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But his howls just now were the means of rousing in the hearts of the crowd that most despicable of all passions to which the Roman the master of civilisation was a prey the love of seeing some creature, man or beast, in pain, a passion which brought the Roman citizen down to the level of the brute: therefore Taurus Antinor wished above all to silence Hun Rhavas.
"My own child, Hun Rhavas," continued the pleading voice; "think on it, for thou too hast children of thine own." "I purchased my son's freedom only last year," acquiesced the slave with a touch of pride. "Next year, an the gods will, it shall be my daughter's and after that mine own. In three years from now we shall all be free." "Thou art a man; 'tis more easy for thee to make money.
"For thy delinquencies," resumed the praefect, seemingly not heeding the pathetic appeal, "thou shalt appear before my tribunal on the morrow like unto Hun Rhavas thine accomplice, and thou shalt then be punished no less than thou deservest.
Nor was a word said about her beauty, though her eyes were blue and her neck slender and white; and her hair, which was of a pretty shade of gold, could not even be seen under that hideous, unbecoming hat. "Ten aurei shall we say?" said Hun Rhavas with remarkable want of enthusiasm; "kind sirs, is there no one ready to say fifteen? The girl might be taught to sew or to trim a lady's nails.
"Here! thou!" he added, beckoning to one of his lictors, "take this man to the Regia and hand him over to the chief warder." "My lord's grace " cried Hun Rhavas. "Silence! To-morrow thou'lt appear before me in the basilica. Bring thy witnesses then if thou hast any to speak in thy defence.
He signalled to one of the lictors below an accomplice too, I imagine, in this transaction and whilst a chorus of obsequious greetings round Dea Flavia's litter filled the noonday air like the hum of bees, a pale-faced, delicate-looking girl was quickly pushed up on to the platform. Hun Rhavas very perfunctorily declaimed her age and status.
The praefect's sentences in the tribunal where he administered justice were not characterised by leniency; the galleys, the stone-quarries, aye! even the cross were all within the bounds of possibility, whilst the scourge was an absolute certainty. Hun Rhavas set up a succession of howls which echoed from temple to temple, from one end of the Forum to the other.
With bleeding back and mind saturated with hate, he sought audience of the Emperor, and obtained it half an hour after Caius Nepos, the praetorian praefect, had himself been introduced in the presence of Caligula. The story which Hun Rhavas the paid spy brought to the ear of Cæsar, was but a confirmation of what Caius Nepos had to tell.
"And how many aurei didst promise to Hun Rhavas for helping thee to defraud the State?" "Only five, my lord," she murmured. "Then," he said sternly, "not only didst thou conspire to cheat the State for whose benefit the sale of the late censor's goods was ordered by imperial decree, but thou didst bribe another a slave of the treasury to aid and abet thee in this fraud."
"Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days." The fair-skinned Cheiron up on the rostrum now took over the duties of the disgraced Hun Rhavas. The interlude had caused the crowd to linger on despite the approach of noonday, an hour always devoted, almost sacred, to rest.
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