ng his hand.

"Now tell me, handsome son of Varro, have you found no pretty girl to
your liking? Know you not, boy, 'tis time you married?" He held the
hand of the young knight and spoke kindly, his cunning eyes aglow, and
smiled upon him, showing his teeth, set well apart.

"Such an one I have found, good sire. Under the great purple dome
there is none more beautiful, and with your favor and that of the gods
I hope to make her my wife."

"Ah, then, I know her?"

"It is Arria, sister of Appius."

"And daughter of my beloved prefect. You are ambitious, my good youth."

The emperor stood a moment, looking downward thoughtfully. He felt his
retreating chin. His smooth-shaven face, broad from bone to bone above
the cheeks, quickly grew stern. His mind, which had the world for its
toy and which planned the building or the treading down of empires, had
turned its thought upon that little kingdom in the heart of the boy.
And he was thinking whether it should stand or fall.

"It may be impossible," said he, turning to the young man. "Say no
more to her until--until I have thought of it."

And Appius observed, as he went away with his friend: "You will be a
statesman, my dear Vergilius; you gave him just the right dose of
religion, flattery, and silver."

"I must succeed or I shall have no heart to live," said the other,
soberly.

CHAPTER 4

That evening Vergilius went to feast with the young Herodian prince,
Antipater of Judea. The son of Herod was then a tall, swarthy, robust
young man, who had come to see life in Rome and to finish his
education. He would inherit the crown--so said they who knew anything
of Herodian politics; but he was a Jew, and deep in the red intrigue of
his father's house. So, therefore, he was regarded in Rome with more
curiosity than respect. Augustus himself had said that he would rather
be the swine of Herod than Herod's son, and he might have added that he
would rather be the swine of Antipater than his father. But that was
before Augustus had learned that even his own household was unworthy of
full confidence.

Antipater had brought many slaves to Rome, and some of the noblest
horses in the empire. He had hired a palace and built a lion-house,
where, before intimates, he was wont to display his courage and his
skill. It had a small arena and was in the midst of a great garden.
There he kept a lion from northern Africa, a tiger, and a black leopard
from the Himal