“Mother,” said Lucilia, “do not allow him to make a laughing stock of me in this heartless way. ‘If only I were a man,’ you mean, not ‘if it were permissible.’”
“Very good!” replied Quintus.
Caius Aurelius now expressed a wish to hear Claudia sing a Latin song, and she selected one of which the words were by the much-admired poet Statius,[90] who at that time was, with Martial,[91] the reigning favorite in the taste of the highest circles. With this the stranger seemed equally delighted.
When Claudia had ended, he himself seized the instrument and plectrum, and with eager enthusiasm in a full, strong voice sang a battle-song. The powerful tones rang through the evening silence like the rush of a mountain torrent. His hearers saw in fancy the swaying struggle—the captain of the legion is in the thick of the fray—“Comrades,” cries one of the combatants, “our chief is in danger! Help! help for our chief!—One last furious onslaught, and the battle is won!”
The two girls shrank closer to each other.
As the notes slowly died away, a figure appeared high above them in the moonlight, leaning over the parapet of the upper story.
“By the gods! my lord!” cried Herodianus, “I am coming!—If only I knew where Magus has hidden my sword! Hold your own, stand steady, and we will beat them yet!”
The party burst out laughing.
“Go to bed, Herodianus!” shouted his master. “You are talking in your dreams!”
“Apollo be praised then!” stuttered the other, “but I heard you with my own ears, shouting desperately for help.” And with these words he withdrew from the parapet, still muttering and fighting the air with his arms; and Lucilia declared that she should positively die of laughing if this extraordinary sleep-walker went through any farther adventures. The moon was already high in the sky, when the party separated. Quintus led his visitor to the strangers’ rooms, wished him goodnight, and went to his own cubiculum[92] where his slaves stood yawning as they waited for him. For a time, however, he paced his room in meditation; then pausing in his walk, he looked undecidedly through the open doorway and asked: “What is the hour?”