rvice, and have given up all that can rejoice the heart,
and have taken every kind of suffering upon us to please Thee! and now
these hideous heathen are surging round us again, and will kill us. Is
this the reward of victory for our striving and our long wrestling?"

The rest joined in the lamentation of the Saite, but Paulus stepped into
their midst, blamed them for their cowardice, and with warm and urgent
speech implored them to return to their posts so that the wall might be
guarded at least on the eastern and more accessible side, and that the
castle might not fall an easy prey into the hands of an enemy from whom
no quarter was to be expected. Some of the anchorites were already
proceeding to obey the Alexandrian's injunction, when a fearful cry, the
war-cry of the Blemmyes who were in pursuit of the Pharanites, rose from
the foot of their rock of refuge.

They crowded together again in terror; Salathiel the Syrian, had ventured
to the edge of the abyss, and had looked over old Stephanus' shoulder
down into the hollow, and when he rushed back to his companions, crying
in terror, "Our men are flying!"

Gelasius shrieked aloud, beat his breast, and tore his rough black hair,
crying out:

"O Lord God, what wilt Thou of us? Is it vain then to strive after
righteousness and virtue that Thou givest us over unto death, and dost
not fight for us? If we are overcome by the heathen, ungodliness and
brute force will boast themselves as though they had won the victory over
righteousness and truth!"

Paulus had turned from the lamenting hermits, perplexed and beside
himself, and stood with Stephanus watching the fight.

The Blemmyes had come in great numbers, and their attack, before which
the Pharanites were to have retired as a feint, fell with such force upon
the foremost division that they and their comrades, who had rushed to
their aid on the plateau, were unable to resist it, and were driven back
as far as the spot where the ravine narrowed.

"Things are not as they should be," said Stephanus. "And the cowardly
band, like a drove of cattle," cried Paulus in a fury, "leave the walls
unprotected, and blaspheme God instead of watching or fighting."

The anchorites noticed his gestures, which were indeed those of a
desperate man, and Sergius exclaimed: "Are we then wholly abandoned? Why
does not the thorn-bush light its fires, and destroy the evil-doers with
its flames? Why is the thunder silent, and where are the l