Talbot Mundy

Name: The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5
Author: Talbot Mundy

The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5 (1925)

Summary

“The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5”, published in 1925, is a work by Talbot Mundy. It explores elements such as Balbus, Gades and Tros.

Quotes from The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5 (Talbot Mundy)

Talbot Mundy, The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5 (1925)

“ Chloe broke into a song that had become current wherever women followed in the wake of Roman arms:
"If my love loves not me,
May a bear from the mountains hug him."
"So now you love Balbus instead?" Tros suggested.
"Bah! Thirty thousand Balbuses are not worth half of Cæsar! I said, Balbus loves me. But he is much too mean to buy me. What are two hundred thousand sesterces to a man who can tax all Gades and sell judgments and confiscate traitors' property? I myself own more than two hundred thousand sesterces." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Talbot Mundy, The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5 (1925)

“ Tros stood staring at her, arms akimbo.
"Do you think, at a word from you, Balbus would admit me into Gades?" he asked.
"That would come better from Pkauchios. Pkauchios can go to him at any hour and say he has read portents in the stars," she answered.
"Can you manage Pkauchios?"
She frowned, then nodded.
"Yes. But he is dangerous. He will try to put you to his own use." Suddenly she laughed. "Let Pkauchios go to Balbus and prophesy that Tros the Samothracian will enter the harbor at dawn in his great red ship. It is red, isn't it? So Cæsar's letter said." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Talbot Mundy, The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5 (1925)

“ Their number will depend on you," Tros answered, stepping to the door. He heard the oar-thumps of the long-boat. "How will you go back?"
"I will swim."
He shook his head. "I will send you ashore. Say nothing to the men. But how will you reach the city? There will be no Horatius Verres this time to fight the dogs off and protect you."
"I told you I am a slave who owns slaves. I have two men waiting for me on the beach." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Talbot Mundy, The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5 (1925)

“ The girl laughed.
"Balbus takes his own side, just like all the rest of us. Balbus aedificabit [1] He hopes to win fame by making Gades a great city. If Cæsar should win in the struggle that everybody knows is coming, well—Balbus is Cæsar's friend. If Pompey wins, Balbus is Pompey's nominee and very faithful to him."
"What about you?" Tros asked her.
"What do I matter? I am a dancing girl, a slave—the property of Pkauchios the Egyptian." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Talbot Mundy, The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5 (1925)

“ Tros insisted.
"With me, of course, with Chloe. But Balbus loves me, if that is what you mean. He would buy me, if I weren't so terribly expensive. And he would find some way of freeing me from Pkauchios, if Pkauchios weren't so useful to him."
"How?"
"Pkauchios reads the stars, and prophesies. Quite a lot of what he says comes true."
"Sorcery, eh?"
"Call it that if you like. Pkauchios owns other dancing girls besides me. We are all of us rather well trained at picking up information."
"You say you know Cæsar. You like him?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

Talbot Mundy, The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5 (1925)

“ He's handsome, intelligent—oh, how I hate fools!—he has manners, fascination, courtesy. He can be cruel, he can be magnanimous, he thrills you with his presence, he's extravagant—as reckless as a god with his rewards. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Talbot Mundy, The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5 (1925)

“ Tros, pacing the floor again, turned that over in his mind, reflecting that if she were willing to risk herself in what she supposed were a pirate's hands, she must be in serious danger of the Roman torturers. Pkauchios, her master, must be well into the toils. However, he was not quite sure yet that she was telling him the truth.
"You say Balbus loves you and would torture you?" he asked. "He is the governor, isn't he? He can overrule the court. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Talbot Mundy, The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5 (1925)

“ No escape from that. A slave's evidence against her master mayn't be taken any other way. Some of them die under torture. None of them are much good afterwards. They're always lame, and the fire leaves scars."
TROS whistled softly to himself, pacing the cabin floor, his hands behind him. Suddenly he turned on her.
"You didn't come here just for Horatius Verres' sake! You didn't cross that marshland in the dark for the fun of a swim to a pirate's ship! You called me a pirate just now. You had Verres' word for that. Whose else?"
"Cæsar wrote to Balbus to be on the watch for you. ”

Talbot Mundy

Summary

Quotes from The Dancing Girl of Gades — Chapter 5 (Talbot Mundy)

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