“Cut down!” cried Apollinaris, raising himself up and staring horrified at this messenger of terror; but his brother laid his hand upon the centurion’s broad shoulder, and, shaking him vigorously, commanded him as his tribune to speak out.

The soldier, ever accustomed to obey, and only too anxious that his warning should not come too late, disclosed in hurried words what he had learned from the prefect.  The brothers interrupted him from time to time with some exclamation of horror or disgust, but Berenike remained silent till Martialis stopped with a deep breath.

Then the lady gave a shrill laugh, and as the others looked at her in amazement she said coolly “You men will wade through blood and shame with that reprobate, if he but orders you to do so.  I am only a woman, and yet I will show him that there are limits even to his malignity.”

She remained for a few moments lost in thought, and then ordered the centurion to go and find out where her husband was.

Martialis obeyed at once, and no sooner was the door closed behind him than she turned to the two brothers, and addressing herself first to one and then to the other with equal vehemence, she cried “Who is right now?  Of all the villains who have brought shame upon the throne and name of mighty Caesar, this is the most dastardly.  He has written plainly enough upon Apollinaris’s face how much he values a brave soldier, the son of a noble house.  And you, Nemesianus—­are you not also an Aurelius?  You say so; and yet, had he not chanced to let you care for your brother, you would at this moment be wandering through the city like a mad dog, biting all who crossed your path.  Why do you not speak?  Why not tell me once more, Nemesianus, that a soldier must obey his commander blindly?—­And you, Apollinaris, will you dare still to assert that the hand with which Caesar tore your face was guided only by righteous indignation at an insult offered to an innocent maiden?  Have you the courage to excuse the murders by Caracalla of his own wife, and many other noble women, by his anxiety for the safety of throne and state?  I, too, am a woman, and may hold up my head with the best; but what have I to do with the state or with the throne?  My eye met his, and from that moment the fiend was my deadly enemy.  A quick death at the hands of one of his soldiers seemed too good for the woman he hated.  Wild beasts were to tear me to pieces before his eyes.  Is that not sufficient for you?  Put every abomination together, everything unworthy of an honorable man and abhorrent to the gods, and you have the man whom you so willingly obey.  I am only the wife of a citizen.  But were I the widow of a noble Aurelian and your mother—­” Here Apollinaris, whose wounds were beginning to burn again, broke in:  “She would have counseled us to leave revenge to the gods.  He is Caesar!”