for the ceremonies, and the women guests were
absorbed in toilet mysteries, those of the men who were governors or who
were possessed of greatest power in their own cities, were summoned to
the library of their host.

Eudemius spoke first, gravely, with Aurelius, pale and silent, on his
right hand, and on his left Marius, thin-lipped and alert, all the
soldier in him roused. And Marius, of all the men present, was the
youngest.

"Friends," said Eudemius, "I have gathered you here together on a matter
of much moment. You all know Aurelius Menotus, governor of Anderida. He
hath a tale to tell you, which I doubt not will prove startling. When it
is told, we should take counsel together, those of us who are here,
without waiting for the lords and governors who for one reason and
another are not with us. With some of these we are, as you know, not on
good terms. There hath been jealousy and strife, much rivalry and more
ill-feeling, between the cities. Now, if we hope to save ourselves, all
this must be forgotten. If we never agreed before, we must agree now,
for a common foe threatens us, against whom nothing short of our united
strength will avail."

He ceased; and Aurelius rose and faced a silent room, standing beside
the table, with nervous fingers feeling at a scroll which lay there.

[Illustration: "Half a dozen young beauties had taken possession--girls
of the haughtiest blood in Britain."]

"Friends," he began, and cleared his throat and hesitated, "I am here
before ye, a man without a home, a governor without a city. Two nights
ago Saxons landed on our coasts, among the marshes, and entered
Anderida. The details of the whole I have not yet learned; whether they
assaulted first, or were provoked by some real or fancied injury of the
citizens. However this may be, they set upon us, and slew us, and were
joined by certain of the insurgents, who, it seems, have only awaited a
chance to rise in open revolt against the Empire, as represented in us.
United, they outnumbered those who were loyal to me by ten to one, and I
and mine, being all unprepared, were forced to flee. We fought our way
out of the city, and fled with others into the forest, leaving the
barbarians and the insurgents in possession. The temple of Jupiter is
destroyed and his priests are killed; the statues of the Emperor in the
Forum are wantonly shattered. One of the flamens who escaped joined our
party as we fled, and said that those who have commi