A ^^ FLASH house" IN POMPEII. 43 



Our host perhaps had had no need of the rope so 

 kindly recommended to him by Lydon, had he 

 remained three minutes longer in that position. 

 But, summoned to his assistance by the noise of his 

 fall, a woman, who had hitherto kept in an inner 

 apartment, rushed to the scene of battle. This new 

 ally was in herself a match for the gladiator ,* she 

 was tall, lean, and with arms that could give other 

 than soft embraces. In fact, the gentle helpmate of 

 Burbo, the wine-seller, had like himself fought in 

 the hsts — nay, under the Emperor's eye. And 

 Burbo himself, Burbo, the unconquered in the field, 

 according to report, now and then yielded the palm 

 to his soft Stratonice. This sweet creature no sooner 

 saw the imminent peril that awaited her worse half, 

 than without other weapons than those with which 

 Nature had provided her, she darted upon the incum- 

 bent gladiator, and clasping him round the waist 

 with her long and snake-like arms, lifted him with a 

 sudden wrench from the body of her husband, 

 leaving only his hands still clinging to the throat of 

 his foe. So have we seen a dog snatched by the 

 hind legs from the strife with a fallen rival, in the 

 arms of some envious groom ; so have we seen one 

 half of him high in air — passive and offenceless — 

 while the other half, head, teeth, eyes, claws, seemed 

 buried and engulfed in the mangled and prostrate 

 enemy. Meanwhile the gladiators, lapped and 

 pampered and glutted upon blood, crowded dehght- 

 edly round the combatants — their nostrils distended 

 — their lips grinning — their eyes gloatingly fixed on 

 the bloody throat of the one — and the indented talons 

 of the other. 



''Habet! (he has got it!) habet ! '' cried they 

 with a sort of yell, rubbing their nervous hands. 



" Non habeo, ye liars, I have not got it," shouted 

 the host, as with a mighty effort he wrenched himself 

 from those deadly hands, and rose to his feet breath- 

 less, panting, lacerated, bloody ; and fronting with 

 reeling eyes, the glaring look and grinning teeth of 



