Agias was deathly pale; the beads of sweat stood out on his forehead; he grasped convulsively at the hem of his mistress’s robe, and murmured wildly of “mercy! mercy!” Pratinas stood back with his imperturbable smile on his face; and if he felt the least pity for his fellow-countryman, he did not show it.

“Alfidius awaits the mistress,” announced Semiramis, with trembling lips.

Into the room came a brutish, hard-featured, shock-headed man, with a large scar, caused by branding, on his forehead.  He carried a short rope and scourge,[44]—­a whip with a short handle to which were attached three long lashes, set at intervals with heavy bits of bronze.  He cast one glance over the little group in the room, and his dull piglike eyes seemed to light up with a fierce glee, as he comprehended the situation.

  [44] Flagellum.

“What does your ladyship wish?” he growled.

“Take this wretched boy,” cried Valeria, spurning Agias with her foot; “take him away.  Make an example of him.  Take him out beyond the Porta Esquilina and whip him to death.  Let me never see him again.”

Pisander sprang up in his corner, quivering with righteous wrath.

“What is this?” he cried.  “The lad is not guilty of any real crime.  It would be absurd to punish a horse for an action like his, and a slave is as good as a horse.  What philosopher could endure to see such an outrage?”

Valeria was too excited to hear him.  Pratinas coolly took the perturbed philosopher round the waist, and by sheer force seated him in a chair.

“My friend,” he said calmly, “you can only lose your place by interfering; the boy is food for the crows already.  Philosophy should teach you to regard little affairs like this unmoved.”

Before Pisander could remonstrate further Alfidius had caught up Agias as if he had been an infant, and carried him, while moaning and pleading, out of the room.  Iasus was still trembling.  He was not a knave—­simply unheroic, and he knew that he had committed the basest of actions.  Semiramis and Arsinoe were both very pale, but spoke never a word.  Arsinoe looked pityingly after the poor boy, for she had grown very fond of his bright words and obliging manners.  For some minutes there was, in fact, perfect silence in the boudoir.

Alfidius carried his victim out into the slaves’ quarters in the rear of the house; there he bound his hands and called in the aid of an assistant to help him execute his mistress’s stern mandate.

Agias had been born for far better things than to be a slave.  His father had been a cultured Alexandrine Greek, a banker, and had given his young son the beginnings of a good education.  But the rascality of a business partner had sent the father to the grave bankrupt, the son to the slave-market to satisfy the creditors.  And now Alfidius and his myrmidon bound their captive to a furca, a wooden yoke passing down the back of the neck and down each arm.  The rude thongs cut the flesh cruelly, and the wretches laughed to see how the delicate boy writhed and faltered under the pain and the load.