ilius, who, still
frantic with panic, was now swaying in his saddle from the pain and
loss of blood.

Sergius leaned over and laid his hand upon the other's arm, and
Hostilius started as if he had touched a serpent. Then he became
calmer, and a troubled look was in the eyes that sought the tribune's
face.

"Yes, I know," he said at last, speaking hurriedly and in odd, strained
accents. "I led you into it, and now I am flying."

"Let us turn back," said Sergius, mildly. "I do not reproach you, but
let us turn back. Surely it is better than the rods and axe."

Hostilius shuddered, and, at that moment, Decius, who had overtaken
them, broke in with:--

"By Hercules! there is no fear of those. They cut us down in flight.
The choice is, shall we have it in the face or between the shoulders."

"By the gods of Rome, then!" shouted the praefect, suddenly reining up,
while Sergius and Decius swung their horses in short circles.

There was no trumpet to give the signal, and the little cavalry banner
had gone down long ago; but such was the force of Roman training that
nearly all of Sergius' men and half of the allies turned in mid-panic
with their leaders. To make head, much less to form was impossible,
for the foremost of the enemy were well mingled with the rearmost
fugitives. As Decius had said, it was only a choice of deaths: the one
swift and honourable, the other more lingering, but none the less
inevitable.

Almost in a moment it was over. Between two and three hundred of the
united detachments had fallen already, and the hundred or so that now
sought to face about, went down in a crushed and bleeding mass under
the thousands of hoofs that overwhelmed them. Such was the weight and
impetus of the pursuing force that there was no time even to strike,
and most of the victims fell unwounded by spear or javelin. Sergius
was vaguely conscious that he had seen the praefect cloven through the
head by the short, swordlike Numidian knife, his own horse seemed to
collapse under him, and that was the end.

Then he knew that it was dark and cold and that there was a howling in
the air, as of beasts of prey, and the shadow of a man fell across him,
for the moon was in the heavens, and the man was cursing by all the
gods of the Capitol.

Gradually consciousness returned, and he recalled, incident by
incident, the happenings of the past day. He had been lying still,
thus far, without further wish than to look up at