ch the
praetorian guard who are holding their ground behind the crowd of
rebels. They might effect a flank movement, which, if unexpected, might
put the miscreants to rout sooner than we anticipate. Hast a slave whom
thou canst trust thus far?"

"I have two freedmen," she replied, "free since yesternight, who would
give their life for me."

"Let them do it then," he retorted cynically. "And do thou lead the way
to the triclinium. I am anhungered, and a halt at thy table will throw
dust in the eyes of thy slaves. I can reach the crypta from there
without being seen again."

"As the Caesar commands," she said calmly, "but there is little time to
be lost."

CHAPTER XXVIII

"Nothing is secret, which shall not be made manifest."--ST. LUKE
VIII. 17.

Caligula himself led the way to the triclinium and Dea Flavia followed
him.

He threw himself upon a couch and she, with her own hands, served him
with wine and fruit. He refused to eat but drank freely of the wine,
whilst she stood beside him calmly waiting until he should be ready to
go.

Seeing Blanca cross the atrium, she had called to her and ordered her to
serve the soldiers. The men were grateful for they were exhausted. They
had not tasted food since the day before, and had been on the watch
round the Caesar's person all night.

The underground passage which runs beneath the declivity between the two
points of the Palatine, and by tortuous ways under the temple of Jupiter
Victor on its highest summit, did connect the house which Dea Flavia now
occupied with the Palace of Augusta. The latter, since the death of the
great imperator, had been used entirely as a hall of justice: a few
scribes alone inhabited the rearmost portion of the huge edifice.

The passage itself abutted in Dea Flavia's house on one of the small
rooms that lay round the triclinium. There were several such passages
connecting the various palaces on the Palatine, but their existence was
not revealed to the army of slaves, only a few responsible ones knew
that they were there. In this instance the Caesar could, from the
triclinium, reach this road to safety without again crossing the atrium
and encountering the prying eyes of hundreds of cowardly slaves.

He had no thought of thanking Dea Flavia for what she did for him, but
having drunk his fill, he rose from the couch and made ready to go.

She escorted him to the door of the passage and gave brief instructions
to the men how to