The Childhood of Rome Part 7

Suddenly, as they always came and went, the twins appeared one day at the gate of the palisade and were made very welcome. It happened to be a feast day, the feast of Lupercal, which came in midwinter, and the fact was that Romulus had found this out and had come that day on purpose. He was always interested in sacrifices, omens, and old customs. Remus had brought his pipes, and while he played for the dancers some wild music that none of them had ever heard, Romulus came over to the older men. He was rather quiet for a long time, watching all that went on, and his eyes turned often to the fire on the altar.

"My uncle," he said at last to Marcus Colonus, when they were seated a little apart from the others, "I came here to tell you the desire of my heart, and now that I am here, I feel afraid. There is much in the world that I have never seen and do not know. With you, I feel like a little boy who has everything yet to learn."

This was a surprise to Colonus, and it was a pleasant one. This young man, who had fought his way to power and leaders.h.i.+p at an age when most boys are still depending on their fathers for advice in everything, had somehow learned to be gentle and reverent, and not too sure of himself. This was a thing that Colonus could not have expected. He did not see exactly where Romulus had learned it, but it gave him a feeling of great kindness toward his young kinsman.

"There is no need for you to be afraid," he said cordially. "We are all your friends here. We owe you much for your aid and counsel. You are of our blood. This is your home whenever you come among us."

The young leader stole a quick look from his keen, dark eyes at the older man. He had opened the conversation with that speech, not because he did not mean it, for he did; he felt very rude and ignorant among these kinsfolk of his, with their kindly, pleasant ways, and practical wisdom, and unconscious dignity. He was perfectly honest in saying that. But he said it just then because he wished to find out how Colonus felt toward him, and how far he could count on his approval and support in a plan he had. It would be better not to ask for help at all than to ask for it and be refused. The young chief of outlaws was proud. He was also wise, with the sagacity of a wild thing that has had to fight for life against all the world from birth. He never had really trusted anybody. The weak who were afraid to oppose him might do it if they dared. The strong must not be allowed to see his weakness or they would take the advantage. The old shepherd was kind, but he did not always see danger. Strength and kindness did not go together in Romulus' experience. Even when he and his men were protecting the mountain villages, doing for them what they could not do for themselves, the people never let them forget that they were outlawed men. Because they did not live inside the walls and do just as the farmers did, they could not be called civilized. But these men here were his kinsmen, and they seemed different. Some instinct told him that with Colonus it would be better not to pretend to be wise and strong, but to ask advice.

"That is very good of you," he said gratefully. "But I am not, after all, really one of you. I was not brought up as your sons have been. I cannot be sure that they would trust me as my own men do. If I were sure-"

And then he stopped.

"Do you mean," asked Colonus, "that you wish the help of our young men in some expedition?"

Romulus decided to risk it. "If it is wise in your eyes," he said.

"We are strangers in this land," said Colonus deliberately, "and we must be careful what we do. You had better tell me exactly what the plan is, for I cannot judge in the dark. If I think it is not good I will say so, and we will let the matter drop and say no more. If it seems wise I will speak of it to Tullius the priest and the other men, and do all I can to help you."

He suspected that Romulus had some plan for making war against his wicked uncle and winning back the place that he and his brother had been robbed of. He wished to know more of the young man's ways of thinking and acting before he made any promises. It might be a very good thing if Amulius were overthrown, for he was feared and hated even by his own people. The colonists were not strong enough to do it themselves, and it was not their quarrel, but it was a very grave question whether they would not have to fight the soldiers of Amulius sooner or later. He had never troubled the few scattered shepherds and hunters by the riverside, but a settlement like theirs, if it grew and was prosperous, might attract his attention.

It was natural enough for Romulus to desire to overthrow the man who had cast him out of his rightful place, but whether he could do it was another matter. The young men would not make any trouble about joining him in his war if they were allowed to, for he was already a sort of hero among them.

But if they drifted into the vagabond G.o.dless life of the outlaws in the forest, it would be very unfortunate indeed. The only possible way in which the settlement by the river could hold its own was by standing together and keeping the old proved discipline. The lads had never done any real fighting, and it would be a great experience for them. Everything would depend on the leader under whom they fought, and Colonus did not really know much about him.

Very often conversation goes on without the use of words. This is so in animals, who seem to understand each other without any talk at all. There is more or less of it even among modern, civilized men. The two kinsmen were not so far from the wild life of their ancestors that they did not see through each other to some extent. Romulus knew well enough that the colonists ruled their lives by ancient customs, and by what they could learn of the will of the G.o.ds. A man like Marcus Colonus would naturally have some questions to ask of a young fellow who paid no more attention to old rules and ceremonies than a wild hawk. The youth intended to answer as many of these questions as he could, before they were asked.

"A long time ago," Romulus began, his dark eyes fixed thoughtfully on the leaping flames, "when my brother and I were boys, Faustulus the shepherd took us farther from our pastures than we had ever been before. We came to a place after much wandering, where all the people were making holiday.

