CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF Professor James McMahon Cornell University Library PR 5107 .C2 1890 Callista; a tale of the third century. 3 1924 013 529 528 DATE DUE — .^.-.i^;-— *'' ■&4 n n ?r^5:?^ j,««r«8«»»^^- «WR^ Sii)«siw*Vt ■ "^ T^m^^ *^«*a^«««r,.. c--- I 1 1 1 [ { i ' ^.«. rton FNINTCO IN 'J.S A. Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 3529528 CAL^ISTA A TA.LE OF THE THIRD CENTURY. JORN HENRY CAEDINAt NEWMAN. ' Lo^'e thy God, and love Him only, And thy breast will ne'er be lonely In that One Great Spirit meet All things mighty, grave, and sweet. Vainly strives the sotil to mingle With a being of our kind ; Vainly hearts with hearts are twined : For the deepest still is single. An impalpable resistance Holds like natures still at distance. Mortal: love that Holy One, Or dwell for aye alone." De Verb. NEW EDITION. LONDON LONGMANS, GREEIST, AND/ CO. AND NEW YORK: 15, EAST 16th STREET 1890 ' All rights reserved. , S\07 gorn/ell>> UN[VLR£:rV LiBRARV K'i'jqCo PRIXTETJ BY f KELLT AND CO., MTDnLE SIILL, K INnSTOV-OX-TnAM^ES • AND GATE STREET, L1^'C0L^■'S INN FIELD?, ^y.C. OALLISTA; A TALE OP THE THIRD CENTURY. PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SEEMONS. Edited bj Ihe Rev. W. J. Copeland, B.D. 8 TOls. Crown 8vo. _ _ SELECTIONS, adapted to the Seasons of the Ecclesiastiesl Year, from the ' Parochial and Plain Sermons.' Edited by the Eev. W. J. Copeland, B.D. Crown 8to. SERMONS BEARINCx UPON SUBJECTS OF THE T>AY. Editedby the Rer. W. J. Copeland, K.D. Crown 8vo. LECTURES ON THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICA- TION. Crown 8vo. FIFTEEN SERMONS preached before the University of Oxford, between 1826 and 1843. Crown 8to. APOLOGIA PRO YITA SUA. Crown 8to. THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY DEFINED AND ILLUSTRATED. Crown 8vo. HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. THE ARIANS OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. Crown 8po. SELECT TREATISES OF ST. ATHANASIUS in Controversy with the Arians. Freely Translated. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. DISCUSSIONS AND ARGUMENTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. Crown 8vo. AN ESSAY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. Crown 8to. CERTAIN DIFFICULTIES FELT BY ANGLICANS IN CATHOLIC TEACHING CONSIDERED. Vol 1. ; Vol. 2. THE VIA MEDIA OP THE ANGLICAN CHURCH, lUusirated in Lectures, &c. 2 vols. Crown 8\'0. ESSAYS CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. ESSAYS ON BIBLICAL AND ON ECCLESIAS- TICAL MIRACLES. Crown 8ro. AN ESSAY IN AID OF A GRAMMAR OF ASSENT. PRESENT POSITION OF CATHOLICS IN ENGLAND. Crown 8vo. CALLiSTA : a Tale of the Third Century Crown 8vo. THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS. ] 6mo. 6rf. swd., ] s. cloth VERSES ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS. Crown Svo. London: LONGMANS, GREliN, & CO. To HENRY WILLIAM WILBERFORCE. To you alone, wlio have known me so long, and who love me so well, could I venture to offer a trifle like this. But you mil recognise the author in Ms 'work, and talte pleasure in the recognition. J. II. N. ADVERTISEMENT. It is hardly necessary to say that(_tlie following Tale is a simple fiction from beginning to end J It has little in it of actual history, and not much claim to antiquarian research ; yet it has required more reading than may appear at first sight. ^It is an attempt to imagine and express, from a Catholic point of view, the feelings and mutual rela- tions of Christians and heathens at the period to which it belongs? and ib has been undertaken as the nearest approach which the Author could make to a more important work suggested to him from a high ecclesiastical quarter. September 13, 1855. P08T8GBIPT8 TO LATER EDITIONS. February 8, 18o6. — Since the volume has been in print, the Author finds that his name has got abroad. This gives him reason to add, that he wrote great part of Chapters 1., lY., and V., and sketched the character viii Postscripts. and fortunes of Juba, in tlie early spring of 1 848. He did no more tUl tlie end of lasb July, when lie suddenly resumed the thread of his tale, and has been successful so far as this, that he has brought it to an end. Without being able to lay his finger upon instances in point, he has some misgiving lest, from a con- fusion between ancient histories and modern travels, there should be inaccuracies, antiquarian or geo- graphical, in certain of his minor statements, which carry with them authority when they cease to be anonymous. February 2, 1881. — Octoher, 1888. — In a tale such as this, which professes in the very first sentence of its Advertisement to be simple fiction from beginning to end, details may be allowably filled up by the writer's imagination and coloured by his personal opinions and beliefs, the only rule binding on him being this — that he has no right to contravene acknowledged historical facts. Thus it is that Walter Scott exercises a poet's licence in drawing his Queen Elizabeth and his Claver- house, and the author of " Eomola " has no misgivings in even imputing hypothetical motives and intentions to Savonarola. Who, again, would quarrel with Mr. Lockhart, writing in Scotland, for excluding Pope, or Bishops, or sacrificial rites from his interesting Tale of Valerius? Such was the understanding, as to what I might do and what I might not, with which I wrote this Postscripts. ix story; and to make it clearer, I added in the later editions of this Advertisement, that it was written " from a Catholic point of view ;" while in the earlier, bearing in mind the interests of historical truth, and the anachronism which I had ventured on at page 82 in the date of Arnobius and Lactantius, I said that I had not "admitted any actual interference with known facts without notice," questions of religious controversy, when I said it, not even coming into ray thoughts. I did not consider my Tale to be in any sense controversial, but to be specially addressed to Catholic readers, and for their edification. This being so, it was with no little surprise I found myself lately accused of want of truth, because I have followed great authorities in attributing to Chris- tians of the middle of the third century what is cer- tainly to be found in the fourth, — devotions, represen- tations, and doctrines, declaratory of the high dignity of the Blessed Virgin. If I had left out all mention of these, I should have been simply untrue to my idea and apprehension of Primitive Christianity. To what positive and certain facts do I run counter in so doing, even granting that I am indulging my imagination ? But I have allowed myself no such indulgence ; I gave good reason lor.g ago, in my " Letter to Dr. Pusey " (pp. 53 — 76), for what I believe on this matter and for what I have in " CfiUista " described. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. SICCA TENEB-IA JI. CHRISTIANITY IN SICCA .... III. AGBLLIUS IN HIS COTTAGE . . , IV. JUBA . V. JOCUKDUS AT SUPPER .... VI. GOTHS AND CHRISTIANS VII. PERSECUTION IN THE OFFING VIII. THE NEW GENERATION IX. JUCUNDUS BAITS HIS TRAP . X. THE DIVINE CALLISTA .... XI. CALLISTa'S PHEACHING, and WHAT CAME OF II' XII. A DEATH C xill. AND EESUEEECTION .... XrVV A SMALL CLOUD XV. A VISITATION XVI. WORSE AND WORSE .... XVII. CHEISTIANOS AD LEJNES . XVIII. AGBLLIUS FLITS XIX. A PASSAGE OF ARMS .... XX. HE SHALL NOT LOSE HIS REWARD XXI. STARTIING EUMOUKS .... XXII. JUCUNDUS PROPOUNDS HIS VIEW OF THE SITUATION XXIII. GURTA i 14 25 30 39 51 6L feO 92 111 122 135 145 159 168 178 189 199 212 226 235 239 256 Contents. CHAP. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. , to get at them. Those bishops were a set of fellows as mischievous as they were cowardly; they would not come out and be killed, but they skulked in the desert, and hid in masquerade. But why should gentlemen in office, opulent and happy, set about worrying a handful of idiots, old, or poor, or boys, or women, or obscure, or amiable and well-meaning men, who were but a remnant of a former generation, and as little connected with the fanatics of Carthage, Alexandria, or Eome, as the English freemasons may seem to be with their namesakes on the continent ? True, Christianity was a secret society, and an illegal religion ; but would it cease to be so when those harm- less or respectable inhabitants of the place had been mounted on the rack or the gibbet ? And then, too, it was a most dangerous thing to open the door to popular excitement ; — who would be able to shut it ? Once rouse the populace, and it was all over with the place. It could not be denied that the bigoted and ignorant majority, not only of the common people, but of the better classes, was steeped in a bitter prejudice, and an intense, though latent, hatred of Christianity. Besides the antipathy which arose from the extremely different views of life and duty taken by pagans and Christians, which would give a natural impulse to persecution in the hearts of the former, there were the many persons who wished to curry favour at Eome with the government, and had an eye to preferment or reward. There was the pagan interest, extended and powerful, of that 76 Callista ; numerous class which was attached to the estahlished religions by habit, position, interest, or the prospect of advantage. There were all the great institutions or establishments of the place; the law courts, the schools of grammar and rhetoric, the philosoptic exedrce and lecture-rooms, the theatre, the amphi- theatre, the market — all were, for one reason or another, opposed to Christianity; and who could tell where they would stop in their onward course, if they were set in motion ? " Quieta non movenda " was the motto of the local government, native and imperial, and that the more, because it was an age of revolu- tions, and they might be most unpleasantly com- promised or embarrassed by the direction which the movement took. Besides, Decius was not immortal; in the last twelve years eight emperors had been cut off, six of them in a few months ; and who could tell but the successor of the present might revert to the policy of Philip, and feel no thanks to those who had suddenly left it for a policy of blood. In this cautious course they would be poworf ally supported by the influence of personal considerations. The Roman officia, the city magistrates, the heads of the established religions, the lawyers, and the philoso- phers, all would have punished the Christians, if they could ; but they could not agree whom to punish. They would have agreed with great satisfaction, as we have said, to inflict condign and capital punishment upon the heads of the sect ; and they would have had no objection, if driven to do something, to get hold of A Tale of the Third Century. 77 some strangers oi* slaveSj who might be a sort of scape- goats for the rest;[but it was impossible, when they once began to persecute, to make distinctions, and not a few of them had relations who were Christians, •' . - or at least were on that border-land which tlie mob might mistake for the domain of Christianity^ — Mar- cionites, Tertullianists, Montanists, or Gnostics. When once the cry of " the gods of Eome " was fairly up, it would apply to tolerated religions as well as to illicit, and an unhappy votary of Isis or Mithras might suffer, merely because there were few Christians forthcoming. A duumvir of the place had a daughter whom he had turned out of his house for receiving baptism, and who had taken refuge at Vacca. Several of the decurions, the tahularius of the district, the scriba, one of the exactors, who lived in Sicca, various of the retired gentry, whom we spoke of in a former chapter, and various attaches of the prsetorium, were in not dissimilar circumstances. Nay, the priest of Escu- lapius had a wife, whom he was very fond of, who, though she promised to keep quiet, if things continued as they were, nevertheless had the madness to vow that, if there were any severe proceedings instituted against her people, she would at once come forward, confess herself a Christian, and throw water, instead of incense, upon the sacrificial flame. Not to speak of the venerable man's tenderness for her, such an exposure would seriously compromise his respecta- bility, and, as he was infirm and apoplectic, it was a question whether Esculapius himself could save 78 CalUsta; him from tlie shock whicli would be the conse- quence. The same sort of feeling operated with our good friend Jucundus. He was attached to his nephew; butj be it said without disrespect to hitHj he was more attached to his own reputation ; and, while he would hare been seriously annoyed at seeing Agellius exposed to one of the panthers of the neighbouring forest, or hung up by the feet, with the blood streaming from his nose and mouth, as one of the dogs or kids of the market, he would have disliked tbe eclat of the thing still more. He felt both anger and alarm at the prospect ; he was conscious he did not understand his nephew, or (to use a common phrase) know where to find him ; he was aware that a great deal of tact was necessary to manage him ; and he had an instinctive feeling that Juba was right in saying that it would not do to threaten him with the utmost severity of the law. He considered Callista's hold on him was the most promising quarter of the horizon; so he came to a resolution to do as little as he could per- sonally, but to hold Agellius's head, as far as he could, steadily in the direction of that lady, and to see what came of it. As to Juba's assurance that Agellius was not a Christian at heart, it was too good news to be true ; but still it might be only an anticipation of what would be, when the sun of Greece shono out upon him, and dispersed the remaining mists of Oriental superstition. In this state of mind the old gentleman determined A Tale of the Third Century. 79 one aflernoon to leave his shop to the care of a slave, and to walk down to his nephew, to judge for himself cf his state of mind ; to bait his hook with Callista, and to see if Agellius bit. There was no time to be lost, for the publication of the edict might be made any dayj and then disasters might ensue which no skill could remedy. 80 CalUsta ; CHAPTER VI Q. THE NEW GENEllATION. JocuNDUS, then, set out to see how the land lay with his nephew, and to do what he could to prosper the tillage. His way led him by the temple of Mercury, which at that time subserved the purpose of a boy's school, and was connected with some academical buildings, the property of the city, which lay beyond it. It cannot be said that our frieud was any warm patron of literature or education, though he had not neglected the schooling of his nephews. Letters seemed to him in fact to unsettle the mind ; and he had never known much good come of them. Eheto- ricians and philosophers did not know where they stood, or what were their bearings. They did not know what they held, and what they did not. He knew his own position perfectly well, and, though the words "belief" or "knowledge" did not come into his religious vocabulary, he could at once, without hesitation, state what he professed and maintained. He stood upon the established order of things, on the traditions of Rome, and the laws of the empire ; but as to Greek sophists and declaimers, he thought very much as old Cato did about them. The Greeks were A Tale of the Third Century. 81 a very clover people, unrivalled in the fine arts ; let them keep to their strong point ; they were inimitable with the chisel, the brush, the trowel, and the fingers; but he was not prepared to think much of their calamus or stylus, poetry excepted. What did they ever do but subvert received principles without sub- stituting any others ? And then they were so likely to take some odd turn themselves ; you never could be sure of them. Socrates, their patriarch, what was he after all but a culprit, a convict, who had been obliged to drink hemlock, dying under the hands of justice ? Was this a reputable end, a respectable commence- ment of the philosophic family ? It was very well for Plato or Xenophon to throw a veil of romance over the transaction, but this was the plain matter of fact. Then Anaxagoras had been driven out of Athens for his revolutionary notions; and Diogenes had been accused, like the Christians, of atheism. The case had been the same in more recent times. There had been that madman, Apollonias, roaming about the world ; Apuleius, too, their neighbour, fifty years before, a man of respectable station, a gentleman, but a follower of the Greek philosophy, a dabbler in magic, and a pretender to miracles. And so, in fact, of letters generally ; as in their own country Minucius, a con- temporary of Apuleius, became a Christian. Such, too, had been his friend Octavius ; such Caecilius, who even became one of the priests of the sect, and seduced others from the religion he had left. One of them had been the pubhc talk for several years, and he 82 Callista ; too originally a rhetorician, Thascius Cypriauus of Carthage. It was the one thing which gave him some misgiving about that little Callista, that she was a Greek. As he passed the temple, the metal plate was sound- ing as a signal for the termination of the school, and on looking towards, the portico with an ill-natured curiosity, he saw a young acquaintance of his, a youth of ahout twenty, coming out of it, leading a boy of about half that age, with his satchel thrown over his shoulder. " Well, Arnobius," ' he cried, "how does rhetoric proceed? are we to take the law line, or turn professor? Who's the boy ? some younger brother ? " " I've taken pity on the little fool," answered Arnobius ; " these schoolmasters are a savage lot. I suffered enough from them myself, and ' miseris succurrere disco.' So I took him from under the roof of friend Rupilius, and he's under my tutelage. How did he treat thee, boy ? " " He treated me like a slave or a Christian," an- swered he. "He deserved it, I'll warrant," said Jucundus; "a pert, forward imp. 'Twas Gete against Briton. Much good comes of schooling ! He's a wicked one already. Ah, the new generation! I don't know where the world's going." " Tell the gentleman," said Arnobius, " what he did first to you, my boy." ' Here is an anachronism, as regards Arn obins and Lactantius, of some twenty or thirty years. A Tale of the Third Century. 83 "As the good gentleman says," answered the boy, " first I did something to him, and then he did some- thing to me." " I told you so," said Jucundus; "a sensible boy, after all; but the schoolmaster had the best of it, I'll wager." " First," answered he, " I grinned in his face, and he took off his wooden shoe, and knocked out one of my teebh." " Good," said Jucundus, " the justice of Pythagoras. Zaleuchus could not have done better. The mouth sins, and the mouth suffers." " Next," continued he, " I talked in school-time to ray chum; and Rupilius put a gag in my jaws, and kept them, open for an hour." " The very Rhadamanthus of schoolmasters ! " cried Jucundus : " and thereupon you struck up a chant, divine though inarticulate, like the statue of Memnon," " Then," said the boy, ''I could not say my Virgil, and he tore the shirt from off my back, and gave it me with the leather." " Ay," answered Jucundus, " ' arma virumque ' branded on your hide." " Af terwai'ds I ate his dinner for him," continued ■ the boy, " and then he screwed ray head, and kept md without food for two days." "Your throat, you mean," said Jucundus; " a cau- tious man ! lest you should steal a draught or two of good strong air." " And lastly," said he, " I did not bring my pence, 84 Callista; and then lie tied my hands to a gibLefc, and hung me up in terrorem." " There I camo in," said Arnobius ; " he seemed a pretty boy, so I cut him down, paid his cera, and took him horn?." " And now he is your pupil ? " asked Jucundus. " Not yet," answered Arnobius ; " he is still a day- scholar of the old wolf's ; one is like another ; he could not' change for the better : but I am his bully, and shall tutorize him some day. He's a sharp lad, isn't he, Firmian ? " turning to the boy ; " a great hand at composition for his years j better than I am, who never shall write Latin decently. Yet what can I do ? I must profess and teach, for Rome is the only place for the law, and these city professorships are not to be despised." " Whom are you attending here ? " asked Jucundus, drily. " You are the only man in Sicca who needs to ask the question. What 1 not know the great Polemo of Rhodes, the friend of Plotinus, the pupil of Thea- genes, the disciple of Thiasyllus, the hearer of Nico- machus, who was of the school of Secundus, the doctor of the new Pythagoreans ? Not feel the presence in Sicca of Polemo, the most celebrated, the i^ost intoler-' able of meu ? That, however, is not his title, but the * godlike,' or the ' oracular,' or the ' portentous,' or something else as impressive. Every one goes to him. He is the rage. I should not have a chance of suc- cess if I could not say that I had attended his A Tale of the Third Century. 85 lectures ; though I'd be bound our little Firtnian. here would deliver ai good. He's the very cariophyllus of human nature. He comes to the schools in a litter of cedar, ornamented with silver and covered with a lion's skin, slaves carrying him, and a crowd of friends attending, with the state of a proconsul. He is dressed in the most exact style ; his pallium is of the finest wool, white, picked out with purple ; his tresses flow with unguent, his fingers glitter with rings, and he smells like Idalium. As soon as he puts foot on earth, a great hubbub of congratulation and homage breaks forth. He takes no notice ; his favourite pupils form a circle round him, and conduct him into one of the exedroB, till the dial shows the time for lecture. Here he sits in silence, looking at nothing, or at the wall opposite him, talking to himself, a hum of ad- miration filling the room. Presently one of his pupils, as if he were prasco to the duumvir, cries out, ' Hush, gentlemen, hush ! the godlike ' — no, it is not that. I've not got it. What is his title ? ' the Bottomless,' that's it — ' the Bottomless speaks.' A dead silence ensues ; a clear voice and a measured elocution are the sure token that it is the outpouring of the oracle. ' Pray,' says the little man, ' pray, which existed first, the egg or the chick ? Did the chick lay the egg, or the egg hatch the chick ? ' Then there ensues a whispering, a disputing, and after a while a dead silence. At the end of a quarter of an hour or so, our prseco speaks again, and this time to the oracle. ' Bottomless man,' he says, * I have Ito represent to you that no one of Q 86 Callista ; the present company finds himself equal to answer the question, which your condescension has proposed to our consideraiion ! ' On this there is a fresh silence, and at pngth a fresh effatum from the hierophant : ' Which comes first, the egg or the chick ? The egg comes first in relation to the causativity of the chick, and the chick comes first in relation to the causativity of the egg,' on which there is a burst of applause ; the ring of adorers is broken through, and the shrinking professor is carried in the arms or on the shoulders of the literary crowd to his chair in the lecture-room." Much as there was in Arnobius's description which gratified Jucundus's prejudices, he had suspicions of his young acquaintance, and was not in the humour to bs pleased unreservedly with those who satirized any- thing whatever that was established, or was appointed by government, even affectation and pretence. He said something about the wisdom of ages, the reverence due to authority, the institutions of Eome, and the magistrates of Sicca. " Do not go after novelties," he said to Arnobius ; " make a daily libation to Jove, the preserver, and to the genius of the empei'or, and then let other things take their course." " But you don't mean I must believe all this man says, because the decurions have put him here?" cried Arnobius. " Here is this Polemo saying that Proteus is matter, and that minerals and vegetables are his flock ; that Proserpine is the vital influence, and Ceres the efiicaoy of the heavenly bodies; that there are mundane spirits, and supramundane ; and then his A Tale of the Third Century. 87 doctrine about ti'iads, monads, and progressions of the celestial gods ? " " Hm ! " said Jucundus ; " they did not say so when I went to school ; but keep to my rule, my boy, and swear by the genius of Kome and the emperor." " I don't believe in god or goddess, emperor or Eome, or in any philosophy, or in any religion at all," said Arnobius. "What!" cried Jucundus, "you're not going to desert the gods of your ancestors ? " "Ancestors?" said Arnobius ; "I've no ancestors. Fm not African certainly, not Punic, not Libophoe- nician, not Canaanite, not Numldian, not Gsetulian. I'm half Greek, but what the other half is I don't know. My good old gaffer, you're one of the old world. I believe nothing. Who can ? There is such a racket and whirl of religions on all sides of me that I am sick of the subject." "Ah, the rising generation ! " groaned Jucundus " you young men ! I cannot prophesy what you will become, when we old fellows are removed from the scene. Perhaps you're a Christian ? " Arnobius laughed. " At least I can give you com- fort on that head, old grandfather. A pretty Christian I should make, indeed ! seeing visions, to be sure, and rejoicing in the rack and dungeon ! I wish to enjoy life ; I see wealth, power, rank, and pleasure to be worth living for, and I see nothing else." " Well said, my lad," cried Jucundus, " well said j stick to that. I declare you frightened me. Give up a 2 88 Callista ; all visions, speculations, conjectures, fancies, novelties, discoveries; notliing comes of them but confusion." "No, no," answered the youth; "I'm not so wild as you seem to think, Jucundus. It is true I don't believe one single word about the gods ; but in their worship was I born, and in their worship I will die." "Admirable !" cried Jucundus in a transport ; " well, I'm surprised ; you have taken me by surprise. You're a fine fellow ; you are a boy after my heart. I've a good mind to adopt you." "You see I can't believe one syllable of all the priests' trash," said Arnobius ; " who does ? not they. I don't believe in Jupiter or Juno, or in Astarte or in Isis ; but where shall I go for anything better ? or why need I seek anything good or bad ia that line P Nothing's known anywhere, and life would go while I attempted what is impossible. No, better stay where I am ; I may go further, and gain a loss for my pains. So you see I am for myself, and for the genius of Rome." " That's the true principle," answered the delighted Jucundus. " Why, really, for so young a man, sur- prising ! Where did you get so much good sense, my dear fellow ? I've seen very little of you. Well, this I'll say, you are a youth of most mature mind. To be sure ! Well ! Such youths are rare now-a-days. I congratulate you with all my heart on your strong sense and your admirable wisdom. Who'd have thought it ? IVe always, to tell the truth, had a little suspicion of vou; but you've come out nobly. A Tale of the Third Century. 