Page:All the Year Round - Series 1 - Volume 9.djvu/236

228 [May 2,1863.) ALL THE YEAR ROUND [Conducted by gilius made his appearance before the castle; the basket was let down, and the magician seated himself in it. The lady then drew him up until he was half way between the ground and the top of the tower; but there she stopped, and made the cord fast, saying, "You are deceived, and shall hang where you are until tomorrow, which is market day, that all the people may wonder at you and your dishonesty." With those words she shut down her window, and the following day the poor enchanter was mocked by the populace. The report of his disgrace spread all over Rome till it reached the ears of the emperor, who sent for the lady, and commanded her to let Virgilius down; which she did. He then swore to be revenged, and by conjuration put out all the fire in Rome. The deprivation continued for a whole day and night; and at length the emperor sent for Virgilius, and prayed him that his people might have fire again. He consented, on condition that the lady should stand on a scaffold in the middle of the market-place, in a manner not at all consistent with self-respect. The scaffold was made; the lady was placed on it, and obliged to remain there for three days; and thus was Virgilius revenged, and the Romans once more supplied with fire.

The magician now set himself to making those statues upon which depended the safety of Rome. He fashioned, and set up in the Capitolium (which, explains the old romance-writer, "was the towne-house"), a figure of the god of Rome, surrounded by other figures representing the gods of all those lands which were under the rule of the Imperial City. Each of these idols had in his hand a bell; and whenever any of the subject countries contemplated rising against the authority of Rome, all the gods turned their backs on the Roman figure, and the god of the refractory land rang his bell so violently that the senators heard it, and, going to the place, saw what country it was that meditated insurrection. This contrivance so annoyed the rulers of Carthage that they held a privy council, and determined on sending three men to Rome, with a plot for destroying the idols. The men were provided with a vast sum in gold and silver, and, on arriving at Rome, gave out that they were soothsayers and dreamers of prophetic dreams. After a while, they buried under a hill near the city a large pot of money, and let fall into the Tiber from one of the bridges a great barrel full of gold. They then went to the senators, and said: "Worshipful lords, we dreamed last night that under the foot of a neighbouring hill there is a great pot of money. If you will grant us permission, we will ourselves be at the cost of seeking after it." Permission was granted, and the treasure was presently dug out of the earth. In a few days, the false soothsayers went again to the senators, and said; "Worshipful lords, we have dreamed that in a certain part of the Tiber a barrel of gold lies sunk, If you will grant us permission, we will go and seek it." The lords of Rome bade them do their best, and the soothsayers were glad. They hired ships and men, and went to the place where they had dropped the barrel, and in time drew it up; after which, they made the senators many costly gifts. The way was now prepared for the grand attempt. The wise men went a third tine to the senators, and said. they had dreamed that under the foundations of the Capitol lay twelve barrels full of gold, and that, if they were allowed to do so, they would dig for it, and the result would be very advantageous to the great lords. Encouraged by the success of the two former perquisitions, the senators gave the men the required authority, and they began to delve beneath the basis of the building. When they thought they had gone far enough, they departed from Rome; and on the following day the Capitol tumbled into ruins, and the statues which Virgilius had made with so much art were utterly destroyed.

Another device was more permanently successful, though it tasked the ingenuity of Virgilius to the utmost. The emperor, having had many complaints of the night-runners, thieves, and murderers who infested the streets of Rome, applied to the enchanter for a remedy. Virgilius hereupon caused to be fashioned a horse of copper, with a copper man on his back, having in his hand a flail of iron; and every night proclamation was made at ten o'clock that no one was to be in the streets until morning. Then leapt forth the copper horse and the copper man throughout the streets of Rome, even to the smallest thoroughfare; and whoever was found abroad was stricken dead by the iron flail. More than two hundred persons having been killed in this manner, the thieves and murderers bethought them of a contrivance. They made a portable ladder with a drag attached to it, and, when they heard the copper horse and the copper man approaching, they cast the drag upon the houses, and ascended to the roofs, where they were out of danger. The emperor, being baffled, again appealed to Virgilius, who directed him to set two copper hounds on either side of the horse. The magical figures were made; the ruffians as usual went out on their lawless errands, and, as soon as the noise of the copper horse and man came thundering along the street, climbed as before on to the tops of the houses. But the copper dogs bounded after them, tore them to pieces, and delivered Rome from the pest that had troubled it.

While engaged in these and similar works, Virgilius was attracted by a report concerning the daughter of the Sultan of Babylon, who was said to be of extraordinary beauty. He fell in love with the mere description of this damsel, and, making a bridge in the air, went over to her. She received the magician very agreeably, and agreed to depart with him into his own country. Accordingly, Virgilius carried her across the aërial bridge into his magnificent palace and orchard, and showed her his enormous heaps of treasure, and the wonderful de-