f danger. We found it very difficult to obtain
spies among our colonists on the southern shore. They know very well
that we Romans come and go; the Alemanni remain in the country, and
they fear their vengeance. And deserters can no longer be had. In
former wars they were often mentioned. But the fact that there are no
renegades shows that self-reliance is increasing and the dread or hope
of Rome is declining. I could get only two volunteers--for a large sum
of money--to venture upon a reconnoitring expedition; the one who went
to the East returned without having seen a sign of the foe; the one
dispatched to the North has not yet appeared. And unfortunately we have
not taken even one prisoner. Not a sign of a human footprint have we
seen on the whole march along the lake. Once, it is true, I thought I
saw a light column of smoke rising from the dense growth of rushes
which stretches for leagues into the lake, and ordered the troops to
halt; but the tiny cloud instantly vanished."

"I can understand the strategy of our admirable General only by
crediting him with an almost offensive degree of caution," sneered the
commander of the mailed horsemen. "By Hercules! Wherever they may hide,
the Barbarians cannot be a day's march from us."

"Yes," Ausonius assented. "Yet I should think we might be strong enough
to seek them and drive them from their hiding places."

Saturninus frowned slightly. "Your nephew's opinion of my courage gives
me no concern. But you, Prefect, have again forgotten that, by the
Emperor's orders, we are not to disperse the Barbarians, but to
surround them and force them to submission. We are too weak for this
encircling, and must wait for the ships. Unless our fleet should block
the lake, they will again escape, as they have often done, in their
boats. Stick to your hexameters, my Pierian friend, and leave the
Barbarians to me: it will be better for all concerned."

"Except the Barbarians!" replied Ausonius smiling, extending his hand
to his friend.

"Who are probably the leaders of the enemy?"

"The Romans on the southern shore mention two names. The rest of the
Alemanni provinces are mainly ruled by kings."

"So far do Germans carry royalty," nodded the learned Prefect. "May
they always continue to be divided into numberless provinces under
their hedge kings and village magistrates, whom each man obeys as much
as he chooses."

"It seems that this state of things has changed. Many provinces are