hing, dread nothing, and wish nothing.--Yea! by
the Gods! I wish to know Paullus happy--yea! more, I wish, even at cost of
my own misery, to make him happy. Shall I do so, by making him yours,
Julia? I think so, for be sure--be sure, he loves you. Else had he yielded
to my blandishments, to my passion, to my beauty! for I am--by the Gods! I
am, though he sees it not, as beautiful as thou. And I am proud
likewise--or was proud once--for misery has conquered pride in me; or what
is weaker yet, and baser--love!"

"I think you will make him happy. You can if you will. Do so, by all the
Gods! I adjure you do so; and if you do not, tremble!--tremble, I say--for
think, if I sacrifice myself to win bliss for him--think, girl, how gladly,
how triumphantly, I would destroy a rival, who should fail to do that, for
which alone I spare her.

"Spare her! nay, but much more; for I can save her--can and will.

"Strange things will come to pass ere long, and terrible; and to no one so
terrible as to you.

"There is a man in Rome, so powerful, that the Gods, only, if there be
Gods, can compare with him--so haughty in ambition, that stood he second in
Olympus, he would risk all things to be first--so cruel, that the dug-drawn
Hyrcanian tigress were pitiful compared to him--so reckless of all things
divine or human, that, did his own mother stand between him and his
vengeance, he would strike through her heart to gain it.

"This man hath Paullus made his foe--he hath crossed his path; he hath
_foiled_ him!

"He never spared man in his wrath, or woman in his passion.

"He hateth Paullus!

"He hath looked on Julia!

"Think, then, when lust and hate spur such a man together, what will
restrain him.

"Now mark me, and you shall yet be safe. All means will be essayed to win
you, for he would torture Paul by making him his slave, ere he make you
his victim.

"And Paul may waver. He hath wavered once. Chance only, and I, rescued
him! I can do no more, for Rome must know me no longer! See, then, that
thou hold him constant in the right--firm for his country! So may he defy
secret spite, as he hath defied open violence.

"Now for thyself--beware of women! Go not forth alone ever, or without
armed followers! Sleep not, but with a woman in thy chamber, and a watcher
at thy door! Eat not, nor drink, any thing abroad; nor at home, save that
which is prepared by known hands, and tasted by the slave who serves it!

"Be true to Paullus, an