n peace.

She thought of going quietly back to her room, to think a while in the
solitude; the danger being less imminent gave her leisure to ponder and
to weigh in the balance her allegiance to Caesar, and that other nameless
sense within her which she did not yet understand, but which invariably
drew her wandering thoughts back, and then back again to the man who lay
in a drugged sleep under her roof.

He slept, and throughout the great city the people called on him: "Hail
Taurus Antinor! Hail!"

She sighed and involuntary tears gathered in her eyes: but the sigh was
not one of sadness, rather was it one of longing for something
intangible and exquisite, and this longing was so sweet and withal so
mysterious, that instinctively she turned away from the magnificent
reception hall toward her own room, with a wild desire to be alone and
nurse that longing into an all-compelling desire.

It was at this moment that five or six men--all wrapped in dark woollen
cloaks--entered the atrium from the vestibule, and catching sight of the
Augusta, called to her loudly with greetings of respectful homage.

She paused, angered at the intrusion; peace and solitude seemed indeed
denied to her to-day; but recognising the praetorian praefect as the
foremost of her visitors, she could not--owing to his high rank--dismiss
him from her presence.

Caius Nepos had already bent the knee before her. He looked flushed and
agitated as did most of the others, only my lord Hortensius Martius who
was in the background, looked pale and wan from the terrible exposure of
yesterday.

She did not think to wonder how these men had entered her house, how
they had found their way to her presence, past her janitors, and without
the usual formalities and ceremonies of introduction which her high rank
demanded. She knew that her slaves were demoralised, that men who had
been friends of the Caesar were now fugitives, and vaguely thought that
the praetorian praefect and his friends had found their way into her
house as into a likely haven of refuge, and would, the next moment, be
kneeling at her feet begging for protection and shelter, just as their
lord and Caesar had done on this selfsame spot half an hour ago.

"Your pleasure, my lords?" she asked.

"To speak with thee privately, O Augusta!" said Caius Nepos, sinking his
voice to a whisper. "My friends and I have tried all the morning to
forge our way through the mob and to reach thine ear. But the