sues very doubtful; no doubt that a
safe retreat away from the city would be by far the wiser course.

Caius Nepos, with vivid recollections of his last interview with the
Caesar, shook his head with slow determination. Ancyrus, the elder, was
silent and only the three younger men had followed Hortensius Martius in
his heated argument.

"What sayest thou, Augusta?" asked Philippus Decius at last, looking
doubtfully upon the young girl.

"That ye must make your plans without me, my lords," she said coldly.
"Since, as you say, the praefect of Rome is dead, I can make no choice
worthy of him who is gone. I choose to return to mine allegiance, my
loyalty to the Caesar and to my House."

"If the Caesar returns," urged Hortensius Martius, "he will vent some of
his wrath on thee."

"Then will I suffer for my treachery, my lords," she rejoined proudly,
"in accordance with my deserts."

"But Augusta ..."

"I pray you, my lord," she interposed haughtily, "do not prolong your
arguments. My mind is made up. An you value your own safety in the
future, 'twere wiser to make preparations for a lengthy stay away from
Rome."

"Hadst thou listened to us yesterday ..." sighed Ancyrus, the elder.

"A heavy crime had lain against us all," she said. "Be thankful, my
lords, that in the history of Rome when it comes to be written, your
deed will not have sullied the page that marks to-day. And now, my
lords, I bid you farewell! You are in no danger if you leave the city
forthwith. The rejoicings at the entry of the Caesar and the homecoming
of his legions will last many days, during that time your names will be
erased from the tablets of my kinsman's memory."

"The gods grant it!" murmured Caius Nepos. "But thou, Augusta, what of
thee?"

"I, my lords," she said with a gentle smile, the irony of which was lost
on their self-centred intellects, "I pray you have no thoughts of me. I
have been placed in the keeping of one who, I am told, is mightier than
Caesar. There must I be safe; so farewell, my lords; we meet again, I
hope, in happier and more peaceful times."

She stood up and one by one--for was she not still the Augusta and the
favourite kinswoman of the Caesar?--they bent the knee before her and
kissed the hem of her gown. After which act of homage they retired with
backs bent and walking backwards out of the room.

My lord Hortensius Martius was the last to take his leave. He went down
on both knees and would have encircl