Callista : a Tale of the Third Century

by John Henry Newman

“Let her go, you drunken animal!” said the constable, still keeping his distance. “I’ll never believe [pg 276]any woman is a Christian, let alone so young a one. And now I look at her, so far as I can see by this light, I think she’s priestess of one of the great temples up there.”

“She can turn herself into anything,” said the other of her capturers, “young or old. I saw her one night near Madaura, a month ago, in the tombs in the shape of a black cat.”

“Away with you both, in the name of the Suffetes of Sicca and all the magistracy!” cried the official. “Give up your prisoner to the authorities of the place, and let the law take its course.”

But the Canaanites did not seem disposed to give her up, and neither party liking to attack the other, a compromise took place. “Well,” said the guardian of the night, “the law must be vindicated, and the peace preserved. My friends, you must submit to the magistrates. But since she happens to be on your shoulder, my man, let her even remain there, and we depute you, as a beast of burden, to carry her for us, thereby to save us the trouble. Here, child,” he continued, “you’re our prisoner; so you shall plead your own cause in the popina there. Long live Decius, pious and fortunate! Long live this ancient city, colony and municipium! Cheer up, my lass, and sing us a stave or two, as we go; for I’ll pledge a cyathus of unmixed, that, if you choose, you can warble notes as sweet as the manna gum.”

Callista was silent, but she was perfectly collected, and ready to avail herself of any opportunity to [pg 277]better her condition. They went on towards the Forum, where a police-office, as we now speak, was situated, but did not reach it without an adventure. The Roman military force at Sicca was not more than a century of men; the greater number were at this moment at the great gate, waiting for the mob; a few, in parties of three and four, were patrolling the city. Several of these were at the entrance of the Forum when the party came up to it; and it happened that a superior officer, who was an assistant to what may be called the military president of the place, a young man, on whom much of the duty of the day had devolved, was with the soldiers. She had known him as a friend of her brother’s, and recognised him in the gloom, and at once took advantage of the meeting.

“Help,” she said, “gentlemen! help, Calphurnius! these rascals are carrying me off to some den of their own.”

The tribune at once knew her voice. “What!” he cried, with great astonishment, “what, my pretty Greek! You most base, infamous, and unmannerly scoundrels, down with her this instant! What have you to do with that young lady? You villains, unless you would have me crack your African skulls with the hilt of my sword, down with her, I say!”

There was no resisting a Roman voice, but prompt obedience is a rarity, and the ruffians began to parley. “My noble master,” said the constable, “she’s our prisoner. Jove preserve you, and Bacchus and [pg 278]Ceres bless you, my lord tribune! and long life to the Emperor Decius in these bad times. But she is a rioter, my lord, one of the ringleaders, and a Christian and a witch to boot.”

“Cease your vile gutturals, you animal!” cried the officer, “or I will ram them down your throat with my pike to digest them. Put down the lady, beast. Are you thinking twice about it? Go, Lucius,” he said to a private, “kick him away, and bring the woman here.”

Callista was surrendered, but the fellow, sullen at the usage he had met with, and spiteful against Calphurnius, as the cause of it, cried out maliciously, “Mind what you are at, noble sir, it’s not our affair; you can fry your own garlic. But an Emperor is an Emperor, and an Edict is an Edict, and a Christian is a Christian; and I don’t know what high places will say to it, but it’s your affair. Take notice,” he continued, as he got to a safer distance, raising his voice still higher, that the soldiers might hear, “yon girl is a Christian priestess, caught in a Christian assembly, sacrificing asses and eating children for the overthrow of the Emperor, and the ruin of his loyal city of Sicca, and I have been interrupted in the discharge of my duty—I, a constable of the place. See whether Calphurnius will not bring again upon us the plague, the murrain, the locusts, and all manner of larvæ and maniæ before the end of the story.”