The slave’s duties left him but little time to enjoy the society of his pretty partner and of the two children she bore him, but the consciousness of possessing them made him happy when he followed his master to the chase, or in the journeys through the empire.  Now, for seven months he had heard nothing of his family; but a short letter had reached him at Pelusium, which had been sent with the despatches for the Emperor from Ostia to Egypt.  He could not read, and in consequence of the Emperor’s rapid travelling, it was not till he reached Lochias, that he was put in possession of its contents.

Before going to rest Antinous had read him the letter, which had been written for his brother by a public scribe, and its contents were enough to wreck the heart even of a slave.  His pretty little wife had fled from her home and from the Emperor’s service to follow a Greek ship’s captain across the world; his eldest child, a boy, the darling of his heart, was dead; and his fair-haired tender little Tullia, with her pearly teeth, her round little arms, and her pretty tiny fingers that had often tried to pull his close-cropped hair, and had fondly stroked and patted it, had been carried off to the miserable refuge, under whose squalid roof the children of deceased slaves were reared.  Only two hours since, and in fancy he had possessed a home, and a group of human beings, whom he could love.  Now, this was all over and with however hard a hand the deepest woes might fall on him, he might not sob or groan aloud, or even roll from side to side as again and again he was violently prompted to do, for his lord slept lightly and the least noise might wake him.  At sunrise he must appear before the Emperor as cheerful as usual, and yet he felt as if he must himself perish miserably as his happiness had done.  His heart was bursting with anguish, still he neither groaned nor stirred.

CHAPTER XIII.

The night had been almost as sleepless to Keraunus’ daughter Selene as it had been to the hapless slave.  Her father’s vain wish to let Arsinoe take a part with the daughters of the wealthier citizens had filled the girl’s heart with fresh terrors.  It was the final blow which would demolish the structure of their social existence, standing as it did on quaking ground, and which must fling her family and herself into disgrace and want.  When their last treasure of any value was sold, and the creditors could no longer be put off, particularly during the Emperor’s presence in the city, when they should try to sell up all her father’s little property, or to carry him off to a debtor’s prison, was it not then as good as certain that some one else would be appointed to fill his place, and that she and the other children would fall into misery?  And there lay Arsinoe by her side, and slept with as calm and deep a breath as blind Helios and the other little ones.