f Rome?"

"None assuredly," Sempronius replied. "It was only because, as I hear,
that youth is a cousin of Hannibal himself, and, young as he is, the
captain of his bodyguard, and I thought that my father might intend to
confine him in the prison for better security."

Flavia waved her hand imperiously.

"When did you ever hear of a slave escaping from Rome, Sempronius? Are
not the walls high and strong, and the sentries numerous? And even did
they pass these, would not the badge of slavery betray them at once to
the first who met them without, and they would be captured and brought
back? No, I have set my mind upon having him as a slave. He will go well
with that Gaulish maiden whom Postumius sent me from the banks of the
Po last autumn. I like my slaves to be as handsome as my other
surroundings, and I see no reason why I should be baulked of my fancy."

"I will do my best to carry out your wishes, Lady Flavia," Sempronius
replied deferentially, for the wife of the consul was an important
personage in Rome. Her family was one of the most noble and powerful in
the city, and she herself--wealthy, luxurious, and strong willed--was
regarded as a leader of society at Rome.

Sempronius deemed it essential for his future advancement to keep on
good terms with her. At the same time he was ill pleased at this last
fancy of hers. In the first place, he was a suitor for the hand of her
daughter Julia. In the second, he greatly admired the northern beauty
of the Gaulish slave girl whom she had spoken of, and had fully intended
that when Flavia became tired of her--and her fancies seldom lasted
long--he would get his mother to offer to exchange a horse, or a hawk,
or something else upon which Flavia might set her mind, for the slave
girl, in which case she would, of course, be in his power. He did not,
therefore, approve of Flavia's intention of introducing this handsome
young Carthaginian as a slave into her household. It was true that he
was but a slave at present, but he was a Carthaginian noble of rank as
high as that of Flavia.

That he was brave was certain, or he would not be the captain of
Hannibal's bodyguard. Julia was fully as capricious as her mother, and
might take as warm a fancy for Malchus as Flavia had done, while, now
the idea of setting this Gaulish girl and the Carthaginian together had
seized Flavia, it would render more distant the time when the Roman lady
might be reasonably expected to tire of the gir