nd. With that she seized the lance in her breast with both
hands, and with her last breath murmured, 'He desired to see the living
woman--bring him my body, and my curse with it! Then with a last supreme
effort she buried the spear still deeper in her bosom; but it was not
necessary.

"I gazed petrified at the high-bred, wrathful face, still beautiful
in death, and the mysterious, wide-open eyes that must have flashed
so proudly in life. It was enough to drive a man mad. Even after I had
closed her eyes and spread the mantle over her--"

"What has been done with the body?" asked Apollinaris.

"I caused it to be carried into the house and the door of the
death-chamber carefully locked. But when I returned to the men. I had to
prevent them from tearing Rufus to pieces for having lost them the large
reward which Caesar had promised for the living prisoner."

"And you," cried Apollinaris, excitedly, "had to look on while our men,
honest soldiers, plundered this house--which entertained many of us so
hospitably--as if they had been a band of robbers! I saw them dragging
out things which were used in our service only yesterday."

"The emperor--his permission!" sighed Flavius. "You know how it is. The
lowest instincts of every nature come out at such a time as this, and
the sun shines upon it all. Many a poor wretch of yesterday will go to
bed a wealthy man to-day. But, for all that, I believe much was hidden
from them. In the room of the mistress of the house whence I have just
come, a fire was still blazing in which a variety of objects had been
burned. The flames had destroyed a picture--a small painted fragment
betrayed the fact. They perhaps possessed masterpieces of Apelles or
Zeuxis. This woman's hatred would lead her to destroy them rather than
let them fall into the hands of her imperial enemy; and who can blame
her?"

"It was her daughter's portrait," said Nemesianus, unguardedly.

The legate turned upon him in surprise. "Then she confided in you?" he
asked.

"Yes," returned the tribune, "and we are proud to have been so honored
by her. Before she went to her death she took leave of us. We let her
go; for we at least could not bring ourselves to lay hands upon a noble
lady."

The officer looked sternly at him and exclaimed, angrily:

"Do you suppose, young upstart, that it was less painful to me and many
another among us? Cursed be this day, that has soiled our weapons with
the blood of women and slaves,