ame to me that, as a prisoner of
war, it was likely that you might be exchanged."

"You have been very kind, my Lady Flavia," Malchus said, "and I esteem
myself most fortunate in having fallen into such hands. Since you know
now how it is with me and Clotilde, I can ask you at once to let me
ransom her of you. Any sum that you like to name I will bind myself, on
my return to the Carthaginian camp, to pay for her."

"I will think it over," Flavia said graciously. "Clotilde is useful to
me, but I can dispense with her services, and will ask you no exorbitant
amount for her. If the negotiations for your exchange come to aught, you
may rely upon it that she shall go hence with you."

With an expression of deep gratitude Malchus retired. Flavia, in thus
acceding to the wishes of Malchus, was influenced by several motives.
She was sincerely shocked at Julia's conduct, and was most desirous of
getting both Malchus and Clotilde away, for she knew that her daughter
was headstrong as she was passionate, and the presence of Clotilde in
the house would, even were Malchus absent, be a source of strife and
bitterness between herself and her daughter.

In the second place, it would be a pretty story to tell her friends,
and she should be able to take credit to herself for her magnanimity in
parting with her favourite attendant. Lastly, in the present state of
affairs it might possibly happen that it would be of no slight
advantage to have a friend possessed of great power and influence in the
Carthaginian camp. Her husband might be captured in fight--it was not
beyond the bounds of possibility that Rome itself might fall into the
hands of the Carthaginians. It was, therefore, well worth while making a
friend of a man who was a near relation of Hannibal.

For some days Julia kept her own apartment. All the household knew that
something had gone wrong, though none were aware of the cause. A general
feeling of uneasiness existed, for Julia had from a child in her fits of
temper been harsh with her slaves, venting her temper by cruelly beating
and pinching them. Many a slave had been flogged by her orders at such
a time, for her mother, although herself an easy mistress, seldom
interfered with her caprices, and all that she did was good in the eyes
of her father.

At the end of the week Flavia told Malchus that the negotiations for his
release had been broken off, the Roman senate remaining inflexible
in the resolve that Romans who