"You will attend to this service," continued Fabius, not seeming to
regard the young officer's exultation. "Take the other five turmae of
your legion--not those of the escort. You must have light cavalry to
cope with the Numidians, and your Greek horsemen are too heavily
equipped. Assemble your men, watch the enemy, follow him when he
marches tonight, cut off his stragglers, and send such words to me as
you consider necessary. This shall be your reward for trusting greater
things to your general."

Turning, he entered the tent, before the tribune could express his
thanks.

Deeply impressed by the favour and confidence of the dictator, Sergius
hurried away to his quarters, and, sending for Marcus Decius, the
decurion who had told the news of Trasimenus to the crowd of the Forum,
he directed him to see that the horses were fed and the men in
readiness for a night march. Then he resigned himself to sleep and
dreams of a certain pictured peristyle on the Palatine Hill,--a
peristyle wherein a maid sat spinning by a fountain and thinking--of
what? Perhaps of him--for he was only dreaming, and maidens do not
always think as men dream.

V.

TEMPTATION.

The night was already far spent, and the Roman camp slept on, secure in
all its grim array; silent, but for the tread of the patrols, as they
paced the streets and exchanged the watchword, post with post, or but
for the clang of sword upon greave, or shield against cuirass, as some
sentry at gate, rampart or praetorium shifted his arms in weary waiting
for the day.

Far up in the heavens the moon shone silvery and serene, while here and
there upon the plain below swaying points of light seemed to move,
flicker, go out, and rekindle again. No Roman watcher but knew well
that play of moonlight upon the heads of the reedlike spears with which
the ancient cavalry of the legion were equipped--weapons which,
together with their ox-hide bucklers, were being gradually superseded
by the heavier Greek accoutrements. Yes, and had not the word passed
from the guard at the praetorian gate, how a tribune and five turmae of
the fourth legion had ridden out on the service of the dictator?

Earlier in the night, those who listened closely had heard a low hum
that seemed to pervade the air, rising and falling like the dull glow
in the west that told of the fluctuant watch-fires of the hostile camp.
Now the noises had died away, as in the distance, and the light that
had