se with whom
he was dealing.

"Romans," he said, "another wager, if you dare! Five talents against
five talents that the white will win. I challenge you collectively."

They were again surprised.

"What!" he cried, louder. "Shall it be said in the Circus to-morrow
that a dog of Israel went into the saloon of the palace full of
Roman nobles--among them the scion of a Caesar--and laid five
talents before them in challenge, and they had not the courage
to take it up?"

The sting was unendurable.

"Have done, O insolent!" said Drusus, "write the challenge,
and leave it on the table; and to-morrow, if we find thou hast
indeed so much money to put at such hopeless hazard, I, Drusus,
promise it shall be taken."

Sanballat wrote again, and, rising, said, unmoved as ever, "See,
Drusus, I leave the offer with you. When it is signed, send it
to me any time before the race begins. I will be found with the
consul in a seat over the Porta Pompae. Peace to you; peace to
all."

He bowed, and departed, careless of the shout of derision with
which they pursued him out of the door.

In the night the story of the prodigious wager flew along the
streets and over the city; and Ben-Hur, lying with his four,
was told of it, and also that Messala's whole fortune was on
the hazard.

And he slept never so soundly.

CHAPTER XII

The Circus at Antioch stood on the south bank of the river,
nearly opposite the island, differing in no respect from the
plan of such buildings in general.

In the purest sense, the games were a gift to the public; consequently,
everybody was free to attend; and, vast as the holding capacity of
the structure was, so fearful were the people, on this occasion,
lest there should not be room for them, that, early the day before
the opening of the exhibition, they took up all the vacant spaces
in the vicinity, where their temporary shelter suggested an army
in waiting.

At midnight the entrances were thrown wide, and the rabble,
surging in, occupied the quarters assigned to them, from which
nothing less than an earthquake or an army with spears could
have dislodged them. They dozed the night away on the benches,
and breakfasted there; and there the close of the exercises found
them, patient and sight-hungry as in the beginning.

The better people, their seats secured, began moving towards the
Circus about the first hour of the morning, the noble and very
rich among them distinguished by litters an