Nicanor - Teller of Tales A Story of Roman Britain

Excerpt

CHARACTERS

EUDEMIUS, a Roman lord living in Britain
VARIA, his daughter
LIVINIUS, a Roman citizen, a boyhood friend of Eudemius
MARIUS, his son, of the Roman legions in Gaul

[Guests of Eudemius]
MARCUS SILENUS POMPONIUS, Count of the Saxon Shore
AURELIUS MENOTUS, duumvir of Anderida
FELIX, his son
CAIUS JULIUS VALENS, a Roman citizen

[Roman girls, daughters of the guests of Eudemius]
JULIA
NIGIDIA
PAULA
GRATIA

NERISSA, nurse to Varia
HITO, master of the household of Eudemius
CHLORIS, of all nations, living upon Thorney

[Inmates of her house] SADA, a Saxon EUNICE, a Greek
ELDRIS, a Briton, a convert to Christianity
WARDO, a Saxon, a slave in the house of Eudemius
VALERIUS, a Roman, a soldier of fortune
TOBIAS, a Hebrew, a worker in ivory
RATHUMUS, a British peasant, bound to the soil
SUSANNA, a Hebrew woman, his wife
NICANOR, a story-teller, their son
WULF, the Red, a Saxon free-lance
CEAWLIN, a Saxon chieftain
FATHER AMBROSE, of the Christian church
NICODEMUS, the One-Eyed, a British freedman
MYLEIA, his wife
MARCUS, a slave in the house of Eudemius
BALBUS, a convict
JUNCINA, a fish-wife on Thorney
SOSIA, her daughter

A flower-girl, a Saxon singer, slaves, trades-folk, soldiers of the military police; guards and overseers of the mines, and miners; Roman nobles and patrician women; Saxon men-at-arms, and men of the outland nations

Scene: Britain in the last days of Roman power
Time: between A.D. 410 and 446

LIST OF TOWNS AND RIVERS
WITH THEIR MODERN SITES AND NAMES

Abus FlumenHumber River.Ad FinesBroughing, Hertfordshire.AnderidaPevensey.Aquæ SolisBath.BibracteUnknown.CaledoniaScotland.CallevaSilchester.CoriniumCirencester.CunetioFolly Farm, near Marlborough.DevaChester.DubræDover.EboracumYork.GobanniumAbergavenny.GlevumGloucester.Isca SilurumCarleon.LeucarumLlychwr, county of Glamorgan.LondiniumLondon.NoviomagusHolwood Hill, parish of Bromley.PontesStainesPortus MagnusPorchester.RatæLeicester.RegnumChichester.RutupiæRichboroughSabrina FlumenSevern River.SericaChina.Tamesis FlumenThames River.TripontiumNearLilburne.UriconiumWroxeter.Urus FlumenOuse River.

THE MANTLE OF MELCHIOR
BOOK I

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NICANOR:
TELLER OF TALES

Book I
THE MANTLE OF MELCHIOR

I

Nicanor the story-teller was the son of Rathumus the wood-cutter, who was the son of Razis the worker in bronze, who was the son of Melchior the story-teller. So that Nicanor came honestly by his gift, and would even believe that his great-grandsire had handed it down to him by special act of bequest.

Now Rathumus the wood-cutter, tall and gaunt and fierce-eyed, coming home with his fagots on his shoulder in the gloam of the evening, when the fireflies twinkled low among the marshes, saw Nicanor on the side of the hill against the sky, sitting with hands clasped about his knees, crooning to the stars. Rathumus bowed his head and entered his house, and to Susanna, his wife, he said:

"The gift of our father Melchior hath fallen upon the child....