THE GENERAL WHO ATE DRY BREAD
among the trees, hungry and weary. But he never lost his spirit.
“Courage, my friends,” he said. “When I was but a child, an eagle's nest, with several young ones, tell into my lap. It was a sign that good-fortune would always come to me sooner or later.”
A squadron of horsemen came in sight. Marius and his comrades ran to the beach and plunged into the sea, and it was as much as they could do to reach two ships which happened to be sailing close inshore. The pursuing horsemen shouted:
“You have Marius on board! In the name of Sulla we bid you yield him to us!”
The sailors first thought they would do so; then they thought otherwise. At length they said no. The cavalry departed, cursing as they went. But the sailors dreaded to keep the famous general in their charge. They said the wind was in the wrong quarter, and they must wait. Meanwhile Marius might rest at a grassy spot on shore. They landed him, and sailed away, leaving him all alone.
It was a dreary and desolate country. Marius scrambled over bogs and brooks, and saw a mean cottage in the midst of the tens. Throwing himself at the feet of the cottager, he asked for shelter, for he was trying to escape from foes.
“Come with me,” said the good old peasant.
Leading Marius to a cave by a riverside, he
73
