The cart came around the bend in the road, and I began to dread. The air seemed suddenly heavy with disaster. There was no lightness in the fellows in the train, no whistling ran ahead to announce their coming. They rode in silence, and beside them walked a single soldier with his spear, a broad-shouldered and sensible tesserarius. On the other side came a priest. Was it plague? Did they bring me a plague corpse, to name the sickness and pronounce the remedy?