Their amusements were dancing, music, games
of strength and games of chance; and, above all, to people who had
lately suffered the extremities of famine, abundant eating and
drinking--long, serious, ecstatic enjoyment of the powers of mastication
and the faculties of taste.
Among the assembly were some individuals whose dress and manner raised
them, outwardly at least, above the general mass. These persons walked
backwards and forwards together on different parts of the ground as
observers, not as partakers in the sports. One of their number,
however, in whatever direction he turned, preserved an isolated
position. He held an open letter in his hand, which he looked at from
time to time, and appeared to be wholly absorbed in his own thoughts.
This man we may advantageously particularise on his own account, as well
as on account of the peculiarity of his accidental situation; for he was
the favoured minister of Vetranio's former pleasures--'the industrious
Carrio'.
The freedman (who was last introduced to the reader in Chapter XIV.
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