ry one abuses, it was not perhaps very wonderful if this rash, ardent,
and inexperienced youth should have conceived himself flattered by such
notice, from one of whom all the world was talking; and should have
followed him to a seat with a sense of gratified vanity, blended with
eager curiosity.

The race, which followed, differed not much from any other race; except
that the riders having no stirrups, that being a yet undiscovered luxury,
much less depended upon jockeyship--the skill of the riders being limited
to keeping their seats steadily and guiding the animals they bestrode--and
much more upon the native powers, the speed and endurance of the coursers.

So much, however, was Arvina interested by the manner and conversation of
the singular man by whose side he sat, and who was indeed laying himself
out with deep art to captivate him, and take his mind, as it were, by
storm, now with the boldest and most daring paradoxes; now with bursts of
eloquent invective against the oppression and aristocratic insolence of
the cabal, which by his shewing governed Rome; and now with sarcasm and
pungent wit, that he saw but little of the course, which he had come
especially to look at.

"Do you indeed ride so well, my Paullus?" asked his companion suddenly, as
if the thought had been suggested by some observation he had just made on
the competitors, as they passed in the second circuit. "So well, I mean,
as Aurelius Victor said; and would you undertake the combat of the horse
and spear with Caius Marcius?"

"Truly I would," said Arvina, blushing slightly; "I have interchanged many
a blow and thrust with young Varro, whom our master-at-arms holds better
with the spear than Marcius; and I feel myself his equal. I have been
practising a good deal of late," he added modestly; "for, though perhaps
you know it not, I have been elected _decurio_;(12) and, as first chosen,
leader of a troop, and am to take the field with the next reinforcements
that go out to Pontus to our great Pompey."

"The next reinforcements," replied Catiline with a meditative air: "ha!
that may be some time distant."

"Not so, by Jupiter! my Sergius; we are already ordered to hold ourselves
in readiness to march for Brundusium, where we shall ship for Pontus. I
fancy we shall set forth as soon as the consular comitia have been held."

"It may be so," said the other; "but I do not think it. There may fall out
that which shall rather summon Pompey homeward,