"Has Tiberius Cæsar appointed you."
"Sir, yes."
"Of course, then, you are used to horses?"
"Sir, I have always belonged to the stable," said Lygdus.
"But," pursued Paulus, "am I then forbidden to enter the stable myself, and make acquaintance with the horse I have to break?"
"Sir, I have orders," answered this Lygdus—who, as I think I have already mentioned, was destined, as the instrument of Cneius Piso and Plancina, some few years later, to be the cruel assassin of Germanicus—"I have orders always to admit you, and always to watch you."
"You to watch a Roman knight!"
"For that matter, most honored sir," answered Lygdus, "the rank of the person watched does not alter the eyes of the watcher. I could watch a Roman senator, or even a Roman Cæsar, if necessary."
"I will be security you could," said Thellus, whose great and almost diaphanous nostrils quivered as he spoke.
Lygdus, by way of answer, withdrew a pace.