ors.
Caesar arrived earlier than usual; and immediately at his coming people
whispered that something uncommon would happen, for besides Tigellinus
and Vatinius, Caesar had with him Cassius, a centurion of enormous size
and gigantic strength, whom he summoned only when he wished to have a
defender at his side,--for example, when he desired night expeditions
to the Subura, where he arranged the amusement called "sagatio," which
consisted in tossing on a soldier's mantle maidens met on the way.
It was noted also that certain precautions had been taken in the
amphitheatre itself. The pretorian guards were increased; command over
them was held, not by a centurion, but by the tribune Subrius Flavius,
known hitherto for blind attachment to Nero. It was understood, then,
that Caesar wished in every case to guard himself against an outburst of
despair from Vinicius, and curiosity rose all the more.

Every eye was turned with strained gaze to the place where the
unfortunate lover was sitting. He was exceedingly pale, and his forehead
was covered with drops of sweat; he was in as much doubt as were other
spectators, but alarmed to the lowest depth of his soul. Petronius knew
not what would happen; he was silent, except that, while turning from
Nerva, he asked Vinicius whether he was ready for everything, and next,
whether he would remain at the spectacle. To both questions Vinicius
answered "Yes," but a shudder passed through his whole body; he divined
that Petronius did not ask without reason. For some time he had lived
with only half his life,--he had sunk in death, and reconciled himself
to Lygia's death, since for both it was to be liberation and marriage;
but he learned now that it was one thing to think of the last moment
when it was distant as of a quiet dropping asleep, and another to look
at the torment of a person dearer to one than life. All sufferings
endured formerly rose in him anew. Despair, which had been set at rest,
began again to cry in his soul; the former desire to save Lygia at any
price seized him anew. Beginning with the morning, he had tried to go to
the cunicula to be sure that she was there; but the pretorians watched
every entrance, and orders were so strict that the soldiers, even those
whom he knew, would not be softened by prayers or gold. It seemed to
the tribune that uncertainty would kill him before he should see the
spectacle. Somewhere at the bottom of his heart the hope was still
throbbing, th