Opening the volume at the blood-stained page, the unlettered boy eagerly read the lines. Tried to read them, rather, and groaned in spirit because he knew no Latin.
Small wonder that he was nonplused, for this was all he read:
MARTIAL’S EPIGRAMS
Liber IV, Epigram XVIII
Qua vicina pluit Vipsanis porta columnis
Et madet assiduo lubricus imbre lapis,
In iugulum pueri, qui roscida tecta subibat,
Decidit hiberno praegravis unda gelu:
Cumque peregisset miseri crudelia fata,
Tabuit in calido vulnere mucro tener.