"Yes, I had only heard of this disease till then. It is frightful, and quite answers to the descriptions I had read of it."
"But Caesar!" cried Antinous reproachfully and in alarm.
"When we turned our backs on the tombs," continued Hadrian, paying no heed to the lad's exclamation, "we were met by an elderly man dressed in white and a strange-looking maiden. She was lame but of remarkable beauty."
"And she was going to the sick?"
"Yes, she had brought medicine and food to them."
"But she did not go in among them?" asked Antinous eagerly.
"She did, in spite of my warnings. In her companion I recognized an old acquaintance."
'An old one?"
"At any rate older than myself. We had met in Athens when we still were young. At that time he was one of the school of Plato and the most zealous, nay, perhaps the most gifted of us all."
"How came such a man among the plague-stricken people of Besa? Is he become a physician?"