he commissariat, and his
exploits as a soldier when occasion demanded, were probably unknown to
her.

Maharbal, slight and agile, with plain, dark robe and few jewels, with
hair dressed high, diadem of plumes, and beard worn forked in the
Numidian fashion, attracted but passing comment. He was doubtless a
savage from the desert and of little wealth. Another of the generals,
however, seemed to arouse more positive sentiments: a giant in size,
with scarlet tunic, and loaded with gold chains and rings and gems, his
dark, ferocious face towered above the heads of his companions. The
woman's voice sank to a whisper as she said:--

"That is the one they call Hannibal-the-Fighter. They say he never
spares an enemy, and that he eats the flesh of those he kills. May the
gods grant that my masters shall wean him to-night from the love of
such hideous, barbaric fare!"--and yet, with all her horror, Marcia
almost smiled to note how the girl looked upon this brute with more of
woman's feeling for man than she bestowed upon any of his better
favoured and more famous compatriots.

From these four the Roman's eyes wandered to a fifth Carthaginian, who
seemed to complete the tale of guests of that nationality. Her
informant had passed him by in silence, and had gone on to point out
Jubellius Taurea, Pacuvius Calavius, and his son, Perolla--the only
Campanians present besides the hosts of the occasion. When the
category was completed, however, she called the maid's attention to the
omission.

"He?" said the latter, lightly; "the man in the violet tunic? He is
nothing--a priest of one of their gods whom they call Melkarth."

He was a tall, gaunt man, and he stood directly behind Hannibal, and
kept his eyes fixed upon the pavement, as if studying the intricacies
of its mosaic pattern.

Silenus, the Greek rhetor, made the last of the group.

And now, at a signal from the hosts, the company turned and followed
them in single file toward the rear of the house.

"They will send for you when they have reclined," said the attendant,
in answer to a glance of inquiry from Marcia; and, a moment later, the
summons came.

Walls, floors, ceilings, every part of the house through which they
passed, seemed covered with roses clustered, festooned, and superlaid.
Suddenly they found themselves at the entrance of the great banquet
hall, where two triclinia were set facing each other, with room for the
servants to pass between and minist