Sagaris produced it, and having looked at the seal, Basil silently handed it back again.

‘Thrice noble,’ pleaded the slave, ’you will not deliver me to my lord’s wrath?’

‘Have no fear; unless in anything you have lied to me.  Follow.’

They descended the stairs, and Basil had himself conducted to the house where Venantius sate at dinner.  He spoke with the captain in private.

’This slave has a letter, not merely a message, for the king.  He says it is urgent, and so it may be; but, from what I have learnt I doubt whether he is wholly to be trusted.  Can you send some one with him?’

‘Nothing easier.’

‘I,’ continued Basil, ’ride straightway for Arpinum.  Ask me no questions, Venantius.  When I return, if I do return, you shall know what sent me there.  I may be back speedily.’

He took food, and in an hour’s time was ready to start.  Of his followers, he chose ten to accompany him.  The rest remained at Aesernia.  Felix, worn out by watching and with a slight wound in the side which began to be troublesome, he was reluctantly obliged to leave.  Having inquired as to the road over the mountains by which he might reach Arpinum more quickly than by the Latin Way, he rode forth from the town, and was soon spurring at headlong speed in a cloud of dust.

His thoughts far outstripped him; he raged at the prospect of long hours to elapse ere he could reach Marcian’s villa.  With good luck he might arrive before nightfall.  If disappointed in that, a whole night must pass, an eternity of torment, before he came face to face with him he had called his dearest friend, now his abhorred enemy.

What if he did not find him at the villa?  Marcian had perhaps no intention of remaining there.  Perhaps he had already carried off his victim to some other place.

Seeing their lord post so furiously, the men looked in wonder at each other.  Some of them were soon left far behind, and Basil, though merciless in his frenzy, saw at length that his horse was seriously distressed; he slackened pace, allowed his followers to rejoin him, and rode, perforce, at what seemed to him a mere crawl.  The sun was a flaming furnace; the earth seemed to be overspread with white fire-ash, which dazed the eyes and choked.  But Basil felt only the fire in his heart and brain.  Forgetful of all about him, he had not ridden more than a few miles, when he missed the road; his men, ignorant of the country, followed him without hesitation, and so it happened that, on stopping at one of the few farms on their way, to ask how far it still was to Arpinum, he learnt that he must ride back for nearly a couple of hours to regain the track he should have taken.  He broke into frantic rage, cursed the countrymen who directed him, and as he spurred his beast, cursed it too because of its stumbling at a stone.