“Woman!” and Lentulus, thoroughly exasperated, broke in furiously.  “Say another word, and I with my own hands will flog you like a common slave.”

Cornelia laughed hysterically.

“Touch me!” she shouted; and in her grasp shone a small bright dagger.

Lentulus fell back.  There was something about his niece that warned him to be careful.

“Wretched girl!” he commanded, “put down that dagger.”

“I will not,” and Cornelia stood resolutely, confronting her two persecutors; her head thrown back, and the light making her throat and face shine white as driven snow.

There was very little chivalry among the ancients.  Lentulus deliberately clapped his hands, and two serving-men appeared.

“Take that dagger from the Lady Cornelia!” commanded the master.  The men exchanged sly glances, and advanced to accomplish the disarming.

But before they could catch Cornelia’s slender wrists in their coarse, rough hands, and tear the little weapon from her, there were cuts and gashes on their own arms; for the struggle if brief was vicious.  Cornelia stood disarmed.

“You see what these mock heroics will lead to,” commented Lentulus, with sarcastic smile, as he observed his order had been obeyed.

“You will see!” was her quick retort.

“Hei! hei!” screamed one of the slaves an instant later, sinking to the floor.  “Poison!  It’s running through my veins!  I shall die!”

“You will die,” repeated Cornelia, in ineffable scorn, spurning the wretch with her foot.  “Lie there and die!  Cease breathing; sleep!  And that creature, Ahenobarbus, yonder, shall sleep his sleep too, ere he work his will on me!  Ha! ha!  Look at my handiwork; the other slave is down!”

“Girl!  Murderess!” raged Lentulus.  “What is this?  You have slain these men.”

“I have slain your slaves,” said Cornelia, resolutely folding her arms; “the poison on the dagger was very swift.  You did excellently well, Lucius, not to come near me.”  And she picked up the dagger, which the slave, writhing in agony, had dropped.

“Do you wish to attack me again? Phy! I have more resources than this.  This venom works too quickly.  See, Syrax is already out of his misery; and his fellow will soon be beyond reach of woe.  When I strike you, Lucius Ahenobarbus, you shall die slowly, that I may enjoy your pain.  What need have I of this weapon?” And she flung the dagger across the carpet so that it struck on the farther wall.  “Pick it up, and come and kill me if you wish!  Drusus lives, and in him I live, for him I live, and by him I live.  And you—­and you are but as evil dreams in the first watch of a night which shall be forgotten either in sweet unending slumbers, or the brightness of the morning.  And now I have spoken.  Do with me as it lies in your power to do; but remember what power is mine. Vale!”

And Cornelia vanished from the darkened hall.  The two men heard the click of the door, and turned and gazed blankly into one another’s faces.