oat, turn your swords this way and press home the points. I ought to
be the one to die, I broke the sacred pledge of friendship." We lowered
our points at these entreaties. "I'll settle this dispute," Ascyltos
spoke up, "let the boy follow whomsoever he himself wishes to follow.
In that way, he, at least, will have perfect freedom in choosing a
'brother'." Imagining that a relationship of such long standing had
passed into a tie of blood, I was not at all uneasy, so I snatched at
this proposition with precipitate eagerness, and submitted the dispute to
the judge. He did not deliberate long enough to seem even to hesitate,
for he got up and chose Ascyltos for a "brother," as soon as the last
syllable had passed my lips! At this decision I was thunder-struck,
and threw myself upon the bed, unarmed and just as I stood. Had I not
begrudged my enemy such a triumph, I would have laid violent hands upon
myself. Flushed with success, Ascyltos marched out with his prize, and
abandoned, in a strange town, a comrade in the depths of despair; one
whom, but a little while before, he had loved most unselfishly, one whose
destiny was so like his own.

As long as is expedient, the name of friendship lives,
Just as in dicing, Fortune smiles or lowers;
When good luck beckons, then your friend his gleeful service gives
But basely flies when ruin o'er you towers.
The strollers act their farces upon the stage, each one his part,

The father, son, the rich man, all are here,
But soon the page is turned upon the comic actor's art,
The masque is dropped, the make-ups disappear!

CHAPTER THE EIGHTY-FIRST.

Nevertheless, I did not indulge myself very long in tears, being afraid
that Menelaus, the tutor, might drop in upon me all alone in the
lodging-house, and catch me in the midst of my troubles, so I collected my
baggage and, with a heavy heart, sneaked off to an obscure quarter near
the seashore. There, I kept to my room for three days. My mind was
continually haunted by my loneliness and desertion, and I beat my breast,
already sore from blows. "Why could not the earth have opened and
swallowed me," I wailed aloud, between the many deep-drawn groans, "or
the sea, which rages even against the guiltless? Did I flee from
justice, murder my ghost, and cheat the arena, in order that, after so
many proofs of courage, I might be left lying here deserted, a beggar and
an exile, in a lodgi