Chapter 23
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant."--ST. MATTHEW XXV. 21. A tumult amongst the people? Aye! it was here now fully aroused. The praefect of Rome was popular with the plebs. His action in the arena had called forth unbounded enthusiasm. When he fell rolling into the sand, with the black panther snarling above him, his steel-like grip warding for the moment the brute's jaws from off his throat, the people broke out into regular frenzy. "The praefect! the praefect!" they shouted. Men climbed down along the gradients leaping over other men, determined to jump down twelve feet into the arena in order to rescue the praefect from the jaws of the ferocious beast. But above in the imperial tribune the Csar sat snarling like the panther and rubbing his hands with glee. His trap had been
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