It means "punishment comes limping" and is often rendered as meaning "retribution comes slowly but surely." It is from the Roman poet Horace (Horace Odes 3.2.32). Now this is a dismal thought, of course, but Horace was a bit of a prig, full of moralistic aphorisms and apothegms, so it's not surprising to hear this from him. Quite different from Catullus, the most delightful of the Latin poets.
Stevenson is talking about the fear that Dr. Jeckyll's youthful sins might be coming back to haunt him after lo these many years, so it is a fitting quote. Sounds pretentious, but back then educated people were versed in the classics, so they might understand it better than we do today.
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