Darkness and Dawn; Or, Scenes in the Days of Nero. An Historic Tale Read online

  CHAPTER III

  _INSTRUMENTA IMPERII_

  ‘It is the curse of kings to be attended By slaves who take their humours for a warrant To break into the bloody house of life.’

  SHAKESPEARE, _King John_.

  The autumn twilight had by this time faded, but one silver lamp,standing on a slab of softly glowing marble, shed a dim light throughthe room when the freedman was ushered into it. He was a man ofportly presence, and of demeanour amazingly haughty for one who hadonce bawled ‘Sea-urchins for sale!’ in the Subura, and come over thesea from his native Arcadia with his feet chalked as a common slave.His immense wealth, his influence over the Emperor, and his advocacyof the claims of Agrippina to her uncle’s hand, together with thehonours bestowed upon him by the mean adulation of the Senate, hadraised him to the pinnacle of his power. Agrippina had stooped to thelowest depths to purchase his adherence, and now there was absoluteconfidence between them. He was ready to betray the too-indulgentmaster who had raised him from the dust and heaped upon him gifts andprivileges, for which the noblest Consul might have sighed in vain.

  Pallas was in a grave mood. The air was full of portents. A tale wason every lip among the common people that a pig had been born withthe talons of a hawk. A swarm of bees had settled on the top of theCapitol. The tents and standards of the soldiers had been struckwith fire from heaven. In that year a quæstor, an ædile, a tribune, aprætor, and a consul had all died within a few months of each other.Claudius had nominated two consuls, but had only nominated them for asingle month. Had he misgivings about his approaching fate? Agrippinawas not superstitious, and she listened to these stories of the Greekfreedman with the indifference of disdain. But it was far otherwisewhen he told her that Narcissus had been heard to utter verydangerous speeches. He had said that whether Britannicus or Nerosucceeded, he himself was doomed to perish. Britannicus wouldhate him as the man who had brought about the death of his motherMessalina. Nero would hate him, because he had opposed his adoption,and the marriage of his mother to the Emperor, both which events hadbeen achieved by the rival influence of Pallas. Still Narcissus wasfaithful to his kind master, and Britannicus was the Emperor’s son.The freedman had been seen to embrace Britannicus; he had spoken ofhim as the ‘true image of Claudius;’ had stretched forth his handsnow to him and now to heaven, and had prayed ‘that the boy might growspeedily to man’s estate, and drive away the enemies of his father,even if he also took vengeance on the slayer of his mother.’

  Agrippina listened to this report with anxious disquietude, andPallas told her further that lately the Emperor had often pressedBritannicus and Octavia to his heart; had spoken of their wrongs;had declared that they should not be ousted from their place in hisaffections by the crafty and upstart son of such a wretch as DomitiusAhenobarbus, of whom it might be said, as the orator Licinius Crassussaid of his ancestor, ‘No wonder his beard was of brass, since histongue was of iron, and his heart of lead.’ Claudius often repeatedhimself, and when he saw his son he had several times used the Greekproverb, ? ?????? ??? ???????, ‘he who wounded shall also heal you.’

  But worse news followed, and Agrippina grasped the side of her couchwith an impulse of terror, when, last of all, Pallas told her that,on that very evening, the Emperor, in his cups, had been heard tomutter to some of his intimates ‘that he more than suspected thedesigns of his wife; and that it had always been his destiny to bearthe flagitious conduct of his consorts for a time, but at last toavenge it.’

  As she heard these words Agrippina stood up, her arms outstretched,her fine nostril dilated, her whole countenance inflamed with rageand scorn. ‘The dotard!’ she exclaimed, ‘the miserable, drivelling,drunken dotard! He to speak thus of me! Pallas, the hour for delayis over. It is time to act. But,’ she added, ‘Narcissus is stillhere. He loves his master; he watches over him with sleeplessvigilance. I dare attempt nothing while he remains about the Court.’

  ‘He is crippled with the gout,’ answered Pallas. ‘He suffersexcruciating agony. He cannot hold out much longer. I told him thatyou strongly recommended him to try the sulphur baths of Sinuessa.He is nearly certain to take the hint. In a week or two at the latesthe will ask leave of absence, for his life is a torture.’

  ‘Good!’ whispered the Empress; and then, dropping her voice to awhisper, she hissed into the ear of the freedman, ‘Claudius mustnot live.’

