A scanty fire was glimmering on the strand.

Where had the wood been gathered in this desert?
How had it been kindled?
A wrecked, mouldering boat had lain close beside the scene of the murder.
The freedman and his companions had broken it up and fed the flames with withered boughs, the torn garments of the murdered man, and dry sea-weed.

A blaze soon rose, and a body was carefully placed upon the wretched funeral pyre.

It was the corpse of the great Pompey.

One of the Imperator's veterans aided the faithful servant." Here Archibius sank back again among the cushions, adding in explanation: "Cordus, the man's name was Servius Cordus.