When we asked, being still youths and curious, what holiday it was, they said it was the day of the founding of the city.

"They knew the name and the history of the founder of the city, who came from a far country with his people, and was led by a wolf to the place where the city was to be. Although he had long been dead, he was remembered and loved. The priest said that his spirit was often with them and blessed them when they did right. He was to them a kind father, who never forgets his children.

"Then, not understanding how one man could found a city, I asked the priest, and he told me that the city was not a mere crowd of people, but the home of the G.o.ds and of the ancestors of the people, as a house is the home of a man. The unseen dwellers by the fireside require not great houses, but when the fire is kept burning they love it as do the living.

Then I watched and saw the processions, and the dancing, and heard the chanting of songs and the sacred music, and all that was done in honor of the founder. I saw that the city was the home of a man, living or dead, forever and ever. Then I said, 'When I am a man, I will found a city in the place where the wolf saved our lives when we were children.' My brother laughed, and I, being angry, knocked him down. I wanted to kill him in that moment. But the priest told me that there must never be quarreling on a feast day, because it brought ill luck. I was afraid that the founder of the city saw me and was angry. I went away. But from that time I have always wished to found a city in this place, and for that reason I was glad when your people came and I could lead them here."

Colonus found this story a touching one. It showed a reverence and affection for the things he had not known, which he was glad to see in this strong young man.

"And that is your secret desire?" he said, smiling.

"That is my dream," said Romulus. And he looked at the older man with eyes that had a question in them.

"If you are to found a city here," said Colonus slowly, "Mars must lead you as he leads us. If our young men fight in your battles, your men must come and live with us and wors.h.i.+p our G.o.ds and obey our laws. That is what a city means. How will these things be, Romulus, son of the Ramnes, son of the wolf?"

"My men will go where I go," said Romulus briefly. "This also is in my mind, my uncle, and you shall tell me whether it is a wise plan or the hasty vision of youth. There are many in the army of Amulius, my uncle, who hate him as much as they fear him. He suspects that we are the children he tried to murder, and will try to hunt us down and make the people we have protected betray us. Perhaps they will fight for themselves if they will not fight for us; I do not know. But there is not one among my men," the youth lifted his dark head in high confidence, "who follows me from any other reason than because he wishes. They do not all love me,"

he added, with a grin that showed his sharp white teeth, "but I am their leader and they will die fighting before they will yield to Amulius.

"If then I lead my men boldly against Amulius, not waiting for him to be ready, not staying until he sends his slaves to hunt me down, not letting him hear of our coming till we are there, I think that we may succeed, and then will the land be freed. He himself is old and has not led men to war for many years. I think that many in his army will refuse to fight against us, and others will yield without much fighting, and when we have come and taken his city, the people who obey him now will be glad. But my grandfather is still alive, and he, and not my brother nor myself, has the right to rule upon the Long White Mountain.

"When my grandfather is again ruler where he has the right, then would I come here and found my own city in my own place where the she-wolf saved our lives. Was she not the servant of Mars?"

Colonus nodded thoughtfully. "It would seem so."

"Then shall my people be your people, and your G.o.ds my G.o.ds," said Romulus, his clear voice cutting the rest like the call of a trumpet. The young people on the other side of the square looked curiously at the two, the young man and the older one, so deep in talk, and Remus, laughing, began to play again. It was a sweet and piercing measure that set all their feet flying.

Colonus stood up and took his young kinsman by the hand. "You are of our blood," he said, "and your fight is our fight. We have talked of this among us, and have thought that perhaps you would do this. I think that our council will be of one mind with me in this matter. The G.o.ds guide you, my son."

XI

THE TAKING OF ALBA LONGA

Never in his life had Romulus felt in his own soul the strength of kins.h.i.+p as he felt it after the colonists agreed to join their forces with his. He had made his men into a fighting force when courage was almost the only virtue they had, but there was no natural comrades.h.i.+p between them as a whole. Here were men of his own people, welded together by all the ties of a boyhood and manhood spent together in one place, and they were ready to stand by him to the death. It seemed to give him a strength more than human. Remus was his brother, but he too was different and did not understand. He was no dreamer; he would have been content to go on all his life a shepherd boy or a soldier. But these men understood; they looked down the road of the years to come and planned for their children and grandchildren. That was why they were willing to let their sons go to fight against the tyrant Amulius under a stranger and a captain of outlaws,-because they saw that in the end the war must be fought, and all the men who could fight were needed.

There were anxious days in the settlement by the yellow river, after the young men marched away. Even if Romulus won the victory, perhaps there would be some who would not come back. And if he failed, the first the colonists would know of it would be an army coming to kill or enslave them all.

