t influence such as Tanno and Vedia
possessed and cash such as they had at their disposal, could do much even
for the occupant of such a cell, destined to such a doom. I was visited by
Galen, more than once, and he emphasized the still hopeful possibility,
nay probability, that Agathemer might, in time, save me, run down and
bring before a magistrate the real murderers. I was gloomy, I admit. But
his presence in that horrible hole and his words cheered me, by
brightening the hope I had never wholly lost.

Also I was tended, massaged, rubbed, chafed, washed each day in warm water
brought in big pails and poured into a big, shallow pan; I was anointed;
clothed in a comfortable tunic, strengthened with plenty of good food and
strong wine and provided with a cot and bedding and blankets. I was able
to have Narcissus indulged also, in order that he might be a less
unpleasant cell-mate.

He talked to me freely of life in the Palace, of Commodus, of Marcia, of
Ducconius Furfur, of his own fatal mistake, of the amazing likeness, even
apparent identity, between Furfur and Commodus, of the naturalness of his
inability to tell them apart.

I drank and ate all the food and wine I could swallow, slept all I could,
and tried to be hopeful.

Thus passed five horrible days and six hideous nights.

After no more than twelve days, as I learned later, Severus felt himself
securely established as Prince of the Republic. By spending almost every
moment of daylight on official business, denying himself more than the
merest minimum of sleep and food, he had put every department of the
government sufficiently in order to feel assured of their smooth and
effective operation. His troops were now all outside the City, comfortably
camped, well supplied and content; the City was orderly and its life had
resumed its normal aspect and activities. He felt free to win the regard
of the populace by magnificent exhibitions in the amphitheater, on the
occasion of the eight days of the Games of Apollo, beginning the day
before the Nones of July.

Early next day Narcissus and I were haled from our cell and led, by
passages only too well known to me since my service in the Choragium, to
the iron-gated doorway from which condemned criminals were thrust out into
the arena for the lions or other beasts to tear. From inside that doorway
I could look across the sand of the arena and could see not only the
herald on his tiny platform, elevated above the leap