they must perish
miserably if they rejected the only means of deliverance which he had
pointed out to them. He was present at every meeting of the Senate, and
his inflammatory eloquence kept the town council on his side, and
nullified the efforts of the bishop, while he pressed them to fix the day
of the marriage of the Nile with his bride.

He knew the Egyptians and their passion for the intoxicating joys of a
splendid ceremonial. This festival: the wedding of the Bride of the Nile
to her mighty and unresting spouse, on whom the weal or woe of the land
depended, was to be as a flowery oasis in the waste of dearth and
desolation. He recalled every detail of the reminiscences of his
childhood as to the processions in Honor of Isis, and the festivals
dedicated to her and her triad; every record of his own experience and
that of former generations; all he had read in books of the great
pilgrimages and dramas of heathen Egypt--and he described it all in his
speeches, painted it in glowing colors to the Senate and the mob, and
counselled the authorities to reproduce it all with unparalleled splendor
on the occasion of this marriage.

Every man in whose veins flowed Egyptian blood listened to him
attentively, took pleasure in his projects, and was quite ready to do his
utmost to enhance the glories of this ceremonial, in which every one was
to take part either active or passive. Thousands were ruined, but there
was yet enough and to spare for this marriage feast, and the Senate did
not hesitate to raise a fresh loan.

"Destruction or Deliverance!" was the watch-word Horapollo had given the
Memphites. If everything came to ruin their hoarded talents would be lost
too; if, on the other hand, the sacrifice produced its result, if the
Nile should bless its children with renewed prosperity, what need the
town or country care for a few thousand drachmae more or less?

So the day was fixed!

Not quite two weeks after Paula's trial, on the day of Saint Serapis the
miraculous, saving, auspicious ceremonial was to take place. And how
glowing was the picture given of the Bride's beauty by the old man, and
by the judges and officials who had seen her! How brightly old
Horapollo's eyes would flash with hate as he described it! The eyes of
love could not be more radiant.

All that this patrician hussy had done to aggrieve him--she should
expiate it all, and his triumph meant woe, not only to that one woman,
but to the Christian fait