The Falling Star/Chapter 11

ALEN’S house was one he rented from a freedman of the emperor—a wise means of retaining favor at the palace. Landlords having influence were careful to protect good tenants. Furthermore, whoever rented, rather than possessed, escaped more easily from persecution. Galen, like Tyanan Apollonius, reduced his private needs, maintaining that philosophy went hand in hand with medicine, but wealth with neither.

It was a pleasant little house, not far away from Cornificia’s, within a precinct that was rebuilt after all that part of Rome burned under Nero’s fascinated gaze. The street was crescent-shaped, not often crowded, though a score of passages like wheel-spokes led to it; and to the rear of Galen’s house was a veritable maze of alleys. There were two gates to the house: one wide, with decorated posts, that faced the crescent street, where Galen’s oldest slave sat on a stool and blinked at passers-by; the other narrow, leading from a little high-walled courtyard at the rear into an alley between stables in which milch-asses were kept. That alley led into another where a dozen midwives had their names and claims to excellency painted on the doors—an alley carefully to be avoided, because women of that trade, like barbers, vied for custom by disseminating gossip.

So Sextus used a passage running parallel to that one, leading between workshops where the burial-urn makers’ slaves engraved untruthful epitaphs in baked clay or inlaid them on the marble tomb-slabs—to be gilded presently with gold-leaf (since a gilded lie, though costlier, is no worse than the same lie unadorned.)

He drummed a signal with his knuckles on the panel of a narrow door of olive-wood, set deep into the wall under a projecting arch. An overleaning tree increased the shadow, and a visitor could wait without attracting notice. A slave nearly as old as Galen presently admitted him into a paved yard in which a fish-pond had been built around an ancient well. A few old fruit-trees grew against the wall, and there were potted shrubs, but little evidence of gardening, most of Galen’s slaves being too old for that kind of work. There were a dozen of them loafing in the yard; some were so fat that they wheezed, and some so thin with age that they resembled skeletons. There was a rumor that the fatness and the thinness were accounted for by Galen’s fondness for experiments. Old Galen had a hundred jealous rivals and they even said he fed the dead slaves to the fish; but it was Roman custom to give no man credit for humaneness if an unclean accusation could be made to stick.

Another fat old slave led Sextus to a porch behind the house and through that to a library extremely bare of furniture but lined with shelves on which rolled manuscripts were stacked in tagged and numbered order; they were dusty, as if Galen used them very little nowadays. There were two doors in addition to the one that opened on the porch; the old slave pointed to the smaller one and Sextus, stooping and turning sidewise because of the narrowness between the posts, went down a step and entered without knocking.

For a moment he could not see Galen, there was such confusion of shadow and light. High shelves around the walls of a long, shed-like room were crowded with retorts and phials. An enormous, dusty human skeleton, articulated on concealed wire, moved as if annoyed by the intrusion. There were many kinds of skulls of animals and men on brackets fastened to the wall, and there were jars containing dead things soaked in spirit. Some of the jars were enormous, having once held olive oil. On a table down the midst were instruments, a scale for weighing chemicals, some measures and a charcoal furnace with a blow-pipe; and across the whole of one end of the room was a system of wooden pigeon-holes, stacked with chemicals and herbs, for the most part wrapped in parchment.

Sunlight streaming through narrow windows amid dust of drugs and spices made a moving mystery; the room seemed under water. Galen, stooping over a crucible with an unrolled parchment on the table within reach, was not distinguishable until he moved; when he ceased moving he faded out again, and Sextus had to go and stand where he could touch him, to believe that he was really there.

“You told me you had ceased experiments.”

“I lied. The universe is an experiment,” said Galen. “Such gods as there are perhaps are looking to evolve a decent man, or possibly a woman, from the mess we see around us. Let us hope they fail.”

“Why?”

“There appears to be hope in failure. Should the gods fail, they will still be gods and go on trying. If they ever make a decent man or woman all the rest of us would turn on their creation and destroy it. Then the gods would turn into devils and destroy us.”

“What has happened to you, Galen? Why the bitter mood?”

“I discover I am like the rest of you—like all Rome. At my age such a discovery makes for bitterness.” For a minute or two Galen went on scraping powder from the crucible, then suddenly he looked up at Sextus, stepping backward so as to see the young man’s face more clearly in a shaft of sunlight.

“Did you send that Christian into the tunnel to kill Commodus?” he asked.

