to decide to plant a city on the sandy peninsula which lay hot, flat, low and unprod

with water-growth, and the voluptuous fertility of the Nile margin followed the slow sweep of the great river into the sea twelve miles farther to the east. No o

ty having the spirit of its founder-great, splendid, contentious, cont

enantry of the Egyptians, poor remnants of that haughty race which had been aristocrats of the w

usness sharpened and forced the intellect of her disputants, till her learning was the most faultless of the time and its house a fit shape for its contents. After the Library the pillared fa?ade of the Court of Justice; next the unparalleled Museum, and, interspersed between, were the glories of four hundred theaters, four thousand palaces, four thousand

arded dwellers and a general air of oriental decorum and religious rigor which did not mark the other quarters of the city. In th

to the sea that the palaces of the Ptolemies might hold in mortmain their double empire of land and water; on the other hand the trisected Heptistadium; between, the acreage of docking and o

e necessarily the object of particular provision. Therefore, that they might be intelligently handled as to their prejudices, they were provided with a special governor from among their

leges; their oppressi

a son to fare beyond its borders. Drift from the dry lands of all the world was brought down and beached at the great seaport. It ranged in type from the fair-haired Norseman t

iritual fusion which had to await a perfect conception of liberty and the brotherhood of

tate yielded the Jew in Alexandria. But he was haughty, refined, rich, religious, exclusive, intelligent and otherwise obnoxious to the

isenum, to the squat and blackened dhow from up the Nile or the lateen-sailed fishing-smack from Algeria to the papyrus punt of home waters. Its population was the waste of society, fis

ention than any other new-comer would have done, until

ilas had addressed. "Do I look like a barbarian Jew t

id not fail to excite the in

with fish entrails. "What say you, Gesius? Who, these? Look, Al

exclaimed. "Roman citizens wit

a sailor shouted. "Fugitive f

an screamed; "comin

greeted this cry, out of which rose the

not a denarius on him

orn. A surprise was aroused in him as great as his indignation; he stood transfixed with emotion. Cypros, thorou

oughly terrified, clung to

husbands by hiding her beauty! The rag o

another cried, snatching up a hand

a better thrower than I!" a thir

f your aim

ar becam

the simpering h

ss the sh

; don't leave i

!"-a distant roar came

r, there, mate; it wi

consul!" the dist

the procon

a! The procon

e best Jew-baiter in all Alexandri

r the pr

legionaries; h

t them, though C?

ve for thyself, Bassia

lls; water!

heads!

tra

r the pr

omrades! She

hit a s

im, Ba

onaries!

with dirty water, threw up his sword and shouted. The column flung itself ou

ng off the masonry on the sands or into the water, the other scattering out over the great expanse of dock. The soldiers pressed after, and, follo

eels and Silas went down under a blow from a reversed javelin. Agrippa, besmirched with the missiles of his late assailants and blazing with fury, breaste

Cypros' bared face was presented to him. With a cry of aston

oward them. "Touch her not! Unhand the

ged. "Is this how you receive

ed short and his

you have lived among them a space. They are no more to be curbed than the Nile overflow, and are as natural to the place. But curse them, they shall answer for this! Welcome to Alexandria! Beshrew me, but the sight of

as visible in his voluble cordiality to Agrippa. Cypros, supported by the

ould we bear thee ill will? Blessed be thou fo

et, alternately brushing the prince's dress and

proconsul to meet them? Perchance Rome's sundry long m

with the wharf-master and the pr?tor. But come, have my chariot, lady. Appa

," Agrippa objected shortly, "w

rget him for his discourtesy and come with me. Beseech your

t inform the alabarch when we expected to ar

might disturb Alexandria again to know

mper which made thee famous in youth, Herod? But here are our curricle

momentarily for a purpose. Agrippa, looking up from under his brows, glanced critically at the proconsul's face for

nd and covered with close, black curls; his brows were straight thick lines which met over his nose, and his beardless face was molded with strong muscles on the purple cheek and chin. He

e valley. One of the few who stood in the wintry favor of Tiberius, the imperial misanthrope of C

unseen. Many of the late disturbers watched with strained eyes and gaping mouths and saw him turn his horses into the street which was the first in the Regio Jud?orum, and not a few stared at one another

, and throughout their narrow passages, but there was no demonstration. Each retired q

ly settled portion of the quarter into a district where the streets opened up in

with an unbroken front, except for a porch, the single attribute characteristic of Egypt, and the window arches and par

o the Jewish porter that answered. Immediately the master of the house came f

He wore a cloak, richly embroidered, over a long white under-robe; and the magisterial tarboosh, with a bandeau of gold braid, was set down over his fine white hair.

countenance of the proconsul showed a little expectancy, but there was even less to be seen on the Jew's face that should betray his interpretation of the visit. The ma

at is left of them after an encounter with the rabble

iar music of the Jewish intonation showing in mellow contrast to the Ro

en hands to the prince

d softly. "Welcome to the worshi

d man. "My latest adventure with Gentiles h

God grant it! A

her face and was re

ed in a startled way.

eyes on Cypros the instant

murdered Mariam

knew her: as a young man I knew her! But enter, enter! Pray favor us with

of the pavement was mirror-like. The lattice of the windows, the lamps, the coffers of the alabarch's records, the layers for the palms and plantain, the clawed feet of the great divan were all of hammered brass. The drapery at

hair, and, seating his two noble guests and

olite and the lithe movements of a

in a strange tongue, and

s. "The waiting-woman does not understand our tongu

r," Agrippa sa

a girl appeared. She lifted her eyes to her father's face, and betw

ssion that it was a child that stood in the archway. She was a little below average height, with almost infantile shortening of curves in her pre

full of front, serene almost to seriousness, and marked by delicate black brows too level to be ideally feminine. Her eyes were not prominent but finely set under the shading brow, large of iris, like a child's, and fair brown

lance to note how much the girl had developed in four years he gave his attention to cert

e her weight, the other unconsciously, but most daintily, poised on a toe. She swayed once with indescribable lightness, but afterward stood balanced with such preparednes

"or else the goddess hath withdrawn

raised her eyes to the proconsul's face and salaamed with enchanting grace. Flaccus che

t on, "thou wilt remember as

ing soft eyes upon her. "Must I be int

hood-a voice that almost startled with its abated strength and richness, since the

ance at him. Meanwhile the girl had opened her arms to Cypros

ng themselves to be greater men than their father. But go, be refreshed; it shal

chamber and they followed the girl to vario

turned to t

ilt follow

house and prepare for thy hospitality. B

borrow mone

yo

btle

have consulted me. He i