‘Caesar has said you will have an opportunity, at a proper time, of disproving what this man says. Let us proceed and seek for the truth, and woe upon the evildoer,’ said Fabricius in hollow tones. ‘Ay, indeed, woe upon him,’ said Afer loudly. ‘Have you, then, cast me off, patron? Do you disown me after all my services?’ observed Cestus, with a grin. ‘No more of that, Suburan,’ cried Tiberius. ‘It is a grave charge to make against one of the rank and family of Titus Afer. Beware, if it be an idle piece of mischief.’ ‘It’s nothing but sober truth, Caesar.’ ‘Lying, cunning knave!’ hissed the knight. ‘It is easily explained,’ continued Cestus, with a rough laugh; ‘the noble Fabricius is vastly rich and his nephew wanted it all to himself—the girl was in the way.’ ‘Execrable wretch!’ cried Afer, beside himself with terror and fury. He made a spring towards the Suburan, but those near him clung to his garments and arrested the movement. The Suburan, on his part, bounced back precipitately, and then seeing the knight’s advance stayed, broke out into a jeering, but, at the same time, nervous laugh. ‘Peace, I say again, Afer,’ said Tiberius more sternly; ‘the justness of your cause can surely well await until the end. Go on, Suburan, and relate the whole of your story of this affair. Add nothing, omit nothing, and be as brief as possible.’ Cestus did as he was required, and revealed the full extent of his relations with the knight, on whose pallid brow the perspiration gathered in drops with the violence of his emotions. Step by step the pitiless tale went on, laying bare, with extreme minuteness, the whole history of the connection between noble and vagabond from its commencement. Nothing was omitted down to the last violent meeting by the Circus Maximus. Thence, in conclusion, the Suburan ran over the occurrences which we have already described. ‘And that is everything, Caesar,’ he said, when he had finished. ‘Every word I have said is truth—I swear it, by all the gods. If it were a lie, should I have been fool enough to have made myself out to be the thief? No, it is when thieves fall out that honest men get their own. I don’t seek to hide myself—not I; but for the man’s sake, who tempted me and hired me, I have made a clean breast of it and exposed myself. He paid me at last with a dagger thrust, like a false‐hearted coward as he is, and now I’m even with him. See, here is the place—look at it for yourselves, and believe your own eyes!’ He hastily withdrew his tunic sufficiently to disclose the recently‐healed scar in his left side, where Afer had struck his desperate blow. ‘Lying knave, this is some slash received in a drunken night‐brawl in a Suburan stye, if it be there you dwell! The whole story is a fable, a cursed lie,’ broke in Afer again, whose aspect was ghastly to behold. ‘I know him not! Is this a return for my love, uncle? Shame that you should suffer it!’