"But why do you not live in Rome?"
"If you should see the splendid turnips I raise in my garden, you surely would not summon me to Rome. An old man like me interests himself only in his apricot slips."
At this moment a messenger from the Capitol whispered to Pompeius:
"Carinus has laid aside the purple in favor of his brother Numerian."
Mesembrius sometimes heard so well that he caught the faintest murmur.
"What did you say?" he eagerly exclaimed. "Carinus has abdicated, and Numerian will be Imperator? Huzza! Huzza!"
"Do you know Numerian? What kind of a man is he?" asked the courtiers anxiously.
"What kind of a man? He is a hero, a Roman, under whose rule Rome's golden age will begin again and the sun of fame will again shine upon us. The glorious battles which Rome fought against half the world Numerian will continue. We will all share them. A new and radiant epoch is dawning. I will swing myself upon my charger and be where every man of honour must appear. I am not yet too old to die in battle!"
The old man, frantic with joy, was gesticulating enthusiastically, without thinking of his crutches, and recognised an acquaintance coming from the direction of the Capitol at a distance of a hundred paces. This was Quaterquartus, the augur.
"You are from the Capitol, Quaterquartus? Well! Well! What is the news?"