curled her lip. She seems to me made to command. She is indeed courteous
and kind, but you not with difficulty see that she is bold, aspiring and
proud, beyond the common measure of woman. Her beauty is of this
character. It is severe, rather than in any sense soft or feminine. Her
features are those of her father, truly Roman in their outline, and their
combined expression goes to impress every beholder with the truth that
Roman blood alone, and that too of all the Gracchi, runs in her veins.
Her form harmonizes perfectly with the air and character of the face. It
is indicative of great vigor and decision in every movement; yet it is
graceful, and of such proportions as would suit the most fastidious
Greek. I am thus minute in telling you how Fausta struck me, because I
know the interest you and Lucilia both take in her, and how you will
desire to have from me as exact a picture as I can draw. Be relieved, my
dear friends, as to the state of my heart, nor indulge in either hopes or
suspicions in this direction. I assure you I am not yet a captive at the
fair feet of Fausta, nor do I think I shall be. But if such a thing
should happen, depend upon my friendship to give you the earliest
intelligence of the event. Whoever shall obtain the heart of Fausta, will
win one of which a Caesar might be proud. But to return to our present
interview and its event.

No sooner had I ended my account of the state of affairs at Rome, than
Gracchus expressed, in the strongest terms, his joy that we were so
prosperous. 'It agrees,' said he, 'with all that we have lately heard.
Aurelian is in truth entitled to the praise which belongs to a reformer of
the state. The army has not been under such discipline since the days of
Vespasian. He has now, as we learn by the last arrival of news from the
North, by the way of Antioch, nearly completed the subjection of the Goths
and Alemanni, and rumors are afloat of an unpleasant nature, of an Eastern
expedition. For this no ground occurs to me except, possibly, an attempt