ght to place himself body and heart at the Caesar's
service."

"And his name, O Augusta?" queried Ancyrus, the elder.

"He hath name Taurus Antinor and was once praefect of Rome."

"He is dead!" broke in Hortensius Martius hotly.

"He lived long enough, my lord," she retorted, "to show us all our
duty."

There was silence after that, for many a heart was beating
spasmodically with fear or with hope. My lord Hortensius Martius sat on
a low stool, with his elbow on his knee, his chin buried in his hand.
His eyes, glowing with dull and sullen hatred, searched the face of Dea
Flavia, trying to read what went on behind the pure, straight brow and
those liquid blue eyes, deep as the fathomless sea.

"What is to be done?" said Ancyrus, the elder, with a pitiable look of
perplexity directed at the Augusta.

"To make our submission to the Caesar," she said simply, "those of us at
least who are not afraid of his wrath. For the others there is still
time to seek a safe retreat far away from Rome."

"But this is monstrous!" cried Hortensius Martius, suddenly jumping to
his feet and beginning to pace up and down the room in an outburst of
impotent wrath. "This is miserable, cowardly, abject! What? Would ye
allow that stranger, that son of slaves, to thwart your plans by his
treachery? Are we naughty children that can thus be sent, well-whipped
and whining to bed? Up, my lords, this is not the end! Caesar is not yet
in Rome! The people are still dissatisfied. Hark to the noise in the
Forum below! Does it sound as if the populace was accepting the news
with rejoicing? Up now, my lords! It is not too late! Acclaim your new
Caesar; it is not too late, I say. When the legions return with that
mountebank at their head let them find Dea Flavia Augusta and her lord
the acknowledged masters of Rome."

He looked flushed, excited and proud, feeling that even at this eleventh
hour he could carry these men along with him if Dea Flavia put the
weight of her power on his side. Now he paused in his peroration,
standing above his fellow-conspirators as if already he were their
ruler, and looking from one face to the other with eager restless eyes
that expressed all his enthusiasm and all his hopes.

But the two older men had evidently no stomach for the situation as it
now was. It had been easy matter enough to murder the Caesar
treacherously and while his legions were three days' march away. But now
everything was very different, the is