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Chapter 19 · Tarzan and the Lost Empire

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  Chapter nineteen of Tarzan and the Lost Empire by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This LibriVox
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  recording is in the public domain. Tarzan and the Lost Empire, chapter nineteen.
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  Every eye turned in the direction of the balcony, from which came the
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  voice of the speaker. A gasp of astonishment arose from the crowded room.
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  The barbarian Maximus Proclarius, cried a score of voices the guard. The guard
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  screamed Caesar, as Tarzan leaped from the balcony to one of the tall pillars
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  that supported the roof and slid quickly to the floor. While behind him came
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  six hairy apes. A dozen swords flashed from their scabbards. As Tarzan and
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  the six leaped toward the throne, women screamed and fainted. Caesar shrank back
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  upon his golden seat, momentarily paralyzed by terror. A noble with bared blade
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  leaped in front of Tarzan to bar his way, but Goyad sprang full upon
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  him. Yellow fangs bit once into his neck, and as the great Ape
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  arose, and, standing on the body of his kill, roared forth his
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  victory cry. The other nobles shrank back fastus with a scream, turned and
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  fled, and Tarzan leaped to delect his side. As the apes ascended the
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  steps to the dais, Caesar, jabbering with terror, scuttled from his seat
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  and hid, half fainting behind the great throne that was the symbol of his
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  majesty and his power. But it was not long before the nobles and officers
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  and soldiers in the apartment regained the presence of mind that the sudden advent of
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  this horrid horde had scattered to the four winds, and now seeing only the
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  wild barbarian and six unarmed beasts threatening them, they pushed forward. Just then
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  a small door beneath the balcony for which Tarzan had descended to the floor of
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  the throne room was pushed open, giving entrance to Maximus Proclarus, Cassius,
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  Hasta, Cecilius, Metellus, mpingu and the others who had accompanied Tarzan over
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  the palace wall, beneath the shadows of the great trees into which the ape
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  man and the apes had assisted their less agile fellows. As Caesar's defenders sprang
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  forward, they were met by some of the best swords in Castor Sanguinarius,
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  as in the forefront of the fighting were the very gladiators whose exploits they had
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  cheered during the week. Tarzan passed elected to Umpingu, for he and Praclarus
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  must lend a hand in the fighting. Slowly the elector's defenders fell back before
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  the greater number of nobles, soldiers, and guardsmen, who were summoned from
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  other parts of the palace. Back toward the little door. They fell while
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  shouldered to shoulder with the gladiators and with Maximus, Proclarus and Hasta Ametellus.
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  Tarzan fought, and the great apes spread consternation among all because of their disposition
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  to attack friend as well as foe, and out upon the Via principalas the
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  crowds urged and the great gates gave to a shrieking mob that poured into the
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  palace grounds, overwhelming the guards, trampling them, trampling their own dead and
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  their own living. But the veteran legionaries who composed the palace guard made a
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  new stand at the entrance to the palace. Once more they checked the undisciplined
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  rabble, which had by now grown to such proportions that the revolting troops who
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  had joined them were lost in their midst. The guard had dragged an honager
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  to the palace steps and were discharging stones into the midst of the crowd,
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  which continued to rush forward to fall upon the pikes of the palace defenders.
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  In the distance, trumpets sounded from the direction of the Porta da Humana,
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  and from the port of princip Palace dextra came the sound of advancing troops.
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  At first, those upon the outskirts of the mob who had heard these sounds
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  did not interpret them correctly. They cheered and shouted. These cowards that hang
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  always upon the fringe of every crowd, letting others take the risks and do
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  the fighting for them. Thought that more troops had revolted and that the reinforcements
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  were for them. But their joy was short lived, for the first century
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  that swung into the Via Principalace from the ported'cumana fell upon them with pike
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  and sword, until those who were not slain escaped, screaming in all directions.
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  Century after century came at the double. They cleared the Via Principalace and
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  fell upon the mob within the palace court, until the revolt dissolved into screaming
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  individuals fleeing through the darkness of the palace grounds, seeking any shelter that they
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  might find, while terrible legionaries pursued them with flaming torches and bloody swords.
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  Back into the little room from which they had come fell Tarzan and his followers.
