the yet
bleeding wound.

The cry of the Empress as the little serpent stung her cheek brought a
swarm of attendants and slaves into the room, among them black Juba and
the officer of the guard who was responsible for the Empress' safety.
Valeria had fainted and lay pale as ashes on her couch, a crimson stream
flowing from her cheek.

"Dear heart!" exclaimed Juba, with an ostentatious exhibition of
well-feigned grief, "let her inhale this fragrant elixir. It is a potent
restorative in such deadly faints," and she attempted to complete her
desperate crime by thrusting the poisonous perfume under Valeria's
nostrils.

"Who was last in the presence before this strange accident--if it be an
accident--occurred?" demanded the officer.

"I and Juba, were the only ones," faltered Callirho[e:], when a deathly
pallor passed over her face, and with a convulsive shudder she fell
writhing on the ground.

"You are under arrest," said the officer to. Juba, and then to a soldier
of the guard, "Go, seize and seal up her effects--everything she has;
and you," turning to another, "send at once the court physician."

The attendants meanwhile were fanning and sprinkling with water the
seemingly inanimate forms of the Empress and Callirho[e:]. When the
physician came and felt the fluttering pulse and noted the dilated eyes
of his patients, he pronounced it a case of acrid poisoning and
promptly ordered antidotes. The Empress, in a few days rallied and
seemed little the worse beyond a strange pallor which overspread her
features and an abnormal coldness, almost as of death, which pervaded
her frame. From these she never fully recovered, but throughout her life
was known in popular speech as "The White Lady."

Upon Callirho[e:] the effects of the poison were still more serious. By her
prompt action in sucking the aspic virus from the envenomed wound, she
had saved the life of her beloved mistress, but at the peril of her own.
The venom coursed through her veins, kindling the fires of fever in her
blood. Her dilated eyes shone with unusual brilliance; her speech was
rapid; her manner urgent; and her emotions and expressions were
characterized by a strange and unwonted intenseness. The physician in
answer to the eager questioning of Valeria, gravely shook his head, and
said that the case was one that baffled his skill--that cure there was
none for the aspic's poison if absorbed into the system, although as it
had not in this case been com