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There was a small green space by the wayside, covered with short mossy turf, and overshadowed by the spreading branches of a single chesnut, beneath which Paullus drew up the mules of Hortensia’s carriage, directing the old charioteer, who seemed hard set to manage his high-bred and fiery steeds, to wheel completely off the road, and hold them well in hand on the green behind him.
"Indeed!—and pray, who is the exception?" asked the lady, very tartly. There happened to be lying on a marble slab, near to the place where they were standing, a small round mirror of highly polished steel, set in a frame of tortoiseshell and gold. Paullus had noticed it before she spoke; and taking it up without a moment’s pause, he raised it to her face.
Already the mobs, pouring in from the side streets at the first scent of a brawl, were pushing the forlorn hope, all unwilling, to its fate; three or four had already gone down with broken heads, and a freedman of Torquatus had been stabbed in the side, when, above the tumult, rose a voice crying: "Make way for the Consul, Paullus! Way! way!"
To these harangues Paullus and the nobles listened in wonder and disgust even in terror; and when, at length, the consuls set out to take command of the greatest army Rome had ever put into the field, the story was passed from mouth to mouth of how Fabius had spoken with Paullus and warned him that he must now do battle against two commanders: Hannibal and his own colleague; and of how Paullus had answered in words that told more of foreboding than of hope.
Yet the plundering of temples in this way became of more and more frequent occurrence. Titus Flamininus in particular and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior , two leading champions of Roman Hellenism, as well as Lucius Paullus , were the means of filling the public buildings of Rome with the masterpieces of the Greek chisel.
Then, slowly, he dismounted, having ordered his horse to kneel, and the beast, unable to rise again, rolled over on its side. Paullus watched it with almost an expression of pity, and then dragged himself to a flat rock and sat down. Decius had sought to aid him, but the other thrust him rudely back. "It is only the smaller bone," he said. "One of their accursed stingers hit me."
"The ground, at a woman’s feet, is no place for a man ever; least of all such a woman’s. Arise, and mark me, when I tell you that, which to tell you, only, I came hither. Arise, I say, and make me not scorn the man, whom I admire, whom—wo is me! I love." Paullus regained his feet slowly, and abashed; it seemed that all the pride and haughtiness of his character had given way at once.
The day passed pleasantly to all, but to Paullus Arvina it flew like a dream, like a delirious trance, from which, could he have consulted his own will, he would never have awakened. With the dessert, and the wine cup, the myrtle branch and the lute went round, and songs were warbled by sweet voices, full of seductive thoughts and words of passion.
Marcus Paullus Æmilius, one of the best and bravest of the Romans, was sent to subdue him, and the great battle was fought in 188, at Pydna, near Mount Olympus.
"It will be well if it prove so," replied Paullus, feeling that he must say something, and fearful of committing himself by many words. "It will, and I think probably it may," answered Cicero. "But see, I was right; there shines the light from Volero’s shop, though all the other booths have been closed long ago, and the streets are already silent.
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