A Friend of Caesar | Page 7

lay behind this
entrance way. Back of it rambled the structure used by the farm steward,
and the slaves and cattle. The whole house was low--in fact practically
one-storied; and the effect produced was perhaps substantial, but hardly
imposing.
Up the broad avenue went the two young people; too busy with their
own gay chatter to notice at a distance how figures were running in and
out amid the colonnade, and how the pillars were festooned with
flowers. But as they drew nearer a throng was evident. The whole farm
establishment--men, women, and children--had assembled, garlanded
and gayly dressed, to greet the young master. Perhaps five hundred
persons--nearly all slaves--had been employed on the huge estate, and
they were all at hand. As Drusus came up the avenue, a general shout
of welcome greeted him.
"Ave! Ave! Domine!" and there were some shouts as Cornelia was seen
of, "Ave! Domina!"
"Domina[22] here very soon," said Drusus, smiling to the young lady;
and disengaging himself from her, he advanced to greet personally a
tall, ponderous figure, with white, flowing hair, a huge white beard, and
a left arm that had been severed at the wrist, who came forward with a
swinging military stride that seemed to belie his evident years.
[22] Domina, mistress.
"All hail, dearest Mamercus!" exclaimed the young man, running up to
the burly object. "Here is the little boy you used to scold, fondle, and
tell stories to, back safe and sound to hear the old tales and to listen to
some more admonitions."
The veteran made a hurried motion with his remaining hand, as if to
brush something away from his eyes, and his deep voice seemed a trifle
husky when he replied, speaking slowly:--

"Mehercle![23] All the Gods be praised! The noble Sextus living again
in the form of his son! Ah! This makes my old heart glad;" and he held
out his hand to Drusus. But the young man dashed it away, and flinging
his arms around Mamercus's neck, kissed him on both cheeks. Then
when this warm greeting was over, Drusus had to salute Titus
Mamercus, a solid, stocky, honest-faced country lad of eighteen, the
son of the veteran; and after Titus--since the Mamerci and Drusi were
remotely related and the jus oscului[24]--less legally, the "right of
kissing"--existed between them, he felt called upon to press the cheek
of Æmilia, Mamercus's pretty daughter, of about her brother's age.
Cornelia seemed a little discomposed at this, and perhaps so gave her
lover a trifling delight. But next he had to shake all the freedmen by the
hand, also the older and better known slaves; and to say something in
reply to their congratulations. The mass of the slaves he could not
know personally; but to the assembled company he spoke a few words,
with that quiet dignity which belongs to those who are the heirs of
generations of lordly ancestors.
[23] By Hercules.
[24] The right of kissing kinsfolk within the sixth degree.
"This day I assume control of my estate. All past offences are forgiven.
I remit any punishments, however justly imposed. To those who are my
faithful servants and clients I will prove a kind and reasonable master.
Let none in the future be mischievous or idle; for them I cannot spare.
But since the season is hot, in honour of my home-coming, for the next
ten days I order that no work, beyond that barely needed, be done in the
fields. Let the familia enjoy rest, and let them receive as much wine as
they may take without being unduly drunken. Geta, Antiochus, and
Kebes, who have been in this house many years, shall go with me
before the prætor, to be set free."
And then, while the slaves still shouted their aves and salves,
Mamercus led Drusus and Cornelia through the old villa, through the
atrium where the fountain tinkled, and the smoky, waxen death-masks
of Quintus's noble ancestors grinned from the presses on the wall;
through the handsomely furnished rooms for the master of the house;

out to the barns and storehouses, that stretched away in the rear of the
great farm building. Much pride had the veteran when he showed the
sleek cattle, the cackling poultry-yard, and the tall stacks of hay; only
he growled bitterly over what he termed the ill-timed leniency of his
young patron in releasing the slaves in the chain-gang.
"Oh, such times!" he muttered in his beard; "here's this young upstart
coming home, and teaches me that such dogs as I put in fetters are
better set at large! There'll be a slave revolt next, and some night all our
throats will be cut. But it's none of my doing."
"Well," said Drusus, smiling, "I've been interested at Athens in learning
from philosophy that one owes