The feasters looked, and echoed the consternation of the Feast Master.
The guests unceremoniously rose, and were hastening as fast as their uncertain legs and frightened attendants could carry them, when Apollonius recalled them. "A curse on the slave! Let us appease our Nemesis of the feast with the offal of the villain who has broken its rules!" and lifting the crater he felled the unfortunate man who had perpetrated the dire omen.
As the guests, half sobered by the scene, stood about the prostrate body Apollonius said:
"Hear you, good friends, to-morrow we will treat you to something more ominous still. We will offer another sacrifice,—a sow upon the Jews' altar in the Temple, court. Attend me there. Farewell! Bacchus protect his own!"
Dion took the hand of Apollonius.
"My thanks, General, for your aid in recovering this child, whom I will return to his home."
The Governor lowered his voice:
"Serve me as well when occasion requires, Captain Dion; and if Elkiah's daughter does not reward your service with her favor, tell her what she owes to Apollonius, and I will cast my bait."
The revellers dispersed to their various quarters, some to the citadel, some to the camps outside the walls, and some to the mansions from which they had ejected the owners. One or two of the slaves lighted torches of resinous wood to guide the feet of their masters along the stones, which were slippery with the sewage thrown from the doorways, or poured over the roof parapets into the street. But most of the servants were fully occupied in supporting the limp bodies of their lords, and now and then lifting them out of the holes where, once fallen, they insisted upon sitting, while they called for more wine, or relieved themselves of what they had already taken.