have learned of us. However, do with him as you like, Julia; a woman
has a lighter hand than a man, and you are more likely to tame him
than we are. Cneius says that he is very eager to learn, and has
ever a book in his hand when not practising in arms."

"What I like most in him," Julia said, "is that he is very fond of
our little Berenice. The child has taken to him wonderfully, and
of an afternoon, when he has finished with Cneius, she often goes
out with him. Of course old Lucia goes with them. It is funny to
hear them on a wet day, when they cannot go out, talking together
--she telling him stories of Rome and of our kings and consuls,
and he telling her tales of hunting the wolf and wild boar, and
legends of his people, who seem to have been always at war with
someone."

After Beric had resided for three years and a half at Camalodunum
a great grief fell on the family of Caius Muro, for the damp airs
from the valley had long affected Julia and she gradually faded and
died. Beric felt the loss very keenly, for she had been uniformly
kind to him. A year later Suetonius and the governor of the colony
decided that as the Sarci had now been quiet for nearly five years,
and as Caius reported that their young chief seemed to have become
thoroughly Romanized, he was permitted to return to his tribe.

The present was his first visit to the colony since he had left it
four months before. His companion, Boduoc, was one of the tribesmen,
a young man six years his senior. He was related to his mother, and
had been his companion in his childish days, teaching him woodcraft,
and to throw the javelin and use the sword. Together, before Beric
went as hostage, they had wandered through the forest and hunted