What men those barbarians do breed! I was afraid of being crushed under the elephant's foot at every step I took with him!' 'What!' asked Hypatia, 'did your excellency condescend to converse with such savages ?' 'To tell you the truth, he had some forty stout countrymen of his with him, who might have been troublesome to a perplexed prefect; not to mention that it is always as well to keep on good terms with these Goths.

Really, after the sack of Rome, and Athens cleaned out like a beehive by wasps, things begin to look serious.

And as for the great brute himself, he has rank enough in his way,--boasts of his descent from some cannibal god or other,--really hardly deigned to speak to a paltry Roman governor, till his faithful and adoring bride interceded for me.

Still, the fellow understood good living, and we celebrated our new treaty of friendship with noble libations--but I must not talk about that to you.

However, I got rid of them; quoted all the geographical lies I had ever heard, and a great many more; quickened their appetite for their fool's errand notably, and started them off again.