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Updated: May 3, 2025
She was standing alone up against the dividing wall of the tribune, and leaning back against it, with eyes closed, and hand pressed against her heart. All this did Taurus Antinor see, and also that Hortensius Martius, still deathly pale and trembling in every limb, had succeeded in making his way from the arcade where he had found safety, back to the patricians' tribune amongst his friends.
"But thou hast a life, Taurus Antinor," she said, "and life is a precious possession." He shrugged his massive shoulders, and a curious smile played round his lips. "And thou canst order that precious possession to be taken from me," he said lightly. "Is that what thou wouldst say?"
There was a vacant place beside young Hortensius, and Taurus Antinor took it, but he did not lie along the cushions as the others did but half sat, half leaned on the couch, and turning to the young man said simply: "I give thee greeting, O Hortensius! I had no thought of meeting thee here." "I told thee yesterday that I would be present," said the other curtly.
That cry was always clear, and with it came, like a complement or a corollary, the name of the praefect of Rome. "Hail Taurus Antinor Cæsar! Hail!" The cry filled Dea Flavia's veins as with living fire.
"Of treachery?... Whose treachery?..." "Mine." "Thine?... I'll not believe it.... Thou a traitor ... against Cæsar?" "No." "Against whom, then?" "Against Him Whose death I witnessed seven years ago." "Then I'll not believe it. And 'tis sacrilege thus to jest." "Jest?" said Taurus Antinor, with a laugh that rang unnatural and hoarse.
Then, as Taurus Antinor made no comment on his peroration, he recalled in impassioned language all that Rome had witnessed in the past three years of depravity, of turpitude, of senseless and maniacal orgies and of bestial cruelty, all perpetrated by the one man to whom blind Fate had given supreme power.
The spell was broken as Taurus Antinor resumed quietly: "The Cæsar," he said, "hath not yet abdicated; he is still our chosen ruler and Emperor. To speak of his successor now savours of treachery and "
"All that pertains to our dear Lord doth lie so close to my heart, and 'tis long now since I have spoken of Him to one who hath seen and heard Him. 'Tis great joy to me to hear of every impression which He made on the heart of those whose life was gladdened by a sight of His face." "Whose life was gladdened by a sight of His face!" repeated Taurus Antinor gently.
"Thou'rt mad, Taurus Antinor! Fever is in thy veins and doth cloud the clearness of thy brain.... Hast not heard the people? They vow vengeance on him.... 'Tis on thee they call ... thou art their chosen, their anointed; the people call to thee. It is thou whom they acclaim." "To-morrow," he said more gently, "they will have forgotten their disloyalty.
Many there were who averred that the praefect of Rome was himself the descendant of a freedman a prisoner of war brought over by Cæsar from the North who had amassed wealth and purchased his own freedom. Indeed his name proclaimed his foreign origin, for he was called Taurus Antinor Anglicanus, and surnamed Niger because of his dark eyes and sun-tanned skin.
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