your father the good Oneius Piso. And yet I see not much that I could
have done.'

'Refuse not my thanks,' said I, 'for the expression of so generous
sentiments. I am sure I should have shared a goodness of which all seem to
partake, had I thought it right and necessary to appeal to you. But I was
soon convinced, by the arguments of both Gracchus and Fausta, that my
chance of success was greater through private than through public
enterprise. And happy am I to be able to say, that I have found and
employed an emissary, who, if the business be capable of accomplishment by
human endeavors, will with more likelihood than any other that could
easily be named, accomplish it. Aurelian himself could not here do as much
nor as well as Isaac of Rome.'

'I believe,' said Zenobia, 'you will readily agree with me in the
opinion, that Rome has never respected herself so little as in her
neglect of Valerian and his fellow-sufferers. But for the scathing got
from our arm, the proud Persian had come out of that encounter with
nothing but laurels. We, thanks to the bravery and accomplished art of
Odenatus, tore off some of those laurels, and left upon the body of the
Great King the marks of blows which smart yet. This Indian girl at my
feet was of the household of Sapor--a slave of one of those women of whom
we took a tent full. The shame of this loss yet rankles deep in the heart
of the king. But should Rome have dealt so by her good Emperor and her
brave soldiers? Ought she to have left it to a then new and small power
to take vengeance on her mean, base-minded, yet powerful foe? It is not
even yet too late, methinks, for her to stir herself, were it only to
rescue one of the noble house of Piso. Perhaps it may be with some intent
of this kind that we hear rumors of an Asiatic expedition. Aurelian, we
learn, having weaned himself with victory in Gaul and Germany, turns his