d fallen on the innocent youth
and which he had supposed would prevent his ever winning her love, had in
fact secured it to him, for Agatha's father was very ready to trust his
child to the man who had rescued her, whom she loved, and in whom he saw
one of the lowly who should be exalted.

Alexander was not told of Philip's death till his own wounds were healed;
but he had meanwhile confided to Andreas that he had made up his mind to
fly to a distant land that he might never again see Agatha, and thus not
rob the brother on whom he had brought such disaster of the woman he
loved. The freedman had heard him with deep emotion, and within a few
hours after Andreas had reported to Zeno the self-sacrificing youth's
purpose, Zeno had gone to Alexander and greeted him as his son.

Melissa found in Agatha the sister she had so long pined for; and how
happy it made her to see her brother's eyes once more sparkle with
gladness! Alexander, even as a Christian and as Agatha's husband,
remained an artist.

The fortune accumulated by Andreas--the solidi with which he had formerly
paid the scapegrace painter's debts included--was applied to the erection
of a new and beautiful house of God on the spot where Heron's house had
stood. Alexander decorated it with noble pictures, and as this church was
soon too small to accommodate the rapidly increasing congregation, he
painted the walls of yet another, with figures whose extreme beauty was
famous throughout Christendom, and which were preserved and admired till
gloomy zealots prohibited the arts in churches and destroyed their works.

Melissa could not be safe in Alexandria. After being quietly married in
the house of Polybius, she, with her young husband and Andreas, moved to
Carthage, where an uncle of Diodoros dwelt. Love went them, and, with
love, happiness. They were not long compelled to remain in exile; a few
months after their marriage news was brought to Carthage that Caesar had
been murdered by the centurion Martialis, prompted by the tribunes
Apollinaris and Nemesianus Aurelius. Immediately on this, Macrinus, the
praetorian prefect, was proclaimed emperor by the troops.

The ambitious man's sovereignty lasted less than a year; still, the
prophecy of Serapion was fulfilled. It cost the Magian his life indeed;
for a letter written by him to the prefect, in which he reminded him of
what he had foretold, fell into the hands of Caracalla's mother, who
opened the letters addresse