ipose, luxurious loiterer from his wines--his concubines--his
slumbers!--And now--the dire ones hunt him to perdition! Now, the seventh
hour of night hath passed, and all await us at the house of Laeca; and this
foul sluggard sottishly snores at home!"

While he was cursing yet, and smiting his broad chest, and gnashing his
teeth in impotent malignity, suddenly a quick step became audible at a
distance. The sound fell on his ear sharpened by the stimulus of fiery
passions and of conscious fear, long ere it could have been perceived by
any ordinary listener.

"'Tis he," he said, "'tis he at last--but no?" he continued, after a pause
of a second, during which he had stooped, and laid his ear close to the
ground, "no! 'tis too quick and light for the gross Cassius. By all the
gods! there are two! Can he, then, have betrayed me? No! no! By heavens!
he dare not!"

At the same time he started back into the darkest corner of the arch,
pulled up the cape of his cassock, and slouched the wide-brimmed hat over
his anxious lineaments; then pressing his body flat against the dusky
wall, to which the color of his garments was in some sort assimilated, he
awaited the arrival of the new-comers, perhaps hoping that if foreign to
his purpose they might pass by him in the gloom.

As the footsteps now sounded nearer, he thrust his right hand into the
bosom of his cassock, and drew out a long broad two-edged dagger, or
stiletto; and as he unsheathed it, "Ready!" he muttered to himself, "ready
for either fortune!"

Nearer and nearer came the footsteps, and the blent sounds of the two were
now distinctly audible--one a slow, listless tread, as of one loitering
along, as if irresolute whether to turn back or proceed; the other a firm,
rapid, and decided step.

"Ha! it is well!" resumed the listener; "Cassius it is; and with him comes
Cethegus, though where they have joined company I marvel."

And, as he spoke, he put his weapon back into his girdle, where it was
perfectly concealed by the folds of the penula.

"Ho!--stand!" he whispered, as the two men whose steps he had heard,
entered the archway, "Stand, Friends and Brethren."

"Hail, Sergius!" replied the foremost; a tall and splendidly formed man,
with a dark quick eye, and regular features, nobly chiselled and in all
respects such--had it not been for the bitter and ferocious sneer, which
curled his haughty lip, at every word--as might be termed eminently
handsome.

He wore h