"Where? What corpses?"
"Hush!... Hush!" murmured the glass-blower.
"They say that the renegade has long taken his auguries from the intestines of living men; and all this for his war against the Persians and his victory over the Christians!"
Overcome with satisfaction he muttered under his breath—
"Why, in the cellars of the palace at Antioch they've discovered chests full of human bones ... and in the city of Karra, near Edessa, the Christians have found, in a subterranean temple, the corpse of a woman hanging by her hair with her body slit open.... Julian wanted to inspect the liver of an infant for his cursed war."
"Eh? Gluturius! Is it true that human bones are found in the sewers? You ought to know!" said a shoemaker, a confirmed sceptic.
Gluturius, the scavenger, who stood near the door, not venturing in because he smelt badly, being thus addressed, began, according to his custom, to smile and to blink his inflamed eyelids:
"No, worthy friends," he answered humbly. "Newborn infants are sometimes found there, or skeletons of asses and camels, but I never yet saw a corpse of man or woman."
When Strombix resumed his speech, the scavenger listened religiously, rubbing his bare leg against the door post.
"Brother men," cried the orator, with fiery indignation, "let us be revenged! Let us die like ancient Romans!"