Rome, the mother city that we have never seen, but whose right to citizenship has been handed down to us from our ancient sires. Unless the spark of freedom is to be denied us, you cannot refuse me that right, Sublatus.'
The Emperor paled and then flushed with anger. 'Come lo me tomorrow,' be said. 'You shall have whatever you wish.'
'If you do not hear me now, there will be no tomorrow,' she said. 'I demand my rights now.'
'Well,' demanded Caesar, coldly, 'what favor do you seek?'
'I seek no favor,' replied Dilecta. 'I seek the right to know if the thing for which I am paying this awful price has been done, as it was promised.'
'What do you mean?' demanded Sublatus. 'What proof do you wish?'
'I wish to see Maximus Praeclarus here alive and free,' replied the girl, 'before I pledge my troth to Fastus. That, as you well know, was the price of my promise to wed him.'
Caesar arose angrily. 'That cannot be,' he said.
'Oh, yes, it can be,' cried a voice from the balcony at the side of the chamber, 'for Maximus Praeclarus stands just behead me.'
Chapter Nineteen
EVERY eye turned in the direction of the balcony from which came the voice of the speaker. A gasp of astonishment arose from the crowded room.
'The barbarian!'
'Maximus Praeclarus!' cried a score of voices.
'The guard! The guard!' screamed Caesar, as Tarzan leaped from the balcony to one of the tall pillars that supported the roof and slid quickly to the floor, while behind him came six hairy apes.
A dozen swords flashed from their scabbards as Tarzan and the six leaped toward the throne. Women screamed and fainted. Caesar shrank back upon his golden seat, momentarily paralyzed by terror.
A noble with bared blade leaped in front of Tarzan to bur his way, but Go-yad sprang full upon him. Yellow fangs bit once into his neck and, as the great ape arose and standing on the body of his kill roared forth his victory cry, the other nobles shrank back. Fastus, with a scream, turned and fled, and Tarzan leaped to Dilecta's side. As the apes ascended the steps to the dais, Caesar, jabbering with terror, scuttled from his seat and hid, half-fainting, behind the great throne that was the symbol of his majesty and his power.
But it was not long before the nobles and officers and soldiers in the apartment regained the presence of mind that the sudden advent of this horrid horde had scattered to the four winds, and now, seeing only the wild barbarian and six unarmed beasts threatening them, they pushed forward. Just then a small door beneath the balcony from which Tarzan had descended to the floor of the throne-room was pushed open, giving entrance to Maximus Praeclarus, Cassius Hasta, Callous Metellus, Mpingu, and the others who had accompanied Tarzan over the palace wall beneath the shadows of the great trees into which the ape-man and the apes had assisted their less agile fellows.
As Caesar's defenders sprang forward they were met by some of the best swords in Castra Sanguinarius, as in the forefront of the fighting were the very gladiators whose exploits they had cheered during the week. Tarzan passed Dilecta to Mpingu, for he and Praeclarus must lend a hand in the fighting.
Slowly, Dilecta's defenders fell back before the greater number of nobles, soldiers, and guardsmen who were summoned from other parts of the palace. Back toward the little door they fell, while shoulder to shoulder with the gladiators and with Maximus Praeclarus and Hasta and Metellus, Tarzan fought and the great apes spread consternation among all because of their disposition to attack friend as well as foe.
And out upon the Via Principalis the crowd surged and the great gates gave to a shrieking mob that poured into the palace grounds, overwhelming the guards, trampling them—trampling their own dead and their own living.
But the veteran legionaries who composed the palace guard made a new stand at the entrance to the palace. Once more they checked the undisciplined rabble, which had by now grown to such proportions that the revolting troops, who had joined them, were lost in their midst. The guard had dragged an onager to the palace steps and were discharging stones into the midst of the crowd, which continued to rush forward to fall upon the pikes of the palace defenders.
In the distance trumpets sounded from the direction of the Porta Decumana, and from the Porta Principalis Dextra came the sound of advancing troops. At first those upon the outskirts of the mob, who had heard these sounds, did not interpret them correctly. They cheered and shouted. These cowards that hang always upon the fringe of every crowd, letting others take the risks and do the fighting for them, thought that more troops had revolted and that the reinforcements were for them. But their joy was short-lived, for the first century that swung into the Via Principalis from the Porta Decumana fell upon them with pike and sword until those who were not slain escaped, screaming, in all directions.
Century after century came at the double. They cleared the Via Principalis and fell upon the mob within the palace court until the revolt dissolved into screaming individuals fleeing through the darkness of the palace grounds, seeking any shelter that they might find, while terrible legionaries pursued them with flaming torches and bloody swords.
Back into the little room from which they had come fell Tarzan and his followers. The doorway was small and it was not difficult for a few men to hold it, but when they would have retreated through the window they had entered and gone back into the palace grounds to seek escape across the walls in the shadows of the old trees, they saw the grounds swarming with legionaries and realized that the back of the revolt had been broken.
The anteroom in which they had taken refuge would barely accommodate them all, but it offered probably the best refuge they could have found in all the palace of Sublatus , for there were but two openings in it—the single small doorway leading into the throne-room and an even smaller window letting into the palace gardens. The walls were all stone and proof against any weapons at the disposal of the legionaries; yet if the uprising had failed and the legionaries had not joined the people, as they had expected, of what value this temporary sanctuary? The instant that hunger and thirst assailed them this same room would become their prison cell and torture chamber— and perhaps for many of them a vestibule to the grave.
'Ah, Dilecta,' cried Praeclarus, in the first moment that he could seize to go to her side, 'I have found you only to lose you again. My rashness, perhaps, has brought you death.'
'Your coming saved me from death,' replied the girl, drawing the dagger from her gown and exhibiting it to Praeclarus. 'I chose this as husband rather than Fastus,' she said, 'so if I die now I have lived longer than I should have, had you not come; and at least I die happy, for we shall die together.'
'This is no time to be speaking of dying,' said Tarzan. 'Did you think a few hours ago that you would ever be together again? Well, here you are. Perhaps in a few more hours everything will be changed and you will be laughing at the fears you are now entertaining.'
Some of the gladiators, who were standing near and had overheard Tarzan's words, shook their heads.
'Any of us who gets out of this room alive,' said one, 'will be burned at the stake, or fed to lions, or pulled apart by wild buffalo. We are through, but it has been a good fight, and I for one thank this great barbarian for this glorious end.'
Tarzan shrugged and turned away. 'I am not dead yet,' he said, 'and not until I am dead is it time to think of it—and then it will be too late.'
Maximus Praeclarus laughed. 'Perhaps you are right,' he said. 'What do you suggest? If we stay here, we shall be slain, so you must have some plan for getting us out.'
'If we can discern no hope of advantage through our own efforts,' replied Tarzan, 'we must look elsewhere and await such favors of fortune as may come from without, either through the intervention of our friends beyond the palace grounds or from the carelessness of the enemy himself. I admit that just at present our case appears desperate, but even so I am not without hope; at least we may be cheered by the realization that whatever turn events may take it must be for the better, since nothing could be worse.'
'I do not agree with you,' said Metellus, pointing through the window. 'See, they ere setting up a small ballista in the garden. Presently our condition will be much worse than it is now.'
