“I thought that thou wouldst find them, lord. Only one method came to my head—”
Here he turned toward the grating in the wall, as if in answer to himself, and said,—
“In that way—but there are soldiers outside—”
“A hundred pretorians.”
“Then we cannot pass?”
“No!”
The Lygian rubbed his forehead, and asked again,—
“How didst thou enter?”
“I have a tessera from the overseer of the ‘Putrid Pits.’” Then Vinicius stopped suddenly, as if some idea had flashed through his head.
“By the Passion of the Redeemer,” said he, in a hurried voice, “I will stay here. Let her take my tessera; she can wrap her head in a cloth, cover her shoulders with a mantle, and pass out. Among the slaves who carry out corpses there are several youths not full grown; hence the pretorians will not notice her, and once at the house of Petronius she is safe.”