Marsyas shook his head. "They are poor, poor! Their fund is not contributed in great bulk, and the little they own must be expended in hospitality and in maintaining themselves. Their treasury would be enriched by the little I bring." "O Fortune!" Agrippa groaned aloud. "I am undone and so art thou!" Marsyas lapsed into thought, while the Herod looked at the solid door that stood between him and liberty. He had set the subject aside as profitless and was a little irritated when Marsyas spoke again. "What hopes hast thou in Alexandria?" "The alabarch, Alexander Lysimachus, is my friend. He is rich; I could borrow of him." "Take thou my gold and go thither," Marsyas offered at once. "It is not so easy as it sounds, for the sound of it is most generous and kindly. How am I to get out of Capito's clutches, here?" Marsyas gazed straight at Agrippa with the set eyes of one plunged into deep speculation. Then he leaned toward the prince. "Will this gold in all truth help thee to borrow more in Alexandria?" "I know it!" "And then what?" "To Rome! To imperial favor! To suzerainty over Judea!" Marsyas laid hold on the prince's arm. "Thou art a Herod," he said intensely. "Ambition natively should be the very breath of thy nostrils. Yet swear to me that thou wilt aspire--aye, even desperately as thy grandsire! Swear to me that thou wilt not be content to be less than a king!" At another time, Agrippa might have found amusement in the young man's earnestness, but the cause was now his own. "Thou tongue of my desires!" he exclaimed. "I have sworn! Being a Herod, mine oaths are not idle. I have sworn!" "Then, let us bargain together," Marsyas said rapidly. "I have told thee my story: thou heardest my vow to-night! For my fealty, yield me thy word! As I help thee into power, help me to revenge! Promise!" "Promise! By the beard of Abraham, I will conquer or kill anything thou markest; yield thee my last crust, and carry thee upon my back, so thou help me to Alexandria!" "Swear it!" Agrippa raised his right hand and swore. The legionary roused and growled at the two to be quiet. Marsyas fell back on the straw and lay still. Agrippa made signs and urged for more discussion, but the Essene, masterful in his silence, refused to speak. Presently the Herod lay down and slept from sheer inability to engage his mind to profit otherwise. A little after dawn the following morning, the Essene and the Herod were conducted into the vestibule of Herod the Great, for a hearing before Vitellius and Herrenius Capito. But Marsyas' offense against a Roman citizen was held in abeyance; it was Agrippa's debt to Caesar which engaged the attention of the judges. Vitellius was in a precarious temper and Capito looked as grim as querulous old age may. Agrippa's nonchalance was only a surface air overlaying doubts and no little trepidation. But Marsyas, white and sternly intent, was the most resolute of the four.