waving crests of
horsehair, corslets of burnished brass, and cassocks of bright scarlet
cloth, dashed by as hard as their fiery Gallic steeds could trot, their
harness clashing merrily from the rate at which they rode. Before these
men were out of sight, a troop of horse rode past in serried order, five
abreast, with a square crimson banner, bearing in characters of gold the
well-known initials, S. P. Q. R., and surmounted by a gilded eagle.

Nothing could be more beautifully accurate than the ordered march and
exact discipline of this little band, their horses stepping proudly out,
as if by one common impulse, in perfect time to the occasional notes of
the _lituus_, or cavalry trumpet, by which all their manoeuvres were
directed; and the men, hardy and fine-looking figures, in the prime of
life, bestriding with an air of perfect mastery their fiery chargers, and
bearing the weight of their heavy panoply beneath the burning sunshine of
the Italian noon, as though a march of thirty miles were the merest
child's play.

About half a mile in the rear of this escort, so as to avoid the dust
which hung heavily, and was a long time subsiding in the breathless
atmosphere, came the train of the ambassadors from the Gaulish Highlands,
and on these men were the eyes of the Roman ladies fixed with undisguised
wonder, not unmixed with admiration. For their giant stature, strong
limbs, and wild barbaric dresses, were as different from those of the
well-ordered legionaries, as were their long light tresses, their blue
eyes, keen and flashing as a falcon's, and their fair ruddy skins, from
the clear brown complexions, dark locks, and black eyes of the Italian
race.

The first of these wild people was a young warrior above six feet in
height, mounted on a superb grey charger, which bore his massive bulk as
if it were unconscious of his burthen. His large blue eyes wandered around
him on all sides with a quick flashing glance that took in everything, yet
seemed surprised at nothing; though almost everything which he beheld must
have been strange to him. His long red hair flowed down in wavy masses
over his neck and shoulders, and his upper lip, though his cheeks and his
chin were closely shaven, was clothed with an immense moustache, the ends
of which curled upward nearly to his eyes.

Upon his head he wore a casque of bronze, covered with studs of silver,
and crested by two vast polished horns, the spoil of the fiercest animal
of Eu