“I will not!” Then throwing back her head as if to call the heavens to witness, she raised her great, wide-open eyes and gazed above.

But not for long.  Her bold defiance had roused Caesar’s utmost fury, and he broke out with a growl of rage: 

“You will not, you say?  And you think, unreasoning fool, that this settles the matter?”

He uttered a wild laugh, pressed his hand firmly on his left eyelid, which began to twitch convulsively, and went on in a lower but defiantly contemptuous tone: 

“I know better!  You shall!  And you will not only go to the Circus, but you will do it willingly, or at least with smiling lips.  You will start at sunset!  At the time appointed I shall find you in your place.  If not!—­Must I begin so soon to teach you that I can be serious?  Have a care, girl!  You are dear to me; yet—­by the head of my father!—­if you defy me, my Numidian lion-keepers shall drag you to the place you belong to!”

Thus far Melissa had listened to the emperor’s raging with panting bosom and quivering nostrils, as at a performance, which must sooner or later come to an end; and now she broke in regardless of the consequences: 

“Send for them,” she cried, “and order them to throw me to the wild beasts!  It will doubtless be a welcome surprise to the lookers-on.  Which of them can say they have ever seen the daughter of a free Roman citizen who never yet came before the law, torn to pieces in the sand of the arena?  They delight in anything new!  Yes, murder me, as you did Plautilla, although I never offended either you or your mother!  Better die a hundred deaths than parade my dishonor before the eyes of the multitude in the open Circus!”

She ceased, incapable of further resistance, threw herself weeping on the divan, and buried her face in the cushions.

Confounded and bewildered by such audacity, the emperor had heard her out.  The soul of a hero dwelt in the frail body of this maiden!  Majestic as all-conquering Venus she had resisted him for the second tune, and now how touching did she appear in her tears and weakness!  He loved her, and his heart yearned to raise her in his arms, to beg her forgiveness, and fulfill her every wish.  But he was a man and a monarch, and his desire to show Melissa to the people in the Circus as his chosen bride had become a fixed resolve during the past sleepless night.  And indeed he was incapable of renouncing any wish or a plan, even if he felt inclined to do so.  Yet he heartily regretted having stormed at the gentle Greek girl like some wild barbarian, and thus himself thrown obstacles in the way of attaining his desire.  His hot blood had carried him away again.  Surely some demon led him so often into excesses which he afterward repented of.  This time the fiend had been strong in him, and he must use every gentle persuasion he knew of to bend the deeply offended maiden to his will.