Quo Vadis - Henryk Sienkiewicz (read after .TXT) 📗

led him away, and took him under direction of Scevinus to the Palatine.

Caesar had gone to rest, but Tigellinus was waiting. When he saw the unfortunate Greek, he greeted him with a calm but ominous face.

“Thou hast committed the crime of treason,” said he, “and punishment will not pass thee; but if tomorrow thou testify in the amphitheater that thou wert drunk and mad, and that the authors of the conflagration are Christians, thy punishment will be limited to stripes and exile.”

“I cannot do that,” answered Chilo, calmly.

Tigellinus approached him with slow step, and with a voice also low but terrible⁠—

“How is that?” asked he. “Thou canst not, Greek dog? Wert thou not drunk, and dost thou not understand what is waiting for thee? Look there!” and he pointed to a corner of the atrium in which, near a long wooden bench, stood four Thracian slaves in the shade with ropes, and with pincers in their hands.

But Chilo answered⁠—

“I cannot!”

Rage seized Tigellinus, but he restrained himself yet.

“Hast thou seen,” inquired he, “how Christians die? Dost wish to die in that way?”

The old man raised his pale face; for a time his lips moved in silence, and he answered⁠—

“I too believe in Christ.”

Tigellinus looked at him with amazement. “Dog, thou hast gone mad in fact!”

And suddenly the rage in his breast broke its bounds. Springing at Chilo, he caught him by the beard with both hands, hurled him to the floor, trampled him, repeating, with foam on his lips⁠—

“Thou wilt retract! thou wilt!”

“I cannot!” answered Chilo from the floor.

“To the tortures with him!”

At this command the Thracians seized the old man, and placed him on the bench; then, fastening him with ropes to it, they began to squeeze his thin shanks with pincers. But when they were tying him he kissed their hands with humility; then he closed his eyes, and seemed dead.

He was alive, though; for when Tigellinus bent over him and inquired once again, “Wilt thou retract?” his white lips moved slightly, and from them came the barely audible whisper⁠—

“I cannot.”

Tigellinus gave command to stop the torture, and began to walk up and down in the atrium with a face distorted by anger, but helpless. At last a new idea came to his head, for he turned to the Thracians and said⁠—

“Tear out his tongue!”

LXII

The drama Aureolus was given usually in theaters or amphitheaters, so arranged that they could open and present as it were two separate stages. But after the spectacle in the gardens of Caesar the usual method was omitted; for in this case the problem was to let the greatest number of people look at a slave who, in the drama, is devoured by a bear. In the theaters the role of the bear is played by an actor sewed up in a skin, but this time the representation was to be real. This was a new idea of Tigellinus. At first Caesar refused to come, but changed his mind at persuasion of the favorite. Tigellinus explained that after what had happened in the gardens it was all the more his duty to appear before the people, and he guaranteed that the crucified slave would not insult him as had Crispus. The people were somewhat sated and tired of blood-spilling; hence a new distribution of lottery tickets and gifts was promised, as well as a feast, for the spectacle was to be in the evening, in a brilliantly lighted amphitheater.

About dusk the whole amphitheater was packed; the Augustians, with Tigellinus at the head of them, came to a man⁠—not only for the spectacle itself, but to show their devotion to Caesar and their opinion of Chilo, of whom all Rome was then talking.

They whispered to one another that Caesar, when returning from the gardens, had fallen into a frenzy and could not sleep, that terrors and wonderful visions had attacked him; therefore he had announced on the following morning his early journey to Achaea. But others denied this, declaring that he would be all the more pitiless to the Christians. Cowards, however, were not lacking, who foresaw that the accusation which Chilo had thrown into Caesar’s face might have the worst result possible. In conclusion, there were those who through humanity begged Tigellinus to stop persecution.

“See whither ye are going,” said Barcus Soranus. “Ye wished to allay people’s anger and convince them that punishment was falling on the guilty; the result is just the opposite.”

“True!” added Antistius Verus, “all whisper to one another now that the Christians were innocent. If that be cleverness, Chilo was right when he said that your brains could be held in a nutshell.”

Tigellinus turned to them and said: “Barcus Soranus, people whisper also to one another that thy daughter Servilia secreted her Christian slaves from Caesar’s justice; they say the same also of thy wife, Antistius.”

“That is not true!” exclaimed Barcus, with alarm.

“Your divorced women wished to ruin my wife, whose virtue they envy,” said Antistius Verus, with no less alarm.

But others spoke of Chilo.

“What has happened to him?” asked Eprius Marcellus. “He delivered them himself into the hands of Tigellinus; from a beggar he became rich; it was possible for him to live out his days in peace, have a splendid funeral, and a tomb: but, no! All at once he preferred to lose everything and destroy himself; he must, in truth, be a maniac.”

“Not a maniac, but he has become a Christian,” said Tigellinus.

“Impossible!” said Vitellius.

“Have I not said,” put in Vestinius, “ ‘Kill Christians if ye like; but believe me ye cannot war with their divinity. With it there is no jesting’? See what is taking place. I have not burned Rome; but if Caesar permitted I would give a hecatomb at once to their divinity. And all should do the same, for I repeat: With it there is no jesting! Remember my words to you.”

“And I said something else,” added Petronius. “Tigellinus laughed when I said that they were arming, but