I at once replied that I desired above all things never to be returned to that _ergastulum_. This he promised immediately, saying that recommitment there would be equivalent to a sentence of torture and death, since my late associates, infuriated at my treachery, as they named it, would certainly inflict on me all the torments their malignity could suggest and keep on till I died. He added that he and the other aldermen had never meant to recommit me; deliverance from that _ergastulum_. they considered part of my reward and that the least part of it. What else did I desire? "If," said I, "I must remain a slave and, remaining the property of Caesar, must be employed as the administration of the _fiscus_ direct, at least try to arrange that I be employed out of doors far from any town, on a slave farm, or at herding or wood-cutting or charcoal-burning. I have heard that many of Caesar's slave-gangs are busy afield, on farms, or pasture-lands or in the forests." "That," said the alderman, "will be easy. Afield you shall go--even far afield. Do you like horses? Can you manage horses?" "I love all animals," I said, "and most particularly horses." "Then," said the alderman, "I have already in mind the very place for you, where none of your rancorous late associates can ever find you, on an Imperial stock-farm or breeding-ranch in the uplands, among the forested mountains. Would you consider it a reward, would you consider it the fulfillment of your wish to be transferred from our town _ergastulum_, where you were as an Imperial slave rented out to our city, to such an Imperial estate, where you will be directly under the employees of the _fiscus_?" "I certainly should feel rewarded," I said, "by such a transfer." "In addition," he concluded, "we shall present you with a new tunic and cloak and new shoes, also an extra tunic, and with a purse containing ten silver pieces." CHAPTER XXV THE OPEN COUNTRY After some days of rest, abundant food and leisurely hot-baths in the freedman's house, I left Nuceria under convoy of three genial road- constables and journeyed deliberately northward along the Flaminian Highway to the Imperial estate which was to be my abode. I am not going to locate it precisely nor to name the villages nearest it nor the neighboring towns. It will be quite sufficient to set down that it was near the Flaminian Highway and approximately half way between Nuceria and Forum Sempronii.