not go to the sports to-morrow, I
may as well take a peep at the beasts to-night.'

'You will do well,' returned his new acquaintance, 'a lion and a tiger
are not to be seen at Pompeii every day.'

The crowd had now entered a broken and wide space of ground, on which,
as it was only lighted scantily and from a distance, the press became
dangerous to those whose limbs and shoulders were not fitted for a mob.
Nevertheless, the women especially--many of them with children in their
arms, or even at the breast--were the most resolute in forcing their
way; and their shrill exclamations of complaint or objurgation were
heard loud above the more jovial and masculine voices. Yet, amidst them
was a young and girlish voice, that appeared to come from one too happy
in her excitement to be alive to the inconvenience of the crowd.

'Aha!' cried the young woman, to some of her companions, 'I always told
you so; I always said we should have a man for the lion; and now we have
one for the tiger too! I wish tomorrow were come!'

Ho, ho! for the merry, merry show,
With a forest of faces in every row!
Lo! the swordsmen, bold as the son of Alcmaena,
Sweep, side by side, o'er the hushed arena.
Talk while you may, you will hold your breath
When they meet in the grasp of the glowing death!
Tramp! tramp! how gaily they go!
Ho! ho! for the merry, merry show!

'A jolly girl!' said Sosia.

'Yes,' replied the young artificer, a curly-headed, handsome youth.
'Yes,' replied he, enviously; 'the women love a gladiator. If I had
been a slave, I would have soon found my schoolmaster in the lanista!'

'Would you, indeed?' said Sosia, with a sneer. 'People's notions
differ!'

The crowd had now arrived at the place of destination; but as the cell
in which the wild beasts were confined was extremely small and narrow,
tenfold more vehement than it hitherto had been was the rush of the
aspirants to obtain admittance. Two of the officers of the
amphitheatre, placed at the entrance, very wisely mitigated the evil by
dispensing to the foremost only a limited number of tickets at a time,
and admitting no new visitors till their predecessors had sated their
curiosity. Sosia, who was a tolerably stout fellow and not troubled
with any remarkable scruples of diffidence or good breeding, contrived
to be among the first of the initiated.

Separated from his companion the artificer, Sosia fo