his rider, and under the difficulty of the moment compelled him to
withdraw the hand which held up the handkerchief, and suddenly to expose
his features. Precisely at this critical moment it happened that an old
half-pay officer passed, recognised the emperor, and saluted him. Perhaps
it was with some purpose of applying a remedy to this unfortunate
rencontre, that the party dismounted at a point where several roads met,
and turned their horses adrift to graze at will amongst the furze and
brambles. Their own purpose was, to make their way to the back of the
villa; but, to accomplish that, it was necessary that they should first
cross a plantation of reeds, from the peculiar state of which they found
themselves obliged to cover successively each space upon which they trode
with parts of their dress, in order to gain any supportable footing. In
this way, and contending with such hardships, they reached at length the
postern side of the villa. Here we must suppose that there was no regular
ingress; for, after waiting until an entrance was pierced, it seems that
the emperor could avail himself of it in no more dignified posture, than
by creeping through the hole on his hands and feet, (_quadrupes per
angustias receptus_.)

Now, then, after such anxiety, alarm, and hardship, Nero had reached a
quiet rural asylum. But for the unfortunate concurrence of his horse's
alarm with the passing of the soldier, he might perhaps have counted on a
respite of a day or two in this noiseless and obscure abode. But what a
habitation for him who was yet ruler of the world in the eye of law, and
even _de facto_ was so, had any fatal accident befallen his aged
competitor! The room in which (as the one most removed from notice and
suspicion) he had secreted himself, was a cella, or little sleeping closet
of a slave, furnished only with a miserable pallet and a coarse rug. Here
lay the founder and possessor of the Golden House, too happy if he might
hope for the peaceable possession even of this miserable crypt. But that,