"Thou needest but to essay a beginning; let me lead thee," Agrippa observed. "Let me satisfy the questions in thee, ere I be entertained. First, of Flaccus. I sent messengers to Caesar from Antioch detailing the high offenses of the proconsul, hinting treason against the government of the emperor and other charges which excite Caligula most, and ere I departed I had from Caesar's own hand the tidings that a centurion had been despatched to Alexandria to arrest Flaccus and bring him to Rome for trial. And the further news, which will raise thee, sweet Lydia, to calm content. The Jews are to be restored their rights, the prisoners freed, and better times assured to thy people." Lydia clasped her hands, and her eyes filled with relief. "And my father?" she asked in a low voice. "Especially commended to Caesar's favor! The black days for the Alexandrian Jews are over, unless Caligula force upon them his pet madness that he is a god and amenable to worship." "Mad, at last!" Marsyas exclaimed. "Never otherwise," Agrippa answered. "I hear that he has proclaimed Junia to be Athor, and hath set up a white cow in a temple to be propitiated in the wanton's name!" Marsyas looked at the downcast lashes of Lydia and loved her for the silence she kept. "Will she--be--empress?" Cypros faltered, in womanly fear of some unknown evil. Agrippa laughed and dropped his hand meaningly on Marsyas' arm. "If she should be, here is Marsyas yet to protect me!" he said. But Marsyas did not smile. "What!" Agrippa cried; "still an Essene?" "No," said Marsyas, "but the Lord forfend that the woman should ever become Augusta!" "Never fear! She is too poor. Caligula, like any other mortal god, would prefer a dowry with his consort! And that, by Janus--ah--er--Jacob! brings me up to somewhat relative to our old fortune-seeking friend, Classicus." "But," Marsyas protested with a show of his old-time spirit, "I shall not agree that Classicus sought Lydia for her riches alone!" "The unhappiest remark, the crudest accusation thou didst ever force me to defend!" Agrippa exclaimed, glowering at Marsyas. "Now, how shall I convince thy sweet bride that I had not meant that any man could love her less than her dowry!" But Lydia smiled, first at Marsyas and then at the king, and said: "Let us hear of Classicus." The king clapped his hands, and an attendant bowed to the floor in the archway. "Bring hither the letter from Alexandria, which my scribe answereth," Agrippa said. In a moment a package was put into the king's hands. He unfolded it carefully. "It is fragile," he said, "reed paper--papyrus, of his own curing, and written with a quill. Evil days for Classicus; but observe, he hath not forgotten the latest fashion in folding it. Listen: "To the Most High and Gracious Prince, Herod Agrippa, King of Judea, from his servant and subject, Justin Classicus, the Alexandrian, greeting: