Away they go, sweeping round the course with lightning speed, while every spectator's eye is strained, and every countenance flushed with intense anxiety.
Some of the noble animals were distanced the first heat, and others were taken away by their owners.
The judges allowed twenty minutes to prepare the horses for the second trial of their speed--a trial which must enrich or empoverish many of the thousands present.

Already there were sad countenances to be seen in the crowd.
The horses were again in readiness, and the word given,--away they flew with the fleetness of the wind, to come in the second time.
But who can describe the anxiety written on every face, as they prepared for the third and last trial?
I cannot.

Many had already lost all they had staked, and others who had bet high began to fear for the result.

Soon, however, all was again prepared and those foaming steeds, after having exerted their animal power to the utmost, have accomplished their task and come in for the last time.

The purse was won, _but not by Mark Anthony_.
Capt.