The Scarlet Banner Page 12

  CHAPTER XI

  The sultry heat of an African summer day still brooded over the wholegrove, although the sun had long since sunk into the sea, and the brieftwilight had passed into the darkness of night. But the full moon wasalready rising above the palm-trees, pouring her magical light overtrees, bushes, meadows, and water; over the marble statues whichgleamed fantastically out of the darkest, blackish-green masses ofshrubbery; and over the buildings, which were principally of white orlight-colored stone.

  In the more distant portions of the grove Diana's soft silvery lightruled alone, and here deep, chaste silence reigned, interrupted onlyhere and there by the note of some night bird. But near the gate, inthe two great main buildings, and on the turf and in the gardenssurrounding them, the noisy uproar of many thousands filled the air.All the instruments known at the time were playing discordantly,drowning one another. Cries of pleasure, drunkenness, even rage andangry conflict, were heard in the Roman, the Greek, the Moorish, andespecially the Vandal tongue; for perhaps the largest and certainly thenoisiest "guests of the grove," as the companions in these pleasurescalled themselves, belonged to the race of conquerors, who here gavevent to all their longing and capacity for pleasure.

  Two men, wearing the German costume, were walking down the broad streetto the Circus. The dress was conspicuous here, for nearly all theVandals, except the royal family, had either exchanged the German garb,nay, even the German weapons, for Roman ones, or for convenience,effeminacy, love of finery, adopted one or another article of Romanattire. These two men, however, had German cloaks, helmets, andweapons.

  "What frantic shouts! What pushing and crowding!" said the elder, a manof middle height, whose shrewd, keen eyes were closely scanningeverything that was passing around him.

  "And it is not the Romans who shout and roar most wildly andfrenziedly, but our own dear cousins," replied the other.

  "Was I not right, friend Theudigesel? Here, among the peoplethemselves, we shall learn more, obtain better information, in a singlenight, than if we exchanged letters with this book-learned King formany months."

  "What we see here with our own eyes is almost incredible!"

  Just at that moment loud cries reached their ears from the gate behindthem. Two negroes, naked except for an apron of peacock feathers abouttheir loins, were swinging gold staves around their woolly heads,evidently trying to force a passage for a train behind them.

  "Make way," they shouted constantly; "make way for the noble,Modigesel."

  But they could not succeed in breaking through the crowd; their callsonly attracted more curious spectators. So the eight Moors behind, whowere clad, or rather _un_clad, in the same way, were compelled to setdown their swaying burden, a richly gilded, half open litter. Its backwas made of narrow purple cushions, framed and supported by ivory rods;white ostrich feathers and the red plumage of the flamingo nodded fromthe knobs of the ivory.

  "Ho, my friend,"--the younger man addressed the occupant of the litter,a fair-haired Vandal about twenty-seven years old in a gleaming silkrobe, richly ornamented with gold and gems,--"are the nights herealways so gay?"

  The noble was evidently surprised that any one should presume to accosthim so unceremoniously. Listlessly opening a pair of sleepy eyes, heturned to his companion; for beside him now appeared a young woman,marvellously beautiful, though almost too fully developed, in asplendid robe, but overloaded with ornament. Her fair skin seemed togleam with a dull yellow lustre; the expression of the perfectfeatures, as regular as though carved by rule, yet rigid as those ofthe Sphinx, had absolutely no trace of mind or soul, only somewhatindolent but not yet sated sensuousness: she resembled a marvellouslybeautiful but very dangerous animal. So her charms exerted a power thatwas bewildering, oppressive, rather than winning. The Juno-like figurewas not ornamented, but rather hung and laden, with gold chains,circlets, rings, and disks.

  "O-oh-a-ah! I say, Astarte!" lisped her companion, in an affectedwhisper. He had heard from a Graeco-Roman dandy in Constantinople thatit was fashionable to speak too low to be understood. "Scarecrows,those two fellows, eh?" And, sighing over the exertion, he pushed upthe thick chaplet of roses which had slipped down over his eyes. "Likethe description of Genseric and his graybeards! Just see--ah--one has awolfskin for a cloak. The other is carrying--in the Grove of Venus--ahuge spear!--You ought to show yourselves--over yonder--in theCircus--for money, monsters!"

  The younger stranger drew his sword wrathfully. "If you knew to whomyou were--"

  But the older man motioned him to keep silence.

  "You must have come a long distance, if you ask such questions," theVandal went on, evidently amused by the appearance of the foreigners."It is the same always in this grove of the goddess of love. Onlypossibly it may be a trifle gayer to-night. The richest nobleman inCarthage celebrates his wedding. And he has invited the whole city."

  The beauty at his side raised herself a little. "Why do you waste timein talking to these rustics? Look, the lake is already shining with redlight. The gondola procession is beginning. I want to see handsomeThrasaric."

  And--at this name--the inanimate features brightened, the large, dark,impenetrable eyes darted an eager, searching glance into the distance,then the long lashes fell. She leaned her head back on the purplecushions; the black hair was piled up more than two hands high andclasped by five gold circlets united by light silver chains, yet themagnificent locks, thick as they were, were so stiff and coarse intexture that they resembled the hair of a horse's mane.

  "Can't you content yourself for the present, Astarte, with the lesshandsome Modigisel?" shouted her companion, with a strength of voicethat proved the affectation of his former lisping whisper. "You aregrowing too bold since your manumission." And he nudged her in the sidewith his elbow. It was probably meant for an expression of tenderness.But the Carthaginian slightly curled her upper lip, revealing only herlittle white incisors. It was merely a light tremor, but it recalledthe huge cats of her native land, especially when at the same time,like an angry tiger, she shut her eyes and threw back her splendidround head a little, as if silently vowing future vengeance.

  Modigisel had not noticed it.

  "I will obey, divine mistress," he now lisped again in the mostaffected tone. "Forward!" Then as the poor blacks--he had adopted thefashionable tone so completely--really did not hear him at all, he nowroared like a bear: "Forward, you dogs, I tell you!" striking, with astrength no one would have expected from the rose-garlanded dandy, thenearest slave a blow on the back which felled him to the ground. Theman rose again without a sound, and with the seven others grasped theheavily gilded poles; the litter soon vanished in the throng.

  "Did you see _her_?" asked the wearer of the wolf-skin.

  "Yes. She is like a black panther, or like this country: beautiful,passionate, treacherous, and deadly. Come, Theudigisel! Let us go tothe lake too. Most of the Vandals are gathering there. We shall have anopportunity to know them thoroughly. Here is a shorter foot-path,leading across the turf."

  "Stay! don't stumble, my lord! What is lying there directly across theway?"

  "A soldier--in full armor--a Vandal!"

  "And sound asleep in the midst of all this uproar."

  "He must be very drunk."

  The older man pushed the prostrate figure with the handle of his spear.

  "Who are you, fellow?"

  "I?--I?" The startled warrior propped himself on one elbow; he wasevidently trying to think. "I believe I am--Gunthamund, son ofGuntharic."

  "What are you doing here?"

  "You see. I am on guard. What are you laughing at? I am on guard toprevent any carousing in the grove. Where are the others? Have you nowine? I am horribly thirsty." And he sank back in the tall soft grass.

  "So these are the guards of the Vandals! Do you still counsel, my braveduke, as you advised,--beyond the sea?"

  The other, shaking his head, followed silently. Both vanished in thethrong of people who were now pressi
ng from every direction toward thelake.