With tears streaming down his cheeks Marius implored the sailors to save him from his enemies.
At length, after thinking now that it would send the unfortunate man to shore, now that it would sail away with him, the crew made up its mind and put off to sea.
But even then the troubles of Marius were not ended.
In a very short time the sailors again changed their minds. They were, after all, afraid to keep the man whom Rome had banned, so, although they had not given him up to the enemy, they now determined to desert him.
They therefore put in to land near a town called Minturnæ, and bidding Marius go on shore, they told him to rest until a more favourable wind arose.
Marius had no suspicion that the sailors intended to desert him. Perhaps he was too bewildered with the hardships he had already endured to think of others that might yet befall him.
But the sailors had no sooner got rid of their unwelcome guest than they sailed away, leaving Marius alone. His companions had, it seems, gone on board another ship.
When at length Marius realised that the sailors had played him false, he struggled to his feet and looked around. The ground was full of bogs and marsh, but he stumbled on, for shelter he must find. In time he reached the hut of an old man who worked in the fens.
Marius begged the old man to hide him, and he appeared willing to do so, for he led the stranger to a secret place in the fens and covered him with rushes.
Even here, however, Marius was not safe. The horsemen succeeded in tracing him to the hut, and Marius could hear their loud voices as they threatened to punish the old man for concealing an enemy of Rome.