amilcar! He runs like a mare;
he fights as well on foot as on horseback, he eats what there is to be
had, or he eats nothing at all; he goes about dressed like a slave; arms
are his only luxury; he sleeps on the ground, and often, at daybreak,
his father would find him lying among the sentinels of the camp. He is
not content to be told about things, he must see everything with his own
eyes, and mix with the enemy to study their weak points close at hand.
Often Hasdrubal, his sister's husband, was surprised by seeing an old
beggar come into his shop, and he would shout with laughter when
Hannibal pulled off his wig and his rags, under cover of which he had
been spending hours among the enemy."

Actaeon left the tavern hastily on seeing that Rhanto, after handing her
pitchers to a slave who loaded them into a cart, was starting on her
walk toward Sonnica's villa.

"I will go with you, little one. You shall be my guide to your mistress'
house."

The sun had begun to set. The afternoon light gilded the foliage of the
domain, giving a transparency of amber to the leaves and vines. Along
the highway through the champaign sounded the bells of the flock, the
creaking of carts, and the sonorous songs of the rustics returning from
the city.

They arrived at Sonnica's villa, which had the aspect of a town. They
first passed the dwellings of the slaves, where buzzed around the
doorways a swarm of nude children with prominent abdomens, and with the
umbilicus protruding like buttons; then the stables, from which floated
a warm vapor vibrant with lowing and whinnying; the granaries and
farmhouses; the dwelling of the overseer; the calabooses for rebellious
slaves, with their breathing-holes on a level with the ground; the
pigeon-house, a high tower of red brick around which fluttered a cloud
of white wings amid incessant cooing; the big straw huts which served to
shelter the hundreds of chickens; and, behind this row of buildings, the
country-seat, Sonnica's villa, which was discussed with admiration even
among the most remote tribes of Celtiberia. It was surrounded by
cypresses and laurels, encircled by walls covered with gnarled grape
vines, while rising above the great mass of foliage were its
rose-colored walls with columns and friezes of blue marble and the
terrace crowned by polychrome statues with enameled eyes shining in the
sun like precious stones.

Actaeon was silent and preoccupied. Rhanto had been talking to him for