Septimius

“ Septimius, the rather disagreeable hero of his last romance, is a peculiar example of a similar change. Brought up under the strict discipline of New England, he has retained the love of musing upon insoluble mysteries, though he has abandoned the old dogmatic guide-posts. When such a man finds that the orthodox scheme of the universe provided by his official pastors has somehow broken down with him, he forms some audacious theory of his own, and is perhaps plunged into an unhallowed revolt against the Divine order. ”

“ The poet was compelled to write by a sort of violent importunity, which yet is not inexcusable in Septimius, persuaded as he was of our author's interest with Tiberius. There is through the whole letter a certain happy mixture of that manly zeal, which a friend has a right to demand, and that modest respect due to a great prince. It may be a pleasure to the reader to know, that it had all the success it deserved, for Septimius was afterward honored with the confidence and affection both of Tiberius and Augustus. ”

“ Of all the men in the world Septimius surely, O Claudius, knows how much regard you have for me. For when he requests, and by his entreaties in a manner compels me, to undertake to recommend and introduce him to you, as one worthy of the confidence and the household of Nero, who is wont to choose deserving objects, thinking I discharge the office of an intimate friend; he sees and knows better than myself what I can do. ”

“ Now, having started off on a good omen,
they love and are loved like-mindedly.
Poor little Septimius prefers Acme alone
to Syria and Britain:
the faithful Acme finds pleasure
and desire in Septimius alone.
Who has seen any one happier,
who has seen a more blessed love? ”

“ They lived in Lalldab; one all his life; but Septimius originally came from Auth.
Alcander was the most eloquent speaker in Lalldab; Septimius, the best author in Auth. Septimius was most inclined to be good concerning generosity; Alcander concerning wisdom. Septimius, seeing a young lady, fell in love with her himself, and that rather affected his spirits: and when he recovered, he got into his own generous way again; but unfortunately for him, poor man! it happened that his generosity was too great: for it presently brought him into an illness, in which he died ”

“ Practically the empire had been at peace within itself for two hundred years. Now for a hundred years the student of Roman history must master the various criminology of a number of inadequate emperors, while the frontier crumbled and receded under barbarian pressure. One or two names only seem to be the names of able men: such were Septimius Severus, Aurelian, and Probus. Septimius Severus was a Carthaginian, and his sister was never able to master Latin. She conducted her Roman household in the Punic language, which must have made Cato the elder turn in his grave. ”

“ Again, Dion assumes that Marcia did not die until Septimius was appointed Governor of Lyonese Gaul about the year 187, so that her husband could only have been playing with astrology, wise prophets, and other things against the time when the obex to solid matrimony should be removed. Possibly even Dion is referring — when he drags in the Empress Faustine — to Septimius' first marriage, or, as has been suggested, the whole thing was a dream of either Septimius or Dion, probably both, as both were much addicted to such proceedings. ”

“ The search was fruitless, as Lepidus had fully expected; and he commanded Petamon again to be brought before him. “Sir Priest,” he said, “I seek Septimius the Centurion, who is or was in your hands; unless he is restored before to-morrow’s sun sinks in the west, you die the death.”
“It is well,” said the priest, while the mock submission of his attitude was belied by the sinister fire of his eye; “the gods can protect their own.” ”

“ On the ancient Via Septimiana (p. 287) , about a hundred yards farther, rises the *Arch of Septimius Severus, with its three passages, bereft of its columns and attica.
The High Road ascends past the remains (on the left) of a Roman Burial Ground, with the substructures of an Early Christian Chapel, under the ciborium altar of which are two martyrs’ tombs. After a long bend to the N. it reaches (9 M. from Batna) Markouna (about 4260 ft.) , a country-house surrounded by fruit-trees, cypresses, and pines, not far from the site of the little Roman town of Verecunda. ”

