A shrill whistle here interrupted his discourse, and a voice shouted:  “What blessings?  We know of none.”

But Timotheus was not to be checked, and went on more vehemently

“All of you who, by the grace of Caesar, have been made Roman citizens—­”

But again a voice broke in—­the speaker was the overseer of the granaries of Seleukus, sitting in the second tier—­“And do you suppose we do not know what the honor costs us?”

This query was heartily applauded, and then suddenly, as if by magic, a perfect chorus arose, chanting a distich which one man in the crowd had first given out and then two or three had repeated, to which a fourth had given a sort of tune, till it was shouted by every one present at the very top of his voice, with marked application to him of whom it spoke.  From the topmost row of places, on every side of the amphitheatre, rang out the following lines, which but a moment before no one had ever heard: 

    “Death to the living, to pay for burying those that are dead;
     Since, what the taxes have spared, soldiers have ruthlessly seized.”

And the words certainly came from the heart; of the people, for they seemed never weary of repeating them; and it was not till a tremendous clap of thunder shook the very walls that several were silent and looked up with increasing alarm.  The moment’s pause was seized on to begin the fight.  Caesar bit his lip in powerless fury, and his hatred of the towns-people, who had thus so plainly given him to understand their sentiments, was rising from one minute to the next.  He felt it a real misfortune that he was unable to punish on the spot the insult thus offered him; swelling with rage, he remembered a speech made by Caligula, and wished the town had but one head, that he might sever it from the body.  The blood throbbed so fiercely in his temples, and there was such a singing in his ears, that for some little time he neither saw nor heard what was going on.  This terrible agitation might cost him yet some hours of great suffering.  But he need no longer dread them so much; for there sat the living remedy which he believed he had secured by the strongest possible ties.

How fair she was!  And, as he looked round once more at Melissa, he observed that her eye was turned on him with evident anxiety.  At this a light seemed to dawn in his clouded soul, and he was once more conscious of the love which had blossomed in his heart.  But it would never do to make her who had wrought the miracle so soon the confidante of his hatred.  He had seen her angry, had seen her weep, and had seen her smile; and within the next few days, which were to make him a happy man instead of a tortured victim, he longed only to see her great eyes sparkle and her lips overflow with words of love, joy, and gratitude.  His score with the Alexandrians must be settled later, and it was in his power to make them atone with their blood and bitterly rue the deeds of this night.