s.'

'You have come straight from Rome, then?'

The answer was affirmative and boldly given.

'And whither are you bound? On what business?'

Sagaris, still obeying his master's injunctions, declared that he
carried a verbal message to the King of the Goths, and for him alone.
Having reflected for a moment, Venantius called the soldier who stood
without the door.

'See to the wants of this messenger. Treat him hospitably, and bring
him hither again in an hour's time.'

The captain then walked to a house close by, where, admitted to the
atrium, he was at once met by an elderly lady, who bent respectfully
before him.

'Has the traveller yet risen?' he began by asking.

'Not yet, my lord. A little while ago his servant told me that he was
still sleeping.'

'Good; he will recover from his fatigue. But pray inquire whether he is
now awake, for I would speak with him as soon as may be.'

The lady was absent for a minute or two, then brought word that the
traveller had just awoke.

'I will go to his bedside,' said Venantius.

He was led to an upper chamber, a small, bare, tiled-floored room,
lighted by a foot-square window, on which the shutter was half closed
against the rays of the sun. Some aromatic odour hung in the air.

'Do you feel able to talk?' asked the captain as he entered.

'I am quite restored,' was the reply of a man sitting up in the bed.
'The fever has passed.'

'So much for the wisdom of physicians!' exclaimed Venantius with a
laugh. 'That owl-eyed Aesernian who swears by Aesculapius that he has
studied at Constantinople, Antioch, and I know not where else,
whispered to me that you would never behold to-day's sunset. I
whispered to _him_ that he was an ass, and that if he uttered the word
_plague_ to any one in the house, I would cut his ears off.
Nevertheless, I had you put into this out-of-the-way room, that you
might not be disturbed by noises. Who'--he sniffed--'has been burning
perfumes?'

'My good fellow Felix. Though travel-worn and wounded, he has sat by me
all the time, and would only go to bed when I woke up with a cool
forehead.'

'A good fellow, indeed. His face spells honesty. I can't say so much
for that of a man I have just been talking with--a messenger of your
friend Marcian.'

The listener started as though he would leap out of bed. A rush of
colour to his cheeks banished the heavy, wan aspect which had partly
disguised him, and restored the comely visage of Basil. A