Callista: a tale of the third century

CALLISTA;

A TALE OP THE THIRD CENTURY.

LONDON ;
BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED

ST. JOHN S HOUSE, CI.ERKENWELL ROAB.

CALLISTA

A TALE OF THE THIRD CENTURY.

BY

JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN.

"Love 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 soul 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 VEEE.

NEW EDITION.

LONDON

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
AND NEW YORK : 15, EAST 16th STREET

1889

All ric/fits reserved.

To
HENRY WILLIAM WILBERFORCE.

To you alone, irho have known me so lomj, and who I me me
so well, could I venture to offer a trifle Zi /v- thi*. But
you will recognise the author in his >/-ork, and fain
/Jpasure in the recognition.

J. H. N.

ADVERTISEMENT.

IT is hardly necessary to say that the following
Tale is a simple fiction from beginning to end.
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 it 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.

POSTSCRIPTS TO LATER EDITIONS.

February 8, 1856. 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 I., IV., and V., and sketched the character

viii Postscripts,

and fortunes of Juba, in the early spring of 1848. He
did no more till the end of last July, when he 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. October, 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-
housej and the author of " Romola " 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. is

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 my
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 long ago, in my " Letter to Dr. Pusey J)
(pp. 53 76), for what I believe on this matter and
for what I have in " Callista " described.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

I. SICCA VENERIA . ... .1

II. CHRISTIANITY IN SICCA . . ... 14

III. AGELLIUS IN HIS COTTAGE . . 25

IV. JUBA .... . . .30

V. JUCUNDUS AT SUPPER . . .39
VI. GOTHS AND CHRISTIANS . . 51

VII. PERSECUTION IN THE OFFING . 64

VIII. THE NEW GENERATION 80
IX. JUCUNDUS BAITS HIS TRAP .

X. THE DIVINE CALLISTA ... .111

xi. CALLISTA S PREACHING, AND WHAT CAME OF IT . 122

XII. A DEATH . . . 135

XIII. AND RESURRECTION . . . 145

XIV. A SMALL CLOUD . . . 159
XV. A VISITATION . . .168

XVI. WOESE AND WORSE . . 178

XVII. CHRISTIANOS AD LEONES . . . 189

XVIII. AGELLIUS FLITS . 199

XIX. A PASSAGE OF ARMS . 212

XX. HE SHALL NOT LOSE HIS REWARD . . 226

XXI. STARTLING EUMOURS . ... 235

XXII. JUCUNDUS PROPOUNDS HIS VIEW OF THE SITUATION 239

XXIII. GURTA . 256

xii Contents.

CHAP. PAGE

sxiv. A MOTHER S BLESSING .... . 266

XXV. CALLISTA IN DDBANCE 274

XXVI. WHAT CAN IT ALL MEAN ? 281

XXVII. AM I A CHRISTIAN ? . . . . . 291

XXVIII. A SICK CALL 305

XXIX. CONVERSION . ... 317

XXX. TOKEES VEDEAS 329

XXXI. THE BAPTISM .... . 343

XXXII. THE IMPERIAL RESCRIPT . . 352

XXXIII. A GOOD CONFESSION . .... 357

XXXIV. THE MARTYRDOM ... ... 366

XXXV. THE CORPO SANTO . . . 371

XXXVI. LUX PERPETUA SANCTIS TUIS, DOMINE . 377

C A L L I S T A ;

A TALE OF THE TRIED CENTUKY.

CHAPTER I.

SICCA VENERIA.

IN no province of the vast Roman empire, as it
existed in the middle of the third century, did Nature
wear a richer or a more joyous garb than she dis
played in Proconsular Africa, a territory of which
Carthage was the metropolis, and Sicca might be
considered the centre. The latter city, which was the
seat of a Roman colony, lay upon a precipitous or
steep bank, which led up along a chain of hills to a
mountainous track in the direction of the north and
east. In striking contrast with this wild and barren
region was the view presented by the west and south,
where for many miles stretched a smiling champaign,
exuberantly wooded, and varied with a thousand hues,
till it was terminated at length by the successive tiers
of the Atlas, and the dim and fantastic forms of the
Numidian mountains. The immediate neighbourhood
of the city was occupied by gardens, vineyards, corn-

Callista ;

fields, and meadows, crossed or encircled here by noble
avenues of trees or the remains of primeval forests,
there by the clustering groves which wealth and luxury
had created. This spacious plain, though level when
compared with the northern heights by which the city
was backed, and the peaks and crags which skirted
the southern and western horizon, was discovered, as
light and shadow travelled with the sun, to be diversi
fied with hill and dale, upland and hollow ; while
orange gardens, orchards, olive and palm plantations
held their appropriate sites on the slopes or the bottoms.
Through the mass of green, which extended still more
thickly from the west round to the north, might be
seen at intervals two solid causeways tracking their
persevering course to the Mediterranean coast, the one
to the ancient rival of Rome, the other to Hippo
Regius in Nurnidia. Tourists might have complained
of the absence of water from the scene ; but the native
peasant would have explained to them that the eye
alone had reason to be discontented, and that the thick
foliage and the uneven surface did but conceal what
mother earth with no niggard bounty supplied. The
Bagradas, issuing from the spurs of the Atlas, made
up in depth what it wanted in breadth of bed, and
ploughed the rich and yielding mould with its rapid
stream, till, after passing Sicca in its way, it fell into
the sea near Carthage. It was but the largest of a
multitude of others, most of them tributaries to it,
deepening as much as they increased it. While chan
nels had been cut from the larger rills for the irrigation

A Tale of the Third Century. . 3

of the open land, brooks, which sprang up in the gravel
which lay against the hills, had been artificially banked
with cut stones or paved with pebbles ; and where
neither springs nor rivulets were to be found, wells had
been dag, sometimes to the vast depth of as much as
200 fathoms, with such effect that the spurting column
of water had in some instances drowned the zealous
workmen who had been the first to reach it. And,
while such were the resources of less favoured localities
or seasons, profuse rains descended over the whole
region for one half of the year, and the thick summer
dews compensated by night for the daily tribute ex
torted by an African sun.

At various distances over the undulating surface,
and through the woods, were seen the villas and the
hamlets of that happy land. It was an age when the
pride of architecture had been indulged to the full ;
edifices, public and private, mansions and temples, ran
off far away from each market-town or borough, as
from a centre, some of stone or marble, but most of
them of that composite of fine earth, rammed tight by
means of frames, for which the Saracens were after
wards famous, and of which specimens remain to this
day, as hard in surface, as sharp at the angles, as
when they first were finished. Every here and there,
on hill or crag, crowned with basilicas and temples,
raidant in the sun, might be seen the cities of the
province or of its neighbourhood, Thibursicumber,
Thugga, Laribus, Siguessa, Sufetula, and many others ;
while in the far distance, on an elevated table-land

4 Callista ;

under the Atlas,, might be discerned the Colonia
Scillitana, famous about fifty years before the date of
which we write for the martyrdom of Speratus and his
companions, who were beheaded at the order of the
proconsul for refusing to swear by the genius of Rome
and the emperor.

If the spectator now takes his stand, not in Sicca
itself, but about a quarter of a mile to the south-east,
on the hill or knoll on which was placed the cottage of
Agellius, the city itself will enter into the picture. Its
name, Sicca Veneria, if it be derived (as some suppose)
from the Succoth benoth, or " tents of the daughters,"
mentioned by the inspired writer as an object of pagan
worship in Samaria, shows that it owed its founda
tion to the Phoenician colonists of the country. At any
rate, the Punic deities retained their hold upon the
place ; the temples of the Tyrian Hercules and of
Saturn, the scene of annual human sacrifices, were
conspicuous in its outline, though these and all other
religious buildings in it looked small beside the mys
terious antique shrine devoted to the sensual rites of
the Syrian Astarte. Public baths and a theatre, a
capitol, imitative of Rome, a gymnasium, the long out
line of a portico, an equestrian statue in brass of the
Emperor Severus, were grouped together above the
streets of a city, which, narrow and winding, ran up
and down across the hill. In its centre an extraordi
nary spring threw up incessantly several tons of water
every minute, and was inclosed by the superstitious
gratitude of the inhabitants with the peristylium of a

A Tale of the. Third Century. 5

sacred place. At the extreme back, towards the north,
which could not be seen from the point of view where
we last stationed ourselves, there was a sheer descent
of rock, bestowing on the city, when it was seen at a
distance on the Mediterranean side, the same bold and
striking appearance which attaches to Castro Giovanni,
the ancient Enna, in the heart of Sicily.

And now, withdrawing our eyes from the pano
rama, whether in its distant or nearer objects, if we
would at length contemplate the spot itself from which
we have been last surveying it, we shall find almost
as much to repay attention, and to elicit admiration.
We stand in the midst of a farm of some wealthy pro
prietor, consisting of a number of fields and gardens,
separated from each other by hedges of cactus or the
aloe. At the foot of the hill, which sloped down on
the side furthest from Sicca to one of the tributaries
of the rich and turbid river of which we have spoken,
a large yard or garden, intersected with a hundred
artificial rills, was devoted to the cultivation of the
beautiful and odoriferous Tchennah. A thick grove of
palms seemed to triumph in the refreshment of ; the
water s side, and lifted up their thankful boughs to
wards heaven. The barley harvest in the fields
which lay higher up the hill was over, or at least was
finishing ; and all that remained of the crop was the
incessant and importunate chirping of the cicadce, and
the rude booths of reeds and bulrushes, now left to
wither, in which the peasant boys found shelter from
the sun, while in an earlier month they frightened

B

6 Callista ;

from the grain the myriads of linnets, goldfinches,
and other small birds who, as in other countries, con
tested with the human proprietor the possession of it.
On the south-western slope lies a neat and carefully
dressed vineyard, the vine-stakes of which, dwarfish
as they are, already cast long shadows on the eastern
side. Slaves are scattered" over it, testifying to the
scorching power of the sun by their broad petasus,
and to its oppressive heat by the scanty subligarium,
which reached from the belt or girdle to the knees.
They are engaged in cutting of useless twigs to
which the last showers of spring have given ^birth,
and are twisting those which promise fruit into
positions where they will be safe both from the
breeze and from the sun. Everything gives token
of that gracious and happy season which the great
Latin poets have hymned in their beautiful but
heathen strains ; when, after the heavy rains, and
raw mists, and piercing winds, and fitful sun-gleams
of a long six months, the mighty mother manifests
herself anew, and pours out the resources of her
innermost being for the life and enjoyment of every
portion of the vast whole ; or, to apply the lines of a
modern bard

"When the bare earth, till now
Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorned,
Brings forth the tender grass, whose verdure clads
Her universal face with pleasant green. ;
Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flower,
Opening their various colours, and make gay
Her bosom, swelling sweet ; and, these scarce blown,

A Tale of the Third Century. 7

Forth flourishes the clustering vine, forth creeps
The swelling gourd, up stands the corny reed
Embattled in her fields, and the humble shrub,
And bush with frizzled hair implicit ; last
Eise, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread
Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gem
Their blossoms ; with high woods the hills are crowned ;
With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side ;
With borders long the rivers ; that earth now
Seems like to heaven, a seat where gods might dwell,
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt
Her sacred shades. 1

A snatch from some old Greek chant, with some
thing of plaintiveness in the tone, issues from the
thicket just across the mule-path, cut deep in the
earth, which reaches from the city gate to the
streamlet ; and a youth, who had the appearance of
the assistant bailiff or procurator of the farm, leaped
from it, and went over to the labourers, who were
busy with the vines. His eyes and hair and the cast
of his features spoke of Europe ; his manner had some
thing of shyness and reserve, rather than of rusticity ;
and he wore a simple red tunic with half sleeves,
descending to the knee, and tightened round him by a
belt. His legs and feet were protected by boots which
came half up his calf. He addressed one of the slaves,
and his voice was gentle and cheerful.

"Ah, Sansar ! " he cried, "I don t like your way
of managing these branches so well as my own ; but
it is a difficult thing to move an old fellow like you.
You never fasten together the shoots which you don t
cut off, they are flying about quite wild, and the first

Callista;

ox that passes through the field next month for the
ploughing will break them off."

He spoke in Latin; the man understood it, and
answered him in the same language, though with
deviations from purity of accent and syntax, not
without parallel in the talkee-talkee of the West Indian
negro.

"Ay, ay, master," he said, "ay, ay; but it s all a
mistake to use the plough at all. The fork does the
work much better, and no fear for the grape. I hide
the tendril under the leaf against the sun, which is
the only enemy we have to consider."

" Ah ! but the fork does not raise so much dust as
the plough and the heavy cattle which draw it," re
turned Agellius ; " and the said dust does more for
the protection of the tendril than the shade of the
leaf."

" But those huge beasts," retorted the slave, " turn
up great ridges, and destroy the yard."

" It s no good arguing with an old vinedresser, who
had formed his theory before I was born," said
Agellius good-humouredly ; and he passed on into a
garden beyond.

Here were other indications of the happy month
through which the year was now travelling. The
garden, so to call it, was a space of several acres in
extent ; it was one large bed of roses, and prepara
tion was making for extracting their essence, for
which various parts of that country are to this day
celebrated. Here was another set of labourers, and

A Tale of the Third Century. 9

a man of middle age was surveying them at his leisure.
His business-like, severe, and off-hand manner bespoke
the villicus or bailiff himself.

"Always here," said he, "as if you were a slave,
not a Roman, my good fellow ; yet slaves have their
Saturnalia ; always serving, not worshipping the all-
bounteous and ull-blessed. Why are you not taking-
holiday in the town ? "

" Why should I, sir ? " asked Agellius ; "don t you
recollect old Hiempsal s saying about one foot in
the slipper, and one in the shoe. Nothing would be
done well if I were a town-goer. You engaged me,
I suppose, to be here, not there."

" Ah ! " answered he, " but at this season the empire,
the genius of Rome, the customs of the country,
demand it, and above all the great goddess Astarte
and her genial, jocund month. Parturit almus ager ;
you know the verse; do not be out of tune with
Nature, nor clash and jar with the great system of
the universe."

A cloud of confusion, or of distress, passed over
Agellius s face. He seemed as if he wished to speak ;
at length he merely said, " It s a fault on the right side
in a servant, I suppose."

" I know the way of your people," Vitricus replied,
" Corybantians, Phrygians, Jews, what do you call
yourselves ? There are so many fantastic religions
now-a-days. Hang yourself outright at your house-
door, if you are tired of living and you are a sensible
fellow. How can any man, whose head sits right upon

10 Gallista ;

his shoulders, say that life is worth having, and not
worth enjoying ?

" I ana a quiet being," answered Agellius, " I like the
country, which you think so tame, and care little for
the flaunting town. Tastes differ."

"Town! you need not go to Sicca," answered the
bailiff, "all Sicca is out of town. It has poured into
the fields, and groves, and river side. Lift up your
eyes, man alive, open your ears, and let pleasure flow
in. Be passive under the sweet breath of the goddess,
and she will fill you with ecstasy."

It was as Vitricus had said ; the solemn feast-days
of Astarte were in course of celebration ; of Astarte,
the well-known divinity of Carthage and its dependent
cities, whom Heliogabalus had lately introduced to
Rome, who in her different aspects was at once Urania,
Juno, and Aphrodite, according as she embodied the
idea of the philosopher, the statesman, or the vulgar ;
lofty and intellectual as Urania, majestic and com
manding as Juno, seductive as the goddess of sensuality
and excess.

" There goes the son of as good and frank a soldier
as ever brandished pilum," said Vitricus to himself,
" till in his last years some infernal god took umbrage
at him, and saddled him and his with one of those
absurd superstitions which are as plentiful here as
serpents. He indeed was too old himself to get much
harm from it ; but it shows its sour nature in these
young shoots. A good servant, but the plague s in
his bones, and he will rot/

A Tale of the Third Century. 1 1

His subordinate s reflections were of a different cha
racter : " The very air breathes sin to-day/ he cried ;
" oh that I did not find the taint of the city in these
works of God ! Alas ! sweet Nature, the child of the
Almighty, is made to do the fiend s work, and does it
better than the town. ye beautiful trees and fair
flowers, bright sun and balmy air, what a bondage
ye are in, and how do ye groan till you are redeemed
from it ! Ye are bond-slaves, but not willingly, as
man is ; but how will you ever be turned to nobler
purpose? How is this vast, this solid establishment of
error, the incubus of many thousand years, ever to
have an end ? You yourselves, dear ones, will come
to nought first. Anyhow, the public way is no place
for me this evening. They ll soon be back from their
accursed revelry."

A sound of horns and voices had been heard from
time to time through the woods, as if proceeding from
parties dispersed through them ; and in the growing
twilight might be seen lights, glancing and wandering
through the foliage. The cottage in which Agellius
dwelt was on the other side of the hollow bridle-way
which crossed the hill. To make for home he had
first to walk some little distance along it ; and
scarcely had he descended into it for that purpose,
when he found himself in the front of a band of
revellers, who were returning from some scene of
impious festivity. They were arrayed in holiday
guise, as far as they studied dress at all ; the sym
bols of idolatry were on their foreheads and arms ;

12 Gallista ;

some of them were intoxicated, and most of them were
women.

" Why have you not been worshipping; young
fellow ? " said one.

" Comely built," said another, " but struck by the
furies. I know the cut of him."

" By Astarte," said a third, " he s one of those sly
Gnostics ! I have seen the chap before, with his hang
dog look. He is one of Pluto s whelps, first cousin to
Cerberus, and his name s Channibal."

On which they all began to shout out, " I say,
Channibal, Chaunibal, here s a lad that knows you.
Old fellow, come along with us ; " and the speaker
made a dash at him.

On this Agellius, who was slowly making his way
past them on the broken and steep path, leapt up in
two or three steps to the ridge, and went away in
security ; when one woman cried out, " the toad, I
know him now ; he is a wizard he eats little children ;
didn t you see him make that sign ? it s a charm. My
sister did it j the fool left me to be one of them. She
was ever doing so " (mimicking the sign of the cross) .
" He s a Christian, blight him ! he ll turn us into
beasts."

"Cerberus, bite him!" said another, "he sucks
blood ;" and taking up a stone, she made it whiz past
his ear as he disappeared from view. A general
scream of contempt and hatred followed. " Where s
the ass s head ? put out the lights, pub out the lights !
gibbet him ! that s why he has not been with honest

A Tale of the Third Century. 13

people down in the vale." And then, they struck up
a blasphemous song, the sentiments of "which we are
not going even to conceive, much less to attempt in

words.

14 Callista;

CHAPTER II.

CHRISTIANITY IN SICCA.

THE revellers went on. their way; Agellius went
on his, and made for his lowly and lonely cottage.
He was the elder of the two sons of a Roman legionary
of the Secunda Italica, who had settled with them in
Sicca, where he lost their mother, and died, having in
his old age become a Christian. The fortitude of some
confessors at Carthage in the persecution of Severus
had been the initial cause of his conversion. He
had been posted as one of their guards, and had
attended them to the scene of their martyrdom,
in addition to the civil force, to whom in the pro
consulate the administration of the law was committed.
Therefore, happily for him, it could not fall to his
duty to be their executioner, a function which, however
revolting to his feelings, he might not have had courage
to decline. He remained a pagan, though he could not
shake off the impression which the martyrs had made
upon him ; and, after completing his time of service, he
retired to the protection of some great friends in Sicca,
his brother s home already. Here he took a second
wife of the old Numidian stock, and supported him
self by the produce of a small piece of land which had
been given to him for life by the imperial government.

A Tale of the Third Century. 15

If trial were necessary in order to keep alive the good
seed which had been sown in his heart,, he found a
never-failing supply of that article in the companion of
his declining years. In the hey-day of her youth she
might have been fitted to throw a sort of sunshine, or
rather torchlight, on a military carouse ; but now, when
poor Strabo, a man well to do in the world, looking
for peace, had fallen under her arts, he found he had
surrendered his freedom to a malignant, profligate
woman, whose passions made her better company for
evil spirits than for an invalided soldier. Indeed, as
time went on, the popular belief, which she rather
encouraged, went to the extent that she actually did
hold an intercourse with the unseen world ; and cer
tainly she matured in a hatred towards God and man,
which would naturally follow, and not unnaturally
betoken, such intercourse. The more, then, she
inflicted on him her proficiency in these amiable
characteristics, the more he looked out for some con
solation elsewhere; and the more she involved herself
in the guilt or the repute of unlawful arts, the more
was he drawn to that religion, where alone to com
mune with the invisible is to hold intercourse with
heaven, not with hell. Whether so great a trial
supplied a more human inducement for looking
towards Christianity, it is impossible to say. Most
men, certainly Roman soldiers, may be considered to
act on mixed motives; but so it was in fact, that, on
his becoming in his last years a Christian, he found,
perhaps discovered, to his great satisfaction, that the

16 Callistaj

Church did not oblige him to continue or renew a tie
which bound him to so much misery, and that he
might end his days in a tranquillity which his past
life required, and his wife s presence would have
precluded. He made a good end; he had been
allowed to take the blessed sacrament from the altar
to his own home on the last time he had been able
to attend a synaxis of the faithful, and thus had
communicated at least six months within his decease ;
and the priest who anointed him at the beginning of
his last illness also took his confession. He died,
begging forgiveness of all whom he had injured, and
giving large alms to the poor. This was about the
year 236, in the midst of that long peace of the
Church, which was broken at length by the Decian
persecution.

This peace of well-nigh fifty years had necessarily
a peculiar, and not a happy effect upon the Christians
of the proconsulate. They multiplied in the greater
and the maritime cities, and made their way into
positions of importance, whether in trade or the
governmental departments ; they extended their
family connections, and were on good terms with the
heathen. Whatever jealousy might be still cherished
against the Christian name, nevertheless, individual
Christians were treated with civility,, and recognised
as citizens ; though among the populace there would
be occasions, at the time of the more solemn pagan
feasts, when accidental outbursts might be expected
of the antipathy latent in the community, as we have

A Tale of the Third, Century. 17

been recording in the foregoing chapter. Men of
sense, however, began to understand them better, and
to be more just to the reasonableness of their faith.
This would lead them to scorn Christianity less, but
it would lead them to fear it more. It was no longer
a matter merely for the populace to insult, but for
government deliberately to put down. The prevail
ing and still growing unbelief among the lower classes
of the population did but make a religion more
formidable, which, as heathen statesmen felt, was
able to wield the weapons of enthusiasm and zeal
with a force and success unknown even to the most
fortunate impostors among the Oriental or Egyptian
hierophants. The philosophical schools were im
pressed with similar apprehensions, and had now for
fifty years been employed in creating and systematis-
ing a new intellectual basis for the received paganism.
But, while the signs of the times led to the antici
pation that a struggle was impending between the
heads of the state religion and of the new worship which
was taking its place, the great body of Christians,
laymen and ecclesiastics, were on better and better
terms, individually, with the members of society, or
what is now called the public ; and without losing
their faith or those embers of charity which favour
able circumstances would promptly rekindle, were
it must be confessed, in a state of considerable relaxa
tion ; they often were on the brink of deplorable
sins, and sometimes fell over the brink. And many
would join the Chuvch on inferior motives as soon as

IS Callista ;

no great temporal disadvantage attached to the act ;
or the families of Christian parents might grow up
with so little of moral or religions education as to
make it difficult to say why they called themselves
members of a divine religion. Mixed marriages would
increase both the scandal and the confusion.

" A long repose," says St. Cyprian, speaking of
this very period, " had corrupted the discipline which
had come down to us. Every one was applying
himself to the increase of wealth ; and, forgetting
both the conduct of the faithful under the Apostles,
and what ought to be their conduct in every age,
with insatiable eagerness for gain devoted himself to
the multiplying of possessions. The priests were
wanting in religious devotedness, the ministers in
entireness of faith ; there was no mercy in works, no
discipline in manners. Men wore their beards dis
figured, and woman dyed their faces. Their eyes
were changed from what Grod made them, and a lying
colour was passed upon the hair. The hearts of the
simple were misled by treacherous artifices, and
brethren became entangled in seductive snares. Ties
of marriage were formed with unbelievers ; members
of Christ abandoned to the heathen. Not only rash
swearing was heard, but even false ; persons in high
place were swollen with contemptuousness ; poisoned
reproaches fell from their mouths, and men were
sundered by unabating quarrels. Numerous bishops,
who ought to be an encouragement and example to
others, despising their sacred calling, engaged them-

A Tale of the Third Century. 19

selves in secular vocations, relinquished their sees,
deserted their people, strayed among foreign pro
vinces, hunted the markets for mercantile profits, and
tried to amass large sums of money, while they had
brethren starving within the Church ; took possession
of estates by fraudulent proceedings, and multiplied
their gains by accumulated usuries." *

The relaxation which would extend the profession
of Christianity in the larger cities would contract or
extinguish it in remote or country places. There
would be little zeal to keep up Churches, which could
not be served without an effort or without secular loss.
Carthage, Utica, Hippo, Milevis, or Curubis, was a
more attractive residence than the towns with uncouth
African names, which amaze the ecclesiastical student
in the Acts of the Councils. Vocations became scarce ;
sees remained vacant ; congregations died out. This
was pretty much the case with the Church and see of
Sicca. At the time of which we write, history pre
serves no record of any bishop as exercising his pas
toral functions in that city. In matter of fact there
was none. The last bishop, an amiable old man, had
in the course of years acquired a considerable extent
of arable land, and employed himself principally, for
lack of more spiritual occupation, in reaping, stacking,
selling, and sending off his wheat for the Roman
market. His deacon had been celebrated in early
youth for his boldness in the chase, and took part in
the capture of lions and panthers (an act of charity
1 Vide Oxford transl. of St. Cyprian.

20 Callistaj

towards the peasants round Sicca) for the Roman
amphitheatre. No priests were to be found, and the
bishop became parochus till his death. Afterwards
infants and catechumens lost baptism ; parents lost
faith, or at least love ; wanderers lost repentance and
conversion. For a while there was a nourishing meet
ing-house of Tertullianists, who had scared more
humble minds by pronouncing the eternal perdition
of every. Catholic ; there had also been various de
scriptions of Gnostics, who had carried off the clever
youths and restless speculators ; and then there had
been the lapse of time, gradually consuming the gene
ration which had survived the flourishing old days
of the African Church. And the result was, that in the
year 250 it was difficult to say of whom the Church
of Sicca consisted. There was no bishop, no priest,
no deacon. There was the old mansionarius or
sacristan ; there were two or three pious women,
married or single, who owed their religion to good
mothers ; there were some slaves who kept to their
faith, no one knew how or why ; there were a vast
many persons who ought to be Catholics, but were
heretics, or nothing at all, or all but pagans, and sure
to become pagans on the asking ; there were Agellius
and his brother Juba, and how far these two had a
claim to the Christian name we now proceed to
explain.

They were about the ages of seven and eight when
their father died, and they fell under the guardianship
of their uncle, whose residence at Sicca had been one

A Tale of the Third Century. 21

of the reasons which determined Strabo to settle there.
This man, being possessed of some capital, drove a
thriving trade in idols, large and small, amulets, and
the like instruments of the established superstition.
His father had come to Carthage in the service of one
of the assessors of the proconsul of the day ; and his
son, finding competition ran too high to give him pro
spect of remuneration in the metropolis, had opened
his statue-shop in Sicca. Those modern arts which
enable an English town in this day to be so fertile in
the production of ware of this description for the
markets of the pagan East, were then unknown ;
and Jucundus depended on certain artists whom he
imported, especially on two. Greeks, brother and sister,
who came from some isle on the Asian coast, for the
supply of his trade. He was a good-natured man,
self-indulgent, positive, and warmly attached to the
reigning paganism, both as being the law of the land
and the vital principle of the state ; and, while he was
really kind to his orphan nephews, he simply abomi
nated, as in duty bound, the idiotic cant and impudent
fee-fa-fum, to which, in his infallible judgment, poor
old Strabo had betrayed his children. He would
have restored them, you may be quite sure, to their
country and to their country s gods, had they
acquiesced in the restoration : but in different ways
these little chaps, and he shook his head as he said
it, were difficult to deal with. Agellius had a very
positive opinion of his own on the matter; and as for
Juba, though he had no opinion at all, yet he had an

c

22 Calllsta ;

equally positive aversion to have thrust on him by
another any opinion at all, even in favour of paganism.
He had remained in his catechumen state since he
grew up, because he found himself in it ; and though
nothing would make him go forward in his profession of
Christianity, no earthly power would be able to make
him go back. So there he was, like a mule, struck fast
in the door of the Church, and feeling a gratification
in his independence of mind. However, whatever his
profession might be, still, as time went on, he plainly
took after his step-mother, renewed his intercourse with
her after his father s death, and at length went so far
as to avow that he believed in nothing but the devil,
if even he believed in him. It was scarcely safe, how
ever, to affirm that the senses cf this hopeful lad were
his own.

Agellius, on the other hand, when a boy of six
years old, had insisted on receiving baptism ; had per
plexed his father by a manifestation of zeal to which
the old man was a stranger; and had made the good
bishop lose the corn-fleet which was starting for Italy
from his importunity to learn the Catechism. Baptized
he was, confirmed, communicated ; but a boy s nature
is variable, and by the time Agellius had reached ado
lescence, the gracious impulses of his childhood had in
some measure faded away, though he still retained his
faith in its first keenness and vigour. But he had no
one to keep him up to his duty ; no exhortations, no
example, no sympathy. His father s friends had taken
him up so far as this, that by an extraordinary favour

A Tale of the Third Century. 23

they had got him a lease for some years of the pro
perty which Strabo, a veteran soldier, had held of
the imperial government. The care of this small
property fell upon him, and another and more serious
charge was added to it. The long prosperity of the
province had increased the opulence and enlarged the
upper class of Sicca. Officials, contractors, and ser
vants of the government had made fortunes, and
raised villas in the neighbourhood of the city. Natives
of the place, returning from Rome, or from provincial
service elsewhere, had invested their gains in long
leases of state lauds, or of the farms belonging to the
imperial res privata or privy purse, and had become
virtual proprietors of the rich fields or beautiful
gardens in which they had played as children. One of
such persons, who had had a place in the ojficium of
the quasstor, or rather procurator, as he began to be
called, was the employer of Agellius. His property
adjoined the cottage of the latter ; and, having first
employed the youth from recollection of his father, he
confided to him the place of under-bailiff from the
talents he showed for farm-business.

Such was his position at the early age of twenty-
two ; but honourable as it was in itself, and from the
mode in which it was obtained, no one would consider
it adapted, under the circumstances, to counteract the
religious languor and coldness which had grown upon
him. And in truth he did not know where he stood
further than that he was firm in faith, as we have said,
and had shrunk, from a boy upwards, from the vice

c 2

24 CaUista;

and immorality which was the very atmosphere of
Sicca. He might any day be betrayed into some fatal
inconsistency, which would either lead him into sin, or
oblige him abruptly to retrace his steps, and find a
truer and safer position. He was not generally
known to be a Christian, at least for certain, though
he was seen to keep clear of the established religion.
It was not that he bid, so much as that the world did
not care to know, what he believed. In that day there
were many rites and worships which kept to them
selves many forms of moroseness or misanthropy, as
they were considers d, which withdrew their votaries
from the public ceremonial. The Catholic faith
seemed to the multitude to be one of these ; it was
only in critical times, when some idolatrous act was
insisted on by the magistrate, that the specific nature
of Christianity was tested and detected. Then at
length it was seen to differ from all other religious
varieties by that irrational and disgusting obstinacy, as
it was felt to be, which had rather suffer torments and
lose life than submit to some graceful, or touching, or
at least trifling observance which the tradition of ages
had sanctioned.

A Tale of lie Third Century. ->

CHAPTER III.

AGELLIUS IN HIS COTTAGE.

THE cottage for which Agellius was making, when
last we had sight of him, was a small brick house con
sisting of one room, with a loft over it, and a kitchen
on the side, not very unlike that holy habitation which
once contained the Eternal Word in human form with
His Virgin Mother, and Joseph, their guardian. It was
situated on the declivity of the hill, and, unlike the
gardens of Italy, the space before it was ornamented
with a plot of turf. A noble palm on one side, in
spite of its distance from the water, and a group of
orange-trees on the other, formed a foreground to the
rich landscape which was described in our opening
chapter. The borders and beds were gay with the
lily, the bacchar, amber-coloured and purple, the
golden abrotomus, the red chelidonium, and the varie
gated iris. Against the wall of the house were trained
pomegranates, with their crimson blossoms, the star-
like pothos or jessamine, and the symbolical passion
flower, which well became a Christian dwelling.

And it was an intimation of what would be found
within ; for on one side of the room was rudely painted
a red cross, with doves about it, as is found in early

26 Callista ;

Christian shrines to this day. So long had been the
peace of the Church, that the tradition of persecution
seemed to have been lost ; and Christians allowed
themselves in the profession of their faith at home,
cautious as they might be in public places ; as freely
as now in England, where we do not* scruple to raise
crucifixes within our churches and houses, though we
shrink from doing so within sight of the hundred cabs
and omnibuses which rattle past them. Under the
cross were two or three pictures, or rather sketches.
In the centre stood the Blessed Virgin with hands
spread out in prayer, attended by the holy Apostles
Peter and Paul on her right and left. Under this
representation was rudely scratched upon the wall
the word, " Advocata," a title which the earliest anti
quity bestows upon her. On a small shelf was placed
a case with two or three rolls or sheets o parchment
in it. The appearance of them spoke of use indeed,
but of reverential treatment. These were the Psalms,
the Gospel according to St. Luke, and St. Paul s
Epistle to the Koruans, in the old Latin version, The
Gospel was handsomely covered, and ornamented with
gold.

The apartment was otherwise furnished with such
implements and materials as might be expected in the
cottage of a countryman : one or two stools and
benches for sitting, a table, and in one corner a heap
of dried leaves and rushes, with a large crimson
coverlet, for rest at night. Elsewhere were two mill
stones fixed in a frame, with a handle attached to the

A Tale of the Third Century. 27

rim of one of them, for grinding corn. Then again,
garden tools ; boxes o seeds ; a vessel containing
syrup for assuaging the sting of the scorpion; the
asir-rese or anagallis, a potent medicine of the class
of poisons, which was taken in wine for the same mis
chance. It hung from the beams, with a large bunch
of atsirtiphua, a sort of camomile, smaller in the flower
and more fragrant than our own, which was used as a
febrifuge. Thence, too, hung a plentiful gathering of
dried grapes, of the kind called duracince ; and near the
door a bough of the green baryut or psyllium, to drive
away the smaller insects.

Poor Agellius felt the contrast between the ungodly
turmoil from which he had escaped, and the deep
stillness into which he now had entered ; but neither
satisfied him quite. There was no repose out of
doors, and no relief within. He was lonely at home,
lonely in the crowd. He needed the sympathy of his
kind; hearts which might beat with his heart ; friends
with whom he might share his joys and griefs ;
advisers whom he might consult; minds like his own,
who would understand him minds unlike his own,
who would succour and respond to him. A very
great trial certainly this, in which the soul is flung
back upon itself; and that especially in the case of
the young, for whom memory and experience do so
little, and wayward and excited feelings do so much.
Great gain had it been for Agellius, even in its
natural effect, putting aside higher benefits, to have
been able to recur to sacramental confession ; but to

28 Callista;

confession he had never been, though once or twice he
had attended the public homologesis of the Church.
Shall we wonder that the poor youth began to be
despondent and impatient under his trial ? Shall we
not feel for him, though we may be sorry for him,
should it turn out that he was looking restlessly into
every corner of the small world of acquaintance in
which his lot lay, for those with whom he could con
verse easily, and interchange speculation, argument,
aspiration, and affection ?

"No one cares for me," he said, as he sat down on
his rustic bench. " I am nothing to any one ; I am a
hermit, like Elias or John, without the call to be one.
Yet even Elias felt the burden of being one against
many ; even John asked at length in expostulation,
Art Thou He that shall come ? Am I for ever to
have the knowledge, without the consolation, of the
truth? am I for ever to belong to a great divine
society, yet never see the face of any of its members ? "

He paused in his thoughts, as if drinking in the
full taste and measure of his unhappiness. And then
his reflections took a turn, and he said, suddenly,
" Why do I not leave Sicca ? What binds me to my
father s farm ? I am young, and my interest in it will
soon expire. What keeps me from Carthage, Hippo,
Cirtha, where Christians are so many ? " But here he
stopped as suddenly as he had begun; and a strano-e
feeling, half pang, half thrill, went through his heart.
And he felt unwilling to pursue his thought, or to
answer the question which he had asked ; and he

A Tale of the Third Century. 29

settled into a dull, stagnant condition of mind, in which
he seemed hardly to think at all.

Be of good cheer, solitary one, though thou art not
a hero yet ! There is One that cares for thee, and
loves thee, more than thou canst feel, love, or care for
thyself. Cast all thy care upon Him. He sees thee,
and is watching thee ; He is hanging over thee, and
smiles in compassion at thy troubles. His angel, who
is thine, is whispering good thoughts to thee. He
knows thy weakness ; He foresees thy errors ; but He
holds thee by thy right hand, and thou shalt not, canst
not escape Him. By thy faith, which thou hast so
simply, resolutely retained in the midst of idolatry ;
by thy purity, which, like some fair flower, thou hast
cherished in the midst of pollution, He will remember
thee in thy evil hour, and thine enemy shall not pre
vail against thee !

What means that smile upon Agellius s face ? It
is the response of the child to the loving parent. He
knows not why, but the cloud is past. He signs him
self with the holy cross, and sweet reviving thoughts
enliven him. He names the sacred Name, and it is
like ointment poured out upon his soul. He rises ;
he kneels down under the dread symbol of his salva
tion ; and he begins his evening prayer.

30 Callista ;

CHAPTER IV.

JCJBA.

THERE was more of heart, less of effort, less of
mechanical habit, in Agellius s prayers that night,
than there had been for a long while before. He got
up, struck a light, and communicated it to his small
earthen lamp. Its pale rays feebly searched the room
and discovered at the other end of it Juba, who had
silently opened the door, and sat down near it, while
his brother was employed upon his devotions. The
countenance of the latter fell, for he was not to go to
sleep with the resignation and peace which had just
before been poured into his breast. Yet why should
he complain ? we receive consolation in this world for
the very purpose of preparing us against trouble to
come. Juba was a tall, swarthy, wild-looking youth.
He was holding his head on one side as he sat, and
his face towards the roof ; he nodded obliquely, arched
his eyebrows, pursed up his lips, and crossed his arms,
while he gave utterance to a strange, half- whispered
laugh.

"He, he, he!" he cried; " so you are on your knees,
Agellius."

" Why shouldn t I be at this hour," answered Agellius,
"and before I go to bed ?

A Tale of the Third Century. 31

" 0, every one to his taste, of course," said Juba ;
" but to an unprejudiced mind there is something
unworthy in the act."

