I wonder that he is the son of a man like Domitius, who was so shrewd in that old affair with me at Antioch." * * * * * So it came to pass that the next morning, long before Pratinas and Ahenobarbus met in the Forum and reviewed the steps taken in the words that gave Sesostris the key to the situation, Phaon was driving toward Praeneste.

Of course a mere freedman, on a journey preferably kept quiet, travelled in not the least state.

He rode alone, but had borrowed from his patron two of those small but speedy Gallic horses called mammi, that whirled his gig over the Campagna at a rapid trot.
Still there was no great call for haste.

He wished to get to Praeneste about dark, and there make a few inquiries as to the whereabouts and recent doings of Drusus.

Pratinas had had considerable espionage kept up over his intended victim, and the last results of this detective work were to be reported to Phaon by the slaves of Ahenobarbus performing it.