89 Capital ! I dou't wish you to believe in the gods if you can't ; but it^s jour duty, dear boy, your duty to Eome to maintain them, and to rally round them when attacked." Then with a changed voice, he added, " Ah, that a young friend of mine had your view of the matter ! " and then, fearing he had said too much, he stopped abruptly. "You mean Agellius," said Arnobius. "You've heard, by-the-bye," he continued in a lower tone, " what's the talk in the Capitol, that at Rome they \ are proceeding on a new plan against the Christians \ with great success. They don't put to death, at least at once; they keep in prison, and threaten the torture. It's surprising how many come over." " The Furies seize them ! " exclaimed Jucundus : " they deserve everything bad, always excepting my poor boy. So they are cheating the hangman by giving up their atheism, the vile reptiles, giving in to a threat. However," he added gravely, " I wish threats would answer with Agellius ; but I greatly fear that menace would only make him stubborn. That stubborn- ness of a Christian ! Arnobius ! " he said, shaking his head and looking solemn, " it's a visitation from the gods, a sort of ny mpholepsia." " It's going out," said Arnobius, " mark my words > the frenzy is dying. It's only wonderful it should have lasted for three centuries. The report runs that in some places, when the edict was published, the Christians did not wait for a summons, but swept up to the temples to sacrifice, like a shoal of tunnies. The 90 Gallista; magiafcrates were obliged to take so mauy a day ; and, as the days went on, none so eager to bring over the rest as those who have ah-eady become honest men. Nay, not a few of their mystic or esoteric class have conformed." " If so, unless Agellius looks sharp," said Jucundus, " his sect will give him up before he gives np his sect. Christianity will be converted before him." " Oh, don't fear for him ! " said Arnobius ; " I knew him at school. Boys differ ; some are bold and open. They like to be men, and to dare the deeds of men ; they talk freely, and take their swing in broad day. Others are shy, reserved, bashful, and are afraid to do what they love quite as much as the others. Agellius never could rub off this shame, and it has taken this turn. He's sure to outgrow it in a year or two. I should not wonder if, when once he had got over it, he went into the opposite fault. You'll find him a drinker and a swaggerer and a spendthrift before many years are over." "Well, that's good news," said Jucundus ; "I mean, I am glad you think he will shake off these fanciei. I don't believe they sit very close to him myself." He walked on for a while in silence ; then he said, " That seems a sharp child, Arnobius. Could he do me a service if I wanted it ? Does he know Agellius ? " " Know him ? " answered the other ; " yes, and his farm too. He has rambled round Sicca, many is the mile. And he knows the short cuts, and the blind ways, and safe circuits." A Tale of the Third Century. 91 "What's the boy's name ? " asked Jucundus. " Firmian/' answered Arnobius. " Firmian Lactan- tius." " I say, Firmian," said Jucundus to him, " where are you to be found of a day, my boy ? " "At class morning ard afternoon," answered Fir- mian, " sleeping in Ihe porticoes in midday, nowhere in the evening, and roosting with Arnobius at night." " And you can keep a secret, should it so happen ? " asked Jucundus, " and do an errand, if I gave you one ? " "I'll give him the stick worse than Eupilius, if he does not," said Arnobius. "A bargain," cried Jucundus ; and, waving his hand to them, he stept through the city gate, and they re- turned to their afternoon amusements. , Callista : CHAPTER IX. JUCQNDUS BAITS HIS TKAP. Agellius is busily employed upon Lis farm. While the enemies of his faith are laying their toils for him and his brethren in the imperial city, in the procon- sular officium, and in the municipal curia, — while Jucnndus is scheming against him personally in another way and with other intentions, — the unconscious object of these machinations is busy about his master's crops, housing the corn in caves or pits, distilling the roses, irrigating the Itliennah, and training and sheltering the vines. And he does so, not only from a sense of duty, but the more assiduously, because he finds in constant employment a protection against himself, against idle thoughts, wayward wishes, discontent, and despond- ency. It is doubtless very strange to the reader hpw any one who professed himself a Christian in good earnest should be open to the imputation of resting his hopes and his heart in the tents of 'paganism ; but we do not see why Agellius has not quite as much right to be inconsistent in one way as Christians of the present time in another, and perhaps he has more to say for himself than ■ihey. They have not had the trial of solitude. A Tale of the Third Century. 93 nor the consequent temptation to which he has been exposed, of seeking relief from his own thoughts in v the company of unbelievers, When a boy he had received his education at that school in the Temple of Mercury of which we heard in the foregoing chapter ; and though happily he had preserved himself from the contagion of idolatry and sin, he had on that very account formed nt)- friendships with his schoolfellows. Whether there were any Christians ' there besides himself he did not know ; but while the worst of his schoolfellows were what heathen boys may be supposed to be, the lightest censure which could be passed on any was that they were greedy, or quarrelsome, or otherwise unamiable. He had learned there enough to open his mind, and to give him materials for thinking, and instruments for reflecting on his own religion, and for drawing out into shape his own reflections. He had received just that discipline which makes solitude most pleasant to the old, and most insupportable to the young. He had got a thousand questions which needed answers, a thousand feelings which needed sympathy. He wanted to know whether his guesse^i, his perplexities, his trials of mind, were peculiar to himself, or how far they were shared by others, and what they were worth. He had capabilities for intellectual enjoyment un- exercised, and a thirst after knowledge unsatisfied. And the channels of supernatural assistance were removed from him at a time when nature was most impetuous and most clamorous. 94 Gallista ; It was nnder circumstances such as these that two young Greeks, brother and sister, the brother older, the sister younger, than Agellius, came to Sicca at the invitation of Jucundus, who wanted them for his trade. His nephew in time got acquainted with them, and found in them what he had sought in vaiii elsewhere. It is not that they were oracles of wisdom or repositories of philosophical learning ; their age and their calling forbade it, nor did he require it. For an oracle, of course, he would have looked in another direction ; but he desiderated something more on a level with himself, and that they abundantly snp- plied. He found, from his conversations with them, that a great number of the questions which had been a difficulty to him had already been agitated in the schools of Greece. He found what solutions were possible, what the hinge was on which questions turned, what the issue to which they led, and what the principle which lay at the bottom of them. He began better to understand the position of Christianity in the world of thought, and the view which was taken of it by the advocates of other religions or philoso- phies. He gained some insight into its logic, and advanced, without knowing it, in the investigation of its evidences. Nor was this all; he acquired by means of his new friends a great deal also of secular knowledge as well as philosophical. He learned much of the history of foreign countries, especially of Greece, of its heroes and sages, its poets and its statesmen, of A Tale of the Third Century. 95 Alexander, of the Syro-Macedonic empire, of the Jews, and of tlie series of conquests through which Rome advanced to universal dominion. To impart knowledge is as interesting as to acquire it ; and Agellius was called upon to give as well as to take. The brother and sister, without showing any great religious earnestness, were curious to know about Christianity, and listened with the more patience that they had no special attachment to any other worship. In the debates which ensued, though there was no agreement, there was the pleasure of mental exercise and excitement ; he found enough to tell them without touching upon the more sacred mysteries ; and while he never felt his personal faith at all- endangered by their free conversation, his charity, or at least his good-will and his gratitude, led him to hope, or even to think, that they were in the way of conversion themselves. In this thought he was aided by his own innocence and simplicity ; and though, on looking back afterwards to this event- ful season, he recognized many trivial occurrences which ought to have put him on his guard, yet he had no suspicion at the time that those who conversed so winningly, and sustained so gracefully and happily the commerce of thought and sentiment, might in their actual state, nay, in their governing principles, be in utter contrariety to himself when the veil was removed from off their hearts. Nor was it in serious matters alone, but still more on lighter occasions of intercourse, that Aristo and 96 Callista ; Callista were attractive to the solitary Agelliua. She had a sweet thrilling voice, and accompanied herself on the lyre. She could act the improvisatrice, and her expressive features were a running commentary on the varied meaning, the sunshine and the shade, of her ode or her epic. She could relate how the profane Pentheus and the self-glorious Hippolytus gave a lesson to the world of the feebleness of human virtue when it placed itself in opposition to divine power. She could teach how the chaste Diana manifests her- self to the simple shepherd Endymion, not to the great or learned ; and how Tithonus, the spouse of the Morn, adumbrates the fate of those who revel in their youth, as if it were to last for ever ; and who, when old, do nothing but talk of the days when they were young, wearying others with tales of " their amours or their exploits, like grasshoppers that show their vigour only by their chirping." ' The very allegories which sick- ened and irritated Arnobius when spouted out by Polemo, touched the very chords of poor Agellius's heart when breathed forth from the lips of the beautiful Greek. She could act also ; and suddenly, when conversa- tion flagged or suggested it, she could throw herself into the part of Medea or Antigone, with a force and truth which far surpassed the effect produced by the male and masked representations of those characters at the theatre. Brother and sister were ffidipus and Antigone, Electra and Orestes, Cassandra and the ' Bacon. A Tale of the Third Cen/ury. 97 Cliorus. Once or twice they attempted a scene in Menander ; but there was something which made Agellius shrink from the comedy, beautiful as it was, and clever as was the representation. Callista could act Thais as truly as Iphigenia, but Agellius could not listen as composedly. There are certain most delicate instincts and perceptions in us which act as first principles, and which, once effaced, can never, except from some supernatural source, be restored to the mind. When men are in a state of nature, these are sinned against, and vanish very soon, at so early a date in the history of the individual that perhaps he does not recollect that he ever possessed them ; and since, like other first principles, they are but very partially capable of proof, a general scepti- cism prevails both as to their existence and their truthiTrhe Greeks, partly from the vivacity of their intellect, partly from their passion for the beautiful, lost, these celestial adumbrations sooner than other nationsJ When a collision arose on such matters between Agellius and his friends, Callista kept silence ; but Aristo was not slow to express his wonder that the young Christian should think customs or practices wrong which, in his view of the matter, were as unblamable and natural as eating, drinking, or sleep- ing. His own face became almost satirical as Agel- lius's became grave ; however, he was too companion- able and good-natured to force another to be happy in his own way ; he imputed to the extravagance of his friend's religion what in any but a Christian he would 98 Callista; have called moroseness and misanthropy ; and he bade his sister give over representations which, instead of enlivening the passing hour, did but inflict pain. This friendly intercourse had now gone on for some months, as the leisure of both parties admitted. Once or twice brother and sister had come to the suburban farm ; but for the most part, in spite of his intense dislike of the city, he had for their sake threaded its ci'owded and narrow thoroughfares, crossed its open places, and presented himself at their apartments. And was it very strange that a youth so utterly igno- rant of the world, and unsuspicious of evil, should not have heard the warning voice which called him to separate himself from heathenism, even in its most specious form ? Was it very strange, under these cir- cumstances, that a sanguine hope, the hope of the youthful, should have led AgelHus to overlook obstacles, and beguile himself into the notion that Callista might be converted, and make a good Christian wife ? Well, we have nothing more to say for him ; if we have not already succeeded in extenuating his offence, we must leave him to the mercy, or rather to the justice, of his severely virtuous censors. But all this while Jucundus had been conversing with him ; and, unless we are quick about it, we shall lose several particulars which are necessary for those who wish to pursue without a break the thread of his history. His uncle had brought the conversation round to the delicate point which had occasioned hi$ A Tale of the Third Century. 99 visitj and had just broken the ice. With greater tact, and more ample poetical resources than we should have given him credit for, he had been led from the scene before him to those prospects of a moral and social character which ought soon to employ the thoughts of his dear Agellius. He had spoken of vines and of their culture, apropos of the dwarf vines around him, whicb stood about the height of a currant- bush. Thence he had proceeded to the subject of the more common vine of Africa, which crept and crawled along the ground, the extremity of each plant resting in succession on the stock of that which immediately preceded it. And now, being well into his subject, he called to mind the high vine of Italy, which mounts by the support of the slim tree to which it clings. Then he quoted Horace on the subject of the mar- riage of the elm and the vine. This lodged him in medias res j and Agellius 's heart beat when he found his uncle proposing to him, as a thought of his own, the very step which he had fancied was almost a secret of his own breast, though Juba had seemed to have some suspicion of it. "My dear Ag>3llius," said Jucundus, "it would be a most suitable proceeding. I have never taken to marrying myself; it has not lain in my way, or been to my taste. Your father did not set me an encouraging example; but here you are living by yourself, in this odd fashion, unlike any one else. Perhaps you may come in time and live in Sicca. We shall find some way of employing you, and it will be 100 CalUsta ; pleasant to have you near mo as I get old. However, I mean it to be some time yet before Charon makes a prize of me ; not that I believe all that rubbish more than you, Agellius, I assure you." " It strikes me/' j^gellius began, " that perhaps you m^ay think it inconsistent in me taking such a step, but—" "Ay, ay, that's the rub," thought Jucundus ; then aloud, "Inconsistent, my boy! who talks of incon- sistency ? what superfine jackanapes dares to call it inconsistent ? You seem made for each other, Acel- lius — she town, you country ; she so clever and attrac- tive, and up to the world, you so fresh and Arcadian. You'll be quite the talk of the place." ' " That's just what I don't want to be," said Agel- lius. " I mean to say," he continued, " that if I thought it inconsistent with my religion to think of Callista— " " Of course, of course," interrupted his uncle, who took his cue from Juba, and wasafraidof the workings of Agellius's human respect j "but who knows you have been a Christian ? no one knows anything about it. I'll be bound they all think you an honest fellow like themselves, a worshipper of the gods, without crotchets or hobbies of any kind. I never told them to the contrary. My opinion is, that if you were to make your libation to Jove, and throw incense upon the imperial altar to-morrow, no one would think it extraordinary. They would say for certain that they A Tale of the Third Century. 101 had seen you do it again and again. Don't fancy for an instant, my dear Agellins, that yon have anything whatever to get over." Agellins was getting awkward and mortified, as may be easily conceived, and Jucnndus saw it, but could not make out why. " My dear uncle," said the youth, "you are reproaching me." "Not a bit of it," said Jucundas, confidently, " not a shadow of reproach ; why should I reproach you ? We can't be wise all at once ; I had my follies once, as jou may have had yours. It's natural you should grow more attached to things as they are, — things as they are, you know, — as time goes on. Marriage, and the preparation for marriage, sobers a man. You've been' a Ijttle headstrong, I can't deny, and had your fling in your own way; but ' nuces pueris,' asxyou will soon be saying yourself on a certain occasion. Your next business is to consider what kind of a marriage you propose. I suppose the Roman, but there is great room for choice even there." It is a proverb how different things are in theory and when reduced to practice. Agellius had thought of the end more than of the means, and had had a vision of Callista as a Christian, when the question of rites and forms would have been answered by the decision of the Church without his trouble. He ims somewhat sobered by the question, though in a dif- ferent way from what his uncle wished and intended. ^=- Jucundus proceeded — " First, there is matrimoniuni confarreationis. You have nothing to do with that : a 102 Callista ; strictly speaking, it is obsolete j it went out with tlie exclusiveness of the old patricians. I say 'strictly speaking ' ; for the ceremoDies remain, waiving the formal religious rite. Well, my dear AgelLius, I don't recommend this ceremonial to you. You'd have to kill a porker, to take out the entrails, to put away the gall, and to present it to Juno Pronuba. And there's fire, too, and water, and frankiacense, and a great deal of the same kind, which I think undesirable, and you would too ; for there, I am sure, we are agreed. We put this aside then, the religious marriage. Next comes the marriage ex coemptinne, a sort of mercan- tile transaction. In this case the parties buy each other, and become each other's property. Well, every man to his taste; but for me, I doa't like to be bought and sold. I like to be my own master, and am suspicious of anything irrevocable. Why should you commit yourself (do you see?) for ever, /or ever, to a girl you know so little of ? Don't look sur- prised : it's common sense. It's very well to buy her; but to be bought, that's quite another matter. And I don't know that you can. Being a Roman citizen yourself, you can only make a marriage with a citizen ; now the question is whether Callista is a, citizen at all. I know perfectly well the sweep- ing measure some years back of Caracalla, which made all freemen citizens of Rome, whatever might be their country ; but that measure has never been carried out in fact. You'd have very great difficulty with the law and the customs of the country; and A Tale of the Third Century. 103 tHen, after allj if the world were willing to gratify you, Where's your proof she is a freewoman ? My dear boy, I must speak out for your good, though you're offended with me. I wish you to have her, I do ; hut you can't do impossibilities — you can't alter facts. The laws of the empire allow you to have her in a certain definite way, and no other; and you cannot help the law being what it is. I say all this, even on the supposition of her being a freewoman ; but it is just possible she may be in law a slave. Don't start in that way ; the pretty thing is neither better nor worse for what she cannot help. I say it for your good. Well, now I'm coming to my poiut. There is a third kind of marriage, and that is what I should recommend for you. It's the mairimonium ex usu, or consuetudine ; the great advan- tage here is, that you have no ceremonies whatever, nothing which can in any way startle your sensitive mind. In that case, a couple are at length man and wife prcescriptione. You are afraid of making a stir jn Sicca; in this case you would make none. You would simply take her home here ; if, as time went on, you got on well together, it would be a marriage ; if not," — and he shrugged his shoulders — " no harm's done ; you are both free." Agellius had been sitting on a gate of one of the vineyards; he started on his feet, threw up his arms, and made an exclamation. "Listen, listen, my dear boy!" cried Jucundus, hastening to explain what he considered the cause of H 2 104 Callista, his sudden annoyance j "listen, just one moment, Agellius, if you can. Dear, dear, how I wish I knew where to find you ! What is the matter ? I'm not treating her ill, I'm not indeed. I have not had any notion at all even of hinting that you should leave her, unless you both wished the bargain rescinded. No, but it is a great rise for her; you are a Roman, with pro- perty, with position in the place ; she's a stranger, and without a dower : nobody knows whence she came, or anything about her. She ought to have no diflnculty about it, and I am confident will have none." " my good, dear uncle ! Jucundus, Jacundus ! " cried .Agellius, "is it possible? do my ears hear right ? What is it you ask me to do ? " and he burst into tears. " Is it conceivable," he said, with energy, " that you are in earnest in recommending me — I say in recommending me — a marriage which really would be no marriage at all ? " " Here is some very great mistake," said Jucundus, angrily ; " it arises, Agellius, from your ignorance of tlie world. Tou must be thinking I recommend you mere coniuhernium, as the lawyers call it. Well, I confess I did think of that for a moment, it occurred to me ; I should have liked to have mentioned it, but knowing how preposterously touchy and skittish you are on supposed points of honour, or sentiment, or romance, or of something or other indescribable, I said not one word about that. I have only wished to consult for your comfort, present and future. Tou don't do me justice, Agellius. I have been attempting A Tale of the Third Century. 105 to smooth your way. Yoa must act according to the received usages of society ! you caunot make a world for yourself. Here have I proposed three or four ways for your proceeding ; you will have none of them. What will you have ? I thought you didn't like ceremonies ; I thought you did not like the esta- blished ways. Go, then, do it in the old fashion ; kill your sheep, knead your meal, light your torches, sing your song, summon your flamen, if he'll come. Any how, take your choice ; do it either \Tith religion or without." " Jucundus ! " said tie poor fellow, "am I then come to this ? " and he could say no more. His distress was not greater than his uncle's dis- appointment, perplexity, and annoyance. The latter had been making everything easy for Agellius, and he was striking, do what he would, on hidden, inexpli- cable impediments, whichever way he moved. He got more and more angry the more he thought about it. An unreasonable, irrational coxcomb ! He had heard a great deal of the portentous stubbornness of a Christian, and now he understood what it was. It was in his blood, he saw j an offensive, sour humour, tainting him from head to foot. A very different recompense had he deserved. There had ho come all the way from his home from purely disinterested feelings, He had no motive whatever, but a simple desire of his nephew's welfare ; what other motive could he have ? " Let Agellius go to the crows," he thought, " if he will ; what is it to me if ho is seized 106 Callista; for a Chrisfciaiij hung up like a dog, or tlirown like a . dead rat into the cloaca of the prison ? What care I if he is made a hyaena's breakfast in the amphitheatre, all Sicca looking on, or if he is nailed on a cross for the birds to peck at before my door? Ungrateful puppy ! it is no earthly concern of mine what becomes of him. I shall be neither better nor worse. No one will say a word against Jucundus ; he will not lose a single customer, or be shunned by a single jolly companion, for the exposure of his nephew. But a man can't be saved against his will. Here am I, full of expedients and resources for his good ; there is he, throwing cold water on everything, and m.aking diffi- culties as if he loved them. It's his abominable pride, that's the pith of the matter. He could not have behaved worse though I had played the bully with him, and had reproached him with his Christi- anity. But I have studiously avoided every subject which could put his back up. He's a very Typhon or Enceladus for pride. Hero he'd give his ears to have done with Christianity ; he wants to have this Callista ; he wants to buy her at the price of his reli- gion ; but he'd rather be burned than say, I've changed ! Let him reap as he has sown ; why should I coax him further to be merciful to himself? Well, Agellius," he said aloud, " I'm going back." j!^gellius, on the other hand, had his own thoughts; and the most urgent of them at the moment was sor- row that he had hurt his uncle. He was sincerely attached to him, in consequence of his faithful guar- A Tale of ihe Third Century. 107 dianship, his many acts of kindness, tlie reminiscences of childhood, nay, the love he bore to the good points of his character. To him he owed bis education and his respectable position. He could not bear his anger, and he had a fear of his authority ; but what was to be done ? Jucundus, in utter insensibility to cer- tain instincts and rules which in Christianity are first principles, had, without intending it, been greatly dis- honouring Agellius, and his passion, and the object of it. Uncle and nephew had been treading on each other's toes, and each was wincing under the mis- chance. It was Agellius's place, as the younger, to make advances, if he could, to an adjustment of the misunderstanding; and he wished to find some middle way. And, also, it is evident he had another inducement besides his tendei-ness to Jucundus to urge him to do so. In truth, Callista exerted a tre- mendous sway over him. The conversation which had just passed ought to have opened his eyes, and made him understand that the very first step in any negotiations between them was her bona, fide conver- sion. It was evident he could not, he literally had not the power of marrying her as a heathen. Roman might marry a lioman ; but a degradation of each party in the transaction was the only way by which a Roman could make any sort of marriage with a Greek. If she were converted, they would be both of them under the rules of the Catholic Church. But what prospect was there of so happy an event ? What had evor fallen from her lips which looked that way ? 108 Callistaj Could not a clever girl throw herself into the part oi Alcestis, or chant the majestic verses of CleantheSj or extemporize a hymn upon the spring, or hold an argu- ment on the pulchrum and utile, without having any leaning towards Christianity ? A calm, sweet voice, a noble air, an expressive countenance, refined and decorous manners, were these specific indications of heavenly grace ? Ah, poor Agellins ! a fascination is upon you ; and so you are thinking of some middle term, which is to reconcile your uncle and you; and therefore you begin as follows : — "I see by your silence, Jucundus, that you are displeased with me, you who are always so kind. Well, it comes from my ignorance of things ; it does indeed. I ask your forgiveness for anything which seemed ungrateful in my behaviour, though there is not ingratitude in my heart. I am too much, of a boy to see things beforehand, and to see them in all their bearings. You took me by surprise by talking on the subject which led to our misunderstanding. I will not conceal for an instant that I like Callista very much ; and that the more I see her, I like her the more. It strikes me that, if you break the matter to Aristo, he and I might have some talk together, and understand each other." Jucundus was hot-tempered, but easily pacified j and he really did wish to be on confidential terms with his nephew at the present crisis ; so he caught at his apology. " Now you speak like a reasonable fellow, Agellius," he answer-rid. " Certainly, I will speak to A Tale of the Third Gentufy. 