Caesar then lay pale and exhausted on a couch which had hastily been arranged, his eyes fixed on vacancy, scarcely able to move a finger.

Alexander held his trembling hand, and when the physician, a stout man of middle age, took the artist's place and bade him retire, Caracalla, in a low voice, desired him to remain.
As soon as Caesar's suspended faculties were fully awake again, he turned to the cause of his attack.

With a look of pain and entreaty he desired Alexander to give him the tablets once more; but the artist assured him--and Caracalla seemed not sorry to believe--that he had crushed the wax in his convulsion.

The sick man himself no doubt felt that such food was too strong for him.

After he had remained staring at nothing in silence for some time, he began again to speak of the gibes of the Alexandrians.