f their owner--some sitting upon the marble border of the
fountain, some standing by in groups, and through a sort of sympathy
holding each others' hands, as though that would give protection. A few
gazed moodily upon the ground; and one or two, oppressed with sorrow or
nervous apprehension, quietly wept. But the greater portion, impressed
with a dim consciousness that their future lot might depend upon their
present conduct and appearance, endeavored to assume an air of pleased
satisfaction, and thereby possibly win the favorable notice of the group
which stood surveying them from the balcony, or at the least the
friendly compassion of the older slaves of the household, who began to
pour forth from the different doors upon the ground floor of the palace,
and join unbidden in the inspection. Most of these, in the early days of
their captivity, had stood up in the centre of similar gaping and
curious crowds, and now in their turn they sated their curiosity upon
the new comers. A few, remembering their own sorrows of those former
times, seemed compassionate; others manifested careless indifference;
some wondered whether enough of the present reinforcement would be
retained to materially lighten their own labors; and others, who had
been known to fail in attention to their peculiar departments of
industry, trembled lest their places might now be supplied by the new
comers, and themselves be again driven off to market. Whatever their
thoughts and feelings, however, no one ventured to approach too near or
speak aloud, excepting the armor bearer, who, as the privileged slave of
the household as well as the marshal of the occasion, moved hither and
thither among the captives, encouraging some with rude jokes, shoving
others back or forward into suitable positions, and generally
endeavoring to set forth the merits of the whole mass in as favorable a
light as possible.

'Now stand forward where the noble imperator and his friends can see
you,' was his command to a well-featured, strong-limbed Rhodian. 'Do you
think to better your lot by slinking out of sight among the women, and
so perhaps be sent off unnoticed to the market, and there be purchased
for hard labor in the quarry pits? Who knows but that if my master sees
you, he may make a gladiator of you; and then you can fight before
emperors and consuls.'

'What care I for your master?' retorted the man. 'Let him give me back
my wife and my child, whom I yesterday had, and wh