gered, "you shall convict yourself. Tribune,
feel in his tunic too; he has the same poison, in a similar vial,
hidden there. Could I force him to do it? Or could I conjure it there
by magic?"

Herculanus turned pale. Defiance, the hope of life, deserted him and,
gnashing his teeth, he struggled fiercely in the Illyrians' grasp. But
the latter held him firmly while their countryman, Saturninus, took
from his tunic a similar amber vial and placed it beside the first one.

"Then go to Orcus together! I wish you all had poison in you!" shrieked
Herculanus.

But Ausonius tore his gray locks, wailing: "Alas! alas! I know them
well. I gave them myself, both vials, to my dear sister, his mother.
Alas, my own sister's son! To murder me! For miserable money! I had
left it all to him. Only I should have been glad to live a few years
longer."

Weeping aloud, he covered his face. Bissula, kneeling before him,
stroked his hands compassionately.

"No doubt is possible," said Saturninus, "even without the confession
made by his fury."

"Oh! The son of my dearest sister, my Melania!" moaned the Prefect.

"I had long suspected him," the Tribune said. "But the scoundrel did
not desire to murder you alone; he wanted to kill this child too, to
whom all are attached."

"What? What?" cried Ausonius. Bissula also started.

"That is why he hastened in advance of us all, alone, to her dwelling,
on her track. He had raised his sword for a deadly blow when I caught
his arm."

"What? Horrible!" cried Ausonius.

"Yes, that is true; but," the girl went on kindly and truthfully, "but
then he had not yet recognized me as his uncle's friend."

"Yes, yes," groaned the Prefect. "He told me himself that a red hair
had put him on your track. How often I had described you to him! And,
as soon as he saw you he recognized you instantly. He wanted to bring
you to me; and he--"

"And yesterday night," Rignomer put in wrathfully, "he stole into her
tent with an unsheathed dagger. Unfortunately one who should have
guarded it was sleeping, but the she-bear was awake, and"--he swiftly
spread the full mantle open--"she tore out a piece here as he fled."

"_This_ piece," said Saturninus, drawing it from his girdle and laying
it on the fresh patch; "you see it fits exactly."

"The Furies' curse on you all!" screamed Herculanus.

"Away with them both!" the Tribune commanded. "Prosper, two of your
slave-blocks! It won't do to leave them guarded in an