ring that his fellow-townsmen could not bear to see it.
They turned with loud cries upon the senate and compelled them to vote
that the coveted statue should be given up to the governor. So Verres
got his Mercury.

We have a curious picture of the man as he made his progresses from town
to town in his search for treasures of art. "As soon as it was
spring--and he knew that it was spring not from the rising of any
constellation or the blowing of any wind, but simply because he saw the
roses--then indeed he bestirred himself. So enduring, so untiring was he
that no one ever saw him upon horseback. No--he was carried in a litter
with eight bearers. His cushion was of the finest linen of Malta, and it
was stuffed with roses. There was one wreath of roses upon his head, and
another round his neck, made of the finest thread, of the smallest mesh,
and this, too, was full of roses. He was carried in this litter straight
to his chamber; and there he gave his audiences."

When spring had passed into summer even such exertions were too much for
him. He could not even endure to remain in his official residence, the
old palace of the kings of Syracuse. A number of tents were pitched for
him at the entrance of the harbor to catch the cool breezes from the
sea. There he spent his days and nights, surrounded by troops of the
vilest companions, and let the province take care of itself.

Such a governor was not likely to keep his province free from the
pirates who, issuing from their fastnesses on the Cilician coast and
elsewhere, kept the seaboard cities of the Mediterranean in constant
terror. One success, and one only, he seems to have gained over them.
His fleet was lucky enough to come upon a pirate ship, which was so
overladen with spoil that it could neither escape nor defend itself.
News was at once carried to Verres, who roused himself from his feasting
to issue strict orders that no one was to meddle with the prize. It was
towed into Syracuse, and he hastened to examine his booty. The general
feeling was one of delight that a crew of merciless villains had been
captured and were about to pay the penalty of their crimes. Verres had
far more practical views. Justice might deal as she pleased with the old
and useless; the young and able bodied, and all who happened to be
handicraftsmen, were too valuable to be given up. His secretaries, his
retinue, his son had their share of the prize; six, who happened to be
singers, were sent