her lives
would be endangered if they should bear off the faithful servant and
force him on the rack to disclose where Melissa's father and relatives
were hidden.

The legate promised to insure the freedom of Argutis.

A few more words of thanks and farewell, and Quintus had fulfilled his
mission to the Aurelians. Shortly afterward the tuba sounded to assemble
the plunderers still scattered about Seleukus's house, and Nemesianus
saw the men marching in small companies into the great hall. They were
followed by their armor-bearers, loaded with treasure of every kind;
and three chariots, drawn by fine horses, belonging to Seleukus and his
murdered wife, conveyed such booty as was too heavy for men to carry. In
the last of these stood the statue of Eros by Praxiteles. The glorious
sunshine lighted up the smiling marble face; with the charm of
bewitching beauty he seemed to gaze at the lurid crimson pools on the
ground, and at the armed cohorts which marched in front to shed more
blood and rouse more hatred.

As Nemesianus withdrew from the window, Argutis came into the room. The
legate had released him; and when Johanna conducted the faithful fellow
to Alexander's bedside, and he saw the youth lying pale and with closed
eyes, as though death had claimed him for his prey, the old man dropped
on his knees, sobbing loudly.

CHAPTER XXXII.

While Alexander, well nursed by old Argutis and Johanna, lay in high
fever, raving in his delirium of Agatha and his brother Philip,
and still oftener calling for his sister, Melissa was alone in her
hiding-place. It was spacious enough, indeed, for she was concealed
in the rooms prepared to receive the Exoterics before the mysteries of
Serapis. A whole suite of apartments, sleeping-rooms and halls, were
devoted to their use, extending all across the building from east to
west. Some of these were square, others round or polygonal, but most
of them much longer than they were wide. Painters and sculptors had
everywhere covered the walls with pictures in color and in high relief,
calculated to terrify or bewilder the uninitiated. The statues, of which
there were many, bore strange symbols, the mosaic flooring was covered
with images intended to excite the fancy and the fears of the beholder.

When Melissa first entered her little sleeping room, darkness had
concealed all this from her gaze. She had been only too glad to obey the
matron's bidding and go to rest at once. Euryale had