“I understand, at least in part, but what you say only makes me feel more anxious. What will you do? She has been baffled this time; but she won’t take her defeat. If I am not mistaken, there is going to be a dreadful time in Rome when the law will be powerless; and I may not be able to protect you.”
As he finished speaking, a slave knocked at the door of the apartment. Bidden to enter, he ushered in Subrius the Pr?torian and a friend.
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FLIGHT
[83] “LET me present to you my friend Subrius, a Tribune of the Pr?torians,” said Lateranus, addressing Pomponia. “I sent for him as soon as your message reached me.”
“You are very good in coming so readily to help a stranger,” said Pomponia with a gracious smile.
“I do not think of the Lady Pomponia as a stranger,” replied the Tribune. “I had the honour of serving my first campaign under her husband. Allow me, in my turn, to present to you my friend and kinsman, Marcus Annius Pudens. He has just returned on furlough from the Euphrates, and is staying with me in camp.”
“I thank you, too, sir,” said Pomponia. “It is very pleasant to find that one has so many friends.”
“Well,” said Lateranus, “you are come in time. Just now we don’t want your swords, but we certainly want your counsel. Have I your permission,” he went on, addressing himself to Pomponia, “to put the whole state of the case before these gentlemen?”
Pomponia signified her assent.
“Matters then stand thus. For reasons which it [84] is needless at present to explain, the Lady Pomponia has incurred the enmity of Popp?a. I recognized the Empress’ most trusted freedman as the leader of the attack which I had the good fortune to be able to repulse. If I know anything of her and him they won’t accept defeat. The question is, what is to be done? What say you, Subrius?”
The Tribune considered awhile. “It is quite clear that Popp?a and her agent are taking advantage of an exceptional time. Commonly, even she would not have ventured so far. Men have not forgotten what Aulus Plautius did for Rome, and his widow could not have been murdered with impunity. But the city is now in an extraordinary state. Law is absolutely suspended. The Watch seems to have received instructions to do nothing, or even worse than nothing. I am convinced that this fire is not an accident; or, if it was so in the beginning, it is not in the extent to which it has reached. I am positive that this morning, as I was making my way to the camp, I saw a scoundrel throw a lighted torch through the window of a house. I seized the fellow; but his companions rescued him, and when I called for help to a squad of the Watch that happened to be close by, they stood still and did nothing.”
“A big fire,” remarked Pudens, “gives a fine opportunity for thieves, and they naturally make the best of it.”
“True,” replied the Tribune; “but why do the [85] Watch behave as if they were in league with them? Did not the same thing strike you last night, Lateranus?”
“Yes,” said Lateranus. “At first I thought that they were simply dazed by the magnitude of the disaster; afterwards I could not help seeing that they were deliberately increasing it.”
“Well, then,” resumed Subrius, “to come to the point that immediately concerns us. We have to reckon with an exceptional state of things. For the present, as I said, law is suspended. We can’t reckon on the guardians of the peace; nor, so occupied is every one with saving themselves or their property, on the help of the public. And supposing that this house catches fire, what then? Just now it is not in danger; but who can tell what may happen? The wind may change, and then the flames might be down upon it in an hour. Or it may be deliberately set on fire. That, if I can trust my own eyes, is being done elsewhere. What would happen then? Depend upon it, Popp?a and the villains that do her bidding will be watching their opportunity, and what a terrible chance they would have of working their will amidst all the confusion of a burning house. That is my view of the situation.”
“What, then, would you advise?” asked Pomponia in a tone that betrayed no agitation or alarm.
“I should say�seek some safer place,” replied Subrius.
[86] “For myself,” said Pomponia after a pause, “I should be disposed to stay where I am.”
“But, dearest aunt,” cried Lateranus, “if what Subrius says is true, and I do not doubt for an instant that it is, that means certain death.”
“And if it does, dear Aulus,” replied Pomponia, “that does not seem so dreadful to me.”
