But Alexander signaled a negative, and, after gayly blowing a kiss to Melissa, plied his oars again with as much speed and energy as though he were rowing for a wager.  How swiftly and steadily the keel of his little boat cut through the crisply foaming waves on which it rose and fell!  The daring youth did not lack strength, that was certain, and the couple who watched him with so much uneasiness soon understood that he was striving to overtake another and larger bark which was at some distance in front of him.  It was being pulled by slaves, whose stalwart arms made the pace a good one, and under the linen awning which shaded the middle part of it two women were seated.

The rays of the sun, whose fiery globe was now sinking behind the palm-groves on the western shore, flooded the sky with ruby light, and tinged the white robes of these women, the light canopy over their heads, and the whole face of the lake, with a rosy hue; but neither Andreas nor his companion heeded the glorious farewell of departing day.

Melissa pointed out to her friend the strangeness of her brother’s attire, and the hood which, in the evening light, seemed to be bordered with gold.  He had on, in fact, a Gallic mantle, such as that which had gained Caesar the nickname of Caracalla, and there was in this disguise something to reassure them; for, if Alexander pulled the hood low enough, it would hide the greater part of his face, and make it difficult to recognize him.  Whence he had procured this garment was not hard to divine, for imperial servants had distributed them in numbers among the crowd.  Caesar was anxious to bring them into fashion, and it might safely be expected that those Alexandrians who had held out their hands to accept them would appear in them on the morrow, as no order required that they should be worn.  Alexander could not do better than wear one, if only by such means he could escape Zminis and his men.

But who were the women he was pursuing?  Before Melissa could ask the question, Andreas pointed to the foremost boat, and said: 

“Those are Christian women, and the bark they are in belongs to Zeno, the brother of Seleukus and of the high-priest of Serapis.  That is his landing-creek.  He lives with his family, and those of the faith to whom he affords refuge, in the long, white house you can just see there among the palm-trees.  Those vineyards, too, are his.  If I am not mistaken, one of the ladies in that boat is his daughter, Agatha.”

“But what can Alexander want of two Christian women?” asked Melissa.

Andreas fired up, and a vein started on his high forehead as he retorted angrily: 

“What should he not want!  He and those who are like him—­the blind—­ think nothing so precious as what satisfies the eye.—­There! the brightness has vanished which turned the lake and the shore to gold.  Such is beauty!—­a vain show, which only glitters to disappear, and is to fools, nevertheless, the supreme object of adoration!”