or.

Even as Taurus Antinor, with a quick gesture, threw his own cloak round
the shoulders of the Caesar and whispered hurriedly:

"Let your praetorian guard escort you quickly to your palace, gracious
lord--your life is in danger from the people, and...."

"In danger at thy hands, thou infamous traitor," broke in Caligula with
a maniacal yell of rage; "take this then, in remembrance of the Caesar
whom thou hast betrayed!"

And quick as lightning the madman drew a short poniard from beneath his
robe, and, uttering a final snarl of satisfied hate and revenge, he
plunged the dagger in Taurus Antinor's breast.

Then he snatched the cloak from him, and, wrapping it quickly over his
head and shoulders, he called wildly to his guard and fled incontinently
from the spot.

CHAPTER XXIV

"The sorrows of death compassed me."--PSALM XVIII. 4.

Dea Flavia lay upon her bed, with wide-open eyes fixed into vacancy
above her.

Afternoon and evening had gone by since that awful moment when the whole
fell purpose of the Caesar's plan was revealed to her, and she saw
Hortensius Martius standing unarmed and doomed in the arena, face to
face with a raging, wild beast. Afternoon and evening had vanished into
the past since she saw Taurus Antinor, with Hortensius' body held high
over his head, saving one life whilst offering up his own, since she
heard that deafening cry of horror uttered by two hundred thousand
throats when the panther sprung upon him unawares and felled him to the
ground, whilst his blood reddened the sand of the arena.

Afternoon and evening had swooned in the arms of eternity since she saw
the terror-stricken Caesar treacherously stab the man who had rushed
forward to save him.

After that last agonising moment she remembered nothing more until she
found herself in her own house, lying on her bed, with Licinia's
anxious, wrinkled face bending over her.

"What hath happened, Licinia?" she had asked feebly as soon as
consciousness had returned.

"We brought thee home safely, my precious treasure," replied the old
woman fervently, "all praise be unto the gods who watched over their
beloved."

"But how did it happen?" queried Dea with some impatience. "Tell me all
that happened, Licinia," she reiterated with earnest insistence, as she
raised herself on her elbow and fixed her large blue eyes, in which
burned a feverish light, upon the face of her slave.

"Yes! yes! I'll tell thee all I know," rejoi