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[Entering from the back.] How shall I look Caesar in the face! How inscrutable are the ways of God! Crushed to earth; oh that you could but read my heart! That I should be the harbinger of sorrow and disaster!

Yes, that you may say twice over, noble Decentius! And how shall I find soft and specious enough terms to bring this in any endurable guise to the ears of her imperial brother!

Alas that such a thing should happen so close upon the coming of my mission! And just at this moment! Oh, what a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky of hope!

Oh, this towering and devouring tempest, just as the ship seemed running into the long-desired haven! Oh, this—this! Sorrow makes us eloquent, Decentius,—you as well as me. But first to business. The two Nubians must be seized and examined.

The Nubians, my lord? Could you dream that my indignant zeal would for another instant suffer the two negligent servants to?

What! Surely you have not already?