“Oh! she will soon find out, that Caesar’s wrath postpones death till life has paid its utmost penalty!” said Parthenius. “From Caesar’s arms to the rack and scaffold--that is your fate, audacious murderess.” “Here come the praetorians! Away with her! Throw her into chains. The governor of the prisons shall answer for it with his head, if she lays hand upon herself.” Cornelia was more dead than alive. The soldiers bound her hands behind her back, and carried her half-fainting, out of the room. “You did well, Phaeton,” said the Emperor, who was completely sobered by the shock. “Here, take this cup, which was so near being my death--I will give it to you in perpetual memory of the event. Henceforth you shall never quit my side, for eyes like yours do good service in these treasonable times.” The lad humbly kissed his hand. “You put me to shame, my lord,” he said steadfastly. “I only did my duty, and deserve no praises.” “Only your duty!” echoed Domitian. “Then you are superior to all the millions, who own my sway. The world is rotten, rotten at the core--it must crumble into dust.--Come now, you two who are faithful. Take me away from this scene of murder.--Abandoned, mad wretch!” “Do not let it weigh too heavily on your mind,” said Parthenius. “Women often have such crazes. If once a girl has taken it into her head, that she must guard her honor.... The greatest triumph you could now achieve, and the best punishment for the crime she dared to attempt, would be cold-blooded mockery and compulsion....” “The gods forbid!” cried Domitian in horror. “The woman is a demon. She would be quite capable of strangling me in her arms, or setting her teeth in my throat under pretence of a kiss. No, Parthenius, I renounce all pretensions to such flowers as these. Henceforth I acknowledge no claim but that of justice. Punishment, the extremest punishment, torment for body and soul, and a cruel death--these must be the retribution for such a crime. And that Quintus Claudius--it was for his sake she aimed the blow at my sacred head--he too shall feel what it is to have the sovereign of the world for his enemy.” FOOTNOTES: [104] AMATHUSIA. A surname of Aphrodite, from the city of Amathus on the southern coast of Cyprus, where there was a famous temple of the goddess. [105] MARRY THE VINE WITH THE ELM. A favorite phrase, to characterize the idyllic activity of rural life. See Hor. _Epod._ II, 9; _Od._ IV, 5, 30. [106] ALL THE MEAT HAD COME UP READY CARVED. The various dishes were usually carved in the triclinium, by a slave (_scissor_) specially appointed for the purpose, after which the taster (_praegustator_) tried them, to secure the company from poison. [107] PARTHENIUS, GIVE ME YOUR ARM AS FAR AS THE BALCONY. Out-buildings (galleries, balconies, bow-windows) were not unknown to the ancients. See, among other instances, the famous bow-windowed house in Pompeii.