n with undiminished zeal.

After the dispersion of his household during the famine, and amid the
general confusion of the social system in Rome, on the raising of the
blockade, Vetranio found no one near him that he could trust but
Carrio--and he trusted him. Nor was the confidence misplaced: the man
was selfish and sordid enough; but these very qualities ensured his
fidelity to his master as long as that master retained the power to
punish and the capacity to reward.

The letter which Carrio held in his hand was addressed to him at a
villa--from which he had just returned--belonging to Vetranio, on the
shores of the Bay of Naples, and was written by the senator from Rome.
The introductory portions of this communication seemed to interest the
freedman but little: they contained praises of his diligence in
preparing the country-house for the immediate habitation of its owner,
and expressed his master's anxiety to quit Rome as speedily as
possible, for the sake of living in perfect tranquillity, and breathing
the reviving air of the sea, as the physicians had counselled. It was
the latter part of the letter that Carrio perused and re-perused, and
then meditated over with unwonted attention and labour of mind. It ran
thus:--

'I have now to repose in you a trust, which you will execute with
perfect fidelity as you value my favour or respect the wealth from
which you may obtain your reward. When you left Rome you left the
daughter of Numerian lying in danger of death: she has since revived.
Questions that I have addressed to her during her recovery have
informed me of much in her history that I knew not before; and have
induced me to purchase, for reasons of my own, a farm-house and its
lands, beyond the suburbs. (The extent of the place and its situation
are written on the vellum that is within this.) The husbandman who
cultivated the property had survived the famine, and will continue to
cultivate it for me. But it is my desire that the garden, and all that
it contains, shall remain entirely at the disposal of Numerian and his
daughter, who may often repair to it; and who must henceforth be
regarded there as occupying my place and having my authority. You will
divide your time between overlooking the few slaves whom I leave at the
palace in my absence, and the husbandman and his labourers whom I have
installed at the farm; and you will answer to me for the due
performance of your own duties and the duties o