“ By this time, the Egyptian boat drew near, and Septimius standing up first, saluted Pompey in the Latin tongue, by the title of imperator. Then Achillas, saluting him in the Greek language, desired him to come aboard his vessel, telling him, that the sea was very shallow towards the shore, and that a galley of that burden could not avoid striking upon the sands. At the same time they saw several of the king's galleys getting their men on board, and all the shore covered with soldiers ”

“ While Septimius in his arms his Acme
Fondled closely, 'My own,' said he, 'my Acme,
If I love not as unto death, nor hold me
Ever faithfully well-prepar'd to largest
5 Strain of fiery wooer yet to love thee,
Then in Libya, then may I alone in
Burning India face a sulky lion.'
Scarce he ended, upon the right did eager
Love sneeze amity; 'twas before to leftward. ”

“ Septimius Severus died in A.D. 211, and the two Augusti mentioned in the testament were evidently Caracalla and Geta. Caracalla murdered his brother in 212, consequently the date of the testament is fixed between those two years, though the execution of the work may have been a little later. The east façade bears a dedication to Septimius Severus himself. It has a medallion similar to the W. front, of a warrior in armour, resting on a head of the Medusa, representing probably Septimius Severus himself, and the terror which his countenance was supposed to inspire. It runs as follows:—
DIVO . ”

“ Nunsmere lay silent as Bethlehem; and a star hung low in the east. Far away across the common gleamed one solitary light in the vicarage windows; the Vicar, good gentleman, finishing his unruffled sermon while his parish slept. Otherwise darkness spread over everything save the sky. Not a creature on the road, not a creature on the common, not even the lame donkey. Incredibly distant the faint sound of a railway whistle intensified the stillness. Septimus's own footsteps on the crisp grass rang loud in his ears. ”

“ I even trusted Septima on him and he justified my confidence in my training of him and in him. In fact, from being a man-killer who had to be kept penned up in the dark, whom not even the boldest horse-master dare approach, he became so gentle and so trustworthy that he could be let run at large, mild to all human beings, even to strangers. ”

“ She carried it out by appearing one day, when Septimus was taking her for a drive, in the monstrous nightmare of a hat. It is not given to breathing male to appreciate the effort it cost her. She said nothing; neither did he. She sat for two hours in the victoria, enduring the tortures of the uglified, watching him out of the tail of her eye and waiting for a sign of recognition. ”

“ The practical, broad-shouldered, common-sense children [136] of this world would have weighed many things one against the other. They would have taken into account sentimentally, morally, pharisaically, or cynically, according to their various attitudes towards life, the relations between Emmy and Mordaunt Prince which had led to this tragic situation. But for Septimus her sin scarcely existed. When a man is touched by an angel's feather he takes an angel's view of mortal frailties. ”

“ You think I've turned him out because he's a good-natured worry like Bobbie, the bob-tailed sheep dog, and you say, 'Poor fellow, see how pitifully he's wagging his tail. It's cruel of you not to let him in.' That's the way you look at Septimus, and I can't stand it and I won't. I love him as I never dreamed a woman could love a man. I could tear myself into little pieces for him bit by bit. ”

“ My dearest child, if you were so-called 'advanced people' and held all sorts of outrageous views, I might understand you. But you are two very ordinary folk with no views at all. You never had any in your life, and if Septimus had one he would be so terribly afraid of it that he would chain it up. ”

“ It lay in her hand like a bit of destiny, inexorable, unquestionable, silently compelling her forthwith to the human soul that stood in great need of her. Fate had granted the wish she had expressed to the one-eyed geologist. She landed at Marseilles, and sped homeward by the night train, her heart torn with anxiety for Septimus.
All night long the rhythmic clatter of the train shaped itself into the burden of her words to him: "If ever you want me badly, send me the tail, and I'll come to you from any distance." ”

“ He laughed his suggestion away somewhat blusteringly and launched out again on his panegyric of the Cure. But his faith felt a quiver all through its structure, just as a great building does at the first faint shock of earthquake.
"What made you say that about Zora Middlemist?" he asked when he had finished.
"I don't know," replied Septimus. "It seemed to be right to say it. I know when I get things into my head [177] there appears to be room for nothing else in the world. One takes things for granted. When I was a child my father took it for granted that I believed in predestination. ”

