large hawthorn bush which barred the way. From beneath the hand thrusting the thorns aside a little brown bird with a red breast flew up startled. Bending forward, the Roman peered into the bush, then a cry of glad surprise escaped his lips: "Aha! She pa.s.sed here! She herself!"

Slowly, slowly he drew through his hand a s.h.i.+ning red-gold hair which had caught on a thorn: it was at least an ell long. And beyond the thorn-bush the footprints were again visible, even more distinctly than before, on a patch of damp sand. What seemed a child's footprints were made by her steps.

CHAPTER XV.

The underbrush grew thinner, evidently removed by human hands; a few steps more and the pursuer stood in an open s.p.a.ce in the forest which had been cleared by fire. Here stood a little hut, very roughly built of unhewn logs: instead of doors two low narrow holes were opposite each other. Such buildings were used by hunters for stations, by shepherds overtaken in the forest by storms for a shelter, but especially to keep quant.i.ties of hay which could not be dragged to the distant barns. That was the case here; heaps of the gra.s.s piled in stacks could be seen through the holes.

Before Hercula.n.u.s had reached the hut, an indistinct sound reached his ear from the right, the sh.o.r.e of the lake. He drew his sword and stopped, listening intently. There it came again! Was it a cry? It seemed like the shout with which Romans on guard gave warning of the presence of a foe. Directly afterwards he heard another noise: it was like the whirring of the string in bending and releasing the wood of the bow, then came a heavy fall or plunge into the water, and all was still again. Nothing but the metallic tapping of the woodp.e.c.k.e.r broke the silence of the forest.

Cautiously raising his s.h.i.+eld to his eyes and looking watchfully toward the right, the Roman, with his thin figure drawn to its foil height, waited several seconds longer: nothing stirred.

He now sprang in two bounds across the open ground to the hut of hay, stooped and entered through the northern hole. Something rustled under the thick gra.s.s, which seemed to be alive: something glided beneath it--was it a weasel?--toward the opposite hole: only the waving motion of the bundles of hay betrayed the direction.

Hercula.n.u.s hastily grasped with his s.h.i.+eld arm at the creature making the rustling and lifted the broad short sword in his right for a death-stroke. He seized something warm and drew it upward from the hay, which fell on the right and left as he dragged forward a girl whose face was covered with tangled red locks and blades of gra.s.s, through which she gazed in mortal terror and fiery wrath at her a.s.sailant.

So strange, so bewitchingly beautiful was the young creature that Hercula.n.u.s uttered a fierce cry of pleasure. He had vowed that the first moment he had the dangerous Barbarian alone within reach of his sword, should be her last; and even now he did not really waver in the resolve. Neither pity nor pa.s.sion could influence a mind fixed solely on his uncle's wealthy yet so much youthful beauty awakened a fleeting desire for it: before he stabbed the foe, he would have one kiss from those red lips. So, reserving his right hand for the death-blow, he drew her closer to him with the left. The girl struggled with the strength of despair. Turning her head as far as possible from him, she uttered a cry of terror, like a dying fawn. It was only a moment's delay of the a.s.sa.s.sin's thrust, but it saved her.

Before Hercula.n.u.s could press his lips on her averted face a shadow fell from outside upon the opening toward the lake, where the struggling figures were now standing. "Murderer!" cried a deep voice; and Hercula.n.u.s, receiving a severe blow on the breast, staggered back, loosing his hold upon his captive. Swiftly as the trout glides away, the girl tried to slip through the opening; but she felt her arm seized in the iron grasp of a much stronger hand, and looked up at another helmeted Roman.

"Is it you, Tribune?" stammered Hercula.n.u.s, hastily thrusting his sword into the sheath.

The latter did not vouchsafe him a single word. "You are Bissula, little one, are you not?" he asked, gazing with wondering eyes at the strange vision. A sweet rapture ran through his veins as he saw the lovely little face, the delicate, graceful limbs, the bare white feet, and felt the pulsing of the young life through the round arm his hand held so firmly.

The prisoner made no reply, but she looked up trustfully into the Illyrian's handsome, manly face. Then she cast a strange glance, as if seeking for some one, back into the hut,--Saturninus had dragged her from the doorway into the open air,--and seemed to be listening anxiously.

"Yes, it is Bissula," said Hercula.n.u.s, now also coming out. "What made you imagine that I wanted to kill her? I have been searching for her since the earliest dawn."

"So I thought."

"Not for myself; I was only holding her firmly to prevent her escape."

"With a quivering sword uplifted to strike?"

"Only to frighten her."

But Bissula cast a reproachful glance at him.

"However that may be," the Illyrian continued, "she is my captive." His glowing eyes rested on her; the girl lowered her long lashes in embarra.s.sment.

"No, no! I discovered her."

"But before you seized her a second time--for she was free again--I captured her. Dare to contradict it, you murderer of girls!" and he advanced threateningly toward him.

The sound of a tuba rang from the forest.

"We must return. The tuba gives a sign of warning," said Saturninus.

"The first trace of the foe has been found--not only the child--a man."