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entirely in the interests of the aristocracy. Malchus was reflecting

over these things in the prison, when the door of his cell opened and

Sempronius, accompanied by two soldiers, entered. The former addressed

him in Greek.

"Follow me," he said. "You have been appointed by my father, the praetor

Caius, to be the domestic slave of the lady Flavia Gracchus, until such

time as the senate may determine upon your fate."

As Carthage also enslaved prisoners taken in war Malchus showed

no surprise, although he would have preferred labouring upon the

fortifications with his men to domestic slavery, however light the

latter might be. Without a comment, then, he rose and accompanied

Sempronius from his prison.

Domestic slavery in Rome was not as a whole a severe fate. The masters,

indeed, had the power of life and death over their slaves, they could

flog and ill use them as they chose; but as a rule they treated them

well and kindly.

The Romans were essentially a domestic people, kind to their wives, and

affectionate, although sometimes strict, with their children. The

slaves were treated as the other servants; and, indeed, with scarce an

exception, all servants were slaves. The rule was easy and the labour

by no means hard. Favourite slaves were raised to positions of trust and

confidence, they frequently amassed considerable sums of money, and were

often granted their freedom after faithful services.

CHAPTER XXI: THE GAULISH SLAVE

On arriving at the mansion of Gracchus, Sempronius led Malchus to the

apartment occupied by Flavia. Her face lighted with satisfaction.

"You have done well, my Sempronius," she said; "I shall not forget your

ready gratification of my wish. So this is the young Carthaginian? My

friends will all envy me at having so handsome a youth to attend upon

me. Do you speak our tongue?" she asked graciously.

"A few words only," Malchus answered. "I speak Greek."

"It is tiresome," Flavia said, addressing Sempronius, "that I do not

know that language; but Julia has been taught it. Tell him, Sempronius,

that his duties will be easy. He will accompany me when I walk abroad,

and will stand behind me at table, and will have charge of my pets. The

young lion cub that Tiberius procured for me is getting troublesome

and needs a firm hand over him; he nearly killed one of the slaves

yesterday."

Sempronius translated Flavia's speech to Malchus.

"I shall dress him," Flavia said, "in white and gold; he will look

charming in it."

"It is hardly the dress for a slave," Sempronius ventured to object.

"I suppose I can dress him as I please. Lesbia, the wife of Emilius,

dresses her household slaves in blue and silver, and I suppose I have as

much right as she has to indulge my fancies."

"Certainly, Lady Flavia," Sempronius said reverentially. "I only thought

that such favours shown to the Carthaginian might make the other slaves

jealous."

Flavia made no answer, but waved her fan to Sempronius in token of

dismissal. The young Roman, inwardly cursing her haughty airs, took his

leave at once, and Flavia handed Malchus over to the charge of the chief

of the household, with strict directions as to the dress which was to be

obtained for him, and with orders to give the animals into his charge.

Malchus followed the man, congratulating himself that if he must serve

as a slave, at least he could hardly have found an easier situation. The

pets consisted of some bright birds from the East, a Persian greyhound,

several cats, a young bear, and a half grown lion. Of these the lion

alone was fastened up, in consequence of his attack upon the slave on

the previous day.

Malchus was fond of animals, and at once advanced boldly to the lion.

The animal crouched as if for a spring, but the steady gaze of Malchus

speedily changed its intention, and, advancing to the full length of its

chain, it rubbed itself against him like a great cat. Malchus stroked

its side, and then, going to a fountain, filled a flat vessel with water

and placed it before it. The lion lapped the water eagerly. Since its

assault upon the slave who usually attended to it, none of the others

had ventured to approach it. They had, indeed, thrown it food, but had

neglected to supply it with water.

"We shall get on well together, old fellow," Malchus said. "We are both

African captives, and ought to be friends."

