rang upon him and felled him.
The other man then fled--this is all I know about it."

"What can it all mean?" Flavia said. "What could Sempronius with two
slaves be doing in my house after midnight? It is a grave outrage, and
there will be a terrible scandal in Rome tomorrow--the son of a praetor
and a friend of the house!"

She then ordered the slaves to raise the body of Sempronius and carry
it to a couch, and to send at once for a leech. She also bade them throw
water on the slave and bring him to consciousness, and then to bring him
before her to be questioned.

"Where is my daughter?" she said suddenly; "has she not been roused by
all this stir?" One of the female slaves stole into Julia's apartment,
and returned saying that her mistress was sound asleep on her couch.

An expression of doubt crossed Flavia's face, but she only said, "Do
not disturb her," and then thoughtfully returned to her room. It was not
until an hour later that the prisoner was sufficiently recovered to be
brought before Flavia. He had already heard that his master was killed,
and, knowing that concealment would be useless, he threw himself on
the ground before Flavia, and owned that he and another slave had been
brought by Sempronius to carry off a slave girl.

Acting on his instructions they had thrust a kerchief into her mouth,
and wrapped a cloak round her, and were carrying her off when a man
rushed at him, and he supposed struck him, for he remembered nothing
more. He then with many tears implored mercy, on the ground that he was
acting but on his master's orders. At this moment the praetor himself
arrived, Flavia having sent for him immediately she had ascertained that
Sempronius was dead. He was confused and bewildered at the suddenness of
his loss.

"I thought at first," Flavia said, "that he must have been engaged in
some wild scheme to carry off Julia, though why he should do so I could
not imagine, seeing that he had my approval of his wooing; but Julia is
asleep, not having been a wakened by the noise of the scuffle. It must
have been one of the slave girls."

"Ah!" she exclaimed suddenly. "I did not see Clotilde." She struck a
bell, and her attendant entered.

"Go," she said, "and summon Clotilde here."

In a few minutes the slave returned, saying that Clotilde was not to be
found.

"She may have been carried off by the other slave," Flavia said, "but
Malchus was there, and would have pursued. Fetch him here."

But