Meanwhile the low voice of Acte disclosed, time after time, a new and dreadful secret of that palace and those people. See, there at a distance is the covered portico on whose columns and floor are still visible red stains from the blood with which Caligula sprinkled the white marble when he fell beneath the knife of Cassius Chærea; there his wife was slain; there his child was dashed against a stone; under that wing is the dungeon in which the younger Drusus gnawed his hands from hunger; there the elder Drusus was poisoned; there Gemellus quivered in terror, and Claudius in convulsions; there Germanicus suffered,--everywhere those walls had heard the groans and death-rattle of the dying; and those people hurrying now to the feast in togas, in colored tunics, in flowers, and in jewels, may be the condemned of to-morrow; on more than one face, perhaps, a smile conceals terror, alarm, the uncertainty of the next day; perhaps feverishness, greed, envy are gnawing at this moment into the hearts of those crowned demigods, who in appearance are free of care.
Íme, a távolban látszik a crypto­porticus, oszlopain és padlóján még most is ott vöröslenek a vérfoltok, melyeket Caligula vére fröccsentett a fehér márványra, mikor Cassius Chaerea tőrétől összerogyott, amott gyilkolták meg feleségét, ott pedig gyermekét zúzták szét a köveken, ott, ama szárny alatt, föld alatti tömlöc van, melyben az ifjabb Drusus önkezét rágta éhségében, ott gyilkolták meg az idősebb Drusust, amott vonaglott félelmében Gemellius, ott Claudius, amott pedig Germanicus rángatózott görcseiben. Ezek a falak itt mind hallották a haldoklók nyögését és hörgését, s ezekre az emberekre, akik most tógáikban és színes tunikáikban, virággal és ékszerekkel díszítve sietnek a lakomára, holnap már talán a halálos ítélet vár.