top of the wall of the
harbor stairs, the throng of spectators was unusually dense; here
people could comfortably watch the glittering train without danger from
the fiery steeds.

"Who is yonder youth, the fair one?" asked a middle-aged man, with the
dress and bearing of a sailor, pointing over the parapet as he turned
to a gray-haired old citizen.

"Which do you mean, friend Hegelochus? They are almost all fair."

"Indeed? Well, this is the first time I have been among the Vandals! My
ship dropped anchor only a few hours ago. You must show and explain
everything. I mean the one yonder on the white stallion; he is carrying
the narrow red banner with the golden dragon."

"Oh, that is Gibamund, 'the handsomest of the Vandals,' as the women
call him. Do you see how he looks up at the windows of the palace near
the Capitol? Among all the crowd gazing down from there he seeks but
one."

"But"--the speaker suddenly started--"who is the other at his
right,--the one on the dun horse? I almost shrank when I met his eye.
He looks like the youth, only he is much older. Who is _he_?"

"That is his brother Gelimer; God bless his noble head!"

"Aha, so he is the hero of the day? I have often heard his name at home
in Syracuse. So he is the conqueror of the Moors?"

"Yes, he has defeated them again, the torments. Do you hear how the
Carthaginians are cheering him? We citizens, too, must thank him for
having driven the robbers away from our villages and fields back to
their deserts."

"I suppose he is fifty years old? His hair is very gray."

"He is not yet forty!"

"Just look, Eugenes! He has sprung from his horse. What is he doing?"

"Didn't you see? A child, a Roman boy, fell while trying to run in
front of his charger. He lifted him up, and is seeking to find out
whether he was hurt."

"The child wasn't harmed; it is smiling at him and seizing his
glittering necklet. There--he is unfastening the chain and putting it
into the little fellow's hands. He kisses him and gives him back to his
mother. Hark, how the crowd is cheering him! Now he has leaped back
into the saddle. He knows how to win favor."

"There you wrong him. It is his nature. He would have done the same
where no eye beheld him. And he need not win the favor of the people:
he has long possessed it."

"Among the Vandals?"

"Among the Romans, too; that is, the middle and lower classes. The
senators, it is true, are different! Those who still live in Af