hem ashy pale.

"Dost know if he is at one with us?" reiterated Augustus Philario
impatiently.

He had ordered a slave to hold lumps of ice to his forehead, whilst
Philippus Decius--lying next to him--was having perfume rubbed into the
back of his neck.

"We must look stern and deliberate," said Ancyrus. "Dost know, O Caius
Nepos, if he is at one with us?"

"We must enlist him," rejoined the latter hurriedly; "he holds the
plebs, and without his help our position might become difficult. A word
from him to the crowd and the new Caesar is assured of peace within the
city."

"Then do thou tell him what has been decided," said one of the others
who was busy smoothing his tangled hair.

"No, no!" whispered cautious Ancyrus, the elder, "have a care ... thou,
Caius Nepos, must probe him ere thou speakest."

"Tell him naught of Escanes' dagger," added another hurriedly.

"Speak of abdication," said the older man, "of anything that comes in
thy mind. Some men there are who----"

But he had no time to explain his meaning further, for the next moment
Taurus Antinor stepped into the room.

CHAPTER IX

"There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets."--PROVERBS
XXVI. 13.

He had exchanged his embroidered tunic for a gorgeous synthesis of
crimson embroidered with gold, which set off to perfection the somewhat
barbaric splendour of his personality, and as he stood there massive and
erect, beneath the gilded beams of Caius Nepos' dining-hall, with the
slaves at his feet undoing the strings of his shoes, he looked every
inch the ruler for whom all these men here were blindly and senselessly
seeking.

His deep-set eyes beneath that stern frown had swept quickly over the
assembly as he entered, and though now comparative order had been
restored and a semblance of calm reigned around the table, Taurus
Antinor did not fail to note the flushed faces and glowing eyes, the
broken goblets, and stained and tattered cloths which gave ugly evidence
of the riotous orgy that had gone before.

But though forty pairs of eyes were fixed upon his face, none could
boast that they had perceived any change in its somewhat severe
impassiveness as he now advanced towards his host.

"Greeting to thee, O Caius Nepos!" he said. "I crave thy pardon for my
late coming, but I had other duties to which to attend."

"Duties?" said Caius Nepos lightly; "nay, Taurus Antinor, there are just
now duties so high and sacred that others m