troller--had, it appears, sallied forth into the
streets, despite the lateness of the hour, in the hope of gleaning some
information as to what was going on in the city. Even in this secluded
portion of the Palatine, where stood the house of Dea Flavia under the
shelter of the surrounding palaces, weird sounds of human cries and of
the clashing of steel was penetrating with ominous persistency.

Piso--the overseer--who had remained at home, as he did not feel
sufficiently valiant to face once again the disturbance outside, told
Licinia all that he had witnessed before he finally found safe haven at
home.

It seemed that the tumult in the Amphitheatre had not ceased with the
flight of the Emperor, rather that it had grown in intensity when the
populace saw the praefect of Rome fall backwards, stabbed by the Caesar,
and the latter disappear hurriedly, followed by a few from among the
praetorian guard.

There was no doubt that the temper of the populace had been over-excited
by the cruel scenes of a while ago; lust of blood and of tyranny had
been fanned to fever-pitch through those very spectacles which the Caesar
himself had provided for the people, with a view to satisfying his own
ferocious desires of hate and of revenge.

Now that same fever-heated temper was turning against him, who had
fanned it for his own ends.

Caligula had made good his escape, satisfied that his dagger had done
its work upon the arch-traitor. He had fled through the private entrance
of his tribune, and his guard had rallied round him. But a company of
legionaries--some five or six hundred strong--was still in the place,
as well as his knights and all his friends, and against these did the
wrath of the rabble turn.

The lawless and the rough soon had it all their own way, and the
peaceable citizen who would have liked to get wife and children safely
out of the crowd found it well-nigh impossible to make his way through
the throng.

After a few moments the disturbance became general; there was a great
deal of shouting and presently missiles began to fly about. The rabble
attacked the legionaries and a sanguinary conflict ensued. The former
was in overwhelming number and succeeded in breaking the rank of the
soldiers, and in putting them momentarily to rout.

After this there was a general stampede down and along the gradients of
the Amphitheatre, during which hundreds of persons--including women and
children--were crushed to death. The