“But the very thing we trained them for at Casinum, O Aldo, was the trick that saved the day. Never before have I seen horses turn so quickly. In all my experience never have I seen such beautiful movement. The White was taken back with surprise. He tried to cut me out; but one word, one toss of the reins, one long cheer to the horses that know my every whisper, succeeded in bringing me clear of the rest. Oh the speed with which we made the sixth turn! The Red had the inside track and we were even. With the cracking of the whips, the hoof-beats of the horses, and the cheering of the sanguine Greens all ringing in mine ears, I made my supreme effort. I called each horse by name. I steadied them with the last bit of strength in my body. As we reached the final stretch, I was slightly in the lead. Oh, the cries of the people were deafening! Every one of the charioteers was exerting himself to the utmost. By some invisible power I succeeded in instilling into my horses my own enthusiasm. O my lad, on, on, on, we went towards the final goal! The enthusiasm of the vast crowd now passed all bounds, my Psyche. ‘He has it! he has it!’ were the words that rent the air when, a full chariot’s length ahead of them all, I passed the stand of the judges!” “Said I not my master would win, my lady?” asks Aldo, trembling with excitement. “Ay, my lad,” replies Psyche. “How feelest thou?” asks Gyges, turning kindly to Aldo. “A few days more and I shall be able to help thee, my master.” “The physician has been here, my husband. He says that Aldo will be able to walk with crutches two weeks hence. He has so bandaged the lad’s limbs that the boy can scarcely move.” “Not two weeks hence, my lady?” “Ay, Aldo.” “Spartans must have been thine ancestors, Aldo. Thou wert a true hero to have kept silence under torture. ’Twas that silence, brave lad, that gives us our present happiness. I will not only make thee free, but I share with thee my winnings of this day!” “Nay, my master; I wish for nothing. I am content if I may live with thee.” “Come, dear heart,” says Gyges, taking Psyche’s hand, “let us sit together in our favorite place in the peristyle and watch the play of the fountain as the evening dies away.” Seated on the same stone bench where they passed their happy afternoon before Psyche’s arrest, the loving couple lose themselves in meditation. The fountain plays its old joyful air. “The months we were separated, O sweet wife, were bitter ones; but now in happy matrimonial bonds we live a new life of peace.” “True, O Gyges; it seems as if my mind had been meanwhile in dense obscurity. Often does my memory revert to the sufferer with whom I passed the last months of my imprisonment.” “Ay, tyranny did not end with the death of Sejanus,” replies Gyges.