a boon less valuable than the affection "--

"Oh! Caesar," interrupted the blushing Zoe, "think only on your
own security at present. If you feel as you speak,--but you are
only mocking me,--or perhaps your compassion "--

"By Heaven!--by every oath that is binding "--

"Alas! alas! Caesar, were not all the same oaths sworn yesterday
to Valeria? But I will trust you, at least so far as to partake
your present dangers. Flight may he necessary:--form your plans.
Be they what they may, there is one who, in exile, in poverty, in
peril, asks only to wander, to beg, to die with you."

"My Zoe, I do not anticipate any such necessity. To renounce the
conspiracy without renouncing the principles on which it was
originally undertaken,--to elude the vengeance of the Senate
without losing the confidence of the people,--is, indeed, an
arduous, but not an impossible, task. I owe it to myself and to
my country to make the attempt. There is still ample time for
consideration. At present I am too happy in love to think of
ambition or danger."

They had reached the door of a stately palace. Caesar struck it.
It was instantly opened by a slave. Zoe found herself in a
magnificent hall, surrounded by pillars of green marble, between
which were ranged the statues of the long line of Julian nobles.

"Call Endymion," said Caesar.