tail beat against the ground with a
dull, monotonous sound.

And Dea Flavia, standing beside the monster, white as the lilies which
now lay withered at her feet, listened to every word that he said,
whilst Taurus Antinor gazed on her and saw again in her eyes that look
of anticipation and of understanding, as of one who knows what is to
come.

"Citizens of Rome," resumed the imperial mountebank after an impressive
pause, "I have spent days and nights in communion with the gods,
thinking of your welfare--of your welfare when I no longer will be
amongst you all. And this is what I and the gods have decided. Listen to
me, for the gods speak to you through my mouth--I, even I, your Caesar
and your god, do speak.

"There dwells amongst us all one whose divinity is almost equal to mine
own--one who by her beauty and her grace hath found favour with the gods
and with me. She is of the House of Caesar, and hath name Dea Flavia; and
I, the Caesar, have called her Augusta, and set her up above all other
women in Rome. She comes from the House of great Augustus himself, and
it is a descendant of the great Augustus who alone will be worthy to
wield the sceptre of Caesar when it hath fallen from my grasp. Therefore
this have I decided. The son of Dea Flavia shall in time to come follow
in my footsteps, and make you happy and prosperous even as I have done;
and because of this my decision must I give Dea Flavia as wife unto a
man who is worthy of her. Many there are who have aspired to her hand,
but all of them have I hitherto rejected, because not one of them had
given proof of his courage or of his strength. Citizens of Rome,
patricians, and soldiers all! What we must look for in your future ruler
is valour in the face of death, coolness and intrepidity in the sight of
danger. These qualities, which grace your present Caesar, must be
transmitted to his successor through Dea Flavia, the divine, and by a
father who has given signal proof of his virtues. I have enjoined the
Augusta Dea Flavia to bestow her hand on him who above all is worthy to
be her lord. To this has she consented and to-day will she make her
choice, and herewith do I call on you patricians who aspire to her hand
to enter the lists in her honour. Give a proof of your valour, of your
intrepidity, of your courage! Show that you are as valiant as the lion,
as wary as the snake. Descend into the arena now, unarmed save for the
hands which the gods have given you, and