ne; and Marcia, also, had softened and
grown kindlier, and was as slow to ask for punishments as was Calavius
to decree them. They seemed like two who were awaiting death, and
would not add to the measure of human misery, knowing, from their own,
how great this was.

"Let them enjoy a false freedom for a few days longer," said Calavius.
"Soon we shall be gone, and then--who knows? I have no heirs, and the
state may not deal so kindly with them." Strangely enough, he seemed
always to assume Marcia's coming death along with his own; and when she
gazed into her mirror, its story moulded well with that reflected in
the mirror of her thoughts.

She had grown thin--very thin--and pale, and her eyes burned, large and
luminous, as with the fires of fever. Her lips, too, were redder even
than when the blood had tinted them with hues of more perfect vigour.

Hannibal had continued to preserve the attitude of respectful
consideration which had marked his demeanour on that day of which they
never spoke. He still greeted Calavius as, "father," when he came to
ask about his health, and on the days when he did not come, he sent
some Carthaginian of rank, generally Iddilcar, to make courteous
inquiries in his stead.

Calavius, on the other hand, complained continuously of the
schalischim's delay, and Hannibal listened with downcast face, frowning
to himself, and made no answer except that he was the servant of the
gods. Marcia's presence he entirely ignored. Still, he spent little
of his time in Capua, and of this Calavius was now speaking.

"Truly did you note the news we have received to-day, my daughter? Two
of the new engines destroyed before Casilinum!--Casilinum, forsooth!--a
paltry village, against which the Capuan children would hardly deign to
march! It is Rome--Rome--Rome that calls--and this great general, this
conqueror, sits down before Nuceria, Acerrae, Nola, Casilinum. Soon,
mark me," and his eyes gleamed prophetic, "Rome will sit down before
Capua: and then, receive thou me, O Death, who art my friend and
well-wisher!"

Marcia wondered at this vehemence, so different from his manner through
all these weeks.

"But the omens, my father," she said, after a moment's pause. "I have
heard that the gods of Carthage forbid the march north. Perhaps they
fear to contend with the gods of Rome at the foot of their own hills."

"Tush! girl," exclaimed Calavius, impatiently. "Who does not know that
the gods say