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  The doorway was small, and it was not difficult for a few men
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  to hold it. But when they would have retreated through the window, they
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  had entered and gone back into the palace grounds to seek escape. Across the
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  walls in the shadows of the ol trees, they saw the ground was swarming
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  with legionaries and realized that the back of the revolt had been broken. The
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  ante room in which they had taken refuge would barely accommodate them all, but
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  it offered probably the best refuge they could have found in all the palace of
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  Subladis, for there were but two openings in it, the single small doorway
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  leading into the throne room, and an even smaller window letting into the palace
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  gardens. The walls were all stone and proof against any weapons at the disposal
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  of the legionaries. But if the uprising had failed and the legionaries had not
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  joined the people as they had expected. Of what value this temporary sanctuary,
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  the instant that hunger and thirst assailed them, this same room would become their
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  prison cell and torture chamber, and, perhaps for many of them, a
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  vestibule to the grave. Ah Delecta, cried Praclarus, in the first moment
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  that he could seize to go to her side. I have found you,
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  only to lose you again. My rashness perhaps has brought you death. Your
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  coming saved me from death, replied the girl, drawing the dagger from her
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  gown and exhibiting it to procla us. I chose this as husband rather than
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  fastus, she said. So if I die now, I have lived longer
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  than I should have had you not come. And at least I die happy,
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  for we shall die together. This is no time to be speaking of
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  dying, said Tarzan. Did you think a few hours ago that you would
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  ever be together again? Well, here you are. Perhaps in a few
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  more hours everything will be changed, and you will be laughing at the fears
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  you are now entertaining. Some of the gladiators who were standing near and had
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  overheard Tarzan's words, shook their heads. Any of us who gets out of
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  this room alive, said one will be burned at the stake, or fed
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  the lions, or pulled apart by wild buffalo. We are through, but
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  it has been a good fight, and I, for one thank this great
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  Barbarian for this glorious end. Tarzan shrugged and turned away. I am not
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  dead yet, he said, And not until I am dead is a time
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  to think of it, and then it will be too late. Maximus Proclarus
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  laughed. Perhaps you are right, he said, What do you suggest If
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  we stay here, we shall be slain. So you must have some plan
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  for getting us out. If we can discern no hope of advantage through our
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  own efforts, replied Tarzan, we must look elsewhere and await such favors of
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  fortune as may come from without, either through the intervention of our friends beyond
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  the palace grounds or from the carelessness of the enemy himself. I admit that
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  just at present our case appears desperate, But even so I am not without
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  hope. At least we may be cheered by the realization that whatever turn events
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  may take, it must be for the better, since nothing could be worse.
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  I do not agree with you, said Metellus, pointing through the window.
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  See they are setting up a small ballista in the garden. Presently our
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  condition will be much worse than it is now. The walls appear substantial,
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  returned the ape man. Do you think they can batter them down proclarus?
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  I doubt it, replied the Roman. But every missile that comes through the
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  window must take its toll, as we are so crowded here that all of
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  us cannot get out of range. The legionaries that had been summoned to the
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  throne room had been held at the small doorway by a handful of gladiators,
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  and the defenders had been able to close and bar the stout oaken door.
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  For a time, there had been silence in the throne room, and no
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  attempt was made to gain entrance to the room upon that side, while upon
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  the garden side, two or three attempts to rush the window had been thwarted,
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  And now the legionaries held off while the small ballista was being dragged into
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  place and trained upon the palace wall, Delecta having been placed in an angle
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  of the room where she would be safest. Tarzan and his lieutenants watched the
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  operations of the legionaries in the garden. They do not seem to be aiming
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  directly at the window, remarked Cassius Hasta No, said Proclarus, I rather
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  think the intent making a breach in the wall through which a sufficient number of
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  them can enter to overpower us. If we could rush the ballista and take
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  it, mused Tarzan, we could make it rather hot for them. Let
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  us hold ourselves in readiness for that. If their mescles make it too hot
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  for us in here, we shall have some advantage if we anticipate their assault
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  by a sortie of our own. A dull thud upon the door at the
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  opposite end of the room brought the startled attention of the defenders to that quarter.
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  The oak door sag and the stone walls trembled to the impact. Cassius
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  Hastis smiled wryly. They have brought a ram, he said, And now
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  a heavy projectile shook the outer wall, and a piece of plaster crumbled to
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  the floor. Upon the inside. The ballista had come into action once again.
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  The heavy battering ram shivered the groaning timbers of the door, and the
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  inmates of the room could hear the legionaries chanting the hymn of the Ram to
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  the cadence, of which they swung it back and heaved it forward. The
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  troops in the garden went about their duty with quiet military efficiency. Each time
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  a stone from the ballista struck the wall, there was a shout, but
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  there was nothing spontaneous in the demonstration, which seemed as perfunctory as the mechanical
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  operation of the ancient war engine that delivered its missiles with almost clocklike regularity.
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  The greatest damage that the ballista appeared to be doing was to the plaster on
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  the inside of the wall, but the battering ram was slowly but surely battering
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  the door of the opposite side of the room. Look, said Metellus,
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  they are altering the line of the ballista. They have discovered that they can
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  effect nothing against the wall. They are aiming at the window, said Proclarus.
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  Those of you who are in line with the window, lie down upon
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  the floor, commanded Tarzan, quickly, the hammers falling upon the trigger.
