hed her up, nor was there
a passer-by who had seen aught--"

Sergius was frowning ominously; then his face cleared.

"Doubtless that was it, Smyrnus," he said. "Your judicious piety is
quicker than your heels in saving your back. If a god took her, he
showed excellent taste, and it would be utter sacrilege to punish you
for failing to learn her whereabouts. Come, Agathocles, be not so
gloomy. Do you think it is Aesculapius who has come to your aid? He,
at least, is no spruce, young rival. Be conciliatory, or I may,
perhaps, venture to try my fortune even against--"

"I am rather of the opinion that some cunning Hermes has tricked Eros
and Aesculapius and my Lord Lucius as well," said the physician. An
expression of grim humour lurked in his face, and Sergius felt
strangely uncomfortable.

"What is a physician if he talk not in the language of oracles," he
said, querulously. "Well, you may send me to my couch now, if you
will; but, mark you, to-morrow I go to the Forum."

XI.

POLITICS.

On the following day, Sergius, true to his purpose, ordered his litter
to be brought, and, reclining as his weakness compelled, was borne down
into the Forum crowded with its mass of turbulent and perspiring
humanity. Nor was the temper of the rabble doubtful. On every side he
heard arraignments of Fabius, and, through him, of all men guilty of
good birth or riches. Under every portico, speakers were pouring forth
harangues whose ignorance was only matched by their coarseness and
surpassed by their reckless malevolence. Once he bade his bearers set
him down, near where one Quintus Baebius Herennius, a plebeian tribune
and a relative of Varro's, was holding forth to a sympathetic crowd.

"Do you not know, ye foolish Romans," cried the orator, alternately
slapping his thigh, waving his arms, and casting up his eyes, "that
this Hannibal was brought into Italy by these very nobles, who are
always desiring war? Can you not see how they are protracting the war,
when you consider that one man of the people, our own Minucius, when he
commanded the four legions, was sufficient for the enemy? Behold how
this traitorous, this _noble_ Fabian schemed to expose the brave
Minucius and two legions of the people to destruction, and only rescued
the remnant that he might pose as their saviour and be saluted 'father'
and 'patron.' There, indeed, was our Minucius at fault, as what
honest, poor man is not, when confronted by th