emon: "it is thy man's turn now.
Trot him out!"

"Brethren," said the demon to the assembly, "it is meet that he who aspires
to the office of bishop should be prepared to give evidence of
extraordinary self-denial. Ye have seen even our weak brother Nonnus
adoring what he hath burned, albeit as yet unwilling to burn what he hath
adored. How much more may be reasonably expected of our brother Pachymius,
so eminent for sanctity! I therefore call upon him to demonstrate his
humility and self-renunciation, and effectually mortify the natural man, by
washing himself in this ample vessel provided for the purpose"

"Wash myself!" exclaimed Pacyhmius, with a vivacity of which he had
previously shown no token. "Destroy at one splash the sanctity of
fifty-seven years! Avaunt! thou subtle enemy of my salvation! I know thee
who thou art, the demon who brought me hither on his back yesterday."

"I thought it had been an angel," said the Governor.

"A demon in the disguise of an angel of light," said Pachymius.

A tumultuous discussion arose among Pachymius's supporters, some extolling
his fortitude, others blaming his wrongheadedness.

"What!" said he to the latter, "would ye rob me of my reputation? Shall it
be written of me, The holy Pachymius abode in the precepts of the eremites
so long as he dwelt in the desert where no water was, but as soon as he
came within sight of a bath, he stumbled and fell?"

"Oh, father," urged they, "savoureth not this of vaingloriousness? The
demon in the guise of an angel of light, as thou so well saidest even now.
Be strong. Quit thyself valiantly. Think of the sufferings of the primitive
confessors."

"St. John was cast into a caldron of boiling oil," said one.

"St. Apocryphus was actually drowned," said another.

"I have reason to believe," said a third, "that the loathsomeness of
ablution hath been greatly exaggerated by the heretics."

"I know it has," said another. "I _have_ washed myself once, though ye
might not think it, and can assert that it is by no means as disagreeable
as one supposes."

"That is just what I dread," said Pachymius. "Little by little, one might
positively come to like it! We should resist the beginnings of evil."

All this time the crowd of his supporters had been pressing upon the
anchorite, and had imperceptibly forced him nearer the edge of the vessel,
purposing at a convenient season to throw him in. He was now near enough to
catch a glimpse of the l