‘The insolent thrall!’ thought Agrippina; ‘and he says this to me who know that he was one of the common slaves of Antonia, the Emperor’s mother, and still has to conceal under his hair the holes bored in his ears. And he talks of his _poverty_ to me, though I know as well as he does how he has amassed sixty million sesterces by robbery in fourteen years!’ But she instantly concealed the disdainful smile which flitted across her lips, and repeated in a low voice, ‘Claudius must die!’ ‘The plan has its perils,’ said the freedman. ‘Not if it remains unknown to the world,’ she replied. ‘And who will dare to reveal it, when they know that to allude to it is death?’ ‘If you are the daughter of the beloved Germanicus,’ he said, ‘the Emperor is his brother. The soldiers would never rise against him.’ ‘I did not think of the Prætorians,’ said Agrippina. ‘There are other means. In the prison beneath this palace is one who will help me.’ ‘Locusta?’ whispered Pallas, with an involuntary shudder. ‘But the Emperor has a _prægustator_ who tastes every dish and every cup.’ ‘Yes! The eunuch Halotus,’ answered Agrippina. ‘He is in my pay; he will do my bidding.’ ‘But Claudius also has a physician.’ ‘Yes! The illustrious Xenophon of Cos,’ answered the Empress, with a meaning smile. Pallas raised his hands, half in horror, half in admiration. Careless of every moral consideration, he had never dipped his hands in blood. He had lived in the midst of a profoundly corrupt society from his earliest youth. He knew that poisonings were frequent amid the gilded wickedness and hollow misery of the Roman aristocracy. He knew that they had been far from infrequent in the House of Cæsar, and that Eudemus, the physician of Drusus, son of the Emperor Tiberius, had poisoned his lord. Yet before the cool hardihood of Agrippina’s criminality he stood secretly appalled. Would it not have been better for him, after all, to have followed the example of Narcissus, and to have remained faithful to his master? How long would he be necessary to the Empress and her son? And when he ceased to be useful, what would be his fate? Agrippina read his thoughts in his face, and said, ‘I suppose that Claudius is still lingering over the wine cup. Conduct me back to him. Acerronia, my lady-in-waiting, will follow us.’ ‘He has been carried to his own room,’ said Pallas; ‘but if you wish to see him, I will attend you.’ He led the way, and gave the watchword of the night to the Prætorian guards and their officer, Pudens. The room of the Emperor was only across the court, and the slaves and freedmen and pages who kept watch over it made way for the Augusta and the all-powerful freedman. ‘The Emperor still sleeps,’ said the groom of the chamber as they entered. ‘Good,’ answered Agrippina. ‘You may depart. We have business to transact with him, and will await his wakening. Give me the lamp. Acerronia will remain without.’