all the gods! It was a
mistake, a terrible mistake!"

"Ah! guest-friend of my father," said Marcia, sadly; "I fear it is a
mistake that Rome will exact a heavy price for. You say truly that it
matters not how they were taken."

"But I swear it was no will of mine!" he cried, and then, fearing lest
he had committed himself too deeply, he went on. "In fact, lady, they
say too much, who set this revolution at my door; who say that I was
the mover of all. Was it not Vibius Virrius who first suggested it?
Was it not Marius Blossius, the praetor, who led out the people to meet
the Carthaginians?--and see how my son is still with Rome! No, by
Bacchus! there are many here a thousand times more guilty--if it be
guilt, and on whom the rods and axes must fall first if there be
justice under the gods. You can bear witness at Rome to that."

"There will be rods and axes enough for all," said Marcia, grimly,
filled with horror and disgust for the deeds told of, and with contempt
for this garrulous, timid plotter of treachery and murder. Then,
suddenly, she noted a sinister glitter in his eye, and, at the same
time, remembering her mission, she checked her words and went on, "Rods
and axes enough for all who are so feeble as not to take the
sovereignty of Italy when it lies within their grasp."

"What--what is that you say?" he said eagerly, and the threat fled from
his face. "The sovereignty of Italy? Ah! it is a great prize! Who
shall deny it to us? Are we not the second city? Have we not allies
the strongest in the world?--a general the greatest? and when all is
over, who so fitting to rule as the first man of the first city?--for
Rome will be no more. Ah! I will deal with them gently, though; I
will conciliate--unless I be opposed too obstinately. You shall tell
them that. Are they meditating surrender? Do they not see that we
must prevail?--but," and his tone changed again to distrust, "I have
forgotten to ask, amid my anxiety about matters of state, why you have
come to Capua--a Roman--at such times?"

Marcia laughed. She was ready for her part now, and this adversary, at
least, she despised,--perhaps too much, for he was a cunning man, in
his way, and when the matter demanded only chicanery against other
cowards.

"Ah! my Pacuvius, a politician like _you_ asks me that?" she exclaimed
gayly. "Is it for a woman to remain in a ship buffeted and rocking in
the storm? a ship that must founder soon, if it be