stronger every hour,
feeling too, at heart, that he was on the right way, with Rome in the
distance, the goal for which he was bound; and once there--ah!

All was blank and confused again, but it was a confusion full of
excitement, where flashes of greatness played up on the great city of
which he had heard so much, and his father and the army were there.

There was nothing to hinder his progress, for the weather was glorious,
and, each morning when he awakened from his sleep, it was with his heart
throbbing with joy and desire as he sprang up refreshed and eager with
nothing to stay his way, till, on the morning of the third--the fourth--
the fifth--he could not tell what day--all he knew was that it was
during his journey--he came suddenly in a dense part of a forest, upon a
big, armed figure marching before him far down the track, evidently
going the same way as he, turning neither to the right nor left, but
striding steadily on, and Marcus suffered a new emotion near akin to
fear and dread, not of this armed man, but of what he might do. For the
boy reasoned that, if he overtook this man, he might question him, find
out who he was, and turn him back.

Marcus stopped short, after stepping aside to shelter himself partly
behind a tree-trunk, to watch the soldier, whose helmet glistened in the
sun-rays which played through the leaves, while the head of his spear
flashed at times as if it were a blade of fire.

It was not fear alone that troubled the boy, for the sight of this
warrior, who was evidently on the march to join the army, sent a thrill
through his breast, and the war-like ardour of old fostered by old
Serge, came back stronger than ever, as he said to himself that there
was nothing to mind, for they were both, this big, grand-looking warrior
and he, upon the same mission.

"He'll make me welcome," thought Marcus, "and we can march on together
and talk about the wars, the same as Serge and I used to before father
found us out.

"I wonder whether this man knew my father? He'll be sure to know Caius
Julius, and I can talk about him and his coming to my home."

But Marcus did not hurry on, for the dread came, and with it the horror
of being ignominiously forced to retrace his steps, while the Roman
warrior seemed to increase and grow large, till he disappeared among the
trees, came into sight again farther on, and, after a time, as Marcus
still hesitated, he finally passed out of sight, making the boy