of the most agile
panther, not only the arena-wall opposite me, but also the faces of the
senators in their private boxes on the _podium_, even a portion of the
nobility behind them and of the populace higher up and further back.

The day was hot, still and clear, and the July sunshine, still slant in
the early morning, struck under the awning and long shafts of the mellow
radiance brightened the sand.

From that doorway, craning over the heads of the wretches in front of me,
I caught glimpses of the fury of several beasts as they vented their
ferocity upon some ordinary criminals and assuaged their ravenous hunger
on their blood and flesh.

My time was not far off, yet I still hoped against hope that Agathemer
might, even yet, have caught the thieving murderers and would intervene
before it was too late. I did not at all fear the beasts; I knew that no
bear, panther, leopard, tiger or lion would hurt me, but I felt certain
that, when the beasts left me unharmed, I should be recognized as Festus
the Beast-Wizard: and then, as the scrutiny of the whole audience would be
riveted on me, identified as Andivius Hedulio.

Narcissus was led out, stepping jauntily between his guards, treading
springily, with no sign of panic or dejection, a pattern Hercules, naked
save for a loin-cloth, his skin pink and fresh, in spite of his days in a
dungeon, his mighty muscles rippling all over his huge form. The herald
proclaimed to all that this was Narcissus, professional wrestler, for long
the crony of Commodus, who had strangled his master and was to be punished
for his treachery and crime by being torn to pieces in sight of all Rome.

They let out on him a full-grown, young Mauretanian lion, starved and
ravenous. Narcissus was naked and empty-handed, his close-clipped hair,
standing like the bristles of a brush, yellow as gold wire, shining in the
sun. He stood almost as immobile as had Palus and faced the lion, which,
after a bound or two towards him, flattened down on the sand and began to
crawl nearer, preparing for a spring.

When it sprang Narcissus performed one of the most miraculous feats ever
beheld in the amphitheater. He did not dodge but ducked slightly, the
wide-spread, taloned paws missing his head on each side. His arms shot out
as the lion sprang, and, though the brute came at him through the air like
a log-arrow from a catapult, his hands gripped each side of the wide-open
mouth and his thumbs pushed the inner c