Perpetua. A Tale of Nimes in A.D. 213 Page 3

  CHAPTER III

  BAUDILLAS, THE DEACON

  The chain of priests and priestesses could not restrain the mob, thatthrust forward to the great basin, to see the result.

  Exclamations of every description rose from the throng.

  "He fell in!"

  "Nay, he cast himself in. The god will withdraw the holy waters. It wasimpious. The fountain is polluted."

  "Was it not defiled when a dead tom-cat was found in it? Yet the fountainceased not to flow."

  "The maiden floats!"

  "Why should the god pick out the handsomest girl? His blood is ice-cold.She is not a morsel for him," scoffed a red-faced senator.

  "He rises! He is swimming."

  "He has grappled the damsel."

  "He is striking out! Bene! Bene!"

  "Encourage not the sacrilegious one! Thou makest thyself partaker in hisimpiety!"

  "What will the magistrates do?"

  "Do! Coil up like wood-lice, and uncurl only when all is forgotten."

  "He is a Christian."

  "His father was a philosopher. He swears by the gods."

  "He is an atheist."

  "See! See! He is sustaining her head."

  "She is not dead; she gasps."

  "Body of Bacchus! how the water boils. The god is wroth."

  "Bah! It boils no more now than it did yesterday."

  In the ice-green water could be seen the young man with nervous armsstriking out. He held up the girl with one arm. The swell of the risingvolumes of water greatly facilitated his efforts. Indeed the upsurgingflood had such force, that to die by drowning in it was a death by inches,for as often as a body went beneath the surface, it was again propelledupwards.

  In a minute he was at the breastwork, had one hand on it, then called:"Help, some one, to lift her out!"

  Thereupon the man clothed in brown wool put down his arms, clasped thehalf-conscious girl and raised her from the water. Callipodius assisted,and between them she was lifted out of the basin. The priests andpriestesses remonstrated with loud cries. But some of the spectatorscheered. A considerable portion of the men ranged themselves beside thetwo who had the girl in their arms, and prevented the ministers ofNemausus from recovering Perpetua from the hands of her rescuers.

  The men of the upper town--Greek colonists, or their descendants--lookedsuperciliously and incredulously on the cult of the Gallic deity of thefountain. It was tolerated, but laughed at, as something that belonged toa class of citizens that was below them in standing.

  In another moment AEmilius Lentulus had thrown himself upon the balustrade,and stood facing the crowd, dripping from every limb, but with a laughingcountenance.

  Seeing that the mob was swayed by differing currents of feeling andopinion, knowing the people with whom he had to do, he stooped, whisperedsomething into the ear of Callipodius; then, folding his arms, he lookedsmilingly around at the tossing crowd, and no sooner did he see hisopportunity than, unclasping his arms, he assumed the attitude of anorator, and cried:

  "Men and brethren of the good city of Nemausus! I marvel at ye, that yedare to set at naught the laws of imperial and eternal Rome. Are ye notaware that the god Claudius issued an edict with special application toGaul, that forever forbade human sacrifices? Has that edict beenwithdrawn? I have myself seen and read it graven in brass on the steps ofthe Capitoline Hill at Rome. So long as that law stands unrepealed ye aretransgressors."

  "The edict has fallen into desuetude, and desuetude abrogates a law!"called one man.

  "Is it so? How many have suffered under Nero, under Caius, because theytransgressed laws long forgotten? Let some one inform against thepriesthood of Nemausus and carry the case to Rome."

  A stillness fell on the assembly. The priests looked at one another.

  "But see!" continued AEmilius, "I call you to witness this day. The godhimself rejects such illegal offerings. Did you not perceive how hespurned the virgin from him when ye did impiously cast her into his holyurn? Does he not sustain life with his waters, and not destroy it? Had hedesired the sacrifice then would he have gulped it down, and you wouldhave seen the maiden no more. Not so! He rejected her; with his wateryarms he repelled her. Every crystal wave he cast up was a rejection. I sawit, and I leaped in to deliver the god from the mortal flesh that herefused. I appeal to you all again. To whom did the silver image cast theapple? Was it to the maiden destined to die? Nay, verily, it was to herwho was to live. The golden pippin was a fruit of life, whereby hedesignated such as he willed to live. Therefore, I say that the god lovethlife and not death. Friends and citizens of Nemausus, ye have transgressedthe law, and ye have violated the will of the divine Archegos who foundedour city and by whose largess of water we live."

  Then one in the crowd shouted: "There is a virgin cast yearly from thebridge over the Rhodanus at Avenio."

  "Aye! and much doth that advantage the bridge and the city. Did not thefloods last November carry away an arch and inundate an entire quarter ofthe town? Was the divine river forgetful that he had received hisobligation, or was he ungrateful for the favor? Naught that is godlike canbe either."

  "He demanded another life."