109 Aristo, as you wish ; and ou tbis question of consuetudo or prescription. Well, dou't begin looking queer again. I mean I will speak to him oa the whole question and its details. He and I will talk together for our i-e- spective principals. We shall soon come to terms, I warrant you ; and then you shall talk with him. Come, show me round your fields," he continued, " and let me see how you will be able to present things to your bride. A very pretty property it is. I it was who was the means of your father thinking of it. Tou have heard me say so before now, and all the circum- stances. " He was at Carthage at this time, undecided what to do with himself. It so happened that Julia Clara's estates were just then in the market. An enormous windfall her estates were. Old Didius was emperor just before my timej he gave all his estates to his daughter as soon as he assumed the purple. Poor lady! she did not enjoy them long; Severus confis- cated the whole, not, however, for the benefit of the state, but of the res privata. 'i'hey are so large in Africa alone, that, as you know, you are under a special procurator. Well, they did not come into the market at once ; the existing farmers were retained. Marcus Juventius farmed a very considerable portion of them ; they were contiguous, and dovetailed into his own lands, and accordingly, when he got into trouble, and had to sell his leases, there were certain odds and ends about Sicca which it was proposed to lease piecemeal. Your employer, Varius, would have 110 Callista ; given any money for them^ but I was beforehand with him. Nothing like being on the spot ; he was on business of the proconsul at Adrumetum. I sent off Hispa instantly to Strabo; not an hour's delay after I heard of it. The sale was at Carthage; he went to his old commander, who used his influence, and the thing was done. " I venture to say there's not such a snug little farm in all Africa ; and I am sanguine we shall get a renewal, though. Varius will do his utmost to outbid us. Ah, my dear Agellius, if there is but a suspicion you are not a thorough-going Roman ! Well, well, — here ! ease me through this gate, Agellius ; I don't know what's come to the gate since I was here. Indeed ! — yes ! you have improved this very much. That small arbour is delicious ; but you want an image, an Apollo or a Diana. Ah ! do now stop for a moment ; why are you going forward at such a pace ? I'll give you an image : it shall be one that you will really like. Well, you won't have it? I beg you ten thousand pardons. Ha, ha ! I mean nothing. Ha, ha, ha ! Oh, what an odd world it is ! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha 1 Well, I ara keepiugyou from your labourers. Ha, ha, ha!" And having thus smoothed his own ruffled temper, and set things right, as he considered, with Agellius, the old pagan took his journey homewards, assuring Agellius that he would make all things clear for him in a very short time, and telling him to be sure to make a call upon Aristo before the ensuing calends. A Tale of the Third Centurij. Ill CHAPTER X. TUB DIVINE CALLISTA. The (lay came which Agellias had fixed for paying his promised visit to Aristo. It is not to be denied that, in the interval, the difficulties of the business which occasioned his visit had increased upon his apprehensions. Callista was not yet a Christian, nor was there any reason for saying that a proposal of marriage would make her one; and a strange sort of convert she would be, if it did. He would not suffer himself to dwell upon difficulties which he was deter- mined never should be realized. No ; of course a heathen he could not marry, but a heathen Callista should not be. He did not see tbe process, but he was conyinced she would become a Christian. Yet somehow so it was, that, if he was able to stultify his reason, he did not quite succeed to his satisfaction with his conscience. Every morning found him less satisfied with himself, and more disposed to repent of having allowed his uncle to enter on the subject with Aristo. But it was a thing done and over ; he must either awkwardly back out, or be must go on. His middle term, as he hastily had considered it, was nothing else than siding with his uncle, and com- 112 Callista; mitting himself to go all lengths, unless some diflSculty rose with the other party. Yet could he really wish that the step had not beea taken ? Was it not plain that if he was to put away Callista from his affections, he must never go near her ? And was he to fall back on his drear solitude, and lose that outlet of thought and relief of mind which he had lately found in the society of his Greek friends ? We may easily halieve that he was not very peace- ful in heart when he set out on that morning to call upon Aristoj yet he would not allow that he was doing wrong. He recurred to the pleasant imagina- tion that Callista would certainly become a Christian, and dwelt pertinaciously upon it. He could not tell on what it was founded ; he knew enough of his religion not to mean that she was too good to be a heathen ; so it is to be supposed he meant that he discerned what he hoped were traces of some super- natural influence operating upon her mind. He had a perception, which he could not justify by argument, that there was in Callista a promise of something higher than anything she yet was. He felt a strange sympathy with her, which certainly unless he utterly deceived himself, was not based on anything merely natural or human, — a sympathy the more remarkable from the contrariety which existed between them in matters of religious belief. And hope having blown this large and splendid bubble, sent it sailing away, and it rose upon the buoyant atmosphere of youth, beautiful to behold. A Tale of the Third Century. 113 And yet, as Agellius ascended the long flight of marble steps which led the foot-passengar up into that fair city, while the morning sua was glancing across them, and surveyed the outline of the many sumptuous buildings which crested and encircled the hill, did he not know full well that iniquity was written on its very walls, and spoke a solemn warning to a Chiistian heart to go out of it, to flee it, not to take up a home in it, not to make alliance with anything in it ? Did he not know from experience full well that, when he got into it, his glance could no longer be unre- strained, or his air free ; but that it would be neces- sary for him to keep a control upon his senses, and painfully guard himself against what must either be a terror to him and an abhorrence, or a temptation ? Enter in imagination into a town like Sicca, and you will understand the great Apostle's anguish at seeing a noble and beautiful city given up to idolatry. Enter it, and you will understand why it was that the poor priest, of whom Jucundus spoke so bitterly, hung his head, and walked with timid eyes and clouded brow through the joyous streets of Carthage. Hitherto we have only been conducting heathens through it, boys or men, Jucundus, Arnobius, and Firmianj but now a Christian enters it with a Christian's heart and a Oiiristian's hope. Well is it for us, dear reader, that we in this age do not experience — nay, a blessed thing that we cannot even frame to ourselves in imagination — the actual details of evil which hung as an atmosphere over the 114 Callistaj cities of Pagan Rome. An Apostle calls the tongue "a fire, a world of iniquity, untameable, a restless evil, a deadly poison ;" andsarely what he says applies to hideous thoughts represented to the eye, as well as when they are made to strike, upon the ear. Unfor- tunate Agellius ! what takes you into the city this morning ? Doubtless some ui-gent, compulsive duty ; otherwise you would not surely be threading its lanes or taking the circuit of its porticoes, am.id sights which now shock and now allure j fearful sights — not here and there, but on the stateliest structures aad in the meanest hovels, in public offices and private houses, in central spots and at the corners of the streets, in bazaars and shops and house-doors, in the rudest work- manship and in the highest art, in letters or in emblems or in paintings — the insignia and the pomp of Satan and of Belial, of a reign of corruption and a revel of idolatry which you can neither endure nor escape. Wherever you go it is all the same ; in the police-court on the right, in the military station on the left, in the crowd around the temple, iu the procession with its victims and its worshippers who walk to music, in the language of the noisy market-people ; wherever you go, you are accosted, confronted, publicly, shame- lessly, now as if a precept of religion, now as if a homage to nature, by all which, as a Christian^ you shrink from and abjure. It is no accident of the season or of the day ; it is the continuous tradition of some thousands of years ; it is the very orthodoxy of the myriads who have A Tale of the Third Century. 115 lived and died there. There was a refrion once, in an early age, lying upon the Eastern Sea, which is said at length to have vomited out its inhabitants for their frightful iniquity. They, thus cast forth, took ship, and passed over to the southern coast ; and then, gradually settling and spreading into the interior, they peopled the woody plains and fertile slopes of Africa, and filled it with their cities. Sicca is one of these set up in sin ; and at the time of which we write that sin was basking under the sun, and rioting and ex- tending itself to its amplest dimensions, like some glittering serpent or spotted pard of the neighbour- hood, without interposition from heaven or earth in correction of so awful a degradation. In such scenes of unspeakable pollution, our Christian forefathers perforce lived ; through such a scene, though not taking part in it, Agellius, blessed with a country home, is unnecessarily passing. He has reached the house, or rather the floor, to which he has been making his way. It is at the back of the city, where the rock is steep; and it looks out upon the plain and the mountain range to the north. Its inmates, Aristo and Callista, are engaged in their ordinary work of moulding or carving, painting or gilding the various articles which the temples or the private shrines of the established religion required. Aristo Las received from Jucundus the overtures which Agellius had commissioned him to make, and finds, as he anticipated, that they are no great news to his sister. She perfectly understands what is going 116 Callista; on, but does not care to sprak much upon it, till Agellius mnkes his appearance. As they sit at work, Aristo speaks : — " Agellius will make his appearance here this morn- ing. I say, Callista, what can he be coming for?" "Why, if your news be true, that the Cbristians are coming into trouble, of course he means to purchase, as a blessing on him, some of these bits of gods." " You are sharp enough, my little sister,^' answered Aristo, " to know perfectly well who is tlie goddess he is desirous of purchasing." Callista laughed carelessly, but made no reply. " Come, child," Aristo continued, " don't be cruel to him. "Wreath a garland for him by the time he comes. He's well to do, and modest withal, and needs encouragement." " He's well enough," said Callista. " I say he's a fellow too well off to be despised as a lover," proceeded her brother, " and it would be a merit with the gods to rid him of his superstition." '^ot much of a Christian," she made answer, " if he is set upon me." " For whose sake has he beeu coming here so often, mine or yours, Callista ? " " I am tired of such engagements," she replied. She went on with her painting, and several times seemed as if she would have spoken, but did not. Then, without intei-rupting her work, she said calmly, " Time was, it gratified my conceit and my feelings to have hangers on. Indeed, without them, how A Tale of the Third Century. 117 should we have had means to come here ? But there's a weariness in all things." " A weariness 1 Where is this ha J humour to end ? " cried Aristo ; " it has been a long fit ; shake it ofF while you can, or it will be too much for you. Whab can you mean ? a weariness ! You are oyer young to bid youth farewell. Aching hearts for aching bones. So young and so perverse ! We must take things as the gods give them. You -will ask for them in vain ■when you are old. One day above, another day beneath; one while young, another while old. En- joy life while you have it in your hand." He had said this as he worked. Then he stopped, and turned round to her, with his graving-tool in his hand. " Ee- coUect old Lesbia, how she used to squeak out to me, with her nodding head and trembling limbs " — here he mimicked the old crone — " ' My boy, take your pleasure while you can. I caa't take pleasure — my day is over; but I don't reproach myself. I had a merry time of it while it lasted. Time stops for no one, but I did my best ; I don't reproach myself.' There's the true philosopher, though a slave ; more outspoken than^sop, more practical than Epictetus." Callista began singing to herself : — " I wander by that river's brink Which circles Pluto's drear domain ; I feel the chill night breeze, and think Of joys which ne'er shall be again. " I count the weeds that fringe the shore, Each sluggish wave that rolls and rolls j I hear the ever-splashing oar Of Charon, ferryman of souU. 118 Callista; " Heiglio ! " she continued, " little regret, but much dread. The young have to fear more than the old have to mourn over. The future outweighs the past, life is not so sweet as death is bitter. It is hard to quit the light, the light of heaven." " Callistidion ! " he said, impatiently ; " my girl, this is preposterous. How long is this to go on ? We must take you to Carthage ; there is more trade there, if we can get it ; and it will be on the bright, far- resounding sea. And I will turn rhetorician, and you shall feed my classes." " beautiful, divine light," she continued, " what a loss ! 0, to think that one day I must lose you for ever ! At home I used to lie awake at night longing for the morning, and crying out for the god of day. " It was like choice wine to me, a cup of Chian, the first streaks of the Auroi a, and I could hardly bear his bright coming, when he came to me like Semele, for rapture. How gloriously did he shoot over .the hills ! and then anon he rested awhile on the snowy summit of Olympus, as in some luminous shrine, glad- dening the Phrygian plain. Fair, bright-haired god ! thou art my worship, if Callista worships aught : but somehowiXjstorship nothing now. I am wearju" " Well," said her brother in a soothing tone, " it is a change. That light, elastic air, that transparent heaven, that fresh temperate breeze, that majestic sea ! Africa is not Greece ; 0, the difference ! That's it, Callista; it is the nostalgia; you are home-sick." "It may be so," she said; "I do not well know A Tale of the Third Century. 119 what I would have. Yes, the poisonous dews, the heavy heat, the hideous beasts, the green fever-gender- ing swamps. This vast thickly-wooded plain, like some mysterious labyrinth, oppresses and disquiets me with its very richness. The luxuriant foliage, the tall, rank plants, the deep, close lanes, I do not see my way through them, and I pant for breath. I only breathe freely on this hill. 0, how unlike Greece, with the clear, soft, delicate colouring of its moun- tains, and the pure azure or the purple of its waters ! " " But, my dear Callista," interrupted her brother, " recollect you are not in those oppressive, gloomy forests, but in Sicca, and no one asks you to penetrate them. And if you want mountains, I think those on the horizon are bare enough." "And the race of man," she continued, "is worse than all. Where is the genius of our bright land ? where its intelligence, playfulness, grace, and noble bearing? Here hearts are as black as brows, and smiles as treacherous as the adders of the wood. The natives are crafty and remorseless ; they never relax ; they have no cheerfulness or mirth ; their very love is a furnace, and their sole ecstasy is revenge." "No country like home to any of us," said Aristo ; " yet here you are. Habit would be a second nature if you were here long enough; your feelings would become acclimated, and would find a new home. People get to like the darkness of the extreme north in course of time. The painted Britons, the Cimme- rians, the Hyperboreans, are content never to see th^ 1 2 120 Callista; sun at all, whicli is your god. Here your own god reigns ; why quarrel with, him ? " The sun of Greece is light/' answered Callista j " the sun of Africa is fire. I am no fire-worshipper." " I suspect even S tyx and Phlegethon are tolerable, at length," said her brother, " if Phlegethon and Styx there be, as the poets tell us." "The cold, foggy Styx is the north," said Callista, " and the south is the scorching, blasting Phlegethon, and Greece, clear, sweet, and sunny, is the Elysian fields." And she continued her improvisations: — " Where are the islands of the blest ? They stud the jEgean sea ; And where the deep Elysian rest ? It haunts the vale where Peneus strong Pours his incessant stream along, While craggy ridge and mountain bare Cut keenly through the liquid air, And, in their own pure tints arrayed, Scorn earth's green robes which change and fade. And staad in beauty undecayed, Guards of the bold and free." "A lower flight, if you please, just now," said Aristo, interrupting her. " I do really wish a serious word with you about Agellius. He's a fellow I can't help liking, in spite of his misanthropy. Let me plead his cause. Like him or not yourself, stQl he has a full purse ; and you will do a service to yourself and to the gods of Greece, and to him too, if you will smile on him. Smile on him at least for a time ; we will go to Carthage when you are tired. His looks have very little in them of a Christian left ; you may blow it away with your breath." A Tale of the Third Century. 121 " One might do worse than be a Christian/' she an- -^wered slowly, " if all is true that Ihave heard of them." Aristo started up in irritation. " By all the gods of Olympus," he said, " this is intolerable ! If a man wants a tormentor, I commend him to a girl like you. What has ailed thee some time past, you silly child ? What have I done to you that you should have got so cross and contrary and so hard to please ? " , "I mean," she said, "if I were a Christian, life I would be more bearable." " Bearable ! " he echoed ; " bearable ! ye gods ! moi-e bearable to have Styx and Tartarus, the Furies and their snakes, in this world as well as in the next ? to have evil within and without, to hate one's self and to be hated of all men ! to live the life of an ass, and to die the death of a dog ! Bearable! But hark! I hear Agellius's step on the staircase. Callista, dear Callist a, be yourself. Listen to reason." But Callista would not listen to reason, if her brother was its embodiment ; but went on with her singing : — " For wliat is Afric but the home 0£ burning Phlegethon ? What the low beach and silent gloom, And chilling mists of that dull river, Along whose bank the thin ghosts shiver. The thin, wan ghosts that once were men. Bat Tauris, isle of moor and fen ; Or, dimly traced by seaman's ken, The pale-cUffed Albion ? " Here she stopped, looked down, and busied herself with her work. ]22 Callista; CHAPTER XI. callista's preachinGj and what came of tt. It is undeniably a solemn moment, under any cir- cumstances, and requires a strong heart, wlien any one deliberately surrenders himself, soul and body, to the keeping of auother while life shall last ; and this, or somethiag like this, reserving the supreme claim of duty to the Creator, is the matrimonial con- tract. In individual cases it m^ay be made without thought or distress, but surveyed objectively, and as carried out iato a suflBcient range of instances, it is so tremendous an undertaking that nature seems to sink under its responsibilities. When the Christiaa binds himself by vows to a religious life, he makes a sar- render to Him who is all-perfect, and whom he may unreservedly trust. Moreover, looking at that sur- render on its human side, he has the safeguard of distinct provisos and regulations, and of the principles of theology, to secure hitn against tyranny on the part of his superiors. But what shall be his encourage- ment to make himself over, without condition or stipu- lation, as an absolute property, to a fallible being, and that not for a season, but for life ? The mind shrinks from such a Sficrifice, and demands that, as A Tale of the Third Century. 123 religion enjoins it, religion should sanction and bless it. It instinctively desires that either the bond should be dissoluble, or that the subjects of it should be sacramentally strengthened to maintain it. " So help me God," the formula of every oath, is emphatically necessary here. But Agellius is contemplating a superhuman en- gagement without" superhuman assistance; and that in a state of society in which public opinion, which in some sense compensates for the absence of re- ligion, supplied human motives, not for, but against keeping it, and with one who had given no indication that she understood what marriage meant. No wonder then, that, in spite of his simplicity, his sanguine temperament, and his delusion, the more he thought of the step he had taken, the more unsatisfac- tory he found it, and the nearer he grew to the time when he must open the subject with Aristo, the less he felt able to do so. In consequence he was in a distress of mind, as he ascended the staircase which led to his friend's lodging, to which his anxiety, as he mounted the hill on the other side of the city, was tranquillity itself; and, except that he was coming by engagement, he would have turned back, and for the time at least have put the whole subject from his thoughts. Yet even then, as often as Callista rose in his mind's eye, his scruples and misgivings vanished before the beauty of that image, as mists before the sun; and when he actuilly stood in her sweet pre- sence, it seemed as if some secret emanation from 1 24 Callista ; her flowed in upon his heart, and he stood breathless and giddy under the intensity of the fascination. However, the reader must not suppose that in the third century of our era such negotiations as that which now seems to be on the point of coming off between Callista and Agellius, were embellished with those transcendental sentiments and that magnificent ceremonial with which chivalry has invested them in these latter ages. There was little occasion then for fine speaking or exquisite deportment ; and if there had been, we, who are the narrators of these hitherto unrecorded transactions, should have been utterly unable to do justice to them. At that time of day the Christian had too much simplicity, the heathen too little of real delicacy, to indulge in the sublimities of modern love-making, at least as it is found in novels ; land in the case before us both gentleman and lady will ibe thought, we consider, sadly matter-of-fact, or rather 'serai-barbarous, by the votaries of what is just now called European civilization. On Agellius's entering the room, Aristo was pacing to and fro in some discomposure ; however, he ran up to his friend, embraced him, and, looking at him with significance, congratulated him on his good looks. "There is more fire in your eye," he said, "dear Agellius, and more eloquence in the turn of your lip, than I have ever yet seen. A new spirit is in you. So you are determined to come out of your solitude? That you should have been able to exist in it so long is the wonderment to me." A Tale of the Third Century. 125 Agellius had recovered himself, yet he dared not look again on Callista. " Do not jest, Aristo," he said ; " I am come, as you know, to talk to you about your sister. I have brought her a present of flowers ; they are my best present, or rather not mine, but the birth of the opening year, as fair and fragrant as herself." " We will offer them to our Pallas Athene/' said his friend, "to whom we artists are especially devout." And he would have led Agellius on, and made him place them in her niche in the opposite wall. " I am more serious than you are,'' said Agellius j " and I have brought the best my garden contains as an oifering to your sister. She will not think I bring them for any other purpose. Where are you going ? " he continued, as he saw his friend take down his broad pefasns. " Why," answered Aristo, " since I am so poor an interpreter of your meaning, you can dispense with me altogijther. I will leave you to speak for yourself, and meanwhile will go and see what old Dromo has to tell, before the sun is too high in the heavens." Saying this, with a half-imploring, half-satirical look at his sister, he set off to the barber's at the Forum. Agellius took up the flowers, and laid them on the table before her, as she sat at work. " Do you accept my flowers, Callista ? " he asked, " Fair and fragrant, like myself, are they ? " she made reply. " Give them to me." She took them, and bent over them. " The blushing rose," she said, 126 Callista, gravely, ".the stately lily, tlie royal carnation, the golden moly, the purple amaranth, the green bryon, the diosanthos, the sertula, the sweet modest saliunca, fit emblems of Callista. Well, in a few hoars they will have faded; yes, they will get more and more like her." She paused and looked him steadily in the face, and then continued : " Agellius, I once had a slave who belonged to your religion. She had been born in a Christian family, and came into my possession on her master's death. She was unlike any one I have seen before or since ; she cared for nothing, yet was not morose or peevish or hard-hearted. She died young in my service. Shortly before her end she had a dream. She saw a company of bright shades, clothed in white, like the hours which circle round the god of day. They were crowned with flowers, and they said to each other, ' She ought to have a token too.' So they took her hand, and led her to a most beautiful lady, as stately as Juno and as sweet as Ariadne, so radiant in countenance that they themselves suddenly looked like Ethiopians by the side of her. She, too, was crowned with flowers, and these so dazzling that they might be the stars of heaven or the gems of Asia for what Chione could tell. And that fair goddess (angel you call her) said, ' My dear, here is something for you from my Son. He sends you by me a red rose for your love, a white lily for your chastity, purple violets to strew your grave, and green palms to flourish over it.' Is this the reason why you give me A Tale of the Third Century. 127 flowerSj Agellius, that I may rank with Chione ? and is this their interpretation ? " " Oallista,'^ he answered, " it is my heart's most fervent wish, it is my mind's vivid anticipation, that the day may come when you will receive such a crown, nay, a brighter one." "And you are come, of course, to philosophize to me, and to put me in the way of dying like Chione," she made answer. " I implore your pardon. You arb offering me flowers, it seems, not for a bridal wreath, but for a funeral urn." "Is it wonderful," said Agellius, "that the two wishes should have gone together in my heart ; and that while I trusted and prayed that you might have the same Master in heaven as I have myself, I also hoped you would have the same service, the same aims, the same home upon earth ? " "And that you should speak one word for your Master and two for yourself ! " she retorted. " It has been by feeling how much you could be to me," he answered, " that I have been led to think how much my Master may be doing for you already, and how much in time to come you might do for Him. Callista, do not urge me with your Greek subtlety, or expect me to analyze my feelings more precisely than I have the ability to do. May I calmly tell you the state of my mind, as I do know it, and will you patiently listen ? " She signified her willingness, and he continued — " This only I know," he said, " what I have experienced 128 CalUsta; ever since I first heard you converse, that there is be- tween you and me a unity of thought so strange that I should have deemed it could not have been, before I found it actually to exist, between any two persons whatever ; and which, -widely as we are separated in opinion and habit, and differently as we have been brought up, is to me inexplicable. I find it difiScult to explain what I mean ; we disagree certainly on the most important subjects, yet there is an unaccountable correspondence in the views we take of things, in our impressions, in the line in which our minds move, and the issues to which they come, in our judgment of what is great and little, and the manner in which objects affect our feelings. When I speak to my uncle, when I speak to your brother, I do not understand them, nor they me. We are moving in different spheres, and I am solitary, however much they talk. But to my astonishment, I find between you and me one language. Is it wonderful that, in proportion to my astonishment, I am led to refer it to one cause, and think that one Master Hand must have engraven those lines on the soul of each of us ? Is it wonder- ful that I should fancy that He who has made us alike has made us for each other, and that the very same persuasives by which I bring you to cast your eyes on me, may draw you also to cast youi'self in aioration at the feet of my Master ? " For an instant tears seemed about to start from Callista's eyes, but she repressed the emotion, if it were such, and answered with impetuosity, " Your Master ! A Tale of the Third Gentunj. 