"Then will I find some one, to whom thou wilt fain disclose it!" he
answered haughtily.

"And who may that be, I beseech you?" asked the mechanic, half sneeringly.
"For my part, I fancy you will let it rest altogether; some one was hurt
with it last night, as you and _he_, we both know, can tell if you will!
But I knew not that you were one of his men."

There was an insolent sneer on the cutler's face that galled the young
nobleman to the quick; and what was yet more annoying, there was an
assumption of mutual intelligence and equality about him, that almost
goaded the patrician's blood to fury. But by a mighty effort he subdued
his passion to his will; and snatching up the weapon returned it to his
belt, left the shop, and springing to the saddle of his beautiful black
horse, rode furiously away. It was not till he reached the Carmental Gate,
giving egress from the city through the vast walls of Cyclopean
architecture, immediately at the base of the dread Tarpeian rock,
overlooked and commanded by the outworks and turrets of the capitol, that
he drew in his eager horse, and looked behind him for his friends. But
they were not in sight; and a moment's reflection told him that, being
about to start their coursers on a trial of speed, they would doubtless
ride gently over the rugged pavement of the crowded streets.

He doubted for a minute, whether he should turn back to meet them, or wait
for their arrival at the gate, by which they must pass to gain the campus;
but the fear of missing them, instantly induced him to adopt the latter
course, and he sat for a little space motionless on his well-bitted and
obedient horse beneath the shadow of the deep gate-way.

Here his eye wandered around him for awhile, taking note indeed of the
surrounding objects, the great temple of Jupiter Stator on the Palatine;
the splendid portico of Catulus, adorned with the uncouth and grisly
spoils of the Cimbric hordes slaughtered on the plains of Vercellae; the
house of Scaurus, toward which a slow wain tugged by twelve powerful oxen
was even then dragging one of the pondrous columns which rendered his hall
for many years the boast of Roman luxury; and on the other tall buildings
that stood every where about him; although in truth he scarce observed
what for the time his eye dwelt upon.

At length an impatient motion of his horse caused him to turn his face
toward the black precipice of the huge rock at whose base he sat, and in a
moment