The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-03-08
Paulus opened it and read what follows:

younger, Ve1eus Paterculus sends greeting
"Go where you like, amuse yourself as you
like, do as you ike-fsh, ride, walk, read,
play, sipg-provided you sleep each night at
the Post House of the Hundredth Milestone,
under the excellent Crispina's roof. Be careful
of your health and welfare"
$50 far so good" said Paulus; al am a
prisoner, indeed, but with toierabfe long
tether, at least. 1 am much obliged to you for
bringing me the letter."
Imprisonment! observed the other al
have heard knot of centurions, and also SOL
diers unnumbered, talk of your Imprisonment,
and OF the blow with which it seems to be
connected. You are favorite, without know
| ing it, among the troops at Formis. One farce
fellow swore, by quite a crowd of gods, that
your blow deserved to have freed a slave, fn-
stead of enslaving knight that is, to have
| freed you had You been a slave, instead of en-
Shaving you, who already a knight"
:" feel grateful to the sodiers," said Paulus.
g You doubtless an officer-a centurion
perhaps'"
"Well, they do speak freely" replied the
! stranger, "and 80 do 1 +; therefore yon have
made fair guess but you are wrong"
1" All WELL" said Paulus, thanks for onr
| trouble, and farewell. 1 must CO."
zone word" persisted the other. al am
| famous man. though you do not seem to know
it. The conqueror in thirty-nine single COM
bats Rome, all of them mortal, ard all
against the best gladiators that ever fought in
| circus or in forum, stands before you. At pres
ent l am no longer obliged to fight in person.
keep the most invincible tamilia of gladiators
that Rome has hitherto known. You are
aware of TIE change of morals and fashions
you are aware that even q senator has been
seen in the arena. Some day an emperor will
descend into our lists (This, as the reader
knows, really happened in the course of time.)
'Join my family, my school am Thellus,
| the lanista."
I" What"' cried Paulus, his nostris dlated,
and his eyes flashing. e In Greece, where I
have been bred, gladiatorial shows are not so
| much as allowed by the law, even though the
gladiators should be all slaves; and because
some senator has forgotten the respect due to
the senate and to himself, and has no sense
| either of decency or humanity, you dare to
propose to me, the nephew of triumvir, the
son of an honorable and a famous soldier-to
me, the last of the Emilians, to descend as q
gladiator into the arena, and to join your
school of uneducated, base-born, and merce-
nary cut-throats!"
|
pected burst of lofty indignation, and felt
himself thrust morally to such sudden dis
lance from the STRIPPING, at least in the ap
pearance of things, that he uttered not one
word for several instans. He gared in speech
less fury at the speaker, and when at length
he found voice and ideas, he said,
| "Do you know that could take you in these
unarmed hands, and tear you limb from limb
| vi er I
do you know that7"
81 do not" said Paulus, in slow and signif-
cant accents, facing round at the same time
upon the lanista' with deliberate steadiness,
and looking him fixodly in the face; but if
you even could, it would suit my humor better
to be murdered where am by gladiator than
to be one"
"By the Capitoline Jove!" cried Thellus,
after another rather long, doubtful pause,
laughing vehemently, {" when I place your
skill of fence, about which have heard q
particular account, by the side of your high
spirit, you really do make my mouth water to
number you among my pupils. I have not q
man in my familia whom you would not, when
a little addition to your years shall have per-
fected your bodily vigor, stretch upon the sand
in ten minutes. But what mean you, after ALI
You do not wish to hurt my feelings because 1
make you friendly offer in the best shape
that my unlucky destiny and state of life af-
ford me tho means of doing7 Do you, then,
so utterly despise the gladiator Have you
reflected on it so deeply Who, nevertheless,
displays in a greater degree many of the &C.
verest and highest virtuesf Do you despise
the man who despises life itself, when COM
pared with honor in The only form in which
honor is for him accessible? Answer that
Do you despise abstemousness, fortitude SELF
control, self-sacri6ce, chastity, courage, endu
ranoef Answer that Who is more dauntless
in the combat, more sublimely unruffled when
defeated, more invincibly silent under the
agony of violent death, accompanied by the
hootings of pitiless dersion, and ,chose derision
} whose mockery, is the last sound in his ears
Let that pass.
But who pays dearer price for the ap-
plause of his fellow-men when it is his 7 Who
serves them more desperately in the way in