" Why, Juba ? " said his brother somewhat sharply ;
" don t you profess any religion at all ?

" Perhaps I do, and perhaps I don t," answered
Juba; " but never shall it be a bowing and scraping,
crawling and cringing religion. You may take your
oath of that."

"What ails you to come here at this time of
night ? " asked Agellius ; " who asked for your com
pany ?

" I will come just when I please/ 3 said the other,
" and go when I please. I won t give an account of
my actions to any one, God or man, devil or priest,
much less to you. What right have you to ask me ? ;

" Then," said Agellius, " you ll never get peace or
comfort as long as you live, that I can tell you, let
alone the life to come."

Juba kept silent for awhile, and bit his nails with
a smile on his face, and his eyes looking askance upon
the ground. " I want no more than I have ; I am well
content," he said.

" Contented with yourself," retorted Agellius.

"Of course," Juba replied; " whom ought one to wish
rather to content ? :

" I suppose, your Creator."

" Creator," answered Juba, tossing back his head
with an air of superiority ; " Creator ; that, I consider,
is an assumption."

32 Callista;

"0, my dear brother," cried Agellius, " don t go on
in that dreadful way ! "

" Go on ! who began ? Is one man to lay down
the law, and not the other too? Is it so generally
received, this belief of a Creator ? Who have brought
in the belief ? The Christians. Tis the Christians
that began it. The world went on very well without
it before their rise. Aud now, who began the dispute
but you ?

" Well, if I did," answered Agellius ; " but I didn t.
You began in coming here ; what in the world are
you come for ? by what right do you disturb me at
this hour ? "

There was no appearance of anger in Juba ; he
seemed as free from feeling of every kind, from what
is called heart, as if he had been a stone. In answer
to his brother s question, he quietly said, " I have been
down there," pointing in the direction of the woods.

An expression of sharp anguish passed over his
brother s face, and for a moment he was silent. At
length he said, "You don t mean to say you have been
down to poor mother ? "

" I do," said Juba.

There was again a silence for a little while ; then
Agellius renewed the conversation. " You have fallen
off sadly, Juba, in the course of the last several years."

Juba tossed his head, and crossed his legs.

" At one time I thought you would have been bap
tized," his brother continued.

" That was my weakness," answered Juba ; " it was

A Tale of the Third Century. 33

a weak moment : it was just after the old bishop s
death. He had been kind to me as a child and he
said some womanish words to me, and it was excusable

in me."

" Oh that you had yielded to your wish ! " cried
Agellius.

Juba looked superior. " The fit passed/ he said.
" I have come to a juster view of things. It is not
every one who has the strength of mind. I con
sider that a logical head comes to a very different
conclusion ;" and he began wagging his own, to
the right and left, as if it were coming to a great
many.

" Well," said Agellius, gaping, and desiring at least
to come to a conclusion of the altercation, " what
brings you here so late ? "

" I was on my way to Jucundus," he answered, " and
have been delayed by the Succoth-benoth in the grove
across the river."

Here they were thrown back upon their controversy.
Agellius turned quite white. " My poor fellow," he
said, " what were you there for ? "

" To see the world," answered Juba ; " it s unmanly
not to see it. Why shouldn t I see it ? It was good
fun. I despise them all, fools and idiots. There
they were, scampering about, or lying like hogs, all in
liquor. Apes and swine ! However, I will do as
others do, if I please. I will be as drunk as they,
when I see good. I am my own master, and it would
be no kind of harm."

34 Callista i

" N"o harm ! why, is it no harm to become an ape or
a hog ? "

"You don t take just views of human nature/
answered Juba, with a self-satisfied air. " Our first
duty is to seek our own happiness. If a man thinks
it happier to be a hog, why, let him be a hog," and he
laughed. " This is where you are narrow-minded. I
shall seek my own happiness, and try this way, if I
please."

" Happiness ! " cried Agellius ; " where have you
been picking up all this stuff ? Can you call such
detestable filth happiness ? "

" What do you know about such matters ? " asked
Juba. " Did you ever see them ? Did you ever try
them ? You would be twice the man you are if you
had. You will not be a man till you do. You are
carried off your legs in your own way. I d rather get
drunk every day than fall down on all fours as you do,
crawling on your stomach like a worm, and whining
like a hound that has been beaten."

"Now, as I live, you shan t stop here one instant
longer ! " cried out Agellius, starting up. " Be off with
you ! get away ! what do you come here to blaspheme
for ? who wants you ? who asked for you ? Go ! go, I
say ! take yourself off ? Why don t you go ? Keep
your ribaldry for others."

" I am as good as you any day/ said Juba.

"I don t set myself up," answered .Agellius, "but
it s impossible to confound Christian and unbeliever as
you do."

A Tale of the Third Century. 35

11 Christian and unbeliever ! " said Juba, slowly. " I
suppose, when they are a-courting each other, they are
confounded." He looked hard at Agellius, as if he
thought he had hit a blot. Then he continued, " If I
were a Christian, I d be so in earnest : else I d be an
honest heathen."

Agellius coloured somewhat, and sat down, as if
under embarrassment.

" I despise you," said Juba ; " you have not the
pluck to be a Christian. Be consistent, and fizz upon
a stake; but you re not made of that stuff. You re
even afraid of uncle. Nay, you can be caught by
those painted wares, about which, when it suits your
purpose, you can be so grave. I despise you/ he
continued, " I despise you, and the whole kit of you.
What s the difference between you and another ?
Your people say, Earth s a vanity, life s a dream, riches
a deceit, pleasure a snare. Fratres charissimi, the time
is short ; but who love earth and life and riches and
pleasure better than they ? You are all of you as fond
of the world, as set upon gain, as chary of reputation, as
ambitious of power, as the jolly old heathen, who, you
say, is going the way of the pit."

" It is one thing to have a conscience," answered
Agellius ; " another thing to act upon it. The con
science of these poor people is darkened. You had a

conscience once."

" Conscience, conscience," said Juba. " Yes, cer
tainly, once I had a conscience. Yes, and once I
had a bad chill, and went about chattering and

36 Callista ;

shivering ; and once I had a game leg, and then I
went limping; and so, you see, I once on a time
had a conscience. yes, I have had many con
sciences before now white, black, yellow, and green ;
they were all bad ; but they are all gone, and now I
have none."

Agellius said nothing; his one wish, as may be
supposed, was to get rid of so unwelcome a visitor.

" The truth is," continued Juba, with the air of
a teacher " the truth is, that religion was a fashion
with me, which is now gone by. It was the com
plexion of a particular stage of my life. I was
neither the better nor the worse for it. It was an
accident, like the bloom on my face, which soon/
he said, spreading his fingers over his dirty-coloured
cheeks, and striking them, " which soon will disappear.
I acted according to the feeling, while it lasted ; but
I can no more recall it than my first teeth, or the down
on my chin. It s among the things that were."

Agellius still keeping silence from weariness and
disgust, he looked at him in a significant way, and said,
slowly, " I see how it is ; I have penetration enough to
perceive that you don t believe a bit more about religion
than I do."

"You must not say that under my roof," cried
Agellius, feeling he must not let his brother s charge
pass without a protest. "Many are my sins, but un
belief is not one of them."

Juba tossed his head. " I think I can see through
a stone slab as well as any one," he said. " It is

A Tale of the Third Century. 37

as I have said ; but you re too proud to confess id
It s part of your hypocrisy."

" Well/ said Agellius coldly, " let s have done.
It s getting late, Juba; you ll be missed at home.
Jucundus will be inquiring for you, and some of those
revelling friends of yours may do you a mischief by
the way. Why, my good fellow," he continued, in sur
prise, " you have no leggings. The scorpions will catch
hold of you to a certainty in the dark. Come, let me
tie some straw wisps about you."

" No fear of scorpions for me," answered Juba ; " I
have some real good amulets for the occasion, which
even boola-kog and uffdh will respect."

Saying this, he passed out of the room as uncere
moniously as he had entered it, and took the direction
of the city, talking to himself, and singing snatches of
wild airs as he went along, throwing back and shaking
his head, and now and then uttering a sharp internal
laugh. Disdaining to follow the ordinary path, he
dived down into the thick and wet grass, and scrambled
through the ravine, which the public road crossed before
it ascended the hill. Meanwhile he accompanied his
quickened pace with a louder strain, and it ran as
follows :

" The little black Moor is the mate for me,
When the night is dark, and the earth is free,
Under the limbs of the broad yew-tree.

" Twas Father Cham that planted that yew,
And he fed it fat with the bloody dew
Of a score of brats, as his lineage grew.

D

Callista ;

" Footing and flaunting it, all in the night,
Each lock flings fire, each heel strikes light ;
No lamps need they, whose breath is bright."

Here he was interrupted by a sudden growl, which
sounded almost under his feet, and some wild animal
was seen to slink away. Juba showed no surprise ;
he had taken out a small metal idol, and whispering
some words to it, had presented it to the animal. He
clambered up the bank, gained the city gate, and made
his way for his uncle s dwelling, which was near the
temple of Astarte.

A Tale of the Third Century. 39

CHAPTER V.

JUCUNDUS AT SUPPER.

THE house of Jucundus was closed for the night when
Juba reached it, or you would see, were you his com
panion, that it was one of the most showy shops in
Sicca. It was the image-store of the place, and set
out for sale, not articles of statuary alone, but of metal,
of mosaic work, and of jewellery, as far as they were
dedicated to the service of paganism. It was bright
with the many colours adopted in the embellishment
of images, and the many lights which silver and gold,
brass and ivory, alabaster, gypsum, talc, and glass
reflected. Shelves and cabinets were laden with
wares ; both the precious material, and the elaborated
trinket. All tastes were suited, the popular and the
refined, the fashion of the day and the love of the
antique, the classical and the barbarian devotion.
There you might see the rude symbols of invisible
powers, which, originating in deficiency of art, had
been perpetuated by reverence for the past : the
mysterious cube of marble sacred among the Arabs,
the pillar which was the emblem of Mercury or
Bacchus, the broad-based cone of Heliogabalus, the
pyramid of Paphos, and the tile or brick of Juno.

D 2

40 Callista ;

There, too, were the unmeaning blocks of stone with
human heads, which were to be dressed out in rich
robes, and to simulate the human form. There were
other articles besides, as portable as these were un
manageable : little Junos, Mercuries, Dianas, and
Fortunas, for the bosom or the girdle. Household gods
were there, and the objects of personal devotion :
Minerva or Vesta, with handsome niches or shrines in
which they might reside. There ; too, were the brass
crowns, or nimbi which were intended to protect the
heads of the gods from bats and birds. There you
might buy, were you a heathen, rings with heads on
them of Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Serapis, and above all
Astarte. You would find there the rings and signets of
the Basilidians ; amulets too of wood or ivory : figures
of demons, preternaturally ugly ; little skeletons, and
other superstitious devices. It would be hard, indeed,
if you could not be pleased, whatever your religious
denomination unless indeed you were determined to
reject all the appliances and objects of idolatry indis
criminately and in that case you would rejoice that
it was night when you arrived there, and, in particular,
that darkness swallowed up other appliances and
objects of pagan worship, which to darkness were
due by a particular title, and by darkness were best
shrouded, till the coming of that day when all things,
good and evil, shall be made light.

The shop, as we have said, was closed, concealed
from view by large lumbering shutters, and made
secure by heavy bars of wood. So we must enter by

A Tale of the Third Century. 41

the passage or vestibule on the right side, and that
will conduct us into a modest atrium, with an iniplu-
vium on one side, and on the other the triclinium or
supper-room, backing the shop. Jucundus had been
pleasantly engaged in a small supper-party ; and,, mind
ful that a symposium should lie within the number of
the Graces and of the Muses, he had confined his guests
to two, the young Greek Aristo, who was one of his
principal artists, and Cornelius the sou of a freedman
of a Roman of distinction, who had lately got a place
in one of the scrinia of the proconsular officium, and
had migrated into the province from the imperial city
where he had spent his best days.

The dinner had not been altogether suitable to
modern ideas of good living. The grapes from Tacape,
and the dates from the lake Tritonis, the white and
black figs, the nectarines and peaches, and the water
melons, address themselves to the imagination of an
Englishman, as well as of an African of the third cen
tury. So also might the liquor derived from the sap
or honey of the Getulian palm, and the sweet wine,
called melilotus, made from the poetical fruit found
upon the coast of the Syrtis. He would have been
struck, too, with the sweetness of the mutton ; but he
would have asked what the sheep s tails were before
he tasted them, and found how like marrow the firm
substance ate of which they consisted. He would
have felt he ought to admire the roes of mullets,
pressed and dried, from Mauritania; but he would
have thought twice before he tried the lion cutlets,

42 Callista;

though they had the flavour of veal,, and the additional
gout of being imperial property, and poached from a
preserve. But when he saw the indigenous dish, the
very haggis and cock-a-leekie of Africa, in the shape of
(alas ! alas ! it must be said, with whatever apology
for its introduction) in shape, then, of a delicate
puppy, served up with tomatos, with its head between
its fore-paws, we consider he would have risen from
the unholy table, and thought he had fallen upon the
hospitality of some sorceress of the neighbouring forest.
However, to that festive board our Briton was not
invited, for he had some previous engagement that
evening, either of painting himself with woad, or of
hiding himself to the chin in the fens ; so that nothing
occurred to disturb the harmony of the party, and the
good humour and easy conversation which was the
effect of such excellent cheer.

Cornelius had been present at the Secular Games in
the foregoing year, and was full of them, of Rome,
and of himself in connection with it, as became so
genuine a cockney of the imperial period. He was full
of the high patriotic thoughts which so solemn a cele
bration had kindled within him. " great Home ! "
he said, " thou art first, and there is no second. In
that wonderful pageant which these eyes saw last year
was embodied her majesty, was promised her eternity.
We die, she lives. I say, let a man die. It s well for
him to take hemlock, or open a vein, after having seen
the Secular Games. What was there to live for ? I
felt it ; life was gone ; its best gifts flat and insipid

A Tale of the Tldrd Century. 43

after that great day. Excellent Tauromenian, I
suppose ? We know it in Rome. Fill up my cup. I
drink to the genius of the emperor/

He was full of his subject, and soon resumed it.
" Fancy the Campus Martius lighted up from one end
to the other. It was the finest thing in the world. A
large plain, covered, not with streets, not with woods,
but broken and crossed with superb buildings in the
midst of groves, avenues of trees, and green grass,
down to the water s edge. There s nothing that isn t
there. Do you want the grandest temples in the
world, the most spacious porticoes, the longest race
courses ? there they are. Do you want gymnasia ?
there they are. Do you want arches, statues, obelisks ?
you find them there. There you have at one end the
stupendous mausoleum of Augustus, cased with white
marble, and just across the river the huge towering
mound of Hadrian. At the other end you have
the noble Pantheon of Agrippa, with its splendid
Syracusan columns, and its dome glittering with silver
tiles. Hard by are the baths of Alexander, with their
beautiful groves. Ah ! my good friend ! I shall
have no time to drink if I go on. Beyond are the
numerous chapels and fanes which fringe the base
of the Capitoline hill ; the tall column of Antoninus
comes next, with its adjacent basilica, where is kept
the authentic list of the provinces of the empire, and
of the governors, each a king in power and dominion,
who are sent out to them. Well, I am now only
beginning. Fancy, I say, this magnificent region all

44 Callista ;

lighted up ; every temple to and fro, every bath, every
grove, gleaming with innumerable lamps and torches.
No, not even the gods of Olympus have anything that
comes near it. Rome is the greatest of all divinities.
In the dead of night all was alive ; then it was,
when nature sleeps exhausted, Rome began the
solemn sacrifices to commemorate her thousand years.
On the banks of the Tiber, which had seen .^Eneas
land, and Romulus ascend to the gods, the clear red
flame shot up as the victims burned. The music of
ten thousand horns and flutes burst forth, and the
sacred dances began upon the greensward. I am too
old to dance; but, I protest, even I stood up and
threw off. We danced through three nights, dancing
the old millenary out, dancing the new millenary
in. We were all Romans, no strangers, no slaves.
It was a solemn family feast, the feast of all the
Romans."

" Then we came in for the feast/ said Aristo ; " for
Caracalla gave Roman citizenship to all freemen all
over the world. We are all of us Romans, recollect,
Cornelius."

" Ah ! that was another matter a condescension,"
answered Cornelius. " Yes, in a certain sense, I grant
it ; but it was a political act. 3

" I warrant you," retorted Aristo, " most political.
We were to be fleeced, do you see ? so your imperial
government made us Romans, that we might have the
taxes of Romans, and that in addition to our own.
You ve taxed us double 3 and as for the privilege of

A Talc of the Third Century. 45

citizenship, much it is, by Hercules, when every snob
has it who can wear a pileus or cherish, his hair."

" Ah ! but you should have seen the procession from
the Capitol," continued Cornelius, " on, I think, the
second day ; from the Capitol to the Circus, all down
the Via Sacra. Hosts of strangers there, and pro
vincials from the four corners of the earth, but not in
the procession. There you saw, all in one coup-d oeil,
the real good blood of Eome, the young blood of the
new generation, and promise of the future ; the sons
of patrician and consular families, of imperators,
orators, conquerors, statesmen. They rode at the head
of the procession, fine young fellows, six abreast ; and
still more of them on foot. Then came the running
horses and the chariots, the boxers, the wrestlers,
and other combatants, all ready for the competition.
The whole school of gladiators then turned out, boys
and all, with their masters, dressed in red tunics, and
splendidly armed. They formed three bands, and they
went forward gaily, dancing and singing the Pyrrhic.
By-the-bye, a thousand pair of gladiators fought
during the games a round thousand, and such clean-
made, well-built fellows, and they came against each
other so gallantly ! You should have see it ; I
can t go through it. There was a lot of satyrs,
jumping and frisking, in burlesque of the martial
dances which preceded them. There was a crowd of
trumpeters and horn-blowers,- ministers of the sacri
fices with their victims, bulls and rams, dressed up
with gay wreaths ; drivers, butchers, haruspices,

46 Callista ;

heralds ; images of gods with their cars of ivory or
silver, drawn by tame lions and elephants. I can t
recollect the order. ! but the grandest thing of
all was the Carmen, sung by twenty-seven noble
youths, and as many noble maidens, taken for the
purpose from the bosoms of their families to propitiate
the gods of Rome. The flamens, augurs, colleges of
priests, it was endless. Last of all came the emperor
himself/

" That s the late man," observed Jucundus, " Philip
no bad riddance his death, if all s true that s said of
him."

"All emperors are good in their time and way,"
answered Cornelius; " Philip was good then, and Decius
is good now ; whom the gods preserve ! "

"True," said Aristo, "I understand; an emperor
cannot do wrong, except in dying, and then everything
goes wrong with him. His death is his first bad deed ;
he ought to be ashamed of it ; it somehow turns all
his great virtues into vices."

" Ah ! no one was so good an emperor as our man,
Gordianus," said Jucundus, " a princely old man,
living and dead ; patron of trade and of the arts ;
such villas ! he had enormous revenues. Poor old
gentleman ! and his son too. I never shall forget the
day when the news came that he was gone. Let me
see, it was shortly after that old fool Strabo s death
I mean my brother; a good thirteen years ago.
All Africa was in tears ; there was no one like
Gordianus."

A Tale of the Third Century. 47

"That s old world philosophy/ said Aristo;
" Jucunclns, you must go to school. Don t you see
that all that is, is right ; and all that was, is wrong ?
Te nos facimus, Fortuna, deam/ says your poet ;
well, I drink to the fortunes of Rome/ while it
lasts."

" You re a young man/ answered Cornelius, " a
very young man, and a Greek. Greeks never under
stand Rome. It s most difficult to understand us.
It s a science. Look at this medal, young gentle
man ; it was one of those struck at the games. Is it
not grand ? Novum sseculum/ and on the reverse,
-ZEternitati. Always changing, always imperishable.
Emperors rise and fall ; Rome remains. The eternal
city ! Isn t this good philosophy ? "

" Truly, a most beautiful medal," said Aristo,
examining it, and handing it on to his host. " You
might make an amulet of it, Jucundus. But as to
eternity, why, that is a very great word ; and, if I
mistake not, other states have been eternal before
Rome. Ten centuries is a very respectable eternity ;
be content, Rome is eternal already, and may die
without prejudice to the medal."

"Blaspheme not/ replied Cornelius: "Rome is
healthier, more full of life, and promises more, than
at any former time, you may rely upon it. Novum
saBculum ! she has the age of the eagle, and will but
cast her feathers to begin a fresh thousand."

" But Egypt/ interposed Aristo, " if old Herodotus
speaks true, scarcely had a beginning. Up and up,

48 Callista;

the higher you go, the more dynasties of Egyptian
kings do you find. And we hear strange reports of
the nations in the far east, beyond the Ganges/ 3

" But I tell you, man/ rejoined Cornelius, " Rome
is a city of kings. That one city, in this one year,
has as many kings at once as those of all the kings
of all the dynasties of Egypt put together. Sesostris,
and the rest of them, what are they to imperators,
prefects, iproconsuls, vicarii, and rationales ? Look
back at Lucullus, Caesar, Pompey, Sylla, Titus, Trajan.
What s old Cheops pyramid to the Flavian amphi
theatre ? What is the many-gated Thebes to Nero s
golden house, while it was ? What the grandest
palace of Sesostris or Ptolemy but a second-rate villa
of any one of ten thousand Eoman citizens ? Our
houses stand on acres of ground, they ascend as high
as the Tower of Babylon ; they swarm with columns
like a forest ; they pullulate into statues and pictures.
The walls, pavements, and ceilings are dazzling from
the lustre of the rarest marble, red and yellow, green
and mottled. Fountains of perfumed water shoot
aloft from the floor, and fish swim in rocky channels
round about the room, waiting to be caught and killed
for the banquet. We dine ; and we feast on the head
of the ostrich, the brains of the peacock, the liver of
the bream, the milk of the murena, and the tongue of
the flamingo. A flight of doves, nightingales, becca-
ficoes are concentrated into one dish. On great occa
sions we eat a phoenix. Our saucepans are of silver,
our dishes of gold, our vases of onyx, and our cups of

A Tale of the Third Century. 49

precious stones. Hangings and carpets of Tynan
purple are around us and beneath us, and we lie on
ivory couches. The choicest wines of Greece and
Italy crown our goblets, and exotic flowers crown our
heads. In come troops of dancers from Lydia, or
pantomimes from Alexandria, to entertain both eye
and mind ; or our noble dames and maidens take a
place at our tables ; they wash in asses milk, they
dress by mirrors as large as fish-ponds, and they
glitter from head to foot with combs, brooches, neck
laces, collars, ear-rings, armlets, bracelets, finger-rings,
girdles, stomachers, and anklets, all of diamond and
emerald. Our slaves may be counted by thousands,
and they come from all parts of the world. Every
thing- rare and precious is brought to Rome : the gum
of Arabia, the nard of Assyria, the papyrus of Egypt,
the citron-wood of Mauretania, the bronze of ^Eginf),
the pearls of Britain, the cloth of gold of Phrygia,
the fine webs of Cos, the embroidery of Babylon, the
silks of Persia, the lion-skins of Getulia, the wool of
Miletus, the plaids of Gaul. Thus we live, an im
perial people, who do nothing but enjoy themselves
and keep festival the whole year ; and at length we
die and then we burn : we burn in stacks of cinna
mon and cassia, and in shrouds of asbestos, making
emphatically a good end of it. Such are we Romans,
a great people. Why, we are honoured wherever we
go. There s my master, there s myself as we came
here from Italy, I protest we were nearly worshipped
as demi-gods."

50 CalUsta;

"And perhaps some fine morning," said Aristo,
" Rome herself will burn in cinnamon and cassia, and
in all her burnished Corinthian brass and scarlet
bravery, the old mother following 1 her children to the
funeral pyre. One has heard something of Baby
lon, and its drained moat, and the soldiers of the
Persian."

A pause occurred in the conversation as one of
Jucundus s slaves entered with fresh wine, larger
goblets, and a vase of snow from the Atlas.

A Tale of the Third Century. 51

CHAPTER VI.

GOTHS AND CHRISTIANS.

CORNELIUS was full of his subject, and did not at
tend to the Greek. " The wild-beasts hunts," he con
tinued, " ah, those hunts during the games, Aristo !
they were a spectacle for the gods. Twenty- two
elephants, ten panthers, ten hyasnas (by-the-bye, a
new beast, not strange, however, to you here, I sup
pose), ten canielopards, a hippopotamus, a rhinoceros
I can t go through the list. Fancy the circus planted
throughout for the occasion, and turned into a park,
and then another set of wild animals, Getes and Sar-
matians, Celts and Goths, sent in against them, to
hunt down, capture and kill them, or to be killed
themselves."

c Ah, the Goths!" answered Aristo ; "those fel
lows give you trouble, though, now and then. Per
haps they will give you more. There is a report
in the pr 93 tori urn to-day that they have crossed the
Danube."

" Yes, they will give us trouble," said Cornelius,
drily; "they have given us trouble, and they will
give us more. The Samnites gave us trouble, and

52 Call iff a ;

our friends of Carthage here, and Jugurtha, and
Mithridates ; trouble,, yes, that is the long and the
short of it ; they will give us trouble. Is trouble a
new thing to Rome ? " he asked, stretching out his
arm, as if he were making a speech after dinner, and
giving a toast.

" The Goths give trouble, and take a bribe," re
torted Aristo ; " this is what trouble means in their
case : it s a troublesome fellow who hammers at our
door till we pay his reckoning. It is troublesome to
raise the means to buy them off. And the example
of these troublesome savages is catching ; it was lately
rumoured that the Carpians had been asking the same
terms for keeping quiet."

" It would ill become the majesty of Borne to soil
her fingers with the blood of such vermin," said Cor
nelius; "she ignores them."

"And therefore she most majestically bleeds us
instead," answered Aristo, " that she may have trea
sure to give them. "\Ve are not so troublesome as
they , the more s the pity. No offence to you, how
ever, or to the emperor, or to great Rome, Cornelius.
We are over our cups ; it s only a game of politics,
you know, like chess or the cottabus. Maro bids you
parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos ; but you
have changed your manners. You coax the Goths
and bully the poor African."

" Africa can show fight, too," interposed Jucundus,
who had been calmly listening and enjoying his own
wine ; " witness Thysdrus. That was giving every

A Tale of the Third Century. 53

rapacious Quaestor a lesson that he may go too far,
and find a dagger when he demands a purse."

He was alluding to the revolt of Africa, which led
to the downfall of the tyrant Maximin and the exalta
tion of the Gordians, when the native landlords armed
their peasantry, killed the imperial officer, and raised
the standard of rebellion in the neighbouring town
from impatience of exactions under which they
suffered.

" No offence, I say, Cornelius, no offence to eternal
Rome/ said Aristo, " but yon have explained to us
why you weigh so heavy on us. I ve always heard
it was a fortune at Rome for a man to have found out
a new tax. Vespasian did his best; but now you
tax our smoke, and our very shadow ; and Pescennius
threatened to tax the air we breathe. We ll play at
riddles, and you shall solve the following: Say who
is she that eats her own limbs, and grows eternal upon
them ? Ah, the Goths will take the measure of her
eternity ! "

" The Goths ! " said Jucundus, who was warming
into conversational life, " the Goths ! no fear of the
Goths ; but," and he nodded significantly, " look at
home ; we have more to fear indoors than abroad."

"He means the praetorians," said Cornelius to
Aristo, condescendingly ; " I grant you that there have
been several untoward affairs ; we have had our pro
blem, but it s a thing of the past, it never can come
again. I venture to say that the power of the prae_ .
torians is at an end. That murder of the two emperors

E

54 Callista ;

the other day was the worst job they ever did ; it has
turned the public opinion of the whole world against
them. I have no fear of the praetorians."

" I don t mean praetorians more than Goths/ said
Jucundus ; " no, give me the old weapons, the old
maxims of Rome, and I defy the scythe of Saturn.
Do the soldiers march under the old ensign ? do they
swear by the old gods ? do they interchange the good
old signals and watchwords ? do they worship the
fortune of Rome ; then I say we are safe. But do we
take to new ways ? do we trifle with religion ? do we
make light of Jupiter, Mars, Romulus, the augurs,
and the ancilia ? then I say, not all our shows and
games, our elephants, hyeenas, and hippopotamuses, will
do us any good. It was not the best thing, no, not the
best thing that the soldiers did, when they invested
that Philip with the purple. But he is dead and gone."
And he sat up and leant on his elbow.

" Ah ! but it will be all set right now," said Cornelius,
" you ll see."

" He d be a reformer, that Philip," continued
Jucundus, " and put down an enormity. Well, they
call it an enormity ; let it be an enormity. He d
put it down ; but why ? there s the point ; why ?
It s no secret at all," and his voice grew angry,
" that that hoary-headed Atheist Fabian was at
the bottom of it ; Fabian, the Christian. I hate
reforms."

" Well, we had long wished to do it," answered
Cornelius, " but could not manage it. Alexander

A Tale of tlie Third Century. 55

attempted it near twenty years ago. It s what philo
sophers have always aimed at."

" The gods consume philosophers and the Chris
tians together ! " said Jucundus devoutly. " There s
little to choose between them, except that the Chris
tians are the filthier animal of the two. But both are
ruining the most glorious political structure that the
world ever saw. I am not over-fond of Alexander
either."

" Thank you in the name of philosophy," said the
Greek.

"And thank you in the name of the Christians,"
chimed in Juba.

" That s good ! " cried Jucundus ; " the first word
that hopeful youth has spoken since he came in, and
he takes on him to call himself a Christian."

" I ve a right to do so, if I choose," said Juba ; " I ve
a right to be a Christian."

" Eight ! yes, right ! ha, ha ! " answered Jucundus,
" right ! Jove help the lad ! by all manner of means.
Of course, you have a right to go in inalam rem in
whatever way you please."

" I am my own master," said Juba ; " my father
was a Christian. I suppose it depends on myself to
follow him or not, according to my fancy, and as long-
as I think fit."

"Fancy! think fit! 1 answered Jucundus, " you
pompous little mule ! Yes, go and be a Christian,
my dear child, as your doting father went. Go, like
him, to the priest of their mysteries ; be spit on,

E 2

56 Callista ;

stripped, dipped ; feed on little boys marrow and
brains ; worship the ass ; and learn all the foul magic
of the sect. And then be delated and taken up, and
torn to shreds on the rack, or thrown to the lions
and so go to Tartarus, if Tartarus there be, in the
way you think fit. You ll harm none but yourself,
my boy. I don t fear such as you, but the deeper
heads."

Juba stood up with a look of offended dignity, and,
as on former occasions, tossed the head which had
been by implication disparaged. " I despise you," he
said.

" Well, but you are hard on the Christians," said
Aristo. " I have heard them maintain that their super
stition, if adopted, would be the salvation of Rome.
They maintain that the old religion is gone or going
out ; that something new is wanted to keep the empire
together ; and that their worship is just fitted to the
times."

" All I say to the vipers," said Jucundua, " is, Let
well alone. We did well enough 1 without you; we
did well enough till you sprang up. A plague on their
insolence ; as if Jew or Egyptian could do aught for us
when Numa and the Sibyl fail. That is what I say,
Let Rome be true to herself and nothing can harm
her ; let her shift her foundation, and I would not buy
her for this water-melon," he said, taking a suck at it.
" Rome alone can harm Rome. Recollect old Horace,
Suis et ipsa Roma viribus ruit/ He was a prophet.
If she falls, it is by her own hand."

A Tale of the Third Century. o7

" I agree," said Cornelius ; "certainly, to set up any
new worship is treason ; not a doubt of it. The gods
keep us from such ingratitude ! We have grown
great by means of them, and they are part and parcel
of the law of Rome. But there is no great chance of
our forgetting this ; Decius won t ; that s a fact. You
will see. Time will show; perhaps to-morrow, perhaps
next day/ he added, mysteriously.

" Why in the world should you have this frantic
dread of these poor scarecrows of Christians," said
Aristo, " all because they hold an opinion ? Why are
you not afraid of the bats and the moles ? It s an
opinion : there have been other opinions before them,
and there will be other opinions after. Let them
alone and they ll die away ; make a hubbub about
them and they ll spread."

" Spread ? " cried Jucundus, who was under the
twofold excitement of personal feeling and of wine,
"spread, they ll spread? yes, they ll spread. Yes,
grow, like scorpions, twenty at a birth. The country
already swarms with them ; they are as many as frogs
or grasshoppers; they start up everywhere under one s
nose, when one least expects them. The air breeds
them like plague-flies; the wind drifts them like
locusts. No one s safe ; any one may be a Christian ;
it s an epidemic. Great Jove ! / may be a Christian
before I know where I am. Heaven and earth ! is it
not monstrous ? " he continued, with increasing fierce
ness. "Yes, Jucundns, my poor man, you may wake
and find yourself a Christian, without knowing it,

58 Callista ,

against your will. Ah. ! my friends, pity me ! I may
find myself a beast, and obliged to suck blood and
live among the tombs as if I liked it, without power
to tell you how I loathe it, all through their sorcery.
By the genius of Home something must be done. I
say, no one is safe. You call on your friend ; he is
sitting in the dark, unwashed, uncombed, undressed.
What is the matter ? Ah ! his son has turned Chris
tian. Your wedding-day is fixed, you are expecting
your bride ; she does not come ; why ? she will not
have you ; she has become a Christian. Where s
young Nomentanus ? Who has seen Nomentanus ?
in the forum, or the campus, in the circus, in the bath ?
Has he caught the plague or got a sunstroke ? No
thing of the kind ; the Christians have caught hold of
him. Young and old, rich and poor, my lady in her
litter and her slave, modest maid and Lydia at the
Thermee, nothing comes amiss to them. All con
fidence is gone; there s no one we can reckon on. I
go to my tailor s : Nergal, I say to him, Nergal, I
want a new tunic. The wretched hypocrite bows, and
runs to and fro, and unpacks his stuffs and cloths, like
another man. A word in your ear. The man s a
Christian, dressed up like a tailor. They have no
dress of their own. If I were emperor, I d make
the sneaking curs wear a badge, I would; a dog s
collar, a fox s tail, or a pair of ass s ears. Then we
should know friends from foes when we meet them/

1 We should think that dangerous, said Cornelius ;
" however, you are taking it too much to heart ; you

A Tale of the Third Century. 59

are making too much of them, my good friend. They
have not even got the present, and you are giving
them the future, which is just what they want."

"If Jucundus will listen to me," said Aristo, "I
could satisfy him that the Christians are actually
falling off. They once were numerous in this very
place; now there are hardly any. They have been
declining for these fifty years ; the danger from them
is past. Do you want to know how to revive them?
Put out an imperial edict, forbid them, denounce
them. Do you want them to drop away like autumn
leaves ? Take no notice of them."

"I can t deny that in Italy they have grown/ said
Cornelius; "they have grown in numbers and in
wealth, and they intermarry with us. Thus the upper
class becomes to a certain extent infected. We may
find it necessary to repress them ; but, as you would
repress vermin, without fearing them."

" The worshippers of the gods are the many, and
the Christians are the few," persisted Aristo; "if the
two parties intermarry, the weaker will get the worst
of it. You will find the statues of the gods gradually
creeping back into the Christian chapel; and a man
must be an honest fellow who buys our images, eh,
Jucundus ? "

" Well, Aristo," said the paterfamilias, whose
violence never lasted long, " if your sister s bright
eyes win back my poor Agellius you will have some
thing more to say for yourself than at present, I
grant."

60 Callista ;

" I see," said Cornelius, gravely, " I begin to under
stand it. I could not make out why our good host
had such great fear for the stability of Home. But
it is one of those things which the experience of life
has taught me. I have often seen it in the imperial
city itself. Whenever you find a man show special
earnestness against these fanatics, depend on it there
is something that touches him personally in the
matter. There was a very great man, the present
Flamen Dialis, for whom 1 have unbounded respect ;
for a long time I was at a loss to conceive why a
person of his weight, sound, sensible, well-judging,
should have such a fear of the Christians. One day
he made an oration against them in the senate-house ;
he wanted to send them to the rack. But the secret
came out ; the good man was on the rack himself
about his daughter, who persisted in calling herself a
Christian, and refused to paint her face or go to the
amphitheatre. To be sure, a most trying affair this
for the old gentleman. The venerable Pater Patratus,
too, -what suppers he gave ! a fine specimen of the
Lucullus type ; yet he was always advocating the
lictor and the comment arien sis in the instance of the
Christian. No wonder; his wife and son were dis
gracing him in the eyes of the whole world by fre
quenting the meetings of these Christians. However,
I agree with Decius, they must be put down. They
are not formidable, but they are an eyesore."

Here the rushing of the water-clock which measured
time in the neighbouring square, ceased, signifying

A Tale of the Third Century. 61

thereby that the night was getting on. Juba had
already crept into the dark closet which served him
for a sleeping-place ; had taken off his sandals, and
loosened his belt ; had wrapt the serpent he had about
him round his neck, and was breathing heavily. Ju-
cuudus made the parting libation, and Cornelius took
his leave. Aristo rose too; and Jucundus, accom
panying them to the entrance, paid the not uncommon
penalty of his potations, for the wine mounted to his
head, and he returned into the room, and sat him
clown again with an impression that Aristo was still
at table.

" My dear boy," he said, " Agellius is but a wet
Christian ; that s all, not obstinate, like his brother
there. Twas his father ; the less we say about him
the better ; he s gone. The Furies make his bed for
him! an odious set! Their priests, little ugly men.
I saw one when I was a boy at Carthage. So unlike
your noble Roman Saliares, or your fine portly priest
of Isis, clad in white, breathing odours like spring
flowers; men who enjoyed this life, not like that sour
hypocrite. He was as black as an Ethiopian, and as
withered as a Saracen, and he never looked you in the
face. And, after all, the fellow must die for his
religion, rather than put a few grains of golden incense
on the altar of great Jove. Jove s the god for me ; a
glorious, handsome, curly god but they are all good,
all the gods are good. There s Bacchus, he s a good,
comfortable god, though a sly, treacherous fellow a
treacherous fellow. There s Ceres, too ; Pomona ; the

62 Cattlsta ;

Muses ; Astarte, too, as they call her here ; all good ;
and Apollo, though he s somewhat too hot in this
season, and too free with his bow. He gave me a
bad fever once. Ah ! life s precious, most precious ;
so I felt it then, when I was all but gone to Pluto.
Life never returns, it s like water spilt you can t
gather it up. It is dispersed into the elements, to
the four winds. Ah ! there s something more there
than I can tell; more than all your philosophers can
determine."

