'The half of five hundred—say you—was that the sum, and all the sum he paid you?'
'It was. And there are here with me those that will attest it.'
'It needs not; for I myself know that from the treasury five hundred aurelians were drawn, and said, by him, for this work—which well suits me—to have been duly paid. Let but this be proved, and his life is the least that it shall cost him. But it must be well proved. Let us now have thy witnesses.'
Menestheus at this point, ignorant of the charge then making against him, entered the tent. Appalled by the apparition of the injured man, and grasping at a glance the truth, all power of concealment was gone, conscious guilt was written in the color and in every line and feature of the face.
'Menestheus!' said Aurelian, 'knowest thou this man?'
'He is Virro, an artisan of Rome;' replied the trembling slave.
'And what think you makes him here?'
The Secretary was silent.
'He has come, Menestheus, well stored with proofs, beside those which I can furnish, of thy guilt. Shall the witnesses be heard? Here they stand.'
Menestheus replied not. The very faculty of speech had left the miserable man.