Chapter 15

As the curtain rises, Priestesses are heard singing in the Temple. Boy discovered on a pathway among Rocks, picking grapes. A party of Roman Soldiers, guarding a prisoner in chains, come down the pathway and exeunt.

_Enter_ SYNORIX (_looking round_). _Singing ceases_.

SYNORIX. Pine, beech and plane, oak, walnut, apricot, Vine, cypress, poplar, myrtle, bowering in The city where she dwells. She past me here Three years ago when I was flying from My Tetrarchy to Rome. I almost touch'd her-- A maiden slowly moving on to music Among her maidens to this Temple--O Gods! She is my fate--else wherefore has my fate Brought me again to her own city?--married Since--married Sinnatus, the Tetrarch here-- But if he be conspirator, Rome will chain, Or slay him. I may trust to gain her then When I shall have my tetrarchy restored By Rome, our mistress, grateful that I show'd her The weakness and the dissonance of our clans, And how to crush them easily. Wretched race! And once I wish'd to scourge them to the bones. But in this narrow breathing-time of life Is vengeance for its own sake worth the while, If once our ends are gain'd? and now this cup-- I never felt such passion for a woman. [_Brings out a cup and scroll from under his cloak_. What have I written to her?

[_Reading the scroll_.

'To the admired Gamma, wife of Sinnatus, the Tetrarch, one who years ago, himself an adorer of our great goddess, Artemis, beheld you afar off worshipping in her Temple, and loved you for it, sends you this cup rescued from the burning of one of her shrines in a city thro' which he past with the Roman army: it is the cup we use in our marriages. Receive it from one who cannot at present write himself other than 'A GALATIAN SERVING BY FORCE IN THE ROMAN LEGION.'

[_Turns and looks up to Boy_.

Boy, dost thou know the house of Sinnatus?

BOY. These grapes are for the house of Sinnatus-- Close to the Temple.

SYNORIX. Yonder?

BOY. Yes.

SYNORIX (_aside_). That I With all my range of women should yet shun To meet her face to face at once! My boy, [_Boy comes down rocks to him_. Take thou this letter and this cup to Camma, The wife of Sinnatus.

BOY. Going or gone to-day To hunt with Sinnatus.

SYNORIX. That matters not. Take thou this cup and leave it at her doors. [_Gives the cup and scroll to the Boy_.

BOY. I will, my lord. [_Takes his basket of grapes and exit_.

_Enter_ ANTONIUS.

ANTONIUS (_meeting the Boy as he goes out_). Why, whither runs the boy? Is that the cup you rescued from the fire?

SYNORIX. I send it to the wife of Sinnatus, One half besotted in religious rites. You come here with your soldiers to enforce The long-withholden tribute: you suspect This Sinnatus of playing patriotism, Which in your sense is treason. You have yet No proof against him: now this pious cup Is passport to their house, and open arms To him who gave it; and once there I warrant I worm thro' all their windings.

ANTONIUS. If you prosper, Our Senate, wearied of their tetrarchies, Their quarrels with themselves, their spites at Rome, Is like enough to cancel them, and throne One king above them all, who shall be true To the Roman: and from what I heard in Rome, This tributary crown may fall to you.

SYNORIX. The king, the crown! their talk in Rome? is it so? [ANTONIUS _nods_. Well--I shall serve Galatia taking it, And save her from herself, and be to Rome More faithful than a Roman. [_Turns and sees_ CAMMA _coming_. Stand aside, Stand aside; here she comes! [_Watching_ CAMMA _as she enters with her Maid_.

GAMMA (_to Maid_). Where is he, girl?

MAID. You know the waterfall That in the summer keeps the mountain side, But after rain o'erleaps a jutting rock And shoots three hundred feet.

CAMMA. The stag is there?

MAID. Seen in the thicket at the bottom there But yester-even.

GAMMA. Good then, we will climb The mountain opposite and watch the chase. [_They descend the rocks and exeunt_.

SYNORIX (_watching her_). (_Aside_.) The bust of Juno and the brows and eyes Of Venus; face and form unmatchable!

ANTONIUS. Why do you look at her so lingeringly?

SYNORIX. To see if years have changed her.

ANTONIUS (_sarcastically_). Love her, do you?

SYNORIX. I envied Sinnatus when he married her.

ANTONIUS. She knows it? Ha!

SYNORIX. She--no, nor ev'n my face.

ANTONIUS. Nor Sinnatus either?

SYNORIX. No, nor Sinnatus.

ANTONIUS. Hot-blooded! I have heard them say in Rome. That your own people cast you from their bounds, For some unprincely violence to a woman, As Rome did Tarquin.

SYNORIX. Well, if this were so, I here return like Tarquin--for a crown.

ANTONIUS. And may be foil'd like Tarquin, if you follow Not the dry light of Rome's straight-going policy, But the fool-fire of love or lust, which well May make you lose yourself, may even drown you In the good regard of Rome.

SYNORIX. Tut--fear me not; I ever had my victories among women. I am most true to Rome.

ANTONIUS (_aside_). I hate the man! What filthy tools our Senate works with! Still I must obey them. (_Aloud_.) Fare you well. [_Going_.

SYNORIX. Farewell!

ANTONIUS (_stopping_). A moment! If you track this Sinnatus In any treason, I give you here an order [_Produces a paper_. To seize upon him. Let me sign it. (_Signs it_.) There 'Antonius leader of the Roman Legion.' [_Hands the paper to_ SYNORIX. _Goes up pathway and exit_.

SYNORIX. Woman again!--but I am wiser now. No rushing on the game--the net,--the net. [_Shouts of_ 'Sinnatus! Sinnatus!' _Then horn. Looking off stage_.] He comes, a rough, bluff, simple-looking fellow. If we may judge the kernel by the husk, Not one to keep a woman's fealty when Assailed by Craft and Love. I'll join with him: I may reap something from him--come upon _her_ Again, perhaps, to-day--_her_. Who are with him? I see no face that knows me. Shall I risk it? I am a Roman now, they dare not touch me. I will.

_Enter_ SINNATUS, HUNTSMEN _and hounds_.

Fair Sir, a happy day to you! You reck but little of the Roman here, While you can take your pastime in the woods.

SlNNATUS. Ay, ay, why not? What would you with me, man?

SYNORIX. I am a life-long lover of the chase, And tho' a stranger fain would be allow'd To join the hunt.

SlNNATUS. Your name?

SYNORIX. Strato, my name.

SlNNATUS. No Roman name?

SYNORIX. A Greek, my lord; you know That we Galatians are both Greek and Gaul. [_Shouts and horns in the distance

SINNATUS. Hillo, the stag! (_To_ SYNORIX.) What, you are all unfurnish'd? Give him a bow and arrows--follow--follow. [_Exit, followed by Huntsmen_.

SYNORIX. Slowly but surely--till I see my way. It is the one step in the dark beyond Our expectation, that amazes us. [_Distant shouts and horns_. Hillo! Hillo! [_Exit_ SYNORIX. _Shouts and horns_.