introduced into the Emperor's presence, after waiting in the
antechamber, had flung to him or slipped into his hand--make his escape
and carouse away all that he possessed in the taverns of the great city,
in wine and the gay company of women. It was all the same to him what
might happen to him.

If he were caught he would probably be flogged to death; but he had had
kicks and blows in plenty before he had got into the Emperor's service,
nay; when he was brought to Rome he had once even been hunted with dogs.
If he lost his life, after all what would it matter? He would have done
with it then, once for all, and the future offered him no prospect but
perpetual fatigue in the service of a restless master, anxiety and
contempt. He was a thoroughly good-hearted being who could not bear to
hurt any one, and who found it equally hard to disturb a fellow-man in
his pleasures or amusement. He felt particularly disinclined to do so
just now, for a wounded soul is keenly alive to the moods and feelings of
others; so, as he approached the group of workmen, from among whom he
proposed to choose his water-carrier, he determined that he would not
interrupt the story-teller, on whose lips the gaze of his audience was
riveted with interest.

The glare of the blaze under the soup-kettle fell full on the speaker's
face. He was an old laborer, but his long hair proclaimed him a freeman.
His abundant white beard induced Mastor to suppose that he must be a Jew
or a Phoenician, but there was nothing remarkable in the old man, who was
dressed in a poor and scanty tunic, excepting his peculiarly brilliant
eyes, which were immovably fixed on the heavens, and the oblique position
in which he held his head, supporting it on the left side with his raised
hands.

"And now," said the speaker, dropping his arms, "let us go back to our
labors, my brethren. 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,' it
is written. It is often hard to us old men to heave stones and bend our
stiff backs for so long together, but we are nearer than you younger ones
to the happy future. Life is not easy to all of us, but it is we who
labor and are heavy laden--we above all others--that the Lord has bidden
to be his guests, and not last among us the slaves."

"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
you," interrupted one of the younger men repeating the words of Christ.

"Yea, thus saith the Saviour," said the old man approvingly, "a