spare the lives of your sons,
Rusticiana."

"Away! away to him!" exclaimed Camilla, and hurried, unnoticed, out of
the hall.

"At that time," concluded Cassiodorus, "Romans and their friends
believed that in the young King they had found their best support; and
now--my unfortunate mistress, unhappy mother!" and with this lament
upon his lips, he departed.

Rusticiana sat for some time as if stunned. She saw the foundations,
upon which she had built her plans of revenge, totter; she sank into a
moody reverie.

Longer and longer stretched the shadows of the towers across the court
of the palace, into which she was gazing. All at once she was roused by
the firm footsteps of a man; Cethegus stood before her. His countenance
was cold and dark, but icily calm.

"Cethegus!" cried the distressed woman, hurrying towards him; and would
have taken his hand, but his coldness repulsed her.

"All is lost!" she sighed, stopping short.

"Nothing is lost. Calmness is all that is wanting--and promptness," he
added, looking round the room.

When he saw that he was alone with her, he put his hand into the folds
of his toga.

"Your love-philtre has done no good, Rusticiana. Here is another; more
potent. Take it," and he thrust into her hand a small phial made of
dark-coloured lava-stone.

She looked into his face with anxious suspicion.

"Do you all at once believe in magic and charms? Who has mixed it?"

"I," he answered, "and _my_ potions work."

"You!" a cold shudder ran through her frame.

"Ask no questions, do not delay," he commanded. "It must be done this
day! Do you hear? This very day!"

But Rusticiana still hesitated, and looked doubtfully at the bottle in
her hand.

Then Cethegus went close to her and lightly touched her shoulder.

"You hesitate?" he said slowly. "Do you know what is at stake? Not only
our whole plan! No, blind mother. Still more. Camilla _loves_, loves
the King; with all the power of her young soul. Shall the daughter of
Boethius become the paramour of the tyrant?"

With a loud cry Rusticiana started back. That which, during the last
few days, had crossed her mind with a terrible suspicion, now became a
certainty; she cast one glance at the man who had spoken the cruel
word, and hurried away, angrily grasping the phial.

Cethegus looked quietly after her.

"Now, young Prince, we shall see! You were quick, I am quicker. It is
strange," he added, "I have long thought that I was incapable