quarrelling with human nature. Certain it is that all vices bring
their own punishment, and that the Romans were a far nobler race
when they were poor and simple, in the days of the early consuls,
than they are now, with all their power, their riches, and their
luxuries. Such is the history of all peoples--of Egypt, of Persia,
of Greece, and Carthage; and methinks that Rome, too, will run the
course of other nations, and that some day, far distant maybe, she
will sink beneath the weight of her power and her luxury, and that
some younger and more vigorous people will, bit by bit, wrest her
dominions from her and rule in her place.

"As yet, happily, I see no signs of failing in her powers. She is
still vigorous, and even in the distant outskirts of the empire
the wave of conquest flows onward. Happily for us, I think, it can
flow no farther this way; there is but one island beyond this to
conquer, and then, as in Western Gaul and Iberia, the ocean says
to Rome, 'Thou shalt go no farther.' Would that to the south, the
east, and north a similar barrier checked our progress, then we
could rest and be content, and need no longer waste our strength
in fresh conquests, or in opposing the incursions of hordes of
barbarians from regions unknown to us even by report. I could wish
myself, Beric, that nature had placed your island five days' sail
from the coasts of Gaul, instead of placing it within sight. Then
I might have been enjoying life in my villa among the Tuscan hills
with my daughter, instead of being exposed at any moment to march
with the Legion against the savage mountaineers of the west. Ah!
here comes Berenice," he broke off, as his daughter, attended by her
old nurse, entered the atrium from the vestibule. She hastened her
steps as she saw Beric standing before her father in the tablinum.