All such persons apprehended are promptly
executed. Keep quiet. Efface yourself till I give you the word. I can
communicate with you freely, can see you daily, if need be, since I am one
of poor Falco's heirs and was your physician during his life here in Rome.
I'll do all I can for you."
He left and I bathed, ate, and slept the rest of that day and slept sound
all night.
Next day passed similarly. But, early on the following day, the third day
before the Kalends of July, not long after sunrise, my new valet came to
me his face ashen. He babbled some unintelligible syllables and before I
could comprehend him, my bedroom was entered by a Pannonian sergeant, grim
as the centurions from Britain who had liberated Agathemer and me from the
_ergastulum_ at Placentia. Behind him were four legionary soldiers. I was
rearrested!
CHAPTER XXXVIII
TORTURE
I was promptly haled off to the same prison where Galen had visited me
three days before. There I was again deprived of my garments and clad in
others, new, but of cheap material, coarse and uncomfortable. Also
shackles, heavier shackles, were at once riveted on my ankles, and I was
again consigned to the lower dungeon. I was, to be sure, given good and
abundant food and wine not too unpalatable.
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