He seemed to think awhile, and began again : " En
joyment s the great rule ; ask yourself, Have I made
the most of tbings ? that s what I say to the rising
generation. Many and many s the time when I have
not turned them to the best account. Oh, if I had now
to begin life again, how many things should I correct !
I might have done better this evening. Those abomi
nable pears ! I might have known they would not
be worth the eating. Mutton, that was all well;
doves, good again ; crane, kid ; well, I don t see that
I could have done much better."

After a few minutes he got up half asleep, and put
out all the lights but one small lamp, with which he
made his way into his own bed-closet. " All is vanity,"
he continued, with a slow, grave utterance, " all is
vanity but eating and drinking. It does not pay to
serve the gods except for this. What s fame ? what s
glory ? what s power ? smoke. I ve often thought
the hog is the only really wise animal. We should
be happier if we were all hogs. Hogs keep the end

A Tale of the Third Century. 63

of life steadily in view ; that s why those toads of
Christians will not eat them, lest they should get like
them. Quiet, respectable, sensible enjoyment ; not
riot, or revel, or excess, or quarrelling. Life is short."
And with this undeniable sentiment he fell asleep.

64 Callista ;

CHAPTEE VII.

PERSECUTION IN THE OFFING.

NEXT morning, as Jucundus was dusting and polish
ing his statues and other articles of taste and devotion,
supplying the gaps in their ranks, and grouping a
number of new ones which had come in from his
workmen, Juba strutted into the shop, and indulged
himself from time to time in an inward laugh or
snigger at the various specimens of idolatry which
grinned or frowned or frisked or languished on all
sides of him.

" Don t sneer at that Anubis," said his uncle; "it
is the work of the divine Callista."

"That, I suppose, is why she brings into existence
so many demons," answered Juba ; " nothing more
can be done in the divine line ; like the queen who fell
in love with a baboon."

" Now I come to think/ retorted Jucundus, " that
god of hers is something like you. She must be in
love with you, Juba."

The youth, as was usual with him, tossed his head
with an air of lofty displeasure; at length he said,
" And why should she not fall in love with me,
pray ? "

A Tale of the Third Century. 65

" Why, because you are too good or too bad to
need her plastic hand. She could not make anything
out of you. Non ex quovis ligno. But she d be
doing a good work if she wiled back your brother."

" .He does not want wiling anymore than I," said
Juba, " J dare say ! he s no Christian. "

"What s that?" said his uncle, looking round at
him in surprise; " Agellius no Christian ?

" Not a bit of it," answered Juba ; " rest assured. I
taxed him with it only last night ; let him alone, he ll
come round. He s too proud to change, that s all.
Preach to him, entreat him, worry him, try to turn him,
work at the bit, whip him, and he will turn restive,
start aside, or run away ; but let him have his head,
pretend not to look, seem indifferent to the whole
matter, and he will quietly sit down in the midst of
your images there. Callista has an easy task ; she ll
bribe him to do what he would else do for nothing. "

" The very best news I have heard since your silly
old father died," cried Jucundus; "the very best if
true. Juba, I ll give you an handsome present the first
sow your brother sacrifices to Ceres. Ha, ha, what
fine fun to see the young farmer over his cups at the
Nundinae ! Ha, ha, no Christian ! bravo, Juba ! ha,
ha, I ll make you a present, I say, an Apollo to teach
you manners, or a Mercury to give you wit."

" It s quite true," said Juba ; " he would not be
thinking of Callista, if he were thinking of his saints
and angels."

" Ha, ha ! to be sure ! " returned Jucundus ; " to be

06 Callista ;

sure ! yet why shouldn t he worship a handsome Greek
girl as well as any of those mummies and death s
heads and bogies of his, which I should blush to put
up here alongside even of Anubis, or a scarabasus ?

" Mother thinks she is not altogether the girl you
take her for," said his nephew.

"No matter, no matter," answered Jucundus, "no
matter afc all ; she may be a Lais or Phryne for me ;
the surer to make a man of him."

"Why," said Juba, "mother thinks her head is
turning in the opposite way. D you see ? Strange,
isn t it ? " he added, annoyed himself yet not unwilling
to annoy his uncle.

" Hm ! " exclaimed Jucundus, making a wry face
and looking round at Mm, as if to say, " What on
earth is going to turn up now ? "

"To tell the truth," said Juba, gloomily, "I did
once think of her myself. I don t see why I have not
as much right to do so as Agellius, if I please. So I
thought old mother might do something for me ; and
I asked her for a charm or love potion, which would
bring her from her brother down to the forest yonder-
Gurta took to it kindly, for she has a mortal hatred of
Callista, because of her good looks, though she won t
say so, and because she s a Greek ! and she liked the
notion of humbling the haughty minx. So she began
one of the most tremendous spells," he shrieked out
with a laugh, " one of the most tremendous spells in
her whole budget. All and everything in the most
exact religious way : wine, milk, blood, meal, wax, old

A Tale of the Third Century, 67

rags, gods, Numidian as well as Punic ; such names ;
one must be barbarian to boot, as well as witch, to
pronounce them : a score of things there were besides.
And then to see the old woman, with her streaming
grey hair, twinkling eyes, and grirn look, twirl about
as some flute girl at a banquet ; it was enough to
dance down, not only the moon, but the whole milky
way. But it did not dance down Callista; at which
mother got savage, and protested that Callista was a
Christian/

Jucundus looked much perplexed. " Medius fidius \ "
he said, " why, unless we look sharp, she will be con
verting him the wrong way ;" and he began pacing up
and down the small room.

Juba on his part began singing

" Gurta the witch would have part in the jest ;
Though lame as a gull, by his highness possessed,
She shouldered her crutch, and danced with the rest.

" Sporting and snorting, deep in the night,
Their beards flashing fire, and their hoofs striking light,
And their tails whisking round in the heat of their flight."

By this time Jucundus had recovered from the
qualm which Juba s intelligence had caused him, and
he cried out, " Cease your rubbish ; old Gurta s
jealous ; I know her spite ; Christian is the most
blackguard word in her vocabulary, its Barbar for
toad or adder. I see it all ; no, Callista, the divine
Callista, must take in hand this piece of wax, sing a
charm, and mould him into a Yertumnus. She ll

68 Callista;

show herself the move potent witch of the two. The
new emperor too will help the incantation."

"What! something is coming?" asked Juba, with
a grin.

" Coming, boy ? yes, I warrant you," answered his
uncle. " We ll make them squeak. If geutle means
don t do, then we ll just throw in another ingredient
or two : an axe, or a wild cat, or a firebrand."

" Take care what you are about, if you deal with
Agellius," said Juba. " He s a sawuey, but you must
not drive him to bay. Don t threaten ; keep to the
other line ; he s weak-hearted."

"Only as a background to bring out the painting;
the Muse singing, all in light, relieved by sardix or
sepia. It must come ; but perhaps Agellius will
come first."

It was indeed as Jucundus had hinted ; a new policy,
a new era was coming upon Christianity, tog-ether with
the new emperor. Christians had hitherto been for
the most part the objects of popular fury rather than
of imperial jealousy. Nero, indeed, from his very
love of cruelty, had taken pleasure in torturing them :
but statesmen and philosophers, though at times
perplexed and inconsistent, yet on the whole had
despised them ; and the superstition of priests and
people, with their " Christianos ad leones," had been
the most formidable enemy of the faith. Accordingly,
atrocious as the persecution had been at times, it had
been conducted on no plan, and had been local and

A Tale of the Third Century. 69

fitful. But even this trial had been suspended, with
but few interruptions, during the last thirty, nay, fifty
years. So favourable a state of things had been more
or less brought about by a succession of emperoi S,
who had shown an actual leaning to Christianity.
While the vigorous rule of the five good emperors, as
they are called, had had many passages in its history
of an adverse character, those who followed after,
being untaught in the traditions, and strangers to the
spirit, of old Rome, foreigners, or adventurers, or
sensualists, were protectors of the new religion. The
favourite mistress of Commodus is even said to have
been a Christian ; so is the nurse of Caracalla. The
wretched Heliogabalus, by his taste for Oriental
superstitions, both weakened the influence of the
established hierarchy, and encouraged the toleration
of a faith which came from Palestine. The virtuous
Alexander, who followed him, was a philosopher more
than a statesman ; and, in pursuance of the syncretism
which he had adopted, placed the images of Abraham
aud our Lord among the objects of devotion which
his private chapel contained. What is told us of the
Emperor Philip is still more to the point : the gravest
authorities report that he was actually a Christian ;
and, since it cannot be doubted that Christians were
persuaded of the fact, the leaning of his government
must have been emphatically in their favour to account
for such a belief. In consequence, Christians showed
themselves without fear ; they emerged from the
catacombs, and built churches in public view; and,

JP

70 Callista ;

though in certain localities, as in the instance of
Africa, they had suffered from the contact of the
world, they spread far and wide, and faith became
the instrument at least of political power, even where
it was wanting 1 in charity, or momentarily disowned
by cowardice. In a word, though Celsus a hundred
years before had pronounced " a man weak who
should hope to unite the three portions of the earth
in a common religion, that common Catholic faith
had been found, and a principle of empire was created
which had never before existed. The phenomenon
could not be mistaken ; and the Roman statesman
saw he had to deal with a rival. ISTor must we
suppose, because on the surface of the history we read
so much of the vicissitudes of imperial power, and
of the profligacy of its possessors, that the fabric of
government was not sustained by traditions of the
strongest temper, and by officials of the highest
sagacity. It was the age of lawyers and politicians ;
and they saw more and more clearly that if Chris
tianity was not to revolutionize the empire, they must
follow out the line of action which Trajan and
Antoninus had pointed out.

Decius then had scarcely assumed the purple, when
he commenced that new policy against the Church
which was reserved to Diocletian, fifty years later
to carry out to its own final refutation. He entered
on his power at the end of the year 249 ; and on the
January 20th following, the day on which the Church
still celebrates the event, St. Fabian, Bishop of Rome,

A Tale of the Third Century. 71

obtained the crown of martyrdom. He had been pope
for the- unusually long space of fourteen years, having
been elected in consequence of one of those remark
able interpositions of Divine Providence of which we
now and then read in the first centuries of the Church.
He had come up to Rome from the country, in order
to be present at the election of a successor to Pope
Anteros. A dove was seen to settle on his head, and
the assembly rose up and forced him, to his surprise,
upon the episcopal throne. After bringing back the
relics of St. Pontian, his martyred predecessor, from
Sardinia, and having become the apostle of great part
of Gaul, he seemed destined to end his history in the
same happy quiet and obscurity in which he had lived ;
but it did not become a pope of that primitive time to
die upon his bed, and he was reserved at length to
inaugurate in his own person, as chief pastor of the
Church, a fresh company of martyrs.

Suddenly an edict appeared for the extermination
of the name and religion of Christ. It was addressed
to the proconsuls and other governors of provinces ;
and alleged or implied that the emperors, Decius and
his son, being determined to give peace to their sub
jects, found the Christians alone an impediment to the
fulfilment of their purpose ; and that, by reason of the
enmity which those sectaries entertained towards the
gods of Rome, an enmity which was bringing down
upon the world multiplied misfortunes. Desirous, then,
above all things, of appeasing the divine anger, they
made an irrevocable ordinance that every Christian,

72 Callista ;

without exception of rank, sex, or age, should be obliged
to sacrifice. Those who refused were to be thrown into
prison, and in the first instance submitted to moderate
punishments. If they conformed to the established
religion, they were to be rewarded ; if not, they were
to be drowned, burned alive, exposed to the beasts,
hung upon the trees, or otherwise put to death. This
edict was read in the camp of the praetorians, posted
up in the Capitol, and sent over the empire by govern
ment couriers. The authorities in each province were
themselves threatened with heavy penalties, if they did
not succeed in frightening or tormenting the Christians
into the profession of paganism.

St. Fabian, as we have said, was the first-fruits of
the persecution, and eighteen months passed before his
successor could be appointed. In the course of the
next two months St. Pionius was burned alive at
Smyrna, and St. Nestor crucified in Pamphylia. At
Carthage some perplexity and delay were occasioned
by the absence of the proconsul. St. Cyprian, its
bishop, took advantage of the delay, and retired into
a place of concealment. The populace had joined
with the imperial government in seeking his life, and
had cried out furiously in the circus, demanding
him " ad leonem," for the lion. A panic seized the
Christian body, and for a while there were far more
persons found to compromise their faith than to
confess it. It seemed as if Aristo s anticipation was
justified, that Christianity was losing its hold upon
the mind of its subjects, and that nothing more was

A Tale of the Third Century. 73

needed for those who had feared it, than to let it die
a natural death. And at Sicca the Roman officials,
as far as ever they dared, seemed to act on this view.
Here Christians did no harm, they made no show,
and there was little or nothing in the place to provoke
the anger of the mob or to necessitate the interference
of the magistrate. The proconsul s absence from
Carthage was both an encouragement and an excuse
for delay; and hence it was that, though we are
towards the middle of the year 250, and the edict
was published at Rome at its commencement, the
good people of Sicca had, as we have said, little
knowledge of what was taking place in the political
world, and whispered about vague presages of an
intended measure, which had been in some places in
operation for many months. Communication with
the seat of government was not so very frequent or
rapid in those days, and public curiosity had not
been stimulated by the facilities of gratifying it.
And thus we must account for a phenomenon, which
we uphold to be a fact in the instance of Sicca, in the
early summer of A.D. 250, even though it prove un
accountable, and history has nothing to say about it,
and in spite of the Acta Diurna.

The case, indeed, is different now. In these times,
newspapers, railroads, and magnetic telegraphs make
us independent of government messengers. The pro
ceedings at Rome would have been generally and accu
rately known in a few seconds ; and then, by way of
urging forward the magistracy, a question of course

74 Callista ;

would have been asked in the parliament of Carthage
by the member for Sicca, or Laribus, or Thugga, or by
some one of the pagani, or country party, whether the
popular report was true, that an edict had been pro
mulgated at Eome against the Christians, and what
steps had been taken by the local authorities through
out the proconsulate to carry out its provisions. And
then the " Colonia Siccensis " would have presented
some good or bad reason for the delay : that it arose
from the absence of the proconsul from the seat of
government, or from the unaccountable loss of the
despatch on its way from the coast ; or, perhaps, on
the other hand, the under-secretary would have main
tained, amid the cheers of his supporters, that the edict
had been promulgated and carried out at Sicca to the
full, that crowds of Christians had at once sacrificed,
and that, in short, there was no one to punish ; asser
tions which at that moment were too likely to be veri
fied by the event.

In truth, there were many reasons to make the
magistrates, both Roman and native, unwilling to
proceed in the matter, till they were obliged. No
doubt they one and all detested Christianity, and
would have put it down, if they could ; but the ques
tion was, when they came to the point, what they
should put down. If, indeed, they could have got
hold of the ringleaders, the bishops of the Church,
they would have tortured and smashed them con
amove, as you would kill a wasp ; and with the greater
warmth and satisfaction, just because it was so difficult

A Tale of the Third Century. 75

to get at them. Those bishops were a set of fellows
as mischievous as they were cowardly; they would
not corue 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 boy?, or
women, or obscure, or amiable and well-meaning nicn,
who were but a remnant of a former generation,
and as little connected with the fanatics of Carthage,
Alexandria, or Rome, 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 t 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 Rome 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 established
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 philosophic
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 powerfully
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 or slaves, 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 the mob
might mistake for the domain of Christianity Mar-
cionites, Tertullianists, Montanists, or Gnostics. When
once the cry of " the gods of Rome " 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

o

decurions, the tabularius 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 preetorium, 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 Callixtaj

him from the shock which would be the conse
quence.

The same sort of feeling operated with our good
friend Jucundus. He was attached to his nephew ;
but, be it said without disrespect to him, he was more
attached to his own reputation ; and, while he would
have 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 the 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
carne 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 shone out upon
him, and dispersed the remaining mists of Oriental
superstition.

la this state of mind the old gentleman determined

A Tale of the TJiird Century. 79

one afternoon to leave his shop to the care of a slave,
and to walk down to his nephew, to judge for himself
of 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 day; and then disasters might ensue which no
skill could remedy.

80 Callista ;

CHAPTER VILI.

THE NEW GENERATION.

JUCUNDUS, 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 friend 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 miud ; and he
had never known much good come of them. Rheto
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 positiou 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 clever 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 lingers;
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, Apollonius, 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 public talk for several years, and he

82 Callista ;

too originally a rhetorician, Thascius Cyprianus 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, hs saw a young acquaintance of his, a youth of
about twenty, coming out of it, leading a boy of about
half that age, with his satchel thrown over his shoulder.

" Well, Aruobius/ he cried, "how does rhetoric
proceed ? are \ve to take the law line, or turn professor?
Who s the boy ? some younger brother ?

" I ve taken pity on the little fool," answered
Avnobius ; " these schoolmasters are a savage lot.
I suffered enough from them myself, and rniseris
succurrere disco/ So I took him from under the
roof of friend Rupilius, and he s under rny 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."

1 Here is an anachronism, as regards Am obiu? and Lactantius,

of some twenty or thirty years.

A Tale of the Third Century. So

"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, 1 il
wager."

" First/ answered he, " I grinned in his face, and
he took off his wooden shoe, and knocked out one of
my teeth."

" 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
my 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 thouarh. inarticulate, like the statue of Mernnon/ ;

V-J *

" 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."

" Afterwards I ate his dinner for him/ continued
the boy, " and then he screwed my head, and kept me
without food for two days."

"Tour 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 gibbet, and hung me
up in terror em."

" There I came in," said Arnobius ; " he seemed a
pretty boy, so I cut him down, paid his cera, and took
him home."

" 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; better than I am, whenever
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 ! not know the great Polemo of
Rhodes, the friend of Plotinus, the pupil of Thea-
genes, the disciple of Thrasyllus, 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 most intoler
able of men ? 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 Firmian here
would deliver as 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 exedrce, 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 ? f 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 praeco speaks
again, and this time to the oracle. Bottomless man/
he says, I have to represent to you that no one of

G

86 Callista ;

the present company finds himself equal to answer the
question, which your condescension has proposed to our
consideration ! On this there is a fresh silence, and at
length a fresh cffatum from the hierophant : Which
conies first, the egg or the chick ? The egg comes first
in relation to the causativity of the chick, and the chick
conies 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
be 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 Rome, 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 emperor, 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 aud vegetables are his
flock ; that Proserpine is the vital influence, and Ceres
the efficacy of the heavenly bodies ; that there are
mundane spirits, and supramundane ; and then his

A Tale of the Third Century. 87

doctrine about triads,, 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 Rome and the emperor."

" I don t believe in god or goddess, emperor or
Rome., 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.
I m not African certainly, not Punic, not Libophce-
nician, not Canaanite, not Numidian, not Gretulian.
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
/ 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 ;
stick to that. I declare you frightened me. Give up

G 2

Call i*t i ;

all visions, speculations, conjectures, fancies, novelties,
discoveries; nothing conies 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

II Isis ; but where shall I go for anything better y
or why need I seek anything good or bad in that
line ? 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 lam 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 ? I ve 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 don t wish you to believe in the gods if
you can t ; but it s your duty, dear boy, your duty to
Rome 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 continue-! 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 a,re 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 ! O Arnobius ! " he said, shaking his
head and looking solemn, " it s a visitation from the
gods, a sort of nympholepsia."

" 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 Callista;

magistrates were obliged to take so many a day and,
as the days went on, none so eager to bring over the
rest as those who have already 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 up 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 fancies.
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. 9t

" What s the boy s name ? " a?ked Jucundus.

" Firnaian," 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 and afternoon/ answered Fir
mian, " sleeping in the porticoes in midday, nowhere
in the evening, and roosting with Arnobius at night."

" And you can keep a secret, should it so happen 1 "
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.

CHAPTER IX.

JUCUXDTJS BAITS HIS TRAP.

AGELLIUS is busily employed upon his farm. "While
the enemies of his faitli are laying their toils for him
and his brethren in the imperial city, in the procon
sular officium, and in the municipal curia, while
Jucundus is scheming against him personally in another
vvay 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 khennah, 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
how 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
they. 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
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 no 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 roost 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 guesses, 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 Callista ;

It was under 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 vain
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 sup
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 the series of conquests through which Home
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

9<3 CalUsta j

Callista were attractive to the solitary Agellius. She
had a sweet thrilling voice, and accompanied herself
on the lyre. She could act the improoisatrice, 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
Peutheus 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 Euclymion, 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 it 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
their chirping." The very allegories which sick
ened and irritated Arnobius when spouted out by
Pulemo, 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 nagged 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 (Edipus and
Antigone, Electra and Oreste?, Cassandra and the

1 Bacon.

A Tale of tlie Third Century. 97

Chorus. 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
truth. The Greeks, partly from the vivacity of their
intellect, partly from their passion for the beautiful,
lost these celestial adumbrations sooner than other
nations. 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 Cattista,;

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
crowded 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 Agellius to overlook obstacles,
and beguile himself into the notion that Callista miffht

O c3

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 his

A Tale of tlie Third Century. 99

visit,, 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, which 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 ; 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 Agellius," 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 Callista ;

pleasant to have you near me as I get old. However,
I mean it to be some time yet before Charon mak^s
a prize o me ; not that I believe all that rubbish more
than you, Agellius, I assure you."

" It strikes me," Agellius began, " that perhaps you
may think it inconsistent in me taking such a step,
but "

"Ay, ay, that s the rub," thought Jucuudus ; then
aloud, "Inconsistent, my boy! who talks of incon
sistency ? what superfine jackanapes dares to call it
inconsistent ? You seem made for each other, Agel
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 was afraid of the workings
of Agellius s human respect ; " 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 Agellius, that you have anything
whatever to get over."

Agellius was getting awkward and mortified, as may
be easily conceived, and Jucundus saw it, but could
not make out why. " My dear uncle," said the youth,
" you. are reproaching me."

" Not a bit of it," said Jucundus, 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 you 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 little headstrong, I can t deny, and had your
fling in your own way ; but nuces pueris/ as you
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 was
somewhat sobered by the question, though in a dif
ferent way from what his uncle wished and intended.

Jucundus proceeded " First, there is matrimonium
confarreationis. You have nothing to do with that :

102 Callista;

strictly speaking, it is obsolete ; it went out with tlie
exclusiveness of the old patricians. I say strictly
speaking * for the ceremonies 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 frankincense, and a great
deal of the same kind, which I tbiuk 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 coemptions, 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 don 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, for 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 all, if the world were willing- to gratify
yon, 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 ; but you cau 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 point. There is a third kind of marriage, and
that is what I should recommend for you. It s the
matrimonium ex iisu, 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
in 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."

At^ellius 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 CaUista;

his sudden annoyance ; " 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 difficulty
about it, and I am confident will have none."

" my good, dear uncle ! Jucundus, Jucundus ! }:
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
the world. You must be thinking I recommend you
mere contubernium, 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. You must act according to the
received usages of society ! you cannot 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 with religion or
without."

" Jucundus ! " said the 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 ; an offensive, sour humour,
tainting him from head to foot. A very different
recompense had he deserved. There had he 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 he is seized

106 CalUsta-

for a Christian, hung up like a clog, or thrown 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 lie 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 making 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. Here 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."

.Agellius, 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 the Third Century. 107

dianship, his many acts of kindness, the reminiscences
of childhood, nay, the love he bore to the good points
of his character. To him he owed his 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 tenderness 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 bond fide conver
sion. It was evident he could not, he literally had
not the power of marrying her as a heathen. Eoman
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 ever fallen from her lips which looked that way ?

108 Callista;

Could not a clever girl throw herself into the part of
Alcestis, or chant the majestic verses of Cleanthes, or
extemporize a hymn upon the spring, or hold an argu
ment on the pulch rum 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 Agellius ! 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 misunderstandiug. 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;
and he really did wish to be on confidential terms with
his nephew at the present crisis ; so he caught at his
apology. " Nuw you speak like a reasonable fellow,
Agellius," he answered. " Certainly, I will speak to

A Tale of the Third Century. 109

Aristo, as you wish ; and on this question of consuetudo
or prescription. Well, don t begin looking queer again.
I mean I will speak to him on the whole question and
its details. He and I will talk together for our re
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. You
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 time ; 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. They 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 !
Well, I am keeping you 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 tlie Third Century. Ill

CHAPTER X.

THE DIVINE CALLISTA.

THE day came which Agellius 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 the process, but he
was convinced 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 he must go on. His
middle term, as he hastily had considered it, was
nothing else than siding with his uncle, and com-

112 Callista;

mittiug himself to go all lengths, unless some difficulty-
rose with the other party. Yet could he really wish
that the step had not been 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 believe that he was not very peace
ful in heart when he set out on that morning to call
upon Aristo ; 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-passenger up into
that fair city, while the morning sun 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
Christian 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 Firmian ; but now a
Christian enters it with a Christian s heart and a
Christian 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

1 1 4 Callista ;

cities of Pagan Rome. An Apostle calls the tongue
" a fire, a world of iniquity, untameable, a restless
evil, a deadly poison ;" and surely 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 urgent, compulsive duty ;
otherwise yon would not surely be threading its lanes
or taking the circuit of its porticoes, amid sights which
now shock and now allure ; fearful sights not here
and there, but on the stateliest structures and 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, in 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 region 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 has received from Jucuudus 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 speak much upon it, till
Agellius makes 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 Christians 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 the 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
conies. 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."

" Not much of a Christian," she made answer, " if he
is set upon me."

"For whose sake has he been 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 interrupting 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 ! Where is this bad 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. What
cau you mean ? a weariness ! You are over 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 vaiii
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. Re
collect 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 can 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 ;
I hear the ever-splashing oar
Of Charon, ferryman of souls.

I

118 Callista;

" Heigho ! " 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."

" O 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 Aurora, 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
somehow I worship nothing now. I am weary."

" 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 richuess. 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 the

i 2

120 Callista;

sun at all, which is your god. Here your own god
reigns ; why quarrel with him ? "

" The sun of Greece is light/ answered Callista ;
" the sun of Africa is fire. I am no fire-worshipper."

" I suspect even Styx 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 rale 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 stand 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 bis cause. Like him or not yourself, still 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
swered 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
would be more bearable.

" Bearable ! " he echoed ; " bearable ! ye gods ! more
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 Callista,
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 what is Afric but the home

Of 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,
But Tauris, isle of moor and fen ;
Or, dimly traced by seaman s ken,

The pale-cliffed Albion ? "

Here she stopped, looked down, and busied herself
with her work.

122 Callista;

CHAPTER XI.

CALLISTA S PREACHING, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.

IT is undeniably a solemn moment, under any cir
cumstances, and requires a strong heart, when any
one deliberately surrenders himself, soul and body,
to the keeping of another while life shall last ; and
this, or something like this, reserving- the supreme
claim of duty to the Creator, is the matrimonial con
tract. In individual cases it may be made without
thought or distress, but surveyed objectively, and as
carried out iuto a sufficient range of instances, it is so
tremendous an undertaking that nature seems to sink
under its responsibilities. When the Christian binds
himself by vows to a religious life, he makes a sur
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 him 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 sacrifice, and demands that, as

A Tale of the Third Century. l l->

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
sacrarneutally strengtheued to maiutain 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 1
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 actually stood in her sweet pre
sence, it seemed as if some secret emanation from

124 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 ;
and in the case before us both gentleman and lady will
be thought, we consider, sadly matter-of-fact, or rather
semi-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, <f 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 ;
" and I have brought the best my garden contains as
an offering 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
petasus.

" Why/ answered Aristo, " since I am so poor an
interpreter of your meaning, you can dispense with me
altogether. 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, the 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 hours 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 cai ed 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 youv 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

flowers, Agellius, that I may rank with Chione ? and is
this their interpretation ? "

" Callista," 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 are
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 miud, 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 expei ienced

128 Callista;

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 difficult 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 yourself in adoration
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 Century. 129

who is your Master ? what know I of your Master ?
what have you 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 yours, 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
you really wish to be taught who the true God is ? "

130 Callista;

, mistake me not/ she cried passionately, "I
have no such wish. I could not be of your religion.
Ye Gods ! how have I been deceived ! I thought every
Christian 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, c 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 think, 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, Agellius; 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 Callista; 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 moi-ning, 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 ; 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
somewhere more than I could see ; but there is nothing.
Here am I a living, breathing woman, with an over-

132 Callista;

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 Rome 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 1 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, better than any
thing else ; but it is a shadow. You have nothing to
give. You have thrown me back upon my dreary,
distnal 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
could 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 Century. 133

my brother, even my own brother. They thought not
of me." Here her tears gushed out violently, and she
abandoned herself to a burst of emotion. " They were
thinking of him. I had hoped he could lead me to
what was higher; but woe, woe ! " she cried, wringing
her hands, " they thought I was only fit to bring him
low. Well; after all, is Callista really good for much
more than the woi k 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 instrument 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 ray 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

104 Callistaj

keeps it pure. I serve a Master/ 5 he continued, blush
ing from modesty and earnestness as he spoke, " I
serve a Master whose love is stronger than created
love. God 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 the door, and left the room.

A Tale of the Third Century. 135

CHAPTER XII.

A DEATH

THE first stages of repentance are but a fever, in which
there is restlessness and thirst, hot and cold fits,
vague, dreary dreams, long darkness which seems
destined never to have a morning, effort 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 iu
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 Callista j

ear whether it would not be fulfilled in 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 bim for the happy change ; yet on the
other hand, though he had predicted it, alas ! was it
likely that it would be granted ? Had 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 fruit, 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 ;
why should not he die ? why so chary of his life ?
why preserve his wretched 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 very pur
pose that he might sacrifice it for Him who had giveii
it ? He had been timid about making a profession of
his faith, which might have led to prison and death ;
but 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 death might have been the conversion of
thousands, of Callista ; 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
than he was, he might have prevailed with his uncle ;

138 Calllsta;

at least he might have taught him to respect the
Christian Faith and Name, and restrained him from
daring 1 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 Century. 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. 33

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, 3 he said, " my uncle and
Aristo ; and it is Callista who has defeated it. 3 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 contritus 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 G-od ; and now he would only think of her,
and whisper her name, when he was kneeling before
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

HO Callista;

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 mood, 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, thoug-h they could
not increase the fever of his mind. He had come to
the Forum ; the market people were crouching under
their booths or the shelter of their baskets. The
riffraff of the city, who Jived 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 brute ; 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 Triumph, 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 Tale of tJie Third Century. 141

seizures, and the sudden death, which might be the
consequence.

Numbers out of this mixed multitude were asleep;
some were looking with dull listless eyes at the still
scene, 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 another, 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 Etruscus Decius, Csesar ; 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 CaUista;

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 sun, 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 rise 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 tliat 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 bad 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;

rest, 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 one 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 BESURRECTION.

JUCUNDUS was quite as much amused as provoked

at the result of the delicate negotiation in wMcli 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 future time ; or might have

U 3 Callista;

alienated him from his uncle, or in some way or other
made a fool of him, if she had consented to have
him for her slave. ^Vhy 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 measures directed against the Chris-
tiaus 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,
that 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
firm, 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 Callista 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 the 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 should 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 Jucuudus dreaded
lest, if he were rudely charged with Christianity, 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-

148 Callista;

session of Agellius, and forcibly confine him in bis
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 prastorium, or
in the camp (for the camp and the prsetorium 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 information,
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 the Third Century. MO

rosity which risks the chances of contagion for the
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. His sister might have thwarted
him in affairs 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 meanwhile, 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 illnesses of the country 3

150 CaUixtit ;

though this was more than an ordinary fever, he
drew blood from him, g ave him a draught of herbs,
and 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 Century. 151

ing of the day ; the causa 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 Forurn, 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 up had he been strono 1
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."

L 2

1 52 Callista ;

It was a deep, clear, peacef al, authoritative voice.
In his present state, as we have said, it cost Agellius
no great effort to mortify curiosity ; aud 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.

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 Agellius 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 in
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. J 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,
gentle, 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
Ca3cilius. 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.

Csecilius 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 a long
silence, whether a man could be baptized twice; and
when the priest answered distinctly in the negative,
Agellius replied that if so, he thought 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.

Csecilius answered, "But how could you promise
yourself that you would be able to obtain the sacra-

154 Cij.llista ;

mentat the last moment ? The water and the admini
strator might come just too late ; and then where
would you be, 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 Agellius,
" 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."

"You are, then, of the number of those," said
Cascilius, " 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/

Agtllius continuing silent, Caecilius added, " You
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 ; vour 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, " Xo."

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 know, 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 Csecilius ;
" 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, "I was baptized
when I was only six years old. I m glad you do not
think it was wilful in. me, and wrong. I cannot 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 be working. " My

156 Callista;

spring is gone," he said, " and I have no summer. Nay,
I 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
Csecilius, that, though you have relaxed, you have
never severed yourself from the peace of the Church,
yon have not denied your God."

Agellius sighed bitterly. " my father," he said,
" Erravi, sicut ovis quse periit. I have been very
near denying Him, at least by outward act. You do
not 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 ; "I recollect the
catechism. What is it, father ? a new grace, I know ;
a plank after baptism. May I have it ? "

" You 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 been amiss.
Praise Him who has spared you for this."

A Tale of the Third Century. 157

It was too much for the patient in his weak state ;
he 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, " Reno-
vabitur, ut aquila, juventus mea."

Cgecilius responded, as before, with sacred words
which were new to Agellins : " Qui sperant in Do
mino mutabunt fortitudinem ; assument pennas, sicut
aquilas. 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 lather, my heart is below,
not above. I want to tell yon 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."

153 C alii *-t a ;

Agellius 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 Agellius 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 Cascilius 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 which, heaven has joined
Great issues, good or bad for humankind,
Is happy as a lover, and attired
"\Yith sudden brightness, like a man inspired."

However, he soon controlled himself, and said, " Quo
ego vado, non potes me modo sequi ; sequeris autem
postea."

A Tale of the Third Century. 159

CHAPTER XIV.

A SMALL CLODD.

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 1 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 Callista;

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 terrain. They alune 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 J 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 ! "

Cascilius was silent for a moment, and sighed ; he
then said, " You have ever been a Christian, Agellius."

" And you have not, my father ? v 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.. 161

Yet I think you earned it too, else why the difference
between you and your brother ? "

" What do you know of us ? " asked Agellius
quickly.

"Not a great deal/ answered he, "yet something 1 .
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 1 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
was 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 friends from foes."

" You were led here for other purposes towards me,
my father," said Agellius; "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 Cascilius; " how long I
shall still be here, I cannot tell. I am expecting my

162 Callisia;

trusty messenger with despatches. It is now three
days since he was here. However, 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 you,, and send you back to Sicca, to collect and
restore this scattered flock. 3

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 ? "

" You will save your own soul by saving the souls
of others/ said Cascilius ; "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 termination, 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 Cascilius had said ; however,

A Tale of the Third Century. 163

it was not his messenger, but Juba, who approached,
looking with great curiosity at Caecilius, and absorbed
in the sight. Cascilius 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, and added, " Tis, a Christian
priest."

"Has Agellius no acquaintance but Christians?"
asked Csecilius.

" Acquaintance ! surely ! answered Juba ;
" agreeable, innocent, sweet acquaintance of another
sort; 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."

Cascilius 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/ J

164 Callista ;

" My son/ Ctecilias answered, " you have been
under instruction ; it is your duty to go forward, not
back."

" What do you know about me ? " said Juba ; " he
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 Caecilius.

Juba neighed rather than laughed, so fierce and
scornful was its expression. " What you slaves call
pride," he said, "I call dignity."

" You believe in 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 Csecilius, " 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 He 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 you," said Cascilius, " 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. 3

" 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."

Caecilius 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."

"Agellius," 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 picture of

M

166 CalUsta;

the Good Shepherd. I dwelt on the vain efforts of tlie
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. Grod 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 lived 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. AVhen 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 neod not betray them ; " he laughed ; " the black
moor does the work himself. Look," he cried, seizing
the priest s arm, and 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. Eead there, the
task is not hard, your coming fortunes."

A Tale of the Third Century. 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
brcok, 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. " It
is the locusts/ they whispered to each other, as they
went back into the cottage.

t 2

168 Callista;

CHAPTER XV.

A VISITATION.

THE plague of locusts, one of the most awful visita
tions to which, the countries included in the Roman
empire were exposed,, extended from the Atlantic to
Ethiopia, from Arabia to India, and from the Nile
and Eed Sea to Greece and the north of Asia Minor.
Instances are recorded in history of clouds of 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 only
fit comparison ; and hence it is almost a proverbial
mode of expression in the East (as may be illustrated

A Tale of the Third Century. 169

by the sacred pages to which we just now 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
the sun, from, which circumstance indeed their name
in Arabic is derived. And so ubiquitous are they
when they have alighted on the earth, that they
simply cover or clothe its surface.

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 they
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 energetic
rapacity. They have been known even to gnaw the
door-posts of the houses. JSTor do they execute their
task in so slovenly a way, that, as they have suc
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

170 Callist,, :

manage to destroy many more by their deatli than
in their life.

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 grew 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 hare 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. 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 dee])
forests, spaiing nothing within their reach, and where
there was nothing to devour, lying helpless in drifts,
or crawliug forward obstinately, as they best might,
with the hope of prey. They could spare their
hundred thonsand 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 Cullista;

they carried a broad farrow 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 surmonnt 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 steins are left bare. There
is another yard, less uncommon, but still tended with
more thau 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 tie Third Century. 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 court, at their coarse
evening meal, the room is filled with the invading
force, and news comes to them that the enemy has
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
the store-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 footing, they climb
up the wood or stucco, they surmount the parapet, or

174 Call is ta;

they have entered in at the windows, filling the apart
ments, and the most private and luxurious chambers,
not one or two, like stragglers at forage or rioters
after a victory, but ill order of battle, and with the
array of an army. Choice plants or flowers about the
impluvia and xysti, 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 ; wherever man has aught to eat
or drink, there are they, reckless of death, strong 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 income 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
Home, how are they to be paid ? How are cattle to
be provided for the sacrifices aud 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 sullenness and recklessness iu
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 Callista ;

they cou-ld, to destroy them by fire and water. 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 carcases 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 Tale of the Third Century. 177

visitation, not confined to the territory which the
enemy had made its own, but extending far and
wide, as the atmosphere extends, in all 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 are 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; 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.

WORSE AND WORSE.

