When Alexander besought him with a trustful mien to consider his youth, and the Alexandrian manners which he had inherited both from his parents and his grandparents, if indeed his tongue had wagged too boldly in speaking of the all-powerful Caesar, and to remember the fable of the lion and the mouse, the scowl he had put on to impress the youth with his awfulness and power vanished from Caesar’s brow.  The idea that this great artist, whose sharp eye could so surely distinguish the hideous from the beautiful, should regard him as ill-favored, was odious to him.  He had listened to him in silence; but suddenly he inquired of Alexander whether it was indeed he, whom he had never injured, who had written the horrible epigram nailed with the rope to the door of the Serapeum and when the painter emphatically denied it, Caesar breathed as though a burden had fallen from his soul.  He nevertheless insisted on hearing from the youth’s own lips what it was that he had actually dared to say.  After some hesitation, during which Melissa besought Caesar in vain to spare her and her brother this confession, Alexander exclaimed: 

“Then the hunted creature must walk into the net, and, unless your clemency interferes, on to death!  What I said referred partly to the wonderful strength that you, my lord, have so often displayed in the field and in the circus; and also to another thing, which I myself now truly repent of having alluded to.  It is said that my lord killed his brother.”

“That—­ah! that was it!” said Caesar, and his face, involuntarily this time, grew dark.

“Yes, my lord,” Alexander went on, breathing hard.  “To deny it would be to add a second crime to the former one, and I am one of those who would rather jump into cold water both feet at once, when it has to be done.  All the world knows what your strength is; and I said that it was greater than that of Father Zeus; for that he had cast his son Hephaestos only on the earth, and your strong fist had cast your brother through the earth into the depths of Hades.  That was all.  I have not added nor concealed anything.”

Melissa had listened in terror to this bold confession.  Papinian, the brave praetorian prefect, one of the most learned lawyers of his time, had incurred Caracalla’s fury by refusing to say that the murder of Geta was not without excuse; and his noble answer, that it was easier to commit fratricide than to defend it, cost him his life.

So long as Caesar had been kind to her, Melissa had felt repelled by him; but now, when he was angry, she was once more attracted to him.