n. Their leader looked with a meaning grin at the lady and her
companion, who now stood apart from each other.

'Pardon our hasty entrance, fair Heliodora,' he said in Greek. 'The
commander has need of you--on pressing business.'

'The commander must wait my leisure,' she replied with a note of
indignation over-emphasised.

'Nay, that he cannot,' returned the officer, leering at Sagaris. 'He is
even now at supper, and will take it ill if you be not there when he
rises from table. A litter waits.'

Not without much show of wrath did Heliodora yield. As she left the
room, her eyes turned to Sagaris, who had shrunk into a corner, coward
fear and furious passion distorting his face. The lady having been
borne away, a few soldiers remained in the house, where they passed the
night. On the morrow Bessas himself paid a visit to that famous museum
of sculpture, and after an inspection, which left no possible
hiding-place unsearched, sent away to the Palatine everything that
seemed to him worth laying hands upon.

Meanwhile the domestics had all been held under guard. Sagaris, who
heard his relations with Heliodora jested over by the slaves and
soldiers, passed a night of terror, and when he knew of the commander's
arrival, scarce had strength to stand. To his surprise, nothing ill
befell him. During the pillage of the house he was disregarded, and
when Bessas had gone he only had to bear the scoffs of his
fellow-slaves. These unfortunates lived together as long as the scant
provisions lasted, then scattered in search of sustenance. The great
house on the Quirinal stood silent, left to its denizens of marble and
of bronze.

Sagaris, who suspected himself to have been tricked by Heliodora in the
matter of her removal to the Palatine, and had not the least faith in
her power to beguile Bessas, swore by all the saints that the day of
his revenge should come; but for the present he had to think of how to
keep himself alive. Money he had none; it was idle to hope of attaching
himself to another household, and unless he escaped to the Goths, there
was no resource but to beg from one or other of those few persons who,
out of compassion and for their souls' sake, gave alms to the indigent.
Wandering in a venomous humour, he chanced to approach the Via Lata,
and out of curiosity turned to the house of Marcian. Not knowing
whether it was still inhabited, he knocked at the door, and was
surprised to hear a dog's bark, for nearly all