Rosemary Rowe - The Ghosts of Glevum

Cornovacus approached us with the broken wood, his lips curled in his most unpleasant smile. ‘Think that you could cheat me of my reward, did you, pavement-maker? We’ll see what patterns blood and brains will make.’

Junio made a sudden move and tried to dive beneath his upraised arm to seize a missile from the pile of stones, but Cornovacus was too quick for him. With one hand he grabbed Junio by the neck and with the other he stabbed down viciously with the jagged stick.

What happened next was so confused that it is hard to give a true account of it. The first thing I saw was a lithe figure dropping from a roof, and grasping Cornovacus round the knees. The tall thief tumbled forward, and I was aware of Lercius grinning up at me before he sank his teeth into a leg, while Junio seized the chance to wriggle free and sit down on his erstwhile captor’s head, forcing Cornovacus’s face into the mud.

This was no more than a temporary respite, for Bullface and his men were closing in, forming an ugly circle round us now — though the sudden appearance of Lercius from above had startled them and halted their progress momentarily. Then all at once the air was full of shouts, and flying objects — pebbles, shoes, lumps of mud, even rotten fish and fruit — went whistling past our ears. Bullface ducked in time, and so did I, but several of the other guards were hit. One fell face downwards on the ground and lay there very still. The others turned, instinctively, to face the newcomers.

Sosso and several of his gang were loping towards us from the right, while the remainder were approaching from the left, all shouting, screaming, yelling at the limit of their lungs and hurling any missile that came to hand. Among them I saw Grossus, towering above the rest, and wielding a piece of timber that might have been a door. As I watched he brought it swinging down to fell another soldier.

The whole of the alley was in chaos now. The soldiers, unprepared for this attack, had lost formation and were skirmishing; but swords are little use against a hail of stones, and a faceful of stinking mud is not an encouragement to discipline. All the same they might have won the day, by regrouping in obedience to Bullface’s roared commands, except that the inhabitants of the area — excited by the noise and being no lovers of the guard in any case — had poured into the street to join the fray. A woman threw a urine collection pot from an upper storey, covering Bullface with its contents as it fell; while someone from the candlemaker’s overturned a vat of tallow in the lane to send a tide of slippery grease towards us all.

I looked around. Cornovacus had shaken Lercius off and tumbled Junio to the ground. He was on his haunches in a trice, ready to make another dart at me, but suddenly the dwarf was standing at his side. Something glittered, and Cornovacus gave a groan and rolled sideways in the mud. A soldier bore down on Sosso. Junio turned and fled.

I was the still centre of a heaving world, but it could not be for long. I darted towards the shelter of my shop, to my surprise I saw a figure in the gloom. I did not stop to think — I lowered my head and launched myself with all my might. I felt my head connect with a stomach, and the intruder fell backwards with an ‘Ooff!’ I imitated Junio’s technique and sat down on my victim’s chest, seizing my chisel and mallet from the toolbag on the floor. I placed the pointed metal on the skin between the eyes and saw for the first time who it was I’d caught.

Balbus. A different Balbus now. A white-faced Balbus with an uncertain voice, ‘I beg you, citizen. .’

‘All right. Stand up and don’t try anything.’ When I relaxed my grip he did as he was told and struggled upright, back against the wall, still watching the mallet with terror in his eyes. I moved my chisel so that it was level with his heart. ‘If those are your guards, call them off,’ I said.

He nodded and ran a tongue around his lips. I allowed him to shuffle to the door and stood behind him with the mallet as he called, ‘Enough! Disperse!’ Over the hubbub he had to shout it twice. Even then it was a moment before it took effect.

The soldiers who were nearest to us stopped, though one who dropped his shield was caught by an apple in the face. There was a hush. People ceased to hurl things after that, and bit by bit the skirmishing decreased.

‘Disperse!’ Balbus roared again. Bullface and a couple of his men had fought their way out to the corner of the lane, and when they heard the order they took it as retreat. They immediately sheathed their weapons, formed up and marched away. The two guards still in the lane withdrew in disarray, taking their injured comrades with them — one of them hobbling, the other with black eyes and injured pride. The rioters vanished into doors and alleyways like smoke.

Suddenly the lane was empty, silent, littered with chunks of brick and stone and fruit. A helmet lay discarded in the mud. Only Cornovacus was still there, lying in the congealing tallow with a dark stain oozing from his back.

Now that the immediate danger from the crowd had passed, Balbus was recovering himself. ‘This is an outrage, citizen,’ he said, in something approaching his accustomed style. ‘I call my soldiers to a riot in the street, and I am threatened with a pointed instrument. I shall bring a case against you for injuria , for the assault upon my dignity.’

‘I think not, magistrate,’ I said, gesturing him back into the shop. ‘You have a better knowledge of the law. You failed to show the legally required “resentment” at the time — there are witnesses to that — and that is enough to bar the case.’

He attempted a sneer. ‘Witnesses! A drunken rabble in defiance of the law. They will be caught and punished, all of them. And don’t think you will get away unscathed. My personal servants have instructions to come here very soon, to escort me home. If any harm should come to me, you’ll suffer for it, mark my words. To say nothing of that assault upon my guards.’

‘ Your guards?’ I seized on the words. ‘On whose authority?’

I still had the chisel and mallet in my hand, but he was swaggering now. ‘That of Romnus Nonnius, Praxus’s second in command. As leader of the council, I possess the right to request the use of soldiers if I choose, in the pursuit of justice and the maintenance of the law. And following the murder of his senior officer, he was anxious to oblige. He permitted me to use the bodyguard.’

‘And the pursuit of justice involved arresting me?’ It was clear now who had set Bullface on my trail. ‘Or were there instructions that I should be killed?’

He flushed, and glanced towards the mallet. ‘I gave no such instructions, naturally.’

‘But if I happened to resist arrest?’

He shrugged.

‘And you offered a reward, of course — which is why your informant told you where to look. I wondered how the guard had come to search the kindling-seller’s hut. Cornovacus told them, naturally.’

‘There is no law against it, citizen. And when your patron is accused of a crime against the state. .’

‘Ah yes, the famous document. You have seen it, I presume?’

‘Naturally I have. I ordered Praxus’s bodyguard to search the house, and that was when the letter came to light. There is no doubt about it, citizen. Only a few words, but it is enough. I write in haste to urge you, dispose of that beast Praxus by any means you can. Your own brave Romnus Nonnius will take his place. Of course he will know nothing of events, but we shall see who is prepared to take a stand against that trumped-up idiot in Rome . You see? It urges Praxus’s murder and threatens revolt against the Emperor.’

‘It didn’t say who wrote it?’