lse will know they are in my possession?'

'Enough--I will bring thee the papyrus.'

'No, not papyrus--a tablet of wax and a stilus.'

Nydia, as the reader will have seen, was born of gentle parents. They
had done all to lighten her calamity, and her quick intellect seconded
their exertions. Despite her blindness, she had therefore acquired in
childhood, though imperfectly, the art to write with the sharp stilus
upon waxen tablets, in which her exquisite sense of touch came to her
aid. When the tablets were brought to her, she thus painfully traced
some words in Greek, the language of her childhood, and which almost
every Italian of the higher ranks was then supposed to know. She
carefully wound round the epistle the thread, and covered its knot with
wax; and ere she placed it in the hands of Sosia, she thus addressed
him:

'Sosia, I am blind and in prison. Thou mayst think to deceive me--thou
mayst pretend only to take the letter to Sallust--thou mayst not fulfill
thy charge: but here I solemnly dedicate thy head to vengeance, thy soul
to the infernal powers, if thou wrongest thy trust; and I call upon thee
to place thy right hand of faith in mine, and repeat after me these
words: "By the ground on which we stand--by the elements which contain
life and can curse life--by Orcus, the all-avenging--by the Olympian
Jupiter, the all-seeing--I swear that I will honestly discharge my
trust, and faithfully deliver into the hands of Sallust this letter!
And if I perjure myself in this oath, may the full curses of heaven and
hell be wreaked upon me!" Enough!--I trust thee--take thy reward. It is
already dark--depart at once.'

'Thou art a strange girl, and thou hast frightened me terribly; but it
is all very natural: and if Sallust is to be found, I give him this
letter as I have sworn. By my faith, I may have my little peccadilloes!
but perjury--no! I leave that to my betters.'

With this Sosia withdrew, carefully passing the heavy bolt athwart
Nydia's door--carefully locking its wards: and, hanging the key to his
girdle, he retired to his own den, enveloped himself from head to foot
in a huge disguising cloak, and slipped out by the back way undisturbed
and unseen.

The streets were thin and empty. He soon gained the house of Sallust.
The porter bade him leave his letter, and be gone; for Sallust was so
grieved at the condemnation of Glaucus, that he could not on any account
be disturbed.

'Nevertheless, I ha