There was a convulsive tremor throughout the assembly.  A fierce blow from Eumolpus, full on the crest, had brought Lydon to his knee.

“Habet!—­he has it!” cried a shrill female voice; “he has it!”

It was the voice of the girl who had so anxiously anticipated the sacrifice of some criminal to the beasts.

“Be silent, child!” said the wife of Pansa, haughtily. “Non habet!—­he is not wounded!”

“I wish he were, if only to spite old surly Medon,” muttered the girl.

Meanwhile Lydon, who had hitherto defended himself with great skill and valor, began to give way before the vigorous assaults of the practiced Roman; his arm grew tired, his eye dizzy, he breathed hard and painfully.  The combatants paused again for breath.

“Young man,” said Eumolpus, in a low voice, “desist; I will wound thee slightly—­then lower thy arm; thou hast propitiated the editor and the mob—­thou wilt be honorably saved!”

“And my father still enslaved!” groaned Lydon to himself.  “No! death or his freedom.”

At that thought, and seeing that, his strength not being equal to the endurance of the Roman, everything depended on a sudden and desperate effort, he threw himself fiercely on Eumolpus; the Roman warily retreated—­Lydon thrust again—­Eumolpus drew himself aside—­the sword grazed his cuirass—­Lydon’s breast was exposed—­the Roman plunged his sword through the joints of the armor, not meaning however to inflict a deep wound; Lydon, weak and exhausted, fell forward, fell right on the point; it passed through and through, even to the back.  Eumolpus drew forth his blade; Lydon still made an effort to regain his balance—­his sword left his grasp—­he struck mechanically at the gladiator with his naked hand and fell prostrate on the arena.  With one accord, aedile and assembly made the signal of mercy; the officers of the arena approached, they took off the helmet of the vanquished.  He still breathed; his eyes rolled fiercely on his foe; the savageness he had acquired in his calling glared from his gaze and lowered upon the brow, darkened already with the shades of death; then with a convulsive groan, with a half-start, he lifted his eyes above.  They rested not on the face of the aedile nor on the pitying brows of the relenting judges.  He saw them not; they were as if the vast space was desolate and bare; one pale agonizing face alone was all he recognized—­one cry of a broken heart was all that, amid the murmurs and the shouts of the populace, reached his ear.  The ferocity vanished from his brow; a soft, tender expression of sanctifying but despairing filial love played over his features—­played—­waned—­darkened!  His face suddenly became locked and rigid, resuming its former fierceness.  He fell upon the earth.

“Look to him,” said the aedile; “he has done his duty!”

The officers dragged him off to the spoliarium.

“A true type of glory, and of its fate!” murmured Arbaces to himself; and his eye, glancing around the amphitheatre, betrayed so much of disdain and scorn that whoever encountered it felt his breath suddenly arrested, and his emotions frozen into one sensation of abasement and of awe.