e sent a letter to Poppaea's second
husband, Otho, in Spain. He sacrificed his property and himself, until
he saw at last that he was simply the plaything of people; that if he
had pretended that the imprisonment of Lygia concerned him little, he
would have freed her sooner.

Petronius saw this, too. Meanwhile day followed day. The amphitheatre
was finished. The "tesserae" were distributed,--that is, tickets of
entrance, to the ludus matutinus (morning games). But this time the
morning games, because of the unheard-of number of victims, were to
continue for days, weeks, and months. It was not known where to put the
Christians. The prisons were crammed, and fever was raging in them. The
puticuli--common pits in which slaves were kept--began to be overfilled.
There was fear that diseases might spread over the whole city hence,
haste.

All these reports struck the ears of Vinicius, extinguishing in him the
last hope. While there was yet time, he might delude himself with
the belief that he could do something, but now there was no time. The
spectacles must begin. Lygia might find herself any day in a cuniculum
of the circus, whence the only exit was to the arena. Vinicius, not
knowing whither fate and the cruelty of superior force might throw her,
visited all the circuses, bribed guards and beast-keepers, laying before
them plans which they could not execute. In time he saw that he was
working for this only,--to make death less terrible to her; and just
then he felt that instead of brains he had glowing coals in his head.

For the rest he had no thought of surviving her, and determined to
perish at the same time. But he feared lest pain might burn his life out
before the dreadful hour came. His friends and Petronius thought also
that any day might open the kingdom of shadows before him. His face was
black, and resembled those waxen masks kept in lararia. In his features
astonishment had grown frigid, as if he hid no understanding of what had
happened and what might happen. When any one spoke to him, he raised his
hands to his face mechanically, and, pressing his temples, looked at the
speaker with an inquiring and astonished gaze. He passed whole nights
with Ursus at Lygia's door in the prison; if she commanded him to go
away and rest, he returned to Petronius, and walked in the atrium till
morning. The slaves found him frequently kneeling with upraised hands
or lying with his face to the earth. He prayed to Christ, for C