The royal chariot in which Klea was standing, wrapped in the cloak and wearing the hat of the captain of the civic guard, went swiftly and without stopping through the streets of Memphis.

As long as she saw houses with lighted windows on each side of the way, and met riotous soldiers and quiet citizens going home from the taverns, or from working late in their workshops, with lanterns in their hands or carried by their slaves--so long her predominant feeling was one of hatred to Publius; and mixed with this was a sentiment altogether new to her--a sentiment that made her blood boil, and her heart now stand still and then again beat wildly--the thought that he might be a wretched deceiver.

Had he not attempted to entrap one of them--whether her sister or herself it was all the same--wickedly to betray her, and to get her into his power! "With me," thought she, "he could not hope to gain his evil ends, and when he saw that I knew how to protect myself he lured the poor unresisting child away with him, in order to ruin her and to drag her into shame and misery.

Just like Rome herself, who seizes on one country after another to make them her own, so is this ruthless man.

No sooner had that villain Eulaeus' letter reached him, than he thought himself justified in believing that I too was spellbound by a glance from his eyes, and would spread my wings to fly into his arms; and so he put out his greedy hand to catch me too, and threw aside the splendor and delights of a royal banquet to hurry by night out into the desert, and to risk a hideous death--for the avenging deities still punish the evildoer." By this time she was shrouded in total darkness, for the moon was still hidden by black clouds.