"We shall soon leave them behind," Malchus said encouragingly. "There
are plenty of fishermen's boats moored along the bank here. We shall
soon leave Rome behind us."

They stepped into a boat, loosened the moorings, and pushed off, and
Malchus, getting out the oars, rowed steadily down the river until they
neared its mouth. Then they landed, pushed the boat into the stream
again, lest, if it were found fastened up, it might give a clue to any
who were in pursuit of them, and then struck off into the country. After
travelling some miles they turned into a wood, where they lay down for
several hours, and did not resume their course until nightfall.

Malchus had, before starting, entered the kitchen, and had filled a bag
with cold meat, oatmeal cakes, and other food, and this, when examined,
proved ample for four days' supply, and he had, therefore, no occasion
to enter the villages to buy provisions. They kept by the seashore until
they neared Terracina, and then took to the hills, and skirted these
until they had left the state of Latium. They kept along at the foot of
the great range which forms the backbone of Italy, and so passing along
Samnium, came down upon the Volturnus, having thus avoided the Roman
army, which lay between Capua and Rome.

Their journey had been a rough one, for, by the winding road they had
followed along the mountains, the distance they traversed was over one
hundred miles. The fatigue had been great, and it was well that Clotilde
had had a Gaulish training. After their provisions were exhausted they
had subsisted upon corn which they gathered in the patches of cultivated
ground near the mountain villages, and upon fruits which they picked in
the woods.

Twice, too, they had come upon herds of half wild goats in the
mountains, and Malchus had succeeded in knocking down a kid with a
stone. They had not made very long journeys, resting always for a few
hours in the heat of the day, and it was ten days after they had left
Rome before, from an eminence, they saw the walls of Capua.

"How can I go in like this?" Clotilde exclaimed in a sudden fit of
shyness.

"We will wait until it is dusk," Malchus said; "the dye is fast wearing
off, and your arms are strangely white for a peasant girl's. I will
take you straight to Hannibal's palace, and you will soon be fitted out
gorgeously. There are spoils enough stored up to clothe all the women of
Rome."

They sat down in the shade of a clump of tre