Emma Marshall

“ The brave soldier drew a step nearer, and in low husky tones, said:—
“I am here, Hyacintha, I am here!”
A bright smile passed over her face as she said:—
“I have found the true Light, Claudius, the Dayspring from on high. I am going where the Light shall never be put out, and you will come, good Claudius—promise, vow!”
“I will come, God helping me,” he said—“beloved, I will come.”
Then the brightness faded from her face; she became confused, and said in distress, that she had slept, and that the sacred fire was extinguished. Then, with a cry, “The Light! The Light can never be put out.” ”

“ Agatha said. “This is the hand of God. He may desire thy young and vigorous life for service for Him. The means are in His hands. But I pray you, noble Claudius, assure me that this poor lamb, who lieth here so still and cold, met her death by no evil practice.”
“Nay, I know nothing, save that when disturbed in mind as to how I could perform my vow, and escape the anger of the gods, I stumbled on an old whining dog, of the people they call the Jews, crying over his dead child. Here seemed the way for Ebba’s escape, and I took it, and I can sacrifice to the gods to-morrow with a good heart.” ”

“ He came up hither this morning, raving like a beast in the arena. He seized me by the robe, and poured forth a string of epithets I will not repeat. He accused me of conniving at the poor slave’s flight, of contaminating my sister, of being the laughing-stock of all Verulam, a poltroon, a fool, and I know not what beside. He swore by all the gods that I should be placed under Burrhus to fight as a true Roman should if the Emperor sends out a legion to one of the insubordinate provinces. And I, oh! Claudius, I loathe fighting. I hate bloodshed. I crave for peace. ”

“ And as if that life of which she spoke had already begun, Hyacintha raised herself on her cushions and said, with all her old fire and earnestness:—
“In that silver coffer, child, are the precious Books—the Word of Life. The holy father Eusebius has from time to time furnished me with those Books. For many years I could not let the whole beautiful fabric of my earthly life slip from me. The struggle between the old faith and the new—rather between the false and the true—has been a fierce one to me. I have travailed in soul in the temple in the lonely watches of the night. ”

“ Claudius shook his head.
“The mountain top is but a barren waste to her, I fear. She has much trouble, and her elevation is dearly bought.”
“Sit down and tell me all,” Casca said. “Ah! good Claudius, it is like a draught of new wine to see you. Strange that when you entered I was going over the past—the little chamber at Verulam, Hyacintha sitting by my side, and your loud ringing voice bidding me meet life as a man, and not as a coward. Brave advice, whether for the scholar or soldier, eh, good Claudius?” ”

“ Ah, my child, happiness is like the bow across the wide Campagna. You see its many-coloured arch and hasten to reach it, and, lo! it is gone; the nearer you think you get to it, the further it seems. But the gods are kind to us poor mortals, and our goddess Vesta does not forget us. You are but a child, a young child,” Lucia said, surveying Hyacintha as she stood up before her in a loose underrobe, with all her marvellously lovely hair gone, and the little slender figure, beautifully formed, giving the appearance of extreme youth. ”

“ Claudius, like many another man who has loved as a pure, good man only can love, seemed carried into eloquence by the force of the feeling within him.
He knelt for a moment at Hyacintha’s feet, took her hand and kissed it, and the next moment he was gone.
The awakening had come for the Vestal on the very eve of her full admission to the duties she had so longed for: that awakening comes to most of us; and there was never a true and good woman who could lightly esteem the devotion of a noble-hearted man. ”

“ Hyacintha said, “I feel but little worthy to take the honour upon me; but my heart rejoices to have the longing of years fulfilled.”
“And thou hast no sad misgivings, dear child—no longings for the ordinary lot of woman to trouble thee; the home of the matron, the prattle of children’s [179] voices, the maternal joy and pride which we vestals can never know.”
Hyacintha’s pure untroubled face was raised to that of her friend as she answered—
“Nay, I have no such longings; I am contented, nay, thankful, to be free from all those cares which harass the life of many a woman.” ”

“ Hyacintha must die and pass away from the temple; her beauty must fade, her powers fail; death would not spare the vestal virgin any more than the humblest peasant woman, like those who had knelt with bowed heads and uplifted hands before the priest, when he had given thanks for their preservation from the lions.
Yes, death must pass on all men, and Anna, the British slave, had been very near death; but she looked beyond, to the crowd of invisible witnesses, to Jesus, who had, so the priest said, “Overcome death, and opened the gates of the kingdom.” ”

“ Claudius asked sadly. “I know that if I were to draw a picture of all, that after only a short residence, I see in Rome, you would not be content. The wife and daughter of Diocletian have been foully murdered. Think you not that the blood of the Christian matrons and maidens who fell under the ban of the Emperor did not cry for vengeance, and that the cry was answered by their destruction?”
“The innocent suffering for the guilty? Nay,” said Hyacintha, with a light laugh; “if the God whom you worship decrees such judgment, He is not worthy of love.” ”

