of you."

As they were rising, the young Gracus remarked: "By Apollo! I have not
taken my emetic."

"To forget that is to know sorrow," said another.

Slaves brought their outer robes and they followed the young prince.
He led them, between vines and fruit trees and beds of martagon and
mirasolus, to the lion-house in his garden. Vergilius now understood
the test of courage to be put upon him. The great beasts were asleep
in their cages, and Antipater prodded them with a lance. A thunder in
their throats seemed to fill the air and shake the flames in the
lampadaria. With sword and lance Antipater entered the arena, a space
barred high, about thirty feet square, upon which all the cages opened.

"The tiger!" he commanded.

Keepers lifted a metal gate, and the huge cat leaped away from their
lances, backed snarling to the end of his cage, and with a slow,
creeping movement put his head and fore-paws into the arena; then a
swift step or two, a lowering of the great head, and side-long he
stood, with eyes aglow and fangs uncovered, a low mutter in his mouth,
like the roar of a mighty harp-string. Some fifteen feet away stood
the son of Herod, his lance poised.

"Never strike while your beast has a foot to the ground," said he,
keeping his gaze on the face of the tiger. "He will be quick to move
and parry. Wait until he is in the air, and then thrust your lance."

He made a feint with his weapon; the tiger darted half his length
aside, with a great, bursting roar, and, crouching low, stealthily felt
the ground beneath him.

"Watch him now," said the tall Antipater. "He will leap soon."

Again he drove him forward, and then the beast turned, facing his
tormentor, and crouched low. There, in a huge setting of bone and
muscle strangely fitted to its fierceness, with eyes of fire and feet
of deadly stealth, its back arched like a drawn bow, the wild heart of
the son of Herod seemed to be facing him.

"Look!" a slave shouted. "He has bent his bow."

The haired lip of the beast quivered; great cords of muscle were drawn
tense. Like a flash the bow sprang and the columns of bone beneath him
lifted, flinging his long, striped body in the air. With cat-like
swiftness Antipater stepped aside, and while the huge beast was in
mid-air, thrust the lance into his heart. He bore with all his
strength and rushed away, seizing an other weapon. The big cat fell
and rose and struck at the clinging lance, and stood a