House swung open, and a man in the garb of a senator, but
chained and shackled, issued forth and stood on the steps, beneath the
porch. Surrounded by a guard of Africans, it was fully a moment,
before the mob recognized Decius Magius, the partisan, of Rome. Then a
chorus of howls and curses rose up. Insults were hurled,--the grossest
that the minds of a licentious rabble could suggest, fists were shaken,
women spat toward the prisoner,--even a few stones were cast, and when
one of these happened to strike an African of the guard, he turned
quietly and cut down the nearest citizen. Then, with their heavy
javelins so held as to be used either as spears or clubs, the soldiers
descended into the Forum, and, with the captive in their midst, began
their progress toward the street and gate that led to the Carthaginian
camp. There was no weak delay in this progress, no requests for
passage; the escort clove through the mass of the people, as a war
galley dashes through the breakers of a turbulent sea. A spray of
human beings that strove to escape but could not, boiled up about the
prow; a wake of bodies, writhing or senseless, fell behind the stern,
while, at either side, the stout javelins rose and fell like the
strokes of oars, splashing up blood for foam.

The taunts and threats that had assailed the prisoner died away amid
shrieks of terror or pain and the deep rumble of the mob. Stupid with
drink, drunk with the exultation of ungoverned power, they wondered
vaguely, as they crushed back, why their new friends should strike,
merely because they,--the Capuan people,--allies of Carthage, strove to
punish a traitor and a common enemy. The prisoner's lips were seen
moving, as his captors hurried him along; but no speech from them could
be heard, until the Forum had been nearly traversed. Then, on the hush
born of surprise and efforts to escape blows, the words of Magius were
audible, at least to those nearest.

He was protesting against this violation of the treaty. He was
speaking of himself; a Capuan, than whom no one was of higher rank,
being dragged in chains to the camp of an ally who had sworn that no
Carthaginian should have power over a citizen of Capua. At the mention
of his rank, malice and envy lent to some of the cowed rabble courage
to jeer once more. Then he had asked, how they expected that an ally
so careless of recently sworn obligations would respect his vow that no
Capuan would be compelled to do