Publius and Klea, who were keeping faithful watch by the body of their dead friend, saw them approaching, and the Roman said: 

“It would have been even less right in such a night as this to let you proceed to one of the temples with out my escort than to have let our poor friend remain unwatched.”

“Once more I assure you,” said Klea eagerly “that we should have thrown away every chance of fulfilling Serapion’s last wish as he intended, if during our absence a jackal or a hyena had mutilated his body, and I am happy to be able at least to prove to my friend, now he is dead, how grateful I am for all the kindness he showed us while he lived.  We ought to be grateful even to the departed, for how still and blissful has this hour been while guarding his body.  Storm and strife brought us together—­”

“And here,” interrupted Publius, “we have concluded a happy and permanent treaty of peace for the rest of our lives.”

“I accept it willingly,” replied Klea, looking down, “for I am the vanquished party.”

“But you have already confessed,” said Publius, “that you were never so unhappy as when you thought you had asserted your strength against mine, and I can tell you that you never seemed to me so great and yet so lovable as when in the midst of your triumph, you gave up the battle for lost.  Such an hour as that, a man experiences but once in his lifetime.  I have a good memory, but if ever I should forget it, and be angry and passionate—­as is sometimes my way—­remind me of this spot, or of this our dead friend, and my hard mood will melt, and I shall remember that you once were ready to give your life for mine.  I will make it easy for you, for in honor of this man, who sacrificed his life for yours and who was actually murdered in my stead, I promise to add his name of Serapion to my own, and I will confirm this vow in Rome.  He has behaved to us as a father, and it behoves me to reverence his memory as though I had been his son.  An obligation was always unendurable to me, and how I shall ever make full restitution to you for what you have done for me this night I do not yet know—­and yet I should be ready and willing every day and every hour to accept from you some new gift of love.  ‘A debtor,’ says the proverb, ‘is half a prisoner,’ and so I must entreat you to deal mercifully with your conquerer.”

He took her hand, stroked back the hair from her forehead, and touched it lightly with his lips.  Then he went on: 

“Come with me now that we may commit the dead into the hands of these priests.”

Klea once more bent over the remains of the anchorite, she hung the amulet he had given her for her journey round his neck, and then silently obeyed her lover.  When they came up with the little procession Publius informed the chief priest how he had found Serapion, and requested him to fetch away the corpse, and to cause it to be prepared for interment in the costliest manner in the embalming house attached to their temple.  Some of the temple-servants took their places to keep watch over the body, and after many questions addressed to Publius, and after examining too the body of the assassin who had been slain, the priests returned to the temple.