In a flash I realized my situation. Had I been a freeman I should have
been commiserated by all as a gentleman who had had the misfortune to find
his best friend foully murdered; as a slave I would be assumed by all Rome
to have been caught in the act of assassinating my kind and indulgent
master; and, recalling Tanno's invectives against me at my last dinner at
Villa Andivia, I knew I was liable to be tortured until I confessed my
guilt!
Asellio and Lustralis flung themselves on me with execrations and their
yells brought the entire household. My protestations were unheeded. No one
would listen to my valet's assertion that he had found the janitor asleep
in his cell and roused him just before Lustralis and Asellio reached the
entrance, that he had but just finished dressing me when he went down to
the vestibule. No one heeded my denials or my urgings that I could not
have rifled the collection, that the looters and the murderers must be the
same individuals, that I was clearly innocent. Asellio and Lustralis not
merely seized me, but rained blows on me. I knew I could knock both
senseless without half trying, but, in my character of effeminate oriental
exquisite, I must not advertise my real strength.
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