She had failed in no duty; nothing but good was spoken of her by any of her companions, with two exceptions, of whom Cœlia Concordia was one, and the priest who had hinted at hidden motives, that might have brought about the resignation of the Vestal Maxima, another.
A resolution was carried by a majority in the Council that it was not needful to enter into these motives. Besides, at the close of thirty years’ devotion to the service of the temple, by an old statute, the priestesses were free to depart if so they desired. Very few lived to avail themselves of the freedom which was thus granted to them. And those who did survive had become so accustomed to the routine of the Vestals’ House that they showed no anxiety to leave its shelter in their declining years.
The privileges, too, of the Vestals were very highly prized, and of late years their table had been luxuriously appointed, and their life had been one of ease and refinement, so that the change to a more ordinary manner of living would have been far from acceptable to many who had severed the ties of earlier years, and who would have found themselves adrift in the great city, outside the walls of the Vestals’ House.
CHAPTER XV.
THE CROWN OF LIGHT.
It was the dawn of the third day when Hermione was awoke from a light slumber by Hyacintha’s voice.
“The watch is nearly over,” she said; “the day is near. I have been in the temple all night; how came I hither?”
“Nay, dearest lady,” Hermione said; “you have been sleeping on your couch, and I have watched——”
“I thought I had been in the temple, and I saw there my brother and Ebba, and myself a little child again. There was a sudden great light, and it shone on them—and Claudius, good Claudius!”