el disease, which, like the Barbarians, when it
has once claimed by force hospitality in the owner's body, ever after
defends its right thereto by cruelty. It seeks out all the hollow
places of the system, makes stones out of its moisture, and deposits
them there, destroying all the beautiful arrangements of Nature for
free and easy movement. It loosens what ought to be tight, it
contracts the nerves, and so shortens the limbs that a tall man finds
all the comeliness of his stature taken from him while he is still
unmutilated. It is in truth a living death; and when the excruciating
torment is gone, it leaves an almost worse legacy behind it--inability
to move. Even debtors in the torture chamber have the weights
sometimes removed from their feet; but this cruel malady, when it has
once taken hold of a man, seems never to relinquish possession. A
disease of this kind, bringing with it weakness and helplessness, is
especially terrible to a warrior, who after overcoming the foes that
came against him in battle, finds himself thus struck down by an enemy
within.

'Go then, in Heaven's name, to the healing springs. We cannot bear the
thought that you the warrior should be carried on men's shoulders,
instead of bestriding your war-horse. We have painted all these evils
in somewhat exaggerated style in order to stir you up to seek an early
cure.

'Use then these waters, soothing to the taste, and in the hot bath
able to dry up the gouty humours. God has given us this ally wherewith
to overcome that enemy of the human race; and under its double
influence, within and without, the malady, which ten years of regimen
and endless medicines cannot lessen, is put to flight by remedies
which are in themselves delightful.

'May God grant that this far-famed place may restore your body to
health[694].'

[Footnote 694: The nature-heated springs of Bormio are still resorted
to; and some pedestrian travellers, who have crossed the Stelvio from
Trafoi, have a grateful remembrance of their soothing waters.]

30. KING THEODAHAD TO HONORIUS, PRAEFECT OF THE CITY.

[Sidenote: The elephants in the Via Sacra.]

'We regret to learn from your report that the brazen elephants placed
in the Via Sacra[695] (so called from the many superstitions to which
it was consecrated of old) are falling into ruins.

[Footnote 695: I have not found any other mention of these brazen
elephants. Nardini (Roma Antica i. 295) cites this passage, and
illust