“You helpless idiots!” exclaimed the worsted victim, feeling at his throat. “What do you mean by staring as if it were a good joke, when a villain throttles me? You, Clodianus, have I loaded you with every honor and heaps of gold, that you should leave me in the lurch in this fashion? Take that for your loutish cowardice!”
And Domitian flew at him with the fury of a panther, and struck him a tremendous blow in the face. Clodianus shrank back.
“Forgive me!” he stammered, groaning with pain and rage. “I was so confounded at the man’s daring....”
“Away! traitor.—Never let me set eyes on you again.”
“Nay, pardon, my lord!” entreated the other, forgetting all else in his dread of losing his place. “Pardon and grace, my lord and god, I beseech thee. Do not withdraw thy favors from the most faithful of thy servants.”
“Yes, my lord and god,” added Parthenius, the chamberlain. “Forgive us, for nothing but reverence and consternation could have betrayed us into such a crime. Do not let it spoil a jovial night. It is the first time for long, that we have wandered through the streets in disguise, and shall a spiteful accident....”
“You are right,” interrupted the Emperor. “I was in the best of humors....”
“Then bid it return. Even his moods must surely obey the sovereign, whose sway extends over the whole world....”
“Curse it all! To think that of all women in the world.... Cinna’s niece?... I did not even know, that the old fool had a niece. Whose house had she come out of?”
“That of Barbillus, the priest of Isis.”