"Augustus Carinus, I have come to bring a charge, or, if it pleases you better, to beseech a favour. I had an only daughter——"
"You have another," interrupted Ævius.
"I say I had an only daughter. She was the joy of my life, the prop of my old age. Allured by a new religion, this girl and her companions were captured at the meeting place of the Christians. I will not argue with you over matters of belief, Carinus, but I entreat you to listen to the petition of a man who has grown grey in the service of Rome, and restore my only child."
Carinus raised himself indolently from his lectisternium and whispered a few words to his eunuch. Then he turned to Mesembrius.
"Senator, we do not know whether your daughter is among the captured Christians; had we been aware of it we should have delivered her up to you long ago. She was beautiful, you said?"
"I did not say so, O Lord."
"I have so understood. But unfortunately I must inform you that a beautiful girl in this band of Christians killed herself last night in prison."
"That was not my daughter. Sophronia could not forget her grey-haired father, whom her loss would drive to despair."
"Look at the corpse, Senator, and if it is not your daughter, which from my heart I hope, I will have her brought here at once and she can then return with you."
Mesembrius was so startled by this unexpected favour that he forgot to express his thanks for it.