Chapter 12 No.12

It was the middle of the second vigil-between ten and eleven o'clock at night by our reckoning of time-and the house of Cornelius Cinna was sunk in silent repose. The lamp in the peristyle was extinguished, and the last guests-Claudia, Lucilia and Quintus-had left about half an hour since....

There was a sound of steps in the colonnade-soft, cau