129 who is your Master ? what know I of your Master ? what have yoii ever told me of your Master ? I sup- pose it is an esoteric doctrine which I am not worthy to know ; but so it is, here you have been again and again, and talked freely of many things, yet I am in as much darkness about your Master as if I had never seen you. I know He died ; I know too that Chris- tians say He lives. In some fortunate island, I sup- pose; for, when I have asked, you have got rid of the subject as best you could. You have talked about your law and your various duties, and what you con- sider right, and what is forbidden, and of some of the old writers of your sect, and of the Jews before them ; but if, as you imply, my wants and aspirations are the same as yourSj what have you done towards satisfying them ? what have you done for that Master towards whom you now propose to lead me ? No ! " she con- tinued, starting up, " you have watched those wants and aspirations for yourself, not for Him ; you have taken interest in them, you have cherished them, as if you were the author, you the object of them. You profess to believe in One True God, and to reject every other ; and now you are implying that the Hand, the Shadow of that God is on my mind and heart. Who is this God ? where ? how ? in what ? Agellius,you have stood in the way of Him, ready to speak for your- self, using Him as a means to an end." " Callista," said Agellius, in an agitated voice, when he could speak, " do my ears hear aright ? do yon really wish to be taught who the true God is ? " 130 UaUista ; "NOj mistake me not/' she cried passionately, "1 have no such wish. I could not be of your religion. Ye Gods ! how have I been deceived ! I thought every Christiau was like Chione, I thought there could not be a cold Christian. Chione spoke as if a Christian's first thoughts were goodwill to others ; as if his state were of such blessedness, that his dearest heart's wish was to bring others into it. Here is a man who, so far from feeling himself blest, thinks I can bless him ! comes to me — me, Callista, a herb of the field, a poor weed, exposed to every wind of heaven, and shrivelling before the fierce sun — to me he comes to repose his heart upon. But as for any blessedness he has to show me, why, since he does not feel any himself, no wonder he has none to give away. I thought a Christian was superior to time and place ; but all is hollow. Alas, alas, I am young in life to feel the force of that say- ing, with which sages go out of it, 'Vanity and hollowness ! ' Agellius, when I first heard you were a Christian, how my heart beat ! I thought of her who was gone ; and at first I thought I saw her in you, as if there had been some magical sympathy between you and her; and I hoped that from you I might have learned more of that strange strength which my nature needs, and which she told me she possessed. Your words, your manner, your looks were altogether different from others who came near me. But so it was; you came, and you went, and came again; I thought it reserve, I thought it timidity, I thought it the caution of a persecuted sect ; but 0, my disap- A Tale of the Third Century. 131 pointment, when first I saw in you indications that you were thinking of me only as others thinkj and felt towards me as others may feel ; that you were aiming at me, not at your God ; that you had much to tell of yourself, but nothing of Him ! Time was I might have been led to worship you, Agelliusj you have hindered it by worshipping me." It is not often, we suppose, that such deep offence is given to a lady by the sort of admiration of which Agellius had been guilty in the case of Oallista; how- ever, startled as he might be, and startled and stung he was, there was too much earnestness in her dis- tress, too much of truth in her representations, too much which came home to his heart and conscience, to allow of his being affronted or irritated. She had but supplied the true interpretation of the misgiving which had haunted him that morning, from the time he set out till the moment of his entering the room. Jucundus some days back had readily acquiesced in his assurance that he was not inconsistent j but Cal- lista had not been so indulgent, though really more merciful. There was a pause in the conversation, or rather in her outpouring ; each had bitter thoughts, and silently devoured them. At length, she began again : — "So the religion of Chione is a dream; now for four years I had hoped it was a reality. All things again are vanity ; I had hoped there was something 'iomewEeremore than I could see ; but there is nothing. Here am I a, living, breathing woman, with an over- 132 (Jallista; flowing heart, with keen affections, with a yearning after some object which may possess me. I cannot exist without something to rest upon. I cannot fall back upon that drear, forlorn state, which philosophers call wisdom, and moralists call virtue. I cannot enrol myself a votary of that cold Moon, whose arrows do but freeze me. I cannot sympathize in that majestic band of sisters whom Eome has placed under the tutelage of Vesta. I must have something to love ; love is my life. Why do you come to me, Agellius, with your every-day gallantry. Can you compete with the noble Grecian forms which have passed before my eyes ? Is your voice more manly, are its tones more eloquent, than those which have thrilled through my ears since I ceased to be a child ? Can you add perfume to the feast by your wit, or pour sunshine over grot and rushing stream by your smile ? What can you give me ? There was one thing which I thought you could have given me, bettor than any- thing else ; but it is a shadow. You have nothing to give. You have thrown me back upon my dreary, dismal self, and the deep wounds of my memory. . . . Poor, poor Agellius ! but it was not his fault, it could not be helped," she continued, as if in thought; "it fiould not be helped ; for, if he had nothing to give, how could he give it ? After all, he wanted some- thing to love, just as I did ; and he could find nothing better than me. . . . And they thought to persuade her to spend herself upon him, as she had spent her- self upon others. Yes, it was Jucundus and Aristo— A Tale of the Third Gentnry. 183 my brofcher, even my own brother. They thongbt not of me." Here her tears gushed out violentJy, and she abandoned herself to a burst of emotion. " They were thinking of him. I had hoped he could lead m e to •what was higher; but woe^^w^eX" she cried, wringing her hands^^^ffiey thought I was only fit to bring him low. Well ; after aTlTiFOailista really good for much more than the work they have set her to do ? " She was absorbed in. her own misery in an intense sense of degradation, in a keen consciousness of the bondage of nature, in a despair of ever finding what alone could give meaning to her existence, and an object to her intellect and affections. And Agellius on the other hand, what surprise, remorse, and humi- liation came upon him ! It was a strange contrast, the complaint of nature unregenerate on the one hand, the self-reproach of nature regenerate and lapsing on the other. At last he spoke, and they were his last words. "Callista," he said, "whatever injury I may have unwillingly inflicted upon you, you at least have returned me good for evil, and have made yourself my benefactress. Certainly, I now know myself better than I did ; and He who has made use of you as His instn.m mt of mercy towards me, will not for- get to reward you tenfold. One word will I say for myself; nay, not for myself, but for my Master. Do not for an instant suppose that what you thought of the Christian religion is not true. It reveals a present God, who satisfies every affection of the heart, yet K V34< Callista; keeps it pure. I serve a Master," he continued, blush- ing from modesty and earnestness as he spoke, "I serve a Master whose love is stronger than created love. Grod help my inconsistency ! but I never meant to love you as I love Him. You are destined for His love. I commit you to Him, your true Lord, whom I never ought to have rivalled, for whom I ought simply to have pleaded. Though I am not worthy to approach you, I shall trace you at a distance, who knows where ? perhaps even to the prison and to the arena of those who confess the Saviour of men, and dare to suffer and die for His name. And now, fare- well ; to His keeping and that of His holy martyrs I commit you." He did not trust himself to look at her as he turned to thu door, and loft the room. A Tale of tho Third Centurij. 135 CHArTER XII. A DEATH The first stages of repentance are but a fever, in wliicli there is restlessness and thirst, hot and cold fits, vague, dreary dreams, long darkness which seems destined never to have a morning, efibrt without result, and collapse without reaction. These symptoms had already manifested themselves in Agellius ; he spoke calmly to Callista, and sustained himself by the claims of the moment ; but no sooner had he left the room and was thrown upon himself, than his self-possession left him, and he fell into an agony, or rather anarchy of tumultuous feelings. Then rose up before his mind a hundred evil spectres, not lees scaring and more real than the dreams of the delirious. He thought of the singular favour which had been shown him in his reception into the Christian fold, and that at so early a date ; of the myriads all around who continued in heathenism as they had been born, and of his utter insensibility to his own privilege. He felt how much would be required of him, and how little hitherto had been forthcoming. He thought of the parable of the barren fig-tree, and the question was whispered in his K 2 136 Gallistaj ear whether it would not be fulfilled la him. He asked himself in what his heart and his conduct differed from the condition of a fairly virtuous heathen. And then he thought of Callista in contrast with himself, as having done more with the mite which she possessed than he had done with many pounds. He felt that Tyre and Sidon were rising up against him in her per- son; or rather how the saying seemed about to be verified in her, that strangers should sit down in the kingdom from far countries, while those who were the heirs should be thrust out. He had been rebuked by one to whom he rather ought to have brought self- knowledge and compunction, and she was sensitively alive to his want of charity. She had felt bitterly that she was left in ignorance and sin by one who had what she had not. She had accused him of being zealous enough to win her to himself, when he had shown no zeal at all to win her to her Maker. If she was brought to the truth at length, there would be no thanks to him for the happy change j yet on the other hand, though he had predicted it, alas ! was it likely that it would be granted ? Hal she not had her opportunity, which was lost because he had not improved it? Yes, she had with a deliberate mind and in set words put aside and taken leave of that which she once desired and hoped might have been her own, sorrowfully indeed, but peremptorily, as firmly persisting in rejecting it, as she might have per- sisted in maintaining it ; and, if she died in infidelity, horrible thought ! would not the burden lie on him, A Tale of the Third Century. 137 and was this to be the token of the love which he pretended to entertain for her ? What was he living for ? what was the work he had set himself to do ! Did he live to plant flowers, or to rear fruitj to maintain himself and to make money ? Was that a time to pride himself on vineyards and olive- yards, when, like Eliseus, he was one among myriads who were in unbelief? Ah, the difference between a saint and him ? Of what good was he on earth j why should not he die ? why so chary of his life ? why preserve his wrttched life at all? Could he not do more by giving it than by keeping it ? Might it not have been given him perchance for the veiy pur- pose thab he might' sacrifice it for Him who had given it ? He had been timid about making a profession of hia faith, whicb might have led to prison and death ; bub perhaps the very object of his life in the divine purpose, the very reason of his birth, had been that, as soon as he was grown, he should die for the truth. He might have been cut off by disease ; he was not ; and why, except that he might merit in his death, and that what, in the ordinary course of things, was a mere suffering, might in his case be an act of ser- vice ? His deabh mighb have been the conversion of thousands, of Gallista ; and the fewness of his days here would have been his claim to a blessed "eternity hereafter. Nor Callista alone ; he had natural friends, with nearer claims upon his charity. Had he been other bhan he was, he might have prevailed with his uncle ; 138 Callista; at least he migLt have taught him to respect the Christian Faith and Name, and restrained him from daring to attempt, for he now saw that it was an attempt, to seduce him into sin. He might have lodged a good seed in his heart, which in the hour of sickness might have germinated. And his brother again had learned to despise him; indeed he had raised in every one who came near him the suspicion that he was not really a Christian, that he was an apostate (he could not help uttering a cry of anguish as he used the word), an apostate from that which was his real life and supreme worship. Why did he not at once go into the Basilica or the Gymnasium, and proclaim himself a Christian ? There were rumours abroad that the new emperor was be- ginning a new policy towards his religion ; let him in- augurate it in Agellius. Might he not thus perchance wash out his sin ? He would be led into the amphi- theatre, as his betters had been led before him ; the crowds would yell, and the lion would be let loose upon him. He would confront the edict, tear it down, be seized by the apparitor, and hurried to the rack or the slow fire. Callista would hear of it, and would learn at length he was not quite the craven and the recreant which she thought him. Then his thoughts took a turn. Callista ! what was Callista to him ? Why should he think of her, when she was girding him to martyrdom ? Was she to be the motive which was to animate him, and her praise his reward ? Alas, alas ! could he gain heaven by A Tale of the Third Cmtwry. 139 pleasing a heathen ? " But to whom then/' he con- tinued, " am I to look up ? who is to give me sym- pathy ? who is to encourage, to advise me ? my Father, pity me ! a feeble child, a poor, outcast, wan- dering sheep, away from the fold, torn by the briars and thorns, and no one to bind his wounds and retrace his steps for him. Why am I thus alone in the world ? why am I without a pastor and guide ? Ah, was not this my fault in remaining in Sicca ? I have no tie here ; let me go to Carthage, or to Tagaste, or to Madaura, or to Hippo. I am not fit to walk the world by myself ; I am too simple, and am no match for its artifices." Here another thought took possession of him, which had as yet but crossed his mind, and it made him colour up with confusion and terror. " They_ were laying a plot for me," he said, " my uncle- and Arlsto ; and it is Callista who has deifiateil.it." -And as he spoke, he felt how much he owed to her, and how dangerous too it was to think of his debt. Yet it would not be wrong to pray for her; she had marred the device of which she was to have been the agent. "Laqueus contiitus est, et nos liberati sumus : " the net was broken and he was delivered. She had refused his devotion, that he might give it to his God ; and now he would only think of her, and whisper her name, when he was kneeling beforo the Blessed Mary, his advocate. that that second and better Eve, who brought salvation into the world, as our first mother brought death, that she might 140 Gallista; bear Callista's name in remembrance, and get it written in the Book of life ! It was high noon ; and all this time Agellius was walking in his present excited moodj without cover- ing to his head, under the burning rays of the sun, not knowing which way he went, and retracing his steps, as he wandered about at random, with a vague notion he was going homewards. The few persons whom he met, creeping about under the shadow of the lofty houses, or under the porticoes of the temples, looked at him with wonder, and thought him furious or deranged. The shafts of the sun were not so hot as his own thoughts, or as the blood which shot to and fro so fiercely in his veins ; but they were work- ing fearfully on his physical frame, though they could not increase the fever of his mind. He had come to the Forum ; the market people wei'e crouching under their booths or the shelter of their baskets. The liffraiFof the city, who lived by their wits, or by odd jobs, or on the windfalls of the market; lazy fellows who did nothing, who did not move till hunger urged them, like the biute; half-idiotic chewers of opium, ragged or rather naked children, the butcher boys and scavengers of the temples, lay at their length at the mouth of the caverns formed by the precipitous rock, or under the Arch of Tiiumph, or amid the columns of the Gymnasium and the Heracleum, or in the doorways of the shops. A scattering of beggars were lying, poor creatures, on their backs in the blazing sun, reckless of the awful maladies, the fits, the A Talo of the Third Century. 141 seizureSj and the sudden deathj which might be the consequence. Numbers out of this mixed multitude were asleep ; some were looking with dull listless eyes at the still scenOj or at any accidental movements which might vary it. They saw a figure coming nearer and nearer and wildly passing by. Just then Agellius was di- verted from his painful meditations by hearing one of these fellows say to anotherj as he roused from a sort of doze, " That's one of them. We know them all, but very poor pickings can be got out of them ; but he has more than most. They're a low set in Sicca." And then the man cried out, " Look sharp, young chap ! the Furies are at your heels, and the Fates are going before you. Look there at the em- peror ; he is looking at you, as grim and sour as you could wish him." He spoke of the equestrian statue of Severus before the Basilica on the right; and, attracted by his words, Agellius went up to a board which was fixed to its base. It was an imperial edict, and it ran as follows : — " Cneius Trajanus Decius, Augustus ; and Quintus Herennius Btruscus Decius, Ceesar; Emperors, uncon- querable and pious; by united council these : — "Whereas we have experienced the benefits and the gifts of the gods, and do also enjoy the victory which they have given us over our enemies, and more- over salubrity of seasons, and abundance in the fruits of the earth ; "Therefore, acknowledging the aforesaid as our 142 Gallista ; benefactors and the providers of those things which are necessary for the commonwealth^ we make this our decree, that every class of the state, freemen and slaves, the army and civilians, offer to the gods ex- piatory sacrifices, falling down in supplication before them ; " And if any one shall presume to disobey this our divine command, which we unite in promulgating, we order that man to be thrown into chains, and to be subjected to various tortures ; "And should he thereupon be persuaded to reverse his disobedience, he shall receive from us no slight honours ; " But should he hold out in opposition, first he shall have many tortures, and then shall be executed by the sword, or thrown into the deep sea, or given as a prey to birds and dogs ; " And more than all if such a person be a professor of the Christian religion. " Farewell, and live happy." The old man in the fable called on Death, and Death made his appearance. We are very far indeed from meaning that Agellius uttered random words, or spoke impatiently, when he just now expressed a wish to have the opportunity of dying for the Faith. Never- theless, what now met his eyes and was transmitted through them, sentence by sentence, into his mind, was not certainly of a nature to calm the tumult which was busy in breast and brain ; a sickness came over him, and he staggered away. The words of the edict A Tale of the Third Century. 143 still met his eyes, and were of a bright red colour. The sun was right before him, but the letters were in the s\m, and the sun in his brain. He reeled and fell heavily on the pavement. No notice was taken of the occurrence by the spectators around him. They lazily or curiously looked on, and waited to see if he would recover. How long he lay there he could not tell, when he came to himself; if it could really be said to be coming to himself to have the power of motion, and an instinct that he must move, and move in one direc- tion. He managed to riie and lean against the pedestal of the statue, and its shade by this time pro- tected him. Then an intense desire came upon him to get home, and that desire gave him a temporary preternatural strength. It came upon him as a duty to leave Sicca for his cottage, and he set off. He had a confused notion that he must do his duty, and go straight forward, and turn neither to the right, nor the left, and stop nowhere, but move on steadily for his true home. But next an impres- sion came upon him that he was running away from persecution, and that this ought not to be, and that he ought to face the enemy, or at least not to hide from him, but meekly wait for him. As he went along the narrow streets which led down, the hill towards the city gate this thought came so powerfully upon him that at length he sat down on a stone which projected from an open shop, and thought of surrendering himself. He felt the benefit of the 144 Callista; vest, and this he fancied to be the calm of conscience consequent upon self-surrender and resignation. It was a fruiterer's stall, and the owner, seeing his exhaus- tion, offered him some slices of a water-melon for his refreshment. He ate oae of them, and then again a vague feeling came on him that he was in danger of idolatry, and must protest against idolatry, and that he ought not to remain in the neighbourhood of temptation. So, throwing down the small coin which was sufficient for payment, he continued his journey. The rest and the refreshment of the fruit, and the con- tinued shade which the narrow street allowed him, allayed the fever, and for the time recruited him, and he moved on languidly. The sun, however, was still high in heaven, and when he got beyond the city beat down upon his head from a cloudless sky. He painfully toiled up the ascent which led to his cot- tage. He had nearly gained the gate of his home- stead; he saw his old household slave, born in his father's house, a Christian like himself, coming to meet him. A dizziness came over him, he lost his senses, and fell down helplessly upon the bank. A Tale of the Third Century. 145 CHAPTER XIII. AND EESUREBCTION. JucuNDUS was quite as much amused as provoked at the result of the delicate negotiation in which he had entangled his nephew. It was a gratification to him to find that its ill success had been owing in no respect to any fault on the side of Agellius. He had done his part without shrinking, and the view which he, Jucundus, had taken of his state of mind, was satisfactorily confirmed. He had nothing to fear from Agellius, and though he had failed in securing the guarantee which he had hoped for his attachment to things as they were, yet in the process of failure it had been proved that his nephew might be trusted without it. And it was a question, whether a girl so full of whims and caprices as Callista might after all have done him any permanent good. The absurd notion, indeed, of her having a leaning for Christianity had been refuted by her conduct on the occasion; still, who could rely on a clever and accomplished Greek ? There were secret societies and conspiracies in abundance, and she might have involved so weak and innocent a fellow in some plans against the government, now or at a futui'e time ; or might have 146 Callista; alieiaated hira from his uncle, or in some way or otlier made a fool of him, if she had consented to have him for her slave. Why she had rejected so eligible a suitor it was now useless and idle to inquire ; it might be that the haughty or greedy Greek had required him to bid higher for her favourable notice. If the negotiation had taken such a turn, then indeed there was still more gratifying evidence of Agellius having broken from his fantastic and peevish super- stition. Still, however, he was not without anxiety, now that the severe measui'es directed against the Chris- tians were in progress. No overt act, indeed, beyond the publication of the edict, had been taken in Sicca — probably would be taken at all. The worst was, tbat something must be done to make a show; he could have wished that some of the multitude of townspeople, half suspected of Christianity, had stood iirm, and suffered themselves to be tortured and exe- cuted. One or two would have been enough ; but the magistracy got no credit with the central government for zeal and activity if no Christians were made an example of. Yet still it was a question whether the strong acts at Carthage and elsewhere would not suffice, though the lesser towns did nothing. At least, while the populace was quiet, there was nothing to press for severity. There were no rich Christians in Sicca to tempt the cupidity of the informer or of the magistrate ; no political partisans among them, who had made enemies with this or that class of the com- A Tale of the Third Century. 