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  The next missile struck one side of the window, carrying away a piece of
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  the stone, and this time the result was followed by an enthusiastic shout from
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  the legionaries in the garden. That's what they should have done. In the
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  beginning, commented Hasta, if they get the wall started at the edge of
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  the window, they can make a breach more quickly there than elsewhere. That
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  is evidently what they are planning on doing, said Metellus, as a second
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  missile struck in the same place and a large fragment of the wall crumbled.
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  Look to the door, shouted Tarzan. As the weakened timid sag to the
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  impact of the ram. A dozen swordsmen stood ready and waiting to receive the
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  legionaries, whose rush they expected. The instant that the door fell at one
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  side of the room, the six apes crouched, growling, and kept in
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  leash only by the repeated assurances of Tarzan that the man things in the room
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  with them were the friends of the ape man. As the door crashed,
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  there was a momentary silence as each side waited to see what the other would
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  do. And in the lull that ensued, there came through the air a
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  roaring sound, ominous and threatening, and then the shouts of the legionaries in
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  the throne room and the legionaries in the garden drowned all other sounds. The
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  gap around the window had been enlarged the missiles of the ballista had crumbled the
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  wall from the ceiling to the floor, and as though in accordance with a
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  pre arranged plan, the legionaries assaulted simultaneously, one group rushing the doorway from
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  the throne room, the other the breach in the opposite wall. Tarzan turned
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  toward the apes, and, pointing in the direction of the breached wall,
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  shouted, stop them. Zuto kill, go yat kill. The men near
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  him looked at him in surprise, and perhaps they shuddered a little as they
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  heard the growling voice of a beast issue from the throat of the giant barbarian.
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  But instantly they realized he was speaking to his hairy fellows as they saw
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  the Apes spring forward with bared fangs and growling hideously, throw themselves upon the
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  first legionaries to reach the window. Two apes went down, pierced by Roman
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  pikes, but before the beastly rage of the others, Caesar's soldiers gave back
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  after them, cried Tarzan to proclaris. Follow them into the garden, capture
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  the ballista, and turn it upon the legionaries. We will hold the throne
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  room door until you have seized the ballista. Then we shall fall back upon
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  you. After the battling Apes rushed the three patricians, Maximus Proclarus, Cassius
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  Hasta and Cecilius Metellus, leading gladiators, thieves, murderers, and slaves into
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  the garden, profiting by the temporary advantage the Apes had gained for them.
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  Side by side with the remaining gladiators, Tarzan fought to hold the legionaries back
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  from the little doorway until the balance of his party had won safely to the
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  garden and seized the ballista. Glancing back, he saw him Pinkle leading Delecta
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  from the room in the rear of the escaped prisoners. Then he turned again
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  to the defense of the doorway, which his little party held stubbornly, until
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  Tarzan saw the ballista in the hands of his own men, and giving step
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  by step across the room, he and they backed through the breach in the
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  wall. At a shout of command from Berclarus, they leaped to one side.
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  The hammer fell upon the trigger of the ballista which Proclarus had lined upon
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  the window, and a heavy rock drove full into the faces of the legionaries.
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  For a moment, the fates had been kind to Tarzan and his fellows,
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  But it soon became apparent that they were little, if any, better
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  off here than in the room they had just quitted. For in the garden
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  they were ringed by legionaries. Pikes were flying through the air, and though
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  the ballista and their own good swords were keeping the enemy at a respectful distance,
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  there was none among them who believed that they could for long withstand the
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  superior numbers and the better equipment of their adversaries. There came a pause in
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  the fighting, which must necessarily be the case in hand to hand encounters,
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  and as though by tacit agreement, each side rested, the three whites watched
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  the enemy closely. They are preparing for a concerted attack with pikes, said
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  Proclarus. That will write phenice to our earthly endeavors, remarked Cassius. Hasta.
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  May the gods receive us with rejoicing, said Cecilius Metellus. I think
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  the gods preferred them to us, said Tarzan. Why, demanded Cassius,
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  hasta, Because they have taken so many more of them to heaven this night,
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  replied the ape man, pointing at the corpses lying about the garden,
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  and Cassius Hastas smiled appreciatively. That will change in another moment, said Maximus
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  Proclarus, and turning to Delecta, he took her in his arms and kissed
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  her. Goodbye, dear heart, he said, how fleeting is happiness,
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  how feudal the hopes of mortal man. Not goodbye, Praclarus replied the girl.
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  For where you go, I shall go, and she showed him the
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  slim dagger in her hand. No, cried the man, Promise me that
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  you will not do that. And why not? Is not death sweeter than
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  fastus? Perhaps you are right, he said. Sadly, they come,
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  cried Cassius Hasta Ready shouted Tarzan, give them all we have. Death is
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  better than the dungeons of the coliseum. End of Chapter nineteen