“I? You know me better than that, Galen! When the time comes to slay Commodus—but is Commodus dead? Speak, don’t stand there looking at me! Speak, man!”

Galen appeared satisfied.

“No, not Commodus. The blow miscarried. Somebody slew Nasor. A mistake. A coward’s blow. If you had been responsible—”

“When—if—I slay, it shall be openly with my own hand,” said Sextus. “Not I alone, but Rome herself must vomit out that monster. Why are you vexed?”

“That wanton blow that missed its mark has stripped some friends of mine too naked. It has also stripped me and revealed me to myself. Last night I saw a falling star—a meteor that blazed out of the night and vanished.”

“I, too,” said Sextus. “All Rome saw it. The cheap sorcerers are doing a fine trade. They declare it portends evil.”

“Evil— but for whom?” Old Galen poured the powder he had scraped into a dish and blinked at him. “Affiliations in the realm of substance are confined to like ingredients. That law is universal. Like seeks like, begetting its own like. As for instance, sickness flows in channels of unwholesomeness, like water seeping through a marsh. Evil? What is evil but the likeness of a deed—its echo—its result—its aftermath? You see this powder? Marcia has ordered me to poison Commodus! What kind of aftermath should that deed have?”

Sextus stared at him astonished. Galen went on mixing.

“Colorless it must be—flavorless—without smell—indetectible. These saviors of Rome prepare too much to save themselves! And I take trouble to save myself. Why?”

He stopped and blinked again at Sextus, waiting for an answer.

“You are worth preserving, Galen.”

“I dispute that. I am sentimental, which is idiocy in a man of my age. But I will not kill him who is superior to any man in Rome.”

“Idiocy? You? And you admire that monster?”

“As a monster, yes. He is at least whole-hearted. As a monster he lacks neither strength of will nor sinew nor good looks; he is magnificent; he has the fear, the frenzy and the resolution of a splendid animal. We have only cowardice, the unenthusiasm and the indecision of base men. If we had the virtue of Commodus, no Commodus could ever have ruled Rome for half a day. But I am senile. I am sentimental. Rather than betray Marcia—and Pertinax—who would betray me for their own sakes; rather than submit my own old carcass to the slave whom Marcia would send to kill me, I am doing what you see.”

“Poison for Commodus?”

“No.”

“Not for yourself, Galen?”

“No.”

“For whom then?”

“For Pertinax.”

Sextus seized the plate on which the several ingredients were being mixed.

“Put that down,” said Galen. “I will poison part of him—the mean part.”

“Speak in plain words, Galen!”

“I will slay his indecision. He and Marcia propose that I shall kill their monster. I shall mix a draught for Marcia to take to him—in case this, and in case that, and perhaps. In plain words, Commodus has sent for Livius and none knows how much Livius has told. Their monster writes and scratches out and rewrites long proscription lists, and Marcia trembles for her Christians. For herself she does not tremble. She has ten times Pertinax’ ability to rule. If Marcia were a man she should be emperor! Our Pertinax is hesitating between inertia and doubt and dread of Cornificia’s ambition for him; between admiration of his own wife and contempt for her; between the subtleties of auguries and common sense; between trust and mistrust of us all, including Marcia and you and me; between the easy dignity of being governor of Rome and the uneasy palace-slavery of being Cæsar; between doubt of his own ability to rule and the will to restore the republic.”

“We all know Pertinax,” said Sextus. “He is diffident, that is all. He is modest. Once he has made his decision—”

Galen interrupted him:

“Then let us pray the gods to make the rest of us immodest! The decision that he makes is this: If Commodus has heard of the conspiracy; if Commodus intends to kill him, he will then allow somebody else to kill Commodus! He will permit me, who am a killer only by professional mistake and not by intention, to be made to kill my former pupil with a poisoned drink! You understand, not even then will Pertinax take resolution by the throat and do his own work.”

“So Pertinax shall drink this?”

“It is meant that Commodus shall drink it. That is, unless Commodus emerges from his sulks too soon and butchers all of us—as we deserve!”

“Have done with riddles, Galen! How will that affect Pertinax, except to make him emperor?”