147 munity. But, supposing a bad feeling to rise in the populace, supposing the magistrates to have ill- wishers and rivals — and what men in power had not ? — who might be glad to catch them tripping, and make a case against them at Rome, why, it must be confessed that Agellius was nearly the only victim who could be pitched upon. He wished Oallista no harm, but, if a Christian must be found and held up in terrorem, he would rather it was a person like her, without connections and home, than thfe member of any decent family of Sicca, whose fair fame would be compromised by a catastrophe. However, she was not a Christian, and Agellius was, at least by profes- sion ; and his fear was lest Juba shoilld be right in his estimate of his brother's character. Juba had said that Agellius could be as obstinate as he was ordi- narily indolent and yielding, and Jucundus dreaded lest, if he were rudely charged with Christiaaity, and bidden to renounce it under pain of punishment, he would rebel against the tyrannical order, and go to prison and to death out of sheer perverseness or sense of honour. With these perplexities before him, he could find nothing better than the following plan of action, which had been in his mind for some time. While the edict remained inoperative, he would do nothing at all, and let Agellius go on with his country occupations, which would keep him out of the way. But if any disposition appeared of a popular commotion, or a movement on the part of the magistracy, he determined to get pos- 143 CttUista; session of Agellius, and forcibly conGno him in liis own house in Sicca. He hoped that in the case of one so young, so uncommitted, he should have influence with the municipal authorities, or at the prsetorium, or in the camp (for the camp and the praetorium were under different jurisdictions in the proconsulate), to shelter Agellius from a public inquiry into his religious tenets, or if this could not be, to smuggle him out of the city. He was ready to affirm solemnly that his nephew was no Christian, though he was touched in the head, and, from an affection parallel to hydro- phobia, to which the disciples of Galen ought to turn their attention, was sent into convulsions on the sight of an altar. His father, indeed, was a malignant old atheist — there was no harm in being angry with the dead — but it was very hard the son should suffer for his father's offence. If he must be judged of by his parents, let him rather have the advantage of the tho- rough loyalty and religiousness of his mother, a most zealous old lady, in high repute in the neighbour- hood of Sicca for her theurgic knowledge, a staunch friend of the imperial government, which had before now been indebted to her for important informatiou, and as staunch a hater of the Christians. Such was the plan of proceedings resolved on by Jucundus before he received the news of his nephew's serious malady. It did not reach him till many days after ; and then he did not go to see him, first, lest he should be supposed to be in communication with him, next, as having no respect for that romantic sort of gene- A Tale of tJie Third Century. 149 rosity wMch. risks the ohancos of coutagiou for tlio absurd ceremony of paying a compliment. It was thus that Jucundus addressed himself to the present state of affairs, and anticipated the chances of the future. As to Aristo, he had very little personal interest in the matter. Ilis sister might have thwarted him in afiairs which lay nearer his heart than the moral emancipation of Agellius ; and as she generally complied with his suggestions and wishes, whatever they were, he did not grudge her her liberty of action in this instance. Nor had the occurrence which had taken place any great visible effect upon Callista her- self. She had lost her right to be indignant with her brother, and she resigned or rather abandoned herself to her destiny. Her better feelings had been brought out for the moment in her conversation with Agellius ; but they were not ordinary ones. True, she was tired, but she was the slave of the world;'' and Agellius had only made her more sceptical than before that there was any service better. So at least she said to herself ; she said it was fantastic to go else- where for good, and that, if life was short, then, as her brother said, it was necessary to make the most of it. And meanvvbile, what of Agellius himself ? Why, it will be some little time before Agellius will be in a condition to moralize upon anything. His faithful slave half-carried, half-drew him into the cottage, and stretched him upon his bed. Then, having suffi- cient; skill for the ordinary illjjesses of tho country. 150 Callista ; though this was more than an ordinary fever, he drew blood from him, gave him a draught of herbs, aud left him to the slow but safe processes of nature to restore him. It could not be affirmed that he was not in considerable danger of life, yet youth carries hope with it, and his attendant had little to fear for his recovery. For some days certainly Agellius had no apprehension of anything, except of restlessness and distress, of sleepless nights, or dreary, miserable dreams. At length one morning, as he was lying on his back with his eyes shut, it came into his mind to ask himself whether Sunday would ever come. He had been accustomed upon the first day of the week to say some particular prayers and psalms, and unite himself in spirit with his brethren beyond seas. And then he tried to remember the last Sunday ; and the more he thought, the less he could remember it, till he began to think that months had gone without a Sunday. This he was certain of, that he had lost reckoning, for he had made no notches for the days for a long while past, and unless his slave Asper knew, there was no one to tell him. Here he got so puzzled, that it was like one of the bad dreams which had worried him. He felt it affect his head, and he was obliged to give up the inquiry. From this time his sleep was better and more re- freshing for several days ; he was more collected when he was awake, and was able to ask himself why he lay there, and what had happened to him. Then gradually his memory began to return like the dawn- A Tale of the Third Gentury. 151 ing of the day ; the cause and the circumstances of his recent visit to the city, point after point came up, and he felt first wonder, and then certainty. He re- collected the Forum, and then the edict ; a solemn, overpowering emotion here seized him, and for a while he dared not think more. When he recovered, and tried to pursue the events of the day, he found himself unequal to the task ; all was dark, except that he had some vague remembrance of thirsting, and some one giving him to drink, and then his say- ing with the Psalmist, "Transivimus per ignem et aquam." He opened his eyes and looked about him. He was at home. There was some one at the bed-head whom he could not see hanging over him, and he was too weak to raise himself and so command a view of him. He waited patiently, being too feeble to have any great anxiety on the subject. Presently a voice addressed him : " You are recovering, my son," it said. " Who are you ? " said Agellius abruptly. The person spoken to applied his mouth to Agellius's ear, and uttered lowly several sacred names. Agellius would have started ap had he been strong enough ; he could but sink down upon his rushes in agitation. " Be content to know no more at present," said the stranger, "praise Grod, as I do. You know enough for your present strength. It is your act of obedience for the day." 152 Callista; It was a deep^ clear, peacefal, authoritative voice. In his present state, as we have said, it cost Agellias no great effort to mortify curiosity ; and the accents of that voice soothed him, and the mystery employed his mind, and had something pleasing and attractive in it. Moreover, about the main point there was no mystery, and could be no mistake, that he was in the hands of a Christian ecclesiastic. y The stranger occupied himself for a time with a book of prayers which he carried about him, and then again with the duties of a sick-bed. He sprinkled vinegar over AgelUus's face and about the room, and supplied him with the refreshment of cooling fruit. He kept the flies from tormenting him, and did his best so to arrange his posture that he might suffer least from his long lying. In the morning and evening he let in the air, and he excluded the sultry noon. In these various occupations he was from time to time removed to a distance from the patient, who thus had an oppor- tunity of observing him. The stranger was of middle height, upright, and well proportioned ; he was dressed in a peasant's or slave's dark tunic. His face was rather round than long ; his hair black, yet with the promise of greyness, with what might be baldness ia the crown, or a priest's tonsure. His short beard curled round his chin; his complexion was very clear. But the most striking point about him was his eyes ; they were of a light or greyish blue, transparent, and shining like precious stones. From the day that they first interchanged words, A Tale of the Third Century. 1 53 the priest said some short prayers from time to time with Agellius — the Lord's Prayer^ and portions of the Psalms. Afterwards, when he was well enough to converse, Agellius was struck with the inexpressible peculiarity of his manner. It was self-collected, serene, gentlcj tender, unobtrusive, unstudied. It enabled him to say things severe and even stern, without startling, offending, or repelling the hearer. He spoke very little about himself, though from time to time points of detail were elicited of his history in the course of conversation. He said that his name was Caecilius. Asper, when he entered the room, would kneel down and offer to kiss the stranger's sandal, though the latter generally managed to prevent it. Caecilius did not speak much about himself; but Agellius, on the other hand, found it a relief to tell out his own history, and reflect upon and describe his own feelings. As he lay on his bed, he half solilo- quized, half addressed himself to the stranger. Some- times he required an answer; sometimes he seemed to require none. Once he asked suddenly, after along silence, whether a man could be baptized twice ; and when the priest answered distinctly in the negative, Agellius replied that if so, bethought it would be best never to be baptized till the hour of death. It was a question, he said, which had perplexed him a good deal, but he never had had any one to converse with on the subject. Caecilius answered, " But how could you promise yourself that you would be able to obtain the sacra- 154 Callista ; mentat the last moment ? The water and tke admini- strator might come just too late ; and then where would you he, my son ? And then again^ how do you know you would wish it ? Is your will simply in your own power ? ' Carpe diem ;' take God's gift while you can." "The benefit is so immense/' answered AgelHus, " that one would wish, if one could, to enter into the unseen world without losing its fulness. This can- not be, if a long time elapses between baptism and death." "Tou are, then, of the number of those," said Csecilius, " who would cheat their Maker of His claim on their life, provided they could (as it is said) in their last moment cheat the devil." Agellius continuing silent, CEecilius added, "Tou want to enjoy this world, and to inherit the next ; is it so ? " " I am puzzled, my head is weak, father ; I do not see my way to speak." Presently he said, " Sin after baptism is so awful a matter ; there is no second laver for sin ; and then again, to sin against baptism is so great a sin.'" The priest said, " In baptism God becomes your Father ; your own God ; your worship ; your love — can you give up this great gift all through your life ? Would you live ' without God in this world ' ? " Tears came into Agellius's eyes, and his throat became oppressed. At last he said, distinctly and tenderly, " No." A Tale of the Third Century. 155 After a while the priest said, " I suppose what you fear is the fire of judgment, and the prison ; not lest you should fall away and be lost." "I knoWj my dear father," answered the sick youth, " that I have no right to reckon on anything, or pro- mise myself anything; yet somehow I have never feared hell — though I ought, I know I ought ; but I have not. I deserve the worst, but somehow I have thought that God would lead me on. He ever has done so." " Then you fear the fire of judgment," said Osecilius ; " you'd put off baptism for fear of that fire." " I did not say I would," answered Agellius ; " I wanted you to explain the thing to me." " Which would you rather, Agellius, be without God here, or suffer the fire there ? " Agellius smiled ; he said faintly, " I take Him for my portion here and there : He will be in the fire with me." Agellius lay quiet for some hours, and seemed asleep. Suddenly he began again, " Iwas_baptized when I was only six years old. Fm_glad. you^do not thmk if wa¥ wilfulTn me, and wrong. I cannoi -tell what took me," he presently continued. " It was a fervour ; I have had nothing of the kind since. ^ "What does our Lord say ^ I can't remember : ' Novissima pejora prioribus.' " He continued the train of thought another day, or rather the course of his argument ; for on the thought itself his mind seemed ever to bo working. "My 156 Callista; spring is gone," he said^ " and I have no summer. Nay, 1 have had no spring ; it was a day, not a season. It came, and it went ;. where am I now ? Can spring ever return ? I wish to begin again in right earnest." "Thank God, my son, for this great mercy," said Ceecilius, '' that, though you have relaxed, you have never severed yourself from the peace of the Church, you have not denied your God." Agellius sighed bitterly. " my father," he said, " ' Erravi, sicut ovis quae periit.' I have been very near denying Him, at least by outward act. You do rot know me ; you cannot know what has come on me lately. And I dare not look back on it, my heart is so weak. My father, how am I to repent of what is past, when I dare not think of it? To think of it is to renew the sin." ■ " ' Puer meus, noli timere,' " answered the priest ; " ' si transieris per ignem, odor ejus non erit in te.' In penance, the grace of God carries you without harm through thoughts and words which would harm you apart from it." — "Ah, penance!" said Agellius j "I recollect the catechism. What is it, father ? a new grace, I know; a plank after baptism. May I have it? " " Tou are not strong enough yet to think of these things, Agellius," answered Csecilius. " Please God, you shall get well. Then you shall review all your life, and bring it out in order before Him ; and He, through me, will wipe away all that has boon amiss. Prai.se Him who has spared you for this." A Tale of the Third Century. 157 It was too much for tlie patient in Lis weak state; lie could but shed happy tears. Another day he had sat up in bed. He looked at his hands, from which the skin was peeling ; he felt his lips, and it was with them the same ; and his hair seemed coming off also. He smiled and said, " Eeno- vabitur, ut aquila, juventus mea.'' Cascilius responded, as before, with sacred words which were new to Agellius : " ' Qui sperant in Do- mino mutabunt fortitudinem ; assumenb pennas, sicut aquilae.' ' Sursum corda ! ' you must soar, Agellius." " ' Sursum corda ! ' " answered he ; "I know those words. They are old friends ; where have I heard them? I can't recollect; but they are in my earliest memories. Ah ! but, my father, my heart is below, not above. I want to tell you all. I want to tell you about one who has enthralled my heart ; who has divided it with my True Love. But I daren't speak of her, as I have said ; I dare not speak, lest I be carried away. O, I blush to say it ; she is a heathen ! May God save her soul ! Will He come to me, and not to her ? 'Investigabiles vise ejus.' " He remained silent for some time ; then he said, "Father, I mean to dedicate myself to God, simply* absolutely, with His grace. I will be His, and He shall be mine. No one shall come between us. But this weak heart ! " "Keep your good resolves till you are stronger,' said the priest. " It is easy to make them on a sick- bed. You must first reckon the charges." 158 Gallista ; Agellins smiled. " I know the passage, father," he said, and he repeated the sacred words : " If any man come to Me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." Another time Agellins said : "The Martyrs; surely the old bishop used to say something about the Mar- tyrs. He spoke of a second baptism, and called it a baptism of blood ; and said, ' Might his soul be with the Martyrs ! ' Father, would not this wash out every thing, as the first ? " It was now OEecilins who smiled, and his eyes shone like the sapphires of the Holy City ; and he seemed the ideal of him who, when " Called upon to face Some awful moment to wiiiolx heaven has joined Great issues, good or bad for humankind. Is happy as a lover, and attired With sudden brightness, like a man inspired.'' However, he soon controlled himself, and said, " Quo ego vado, non potes me modo sequi ; sequei-is autem postea." A Tale of the Third Century. 159 CHAPTER XIV. A SMALL CLOUD. This sort of intercourse, growing in frequency and fulness, went on for about a week, till Agellius was able to walk with support, and to leave the cottage. The priest and his own slave took him between them, and seated him one evening in sight of the glorious prospect, traversed by the long shadow of the far mountains, behind which the sun was making its way. The air was filled with a thousand odours; the brilliant colouring of the western heavens was con- trasted with the more sober but varied tints of the rich country. The wheat and barley harvest was over ; but the beans were late, and still stood in the fields. The olives and chestnut-trees were full of fruit; the early fig was supplying the markets with food; and the numerous vineyards were patiently awaiting the suns of the next month slowly to perfect their present promise. The beautiful scene had a moral dignity, from its associations with human sustenance and well-being. The inexpressible calm- ness of evening was flung, like a robe, over it. Its sweetness was too much for one who had been con- 160 CalUsta; fined to the monotony of a sick-room, and was still an invalid. He sat silent, and in tears. It was life from the dead ; and he felt he had risen to a different life. And thus he came out evening after evening convalescent, gradually and surely advancing to per- fect restoration of his health. One evening he said, after feeding his eyes and thoughts for some time with the prospect, " ' Mansueti hereditabunt terram.' They alone have real enjoy- ment of this earth who believe in its Maker. Every breath of air seems to whisper how good He is to me." Ceecilius answered, " These sights are the shadows of that fairer Paradise which is our home, where there is no beast of prey, no venomous reptile, no sin. My child, should I not feel this more than you ? Those who are shut up in crowded cities see but the work of man, which is evil. It is the compensation of my flight from Carthage that I am brought before the face of God." " The heathen worship all this, as if God Himself," said Agellius ; " how strange it seems to me that any one can forget the Creator in His works ! " Caecilius was silent for a moment, and sighed ; he then said, " Tou have ever been a Christian, Agellius." " And you have not, my father ? " answered he ; " well, you have earned that grace which came to me freely," " Agellius," said the priest, " it comes freely to all ; and is only merited when it has already prevailed. A Tale of the Third Century. IGl Yoti T think you earned it toOj else -why the difference between you and your brother ? " " What do you know of us ? " asked Agellias quickly. " Not a great deal/' answered he, " yet something'. Three or four years back an effort was made to re- kindle the Christian spirit in these parts, and to do something for the churches of the proconsulate, and to fill up the vacant sees. Nothing has come of it as yet ; but steps were taken towards it : one was to obtain a recovery of the Christians who remained in them. I was sent here for that purpose, and in this way heard of you and your brother. When my life ■wa^ threatened by the persecution, and I had to flee, I thought of your cottage. I was obliged to act secretly, as we did not know fi'iends from foes." " You were led here for other purposes towards me, my father," said Agellius j " yet you cannot have a safer refuge. There is nothing to disturb, nothing to cause suspicion here. In this harvest time numbers of strangers pour in from the mountains, of various races ; there is nothing to distinguish you from one of them, and my brother is away convoying some grain to Carthage. Persecution drove you hither, but you have not been suffered to be idle, my father, you have brought home a wanderer." He added, after a pause, " I am well enough to go to confession to you now. May it be this evening ? " " It will be well," answered Caecilius ; " how long I shall still be here, I cannot tell. I am expecting my 162 GalUsta; trusty messenger with despatches. It is now three days since he was here. Howeverj this I say with- out misgiving, we do not part for long. What do you here longer ? you must come to me. I must pre- pare yoUj and send you back to Sicca, to collect and restore this scattered flock." Agellius turned, and leaned against the priest's shoulder, and laughed. " I am laughing," he said, " not from lightness of mind, but from the depth of surprise and of joy that you should so think of me. It was a dream which once I had ; but impossible ! you do not think that I, weak I, shall ever be able to do more than save my own soul ? " " Tou will save your own soul by saving the souls of others," said CEecilius; "my child, I could tell you more things if I thought it good for you." " But, my father, I have so weak, so soft a heart," cried Agellius ; " what am I to do with myself ? I am not of the temper of which heroes are made." " ' Yirtus in infirmitate perficitur,' " said the priest. " What ! are you to do any thing of yourself ? or are you to be simply the instrument of Another? We shall have the same termiuation, you and myself, but you long after me." " Ah, father, because you will burn out so much more quickly ! " said Agellius. "I think," said Csecilius, "I see my messenger; there is some one who has made his way by stealth into the garden, or at least not by the beaten way." There was a visitor, as Cfficilius had said ; however, A Tale of the Third Century. 1G3 it was not Ms messenger, but Juba, who approached, looking with great curiosity at CaeciliuSj and absorbed in the sight. Csecilius in turn regarded him stead- fastly, and then said to Agellius, "It is your brother." "What brings you here, Juba?" said the latter. " I have been away on a distant errand," said Juba ; " and find you have been ill. Is this your nurse ? " he eyed him almost sternly, aud added, " 'Tis a Christian priest." " Has Agellius no acquaintance but Christians ? " asked Caecilius. " Acquaintance ! surely ! " answered Juba ; " agreeable, innocent, sweet acquaintance of another sort j myself to begin with. My lad," he continued, "you did not rise to their price, but you did your best." "Juba," said his brother, " if you have any business here, say it, and have done. I am not strong enough to hold any altercation with you." " Business ! " said Juba, " I can find quite business enough here, if I choose. This is a priest of the Christians. I am sure of it." Cfficilius looked at him with such calmness and benevolence, that at length Juba turned away his eyes with something of irritation. He said, " If I am a priest, I am here to claim you as one of my children." Juba winced, but said scornfully, " You are mistaken there, father ; speak to those who own you. I am a free man." 164 Cullisla; " My son/' Cseoilius aaswered, " you liave been under instruction ; it is your duty to go forward; not back." " What do you know about me ? " said Juba ; " lie has been telling." " Your face, your manner, your voice, tells a tale ; I need no information from others. I have heard of you years ago ; now I see you." " What do you see in me ? " said Juba. " I see pride in bodily shape, treading down faith and conviction," said Csecilius. Juba neighed rather than laughed, so fierce and scornful was its expression. " What you slaves call pride," he said, " I call dignity." "You believe iu a God, Creator of heaven and earth, as certainly as I do," said the priest, " but you deliberately set yourself against Him." Juba smiled. " I am as free," he said, " in my place, as He in His." " You mean," answered CaeciliuSj " free to do wrong, and free to suffer for it." "You may call it wrong, and call it suffering," replied Juba ; " but for me, I do not call wrong what He calls wrong ; and if Ho puts me to pain, it is because He is the stronger." The priest stopped awhile; there was no emotion on either side. It was strange to see them so passion- less, so antagonistic, like St. Michael and his adver- sary. " There is that within yon," said Ceecilius, " which A Tale of the Third Century. 165 speaks as I speak. That inward voice takes the part of the Creator^ and condemns you." " He put it there," said Juba ; " and I will take care to put it out." " Then He will have justice as well as power on His side," said the priest. " I will never fawn or crouch," said Juba ; " I will be lord and master in my own soul. Every faculty shall be mine ; there shall be no divided allegiance." Csecilius paused again ; he said at length, " My son, my soul tells me, or rather my Maker tells me, and your Maker, that some heavy judgment is impending over you. Do penance while you may." " Tell your forebodings to women and children," said Juba ; '"' I am prepared for anything. I will not be crushed." Agellius was not strong enough to bear a part in such a scene. "Father," he said, "it is his way, but don't believe him. He has better thoughts. Away with you, Juba, you are not wanted here." " AgelUus," said the priest, " such words are not strange to me. I am not young, and have seen much of the world ; and my very office and position elicits blasphemies from others from time to time. I knew a man who carried out his bad thoughts and words into act. Abjuring his Maker, he abandoned himself to the service of the evil one. He betrayed his brethren to death. He lived on year after year, and became old. He was smitten with illness ; then I first saw him. I made him contemplate a picture ; it was the pictui e of M 166 Callifita; tlie Good Sheplierd. I dwelt on the vain efforts of the poor sheep to get out of the fold; its irrational aver- sion to its home, and its desperate resolution to force a way through the prickly fence. It was pierced and torn with the sharp aloe ; at last it lay imprisoned in its stern embrace, motionless and bleeding. Then the Shep- herd, though He had to wound His own hands in the work, disengaged it, and brought it back. God has His own times ; His power went along with the pic- ture, and the man was moved. I said, ' This is His return for your enmity: He is determined to have you, cost Him what it will.' I need not go through the many things that followed, but the issue may be told in few words. He came back ; he liv^ed a life of penance at the Church's door ; he received the peace of the Church in immediate prospect of the persecu- tion, and has within the last ten days died a martyr's death." Juba had listened as if he was constrained against his will. When the priest stopped he started, and began to speak impetuously, and unlike his ordinary tone. He placed his hands violently against his ears. " Stop ! " he said, " no more. I will not betray them ; no : I need not betray them ; " he laughed ; " the black moor does the work himself. Look," he cried, seizing the priest's arm7^rid pointing to a part of the forest, which happened to be to windward. " You are in their number, priest, who can foretell the destinies of others, and are blind to their own. Read there, the task is not hard, your coming fortunes." A Tale of the Third Ceniunj. 167 His finger was directed to a spot where, amid the thick foliage, the gleam of a pool or of a marsh was visible. The various waters round about issuing from the gravel, or drained from the nightly damps, had run into a hollow, filled with the decaying vegetation of former years, and were languidly filtered out into a brook, more healthy than the vast reservoir itself.. Its banks were bordered with a deep, broad layer of mud, a transition substance between the rich vegetable matter which it once had been, and the multitudinous world of insect life which it was becoming. A cloud or mist at this time was hanging over it, high, in air. A harsh and shrill sound, a whizzing or a chirping, proceeded from that cloud to the ear of the attentive listener. What these indications portended was plain. " There," said Juba, " is what will tell more against you than imperial edict, informer, or proconsular apparitor; and no work of mine." He turned down the bank and disappeared. Agel- lius and his guest looked at each other in dismay, ^t is the locusts," they whispei-ed to each other, as they "went back into the cottage. 