The victor spent two days with Galba amid fêtes and triumphs, and Acté witnessed a precaution on the part of Lucius which she had not seen him take before, and the reason of which she could not explain. A detachment of soldiers, who had come to meet the victor and act as his escort, kept watch all night in the apartments surrounding his chamber, and her lover, before retiring to bed, took special care to place his sword beneath the pillow. Acté did not venture to question him, but she felt instinctively that some danger threatened him; so each morning she begged him earnestly to depart; at last, on the third day, he left Fundi, and continuing his triumphal progress through the towns, always entering by breaches made in the walls, arrived finally at the Alban Mount, accompanied by a procession which resembled the army of a satrap rather than the following of a mere victor in the games. On arriving at the summit, Acté uttered a cry of surprise and admiration; she had just caught sight of Rome, in all its extent and splendour, at the end of the Appian road.

  In very truth, Rome presented itself to the sight of the young Greek under its most magnificent aspect. The Appian Way was styled the queen of roads, as being the finest and most important, inasmuch as, starting from the Tyrrhenian Sea, it crossed the Apennines, passed through Calabria and joined the Adriatic. From the Alban Mount to Rome it served as a public promenade, and, in accordance with the custom of the ancients, who regarded death but as a repose, and sought the most picturesque and frequented spots for depositing the ashes of their dead, it was lined on both sides by magnificent tombs, among which that of Ascanius was famous for its antiquity, that of the Horatii was honoured for its heroic tradition, while that of Caecilia Metella was quoted for its imperial magnificence.

  Well, on this day the whole of this grand stretch of road was covered with eager crowds coming to meet Lucius; some riding in brilliant equipages drawn by Spanish mules with purple harness, others reclining in litters each borne by eight slaves dressed in magnificent cloaks and accompanied by runners with tucked up robes. The latter were preceded by Numidian horsemen who raised clouds of dust and dispersed the crowd as they passed; while the former drove before them a pack of Molassian hounds with collars studded with silver nails. Hardly had the foremost of them perceived the victor when their shouts, passed on from mouth to mouth, flew towards the walls of the city. At the same moment, at the order of a horseman who set off at a gallop, the pedestrians ranged themselves on either side of the way which, with its breadth of thirty-six feet, offered an ample passage to the victor’s four-horsed chariot as it continued to advance towards the city. At a distance of about a mile from the gates, a squadron of horsemen numbering some five hundred awaited the procession and placed itself at its head. They had not gone fifty yards before Acté noticed that the horses were shod with silver, and that the shoes, which were badly fastened on, became detached and rolled on the road, so that the people, in order to pick them up, rushed eagerly under the animals’ feet at the risk of being knocked down by them. On reaching the gates of the city the victorious chariot entered it amid the frantic applause of the mob. Acté understood nothing of this excitement and yet let herself be carried away by it. She heard the name of Caesar mingled with that of Lucius; she passed beneath the triumphal arches, through streets strewn with flowers and perfumed with incense. At all the cross-roads priests were immolating victims at the altars of the Lares of the country. She traversed the finest quarters of the city; the great circus, of which three arcades had been levelled, the Velabrum and the Forum; finally, entering the Sacred Way, the procession began to ascend the Capitol and stopped opposite the temple of Jupiter.

  Lucius then alighted from his chariot and mounted the steps leading to the temple. The Flamens awaited him at the doors, and accompanied him to the foot of the statue. On reaching it he deposited the trophies of his victory on the knees of the god, and, taking a stilus, inscribed on a massive gold plate presented to him by the Pontifex Maximus the following inscription:

  “Lucius Domitius Claudius Nero, victor in wrestling, the chariot-race, and in singing, has consecrated these three crowns to Jupiter, best and greatest.”

  Amid the applause which immediately broke out on all sides, there was heard a cry of terror. Acté had just realised that the poor singer whom she had followed as a lover was no other than Caesar himself.

  CHAPTER VII

  THE Emperor, however, had not forgotten Acté amid the intoxication of his triumph. The young Greek had not yet recovered from the surprise mingled with dismay which the name and title of her lover had caused her, when she saw two Liburnian slaves approaching her; they were sent by Nero, and invited her respectfully to follow them. Acté obeyed mechanically, ignorant of where they were taking her and even without a thought of asking them, to such an extent was she overwhelmed by the terrible reflection that she was the mistress of a man whose name she had never heard uttered without terror. Below the Capitol, between the Tabularium and the temple of Concord, she found a magnificent litter borne by six Egyptian slaves, whose breasts were adorned with plates of polished silver in the shape of crescents, while their arms and legs were encircled with rings of the same precious metal. Sitting near the litter was Sabina, whom she had for a moment lost sight of in the excitement of the triumph, and whose presence there served to complete her recollection of all that had passed. Acté entered the litter, reclined on its silk cushions, and set off for the Palatine accompanied by Sabina, who walking on foot beside her mistress, shaded her with a large fan of peacock’s feathers fastened to an Indian reed. For three hundred yards or so the litter took the same course along the Sacred Way that Acté had taken in Caesar’s procession; soon, however, turning to the right, it passed between the temples of Apollo and Jupiter Stator, and ascended a flight of steps leading to the Palatine Hill. Then, on reaching the noble plateau which crowns the hill, it skirted the side overlooking the Subura and the Via Nova; at last, on arriving opposite the fountain of Juturna, it stopped at the door of a small detached house, and the two Liburnians immediately placed at each side of the litter a pair of steps covered with purple, so that the lady whom the Emperor had just assigned to them as their mistress should not have the trouble of intimating by so much as a gesture at which side she would prefer to alight.

