'
They exchanged a significant look, and Basil remarked that he would
soon discover the deacon's movements since his leaving Surrentum.
Marcian was even now on his way to visit Petronilla, and would come
with news this evening.
'If I could know,' he cried, 'whether she has been delivered to the
Greeks, or is kept imprisoned by that Megaera! It may be that
Petronilla is ignorant of what I have told you; yet, if so, I fear
she will soon learn it, for Chorsoman will write--if the barbarian
can write--to Bessas, and cannot but mention her. There are
prisons in Rome for those who offend the tyrant of Byzantium.'
'It troubles me to hear you say that,' said Decius, with an anxious
glance.
'I, too, may be in peril, you think,' replied his kinsman gloomily.
'True, all the more that I am known to have just inherited. Bessas
takes a peculiar interest in such people. Be that as it will. Let us
turn for a moment to other things.'
They spoke of the duties that had to be discharged by Basil as his
uncle's heir. On the morrow he must assemble such of his kinsfolk as
were in Rome, and exhibit to them the testament.
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