Vergilius | Page 9

he shook the skirt of his toga.
"'Tis odd, my goodfellows," said Vergilius, "but the other day I saw a
man scourging his lady's-maid. Mother of the gods! I felt as if the
blows were falling on my own back, and out went my hand upon his
arm and I begged him--I begged him to spare the girl."
All laughed again.
"You should have a doll and long hair," said Antipater, in a tone of
contempt.
The proud son of Varro stood waiting as the others laughed, his brows
and chin lifting a bit with anger. When silence came he spoke slowly,
looking from face to face:
"If any here dare to question my courage, within a moment it shall be
proved upon him."
None spoke or moved for a breath. Antipater answered, presently:

"I doubt not your courage, noble Vergilius, but if you will have it tried I
can show you a better way, and one that will spare your friends. Come,
all of you."
As they were rising, the young Gracus remarked: "By Apollo! I have
not taken my emetic."
"To forget that is to know sorrow," said another.
Slaves brought their outer robes and they followed the young prince.
He led them, between vines and fruit trees and beds of martagon and
mirasolus, to the lion-house in his garden. Vergilius now understood
the test of courage to be put upon him. The great beasts were asleep in
their cages, and Antipater prodded them with a lance. A thunder in their
throats seemed to fill the air and shake the flames in the lampadaria.
With sword and lance Antipater entered the arena, a space barred high,
about thirty feet square, upon which all the cages opened.
"The tiger!" he commanded.
Keepers lifted a metal gate, and the huge cat leaped away from their
lances, backed snarling to the end of his cage, and with a slow,
creeping movement put his head and fore-paws into the arena; then a
swift step or two, a lowering of the great head, and side-long he stood,
with eyes aglow and fangs uncovered, a low mutter in his mouth, like
the roar of a mighty harp-string. Some fifteen feet away stood the son
of Herod, his lance poised.
"Never strike while your beast has a foot to the ground," said he,
keeping his gaze on the face of the tiger. "He will be quick to move and
parry. Wait until he is in the air, and then thrust your lance."
He made a feint with his weapon; the tiger darted half his length aside,
with a great, bursting roar, and, crouching low, stealthily felt the
ground beneath him.
"Watch him now," said the tall Antipater. "He will leap soon."

Again he drove him forward, and then the beast turned, facing his
tormentor, and crouched low. There, in a huge setting of bone and
muscle strangely fitted to its fierceness, with eyes of fire and feet of
deadly stealth, its back arched like a drawn bow, the wild heart of the
son of Herod seemed to be facing him.
"Look!" a slave shouted. "He has bent his bow."
The haired lip of the beast quivered; great cords of muscle were drawn
tense. Like a flash the bow sprang and the columns of bone beneath
him lifted, flinging his long, striped body in the air. With cat-like
swiftness Antipater stepped aside, and while the huge beast was in
mid-air, thrust the lance into his heart. He bore with all his strength and
rushed away, seizing an other weapon. The big cat fell and rose and
struck at the clinging lance, and stood a second flooding the floor with
blood. Then down he went shuddering to his death. The young men
shouted loud their applause in honor of Herod's son. While the beast
was dying slaves came and sanded the floor. Then, presently, they
swept up the red sand, and tying a rope to the legs of the limp tiger,
dragged him away. They had done this kind of work before, and each
knew his part. Presently Antipater called two of them.
"Bring that girl Cyran--she that chants of her new king," said he, as
they ran to do his bidding.
"Noble prince, the strange god is again at work in me," said Vergilius,
with rising ire. "I could not bear to see you put her with the leopard; I
should rather face him myself."
"You!" said the other, tauntingly, and with a shrewd purpose. The
youths turned to see if Vergilius would really accept the challenge. No
man had ever faced a black leopard at close quarters without suffering
death or injury.
"I," said Vergilius, promptly. "If it is amusement you desire, I can
supply it as well as she. Surely I have more blood in me.