“Take it for granted!” answered he, “is it not on the face of the matter? I suppose they are enemies to a state, whom the state calls its enemies. Besides, why a pother of words? Swear by the genius of the emperor, invoke the Dea Roma, sacrifice to Jove; no, not a bit of it, not a whisper, not a sign, not a grain of incense. You go out of your way to insult us; and then you come with a grave face, and say you are loyal. You kick our shins, and you wish us to kiss you on both cheeks for it. A few harmless ceremonies; we are not entrapping you; we are not using your words against yourselves; we tell you the meaning beforehand, the whole meaning of them. It is not as if we tied you to the belief of the nursery: we don’t say, ‘If you burn incense, you profess to believe that old Jupiter is shivering atop of Olympus;’ we don’t say, ‘You swear by the genius of Cæsar, therefore he has a genius, black, or white, or piebald,’ No, we give you the meaning of the act; it is a mere expression of loyalty to the empire. If then you won’t do it, you confess yourself ipso facto disloyal. It is incomprehensible.” And he had become quite red.

“My dear uncle,” said Agellius, “I give you my solemn word, that the people whom you so detest do pray for the welfare of the imperial power continually, as a matter of duty and as a matter of interest.”

“Pray! pray! fudge and nonsense!” cried Jucundus, almost mimicking him in his indignation; “pray! who thanks you for your prayers? what’s the good of prayers? Prayers, indeed! ha, ha! A little loyalty is worth all the praying in the world. I’ll tell you what, Agellius; you are, I am sorry to say it, but you are hand and glove with a set of traitors, who shall and will be smoked out like a nest of wasps. You don’t know; you are not in the secret, nor the wretched slave, poor beast, who was pulled to pieces yesterday (ah! you don’t know of him) at the Flamen’s, nor a multitude of other idiots. But, d’ye see,” and he chucked up his head significantly, “there are puppets, and there are wires. Few know what is going on. They won’t have done (unless we put them down; but we will) till they have toppled down the state. But Rome will put them down. Come, be sensible, listen to reason; now I am going to put facts before my poor, dear, well-meaning boy. Oh that you saw things as I do! What a trouble you are to me! Here am I”——

“My dearest uncle, Jucundus,” cried Agellius, “I assure you, it is the most intense pain to me”——