A dark suspicion that he had betrayed himself into the hands of a
villain, who was then plotting some atrocious project connected with his
safety or honour, began to rise on the senator's bewildered brain as he
unwillingly submitted to the penetrating examination of the Pagan's
glance. At that moment, however, the withered lips of the old man slowly
parted, and he began to speak. Whether as he looked on Vetranio's
disturbed countenance, and marked his unsteady gait, the heart of
Ulpius, for the first time since his introduction to the senator,
misgave him when he thought of their monstrous engagement; or whether
the near approach of the moment that was henceforth, as he wildly
imagined, to fix Vetranio as his assistant and ally, so powerfully
affected his mind that it instinctively sought to vent its agitation
through the natural medium of words, it is useless to inquire. Whatever
his motives for speech, the impressive earnestness of his manner gave
evidence of the depth and intensity of his emotions as he addressed the
senator thus:--
'I have submitted to servitude in a Christian's house, I have suffered
the contamination of a Christian's prayers, to gain the use of your
power and station when the time to employ them should arrive.
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