Part 43 (2/2)
”Peace, peace!” said Marcus, and as he spoke the procession came to a halt before his windows. ”How weary she is, and sad,” he went on speaking to himself. ”Her heart seems crushed. Oh! that I must stay here and see her thus, who dare not show myself! If she could but know! If she could but know!”
Nehushta thrust him aside and took his place. Fixing her eyes upon Miriam she made some effort of the will, so fierce and concentrated that beneath the strain her body shook and quivered. See! Her thought reached the captive, for she looked up.
”Stand to one side,” she whispered to Marcus, then unlatched the shutters and slowly pushed them open. Now between her and the air was nothing but the silken curtains. Very gently she parted these with her hands, for some few seconds suffering her face to be seen between them.
Then laying her fingers on her lips she drew back and they closed again.
”It is well,” she said, ”she knows.”
”Let her see me also,” said Marcus.
”Nay, she can bear no more. Look, look, she faints.”
Groaning in bitterness of spirit they watched Miriam, who seemed about to fall. Now a woman gave her the cup of wine, and drinking she recovered herself.
”Note that woman,” muttered Marcus, ”that I may reward her.”
”It is needless,” answered Nehushta, ”she seeks no reward.”
”She is more than a Roman, she is a Christian. As she pa.s.sed it she made a sign of the cross with the cup.”
The waggons creaked; the officers shouted; the procession moved forward.
From behind the curtain the pair kept their eyes fixed upon Miriam until she vanished in the dust and crowd. When she had gone they seemed to see little else; even the sight of the glorious Caesars could not hold their eyes.
Marcus summoned the steward, Stepha.n.u.s.
”Go forth,” he said, ”and discover when and where the captive Pearl-Maiden is to be sold. Then return to me swiftly. Be secret and silent, and let none suspect whence you come or what you seek. Your life hangs upon it. Go.”
The sun was sinking fast, staining the marble temples and colonnades of the Forum blood-red with its level beams. For the most part the glorious place was deserted now, since, the Triumph over at length, the hundreds of thousands of the Roman populace, wearied out with pleasure and excitement, had gone home to spend the night in feasting. About one of the public slave-markets, however, a round of marble enclosed with a rope and set in front of a small building, where the slaves were sheltered until the moment of their sale, a mixed crowd was gathered, some of them bidders, some idlers drawn thither by curiosity. Others were in the house behind examining the wares before they came to the hammer. Presently an old woman, meanly clad with her face veiled to the eyes, and bearing on her back a heavy basket such as was used to carry fruit to market, presented herself at the door of the house.
”What do you want?” asked the gatekeeper.
”To inspect the slaves,” she answered in Greek.
”Go away,” he said roughly, ”you are not a buyer.”
”I may be if the stuff is good enough,” she replied, slipping a gold coin into his hand.
”Pa.s.s in, old lady, pa.s.s in,” and in another second the door had closed behind her, and Nehushta found herself among the slaves.
In this building the light was already so low that torches were burning for the convenience of visitors. By the flare of them Nehushta saw the unfortunate captives--there were but fifteen--seated upon marble benches, while slave women moved from the one to the other, was.h.i.+ng their hands and feet and faces in scented water, brus.h.i.+ng and tying their hair and removing the dust of the procession from their robes, so that they might look more comely to the eyes of the purchasers. Also there were present a fair number of bidders, twenty or thirty of them, who strolled from girl to girl discussing the points of each and at times asking them to stand up, or turn round, or show their arms and ankles, that they might judge of them better. At the moment when Nehushta entered one of these, a fat man with greasy curls who looked like an Eastern, was endeavouring to persuade a dark and splendid Jewess to let him see her foot. Pretending not to understand she sat still and sullen, till at length he stooped down and lifted her robe. Then in an instant the girl dealt him such a kick in the face that amidst the laughter of the spectators he rolled backwards on the floor, whence he rose with a cut and b.l.o.o.d.y forehead.
”Very good, my beauty, very good,” he muttered in a savage voice, ”before twelve hours are over you shall pay for that.”
But again the girl sat sullen and motionless, pretending not to understand.
Most of the public, however, were gathered about Miriam, who sat upon a chair by herself, her hands folded, her head bent down, a very picture of pitiful, outraged modesty. One by one as their turns came and the attendant suffered them to approach, the men advanced and examined her closely, though Nehushta noted that none of them were allowed to touch her with their hands. Placing herself at the end of the line she watched with all her eyes and listened with all her ears. Soon she had her reward. A tall man, dressed like a merchant of Egypt, went up to Miriam and bent over her.
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