came running
along from the slaves' quarters with an army of howling men and women at
his heels.

"What news, Tertius?" she demanded. "Hast heard?"

"They have surrounded the Caesar's palace," said Tertius excitedly, "and
demand his presence."

"Oh! the sacrilege!..." she exclaimed, "and what doth the Caesar?"

"He will not appear, and his guards charge the mob as they advance
upwards from the Forum. They have invaded the temple of Castor, and
already some are swarming in the vestibules of the palace. The guard are
behind the colonnades and were holding the crowd at bay with fair
success until...."

"Until?" she asked.

"Until some of the rebels skirting the palace, set fire to the slaves'
quarters in the rear. The flames are spreading. The Caesar will be forced
to face the people, an he doth not mean to be buried beneath the
crumbling walls of his palace!"

"The miscreants have set fire to the palace of the Caesars?" she
exclaimed.

"Alas!" replied the man, "they will force the Caesar to show himself to
them. And they loudly demand the praefect of Rome."

"The praefect of Rome?"

"Aye, gracious lady. The people had thought that the Caesar killed him;
some strove, it seems, to recover his body in the imperial tribune,
where he was seen to fall. But the body had disappeared, and the rumour
hath gained ground that the Caesar had it thrown to his dogs."

"It's not true," she cried out involuntarily.

"No, gracious lady. Men of sense do know that it is not true. But an
infuriated mob hath no sense. It is like an overgrown child, with
thousands of irresponsible limbs. It is tossed hither and thither,
swayed by the wind of a chance word. But it were as well, mayhap, if it
were true."

"Silence, Tertius, how canst say such a thing."

"I think of the Caesar, gracious lady," rejoined the man simply, "and of
thee. If the mob found the praefect of Rome now alive or dead, then
surely would they murder the Caesar and make of the praefect their
Emperor if he lived, their god if he were dead."

And as if to confirm the man's words, the morning breeze wafted through
the air the prolonged and insistent cry:

"Taurus Antinor! Hail!"

With a curt word, Dea dismissed her comptroller, and he went, followed
by his train of shrieking men and women.

She remained a while silent and alone in the atrium, while the moanings
of the slaves and Tertius' rough admonitions to them died away in the
distance.

"If the mob foun