To him I owe
no fealty and, as has been proved before to-day, the sword of vengeance
can reach the heart of princes."
"Aye, Gallus," said Miriam gently, "but let it not be your sword, nor, I
trust, shall you need to think of vengeance."
Then the litter was brought into the courtyard, with the guards that
were sent to accompany it, and they started for the gathering-place
beyond the Triumphal Way. Dark though it still was, all Rome was astir.
On every side shone torches, from every house and street rose the murmur
of voices, for the mighty city made herself ready to celebrate the
greatest festival which her inhabitants had seen. Even now at times the
press was so dense that the soldiers were obliged to force a way through
the crowd, which poured outwards to find good places along the line of
the Triumph, or to take up their station on stands of timber, and in
houses they had hired, whose roofs, balconies and windows commanded the
path of the pageant.
They crossed the Tiber. This Miriam knew by the roar of the water
beneath, and because the crush upon the narrow bridge was so great.
Thence she was borne along through country comparatively open, to the
gateways of some large building, where she was ordered to dismount from
the litter.
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