168 CalUsta; CtlAPTERXV. A VISITATION. The plague of locusts, one of the most awful visita- tions to which the countries included in the Eoman empire were exposed, extended from the Atlantic to Ethiopia, from Arabia to India, and from the Nile and Red Sea to Greece and the north of Asia Minor. Instances are recorded in history of clouds o£ the de- vastating insect crossing the Black Sea to Poland,,- and the Mediterranean to Lombardy. It is as nume- rous in its species as it is wide in its range of terri- tory. Brood follows brood, with a sort of family likeness, yet with distinct attributes, as we read in the prophets of the Old Testament, from whom Bochart tells us it is possible to enumerate as many as ten kinds. It wakens into existence and activity as early as the month of March ; but instances are not wanting, as in our present history, of its appear- ance as late as June. Even one flight comprises myriads upon myriads passing imagination, to which the drops of rain or the sands of the sea are the oniy fit comparison; and hence it is almost a proverbial mode of expresgipn in tl^e East (as may be illustrated A Tale of ilie Third Century. 1G9 by the sacred pages to wliich we just nn-w referred), by way of describing a vast invading army, to liken It to the locusts. (^So dense are they, when upon the wing, that it is no exaggeration to say that they hide Ihe sunj/Erom which circumstance indeed their name in Arabic is derived, (^nd so ubiquitous are "they when they have alighted on the earth, that they simply cover or clothe its svai-Ace/J This last characteristic is stated in the sacred account of the plagues of Egypt, where their faculty of devastation is also mentioned. The corrupting fly and the bruising and prostrating hail had pre ceded them in that series of visitations, but ihoy came to do the work of ruin more thoroughly. For (/not only the crops and fruits, but the foliage of the forest itself, nay, the small twigs and the bark of the trees are the victims of their curious and energelic rapacityT/ They have been known even to gnaw the door-posts of the houses. Nor do they execute their task in so slovenly a way, that, as they have sue- ceeded other plagues so they may have successors themselves. [They take pains to spoil what they leave. Like the Harpies, they smear every thing that they touch with a miserable slime, which has the effect of a virus in corroding, or, as some say, in scorching and burning it. And then, as if all this were little, when they can do nothing else, they die; — as if out of sheer malevolence to man, for the poison- ous elements of their nature are then let loose, and dispersed abroad, and create a pestilence; and they 1 70 Callista ; manage to destroy many more by their death than in their Ydeyj Such are the locusts, — whose existence the ancient heretics brought forward as their palmary proof that there was an evil creator, and of whom an Arabian writer shows his national horror, when he says that they have the head of a horse, the eyes of an elephant, the neck of a bull, the horns of a stag, the breast of a lion, the belly of a scorpion, the wings of an eagle, the legs of a camel, the feet of an ostrich, and the tail of a serpent. And now they are rushing upon a considerable tract of that beautiful region of which we have spoken with such admiration. The swarm to which Juba pointed grow and grew till it became a compact body, as much as a furlong square; yet it was but the vanguard of a series of similar hosts, formed one after another out of the hot mould or sand, rising into the air like clouds, enlarging into a dusky canopy, and then discharged against the fruitful plain. At length'the huge innumerous mass was put into motion, and began its career, darkening the face of day. As became an instrument of divine power, it seemed to have no volition of its own ; it was set off, it drifted, with the wind, and thus made north- wards, straight for Sicca. Thus they advanced, host after host, for a time wafted on the air, and gradually declining to the earth, while fresh broods were carried over the first, and neared the earth, after a longer flight, in their turn. 1 For twelve miles did they A Tale of the Third Century. 171 extend from front to rear, and their whizzing and hissing could be heard for six miles on every side of them.*^ The bright sun, though hidden by them, illumined their bodies, and was reflected from their quivering wings ; and as they heavily fell earthward, they seemed like the innumerable flakes of a yellow- coloured snow. And like snow did they descend, a living carpet, or rather pall, upon fields, crops, gardens, copses, groves, orchards, vineyards, olive woods, orangeries, palm plantations, and the deep forests, sparing nothing within their reach, and where there was nothing to devour, lying helpless in drifts, or crawling forward obstinately, as they best might, with the hope of prey. They could spare their hundred thousand soldiers twice or thrice over, and not miss them ; their masses filled the bottoms of the ravines and hollow ways, impeding the traveller as he rode forward on his journey, and trampled by thousands under his horse-hoofs. In vain was all this overthrow and waste by the road-side; in vain their loss in river, pool, and watercourse. The poor peasants hastily dug pits and trenches as their enemy came on ; in vain they filled them from the wells or with lighted stubble. Heavily and thickly did the locusts fall ; they were lavish of their lives ; they choked the flame and the water, which destroyed them the while, and the vast living hostile armament still moved on. They moved right on like soldiers in their ranks, stopping at nothing, and straggling for nothing : 172 Callistaj they carried a broad furrow or wheal all across the country, black and loathsome, while it was as green and smiling on each side of them and in front, as it had been before they came. Before them^ in the language of prophets, was a paradise; and behind them a desert^ They are daunted by nothing ; they surmount walls and hedges, and enter enclosed gardens or inhabited houses. A rare and experimental vineyard has been planted in a sheltered grove. The high winds of Africa will not commonly allow the light trellis or the slim pole; but here the lofty poplar of Campania has been possible, on which the vine plant mounts so many yards into the air, that the poor grape-gatherers bargain for a funeral pile and a tomb as one of the conditions of their engagement. The locusts have done what the winds and lightning could not do, and the whole promise of the vintage, leaves and all, is gone, and the slender stems are left bare. There is another yard, less uncommon, but still tended with more than common care ; each plant is kept within due bounds by a circular trench round it, and by upright canes on which it is to trail ; in an hour the solicitude and long toil of the vine-dresser are lost, and his pride humbled. There is a smiling farm ; another sort of vine, of remarkable character, is found against the farm-house. This vine springs from one root, and has clothed and matted with its many branches the four walls ; the whole of it is covered thick with long clusters, which another month will A Tale of the Third Venifiry. 173 ripen : — on every grape and leaf there is a locust. Into the dry caves and pits, carefully strewed with straw, the harvest-men have (safely, as they thought just now) been lodging the far-famed African wheat. One grain or root shoots up into ten, twenty, fifty, eighty, nay, three or four hundred stalks : sometimes the stalks have two ears apiece, and these again shoot into a number of lesser ones. These stores are intended for the Roman populace, but the locusts have been be- forehand with them. The small patches of ground belonging to the poor peasants up and down the country, for raising the turnips, garlic, barley, water- melons, on which they live, are the prey of these glutton invaders as much as the choicest vines and olives. Nor have they any reverence for the villa of the civic decurion or the Roman official. The neatly arranged kitchen-garden, with its cherries, plums, peaches, and apricots, is a waste ; as the slaves sit round, in the kitchen in the first coui-t, at their coarse evening meal, the room is filled with the invading force, and news comes to them that the enemy ha? fallen upon the apples and pears in the basement, and is at the same time plundering and sacking the preserves of quince and pomegranate, and revelling in the jars of precious oil of Cyprus and Mendes in th^tore-rooms. [They come up to the walls of Sicca, and are flung against them into the ditch. Not a moment's hesita- tion or delay ; they recover their footiog, they climb up the wood or stucco, they surmount the parapet, or 174 Callista; they have entered in at the windows, filling the apart- mentSj and the most private and luxurious chambers, not one or two, like stragglers at forage or rioters after a victory, but in order of battle, and with the array of an army. Choice plants or flowers about the impliivia and xydi, for ornament or refreshment, myr- tles, oranges, pomegranates, the rose and the carna- tion, have disappeared. They dim the bright marbles of the walls and the gilding of the ceilings. They enter the triclinium in the midst of the banquet ; they crawl over the viands and spoil what they do not devour. Unrelaxed by success and by enjoyment, onward they go ; a secret mysterious instinct keeps them together, as if they had a king over them. They move along the floor in so strange an order that they seem to be a tesselated pavement themselves, and to be the artificial embellishment of the place ; so true are their lines, and so perfect is the pattern they describe. Onward they go, to the market, to the temple sacrifices, to the baker's stores, to the cook- shops, to the confectioner's, to the druggists ; nothing comes amiss to them j wherever man has aught to eat or drink, there are they, reckless of death, strono- of appetite, certain of conquest. They have passed on ; the men of Sicca sadly con- gratulate themselves, and begin to look about them, and to sum up their lossses. Being the proprietors of the neighbouring districts, or the purchasers of its produce, they lament over the devastation, not because the fair country is disfigured, but because inco]ne is A Tale of the Third Century. 175 becoming scanty, and prices are becoming high. How is a population of many thousands to be fed ? where is the grain, where the melons, the figs, the dates, the gourds, the beans, the grapes, to sustain and solace the multitudes in their lanes, caverns, and garrets? This is another weighty consideration for the class well-to-do in the world. The taxes, too, and contributions, the capitation tax, the percentage upon corn, the various articles of revenues due to Rome, how are they to be paid ? How are cattle to be provided for the sacrifices and for the tables of the wealthy ? One-half, at least, of the supply of Sicca is cut off. No longer slaves are seen coming into the city from the country in troops with their baskets on their shoulders, or beating forward the horse, or mule, or ox, overladen with its burden, or driving in the dangerous cow, or the unresisting sheep. The animation of the place is gone ; a gloom hangs over the Forum ; and if its frequenters are still merry there is something of suUenness and recklessness in their mirth. The gods have given the city up ; something or other has angered them. Locusts, in- deed, are no uncommon visitation, but at an earlier season. Perhaps some temple has been polluted, or some unholy rite practised, or some secret conspiracy has spread. Another and a still worse calamity. The invaders, as we have already intimated, could be more terrible still in their overthrow than in their ravages. The inhabitants of the country had attempted, where 176 Calliita; they could, to destroy them by fire and wfitor. It ■would seem as if the malignant animals had resolved that the sufferers should have the benefit of this policy to the full ; for they had not got more than twenty miles beyond Sicca when they suddenly sick- ened and died. Thus after they had done all the mischief they could by their living, when they had made their foul maws the grave of every living thing, then they died themselves, and made the desolated land their own grave. They took from it its hundred forms and varieties of beautiful life, and left it their own fetid and poisonous cai'cases in payment. It was a sudden catastrophe ; they seemed making for the Mediterranean, as if, like other great conquerors, they had other worlds to subdue beyond it ; but whether they were overgorged, or struck by some atmospheric change, or that their time was come and they paid the debt of nature, so it was that suddenly they fell, and their glory came to nought, and all was vanity to them as to others, and " their stench rose up, and their corruption rose up, because they had done proudly." The hideous swarms lay dead in the moist steam- ing underwoods, in the green swamps, in the sheltered valleys, in the ditches and furrows of the fields, amid the monuments of their own prowess, the ruined crops and the dishonoured vineyards. A poisonous element, issuing from their remains, mingled with the atmosphere, and corrupted it. The dismayed peasant found that a pestilence had begun ; a new A 2 ale of the Third Century. 177 visitation, not confined to the territory whicli the enemy had made its own, but extending far and wide, as the atmosphere extends, in al'l directions. Their daily toil, no longer claimed by the produce of the earth, which has ceased to exist, is now devoted to the object of ridding themselves of the deadly legacy which they have received in its stead. In vain; it is their last toil; they arc digging pits, they are raising piles, for their own corpses, as well as for the bodies of their enemies. Invader and victim lie in the same .grave, burn in the same heap ; they sicken while they work, and the pestilence spreads. A new invasion is menacing Sicca, in the shape of companies of peasants and slaves, (the panic having broken the bonds of discipline,) with their employers and overseers, nay the farmers themselves and pro- prietors, rushing thither from famine and infection as to a place of safety. The inhabitants of the city are as frightened as they, and more energetic. They determine to keep them at a distance ; the gates are closed ; a strict cordon is drawn ; however, by the continued pressure, numbers contrive to make an entrance, as water into a vessel, or light through the closed shutters, and anyhow the air cannot be put into quarantine j so the pestilence has the better of it, and at last appears in the alleys, and in the cellars of Sicca. 178 Callista ; CHAPTER XVI. W02SE AND WOfiSE. " WRETCHED miuds of men ! blind hearts ! " truly cries out a great heathen poet, but on grounds far other than the true ones. The true ground of such a lamentation is, that men do not interpret the signs of the times and of the world as He intends who has placed these signs in the heavens; that when Mane, Thecel, Phares, is written upon the ethereal wall, they have no inward faculty to read them withal; and that when they go elsewhere for one learned in tongues, instead of taking Daniel, who is used to converse with Angels, they rely on Magi or Chaldeans, who know only the languages of earth. So it was with the miserable population of Sicca now ; half famished, seized with a pestilence which, was sure to rage before it assuaged, perplexed and oppressed by the recoil upon them of the population whom they had from time to time sent out into the surrounding territory, or from whom they had sup- plied their markets, they never fancied that the real cause of the visitation which we have been describing was their own iniquity in their Maker's sight, that His arm inflicted it, and that its natural and direct A Tale of the Third Century. 179 interpretation was, " Do penanoe, and be con- verted." On the contrary, they looked only at their own vain idols, and at the vain rites which these idols demanded, and they thought there was no surer escape from their misery than by upholding a lie, and putting down all who revolted from it; and thus the visitation which was sent to do them good turned through their wilful blindness to their greater condemnation. . The Forum, which at all times was the resort of idleness and dissipation, now became more and more the haunt of famine and sickness, of robust frames without work, of slavish natures virtually and for the time emancipated and uncontrolled, of youth and passion houseless and shelterless. In groups and companies, in and out of the porticoes, on the steps of the temples, and about the booths and stalls of the market, a multitude grows day by day, from the town and from the country, and of all the various races which town and countiy contain. The civil magis- tracy and the civil force to which the peace of the city was committed, were not equal to such an emer- gency as the present; and the milites stationarii, a sort of garrison who represented the Roman power, though they were ready to act against either magis- trates or mob impartially, had no tenderness for either, when in collision with each other. Indeed the bonds of society were broken, and every political element was at war with every other, in a case of such great common calamity, when every one was angry with 180 Callida; every one else, for want of some clearly defined objeclj against whicli the common anger might be discharged with unanimity. They had almost given over sacrificing and consult- ing the flame or the entrails ; for no reversal or respite of their sufferings had followed their most assiduous acts of deprecation. Moreover the omens were gene- rally considered by the priests to have been unpro- pitious or adverse. A sheep had been discovered to have, instead of a liver, something very like a gizzard; a sow had chewed and swallowed the flowers with which it had been embellished for the sacrifice ; and a calf, after receiving the fatal blow, instead of lying down and dying, dashed into the temple, dripping blood upon the pavement as it went, and at last fell and expired just before the sacred adytum. In despair the people took to fortune-telling and its attendant arts. Old crones were found in plenty with their strange rites, the stranger the more welcome. Trenches were dug in by-places for sacrifices to the infernal gods ; amulets, rings, counters, tablets, pebbles, nails, bones, feathers, Ephesian or Egyptian legends, were in request, and raised the hopes, or beguiled and occupied the thoughts, of those who else would have been directly dwelling on their sufierings, present- or in prospect. Others were occupied, whether they would or no, with diversions fiercer and more earnest. There were continual altercations between farmers, small proprie- tors of land, government and city officials, — alterca- A Tale of the Third Century. 181 tiona ao manifold and violent, that, even were there no hubbub of voices, and no incoherence of wrath and fear to complicate them, we should despair of setting them before the reader. An officer from the camp was expostulating with one of the municipal authorities that no corn had been sent thither for the last six or seven days, and the functionary attacked had thrown the blame on the farmer, and he in turn had protested that he could not get cattle to bring the waggons into Sicca; those which he had set out with had died of exhaustion on the journey. A clerk, as we now speak, in the Officium of the society of publicans or collectors of annona was threatening a number of small tenants with ejection for not sending in their rated portion of corn for the Roman people : — the Officivm of the Notarius, or assistant prefect, had written up to Sicca from Carthage in violent terms ; and come it must, tliough the locusts had eaten up every stack and granary. A number of half-starved peasants had been summoned for payment of their taxes, and in spite of their ignorance of Latin, they had been made to understand that death was fhe stern penalty of neglecting to bring the coin, Ihey, on the other hand, by their fierce dogged ness of manner, seemed to signify by way of answer that death was not a penalty, unless life was a boon. The villicus of one of the decurions, who had an estate in the neighbourhood, was laying his miseries before the man of business of his employer. " What are wo to do ? " he said. " Half the gang of slaves N 182 Callista; is deadj and the other half is so feeble^ that I can't get through the work of the month. We ought to be sh^ep-sheariag ; you have no chance of wool. We ought to be swarming the bees, pressing the honey, boiling aud purifying the wax. We ought to be plucking the white leaves of the camomile, and steep- ing the golden flowers in oil. We ought to be gathering the wild grapes, sifting off the flowers, and preserving the residue in honey. We ought to bo sowing brassicum, parsley, aud coriander against next spring. We ought to be cheese-making. We ought to be baking white and red bricks and tiles in the sun ; we have no linnds for the purpose. The villicus, is not to blame, but the anger of the gods." The country emplone of the procurator of the imperial Baplda protests that the insect cannot be found from which the dye is extracted ; and argue? that the locusts must have devoured them, or the plant on which they feed, or that they have been carried off by the pestilence. Here is old Corbulus in agonies for his febrifuge, and a slave of his is in high words with the market-carrier, who tells him that Mago, who supplied it, is dead of a worse fever than his master's. " The rogue," cried the slave, " my master has contracted with him for the year, and has paid him the money in advance." A jeering and mocking from the crowd assailed the unfortunate domestic, who so truly foreboded that his return without the medicine would be the signal for his summary com- mittal to the fistrinum. " Let old Corbulus follow A Tale of the Third Century. 183 Mago ia his passage to perdition," said one of the rabble ; " let him take his physio with Pluto, and leave us the bread and wine on which he's grown gouty." " Bread, bread ! " was the response elicited by this denunciation, and it spread into a circle larger than that of which the slave and the carrier were part. " Wine and bread, Ceres and Liber ! " cried a young legionary, who, after a night of revelry, was emerging still half-intoxicated from one of the low wine-shops in the vaults which formed the basement of the Thermae, or hot baths ; " make way there, you filthy slime of the ea,rthj you half-kneaded, half-fermented Africans, who uever yet have quite been men, but have ever smelt strong of the baboon, who are three quarters must, and two vinegar, and a fifth water, — ■ as I was saying, you are like bad liquor, and the sight of you disagrees with the stomach and affects the eyes." The crowd looked sullenly, and without wincing, at his shield, which was the only portion of his mili- tary accoutrements which he had preserved after his carouse. The white surface, with a silver boss in the centre, surrounded by first a white and then a red circle, and' the purple border, showed that he belonged to the Tertiani or third Italic Legion, which had been stationed in Africa since the time of Augustus. ''Vile double-tongued mongrels," he continued, " what are you fit for but to gather the fruits of the earth for your owners and lords, ] 84 GalUsta ; ' Eomanos dominos rerum ' ? And if there are now no fruits to reap, why your service is gone. Go home and die, and drown yourselves, for what are you fit for now, except to take your dead corpses away from the nostrils of a Roman, the cream of human- kind ? Te base-born apes, that's why you catch the pestilence, because our blood mantles and foams in our ruddy veins like new milk in the wine cup, which is too strong for this clime, and my blood is up, and I drink a full measure of it to great Rome ; for what does old Horace say, but ' Nunc est bibendum ' ? and so get out of my way." To a good part of the multitude, both peasantry and town rabble, Latin was unintelligible ; but they all understood vocabulary and syntax and logic, as soon as he drew his knuckles across one fellow's face who refused to move from his path, and as soon as his insult was returned by the latter with a thrust of the dagger. A rush was made upon him, 6^ which he made a face at them, shook his fist, and leaping on one side, ran with great swiftness to an open space in advance. Prom his quarrelsome humour rather than from fear, he raised a cry of alarm; on which two or three fellow-soldiers made their appearance from similar dens of intoxication and vice, and came up to the rescue. The mob assailed them with stones, and the cream of human nature was likely to be roughly churned, when, seeing matters were becoming serious, they suddenly took to their heels, and got into the Temple of A Tale of the Third Century. 185 Esculapius on one side of the Forum. The mob followed, the ministers of the sacred place attempted to shut the gates, a scuffle ensued, a,nd a riot was in progress. Self-preservation is the first law of man; trembling for the safety of h.is noble buildings, and considering that it was a bread riot, as' it really was, the priest of the god came forward, rebuked the mob for its impiety, and showed the absurdity of supposing that there were loaves in his enclosure to satisfy its wants ; but be reminded them that there was a baker's shop at the other end of the Forum, which was one of the most considerable in Sicca. A slight impulse determines the movements of an excited multitude. OfE they went to the quarter in question, where certainly there was the very large and handsome store of a substantial dealer in grain of all sorts, and in other produce. The shop, however, seemed on this occasion to be but poorly furnished ; for the baker was a prudent man, and feared a dis- play of provisions which would be an invitation to a hungry multitude. The assailants, however, were not to be baffled ; some one cried out that the man had withdrawn his corn from the market for his own ends, and that great stores were accumulated within. They avail themselves of the hint; they pour in through the open front, the baker escapes as he may, his mills and ovens are smashed, the house is ransacked; whatever is found is seized, thrown about, wasted, eaten, as the case may be; and the mob gains strength and appetite for fresh exploits. 186 Callista; Howeverj the rioters have no definite plan of action yet. Some of them have penetrated into the stable behind the house in search of corn. They find the mill-ass which ground for the baker^ and bring it out. It is a beast of more than ordinary pretensions, such as you would not often see in a mill, showing both the wealth of the owner and the fl^ourishing condition of his trade. The asses of Africa are finer than those in the north ; but this is fine for an African. One fellow mounts upon it, and sets off with the world before him, like a knight-errant, seeking an adventure, the rabble at his tail acting as squire. He begins the circuit of the Forum, and picks up its riff-raff as he goes along — here some rascal boys, there some drunken women, here again a number of half- brutalized country slaves and peasants. Partly out of curiosity, partly from idleness, from ill temper, from hope of spoil, from a vague desire to be doing some- thing or other, every one who has nothing to lose by the adventure crowds around and behind him. And on the contrary, as he advances, and the noise and commotion increase, every one who has a posi- tion of any sort, the confidential vernce of great families, farmers, shopkeepers, men of business, offi- cials, vanish from the scene o£ action without delay. " Africa, Africa ! " is now the cry ; the signal in that country, as au ancient writer tells us, that the parties raising it have something new in hand, and have a mind to do it>, Suddenly,yas they march on, a low and awful growl A Tale of the Third Century. 