" WRETCHED minds 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 aud direct

A Tale of the Third Century. 179

interpretation was, " Do penance, 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 aud 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 country 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 Callistaj

every one else, for want of some clearly defined object
against which 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 sufferings, present or
iu 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

tions so 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 Officiwm of the society of publicans or
collectors of annonawas threatening a number of small
tenants with ejection for not sending in their rated
portion of corn for the Roman people : the Officium
of the Notarius, or assistant prefect, had written up to
Sicca from Carthage in violent terms ; and come it
must, though 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 the stern penalty of
neglecting to bring the coin. They, on the other hand,
by their fierce doggedness of manner, seemed to
signify by way of answer that death was not a penalty,
uuless 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 we to do ? " he said. " Half the gang of slaves

N

Callista ;

is dead, and the other half is so feeble, that I cau c
get through the work of the month. We ought to be
sheep-sheaving ; you have no chance of wool. We
ought to be swarming the bees, pressing the honey,
boiling and 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 be
sowing brassicum, parsley, and coriander against nest
spring. We ought to be cheese-making. We ought
to be baking white and red bricks and tiles in the
sun; we have no hands for the purpose. The villicus
is not to blame, but the anger of the gods." The
country emploi/e of the procurator of the imperial
Bapkia protests that the insect cannot be found from
which the dye is extracted ; and argues 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 pistrinum. " Let old Corbulus follow

A Tale of the Third Century. 183

Mago in his passage to perdition/ said one of the
rabble ; " let him take his physic 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
Thermce or hot baths; "make way there, you filthy
slime of the earth, 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,

1S4 Callista ;

Romanes 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 ? Ye 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, on
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. From 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 tlie 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, and a riot was in
progress. Self-preservation is the first law of man ;
trembling for the safety of his 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 he 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. Off 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 Callisla;

However, 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 flourishing 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 adventm*e 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 of action without delay.

" Africa, Africa ! " is now the cry ; the signal in that
country, as an ancient writer tells us, that the parties
raising it have something new in hand, and have a
mind to do it.

Suddenly, as 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 they were closing,
hustling each other, staring at the beast, and hoping
to provoke him, that a shrill voice cried out, " Chris-
tianos ad leones, Christianos ad leones ! " 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 ! n 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 vengeance. " 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 Christians !
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 next 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

CHAPTEE XVII.

CHRISTIANOS AD LEONES.

BY the time that they had got round again to the
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 leaders, and, indeed, to
every one who used his reason 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 difficulty 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
commotion, such restless pain, such curses, shrieks,
and blasphemies, such bootless 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
unreasomng "inultitude. 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 sufficient 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 procession.
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
hungry and idle rabble, the filthy beggars who fed on
the offal 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 ; Canaauites, as
they called themselves, from the coast ; the wild beast-
keepers from the amphitheatre ; 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 Thermae ; all
these, and many others, had their part and place in the
procession. There you might see the devilish emblems
of idolatry borne aloffc by wretches from the great
Punic Temple, while frantic forms,ragged and famished,
wasted and shameless, leapt and pranced around

192 Callista;

them. Tliere too vras 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 leones " 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 purposes,
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, he 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 ou, 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 lifeless 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 Christian
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 knew 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 three 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

hesitation how to dispose of them; at last the girls
were handed over to the priestesses of Astarte, and
the boys to the loathsome votaries of Cybele.

Revenge 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 city, 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 effected, 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 tabularius 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;

ike household of another of the Curia, who held the
office of Flamen Dialis. He was a wealthy, easy
going man, generally popular, with no appetite for
persecution at all, bat still no desire to be persecuted.
He had more than tolerated the Christians, and had
at this time a Christian among his slaves. This was
a Greek, a splendid cook and perfumer, and he would
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 aspect,
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, and
the old age and death of the worn-out hack who once
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

his eyes to heaven, 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 Romans 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 they 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

o

198 Callista;

vehemently on one side, and roared like a torrent
towards the south-west. Juba, thy prophecy is soon
to be fulfilled ! The locusts will bring more harm
on thy brother s home than imperial edict or local
magistrate. The decline of day will hardly prevent
the visitation.

A Tale of the Third Century. 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 ; but 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 khennalr, not a rose or carnation, not an
orange or an orange blossom, not a boccone, 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,

o 2

200

were now reduced to one dreary cinder-colour. The
smoke of fires was actually rising from many points,
where the spoilt aud poisonous vegetation was burn
ing iu heaps, or the countless corpses of the invading
foe, or of the cattle, or of the human beings whom the
pestilence had carried off. The most furious inroad of
savage horde?, of Yaudals, or of Saracens, who were
destined at successive eras to come and waste that
country, could not have spread such thorough deso
lation. Tue slaves of the farm of Yarius 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 am
come from Jucundus," he said; " he has instaut 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 of
Bacchus and Ceres."

Agellius took the tablets, and went with them across
the road to the place where Caecilius was at work, in
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 without

A Tale of the Third Century. 201

questioning." Agellius showed the letter to the
priest.

" We are no longer safe here, my father/ 3 he said ;
" whither shall we go? Let us go together. Can you
take me to Carthage."

" Carthage is quite as dangerous/ answered Ceesi-
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 ; " here
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 Csecilius, " I
know more of the neighbourhood of Sicca than you
who are a native. There is a famous Christian
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.

Caacilius 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 CaUixta;

his intelligence returned. "Xo/ he said, "we must
separate, for the time; it will not be for long.
That is, I suppose, your uncle will take good care of
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 ara without protection. Angels 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 ; "they will see
you. Stop, I have got to tell you how and 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 seven
paternosters ; and then speak to the man upon your
right hand. And now away with you, God speed
you, we shall not long be parted, 3 and 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
Firrnian, " 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. Aruobius says your father was a
Christian."

" 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 Callista;

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 Caesar, 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 Agelliu?.

" I am to be a pleader," answered Firmian ; " I
should like to be a great orator like Cicero, and
every one listening to me."

They were walking along the top of a mud wall,
which separated Varius s farm from his neighbour s,
when suddenly Firmian, who led the way, leapt
down into a copse, which reached as far as the
ravine in which the knoll terminated towards Sicca.
The boy still went forward by devious paths, till
they had mounted as high as the city wall.

" You 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 passag-e 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 inhabi-

A Tale of the Third Century. 205

tants were away ; there was a great noise in the
distance, 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 Jucundus.

" 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/ 5 and he ran away.

Meanwhile Caacilius 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, and the light uucertaiu. Till then
he must keep close in-doors. There was a remark
able cavern in the mountains above Sicca, which
had been used as a place of refuge for Christians
from the very time they had first suffered persecution
in Roman 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

206 Callista;

the fury of their enemy grew or diminished. While
it was in the midst of a wilderness difficult of access,
and feared as the resort of ghosts and evil influences,
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 night and
concealment were easy on 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 Martius 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 lie
had to accomplish in tlie 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 Roman 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 ; 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 Huly Roman Church, which had lately lost
its bishop by martyrdom. This indeed was no unusual

A Tale of the Third Century. 209

event with the see of Peter, in which the successors
of Peter followed Peter s steps, an Peter had been
bidden to follow 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. Eleutherius, 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 Rome and Italy,
and to the martyrdoms which had followed that of
St. Fabian. Two Persians had already suffered in the
imperial city ; Maxinius had lost his life, and Felix
had been imprisoned, at Nola. Asia Minor, Syria,
and Egypt had already afforded victims to the perse-

210 Callista;

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 Caecilius had a
strong call on him for intercession, for a subtle form of
freethiuking 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 Caacilius 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. 211

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-
lius, and all those hundred private matters of anxiety
which the foes of the Church, occupied only with her
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 that 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) he 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;

CHAPTEB XIX.

A PASSAGE OF AEJIS.

How many hours passed while Ccecilius 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 breast, 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
providing 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 Caacilius. 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 was 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 Csecilius, 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 Caacilius, " 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
seen, 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,

p

214 Callista;

thirsting for the 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
be taken 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 Cseci-
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 svorld,"
said the priest.

She paused for a while. " It is true," she answered

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 winds, 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 Greek, nor a Greek a Ccelicolist. They
do but make themselves fools when they attempt

it."

p 2

216 Callista ;

" Perhaps the most deeply convinced, the most
tranquil-minded in the Christian body/ answered
Caacilius, "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, but
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 Caacilius.

" Such as this," answered Callista. " Nothing will
ever 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 Csecilius, gravely.
" I suppose if one individual may have that terrible

A Tale of the Third Century. 217

lot, another may both may, many may. Suppose I
understand you to say that you never will believe
that you will go to au eternal Tartarus."

Callista gave a slight start, and showed some uneasi
ness or displeasure.

" Is it not likely, 3 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 : " Perhaps 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 true,
sir, whoever told you. But how can you have the
heart to say it, to insult and mock me ! "

" God forbid ! " exclaimed Caecilius, " 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
opinion, 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."

Cfecilius spoke, as if half in soliloquy or meditation,
though he 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 ; 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 on His behalf, and before His
throne."

A Tale of the Third Century. 219

His voice trembled as tie spoke, but lie soon re
covered himself. " 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. You 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 Christians say, one Almighty God, and

220 CalUsta;

you did not like Him, arid liad 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 Caecih us, 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 their
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 with 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 He
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, Christian teacher ?
Why are you all so mysterious, so reserved in your
communications ? "

Ctecilius was silent for a moment, and seemed at a
loss for an 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 OWR 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
heard.

" 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 Fair, 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 Csecilius,
" 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 meus crucifixus est. 3 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. et 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. 223

content, I may well be resigned, I may well be proud,
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 Caecilius ; 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 tire ? 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 ? I, a proud, stern
Roman ; I, a lover of pleasure, a man of letters,
of political station, with formed habits, and life-long
associations, and complicated relations ; was it /
who wrought 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 will, 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 which, under
the circumstances, 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
you."

226 Callista ;

CHAPTER XX.

HE SHALL NOT LOSE HIS REWARD.

THERE was no room for doubt or for delay. " What
is to become of you, Callista ? " he said ; " they 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! J 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 Christian keep
ing. My mind tells me I am not wrong in lending it
to you." He handed to her the Gospel of St. Luke,

A Tale of the Third Century. 227

while lie 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,

Thascius CsBcilius Cyprianus, 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 Cascilius, aud being at once
unsuspicious of danger to herself, and careless of her
life, she ran quickly forward to meet them. Caecilius
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 leffc 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. In
the confusion he turned in the wrong direction ; instead
of making off at the back of the cottage from which
the voices had scared hina, he ran across the garden

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/ 3 said a second. " Have
a guard/ said a third ; " he can turn you into swine
or asses while there is breath in him." il 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,
cr 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 of exultation broke forth from the
drunken and frantic multitude. " Along with him !"
continued the same speaker in a jeering tone. " Here,
put him on the ass and tie his hands behind his back.
He shall go back in triumph to the city which he
loves. Mind, and don t touch him before the time. If
you kill him, you ll never get the curse off. Come
here, you priests of Cybele," he added, t: and be his

A Tale of the Third Century. 229

body-guard." And he continued to keep a vigilant
eye and hand over the old man, in spite of them.

The ass, though naturally a good-tempered beast,
had been most sadly tried through the day. He had
been fed, indeed, out of mockery, as being the Chris
tians god ; but he did not understand the shouts and
caprices of the crowd, and he only waited for an
opportunity to show that he by no means acquiesced in
the proceedings of the day. And now the difficulty
was to move at all. The people kept crowding up the
hollow road, and blocked the passage, and though the
greater part of the rioters had either been left behind
exhausted in Sicca itself, or had poured over the fields
on each side of Agellius s cottage, or gone right over
the hill down into the valley beyond, yet still it was
some time before the ass could move a step, and a time
of nervous suspense it was both to Caxnlius and the
youth who "befriended him. At length what remained
of the procession was persuaded to turn about and
make for Sicca, but in a reversed order. It could not
be brought round in so confined a space, so its rear
went first and the ass and its burden came last. As
they descended the hill back again, Cascilius, who was
mounted upon the linen and silk whi jh had adorned
the Dea Syra before the Tertullianist had destroyed
the idol, saw before him the whole line of march. In
front were flaunted the dreadful emblems of idolatry,
so far as their bearers were able still to raise them.
Drunken women, ragged boys mounted on men s
shoulders, ruffians and bullies, savage-looking Getu-

2:JO Calliata;

Hans, half-human monsters from the Atlas, monkeys
and cars jabbering and howling, mummers, bacchanals,
satyrs, and gesticulators, formed the staple of the
procession. Midway between the hill which he was
descending and the city lay the ravine, of which we
have several times spoken, widening out into the
plain or Campus Martius, which reached round to the
steep cliffs on the north. The bridle-path, along
which he was moving, crossed it just where it was
opening and became level, so as to present no abrupt
descent and ascent at the place where the path was
lowest. On the left every vestige of the ravine soon
ceased, and a free passage extended to the plain.

The youth who had placed Caecilius on the ass
still kept close to him and sung at the pitch of his
voice, in imitation of the rest

" Sporting and snorting in shades of the night,
His ears pricking up, and his hoofs striking light,
And his tail whisking round in the speed of his flight."

" Old man," he continued to Cascilius in a low
voice, and in Latin, " your curse has not worked on
me yet."

" My son," answered the priest, "you are granted
one day more for repentance."

" Lucky for you as well as for me," was the reply :
and he continued his song :

" Gurta, the witch, was out with the rest ;
Though as lame as a gull, by his highness possessed,
She shouldered her crutch, and danced with the best.

A Tale of the Third Century. 231

" She stamped and she twirled in the shade of the yew,
Till her gossips and chums of the city danced too ;
They never are slack when there s mischief to do.

" She danced and she coaxed, but he was no fool ;
He d be his own master, he d not be her tool :
Not the little black moor should send him to school."

He then turned to Cascilius and whispered, " You
see, old father, that others, besides Christians, can
forgive and forget. Henceforth call me generous
Juba." And he tossed his head.

By this time they had got to the bottom of the hill,
and the deep shadows which filled the hollow showed
that the sun was rapidly sinking in the west. Suddenly,
as they were crossing the bottom, as it opened iuto the
plain, Juba seized and broke the thong which bound
Cascilius s arms, and bestowing a tremendous cut with
it upon the side of the ass, sent him forward upon the
plain at his greatest speed. The youth s manoeuvre
was successful to the full. The asses of Africa can
do more on an. occasion of this kind than our own.
Cascilius for the moment lost his seat ; but, instantly
recovering it, took care to keep the animal from
flagging ; and the cries of the mob, and the howlings
of the priests of Cybele cooperated in the task. At
length the gloom, increasing every minute, hid him
from their view ; and even in daylight his recapture
would have been a difficult matter for a wearied-ont,
famished, and intoxicated rabble. Before Cascilius well
had time to return thanks for this unexpected turn
of events, he was out of pursuit, and was ambling
at a pace more suitable to the habits of the beast of

Q 2

232 Callista;

burden that carried him, over an expanse of plain
which would have been a formidable night-march to a
fasting man.

We must not conclude the day without relating
what was its issue to the persecutors, as well as to
their intended victim. It is almost a proverb that
punishment is slow in overtaking crime ; but the
present instance was an exception to the rule. While
the exiled Bishop of Carthage escaped, the crowd, on
the other hand, were caught in the trap which had
been laid for them. We have already said it was a
ruse on the part of the governing authorities of the
place to get the rioters out of the city, that they
might at once be relieved of them, and then deal with
them just as they might think fit. When the mob
was once outside the walls, they might be refused
re-admittance, and put down with a strong Imnd. The
Roman garrison, who, powerless to quell the tumult
ia the narrow and winding streets and multiplied
alleys of the city, had been the authors of the
manoeuvre, now took on themselves the stern com
pletion of it, and determined to do so in the sternest
way. Not a single head of all those who poured out
in the afternoon should return at night. It was not
to be supposed that the soldiers had any tenderness
for the Christians, but they abominated and despised
the rabble of the town. They were iudignant at
their rising, thought it a personal insult to them
selves, and resolved they should never do so again.

A Tale of the Third Century. 233

The gates were commonly in the custody of the city
guard, but the Porta Septirniana, by which the mob
passed out, was on this occasion claimed by the
Romans. It was most suitably circumstanced for the
use they intended to make of it. Immediately outside
of it was a large court of the same level as the ground
inside, bordered on the right and left by substantial
walls, which after a time were drawn to meet each
other, and contracted the space to the usual breadth
of a road. The walls continued to run along this
road for some distance, till they joined the way which
led to the Campus Martius, and from this point the
ground was open till it reached the. head of the
ravine. The soldiers drew up at the gate, and as
the worn-out and disappointed, brutalized and half-
idiotic multitudes returned towards it from the
country, those who were behind pushed on between
the border walls those who were in front, and, while
they jammed together their ranks, also made escape
impossible. It. was now that the Korean soldiers
began their barbarous, not to say cowardly, assault
upon them. With heavy maces, with the pike, with
iron gauntlets, with stones and bricks, with clubs,
with scourge, with the sword, with the helmet,
with whatever came to hand, they commenced
the massacre of that large concourse of human
beings, who did not offer one blow in return. They
slaughtered them like sheep ; they trampled them
down ; they threw the bodies of the wounded over the
walls. Attempting to run back, numbers of the poor

234 Callista;

wretches came into conflict -with the ranks behind
them, and an additional scene of confusion and over
throw took place ; many of them straggled over to
the open country or woods, and perished, either from
the weather, or from hunger, or even from the wild
beasts. Others, weakened by excess and famine,
fell a prey to the pestilence that was raging. After
some days a remnant of them was allowed silently
and timidly to steal back into the city as best they
could. It was a long day before the Plebs Siccensis
ventured to have any opinion of its own upon the
subject of Christianity, or any other political, social, or
ecclesiastical topic whatever.

A Tale of the Third Century. 230

CHAPTER XXI.

STARTLING RUMOURS.

WHEN Jucundus rose next morning, and heard tbe
news, he considered it to be more satisfactory than
he could have supposed possible. He was a zealous
imperialist, and a lover of tranquillity, a despiser of
the natives and a hater of the Christians. The Chris
tians had suffered enough to vindicate the Eoman
name, to deter those who were playing at Christianity,
and to show that the people of Sicca had their eyes
about them. And the mob had received a severe
lesson too ; and the cause of public order had
triumphed, and civic peace was re-established. His
anxiety, too, about Agellius had terminated, or was
terminating. He had privately denounced him to the
government, come to an understanding with the mili
tary authorities, and obtained the custody of him.
He had met him at the very door to which the boy
Firmian brought him, with an apparitor of the mili
tary staff (or what answered to it), and had clapped
him into prison in an underground cellar in which he
kept damaged images, and those which had gone out
of fashion, and were otherwise unsaleable. He was
not at all sorry, by some suffering, and by some

230 . Callista ;

fright, to aid the more potent incantation which
Callista was singing in his ears. He did not, how
ever, at all forget Juba s hint, and was careful not to
overdo the rack-and-gridiron dodge, if we may so
designate it ; yet he thought just a flavour or a
thought of the inconveniences which the profes
sion of Christianity involved might be a salutary
reflection in the midst of the persuasives which the
voice and eyes of Callista would kindle in his heart.
There was nothing glorious or heroic in being con
fined in a lumber cellar, no one knowing anything
about it ; and he did not mean to keep him there for
ever.

As the next day wore on towards evening, rumour
brought a piece of news which he was at first utterly
unable to credit, and which for the moment seemed
likely to spoil the appetite which, promised so well for
his evening repast. He could hardly believe his ears
when he was tcld that Callista was in arrest on a
charge of Christianity, and at first it made him look
as black as some of those Egyptian gods which he
had on one shelf of his shop. However, he rallied, and
was very much amused at the report. The imprison
ment indeed was a fact, account for it as one could;
but who could account for it ? " Varium et mutabile :"
who could answer for the whims and fancies of
womankind ? If she had fallen in love with the owl
of Minerva, or cut off her auburn tresses, or turned
rope-dancer, there might have been some shrugging
of shoulders, but no one would have tried to analyze

A Tale of the Third Century. 237

the motive; but so much his profound sagacity
enabled him to see, that, if there was one thing more
than another likely to sicken Agellius of Christianity,
it was to find one who was so precious to him suffer
ing from the suspicion of it. It was bad enough to
have suffered one s self in such a cause ; still he could
conceive, he was large-minded enough to grant, that
Agellius might have some secret satisfaction in the
antagonist feeling of resentment and obstinacy which
that suffering might engender : but it was carrying
matters too far, and no comfort in any point of view,
to find Callista, his beloved, the object of a similar
punishment. It was all very well to profess Chris
tianity as a matter of sentiment, mystery, and singu
larity ; but when it was found to compromise the life
or limbs of another, and that other Callista, why it
was plain that Agellius would be the very first to try
and entreat the wayward girl to keep her good looks
for him, and to be loyal to the gods of her country ;
and he chuckled over the thought, as others have
done in other states of society, of a love-scene or
a marriage being the termination of so much high
romance and fine acting.

However, the nest day Aristo came down to him
himself, and gave him an account at once more au
thentic and more extended on the matter which in
terested him. Callista had been called up before the
tribunal, and had not been discharged, but remanded.
The meaning of it was as obscure as ever; Aristo
could give no account of it; it almost led him to be-

238 CalUsta ;

lieve in the evil eye; some unholy practices, some
spells such as only potent wizards know, some de
plorable delusion or hallucination, had for the time got
the mastery of his sister s mind. No one seemed
quite to know how she had found her way into the
hands of the officers ; but there she was, and the
problem was how to get her out of them.

However, whatever mystery, whatever anxiety,
attached to the case, it was only still more urgent to
bring the matter home to Agellius without delay.
If time went on before the parties were brought
together, she might grow more obstinate, and kindle
a like spirit in him. Oh that boys and girls would
be giving old people, who wish them well, so much
trouble ! However, it was no good thinking of that
just then. He considered that, at the present
moment, they would not be able to bear the sight of
each other in suffering and peril; that mutual tender
ness would make them plead with each other in each
other s behalf, and that each would be obliged to set
the example to each of a concession, to which each
exhorted each; and on this fine philosophical view he
proceeded to act.

A Tale of the Third Century. 239

CHAPTER XXII.

JOCUNDUS PKOPOTJNDS HIS VIEW Of THE SITUATION.

FOR thirty-six hours Agellius had been confined
in his underground receptacle, light being almost
excluded, a bench and a rug being his means of
repose, and a full measure of bread, wine, and olives
being his dole. The shrieks and yells of the rioters
could be distinctly heard in his prison, as the day of
his seizure went on, and they passed by the temple of
Astarte; but what happened at his farm, and how ifc
fared with Csecilius, he had no means of conjecturing ;
nor indeed how it was to fare with himself, for on the
face of the transaction, as was in form the fact, he
was in the hands of the law, and only indulged with
the house of a relative for his prison. On the second
night he was released by his uncle s confidential
slave, who brought him up to a small back closet on
the ground floor, which was lighted from the roof,
and next morning, being the second day after the riot,
Jucundus came in to have his confidential conversation
with him.

His uncle began by telling him that he was a
government prisoner, but that he hoped by his in
fluence in high places to get him off and out of

240 Ccillista;

Sicca without any prejudice to his honour. He told
Mm that be had managed it privately, and if he
had treated him with apparent harshness up to the
evening before, it was in order to save appearances
with the apparitors who had attended him. He
then went on to inform him that the mob had
visited his cottage, and had caught some man there;
he supposed some accomplice or ally of his nephew s.
They had seized him, and were bringing him off, but
the fellow had been clever enough to effect his escape.
He did not know more than this, but it had happened
very fortunately, for the general belief in the place
was, that it was Agellius who had been taken, and
who had managed to give them the slip. Since it
could not any longer be safely denied that he was a
Christian, though he (Jucundus) did not think so him
self, he had encouraged or rather had given his con
firmation to the report ; and when some persons who
had means of knowing had asserted that the culprit
was double the age of his nephew and more, and not at
all of his make or description, but a sort of slave, or
rather that he was the slave of Agellius who had
belonged to his father Strabo, Jucundus had boldly
asserted that Agellius, in the emergency, had
availed himself of some of the remarkably powerful
charms which Christians were known to possess,
and had made himself seem what he really was not,
in order to escape detection. It had not indeed
answered the purpose entirely, for he had actually
been taken ; but no blame in the charm, which

A Tale of the Third Century. 211

perhaps, after all, had enabled him to escape. How
ever, Agellius was gone, he told people, and a good
riddance, and he hoped never to see him again. " But
you see, my dear boy/ he concluded, " this was all
talk for the occasion, for I hope you will live here
many years in respectability and credit. I intend you
should close my eyes when my time comes, and
inherit whatever I have to leave you ; for as to that
fellow Juba, he inspires me with no confidence in him
at all."

Agellius thanked his uncle with all his heart for
his kind and successful efforts on his behalf; he did
not think there was a word he had said, in the future
he had sketched for him, which he could have wished
altered. But he thought Jucundus over-sanguine ;
much as he should like to live with him and tend him
in his old age, he did not think he should ever be
permitted to return to Sicca. He was a Christian, and
must seek some remote corner of the world, or at
least some city where he was unknown. Every one in
Sicca would point at him as the Christian; he would
experience a thousand rubs and collisions, even if the
mob did not rise against him, without corresponding
advantage ; on the other hand, he would have no
iufluence. But were he in the midst of a powerful
and widely-extended community of Christians, he
might in his place do work, and might extend the
faith as one of a number, unknown himself, and strong
in his brethren. He therefore proposed as soon as

242 CalUsta ;

possible to sell his effects and stock, and retire from
the sight of men, at least for a time.

"You think this persecution, then, will be soon at
an end ? " asked Jucundus.

" I judge by the past/ answered Agellius ; " there
have been times of trial and of rest hitherto, and I
suppose it will be so again. And one place has
hitherto been exempt from the violence of our
enemies, when another has been the scene of it."

" A new time is coming, trust ine/ said Jucundus,
gravely. "Those popular commotions are all over.
What happened two days ago is a sample of what
will come of them ; they have received their coup-de-
grace. The State is taking up the matter, Rome
itself, thank the gods ! a tougher sort of customer
than these villain ratcatchers and offal-eaters, whom
you bad to do with two days since. Great Korne is
now at length in earnest, my boy, which she ought to
have been a long time back, before y ou were born ;
and then you know/ and he nodded, " you would
have had no choice ; you wouldn t have had the tempta -
tion to make a fool of yourself."

" Well, then/ answered Agellius, " if a new time is
really coming, there is less chance than ever of my
continuing here."

" Now be a sensible fellow, as you are when you
choose/ said his uncle ; " look the matter in the face,
do. You cannot wrestle with impossibilities, you
cannot make facts to pattern. There are lawful
religions, there are illicit. Christianity is illicit; it

A Tale of the Third Century. 243

is not tolerated ; that s not your fault ; you cannot
help it ; you would, if you could ; you can t. Now you
have observed your point of honour ; you have shown
you can stand up like a man, and suffer for your
own fancy. Still Rome does not give way ; and you
must make the best of it. You must give in, and you
are far too good (I don t compliment, I speak my mind),
far too amiable, excellent, sweet a boy for so rascally a
superstition."

" There is something stronger than Rome/ said the
nephew almost sternly.

Jucundus cut him short. " Agellius ! he said,
" you must not say that in this house. You shall not
use that language under my roof. I ll not put up
with it, I tell you. Take your treason elsewhere. . . .
This accursed obstinacy ! " he said to himself ; " but
I must take care what I am doing/ then aloud,
"Well, we both of us have been railing; no good
comes of railing ; railing is not argument. But now,
I say, do be sensible, if you can. Is not the imperial
government in earnest now ? better late than never,
but it is now in earnest. And now mark my words,
by this day five years, five years at the utmost, I
say by this day five years there will not be a single
ragamuffin Christian in the whole Roman world. "
And he looked fierce. " Ye gods ! Rome, Rome has
swept from the earth by her very breath conspiracies,
confederacies, plots against her, without ever fail
ing ; she will do so now with this contemptible, Jew-
begotten foe."

244 Callista ;

" In what are we enemies to Rome, Jucundus ?
said Ageliius ; " why will you always take it for
granted ? "

" Take it for granted ! " answered he, " is it not on
the face of the matter? I suppose they are enemies
to a state, whom the state calls its enemies. Besides,
why a pother of words ? Swear by the genius of the
emperor, invoke the Dea Roma,, sacrifice to Jove ; no,
not a bit of it, not a whisper, not a sign, not a grain of
incense. You go out of your way to insult us ;
and then you come with a grave face, and say you
are loyal. You kick our shins, and you wish us to
kiss you on both cheeks for it. A few harmless cere
monies ; we are not entrapping you ; we are not
using your words against yourselves j we tell you the
meaning beforehand, the whole meaning of them.
It is not as if we tied you to the belief of the nursery :
we don t say, If you burn incense, you profess to
believe that old Jupiter is shivering atop of Olympus /
we don t say, You swear by the genius of Caesar,
therefore he has a genius, black, or white, or piebald. 5
No, we give you the meaning of the act ; it is a mere
expression of loyalty to the empire. If then you
won t do it, you confess yourself ipso facto disloyal.
It is incomprehensible." And he had become quite
red.

" My dear uncle," said Ageliius, " I give you my
solemn word, that the people whom you so detest do
pray for the welfare of the imperial power continually,
as a matter of duty and as a matter of interest/

A Tale of the Thud Century. 245

" Pray ! pray ! fudge and nonsense ! " cried Jucundus,
almost mimicking him in his indignation ; " pray !
who thanks you for your prayers ? what s the good of
prayers ? Prayers, indeed ! ha, ha ! A little loyalty
is worth all the praying in the world. I ll tell you
what, Agellius ; you are, I am sorry to say it, but you
are hand and glove with a set of traitors, who shall
and will be smoked out like a nest of wasps. You
don t know ; you are not in the secret, nor the
wretched slave, poor beast, who was pulled to pieces
yesterday (ah ! you don t know of him) at the Flamen s,
nor a multitude of other idiots. But, d ye see," and
he chucked up his head significantly, " there are
puppets, and there are wires. Few know what is going
on. They won t have done (unless we put them
down ; but we will) till they have toppled down the
state. Bat Eome will put them down. Come, be
sensible, listen to reason ; now I am going to put facts
before my poor, dear, well-meaning boy. Oh that you
saw things as I do ! What a trouble you are to me !
Here am I "

" My dearest uncle, Jucundus," cried Agellius, " I
assure you, it is the most intense pain to me "

" Very well, very well," interrupted the uncle in
turn, I believe it, of course I believe it; but listen,
listen. Every now and then," he continued in a more
measured and lower tone, " every now and then the
secret is blabbed blabbed. There was that Tertul-
lianus of Carthage, some fifty years since. He wrote
books ; books have done a great deal of harm before

R

246 Callista;

now ; but read his books read and ponder. The
fellow has the insolence to tell the proconsul that ho
and the whole government, the whole city and pro
vince, the whole Roman world, the emperors, all but
the pitiful clique to which he belongs, are destined,
after death, to flames for ever and ever. There s
loyalty ! but the absurdity is greater than the male
volence. Rightly are the fellows called atheists and
men-haters. Our soldiers, our statesmen, our magis
trates, and judges, and senators, and the whole com
munity, all worshippers of the gods, every one who
crowns his head, every one who loves a joke, and all
our great historic names, heroes, and worthies, the
Scipios, the Decii, Brutus, Cassar, Cato, Titus, Trajan,
Antoninus, are inmates, not of the Elysian fields, if
Elysian fields there be, but of Tartarus, and will never
find a way out of it."

" That man, Tertullianus, is nothing to us, uncle/
answered Agellius ; "a man of great ability, but he
quarrelled with us, and left us."

I can t draw nice distinctions," said Jucundus.
Your people have quarrelled among themselves
perhaps on an understanding; we can t split hairs.
It s the same with your present hierophant at Carthage,
Cyprianus. Nothing can exaggerate, I am told, the
foulness of his attack upon the gods of Rome, upon
Romulus, the Augurs, the Ancilia, the consuls, and
whatever a Roman is proud of. As to the imperial
city itself, there s hardly one of their high priests that
has not died under the hands of the executioner, as a

(C

tl

A T,de of the Third Century. 247

convict. The precious fellows take the title of Pou-
tifex Maximus ; bless their impudence ! Well, my boy,
this is what I say ; be, if you will, so preternaturally
sour and morose as to misconceive and rnislike the
innocent, graceful, humanising, time-honoured usages
of society; be so, for what I care, if this is all ; but
it isn t all. Such misanthropy is wisdom, absolute
wisdom, compared with the Titanic presumption
and audacity of challenging to single combat the
sovereign of the world. Go and kick down Mount
Atlas first."

"You have it all your own way, Jucundus," answered
his nephew, " and so you must move in your own
circle, round and round. There is no touching you, if
you first assume your premisses, and then prove them
by means of your conclusion."

" My dear Agellius," said his uncle, giving his head
a very solemn shake, " take the advice of an old man.
When you are older than you are, you will see better
who is right and who is wrong. You ll be sorry you
despised me, a trne, a prudent, an experienced friend ;
you will. Shake yourself, come do. Why should you
link your fortunes, in the morning of life, with despe
rate men, only because your father, in his last feeble
days, was entrapped into doing so ? I really will not
believe that you are going to throw away hope and
life on so bad a bargain. Can t you speak a word ?
Here you ve let me speak, and won t say one syllable
for yourself. I don t think it kind of you."

Thus adjured, Agellius began. <c Well," he said,

2

248 Callista;

" it s a long history ; you see,, we start, iny dear uncl 1 ,
from different points. How am I possibly to join issue
with you ? I can only tell you my conclusion. Hope
and life, you say. Why, my only hope, my only life,
my only joy, desire, consolation, and treasure is that
I am a Christian/

" Hope and life ! " interrupted Jucundus, " immortal
gods ! life and hope in being a Christian ! do I hear
aright ? Why, man, a prison brings despair, not hope ;
and the sword brings death, not life. By Esculapius !
life and hope ! you choke me, Agellius. Life and
hope ! you are beyond three Anticyras. Life and
hope ! if you were old, if you were diseased, if you were
given over, and had but one puff of life left in you, then
you might be what you would, for me ; but your hair
is black, your cheek is round, you limbs are strong,
vour voice is full; and you are going to make all
these a sacrifice to Hecate ! has your good genius fed
that plump frame, ripened those goods looks, nerved
your arm, bestowed that breadth of chest, that strength
of loins, that straightness of spine, that vigour of step,
only that you may feed the crows ? or to be torn on
the rack, scorched in the flame, or hung on the gibbet ?
is this your gratitude to nature ? What has been your
price? for what have you sold yourself? Speak, man,
speak. Are you dumb as well as dement ? Are you
dumb, I say, are you dumb ? "

" Jucundus," cried Agellius, irritated at his own
inability to express himself or hold an argument, " if
you did but know what it was to have the Truth ! The

A Talc of the Third Century. 249

Christian has found the Truth, the eternal Truth, in a
world of error. That is his bargain, that is his hire ;
can there be a greater ? Can I give up the Truth ?
But all this is Punic or Barbar to you."

It certainly did pose Jucundus for half a minute,
as if he was trying to take in, not so much the sense,
as the words of his nephew s speech. He looked be
wildered, and though he began to answer him at once,
it took several sentences to bring him into his usual
flow of language. After one or two exclamations,
" The truth ! " he cried, " this is what I understand you
to say, the truth. The truth is your bargain ; I think
I m right, the truth; Hm ; what is truth ? What in
heaven and earth do you mean by truth? where did
you get that cant ? What oriental tomfoolery is bam
boozling you ? The truth ! " he cried, staring at him
with eyes, half of triumph, half of impatience, "the
truth ! Jove help the boy ! the truth ! can truth pour
me out a cup of melilotus ? can truth crown me with
flowers? can it sing to me ? can it bring Glyceris to
me ? drop gold into my girdle ? or cool my brows when
fever visits me ? Can truth give me a handsome sub
urban with some five hundred slaves, or raise me to
the duumvirate ? Let it do this, and I will worship it ;
it shall be my god ; it shall be more to me than For
tune, Fate, Rome, or any other goddess on the list.
But Zlike to see, and touch, and feel, and handle, and
weigh, and measure what is promised me. I wish to
have a sample and an instalment. I am too old for
chaff. Eat, drink, and be merry, that s my philosophy,

250 Callista;

that s my religion ; and I know no better. To-day is
ours, to-morrow is our children s."

After a pause,, he added, bitterly, " If truth could
get Callista out of prison, instead of getting her into
it, I should have something to say to truth."

" Callista in prison ! " cried Agellius with surprise
and distress, " what do you mean, Jucundus ? "

" Yes, it s a fact ; Callista is in prison/ answered
he, "and on suspicion of Christianity."

" Callista ! Christianity ! " said Agellius, bewildered ;
"do I hear aright? She a Christian! oh, impossible,
uncle ! you don t mean to say that she is in prison.
Tell me, tell me, my dear, dear Jucundus, what this
wonderful news means."

" You ought to know more about it than I,"
answered he, " if there is any meaning in it. But if
you want my opinion, here it is. I don t believe
she is more a Christian than I am ; but I think she is
over head and ears in love with you, and she has some
notion that she js paying you a compliment, or inte
resting you in her, or sharing your fate (I can t
pretend to unravel the vagaries and tantarums of the
female mind) by saying that she is what she is not.
If not, perhaps she has done it out of spite and con
tradiction. You can never answer for a woman."

" Whom should she spite ? whom contradict ? " cried
Agellius, thrown for the moment off his balance. " O
Callista ! Callista in prison for Christianity ! Oh if it s
true that she is a Christian ! but what if she is not ? "
he added with great terror, "what if she s not, and yet

A Tale of the Third Century. 251

in prison, as if she were ? How are we to get her out,
uncle ? Impossible ! no, she s not a Christian she is
not at all. She ought not to be there ! Yet how
wonderful ! Ji

" Well, I am sure of it, too," said Jucundus ; " I d
stake the best image in my shop that she s not; a
Christian ; but what if she is perverse enough to say
ehe is ? and such thiirgs are not uncommon. Then, I
say, what in the world is to be done ? If she says
she is, why she is. There you are ; and what can
you do ? "

"You don t mean to say," exclaimed Agellius, "that
that sweet delicate child is in that horrible hole ;
impossible ! " and he nearly shrieked at the thought.
" What is the meaning of it all? dear, dear uncle, do
tell me something more about it. Why did you not
tell me before ? What can be done ? "

Jucundus thought he now had him in his hand.
"Why, it s plain," he answered, " what can be done.
She s no Christian, we both agree, it s certain, too,
that she chooses to say she is, or something like it.
There s just one person who has influence with her,
to make her tell the truth."

" Ha ! " cried Agellius, starting as if an asp had
bitten him.

Jucundus kept silence, and let the poison of the
said asp work awhile in his nephew s blood.

Agellius put his hands before his eyes ; and with
his elbows on his knees, began moving to and fro, as
if in intense pain.

252 Callista ;

" I repeat what I have said, Jucundus observed at
length ; " I do really think that she imagines a certain
young gentleman is likely to be in trouble, and that
she is determined to share the trouble with him."

" But it isn t true," cried Agellius with great vehe
mence; " it s not true. . . . If she really is not a Chris
tian,, my dear Lord, surely they won t put her to
death as if she was ? "

" But if she has made up her mind to be in the
same boat with you, and will be a Christian while you
are a Christian, what on earth can we do, Agellius ? "
asked Jucundus. " You have the whole matter in a
nutshell."

