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282 DAKKNESS AND DAWN
Tor a poor furcifer like that?' asked Lselia. 'Our high
privilege is used for nobles at the lowest, for freedmen.'
'
Are not slaves men like ourselves ? he asked. Musonius
'
'
says so and Seneca
; says so. Look, what a fine youth he is !
He looks as if he had been free-born ;
and I dare say he has
done nothing really wrong.'
Lselia glanced at the pallid, beautiful face of the sufferer. It
would hardly have touched her heart, accustomed as she had
been to the massacres of the arena, to which Nero of late
years had invited the vestal virgins. But there was something
in his youth, and something in the earnest pleading of
her favourite Titus something perhaps also in the sense of
power which decided her to interfere.
'
'
Stop she said to the lictors and !
soldiers, as they bowed
reverently before her majestic presence. 'By virtue of my
office, I bid you take off that furca, and spare the life of
your prisoner.'
'
He is a runaway slave, whom for great misdemeanours the
Emperor has ordered to be scourged,' said Callicles, stepping
forward.
'
Dare you disobey the Virgo Maxima '
? asked Lselia, with
flashing eye. Do you think that even the Emperor will insult
'
the majesty of Vesta and her sacred fire, by questioning
the immemorial prerogative of her eldest vestal ? Take off
the furca at once !
'
The very lictors were overawed by her gesture of command.
They hastily unbound the tired arms of Onesimus, and took
the furca off his neck. What would happen to him he knew
not, but he knew that for the time his life was saved.
'
Thanks, kindest of vestals,' said Titus, gratefully kissing
the purple hem of her mffibulum, and not betraying by look or
sign that Onesimus was known to him. 'I never saw a vestal
exercise her prerogative before, and I am so glad to have
seen it.
May Vesta reward your sleep with her divinest
dreams !
May Opiconsiva bless '
you !
'
'
Opiconsiva ? said the vestal with difficulty suppressing a
smile; 'is the boy laughing at me? What do you
know of
'
Opiconsiva ?
'Not much,' said Titus, 'except that she has something to
'
do with vestals ;
and if so, Lselia must be very dear to her !
Onesimus, with his usual quickness, took his cue from the