o at Rome as Regulus, and they
therefore sent him there with their envoys, having first made him swear
that he would come back to his prison, if there should neither be peace
nor an exchange of prisoners. They little knew how much more a
true-hearted Roman cared for his city than for himself--for his word
than for his life.

Worn and dejected, the captive warrior came to the outside of the gates
of his own city and there paused, refusing to enter. "I am no longer a
Roman citizen," he said; "I am but the barbarian's slave, and the Senate
may not give audience to strangers within the walls."

His wife, Marcia, ran out to greet him, with his two sons, but he did
not look up, and received their caresses as one beneath their notice, as
a mere slave, and he continued, in spite of all entreaty, to remain
outside the city, and would not even go to the little farm he had loved
so well.

The Roman Senate, as he would not come in to them, came out to hold
their meeting in the Campagna.

The ambassadors spoke first; then Regulus, standing up, said, as one
repeating a task: "Conscript fathers, being a slave to the
Carthaginians, I come on the part of my masters to treat with you
concerning peace and an exchange of prisoners." He then turned to go
away with the ambassadors, as a stranger might not be present at the
deliberations of the Senate. His old friends pressed him to stay and
give his opinion as a senator, who had twice been consul; but he refused
to degrade that dignity by claiming it, slave as he was. But, at the
command of his Carthaginian masters, he remained, though not taking his
seat.

Then he spoke. He told the senators to persevere in the war. He said he
had seen the distress of Carthage, and that a peace would be only to her
advantage, not to that of Rome, and therefore he strongly advised that
the war should continue. Then, as to the exchange of prisoners, the
Carthaginian generals, who were in the hands of the Romans, were in full
health and strength, whilst he himself was too much broken down to be
fit for service again; and, indeed, he believed that his enemies had
given him a slow poison, and that he could not live long. Thus he
insisted that no exchange of prisoners should be made.

It was wonderful, even to Romans, to hear a man thus pleading against
himself; and their chief priest came forward and declared that, as his
oath had been wrested from him by force, he was not bound by it to
return to his ca