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510 DARKNESS AND DAWN
trembled at her presence. She had no resources in herself,
nothing to occupy her but her own evil thoughts and deplorable
regrets.
The Empress grew more and more weary, more and more
tormented with intolerable thoughts through the leaden hours.
At length, long after midnight, she heard the footsteps of
the watch and of many slaves as they conducted Nero to his
chamber.
'
'
What !
you here ? he said with contemptuous indifference
as he dismissed his attendants.
She looked at him. He had evidently been drinking, and
was fresh from one of the scenes of debauchery which always
formed the conclusion of his charioteering displays. For he
still wore the dress of a jockey of the green faction, and its
succinctness revealed his thin legs and protuberant person.
To her he looked a spectacle of ignominy. Where was the
passionate courtesy with which her Otho would have greeted
her ? Where the fond caress which Crispinus would have
printed on her cheek ? To think that this thing was the
Emperor of Rome !
She half-rose from her couch, her pale face aflame with
indignation.
'
Jockey !
she hissed
of base minions,
'
'
out. Companion
comrade of coarse gladiators, where have you been Why
?
do you thus steep manhood in ignominy and drag the purple
of Empire through the mud '
?
It was the pent-up passion of her woman's heart which
thus burst forth, and it came on Nero like an unexpected
blow. He looked at her for a moment with eyes opened
to their fullest, and then, staggering forwards, dealt her a
brutal
kick.
Poppsea, with a groan of anguish, sank swooning to the
ground. She lay on the floor as dead, her features white
as marble, her hair streaming from its bands and covering
the floor with its
gleaming waves. The sight sobered Nero.
Had he killed her ? Furious as he was, he had not intended
that. He loudly summoned his slaves and Poppsea's attendants,
and they bore her, still unconscious, to her own apartments.
Nero did not tell any one what had happened, but
when the physicians saw the bruise which his foot had
made they knew everything, and when she had awoke from