CHAPTER IX.

THE FALSE BROTHER.

We must take our reader back a few steps in the history of Torquatus. On the morning after his fall, he found, on awaking, Fulvius at his bed-side. It was the falconer, who, having got hold of a good hawk, was come to tame him, and train him to strike down the dove for him, in return for a well-fed slavery. With all the coolness of a practised hand, he brought back to his memory every circumstance of the preceding night’s debauch, his utter ruin, and only means of escape. With unfeeling precision he strengthened every thread of the last evening’s web, and added many more meshes to it.

The position of Torquatus was this: if he made one step towards Christianity, which Fulvius assured him would be fruitless, he would be at once delivered to the judge, and cruelly punished with death. If he remained faithful to his compact of treason, he should want for nothing.

“You are hot and feverish,” at last concluded Fulvius; “an early walk, and fresh air, will do you good.”

The poor wretch consented; and they had hardly reached the Forum, when Corvinus, as if by accident, met them. After mutual salutations, he said: “I am glad to have fallen in with you; I should like to take you, and show you my father’s workshop.”

“Workshop?” asked Torquatus with surprise.

“Yes, where he keeps his tools; it has just been beautifully fitted up. Here it is, and that grim old foreman, Catulus, is opening the doors.”

They entered into a spacious court with a shed round it, filled with engines of torture of every form. Torquatus shrunk back.

“Come in, masters, don’t be afraid,” said the old executioner. “There is no fire put on yet, and nobody will hurt you, unless you happen to be a wicked Christian. It’s for them we have been polishing up of late.”

“Now, Catulus,” said Corvinus, “tell this gentleman, who is a stranger, the use of these pretty toys you have here.”

Catulus, with good heart, showed them round his museum of horrors, explaining every thing with such hearty good-will, and no end of jokes not quite fit for record, that in his enthusiasm he nearly gave Torquatus practical illustrations of what he described, having once almost caught his ear in a pair of sharp pincers, and another time brought down a mallet within an inch of his teeth.

The rack, a large gridiron, an iron chair with a furnace in it for heating it, large boilers for hot oil or scalding-water baths; ladles for melting lead, and pouring it neatly into the mouth; pincers, hooks and iron combs of varied shapes, for laying bare the ribs; scorpions, or scourges armed with iron or leaden knobs; iron collars, manacles and fetters of the most tormenting make; in fine, swords, knives, and axes in tasteful varieties,[116] were all commented upon with true relish, and an anticipation of much enjoyment,

in seeing them used on those hard-headed and thick-skinned Christians.

Torquatus was thoroughly broken down. He was taken to the baths of Antoninus, where he caught the attention of old Cucumio, the head of the wardrobe department, or capsarius, and his wife Victoria, who had seen him at church. After a good refection, he was led to a gambling-hall in the Thermæ, and lost, of course. Fulvius lent him money, but for every farthing, exacted a bond. By these means, he was, in a few days, completely subdued.

Their meetings were early and late; during the day he was left free, lest he should lose his value, through being suspected by Christians. Corvinus had determined to make a tremendous dash at them, so soon as the Edict should have come out. He therefore exacted from Torquatus, as his share of the compact, that the spy should study the principal cemetery where the pontiff intended to officiate. This Torquatus soon ascertained; and his visit to the cemetery of Callistus was in fulfilment of his engagement. When that struggle between grace and sin took place in his soul, which Severus noticed, it was the image of Catulus and his hundred plagues, with that of Fulvius and his hundred bonds, that turned the scale in favor of perdition. Corvinus, after receiving his report, and making from it a rough chart of the cemetery, determined to assail it, early, the very day after the publication of the Decree.

Fulvius took another course. He determined to become acquainted, by sight, with the principal clergy, and leading Christians, of Rome. Once possessed of this knowledge, he was sure no disguise would conceal them from his piercing eyes; and he would easily pick them up, one by one. He therefore insisted upon Torquatus’s taking him as his companion, to the first great function that should collect many priests and deacons round the Pope. He overruled

every remonstrance, dispelled every fear; and assured Torquatus, that once in, by his password, he should behave perfectly like any Christian. Torquatus soon informed him, that there would be an excellent opportunity at the coming ordination, in that very month of December.