e, but began to laugh.

"My fat," answered he, "might start the fire again."

But Nero had something else on his mind; in his soul he was looking for
a victim who might really satisfy the people's anger, and he found him.

"Tigellinus," said he after a while, "it was thou who didst burn Rome!"
A shiver ran through those present. They understood that Caesar had
ceased to jest this time, and that a moment had come which was pregnant
with events.

The face of Tigellinus was wrinkled, like the lips of a dog about to
bite.

"I burnt Rome at thy command!" said he.

And the two glared at each other like a pair of devils. Such silence
followed that the buzzing of flies was heard as they flew through the
atrium.

"Tigellinus," said Nero, "dost thou love me?"

"Thou knowest, lord."

"Sacrifice thyself for me."

"O divine Caesar," answered Tigellinus, "why present the sweet cup which
I may not raise to my lips? The people are muttering and rising; dost
thou wish the pretorians also to rise?"

A feeling of terror pressed the hearts of those present. Tigellinus was
pretorian prefect, and his words had the direct meaning of a threat.
Nero himself understood this, and his face became pallid.

At that moment Epaphroditus, Caesar's freedman, entered, announcing that
the divine Augusta wished to see Tigellinus, as there were people in her
apartments whom the prefect ought to hear.

Tigellinus bowed to Caesar, and went out with a face calm and
contemptuous. Now, when they had wished to strike him, he had shown
his teeth; he had made them understand who he was, and, knowing Nero's
cowardice, he was confident that that ruler of the world would never
dare to raise a hand against him.

Nero sat in silence for a moment; then, seeing that those present
expected some answer, he said,--

"I have reared a serpent in my bosom."

Petronius shrugged his shoulders, as if to say that it was not difficult
to pluck the head from such a serpent.

"What wilt thou say? Speak, advise!" exclaimed Nero, noticing this
motion. "I trust in thee alone, for thou hast more sense than all of
them, and thou lovest me."

Petronius had the following on his lips: "Make me pretorian prefect, I
will deliver Tigellinus to the people, and pacify the city in a day."
But his innate slothfulness prevailed. To be prefect meant to bear on
his shoulder's Caesar's person and also thousands of public affairs. And
why should he perform that labor? Was it not b