you are now a freeman by your late master's will,
which will soon be read and its provisions put into effect, at which
reading I shall be present as one of the legatees, you may now go where
you like. I invite you to come with me."

I thanked Corbulo, who said:

"Don't thank me. I did just what any sane, clear-headed, fair-minded
magistrate must do, affirmed the manifest truth."

Galen led me off to a modest apartment near the Carinae. I found
everything prepared for my comfort, slaves to wait on me and nothing
omitted. I thanked him.

"Tanno," he said, "deputed me to hire this lodging for you. He has kept in
the background. These are my slaves, put at your disposal and enjoined to
obey you as they would obey me in person. Keep quiet here till I can
arrange for you to take possession of your legacies from Falco. I think he
left you all your personal belongings and the slaves who waited on you. As
soon as the necessary formalities are completed I'll send them to you.

"Do not attempt to communicate with Vedia or Tanno. Do nothing which might
betray you as your actual self. Our new Emperor seems resolute to
exterminate, to the last individual, all persons implicated in any
conspiracy not only against Julianus or Pertinax, but against Commodus,
from the date of his accession. All such persons apprehended are promptly
executed. Keep quiet. Efface yourself till I give you the word. I can
communicate with you freely, can see you daily, if need be, since I am one
of poor Falco's heirs and was your physician during his life here in Rome.
I'll do all I can for you."

He left and I bathed, ate, and slept the rest of that day and slept sound
all night.

Next day passed similarly. But, early on the following day, the third day
before the Kalends of July, not long after sunrise, my new valet came to
me his face ashen. He babbled some unintelligible syllables and before I
could comprehend him, my bedroom was entered by a Pannonian sergeant, grim
as the centurions from Britain who had liberated Agathemer and me from the
_ergastulum_ at Placentia. Behind him were four legionary soldiers. I was
rearrested!

CHAPTER XXXVIII

TORTURE

I was promptly haled off to the same prison where Galen had visited me
three days before. There I was again deprived of my garments and clad in
others, new, but of cheap material, coarse and uncomfortable. Also
shackles, heavier shackles, were at once riveted on my ankles, and I was
aga