his seat. An occurrence of far greater importance would have awakened less surprise. Such emotion was witnessed there for the first time. Pointing at two persons whose armour was covered by their winter cloaks, and who were slowly retiring across the area at a distance from the crowd, the prætor despatched his lictors for their arrest. A passage was made through the bystanders, and they were instantly confronted with Sertorius. Contrary to custom, he still remained upon his feet. The oldest of these men was recognised as Lucius Calvus, a freedman, who had accompanied Aufidius into Spain, and was employed by him as his secretary. The other was Titus Pollius, a decurion from the third Sertorian legion then stationed at Ausula.

Allowing no breathing-time for their consternation, the prætor commanded that Pollius should produce a chain of gold suspended by his girdle, and two large purses attached to his sword-belt. While the astonished culprit turned to look at his companion as an accuser by whom he had been corrupted only that he might be betrayed, the lictors plucked aside his cloak. A long and heavy chain of gold, and two purses of strong leather well filled, were concealed beneath it. "Pollius has not spoken falsehood

yet," said the prætor, "he is now leaving the camp that he may rejoin his brother's cohort at Ausula. For what purpose was that gold entrusted to you, Titus Pollius?" The decurion, finding no leisure for equivocation, and believing that he had been already denounced by his confederate, replied—that the one purse was for his own use the other to corrupt the cohort under the command of his brother Lucius—and the golden chain was for Lucius himself if he would submit to be seduced. "He is yet innocent," said Pollius, "and so was I three days ago. These presents are sent from Perpenna, in the name and through the agency of this traitor here." 66 Carry them to your brother in my name," said Sertorius; "tell him to wear the chain, and to distribute the money among his soldiers. He is still honest: both of you were always brave. Say that I consign Titus the younger brother to the honor and vigilance of Lucius the elder. Lictors, let him go! What answer does Calvus make?

66

Calvus, confident in Perpenna's protection, replied, that he had committed no offencethat every man had the privilege of making presents to his friends that Pollius was a fool who had misunderstood his commission—and that if

there were any other accuser, he would meet him face to face." “The accuser is here," said

He

Sertorius, pointing to his Fawn. "I too, saw this and heard this-last night. Let Faustus brand him as a slave. Despatch him, with the deserters Manius and Glabrio, to Lusitania. shall carry a chain heavier than that of Pollius. His sentence is for life.”—The prætor then resumed his seat, and without adding or hearing another word on that subject, he commanded the former pleadings to recommence.

Perpenna had never seen the Fawn, nor was she ever known to visit his side of the river. He expressed unmeasured scorn at her pretensions. This was a fresh impeachment against the injustice and superstition of Sertorius, who had condemned a freedman on such testimony. Nevertheless, Calvus rowed upon the Tagus in the galleys-Sertorius found that his colleague's gold was less incautiously distributed—and, through such contumelies, the Fawn's sanctity suffered no disgrace.

CHAPTER XIII.

ARGUMENT.

The Caricatani. . Their Robberies and Strongholds. — Junius Libo distressed and endangered by them. - Gitto, a Mercenary from Bætica, confirms his Complaints. - Sertorius marches hastily to his Relief. - Is guided by a Goatherd.- Obstructed and embarrassed by the Fawn. Divides his Army.- Confides the Half of it to her Conduct.-Fights a Battle. - Detects Treason. - Finds Gitto. Loses the Goatherd. Pleases and besieges the Caricatani.

SEVEN cohorts under two military tribunes from Perpenna's army, with more than an equal number of African and Cicilian mercenaries, were commanded by Junius Libo beyond the Tagus. His communication with Osca had been interrupted by the Caricatani, a barbarous tribe not otherwise unfriendly to Sertorius than through the lust of plunder. It was the passage of supplies, and of the traffic attendant on armies remote from each other, which inflamed their cupidity. Robbers they had always been--but not, as at present, nationally and confederately such, with a strong hand and in boastful defiance.

Formerly they committed thefts-now they wage

war.

Nor was there any danger incurred by them beyond that which might arise at the moment, and on the spot. Their booty, if they could overcome the resistance which protected it, was beyond recovery, and they themselves might laugh at retribution. For these tribes had neither cities, nor villages, nor property of any kind that could be approached. Their flocks, at the first alarm, were widely scattered among almost inexplorable pastures far away from their abodes. Had pursuit been practicable, such an indemnification would have ill repaid the risk and labor which must have been incurred in re-collecting them. A still safer depositary for their families and their plunder was afforded by precipices which no unpermitted foot could scale, and caverns inaccessible to the most adventurous of their own goats. They boasted that their children alone might defy the different armies assembled in Spain—that if they were ever conquered at all, it must be by the birds, or by assailants to whom the birds had lent their wings. Inhabiting a district which might hardly be avoided, even at the cost of time as well as labor and danger—and secure against punishment