and life. He had forced her even into the sin of disobedience to her
husband and master. But now her secret hiding of Melissa against his
will would be avenged. He and she alike would probably pay for the deed
with their life; for the murder of his lion would inevitably rouse
Caesar's wildest passions.

Still, she knew that Caracalla respected her; for her sake, perhaps,
he would spare her husband. But Melissa? What would her fate be if she
were dragged out of her hiding-place?--and she must be discovered! He
had threatened to cast her to the beasts; and ought she not to prefer
even that fearful fate to forgiveness and a fresh outburst of Caesar's
passion?

Pale and tearless, but shaken with alarms, she bent over the balustrade
of the stairs and murmured a prayer commending herself, her husband, and
Melissa to God. Then she hastened up the steps. The great doors leading
to the chambers of mystery stood wide open, and the first person she met
was her husband.

"You here?" said he in an undertone. "You may thank the gods that your
kind heart did not betray you into hiding the girl here. I trembled for
her and for ourselves. But there is not a sign of her; neither here nor
on the secret stair. What a morning--and what a day must follow! There
lies Caesar's lion. If his suspicion that it has been poisoned should be
proved true, woe to this luckless city, woe to us all!"

And Caesar's aspect justified the worst anticipations. He had thrown
himself on the floor by the side of his dead favorite, hiding his face in
the lion's noble mane, with strange, quavering wailing. Then he raised
the brute's heavy head and kissed his dead eyes, and as it slipped from