"I should not dare resist your great strength, but the watch-dogs of the
law tried in vain to track me. I gave myself up."

"Of your own accord?"

"To procure my father's release, as he had been put in prison."

"Most magnanimous!" said Caesar, ironically. "Such a deed sounds well,
but is apt to cost a man his life. You seem to have overlooked that.
"No, great Caesar; I expected to die."

"Then you are a philosopher, a contemner of life."

"Neither. I value life above all else; for, if it is taken from me,
there is an end of enjoying its best gifts."

"Best gifts!" echoed Caesar. "I should like to know which you honor with
the epithet."

"Love and art."

"Indeed?" said Caracalla, with a swift glance at Melissa. Then, in an
altered voice, he added, "And revenge?"

"That," said the artist, boldly, "is a pleasure I have not yet tasted.
No one ever did me a real injury till the villain Zminis robbed my
guiltless father of his liberty; and he is not worthy to do such
mischief, as a finger of your imperial hand."

At this, Caesar looked at him suspiciously, and said in stern tones: