more
perilous elevation.

The locks of this noble looking personage, though not arranged in that
effeminate fashion, which has been mentioned as characteristic of Cethegus
and some others, were closely curled about his brow--for he, as yet,
exhibited no tendency to that baldness, for which in after years he was
remarkable--and reeked with the choicest perfumes. He wore the
crimson-bordered toga of his senatorial rank, but under it, as it waved
loosely to and fro, might be observed the gaudy hues of a violet colored
banqueting dress, sprinkled with flowers of gold, as if he had been
disturbed from some festive board by the summons to council.

As he passed through the crowd, from which loud rose the shout, following
him as he moved along--"Hail, Caius Caesar! long live the noble Caesar!"--his
slaves scattered gold profusely among the multitude, who fought and
scrambled for the glittering coin, still keeping up their clamorous
greeting; while the dispenser of the wasteful largesse appearing to know
every one, and to forget no face or name, even of the humblest, had a
familiar smile and a cheery word for each citizen.

"Ha! Bassus, my old hero!" he exclaimed, "it is long since thou hast been
to visit me. That proves, I hope, that things go better now-a-days at
home. But come and see me, Bassus; I have something for thee to keep the
cold from thy hearth, this freezing weather."

And he paused not to receive an answer, but moved forward a step or two,
till his eye fell upon the swordsmith.

"What, Caius," he said, "sturdy Caius, absent from his forge so early--but
I forgot, I forgot! you are a politician, perhaps you can tell me why they
have roused me from the best cup of Massic I have tasted this ten years.
What is the coil, Caius Crispus?"

"Nay! I know not," replied the mechanic, "I was about to ask the same of
you, noble Caesar!"

"I am the worst man living of whom to inquire," replied the patrician,
with a careless smile. "I cannot even guess, unless perchance"--but as he
spoke, he discovered, standing beside the smith, the man who had called
himself Fulvius Flaccus, and interrupting himself instantly, he fixed a
long and piercing gaze upon him, and then exclaimed "Ha! is it thou?" with
an expression of astonishment, not all unmixed with vexation.

The next moment he stepped close up to him, whispered a word into his ear,
and hurried with an altered air up the steep street which scaled the
Palatine.

A minut