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"Oh, my father, you a Capuan and a man learned in the ways of women! It is pitiful this littleness of your knowledge. Come, tell me now, as to a pedagogue, what is it that leads a woman to all places, through all dangers?" "Surely, my child, it is love," said Calavius, vacantly.
Others, divided between the more powerful enmity of Hannibal and the slower revenge of Calavius, made their lips move but were silent, hoping to escape notice in the shout of the others. A few of these were envious of the young man's father; more feared him. Hannibal noted their confusion and came to their relief. "But perhaps so wicked a man is not a Capuan, after all.
Calavius had turned suddenly from the depths of despair and the height of resignation to a keen desire for life. He had hurried away to seek for some unguarded exit, heedless, for the moment, of what even Marcia fully realized: the utter impossibility of a man so well known escaping unaided through a hostile city and without a friendly land whereto to turn his flight.
For the matter of that, he divined it. He is Mago, the brother of Hannibal " "And he brought you here?" cried Calavius, trembling now in good earnest. "Surely it was done to ruin me; but whose plot? whose plot?" "It is not necessary I should be your guest," said Marcia, with well-feigned indifference.
Therefore Hannibal grants you life and to be a comfort to his friend and father, Pacuvius Calavius, in his declining years;" and he laughed again, but harshly and sneeringly. Marcia could scarcely keep her feet under the crushing force of these blows.
They pilfered right and left; they neglected duties and orders; until, at last, a large measure of the care of her host and his house devolved upon Marcia alone; and Marcia, also, had softened and grown kindlier, and was as slow to ask for punishments as was Calavius to decree them.
In a few moments the quarters above resounded with the shrieks and groans of those condemned to the lash; for the wrath and indignation of Calavius, generally the mildest of masters, were spurred to vindictive bitterness by a consciousness of his late terror and abasement. "They were guilty of all crimes, and, worst of all, of the rankest ingratitude.
Even violence seemed near; for that Iddilcar could be fool enough to dream that his mere repetition of the words he had listened to, would enrage Hannibal, she did not for a moment believe. The general had heard the same from Calavius, face to face, and had only frowned and bit his lips behind his beard, as if feeling their justice. What, then, could have happened? "Ah! you are still here."
Then he whispered in his ear probably some explanation of his absence, of how he had been keeping watch against treachery; for Hannibal nodded several times, and, again embracing Calavius, accepted his escort to the door, giving his arm to steady the steps of the older man. Marcia crouched, huddled in the farthest corner of the cell, and listened to the receding footsteps of the visitors.
Calavius had many slaves; a few of them had been free-born, and some, perhaps, might even have known a measure of social standing, before the turn of war or of financial fortunes had lost them to home and position. "Who are you?" she asked again. "I am a new servant," said the other. "Pacuvius Calavius bought me yesterday in the Street of the Whitened Feet."
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