  ‘You need not drop your voice, Augusta,’ said Pallas. ‘No slave isnear. I placed one of my own attendants in the corridor, and forbadehim on pain of death to let anyone approach your chamber.’

  ‘You ventured to tell him that?’ asked Agrippina, amazed at thefreedman’s boldness.

  ‘Not to _tell_ him that,’ answered Pallas. ‘Do you suppose that Iwould degrade myself by speaking to one of my own slaves, or evenof my own freedmen--I who, as the senate truly says, am descendedfrom Evander and the ancient kings of Arcadia, though I deign to beamong Cæsar’s servants? No! a look, a sign, a wave of the hand issufficient command from me. If anything more is wanted I write itdown on my tablets. I rejoice--as I told the senate when they offeredme four million sesterces--to serve Cæsar and retain my poverty.’

  ‘The insolent thrall!’ thought Agrippina; ‘and he says this to me whoknow that he was one of the common slaves of Antonia, the Emperor’smother, and still has to conceal under his hair the holes bored inhis ears. And he talks of his _poverty_ to me, though I know as wellas he does how he has amassed sixty million sesterces by robbery infourteen years!’ But she instantly concealed the disdainful smilewhich flitted across her lips, and repeated in a low voice, ‘Claudiusmust die!’

  ‘The plan has its perils,’ said the freedman.

  ‘Not if it remains unknown to the world,’ she replied. ‘And who willdare to reveal it, when they know that to allude to it is death?’

  ‘If you are the daughter of the beloved Germanicus,’ he said, ‘theEmperor is his brother. The soldiers would never rise against him.’

  ‘I did not think of the Prætorians,’ said Agrippina. ‘There are othermeans. In the prison beneath this palace is one who will help me.’

  ‘Locusta?’ whispered Pallas, with an involuntary shudder. ‘But theEmperor has a _prægustator_ who tastes every dish and every cup.’

  ‘Yes! The eunuch Halotus,’ answered Agrippina. ‘He is in my pay; hewill do my bidding.’

  ‘But Claudius also has a physician.’

  ‘Yes! The illustrious Xenophon of Cos,’ answered the Empress, with ameaning smile.

  Pallas raised his hands, half in horror, half in admiration. Carelessof every moral consideration, he had never dipped his hands in blood.He had lived in the midst of a profoundly corrupt society from hisearliest youth. He knew that poisonings were frequent amid the gildedwickedness and hollow misery of the Roman aristocracy. He knew thatthey had been far from infrequent in the House of Cæsar, and thatEudemus, the physician of Drusus, son of the Emperor Tiberius, hadpoisoned his lord. Yet before the cool hardihood of Agrippina’scriminality he stood secretly appalled. Would it not have been betterfor him, after all, to have followed the example of Narcissus, and tohave remained faithful to his master? How long would he be necessaryto the Empress and her son? And when he ceased to be useful, whatwould be his fate?

  Agrippina read his thoughts in his face, and said, ‘I suppose thatClaudius is still lingering over the wine cup. Conduct me back tohim. Acerronia, my lady-in-waiting, will follow us.’

  ‘He has been carried to his own room,’ said Pallas; ‘but if you wishto see him, I will attend you.’

  He led the way, and gave the watchword of the night to the Prætorianguards and their officer, Pudens. The room of the Emperor was onlyacross the court, and the slaves and freedmen and pages who keptwatch over it made way for the Augusta and the all-powerful freedman.

  ‘The Emperor still sleeps,’ said the groom of the chamber as theyentered.

  ‘Good,’ answered Agrippina. ‘You may depart. We hav
e business totransact with him, and will await his wakening. Give me the lamp.Acerronia will remain without.’

  The slave handed her a golden lamp richly chased, and left thechamber. There on a couch of citron-wood lay the Emperor, overcome,as was generally the case in the evening, with the quantities ofstrong wine he had drunk. His breathing was deep and stertorous; histhin grey hairs were dishevelled; his purple robe stained, crumpled,and disordered. His mouth was open, his face flushed; the laurelwreath had fallen awry over his forehead, and, in the imbecileexpression of intoxication, every trace of dignity and noblenesswas obliterated from his features.

  They stood and looked at him under the lamp which Agrippina upliftedso that the light might stream upon his face.