  "Nay! He was indignant that the fools of Avenio should continue to treathim as though he were a wild beast that had to be glutted, and not as agod. All you parents that fear for your children! Some of you have alreadylost your daughters, and have trembled for them; combine, and with onevoice proclaim that you will no more suffer this. Look to the urn of thedivine Nemausus. See how evenly the ripples run. Dip your fingers in thewater and feel how passionless it is. Has he blown forth a blast ofseething water and steam like the hot springs of Aquae Sextiae? Has hisfountain clouded with anger? Was the god powerless to avenge the act whenI plunged in? If he had desired the death of the maiden would he havesuffered me, a mortal, to pluck her from his gelid lips? Make room onOlympus, O ye gods, and prepare a throne for Common Sense, and let herhave domain over the minds of men."

  "There is no such god," called one in the crowd.

  "Ye know her not, so besotted are ye."

  "He blasphemes, he mocks the holy and immortal ones."

  "It is ye who mock them when ye make of them as great clowns asyourselves. The true eternal gods laugh to hear me speak the truth. Lookat the sun. Look at the water, with its many twinkling smiles. The godsapprove."

  Whilst the young man thus harangued and amused the populace, Baudillas andQuincta, assisted by two female slaves of the latter, removed thedrenched, dripping, and half-drowned girl. They bore her with the utmostdispatch out of the crowd down a sidewalk of the city gardens to a bench,on which they laid her, till she had sufficiently recovered to open hereyes and recognize those who surrounded her.

  Then said the widow to one of the servants: "Run, Petronella, and bid thesteward send porters with a litter. We must convey Perpetua as speedily aspossible from hence, lest there be a riot, and the ministers of the devilstir up the people to insist upon again casting her into the water."

  "By your leave, lady," said Baudillas, "I would advise that, at first, sheshould not be conveyed to your house, but to mine. It is probable, shouldthat happen which you fear, that the populace may make a rush to yourdwelling, in their attempt to get hold of the lady, your daughter. It werewell that she remained for a while concealed in my house. Send for theporters to bring the litter later, when falls the night."

  "You are right," said Quincta. "It shall be so."

  "As in the Acts of the Blessed Apostles it is related that the craftsmenwho lived by making silver shrines for Diana stirred up the people ofEphesus, so may it be now. There are many who get their living by the oldreligion, many whose position and influence depend on its maintenance, andsuch will not lightly allow a slight to be cast on their superstitionslike as has been offered this day. But by evenfall we shall know the humorof the people. Young lady, lean on my arm and let me conduct thee to mylodging. Thou canst there abide till i
t is safe for thee to depart."

  Then the brown-habited man took the maiden's arm.

  Baudillas was a deacon of the Church in Nemausus--a man somewhat advancedin life. His humility, and, perhaps, also his lack of scholarship,prevented his aspiring to a higher office; moreover, he was an admirableminister of the Church as deacon, at a period when the office was mainlyone of keeping the registers of the sick and poor, and of distributingalms among such as were in need.

  The deacon was the treasurer of the Church, and he was a man selected forhis business habits and practical turn of mind. By his office he was moreconcerned with the material than the spiritual distresses of men.Nevertheless, he was of the utmost value to the bishops and presbyters,for he was their feeler, groping among the poorest, entering into theworst haunts of misery and vice, quick to detect tokens of desire forbetter things, and ready to make use of every opening for givingrudimentary instruction.

  Those who occupied the higher grades in the Church, even at this earlyperiod, were, for the most part, selected from the cultured and nobleclasses; not that the Church had respect of persons, but because of theneed there was of possessing men who could penetrate into the best houses,and who, being related to the governing classes, might influence the upperstrata of society, as well as that which was below. The great houses withtheir families of slaves in the city, and of servile laborers on theirestates, possessed vast influence for good or evil. A believing mastercould flood a whole population that depended on him with light, and wascertain to treat his slaves with Christian humanity. On the other hand, itoccasionally happened that it was through a poor slave that the truthreached the heart of a master or mistress.

  Baudillas led the girl, now shivering with cold, from the garden, andspeedily reached a narrow street. Here the houses on each side were lofty,unadorned, and had windows only in the upper stories, arched with brickand unglazed. In cold weather they were closed with shutters.

  The pavement of the street was of cobble-stones and rough. No one wasvisible; no sound issued from the houses, save only from one whence camethe rattle of a loom; and a dog chained at a door barked furiously as thelittle party went by.

  "This is the house," said Baudillas, and he struck against a door.

  After some waiting a bar was withdrawn within, and the door, thatconsisted of two valves, was opened by an old, slightly lame slave.

  "Pedo," said the deacon, "has all been well?"

  "All is well, master," answered the man.

  "Enter, ladies," said Baudillas. "My house is humble and out of repair,but it was once notable. Enter and rest you awhile. I will bid Pedo searchfor a change of garments for Perpetua."

  "Hark," exclaimed Quincta, "I hear a sound like the roar of the sea."

  "It is the voice of the people. It is a roar like that for blood, thatgoes up from the amphitheater."