o impart which concerned nearly my welfare.

I was watching with Julia, from the portico which fronts the Esquiline
and overlooks the city, the last rays of the declining sun, as they
gilded the roofs and domes of the vast sea of building before us,
lingering last upon, and turning to gold the brazen statues of Antonine
and of Trajan, when Milo approached us, saying that Isaac had returned.
He was in a moment more with us.

'Most noble Piso,' said he, 'I joy to see thee again; and this morning,
I doubt not, I should have seen thee, but for the obstinacy of an
ancient man, whose wits seem to have been left behind as he has gone
onward. I seek thee, Piso, for matters of moment. Great princess,' he
suddenly cried, turning to Julia with as profound a reverence as his
double burden would allow, 'glad am I to greet thee in Rome; not glad
that thou wert forced to flee here, but glad that if, out of Palmyra,
thou art here in the heart of all that can best minister to thy wants.
Not a wish can arise in the heart but Rome can answer it. Nay, thou
canst have few for that which is rare and costly, but even I can answer
them. Hast thou ever seen, princess, those diamonds brought from the
caves of mountains a thousand miles in the heart of India, in which
there lurks a tint, if I may so name it, like this last blush of the
western sky? They are rarer than humanity in a Roman, or apostacy in a
Jew, or truth in a Christian. I shall show thee one.' And he fell to
unlacing his pack, and drawing forth its treasures.

Julia assured him, she should see with pleasure whatever he could show
her of rich or rare.

'There are, lady, jewelers, as they name themselves in Rome, who dwell
in magnificent houses, and whose shops are half the length of a street,
who cannot show you what Isaac can out of an old goatskin pack. And how
should they? Have they, as I have, traveled the earth's surface and
trafficked between crown and crown? What king is there, whose
necessities I have not relieved by purchasing his rarest gems; or whose
vanity I have not pleased by selling him the spoils of another? Old
Sapor, proud as he was, was more than once in the grasp of Isaac. There!
it is in this case--down, you see, in the most secret part of my
pack--but who would look for wealth under this sordid covering? as who,
lady, for a soul within this shriveled and shattered body? yet is there
one there. In such outside, both of body and bag, is my safety. Who
cares t