o the astonishment of the
whole theatre, boy and dog turned valiantly to bay, and leaping on
the gladiator, dragged him between them to the ground. The triumph was
momentary. The uplifted hands, the shout of 'Spare him!' came too late.
The man, as he lay, buried his sword in the slender body of the child,
and then rising, walked coolly back to the side passages, while the poor
cur stood over the little corpse, licking its hands and face, and making
the whole building ring with his doleful cries. The attendants entered,
and striking their hooks into corpse after corpse, dragged them out of
sight, marking their path by long red furrows in the sand; while the
dog followed, until his inauspicious howlings died away down distant
passages.

Philammon felt sick and giddy, and half rose to escape. But Pelagia!....
No--he must sit it out, and see the worst, if worse than this was
possible. He looked round. The people were coolly sipping wine and
eating cakes, while they chatted admirably about the beauty of the great
curtain, which had fallen and hidden the stage, and represented, on
a ground of deep-blue sea, Europa carried by the bull across the
Bosphorus, while Nereids and Tritons played around.

A single flute within the curtain began to send forth luscious strains,
deadened and distant, as if through far-off glens and woodlands; and
from the side passages issued three Graces, led by Peitho, the goddess
of persuasion, bearing a herald's staff in her hand. She advanced to the
altar in the centre of the orchestra, and informed the spectators
that, during the absence of Ares in aid of a certain great military
expedition, which was shortly to decide the diadem of Rome, and the
liberty, prosperity, and supremacy of Egypt and Alexandria, Aphrodite
had returned to her lawful allegiance, and submitted for the time being
to the commands of her husband, Hephaestus; that he, as the deity of
artificers, felt a peculiar interest in the welfare of the city of
Alexandria, the workshop of the world, and had, as a sign of his
especial favour, prevailed upon his fair spouse to exhibit, for this
once, her beauties to the assembled populace, and, in the unspoken
poetry of motion, to represent to them the emotions with which, as she
arose new-born from the sea, she first surveyed that fair expanse of
heaven and earth of which she now reigned undisputed queen.

A shout of rapturous applause greeted this announcement, and forthwith
limped from