  ‘Sot and dotard!’ she exclaimed, in low tones, but full of scorn andhatred. ‘Did not his own mother, Antonia, call him “a portent of aman”? I am not surprised that my brother Gaius once ordered him to beflung into the Rhone; or that he and his rude guests used to slap himon the face, and pelt him with olives and date-stones when he fellasleep at the table. I have often seen them smear him with grapejuice, and draw his stockings over his hands, that he might rub hisface with them when he awoke! To think that such a man should belord of the world, when my radiant Nero, so young, so beautiful, sogifted, might be seated on his throne for all the world to admireand love!’

  ‘The Emperor has learning,’ said Pallas, looking on him with pity.‘His natural impulses are all good. He has been a very kind andindulgent master.’

  ‘He ought never to have been Emperor at all,’ she answered,vehemently. ‘That he is so is the merest accident. We owe no thanksto the Prætorian Gratus, who found him hidden behind a curtain onthe day that my brother Gaius was murdered, and pulled him out by thelegs: still less thanks to that supple intriguing Jew, Herod Agrippa,who persuaded the wavering senate to salute him Emperor. Why, all hislife long he has been a mere joke. Augustus called him “a poor littlewretch,” and as a boy he used to be beaten by a common groom.’

  ‘He has been a kind master,’ said the freedman once more; and as hespoke he sighed.

  The Empress turned on him. ‘Will you dare to desert me?’ she said.‘Do you not know that, at this moment, Narcissus has records andletters in his possession which would hand me over to the fate ofMessalina, and you to the fate of the noble C. Silius?’

  ‘I desert you not,’ he answered, gloomily; ‘I have gone too far. Butit is dangerous for us to remain alone any longer. I will retire.’

  He bowed low and left the room, but before he went out he turned andsaid, very hesitatingly, ‘He is safe with you?’

  ‘Go!’ she answered, in a tone of command. ‘Agrippina does not use thedagger; and there are slaves and soldiers and freedmen at hand, whowould come rushing in at the slightest sound.’

  She was alone with Claudius, and seeing that it would be many hoursbefore he woke from his heavy slumber, she gently drew from hisfinger the beryl, engraved with an eagle--the work of Myron--which hewore as his signet ring. Then she called for Acerronia, and, throwingover her face and figure a large veil, bade her show the ring to thecenturion Pudens, and tell him to lead them towards the entrance ofthe Palace prisons, as there was one of the prisoners whom she wouldsee.

  Pudens received the order and felt no surprise. He who had anythingto do with the Palace knew well that the air of it was tremulouswith dark intrigues. He went before them to the outer door of thesubterranean cells, and unlocked it. Even within the gate slaves wereon guard; but, although no one recognised the veiled figure, a glanceat the signet ring sufficed to make them unlock for her the cell inwhich Locusta was confined.

  Agrippina entered alone. By a lamp of earthernware sat the womanwho had played her part in so many crimes. She was imprisoned onthe charge of having been concerned in various murders, but in thoseawful times she was too useful to be put to death. The phials andherbs which had been her stock-in-trade were left in her possession.

  ‘I need,’ said the Empress, in a tone of voice which she hardly tookthe trouble to disguise, ‘a particular kind of poison: not one todestroy life too suddenly; not one which will involve a lingeringillness; but one which will first disturb the intellect, and so bringdeath at last.’

  ‘And who is it that thus commands?’ asked Locusta, lifting up to hervisitor a face which would have had some traces of beauty but for itshard wickedness. ‘It is not to everyone that I supply poisons. Whoknows but what you may be some slave plotting against our lord andmaster, Claudius? They who use me must pay me, and I must have mywarrant.’

  ‘Is that warrant enough?’ said Agrippina, showing her the signet ring.

  ‘It is,’ said Locusta, no longer doubtful that her visitor was, asshe had from the first suspected, the Empress herself. ‘But whatshall be my reward, Aug--’

  ‘Finish that word,’ said the Empress, ‘and you shall die on the rackto-morrow. Fear not, you shall have reward enough. For the presenttake this;’ and she flung upon the table a purse full of gold.

  Suspiciously yet greedily the prisoner seized it, and opening it withtrembling fingers saw how rich was her guerdon. She went to a chestwhich lay in the corner of the room and, bending over it with thelamp, produced a small box, in which lay some flakes and powder ofa pale yellow colour.

  ‘This,’ she said, ‘will do what you desire. Sprinkle it over anywell-cooked dish, and it will not be visible. A few flakes of itwill cause first delirium, then death. It has been tested.’

  Without a word Agrippina took it, and, slightly waving her hand,glided out of the cell. Acerronia awaited her, and Pudens again wentbefore them towards the apartments of the Empress and her ladies.