EURYALUS wondered at himself as he went away, and thought:

‘If the Emperor were to meet me now and recognise me, what suspicions this dress would arouse in him, how he would laugh at me. I would be a fable for everyone and a laughing-stock for him. He would never let me go till he knew everything. He would ask what meant this yokel’s garb, but I should lie; I would say it was not this woman but another I had been with. For he too loves her, and it is not my custom to tell him of my love-affairs. Never shall I betray Lucretia, who has helped and preserved me.’

While he pondered thus he saw Nisus and Achates and Palinurus, and followed them. But they did not recognise him till they were in his house, when, taking off his sack-cloth, he put on his own attire and told them how things had gone. And, while he recalled for them the terror and the joy he had met with, he mimicked now one in fear, now one full of happiness. But as he spoke of his fear,—

‘Alas,’ cried he, ‘fool that I am, I have put my fate into a woman’s hands. This is not what my father advised, when he taught me never to put faith in any woman. He used to say, woman is an unmanageable animal, false, fickle, and cruel, the slave of a thousand passions. And now, forgetful of my father’s precepts, I have given my life to a mere woman. What if someone had recognized me carrying corn? What disgrace, what infamy for me and my posterity! The Emperor would have dismissed me, and punished me for my levity and madness. I might have cursed such doings.

‘Or again, suppose her husband had found me in the safe, whilst he was looking through his portfolios. The Julian law for adulterers is harsh, but a husband’s grief demands crueller penalties than any law permits. For the law slays with the sword, a husband with bloody stripes; some adulterers have even been put upon the rack. But say he had spared my life, would he have flung me into prison or taken me in disgrace to Caesar? Or let’s suppose I had escaped his hands, for he was unarmed while my good sword hung at my side. But he had companions with him, and arms were hanging on the walls within easy reach, and in his house there is a goodly array of servants. The out-cry would soon have rendered me powerless, and all the doors would have been locked; and then I should have paid the penalty.

‘Indeed I am demented! It was not foresight freed me from this dilemma, but chance. What chance? Why, the ready wit of Lucretia. Oh, loyal woman and wise mistress! Oh, glorious and most noble love! Why do I not trust you?—why not pledge my faith to you? Had I a thousand heads, I’d entrust them all to you. For you are true and cautious; you know how to love and how to protect your lover.

‘Who could have devised a way to distract those that sought me as quickly as you devised it? You it was preserved this life of mine, and to you I devote it. That yet I breathe is not my doing but yours, nor will it be hard for me to lose for your sake what I hold from you. You have a right to my life, and can command my death.

‘White breast, sweet tongue, kind eyes and ready wit! You marble limbs, full of vigour, when shall I see you again? When again shall I bite those coral lips, or feel again that tremulous tongue murmuring in my mouth, or ever handle those breasts.

‘Why, Achates, you have scarcely seen this woman. Where she is most feminine, there she is most lovely. I wish you could be me! Not the beautiful wife of Candaules, King of Lydia, was more beautiful than she. I cannot wonder that he wished to show his wife naked to his friend, to give him the greater pleasure. I would do the same myself. If it were possible, I’d show you Lucretia naked, for otherwise I cannot describe to you how beautiful she is, nor can you imagine how full and substantial was my pleasure. But rejoice with me, because my delight was greater than words can tell.’

Thus Euryalus to Achates, and Lucretia said just as much to herself; but her joy was the less, because it was more silent. There was no one else to whom she could confide this matter, and to Sosias, for shame, she could not tell everything.