Cethegus, who was pacing furiously up and down the supper-room.

"May all the Gods confound me, if Caesar be not the deepest
traitor, or the most miserable idiot, that ever intermeddled with
a plot!"

Zoe shuddered. She drew nearer to the window. She stood
concealed from observation by the curtain of fine network which
hung over the aperture, to exclude the annoying insects of the
climate.

"And you too!" continued Cethegus, turning fiercely on his
accomplice; "you to take his part against me!--you, who proposed
the scheme yourself!"

"My dear Caius Cethegus, you will not understand me. I proposed
the scheme; and I will join in executing it. But policy is as
necessary to our plans as boldness. I did not wish to startle
Caesar--to lose his co-operation--perhaps to send him off with an
information against us to Cicero and Catulus. He was so
indignant at your suggestion that all my dissimulation was
scarcely sufficient to prevent a total rupture."

"Indignant! The Gods confound him!--He prated about humanity,
and generosity, and moderation. By Hercules, I have not heard
such a lecture since I was with Xenochares at Rhodes."

"Caesar is made up of inconsistencies. He has boundless
ambition, unquestioned courage, admirable sagacity. Yet I have
frequently observed in him a womanish weakness at the sight of