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362 DARKNESS AND DAWN
through the streets, he heard that the dreadful sentence
against the slaves of Pedanius was to be carried into immediate
execution. All thoughts of a rescue had been
abandoned, for Nero had published a notice that any interference
with the sentence would be treated with the extremest
penalty. The clang of soldiers' armour was heard on every
side, and Praetorians lined the entire distance between the
house of Pedanius and the remote part of the Esquiline,
where the slaves were to be killed. The poor victims, tied
together by fours, were led out of the house. Eagerly
Onesimus scanned their faces, and was glad that he did not
see the face of Hermas among them.
A little delay occurred when the soldiers on guard discovered
that Hermas had escaped, but as they themselves ran
serious peril of being punished for carelessness in the matter,
they prudently held their tongues.
When the procession began to move, the wail which rose
from the doomed victims was taken up by the multitude, and
they abandoned themselves to their emotions with all the
passion of a Southern people. They wept and wrung their
hands, and raised their arms to heaven, as though to appeal
for vengeance. But the Praetorians surrounded the slaves
with drawn swords, and armed gladiators, who lined the
streets, sternly thrust back the surging mob. A ghastly
sense of fascination drew Onesimus to the scene of execution.
There was no time to be particular as to the mode of death.
The soldiers, dreading a riot, were chiefly anxious to get
through their odious task as quickly as possible. One after
another, amid groans and shrieks, and pools of blood, old greyhaired
men and women, and young boys and little children
and fair girls,
had the sword driven into their throats or
through their hearts. The agony of the boys was pitiable to
witness. Some of them had belonged to the order of slaves
who were chosen for their beauty, were dressed in rich robes,
and pampered with every form of luxury and indulgence.
Their mode of life had left no courage in them, and death
meant to them the end of all things, or some tormenting
Tartarus. But in vain they wept, in vain they pleaded for
mercy.
On the other hand, the high bearing of some of the slaves
moved a deeper pity than the fate of these victims of luxury