“In the name of the emperor, I command thee to eat.”
Agrippina made no reply.
“Bind her and force open her mouth!” shouted the officer.
Psyche tried to interfere, and called for help.
One of the soldiers held Agrippina’s head; the other, with his sword, tried to pry open her mouth. The officer stood leaning over her, with some bread soaked in water. So roughly did the soldier use his sword that it slipped, and, tearing Agrippina’s lip and cheek, gouged out her eye. At this sickening sight Psyche swooned. Finally the brutes succeeded in opening her mouth, and the officer forced some bread down her throat. This frightful ordeal ended, the women were then left alone.
When Psyche returned to consciousness, her mind seemed paralyzed with horror, but her tender heart prompted her to relieve the suffering of the tortured woman. She tied a bandage over the wounded eye of Agrippina, and procuring a basin of water, bathed the torn lip and cheek of her mistress.
“Dost thou suffer much pain?” softly whispered Psyche.
“My body pains, my dear child. My mind is dead,” she answered in a hollow voice that sounded like a whisper from a tomb.
“What is there that I can do for thee, my lady?”
“Nothing, my child. They may try to force me again, but I am resolved to die. Speak to me no more, I pray thee.”