" She does not love me/ cried Agellius ; " no, she
has given me no reason to think so. I am sure she
does not. She s nothing to me. That cannot be the
reason of her conduct, /have no power over her; I
could not persuade her. AVhat, what does all this
mean? and I shut up here?" and he began walking
about the little room, as if such locomotion tended
to bring him out of it.

" Well," answered Jucundus, " it is easy to ascer
tain. I suppose you could be let out to see her."

But he was going on too fast ; Agellius did not
attend to him. "Poor, sweet Callista/ he exclaimed,
" she s innocent, she s innocent ; I mean she s not a
Christian. Ah ! " he screamed out in great agony,
as the whole state of the case unrolled itself to his
apprehension, " she will die though not a Christian;
she will die without faith, without love ; she will die

A Tale of the Third Century. . 253

in her sins. She will die, done to death by false
report of accepting that, by which alone she could
be carried safely through death unto life. O my
Lord, spare me ! " and he sank upon the ground in
a collapse of misery.

Jucundus was touched, and still more alarmed.
" Come, come, my boy/ he said, " you will rouse the
whole neighbourhood. Give over; be a man; all
will be right. If she s not a Christian (and she s
not), she shall not die a Christian s death ; some
thing will turn up. She s not in any hole at all, but
in a decent lodging. And you shall see her, and
console her, and all will be right."

" Yes, I will see her," said Agellius, in a sort of
musing manner ; " she is either a Christian, or she is
not. If she is a Christian . . ." and his voice faltered ;
" but if she is not, she shall live till she is."

" Well said ! " answered Jucundus, " till she is. She
shall live till she is. Yes, I can get you to see her.
You shall bring her out of prison ; a smile, a whisper
from you, and all her fretfulness and ill-humour will
vanish, like a mist before the powerful burning sun.
And we shall all be as happy as the immortal gods."

" my uncle ! " said Agellius, gravely. The lan
guage of Jucundus had shocked him, and brought
him to a better mind. He turned away from
Jucundus, and leant his face against the wall. Then
he turned round again, and said, " If she is a Chris
tian, I ought to rejoice, and I do rejoice; God be
praised. If she is not a Christian, I ought at once to

254 Callistci ;

make her one. If she has already the penalty of a
Christian, she is surely destined for the privilege.
And how should I go," he said, half speaking to him
self, " how should I go to tell her that she is not yet
a, Christian, and bid her swear by Jupiter, because
that is her god, in order that she may escape impri
sonment and death? Am I to do the part of a
heathen priest or infidel sophist ? Cascilius, how
am I forgetting- your lessons ! No ; I will go on no
such errand. Go, I will, if I may, Jucundus, but I
will go on no conditions of yours. I go on no
promise to try to get her out of prison anyhow,
poor child. I will not go to make her sacrifice to a
false god ; I go to persuade her to stay in prison,
by deserving to stay. Perhaps I am not the best
person to go ; but if I go, I go free. I go willing to
die myself for my Lord ; glad to make her die for
Him."

Agellius said this in so determined a way, so
calmly, with such a grasp of the existing posture of
affairs, and of the whole circumstances of the case,
that it was now Jucundus s turn to feel surprise and
annoyance. For a time he did not take in what Agel
lius meant, nor could he to the last follow his train
of feeling. When he saw what may be called the
upshot of the matter, he became very angry, and
spoke with great violence. By degrees he calmed;
and then the strong feeling came on him again that
ib was impossible, if a meeting took place between the
two, that it could end in any way but one. He defied

A Tale of the Third Century. 255

any two young people who loved each other, to
come to any but one conclusion. Agellius s mood
was too excited, too tragic to last. The sight of Cal-
lista in that dreadful prison, perhaps in chains, wait
ing, in order to be fre.e, for ability to say the words,
" I am not a Christian ;" and that ability waiting for
the same words from himself, would bring the affair
to a very speedy issue. As if he could love a fancy
better than he loved Callista ! Agellius, too, had
already expressed a misgiving himself on that head ;
so far they were agreed. And, to tell the truth, it
was a very difficult transaction for a young man ; and
giving our poor Agellius all credit for pure intention
and firm resolve, we really should have been very
sorry to see him involved in a trial, which would have
demanded of him a most heroic faith and the detach
ment of a saint. We, therefore, are not sorry that in
matter of fact he gained the merit of so virtuous a
determination, without being called on to execute it.
For it so happened, that a most unexpected event
occurred to him not many hours afterwards, which
will oblige us to take up here rather abruptly the
history of one of our other personages.

2oG Callista ;

CHAPTER XXIII.

GURTA.

IN the bosom of the woods which stretched for many
miles from the immediate environs of Sicca, and
placed on a gravel slope reaching down to a brook,
which ran in a bottom close by, was a small, rude
hut, of a kind peculiar to Africa, and commonly
ascribed to the wandering tribes, who neither cared,
nor had leisure for a more stable habitation. Some
might have called it a tent, from the goafs-hair cloth
with which it was covered; but it looked, as to shape,
like nothing else than an inverted boat, or the roof of
a house set upon the ground. Inside it was seen to
be constructed of the branches of trees, twisted
together or wattled, the interstices, or rather the
whole surface, being covered with clay. Being thus
stoutly built, lined, and covered, it was proof against
the tremendous rains, to which the climate, for which
it was made., was subject. Along the centre ridge or
backbone, which varied in height from six to ten feet
from the ground, it was supported by three posts or
pillars ; at one end it rose conically to an open aper
ture, which served for chimney, for sky-light, and for
ventilator. Hooks were suspended from the roof for

A Tale of the Third Century. 257

baskets, articles of clothing, weapons, and implements
of various kinds ; and a second cone, excavated in the
ground with the vertex downward, served as a store
house for grain. The door was so low, that an ordinary
person must bend double to pass through it.

However, it was in the winter months only, when
the rains were profuse, that the owner of this respect
able mansion condescended to creep into it. In sum
mer she had a drawing-room, as it may be called, of
nature s own creation, in which she lived, and in one
quarter of which she had her lair. Close above the
hut was a high plot of level turf, surrounded by old
oaks, and fringed beneath with thick underwood. In
the centre of this green rose a yew-tree of primeval
character. Indeed, the whole forest spoke of the very
beginnings of the world, as if it had been the imme
diate creation of that Voice which bade the earth
clothe itself with green life. But the place no longer
spoke exclusively of its Maker. Upon the trees hung
the emblems and objects of idolatry, and the turf was
traced with magical characters. Littered about were
human bones, horns of wild animals, wax figures,
spermaceti taken from vaults, large nails, to which
portions of flesh adhered, as if they had had to do
with malefactors, metal plates engraved with strange
characters, bottled blood, hair of young persons, and
old rags. The reader must not suppose any incan
tation is about to follow, or that the place we are
describing will have a prominent place in what re
mains of our tale; but even if it be the scene of oulv

258 Callista ;

one conversation, and one event, there is no harm in
describing it, as it appeared on that occasion.

The old crone, who was seated in this bower of
delight, had an expression of countenance in keep
ing, not with the place, but with the furniture with
which it was adorned ; that furniture told her trade.
Whether the root of superstition might be traced
deeper still, and the woman and her t traps were really
and directly connected with the powers beneath the
earth, it is impossible to determine ; it is certain she
had the will, it is certain that that will was from
their inspiration ; nay, it is certain that she thought
she really possessed the communications which she
desired ; it is certain, too, she so far deceived herself
as to fancy that what she learned by mere natural
means came to her from a diabolical source. She
kept up an active correspondence with Sicca. She
was consulted by numbers; she was up with the
public news, the social gossip, and the private and
secret transactions of the hour ; and had, before now,
even interfered in matters of state, and had been
courted by rival political parties. But in the high
cares and occupations of this interesting person, we
are not here concerned ; but with a conversation
which took place between her and Juba, about the
same hour of the evening as that of Creeilius s escape,
but on the day after it, while the sun was gleaming
almost horizontally through the tall trunks of the
trees of the forest.

" Well, my precious boy," said the old woman,

A Tale of the Third Century. 259

" the choicest gifts of great Cham be your portion !
You had excellent sport yesterday, I ll warrant. The
rats squeaked, eh ? and you beat the life out of them.
That scoundrel sacristan, I suppose, has taken up his
quarters below."

" You may say it," answered -Tuba. " The reptile !
he turned right about, and would have made himself
an honest fellow, when it couldn t be helped."

" Good, good ! " returned Gurta, as if she had got
something very pleasant in her mouth ; " ah ! that is
good ! but he did not escape on that score, I do
trust."

" They pulled him to pieces all the more cheerfully,"
said Juba.

" Pulled him to pieces, limb by limb, joint by joint,
eh ? " answered Gurta. " Did they skin him ? did
they do anything to his eyes, or his tongue ? Any
how, it was too quickly, Juba. Slowly, leisurely,
gradually. Yes, it s like a glutton to be quick about
it. Taste him, handle him, play with him, that s
luxury ! but to bolt him, faugh ! ;

" GESSO S slave made a good end," said Juba : " he
stood up for his views, and died like a man."

"The gods smite him! but he has gone up up :"
and she laughed. " Up to what they call bliss and
glory ; such glory ! but he s out of our domain, you
know. But he did not die easy ? "

" The boys worried him a good deal," answered
Juba : " but it s not quite in my line, mother, all this.
I think you drink a pint of blood morning and even-

260 Callinta;

ing, and thrive on it, old woman. It makes you
merry; but it s too much, for my stomach."

" Ha, ha, my boy ! " cried Gurta ; " you ll improve
in time, though you make wry faces, now that you re
young. Well, and have you brought me any news
from the capitol ? Is any one getting a rise in the
world, or a downfall? How blows the wind? Are
there changes in the camp ? This Decius, I suspect,
will not last long."

" They all seem desperately frightened," said Juba,
f: lest they should not smite your friends hard enough,
Gurta. Eoot and branch is the word. They ll have
to make a few Christians for the occasion, in order to
kill them : and I almost think they re about it," he
added, thoughtfully. " They have to show that they
are not surpassed by the rabble. Tis a pity Christians
are so few, isn t it, mother ? "

" Yes, yes," she said, " but we must crush them, grind
them, many or few : and we shall, we shall ! Callista s
to come."

" I don t see they are worse than other people,"
said Juba ; " not at all, except that they are com
monly sneaks. If Callista turns, why should not I
turn too, mother, to keep her company, and keep
your hand in ? ;

" No, no, my boy," returned the witch, " you must
serve my master. You are having your fling just now,
but you will buckle to in good time. You must one
day take some work with my merry men. Come here,
child," said the fond mother, "and let me kiss you."

A Tale of the Third Century. 261

" Keep your kisses for your monkeys and goats
and cats/ answered Juba; they re not to my taste,
old dame. Master ! my master ! I won t have a
master ! I ll be nobody s servant. I ll never stand to
be hired, nor cringe to a bully, nor quake before a rod.
Please yourself, Gurta ; I am a free man. You re my
mother by courtesy only."

Gurta looked at him savagely. " Why, you re not
going to be pious and virtuous, Juba ? A choice saint
you ll make ! You shall be drawn for a picture."

" Why shouldn t I, if I choose ? " said Juba. " If I
must take service, willy nilly, I d any day prefer the
other s to that of your friend. I ve nob left the
master to take the man."

" Blaspheme not the great gods/ she answered, " or
they ll do you a mischief yet."

"I say again/ insisted Juba, "if I must lick the
earth, it shall not be where your friend has trod.
It shall be in my brother s fashion, rather than in
yours, Gurta."

" Agellius ! " she shrieked out with such disgust, that
it is wonderful she uttered the name at all. " Ah ! you
have not told me about him, boy. Well, is he safe in
the pit, or in the stomach of an hyena ? "

" He s alive," said Juba ; " but he has not got it in
him to be a Christian. Yes, he s safe with his uncle."

" Ah ! Jucundus must ruin him, debauch him, and
then we must make away with him. We must not
be in a hurry," said Gurta, " it must be body and
soul."

262 Callista ;

Xo one shall touch him, craven as he is/ answered
Juba. " I despise him, but let him alone."

" Don t come across me," said Gurta, sullenly ; " Fll
have my way. Why, you know I could smite you to
the dust, as well as him, if I chose/

"But you have not asked me about Callista/
answered Juba. " It is really a capital joke, but she
has got into prison for certain, for being a Christian-
Fancy it ! they caught her in the streets, and put her
in the guard-house, and have had her up for examina
tion. You see they want a Christian for the nonce :
it would not do to have none such in prison ; so they
will flourish with her till Decius bolts from the

scene."

"The Furies have her! " cried Gurta : "she is a
Christian, my boy : I told you so, long ago ! r

" Callista a Christian ! " answered Juba, " ha ! ha !
She and Agellius are going to make a match of it, of
some sort or other. They re thinking of other things
than paradise."

" She and the old priest, more likely, more likely,"
said Gurta. " He s in prison with her in the pit, as I
trust. - 1

" Your master has cheated you for once, old woman/
said Juba.

Gurta looked at him fiercely, and seemed waiting for
his explanation. He began singing,

" She wheedled and coaxed, but he was no fool ;
He d be his own master, he d not be her tool ;

the little black moor should send him to school.

A Tale of the Tliird Century. 263

" She foamed and she cursed twas the same thing to him ;
She laid well her trap ; but he carried his whim ;
The priest scuffled off, safe in life and in limb."

Gurta was almost suffocated with, passion. " Cypri-
anus has not escaped, boy ? " she asked at length..

" I got him off," said Juba, undauntedly.

A shade, as of Erebus, passed over the witch s face ;
but she remained quite silent.

" Mother, I am my own master," he continued, " I
must break your assumption of superiority. I m not
a boy, though you call me so. I ll have my own
way. Yes, I saved Cyprianus. You re a bloodthirsty
old hag ! Yes, I ve seen your secret doings. Did
not I catch you the other day, practising on that little
child ? You had nailed him up by hands and feet
against the tree, and were cutting him to pieces at
your leisure, as he quivered and shrieked the while.
You were examining or using his liver for some of
your black purposes. It s not in my line ; but you
gloated over it ; and when he wailed, you wailed in
mimicry. You were panting with pleasure."

Gurta was still silent, and had an expression on her
face, awful from the intensity of its malignity. She
had uttered a low piercing whistle.

"Yes ! " continued Juba, "you revelled in it. You
chattered to the poor babe when it screamed, as a
nurse to an infant. You called it pretty names, and
squeaked out your satisfaction each time you stuck
it. You old hag! I m not of your breed, though
they call us of kin. I don t fear you," he said.

s 2

264 Callista ;

observing the expression of her countenance, " I don t
fear the immortal devil ! " And he continued his
song

" She beckoned the moon, and the moon came down ;
The green earth shrivelled beneath her frown ;
But a man s strong will can keep his own.

While he was talking and singing, her call had
been answered from the hut. An animal of some
wonderful species had crept out of it, and proceeded
to creep and crawl, moeing and twisting as it went,
along the trees and shrubs which rounded the grass
plot. When it came up to the old woman, it crouched
at her feet, and then rose up upon its hind legs and
begged. She took hold of the uncouth beast and
began to fondle it in her arms, muttering something
in its ear. At length, when Juba stopped for a mo
ment in his song, she suddenly flung it right at him,
with great force, saying, "Take that ! : She then
gave utterance to a low inward laugh, and leaned her
self back against the trunk of the tree upon which
she was sitting, with her knees drawn up almost to her
chin.

The blow seemed to act on Juba as a shock on his
nervous system, both from its violence and its strange
ness. He stood still for a moment, and then, without
saying a word, he turned away, and walked slowly down
the hill, as if in a maze. Then he sat down.

In an instant up he started again with a great cry,
and began running at the top of his speed. He
thought he heard a voice speaking in him ; and, how-

A Tale of the Third Century. 265

ever fast he ran, the voice, or whatever it was, kept
up with him. He rushed through the underwood,
trampling and crushing it under his feet, and scaring
the birds and small game which lodged there. At
lasfc, exhausted, he stood still for breath, when he
heard it say loudly and deeply, as if speaking with
his own organs, " You cannot escape from yourself ! J
Then a terror seized him ; he fell down and fainted
away.

266 Callista ;

CHAPTER XXIV.

A MOTHER S BLESSING.

WHEN Ms senses returned, his first impression was
of something in him not himself. He felt it in his
breathing; he tasted it in his mouth. The brook
which ran by Gurta s encampment had by this time
become a streamlet, though still shallow. He plunged
into it ; a feeling came upon him as if he ought to
drown himself, had it been deeper. He rolled about
in it, in spite of its flinty and rocky bed. When he
came out of it, his tunic sticking to him, he tore it off
his shoulders, and let it hang round his girdle in
shreds, as it might. The shock of the water, how
ever, acted as a sedative upon him, and the coolness
of the night refreshed him. He walked on for a
while in silence.

Suddenly the power within him began uttering, by
means of his organs of speech, the most fearful blas
phemies, words embodying conceptions which, had
they come into his mind, he might indeed have borne
with patience before this, or uttered in bravado, but
which now filled him with inexpressible loathing, and
a terror to which he had hitherto been quite a
stranger. He had always in his heart believed in a
God, but he now believed with a reality and intensity

A Tale of the Third Century. 267

utterly new to him. He felt it as if he saw Him ; he
felt there was a world of good and evil beings. He
did not love the good, or hate the evil ; but he shrank
from the one, and he was terrified at the other ; and
he felt himself carried away, against his will, as the
prey of some dreadful, mysterious power, which
tyrannised over him.

The day had closed the moon had risen. He
plunged into the thickest wood, and the trees seemed
to him to make way for him. Still they seemed to
moan and to creak as they moved out of their place.
Soon he began to see that they were looking at him,
and exulting over his misery. They, of an inferior
nature, had had no gift which they could abuse and
lose ; and they remained in that honour and perfec
tion in which they were created. Birds of the night
flew out of them, reptiles slunk away ; yet soon he
began to be surrounded, wherever he went, by a circle
of owls, bats, ravens, crows, snakes, wild cats, and
apes, which were always looking at him, but somehow
made way, retreating before him, and yet forming
again, and in order, as he marched along.

He had passed through the wing of the forest
which he had entered, and penetrated into the more
mountainous country. He ascended the heights;
he was a taller, stronger man than he had been;
he went forward with a preternatural vigour, and
flourished his arms with the excitement of some
vinous or gaseous intoxication. He heard the roar
of the wild beasts echoed along the woody ravines

268 Cullista;

which were cut into the solid mountain rock, with a
reckless feeling, as if he could cope with them. As
he passed the dens of the lion, leopard, hyena, jackal,
wild boar, and wolf, there lie saw them sitting at the
entrance, or stopping suddenly as they prowled along,
and eyeing him, but not daring to approach. He
strode along from rock to rock, and over precipices,
with the certainty and ease of some giant in Eastern
fable. Suddenly a beast of prey came across him;
in a moment he had torn up by the roots the stump
of a wild vine plant, which was near him ; had thrown
himself upon his foe before it could act on the aggres
sive, had flung it upon its back, forced the weapon
into its mouth, and was stamping on its chest. He
knocked the life out of the furious animal ; and cry
ing " Take that," tore its flesh, and, applying his
mouth to the wound, sucked a draught of its blood.

He has passed over the mountain, and has descended
its side. Bristling shrubs, swamps, precipitous banks,
rushing torrents, are no obstacle to his course. He
has reached the brow of a hill, with a deep placid
river at the foot of it, just as the dawn begins to break.
It is a lovely prospect, which every step he takes is
becoming more definite and more varions in the day
light. Masses of oleander, of great beauty, with their
red blossoms, fringed the river, and tracked out its
course into the distance. The bank of the hill below
him, and on the right and left, was a maze of fruit-
trees, about which nature, if it were not the hand of
man, had had no thought except that they should be

A Tale of the Third Century. 269

all together there. The wild olive, the pomegranate,
the citron, the date, the mulberry, the peach, the
apple, and the walnut, formed a sort of spontaneous
orchard. Across the water, groves of palm-trees
waved their long and graceful branches in the morn
ing breeze. The stately and solemn ilex, marshalled
into long avenues, showed the way to substantial
granges or luxurious villas. The green turf or grass
was spread out beneath, and here and there flocks
and herds were emerging out of the twilight, and
growing distinct upon the eye. Elsewhere the ground
rose up into sudden eminences crowned with chesnut
woods, or with plantations of cedar and acacia, or
wildernesses of the cork-tree, the turpentine, the
carooba, the white poplar, and the Phenician juniper,
while overhead ascended the clinging tendrils of the
hop, and an underwood of myrtle clothed their stems
and roots. A profusion of wild flowers carpeted the
ground far and near.

Juba stood and gazed till the sun rose opposite to
him, envying, repining, hating, like Satan looking in
upon Paradise. The wild mountains, or the locust-
smitten track would have better suited the tumult of
his mind. It would have been a relief to him to have
retreated from so fair a scene, and to have retraced
his steps, but he was not his own master, and was
hurried on. Sorely against his determined strong-
resolve and will, crying out and protesting and
shuddering, the youth was forced along into the ful
ness of beauty and blessing with which he was so

270 Cnllista;

little in tune. With rage and terror he recognised
that he had no part in his own movements, but was a
mere slave. In spite of himself he must go forward
and behold a peace and sweetness which witnessed
against him. He dashed down through the thick
grass, plunged into the water, and without rest or
respite began a second course of aimless toil and
travail through the day.

The savage dogs of the villages howled and fled
from him as he passed by ; beasts of burden, on thsir
way to market, which he overtook or met, stood still,
foamed and trembled ; the bright birds, the blue jay
and golden oriole, hid themselves under the leaves
and grass ; the storks, a religious and domestic bird,
stopped their sharp clattering note from the high tree
or farmhouse turret, where they had placed their
nests; the very reptiles skulked away from his
shadow, as if it were poisonous. The boors who were
at their labour in the fields suspended it, to look at
one whom the Furies were lashing and whirling on.
Hour passed after hour, the sun attained its zenith,
and then declined, but this dreadful compulsory race
continued. Oh, what would he have given for one five
minutes of oblivion, of slumber, of relief from the
burning thirst which now consumed him ! but the
master within him ruled his muscles and his joints,
and the intense pain of weariness had no concomitant
prostration of strength. Suddenly he began to
la ugh hideously ; and he went forward dancing and
singing loud, and playing antics. He entered a

A Tale of the Third Century. 271

hovel, made faces at the children, till one of them fell
into convulsions, and he ran away with another ; and
when some country people pursued him, he flung the
child in their faces, saying, " Take that," and said he
was Pentheus, king of Thebes, of whom he had never
heard, about to solemnise the orgies of Bacchus, and
he began to spout a chorus of Greek, a language he
had never learnt or heard spoken.

Now it is evening again, and he has come up to a
village grove, where the rustics were holding a feast
in honour of Pan. The hideous brutal god, with yawn
ing mouth, horned head, and goat s feet, was placed
in a rude shed, and a slaughtered lamb, decked
with flowers, lay at his feet. The peasants were
frisking before him, boys and women, when they were
startled by the sight of a gaunt, wild, mysterious
figure, which began to dance too. He flung and
capered -about with such vigour that they ceased
their sport to look on, half with awe and half as a
diversion. Suddenly he began to groan and to
shriek, as if contending with himself, and willing and
not willing some new act ; and the struggle ended in
his falling on his hands and knees, and crawling like
a quadruped towards the idol. When he got near,
his attitude was still more servile ; still groaning and
shuddering, he laid himself flat on the ground, and
wriggled to the idol as a worm, and lapped up with
his tongue the mingled blood and dust which lay
about the sacrifice. And then again, as if nature had
successfully asserted her own dignity, he jumped up

272 Callista;

high in. the air, and, falling on the god, broke him to
pieces, and scampered away out of pursuit, before the
lookers-on recovered from their surprise.

Another restless, fearful night amid the open
country ; . . but it seemed as if the worst had
passed, and, though still under the heavy chastisement
of his pride, there was now more in Juba of human
action and of effectual will. The day broke, and he
found himself on the road to Sicca. The beautiful out
line of the city was right before him. He passed his
brother s cottage and garden ; it was a wreck. The
trees torn up, the fences broken down, and the room
pillaged of the little that could be found there. He
went on to the city, crying out "Agellius;" the gate was
open, and he entered. He went on to the Forum ; he
crossed to the house of Jucundus ; few people as yet
were stirring in the place. He looked up at the wall.
Suddenly, by the help of projections, and other irregu
larities of the brickwork, he mounted up upon the
flat roof, and dropped down along the tiles, through
the impluviuin into the middle of the house. He
went softly into Agellius s closet, where he was
asleep, he roused him with the name of Callista,
threw his tunic upon him, Avhich was by his side, put
his boots into his hands, and silently beckoned him
to follow him. When he hesitated, he still whispered
to him " Callista/ and at length seized him and led him
on. He unbarred the street door, and with a move
ment of his arm, more like a blow than a farewell,
thrust him into the street. Then he barred again the

A Tale of the Third Century. 273

door upon him, and lay down himself upon the bed
which Agellius had left. His good Angel, we may
suppose, had gained a point in his favour, for he lay
quiet, and fell into a heavy sleep.

274 Callista;

CHAPTER XXV.

CALLISTA IN DURANCE.

WE will hope that the reader, as well as Agellius, is
attracted by the word Callista, and wishes to know
something about her fate ; nay, perhaps finds fault
with us as having suffered him so long to content
himself with the chance and second-hand information
which Jucundus or Juba has supplied. If we have
been wanting in due consideration for him, we now
trust to make up for it.

When Callista, then, had so boldly left the cottage
to stop the intruders, she had in one important point
reckoned without her host. She spoke Latin fluently,
herself, and could converse with the townspeople,
most of whom could do the same ; but it was other
wise with the inhabitants of the country, numbers of
whom, as we have said, were in Sicca on the day of
the outbreak. The two fellows, whom she went out
to withstand, knew neither her nor the Latin tongue.
They were of a race which called itself Canaanite,
and really was so ; huge, gigantic men, who looked
like the sons of Enac, described in Holy Writ. They
knew nothing of roads or fences, and had scrambled
up the hill as they could, the shortest way, and,

A Tale of the Third Century. 275

being free from the crowd, with far more expedition
than had they followed the beaten track. She and they
could not understand each other s speech ; but her
appearance spoke for her, and, in consequence, they
seized on her as their share of the booty, and without
more ado, carried her off towards Sicca. As they
came up by a route of their own, so they returned, and
entered the city by a gate more to the south, not the
Septimian ; a happy circumstance, as otherwise she
would have stood every chance of being destroyed in
that wholesale massacre which the soldiery inflicted on
the crowd as it returned.

These giants, then, got possession of Callista, and
she entered Sicca upon the shoulder of one of them,
who danced in with no greater inconvenience than if
he was carrying on it a basket of flowers, or a box of
millinery. Here the party met with the city police,
who were stationed at the gate.

" Down with your live luggage, you rascals/ they
said, in their harsh Punic ; " what have you to do with
plunder of this kind ? and how came you by her ? "

" She s one of those Christian rats, your worship,"
answered the fellow, who, strong as he was, did not
relish a contest with some dozen of armed men.
" Long live the Emperor ! We ll teach her to eat
asses heads another time, and brew fevers. I found
her with a party of Christians. She s nothing but a
witch, and she knows the consequences/

" Let her go, you drunken animal ! " said the con
stable, still keeping his distance. " I ll never believe

276 Callista;

any woman is a Christian, let alone so young a one.
And now I look at her, so far as I can see by this light,
I think she s priestess of one of the great temples up
there."

" She can turn herself into anything," said the
other of her capturers, " young or old. I saw her one
iiigM near Madaura, a month ago, in the tombs in the
shape of a black cat."

" Away with you both, in the name of the Suffetes
of Sicca and all the magistracy ! " cried the official.
" Give up your prisoner to the authorities of the place,
and let the law take its course."

But the Canaanites did not seem disposed to give
her up, and neither party liking to attack the other,
a compromise took place. " Well," said the guardian
of the night, " the law must be vindicated, and the
peace preserved. My friends, you must submit to
the magistrates. But since she happens to be on
your shoulder, my man, let her even remain there,
and we depute yon, as a beast of burden, to carry
her for us, thereby to save us the trouble. Here,
child," he continued, " you re our prisoner ; so you
shall plead your own caxise in the popina, there. Long
live Decius, pious and fortunate ! Long live this
ancient city, colony and municipium ! Cheer up, my
lass, and sing us a stave or two, as we go ; for I ll
pledge a cyafkus of unmixed, that, if you choose, you
can warble notes as sweet as the manna gum."

Callista was silent, but she was perfectly collected,
and ready to avail herself of any opportunity to

A Tale of the Third Century. 277

better her condition. They went on towards the
Forum, where a police-office, as we now speak, was
situated, but did not reach it without an adventure.
The Eoman military force at Sicca was not more
than a century of men; the greater number were at
this moment at the great gate, waiting for the mob ;
a few, in parties of three and four, were patrolling the
city. Several of these were at the entrance of the
Forum when the party came up to it ; and it hap
pened that a superior officer, who was an assistant to
what may be called the military resident of the place,
a young man, on whom much of the duty of the day
had devolved, was with the soldiers. She had known
him as a friend of her brother s, and recognised him
in the gloom, and at once took advantage of the
meeting.

"Help," she said, "gentlemen ! help, Calphurm us !
these rascals are carrying me off to some den of their

own/

The tribune at once knew her voice. " What ! " he
cried, with great astonishment, "what, my pretty
Greek ! You most base, infamous, and unmannerly
scoundrels, down with her this instant ! What have
you to do with that young lady ? You villains, unless
you would have me crack your African skulls with
the hilt of my sword, down with her, I say ! "

There was no resisting a Roman voice, but prompt
obedience is a rarity, and the ruffians began to par
ley. " My noble master," said the constable, " she s
our prisoner. Jove preserve you, and Bacchus and

T

278 Callista;

Ceres bless you, my lord tribune ! and long life to the
Emperor Decius in these bad times. But she is a
rioter, my lord, one of the ringleaders, and a Christian
and a witch to boot."

" Cease your vile gutturals, you animal ! " cried the
officer, "or I will ram them down your throat with
my pike to digest them. Put down the lady, beast.
Are you thinking twice about it. Go, Lucius," he
said to a private, " kick him away, and bring the
woman here."

Callista was surrendered, but the fellow, sullen at the
usage he had met with, and spiteful against Calphur-
nius, as the cause of it, cried out maliciously, " Mind
what you are at, noble sir, it s not our affair; you can
fry your own garlic. But an Emperor is an Emperor,
and an Edict is an Edict, and a Christian is a Chris
tian ; and I don t know what high places will say to
it, but it s your affair. Take notice," he continued,
as he got to a safer distance, raising his voice still
higher, that the soldiers might hear, " yon girl is a
Christian priestess, caught in a Christian assembly,
sacrificing asses and eating children for the overthrow
of the Emperor, and the ruin of his loyal city of Sicca,
and I have been interrupted in the discharge of my
duty I, a constable of the place. See whether Cal-
phurnius will not bring again upon us the plague, the
murrain, the locusts, and all manner of larvae and
mania before the end of the story."

This speech perplexed Calphurnius, as it was in
tended. It was impossible he could dispose of Cal-

A Tale of the Third Century. 279

lista as he wished, with such a charge formally uttered
in the presence of his men. He knew how serious
the question of Christianity was at that moment, and
how determined the Imperial Government was on the
eradication of its professors ; he was a good soldier,
devoted to head-quarters, and had no wish to com
promise himself with his superiors, or to give by
standers an advantage over him, by setting a prisoner
at liberty without inquiry, who had been taken in a
Christian s house. He muttered an oath, and said to
the soldiers, " Well, my lads, to the Triumviri with
her, since it must be so. Cheer up, my star of the
morning, bright beam of Hellas, it is only as a matter
of form, and you will be set at liberty as soon as they
look on you." And with these words he led the way
to the Officium.

But the presiding genius of the Offidum was less
accommodating than he had anticipated. It might be
that he was jealous of the soldiery, or of their particular
interference, or indignant at the butchery at the great
gate, of which the news had just come, or out of
humour with the day s work, and especially with the
Christians ; at any rate, Calphurnius found he had
better have taken a bolder step, and have carried her
as a prisoner to the camp. However, nothing was
now left for him but to depart ; and Callista fell
again into the hands of the city, though of the supe
rior functionaries, who procured her a lodging for the
night, and settled to bring her up for examination
next morning.

T 2

280 CaUista;

The morning came, and she was had up. What
passed did not transpire ; but the issue was that she
was remanded for a further hearing, and was told she
might send to her brother, and acquaint him where
she was. He was allowed one interview with her, and
he came away almost out of his senses, saying she was
bewitched, and fancied herself a Christian. What
precisely she had said to him, which gave this impres
sion, he could hardly say ; but it was plain there must
be something wrong, or there would not be that public
process and formal examination which was fixed for
the third day afterwards.

A Tale of the Third Century. 281

CHAPTER XXVI.

WHAT CAN IT ALL MEAN?

WERE the origin of Juba s madness (or whatever the
world would call it) of a character which admitted of
light writing about it, much might be said on the
surprise of the clear-headed, narrow-minded, positive,
and easy-going Jucundus, when he found one nephew
substituted for another, and had to give over his
wonder at Agellius, in order to commence a series of
acts of amazement and consternation at Juba. He
summoned Jupiter and Juno, Bacchus, Ceres, Pomona,
Neptune, Mercury, Minerva, and great Rome, to
witness the marvellous occurrence ; and then he had
recourse to the infernal gods, Pluto and Proserpine,
down to Cerberus, if he be one of them; but, after all,
there the portent was, in spite of all the deities which
Olympus, or Arcadia, or Latium ever bred ; and at
length it had a nervous effect upon the old gentle
man s system, and, for the first evening after it, he put
all his good things from him, and went to bed supper-
less and songless. What had been Juba s motive in
the exploit which so unpleasantly affected his uncle,
it is of course quite impossible to say. "Whether his
mention of Callista s name was intended to be for the

282 Callista ;

benefit of her soul, or the ruin of Agellius s, must be
left in the obscurity in which the above narrative pre
sents it to us ; so far alone is certain, though it does
not seem to throw light on the question, that, on his
leaving his uncle s house in the course of the forenoon,
which he did, without being pressed to stay, he was
discovered prancing and gesticulating in the neigh
bourhood of Callista s prison, so as to excite the at
tention of the apparitor, or constable, who guarded
the entrance, and who, alarmed at his wildness, sent
for some of his fellows, and, with their assistance,
repelled the intruder, who, thereupon, scudding out at
the eastern gate, was soon lost in the passes of the
mountain.

To one thing, however, we may pledge ourselves,
that Juba had no intention of shaking, even for one
evening, the nerves of Jucundus; yet shaken they were
till about the same time twenty-four hours afterwards.
And when in that depressed state, he saw nothing but
misery on all sides of him. Juba was lost ; Agellius
worse. Of course, he had joined himself to his sect,
and he should never see him again ; and how should
he ever hold up his head ? Well, he only hoped
Agellius would not be boiled in a caldron, or roasted
at a slow fire. If this were done, he positively must
leave Sicca, and the most thriving ti ade which any
man had in the whole of the Proconsulate. And then
that little Callista ! Ah ! what a real calamity was
there ! Anyhow he had lost her, and what should he
do for a finisher of his fine work in marble, or metal?

A Tale of the Third Century. 283

She was a treasure in herself. Altogether the heavens
were very dark ; and it was scarcely possible for any
one who knew well his jovial cast of countenance, to
keep from laughing, whatever his real sympathy, at
the unusual length and blankness which were sud
denly imposed upon it.

While he sat thus at his shop window, which, as it
were, framed him for the contemplation of passers-by,
on the day of the escape of Agellius, and the day before
Callista s public examination, Aristo rushed in upon
him in a state of far more passionate and more reason
able grief. He had called, indeed, the day before, but
he found a pleasure in expending his distress upon
others, and he came again to get rid of its insupportable
weight by discharging it in a torrent of tears and
exclamations. However, at first the words of both
" moved slow," as the poet says, and went off in a sort
of dropping fire.

" Well," said Jucundus, in a depressed tone ; "he s
not come to you, of course ? "

" Who ? "

"Agellius."

" Oh ! Agellius ! No, he s not with me." Then,
after a pause, Aristo added, " Why should he be ? "

" Oh, I don t know. I thought he might be. He s
been gone since early morning."

" Indeed ! No, I don t know where he is. How
came he with you ? ;

" I told you yesterday ; but you have forgotten.
I was sheltering him ; but he s gone for ever."

284 CalUsta;

" Indeed ! "

" And his brotlier s mad ! horribly mad ! " and he
.slapped his hand against his thigh.

"I always thought it," answered Aristo.

"Did you? Yes, so it is; bat it s very different
from what it ever was. The furies have got hold of
him with a vengeance ! He s frantic ! Oh, if you had
seen him ! Two boys, both mad ! It s all the father ! "

" I thought you d like to hear something about
dear, sweet Callista," said her brother.

" Yes, I should indeed ! " answered Jucundus. " By
Esculapius ! they re all mad together ! "

" Well, it is like madness ! " cried Aristo, with great
vehemence.

" The world s going mad ! " answered Jucundus,
who was picking up, since he began to talk, an exer
cise which was decidedly good for him. "We are all
going mad ! I shall get crazed. The townspeople are
crazed already. What an abominable, brutal piece of
business was that three days ago ! I put up my shut
ters. Did it come near you ? all on account of one
or two beggarly Christians, and my poor boy. What
harm could two or three, toads and vipers though they
be, do here ? They might have been trodden down
easily. It s another thing at Carthage. Catch the
ringleaders, I say ; make examples. The foxes escape,
and our poor ganders suffer ! "

AristOj pierced with his own misery, had no heart
or head to enter into the semi-political ideas of
Jucundus, who continued,

A Tale of the Third Century. 285

" Yes, it s no good. The empire s coming to pieces,
mark my words ! I told you so, if those beasts were
let alone. They have been let alone. Remedies are
too late. Decius will do no good. No one s safe !
Farewell, my friends ! I am going. Like poor dear
Callista, I shall be in prison, and, like her, find my
self dumb ! . . . Ah ! yes, Callista ; how did you find
her ? "

" dear, sweet, suffering girl ! " cried her brother.

" Yes, indeed ! " answered Jucundus ; " yes ! " medi
tatively. " She is a dear, sweet, suffering girl ! I
thought he might perhaps have taken her off that
was my hope. He was so set upon hearing where
she was, whether she could be got out. It struck me
he had made the best of his way to her. She could
do anything with him. And she loved him, she did !
I m convinced of it ! nothing shall convince me
otherwise ! Bring them together, I said, and they
will rush into each other s arms. But they re
bewitched ! The whole world s bewitched ! Mark
my words, I have an idea who is at the bottom of
this."

