cathedral--Cloisters--Boy and dolphin--Story told by Pliny--The _Chaine des
Maures_--Desaugiers--Dines with the porkbutchers of Paris--Sieyes--_Sans
phrase_--Agricola--His discoveries.


It was strange. The first person I thought of, on arriving at Frejus, was
not Julius Caesar the founder of this old port--no, nor Agricola, a native
of Frejus, who is so associated with British history, especially with
Scottish--no! it was Pliny's sick freedman, about whom that polished orator
wrote in his nineteenth letter, in Book V. of his collected epistles. Pliny
was a native of Como, he had two villas on the lake. He was a kindly,
honourable, somewhat bumptious man--but what great talkers think small
matter of themselves? He had a slave, a Greek, named Zosimus, of whom he
writes to his friend Paulinus, who had an estate at Frejus: "He is a person
of great worth, diligent in his services, and well skilled in literature;
but his chief talent is that of a comedian. He pronounces with great
judgment, propriety, and gracefulness; he has a very good hand too upon
the lyre, and performs with more skill than is necessary for one of his
profession. To this I must add, he reads history, oratory, and poetry. He
is endeared to me by ties of long affection, now heightened by the danger
in which he is."

Pliny had given Zosimus his liberty, but Zosimus remained attached to
his service as freedman. Some years before, this accomplished slave had
overstrained his voice, and begun to spit blood. Thereupon Pliny sent him
to Egypt, where in the dry air he seemed better, and after a while Zosimus
returned to his master, apparently completely restored. Pliny goes on, in
his letter: "Having exerted himself again beyond his strength, there was
a return of his former malady and a spitting of blood. For this reason, I
intend to send him to your farm at Forum Julii (Frejus), having often heard