“Nothing will make him emperor unless he makes himself,” said Galen. “You will know tonight. We lack a hero, Sextus. All conspirators resemble rats that gnaw and run, until one rat at last discovers himself Cæsar of the herd by accident. Caius Julius Cæsar was a hero. He was one mind bold and above and aloof. He saw. He considered. He took. His murderers were all conspirators, who ran like rats and turned on one another. So are we! Can you imagine Caius Julius Cæsar threatening an old philosopher like me with death unless he mixed the poison for a woman to take to his enemy’s bedside? Can you imagine the great Julius hesitating to destroy a friend or spare an enemy?”

“Do you mean, they strike tonight, and haven’t warned me?”

“I have warned you.”

“Marcia has been prepared these many days to kill me if I meant to strike,” said Sextus. “I can understand that; it is no more than a woman’s method to protect her bully. She accuses and defends him, fears and loves him, hates him and hates more the man who sets her free. But Pertinax—did he not bid you warn me?”

“No,” said Galen. “Are you looking for nobility? I tell you there is nothing noble in conspiracies. Pertinax and Marcia have used you. They will try to use me. They will blame me. They will certainly blame you. I advise you to run to your friends in the Aventine Hills. Thence hasten out of Italy. If Pertinax should fail and Com modus survives this night—”

“No, Galen. He must not fail! Rome needs Pertinax. That poison—phaugh! Is no sword left in Rome? Has Pertinax no iron in him? Better one of Marcia’s long pins than that unmanly stuff. Where is Narcissus?”

“I don’t know,” said Galen. “Narcissus is another who will do well to protect himself. Commodus is well disposed toward him. Commodus might send for him—as he will surely send for me if belly-burning sets in. He and I would make a good pair to be blamed for murdering an emperor.”

“You run!” urged Sextus. “Go now! Go to my camp in the Aventines. You will find Norbanus and two freedmen waiting near the Porta Capena; they are wearing farmers’ clothes and look as if they came from Sicily. They know you. Say I bade them take you into hiding.”

Galen smiled at him.

“And you?” he asked.

“Narcissus shall smuggle me into the palace. It is I who will slay Commodus, lest Pertinax should stain his hands. If they prefer to turn on me, what matter? Pertinax, if he is to be Cæsar, will do better not to mount the throne all bloody. Let him blame me and then execute me. Rome will reap the benefit. Marcia has the prætorian guard well under control, what with her bribes and all the license she has begged for them. Let Marcia proclaim that Pertinax is Cæsar, the prætorian guard will follow suit, and the senate will confirm it so soon after daybreak that the citizens will find themselves obeying a new Cæsar before they know the old one is dead! Then let Pertinax make new laws and restore the ancient liberties. I will die happy.”

“O youth—insolence of youth!” said Galen, smiling. He resumed his mixing of the powders, adding new ingredients. “I was young once—young and insolent. I dared to try to tutor Commodus! But never in my long life was I insolent enough to claim all virtue for myself and bid my elders go and hide! You think you will slay Commodus? I doubt it.”

“How so?”

Sextus was annoyed. The youth in him resented that his altruism should be mocked.

“Pertinax should do it,” Galen answered. “If Rome needed no more than philosophy and grammar, better make me Cæsar! I was mixing my philosophy with surgery and medicine while Pertinax was sucking at his mother’s breast in a Ligurian hut. Rome, my son, is sick of too much mixed philosophy. She needs a man of iron—a riser to occasion—a cutter of Gordian knots, precisely as a sick man needs a surgeon. The senate will vote, as you say, at the prætorian guard’s dictation. You have been clever, my Sextus, with your stirring of faction against faction. They are mean men, all so full of mutual suspicion as to heave a huge sigh when they know that Pertinax is Cæsar, knowing he will over look their plotting and rule without bloodshed if that can be done. But it can’t be! Unless Pertinax is man enough to strike the blow that shall restore the ancient liberties, then he is better dead before he tries to play the savior! We have a tyrant now. Shall we exchange him for a weak-kneed theorist?”

“Are you ready to die, Galen?”

“Why not? Are you the only Roman? I am not so old I have no virtue left. A little wisdom comes with old age, Sextus. It is better to live for one’s country than to die for it, but since no way has been invented of avoiding death, it is wiser to die usefully than like a sandal thrown on to the rubbish-heap because the fashion changes.”

“I wish you would speak plainly, Galen. I have told you all my secrets. You have seen me risk my life a thousand times in the midst of Commodus’ informers, coming and going, interviewing this and that one, urging here, restraining there, denying my self even hope of personal reward. You know I have been whole-hearted in the cause of Pertinax. Is it right, in a crisis, to put me off with subtleties?”

