THE GREAT TWIN BRETHREN 111 



army had marched out to meet their foes, and no 

 word had come back to the city. Sempronius was 

 becoming very anxious. Since early in the morn- 

 ing he had been in the watch-tower straining his 

 eyes eastward. Far away toward the Apennines 

 he fancied he saw the dust of battle rising in faint, 

 misty clouds above the hills, but he could make 

 sure of nothing. He would have sent out a mes- 

 senger to learn how the day was going with our 

 people, but there was not a horse left within the 

 walls, and who among the feeble folk that were 

 with him could undertake so difficult an errand? 

 On either side of him, on the wall and above the 

 gate, were the old men who had been left behind, 

 together with many of the Roman matrons and 

 maidens, all eager to know the issue of the day, 

 and all listening if they might be the first to hear 

 the sound of horse-hoofs galloping from the field 

 of fight. 



Meanwhile some children playing around the 

 pond were astonished, on lifting their eyes, to see 

 two monstrous white horses drinking from the 

 spring, and on their backs were two men clad in 

 snow-white armor that glistened strangely in the 

 sunlight. There were splotches of blood all over 

 the horses, and the white armor was stained in 