Finding from the other slaves that until the previous day the animal

had been accustomed to run about the house freely and to lie in Flavia's

room, Malchus at once unfastened the chain and for some time played with

the lion, which appeared gentle and good tempered. As the master of

the household soon informed the others of the orders he had received

respecting Malchus, the slaves saw that the newcomer was likely, for

a time at least, to stand very high in the favour of their capricious

mistress, and therefore strove in every way to gain his goodwill.

Presently Malchus was sent for again, and found Julia sitting on the

couch by the side of her mother, and he at once acknowledged to himself

that he had seldom seen a fairer woman. She was tall, and her figure was

full and well proportioned. Her glossy hair was wound in a coil at the

back of her head, her neck and arms were bare, and she wore a garment

of light green silk, and embroidered with gold stripes along the bottom,

reaching down to her knees, while beneath it a petticoat of Tyrian

purple reached nearly to the ground.

"Is he not good looking, Julia?" Flavia asked. "There is not a slave in

Rome like him. Lesbia and Fulvia will be green with envy."

Julia made no reply, but sat examining the face of Malchus with as much

composure as if he had been a statue. He had bowed on entering, as he

would have done in the presence of Carthaginian ladies, and now stood

composedly awaiting Flavia's orders.

"Ask him, Julia, if it is true that he is a cousin of Hannibal and the

captain of his guard. Such a youth as he is, I can hardly believe

it; and yet how strong and sinewy are his limbs, and he has an air of

command in his face. He interests me, this slave."

Julia asked in Greek the questions that her mother had dictated.

"Ask him now, Julia," Flavia said, when her daughter had translated the

answer, "how he came to be captured."

Malchus recounted the story of his being blown by a gale into the Roman

ports; then, on her own account, Julia inquired whether he had been

present at the various battles of the campaign. After an hour's

conversation Malchus was dismissed. In passing through the hall beyond

he came suddenly upon a female who issued from one of the female

apartments. They gave a simultaneous cry of astonishment.

"Clotilde!" Malchus exclaimed, "you here, and a captive?"

"Alas! yes," the girl replied. "I was brought here three months since."

"I have heard nothing of you all," Malchus said, "since your father

returned with his contingent after the battle of Trasimene. We knew that

Postumius with his legion was harrying Cisalpine Gaul, but no particular

has reached us."

"My father is slain," the girl said. "He and the tribe were defeated.

The next day the Romans attacked the village. We, the women and the old

men, defended it till the last. My two sisters were killed. I was taken

prisoner and sent hither as a present to Flavia by Postumius. I have

been wishing to die, but now, since you are here, I shall be content to

live even as a Roman slave."

While they were speaking they had been standing with their hands

clasped. Malchus, looking down into her face, over which the tears were

now streaming as she recalled the sad events at home, wondered at the

change which eighteen months had wrought in it. Then she was a girl,

now she was a beautiful woman--the fairest he had ever seen, Malchus

thought, with her light brown hair with a gleam of gold, her deep gray

eyes, and tender, sensitive mouth.

"And your mother?" he asked.

"She was with my father in the battle, and was left for dead on the

field; but I heard from a captive, taken a month after I was, that she

had survived, and was with the remnant of the tribe in the well nigh

inaccessible fastnesses at the head of the Orcus."

"We had best meet as strangers," Malchus said. "It were well that none

suspect we have met before. I shall not stay here long--if I am not

exchanged. I shall try to escape whatever be the risks, and if you will

accompany me I will not go alone."

"You know I will, Malchus," Clotilde answered frankly. "Whenever you

give the word I am ready, whatever the risk is. It should break my heart

were I left here alone again."

A footstep was heard approaching, and Clotilde, dropping Malchus' hands,

fled away into the inner apartments, while Malchus walked quietly on to

the part of the house appropriated to the slaves. The next day, having

assumed his new garments, and having had a light gold ring, as a badge

of servitude, fastened round his neck, Malchus accompanied Flavia and

her daughter on a series of visits to their friends.

