leapt from his chariot. Drawing his Argive sword he slashed the
dying man across his abdomen; then, sheathing his blade, he stood, one
foot on his adversary's neck and, raising his lance and shield, shouted:
"Enalie! Enalie! Enalie!" the old Greek invocation to the war-god. Then he
threw aside his lance and shield and stripped off the armor from the dead.
Arena-slaves carried it to the pyre and placed it upon it, by Murmex.

Narcissus had wheeled the chariot in a short circle and halted it as near
Palus as he could keep it and control the frantic horse. Palus took from
one of the hand-holds at the back of the chariot-rail a long leathern
thong. With his dirk he slit each foot of the corpse between the leg-bone
and the heel-tendon; through the slit he passed the thong, knotting it to
his liking. The doubled thong he tied securely to the rear rim of the
chariot-bed. Retrieving his lance and shield he posed an instant, every
inch Achilles, stepped over Hector's naked corpse and mounted the chariot.
From Automedon he took the reins and the whip, passing him his lance, yet
retaining his great circular shield, nowise hampered by which he drove the
chariot round and round the pyre, the picture, as all could see, he felt,
of Achilles placating the ghost of Patroclus.

This exhibition shocked the whole audience, upper tiers and all. The ghost
of a hiss breathed under the tense hush of the silent beholders. A shudder
ran over the hollow of the amphitheater, as the dragged corpse, mauled by
the sand and turning over, became a mere lump of pounded meat. The chill
of the onlookers appeared to reach Palus. He halted his team near the
pyre, arena-slaves dragged away Hector's corpse, one brought a lighted
torch and Palus himself kindled the pyre at each of its four corners,
walking twice round it. When it was enveloped in crackling flames, he
mounted the chariot and Narcissus drove him out; drove him out, to the
horror of all beholders by the Gate of Ill-omen.

After he vanished through that gate no amphitheater ever again beheld
Palus the Gladiator.

When he was gone all eyes were fixed on the kindling pyre. The flames
blazed up all round it and above it, the smoke mounted skyward in a thick
column, the crackle and roar of the flames was audible all over the
amphitheater; so deep was the solemn stillness. I shall carry to my last
living hour the vivid recollection of that picture: under the grim gray
sky, framed in by the sable han