y as he was of a better fate.

A few minutes later Zminis came in, and put out his long lean arms to
apprehend him in Caesar's name. Philip submitted, and not a muscle of his
face moved. Once, indeed, a smile lighted it up, as he reflected that
they would hardly have carried him off to prison if Alexander were
already in their power; but the smile gave way only too soon to gloomy
gravity when Zminis informed him that his brother, the traitor, had just
given himself up to the chief of the night-watch, and was now safe under
lock and ward. But his crime was so great that, according to the law of
Egypt, his nearest relations were to be seized and punished with him.
Only his sister was now missing, but they would know how to find her.

"Possibly," Philip replied, coldly. "As justice is blind, Injustice has
no doubt all the sharper eyes."

"Well said," laughed the Egyptian. "A pinch of the salt which they give
you at the Museum with your porridge--for nothing."

Argutis had witnessed this scene; and when, half an hour later, the
men-at-arms had left the house without discovering Melissa's
hiding-place, he informed her that Alexander had, as they feared, given
himself up of his own free-will to procure Heron's release; but the
villains had kept the son, without liberating the father. Both were now
in prison, loaded with chains. The slave had ended his tale some minutes,
and Melissa still stood, pale and tearless, gazing on the ground as
though she were turned to stone; but suddenly she shivered, as if with
the chill of fever, and looked up, out through the windows into the
garden, now dim in the twilight. The sun had set, night was falling, and
again the words of the Christian preacher recurred to her mind: "The
fullness of the time is come."

To her and hers a portion of life had come to an end, and a new one must
grow out of it. Should the free-born race of Heron perish in captivity
and death?

The evening star blazed out on the distant horizon, seeming to her as a
sign from the gods; and she told herself that it must be her part, as the
last of the family who remained free, to guard the others from
destruction in this new life.

The heavens were soon blazing with stars. The banquet in Seleukus's
house, at which Caesar was to appear, would begin in an hour.
Irresolution and delay would ruin all; so she drew herself up resolutely
and called to Argutis, who had watched her with faithful sympathy:

"Take my father's b