  Acté was evidently expected, for the door opened on her approach, and, when she had passed through it, closed behind her without her seeing any one who performed the office of door-keeper. Only Sabina accompanied her, and thinking no doubt that after her long and tiring journey the first desire of her mistress would be to have a bath, she conducted her to the apodyterium, a chamber so called from a Greek verb meaning to step off. But, on reaching it, Acté, who was still upset and pre-occupied by that strange fatality which had dragged her in the train of the master of the world, sat down on the bench that extended round the apartment, signing to Sabina to wait for a moment. Hardly had she become absorbed in her thoughts, when, as though the unseen and powerful master whom she had chosen had feared lest she should abandon herself to them, a sweet and sonorous strain of music was heard, the precise source of which it was impossible to determine; in point of fact, the musicians were arranged in such fashion that the whole chamber was surrounded with harmony. No doubt Nero, who had observed the influence exerted over the young Greek by the mystery of sound, the effects of which he had been able during the voyage frequently to observe, had ordered beforehand this distraction to those memories whose power he wished to combat. Had such been his intention, his expectation was not disappointed, for hardly had these harmonies sounded in the girl’s ears before she gently raised her head, and the tears which trickled down her cheeks ceased, a final tear trembling for an instant on her long lashes like a dewdrop on the pistils of a flower; then, just as the dew evaporates in the sun’s rays, so this tear seemed soon to dry in the fire of the glance which it had obscured. At the same time, a vivid flush appeared on her pale lips, half opened as though for a smile or a kiss.

  Then Sabina approached her mistress, who, instead of making any further objection, herself helped to take off her garments, which fell at her feet one after another, leaving her nude and blushing like the chaste Venus. The beauty that had just been unveiled was of so perfect a type that the slave herself seemed to remain entranced before it, and when Acté laid her hand upon her bare shoulder in order to reach the second chamber, she felt Sabina thrill through her whole frame, and saw her pale cheeks flush for an instant as though a flame had touched her. On seeing this, Acté stopped, fearing that she had in some way hurt her young follower; but the latter, guessing the cause of her hesitation, at once took hold of the hand which Acté had removed, and placing it once more upon her shoulder, entered with her into the tepidarium.

  This was a vast square chamber, in the centre of. which was a tank of tepid water resembling a lake. A band of young slave-girls with garlands of reeds, daffodils and water-lilies on their heads, were sporting on the surface like a band of Naiads, and no sooner did they perceive Acté than they pushed to the edge nearest her an ivory shell inlaid with coral and mother-of-pearl. All these enchantments had succeeded one another so rapidly, that Acté surrendered herself to them as though in a dream. She sat down, therefore, in this fragile boat, and found herself immediately in the centre of the lake, surrounded, like Venus, by her marine court.

  Then the strains of that delightful music which had already charmed her burst forth once more; presently the voices of the water-nymphs began to accompany it, singing the legend of Hylas going to draw water on the shores of the Troad; and just as the nymphs of the river Ascanius allured the favourite of Hercules with voice and gestures, so they extended their arms to Acté and in their song invited her to plunge in and join them. The young Greek was accustomed to water pastimes; she had swum in the Gulf of Corinth countless times with her companions; without hesitation, therefore, she dived into this tepid and scented lake, where the slaves received her as their queen.

  These maidens had all been selected on account of their beauty; some had been brought from the Caucasus, others from Gaul; some came from India, some from Spain; and yet, amid this picked band chosen by love for voluptuousness, Acté seemed a goddess. After a short interval, during which she had floated on the surface of the water like a siren, dived like a Naïad, and sported in this artificial lake with the supple grace of a serpent, she perceived that Sabina was missing from her marine court, and looking round saw her sitting down with her face concealed in her veil. Unconstrained and laughing like a child, she called to her; Sabina started and raised the veil which hid her face. Then the girls all began to call Sabina in mocking tones, and laughing in an odd way which Acté could not understand, raising themselves half out of the water to invite her by their gestures to come and join them. For a moment the young slave seemed inclined to comply with this invitation; something strange was passing in her mind; her eyes were aflame, her face burning, and yet tears trickled from her lashes and dried on her cheeks. But, instead of yielding to what was clearly her desire, Sabina rushed towards the door as though to escape from this voluptuous enchantment; this movement, however, was not so rapid but that Acté had time to leave the water and bar her passage amid the laughter of all the slaves. Then Sabina appeared on the point of fainting; her knees shook and a cold perspiration stood on her brow, while she turned so visibly pale that Acté, fearing she would fall, stretched her arms towards her and received her on her bare bosom, but instantly pushed her away again, uttering a slight cry of pain. In the strange paroxysm by which the slave was agitated, her mouth had touched the shoulder of her mistress and had bitten it sharply; then, in another instant, overwhelmed at what she had done, she had rushed out of the chamber.

