by
them. They saw the cars painted with scenes of the taking of Jerusalem
and the statues of the gods fashioned in ivory and gold. They saw the
purple hangings of the Babylonian broidered pictures, the wild beasts,
and the ships mounted upon wheels. They saw the treasures of the temple
and the images of victory, and many other things, for that pageant
seemed to be endless, and still the captives and the Emperors did not
come.

One sight there was also that caused Marcus to shrink as though fire had
burned him, for yonder, set in the midst of a company of jugglers and
buffoons that gibed and mocked at them, were the two unhappy men who
had been taken prisoners by the Jews. On they tramped, their hands bound
behind them, clad in full armour, but wearing a woman's distaff where
the sword should have been, and round their necks the placards which
proclaimed their shame. The brutal Roman mob hooted them also, that mob
which ever loved spectacles of cruelty and degradation, calling them
cowards. One of the men, a bull-necked, black-haired fellow, suffered it
patiently, remembering that at even he must be set free to vanish where
he would. The other, who was blue-eyed and finer-featured, having gentle
blood in his veins, seemed to be maddened by their talk, for he glared
about him, gnashing his teeth like a wild beast in a cage. Opposite to
the house of Marcus came the climax.

"Cur," yelled a woman in the mob, casting a pebble that struck him on
the cheek. "Cur! Coward!"

The blue-eyed man stopped, and, wheeling round, shouted in answer:

"I am no coward, I who have slain ten men with my own hand, five of them
in single combat. You are the cowards who taunt me. I was overwhelmed,
that is all, and afterwards in the prison I thought of my wife and
children and lived on. Now I die and my blood be on you."

Behind him, drawn by eight white oxen, was the model of a ship with the
crew standing on its deck. Avoiding his guard, the man ran down the
line of oxen and suddenly cast himself upon the ground before the
wooden-wheeled car, which passed over his neck, crushing the life out of
him.

"Well done! Well done!" shouted the crowd, rejoicing at this unexpected
sight. "Well done! He was brave after all."

Then the body was carried away and the procession moved forward. But
Marcus, who watched, hid his face in his hands, and Nehushta, lifting
hers, uttered a prayer for the passing soul of the victim.

Now the prisoners bega