The old soldier had grown more attached to Lygia than he himself had been aware of, and now he could not be reconciled to the thought that he had lost her.

Besides, he felt humiliated.

A hand was weighing on him which he despised, and at the same time he felt that before its power his power was as nothing.
But when at last he stifled in himself the anger which disturbed his thoughts, he said,--"I judge that Petronius has not taken her from us for Caesar, since he would not offend Poppaea.

Therefore he took her either for himself or Vinicius.

Today I will discover this." And after a while the litter bore him in the direction of the Palatine.
Pomponia, when left alone, went to little Aulus, who did not cease crying for his sister, or threatening Caesar..