his way to the famous temple which lay [30] among the hills beyond
the valley of the Arnus. It was his greatest adventure hitherto; and
he had much pleasure in all its details, in spite of his
feverishness. Starting early, under the guidance of an old serving-
man who drove the mules, with his wife who took all that was needful
for their refreshment on the way and for the offering at the shrine,
they went, under the genial heat, halting now and then to pluck
certain flowers seen for the first time on these high places,
upwards, through a long day of sunshine, while cliffs and woods sank
gradually below their path. The evening came as they passed along a
steep white road with many windings among the pines, and it was night
when they reached the temple, the lights of which shone out upon them
pausing before the gates of the sacred enclosure, while Marius became
alive to a singular purity in the air. A rippling of water about the
place was the only thing audible, as they waited till two priestly
figures, speaking Greek to one another, admitted them into a large,
white-walled and clearly lighted guest-chamber, in which, while he
partook of a simple but wholesomely prepared supper, Marius still
seemed to feel pleasantly the height they had attained to among the
hills.

The agreeable sense of all this was spoiled by one thing only, his
old fear of serpents; for it was under the form of a serpent that
Aesculapius [31] had come to Rome, and the last definite thought of
his weary head before he fell asleep had been a dread either that the
god might appear, as he was said sometimes to do, under this hideous
aspect, or perhaps one of those great sallow-hued snakes themselves,
kept in the sacred place, as he had also heard was usual.

And after an hour's feverish dreaming he awoke--with a cry, it would