on
your city as it did on hapless Troy, all for a woman's sake.

"What says the proverb? 'Zeus hearkens not to lovers' vows'; but I say
that to renounce love in order to make others happy, is greater and
harder than to hold fast to it when it is menaced."

These words reminded her of many a lesson of Andreas, and went to her
heart. In her mind's eye she saw Caracalla, after hearing of her flight,
set his lions on Philostratus, and then, foaming with rage, give orders
to drag her father and brothers, Polybius and his son, to the place of
execution, like Titianus. And Philostratus perceived what was going on in
her mind, and with the exhortation, "Remember how many persons' weal or
woe lies in your hands!" he rose and began a conversation with the
Thracian commander of the Germanic guard.

Melissa remained alone upon the divan. The picture changed before her,
and she saw herself in costly purple raiment, glittering with jewels, and
seated by the emperor's side in a golden chariot. A thousand voices
shouted to her, and beside her stood a horn of plenty, running over with
golden solidi and crimson roses, and it never grew empty, however much
she took from it. Her heart was moved; and when, in the crowd which her
lively imagination had conjured up before her, she caught sight of the
wife of the blacksmith Herophilus, who had been thrown into prison
through an accusation from Zminis, she turned to Caracalla whom she still
imagined seated beside her, and cried, "Pardon!" and Caracalla nodded a
gracious consent, and the next moment Herophilus's wife lay on her
liberated husband's breast, while the broken fetters still clanked upon
his wrists. Their children were there, too, and stretched up their arms
to their parents, offering their happy lips first to them and then to
Melissa.

How beautiful it all was, and how it cheered her compassionate heart!

And this, said the newly awakened, meditative spirit within her, need be
no dream; no, it lay in her power to impart this happiness to herself and
many others, day by day, until the end.

Then she felt that she must arise and cry to her friend, "I will follow
your counsel and remain!" But her imagination had already begun to work
again, and showed her the widow of Titianus, as she entreated Caesar to
spare her noble, innocent husband, while he mercilessly repulsed her. And
it flashed through her mind that her petitions might share the same fate,
when at that moment the emperor