CHAPTER VIII.
DISCIPLESHIP.
Hyacintha slept soundly after her bath, and a supper of fruit and delicately-baked bread, crisp and fresh, after the fashion of our modern biscuits. A draught of the pure water from the spring on the hill above the house of the vestals was refreshing, and it was the daily duty of the vestals to draw it for the service of the house and the temple.
Hyacintha was awoke by Lucia’s voice.
“It is nearing the dawn,” she said; “the cock has crowed twice, and I see the first signs of Aurora’s coming feet in the eastern sky. Now arise, little maiden, and I will dress you for your presentation to the priest.”
Hyacintha sprang up at once, and after another ablution of clear cold water, the attendant vestal put upon her little feet a pair of sandals, and the fine robe which she was to wear under the stole. The stole itself and the fillet which was to bind her hair the vestal placed in a basket, and then telling Hyacintha to follow her, she led the way to the chamber of Terentia Rufilla.
This chamber was nearly adjoining the temple, and to reach it, it was necessary to descend again and cross the large atrium, now almost dark, except for the faint light of a lamp which hung in the large porta or gateway.
The sunshine could not reach this stately hall, which consisted of eight Corinthian columns of veined marble, with pure white bases.
The state apartments were on this lower storey of the vestals’ house, and as the floor was thirty feet below the Nova Via, with the walls resting against the Palatine, it must have been very damp and chill; the pure air of heaven could never reach it; and in spite of double walls, double floors, and hot-water currents—of which distinct traces are left—it could not have been a healthy abode.
The living rooms from which Hyacintha and Lucia had descended were, perhaps, more salubrious, but the Imperial Palace, rising at that time one hundred and fifty feet above the building, must have always over-shadowed the whole house, and prevented the light from entering, as well as the air.
A heavy curtain was drawn aside by one of the servants of the temple, and the next moment Hyacintha found herself in the presence of the Vestal Maxima, her father’s kinswoman.