his hand and fell on the floor, he started to his feet, shaking his fist,
and exclaiming:

"Yes, you have poisoned him! Bring the miscreant here, or you shall
follow him!"

Macrinus assured him that if indeed some basest of base wretches had
dared to destroy the life of this splendid and faithful king of beasts,
the murderer should infallibly be found. But Caracalla screamed in his
face:

"Found? Dare you speak of finding? Have you even brought me the girl
who was hidden here? Have you found her? Where is she? She was seen
here and she must be here!"

And he hurried from room to room in undignified haste, like a slave
hunting for some lost treasure of his master's, tearing open closets,
peeping behind curtains and up chimneys, and snatching the clothes,
behind which she might have hidden, from the pegs on which they hung.
He insisted on seeing every secret door, and ran first down and then up
the hidden stairs by which Melissa had in fact escaped.

In the great hall, where by this time physicians and courtiers had
gathered round the carcass of the lion, Caesar sank on to a seat, his
brow damp with heat, and stared at the floor; while the leeches, who, as
Alexandrians for the most part, were anxious not to rouse the despot's
rage, assured him that to all appearance the lion, who had been highly
fed and getting little exercise, had died of a fit. The poison had
indeed worked more rapidly than any the imperial body physician was
acquainted with; and he, not less anxious to mollify the sovereign, bore