In an instant the barge would pass under the bridge! "Fellow," replied Antonius (the whole inspection of the situation, formation of the plot, and visual dialogue had really been so rapid as to make no long break after the lictor ceased speaking), "do you dare thus to do what even the most profane and impious have never dared before?
Will you lay hands on two inviolate tribunes of the plebs, and those under their personal protection; and by your very act become a _sacer_--an outlaw devoted to the gods, whom it is a pious thing for any man to slay ?" "I have my orders, sir," replied the head lictor, menacingly.

"And I would have you know that neither you nor Quintus Cassius are reckoned tribunes longer by the Senate; so by no such plea can you escape arrest." "Tribunes no longer!" cried Antonius; "has tyranny progressed so far that no magistrate can hold office after he ceases to humour the consuls ?" "We waste time, sir," said the lictor, sternly.

"Forward, men; seize and bind them!" But Antonius's brief parley had done its work.

As the bow of the barge shot under the bridge, Curio, with a single bound over the parapet, sprang on to its deck; after him leaped Quintus Cassius, and after him Caelius.

Before Drusus could follow, however, the stern of the barge had vanished under the archway.