ong the fishermen
of Galilee. They stood around Him and listened whilst He talked; when He
walked they followed Him, for a halo of glory was upon Him and the words
which He spoke were such that once heard they could never be forgotten."

"Didst thou too hear those marvellous words, O Taurus Antinor?" she
asked.

"Only twice," he replied, "did I hear the words which He spoke. I
mingled with the crowd, and once when His eyes fell upon me, it seemed
to me as if all the secrets of life and death were suddenly revealed to
me. His eyes fell upon me.... I was one of a multitude ... but from that
moment I knew that life on this earth would never be precious to me
again--since the most precious gift man hath is his immortality."

"Thou speakest of strange matters, O praefect," she rejoined, "and
meseems there's treason in what thou sayest. Who is this man, whose
very look hath made a slave of thee?"

"A slave to His will thou sayest truly, O daughter of Caesar! Could I
hear His command I would follow Him through life and to death. At times
even now meseems that I can hear His voice and see His eyes ... thou
hast never seen such eyes, Augusta--fixed upon my very soul. I saw them
just now, right across the Forum, when the wretched freedwoman clung
shrieking round my shins. They looked at me and _asked_ me to be
merciful; they did not command, they begged ... _asking_ for the pity
that lay dormant in my soul. And now I know that if those same eyes
looked at me again and asked for every drop of my blood, if they asked
me to bear death, torture, or even shame, I would become as thou truly
sayest--a slave."

Once or twice whilst he spoke she had tried to interrupt him, but every
time the words she would have spoken had died upon her lips. He looked
so strange--this praefect of Rome--whose judgments everyone feared,
whose strict adherence to duty the young elegants of the day were ever
fond of deriding. He looked very strange now and spoke such strange
words--words that she resented bitterly, for they sounded like treason
to the House of Caesar of which she was so coldly proud.

To her Caesar was as a god, and she as his kinswoman had been brought up
to worship in him not the man--that might be vile--but the supreme power
in the Empire which he represented. She did not pause to think if he
were base, tyrannical, a half-crazy despot without mind or heart or
sensibilities. She knew what was said about him, she had even seen at
tim