"A King?" said Cethegus. "Well, I will call the Senate together. The Romans, too, shall choose."
"Whom? what shall we choose?" asked Scævola.
But Cethegus was not obliged to answer.
Before he could speak Lucius shouted:
"A Dictator! Away, away to the Senate!"
"To the Senate!" repeated Cethegus majestically. "Syphax, my mantle!"
"Here, master, and the sword as well," whispered the Moor. "I always bring it with me, in case of need."
And host and guests, staggering, followed Cethegus, who, the only completely sober man amongst them, was the first out of the house and into the street.
CHAPTER XII.
In one of the small rooms of the Emperor's palace in Byzantium, a short time after the Feast of the Floralia, a little man of insignificant appearance was pacing to and fro, lost in anxious thought.