"Before I go," said the youth,--he struggled fiercely to subdue the agitation, the terrible anxiety which now sent a tremor through every limb,--"listen to another message. You have captured a daughter of our people." Six eyes were bent upon him with the keenest attention. "I am commissioned to ransom her." In spite of every effort to appear calm and cold his voice trembled.
"Are you Bissula's relative? She has no brother," said Ausonius suspiciously.
"Or her lover?" asked Herculanus.
The youth's face flamed, his brow knit wrathfully. "Neither her kinsman nor her betrothed lover. I am commissioned--I have already said so--to ransom her. Name the price."
Ausonius was about to utter a refusal, but Saturninus hastily anticipated him.
"You would pay any price as ransom?"
"Any."
"Is she a princess or a noble's daughter, that your people set so high a value upon her liberty?"
"She is a free maiden of our people, and has as much right to our protection as a queen."
"Well, your protection has been of little service to her," cried Herculanus, laughing.