“It is years since he left Rome, friends, is it not?” rejoined Eustace.
“Fifteen years and more; but come, comrade, we must go onwards.”
“Nay, sirs, come to my poor abode; what I have is at your service.”
The emissaries of Trajan gladly acceded to Eustace’s request. The homely repast was soon placed on the board, and the men sat down to refresh themselves, while Eustace waited upon them. Again the thoughts of his old home came thickly upon him, and he could not restrain his tears. He left the room where his guests were, bathed his face with water, and returned to wait on the two men.
“I have a strange presentiment,” remarked one of the men during Eustace’s absence, “that our good host is even he whom we search after. Marked you not how he hesitated when we first addressed him?”
“Ay, and even now he has left us with his eyes red with suppressed tears.”
“Let us try the last test, the sabre mark on his head, which he received in the passage of the Danube, when he struck down the northern champion.”
As soon as Eustace returned the soldiers examined his head, and finding the wished-for mark, embraced their old general; the neighbors, too, came in, and the exploits of Eustace were soon in the mouths of the villagers.
For fifteen days they journeyed towards Rome, Eustace and his two guides; as they neared the imperial capital, the emperor came out to meet his old commander. Eustace would have fallen at his master’s feet, but Trajan forbade him; and side by side, amid the congratulations and applauses of the people, the emperor and his long-lost servant entered Rome.
The return of Eustace inspired the people with confidence; thousands hurried from every village to volunteer as soldiers, and his only difficulty was to select who should be rejected. One contingent from a far-off village arrested his attention; it was headed by two youths of wonderful likeness the one to the other, and apparently within a year of the same age. They were tall in stature, of commanding features, and their selection as leaders, by their comrades, did justice to their attainments and the superiority of their manners. Pleased with the youths, Eustace placed them in the van of his army, and began his march against the invaders, who had reached within a few miles of the coast whereon he had disembarked from the ship of the barbarous captain.