"By all Gods! I tell thee, Lentulus, Volturcius is arrested. These eyes beheld him dragged into the house of Cicero. My chariot waits me now, at the arch of Fabius. I go to join Catiline." "I prithee, then, go quickly—thou torturest me, man, I say. Get thee gone! get thee gone! Better to die, than to live thus sleepless." "Whom the Gods wish to ruin, they first dementate!" exclaimed Cæparius—"thou wilt be seized, within the hour." "I care not. So that till then I can sleep; once more, I say—Begone!" Cæparius shrugged his shoulders, and shook his head as he left the room; and then made the best of his way to the arch of Fabius; but he found not his chariot there, not though he waited well nigh two hours, did it arrive at all. Hopeless at length, and desperate, he set forth alone and on foot, in the vain hope of escaping the pursuit of Cicero’s unerring justice. Meanwhile, disturbed more than he would admit by Cæparius’ tidings, Lentulus did, in some sort, arouse himself to consideration. "It may be so," he said to himself. "Cæparius declared he saw him. If it be so, ’twere better perhaps, indeed, to leave the city. And yet," he continued pondering deeply, "to fly is to admit guilt, and it is too late, moreover. Tush! tush! I daresay, it is but Cæparius’ terror—he was a fool always, and I believe a coward also. Beside, if it be true, there is no proof; and what dare Cicero against me—against me, a Consular of Rome?—At the worst, he will implore me to deliver the city of my presence, as he did Catiline. Ha! Ha! I will to sleep again. Yet stay, I am athirst, after Sempronia’s revel! Fool, that I was, not to drink more last night, and quench this fiery craving. Ho! Agathon, my boy, fetch me the great goblet, the double(9) sextarius, of spiced mulse with a snow-water." This order was obeyed instantly, and after draining the huge beaker to the bottom, the indolent and reckless traitor, rolled himself over, and was asleep again as soundly in five minutes, as if he were not in truth slumbering upon the brink of a volcano. Not long however did he sleep in peace, for Cæparius had scarcely been gone an hour, when he was again startled from his doze, by a knocking so violent, at the outer door, that the whole house reëchoed with the din. He heard the doors opened, and a short angry parle, broken short by the raised voice of the new comers, and the clanging of armed footsteps, along the marble corridor which led toward his chamber. A moment afterward, pale as death, with his hair starting and a wild eye, Agathon entered the room. "How now?" exclaimed Lentulus, who fully aroused by this time, was sitting on the edge of the low bedstead, with a purple gown cast carelessly around him, "what is this new disturbance." "The Atrium is full of armed soldiers, Lentulus," replied the man with a faltering accent.