what moves me, who love another, to pray for
the blood-stained murderer for whom not another soul in his empire would
say a word to you. Nay, and I know not what it is. Perhaps it is but
pity; for he, who ought to be the happiest, is surely the most wretched
man under the sun. O great Asklepios, O bountiful and gracious Hygeia,
ease his sufferings, which are indeed beyond endurance! Nor shall you
lack an offering. I will dedicate a cock to you; and as the cock
announces a new day, so perchance shall you grant to Caracalla the dawn
of a new existence in better health.

"Alas, gracious god! but thou art grave, as though the offering were too
small. How gladly would I bring a goat, but I know not whether my money
will suffice, for it is only what I have saved. By and by, when the youth
I love is my husband, I will prove my gratitude; for he is as rich as he
is handsome and kind, and will, I know, refuse me nothing. And thou,
sweet goddess, dost not look down upon me as graciously as before; I fear
thou art angry. Yet think not"--and she gave a low laugh--"that I pray
for Caracalla because I care for him, or am in love with him. No, no, no,
no! my heart is wholly given to Diodoros, and not the smallest part of it
to any other. It is Caesar's misery alone that brings me hither. Sooner
would I kiss one of those serpents or a thorny hedgehog than him, the
fratricide in the purple. Believe me, it is true, strange as it must
seem.

"First and last, I pray and offer sacrifice indeed for Diodoros and his
recovery. My brother Alexander, too, who is in danger, I would fain
commend to you; but he is well in body, and your remedies are of no
effect against the perils which threaten him."

Here she ceased, and gazed into the faces of the statues, but they would
not look so friendly as before. It was, no doubt, the smallness of her
offering that had offended them. She anxiously drew out her little
money-bag and counted the contents. But when, after waking the priest,
she had asked how much a goat might cost for sacrifice, her countenance
cleared, for her savings were enough to pay for it and for a young cock
as well. All she had she left with the old man, to the last sesterce; but
she could only wait to see the cock sacrificed, for she felt she must go
home.

As soon as the blood of the bird had besprinkled the altar, and she had
told the divinities that a goat was also to be killed, she fancied that
they looked at her more kindly;