“Your slave Tarsius came to my house to announce that you had been pleased to remember the ladies there taking refuge, and that you had placed your two palanquins at their disposal.”
“Tarsius said this?”
“Even Tarsius.”
“Tarsius is a slippery rascal. He was very fond of our little Cordula, and was wont to carry her on his shoulder, so we have liked him because of that. Nevertheless, he is—well, not trustworthy.”
“May God avert that a trap has been laid to ensnare the virgin and her mother. Tarsius was expelled the Church for inebriety.”
“I know nothing about the palanquins. I have but one. After the death of little Cordula, I did not care to keep a second. I always carry about with me a lock cut from her head after death. It is like floss silk.”
The wool merchant was too greatly absorbed in his own troubles to give attention to the matter that [pg 158]had been broached by the deacon. Baudillas withdrew to another part of the prison in serious concern.
When day broke, Litomarus was released. His brother was a pagan and had easily satisfied the magistrate. This brother was in the firm, and traveled for it, buying fleeces from the shepherds on the limestone plateaux of Niger and Larsacus. He had been away the day before, but on his return in the morning, on learning that Julius was arrested, he spoke with the duumvir, presented him with a ripe ewe’s milk cheese just brought by him from Larsacus, and obtained the discharge of Julius without further difficulty.
Baudillas remained in prison that morning, and it was not till the afternoon that he was conducted into court. By this time the duumvir was tired and irritable. The flamen had arrived and had spoken with Atacinus, and complained that no example had been made, that the Christians were being released, and that, unless some sharp punishments were administered, the people, incensed at the leniency that had been exhibited, would break out in uproar again. Petronius Atacinus, angry, tired out, hungry and peevish, at once sent for the deacon.
The head of the god had been found in his house, [pg 159]and he had been seen conveying the rescued virgin from the fountain, and must certainly know where she was concealed.