e company, but we will delay
and drop into the rear. At the first corner my comrade will get lame
purposely. In that way we shall remain behind the others considerably.
Ye will wait for us at the small temple of Libitina. May God give a
night as dark as possible!"

"He will," said Niger. "Last evening was bright, and then a sudden storm
came. To-day the sky is clear, but since morning it is sultry. Every
night now there will be wind and rain."

"Will ye go without torches?" inquired Vinicius.

"The torches are carried only in advance. In every event, be near the
temple of Libitina at dark, though usually we carry out the corpses only
just before midnight."

They stopped. Nothing was to be heard save the hurried breathing of
Vinicius. Petronius turned to him,--

"I said yesterday that it would be best were we both to stay at home,
but now I see that I could not stay. Were it a question of flight, there
would be need of the greatest caution; but since she will be borne out
as a corpse, it seems that not the least suspicion will enter the head
of any one."

"True, true!" answered Vinicius. "I must be there. I will take her from
the coffin myself."

"Once she is in my house at Corioli, I answer for her," said Niger.
Conversation stopped here. Niger returned to his men at the inn.
Nazarius took a purse of gold under his tunic and went to the prison.
For Vinicius began a day filled with alarm, excitement, disquiet, and
hope.

"The undertaking ought to succeed, for it is well planned," said
Petronius. "It was impossible to plan better. Thou must feign suffering,
and wear a dark toga. Do not desert the amphitheatre. Let people see
thee. All is so fixed that there cannot be failure. But--art thou
perfectly sure of thy manager?"

"He is a Christian," replied Vinicius.

Petronius looked at him with amazement, then shrugged his shoulders, and
said, as if in soliloquy,--

"By Pollux! how it spreads, and commands people's souls. Under such
terror as the present, men would renounce straightway all the gods
of Rome, Greece, and Egypt. Still, this is wonderful! By Pollux! if I
believed that anything depended on our gods, I would sacrifice six
white bullocks to each of them, and twelve to Capitoline Jove. Spare no
promises to thy Christ."

"I have given Him my soul," said Vinicius.

And they parted. Petronius returned to his cubiculum; but Vinicius went
to look from a distance at the prison, and thence betook himself to