MYRTILIS. Hark! he comes! MANLIUS. Those shouts are from the legions. I see his eagles, and now, himself. MYRTILIS. Is that his helmet higher than the rest? MANLIUS. Higher, and bare of leaves. VERGILIA. Such acclamations deafen me. MANLIUS. They are echoed from the city. O, that they could be heard across the ocean as far as Rome! Myrtilis has lived nearer to Sertorius, and is become familiar with the cries of victory. hide them. He who stands in crimson garments upon the steps, is Ahala the Pontifex Maximus. Now the legions halt. Their eagles are carried upon the tribunal. Sertorius himself ascends,look, he stands alone, -he prepares to speak! VERGILIA. Even the city is hushed, as if, from so great a distance, it were possible to hear him. silence awes me! The MYRTILIS. Vergilia, those tears are an ill augury,-forbear to weep! CHAPTER IX. ARGUMENT. Omens from Sympathy.- The Fawn's History resumed. Her Caprice. She refuses permission to escape; -- and she escapes without leave. Cruelty imputed to Sertorius by Vergilia. - The Slaughter of four thousand Slaves.-Manlius justifies it. He describes the Prætor's former position between Marius and Sylla-and his present relationship to Perpenna. Their Mothers related. The Friendship of these Noble Ladies not hereditary; but its Remembrances and Recommendations entitled to reverence. - Manlius forewarns Vergilia that Justice and Repentance will come at last. He is less obsequious now at Osca, than formerly he was at Lucentum. — Vergilia discovers that she is a Princess only in name and by permission; that the quæstor affects patronage; that Manlius is at home, and that she is not. In a stationary encampment, as at Osca, the Prætorium, or General's Pavilion, was constructed of materials more costly and substantial than those used by the soldiers for their tents. It comprehended apartments for the " imperatoris contubernales," or youths of noble birth serving under the prætor's immediate guardianship, for the assemblage of civil and military officers, for the prosecution of science and the accommodation of its votaries, for the librarii, the interpreters, the secretaries, ambassadors, messengers, freedmen, and often for the secret emissaries from Rome. Here, too, stood a temple, called the Augurale, in which were deposited the images of the Gods, the sacred vessels, the pontifical robes, and the standards of especial sanctity. The Prætorium was a palace slightly built, with sufficient room and stability for much decoration,—yet every where retaining the arrangements prescribed by custom, and the same external character of a great pavilion. The Quæstorium and Quintana were detached, and placed like wings on each side of it but the part occupied by the prætor himself, and his personal attendants, was called the Tribunal, extending its name to that little grassy elevation in front whence justice could be publicly administered and, on extraordinary occasions, the army addressed. Such was the Prætorium, not at Osca alone, but if stationary, every where else. : Vergilia, like other people, had become less sceptical since she was unhappy. She shuddered, and her eyes were filled with tears. Myrtilis called this momentary horror an ill omen,-and Vergilia felt as if it were indeed such. But the silence of a great multitude may agitate those by whom it is unexpected, as powerfully as its accla mations. More hearts may beat, and tears fall, through sympathy with strong emotions when they are not expressed. There is expectation, and the mystery which has some relationship both to love and terror. One man suspends the breath of many thousands, who listen not less eagerly because it is impossible that they should hear. He is seen alone among the eagles of his legions, by the whole camp around him, the whole city above him, and by Vergilia for the first time. In her childhood she had been taught to consider him so much greater than the deities, because their power was often neither beneficent nor equitable. Since then, she had striven to sharpen her hatred of him with the thoughts that her father's death was hastened by his abandonment, her hereditary rights, and her country's independence were faithlessly betrayed. But now it is suggested that possibly there may have been no other injustice beside her own. She remembers that if her father were forsaken, the quæstor and the four legions under his command must have been endangered at the same time. Were these also hazarded unfaithfully and capriciously? Sertorius could have uttered no more than the shortest congratulations of victory, when he was seen to stoop, and to raise some burden light as |