e Serapeum with the
rope, Caracalla echoed his praises of the picture, and desired to see
both the painter and his sister.

That morning, as he rose from his bed, he had been informed that the
planets which had been seen during the past night from the observatory of
the Serapeum, promised him fortune and happiness in the immediate future.
He was himself a practiced star-reader, and the chief astrologer of the
temple had pointed out to him how peculiarly favorable the constellation
was whence he had deduced his prediction. Then, Phoebus Apollo had
appeared to him in a dream; the auguries from the morning's sacrifices
had all been favorable; and, before he dispatched Philostratus to fetch
Melissa, he added:

"It is strange! The best fortune has always come to me from a gloomy sky.
How brightly the sun shone on my marriage with the odious Plautilla! It
has rained, on the contrary, on almost all my victories; and it was under
a heavy storm that the oracle assured me the soul of Alexander the Great
had selected this tortured frame in which to live out his too early ended
years on earth. Can such coincidence be mere chance? Phoebus Apollo, your
favorite divinity--and that, too, of the sage of Tyana--may perhaps have
been angry with me. He who purified himself from blood-guiltiness after
killing the Python is the god of expiation. I will address myself to him,
like the noble hero of your book. This morning the god visited me again;
so I will have such sacrifice slain before him as never yet was offered.
Will that satisfy you, O philosopher hard to be appeased?"

"More than satisfy me, my Bassianus," replied Philostratus. "Yet remember
that, according to Apollonius, the sacrifice is effective only through
the spirit in which it is offered."

"Always a 'but' and an 'if'!" exclaimed Caracalla, as his friend left the
room to call Melissa from the high-priest's quarters, where she was
waiting.

For the first time for some days Caesar found himself alone. Leading the
lion by the collar, he went to the window. The rain had ceased, but black
clouds still covered the heavens. Below him lay the opening of the street
of Hermes into the great square, swarming with human life, and covered
with the now drenched tents of the soldiery; and his eyes fell on that of
a centurion, a native of Alexandria, just then receiving a visit from his
family, to whom the varied fortunes of a warrior's life had brought him
back once more.

The bearded