Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

Ih pnblio feeling likely to he caused by it, attri.nit.ed it all to
the folly ami iiLismaniii'vnii ,il oi Fulvius, whose worst guilt he
did not disclose, for fear of having to try him, and thus brintr-
Hie value uf
ing out whut lie WHS now doi'i;.; ; depreciated
'a property, and ended by saying, that it would 1> a
gracious net of clemency, ami one so .tcraet, unpopular
feelings, to bestow it upon her relative, who liy settlement was
her next heir. He described Fabiola as a young lady of extraordinary
intellect and wonderful learning, who was most
.isly devoted to (lie worship of the gods, and daily offered
i 1 the genius of the emperors.
"
I know her," said Maximian, laughing, as if at tho recol-
"ii of something very droll.
" Poor ! thing she sent me
a splendid ring, an. i a'-l,< d me for that wretched
tian's life, just as they had finished ciui";ellinv,-
1
I." And he laughed immoderately, then continued :
"
Yes, yes, by alt means :i little inheritance will conso
;
no doubt, for the loss of that fellow. Let a rescript be made
out, and I -will sign it. "
Tertullus produced the one prepared, saying he had fully
relied on the emperor's magnanimous clemency ; and the im-
barharion put a signature to it which would have dis-
1 a schoolboy. The prefect at once consigned it to his son.
Scarcely had he left the palace, when Fulvitis entered. He
had been home to put on a proper court attire, and removed
from his features, by the bath and the perfumer's art, the
traces of his morning's passion. He felt a keen presentiment
that he should be disappointed. Eurotas's cool discussion of
the preceding evening, had prepared him ; the cross of all his
is, and his multiplied disappointments that day, had
strengthened his instinctive conviction. One woman, indeed,
.'d born to meet and bafne him whichever way he turned ;
but, " thank the gods," he thought, " she cannot bo in my
way here. She has this morning blasted my character for ever ;
she cannot claim my rightful reward : she has made me an
;t ; it is not in her power to make me a beggar. "
This
d his only ground of hope. Despair, indeed, urged him
rd ; and he determined to argue out his claims to the
confiscated property of Agnes, with the only competitor he
'"ii'dfear, the rapacious emperor himself. He might as well
risk his life over it, for if he failed, he was utterly ruined.
After waiting some time, he entered the audience-hall, and ad-
U the blandest smile that he could muster to the im-
i feet.
" What want yon hero ?" was his first greeting.
" Sire," he replied, " I have come humbly to pray your royal
justice, to order my being put into immediate possession of
i of
i are of the. Lady Agnes's property. She has been con-
being a Christian upon my accusation, and has just
suffered the merited penalty of all
edii
who disobey the
( imperial
"
That is all quite right ; but we have heard how stupidly
you mismanaged the whole business as usual, and have raised
murmurings and discontent in the people against us. So,
now, the sooner you quit our presence, palace, and city, the
better for yourself. Do you understand ? We don't usually
give such warnings twice."
"I will obey instantly every intimation of the supreme will.
But I am almost destitute. Command what of right is mine
to be delivered over tome, and I depart immediately."
" Xo more words," replied the tyrant, " but go at once. As
to t! ie property which you demand with so much pertinacity,
annot have it. We have made over the whole of it, by an
irrevocable rescript, to an excellent and deserving person, the
Lady Fabiohi."
Fulvius did not speak another word ;
or's hand and slowly retired. He looked a ruined, broken man.
as he passed out of the
''!'h il, she has made me a beggar too." Wi
THE rilL'lU'll '.>/ Till: cAT 83
but kissed the emper-
me, Eurotas, who read his answer in his nephew's
his calm;i.
>
'
J see," lie ui'vly i
' '
it is all over."
"Yen; are vonr pivpantio .; ?"
early so. I hav jewelH, furniture, and slaves,
at some loss ; but, with the tr;4ln I had in hand, we
as the most trusty of our ;
ho
I have i -itobio,
W'ill curry 0111
travelling requisites on h; ''wo oihei
for you ami me. I ha\.- only one tiling more to get
for our
journey, and then I am ready to start."
" I 'ray what is that '{"
" The poison. I ordered it last night, but it will only be
ready at noon."
" What is that for ?" asked Fulvius, with some alarm.
"
Surely you know," rejoined tha other, unmoved. "lam
win TC else : but onr bar-
willing to make one more trial any
gain is clear ; my father's family must not end in beggary. It
must be extinguished in honor."
Fulvius bit his lip, and said, "Well, be it as you like, lam
weary of life. Leave the house as soon as possible, for i
Ephraim, and be with your horses at the third mile on tha
Latin gate soon after dusk. I will join you there. For I, too,
have an important matter to transact before I start."
" And what is that !" asked Eurotas, with a rather keen
curiosity.
" I cannot tell even you. But if I am not with you by
two hours after sunset, give me up, and save yourself without
me."
Eurotas fixed upon him his cold dark eye, with one of those
looks which ever read Fulvius through ; to see if he could de-
tect any lurking idea of escape from his gripe. But his look
was cool and unusually open, and the old man asked no more.
While this dialogue was going on, Fulvius had been divesting
himself of his court garments, and attiring himself in a travelling
suit. So completely did he evidently prepare himself for
his journey, without necessity of returning home, that he even
took his weapons with him besides his ; sword, securing in his
girdle, but concealed under his cloak, one of those curved dag-
gers, of highest temper and most fatal known in the East.
form, which were only
Eurotas proceeded at once to the Numidian quarters in the
entered with two small
palace, and asked for Jubala ; who
flasks of different sizes, and was just going to give some explanations,
when her husband, half-drunk, half-furious, was
Been approaching. Eurotas had just time to conceal the flasks
in his belt, and slip a coin into her hand, when Hyphax came
up. His wife had mentioned to him the offers which Eurotas
had made to her before marriage, and had excited in his hot
African blood a jealousy that amounted to hatred. The savage
rudely thrust his wife out of the apartment, and would have
picked a quarrel with the Syrian ; had not the latter, his purpose
being accomplished, acted with forbearance, assured the
archer-chief that he should never more see him, and retired.
It is time, however, that we return to Fabiola. The reader
is probably prepared to hear us say, that she returned home a
Christian : and yet it is not so. For what as yet did she know
of Christianity, to be said to profess it ? In Sebastian and Ag-
nes she had indeed willingly admired the virtue, unselfish,
generous, and more than earthly, which now she was ready to
attribute to that faith. She saw that it gave motives of actions,
principles of life, elevation of niiud, courage of conscience, and
determination of virtuous will, such as no other system of
belief ever bestowed. And even if, as she now shrewdly suspected,
and intended in calmer moments to ascertain, the sublime
revelations of Syra, concerning an unseen sphere of virtue,
and its all-seeing Ruler, came from the same source, to what
did it all amount more than to a grand moral and intellectual
as all codes of
system, partly practical, partly speculative,
philosophic teaching were ? This was a very different thing
from Christianity, She had as yet heard nothing of its real
and'essential doctrines, its fathomless, yet accessible depths of
mystery ; the awful, vast, and heaven-high structure of faith,
which the simplest soul may contain ;
as a child's eye will take
i
in the perfect reflection and counterpart of a mountain, though
a giant cannot scale it. She had never heard of a God, One in
Trinity; of the coequal Son lor man. She had