“ A bunch of violets at her bosom suggested the fragrant essence of her.
"Oh, it's good to see you, Septimus. It's good!" she cried. "The sight of you makes me feel as if nothing mattered in the world except the people one cares for. How are you?"
"I'm very well indeed," said Septimus. "Full of inventions."
She laughed and guided him up the platform through [248] the cross-traffic of porters carrying luggage from train to cabs.
"Is mother all right?" she asked anxiously.
"Oh, yes," said Septimus.
"And Emmy and the baby?" ”

“ She burst out laughing, and Sypher, who knew all and was anxiously wondering how to save the situation, laughed too.
"My poor, dear Septimus," she said kindly, "I don't believe a word of it. The woman who couldn't get on with you must be a virago. I don't care whether she's my own sister or not, she is treating you abominably."
"But, indeed she's not," pleaded poor Septimus. "We're the best of friends. I really want to live like this. I do. I can't live without Wiggleswick. See how cosy and comfortable he makes me."
Zora looked round, and the cosiness and comfort made her gasp. ”

“ But she fought us so hard that she slipped away from us."
"Oh, Father!" cried Septimine in a voice suffocated with sobs and raising her suppliant hands to the abbot; "order me killed, but spare me the disgrace!"
"Charles," said Father Clement, "this slave girl sought to help the young prince to escape!... Drag her away!" he added to the slaves at the door; "Have her well whipped!" ”

“ The maître d'hôtel, in the pride of reflected glory, conducted her to a table near the window. Septimus trailed inconclusively behind. When he seated himself he stared at her silently in a mute surmise as the gentlemen in the poem did at the peak in Darien. It was even a wilder adventure than the memorable drive. That was but a caprice of the goddess; this was a sign of her friendship. The newness of their intimacy smote him dumb. He passed his hand through his Struwel Peter hair and wondered. ”

“ The baby—he was a rather delicate child considerably undergrown for his age, but a placid, uncomplaining little mortal—looked at Septimus out of his blue and white china eyes and contorted his india-rubber features into a muddle indicative of pleasure, and Septimus smiled cordially at the baby.
"William Octavius Oldrieve Dix," he murmured—an apostrophe which caused the future statesman a paroxysm of amusement—"I am exceedingly glad to see you. I hope you like London. We're great friends, aren't we? And when you grow up, we're going to be greater. ”

“ But the lift man was wrong. No man had a part in her soul's exultation. If Septimus Dix crossed her mind while she was undressing, it was as a grotesque, bearing the same relation to her emotional impression of the night as a gargoyle does to a cathedral. When she went to bed, she slept the sound sleep of youth.
Septimus, after dismissing the cab, wandered in his vague way over to the Café de Paris, instinct suggesting his belated breakfast, which, like his existence, Zora had forgotten. The waiter came. ”

“ Said Sypher: "If I accept this offer I shall have a fair income for the rest of my days. I can go where I like, and do what I like. Not a soul can call my commercial honesty in question. No business man, in his senses, would refuse it. If I decline, I start the world again with empty pockets. What shall I do? Tell me."
"I?" said Septimus, with his usual gesture of diffidence. "I'm such a silly ass in such things."
"Never mind," said Sypher. "I'll do just what you would do."
Septimus reflected, and said, hesitatingly:
"I think I should do what Zora would like. She doesn't mind empty pockets." ”

“ One can't realize everything at once. 'Clem Sypher, Friend of Humanity!' How they must have jeered behind my back if they thought me sincere! How they must have despised me if they thought me nothing but an advertising quack! Zora Middlemist, for heaven's sake tell me what you have thought of me. What have you taken me for—a madman or a charlatan?"
"It is you that must tell me what has happened," said Zora earnestly. "I don't know. Septimus gave me to understand that the Cure had failed. He's never clear about anything in his own mind, and he's worse when he tries to explain it to others." ”