Part 20 (1/2)
”When?”
”Last night.”
”How? While on guard outside the camp?”
”No, after I was relieved.”
”The trader will be scourged. Who sold it to you?”
”No one. That was just it! I shouldn't have drunk so much if I had bought it. But given! A present of Ma.s.sican wine! Who can resist it?”
”No German, it seems. And you report for punishment? Of your own free will? Highly improbable. You were probably detected and wish to antic.i.p.ate?”
”No: no one discovered me. When I was relieved, I had been completely sobered by fright.”
”Why?”
”My lord,”--he spoke hesitatingly,--”it is about the Idise.”
”Who is that?”
”Why, the red-haired wood nymph.”
”What of her?” asked the Illyrian eagerly, now keenly intent.
”My lord, I wish her well! As--as we all do.”
”As we all do?”
”Yes, yes,” replied the German, smiling, ”even you. General; I've noticed it. Well, I report for punishment, and will tell the whole story because--because I'm afraid the little one's life is in danger.”
”Tell your story,” Saturninus commanded, evidently startled. ”Who gave you the wine?”
”Davus, the Prefect's slave.”
”Ah--and what happened then?”
”Then it happened that I drank too much, and when I mounted guard outside of the little one's tent, I soon fell asleep on the soft turf. A terrible growling roused me. The she-bear owned by a juggler, a Sarmatian, which I brought into camp yesterday and carried to the captive girl, acted exactly as though she were a human being, that is, a man; for she followed the red elf everywhere.”
”Suspicious! Did Bissula know the animal? Did she call it by any name?”
”No. But she was very much pleased when she saw the she-bear; her face flushed and paled. So much pleased that I asked, as you did just now: 'Bissula, do you know each other? How does it happen that the beast will have nothing to do with anybody except you? Hark! how friendly her growl sounds: why doesn't she treat us the same?'
”'Oh,' replied Bissula, laughing, 'she comes from our country and she knows that I am the only one who understands her Alemanni language.
Don't you believe me? Well, then ask her,' she added, still laughing, shaking back her curling locks, 'maybe she will tell you.'
”In short, the monster would not leave her side, and followed her into the tent when she went to bed. So the bear's growling waked me. I started up and saw by the light of the campfire a man, running at full speed, vanish around the corner of the nearest tent.
”I rushed in. The young girl had seen nothing--she had fallen asleep.