  On hearing Acté cry out, the slaves rushed up and surrounded their mistress; but the latter, fearing lest Sabina would be punished, disguised her pain and, forcing a smile, wiped away a drop or two of blood that trickled down her breast like liquid coral; moreover the accident had been too slight to cause Acté any feeling save that of astonishment. She therefore proceeded to the next chamber, in which her bath would be completed, and which was called the caldarium.

  This was a small circular apartment surrounded by steps and furnished all round with narrow niches each containing a seat; a tank of boiling water occupied the centre of the chamber from which rose a vapour as thick as that which hangs in early morning over the surface of a lake. This heated mist was warmed by an exterior furnace, the flames of which circulated in the pipes which embraced the caldarium with their red arms, running along the outside walls like ivy.

  When Acté, unaccustomed to these baths, which were known and used only at Rome, entered this chamber, she was so overcome by the waves of vapour which rolled about her like clouds, that, deprived of breath and speech, she extended her arms and wanted to summon help, but she could only utter inarticulate and sobbing cries. Then she tried to rush to the door; but being held back in the arms of the slaves she threw herself backwards, making a sign that she was being stifled. One of the girls immediately pulled a chain, and a golden shield which closed the ceiling opened like a plug and allowed a current of air from outside to penetrate this atmosphere which was rapidly becoming impossible to breathe. This restored life to Acté; she felt her chest dilate, a gentle and languorous weakness seized her; she let herself be led to one of the seats and sat down, beginning already to support more easily this fiery temperature which seemed to make a liquid flame, rather than blood, course through her veins. Presently the vapour became once more so thick and scorching that they were obliged to have recourse a second time to the golden shield, and together with the outer air there descended on the bathers such a sense of comfort that the young Greek began to understand how the Roman ladies had become such devotees of this kind of bath, with which she was hitherto unacquainted, and which she had begun by regarding as torture.

  The vapour had now recovered its intensity; this time, however, instead of opening a passage for its escape, they allowed it to condense until Acté again felt herself ready to faint; then two of her slaves approached with a cloak of scarlet wool with which they completely surrounded her, and lifting her half unconscious in their arms, they carried her to a couch placed in a chamber warmed to the ordinary temperature.

  Then Acté went through a fresh operation as strange, though already less unexpected and less painful than that of the caldarium. This was the massage, that voluptuous operation which Orientals have borrowed from the Romans and retained to our own day. Two new slaves, skilful in this performance, began to press and knead her until her limbs had become supple and flexible; then they cracked all her joints one after the other without pain or effort; after which taking from small flasks made of rhinoceros horn some oil and essential perfumes, they polished her whole body with them, rubbing it first with fine wool, next with the softest Egyptian muslin, and lastly with swans’ skin from which the feathers had been plucked, leaving only the down.

  While all this was taking place, Acté had remained with eyes half closed, plunged in a languorous ecstasy, without speaking or thinking, a prey to a sweet and strange somnolence which left her only strength to feel a fullness of existence hitherto unknown. Not only was her chest dilated, but it seemed to her that at each inspiration life flowed in through all her pores. It was a physical impression so powerful and overwhelming that it was able not only to obliterate the remembrance of the past, but even to banish the grief of the present; situated thus it was impossible to believe in misfortune, and life presented itself to the girl’s mind a series of pleasing and delightful emotions marshalled without palpable forms in a vague and marvellous horizon!

  While in this magnetic half slumber and this dreamland untroubled with thought, Acté heard the door of the chamber at the end of which she was lying open. But inasmuch as, in the strange condition in which she found herself, all motion seemed fatiguing, she did not even turn round, thinking that one of the slaves had come in, but remained with eyes half-closed, hearing slow and measured steps approach her couch, each one of which, strange to say, as it came nearer, seemed to find an echo within herself. Then, with an effort, she moved her head, and looking in the direction from which the sound came, she saw advancing, slowly and majestically, a woman dressed entirely in the costume of Roman matrons, and wrapped in a long robe which enfolded her from head to heels. On reaching her couch this ghost-like figure stopped, and the girl felt a deep and questioning glance fixed upon her, a glance like that of a diviner, and from which it would be impossible to hide anything. The unknown female looked at her thus for an instant in silence, then in a deep, sonorous voice, of which each word penetrated like the icy blade of a sword the heart of her to whom she spoke, she said:

 

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