187 is heard^ It comes from the booth of a servant of the imperial court. He is employed as a transporter of wild beasts from the interior to the coast, where they are shipped for Rome ; and he has charge at present of a noble lion, who is sitting majestically, looking through the bars of his cage at the rabble, who now begin to look at him. In demeanour and in mental endowments he has the advantage of them. It was at this moment, [while thay were closing, hustling each other, staring at the beast, and hoping to provoke him, that- a shrill voice cried out, " Chris- tianos ad leones, -Chf istianos a d—teoaeg ! " the Chris- tians to the lions ! A sudden and dead silence ensued, as if the words had struck the breath out of the promiscuous throng. An interval passed ; and then the same voice was heard again, " Christianos ad leones ! " This time the whole Forum took it up from one end to the other. The fate of the day, the direction of the movement, was decided; a distinct object was obtained, and the only wonder was that the multitude had been so long to seek and so slow to find so obvious a cause of their misfortunes, so ade- quate a subject of their vengean ce. J " Christianos ad leones ! " was shouted out by town and country, priests and people. " Long live the emperor ! long live Decius ! he told us this long ago. There's the edict; it never has been obeyed. Death to the magistrates ! To the Christians ! to the Christiana ! Up with great Jove, down with the atheists ! " They were commencing their march when the ass 188 Callista; caught their eye. "The Christians' god!" they shouted out ; " the god of the Christians ! " Their first impulse was to give the poor beast to the lion, their riuxt to sacrifice it, but they did not know to whom. Then they said they would make the Chris- tians worship it; and dressing it up in tawdry finery, they retained it at the head of their procession. A Tale of the Third Century. 189 CIIAPIER XVll. CllUISTIANOS AD LEONES. By tlic time that they had got round again to tbe unlucky baker' s^ the mob had been swollen to a size which even the area of the Forum would not contain, and it filled the adjacent streets. And by the same time it had come home to its leadei's, and, indeed, to every one who used his i eason at all, that it was very far from certain that there were any Christians in Sicca, and if so, still very far from easy to say where they were. And the difiBculty was of so practical a character as to keep them inactive for the space of several hours. Meanwhile their passions were excited to the boiling point by the very presence of the diffi- culty, as men go mad of thirst when water is denied them. At length, after a long season of such violent conmiotion, such restless pain, such curses, shrieks, and blasphemies, such boobless gesticulations, such aimless contests with each other, that they seemed to be already inmates of the prison beneath, they set off in a blind way to make the circuit of the city as before they had paraded round the Forum, still in the knight- errant line, looking out for what might turn up where they were sure of nothing, and relieving the intense 190 Callista; irritation of their passions by locomotion^ if nothing more substantial was offered to them. It was an awful day for the respectable inhabitants of the place ; worse than anything that even the most timid of them had anticipated, when they had showed their jealousy of a popular movement against the proscribed religion; for the stimulus of famine and pestilence was added to hatred of Christianity, in that unreasoning multitude. The magistrates shut them- selves up in dismay ; the small body of Roman soldiery reserved their strength for the defence of themselves ; and the poor wretches, not a few, who had fallen from the faith, and offered sacrifice, hung out from their doors sinful heathen symbols, to avert a storm against which apostasy was no sufiicient safeguard. In this conduct the Gnostics and other sectaries imitated them, while the Tertullianists took a more manly part, from principle or pride. It would require the brazen voice which Homer speaks of, or the magic pen of Sir Walter, to catalogue and to picture, as far as it is lawful to do either, the figures and groups of that most miserable precession. As it went forward it gained a variety and strength, which the circuit of the Forum could not furnish. The more respectable religious establishments shut their gates, and would have nothing to do with it. The priests of Jupiter, the educational establishments of the Temple of Mercury, the Temple of the Genius of Rome near the Capitol, the hierophants of Isis, the Minerva, the Juno, the Esculapius, viewed the popular A Tale of the Third Century. 191 rising with terror and disgust ; but these were not the popular worships. The vast homestead of Astarte, which in the number and vowed profligacy of its inhabitants rivalled the vaults upon the Forum ; the old rites, many and diversified, if separately obscure, •which came from Punic times ; the new importations from Syria and Phrygia, and a number of other haunts and schools of depravity and crime, did their part in swelling or giving character to the concourse. The huDgry and idle rabble, the filthy beggars who fed on the ofial of the sacrifices, the drivers and slaughterers of the beasts sacrificed; the tumblers and mounte- ,banks who amused the gaping market-people ; dancers, singers, pipers from low taverns and drinking-houses ; infamous creatures, young and old, men and boys, half naked and not half sober ; brutal blacks, the aboriginal race of the Atlas, with their appetites written on their skulls and features ; Canaanites, as they called themselves, from the coast ; the wild beast- keepers from the amphitheatre j troops of labourers from the fields, to whom the epidemic was a time of Saturnalia ; and the degraded company, alas ! how numerous and how pitiable, who took their nightly stand in long succession at the doors of their several cells in the deep galleries under the Thermee; all these, and many others, had their part and place in the procession. There you might see the devilish emblems of idolatry borne aloft by wretches from the great Punic Temple, while frantic forms, ragged and famished, wasted and shameless, leapt and pranced around 192 Callista; them. There too was a choir of Bacchanals, ready at a moment with songs as noisy as they were unutterable. And there was the priest of the Punic Saturn, the child-devourer, a sort of Moloch, to whom the martyrdom of Christians was a sacred rite ; he and all his attendants in fiery-coloured garments, as became a sanguinary religion. And there, moreover, was a band of fanatics, devotees of Cybele or of the Syrian goddess, if indeed the two rites were distinct. They were bedizened with ribbons and rags of various colours, and smeared over with paint. They had long hair like women, and turbans on their heads. They pushed their way to the head of the procession, being quite worthy of the post of honour, and, seizing the baker's ass, put their goddess on the back of it. Some of them were playing the fife, others clashing cymbals, others danced, others yelled, others rolled their heads, and others flogged themselves. Such was the character of the frenzied host, which pro- gressed slowly through the streets, while every now and then, when there was an interval in the hubbub, the words " Christianos ad leoues " were thundered out by some ruffian voice, and a thousand others fiercely responded. Still no Christian was forthcoming; and it was plain that the rage of the multitude must be dis- charged in other quarters, if the difficulty continued in satisfying it. At length some one recollected the site of the Christian chapel, when it existed ; thither went the multitude, and effected an entrance without A Tale of the Third Century. 193 delay. It had long been turned to other pui-poses, and was now a store of casks and leather bottles. The miserable sacristan had long given up any practical observance of his faith, and remained on the spot a keeper of the premises for the trader who owned them. They found him, and dragged him into the street, and brought him forward to the ass, and to the idol on its back, and bade him worship the one and the other. The poor wretch obeyed ; he worshipped the ass, lie worshipped the idol, and he worshipped the genius of the emperor ; but his per- secutors wanted blood ; they would not submit to be cheated of their draught ; so when they had made him do whatever they exacted, they flung him under the feet of the multitude, who, as they passed on, soon trod all life and breath out of him, and sent him to the powers below, to whom he had just before been making his profession. Their next adventure was with a Tertullianist, who stationed himself at his shop-door, displayed the sign of the cross, and walking leisurely forward, seized the idol on the ass's back, broke it over his knee, and flung the portions into the crowd. For a few minutes they stared on him with astonishment, then some women fell upon him with their nails and teeth, and tore the poor fanatic till he fell bleeding and hfeless upon the ground. In the higher and better part of the city, which they now approached, lived the widow of a Duumvir, who in his day had made a bold profession of Chris- 194 Callista; tianity. The well- connected lady was a Cbristian also, and was sheltered by her great friends from the persecution. She was bringing up a family in great privacy, and with straitened means, and with as much religious strictness as was possible under the circum- stances of the place. She kept them from all bad sights and bad company, was careful as to the cha- racter of the slaves she placed about them, and taught them all she knevr of her religion, which was quite sufficient for their salvation. They had all been baptized, some by herself in default of the proper minister, and, as far as they could show at their tender ages, which lay between thirteen and' seven, the throe girls and the two boys were advancing in the love of truth and sanctity. Her husband, some years back, when presiding in the Forum, had punished with just severity an act of ungrateful fraud; and the perpetrator had always cherished a malignant hatred of him and his. The moment of gratifying it had now arrived, and he pointed out to the infuriated rabble the secluded mansion where the Christian household dwelt. He could not offer to them a more acceptable service, and the lady's modest apartment was soon swarming with enemies of her God and His followers. In spite of her heart- rending cries and supplications, her children were seized, and when the youngest boy clung to her, the mother was thrown senseless upon the pavement. The whole five were carried off in triumph ; it was the greatest success of the day. There was some A Tale of the Third Century. 195 liesitation how to dispose of them ; at last the girls ^¥ere handed over to the priestesses of Astarte, and the boys to the loathsome votaries of Cybele. Eevenge upon Christians was the motive principle of the riot ; but the prospect of plunder stimulated numbers, and here Christians could not minister to their desires. They began the day by the attack upon the provision-shop, and now they had reached the aristocratic quarter of the Sty, and they gazed with envy and cupidity at the noble mansions which occupied it. They began to shout out, " Bread, bread ! " while they uttered threats against the Christians-; they violently beat at the closed gates, and looked about for means of scaling the high walls which defended them in front. The cravings of famished men soon take form and organization; they began to ask relief from house to house. Nothing came amiss; and loaves, figs, grapes, wine, found their way into the hands and mouths of those who were the least exhausted and the least enfeebled. A second line of fierce suppli- cants succeeded to the first ; and it was plain that, unless some diversion were eflected, the respectable quarter of Sicca had found a worse enemy than the locust. The houses of the government susceptor, or tax col- lector, of the tahularius or registrar, of the defensor or city counsel, and one or two others, had already been the scene of collisions between the domestic slaves and the multitude, when a demand was made upon 196 Callista; the liouseliold of another of the Caria, who held th( ofBce of Flamen Dialis. lie was qp wealthy, easy going man, generally popular, with no appetite foi persecution at all, but still no desire to be persecuted He had more than tolerated the Christians, and hac at this time a Christian among his slaves. This was a Greek, a splendid cook and perfumer, and he woulc not have lost him for a large sum of money. How- ever, life and limb were nearer to him even than his dinner, and a Jonah must be cast overboard to save the ship. In trepidation, yet with greater satisfac- tion, his fellow- domestics thrust the poor helpless man out of the house, and secured the door behind him. He was a man of middle age, of a grave aspec^, and he looked silently aud calmly upon the infuriated and yelling multitude, who were swarming up the hill about him, and swelling the number of his per- secutors. What had been his prospects, had he remained in his earthly master's service ? his fill of meat and drink while he was strong and skilful, the stocks or scourge if he ever failed to please him, aud the old age and death of the worn-out hack who onc3 has caracoled in the procession, or snorted at the com- ing fight. What are his prospects now ? a moment's agony, a martyr's death, and the everlasting beatific vision of Him for whom he died. The multitude cry out, "To the ass or to the lion!" worship the ass, or fight the lion. He was dragged to the ass's head and commanded to kneel down before the irrational beast. In the course of a minute he had lifted up A Tale of the Third Century. 197 Lis eyes to beaven, had signed himself with the cross, had confessed his Saviour, and had been torn to pieces by the multitude. They anticipated the lion of the amphitheatre. A lull followed, sure to be succeeded by a fresh storm. Not every household had a Christian cook to make a victim of. Plunder, riot, and outrage were becoming the order of the day ; successive mes- sengers were sent up in breathless haste to the capitol and the camp for aid, but the Eomans returned for answer that they had enough to do in defending the government buildings and offices. They suggested measures, however, for putting the mob on a false scent, or involving them in some difficult or tedious enterprise, which would give the authorities time for deliberation, and for taking the rioters at disadvan- tage. If the magistrates could get them out of the city, it would be a great point ; they could then shut the gates upon them, and deal with them as they would. In that case, too, the insurgents would straggle, and divide, and then thoy might be dis- posed of in detail. They were showing symptoms of returning fury, when a voice suddenly cried out, " Agellius the Christian ! Agellius the sorcerer ! Agel- lius to the lions ! To the farm of Varius — to the cottage of Agellius — to the south-west gate ! " A sudden yell burst forth from the vast multitude when the voice ceased. The impulse had been given as at the first; the tide of human beings ebbed and retreated, and, licking the base of the hill, rushed 198 Gallista; vehemently on one side, and roared lite a torre towards the south-west. Juba, thy prophecy is soc to be fulfilled ! The locusts will bring more har on thy brother's home than imperial edict or loc magistrate. The decline of day will hardly prevei the visitation. A Tale of the Third Gmiury. 199 CHAPTER XVIII. AGELLIUS FLITS. A CHANGE had passed over the fair face of Nature, as seen from the cottage of Agellius, since that evening on which our story opened ; and it is so painful to contemplate waste, decay, and disappointment, that we mean to say little about it. There was the same cloudless sky as then ; and the sun travelled in its silent and certain course, with even a more intense desire than then to ripen grain and fruit for the use of man ; hut its occupation was gone, for fruit and grain were not, nor man to collect and to enjoy them. A dark broad shadow passed across the beautiful prospect and disfigured it. When you looked more closely, it was as if a fire had burned up the whole surface included under that shadow, and had stripped the earth of its clothing. Nothing had escaped ; not a head of khennah, not a rose or carnation, not an orange or an orange blossom, not a hoccone, not a cluster of unripe grapes, not a berry of the olive, not a blade of grass. Gardens, meadows, vineyards, orchards, copses, instead of rejoicing in the rich variety of hue which lately was their characteristic, Z 200 Callista ; were now reduced to one dreary cinder-colour. Th( smoke of fires was actually rising from many points where the spoilt and poisonous vegetation was burn ing in heaps, or the countless corpses of the invading foe, or of the cattle, or of the human beings whom th( pestilence had carried off. The most furious inroad o: savage hordes, of Vandals, or of Saracens, who were destined at successive eras to come and waste thai country, could not have spread such thorough deso- lation. The slaves of the farm of Varius were sorrow- fully turning to a new employment, that of clearing away the wreck and disappointment of the bright spring from flower-bed, vineyard, and field. It was on the forenoon of the eventful day whose course we have been tracing in the preceding Chapters that a sharp-looking boy presented himself to Agellius, who was directing his labourers in their work. " I an come from Jucundus," he said; "he has instant need of you. You are to go with me, and by my way ; and this is the proof I tell you truth. He sends you this note, and wishes you in a bad time the best gifts ol Bacchus and Ceres." Agellius took the tablets, and went with them acrpss the road to the place where Ctecilius was at work, ir appearance a slave. The letter ran thus : — " Jucundus to Agellius. I trust you are well enough to move you are not safe for many days in your cottage there is a rising this morning against the Chris' tians, and you may be visited. Unless you are ambi. tious of Styx and Tartarus, follow the boy withoui A Tale of the Third Centuri/. 2Q1 questioning." Agellius showed the letter to the priest. " We are no longer safe here^ my father," he said ; "whither shall we go ? Let us go together. Can you take me to Carthage." " Carthago is quite as dangerous/' answered Caeci- lius, "and Sicca is more central. "We can but leap into the sea at Carthage ; here there are many lines to retreat upon. I am known there, I am not known here. Here, too, I hear all that goes on through the proconsulate and Numidia." " But what can we do ? " asked Agellius ; " her© we cannot remain, and you at least cannot venture into the city. Somewhither we must go, and where is that ? " The priest thought. " We must separate," he said. The tears came into Agellius's eyes. " Though I am a stranger," continued Caecilins, " I know more of the neighbourhood of Sicca than you who are a native. There is a famous Chris! ian retreat on the north of the city, and by this time, I doubt not, or rather I know, it is full of refugees. The fury of the enemy is extending on all hands, and our brethren, from as far as Cirtha round to Curubis, are falling back upon it. The only difficulty is how to get round to it without going through Sicca." " Let us go together," said Agellius. Csecilius showed signs of perplexity, and his mind retired into itself. He seemed for the moment to be simply absent from the scene about him, but soon 202 CalUsta ; his intelligence returned. "No/' lie said, "we musi separatej — for the time; it will not be for long. That is, I suppose, your uncle will take good care oi you, and he has influence. We are safest just now when most independent of each other. It is only for a while. We shall meet again soon ; I tell you so. Did we keep together just now, it would be the worse for each of us. You go with the boy ; I will go off to the place I mentioned." " my father," said the youth, " how will you get there ? What shall I suffer from my fears about you?" " Fear not," answered Caecilius, " mind, I tell you so. It will be a trying time, but my hour is not yet come. I am good for years yet ; so are you, for many more than mine. He will protect and rescue me, though I know not how. Go, leave me to my- self, Agellius ! " " my father, my only stay upon earth, whom God sent me in my extreme need, to whom I owe myself, must I then quit you ; must a layman desert a priest ; the young the old ? . . . Ah ! it is I really, not you, who am without protection. Angela surround you, father ; but I am a poor wanderer. Give me your blessing that evil may not touch me. I go." " Do not kneel," said the priest ; " Uioy will see you. Stop, I have got to tell you how »nd where to find me." He then proceeded to give him the necessary instructions. " Walk out," he said, " along the road to Thibursicumbur to the third milestone, A Tale of the Third Century. 203 you ■will come to a country road ; pursue it ; walk a thousand steps ; then again for the space of sevon •paternosters ; and then speak to the mau upon your right hand. And now away with you^ God speed you, we shall not long be parted,' aud he made the sign of the cross over him. "That old chap gives himself airs," said the boy, when Agellius joined him ; " what may he be ? one of your slaves, Agellius ? " " You're a pert boy," answered he, " for asking me the question." " They say the Christians brought the locusts," said Firmian, " by their enchantments ; and there's a jolly row beginning in the Forum just now. The report goes that you are a Christian." " That's because your people have nothing better to do than talk against their neighbours." " Because you are so soft, rather," said the boy. "Another man would have knocked me down for saying it ; but you are lackadaisical folk, who bear insults tamely. Arnobius says your father was a Chrisfan." " Father and son are not always the same religion now-a-days," said Agellius. "Ay, ay," answered Firmian, "but the Christians came from Egypt : and as cook there is the son of cook, and soldier is son of soldier, so Christian, take my word for it, is the son of a Christian." "Christians boast, I believe," answered Agellius, " that they are of no one race or country, but are 204 Callistaj members of a large unpatriotic family, whose home is in the sky." " Christians/' answered the boy, " would never have framed the great Roman empire ; that was the work of heroes. Great Cssesar, Marius, Marcus Brutus, Camillus, Cicero, Sylla, Lucullus, Scipio, could never have been Christians. Arnobius says they are a skulking set of fellows." " I suppose you wish to be a hero," said Agsllius. " I am to be a pleader," answered Firmiau ; " I should like to be a great orator like Cicero, and every one listening to me." They were walkiog along the top of a mud wall, which separated Varius's farm from his neighbDur's, when suddenly Firmian, who led the way, leapt down into a copse, wbiL'h reached as far as the ravine in which the knoll terminated towards Sicca. The boy still went forward by devious paths, till they liad mounted as high as the city wall. " YoQ are bringing me where there is no entrance," said Agellius. The boy laughed. " Jucundus told me to bring you by a blind way," he said. " You know best why This is one of our ways in and out." There was an aperture in the wall, and the bricks and stones about it were loose, and admitted of re- moval. It was such a private way of passage as schoolboys know of. On getting through, Agellius found himself in a neglected garden or small close. Everything was silent about them, as if the iuhabi- A Tale of the Third Century. 205 tants -were away; there was a great noise in the distaace, as if something unusual were going on in the heart of the town. The boy told him to follow him as fast as he could without exciting remark ; and, leading him by lanes and alleys unknown to Agellius, at last brought him close upon the scene of riot. At this time the expedition in search of Christians had just commenced ; to cross the Forum was to shorten his journey, and perhaps was safer than to risk meeting the mob in the streets. Firmian took the step ; and while their attention was directed elsewhere, brought Agellius safely through it. They then proceeded cautiously as before, till they stood before the back door of the house of Jucnndus. " Say a good word for me to your uncle," said the boy, " I have done my job. He must remember me handsomely at the Augustalia," and he ran away. Meanwhile Csecilius had been anxiously consider- ing the course which it was safest for him to pursue. He must move, but he must wait till dusk, when the ways were clear, aud the light uncertain. Till then ho must keep close in-doors. There was a remark- able cavern in the mountains above Sicca, v/hich had been used as a place of refuge for Christians from the very time they bad first suffered persecution ill Eoman Africa. No spot in its whole territory seemed more fit for what is called a base of opera- tions, from which the soldiers of the Cross might advance, or to which they might retire, according as 236 Gallista; the fuvy of their enemy grew or diminished. While it was in the midst of a wilderness difiBculfc of access, and feared as the resort of ghosts and evil inflaences, it was not far from a city near to which the high roads met from Hippo and from Carthage. A branch of the Bagradas^ navigable for boats, opened a way from it through the woods, where flight and concealment were easy oa a surprise, as far as Madaura, Vacca, and other places ; at the same time it commanded the vast plain on the south which extended to the roots of the Atlas. Just now, the persecution growing, many deacons, other eccle- siastics, and prominent laymen from all parts of the country had fallen back upon this cavern or grotto; and in no place could Csecilius have better means than here of learning the general state of affairs, and of communicating with countries beyond the seas. He was indeed on his way thither, when the illness of Agellius made it a duty for him to stop and restore him, and attend to his spiritual needs ; and he had received an inward intimation, on which he im- plicitly relied, to do so. The problem at this moment was how to reach the refuge in question. His direct road lay through Sicca; this being impracticable at present, he had to descend into the ravine which lay between him and the city, and, turning to the left, to traverse the broad plain, the Campus Martins of Sicca, into which it opened. Here the mountain would rise abruptly on his right with those steep cliffs which we have already A Tale of the Third Century. 207 described as rounding the north side of Sicca. He must traverse many miles before he could reach the point at which the rock lost its precipitous character, and changed into a declivity allowing the traveller to ascend. It was a bold undertaking; for all this he had to accomplish in the dark before the morning broke, a stranger too to the locality, and directing his movements only by the information of others, which, however accurate and distinct, could scarcely be followed, even if without risk of error, at least without misgiving. However, could he master this point before the morning he was comparatively safe ; he then had to strike into the solitary mountains, and to retrace his steps for a while towards Sicca along the road, till he came to a place where he knew that Christian scouts or videttes (as they may be called) were always stationed. This being his plan, and there being no way of mending it, our confessor retired into the cottage, and devoted the intervening hours to intercourse with that world from which his succour must come. He set himself to intercede for the Holy Catholic Church throughout the world, now for the most part under persecution, and for the Eoman Empire, not yet holy, which was the instrument of the evil powers against her. He had to pray for the proconsulate, for Numi- dia, Mauretania, and the whole of Africa ; for the Christian communities throughout it, for the cessation of the trial then present, and for the fortitude and perseverance of all who were tried. He had to pray 208 Callista; for his own personal friends^ his penitents, converts, enemies; for children, catechumens, neophytes; for those who were approaching the Church, for those who had fallen away, or were falling away from her ; for all heretics, for all troublers of unity, that they might be reclaimed. He had to confess, bewail and deprecate the many sins and offences which he knew of, fore- boded, or saw in prospect as to come. Scarcely had he entered on his charge at Carthage four years before, when he had had to denounce one portentous scandal in which a sacred order of the ministry was implicated. What internal laxity did not that scandal imply ! And then again what a low standard of religion, what niggardly faith, and what worn-out, used-up sanctity in the community at large, was revealed in the fact of those frequent apostasies of' individuals which then were occurring ! He prayed fervently that both from the bright pattern of martyrs, and from the warning afforded by the lapsed, the Christian body might be edified and invigorated. He saw with great anxiety two schisms in prospect, when the persecution should come to an end, one from the perverseness of those who were too rigid, the other from those who were too indulgent towards the fallen j and in proportion to his gift of prescience was the earnestness of his intercession that the wounds of the Church might be healed with the least possible delay. He then turned to the thought of his own correspondence then in pro- gress with the Holy Roman Church, which had lately lost its bishop by martyrdom. This indeed was no unusual A Tale of the Third Century. 