“Life is subtle. So is virtue. So is this stuff,” Galen answered, poking at the mixture with a bronze spoon. “Every man must choose his own way in a crisis. Some one’s star has fallen. Commodus’? I think not. That star blazed out of obscurity, and Commodus is not obscure. Mine? I am unimportant; I shall make no splendor in the heavens when my hour comes. Marcia’s? Is she obscure? Yours? You are like me, not born to the purple; when a sparrow dies, however diligently he has labored in the dirt, no meteors announce his fall. No, not Maternus, the outlaw, to say nothing of Sextus, the legally dead man, can command such notice from the sky. That meteor was some one’s who shall blaze into fame and then die.”

“Dark words, Galen!”

“Dark deeds!” the old man answered. “And a path to be chosen in darkness! Shall I poison the man whom I taught as a boy? Shall I refuse, and be drowned in the sewer by Marcia’s slaves? Shall I betray my friends to save my own old carcass? Shall I run away and hide, at my age, and live hounded by my own thoughts, fearful of my shadow, eating charity from peasants? I can easily say no to all those things. What then? It is not what a man does not, but what he does that makes him or unmakes him. There is nothing left but subtlety, my Sextus. What will you do? Go and do it now. Tomorrow may be too late.”

Sextus shrugged his shoulders, baffled and irritated. He had always looked to Galen for advice in a predicament. It was Galen, in fact, who had kept him from playing much more than the part of a spy—listening, talking, suggesting, but forever doing nothing violent.

“You know as well as I do, there is nothing ready,” he retorted. “Long ago I could have had a thousand armed men waiting for a moment such as this to rally behind Pertinax. But I listened to you—”

“And are accordingly alive, not crucified!” said Galen. “The prætorian guard is well able to slaughter any thousand men, to uphold Commodus or to put Pertinax in the place of Commodus. Your thousand men would only decorate a thousand gibbets, whether Pertinax should win or lose. If he should win, and become Cæsar, he would have to make them an example of his love of law and order, proving his impartiality by blaming them for what he never invited them to do. For mark this: Pertinax has never named himself as Commodus’ successor. I warn you: there is far less safety for his friends than for his enemies, unless he, with his own hand, strikes the blow that makes him emperor.”

“If Marcia should do it—?”

“That would be the end of Marcia.”

“If I should do it?”

“That would be the end of you, my Sextus.”

“Let us say farewell, then, Galen! This right hand shall do it. It will save my friends. It will provide a culprit on whom Pertinax may lay the blame. He will ascend the throne unguilty of his predecessor’s blood—”

“And you?” asked Galen.

“I will take my own life. I will gladly die when I have ridded Rome of Commodus.”

He paused, awaiting a reply, but Galen appeared almost rudely unconcerned.

“You will not say farewell?”

“It is too soon,” Galen answered, folding up his powder in a sheet of parchment, tying it, at great pains to arrange the package neatly.

“Will you not wish me success?”

“That is something, my Sextus, that I have no powders for. I have occasionally cured men. I can set most kinds of fractures with considerable skill, old though I am. And I can divert a man’s attention sometimes, so that he lets nature heal him of mysterious diseases. But success is something you have already wished for and have already made or unmade. What you did, my Sextus, is the scaffolding of what you do now; this, in turn, of what you will do next. I gave you my advice. I bade you run away—in which case I would bid you farewell, but not otherwise.”

“I will not run.”

“I heard you.”

“And you said you are sentimental, Galen!”

“I have proved it to you. If I were not, I myself would run!”

Galen led the way out of the room into the hall where the mosaic floor and plastered walls presented colored temple scenes—priests burning incense at the shrine of Æsculapius, the sick and maimed arriving and the cured departing, giving praise.

“There will be no hero left in Rome when they have slain our Roman Hercules,” said Galen. “He has been a triton in a pond of minnows. You and I and all the other little men may not regret him afterward, since heroes, and particularly mad ones, are not madly loved. But we will not en joy the rivalry of minnows.”

He led Sextus to the porch and stood there for a minute holding to his arm.

“There will be no rivals who will dare to raise their heads,” said Sextus, “once our Pertinax has made his bid for power.”

“But he will not,” Galen answered. “He will hesitate and let others do the bidding. Too many scruples! He who would govern an empire might better have fetters on feet and hands! Now go. But go not to the palace if you hope to see a heroism—or tomorrow’s dawn!”