  A rumor, none knew from whom it arose, spread rapidly in whispers, sending a quiver of alarm, distress, pity, through the entire wedding party, reaching last of all him most concerned. None dared breathe in his ear what all feared; but none would separate till it was surely ascertained whether what was surmised was a fact or not. The slaves knew it and looked wistfully at Lamia. He was engaged in making trifling presents to the many guests and well-wishers, moving from one to another, attended by slaves with trays piled up with gifts. Eboracus burst on him, through the throng, forgetting, in his agitation and fear, the diffidence that belonged to his position. “Sir! Where is the mistress?” Lamia, without looking at him, or desisting from what he was about, answered: “Within, being freed from her veil and bridal ornaments.” “Sir! Lucius! she has been stolen from you! she has been carried away.” Lamia stood as one petrified. “How dare you utter such a jest?” [pg 185]“It is no jest—she has been conveyed hence. She is not in your house.” Without another word, Lamia flew into the portion of the house to which Domitia had retired. There all was in confusion. The female slaves were either struck down with terror, or crying out that they were not to blame. “Where is she?” asked Lamia, hardly realizing that there was actual loss, thinking this was some frolic of his young companions, who on such occasions allowed themselves great licence. To add to the confusion, a tame magpie with clipped wing, belonging to the gouty old Lamia, got in the way of every one, and screamed when run over; and the elder man roared out reproach and brandished his crutch when the life of his pet was endangered. Claudia, like a pious woman, had rushed to the lararium to supplicate the assistance of the Gods, especially of Lamius, son of Hercules and Omphale, the reputed half-divine ancestor of the family. Domitia had disappeared.—How?—none could say. She had been spirited away, one said in this manner, another said in that. One held it as his opinion that she had been carried off by some disbanded Vitellian soldiers who were said to lurk about the suburbs of Rome and commit depredations. Some thought that in maiden shyness she had fled home; some whispered that the Gods had translated her; others that a former lover had suborned the servants to admit him, and that he had conveyed her from her husband’s house to his own. But in what direction had she been taken? There again opinions differed, and tongues gave conflicting [pg 186] “What else can be expected when such an ill-omened bird is kept in the house, as a magpie?” Not until all guests, visitors, had been excluded from the house, could anything be learned with certainty, and that was little. During the afternoon, shortly before the arrival of the procession, several male and female slaves had arrived under the direction of a ChaldÆan soothsayer, who announced that he had been sent along with them to the house of the bridegroom by the bride’s mother, the Lady Duilia, and that they formed a portion of Domitia’s attendance, who had been associated with her in her former home, and would be about her person in her new quarters. No suspicion had been roused, and as the Magian spoke with authority, and gave directions, which it was presumed he was commissioned to do, and as old Lamia was crippled with gout and moreover indisposed to attend to such matters, and the old lady was simple to childishness, these strangers were suffered to do much what they pleased; and on the bride retiring to be divested of the flame colored veil, her wreath and other ornaments, had been allowed to take possession of her. What happened further they did not know. In the excitement of the arrival of visitors nothing had been [pg 187] Lamia was obliged to return home, without his anxiety being in any way removed. On reaching his palace on the Coelian, he learned something further. In the room in which Domitia had been divested of her bridal ornaments, which lay scattered in disorder, was a crystal cup that contained the dregs of wine, and this wine was drugged with a powerful narcotic. Of this the slave who acted as house-surgeon and physician was certain. He had tasted it and detected the presence of an opiate. Nothing further could be learned, neither whence came the strange slaves nor whither they had gone. [pg 188]In the mean time a party surrounding a closed litter had passed through the Porta Capena, and was hurrying along the Appian Way. Directly the city was left, a tall man who directed the convoy called a halt;—then approaching the litter, he drew back the curtains, and said:— “Asleep! Two of you take her up, lift her, set her on her feet and rouse her.” He was obeyed and a helpless body was removed, sustained between two stout slaves, and made to stand on the causeway. “Shake her,” said the director, who was none other than the ChaldÆan. “If she sleep on, she will never wake. Roused and made to walk she must be. We need fear no pursuit. I have left those behind who will spread a false rumor, and send such as think she has been carried away along the wrong road. Make her walk.” The helpless girl—it was Domitia—staggered with drowsiness and stumbled. “Let me sleep,” she murmured. “It must not be, lady. To let you sleep is to consign you to death. You must be constrained to walk.” “Let me sleep!” she fretfully said. “If you sleep you die.” “I want to die—only to sleep. I am dead weary.” “Make her move along,” said the sorcerer in a low tone, and the slaves who held her up drew her forward. She scarce moved her feet. “Oh, you are cruel. I want to sleep. An hour! half an hour. For one moment longer!” she pleaded. Still the bearers drew her forward, they did not lift [pg 189] “I pray you! I will give you gold. You shall have all my jewels. Lay me down. Let go your hold, and I will lie where I am, and sleep.” “Draw her further.—Hark! here come horses. Aside! behind that tomb!” The party stole from off the road and secreted itself behind one of the mausoleums that line the sides of the Appian Way. “Shake her—lest she doze off in your arms,” said Elymas, and the slaves obeyed. Then Domitia began to sob. “Have pity! only for a little while, I am so tired. The day has been so long and so wearying.” “They are passed—mere travellers,” said the sorcerer. “Into the road again. Force her to walk.” Then she called, “Lamia—my Lucius! come to me, drive these men away. They will not let me sleep,” and she struggled to free herself, and unable to do so by a spasmodic effort, began to sob, and sobbed herself into a half doze. “She is sleeping. Run with her,” called the Magus. In vain did she weep, entreat, threaten, naught availed, she was forced to advance; now to take a few steps, to rest on her feet, to walk in actuality. The very anger she felt at not being allowed to cast herself down, fold her hands under her head, and drop off into unconsciousness, tended to rouse her. After about half an hour, her entreaties to be allowed to rest became less frequent, and alternated with inquiries as to where she was, whither she was going, why she was forced to walk, and that at night. [pg 190] But where was she? She looked up. The sky was besprent with stars, a sky limpid, tender, vaporless and vast, out of which the stars throbbed with iridescent light in all the changeful flicker of topaz, emerald and ruby. And the air was full of flying stars, in tens of thousands, they settled on rushes by the roadside in chains of fire, they flashed across the eyes, they settled down on the dress; and out of the cool grass shone the steady lustre of innumerable glow-worms. The milky way, like an illumined veil, crossed the vault, vaporous, transparent with stars shining through it. From the black monuments on each side hooted the owls, bats swept by, diving out of night to brush by the passers along the road and plunge back into night, like old forgotten fancies of the dreaming mind, that recur and vanish again, in waking hours. Out of the grass the crickets shrilled, and frogs called with flutelike tones at intervals, whilst others maintained an incessant chatter. Where was she? What were these great fantastic edifices on each side of the road? They were no [pg 191] Then a voice said:— “She is full awake now. There is naught to fear. Let her again mount the litter.” “Elymas!” exclaimed the girl, “I know you, I know your voice. What means this? Whither am I being taken?” “Madam,” said the sorcerer in reply, after a pause, “your own eyes shall answer the question better than my lips, to-morrow.” |
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