Chapter XIX

BARELY had Vinicius finished reading when Chilo pushed quietly into his
library, unannounced by any one, for the servants had the order to admit
him at every hour of the day or night.

"May the divine mother of thy magnanimous ancestor AEneas be full of
favor to thee, as the son of Maia was kind to me."

"What dost thou mean?" asked Vinicius, springing from the table at which
he was sitting.

Chilo raised his head and said, "Eureka!"

The young patrician was so excited that for a long time he could not
utter a word.

"Hast thou seen her?" asked he, at last.

"I have seen Ursus, lord, and have spoken with him."

"Dost thou know where they are secreted?"

"No, lord. Another, through boastfulness, would have let the Lygian know
that he divined who he was; another would have tried to extort from him
the knowledge of where he lived, and would have received either a
stroke of the fist,--after which all earthly affairs would have become
indifferent to him,--or he would have roused the suspicion of the giant
and caused this,--that a new hiding-place would be found for the girl,
this very night perhaps. I did not act thus. It suffices me to know that
Ursus works near the Emporium, for a miller named Demas, the same name
as that borne by thy freedman; now any trusted slave of thine may go in
the morning on his track, and discover their hiding place. I bring thee
merely the assurance that, since Ursus is here, the divine Lygia also
is in Rome, and a second news that she will be in Ostrianum to-night,
almost certainly--"

"In Ostrianum? Where is that?" interrupted Vinicius, wishing evidently
to run to the place indicated.

"An old hypogeum between the Viae Salaria and Nomentana. That pontifex
maximus of the Christians, of whom I spoke to thee, and whom they
expected somewhat later, has come, and to-night he will teach and
baptize in that cemetery. They hide their religion, for, though there
are no edicts to prohibit it as yet, the people hate them, so they must
be careful. Ursus himself told me that all, to the last soul, would be
in Ostrianum to-night, for every one wishes to see and hear him who was
the foremost disciple of Christ, and whom they call Apostle. Since among
them women hear instruction as well as men, Pomponia alone perhaps of
women will not be there; she could not explain to Aulus, a worshipper of
the ancient gods, her absence from home at night. But Lygia, lord, who
is under the ca