ng and snorting in shades of the night,
His ears pricking up, and his hoofs striking light,
And his tail whisking round, in the speed of his flight."

"Old man," he continued to Caecilius in a low voice, and in Latin, "your
curse has not worked on me yet."

"My son," answered the priest, "you are granted one day more for
repentance."

"Lucky for you as well as for me," was the reply: and he continued his
song:--

"Gurta, the witch, was out with the rest;
Though as lame as a gull, by his highness possessed,
She shouldered her crutch, and danced with the best.

"She stamped and she twirled in the shade of the yew,
Till her gossips and chums of the city danced too;
They never are slack when there's mischief to do.

"She danced and she coaxed, but he was no fool;
He'd be his own master, he'd not be her tool:
Not the little black moor should send him to school."

He then turned to Caecilius and whispered, "You see, old father, that
others, besides Christians, can forgive and forget. Henceforth call me
generous Juba." And he tossed his head.

By this time they had got to the bottom of the hill, and the deep shadows
which filled the hollow showed that the sun was rapidly sinking in the
west. Suddenly, as they were crossing the bottom as it opened into the
plain, Juba seized and broke the thong which bound Caecilius's arms, and
bestowing a tremendous cut with it upon the side of the ass, sent him
forward upon the plain at his greatest speed. The youth's manoeuvre was
successful to the full. The asses of Africa can do more on an occasion of
this kind than our own. Caecilius for the moment lost his seat; but,
instantly recovering it, took care to keep the animal from flagging; and
the cries of the mob, and the howlings of the priests of Cybele cooperated
in the task. At length the gloom, increasing every minute, hid him from
their view; and even in daylight his recapture would have been a difficult
matter for a wearied-out, famished, and intoxicated rabble. Before
Caecilius well had time to return thanks for this unexpected turn of
events, he was out of pursuit, and was ambling at a pace more suitable to
the habits of the beast of burden that carried him, over an expanse of
plain which would have been a formidable night-march to a fasting man.

We must not conclude the day without relating what was its issue to the
persecutors, as well as to their intended victim. It is almost a proverb
that