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, editor 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 editor nor on the pitying brows of his 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, amidst the murmurs and the shouts of the populace, reached his ear.  The ferocity vanished from his brow; a soft, a tender expression of sanctifying but despairing 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 round 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.

Again rich perfumes were wafted around the theatre; the attendants sprinkled fresh sand over the arena.

‘Bring forth the lion and Glaucus the Athenian,’ said the editor.

And a deep and breathless hush of overwrought interest, and intense (yet, strange to say, not unpleasing) terror lay, like a mighty and awful dream, over the assembly.

Chapter III

Sallust and Nydia’s letter.

Thrice had Sallust awakened from his morning sleep, and thrice, recollecting that his friend was that day to perish, had he turned himself with a deep sigh once more to court oblivion.  His sole object in life was to avoid pain; and where he could not avoid, at least to forget it.