" Oh ! " groaned out Aristo ; " I care not for top or
bottom ! I care not for the whole world, or for any
thing at all but Callista ! If you could have seen the
dear, patient sufferer ! " and the poor fellow burst into
a flood of tears.

" Bear up ! bear up ! " said Jucundus, who by this
time was considerably better ; " show yourself a man,
my dear Aristo. These things must be; they are

286 Callista ;

the lot of human nature. You remember what the
tragedian says : stay ! no ! it s the comedian, it s
Menander "

" To Orcus and Erebus with all the tragedy and
comedy that ever was spouted ! " exclaimed Aristo.
" Can you do nothing for me ? Can t you give me a
crumb of consolation or sympathy,, encouragement or
suggestion ? I am a stranger in the country, and so
is this dear sister of mine, whom I was so proud of ;
and who has been so good, and kind, and gentle, and
sweet. She loved me so much, she never grudged
me anything ; she let me do just what I would with
her. Come here, go there, it was just as I would.
There we were, two orphans together, ten years since,
when I was double her age. She wished to stay in
Greece ; but she came to this detestable Africa all for
me. She would be gay and bright when I would
have her so. She had no will of her own ; and she
set her heart upon nothing, and was pleased any
where. She had not an enemy in the world. I pro
test she is worth all the gods and goddesses that ever
were hatched ! And here, in this ill-omened Africa,
the evil eye has looked at her, and she thinks herself
a Christian, when she is just as much a hippogriff, or
a chimasra."

" Well, but, Aristo," said Jucundus, ic I was going to
tell you who is at the bottom of it all. Callista s
mad; Agellius is mad; Juba is mad; and Strabo
was mad ; but it was his wife, old Gurta, that drove
him mad ; and there, I think, is the beginning of our

A Tale of the Third Century. 287

troubles. Come in ! come in, Cornelius ! " he cried,

seeing his Roman friend outside, and relapsing for the
moment into his lugubrious tone ; " Come in, Corne
lius, and give us some comfort, if you can. Well,
this is like a friend ! I know if you can help me, you
will."

Cornelius answered that he was going back to
Carthage in a day or two, and came to embrace him,
and had hoped to have a parting supper before he
went.

" That s kind ! " answered Jucundus : " but first tell
me all about this dreadful affair; for you are in the
secrets of the Capitol. Have they any clue what has
become of my poor Agellius ? "

Cornelius had not heard of the young man s
troubles, and was full of consternation at the
news.

"What! Agellius really a Christian?" he said,
" and at such a moment ? Why, I thought you
talked of some young lady who was to keep him in
order ? "

" She s a Christian too," replied Jucundus ; and a
silence ensued. " It s a bad world ! " he continued.
" She s imprisoned by the Triumviri. What will be
the end of it ? "

Cornelius shook his head, and looked mysterious.

" You don t mean it ? " said Jucundus. " Not any
thing so dreadful, I do trust, Cornelius. Not the
stake ? "

Cornelius still looked gloomy and pompous.

238 CaU-istaj

"Nothing in the way of torture?" he went on;
" not the rack, or the pitchfork ? "

" It s a bad business, on your own showing," said
Cornelius : " it s a bad business ! "

f Can you do nothing for us, Cornelius ? : cried
Aristo. " The great people in Carthage are your
friends. Cornelius ! I d do anything for you !
I d be your slave ! She s no more a Christian than
great Jove. She has nothing about her of the cut ;
not a shred of her garment, or a turn of her hair.
She s a Greek from head to foot within and with
out. She s as bright as the day ! Ah ! we have no
friends here. Dear Callista ! you will be lost because
you are a foreigner ! " and the passionate youth began
to tear his hair. " Cornelius ! " he continued, " if
you can do anything for us ! Oh ! she shall sing and
dance to you ; she shall come and kneel down to you,
and embrace your knees, and kiss your feet, as I do,
Cornelius ! " and he knelt down, and would have
taken hold of Cornelius s beard.

Cornelius had never been addressed with so poeti
cal a ceremonial, which nevertheless he received with
awkwardness indeed, but with satisfaction. " I hear
from you," he said with pomposity, " that your sister
is in prison on suspicion of Christianity. The case is
a simple one. Let her swear by the genius of the
Emperor, and she is free; let her refuse it, and the
law must take its course," and he made a slight bow.

" Well, but she is under a delusion," persisted
Aristo, "which cannot last long. She says distinctly

A Tale of the Third Century. 289

that she is not a Christian, is not that decisive ? but
then she won t burn incense ; she won t swear by
Rome. She tells me she does not believe in Jupiter,
nor I ; can anything be more senseless ? It is the act
of a mad woman. I say, My girl, the question is,
Are you to be brought to shame ? are you to die by
the public sword ? die in torments ? Oh, I shall go
mad as well as she ! " he screamed out. " She was
so clever, so witty, so sprightly, so imaginative, so
versatile ! why, there s nothing she couldn t do. She
could model, paint, play on the lyre, sing, act. She
could work with the needle, she could embroider.
She made this girdle for me. It s all that Agellius,
it s Agellius. I beg your pardon, Jucundus ; but
it is ;" and he threw himself on the ground, and rolled
in the dust.

" I have been telling our young friend," said
Jucundus to Cornelius, " to exert self-control, and to
recollect Menander, Ne quid minis. Grieving does no
good ; but these young fellows, it s no use at all speak
ing to them. Do you think you could do anything for
us, Cornelius ? "

"Why," answered Cornelius, " since I have been
here, I have fallen in with a very sensible man, and a
man of remarkably sound political opinions. He has
a great reputation, he is called Polemo, and is one of
the professors at the Mercury. He seems to me to
go to the root of these subjects, and I m surprised
how well we agreed. He s a Greek, as well as this
young gentleman s sister. I should recommend him

290 Callista ;

to go to Polerao ; if any one could disabuse her mind,
it is he."

" True, true/ cried Aristo, starting up, " but, no,
you can do it better ; you have power with the
government. The Proconsul will listen to you. The
magistrates here are afraid of him ; they don t wish
to touch the poor girl, not they. But there s such a
noise everywhere, and so much ill-blood, and so many
spies and informers, and so much mistrust but why
should it come upon Callista ? Why should she be a
sacrifice ? But you d oblige the Duumvirs as much
as me in getting her out of the scrape. But what
good would it do, if they took her dear life ? Only
get us the respite of a month; the delusion would
vanish in a month. Get two months, if you can; or
as long as you can, you know. Perhaps they would
let us steal out of the country, and no one the wiser ;
and no harm to any one. It was a bad job our coming
here."

" We know nothing at Eome of feelings and inten
tions, and motives and distinctions," said Cornelius ;
" and we know nothing of understandings, connivances,
and evasions. "We go by facts ; Rome goes by facts.
The question is, What is the fact ? Does she burn
incense, or does she not ? Does she worship the ass, or
does she not ? However, we ll see what can be done."
And so he went on, informing the pair of mourners
that, as far as his influence extended, he would do
something in behalf both of Agellius and Callista.

A Tale of the Third Century. 291

CHAPTER XXVII.

AM I A CHRISTIAN ?

THE sun had now descended for the last time before
the solemn day which was charged with the fate of
Callista, and what was the state of mind of one who
excited such keen interest in the narrow circle within
which she was known ? And how does it differ from
what it was some weeks before, when Agellius last
saw her ? She would have been unable to say herself.
" So is the kingdom of God : as if a man should cast
seed into the earth, and should sleep and rise night and
day, and the seed should spring and grow up,
whilst he knoweth not." She might, indeed, have
been able afterwards, on looking back, to say many
things of herself ; and she would have recognised that
while she was continually differing from herself, in
that she was changing, yet it was not a change which
involved contrariety, but one which expanded itself in
(as it were) concentric circles, and only fulfilled, as
time went on, the promise of its beginning. Every
day, as it came, was, so to say, the child of the pre
ceding, the parent of that which followed ; and the
end to which she tended could not get beyond the
aim with which she set out. Tet, had she been asked,

292

at the time of which we speak,, where was her principle
and her consistency, what was her logic, or whether
she acted on reason, or on impulse, or on feeling, or
in fancy, or in passion, she would have been reduced
to silence. What did she know about herself, but
that, to her surprise, the more she thought over what
she heard of Christianity, the more she was drawn to
it, and the more it approved itself to her whole soul,
and the more it seemed to respond to all her needs
and aspirations, and the more intimate was her pre
sentiment that it was true ? The longer it remained
on her mind as an object, the more it seemed (unlike
the mythology or the philosophy of her country, or
the political religion of Rome) to have an external
reality and substance, which deprived objections to it
of their power, and showed them to be at best but
difficulties and perplexities.

But then again, if she had been asked, what was
Christianity, she would have been puzzled to give an
answer. She would have been able to mention some
particular truths which it taught, but neither to give
them their definite and distinct shape, nor to describe
the mode in which they were realised. She would have
said, " I believe what has been told me, as from
heaven, by Chione, Agellius, and Csecilius :" and it
was clear she could say nothing else. What the three
told her in common and in concord was at once the
measure of her creed and the ground of her accept
ance of it. It was that wonderful unity of sentiment
and belief in persons so dissimilar from each other, so

A Tale of the Third Century. 293

distinct in their circumstances, so independent in their
testimony, which recommended to her the doctrine
which they were so unanimous in teaching. She had
long given up any belief in the religion of her country.
As to philosophy, it dwelt only in conjecture and
opinion ; whereas the very essence of religion was, as
she felt, a recognition of the worshippers on the part
of the Object of it. Religion could not be without
hope. To worship a being who did not speak to us,
recognise us, love us, was not religion. It might be
a duty, it might be a merit ; but her instinctive notion
of religion was the soul s response to a God who had
taken notice of the soul. It was loving intercourse,
or it was a name. Now the three witnesses who had
addressed her about Christianity had each of them
made it to consist in the intimate Divine Presence in
the heart. It was the friendship or mutual love of per
son with person. Here was the very teaching which
already was so urgently demanded both by her reason
and her heart, which she found nowhere else ; which
she found existing one and the same in a female slave,
in a country youth, in a learned priest.

This was the broad impression which they made
upon her mind. When she turned to consider more
in detail what it was they taught, or what was implied
in that idea of religion which so much approved itself
to her, she understood them to say that the Creator
of heaven and earth, Almighty, All-good, clothed in
all the attributes which philosophy gives Him, the
Infinite, had loved the soul of man so much, and her

u

294 Callista;

soul in particular,, that He had come upon earth in
the form of a man, and in that form had gone through
sufferings, in order to unite all souls to Him ; that He
desired to love, and to be loved; that He had said so ;
that He had called on man to love Him, and did
actually bring to pass this loving intercourse of Him
and man in those souls who surrendered themselves to
Him. She did not go much further than this ; but as
much as this was before her mind morning, noon, and
night. It pleaded in her ; it importuned her ; it would
not be rebuffed. It did not mind her moods, or dis
gusts, or doubts, or denials, or dismissals, but came
again and again. It rose before her, in spite of the
contempt, reproach, and persecution which the pro
fession of it involved. It smiled upon her ; it made
promises to her ; it opened eternal views to her ; and
it grew upon her convictions in clearness of perception,
in. congruity, and in persuasiveness.

Moreover, the more she thought of Chione, of
Agellius, and of Cascilius the more surely did she
discern that this teaching wrought in them a some
thing which she had not. They had about them a
simplicity, a truthfulness, a decision, an elevation, a
calmness, and a sanctity to which she was a stranger,
which spoke to her heart and absolutely overcame
her. The image of Caecilius, in particular, came out
prominently and eloquently in her memory, not in
his words so much as in his manner. In spite of what
she had injuriously said to him, she really felt drawn
to worship him, as if he were the shrine and the

A Tale of the Third Century. 295

home of that Presence to which he bore such solemn
witness.

the change, when, as if in punishment for her wild
words against him, she found herself actually in the
hands of lawless men, who were as far below her in
sentiment as he was above her ! the change, when
she was dizzied by their brutal vociferations and rapid
motion, and that breath and atmosphere of evil which
steamed up from the rankness of their impiety !
the thankfulness which rose up in her heart, though
but vaguely directed to an object, when she found the
repose and quiet, though it was that of a prison ! for
young as she was, she had become tired of all things
that were seen, and had no strong desire, except for
meditation on the great truths which she did not
know.

One day passes and then another; and now the
morning and the hour is come when she must appeal-
before the magistrates of Sicca. With dread, with
agitation, she looks forward to the moment. She has
not yet a peace within her. Her peace is the stillness
of the room in which she is imprisoned. She knows
it will pass away when she leaves it; she knows
that again she must be in the hands of cruel, godless
men, with whom she has no sympathy ; but she has
no stay whereon to lean in the terrible trial. Her
brother comes to her : he affects to forget her per-
verseness or delusion. He comes to her with a smile,
and throws his arms around her ; and Callista repels,
from some indescribable feeling, his ardent caress, as

u 2

290 Callista ;

if she were no longer his. He has come to accom
pany her to court, by an indulgence which he had
obtained ; to support her there, to carry her through,
and to take her back in triumph home. My sister,
why that strange, piteous look upon thy countenance ?
why that paleness of thy cheek ? why that whisper
of thy lips ? why those wistful, gentle pleadings
of thine eyes ? Sweet eyes, and brow, and cheek,
in which I have ever prided myself ! Why so back
ward ? why so distant and unfriendly ? Am I
not come to rescue thee from a place where thou
never shouldst have been ? where thou ne er shalt
be again ? Callista, what is this mystery ?
speak !

Such as this was the mute expostulation conveyed
in Aristo s look, and in the fond grasp of his hand ;
while treading down forcibly within him his memory
and his fears of her great change, he determined
she should be to him still all that she had ever been.
But how altered was that look, and how relaxed that
grasp, when at length her misery found words, and she
said to him in agitation, " My time is short : I want
some Christian, a Christian priest ! "

It was as though she had never shown any tendency
before to the proscribed religion. The words came to
him with the intensity of something new and unima-
gined hitherto. He clasped his hands in emotion, turned
white, and could but say, " Callista ! " If she had
made confession of the most heinous of crimes, if she
had spoken of murder, or some black treachery against

A Tale of the Third Century. 297

himself, of some enormity too great for words, it
might have been ; bat his sister ! his pride and
delight, after all and certainly a Christian ! Better far
had she said she was leaving him for ever, to abandon
herself to the degrading service of the temples ; better
had she said she had taken hemlock, or had an asp in
her bosom, than that she should choose to go out of the
world with the tortures, the ignominy, the malediction
of the religion of slaves.

Time waits for no man, nor does the court of
justice, nor the subsellia of the magistrate. The
examination is to be held in the Basilica at the
Forum, and it requires from us a few words of
explanation beforehand. The local magistrates then
could only try the lesser offences, and decide civil
suits ; cases of suspected Christianity were reserved
for the Roman authorities. Still, preliminary exami
nations were not unfrequently conducted by the city
Duumvirs, or even in what may be called the police
courts. And this may have especially been the case
in the Proconsulates. Propraetors and Presidents
were in the appointment of the Emperor, and joined
in their persons the supreme civil and military
authority. Such provinces, perhaps, were better
administered ; but there would be more of arbitrari
ness in their rule, and it would not be so acceptable
to the ruled. The Proconsuls, on the other hand,
were representatives of the Senate, and had not the
military force directly in their hands. The natural
tendency of this arrangement was to create, on the

208 Callista;

one hand, a rivalry between the civil and military
establishments ; and, on the other, to create a friendly
feeling between the Proconsul and the local magi
stracy. Thus, not long before the date of this
history, we read of Gordian, the Proconsul, enjoying a
remarkable popularity in his African province; and
when the people rose against the exactions of the
imperial Procurator, as referred to in a former page,
they chose and supported Gordian against him.
But however this might be in general, so it was at
this time at Sicca, that the Proconsular Officium
and the city magistrates were on a good under
standing with each other, whereas there was some
collision between the latter and the military. Not
much depends in the conduct of our story upon
this circumstance ; but it must be taken to account
for the examination of Callista in the Forum, and for
some other details which may follow before we come
to the end of it.

The populace was collected about the gates and
within the ample space of the Basilica, but they gave
expression to no strong feeling on the subject of a
Christian delinquent. The famine, the sickness, and,
above all, the lesson which they had received so lately
from the soldiers, had both diminished their numbers
and cowed their spirit. They were sullen, too, and
resentful ; and, with the changeableness proverbial in
a multitude, had rather have witnessed the beheading
of a magistrate, or the burning of a tribune, than the
torture and death of a dozen of wretched Christians.

A Tale of the Third Century. 200

Besides, they had had a glut of Christian blood ; a
reaction of feeling had taken place, and, in spite of the
suspicion of witchcraft, the youth and the beauty of
Callista recommended her to their compassion.

The magistrates were seated on the subsellia, one of
the Duumvirs presiding, in his white robe bordered
with purple ; his lictors, with staves, not fasces, stand
ing behind him. In the vestibule of the court, to
confront the prisoner on her first entrance, were the
usual instruments of torture. The charge was one
which can only be compared, in the estimation of both
state and people in that day, to that of witchcraft,
poisoning, parricide, or other monstrous iniquity in
Christian times. There were the heavy boice, a yoke
for the neck, of iron, or of wood ; the fetters ; the
nervi, or stocks, in which hands and feet were inserted,
at distances from each other which strained or dislo
cated the joints. There, too, were the virgce, or rods
with thorns in them ; the flagra, lori, and plumbati,
whips and thongs, cutting with iron or bruising with
lead ; the heavy clubs ; the hook for digging into the
flesh ; the ungula, said to have been a pair of scissors ;
the scorpio, an&pecten, iron combs or rakes for tearing.
And there was the wheel, fringed with spikes, on which
the culprit was stretched ; and there was the fire
ready lighted, with the water hissing a ad groaning in
the large caldrons which were placed upon it. Callista
had lost for ever that noble intellectual composure of
which we have several times spoken ; she shuddered
at what she saw, and almost fainted, and, while waiting

300 Callista j

for her summons, leaned heavily against the merciless
cornicularius at her side.

At length the judge began " Let the servant from
the Officium stand forth. The officialis answered that
he had brought a prisoner charged with Christianity ;
she had been brought to him by the military on the
night of the riot.

The scriba then read out the deposition of one of the
stationarii, to the effect that he and his fellow-soldiers
had received her from the hands of the civic force on
the night in question, and had brought her to the office
of the Triumvirs.

lf Bring forward the prisoner," said the judge ; she
was brought forward.

" Here she is/ answered the officialis, according to
the prescribed form.

" What is your name ? " said the judge.

She answered, " Callista."

The judge then asked if she was a free woman or a
slave.

She answered, " Free ; the daughter of Orsilochus,
lapidary, of Proconnesus."

Some conversation then went on among the magi
strates as to her advocate or defensor. Aristo pre
sented himself, but the question arose whether he was
togatus. He was known, however, to several magis
trates, and was admitted to stand by his sister.

Then the scriba read the charge viz., that Callista
was a Christian, and refused to sacrifice to the gods.

A Tale of the Third Century. 301

It was a plain question of fact, which required
neither witnesses nor speeches. At a sign from the
Duumvir in came two priests, bringing in between them
the small altar of Jupiter ; the charcoal was ready
lighted, the incense at the side, and the judge called to
the prisoner to sprinkle it upon the flame for the good
fortune of Decius and his son. All eyes were turned
upon her.

" I am not a Christian/ she said ; " I told you RO be
fore. I have never been to a Christian place of worship,
nor taken any Christian oath, nor joined in any
Christian sacrifice. And I should lie did I say that I
was in any sense a Christian."

There was a silence ; then the judge said, " Prove
your words ; there is the altar, the flame, and the
incense; sacrifice to the genius of the Emperor."

She said, " What can I do ? I am not a Christian."
The judges looked at each other, as much as to say,
" It is the old story ; it is that inexplicable, hateful
obstinacy, which will neither yield to reason, common
sense, expediency, or fear."

The Duumvir only repeated the single word,
Sacrifice."

She stopped awhile ; then she came forward with a
hurried step. " my fate ! " she cried, " why was I
born ? why am I in this strait ? I have no god. What
can I do ? I am abandoned ; why should I not do
it? J; She stopped ; then she went right on to the
altar ; she took the incense : suddenly she looked up
to heaven and started, and threw it away. " I cannot !

302 Callistaj

I dare not ! " she cried out. There was a great sensa
tion in court. " Evidently insane," said some of the
more merciful of the Decurions ; " poor thing, poor
thing ! " Her brother ran up to her ; talked to her,
conjured her, fell down on his knees to her ; took her
hand violently, and would have forced her to offer.
In vain ; all he could get from her was, " I am not a
Christian ; indeed, I am not a Christian. I have
nothing to do with them. the misery ! "

"She is mad!" cried Aristo ; "my lord judges,
listen to me. She was seized by brutal ruffians during
the riot, and the fright and shock have overcome her.
Give her time, oh ! give her time, and she will get right.
She s a good religious girl ; she has done more work
for the temples than any girl in Sicca ; half the
statues in the city are her finishing. Many of you,
my lords, have her handiwork. She works with me.
Do not add to my anguish in seeing her deranged, by
punishing her as a criminal, a Christian : do not take
her from me. Sentence her, and you end the whole
matter ; give her a chance, and she will certainly be
restored to the gods and to me. Will you put her to
death because she is mad ? "

What was to be done ? The court was obsequious
to the Proconsul, afraid of Eome ; jealous that the
mob should have been more forward than the magis
tracy. Had the city moved sooner, as soon as the
edict came, there would have been no rising, no riot.
Already they had been called on for a report about
that riot and an explanation ; if ever they had need

A Tale of the Third Century. 303

to look sharp what they were doing, it was now.
On the other hand, Callista and her brother had
friends among the judges, as we have said, and their
plea was at once obvious and reasonable. " If she
persists, she persists, and nothing can be said ; we
don t wish to be disloyal, or careless of the emperor s
commands. If she is obstinate, she must die ; but
she dies quite as usefully to us, with quite as much
effect, a month hence as now. Not that we ask you
to define a time on your own authority ; simply do
this, write to Carthage for advice. The government
can answer within an hour, if it chooses. Merely say,
Here is a young woman, who has ever been religious
and well conducted, of great accomplishments, and
known especially for her taste and skill in religious
art, who since the day of the riot has suddenly re
fused to take the test. She can give no reason for
her refusal, and protests she is not a Christian. Her
friends say that the fright has turned her brain, but
that if kindly treated and kept quiet, she will come
round, and do all that is required of her. What are we
to do?"

At last Callista s friends prevailed. It was decided
that the judges should pass over this examination
altogether, as if it had been rendered informal by
Callista s conduct. Had they recognised it as a proper
legal process, they must have sentenced and executed
her. Such a decision was of this further advantage to
her, that nothing was altered as to her place of con
finement. Instead of being handed over to the state

304 Callista ;

prison, she remained in her former lodging, though in
custody, and was allowed to see her friends. There
had been very little chance of her recovery, supposing
she was mad, or of ever coming out, if she had once
gone into the formidable Career. Meanwhile the
magistrates sent to Carthage for instructions.

A Tale of the Third Century. 305

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A SICK CALL.

ARISTO was not a fellow to have very long distresses ;
he never would have died of love or of envy, for
honour or for loss of property ; but his present
calamity was one of the greatest he could ever have,
and weighed upon him as long as ever any one could.
His love for his sister was real, but it would not do
to look too closely into the grounds of it ; if we are
obliged to do so, we must confess to a suspicion that
it lay rather in certain outward, nay, accidental attri
butes of Callista, than in Callista herself. Did she
lose her good looks, or her amiable unresisting sub
mission to his wishes, whatever they were, she would
also lose her hold upon his affections. This is not to
make any severe charge against him, considering how
it is with the common run of brothers and sisters, hus
bands and wives ; at the same time, most people cer
tainly are haunted by the memory of the past, and love
for "Auld lang syne," and this Aristo might indeed
have had, and perhaps had not. He loved chiefly for
the present, and by the hour.

However, at the present time he was in a state of
acute suffering, and, under its paroxysm, he be-

30G Callista ;

thought him again of Cornelius s advice, which he
had rejected, to betake himself to Polemo. He had
a distant acquaintance with him, sufficient for his
purpose, and he called on him at the Mercury after the
latter s lecture. Polemo was no fool, though steeped
in affectation and self-conceit, and Aristo fancied that
his sister might be more moved by a philosophical
compatriot than any one else. Polemo s astonishment,
however, when the matter was proposed to him sur
passed words, and it showed how utterly Aristo was
absorbed in his own misery, that the possibility of
such a reception should not have occurred to him.
What, he, the friend of Plotinus, of Rogatian, and the
other noble men and women who were his fellow-
disciples at Rome ; he, a member of the intellectual
aristocracy of the metropolis of the world ; what, he to
visit a felon in prison ! and when he found the felon
was a Christian, he fully thought that Aristo had
come to insult him, and was on the point of bidding
him leave him to himself. Aristo, however, persisted ;
and his evident anguish, and some particulars which
came out, softened him. Callista was a Greek ; a lite
rate, or blue stocking. She had never indeed worn the
philosophic pallium (as some Christian martyrs after
wards, if not before, have done St. Catherine and St.
Euphemia), but there was no reason why she should
not do so. Polemo recollected having heard of her at
the Capitol, and in the triclinium of one of the Decu-
rions, as a lady of singular genius and attainments ;
and he lately had made an attempt to form a female

A Tale of the Third Century. 307

class of hearers, and it wo aid be a feather in his cap to
make a convert of her. So, not many days after, one
evening, accompanied by Aristo, he set out in his litter
to the lodging where she was in custody; not, how
ever, without much misgiving when it came to the
point, some shame, and a consequent visible awkward
ness and stiffness in his manner. All the perfumes he
had about him could not hinder the disgust of such a
visit rising up into his nostrils.

Callista s room was very well for a prison; it was
on the ground-floor of a house of many stories, close
to the Officium of the Triumvirate. Though not any
longer under their strict jurisdiction, she was allowed
to remain where she had first been lodged. She was
in one of the rooms belonging to an apparitor of that
Officium, and, as he had a wife, or at least a partner,
to take care of her, she might consider herself very
well off. However, the reader must recollect that we
are in Africa, in the month of July, and our young
Greek was little used to heats, which made the whole
city nothing less than one vast oven through the
greater part of the twenty-four hours. lu lofty
spacious apartments the resource adopted is to ex
clude the external air, and to live as Greenlanders,
with closed windows and doors ; this was both impos
sible, and would have been unsuccessful, if attempted
in the small apartment of Callista. But fever of mind
is even worse than the heat of the sky ; and it is
undeniable that her health, and her strength, and her
appearance are affected by both the physical and the

308 Callista ;

moral enemy. The beauty, which, was her brother s
delight, is waning away ; and the shadows, if not the
rudiments of a diviner loveliness, which is of expres
sion, not of feature, which inspires not human passion,
but diffuses chaste thoughts and aspirations, are taking
its place. Aristo sees the change with no kind of
satisfaction. The room has a bench, two or three stools,
and a bed of rushes in one corner. A staple is firmly
fixed in the wall ; and an iron chain, light, however,
and long, if the two ideas can be reconciled, reaches to
her slender arm, and is joined to it by an iron ring.

On Polemo s entering the room, his first exclama
tion was to complain of its closeness ; but he had
to do a work, so he began it without delay. Callista,
on her part, started; she had no wish for his pre
sence. She was reclining on her couch, and she sat
up. She was not equal to a controversy, nor did
she mean to have one, whatever might be the case
with him.

" Callista, my life and joy, dear Callista," said her
brother, " I have brought the greatest man in Sicca
to see you."

Callista cast upon him an earnest look, which soon
subsided into indifference. He had a rose of Gyrene
in his hand, whose perfume he diffused about the
small room.

" It is Polemo/ continued Aristo, " the friend of
the great Plotinus, who knows all philosophies and
all philosophers. He has come out of kindness to

you.-

A Tale of the Third Century. 309

Callista acknowledged his presence ; it was cer
tainly, she said, a great kindness for any one to visit
her, and there.

Polemo replied by a compliment ; he said it was
Socrates visiting Aspasia. There had always been
women above the standard of their sex, and they had
ever held an intellectual converse with men of mind.
He saw one such before him.

Callista felt it would be plunging her soul still
deeper into shadows, when she sought realities, if she
must take part in such an argument. She remained
silent.

Your sister has not the fit upon her ? " asked
Polemo of Aristo aside, neither liking her reception
of him, nor knowing what to say. " Not at all, dear
thing/ answered Aristo ; " she is all attention for you
to begin."

" Natives of Greece," at length said he, " natives
of Greece should know each other ; they deserve to
know each other; there is a secret sympathy between
them. Like that mysterious influence which unites
magnet to magnet ; or like the echo which is a reper
cussion of the original voice. So, in like manner,
Greeks are what none but they can be," and he smelt
at his rose and bowed.

She smiled faintly when he mentioned Greece.
Yes," she said, " I am fonder of Greece than of
Africa."

" Each has its advantages," said Polemo ; " there is
a pleasure in imparting knowledge, in lighting flame

x

310 Callista ;

from flame. It would be selfish, did we not leave
Greece to communicate what they have not here.
But you," he added, "lady, neither can learn in
Greece nor teach in Africa, while you are in this
vestibule of Orcus. I understand, however, it is your
own choice ; can that be possible ?

" Well, I wish to get out, if I could, most learned
Polemo/ said Callista sadly.

" May Polemo of Rhodes speak frankly to Callista
of Proconnesus ? " asked Polemo. " I would not
speak to every one. " If so, let me ask, what keeps
you here ?"

" The magistrates of Sicca and this iron chain/
answered Callista. " I would I could be elsewhere ;
I would I were not what I am."

" What could you wish to be more than you are ?
answered Polemo; f< more gifted, accomplished, beauti
ful than any daughter of Africa."

"Go to the point, Polemo," said Aristo, nervously,
though respectfully ; " she wants home-thrusts. "

"I see my brother wants you to ask how far it
depends on me that I am here," said Callista, wishing
to hasten his movements ; it is because I will not
burn incense upon the altar of Jupiter/ 3

" A most insufficient reason, lady/ said Polemo.

Callista was silent.

" What does that action mean ? " said Polemo ; "it
proposes to mean nothing else than that you are loyal
to the Eoman power. You are not of those Greeks,
I presume, who dream of a national insurrection at

A Tale of the Third Century. 311

tliis time ? then, you are loyal to Rome. Did I believe
a Leonidas could now arise, an Harmodius, a Mil-
tiades, a Themistocles, a Pericles, an Epaminondas, I
should be as ready to take the sword as another ; but
it is hopeless. Greece, then, makes no claim on you
just now. Nor will I believe, though you were to tell
ine so yourself, that you are leagued with any obscure,
fanatic sect who desire Rome s downfall. Consider
what Rome is ; " and now he had got into the magni
ficent commonplace, out of his last panegyrical ora
tion with which he had primed himself before he set
out. " I am a Greek/ he said, " I love Greece, but I
love truth better ; and I look at facts. I grasp them,
and I confess to them. The wide earth, through un
told centuries, has at length grown into the imperial
dominion of One, It has converged and coalesced
in all its various parts into one Rome. This, which
we see, is the last, the perfect state of human society.
The course of things, the force of natural powers, as
is well understood by all great lawyers and philo
sophers, cannot go further. Unity has come at length,
and unity is eternity. It will be for ever, because it is a
whole. The principle of dissolution is eliminated. We
have reached the apotelesma of the world. Greece,
Egypt, Assyria, Libya, Etruria, Lydia, have all had
their share in the result. Each of them, in its own
day, has striven in vain to stop the course of fate, and
has been hurried onwards at its wheels as its victim
or its instrument. And shall Judaea do what pro
found Egypt and subtle Greece have tried in vain ?

x 2

312 Callista ;

If even the freedom of thought, the liberal scepticism,
nay, the revolutionary theories of Hellas have proved
unequal to the task of splitting up the Roman power,
if the pomp and luxury of the East have failed, shall
the mysticism of Syria succeed ? 5)

" Well, dear Callista, are you listening ? cried
Aristo, not over-confident of the fact, though Polemo
looked round at him with astonishment.

" Ten centuries/ he continued, " ten centuries have
just been completed since Rome began her victorious
career. For ten centuries she has been fulfilling her
high mission in the dispositions of Destiny, and per
fecting her maxims of policy and rules of government.
For ten centuries she has pursued one track with an
ever-growing intensity of zeal, and an ever-widen
ing extent of territory. What can she not do ? just
one thing ; and that one thing which she has not pre
sumed to do, you are attempting. She has maintained
her own religion, as was fitting ; but she has never
thrown contempt on the religion of others. This vou
are doing. Observe, Callista, Rome herself, in spite
of her great power, has yielded to that necessity
which is greater. She does not meddle with the
religions of the peoples. She has opened no war
against their diversities of rite. The conquering
power found, especially in the East, innumerable
traditions, customs, prejudices, principles, supersti
tions, matted together in one hopeless mass ; she left
them as they were ; she recognised them ; it would
have been the worse for her if she had done otherwise.

A Tale of the Third Century. 313

All she said to the peoples, all she dared say to them,
was, You bear with me, and I will bear with you.
Yet this you will not do ; you Christians, who have
no pretence to any territory, who are not even the
smallest of the peoples, who are not even a people at
all, you have the fanaticism to denounce all other
rites but your own, nay, the religion of great Rome.
Who are you? upstarts and vagabonds of yesterday.
Older religions than yours, more intellectual, more
beautiful religions, which have had a position, and
a history, and a political influence, have come to
nought ; and shall you prevail, you, a congeries, a
hotch-potch of the leavings, and scraps, and broken
meat of the great peoples of the East and West ?
Blush, blush, Grecian Callista, you with a glorious
nationality of your own to go shares with some
hundred peasants, slaves, thieves, beggars, hucksters,
tinkers, cobblers, and fishermen ! A lady of high
character, of brilliant accomplishments, to be the
associate of the outcasts of society ! "

Polemo s speech^ though cumbrous, did execution,
at least the termination of it, upon minds constituted
like the Grecian. Aristo jumped up, swore an oath,
and looked round triumphantly at Callista, who felt
its force also. After all, what did she know of Chris
tians ? at best she was leaving the known for the
unknown : she was sure to be embracing certain evil
for contingent good. She said to herself, " No, I never
can be a Christian." Then she said aloud, " My Lord
Polemo ; I am not a Christian ; I never said I was."

314 Callista;

" That is her absurdity ! " cried Aristo. " She is
neither one thing nor the other. She won t say she s
a Christian, and she won t sacrifice ! "

" It is my misfortune/ she said, " I know. I am
losing both what I see, and what I don t see. It is
most inconsistent : yet what can I do ?

Polemo had said what he considered enough. He
was one of those who sold his words. He had already
been over-generous, and was disposed to give away
no more.

After a time, Callista said, " Polemo, do you be
lieve in one God ? "

" Certainly," he answered ; " I believe in one eternal,
self-existing something."

" Well," she said, " I feel that God within my heart.
I feel myself in His presence. He says to me, Do
this : don t do that. Tou may tell me that this dic
tate is a mere law of my nature, as is to joy or to
grieve. I cannot understand this. No, it is the echo
of a person speaking to me. Nothing shall persuade
me that it does not ultimately proceed from a person
external to me. It carries with it its proof of its
divine origin. My nature feels towards it as towards
a person. When I obey it, I feel a satisfaction ; when
I disobey, a soreness just like that which I feel in
pleasing or offending some revered friend. So you
see, Polemo, I believe in what is more than a mere
something. I believe in what is more real to me
than sun, moon, stars, and the fair earth, and the

A Tale of the Third Century. 315

voice of friends. You will say. Who is He? Has
He ever told you anything about Himself? Alas !
no! the more s the pity! But I will not give up
what I have, because I have not more. An echo
implies a voice ; a voice a speaker. That speaker I
love and I fear."

Here she was exhausted, and overcome too, poor
Callista ! with her own emotions.

" that I could find Him ! " she exclaimed, pas
sionately. " On the right hand and on the left I
grope, but touch Him not. Why dost Thou fight
against me ? why dost Thou scare and perplex me,

First and Only Fair ? I have Thee not, and I need
Thee." She added, " I am no Christian, you see, or

1 should have found Him ; or at least I should say I
had found Him."

" It is hopeless," said Polemo to Aristo, in much
disgust, and with some hauteur of manner : " she is
too far gone. You should not have brought me to
this place."

Aristo groaned.

" Shall I," she continued, " worship any but Him ?
Shall I say that He whom I see not, whom I seek, is
our Jupiter, or Csesar, or the goddess Rome ? They
are none of them images of this inward guide of mine.
I sacrifice to Him alone."

The two men looked at each other in amazement :
one of them in anger.

" It s like the demon of Socrates," said Aristo,
timidly.

316 Callista ;

"I will acknowledge Cassar in every fitting way, 7
she repeated ; " but I -will not make him my God."

Presently she added, " Polemo, will not that in
visible Monitor have something to say to all of us,
to you, at some future day ? "

" Spare me ! spare me, Callista ! " cried Polemo,
starting up with a violence unsuited to his station
and profession. " Spare my ears, unhappy woman !
such words have never hitherto entered them. I
did not come to be insulted. Poor, blind, hapless,
perverse spirit I separate myself from you for ever !
Desert, if you will, the majestic, bright, beneficent
traditions of your forefathers, and live in this frightful
superstition ! Farewell ! "

He did not seem better pleased with Aristo than
with Callista, though Aristo helped him into his litter,
walked by his side, and did what he could to pro
pitiate him.

A Tale of the Third Century, 317

CHAPTER XXIX.

CONVERSION.

IP there is a state of mind utterly forlorn, it is that
in which we left the poor prisoner after Polemo had
departed. She was neither a Christian, nor was she
not. She was in the midway region of inquiry, which
as surely takes time to pass over, except there be
some almost miraculous interference, as it takes time
to walk from place to place. You see a person coming
towards you, and you say, impatiently, " Why don t
you come faster ? why are you not here already ?
Why ? because it takes time. To see that heathenism
is false, to see that Christianity is true, are two
acts, and involve two processes. They may indeed
be united, and the truth may supplant the error;
but they may not. Callista obeyed, as far as truth
was brought home to her. She saw the vanity of
idols before she had faith in Him who came to
destroy them. She could safely say, " I discard
Jupiter :" she could not say, " I am a Christian."
Besides, what did she know of Christians ? How
did she know that they would admit her, if she
wished it ? They were a secret society, with an
election, an initiation, and oaths; not a mere philo-

318 Callistas

sophical school,, or a profession of opinion, open to
any individual. If they were the good people that
she fancied them to be, and if tbey were not, she
would not think of them at all, they were not likely
to accept of her.

