Volume I Part 9 (1/2)
”The gray, the gray! There is not a horse in Rome can touch Aurelius Victor's gray South-wind!” replied the other.
And in truth, Victor's Gallic courser repaid his master's vaunts; for he made, though he had seemed beat, so desperate a rally, that he rushed past the bay Arab almost at the goal, and won by a clear length amidst the roars of the glad spectators.
”I have lost, plague on it!” exclaimed Catiline; ”and here is Clodius expects to be paid on the instant, I'll be sworn.”
And as he spoke, the debauchee with whom he had betted came up, holding his left hand extended, tapping its palm with the forefinger of the right.
”I told you so,” he said, ”I told you so; where be the sesterces?”
”You must needs wait a while; I have not my purse with me,” Catiline began. But Paullus interrupted him-
”I have, I have, my Sergius; permit me to accommodate you.” And suiting the action to the word, he gave the conspirator several large gold coins, adding, ”you can repay me when it suits you.”
”That will be never,” said Clodius with a sneer; ”you don't know Lucius Catiline, I see, young man.”
”Ay, but he does!” replied the other, with a sarcastic grin; ”for Catiline never forgets a friend, or forgives a foe. Can Clodius say the same?”
But Clodius merely smiled, and walked off, clinking the money he had won tauntingly in his hand.
”What now, I wonder, is the day destined to bring forth?” said the conspirator, making no more allusion to the dagger.
”A contest now between myself, Aristius, and Aurelius, in the five games of the _quinquertium_, and then a foot race in the heaviest panoply.”
”Ha! can you beat them?” asked Catiline, regarding Arvina with an interest that grew every moment keener, as he saw more of his strength and daring spirit.
”I can try.”
”Shall I bet on you?”
”If you please. I can beat them in some, I think; and, as I said, I will try in all.”
More words followed, for Paullus hastened away to strip and anoint himself for the coming struggle; and in a little while the strife itself succeeded.
To describe this would be tedious; but suffice it, that while he won decidedly three games of the five, Paullus was beat in none; and that in the armed foot race, the most toilsome and arduous exercise of the Campus, he not only beat his compet.i.tors with ease; but ran the longest course, carrying the most ponderous armature and s.h.i.+eld, in shorter time than had been performed within many years on the Field of Mars.
Catiline watched him eagerly all the while, inspecting him as a purchaser would a horse he was about to buy; and then, muttering to himself, ”We must have him!” walked up to join him as he finished the last exploit.
”Will you dine with me, Paullus,” he said, ”to-day, and meet the loveliest women you can see in Rome, and no prudes either?”
”Willingly,” he replied; ”but I must swim first in the Tiber!”
”Be it so, there is time enough; I will swim also.” And they moved down in company toward the river.
CHAPTER VI.
THE FALSE LOVE.
Fie, fie, upon her; There's a language in her eye, her cheek, her lip; Nay, her foot speaks, her wanton spirits look out At every joint and motive of her body.