ear
her. But I got the casket."

"She will come here then!" Philadelphus exclaimed.

"What of it! Amaryllis does not know her; no one else does. And I have
her proofs--and her dowry!"

After a silence in which she read the expression on his face, she rose
and came near him with determination in her manner.

"You will have the wisdom not to recognize her," she said, "lest I
suddenly discover that you are not the Philadelphus I expected."

He made rapid survey of her advantage over him, and submitted.

"But there will be no need of waiting for such an issue," he fumed,
after a silence. "I am here and not the Maccabee, whose crown you
coveted. We shall get out of this perilous city."

"So?" she said, lifting her finely penciled brows. "No, we shall not."

"Why?" he stormed.

"Because," she answered, "John of Gischala may yet be king of
Judea--and John hath a queen's diadem for sale at two hundred
talents--or a heart which I can have for nothing."

There was malevolent and impotent silence in the andronitis of
Amaryllis, the Greek.

Chapter IX

THE YOUNG TITUS

They who stood on the wall by the Tower of Psephinos in Coenopolis of
Jerusalem on a day in March, 70 A.D., saw prophecy fulfilled.

Since the hour in which the Roman eagles had appeared above the
horizon to the west in their circling over the rebellious province of
Judea there had not been one day of peace. Then their coming had meant
the approach of an enemy. But in a short time such implacable and
fierce oppressors, with such genius for ferocity and bloodshed, had
developed among the Jews' own factions that the miserable citizens had
turned to the tyrant Rome for rescue. They who had risen against
Florus and had driven him out would have willingly accepted him again
in place of Simon bar Gioras and John of Gischala, before two years
had elapsed. Now, their plight was so desperate that they clambered
daily upon the walls of their unhappy city to look for the first
glimpse of the approaching enemy, Titus, whom they had learned to call
the Deliverer.

Near noon of this day in March certain citizens on the wall beside
Hippicus saw a flash down the road to the west beyond the Serpent's
Pool near Herod's monuments. Again they saw it and again, until they
observed that its appearance was rhythmic, striking through a soft
colored cloud of Judean dust.

Out of that yellow haze, rolling nearer, they saw now the glittering
Roman standards emerge