I was soon clean and clad as a gentleman should be in a fresh tunic and in the garment I had left in the water-garden, which a footman had fetched for me.
Then I went out on the upper terrace.
There I found the nine ladies, with some maids and waiters.

Before the ladies, facing Nemestronia, stood Agathemer; behind and about him Nemestronia's six big, husky, bull-necked slave-lashers, the two head- lashers with their many-lashed scourges.
I realized at once what had happened.

Nemestronia had needed no one to inform her that it was through Agathemer's negligence or mismanagement that the leopard had escaped from the wild-garden.

She had not waited to ask me to investigate the matter and punish my slave.

She had, like the great noblewoman she was, assumed my acquiescence and approval and summoned and questioned Agathemer.