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254 DARKNESS AND DAWN
the guiltless ;
not hers the misery for wherever she goes
she will carry the God within her, since in each one of us,
as our- great poet says,
'"Some god is dwelling, though
we know not who."
You may banish her to Pontia or Pandataria, but everywhere
she will see the sunlight and the stars, and will feel
that she is not abandoned. When we enter a dense forest,
we are struck with awe at its
huge tree-trunks, its spreading
boughs, its dark shade, and we feel that the Divine is there ;
when we enter some cavern in the hills, we feel the presence
of a :
Deity but we feel it much more when we see a brave
and pure soul rising superior to the menaces of calamity.
Look at her, Aulus, where she sits. In her calmness, in her
fortitude, in the serene and tranquil beauty of a countenance
on which no vice has set its mark, see the living
proof of her freedom from all blame ! Proclaim to Csesar,
to Regulus. to the society of Rome, to all the world, that
Pomponia has done or thought nothing unworthy of the
immortal gods, nothing unworthy of her ancestors, of her
'
husband, and of her home !
Many a cry of applause had greeted Seneca, as he thus ventured
to pour forth, in the secrecy of a domestic tribunal, the
and even
thoughts which he had often uttered to his friends,
published in his writings. He sat down amid a murmur of
admiration, during which not a few of the noblest of his auditors
pressed round him with expressions of warmest congratulation,
and Amplias, the Christian freedman of Pomponia, in
a burst of enthusiasm, bent down and kissed his hand. He
was deeply gratified by the impression he had made, for when
there was nothing to arouse his fear or imperil his ambition,
he felt a genuine happiness in doing deeds of kindness. But
he raised his hands for silence while the assembly awaited the
decision of those whom Plautius had asked to be his assessors
in the judgment.
They consulted together for a few moments, and then, amid
the deepest silence, Plautius rose. He was almost too much
moved to speak. It required all his Roman firmness and
dignity to force back the tears which were brimming in his
eyes, and to control into steadiness the voice which seemed
ready to break ;
but he succeeded. Rising with dignity, he
said :