He silently saluted Ausonius (it did not escape his eyes that his foe looked admiringly at him), who motioned to him to sit down on a camp stool. But the youth, with a defiant bearing, remained standing. In vain, gazing around the richly decorated space, Adalo endeavored to discover some trace, not of Bissula herself--that was beyond his hopes--but of some garment or article that belonged to her. Nothing was to be seen except arms and papyrus rolls. "You understand the language of Rome, since you have come without an interpreter?" Ausonius began. Adalo nodded. "Be welcome! We expected such a messenger. You desire peace?" The young hero angrily flung back his handsome head so that his long locks rested on his shoulders, and answered with flashing eyes: "I offer to let you depart unmolested." "Ha, insolent Barbarian!" cried Herculanus. But Saturninus wrathfully motioned to him to keep silence, and then asked very quietly: "Are we surrounded?" "Not yet; but only because we did not desire it." Saturninus cast a significant glance at the Prefect. "Boasting!" replied the latter in Greek. "And why haven't you destroyed us yet?" sneered Herculanus. "The result, Roman, is in the hands of the gods. We have not attacked because we, who do not fear battle, but rather--you know well--love it, this time desire peace; or our wise leaders, who think further than my comrades, desire it. The great league of the Alemanni wishes to end forever by a treaty not only this campaign but the whole war with you, which for generations has been burning or at least smouldering: we wish not a truce, but peace with Rome." "Is this your idea, youth?" asked Saturninus, searchingly. "I have already said it is the choice of our wise leaders, among whom I am not numbered. But I, too, perceive that intercourse with you across the frontiers, when the spears are leaning in the hall, will bring to our people many benefits. We have already learned much from watching you; we must learn still more." "But why," interposed Ausonius, "if you perceive this, have you for centuries broken every armistice, every treaty? You Germans boast of fidelity as one of the virtues of your race, and we must praise the loyal service of your mercenaries under our standards. Why, here on the frontiers, are all your tribes of many names, Alemanni and Franks, Goths and Quadi and Marcomanni, the same in this unfaithfulness? Why, year after year, do you continually break peace and compact? Our cohorts, constantly compelled to wade through your forest marshes, upbraid you with fierce hatred as the falsest of the peoples. Why do you continually break over our frontiers, like a forest stream?"