When I asked if I might despatch letters to my friends I was told that the
Emperor had given orders that I was to communicate with no one and no one
with me. I worried over Vedia's anxiety and almost as much over the
probable disquiet of Agathemer, Tanno and even of Galen. But I was
helpless and endeavored to be calm. I was certainly comfortable and
hopeful, though impatient.
At last, after six days of this luxurious imprisonment, on the day before
the Ides of July, sometime before noon, my apartment was entered by
Juvenalis himself in the full regalia of Prefect of the Palace. He greeted
me deferentially and was most respectful. He informed me that the Emperor
desired an interview with me and through him conveyed to me his regrets
that it had had to be postponed so long and that I had been so long kept
in confinement and seclusion. He had now come to conduct me to the
Emperor, who was at last free to spend with me an hour or more. When my
valet had made me comfortable and had prepared me for my private audience,
Juvenalis escorted me to the upper private audience-hall, a chamber
spacious and magnificent, though somewhat smaller than the lower private
audience-hall and far smaller than the great hall for public audiences or
the vast throne-room.
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