o his own house, outbursts of rapturous applause, cries of
laudation and shouts reached his ear.

Filled with amazement, but striving not to be detected (for it is
dangerous to irritate an enraged wild beast), Junius returned to the
square.

And what did he behold?

High above the throng, above its shoulders, on a flat gold shield, stood
his rival, the young poet Julius, clad in a purple mantle, with a
laurel wreath on his waving curls.... And the populace round about was
roaring: "Glory! Glory! Glory to the immortal Julius! He hath comforted
us in our grief, in our great woe! He hath given us verses sweeter than
honey, more melodious than the cymbals, more fragrant than the rose,
more pure than heaven's azure! Bear him in triumph; surround his
inspired head with a soft billow of incense; refresh his brow with the
waving of palm branches; lavish at his feet all the spices of Arabia!
Glory!"

Junius approached one of the glorifiers.--"Inform me, O my
fellow-townsman! With what verses hath Julius made you happy?--Alas, I
was not on the square when he recited them! Repeat them, if thou canst
recall them, I pray thee!"

"Such verses--and not recall them?" briskly replied the man
interrogated.--"For whom dost thou take me? Listen--and rejoice, rejoice
together with us!"

'Ye lovers of verses!'--thus began the divine Julius....

"'Ye lovers of verses! Comrades! Friends!
Admirers of all that is graceful, melodious, tender!
Be not east down by a moment of heavy grief!
The longed-for moment will come--and day will chase away the night!'

"What dost thou think of that?"

"Good gracious!" roared Junius. "Why, those are my lines!--Julius must
have been in the crowd when I recited them; he heard and repeated them,
barely altering--and that, of course, not for the better--a few
expressions!"

"Aha! Now I recognise thee.... Thou art Junius," retorted the citizen
whom he had accosted, knitting his brows.--"Thou art either envious or a
fool!... Only consider just one thing, unhappy man! Julius says in such
lofty style: 'And day will chase away the night!'.... But with thee it
is some nonsense or other: 'And the light will disperse the
gloom!?'--What light?! What darkness?!"

"But is it not all one and the same thing...." Junius was beginning....

"Add one word more," the citizen interrupted him, "and I will shout to
the populace, and it will rend thee asunder."

Junius prudently held his peace, but a gr