lder than another. At last the thought flashed on him that no one else
had intercepted her but Aulus, that in every case Aulus must know where
she was hiding. And he sprang up to run to the house of Aulus.

If they will not yield her to him, if they have no fear of his threats,
he will go to Caesar, accuse the old general of disobedience, and obtain
a sentence of death against him; but before that, he will gain from them
a confession of where Lygia is. If they give her, even willingly, he
will be revenged. They received him, it is true, in their house and
nursed him,--but that is nothing! With this one injustice they have
freed him from every debt of gratitude. Here his vengeful and stubborn
soul began to take pleasure at the despair of Pomponia Graecina, when
the centurion would bring the death sentence to old Aulus. He was almost
certain that he would get it. Petronius would assist him. Moreover,
Caesar never denies anything to his intimates, the Augustians, unless
personal dislike or desire enjoins a refusal.

Suddenly his heart almost died within him, under the influence of this
terrible supposition,--"But if Caesar himself has taken Lygia?"

All knew that Nero from tedium sought recreation in night attacks. Even
Petronius took part in these amusements. Their main object was to seize
women and toss each on a soldier's mantle till she fainted. Even Nero
himself on occasions called these expeditions "pearl hunts," for it
happened that in the depth of districts occupied by a numerous and needy
population they caught a real pearl of youth and beauty sometimes. Then
the "sagatio," as they termed the tossing, was changed into a genuine
carrying away, and the pearl was sent either to the Palatine or to one
of Caesar's numberless villas, or finally Caesar yielded it to one of his
intimates. So might it happen also with Lygia. Caesar had seen her during
the feast; and Vinicius doubted not for an instant that she must have
seemed to him the most beautiful woman he had seen yet. How could it
be otherwise? It is true that Lygia had been in Nero's own house on
the Palatine, and he might have kept her openly. But, as Petronius said
truly, Caesar had no courage in crime, and, with power to act openly, he
chose to act always in secret. This time fear of Poppaea might incline
him also to secrecy. It occurred now to the young soldier that Aulus
would not have dared, perhaps, to carry off forcibly a girl given
him, Vinicius, by Caesa