Still, though we may account for her conduct, its
issue was not, on that account, the less painful. She
had neither the promise of this world, nor of the next,
and was losing earth without gaining heaven. Our
Lord is reported to have said, " Be ye good money
changers." Poor Callista did not know how to turn
herself to account. It had been so all through her
short life. She had ardent affections, and keen sen
sibilities, and high aspirations ; but she was not for
tunate in the application of them. She had put her
self into her brother s hands, and had let him direct
her course. It could not be expected that he would
be very different from the world. We are cautioned
against rejoicing in our youth." Aristo rejoiced in
his without restraint; and he made his sister rejoice
in hers, if enjoyment it was. He himself found in the
pleasures he pointed out a banquet of fruits : she
dust and ashes. And so she went on ; not changing
her life, from habit, from the captivity of nature, but
weary, disappointed, fastidious, hungry, yet not know
ing what she would have ; yearning after something,
she did not well know what. And as heretofore she
had cast her lot with the world, yet had received no
price for her adhesion, so now she had bid it farewell ;
yet had nothing to take in its place.

A Tale of the Third Century. 319

As to her brother, after the visit of Polemo, he got
more and more annoyed angry rather than dis
tressed, and angry with her. One more opportunity
occurred of her release, and it was the last effort he
made to move her. Cornelius, in spite of his pom
posity, had acted the part of a real friend. He
wrote from Carthage, that he had happily succeeded
in his application to government, and, difficult and
unusual as was the grace, had obtained ^her release.
He sent the formal documents for carrying it through
the court, and gained the eager benediction of the
excitable Aristo. He rushed with the parchments to
the magistrates, who recognised them as sufficient,
and got an order for admission to her room.

" Joy, my dearest," he cried ; " you are free ! We
will leave this loathsome country by the first vessel.
I have seen the magistrates already.

The colour came into her wan face, she clasped her
hands together, and looked earnestly at Aristo. He
proceeded to explain the process of liberation. She
would not be called on to sacrifice, but must sign a
writing to the effect that she had done so, and there
would be an end of the whole matter. On the first
statement she saw no difficulty in the proposal, and
started up in animation. Presently her countenance
fell ; how could she say that she had done what it was
treason to her inward Guide to do ? What was the
difference between acknowledging a blasphemy by a
signature or by incense ? She smiled sorrowfully at
him, shook her head, and lay down again upon her

. ."

320 Cnllista;

rushes. She had anticipated the Church s judgment
on the case of the Libellatici.

Aristo could not at first believe he heard aright,
that she refused to be saved by what seemed to him
a matter of legal form ; and his anger grew so high
as to eclipse and to shake his affection. " Lost girl,"
he cried, " I abandon you to the Furies ! " and he
shook his clenched hand at her. He turned away,
and said hp would never see her again, and he kept
his word. He never came again. He took refuge,
with less restraint than was usual to him, in such
pleasures as the city could supply, and strove to drive
his sister from his mind by dissipation. He mixed
in the games of the Campus Martius under the
shadow of the mountain ; took part with the revellers
in the Forum, and ended the evening at the Thermae.
Sometimes the image o dear Callista, as once she
looked, would rush into his mind with a force which
would not be denied, and he would weep for a whole
night.

At length he determined to destroy himself, after
the example of so many great men. He gave a
sumptuous entertainment, expending his means upon
it, and invited his friends to partake of it. It passed
off with great gaiety ; nothing was wanting to make
it equal to an occasion so special and singular. He
disclosed to his guests his purpose, and they ap
plauded ; the last libations were made the revellers
departed the lights were extinguished. Aristo dis
appeared that night : Sicca never saw him again.

A Tale of the Third Century. 321

After some time it was found that he was at Carthage,
and he had been provident enough to take with him
some of his best working tools, and some specimens
of his own and poor Callista s skill.

Strange to say, Jucundus proved a truer friend to
the poor girl than her brother. In spite of his selfish
ness and hatred of Christians, he was considerably
affected as her case got more and more serious, and
it became evident that only one answer could be
returned to the magistrates from Carthage. He was
quite easy about Agellius, who had, as he considered,
successfully made off with himself, and he was recon
ciled to the thought of never seeing him again. Had
it not been for this, one might have fancied that some
lurking anxiety about the fate of his nephew might
have kept alive the fidget which Callista s dismal
situation gave him, for the philosopher tells us, that
pity always has something in it of self ; but, under
the circumstances, it would be rash judgment to have
any such suspicion of his motives. He was not a
cruel man : even the " hoary-headed Fabian," or
Cyprian, or others whom he so roundly abused,
would have found, when it came to the point, that
his bluster was his worst weapon against them ; at
any rate he had enough of the " milk of human kind
ness " to feel considerable distress about that idiotic
Callista.

Yet what could he do ? He might as well stop
the passage of the sun, as the movements of mighty
Rome, and a rescript would be coming to a certainty

322 Cattista;

in due time from Carthage, and would just say one
thing, which would forthwith be passing into the
region of fact. He had no one to consult , and to
tell the truth, Callista s fate was more than acqui
esced in by the public of Sicca. Her death seemed a
solution of various perplexities and troubles into
which the edict had brought them ; it would be pur
chasing the praise of loyalty cheaply. Moreover,
there were sets of men actually hostile to her and
her brother ; the companies of statuaries, lapidaries,
and goldsmiths, were jealous of foreign artists like
them, who showed contempt for Africa, and who were
acquainted, or rather intimate, with many of the
higher classes, and even high personages in the place.
Well, but could not some of those great people help
her now ? His mind glanced towards Calphurnius,
whom he had heard of as in some way or other pro
tecting her on the evening of the riot, and to him he
determined to betake himself.

Calphurnius and the soldiery were still in high
dudgeon with the populace of Sicca, displeased with
the magistrates, and full of sympathy for Callista.
Jucundus opened his mind fully to the tribune, and
persuaded him to take him to Septimius, his military
superior, and in the presence of the latter many
good words were uttered both by Calphurnius and
Jucundus. Jucundus gave it as his opinion that it
was a very great mistake to strike at any but the
leaders of the Christian sect ; he quoted the story of
King Tarquin and the poppies, and assured the great

A Tale of the Third Century. 323

man that it was what lie had always said and always
prophesied, and that, depend upon it, it was a great
mistake not to catch Cyprianus.

" The strong arm of the law," he said, " should not,
on the other hand, be put forth against such butter
flies as this Callista, a girl who, he knew from her
brother, had not yet seen eighteen summers. What
harm could such a poor helpless thing possibly do ?
She could not even defend herself, much less attack
anybody else. No," he continued, "your proper
policy with these absurd people is a smiling face and
an open hand. Recollect the fable of the sun and the
wind ; which made the traveller lay aside his cloak ?
Do you fall in with some sour-visaged, stiff-backed
worshipper of the Furies ? fill his cup for him, crown
his head with flowers, bring in the flute-women.
Observe him he relaxes ; a smile spreads on his
countenance ; he laughs at a jest ; captus est ;
habet : he pours a libation. Great Jove has con
quered ! he is loyal to Eome ; what can you desire
more ? But beat him, kick him, starve him, turn him
out of doors ; and you have a natural enemy to do
you a mischief whenever he can."

Calphurnius took his own line, and a simple one.
"If it was some vile slave or scoundrel African,"
he said, no harm would have been done ; but, by
Jupiter Tonans, it s a Greek girl, who sings like a
Muse, dances like a Grace, and spouts verses like
Minerva. T would be sacrilege to touch a hair of her
head ; and we forsooth are to let these cowardly dogs

324 Callista;

of magistrates entrap Fortunianus at Carthage into
this solecism."

Septirnias said nothing, as became a man in office ;
but he came to an understanding with his visitors. It
was plain that the Duumvirs of Sicca had no legal
custody of Callista ; in a criminal matter she might
seem to fall under the jurisdiction of the military ;
and Calphurnius gained leave to claim his right at
the proper moment. The rest of his plan the tribune
kept to himself, nor did Septimius wish to know it.
He intended to march a guard into the prison shortly
before Callista was brought out for execution, and then
to make it believed that she had died under the hor
rors of the Barathrum. The corpse of another woman
could without difficulty be found to be her representa
tive, and she herself would be carried off to the camp.

Meanwhile, to return to the prisoner herself, what
was the consolation, what the occupation of Callista
in this waiting time, ere the Proconsul had sent his
answer? Strange to say, and, we suppose, from a
sinful waywardness in her, she had, up to this mo
ment, neglected to avail herself of a treasure, which
by a rare favour had been put into her possession.
A small parchment, carefully written, elaborately
adorned, lay in her bosom, which might already have
been the remedy of many a perplexity, many a woe.
It is difficult to say under what feelings she had been
reluctant to open the Holy Gospel, which Ceecilius
had intrusted to her care. Whether she was so low

A Tale of the Third Century. 325

and despondent that she could not make the effort,
or whether she feared to- convince herself further,
or whether she professed to be waiting for some
calmer time, as if that were possible, or whether hor
unwillingness was that which makes sick people so
averse to eating, or to remedies which they know
would be useful to them, cannot well be determined ;
but there are many of us who may be able, from
parallel instances of infirmity, to enter into that state
of mind, which led her at least to procrastinate what
she might do any minute. However, now left abso
lutely to herself, Aristo gone, and the answer of the
government to the magistracy not having yet come,
she recurred to the parchment, and to the Bishop s
words, which ran, " Here you will see who it is we
love," or language to that effect. It was tightly
lodged under her girdle, and so had escaped in the
confusion of that terrible evening. She opened it at
length and read.

It was the writing of a provincial Greek ; elegant,
however, and marked with that simplicity which was
to her taste the elementary idea of a classic author.
It was addressed to one Theophilus, and professed to
be a carefully digested and verified account of events
which, had been already attempted by others. She
read a few paragraphs, and became interested, and in
no long time she was absorbed in the volume. When
she had once taken it up, she did not lay it down
Even at other times she would have prized it, but
now, when she was so desolate and lonely, it was

Y

326 Callista ;

simply a gift from an unseen world. It opened a
view of a new state and community of beings, which
only seemed too beautiful to be possible. But not
into a new state of things alone, but into the presence
of One who was simply distinct and removed from
anything that she had, in her most imaginative
moments, ever depicted to her mind as ideal perfec
tion. Here was that to which her intellect tended,
though that intellect could not frame it. It could
approve and acknowledge, when set before it, what it
could not originate. Here was He who spoke to her
in her conscience ; whose Voice she heard, whose
Person she was seeking for. Here was He who
kindled a warmth on the cheek of both Chione and
Agellius. That image sank deep into her; she felt
it to be a reality. She said to herself, " This is no
poet s dream; it is the delineation of a real individual.
There is too much truth and nature^ and life and
exactness about it, to be anything else." Yet she
shrank from it ; it made her feel her own difference
from it, and a feeling of humiliation came upon her
mind, such as she never had had before. She began
to despise herself more thoroughly day by day ; yet
she recollected various passages in the history which
reassured her amid her self-abasement, especially that
of His tenderness and love for the poor girl at the
feast, who would anoint His feet; and the full tears
stood in her eyes, and she fancied she was that sinful
child, and that He did not repel her.

what a new world of thought she had entered ! it

A Tale of the Third Century. 327

occupied her mind from its very novelty. Everything
looked dull and dim by the side of it ; her brother
had ever been dinning into her ears that maxim of
the heathen, " Enjoy the present, trust nothing to the
future." She indeed could not enjoy the present with
that relish which he wished, and she had not any
trust in the future either ; but this volume spoke a
different doctrine. There she learned the very
opposite to what Aristo taught viz., that the pre
sent must be sacrificed for the future ; that what is
seen must give way to what is believed. Nay, more,
she drank in the teaching which at first seemed so
paradoxical, that even present happiness and present
greatness lie in relinquishing what at first sight seems
to promise them ; that the way to true pleasure is,
not through self-indulgence, but through mortifica
tion ; that the way to power is weakness, the way to
success failure, the way to wisdom foolishness, the
way to glory dishonour. She saw that there was a
higher beauty than that which the order and harmony
of the natural world revealed, and a deeper peace and
calm than that which the exercise, whether of the in
tellect or of the purest human affection, can supply.
She now began to understand that strange, unearthly
composure, which had struck her in Chione, Agellius,
and Ceecilius ; she understood that they were detached
from the world, not because they had not the pos
session, nor the natural love of its gifts, but because
they possessed a higher blessing already, which they
loved above everything else. Thus, by degrees

Y 2

328 Callista ;

Callista came to walk by a new philosophy ; and had
ideas, and principles, and a sense of relations and
aims, and a susceptibility of arguments, to which before
she was an utter stranger, Life and death, action and
suffering, fortunes and abilities, all had now a new
meaning and application. As the skies speak differ
ently to the philosopher and the peasant, as a book of
poems to the imaginative and to the cold and narrow
intellect, so now she saw her being, her history, her
present condition, her future, in a new light, which no
one else could share with her. But the ruling sove
reign thought of the whole was He, who exemplified
all this wonderful philosophy in Himself.

A Tale of the Third Century. 329

CHAPTER XXX.

TORRES VEDRAS.

THERE were those, however, whom Callista could

understand, and who could understand her; there
were those who, while Aristo, Cornelius, Jucundus,
and Polemo were moving in her behalf, were interest
ing themselves also in her, and in a more effectual way.
Agellius had joined Cascilius, and, if in no other way,
by his mouth came to the latter and his companions
the news of her imprisonment. On the morning that
Agellius had been so strangely let out of confinement
by his brother, and found himself seated at the street-
door, with his tunic on his arm and his boots on the
ground before him, his first business was to recollect
where he was, and to dispose of those articles of dress
according to their respective uses. What should he
do with himself, was of course his second thought.
He could not stay there long without encountering
the early risers of Sicca, the gates being already open.
To attempt to find out where Callista was, and then,
to see her or rescue her, would have ended at once in
his own capture. To go to his own farm would have
been nearly as dangerous, and would have had less

330 Callista ;

meaning. Caacilius too had said, that they were not
long to be separated, and had given him directions for
finding him.

Immediately then he made his way to one of the
eastern gates, which led to Thibursicumbur. There
was indeed no time to be lost, as he soon had indica
tions ; he met several men who knew him by sight,
and one of the apparitors of the Duumviri, who hap
pily did not. An apostate Christian, whose zeal for
the government was notorious, passed him and looked
back after him. However, he would soon be out of
pursuit, if he had the start of them until the sun got
round the mountains he was seeking. He walked on
through a series of rocky and barren hills, till he got
some way past the second milestone. Before he had
reached the third he had entered a defile in the
mountains. Per-pendicular rocks rose on each side of
him, and the level road, reaching from rock to rock,
was cot above thirty feet across. He felt that if he
was pursued here, there was no escape. The third
milestone passed, he came to the country road ; he
pursued it, counting out his thousand steps, as Cascilius
had instructed him. By this time it had left the
stony bottom, and was rising up the side of the pre
cipice. Brushwood and dwarf pines covered it, mingled
with, a few olives and caroubas. He said out his seven
pater nosters as he walked, and then looked around.
He had just passed a goatherd, and they looked hard
at each other. Agellius wished him good morning.

" You are wishing a kid for Bacchus, sir," said the

A Tale of the Third Century. 331

man to him as he was running his eye over the goats.
On Agellius answering in the negative, he said in a
clownish, way, " He who does not sacrifice to Bacchus
does not sacrifice goats/

Agellius, bearing in mind Csecilius s directions, saw
of course there was something in the words which, did
not meet the ear, and answered carelessly, "He who
does not sacrifice, does not sacrifice to Bacchus."

"True," said the man, " but perhaps you prefer a
lamb for a sacrifice."

Agellius replied, " If it is the right one ; but the
one I mean was slain long since."

The man, without any change of manner, went on
to say that there was an acquaintance of his not far
up the rock, who could perhaps satisfy him on the
point. He said, " Follow those wild olives, though
the path seems broken, and you will come to him at
the nineteenth."

Agellius set out, and never was path so untrue to its
own threats. It seemed ending in abrupt cliffs every
turn, but never fulfilled the anticipation ; that is, while
he kept to the olive-trees. After ascending what was
rather a flight of marble steps, washed and polished
by the winter torrents, than a series of crags, he ful
filled the number of trees, and looked round at the
man sitting under it. O the joy and surprise ! it was
his old servant Aspar.

" You are safe, then, Aspar," he said, " and I find
you here. O what a tender Providence ! "

" I have taken my stand here, master," returned

332 Callista ;

Aspar, " day after day, since I get here, in hopes of
seeing you. I could not get back to you from Jucun-
dus s that dreadful morning, and so I made my way
here. Your uncle sent for you fn my presence, but at
the time I did not know what it meant. I was able
to escape."

" And now for Cseciiius, " said Agellius.

Behind the olive-tree a torrent s bed descended ; the
descent being so easy, and yet so natural, that art
had evidently interfered with nature, yet concealed its
interference. After tracing it some yards, they came
to a chasm on the opposite side ; and, passing through
it, Agellius soon found himself, to his surprise, on a
bleak open hill, to which the huge mountain formed
merely a sort of facade. Its surface was half rock,
half moor, and it was surrounded by precipices. It
was such a place as some hermit of the middle ages
might have chosen for his solitude. The two walked
briskly across it, and at length came to a low, broad
yawning opening, branching out into several passages
which, if pursued, would have been found to end in
nothing. Aspar, however, made straight for what
appeared a dead wall of rock, in which, on his making
a signal, a door, skilfully hidden, was opened from
within, and was shut behind them by the porter-
They now stood in a gallery running into the moun
tain. It was very long, and a stream of cold air came
along it. Aspar told him that at the extremity of it
they should find Ceecilius.

Agellius was indeed in the vestibule of a remark-

A Tale of the Third Century. 333

able specimen of those caves which had been used for
religious purposes, first by the aborigines of the coun
try, then by the Phoenician colonists, and in. the cen
turies which had just passed, for the concealment
of the Christians. The passage along which they
were proceeding might itself be fitly called a cave,
but still it was only one of several natural subter
raneans, of different shapes, and opening into each
other. Some of them lay along the face of a ravine,
from which they received light and air; and herein
one place there were indications of a fortified front.
They were perfectly dry, though the water had at
some remote period filtered through the roof, and had
formed pendants and pillars of semi-transparent sta
lactite, of great beauty. It was another and singular
advantage that a particular spot in one of the caverns,
which bordered on the ravine, was the focus of an
immense ear or whispering-gallery, such, that what
ever took place in the public road in which the ravine
terminated, could be distinctly heard there, and thus
they were always kept on guard against the attack of
an enemy, if expected. Had either Agellius or Aspar
been curious about such a matter, the latter might
have pointed out the place where a Punic altar once
had been discovered, with a sort of tumulus of bones
of mice near at hand, that animal coming into the list
of victims in the Phoenician worship.

But the two Christians were engaged, as they first
halted, and then walked along the corridor, in other
thoughts, than in asking and answering questions

334 Callista ;

about the history of the place of refuge in which they
found themselves. We have already remarked on the
central position of Sicca for the purpose of missionary
work and of retreat in persecution ; such a dwelling
in the rocks did but increase its advantageousness,
and in consequence at this moment many Christians
had availed themselves of it. It is an English proverb
that three removes are as bad as a fire ; and so great
were the perils and the hardships of flight in those
times, that it was a question, in a merely earthly point
of view, whether the risk of being apprehended at
home was not a far less evil than the evils which were
certain upon leaving it. There was nothing, then,
ungenerous in the ecclesiastical rule that they alone
should flee, in persecution, who were marked out for
death, if they stayed. The laity, private families, and
the priests, on whose ministrations they depended,
remained; bishops, deacons, and what may be called
the staff of the episcopate, notaries, messengers,
seminarists, and ascetics, would disappear from the
scene of persecution.

Agellius learned from his slave that the cave had
been known to him from the time he was a boy, and
that it was one of the secrets which all who shared it
religiously observed. Holy men, it seemed, had had
intimations of the present trial for several years past ;
and it was the full persuasion of the heads of the
Church, that, though it might blow over for a short
time, it would recur at intervals for many years, end
ing in a visitation so heavy and long, that the times

A Tale of the Third Century. 335

of Antichrist would seem to have arrived. However,
the impression upon their minds was, that then would
come a millennium, or, in some sort, a reign of the
saints upon the earth. That, however, was a date
which even Agellius himself, young as he was, would
not be likely to reach ; indeed, who could expect to
escape, who might not hope to gain, a Martyr s death,
in the interval, in the series of assaults, between
which Christianity had to run the gauntlet ? Aspar
said, moreover, that some martyrs lay in the chapels
within, and that various confessors had ended their
days there. At the present time there were represen
tatives, there collected, of a large portion of the
Churches of the Proconsulate. A post, so to call it,
went between them and Carthage every week, and his
friend and father, the bishop of that city, was espe
cially busy in correspondence.

Moreover, Agellius learned from him that they had
many partisans, well-wishers, and sympathizers, about
the country, whom no one suspected ; the families of
parents who had conformed to the established worship,
nay, sometimes the apostates themselves, and that
this was the case in Sicca as well as elsewhere. For
himself, old and ignorant as he was, the persecution
had proved to him an education. He had been
brought near great men, and some who, he was confi
dent, would be martyrs in the event. He had learned
a great deal about his religion which he did not know
before, and had drunk in the spirit of Christianity,
with a fulness which he trusted would not turn to his

336 Callista ;

ultimate condemnation. He now too had a con
sciousness of the size aid populousness of the Church,
of her diffusion, of the promises made to her, of the
essential necessity of -what seemed to be misfor
tune, of the episcopal regimen, and of the power and
solidity of the see of Peter afar off in Rome, all which
knowledge had made him quite another being. We
have put all this into finer language than the good old
man used himself, and we have grouped it more
exactly, but this is what his words would come to,
when explained.

Coming down to sublunary matters, Aspar said the
cave was well provisioned ; they had bread, oil, figs,
dried grapes, and wine. They had vessels and vest
ments for the Holy Sacrifice. Their serious want was
a dearth of water at that season, but they relied on
Divine Providence to give them by miracle, if in no
other way, a supply. The place was piercingly cold
too in the winter.

By this time they had gained the end of the long
gallery, and passed through a second apartment,
when suddenly the sounds of the ecclesiastical chant
burst on the ear of Agellius. How strange, how
transporting to him ! he was almost for the first time
coming home to his father s house, though lie had
been a Christian from a child, and never, as he trusted,
to leave it, now that it was found. He did not know
how to behave himself, nor indeed where to go.
Aspar conducted him into the seats set apart for the
faithful ; he knelt down and burst into tears.

A Tale of the Third Century. 337

It was approaching the third hour, the hour at which
the Paraclete originally descended upon the Apostles,
and which, when times of persecution were passed,
was appointed in the West for the solemn mass of the
day. In that early age, indeed, the time of the solem
nity was generally midnight, in order to elude ob
servation ; but even then such an hour was considered
of but temporary arrangement. Pope Telesphorus is
said to have prescribed the hour, afterwards in use,
as early even as the second century ; and in a place
of such quiet and security as the cavern in which we
just now find ourselves, there was no reason why it
should not be selected. At the lower end of the
chapel was a rail extending across it, and open in the
middle, where its two portions turned up at right
angles on each side towards the altar. The enclosure
thus made was the place proper for the faithful, into
which Agellius had been introduced, and about fifty
persons were collected about him. Where the two
side-rails which ran up the chapel ceased, there was
a broad step ; and upon it two pulpits, one on each
side. Then came a second elevation, carrying the eye
on to the extremity of the upper end.

In the middle of the wall at that upper end is a
recess, occupied by a tomb. On the front of it is
written the name of some glorious champion of the
faith who lies there. It is one of the first bishops of
Sicca, and the inscription attests that Jie slept in
the Lord under the Emperor Antoninus. Over the
sacred relics is a slab, and on the slab the Divine

338 Callista ;

Mysteries are now to be celebrated. At the back is
a painting on the wall, very similar to that in Agel-
lius s cottage. The ever-blessed immaculate Mother
of God is exercising her office as the Advocate of
sinners, standing by the sacrifice as she stood at the
cross itself, and offering up and applying its infinite
merits and incommunicable virtue in union with
priest and people. So instinctive in the Christian
mind is the principle of decoration, as it may be
called, that even in times of suffering, and places of
banishment, we see it brought into exercise. Not
only is the arch which overspans the altar ornamented
with an arabesque pattern, but the roof or vault is
coloured with paintings. Our Lord is in the centre,
with two figures of Moses on each side, on the right
unloosing his sandals, on the left striking the rock.
Between the centre figure and the altar may be seen
the raising of Lazarus ; in the opposite partition the
healing of the paralytic ; at the four angles are men
and women alternately in the attitude of prayer.

At this time the altar-stone was covered with a rich
crimson silk, with figures of St. Peter and St. Paul
worked in gold upon it, the gift of a pious lady of
Carthage. Beyond the altar, but not touching it, was
a cross ; and on one side of the altar a sort of basin or
piscina cut in the rock, with a linen cloth hanging up
against it. There were no candles upon the altar itself,
but wax lights fixed into silver stands were placed at
intervals along the edge of the presbytery or elevation.

The mass was in behalf of the confessors for the

A Tale of the Third Century. 339

faith then in prison in Carthage ; and the sacred
ministers, some half-hour after Agellius s entrance,
made their appearance. Their vestments already
varied somewhat from the ordinary garments of the
day, and bespoke antiquity ; and, though not so simply
sui generis as they are now, they were so far special,
that they were never used on any other occasion, but
were reserved for the sacred service. The neck was
bare, the amice being as yet unknown ; instead of the
stole was what was called the orarium, a sort of hand
kerchief resting on the shoulders, and falling down on
each side. The alb had been the inner garment, or
camisium, which in civil use was retained at night
when the other garments were thrown off; and, as at
the present day, it was confined round the waist by a
zone or girdle. The maniple was a napkin, supplying
the place of a handkerchief; and the chasuble was an
ample pcenula, such as was worn by the judges, a cloak
enveloping the whole person round, when spread out,
with an opening in the centre, through which the head
might pass. The deacon s dalmatic was much longer
than it is now, and the subdeacon s tunicle resembled
the alb. All the vestments were of the purest white.
The mass began by the bishop giving his blessing ;
and then the Lector, a man of venerable age, taking
the roll called Lectionarium, and proceeding to a
pulpit, read the Prophets to the people, much in the
way observed among ourselves still on holy Saturday
and the vigil of Pentecost. These being finished, the
people chanted the first verse of the Gloria Patri,

340 Callista;

after which the clergy alternated with the people the
Kyrie, pretty much as the custom is now.

Here a fresh roll was brought to the Lector, then or
afterwards called Apostolus, from which he read one
of the canonical epistles. A psalm followed, which
was sung by the people ; and, after this, the Lector
received the Evangeliarium, and read a portion of the
Gospel, at which lights were lighted, and the people
stood. When he had finished, the Lector opened the
roll wide, and, turning round, presented it to bishop,
clergy, and people to kiss.

The deacon then cried out, " Ite in pace, catechu-
meni," " Depart in peace, catechumens ;" and then the
kiss of peace was passed round, and the people began
to sing some psalms or hymns. While they were
so engaged, the deacon received from the acolyte the
sindon, or corporal, which was of the length of the
altar, and perhaps of greater breadth, and spread it
upon the sacred table. Next was placed on the sindon
the oblata, that is, the small loaves, according to the
number of communicants, with the paten, which was
large, and a gold chalice, duly prepared. And then
the sindon, or corporal, was turned back over them,
to cover them as a pall.

The celebrant then advanced : he stood at the
further side of the altar, where the candles are now,
with his face to the people, and then began the holy
sacrifice. First he incensed the oblata, that is, the
loaves and chalice, as an acknowledgment of God s
sovereign dominion, and as a token of uplifted prayer

A Tale of the Third Century. 341

to Him. Then the roll of prayers was brought him,
while tlie deacon began what is sometimes called the
bidding prayer, being a catalogue of the various sub
jects for which intercession is to be made, after the
manner of the Oremus dilectissimi, now used on Good
Friday. This catalogue included all conditions of
men, the conversion of the world, the exaltation of
Holy Church, the maintenance of the Roman empire,
the due ripening and gathering of the fruits of the
earth, and other spiritual and temporal blessings,
subjects very much the same as those which are now
called the Pope s intentions. The prayers ended with
a special reference to those present, that they might
persevere in the Lord even to the end. And then
the priest began the Sursum corda, and said the
Sanctus.

The Canon or Actio seems to have run, in all but a
few words, as it does now, and the solemn words of
consecration were said secretly. Great stress was laid
on the Lord s prayer, which in one sense terminated
the function. It was said aloud by the people, and
when they said, " Forgive us our trespasses/ they
beat their breasts.

It is not wonderful that Agellius, assisting for
almost the first time at this wonderful solemnity,
should have noted everything as it occurred ; and we
must be considered as giving our account of it from
his mouth.

It needs not to enlarge on the joy of the meeting
which followed between Caacilius and his young peni-

342 Callista;

tent. ff my father," lie said, " I come to thee, never
to leave thee, to be thy dutiful servant, and to bo
trained by thee after the pattern of Him who made
thee what thou art. Wonderful things have hap
pened ; Callista is in prison on the charge of Chris
tianity ; I was in a sort of prison myself, or what was
worse for my soul ; and Juba, my brother, in the
strangest of ways, has this morning let me out. Shall
she not be saved, my father, in God s own way, as
well as I ? At least we can all pray for her ; but
surely we can do more so precious a soul must not
be left to herself and the world. If she has the trials,
she may claim the blessings of a Christian. Is she to
go back to heathenism ? Is she, alas ! to suffer with
out baptism ? Shall we not hazard death to bestow
on her that grace ? "

A Tale of the Third Century. 343

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE BAPTISM.

WE have already had occasion, to mention that
there were many secret well-wishers, or at least pro
tectors, of Christians, as in the world at large, so
also in Sicca. There were many persons who had re
ceived benefits from their charity, and had experience
of the scandalous falsehood of the charges now circu
lated against them. Others would feel a generosity
towards a cruelly persecuted body ; others, utterly
dead to the subject of religion, or rather believing
all religions to be impostures, would not allow it to
be assumed that only one was worthy of bad treat
ment. Others liked what they heard of the religion
itself, and thought there was truth in it, though it
had no claim to a monopoly of truth. Others felt it
to be true, but shrank from the consequences of
openly embracing it. Others, who had apostatised
through fear of the executioner, intended to come
back to it at the last. It must be added that in
the African Church confessors in prison had, or were
considered to have, the remarkable privilege of gain
ing the public forgiveness of the Church for those who
had lapsed ; it was an object, then, for all those

z 2

3-14 Callista ;

who, being in that miserable case, wished some day
to be restored, to gain their promise of assistance, or
their good-will. To these reasons was added, in Cal-
lista s case, the interest which naturally attached to a
woman, young and defenceless.

The burning sun of Africa is at the height of its
power. The population is prostrated by heat, by
scarcity, by pestilence, and by the decimation which
their riot brought upon them. They care neither for
Christianity, nor for anything else just now. They
lie in the porticoes, in the caverns under the city, in
the baths. They are more alive at night. The appa
ritor, in whose dwelling Callista was lodged, who
was himself once a Christian, lies in the shade of the
great doorway, into which his rooms open, asleep, or
stupefied. Two men make their appearance about
two hours before sunset, and demand admittance to
Callista. The jailor asks if they are not the two
Greeks, her brother and the rhetorician, who had
visited her before. The junior of the strangers drops
a purse heavy with coin into his lap, and passes on
with his companion. When the mind is intent on
great subjects or aims, heat and cold, hunger and
thirst, lose their power of enfeebling it ; thus perhaps
we must account for the energy now displayed both
by the two ecclesiastics and by Callista herself.

She too thought it was the unwelcome philosopher
come again ; she gave a start and a cry of delight
when she saw it was Csecilius. " My father/ she said,
" I want to be a Christian, if I may ; He came to

A Tale of the Third Century. 345

save the lost sheep. I have learnt such things from
this book let me give it you while I can. I am not
long for this world. Give rne Him who spoke so
kindly to that woman. Take from me my load of
sin, and then I will gladly go." She knelt at his feet,
and gave the roll of parchment into his hand.

" Eise and sit," he answered. " Let us think calmly
over the matter."

" I am ready/ she insisted. " Deny me not my
wish, when time is so urgent if I may have it."

" Sit down calmly," he said again ; " I am not
refusing you, but I wish to know about you." He
could hardly keep from tears, of pain, or of joy, or of
both, when he saw the great change which trial had
wrought in her. What touched him most was the
utter disappearance of that majesty of mien, which once
was hers, a gift, so beautiful, so unsuitable to fallen
man. There was instead of it a frank humility, a
simplicity without concealment, an unresisting meek
ness, which seemed as if it would enable her, if
trampled on, to smile and to kiss the feet that
insulted her. She had lost every vestige of what the
world worships under the titles of proper pride and
self-respect. Callista was now living, not in the
thought of herself, but of Another.

" God has been very good to you," he continued ;
" but in the volume you have returned to me He bids
us c reckon the charges. Can you drink of His chalice ?
Recollect what is before you."

She still continued kneeling, with a touching earn-

346 Callista;

estness of face and demeanour, and with her hands
crossed upon her breast.

" I have reckoned/ she replied ; heaven and hell :
I prefer heaven."

" You are on earth/ said C ascilius ; " not in heaven
or hell. You must bear the pangs of earth before you
drink the blessedness of heaven."

" He has given me the firm purpose/ she said, " to
gain heaven, to escape hell ; and He will give me too
the power."

" Ah, Callista ! " he answered, in a voice broken with
distress, "you know not what you will have to bear,
if you join yourself to Him."

" He has done great things for me already ; I am
wonderfully changed; I am not what I was. He will
do more still."

" Alas, my child ! " said Cascilius, " that feeble frame,
ah ! how will it bear the strong iron, or the keen flame,
or the ruthless beast ? My child, what do J feel, who
am free, thus handing you over to be the sport of the
evil one ?

" Father, I have chosen Him," she answered, " not
hastilv, but on deliberation. I believe Him most ab-

f

solutely. Keep me not from Him ; give Him to me,
if I may ask it; give me my Love."

Presently she added, " I have never forgotten those
words of yours since you used them ; Amor meus
crucifixus est.

She began again, " I will be a Christian ; give me
my place among them. Give me my place at the

A Tale of the Third Century. 347

feet of Jesus, Son of Mary, my God. I wish to love
Him. I think I can love Him. Make me His."

" He has loved you from eternity/ said Caecilius,
" and, therefore, you are now beginning to love Him."

She covered her eyes with her hands, and remained
in profound meditation. "I am very ignorant very
sinful," she said at length ; " but one thing I know,
that there is but One to love in the whole world, and
I wish to love him. I surrender myself to Him, if
He will take me; and He shall teach me about Him
self."

The angry multitude, their fierce voices, the
brutal executioner, the prison, the torture, the slow,
painful death/ He was speaking, not to her, but to
himself. She was calm, in spite of her fervour ; but
he could not contain himself. His heart melted within
him ; he felt like Abraham, lifting up his hand to slay
his child.

" Time passes," she said ; " what may happen ? you
may be discovered. But, perhaps," she added, suddenly
changing her tone, " it is a matter of long initiation,
Woe is me ! "

" We must gird ourselves to the work, Victor," he
said to his deacon who was with him. Ctecilius fell
back and sat down, and Victor came forward. He
formally instructed her so far as the circumstances
allowed. Not for baptism only, but for confirmation,
and Holy Eucharist ; for Ctecilius determined to give
her all three sacraments at once.

It was a sight for angels to look down upon, and

348 Gallista ;

they did ; when the poor child, rich in this -world s
gifts, but poor in those of eternity, knelt down to
receive that sacred stream upon her brow, which fell
upon her with almost sensible sweetness, and sud
denly produced a serenity different in kind from any
thing she had ever before even had the power of con
ceiving.

The bishop gave her confirmation, and then the Holy
Eucharist. It was her first and last communion ; in a
few days she renewed it, or rather completed it, under
the very Face and Form of Him whom she now be
lieved without seeing,

" Farewell, my dearest of children/ 7 said Ceecilius,
" till the hour when we both meet before the throne
of God. A few sharp pangs which you can count and
measure, and all will be well. You will be carried
through joyously, and like a conqueror. I know it.
You could face the prospect before you were a Christian^
and you will be equal to the actual trial, now that you

are."

" Never fear me, father," she said in a clear, low
voice. The bishop and his deacon left the prison.

The sun had all but set, when Cascilius and Victor
passed the city gate; and it was more than twilight
as they crossed the wild hills leading to the precipi
tous pass. Evil men were not their only peril in this
work ot charity. They were also in danger from wild
beasts in these lone wastes, and, the heathen would
have added, from bad spirits. Bad spirits Csecilius

A Tale of the Third Century. 3-19

recognised too; but he would not have granted that
they were perilous. The two went forward, saying
prayers lowly, and singing psalms, when a sudden cry
was heard, and a strong tall form rushed past them.
It might be some robber of the wild, or dangerous
outcast, or savage fanatic, who knew and hated their
religion ; however, while they stopped and looked, he
had come, and he was gone. But he came again, more
slowly ; and from his remarkable shape Caecilius saw
that it was the brother of Agellius. He said, " Juba ;"
Juba started back, and stood at a distance. Csecilius
held out his hand, and called him on, again mentioning
his name. The poor fellow came nearer : Cascilius s
day s work was not at an end.

Since we last heard of him, Juba had dwelt in the
mountainous tract over which the two Christians were
now passing ; roaming to and fro, or beating himself
in idle fury against the adamantine rocks, and fighting
with the stern necessity of the elements. How he
was sustained can hardly be guessed, unless the
impulse, which led him on the first accession of his
fearful malady, to fly upon the beasts of the desert,
served him here also. Roots too and fruits were scat
tered over the wild ; and still more so in the ravines,
wherever any quantity of soil had been accumulated.
Alas ! had the daylight lasted, in him too, as well as
in Callista, Cascilius would have found changes, but
of a very different nature ; yet even in him he would
have seen a change for the better, for that old awful
expression of pride and defiance was gone. What

350 CaUista j

was the use of parading a self-will, which every
moment of his life belied ? His actions, his words, his
hands, his lips, his feet, his place of abode, his daily
course, were in the dominion of another, who inexor
ably ruled him. It was not the gentle influence which
draws and persuades ; it was not the power which can
be propitiated by prayer; it was a tyranny which
acted without reaction, energetic as mind, and im
penetrable as matter.