209 ^e^Siiium^hthB^see of Peter, jn_which the, successors of Peter followed_PeJier^_s±fipa^ as _ Peter_}ia£Ll)eeii bidden to^oUow the King and Exemplar of Martyrs. But the special trouble was, that months had passed, full five, since the vacancy occurred, and it had not yet been supplied. Then he thought of Fabian, who made the vacancy, and who had already passed through that trial which was to bring to so many Christians life or condemnation, and he com- mended himself to his prayers against the hour of his own combat. He thought of Fabian's work, and went on to intercede for the remnant of the seven apostles whom that Pope had sent into Gaul, and some of whom had already obtained the martyr's crown. He prayed that the day might come, when not the cities only of that fair country, but its rich champaigns and sunny slopes should hear the voice of the missionary. He prayed in like manner for Britain, that the success- ful work of another Pope, St. Bleutherius, might be extended even to its four seas. And then he prayed for the neighbouring island on the west, still in heathen darkness, and for the endless expanse of Germany on the east, that there too the one saving name and glorious Faith might be known and accepted. His thoughts then travelled back to Eome and Italy, and to the martyrdoms which had followed that of St. Fabian. Two Persians had already suffered in the imperial city ; Maximus had lost his life, and Felix had been imprisoned, at Nola. Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt had already afforded victims to the perse- 210 CalUsta; cution, and cried aloud to all Christians for their most earnest prayers and for repeated Masses in behalf of those who remained under the trial. Babylas^ Bishop of Antioch, the third see in Christendom, was already martyred in that city. Here again Csecilius had a strong call on him for intercession, for a subtle form of freethinking was there manifesting itself, the issue of which was as uncertain as it might be frightful. The Bishop of Alexandria, that second of the large divi- sions or patriarchates of the Church, the great Diony- sius, the pupil of Origen, was an exile from his see, like himself. The messenger who brought this news to Carthage had heard at Alexandria a report from Neocaesarea, that Gregory, another pupil of Origen's, the Apostle of Pontus, had also been obliged to con- ceal himself from the persecution. As for Origen him- self, the aged, laborious, gifted, zealous teacher of his time, he was just then engaged in answering the works of an Epicurean called Celsus, and on him too the per- secution was likely to fall ; and Csecilius prayed earn- estly that so great a soul might be kept from such high untrue speculations as were threatening evil at Antioch, and from every deceit and snare which might endanger his inheriting that bright crown which ought to be his portion in heaven. Another remarkable report had come, viz., that some young men of Egypt had retired to the deserts up the country under the stress of the persecution, — Paul was the name of one of them, — and that they were there living in the prac- tice of mortification and prayer so singular, and had A Tale of the Third Century. 21 1 combats with, the powers of darkness and visitations from above so special, as to open quite a new era in the spiritual history of the Church. And then his thoughts came back to his poor Agel- lias, and all those hundred private matters of anxiety which the foes of the Church, occupied only with ha' external aspect, little suspected. For Agellius, he prayed, and for his ; for the strange wayward Juba, for Jucundus, for Callista ; ah ! that Callista might be brought on to tbat glorious consummation, for which she seemed marked out ! But the ways of the Most High are not as our ways, and those who to us seem nearest are often furthest from Him; and so our holy priest left the whole matter in the hands of Him to whom he prayed, satisfied that he had done his part in praying. This was the course of thought which occupied him for many hours, after (as we have said) lie had closed the door upon him, and knelt down before the cross. Not merely before the symbol of redemption did he kneel ; for he opened his tunic at the neck, and drew thence a small golden pyx which was there suspended. In that carefully fastened case he pos- sessed the Holiest, his Lord and his God. That Everlasting Presence was his stay and guide amid his weary wanderings, his joy and consolation amid his overpowering anxieties. Behold the secret of his sweet serenity, and his clear unclouded determination. He had placed it upon the small table at which he knelt, and was soon absorbed in meditation and intercession. 212 Callista: CHAPTER XIX. A PASSAGE OF AEMS. How many hours passed while Caecilius was thus employed, he did not know. The sun was declining when he was roused by a noise at the door. He hastily restored the sacred treasure to its hiding-place in his breastj and rose up from his knees. The door was thrown back, and a female form presented itself at the. opening. She looked in at the priest, and said, " Then Agellius is not here ? " The woman was young, tall, and graceful in person. She was clad in a yellow cotton tunic, reaching to her feet, on which were shoes. The clasps at her shoulders, partly visible under the short cloak or shawl which was thrown over them, and which might, if necessary, be drawn, over her head, seemed to serve the purpose, not only of fastening her dress, but of providiDg her with sharp prongs or minute stilettos for her defence, in case she fell in with ruffians by the way ; and though the expression of her face was most feminine, there was that about it which implied she could use them for that purpose on an emergency. A Tale of the Third Century. 213 That face was clear in complexion, regular in outline, and at the present time pale, whatever might , be its ordinary tint. Its charm was a noble and majestic calm. There is the calm of divine peace and joy; there is the calm of heartlessness ; there is the calm of reckless desperation ; there is the calm of death. None of these was the calm which breathed from the features of the stranger who intruded upon the soli- tude of CHScilius. It was the calm of Greek sculp- ture ; it imaged a soul nourished upon the visions of genius, and subdued and attuned by the power of a strong will. There wa.s no appearance of timidity in her manner ; very little of modesty. The evening sun gleamed across her amber robe, and lit it up till it glowed like fire, as if she were invested in the mar- riage flammeum, and was to be claimed that evening as the bride of her own bright god of day. She looked at Cfficilius, first with surprise, then with anxiety ; and her words were, " You, I fear, are of his people. If so, make the most of these hours. The foe may be on you to-morrow morning. Fly while you can." " If I am a Christian," answered GEeoilius, " what are you who are so careful of us ? Have you come all the way from Sicca to give the alarm to mere atheists and magic-mongers ? " " Stranger," she said, " if you had seen what I have Been, what I have heard of to-day, you would not wonder at my wish to save from a like fate the vilest being on earth. A hideous mob is rioting in the city, 214 GalUsta; thirsting foi" tlio blood of Christians ; an accident may turn it in the direction of Agellius. He is gone; where is he ? Murderous outrages have already been perpetrated ; you remain/' " She who is so tender of Christians," answered the priest, " must herself have some sparks of the Christian flame in her own breast." Callista sat down half ' unconsciously upon the bench or stool near the door ; but she at once sud- denly started up again, and said, " Away, fly ! perhaps they are coming ; where is he ? " " Fear not," said Cascilius ; " Agellius has been conveyed away to a safe hiding-place ; for me, I shall betaken care of; there is no need for hurry; sit down again. But you," he continued, "you must not be found here." " They know me," she said ; " I am well known here. I work for the temples. I have nothing to fear. I am no Christian ;" and, as if from an inexplicable overruling influence, she sat down again. "Not a Christian yet, you mean," answered 1Da3ci- lius. " A person must be born a Christian, sir," she replied, " in order to take up the religion. It is a very beautiful idea, as far as I have heard anything about it ; but one must suck it in with one's mother's milk." " If so, it never could have come into the world," said the priest. She paused for a while, " It is true," she answereij A Tale of the Third Century. 215 at length ; " but a new religion begins by appealing to what is peculiar in the minds of a few. The doc- trine, floating on the windsj finds its own; it takes possession of their minds ; they answer its call ; they are brought together by that common influence ; they are strong in each other's sympathy; they create and throw around them an external form, and thus they found a religion. The sons are brought up in their fathers' faith; and what was the idea of a few becomes at length the profession of a race. Such is Judaism; such the religion of Zoroaster, or of the Egyptians.'^ " You will find," said the priest, " that the greater number of African Christians at this moment, for of them I speak confidently, are converts in manhood, not the sons of Christians. On the other hand, if there be those who have left the faith, and gone up to the Capitol to sacrifice, these were Christians by hereditary profession. Such is my experience, and I think the case is the same elsewhere." She seemed to be speaking more for the sake of getting answers than of objecting arguments. She paused again, and thought; then she said, "Mankind is made up of classes of very various mental com- plexion, as distinct from each other as the colours which meet the eye. Red and blue are incommen- surable ; and in like manner, a Magian never can become a Greyk, nor a Greek a Ccelicolist. They •do but make themselves fools when they attempt p 2 216 CalUsta; "Perhaps the most deeply coavinced, the most tranquil-minded in the Christian body/' answered Caecilius, "will tell you, on the contrary, that there was a time when they hated Christianity, and despised and ill-treated its professors." "/never did any such thing," cried Callista, " since the day I first heard of it. I am not its enemy, hut I cannot believe in it. I am sure I never could ; I never, never should be able.''' " What is it you cannot believe ? " asked the priest. " It seems too beautiful," she said, " to be anything else than a dream. It is a thing to talk about, but when you come near its professors you see it is im- possible. A most beautiful imagination, that is what it is. Most beautiful its precepts, as far as I have heard of them ; so beautiful, that in idea there is no difficulty. The mind runs along with them, as if it could accomplish them without an effort. Well, its maxims are too beautiful to be realized ; and then on the other hand, its dogmas are too dismal, too shocking, too odious to be believed. They revolt me." " Such as what ? " asked Caecilius. " Such as this," answered Callista. " Nothing will over make me believe that all my people have gone and will go to an eternal Tartarus." " Had we not better confine ourselves to something more specific, more tangible ? " asked Caecilius, gravely. " I suppose if one individual may have that terrible A Tale of the Third Centurij. 217 lot, another may — both may, many may. Suppose I understand you to say that you never will believe that yoxi will go to an eternal Tartarus." Callista gave a slight start, and showed some uneasi- ness or displeasure. " Is it not likely," continued he, " that you are better able to speak of yourself, and to form a judg- ment about yourself, than about others ? Perhaps if you could first speak confidently about yourself, you would be in a better position to speak about others also." " Do you mean," she said, in a calm tone, " that my place, after this life, is an everlasting Tartarus ? " " Are you happy ? " he asked in turn. She paused, looked down, and in a deep clear voice said, " No." There was a silence. The priest began again : " PerLaps you have been growing in unhappiness for years ; is it so ? you assent. You have a heavy burden at your heart, you don^t well know what. And the chance is, that you will grow in unhappiness for the next ten years to come. You will be more and more unhappy the longer you live. Did you live till you were an old woman, you would not know how to bear your exist- ence." Callista cried out as if in bodily pain, " It is trae, sir, whoever told you. But how can you have the heart to say it, to insult and mock me ! " •' God forbid ! " exclaimed Csecilius, " but let me go on. Listen, my child. Be brave, and dare to look at 218 Callista; things as they are. Every day adds to your burden. This is a law of your present being, somewhat more certain than the assertion which you just now so con- fidently made, the impossibility of your believing in that law. You cannot refuse to accept what is not an opirdonj but a fact. I say this burden which I speak of is not simply a dogma of our creed, it is an undeniable fact of nature. You cannot change it by wishing; if you were to live on earth two hundred years, it would not be reversed, it would be more and more true. At the end of two hundred years you would be too miserable even for your worst enemy to rejoice in it." CsBcilius spoke, as if half in soliloquy or meditation, though lie was looking towards Callista. The con- trast between them was singular : he thus abstracted ; she too, utterly forgetful of self, but absorbed in him, and showing it by her eager eyes, her hushed breath, her anxious attitude. At last she said impatiently, " Father, you are speaking to yourself j you despise me." The priest looked straight at her with an open, un- troubled smile, and said, " Callista, do not doubt me, my poor child ; you are in my heart. I was pray- ing for you shortly before you appeared. No; but, in so serious a matter as attempting to save a soul, I like to speak to you in my Lord's sight. I am speaking to you, indeed I am, my child ; but I am also pleading with you ou His behalf, and before His throne." A Tale of the Third Century. 219 His voice trembled as lie spoke, but he soon re- covered liimself . " Suffer me," he said. " I was say- ing that if you lived five hundred years on earth, you would but have a heavier load on you as time went on. But you will not live, you will die. Perhaps you will tell me that you will then cease to be. I don't believe you think so. I may take for granted that you think with me, and [with the multitude of men, that you will still live, that you will still be you. You will still be the same being, but deprived of those outward stays and reliefs and solaces, which, such as they are, you now enjoy. Tou will be yourself, shut up in yourself. I have heard that people go mad at length when placed in solitary confinement. If, then, on passing hence, you are cut off from what you had here, and have only the company of yourself, I think your burden will be, so far, greater, not less than it is now. " Suppose, for instance, you had still your love of conversing, and could not converse ; your love of the poets of your race, and no means of recalling them ; your love of music, and no instrument to play upon ; your love of knowledge, and nothing to learn ; your desire of sympathy, and no one to love ; would not that be still greater misery ? " Let me proceed a step further : supposing you were among those whom you actually did not love ; supposing you did not like them, nor their occupa- tions, and could not understand their aims ; suppose there be, as Chi-istians say, one Almighty God, and 220 Callida; you did not like Him, and had no taste for thinking of Him, and no interest in what He was and what He did ; and supposing you found that there was nothing else anywhere but He, whom you did not love and whom you wished away : would you not be still more wretched ? " And if this went on for ever, would you not be in great inexpressible pain for ever ? " Assuming then, first, that the soul always needs external objects to rest upon ; next, that it has no prospect of any such when it leaves this visible scene ; and thirdly, that the hunger and thirst, the gnawing of the heart, where it occurs, is as keen and piercing as a flame ; it will follow there is nothing irrational in the notion of an eternal Tartarus." " I cannot answer you, sir," said Callista, " but I do not believe the dogma on that account a whit the more. My mind revolts from the notion. There must be some way out of it." " If, on the other hand," continued Csecilius, not noticing her interruption, "if all your thoughts go one way; if you have needs, desires, aims, aspirations, all of which demand an Object, and imply, by theii" very existence, that such an Object does exist also; and if nothing here does satisfy them, and if there be a message which professes to come from that Object, of whom you already have the presentiment, and to teach you about Him, and to bring the remedy you crave ; and if those who try that remedy say -vyith one voice that the remedy answers ; are you not bound, A Tale of the Third Century. 221 Callista, at least to look that way, to inquire into what you hear about it, and to ask for His help, if Ho be, to enable you to believe in Him ? " " This is what a slave of mine used to say," cried Callista, abruptly; ". . . and another, Agellius, hinted the same thing. , . . What is your remedy, what your Object, what your love, O Christian teacher? Why are you all so mysterious, so reserved in your communications ? " Csecilius was silent for a moment, and seemed at a loss for au answer. At length he said, " Every man is in that state which you confess of yourself. We have no love for Him who alone lasts. We love those things which do not last, but come to an end. Things being thus. He whom we ought to love has determined to win us back to Him. With this object He has come into His own world, in the form of one of us men. And in that human form He opens His arms and woos us to return to Him, our Maker. This is our Worship, this is our Love, Callista." " You talk as Chione,'' Callista answered ; " only that she felt, and you teach. She could not speak of her Master without blushing for joy. . . . And Agellius, when he said one word about his Master, he too began to blush. . . ." It was plain that the priest could hardly command his feelings, and they sat for a short while in silence. Then Callista began, as if musing on what she had hoard. " A loved One," she said, " yet ideal ; a passion so 222 Callista; potent, so fresh, so innocent, so absorbing, so expul- sive of other loves, so enduring, yet of One never beheld ; — mysterious ! It is our own notion of the First and only Pair, yet embodied in a substance, yet dissolving again into a sort of imagination. ... It is -beyond, me.'' " There is but one Lover of souls," cried Caecilius, " and He loves each one of us, as though there were no one else to love. He died for each one of us, as if there were no one else to die for. He died on the shameful cross. ' Amor mens crucifixus est.' The love which he inspires lasts, for it is the love of the Unchangeable. It satisfies, for He is inexhaustible. The nearer we draw to Him, the more triumphantly does He enter into us ; the longer He dwells in us, the more intimately have we possession of Him. It is an espousal for eternity. This is why it is so easy for us to die for our faith, at which the world marvels." Presently he said, "Why will not you approach Him? why will not you leave the creature for the Creator ? " Callista seldom lost her self-possession; for a moment she lost it now; tears gushed from her eyes. " Impossible ! " she said, " what, I ? you do not know me, father ! " She paused, and then resumed in a different tone, " No ! my lot is one way, yours another. I am a child of Greece, and have no hap- piness but that, such as it is, which my own bright land, my own glorious race, give me. I may well be A Tale of the Third Century. 323 content, I may well be resigned, I may well be p^oud, if I possess that happiness. I must live and die where I have been born. I am a tree which will not bear transplanting. The Assyrians, the Jews, the Egyptians, have their own mystical teaching. They follow their happiness in their own way ; mine is a different one. The pride of mind, the revel of the intellect, the voice and eyes of genius, and the fond beating heart, I cannot do without them. I cannot do without what you. Christian, call sin. Let me alone ; such as nature made me I will be. I cannot change." This sudden revulsion of her feelings quite over- came Csecilius ; yet, while the disappointment thrilled through him, he felt a most strange sympathy for the poor lost girl, and his reply was full of emotion. '' Am I a Jew ? " he exclaimed ; " am I an Egyptian. or an Assyrian ? Have I from my youth believed and possessed what now is my Life, my Hope, and my Love ? Child, what was once my life ? Am not I too a brand plucked out of the fire ? Do I deserve anything but evil ? Is it not the Power, the Mighty Power of the only Strong, the only Merciful, the grace of Emmanuel, which has changed and won me ? If He can change me, an old man, could He not change a child like you ? J[, a proud, stern Roman; I, a lover of pleasure, a man of letters, of^golitical station, with formed habits, and life-long associations, and complicated relations; was it I whowrougEt this great change in me, who gained 224 Callista; for myself the power of hating what I once loved, of unlearning what I once knew, nay, of even forgetting what once I was ? Who has made you and me to differ, but He who can, when He irill, make us to agree ? It is His same Omnipotence which will transform you, if you will but come to be trans, formed." But a reaction had come over the proud and sensitive mind of the Greek girl. " So after all, priest," she said, " you are but a man like others ; a frail, guilty person like myself I can find plenty of persons who do as I do ; I want some one who does not ; I want some one to worship. I thought there was something in you special and extraordinary. There was a gentleness and tenderness mingled with your strength which was new to me. I said. Here is at last a god. My own gods are earthly, sensual ; I have no respect for them, no faith in them. But there is nothing better anywhere else. . . . Alas! ... •" She started up, and said with vehemence, "I thought you sinless ; you confess to crime. . . . Ah ! how do I know,''' she continued with a shudder, " that you are better than those base hypocrites, priests of Isis or Mithras, whose lustrations, initia- tions, new birth, white robes, and laurel crowns, are but the instrument and cloak of their intense de- pravity ? " And she felt for the clasp upon her shoulder. Here her speech was interrupted by a hoarse sound, borne upon the wind as of many voices blended into A Tale of the Third Century. 225 one and softened by the distance, but whicli, under the circumstanceSj neither of the parties to the above conversation had any difficulty in assigning to its real cause. " Dear father," she said, " the enemy is upon 226 Callista; CHAPTER XX. HE SHALL NOT LOSE HIS EEWAED, There was no room for doubt or for delay. " What is to become of yoUj Callista ? " he said ; " tbey will tear you to pieces." "Fear nothing for me, father," she answered; "I am one of them. They know me. Alas, I am no Christian ! I have not abjured their rites ! but you, lose not a moment." " They are still at some distance," he said, " though the wind gives us merciful warning of their coming." He looked about the room, and took up the books of Holy Scripture which were on the shelf. " There is nothing else," he said, " of special value here. Agel- lius could not take them. Here, my child, I am going to show you a great confidence. To few persons not Christians would I show it. Take this blessed parchment ; it contains the earthly history of our Divine Master. Here you will see whom we Chris- tians love. Read it ; keep it safely ; surrender it, when you have the opportunity, into Christia^i keep- ing. My mind tells me I am not wrong in lending it to yoii." He handed to her the Gospel of St. Luke, A Tale of the Third Century. 227 wliile he put the two other volumes into the folds of his own tunic. " One word more/' she said ; " your name, should I want you." He took up a piece of chalk from the shelf, and wrote upon the wall in distinct characters, "Thascitis CaBcilius OyprianuB, Bishop of Carthage." Hardly had she read the inscription when the voices of several men were heard in the very neigh- bourhood of the cottage; and hoping to effect a diversion in favour of Csecilius, and being at once unsuspicious of danger to herself, and careless of her life, she ran quickly forward to meet them. Csecilius ought to have taken to flight without a moment's delay, but a last sacred duty detained him. He knelt down and took the pyx from his bosom. He had eaten nothing that day ; but even if otherwise, it was a crisis which allowed him to consume the sacred species without fasting. He hastily opened the golden case, adored the blessed sacrament, and consumed it, purifying its receptacle, and restoring it to its hiding- place. Then he rose at once and left the cottage. He looked about ; Callista was nowhere to be seen. She was gone ; so much was certain, no enemy was in sight ; it only remained for him to make off too. la the confusion he turned in the wrong direction ; instead of making off at the back of the cottage from whioh the voices had scared him, he ran across the gardea 228 Callista; into the hollow way. It was all over with him in an instant ; he fell at once into the hands of the van- guard of the mob. Many mouths were opened upon him all at once. " The sorcerer ! " cried one; " tear him to shreds ; we'll teach him to brew his spells against the city." " Give us back our grapes and corn," said a second. " Have a guard/' said a third ; " he can turn you into swine or asses while there is breath in him." " Then be the quicker with him," said a fourth, who was lifting up a crowbar to discharge upon his head. " Hold ! " said a tall swarthy youth, who had already warded off several blows from him, " hold, will you ? don't you see, if you kill him he can't undo the spell. Make him first reverse it all ; make him take the curse off us. Bring him along ; take him to Astarte, Hercules, or old Saturn. We'll broil him on a gridiron till he turns all these canes into vines, and makes olive berries of the pebbles, and turns the dust of the earth into fine flour for our eating. When he has done all this he shall dance a jig with a wild cow, and sit down to supper with an hyena." A loud scream o