ich should attempt to cross the stream and make the attack upon the
other. They remained in this position for a considerable time, neither
party venturing to attempt the passage.

While things were in this condition--the troops on each side waiting
for an opportunity of attacking their enemies, and probably without
any fear whatever of the physical dangers which they were to encounter
in the conflict--the feeling of composure and confidence among the men
in Pyrrhus's army was greatly disturbed by a singular superstition. It
was rumored in the army that Decius Mus, the Roman commander, was
endowed with a species of magical and supernatural power, which would,
under certain circumstances, be fatal to all who opposed him. And
though the Greeks seem to have had no fear of the material steel of
the Roman legions, this mysterious and divine virtue, which they
imagined to reside in the commander, struck them with an invincible
terror.

The story was, that the supernatural power in question originated in
one of the ancestors of the present Decius, a brave Roman general,
who lived and flourished in the century preceding the time of Pyrrhus.
His name, too, was Decius Mus. In the early part of his life, when he
was a subordinate officer, he was the means of saving the whole army
from most imminent danger, by taking possession of an eminence among
the mountains, with the companies that were under his command, and
holding it against the enemy until the Roman troops could be drawn out
of a dangerous defile where they would otherwise have been overwhelmed
and destroyed. He was greatly honored for this exploit. The consul who
commanded on the occasion rewarded him with a golden crown, a hundred
oxen, and a magnificent white bull, with gilded horns. The common
soldiers, too, held a grand festival and celebration in honor of him,
in which they crowned him with a wreath made of dried grasses on the
field, according to an ancient custom which prevailed among the Romans
of rewarding in this way any man who should be the means of saving an
army. Of course, such an event as saving an army was of very rare
occurrence; and, accordingly, the crowning of a soldier by his
comrades on the field was a very distinguished honor, although the
decoration itself was made of materials so insignificant and
worthless.

Decius rose rapidly after this time from rank to rank, until at length
he was chosen consul. In the course of his consulship, he took the