ocks, keeping up the spirits of his companions by
telling them that, when a little boy, he robbed an eyrie of seven
eaglets, and that a soothsayer had then foretold that he would be seven
times consul. At last a troop of horse was seen coming towards them, and
at the same time two ships near the coast. The only hope was in swimming
out to the nearest ship, and Marius was so heavy and old that this was
done with great difficulty. Even then the ships were so near the shore
that the pursuers could command the crew to throw Marius out, but this
they refused to do, though they only waited till the soldiers were gone,
to put him on shore again. Here he was in a marshy, boggy place, where
an old man let him rest in his cottage, and then hid him in a cave under
a heap of rushes. Again, however, the troops appeared, and threatened
the old man for hiding an enemy of the Romans. It was in Marius'
hearing, and fearing to be betrayed, he rushed out into a pool, where he
stood up to his neck in water till a soldier saw him, and he was dragged
out and taken to the city of Minturnae.

[Illustration: THE CATAPULT.]

There the council decided on his death, and sent a soldier to kill him,
but the fierce old man stood glaring at him, and said. "Darest thou
kill Caius Marius?" The man was so frightened that he ran away, crying
out, "I cannot kill Caius Marius." The Senate of Minturnae took this as
an omen, and remembered besides that he had been a good friend to the
Italians, so they conducted him through a sacred grove to the sea, and
sent him off to Africa. On landing, he sent his son to ask shelter from
one of the Numidian princes, and, while waiting for an answer, he was
harassed by a messenger from a Roman officer of low rank, forbidding his
presence in Africa. He made no reply till the messenger pressed to know
what to say to his master. Then the old man looked up, and sternly
answered. "Say that you have seen Caius Marius sitting in the ruins of
Carthage"--a grand rebuke for the insult to fallen greatness. But the
Numidian could not receive him, and he could only find shelter in a
little island on the coast.

There he soon heard that no sooner had Sulla embarked for the East than
Rome had fallen into dire confusion. The consuls, Caius Octavius and
Publius Cornelius Cinna, were of opposite parties, and had a furious
fight, in which Cinna was driven out of Rome, and at the same time the
Italians had begun a new Social War. Marius saw