The Last of the Legions and Other Tales of Long Ago   By: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

A. CONAN DOYLE

By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Novels and Stories

DANGER! And Other Stories THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW HIS LAST BOW Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes THE BLACK DOCTOR And Other Tales of Terror and Mystery THE MAN FROM ARCHANGEL And Other Tales of Adventure THE CROXLEY MASTER And Other Tales of the Ring and Camp THE GREAT KEINPLATZ EXPERIMENT And Other Tales of Twilight and the Unseen THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS And Other Tales of Long Ago THE DEALINGS OF CAPTAIN SHARKEY And Other Tales of Pirates

On the Life Hereafter

THE NEW REVELATION THE VITAL MESSAGE THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES THE CASE FOR SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST OUR AMERICAN ADVENTURE

A History of the Great War

THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS Six Vols.

Poems

THE GUARDS CAME THROUGH

NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS and Other Tales of Long Ago

BY A. CONAN DOYLE

NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1905, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1918, 1919, 1922 BY A. CONAN DOYLE

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY ASSOCIATED SUNDAY MAGAZINES, INC.

COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THE MCCLURE COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1900, 1902, BY THE S. S. MCCLURE COMPANY

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THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS AND OTHER TALES OF LONG AGO

Q

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Transcriber's Note:

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Dialect spellings remain as printed. The oe ligature is represented by [oe].

CONTENTS

PAGE

I THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS 9

II THE LAST GALLEY 22

III THROUGH THE VEIL 37

IV THE COMING OF THE HUNS 47

V THE CONTEST 68

VI THE FIRST CARGO 83

VII AN ICONOCLAST 98

VIII GIANT MAXIMIN 112

IX THE RED STAR 141

X THE SILVER MIRROR 158

XI THE HOME COMING 177

XII A POINT OF CONTACT 202

XIII THE CENTURION 215

THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS

THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS and Other Tales of Long Ago

I

THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS

Pontus, the Roman viceroy, sat in the atrium of his palatial villa by the Thames, and he looked with perplexity at the scroll of papyrus which he had just unrolled. Before him stood the messenger who had brought it, a swarthy little Italian, whose black eyes were glazed with want of sleep, and his olive features darker still from dust and sweat. The viceroy was looking fixedly at him, yet he saw him not, so full was his mind of this sudden and most unexpected order. To him it seemed as if the solid earth had given way beneath his feet. His life and the work of his life had come to irremediable ruin.

"Very good," he said at last in a hard dry voice, "you can go."

The man saluted and staggered out of the hall. A yellow haired British major domo came forward for orders.

"Is the General there?"

"He is waiting, your excellency."

"Then show him in, and leave us together."

A few minutes later Licinius Crassus, the head of the British military establishment, had joined his chief. He was a large, bearded man in a white civilian toga, hemmed with the Patrician purple. His rough, bold features, burned and seamed and lined with the long African wars, were shadowed with anxiety as he looked with questioning eyes at the drawn, haggard face of the viceroy.