Chapter 24
"The sorrows of death compassed me."--PSALM XVIII. 4. Dea Flavia lay upon her bed, with wide-open eyes fixed into vacancy above her. Afternoon and evening had gone by since that awful moment when the whole fell purpose of the Csar's plan was revealed to her, and she saw Hortensius Martius standing unarmed and doomed in the arena, face to face with a raging, wild beast. Afternoon and evening had vanished into the past since she saw Taurus Antinor, with Hortensius' body held high over his head, saving one life whilst offering up his own, since she heard that deafening cry of horror uttered by two hundred thousand throats when the panther sprung upon him unawares and felled him to the ground, whilst his blood reddened the sand of the arena. Afternoon and evening had swooned in the arms of
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