The Destroyer is mighty and must be obeyed!'
He walked to the entrance leading into the first apartment of the
temple, and then waited to be followed by Numerian, who, now for the
first time separated from Ulpius, remained stationary in the position he
had last occupied, and looked eagerly around him. No chance of escape
presented itself; the mouth of the vault on one side, and the passage
through the partition on the other, were the only outlets to the place.
There was no hope but to follow the Pagan into the great hall of the
temple, to keep carefully at a distance from him, and to watch the
opportunity of flight through the doorway. The street, so desolate when
last beheld, might now afford more evidence that it was inhabited.
Citizens, guards might be passing by, and might be summoned into the
temple--help might be at hand.
As he moved forward with Antonina, such thoughts passed rapidly through
the father's mind, unaccompanied at the moment by the recollection of
the stranger who had followed them from the Pincian Gate, or of the
apathy of the famished populace in aiding each other in any emergency.
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