For the other times she could imagine the same catastrophe.

Still she had her comfort.

Rumours of battles, of sieges, and arduous campaigning drifted over the Mediterranean.

Now it was that a few days more would see Caesar an outlaw without a man around him, and then Cornelia would believe none of it.

Now it was that Pompeius was in sore straits, and then she was all credulity.