"
Vergilius, hot with anger, rose to his feet.
"Good sirs," said he, in a piping voice very unlike his own, "let us
not approve without full understanding. There may be some here who in
their zeal have been deceived. Let us be fair, and warn them that all
who approve this plan are traitors. I came here to study the mysteries
of the one God, and I am learning the mysteries of an evil plot. 'Tis
a great surprise to me. I like it not, and shall have no part in it.
I know not your names or your faces, but I know your plan is murder,
and if the one God favor it, I can no longer honor Him."
He paused, but there came no answer. Again he heard a rustle of
garments in the dark chamber, and, also, a stealthy and suggestive
grating of steel upon scabbard. He perceived now the imminence of his
peril. He could hear no sound in the darkness.
He stepped quickly aside, hearing not the feet which followed, nor
feeling him who clung to the skirt of his toga. He stood silent, with
dagger drawn. As he felt about him, he touched a pair of great,
trembling hands.
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