etter to read poetry in
his splendid library, look at vases and statues, or hold to his breast
the divine body of Eunice, twining her golden hair through his fingers,
and inclining his lips to her coral mouth? Hence he said,--

"I advise the journey to Achaea."

"Ah!" answered Nero, "I looked for something more from thee. The Senate
hates me. If I depart, who will guarantee that it will not revolt and
proclaim some one else Caesar? The people have been faithful to me so
far, but now they will follow the Senate. By Hades! if that Senate and
that people had one head!--"

"Permit me to say, O divinity, that if thou desire to save Rome, there
is need to save even a few Romans," remarked Petronius, with a smile.

"What care I for Rome and Romans?" complained Nero. "I should be obeyed
in Achaea. Here only treason surrounds me. All desert me, and ye are
making ready for treason. I know it, I know it. Ye do not even imagine
what future ages will say of you if ye desert such an artist as I am."

Here he tapped his forehead on a sudden, and cried,--

"True! Amid these cares even I forget who I am."

Then he turned to Petronius with a radiant face.

"Petronius," said he, "the people murmur; but if I take my lute and go
to the Campus Martius, if I sing that song to them which I sang during
the conflagration, dost thou not think that I will move them, as Orpheus
moved wild beasts?"

To this Tullius Senecio, who was impatient to return to his slave
women brought in from Antium, and who had been impatient a long time,
replied,--

"Beyond doubt, O Caesar, if they permit thee to begin."

"Let us go to Hellas!" cried Nero, with disgust.

But at that moment Poppaea appeared, and with her Tigellinis. The eyes
of those present turned to him unconsciously, for never had triumphator
ascended the Capitol with pride such as his when he stood before Caesar.
He began to speak slowly and with emphasis, in tones through which the
bite of iron, as it were, was heard,--

"Listen. O Caesar, for I can say: I have found! The people want
vengeance, they want not one victim, but hundreds, thousands. Hast
heard, lord, who Christos was,--he who was crucified by Pontius Pilate?
And knowest thou who the Christians are? Have I not told thee of their
crimes and foul ceremonies, of their predictions that fire would cause
the end of the world? People hate and suspect them. No one has seen them
in a temple at any time, for they consider our gods evi