The Roman Traitor (Vol. 1 of 2) - The UK Mirror Service

THE LOVERS 39
advanced into the third watch. I would not part ye needlessly,
nor over soon, especially when you must so soon perforce be
severed; but we must not forget how long a homeward walk
awaits our dear Arvina. Come, then, and partake some slight
refreshment, before you say farewell.
"How thoughtless in me, to have detained you thus, and with
a mile to walk this murky and unpleasant night. They say,
too, that the streets are dangerous of late, haunted by dissolute
night-revellers—that villain Clodius and his infamous co-mates.
I tremble like a leaf if I but meet them in broad day—and what if
you should fall in with them, when flushed with wine, and ripe
for any outrage?"
"Fie! dear one, fie!" answered the young man with a smile—"a
sorry soldier wouldst thou make of me, who am within so short a
space to meet the savages of Pontus, under our mighty Pompey!
There is no danger, Julia, here in the heart of Rome; and my stout
freedman Thrasea awaits me with his torch. Nor is it so far either [44]
to my house, for those who cross, as I shall do, the cemetery on
the Esquiline. 'Tis but a step across the sumptuous Carinæ to the
Cælian."
"But surely, surely, Paul," exclaimed the lovely girl, laying her
hand upon his arm, "thou wouldst not cross that fearful buryingground,
haunted by all things awful and obscene, thus at the dead
of night. Oh! do not, dearest," she continued, "thou knowest not
what wild terrible tales are rife, of sounds and sights unnatural
and superhuman, encountered in those loathsome precincts. 'Tis
a mere tempting of the Dark Ones, to brave the horrors of that
place!"
"The Gods, my Julia," replied the youth unmoved by her
alarm, "the Gods are never absent from their votaries, so they be
innocent and pure of spirit. For me! I am unconscious of a wilful
fault, and fear not anything."
"Well said, Paullus Arvina," exclaimed the elder lady, "and
worthily of your descent from the Cæcilii"—for from that noble