““Do you have still the dye with which to turn your tunic red?’ ‘The madder? Yes, I do.’ ‘Enough of it for a century?’ ‘Enough for the entire cohort, if you want it.’ He twitched a smile then; I was coming to know it, and to revel in the sight of it. I was his then, part of the XIIth, and he knew it. ‘Not the entire cohort yet, Demalion. The century will do. Henceforth we are the Bloody First. And I fancy we might have a mule’s tail on our standard. See to it on our return.””
![“My tongue tasted like a gladiator's jockstrap [Marcus Corvinus after a night out]” quote by David Wishart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e6d/david-wishart-68930_amateur-detective_my-tongue-tasted-like-a-gladiator-s-jock_196207.jpg)