e boys strained their eyes to look behind.
Either they had not yet been missed, or else their rescuers had not
found out the direction which the spoilers had taken.

The few people whom they passed, wood-cutters or cow-herds on their way
home from the day's work, only looked on helplessly as the troop swept
by, and were unable to do anything. Once, seeing a man whom he knew,
one of the boys cried out for help, but his captor roughly bade him be
silent.

In a little while they were in the land of the Bernicians, and the
children were handed over to the families of their captors, to work in
the house and in the fields.

They were not unkindly treated, and after a while they began to feel
less unhappy. Often when they met together in the evening, after the
day's work was done, they would make plans for running away as soon as
they should be grown up, and returning to their own old home in Deira.

But they were never to see their native village again.

One day a rich merchant came to Bernicia, a man who traded with the
far-away countries of Gaul and Italy, and the children were brought for
him to see.

The merchant looked at the rosy faces and strong limbs of the boys.

'They'll do,' he said; 'I'll take the lot. One of my ships is just
starting for Italy, and they can go on board. The Roman ladies like
fine boys like these to wait upon them. It is waste to keep such lads
to work in our rough homesteads when we can get gold for them from the
Romans.'

A large sum of money was handed over to the owners of the children; and
then the boys had to follow their new master to the seashore, where a
vessel was in waiting.

No kind parents or friends were near, to bid good-bye to these poor
children as they embarked. They were led on board and given into the
charge of the captain and seamen of the vessel. Presently the sails
were unfurled, and the vessel left the shore, the men singing as they
worked. No one paid any attention to the poor children as they stood
on deck and sorrowfully watched the shores of England grow farther and
farther away, until they became lost in the distance.

The little captives felt very sad indeed. Had they known that they
were about to become the means of bringing happiness and peace to their
native land, perhaps they might not have felt so desolate as they did.

After what seemed to them a very long voyage, they were taken to the
great slave-market in Rome.

The children clung toge