By the wayside would be seen moving stealthily
a dark form, which the travellers knew to be a bear, but they met no
human being, nor anywhere saw the gleam of a light in human
habitation. Coming within view of some temple of the old religion,
all crossed themselves and murmured a prayer, for this was the hour
when the dethroned demons had power over the bodies and the souls of
men.
After a long descent they struck into the Via Latina, still in spite
of long neglect almost as good a road as when the legions marched
over its wheel-furrowed stones. If the information on which Leander
had calculated was correct, some three days' journey by this way
would bring them within reach of the Gothic king; but Marcian was
now debating with himself at what point he should quit the high
road, so as to make certain his escape, in case the Greek horsemen
began a chase early on the morrow. To the left lay a mountainous
region, with byways and little ancient towns, in old time the
country of the Hernici; beyond, a journey of two good days, flowed
the river Liris, and there, not far from the town of Arpinum, was
Marcian's ancestral villa.
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