_She_ is the more guilty!" And with a groan the figure fell like a statue of wood to the pavement; fell heavily, and lay stirring not, neither giving any sound.

In his last moment Publius Gabinius had sought a terrible revenge.
And then madness seized on the people.
"She is his sweetheart! She is his paramour!" cried a score of filthy voices.

"She has brought down this insult to the goddess! There is no pontifex here to try her! Tear her in pieces! Strike! Slay!" But Demetrius had turned to his cousin.
"Agias," he said, making himself heard despite the clamour, "do you believe the charge of that man ?" "No villain ever would avenge himself more basely." "Then at all costs we must save the lady." It was time.

A fat butcher, flourishing a heavy cleaver, had leaped forward; Fabia saw him with glassy, frightened eyes, but neither shrieked nor drew back.

But Demetrius smote the man with his long sword through the body, and the brute dropped the cleaver as he fell.
"Now," and Demetrius seized the Vestal around the waist, as lightly as a girl would raise a kitten, and flung her across his shoulders.