lso and do these things of which he heard. The tales
of Valerius did not always hang together, but Nicanor cared not at all
for that. By and by Valerius took to asking questions, his tongue in his
cheek at some of Nicanor's replies. In half an hour he had learned the
boy's life, deeds, and ambitions, and had extracted a promise that
Nicanor would get the worthy Tobias to provide him also with employment,
preferably around the church, where would be fat pickings and little
work. At noon they ate by the roadside with two kindly disposed
merchants, and later continued on their way, meeting other folk, with
whom Valerius passed the time of day.

So, toward sunset, they came with many others ahorse and afoot, to
Thorney, the Isle of Brambles, at the foot of the road. And here Nicanor
thought he had never seen anything so wonderful, and stood staring
wide-eyed, while Valerius hummed his drinking-song and chewed a piece of
metyl leaf, which turned his lips and teeth quite red.

For here the country broadened out into a great marsh, vast and
spreading widely over the land, dotted with eyots, where birds flew low
among the sedge. Away to west and east were low grim hills, with a sense
of unending space and loneliness upon them. And at the foot of the
street was the ford, crowded here with men,--soldiers and serfs and
freedmen,--with horses and mules and heavy carts. Through the ford they
all went splashing; and it was wide and shallow, marked out by stakes
and with stepping-stones showing above the water. And beyond the ford,
under the gray skies, was Thorney, the Bramble Isle, alive with a
swarming throng of people. On the right of the island was Saint Peter's
church, upon the spot where next Saint Peter's Abbey, and centuries
later the great Westminster, would stand. It rose silent in a smother of
confusion and a babel of noise of men shouting, and horses neighing, and
the songs of boatmen on the Tamesis which bounded the southern end of
the island. There was a temple of Apollo close beside it, for old gods
and new dwelt side by side. To the ancient faith of their pagan fathers
the aristocracy of Britain still held true; the new God was for slaves
and humble folk, who had derived no benefits from the old creeds and
were willing to try any which promised help. And old Rome had seen the
rise and fall of many gods, for she was aged and very wise. Jupiter,
best and greatest, Isis, Mithras, Astarte, Serapis--what was one more or
l