Not quite a month after the departure of the little fighting force the watchmen on the wall saw far away on the plain a single running figure. At first they could not be sure who it was. The word flew about the colony and soon the people were gathered wherever they could get a view of the running man. It was toward evening; the long shadows stretched over the level ground, and the red sunset made the still waters look like pools of blood. Everything was very quiet. They could hear the croak and pipe of the frogs, far below at the foot of the hill.

On and on came the racing figure, and now he had caught sight of the people on the hill, for he lifted his arm and waved to them again and again. It was good tidings; that was the meaning of his gesture in their signal language. Many hastened to meet him, but the path down the hill was a winding one and those who stayed where they were heard the news almost as soon. The runner was Caius Cossus, who always outstripped every other lad of his age in the races, and when he came to the foot of the hill he shouted:

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Victory! Vic-to-ry! Romulus forever!"]

"Ai-ya! Victory! Vic-to-ry! Romulus forever!"

His mother began to cry for joy and pride. The other women did not dare to yet. They did not allow themselves to be really glad until the small boys came scampering in ahead of their elders, to be the first to tell. Amulius was dead and Numa ruled in his place, and not one of their own men had been killed. Cossus reached the gate carried on men's shoulders, for he was almost worn out. He had had nothing to eat for several hours, and had been running all the last part of the way, to get home before it was too dark to see.

Caius Cossus lived to be very old, and his long life brought him much honor and happiness, but never again, so long as he lived, did he have so glad a triumph as when he came in at the gate of the little, rude town by the river, and told the story of the fight at Alba Longa to the fathers and mothers who had the best right to be proud of it. It was the first battle the young men of the colony had ever been in, and a great deal would have depended on it in any case. They were strangers, with their reputation for courage and coolness all to make.

When the young messenger had had a chance to get his breath and some food and drink-and the best in the place was none too good for him-he told the story of the campaign from the beginning.

Romulus had separated his force into three companies and sent them toward Alba Longa by three roads and in small groups, not to attract attention, until they were within a few hours' march of the town of the chief. Here they halted, and some of the outlaw band came up with them, carrying new s.h.i.+elds and weapons that had been hidden in a cave until the time came to use them. The place of meeting was a wild rocky place where not even goats could have found pasture, and here Romulus made a brief speech giving them their orders. Fortune, he said, always favored those who were loyal to the G.o.ds. Amulius was loyal to nothing; he was a liar, a thief and a coward, and the invisible powers of heaven were arrayed against him. He was not afraid that any of his followers would offend the G.o.ds. Whatever else they had done, they had not bullied the weak or robbed the poor, or turned their backs on the strong, or violated the holy places of any city. They were to go forward in the faith that the stars of heaven would fight for them and against the armies of Amulius.

Some of the country people were there to serve as guides. There was a way around the city to the back, where the wall was not so high, and Remus and his party would go first and come around that way. The colonists were to swing to the left, where a road branched off, and come up toward the gate where the barracks were. Romulus himself with his own men would attack the main gate just after dawn and push his way in while the troops were partly distracted to the left and to the rear. When he gave the signal, a triple drum roll, the colonists were to give back as if they were retreating, and follow his men in at the main gate and bar it after them. He would send a part of his men toward the west gate to take the troops in the rear, and if they could drive the enemy out and hold that gate, the city would be in Romulus' hands.

It all went as it was planned. The headlong rush of the young chief and his men, who were as active and sinewy as cats, took them through the main gate and over the walls almost at the same moment. They had brought slim tree trunks with the nubs of the branches left on, for ladders, and rawhide ropes on which they could swarm up over the walls in half a dozen places at a time. The soldiers were completely taken by surprise, and many surrendered at once. The invaders were in the public square and pus.h.i.+ng into the palace of the chief almost before the bewildered and terrified people found out what had happened. Romulus himself was the first to enter the private rooms of Amulius, and there he found the old chief dying from a spear wound in the breast. The captain of his guard had killed him and then offered his sword to Romulus in the hope of being the first to gain favor.

"A man who is false to one master will be false to two," said Romulus, with a flash like lightning in his dark eyes. He ordered the captain bound and turned over to his grandfather, when he should arrive, for judgment.

This was not the sort of timber he wanted for an army. If the captain had surrendered, it would have been very well, but to kill his master in his room, unarmed, for a reward, was black treachery, and it was not the young chieftain's plan to encourage either traitors or cowards.

From the steps of the palace he sent the triple drum roll sounding through the gray light of a rainy morning, and heard it answered by the battle shout of the young men of the colony, as they came charging into the gate, and by the shrill piercing music of the pipes from the company Remus led.

The three companies met in the square, keeping order and rank as if it were a game, and as they saw their leader standing in the doorway in the red flame of the torches, they shouted the triple shout of victory.

Standing there in his armor, above the savage confusion, the white faces of the people uplifted to him from the crowded streets, he looked every inch a chieftain. He beckoned his brother to his side, and lifted his sword, and all was still.

"Ye who know what Amulius did in the days of his brother Numa," he began, "know now that he is dead.