“But there are others,” said Lateranus.
“You are right,” Pomponia answered after a few minutes’ reflection; “there are others. I should like, if it will not offend you, gentlemen, to ask for the counsel of one whom I greatly trust.”
She pressed her hand-bell, and when the attendant appeared, said to him, “I would speak with Phlegon, if he is at leisure.”
In the course of a short time, Phlegon, a Greek freedman, who was the superintendent of Pomponia’s household, made his appearance. He was a man of singularly venerable appearance, nearly eighty years of age, but hale and vigorous.
“Phlegon,” said Pomponia, “these gentlemen are agreed that if we stay here our lives are not safe, and they counsel us to flee. What say you? My feeling is for staying. Are we not ready? Have we not been living for twenty years past as if this might come any day? And does not the holy Paul say in that letter of which Clemens of Philippi (Footnote: Phil. I: 23. The Epistle to the Philippians is supposed to have been written from Rome in the early part of the preceding year (A. D. 63).) sent us a [87] copy the other day, ‘I have a desire to depart and be with Christ’?”
“True, lady,” said Phlegon; “but he goes on, if I remember right, ‘But to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.’ And you have others to think of, as he had. And did not the Master Himself say, ‘When they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another’?”
“You are right, as usual, Phlegon,” said Pomponia. “I will go; but whither? As you know, nephew,” she went on, turning to Aulus, “I have sold all my country houses, as my husband’s will directed me, except, indeed, the one at Antium.”
“Well,” said Lateranus, “it would hardly do for you to have Popp?a for a neighbour. But all my villas are at your disposal. There is one at Tibur; indeed, two at Tibur; only the second is but a poor place; one at Bai?, another at Misenum, three at the Lake of Comum, one on Benacus, and�”
“Ah,” said Subrius, laughing, “you never are able to go through the list of your country houses without stumbling. But I have an idea of my own for which I venture to think something may be said. There is a place belonging to me near Gabii. It can hardly be called a country house, it is so small, but it has, for the present purpose, some advantages. In the first place, it is very much out of the way; and in the second, it is very strong. In fact, it is an old fortress, dating back, I have been told by people who are [88] learned in these matters, from the time of the Kings. It has a deep moat all round it, crossed only by a single bridge which can be removed at pleasure, and the walls are high and strong. In short, it is a place that would stand a siege, if need be. Anyhow, it is safe against a surprise. If the Lady Pomponia can put up with a very poor place and mean accommodation, the house, such as it is, is entirely at her service.”
“An admirable plan!” cried Lateranus. “What say you, my dear aunt? I know that you do not set much store on outward things.”
“No, indeed, I do not,” replied Pomponia. “The offer of the Tribune Subrius I most gladly accept, but how to thank him sufficiently I do not know.”
“There is no need of thanks, lady,” said Subrius. “I owe everything to Aulus Plautius, who made a soldier of me when I might have been�I am not ashamed to own it�a poltroon. Do what I may, I shall never repay the debt.”
“And when shall we start?” asked Pomponia.
“At once, to-night, I would suggest,” answered Subrius. “The moon is nearly full, and you will barely reach my house before it sets.”
Arrangements were made accordingly for a start that evening. Subrius would not be able to accompany them, for he had to be on duty in the camp, and thought it as well not to ask for leave of absence. His place was to be taken by his friend Pudens, an [89] arrangement which would have its advantages, as the person of Pudens would not be known. For the same reason Lateranus, one of the best known, as he was one of the most popular men in Rome, determined to absent himself. But he furnished the two litters with their bearers, which were to convey Pomponia and Claudia, each with a single female attendant, and he also sent, by way of guard, the same detachment of his cohort which he had brought to the relief of the house in the morning. Pomponia’s establishment, it should be said, was on the smallest scale, not because she was either poor or parsimonious, but because her great wealth was devoted to the benevolence which her faith was already beginning to make a new factor in human life.