piles earned silver under the moon, a hundred families had been
evicted and left to harbour as they pleased in the open; and, as a
consequence, now every niche had its quota of sleepers, and every
shadow its squad of fierce wild creatures, ready to rush out and
rob or slay all wayfarers of less force than their own.

Myself, I am no pamperer of the common people. I say that, if
a man be left to hunger and shiver, he will work to gain him food
and raiment; and if not, why then he can die, and the State is well
rid of a worthless fellow. But here beside us, as we marched
through many wards, were marks of blind oppression; starved dead
bodies, with the bones starting through the lean skin, sprawled in
the gutter; and indeed it was plain that, save for the favoured
few, the people of the great capital were under a most heavy
oppression.

But at this, though I might regret it abominably, I could make
no strong complaint. By the ancient law of the land all the
people, great and small, were the servants of the king, to be put
without question to what purposes he chose; and Phorenice stood in
the place of the king. So I tried to think no treason, but with a
sigh passed on, keeping my eyes above the miseries and the squalors
of the roadway, and sending out my thoughts to the stars which hung
in the purple night above, and to the High Gods which dwelt amongst
them, seeking, if it might be, for guidance for my future policies.
And so in time the windings of the streets brought us to the walls,
and, coursing beside these and giving fitting answer to the
sentries who beat their drums as we passed, we came in time to that
great gate which was a charge to the captain of the garrison.