of the military, and the
hilarious derision of the public, they cast away the shivered blades and
resorted to the weapons of Nature. They kicked, they cuffed, they
scratched, they tore the garments from each other's shoulders, they foamed
and rolled gasping in the yellow sand of the arena. At a signal from the
Emperor the portal of the amphitheatre was thrown open, and the whole mass
of clawing and cuffing philosophy was bundled ignominiously into the
street.

By this time Gallienus was seated on his tribunal, and Plotinus, released
from his bonds, was standing by his side.

"O Emperor," he murmured, deeply abashed, "what can I urge? Thou wilt
surely demolish my city!"

"No, Plotinus," replied Gallienus, pointing to the Goth and the Christian,
"there are the men who will destroy the City of Philosophers. Would that
were all they will destroy!"

THE DEMON POPE

"So you won't sell me your soul?" said the devil.

"Thank you," replied the student, "I had rather keep it myself, if it's all
the same to you."

"But it's not all the same to me. I want it very particularly. Come, I'll
be liberal. I said twenty years. You can have thirty."

The student shook his head.

"Forty!"

Another shake.

"Fifty!"

As before.

"Now," said the devil, "I know I'm going to do a foolish thing, but I
cannot bear to see a clever, spirited young man throw himself away. I'll
make you another kind of offer. We won't have any bargain at present, but I
will push you on in the world for the next forty years. This day forty
years I come back and ask you for a boon; not your soul, mind, or anything
not perfectly in your power to grant. If you give it, we are quits; if not,
I fly away with you. What say you to this?"

The student reflected for some minutes. "Agreed," he said at last.

Scarcely had the devil disappeared, which he did instantaneously, ere a
messenger reined in his smoking steed at the gate of the University of
Cordova (the judicious reader will already have remarked that Lucifer could
never have been allowed inside a Christian seat of learning), and,
inquiring for the student Gerbert, presented him with the Emperor Otho's
nomination to the Abbacy of Bobbio, in consideration, said the document, of
his virtue and learning, well-nigh miraculous in one so young. Such
messengers were frequent visitors during Gerbert's prosperous career.
Abbot, bishop, archbishop, cardinal, he was ultimately enthroned Pope on
April