, asking who was in
command of the army.

The young man looked at him superciliously.

"What is it to you?" he said, shortly. "Ask the general himself when
you come before him, and then perhaps you will be able to explain why
you who are Romans have come to be fighting on the side of the Gaul."

"What!" said Marcus. "Do you know that--"

"Never mind what I know, my lad," said the officer, shortly, "and don't
speak to me again in that free off-hand tone. Please to understand that
I am an officer and you a prisoner. Forward, and mind this: any attempt
to escape will be followed by a shower of spears."

"Thanks," said Marcus, sarcastically; and he turned to Serge.

"I shall not tell him why we have come," he said, with his face of a
deeper red than before.

"That's right, boy," growled Serge. "We don't want him to be civil; all
we want is for him to take us to the general. You can tell him why we
have come."

They were ascending a slope that grew more and more steep, and the
morning would have seemed beautiful to Marcus, whose heart beat high at
the prospect of being able to deliver his message to the general in
command, whoever it might be; but the beauty of the scene and the
approaching sunrise were marred by the traces left by the battle, which
they were constantly passing: the dead here, wounded men waiting for
help there; the trampled and stained earth everywhere. It was a
pleasant relief when the top of the hill they were ascending had been
reached, though it showed no trace of any camp till the descending slope
came into view, and then the adventurers found that they had to cross a
valley, beyond which, with the trench and banks showing in rich brown
tints gilded by the rays of the rising sun, was the Roman camp, with its
few tents and moving columns of men passing up the flanks of the steep
hill upon which it stood, evidently returning in regular order from the
pursuit of the scattered foes who had resisted the attack upon the
invader during the past night.

In his eagerness Marcus gave an order to the driver for the chariot to
advance down the slope and cross the valley at a trot; but the officer
turned upon him angrily, and ordered two of his spear-armed men to take
the ponies by the rein, and in this fashion Marcus and his companion
were led right to the centre of the camp before one of the tents, up to
whose entrance the officer marched, spoke to another who was on guard,
and then entered.