formed a semicircle around
the porphyry bath, rubbing now arms, and now legs, from the hip to the
knee.

This man of about fifty-five years was a model of healthy and vigorous
strength; his limbs showed that the practice of the hunt and gymnastics
had developed the power of his strongly-formed body.

He now ceased his movements, and sank gradually into deep thought. His
head fell deeper and deeper on his breast; at last he extended his
right arm and began to draw figures in the clean white sand, which
covered the space between the marble seat and the edge of the bath.

"Must rank our men still deeper against the German wedge," murmured he
to himself. "Ten men--twelve men deep. No, they don't waver yet. And
yet--it must be just a question of arithmetic to defeat these Germans.
It is only a problem of stroke and counter-stroke. Who may solve it? It
would be best"----

"It would be best," broke in gently a melancholy voice, "that we lay in
our last long sleep, where there is no longer either stroke or
counterstroke."

Severus turned; the white woollen curtain of the inner bath was moved
aside; a handsome man in the strength of youth, and fully armed, stood
behind it.

"Thou, Cornelius! What meanest thou?"

"Thou knowest my meaning. The best for man is not to have been born."

"Shame on thee! thirty years old, and already so tired of life."

"Shame on _thee_! Nearly sixty years, and still so foolishly fond of
life."

"What dost thou bring?"

"Advice: evacuate the town, all the citizens to the Capitol. An express
messenger over the Alps for help."

"Thou seest spectres!"

"Ah! If I saw only _them_! But I see the Germans!"

"There is no trace of them far and wide."

"It is exactly that which is mysterious. They must be near, quite near;
and no one knows where they are."

"_Why_ must they be quite near?"

"Because the gray heron does not go southwards in the month of June;
and because he never flies so low."

"What has that to say to it?"

"I will tell you. I was making the midnight round to relieve the guard
at the Porta Latina. From the battlements of the tower I looked out
sharply into the night. Nothing was to be seen, and nothing to be
heard, except the song of the nightingale. Then suddenly I heard the
cry of the gray heron."

"They are not numerous here," said Severus; "but they do appear in the
stagnant waters and in the marshes of the Ivarus."

"Certainly; but the cry did not come from th