Scandal takes a Holiday

While Rubella is of course above such ambitions! Do we want to go and join the fun?"

Let them jostle. We two have more sense." We did not have to wait long. While we sat there, Rubella, Brunnus and an armed group brought the captured attache for his reckoning. We remained at our post, merely pulling in our feet to avoid the dust they kicked up. The prisoner was almost invisible, at the centre of the escort. But I noticed that, perhaps to disguise himself at the brothel, Caninus was heavily painted. Of his fabled beaded slippers there was no sign. his feet were bare. His long tunic hung off him in rags. He slumped limply, as the vigiles held him by the arms. They must have started working him over at the brothel. Petronius and I watched grimly as they dragged the prisoner backwards down the side street to the station-house gate. He was a corrupt official; the ex-slaves in the vigiles would be merciless. Vespasian had already had enough bad legions to clean up; he would not want a naval scandal too. The Caninus affair would be buried. No trial or conviction would feature in the Daily Gazette court reports. Caninus was due for silent elimination. We saw him being hauled inside the station house. No one would know when, or if ever, he came out. The prisoner and escort vanished into the shadowed interior. Then for once someone hauled the mighty doors across behind them. The vigiles were seeking their own dreadful privacy for what would happen next. The thud of the heavy bar which clenched the tall doors shut echoed up the empty street. Petronius and I then sat on in the afternoon sunlight, two old friends with very long memories, sharing a quiet drink.