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102 DARKNESS AND DAWN
'
let them hear me ! Infernal Furies at least there are, for I
have felt them ! Oh !
may they avenge on '
you my wrongs !
Nero cared but little for the curse. He was not superstitious.
He thought how Senecio and Petronius would laugh
at the notion of there being real Furies or subterranean gods !
'
You know more of the Furies than I do, then,' he said, in
a mocking tone.
'
'
Besides, I have an amulet. Look at this !
He handed to her the icuncula puellaris the wooden doll
which had been given him in the streets, with the mysterious
promise that it would prove to be a charm against every
malignant influence. He honoured it as Louis XL did the
little leaden saint which he wore in his hat when he had
ceased to honour anything else. She glanced at it with utter
scorn ; then, to his horror, flung it on the ground and spurned
it
away.
' '
And you are Pontifex Maximus ! she said, concentrating
into the words a world of unmitigated scorn.
Nero was silent, but his look was so dark that, fearing lest
'
she should have gone too far, she said in calmer tones, You
have a better amulet than that paltry image, and one which
your mother gave you. But your follies render it unavailing.'
She pointed to a golden armlet, in which was set the skin
of a serpent, which he wore on his right arm. The serpent
had been found gliding in his room near his cradle ; or, perhaps,
according to another story, its cast-off skin had been
found beside his pillow. Many legends had sprung up about
it. The populace believed that it was a sacred spirit which
had protected him, and had driven from his infant cradle the
murderers sent by Messalina to destroy him. But, while
Nero was yet a child, Agrippina had had the skin of the serpent
curiously set in a jewelled armlet of great value, with
rubies for its eyes, and emeralds marking the traces of its
scales, and had clasped
it on Nero's arm, and bidden him to
wear it forever. And as his life advanced in golden prosperity
she had come to believe, or to half believe, that there
was some mysterious charm about it for a mind may be
atheistical and yet profoundly superstitious.
But as she gazed at it with a sort of fascination, she was
seized by one of the violent reactions of feeling which often
sweeps over a mind untrained in the control of its passions.
It brought before her the image of a little boy, whose sweet