vium, and he ventured to
entreat her to spare one of them for the injured man. If she had a
brother or a child, she would forgive the boldness of his request.

So far she listened in silence; then she suddenly raised her head and
measured the petitioner's tall figure with a lurid fire in her eye. Then
she replied, while she looked into his handsome young face with a
half-scornful, half-indignant air: "Oh, yes! I know what it is to see one
we love suffer. I had an only child; she was the joy of my heart.
Death--death snatched her from me, and a few days later the sovereign
whom you serve commanded us to prepare a feast for him. It seemed to him
something new and delightful to hold a revel in a house of mourning. At
the last moment--all the guests were assembled--he sent us word that he
himself did not intend to appear. But his friends laughed and reveled
wildly enough! They enjoyed themselves, and no doubt praised our cook and
our wine. And now--another honor we can duly appreciate!--he sends his
praetorians to turn this house of mourning into a tavern, a wine-shop,
where they call creatures in from the street to dance and sing. The rank
to which you have risen while yet so young shows that you are of good
family, so you can imagine how highly we esteem the honor of seeing your
men trampling, destroying, and burning in their camp-fires everything
which years of labor and care had produced to make our little garden a
thing of beauty. 'Only look down on them!' Macrinus, who commands you,
promised me, moreover, that the women's apartments should be respected.
'No praetorian, whether common soldier or commander,' and here she raised
her voice, 'shall set foot within them!' Here is his writing. The prefect
set the seal beneath it in Caesar's name."

"I know of the order, noble lady," interrupted Nemesianus, "and should be
the last to wish to act against it. I do not demand, I only appeal humbly
to the heart of a woman and a mother.'

"A mother!" broke in Berenike, scornfully; "yes! and one whose soul your
lord has pierced with daggers--a woman whose home has been dishonored and
made hateful to her. I have enjoyed sufficient honor now, and shall stand
firmly on my rights."

"Hear but one thing more," began the youth, timidly; but the lady
Berenike had already turned her back upon him, and returned with a proud
and stately carriage to Melissa in the adjoining apartment.

Breathing hard, as if stunned by her words, the tribu