ber, else they will never get over the Styx--not forgetting too the
ferriage--' what more folly he would have uttered, I know not, for the
wretch to whom he spoke suddenly seized the lash of the driver of the
cart, and laid it over Milo's shoulders, saying, as he did it,

'Off, fool, or my fist shall do for you what it did for one of these.'

The bystanders, at this, set up a hoarse shouting, one of them
exclaiming, so that I could hear him--

'There goes the Christian Piso, we or the lions will have a turn at him
yet. These are the fellows that spoil our trade.'

'If report goes true, they won't spoil it long,' replied another.

No rank and no power is secure against the affronts of this lawless
tribe; they are a sort of licensed brawlers, their brutal and inhuman
trade rendering them insensible to all fear from any quarter. Death is
to them but as a scratch on the finger--they care not for it, when nor
how it comes. The slightest cause--a passing word--a look--a motion--is
enough to inflame their ferocious passions, and bring on quarrel and
murder. Riot and death are daily occurrences in the neighborhood of
these schools of trained assassins. Milo knew their character well
enough, but he deemed himself to be uttering somewhat that should amuse
rather than enrage, and was mortified rather than terrified, I believe,
at the sudden application of the lash. The unfeigned surprise he
manifested, together with the quick leap which his horse made, who
partook of the blow, was irresistibly ludicrous. He was nearly thrown
off backwards in the speed of the animal's flight along the road. It was
some time before I overtook him.

'Intermeddling,' I said to Milo, as I came up with him, 'is a dangerous
vice. How feel your shoulders?'

'I shall remember that one-eyed butcher, and if there be virtue in
hisses or in thumbs, he shall rue the hour he laid a lash on Gallienus,
poor fellow! Whose horsemanship is equal to such an onset? I'll haunt
the theatre till my chance come.'

'Well, well, let us forget this. How went the games yesterday?'

'Never, as I hear,' he said, 'and as I remember, were they more liberal,
or more magnificent. Larger, or more beautiful, or finer beasts, neither
Asia nor Africa ever sent over. They fought as if they had been trained
to it, like these scholars of Sosia, and in most cases they bore away
the palm from them. How many of Sosia's men exactly fell, it is not
known, but not fewer than threescore