e house of Linus. The
fervor of a July day, increased by the heat of the burning parts of the
city, became unendurable. Smoke pained the eyes; breath failed in men's
breasts. Even the inhabitants who, hoping that the fire would not cross
the river, had remained in their houses so far, began to leave them;
and the throng increased hourly. The pretorians accompanying Vinicius
remained in the rear. In the crush some one wounded his horse with
a hammer; the beast threw up its bloody head, reared, and refused
obedience. The crowd recognized in Vinicius an Augustian by his rich
tunic, and at once cries were raised round about: "Death to Nero and his
incendiaries!" This was a moment of terrible danger; hundreds of hands
were stretched toward Vinicius; but his frightened horse bore him away,
trampling people as he went, and the next moment a new wave of black
smoke rolled in and filled the street with darkness. Vinicius, seeing
that he could not ride past, sprang to the earth and rushed forward
on foot, slipping along walls, and at times waiting till the fleeing
multitude passed him. He said to himself in spirit that these were vain
efforts. Lygia might not be in the city; she might have saved herself
by flight. It was easier to find a pin on the seashore than her in that
crowd and chaos. Still he wished to reach the house of Linus, even
at the cost of his own life. At times he stopped and rubbed his eyes.
Tearing off the edge of his tunic, he covered his nose and mouth with
it and ran on. As he approached the river, the heat increased terribly.
Vinicius, knowing that the fire had begun at the Circus Maximus, thought
at first that that heat came from its cinders and from the Forum Boarium
and the Velabrum, which, situated near by, must be also in flames. But
the heat was growing unendurable. One old man on crutches and fleeing,
the last whom Vinicius noticed, cried: "Go not near the bridge of
Cestius! The whole island is on fire!" It was, indeed, impossible to
be deceived any longer. At the turn toward the Vicus Judaeorum, on which
stood the house of Linus, the young tribune saw flames amid clouds of
smoke. Not only the island was burning, but the Trans-Tiber, or at least
the other end of the street on which Lygia dwelt.

Vinicius remembered that the house of Linus was surrounded by a garden;
between the garden and the Tiber was an unoccupied field of no great
size. This thought consoled him. The fire might stop at the vacant
p