ly accoutred and equipped with his
Numidian dress and his Numidian guards. Let the reader attend to him
with all his ears, for the words of the wise are precious:--

"'SEMP. The deer is lodged; I've tracked her to her covert.'

"Now I would fain know why this deer is said to be lodged, since we
have not heard one word since the play began of her being at all out of
harbour: and if we consider the discourse with which she and Lucia begin
the act, we have reason to believe that they had hardly been talking
of such matters in the street. However, to pleasure Sempronius, let us
suppose, for once, that the deer is lodged:--

"'The deer is lodged; I've tracked her to her covert.'

"If he had seen her in the open field, what occasion had he to track her
when he had so many Numidian dogs at his heels, which, with one halloo,
he might have set upon her haunches? If he did not see her in the
open field, how could he possibly track her? If he had seen her in the
street, why did he not set upon her in the street, since through the
street she must be carried at last? Now here, instead of having his
thoughts upon his business, and upon the present danger; instead of
meditating and contriving how he shall pass with his mistress through
the southern gate, where her brother Marcus is upon the guard, and where
he would certainly prove an impediment to him (which is the Roman word
for the BAGGAGE); instead of doing this, Sempronius is entertaining
himself with whimsies:--

"'Semp. How will the young Numidian rave to see
His mistress lost! If aught could glad my soul
Beyond th' enjoyment of so bright a prize,
'Twould be to torture that young, gay barbarian.
But hark! what noise? Death to my hopes! 'tis he,
'Tis Juba's self! There is but one way left!
He must be murdered, and a passage cut
Through those his guards.'

"Pray, what are 'those guards'? I thought at present that Juba's guards
had been Sempronius's tools, and had been dangling after his heels.

"But now let us sum up all these absurdities together. Sempronius goes
at noon-day, in Juba's clothes and with Juba's guards, to Cato's palace,
in order to pass for Juba, in a place where they were both so very well
known: he meets Juba there, and resolves to murder him with his own
guards. Upon the guards appearing a little bashful, he threatens them:--

"'Hah! dastards, do you tremble?
Or act like men; or, by