Pelusian
linen, slit up to the knee--came close to Cethegus at the cypress-wood
table, and read from a little tablet which he carried fastened to a
golden chain about his neck:

"Fresh oysters from Britannia, in tunny-sauce, with lettuce."

"With this dish, Falernian from Fundi," said Cethegus at once. "But
where is the sideboard with the cups? Good wine deserves handsome
goblets."

"There is the sideboard!" And at a sign from the host, a curtain, which
had concealed a corner of the room opposite the guests, dropped.

A cry of astonishment ran round the table.

The richness of the service displayed, and the taste with which it was
arranged, surprised even these fastidious feasters.

Upon the marble slab of a side-table stood a roomy silver carriage,
with golden wheels and bronze horses. It was a model of a booty-wagon,
such as were used in Roman triumphal processions, and, like a costly
booty, within it was piled, in seeming disorder, but with an artistic
hand, a quantity of goblets, glasses, and salvers, of every shape and
material.

"By Mars the Victor!" laughed the Prefect, "the first Roman triumph for
two hundred years! A rare sight! Dare I destroy it?"

"You are the man to set it up again," said Lucius, with fire.

"Do you think so? Let us try! First, we will have that goblet of
pistachio-wood for the Falernian."

"Wind-thrushes from the Tagus, with asparagus from Tarento," continued
the Lydian, reading the bill of fare.

"With that, red Massikian from Sinuessa, to be drunk out of that
amethyst goblet."

"Young lobsters from Trapezunt, with flamingo-tongues."

"Stop! By holy Bacchus!" cried Balbus, "it is the torture of
Tantalus. It is all the same to me out of what I drink, whether from
pistachio-wood or amethyst; but to listen to this list of divine
dainties with a dry throat, is more than I can stand. Down with
Cethegus, the tyrant! Let him die, if he lets us thirst!"

"I feel as if I were Emperor, and heard the roar of the faithful Roman
populace! I will save my life and yield. Serve the dishes, slaves."

At this the sound of flutes was heard from an outer room, and six
slaves entered, marching in time to the music, with ivy in their
shining, anointed locks, and dressed in red mantles and white tunics.
They gave to each guest a snowy cloth of finest Sidonian linen, with
purple fringes.

"Oh," cried Massurius, a young merchant who traded principally with
beautiful slaves of both sexes, and e