since I last wrote; thrice happy that I have to report of success rather
than of defeat in that matter which I have undertaken. But first, let me
thank you for all the city gossip, with which you so greatly entertained
me in your joint epistle. Although I pass my hours and days in this
beautiful capital as happily as I could any where out of Rome, still my
letters from home are a great addition to my enjoyment. After rising from
perusal of yours and my mother's, I was a new man. Let me beg you--which
indeed I need hardly do--to send each letter of mine, as you receive it,
to Portia, and in return receive and read those which I have written and
shall continue to write to her. To you I shall give a narrative of events;
to her, I shall pour out sentiment and philosophy, as in our conversation
we are wont to do. I shall hope soon to have somewhat of interest to say
of the state of letters here, and of my interviews with distinguished men.
So soon as the Queen shall return from her excursion through some of her
distant provinces, I shall call upon Gracchus to fulfil his promise, and
make me known to the great Longinus, now with the Queen absent. From my
intercourse with him I shall look to draw up long and full reports of much
that shall afford both entertainment and instruction to you all.

I have now passed several days in Palmyra, and have a mass of things to
say. But instead of giving you a confused report, I shall separate one
thing from another, and set down each according to the time and manner
in which it happened. This is what I know you desire, and this is what
I shall do.

I cannot easily tell you how delicious was my slumber after that last day
of fatiguing travel, and that evening of to me the most exciting converse.
I dreamed that night of Calpurnius rescued and returned; and ever as he
was present to my sleeping fancy, the music of Fausta's harp and voice was
floating near.