to gain his own ends, he would have had but to say a word and
the mob had been ready to wreak its desired vengeance upon the Caesar.

"The people of Rome," resumed Taurus Antinor after a while, seeing that
Caligula was silent and more inclined to listen to him, "are angered
against thee. Thou knowest, O Caesar! what the anger of the people
portends. For the moment a violent storm has driven the malcontents away
from the vicinity of thy palace. They are congregated under the arcades
of the Forum and nurse there their thoughts of rancour and of revenge."

"Until such time as my wrath overtakes them," broke in Caligula with one
of his most evil oaths. "I am not dead yet, and whilst I live I'll not
forget. Rome shall rue this day in blood and in tears. Vengeance and
rancour, sayest thou?" and he drew in his breath with a moist, hissing
sound like the snakes of the Campania of which he spoke just now.
"Vengeance and rancour will overtake the rebels! _My_ vengeance and _my_
rancour, beside which all others shall pale! Rome can wait, I say: the
Caesar is not yet dead."

The words fell choked and thick from his quivering lips, nor did Taurus
Antinor attempt to interrupt him; but as the Caesar finished speaking,
exhausted and breathing heavily, there was a moment's silence in the
room, and through that silence could be heard quite distinctly the call
of the people from the distance below.

"Death to the Caesar! Death!"

Caligula uttered a loud cry of rage and of fear and struggled to his
feet. He staggered forward out of the darkness and into the light, his
trembling arms outstretched, his sparse hair plastered against his moist
forehead, his eyes, protruding and bloodshot, fixed upon the praefect.

"They'll murder me," he cried, as he almost fell on his knees and only
saved himself by clinging desperately with both hands to Taurus
Antinor's outstretched arm. "They'll murder me! Save me, O praefect;
save me! and I'll heap wealth upon thee--money, honours, power, all that
thou dost desire! Save me! Do not let them murder me! I will not die....
I will not! I will not!... Cowards! cowards! I am a defenceless man!...
I will not die ... I cannot die.... Cowards!"

Taurus Antinor had to brace himself up against the sickening sense of
almost physical nausea that came over him at sight of this pitiful
creature, more abject than any cur.

Among the many moments of terrible doubt and still more terrible
temptation through which h