where Ak--Ak something was,' she answered.

'Oh, Aquae Solis. That's Bath, where the buns come from. Let the hero tell
his own tale.'

Parnesius pretended to thrust his spear at Puck's legs, but Puck reached
down, caught at the horse-tail plume, and pulled off the tall helmet.

'Thanks, jester,' said Parnesius, shaking his curly dark head. 'That is
cooler. Now hang it up for me....

'I was telling your sister how I joined the Army,' he said to Dan.

'Did you have to pass an Exam?' Dan asked, eagerly.

'No. I went to my Father, and said I should like to enter the Dacian Horse
(I had seen some at Aquae Solis); but he said I had better begin service
in a regular Legion from Rome. Now, like many of our youngsters, I was not
too fond of anything Roman. The Roman-born officers and magistrates looked
down on us British-born as though we were barbarians. I told my Father so.

'"I know they do," he said; "but remember, after all, we are the people of
the Old Stock, and our duty is to the Empire."

'"To which Empire?'" I asked. "We split the Eagle before I was born."

'"What thieves' talk is that?" said my Father. He hated slang.

'"Well, Sir," I said, "we've one Emperor in Rome, and I don't know how
many Emperors the outlying Provinces have set up from time to time. Which
am I to follow?"

'"Gratian," said he. "At least he's a sportsman."

'"He's all that," I said. "Hasn't he turned himself into a raw-beef-eating
Scythian?"

'"Where did you hear of it?" said the Pater.

'"At Aquae Solis," I said. It was perfectly true. This precious Emperor
Gratian of ours had a bodyguard of fur-cloaked Scythians, and he was so
crazy about them that he dressed like them. In Rome of all places in the
world! It was as bad as if my own Father had painted himself blue!

'"No matter for the clothes," said the Pater. "They are only the fringe of
the trouble. It began before your time or mine. Rome has forsaken her
Gods, and must be punished. The great war with the Painted People broke
out in the very year the temples of our Gods were destroyed. We beat the
Painted People in the very year our temples were rebuilt. Go back further
still."... He went back to the time of Diocletian; and to listen to him
you would have thought Eternal Rome herself was on the edge of
destruction, just because a few people had become a little large-minded.

'_I_ knew nothing about it. Aglaia never taught us the history of our own
country. She was so full of