"Juba," said Csecilius a third time. The maniac
came nearer, and then again suddenly retreated. He
stood at a short distance from. Caacilius, as if afraid to
come on, and cried out, tossing his hands wildly,
" Away, black hypocrite, come not near me ! Away !
hound of a priest, cross not my path, lest I tear you
to shreds ! " Such visitations were no novelties to
Caecilius ; he raised his hand and made the sign of
the cross, then he said, " Come." Juba advanced,
shrieked, and used some terrible words, and rushed
upon Ca3cilius, as if he would treat him as he had
treated the savage wolf. " Come ? " he cried, " yes, I
come ! " and Victor ran up, fearing his teeth would be
in Cascilius s throat, if he delayed longer. The latter
stood his ground, quailing neither in eye nor in limb ;
he made the sign of the cross a second time ; and in
spite of a manifest antagonism within him, the
stricken youth, with horrid cries, came dancing after
him.

Thus they proceeded, with some signs of insurrec
tion from time to time on Juba s part, but with a

A Tale of the Third Century. 351

successful reduction of it as often on the part of
Csecilius, till they got to the ascent by the olive-trees,
where careful walking was necessary. Then Csecilius
turned round, and beckoned him. He came. He
said, " Kneel down." He knelt down, Cascilius put
his hand on his head, saying to him, " Follow me
close and without any disturbance." The three pur
sued their journey, and all arrived safe at the cavern.
There Cajcilius gave Juba in charge to Romanus,
who had been intrusted with the energumens at Car
thage.

3-52 Callista ;

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE IMPERIAL KESCRIPT.

HAD the imperial edict been acted on by the magis
trates of Sicca, without a reference to Carthage, it is
not easy to suppose that Callista would have per
severed in her refusal to commit the act of idolatry
required of her. But,, to speak of second causes, the
hesitation of her judges was her salvation. Once
baptised, there was no reason she should desire any
further delay of her conflict. Come it must, and come
it did. While Crecilius was placing her beyond
danger, the rescript of the Proconsul had been
received at the office of the Duumvirs.

The absence of the Proconsul from Carthage had
been the cause of the delay; and then, some investi
gation was needed to understand the relation of Cal-
lista s seizure to the riot on the one hand, and to the
strong act of the military on the other, in quelling it.
It was thought that something or other might come
to light to account for the anomalous and unaccount
able position which she had taken up. The imperial
government considered it had now a clear view of her
case, and its orders were distinct and peremptory.
Christianity was to cease to be. It was a subtle foe,

A Tale of the Third Century. 353

sapping the vitals of the state. Rome must perish,
or this illegal association. Such evasions as Callista
had used were but instances of its craft. Its treason
lay, not in its being Christianity, but in its not sacri_
ficing to the gods of Rome. Callista was but throw
ing dust in their eyes. There had been no blow
struck against the treason in inland Africa. Women
had often been the most dangerous of conspirators.
As she was a stranger, there was more probability of
her connection with secret societies, and also less
inconvenience in her execution. Whatever happened,
she was to be got rid of; but first her resolution was
to be broken, for the sake of the example. First, let
her be brought before the tribunal and threatened :
then thrust into the Tulliauum ; then put upon the
rack, and returned to prison ; then scorched over a
slow fire ; last of all, beheaded, and left for beasts of
prey. She would sacrifice ere the last stage was
reached. When she had given way, let her be given
up to the gladiators. The message ended by saying
that the Proconsular Procurator, who came by the
same carriages, would preside at the process.

wisdom of the world ! and strength of the world !
what are you when matched beside the foolishness and
the weakness of the Christian ? You are great in re
sources, manifold in methods, hopeful in prospects;
but one thing you have not, and that is peace. You
are always tumultuous, restless, apprehensive. You
have nothing you can rely upon. You have no rock
under your feet. But the humblest, feeblest Christian

354 Callista ;

has that which is impossible to you. Callista had
once felt the misery of maladies akin to yours. She
had passed through doubt, anxiety, perplexity, de
spondency, passion ; but now she was in peace. Now
she feared the torture or the flame as little as the
breeze which arose at nightfall, or the busy chatter of
the grasshoppers at the noonday. Nay, rather, she
did not think of torture and death at all, but was
possessed by a peace which bore her up, as if bodily,
on its mighty wings. For hours she remained on her
knees, after Cteeilius left her : then she lay down on
her rushes and slept her last sleep.

She slept sound ; she dreamed. She thought she
was no longer in Africa, but in her own Greece, more
sunny and bright than before ; but the inhabitants
were gone. Its majestic mountains, its rich plains, its
expanse of waters, all silent : no one to converse with,
no one to sympathize with. And, as she wandered
on and wondered, suddenly its face changed, and its
colours were illuminated tenfold by a heavenly glory,
and each hue upon the scene was of a beauty she had
never known, and seemed strangely to affect all her
senses at once, being fragrance and music, as well as
light. And there came out of the grottoes and glens
and woods, and out of the seas, myriads of bright
images, whose forms she could not discern ; and these
came all around her, and became a sort of scene or
landscape, which she could not have described in
words, as if it were a world of spirits, not of matter.
And as she gazed, she thought she saw before her a

A Tale of the Third Century. 355

well-known face, only glorified. She, who had been
a slave, now was arrayed more brilliantly than an
oriental queen ; and she looked at Callista with a
smile so sweet, that Callista felt she could but dance
to it.

And as she looked more earnestly, doubting
whether she should begin or not, the face changed,
and now was more marvellous still. It had an inno
cence in its look, and also a tenderness, which bespoke
both Maid and Mother, and so transported Callista,
that she must needs advance towards her, out of love
and reverence. And the lady seemed to make signs
of encouragement : so she began a solemn measure,
unlike all dances of earth, with hands and feet,
serenely moving on towards what she heard some of
them call a great action and a glorious consumma
tion, though she did not know what they meant.
At length she was fain to sing as well as dance ; and
her words were, " In the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ;" on which another
said, "A good beginning of the sacrifice." And
when she had come close to this gracious figure, there
was a fresh change. The face, the features were the
same ; but the light of Divinity now seemed to beam
through them, and the hair parted, and hung down
long on each side of the forehead ; and there was a
crown of another fashion than the Lady s round about
it, made of what looked like thorns. And the palms
of the hands were spread out as if towards her, and
there were marks of wounds in them. And the

356 Callista ;

vestment had fallen, and there was a deep opening
in the side. And as she stood entranced before Him,
and motionless, she felt a consciousness that her own
palms were pierced like His, and her feet also. And
she looked round, and saw the likeness of His face
and of His wounds upon all that company. And
now they were suddenly moving on, and bearing
something or some one, heavenwards ; and they too
began to sing, and their words seemed to be,
" Kejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep/
ever repeated. They went up through an avenue or
long grotto, with torches of diamonds, and amethysts,
and sapphires, which lit up its spars and made them
sparkle. And she tried to look, but could not dis
cover what they were carrying, till she heard a very
piercing cry, which awoke her.

A Tale of the Third Century. 357

CHAPTER XXXIII.

A GOOD CONFESSION.

THE cry came from the keeper s wife, whom we have
described as kindly disposed to her. She was a
Lybo-Phcenician, and spoke a broken Latin ; but the
language of sympathy is universal, in spite of Babel.
e< Callista," she exclaimed ; " girl, they have sent for
you ; you are to die. frightful ! worse than a run
away slave, the torture ! Give in. What s the
harm ? you are so young : those terrible men with
the pincers and hot bars !

Callista sat up, and passed from her vision to her
prison. She smiled and said, " I am ready ; I am
going home." The woman looked almost frightened,
and with some shade of disgust and disappointment.
She, as others, might have thought it impossible, as it
was unaccountable, that when it came to the point
Callista would hold out. " She s crazed," she said.
" I am ready, mother/ Callista said, and she got up.
" You have been very good to me," she continued ;
I have been saying many prayers for you, while my
prayers were of no good, for then He was not mine-
But now I have espoused Him, and am going to be
married to-day, and He will hear me." The woman

A a

358 Callista ;

stared at her stupidly, as much as to make it evident
that if afterwards a change took place in her. as in
Callista, that change too, though in so different a soul,
must come of something beyond nature. She had
something in her hand, and said, " It s useless to give
a mad woman like her the packet, which my man has
brought me."

Callista took the packet, which was directed to her,
and broke the seal. It was from her brother. The
little roll of worn parchment opened ; a dagger fell
out. Some lines were written on the parchment ;
they were dated Carthage, and ran as follows :

Aristo to his dearest Callista. I write through
Cornelius. Tou have not had it in your power to kill
me, but jou have taken away half my life. For me,
I will cherish the other half, for I love life better than
death. But you love annihilation ; yet, if so, die not
like a slave. Die nobly, mindful of your country ; I
send you the means."

Callista was beyond reflecting on anything around
her, except as in a sort of dream. As common men
think and speak of heaven, so she now thought and
spoke of earth. " I wish Him to kill me, not myself,"
she said. " I am His victim. My brother ! I have
no brother, except One, who is calling me. J

She was carried to court, and the examination fol
lowed. We have already given a specimen of such a
process ; here it will be sufficient to make use of two
documents, different in kind, as far as they go, which
have come down to us. The first is an alto-relief,

A Tale of the Third Century . 359

which once was coloured, not first-rate in art or exe
cution, and of the date of the Emperor Constantius,
about a century later. It was lately discovered in the
course of excavations made at El Kaf, the modern
Sicca, on the ruins of a church or Roman basilica, for
the building in question seems to have served each
purpose successively. In this sculpture the praetorium
is represented, and the tribunal of the president in it.
The tribunal is a high throne, with wings curving
round on each side, making the whole construction
extend to almost a semicircle, and it is ascended by
steps between the wings. The curule chair is at the
top of the steps ; and in the middle and above it are
purple curtains, reaching down to the platform, drawn
back on each side, and when drawn close together
running behind the chair, and constituting what was
called the secretarium. On one side of the tribunal is
a table covered with carpeting, and looking something
like a modern ottoman, only higher, and not level at
top ; and it has upon it the Book of Mandates, the
sign of jurisdiction. The sword too is represented in
the sculpture, to show a criminal case is proceeding.
The procurator is seated on the chair ; he is in purple,
and has a gold chain of triple thread. We can also
distinguish his lawyers, whether assessors or consi-
liarii also his lictors and soldiers. There, too, are
the notaries in a line below him ; they are writing
down the judge s questions and the prisoner s answers :
and one of them is turning round to her, as if to
make her speak more loudly. She herself is mounted

A a 2

360 Callista j

upon a sort of platform, called catasta, like that en
which slaves were put up for sale. Two soldiers are by
her, who appear to have been dragging her forwards.
The executioners are also delineated, naked to the
waist, with instruments of torture in their hands.

The second document is a fragment of the Acta
Proconsularia of her Passion. If, indeed, it could be
trusted to the letter, as containing Callista s answers
word for word, it would have a distinctly sacred cha
racter, in consequence of our Lord s words, " It shall
be given you in that hour what to speak." However,
we attach no such special value to this document,
since it comes to us through heathen notaries, who
may not have been accurate reporters ; not to say
that before we did so we ought to look very carefully
into its genuineness. As it is, we believe it to be as
true as any part of our narrative, and not truer. It

runs as follows :

/

" Cneius Messius Decius Augustus II., and Gratus,
Consuls, on the seventh before the Calends of August,
in Sicca Veneria, a colony, in the Secretary at the
Tribunal, Martianus, procurator, sitting ; Callista, a
maker of images, was brought up by the Commenta-
riensis on a charge of Christianity, and- when she was
placed,

" MABTIANUS, the procurator, said : This folly has
been too long ; you have made images, and now you
will not worship them.

A Tale of the Third Century. 361

" CALLISTA answered : For I have found my true
Love, whom before I knew not.

" MARTIANUS, the procurator, said : Your true love is,
I ween, your last love ; for all were true in their
time.

" CALLISTA. said . I worship my true Love, who is the
Only True ; and He is the Son of God, and I know
none but Him.

" MARTIANUS, the procurator, said : You will not
worship the gods, but you are willing to love their
sons.

" CALLISTA said -. He is the true Son of the True God j
and I am His, and He is mine.

" MABTIANUS, the procurator, said : Let alone your
loves, and. swear by the genius of the emperor.

" CALLISTA said : I have but one Lord, the King of
kings, the Ruler of all.

" MAETIANTJS, the procurator, turned to the lictor
and said : This folly is madness ; take her hand, put
incense in it, and hold it over the flame.

" CALLISTA said : You may compel me by your
great strength, but my own true Lord and. Love is
stronger.

" MARTIAL us, the procurator, said : You are be
witched ; but we must undo the spell. Take her to
the Lignum (the prison for criminals).

" CALLISTA said : He has been there before me, and
He will come to me there.

" MARTIANS s, the procurator, said: The jailer will
see to that. Let her be brought up to-morrow.

362 Callista ;

" On the day following, Martianus, the procurator,
sitting at the tribunal, called up Callista. He said :
Honour our lord, and sacrifice to the gods.

"CALLISTA said: Let me alone; I am content with
my One and only Lord.

" MAETIANUS, the procurator, said : What ? did he
come to you in prison, as you hoped ?

" CALLISTA said : He came to me amid much pain ;
and the pain was pleasant, for He came in it.

" MAETIAKUS, the procurator, said : You have got
worn and yellow, and he will leave you.

" CALLISTA said : He loves me the more, for I am
beautiful when I am black.

" MAETIANUS, the procurator, said : Throw her into
the Tullianum ; perhaps she will find her god there
also.

" Then the procurator entered into the Secretary, and
drew the veil; and dictated the sentence for the
tabella. Then he came out, and the prasco read it :
Callista, a senseless and reprobate woman, is hereby
sentenced to be thrown into the Tullianum ; then to
be stretched on the equuleus ; then to be placed on a
slow fire; lastly, to be beheaded, and left to the dogs
and birds.

" CALLISTA said : Thanks to my Lord and King."

Here the Acta end : and though they seem to want
their conclusion, yet they supply nearly every thing
which is necessary for our purpose. The one subject
on which a comment is needed, is the state prison,

A Tale of the Third Century. 363

which, though so little is said of it in the above Re
port, is in fact the real medium, as we may call it, for
appreciating its information ; a few words will suffice
for our purpose.

The state prison, then, was arranged on pretty
much one and the same plan through the Roman
empire, nay, we may say, throughout the ancient
world. It was commonly attached to the government
buildings, and consisted of two parts. The first was
the vestibule, or outward prison, which was a hall,
approached from the prsetorium, and surrounded by
cells, opening into it. The prisoners, who were con
fined in these cells, had the benefit of the air and
light, which the hall admitted. Such was the place
of confinement allotted to St. Paul at Caesarea, which
is said to be the "prastorium of Herod." And hence,
perhaps, it is that, in the touching Passion of St.
Perpetua and St. Felicitas, St. Perpetua tells us that,
when permitted to have her child, though she was in
the inner portion, which will next be described, " sud
denly the prison seemed to her like the preetorium."

From this vestibule there was a passage into the
interior prison, called Robur or Lignum,, from the
beams of wood, which were the instruments of con
finement, or from the character of its floor. It had
no window or outlet, except this door, which, when
closed, absolutely shut out light and air. Air, indeed,
and coolness might be obtained for it by the barathrum,
presently to be spoken of, but of what nature we shall
then see. The apartment, called Lignum, was the

-U34 Callista;

place into which St. Paul and St. Silas were cast at
Philippi, before it was known that they were Romans.
After scourging them severely, the magistrates, who
nevertheless were but the local authorities, and had
no proper jurisdiction in criminal cases, "put them in
prison, bidding the jailer to keep them carefully ;
who, on receiving such a command, put them in the
inner prison, and fastened them in the lignum/ And
in the Acts of the Scillitane Martyrs we read of the
Proconsul giving sentence, " Let them be thrown into
prison, let them be put into the Lignum, till to-inorrow."
The utter darkness, the heat, and the stench of
this miserable place, in which the inma-tes were con
fined day and night, is often dwelt upon by the
martyrs and their biographers. "After a few days,"
says St. Perpetua, " we were taken to the prison, and
I was frightened, for I never had known such
darkness. bitter day ! the heat was excessive by
reason of the crowd there." In the Acts of St.
Pionius, and others of Smyrna, we read that the
jailers "shut them up in the inner part of the prison,
so that, bereaved of all comfort and light, they were
forced to sustain extreme torment, from the darkness
and stench of the prison." And, in like manner,
other martyrs of Africa, about the time of St.
Cyprian s martyrdom, that is, eight or ten years later
than the date of this story, say, " We were not fright
ened at the foul darkness of that place; for soon
that murky prison was radiant with the brightness of
the Spirit. What days, what nights we passed there

A Tale of the Third Century. 365

no words can describe. The torments of that prison no
statement can equal."

Yet there was a place of confinement even worse
than this. In the floor of this inner prison was a sort
of trap- door, or hole, opening into the barathrum, or
pit, and called, from the original prison at Rome, the
Tullianum. Sometimes prisoners were confined here,
sometimes despatched by being cast headlong into it
through the opening. It was into this pit at Rome
that St. Chrysanthus was cast ; and there, and pro
bably in other cities, it was nothing short of the public
cesspool.

It may be noticed that the Prophet Jeremiah seems
to have had personal acquaintance with Vestibule,
Robur, and Barathrum. We read in one place of his
being shut up in the " atrium," that is, the vestibule,
" of the prison, which was in the house of the king."
At another time he is in the " ergastulum," which
would seem to be the inner prison. Lastly his ene
mies let him down by ropes into the lacus or pit, in
which " there was no water, but mud."

As to Callista, then, after the first day s examina
tion, she was thrown for nearly twenty-four hours
into the stifling Robur, or inner prison. After the
sentence, on the second day, she was let down, as the
commencement of her punishment, that is, of her
martyrdom, into the loathsome Barathrum, lacus,
or pit, called Tullianum, there to lie for another twenty
hours before she was brought out to the equuleus
or rack.

366 Callista;

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE MARTYRDOM.

CALLISTA had sighed for the bright and clear
atmosphere of Greece, and she was thrown into the
Robur and plunged into the Barathrum of Sicca.
But in reality, though she called it Greece, she was
panting after a better country and a more lasting
home, and this country and home she had found. She
was now setting out for it.

It was, indeed, no slight marvel that she was not
already there. She had been lowered into that pit of
death before noon on the day of her second examina
tion, and, excepting some unwholesome bread and
water, according to the custom of the prison, had had
no food since she came into the custody of the com-
mentariensis the day before. The order came from
the magistrates to bring her out earlier in the morning
than was intended, or the prison might have really
effected that death which Calphurnius had purposed
to pretend. When the apparitors attempted to raise
her, she neither spoke or moved, nor could well be
seen. " Black as Orcus," said one of the fellows,
"another torch there ! I can t see where she nestles."
" There she is, like a bundle of clothes," said another.
" Madam gets up late this morning," said a third.

A Tale of the Third Century. 367

" She s used to softer couches/ said a fourth. " Ha !
ha ! tis a spoiler of beauty, this hole," said a fifth.
" She is the demon of stubbornness, and must be
crushed/ said the jailer ; " she likes it, or she would
not choose it." "The plague take the witch/ said
another ; el we shall have better seasons when a few
like her are ferreted out."

They got her out like a corpse, and put her on the
ground outside the prison. When she still did not
move, two of them took her between them on their
shoulders and arms, and began to move forward, the
instrument of torture preceding her. The fresh air
of the morning revived her; she soon sat up. She
seemed to drink in life again, and became conscious.
" beautiful Light ! " she whispered, " lovely Light,
my light and my life ! my Light and my Life,
receive me ! Gradually she became fully alive to all
that was going on. She was going to death, and that
rather than deny Him who had bought her by His
own death. He had suffered for her, and she was to
suffer for Him. He had been racked on the Cross,
she too was to have her limbs dislocated after His
pattern. She scarcely rested on the men s shoulders ;
and they vowed afterwards that they thought she was
going to fly away, vile witch as she was.

" The witch, the witch/ the mob screamed out, for
she had now come to the place of her conflict.
" We ll pay you off for blight and pestilence!
Where s our bread, where s the maize and barley,
where are the grapes ? " And they uttered fierce

368 Callista ;

yells of execration, and seemed disposed to break
through the line of apparitors, and to tear her to
pieces. Yet, after all, it was not a very hearty-
uproar, but got up for the occasion. The populace
had spent their force, not to say their lives, in the riot
in which she was apprehended. The priests and
priestesses of the temples had sent the poor wretches
and paid them.

The place of execution was on the north-east of the
city, outside the walls, and towards the mountain. It
was where slaves were buried, and it was as hideous
as such spots usually were. The neighbourhood was
wild, open to the beasts of prey, who at night used to
descend and feast upon the corpses. As Callista ap
proached to the scene of her suffering, the expression
of her countenance had so altered that a friend would
scarce have known it. There was a tenderness in it
and a modesty which never had been there in that old
time. Her cheek had upon it a blu^h, as when the
rising sun suddenly touches some grey rock or tower ;
yet it was white and glistening too, so much so that
others might have said it was like silver. Her eyes
were larger than they had been, and gazed steadfastly,
as if at what the multitude did not see. Her lips
spoke of sweet peace and deep composure. When
at length she came close upon the rabble, who had
been screaming and yelling so fiercely, men, women,
and boys suddenly held their peace. It was first from
curiosity, then from amazement, then from awe. At
length a fear smote through them, and a strange pity

A Tale of the Third Century. 369

and reverence. They almost seemed inclined to
worship what stirred them so much, they knew not
how ; a new idea had visited those poor ignorant
souls.

A few minutes sufficed to put the rack into work
ing order. She was laid down upon its board in her
poor bedimmed tunic, which once flashed so bright
in the sun, she who had been ever so delicate in
her apparel. Her wrists and ankles were seized,
extended, fastened to the moveable blocks at the
extremities of the plank. She spoke her last word,
" For Thee, my Lord and Love, for Thee ! . . .
Accept me, my Love, upon this bed of pain !
And come to me, my Love, make haste and
come!" The men turned round the wheels rapidly
to and fro ; the joints were drawn out of their sockets,
and then snapped in again. She had fainted. They
waited for her coming-to ; they still waited ; they got
impatient.

" Dash some water on her," said one. " Spit in her
face, and it will do," said a second. " Prick her with
your spike/ said a third. " Hold your wild talk,"
said a fourth ; " she s gone to the shades." They
gathered round, and looked at her attentively. They
could not bring her back. So it was : she had gone
to her Lord and her Love.

" Lay her out for the wolves and vultures," said the
cornicularius, and he was going to appoint guards till
nightfall, when up came the stationarii and Calphur-
nius in high wrath.

370 Callista;

" You dogs ! " he cried, " what trick have you been
practising against the soldiers of Eome ? ;; However,
expostulation and reproach were bootless ; nor would
it answer here to go into the quarrel which ensued
over the dead body. The magistrates,, having got
scent of Calphurnius s scheme, had outwitted the
tribune by assigning an earlier hour than was usual
for the execution. Life could not be recalled ; nor
did the soldiers of course dare publicly to disobey the
Proconsul s order for the exposure of the corpse. All
that could be done, they did. They took her down
with rude reverence from the rack, and placed her on
the sand; and then they set guards to keep off the
rabble, and to avail themselves of any opportunity
which might occur to show consideration towards her.

A Tale of the Third Century. 37 L

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE CORPO SANTO.

THE sun of Africa has passed over the heavens, but
has not dared with one of his fierce rays to profane
the sacred relics which lie out before him. The mists
of evening rise up, and the heavy dews fall, but they
neither bring the poison of decay to that gracious
body, nor receive it thence. The beasts of the wild
are roaming and roaring at a distance, or nigh at
hand : not any one of them presumes to touch her.
No vultures may promise themselves a morning meal
from such a victim, as they watch through the night
upon the high crags which overlook her. The stars
have come out on high, and, they too look down
upon Callista, as if they were funeral lights in her
honour. Next the moon rises up to see what has
been going on, and edges the black hangings of the
night with silver. Yet mourning and dirge are bat
of formal observance, when a brave champion has
died for her God. The world of ghosts has as little
power over such an one as the world of nature. No
evil spirit has aught to say to her, who has gone in
her baptismal white before the Throne. No penal

372 Callista ;

fire shall be her robe, who has been carried in her
bright flammeum to the Bridal Chamber of the Lamb.
A divine odour fills the air, issuing from that sense
less, motionless, broken frame. A circle of light
gleams round her brow, and, even when the daylight
comes again, it there is faintly seen. Her features
have reassucaed their former majesty, but with an
expression of childlike innocence and heavenly peace.
The thongs have drawn blood at the wrists and
ankles, which has run and soaked into the sand ; but
angels received the body from the soldiers when they
took it off the rack, and it lies, sweetly and modestly
composed, upon the ground.

Passers-by stand still and gaze ; idlers gather round.
The report spreads in Sicca that neither sun by day,
nor moon by night, nor moist atmosphere, nor beast
of prey, has power over the wonderful corpse. Nay,
that they cannot come near it without falling under
some strange influence, which makes them calm and
grave, expels bad passions, and allays commotion of
mind. Many come again and again, for the mysteri
ous and soothing effect she exerts upon them. They
cannot talk freely about it to each other, and are
seized with a sacred fear when they attempt to do so.
Those who have merely heard their report without
seeing her, say that these men have been in a grove
of the Eumenides, or have suddenly encountered the
wolf. The popular sensation continues and extends ;
some say it is magical, others that it is from the
great gods. Day sinks again into evening, evenincr

A Tale of the Third Century. 373

becomes night ; the night wears out, and morning is
coming again.

- It begins to dawn : a glimmer is faintly spread
abroad, and, mixing with the dark, makes twilight,
which gradually brightens, and the outlines of nature
rise . dimly out of the night. Gradually the sacred
body comes to sight ; and, as the light grows stronger
around it, gradually too the forms of five men emerge,
who had not been there the night before. One is in
front ; the rest behind with a sort of bier or litter.
They stand on the mountain side of her, and must
have come from the country. It has been a bold
enterprise theirs, to expose themselves to the nightly
beasts, and now again to the rabble and the soldiers.
The soldiers are at some little distance, silent and
watchful; such of the rabble as have passed the night
there have had some superstitious object in their stay.
They have thought to get portions of the flesh for
magical purposes ; a finger, or a tooth, or some hair,
or a portion of her tunic, or the blood-stained rope
which was twisted round her wrist and ankle.

As the light makes her at length quite visible to
the youth on the other side; who stands by himself
with clasped hands and tearful eyes, he shrinks from
the sight. He turns round to his companions who are
provided with a large winding-sheet or pall, and with
the help of one of them, to the surprise of the popu
lace, he spreads it all over the body. And having
done this, he stands again trembling, just for a few
seconds, absorbed in his meditations, praying and

B b

374 Callista

weeping, and nerving himself for what is to follow.
Ah, poor Agellius ! you have not risen yet to the
pitch of triumph ; and other thoughts must be let to
range through your breast, other emotions must spend
themselves, before you are prepared simply to rejoice,
exult, and glory in the lifeless form which lies before
you. You are upon a brave work, but your heart is
, torn while you set hand to it, and you linger before
you begin.

It was in the pride of her earthly beauty, and the
full vigour and elevation of her mind, that he last had
seen her. It seemed an age since that morning, as if
a chasm ran between the now and the then, when she
so fascinated him with her presence, and so majesti
cally rebuked him. for bowing to that fascination. Yet
on his memory every incident of that interview was
fixed, and was indelible. O why should the great
Creator shatter one of His most admirable works ! If
the order of the sun and stars is adorable, if the laws
by which earth and sea are kept together mark the
Hand of supreme Wisdom and Power, how much
nobler perfection of beauty is manifested in man ! And
of human nature itself here was the supereminent
crown, a soul full of gifts, full of greatness, full of
intellect, placed in an outward form, equally sur
passing in its kind, and still more surpassingly
excellent from its intimate union and subordination
to the soul, so as almost to be its simple expression ;
yet this choicest, rarest specimen of Almighty skill,
the Almighty had pitilessly shattered, in order that it

A Tale of the Third Century. 375

might inherit a higher, an eternal perfection.
mystery of mysteries, that heaven should not be
possibly obtained without such grinding down and
breaking up of our original nature ! mysterious,
that principle in us, whatever it is, and however it
came there, which is so antagonistic to God, which
has so spoilt what seems so good, that all must bfe
undone, and must begin anew ! " An enemy hath
done this ;" and, knowing as much as this, and no
more, we must leave the awful mystery to that day
when all things shall be made light.

Ag ellius has not been idle while these thoughts
pass through his mind. He has stooped down and
scooped up such portions of the sand as are moist
ened with her blood, and has committed them to a
small bag which he has taken out of his bosom.
Then without delay, looking round to his attendants,
and signing to them, with two of the party he reso
lutely crossed over to the other side of the corpse,
covering it from attack, while his two assistants who
were left proceeded quickly to lay hold of it. They
had raised it, laid it on the bier, and were setting off
by an unusual track across the waste, while Agellius,
Aspar, and the third were grappling with some
ruffians who had rushed upon them. Few, however,
were there as yet to take part against them, but their
cries of alarm were bringing others up, and the Chris
tians were in growing danger of being worsted and
carried off,- when suddenly the soldiers interfered.
Under pretence of keeping the peace, they laid about

B b 2

070 Callista ;

them with their heavy maces; and so it was, the blows
took effect on the heads and shoulders of the rabble,
with but slight injury to Agellius and his companions.
The latter took instant advantage of the diversion,
and vanished out of view by the same misleading
track which their comrades had already chosen. If
they, or the party who had preceded them, came
within the range of sight of any goatherds upon the
mountains, we must suppose that angels held those
heathen eyes that they should not recognise them.

A Tale of the Third Century. 377

CHAPTER XXX7L

LUX PERPETUA SANCTIS TUIS, DOMINE.

THE bier and its bearers, and its protectors, have
reached the cave in safety, and pace down the gallery,
preceded by its Christian hosts, with lighted tapers,
singing psalms. They place the sacred body before
the altar, and the mass begins. St. Cyprian cele
brates, and after the Gospel, he adds a few words of
his own.

He said that they were engaged in praising, bless
ing, and exalting the adorable Grace of God, which
had snatched so marvellously a brand out of the fur
nace. Benedicamus Patrem et Filium cum Sancto
Spiritu. Benedictus, et laudabilis, et gloriosus, et
superexaltatus in sa3cula. Every day doing marvels
and exceeding all that seemed possible in power and
love, by new and still newer manifestations. A Greek
had come to Africa to embellish the shrines of
heathenism, to minister to the usurpation of the evil
one, and to strengthen the old ties which connected
genius with sin ; and she had suddenly found salva
tion. But yesterday a poor child of earth, and to
day an inhabitant of the heavens. But yesterday
without God and without hope ; and to-day a martyr

378 Callista;

with a green palrn and golden vestment, worshipping
before the Throne. But yesterday the slave of Satan,
and spending herself on the vanities of time ; and to
day drinking of the never-cloying torrents of bliss
everlasting. But yesterday one of a number, a grain
of a vast heap, destined indiscriminately for the
flame; to-day one of the elect souls, written from
eternity in the book of life, and predestined to glory.
But yesterday, hungry and thirsty, and restless for
some object worthy an immortal spirit ; to-day en
joying the ineffable ecstasy of the Marriage Feast
and the espousals of Emmanuel. Bat yesterday
tossed about on a sea of opinion ; and to-day
entranced in the vision of infallible truth and immut
able sanctity. And yet what was she but only one
instance out of ten thousand, of the Almighty and
All-manifold Grace of the Redeemer ? And who
was there of all of them, there assembled, from the
most heroic down to the humblest beginner, from the
authoritative preacher down to the slave or peasant,
but was equally, though in his own way, a miracle of
mercy, and a vessel, once of wrath, if now of glory ?
Only might he and all who heard ~him persevere as
they had begun, so that if (as was so probable) their
trial was to be like hers, its issue might be like hers
also.

St. Cyprian ceased ; and, while the deacon opened
the sindon for the offertory, the faithful took up alter
nately the verses of a hymn, which we here insert in
a most unworthy translation :

A Tale of the Third Century. 379

" The number of Thine own complete,

Sum up and make an end ;
Sift clean the chaff, and house the wheat,
And then, Lord, descend.

" Descend, and solve by that descent,

This mystery of life ;
Where good and ill, together blent,
Wage an undying strife.

" For rivers twain are gushing still,

And pour a mingled flood ;
Good in the very depths of ill
111 in the heart of good.

" The last are first, the first are last,

As angel eyes behold ;
These from the sheepcote sternly cast,
Those welcomed to the fold.

" No Christian home, no pastor s eye,

No preacher s vocal zeal,
Moved Thy dear martyr to defy
The prison and the wheel.

" Forth from the heathen ranks she stepped,

The forfeit throne to claim
Of Christian souls who had not kept
Their birthright and their name.

Grace formed her out of sinful dust ;

She knelt a soul defiled ;
She rose in all the faith and trust
And sweetness of a child.

" And in the freshness of that love
She preached by word and deed,
The mysteries of the world above
Her new-found glorious creed.

" And running, in a little hour,
Of life the course complete,
She reached the throne of endless power,
And sits at Jesu s feet.

380 Callista ;

" Her spirit there, her body here,
Make one the earth and sky ;
TVe use her name, we touch her bier,
We know her God is nigh.

The last sentiment of the yet unfinished hymn was
receiving an answer while they sang it. Juba had
been brought into the chapel in the hands of his
brother and the exorcists. Since he had been under
their care, he had been, on the whole, calm and man
ageable, with intervals of wild tempest and mad terror.
He spoke, at times, of an awful incubus weighing on
his chest, which he could not throw off, and said he
hoped that they would not think all the blasphemies
he uttered were his own. On this occasion, he strug
gled most violently, and shook with distress ; and, as
they brought him towards the sacred relics, a thick,
cold dew stood upon his brow, and his features shrank
and collapsed. He held back, and exerted himself
with all his might to escape, foaming at the mouth,
and from time to time uttering loud shrieks and hor
rible words, which disturbed, though they could not
interrupt, the hymn. His bearers persevered ; they
brought him close to Callista, and made him touch
her feet with his hands. Immediately he screamed
fearfully, and was sent up into the air with such force
that he seemed discharged from some engine of war :
then he fell back upon the earth apparently lifeless.

The long prayer was ended; the Sursum corda was
uttered. Juba raised himself from the ground. When
the words of consecration had been said, he adored
with the faithful. After the mass, his attendants

A Tale of the Third Century. 381

came to him ; he was quite changed ; he was quiet,
harmless, and silent; the evil spirit had gone out;
but he was an idiot.

This wonderful deliverance was but the beginning
of the miracles which followed the martyrdom of St.
Callista. It may be said to have been the resurrection
of the. Church at Sicca. In not many months Decius
was killed, and the persecution ceased there. Castus
was appointed bishop, and numbers began to pour
into the fold. The lapsed asked for peace, or at least
such blessings as they could have. Heathens sought
to be received. When asked for their reason, they
could only say that Callista s history and death had
affected them with constraining force, and that they
could not help following her steps. Increasing in
boldness, as well as numbers, the Christians cowed
both magistrates and mob. The spirit of the populace
had been already broken ; and the continual change
of masters, and measures with them, in the imperial
government, inflicted a chronic timidity on the magis
tracy. A handsome church was soon built, to which
Callista s body was brought, and which remained till
the time of the Diocletian persecution.

Juba attached himself to this church ; and, though
he could not be taught even to sweep the sacred
pavement, still he never was troublesome or mis
chievous. He continued in this state for about ten
years. At the end of that time, one morning, after
mass, which he always attended in the church porch,
he suddenly went to the bishflp, and asked for

382 Callista ; A Tale of the Third Century.

baptism. He said that Callista had appeared to him,
and had restored to him his mind. On conversing
with him, the holy Castus found that his recovery
was beyond all doubt : and not knowing how long
his lucid state would last, he had no hesitation, with
such instruction as the time admitted, in administering
the sacred rite, as Juba wished. After receiving it,
lie proceeded to the tomb, within which lay St. Callista,
and remained on his knees before his benefactress till
nightfall. JSTot even then was he disposed to rise ;
and so he was left there for the night. Next morning
he was found still in the attitude of prayer, but lifeless.
He had been taken away in his baptismal robe.

As to Agellius, if he be the bishop of that name
who suffered at Sicca in his old age, in the persecution
of Diocletian, we are possessed in this circumstance
of a most interesting fact to terminate his history
withal. What makes this more likely is, that this
bishop is recorded to have removed the body of
St. Callista from its original position, and placed it
under the high altar, at which he said mass daily.
After his own martyrdom, St. Agellius was placed
under the high altar also.

THE END.

GILBEBT AND BIVIMGTOH, LD., ST. JOHN S HOrSE, CLEKKEJTWELL ED., LOSDO> .

CARDINAL NEWMAN S WORKS.

YOLS. I. SERMONS.

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10. UNIVERSITY SERMONS. 5s. (Rivingtons.)

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2. TREATISES.

13. ON THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION. 5*. ( Rivingtons. )

14. ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 6*. (Long

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15. ON THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY. 7s. (Longmans.)

16. AN ESSAY IN AID OF A GRAMMAR OF ASSENT. 7s. 6d. (Longmans.)

3. ESSAYS.

17. Two ESSAYS ON MIRACLES. 1. Of Scripture. 2. Of Eccle

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18. DISCUSSIONS AND ARGUMENTS. 1. How to accomplish it.

2. The Antichrist of the Fathers. 3. Scripture and the
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19, 20. ESSAYS CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL. 1. Poetry. 2. Rational
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of the Anglican Church. 8. The Anglo-American Church.
9. Countess of Huntingdon. 10. Catholicity of the
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Milman s Christianity. 13. Reformation of the Eleventh
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Keble. 2 vols. 12s. (Longmans.)

[Contimied.

CAUDIXAL NEWMAN S WORKS Continued.

VOLS . 4. HISTOEICAL.

2123. HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 1. The Turks. 2. Cicero. 3.
Apollonius. 4. Primitive Christianity. 5. Church of
the Fathers. 6. St. Chrysostom. 7. Theodoret. 8. St.
Benedict. 9. Benedictine Schools. 10. Universities.
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5. THEOLOGICAL.

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2C , 26. ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF ATHANASIUS. 2 vols. 7s. 6d.

each. (Longnii

27. TRACTS. 1. Dissertatiunculse. 2. On the Text of the
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6. POLEMICAL.

23, 29. THE YIA MEDIA or THE ANGLICAN CHURCH. Vol. I.
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20, 31. CERTAIN DIFFICULTIES FELT BY ANGLICANS IN CATHOLIC
TEACHING CONSIDERED. 2 vols. Vol. I. Twelve Lec
tures. 7s. 6d. Vol. II. Letters to Dr. Pusey concerning
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32. PRESENT POSITION OF CATHOLICS is ENGLAND. Is. (Burns

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7. LITERARY.

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T It is scarcely necessary to say that the Author submits all that
he has written to the judgment of the Church, whose gift and
prerogative it is to determine what is true and what is false ia
religious teaching.