Glory and the Lightning by Taylor Caldwell Read Free Book Online Page B

widened with sudden fear and they lost their sly and injured expression. He suddenly sat up, moistening lips that appeared to have shrunk. “How shall I live?” he cried.
    Aspasia smiled. “As other free men live—by your labor and your wits and your unending industry. What is it you do in this house? You assist in the kitchen and preside over the table of the Lady Thargelia and clean the copper and the silver. But you will have to find different employment, for such gentle duties are performed by pampered slaves in other houses. But rejoice! Hard labor will reduce your fat and your hunger, and a rigorous life will lengthen your days.”
    She winked at the physician, who had become extremely interested. “Echion,” she said, “you will join me in my plea to the Lady Thargelia to release this injured and pining man who desires freedom above all things?”
    “Of a certainty,” he replied at once. He looked at the slave who had paled excessively and he patted him upon his shoulder. “Tomorrow, you shall be free, for the Lady Thargelia will take you before the officer. Then you will gather up your possessions and will depart at once from this house.”
    The slave glanced desperately about him, shrinking from the wide smiles of the girl and the physician. “Wine, in the name of the gods!” he cried in a trembling voice, and he extended a shaking hand as if he were dying of thirst in a desert.
    The physician shook his head. “No. As you are now a free man there will be no more free wine in this house; and since you will receive many gifts from your generous mistress you will have money in your pouch. I will order wine for you—but only if you pay for it. Twenty drachmas for a small jug. You may request it at will from the attendant.”
    He made as if to turn away but the slave suddenly grasped the physician’s green robe in a frantic grip. He almost fell from his bed as the weight of his belly pulled him to the edge. “Master!” he groaned. “That is cruelty!”
    The physician raised his eyebrows as if in astonishment. “Cruelty, do you say? For granting you your heart’s desire for freedom so that you will no longer suffer and will walk in dignity as a free man? Is that not what you wish?”
    The slave continued to grasp him. He began to pant. His yellowish flesh quivered in his extremity. His jaundiced eyes rolled in terror. Then he said in a bursting cry, “I do not wish to be free!”
    The physician, who had assumed a benevolent expression during the conversation, let his features and his eyes show his revulsion and contempt, and the slave quailed. He said, “You do not wish to be free.
    Your only wish is to continue a parasite’s existence and to indulge your loathsome appetites. I will tell you. I will not press the Lady Thargelia for your freedom, seeing that you truly despise and fear it as the majority of men do in this craven world. They prefer to be slaves, so long as they can escape responsibility!” He looked at Aspasia. “That is the history of mankind. Liberty is not desired if it entails hard labor and want and the risks of danger and hunger and if one fails by one’s own weakness.”
    Aspasia inclined her head. “Mercy!” wailed the slave, intent only on his own dilemma. “I do not wish to be free.”
    The physician let a long pause follow, as if considering, and his face was stern. He said at last, “I have said I will not press the Lady Thargelia for your freedom, but on one condition only, that you control your pig’s appetite. I am weary of seeing you in this infirmia. However, should you continue to indulge yourself and steal food beyond your needs, you shall have your freedom promptly and be sent away from this house. You understand me?”
    The slave gave him a tremulous smile. Relief poured from him in sweat. He nodded like a chided child who has been forgiven. “I will obey your directions, Master,” he said, almost sobbing. “But opium, Master, for this pain which I vow to