orsemen."

"Are you sure? I saw none."

"Didn't go down to the village to look?"

"No; I had too much to think of."

"So had I," said Serge; "but I went and looked all the same. There was
a grand chariot and a lot of horsemen, and it was in that chariot that,
after walking down to the village, the master went away."

"Oh, then they must be far ahead," cried Marcus.

"Yes; at Rome before now."

"And I have been expecting that we might come upon them at any moment,"
said Marcus, with a sigh of relief. "Then we shan't see them till we
get there?"

"And like enough not then," said Serge, with a grim smile; "so you may
make yourself comfortable about this scolding that's got to come, for it
won't be yet."

"But we shall see my father as soon as we get to the army."

"Some time perhaps," said Serge; "but the army will be miles long
perhaps on the march, and it's hard work, boy, to find one in a hundred
thousand men."

"Then we may not find him!" cried Marcus, in an agonised tone.

"Well, no, my lad, but you may make your mind happy about that. One
man's not bound to find his general, but his general's pretty sure to
find him, or the legion he is in. There, don't you fidget about that.
If you and me hadn't done any harm we should be pretty safe, but so sure
as one does what one ought not to do, one may make up one's mind that
he'll be found out."

The rest was pleasant, but Marcus did not feel so satisfied in his own
mind when they started once again on the tramp.

It was on the evening of a hot and wearying day that Marcus sat in a
shady grove, gladly resting, while Serge was relieving him of his armour
and carefully hanging it piece by piece from, one or other of the
branches by which they were surrounded.

"Grand thing, armour," said the old soldier, as he watched the tired boy
from the corners of his eyes.

Marcus started from a waking dream of Rome and its glories as he
pictured it in his own mind.

"Oh yes," he said, hastily; "glorious!"

"Nice and bright and shining, and makes a man seem worth looking at when
it's on, eh?"

"Yes," said Marcus, with a faint sigh.

"How proud you felt when you'd got yours; eh, my lad?"

"Yes, very," said Marcus.

"Nice dress to walk in."

"But it's rather heavy in this hot weather," ventured Marcus.

"Heavy, boy? Why, of course it is. If it wasn't heavy the barbarians'
swords and spears would go through it as if it was sheep skin. But
yours fits yo