blic; for these last three were really but one. After
something of an effort, and not without a certain sentiment of
self-approval, he said:--

"Let me hear of friends later, my Agathocles. Tell me now of the war."

There was a troubled expression in the physician's eyes, but he
answered volubly:--

"It progresses famously, in Spain, my master. Oh!--ay--famously.
Their fleet has been swept from the seas, and Scipio slays and drives
them as he wills. Doubtless by now they are all back in Africa--"

"Not of Spain," interrupted Sergius, as the narrator caught his breath.
"Tell me of Italy, of Hannibal and Fabius. Have the standards opposed
each other?"

"They say Hannibal is in winter quarters at Geronium, and the consuls
watch him," began Agathocles, in more subdued tones.

"Tell me of Fabius. Tell me of what has happened--all, do you hear?"
cried Sergius, raising himself impatiently on one elbow. "If your
story seems to lack coherence and truth, I swear to you that I will go
down into the Forum at once and learn what I wish."

Thus adjured, the physician answered, but with evident reluctance:--

"Truly, my master, all things have not been as we might wish, and yet
they could easily have run worse. When your dictator let the invaders
out of Campania, there was much complaint among the people that he was
protracting the war for his own advantage; but when he came to Rome for
the sacrifices and left Minucius in command, with orders not to engage,
and when the master-of-the-horse, as some say, evading the orders,
fought and gained an advantage, then, you may believe me, the city was
in a turmoil; nor were there wanting friends of Minucius and emissaries
from his camp to sound his praises as a general and decry the dictator
and his policy, not to say his courage and his honesty."

"I warrant," said Sergius, gloomily, "that every pot-house politician
from the Etruscan Street was declaiming on how much better _he_ could
command than could Quintus Fabius."

"Until at last," went on Agathocles, "Marcus Metilius--"

"The tribune?--a corrupt knave!" broke in Sergius.

"Surely; yes. Well, this Marcus Metilius made a speech--"

"Full of rank demagoguery, I warrant."

"Surely, and saying that it was intolerable for Minucius, who was the
only man who could fight, to be put under guard lest he beat the enemy;
intolerable that the territory of the allies should have been given up
to ravage, while the dictator pro