hat do ye want here?" asked he.

"Thee!" said Vinicius.

Then, turning to Croton, he said in a low, hurried voice:

"Kill!"

Croton rushed at him like a tiger, and in one moment, before the Lygian
was able to think or to recognize his enemies, Croton had caught him in
his arms of steel.

Vinicius was too confident in the man's preternatural strength to wait
for the end of the struggle. He passed the two, sprang to the door of
the little house, pushed it open and found himself in a room a trifle
dark, lighted, however, by a fire burning in the chimney. A gleam of
this fire fell on Lygia's face directly. A second person, sitting at the
fire, was that old man who had accompanied the young girl and Ursus on
the road from Ostrianum.

Vinicius rushed in so suddenly that before Lygia could recognize him he
had seized her by the waist, and, raising her, rushed toward the door
again. The old man barred the way, it is true; but pressing the girl
with one arm to his breast, Vinicius pushed him aside with the other,
which was free. The hood fell from his head, and at sight of that face,
which was known to her and which at that moment was terrible, the blood
grew cold in Lygia from fright, and the voice died in her throat. She
wished to summon aid, but had not the power. Equally vain was her wish
to grasp the door, to resist. Her fingers slipped along the stone, and
she would have fainted but for the terrible picture which struck her
eyes when Vinicius rushed into the garden.

Ursus was holding in his arms some man doubled back completely, with
hanging head and mouth filled with blood. When he saw them, he struck
the head once more with his fist, and in the twinkle of an eye sprang
toward Vinicius like a raging wild beast.

"Death!" thought the young patrician.

Then he heard, as through a dream, the scream of Lygia, "Kill not!"
He felt that something, as it were a thunderbolt, opened the arms with
which he held Lygia; then the earth turned round with him, and the light
of day died in his eyes.

Chilo, hidden behind the angle of the corner house, was waiting for
what would happen, since curiosity was struggling with fear in him. He
thought that if they succeeded in carrying off Lygia, he would fare well
near Vinicius. He feared Urban no longer, for he also felt certain that
Croton would kill him. And he calculated that in case a gathering should
begin on the streets, which so far were empty,--if Christians, or people