Chapter IV

IN fact, Petronius kept his promise. He slept all the day following his
visit to Chrysothemis, it is true; but in the evening he gave command to
bear him to the Palatine, where he had a confidential conversation with
Nero; in consequence of this, on the third day a centurion, at the head
of some tens of pretorian soldiers, appeared before the house of
Plautius.

The period was uncertain and terrible. Messengers of this kind were
more frequently heralds of death. So when the centurion struck the
hammer at Aulus's door, and when the guard of the atrium announced that
there were soldiers in the anteroom, terror rose through the whole
house. The family surrounded the old general at once, for no one
doubted that danger hung over him above all. Pomponia, embracing his
neck with her arms, clung to him with all her strength, and her blue
lips moved quickly while uttering some whispered phrase. Lygia, with a
face pale as linen, kissed his hand; little Aulus clung to his toga.
From the corridor, from chambers in the lower story intended for
servant-women and attendants, from the bath, from the arches of lower
dwellings, from the whole house, crowds of slaves began to hurry out,
and the cries of "Heu! heu, me miserum!" were heard. The women broke
into great weeping; some scratched their cheeks, or covered their heads
with kerchiefs.

Only the old general himself, accustomed for years to look death
straight in the eye, remained calm, and his short eagle face became as
rigid as if chiselled from stone. After a while, when he had silenced
the uproar, and commanded the attendants to disappear, he said,--"Let me
go, Pomponia. If my end has come, we shall have time to take leave."