mes of which were ever fanned by the unconscious breath of the two
lovers. Yet her fidelity arose above her pitiful pangs of jealousy and
in the hour of need she was the tried and trusted.

The scene changes; where only the brightness of uninterrupted love had
hitherto fallen, now creep the black shadows of tragic sorrow.

Ione falls into the clutches of Arbaces, a subtle, crafty Egyptian, who
attempted by the magic of his dark sorcery, to win her away from
Glaucus. In pursuit of his base designs, Arbaces murders Apaecides, the
brother of Ione, imprisons the priest Calenus, the only witness of the
deed, and with great cunning weaves a convicting web of circumstantial
evidence around Glaucus, his hated rival. Glaucus is tried, convicted,
and doomed to be thrown to the lion. Ione and Nydia are also prisoners
in the house of Arbaces. Glaucus has been placed in that gloomy and
narrow cell in which the criminals of the arena awaited their last and
fearful struggle.

Alas! how faithless are the friendships made around an epicurean board!
Where were the gay loiterers who once lingered at the feasts and drank
the rich wines of the house of Glaucus? Only Sallust shed a tear, but he
was powerless against Arbaces who was backed by the corrupt priesthood
of Isis.

What ministering angel should now come forth as a light out of darkness
bearing, even in her blindness, the conditions of deliverance, but
Nydia. From the slaves of Arbaces she learned the approaching fate of
Glaucus. Working upon the superstition of her special guard Sosia, she
manages to escape his vigilance for a time, and creeping along a dark
passage she overhears the cries of the priest Calenus lately
incarcerated in an adjoining dungeon cell. From him she learns the
circumstances of the crime of Arbaces for which the innocent Glaucus was
doomed to die. A few hours later she was captured by Sosia and replaced
in her cell.

Yet knowing that the sole chance for the life of Glaucus rested on her,
this young girl, frail, passionate, and acutely susceptible as she
was--resolved not to give way to despair. Glaucus was in deadly peril,
but she should save him! Sosia was her only hope, the only instrument
with which she could tamper.

As if afraid he would be again outwitted, Sosia refrained from visiting
her until a late hour of the following day.

"Kind Sosia, chide me not," said Nydia, "I cannot endure to be so long
alone, the solitude appalls me. Sit with me, I