He must escape, and that without delay! So, hastily stripping off his clothes, Marius plunged deep into the thick and muddy bog, hoping to find a ditch into which he might slip and yet baffle his pursuers. But his hope was vain.
The horsemen had dismounted, and were searching everywhere for their prey. At last one of them caught sight of the desperate man, and darting into the bog, pulled Marius out, covered with mire.
Thus, naked and begrimed, he was carried to the magistrates at Minturnæ.
CHAPTER XCIV
THE GAUL DARES NOT KILL GAIUS MARIUS
As you know, Marius had been proclaimed a public enemy, and it was the duty of any one who captured him to put him to death. The magistrates of Minturnæ resolved to do their duty.
But no citizen was to be found who would undertake to put Marius to death, for his fame made him still terrible in their eyes.
At length a Gaul, who had seen him as he fought with the Cimbri, was sent, sword in hand, to kill the prisoner.
Marius had been thrust into a dimly-lighted room. As the Gaul opened the door he saw nothing save two eyes which gleamed like fire. As he advanced the eyes seemed to follow his every movement, until he was conscious of nothing save the terror of that burning gaze.
The next moment a loud voice cried: ‘Fellow, darest thou kill Gaius Marius?’ and in a flash the Gaul knew that in truth he dared not. Throwing down his sword, he rushed from the room in a frenzy of terror, crying: ‘I cannot kill Gaius Marius.’ So the magistrates and citizens of Minturnæ had the prisoner once more on their hands.