but some murmured, while Gallus
said:

"Way there, friends, way there! I am charged to deliver this lady to the
Caesars and to certify that while she was in my care no man has so
much as laid a finger on her. Way there, I pray you! And as for that
whimpering puppy on his back, if he wishes it, he knows where to
find Gallus. My sword will mark him worse than my elbow, if he wants
blood-letting, that I swear."

Now with jests and excuses they fell back one and all. There were few
of them who did not know that, lame as he might be now, old Gallus was
still the fiercest and most dreaded swordsman of his legion. Indeed he
was commonly reported to have slain eighteen men in single combat, and
when young even to have faced the most celebrated gladiator of the day
for sport, or to win a private bet, and given him life as he lay at his
mercy.

So they passed on through long halls guarded by soldiers, till at length
they came to a wide passage closed with splendid curtains, where the
officer on duty asked them their business. Gallus told him and he
vanished through the curtains, whence he returned presently, beckoning
them to advance. They followed him down a corridor set with busts of
departed emperors and empresses, to find themselves in a round marble
chamber, very cool and lighted from above. In this chamber sat and
stood three men: Vespasian, whom they knew by his strong, quiet face and
grizzled hair; Titus, his son, "the darling of mankind," thin, active,
and aesthetic-looking, with eyes that were not unkindly, a sarcastic
smile playing about the corners of his mouth; and Domitian, his brother,
who has already been described, a man taller than either of them by half
a head, and more gorgeously attired. In front of the august three was a
master of ceremonies clad in a dark-coloured robe, who was showing them
drawings of various sections of the triumphal procession, and taking
their orders as to such alterations as they wished.

Also there were present, a treasurer, some officers and two or three of
the intimate friends of Titus.

Vespasian looked up.

"Greeting, worthy Gallus," he said in the friendly, open voice of one
who has spent his life in camps, "and to your wife, Julia, greeting
also. So that is the Pearl-Maiden of whom we have heard so much talk.
Well, I do not pretend to be a judge of beauty, still I say that this
Jewish captive does not belie her name. Titus, do you recognise her?"

"In truth, no, father.