For my sake would he deign to grant them life—­and liberty?  Add to this that it is the first proof I have asked of his magnanimity, and clothe it all in such winning words as Peitho can lay upon your eloquent lips.  If he grants pardon to these unfortunate ones, it shall be a sign to me that I may be permitted to shield others from his wrath.  If he refuses, and they are put to death, then will he himself have decided our fate otherwise, and he sees me for the last time alive in the Circus.  Thus shall it be—­I have spoken.”

The last words came like a stern order, and Philostratus seemed to have some hopes of the emperor’s clemency, for his love’s sake, and the philosopher’s own eloquence.  The moment Melissa ceased, he seized her hand and cried, eagerly: 

“I will try it; and, if he grant your request, you remain?”

“Yes,” answered the maiden, firmly.  “Pray Caesar to have mercy, soften his heart as much as you are able.  I expect an answer before going to the Circus.”

She hurried back into the sleeping-room without regarding Philostratus’s answer.  Once there, she threw herself upon her knees and prayed, now to the manes of her mother, now—­it was for the first time—­to the crucified Saviour of the Christians, who had taken upon himself a painful death to bring happiness to others.  First she prayed for strength to keep her vow, come what might; and then she prayed for Diodoros, that he might not be made wretched if she found herself compelled to break her troth with him.  Her father and brothers, too, were not forgotten, as she commended their lives to a higher power.

When Euryale looked into the room, she found Melissa still upon her knees, her young frame shaken as with fever.  So she withdrew softly, and in the Temple of Serapis, where her husband served as high-priest, she prayed to Jesus Christ that he who suffered little children to come unto him would lead this wandering lamb into the right path.

A THORNY PATH

By Georg Ebers

Volume 9.

CHAPTER XXVI

The lady Euryale’s silent prayer was interrupted by the return of Alexander.  He brought the clothes which Seleukus’s wife had given him for Melissa.  He was already dressed in his best, and crowned like all those who occupied the first seats in the Circus; but his festal garb accorded ill with the pained look on his features, from which every trace had vanished of the overflowing joy in life which had embellished them only this morning.

He had seen and heard things which made him feel that it would no longer be a sacrifice to give his life to save his sister.