THE SLAVE-RING Had Miriam chanced to look out of her litter as she passed the Temple of Isis, escorted by Gallus and the guards before dawn broke upon that great day of the Triumph, and had there been light to enable her to see, she might have beheld two figures galloping into Rome as fast as their weary horses would carry them.

Both rode after the fashion of men, but one of them, wrapped in an Eastern garment that hid the face, was in fact a woman.
"Fortune favours us, Nehushta," said the man in a strained voice.

"At least, we are in time for the Triumph, who might so easily have been too late.

Look, yonder they gather already by Octavian's Walks," and he pointed to the companies of soldiers who hurried past them to the meeting-place.
"Yes, yes, my lord Marcus, we are in time.

There go the eagles and here comes their prey," and in her turn Nehushta pointed to a guarded litter--had they but known it, the very one that carried the beloved woman whom they sought.