"
"Do you dare to argue with me, you foul-tongued camp scavenger?" shouted
Gallus. "Here, guard, lash him to that tree! Fear not, daughter; the
insult shall be avenged; we shall teach his dirty tongue to sing another
tune," and again he cursed him, naming him by new names.
"Oh! sir, sir," broke in Miriam, "what are you about to do? This man
offered me no insult, none of them offered me anything except kind words
and flowers."
"Then how is it that you weep?" asked Gallus suspiciously.
"I wept, being still weak, because they who are conquerors were so kind
to one who is a slave and an outcast."
"Oh!" said Gallus. "Well, guard, you need not tie him up this time, but
after all I take back nothing that I have said, seeing that in this way
or in that they did make you weep. What business had they to insult you
with their kindness? Men, henceforth you will be so good as to remember
that this maiden is the property of Titus Caesar, and after Caesar, of
myself, in whose charge he placed her. If you have any offerings to make
to her, and I do not dissuade you from that practice, they must be made
through me. Meanwhile, there is a cask of wine, that good old stuff from
the Lebanon which I had bought for the voyage.
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