“ For life here without Him is darkness, and life there without Him is a dread void. What did stripes and persecution weigh in the balance, when the future exceeding glory and joy were on the other side! Then he went on to speak of Alban, and the soldier who died with him, rather than live without him, and to bid all those present to encourage each other in steadfastness and courage. ”

“ Hyacintha drew closer to Ebba, and said, in a low tone—
“Tell me, Ebba, are they going to see the man killed? I wish you would speak, and,” she murmured, “tell me all you know.”
“If I were to tell you that,” the young Briton said, “I should be seized and tortured; and I am not ready to confess my faith.”
“Thy faith? Is not thy faith to believe that the gods are above, and watch over men; and that if men and women submit to their decrees they are protected and safe.” ”

“ Wherefore such dolorous looks, young Casca? I am in the highest spirits. What think you? I am chosen for the race to-morrow, and I will win, too. Your pardon, fair Hyacintha. I did not perceive you in the shadow of the curtain. What ails you, Casca?”
[27] “Weariness of myself and life, that is all,” the boy said; “you are in its full zest and enjoyment, while I——”
“Pish! what folly! The best time is coming. Why, as soon as you wear the toga virilis you will feel the man. ”

“ I have a longing to see Rome. Thou knowest I went thither as a little child, with my dear father, and nurse, and dear good old Claudius. I pray thee, do not refuse me my prayer. I have a dim dreamy memory of my beautiful aunt, the Vestal Maxima, who died in the faith of Christ. I should like to see the place where she lived, and the spring on the Cælian Hill, where Claudius said she looked like an angel, as she filled her vase from the pure fountain. ”

“ I know many of our people have been massacred. We have peace now, but I see—I see in the distance, when I am dead—I see the legions of the North Sea conquering, trampling down our faith as yours, and wading through the blood of Druid and Christian alike. We are peaceful, and there are many of the sick and the stricken in body, even lepers, who come to us, and not in vain, for cure. ”

“ My aunt loved Him. Anna loves Him, and so does good Claudius. Father adores Him; he does not say he loves Him.”
Hermione turned away her face. She was like thousands in those days of persecution, struggling out of the shadows into the light; scarcely prepared to give up all for Christ, and yet yearning after Him with that tender yearning which is the aspiration of the soul for One who, though unseen, it loves. ”

“ But if it requires a strong effort of the imagination to call back the individual life of the men and women who flocked to the resorts of pleasure and business in the Forum and the Circus, it is almost more difficult to realise the buried life of Rome at that time, which, nevertheless, was as a spark to be kindled into a light that should cast its bright beams over the world, when the splendour of the great Empire, with all its false brilliancy, should have sunk in gloom and darkness. ”

“ While he—there was light in his eye, there was a ring of victory in his voice, and no wonder that the executioner refused to perform his office, and died with Alban rather than see him die by his hand. I say, there must be something grand and noble in the faith which can give a man courage not only to meet death, but to welcome it, to court it, and to see beyond it, instead of darkness, light.”
“Yes,” said Claudius, “but remember, my good Casca, that thousands of Romans, tens of thousands of Greeks, aye, and of our own poor Britons also, have met death as bravely as this man Alban did. ”

“ I am as one who has been toying with flowers in the valley, contented with the flowers, and thinking of nothing above them, and then suddenly lifted on a mountain top, whence there lies stretched out a lovely landscape, and a voice tells me it is mine, that I reign over it, and that the blue arch of heaven above me encircles me with love. Yes, Hermione, as by a miracle your little Cynthia has forgotten her childish days, and has come into possession of her inheritance as a woman. ”

“ Woe is me! that ever I left my own people; but I was tempted to come in the train of a Roman, with wife and daughter and two noble boys. All, all are dead—and I—whither shall I flee?”
“Get out of Britain as fast as may be,” said Claudius, “and take this maiden as your daughter. Make for the coast, and board a ship which is to cross to Gaul; here are nine gold pieces for thy pouch.”
“But my daughter, my Rachel!” moaned the old man. “Wilt thou give her body burial—burial, not heathenish burning? Vow, young man.” ”

“ There is a difference in our bodies—thine and mine, to wit”—and Claudius stretched out his young, muscular arm, bronzed and bare, from under the loose sleeve of his toga virilis, which was indeed a contrast to the white, slender arm of his companion. “There is a difference, my good Casca, in the make and build of men, aye, and of women too, and it is the same with their natures. Some are brave as lions, others as timid as sheep. Christian or Roman, Greek or Briton, it is the same.” ”

