e Roman
ports; then, on her own account, Julia inquired whether he had been
present at the various battles of the campaign. After an hour's
conversation Malchus was dismissed. In passing through the hall beyond
he came suddenly upon a female who issued from one of the female
apartments. They gave a simultaneous cry of astonishment.

"Clotilde!" Malchus exclaimed, "you here, and a captive?"

"Alas! yes," the girl replied. "I was brought here three months since."

"I have heard nothing of you all," Malchus said, "since your father
returned with his contingent after the battle of Trasimene. We knew that
Postumius with his legion was harrying Cisalpine Gaul, but no particular
has reached us."

"My father is slain," the girl said. "He and the tribe were defeated.
The next day the Romans attacked the village. We, the women and the old
men, defended it till the last. My two sisters were killed. I was taken
prisoner and sent hither as a present to Flavia by Postumius. I have
been wishing to die, but now, since you are here, I shall be content to
live even as a Roman slave."

While they were speaking they had been standing with their hands
clasped. Malchus, looking down into her face, over which the tears were
now streaming as she recalled the sad events at home, wondered at the
change which eighteen months had wrought in it. Then she was a girl,
now she was a beautiful woman--the fairest he had ever seen, Malchus
thought, with her light brown hair with a gleam of gold, her deep gray
eyes, and tender, sensitive mouth.

"And your mother?" he asked.

"She was with my father in the battle, and was left for dead on the
field; but I heard from a captive, taken a month after I was, that she
had survived, and was with the remnant of the tribe in the well nigh
inaccessible fastnesses at the head of the Orcus."

"We had best meet as strangers," Malchus said. "It were well that none
suspect we have met before. I shall not stay here long--if I am not
exchanged. I shall try to escape whatever be the risks, and if you will
accompany me I will not go alone."

"You know I will, Malchus," Clotilde answered frankly. "Whenever you
give the word I am ready, whatever the risk is. It should break my heart
were I left here alone again."

A footstep was heard approaching, and Clotilde, dropping Malchus' hands,
fled away into the inner apartments, while Malchus walked quietly on to
the part of the house appropriated to the slaves. The next