Caesar."

"Do they say," queried Dea Flavia, speaking slowly and low, "that the
praefect of Rome is dead?"

"If he be not dead now," retorted Licinia viciously, for her loyalty to
the Caesar was bound up with her love for Dea Flavia, and treachery to
Caesar meant treachery to her beloved, "If he be not dead now, he shall
still suffer for his treason: and if he be dead his body shall be
defiled."

"Oh!"

"Aye! a traitor must suffer even in death. His body shall be given to
the dogs, his blood to the carrion...."

"Silence, Licinia!" broke in Dea Flavia sternly, "fill not mine ears
with thy hideous talk. Every word thou dost utter is impiety and
sacrilege, and I would smite thee for them had I but the strength.

"But I am so tired," she added after a slight pause, with a weary little
sigh, even whilst Licinia, subdued and frightened, stood silently by: "I
would like to sleep."

"Then sleep, my goddess," said the old woman, "I'll watch over thee."

"No! no! I could not sleep if I were watched," rejoined Dea Flavia with
the fretfulness of a tired child. "I would rather be alone."

"But thou'lt have bad dreams."

"Order Blanca to lie across the threshold. I can then send her to fetch
thee, if I have need of thee."

"I would rather lie across thy threshold myself," muttered the old
woman.

"Good Licinia, do as I tell thee," said Dea, now with marked impatience.
"And--stay--" she added as Licinia still grumbling prepared reluctantly
to obey--"I pray thee find out for me all that is going on in the city.
Mayhap Tertius will know what has happened--or Piso.... Go seek them,
Licinia, and find out all that there is to know, so that thou canst tell
me everything anon, when I wake."

She lay back on her bed with closed eyes whilst Licinia kissed her hands
and feet, re-arranged the embroidered coverlet and the downy cushions,
and after a while shuffled out of the room.

There was nothing that the old woman loved better than a gossip with
Tertius, who was the comptroller of the Augusta's household, or with
Piso, who was the overseer of her slaves: and even her fond desire to
watch beside her mistress yielded to the delight of holding long and
interesting parley with these worthies.

So it was with considerable alacrity that--having deputed the young
girl, Blanca, to watch over her mistress--she made her way through the
atrium, and thence across the vast peristyle to the quarters of the
slaves.

Tertius--the comp