The meeting with Clotilde had delighted as much as it had surprised

Malchus. The figure of the Gaulish maiden had been often before his eyes

during his long night watches. When he was with her last he had resolved

that when he next journeyed north he would ask her hand of the chief,

and since his journey to Carthage his thoughts had still more often

reverted to her. The loathing which he now felt for Carthage had

converted what was, when he was staying with Allobrigius, little more

than an idea, into a fixed determination that he would cut himself loose

altogether from corrupt and degenerate Carthage, and settle among the

Gauls. That he should find Clotilde captive in Rome had never entered

his wildest imagination, and he now blessed, as a piece of the greatest

good fortune, the chance, which had thrown him into the hands of the

Romans, and brought him into the very house where Clotilde was a slave.

Had it not been for that he would never again have heard of her. When

he returned to her ruined home he would have found that she had been

carried away by the Roman conquerors, but of her after fate no word

could ever have reached him.

Some weeks passed, but no mode of escape presented itself to his mind.

Occasionally for a few moments he saw Clotilde alone, and they were

often together in Flavia's apartment, for the Roman lady was proud

of showing off to her friends her two slaves, both models of their

respective races.

Julia had at first been cold and hard to Malchus, but gradually her

manner had changed, and she now spoke kindly and condescendingly to him,

and would sometimes sit looking at him from under her dark eyebrows with

an expression which Malchus altogether failed to interpret. Clotilde was

more clear sighted. One day meeting Malchus alone in the atrium she said

to him: "Malchus, do you know that I fear Julia is learning to love you.

I see it in her face, in the glance of her eye, in the softening of that

full mouth of hers."

"You are dreaming, little Clotilde," Malchus said laughing.

"I am not," she said firmly; "I tell you she loves you."

"Impossible!" Malchus said incredulously. "The haughty Julia, the

fairest of the Roman maidens, fall in love with a slave! You are

dreaming, Clotilde."

"But you are not a common slave, Malchus, you are a Carthaginian noble

and the cousin of Hannibal. You are her equal in all respects."

"Save for this gold collar," Malchus said, touching the badge of slavery

lightly.

"Are you sure you do not love her in return, Malchus? She is very

beautiful."

"Is she?" Malchus said carelessly. "Were she fifty times more beautiful

it would make no difference to me, for, as you know as well as I do, I

love some one else."

Clotilde flushed to the brow. "You have never said so," she said softly.

"What occasion to say so when you know it? You have always known it,

ever since the day when we went over the bridge together."

"But I am no fit mate for you," she said. "Even when my father was

alive and the tribe unbroken, what were we that I should wed a great

Carthaginian noble? Now the tribe is broken, I am only a Roman slave."

"Have you anything else to observe?" Malchus said quietly.

"Yes, a great deal more," she went on urgently. "How could you present

your wife, an ignorant Gaulish girl, to your relatives, the haughty

dames of Carthage? They would look down upon me and despise me."

"Clotilde, you are betraying yourself," Malchus said smiling, "for you

have evidently thought the matter over in every light. No," he said,

detaining her, as, with an exclamation of shame, she would have fled

away, "you must not go. You knew that I loved you, and for every time

you have thought of me, be it ever so often, I have thought of you a

score. You knew that I loved you and intended to ask your hand from your

father. As for the dames of Carthage, I think not of carrying you there;

but if you will wed me I will settle down for life among your people."

A footstep was heard approaching. Malchus pressed Clotilde for a moment

against his breast, and then he was alone. The newcomer was Sempronius.

He was still a frequent visitor, but he was conscious that he had lately

lost rather than gained ground in the good graces of Julia. Averse as

he had been from the first to the introduction of Malchus into the

household, he was not long in discovering the reason for the change

in Julia, and the dislike he had from the first felt of Malchus had

deepened to a feeling of bitter hatred.

"Slave," he said haughtily, "tell your mistress that l am here."

"I am not your slave," Malchus said calmly, "and shall not obey your