“ All earthly things fade and vanish, but that Crown fadeth not away. Ah! I am glad I am a Christian!”
And now the shadow of the Great Past closes over those whose lives, or rather the fragments of whose lives, we have followed through long years in this little story. The silence which throws its mantle like a veil over the ruins of the temple and the atrium of the Vestals cannot be broken.
The statues of the Vestales Maximæ stand like voiceless messengers from that time of darkness—a darkness which was, as we know, the darkness before the dawn. ”

“ Claudius, I think often of all the great dead, the old Greeks, their brave soldiers, their wise philosophers, Socrates and Plato, Aristides and Themistocles. Their poets and their heroes, all alike gone—gone as the man yesterday went on the hill-top—gone, and whither? If it be true that there is another life, what is that life? I torture myself [51] with questions, and I know that if I were led out to die as Alban was, I should shiver and tremble, aye, and pray for mercy. ”

“ In the old Rome, which is so continually brought to the surface from the covering dust of centuries, there can scarcely be a figure round which so much interest might be supposed to gather as round the nameless statue of the Vestal, whose story imagination may supply in many colours and in many forms—each one, for himself, as he stands before it, may clothe it as he will. ”

“ One slave, more or less, was not of very great moment to a wealthy proprietor. And the slave herself, unless, as in the case of Ebba, who had suited the whims of her mistress, was scarcely missed.
Junia was a bold, dark-eyed girl, with the free and confident manner which was sufficiently dangerous in a society like that in which she moved. She was conscious that her British extraction on one side placed her on a lower level than the proud Roman ladies of Verulam, but if conscious of it, she never showed it, and was perfectly unabashed and self confident. ”

“ We are, naturally perhaps, too apt to think of those of whom we read in these distant ages, as myths rather than as the brothers and sisters of the one great family of God, to which we all belong. Their human hearts beat with the same affections as ours, and through the mists of superstition and ignorance the lamp of an undying love shines out here and there, as a light in a dark place. ”

“ It is truly like the brawling of a brook down the hill-side. Peace, and return to your tasks.”
Dazed and bewildered, Hyacintha suffered Lucia to lead her away, but when on the other side of the purple curtain she began to breathe more freely.
“You are tired, child, and need rest,” Lucia said. “See, I will measure you for a stole, and cut off your hair, and then you shall have a refreshing bath, and lie on one of the couches till it is time for supper. After that meal is over I will fit your garments again on you, and at dawn you shall be taken to the door of the temple to meet the priest.” ”

“ She cannot speak of her faith, which has slowly risen like the sun upon her soul, and dispersed the darkness. She may and does love those around her as her children, but she cannot talk openly with them, lest haply they should be condemned and punished with a punishment even more severe than that which might fall on her. But delay your departure if you will—it is not for a rough soldier like me to enter into the reasons which a subtle and learned scholar may have for remaining here. ”

“ Casca did not reply, but little Cynthia, looking up at the Vestal with her clear wondering eyes, said:—
“She is going to God. Anna says that dead people are only gone to God.”
Hermione stooped, and raising the child in her arms, motioned to Casca to follow her. Anna’s wistful face seemed to ask that she might also come, but Claudius turned away, and going to the porta, stood leaning against the stone columns which supported it, where the lictors in charge of the Vestals for that morning, coming and going, also stood with quiet unmoved faces, as if carved in marble like the statues behind them. ”

“ Nay, this day is my happy day, the day when I, who have been for near ten years training under the care of the sacred virgins, have my lot appointed me to minister in the temple and sprinkle the shrine with this pure water, which I have been allowed to draw myself alone at dawn for the first time. To-morrow is our glad festival, and we shall walk through the city in a long procession, and to-night I shall for the first time keep watch alone in the temple. It is a great and wonderful thing to be a vestal! ”

“ Hyacintha said, “and gazing, as I have done since I was quite a child, at the figures of the past Vestals which stand there. I have often spoken to them. I feel almost as if I knew them all and their histories, as you have told them. I do know Flavia Publicia who has all the praises, and I cannot wonder, so gracious, [180] so beautiful is her face. But I love almost best the face of Vibidia, who, as you have told me, so generously protected poor Messalina. That is a grand deed of any one to be remembered—it is so beautiful, dearest lady, to protect the weak.” ”

“ Hyacintha turned quickly from her contemplation of the water, and said, brightly—
“Nay, but Casca, there are brave and courageous ones who follow the old faith; you forget that everyone is not sad, and——”
“A coward like me”—Casca finished the sentence. “A coward like me! Well, little sister, you have courage enough for both. I hate bloodshed.”
“Oh, Casca! Think you that I love to see it? When my mother made me sit with her, when the wild boars and bulls were let loose on those poor slaves in the arena at Verulam, I hid my eyes. It is not that sort of courage I mean. ”