at the door and will guide you to the chamber where the
girl sleeps; you have only to gag her and carry her quietly off."

Sempronius stood for a moment in doubt. The enterprise was certainly
feasible. Wild adventures of this kind were not uncommon among the
dissolute young Romans, and Sempronius saw at once that were he detected
Julia's influence would prevent her mother taking the matter up hotly.
Julia guessed his thoughts.

"If you are found out," she said, "I will take the blame upon myself,
and tell my mother that you were acting solely at my request."

"I will do it, Julia," he agreed; "tonight at two o'clock I will be
at the back door with two slaves whom I can trust. I will have a place
prepared to which I can take the girl till it is safe to carry her from
the city."

CHAPTER XXII: THE LION

Malchus was sleeping soundly that night when he was awakened by a low
angry sound from the lion.

He looked up, and saw by the faint light of a lamp which burned in the
hall, from which the niche like bed chambers of the principal slaves
opened, that the animal had risen to its feet. Knowing that, docile as
it was with those it knew, the lion objected to strangers, the thought
occurred to him that some midnight thief had entered the house for the
purpose of robbery. Malchus took his staff and sallied out, the lion
walking beside him.

He traversed the hall and went from room to room until he entered the
portion of the house inhabited by Flavia and the female slaves. Here he
would have hesitated, but the lion continued its way, crouching as it
walked, with its tail beating its sides with short quick strokes.

There was no one in the principal apartment. He entered the corridor,
from which as he knew issued the bed chambers of the slaves. Here he
stopped in sudden surprise at seeing a woman holding a light, while two
men were issuing from one of the apartments bearing between them a
body wrapped up in a cloak. Sempronius stood by the men directing their
movements. The face of the person carried was invisible, but the light
of the lamp fell upon a mass of golden brown hair, and Malchus knew at
once that it was Clotilde who was being carried off.

Malchus sprang forward and with a blow of his staff levelled one of the
slaves to the ground; Sempronius with a furious exclamation drew his
sword and rushed at him, while the other slave, dropping his burden,
closed with Malchus and threw his arms around him. For a