At the Mercy of TiberiusEvans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
History
At the Mercy of Tiberius
Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
Rome -- History -- Tiberius, 14-37 -- Fiction
Holding her father's hand, she walked in the Odenwald; sitting beside
her mother on a carpet of purple vetches, she stemmed strawberries in a
garden near Pistoja; clinging to Bertie's jacket, she followed him
across dimpling sands to dip her feet in the blue Mediterranean waves,
that broke in laughter, showing teeth of foam, where dying sunsets
reddened all the beach. Through sunny arcades, flushed with
pomegranate, glowing with orange, silvered with lemon blossoms, came
the tinkling music of contadini bells, the bleating of kids, the
twittering of happy birds, the distant chime of an Angelus; all the
subtle harmony, the fragmentary melody that flickers through an
Impromptu of Chopin or Schubert. She saw the simulacrum of her former
self, the proud, happy Beryl of old, singing from the score of the
"Messiah", in the organ loft of a marble church; she heard the rich
tenor voice of her handsome brother, as he trilled a barcarole one
night, crossing the Atlantic; she smelled the tuberoses at Mentone, the
faint breath of lilies her father had loved so well, and then, blotting
all else, there rose clear as some line of Morghen's, that attic room;
the invalid's bed, the low chair beside it, the wasted figure, the
suffering, fever-flushed face of the beloved mother, as she saw her
last, with the Grand Duke jasmine fastened at her throat.
The door was thrown open, and the officer beckoned her to follow him.
Back into the crowded court-room, where people pressed even into the
window sills for standing room, where Judge and counsel sat gravely
expectant; where the stillness of death had suddenly fallen. The
officer conducted her to the bar, then drew back, and Mr. Dunbar came
and stood at her side; resting his hand on the back of her chair.
In that solemn hush, the measured tramp of the jury advancing, and
filing into their box, had the mournful, measured beat as of pall
bearers, keeping step to a dismal dirge; and when the foreman laid upon
the table the fatal brass unicorn, the muffled sound seemed ominous as
the grating of a coffin lowered upon the cross bars of a gaping grave.
As the roll was called, each man rose, and answered in a low but
distinct tone. Then the clerk of the court asked:
"Gentlemen of the jury, have you agreed upon your verdict?"
"We have," replied the foreman.
"What say you! Guilty, or not guilty?"
Beryl had risen, and the gaslight shining full upon her pale, Phidian
face, showed no trace of trepidation. Only the pathetic patience of a
sublime surrender was visible on her frozen features. The eyes
preternaturally large and luminous were raised far above the sea of
heads, and their strained gaze might almost have been fixed upon the
unveiled face of the God she trusted. Her hands were folded over her
mother's ring, her noble head thrown proudly back.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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