, "I will chastise you," and
he struck Malchus with his stick. In an instant the latter sprang upon
him, struck him to the ground, and wrenching the staff from his hand
laid it heavily across him. At that moment Flavia, followed by her
daughter, hurried in at the sound of the struggle. "Malchus," she
exclaimed, "what means this?"

"It means," Sempronius said rising livid with passion, "that your slave
has struck me--me, a Roman patrician. I will lodge a complaint against
him, and the penalty, you know, is death."

"He struck me first, Lady Flavia," Malchus said quietly, "because I
would not do his behests when he spoke to me as a dog."

"If you struck my slave, Sempronius," Flavia said coldly, "I blame him
not that he returned the blow. Although a prisoner of war, he is, as you
well know, of a rank in Carthage superior to your own, and I wonder not
that, if you struck him, he struck you in return. You know that you had
no right to touch my slave, and if you now take any steps against him I
warn you that you will never enter this house again."

"Nor will I ever speak a word to you," Julia added.

"But he has struck me," Sempronius said furiously; "he has knocked me
down and beaten me."

"Apparently you brought it upon yourself," Flavia said. "None but
ourselves know what has happened; therefore, neither shame nor disgrace
can arise from it. My advice to you is, go home now and remain there
until those marks of the stick have died out; it will be easy for you to
assign an excuse. If you follow the matter up, I will proclaim among
my friends how I found you here grovelling on the ground while you were
beaten. What will then be said of your manliness? Already the repeated
excuses which have served you from abstaining to join the armies in
the field have been a matter for much comment. You best know whether it
would improve your position were it known that you had been beaten by a
slave. Why, you would be a jest among young Romans."

Sempronius stood irresolute. His last hopes of winning Julia were
annihilated by what had happened. The tone of contempt in which both
mother and daughter had spoken sufficiently indicated their feelings,
and for a moment he hesitated whether he would not take what revenge he
could by denouncing Malchus. But the thought was speedily put aside. He
had been wrong in striking the domestic slave of another; but the fact
that Malchus had been first attacked, and the whole influence of the
hou