on and stars already grew beautiful
in their places in the firmament, he would pass into the subterranean
vaults of the edifice, trembling as his little taper scarcely dispelled
the dull, solemn gloom, and listening with breathless attention for the
voices of those guardian spirits whose fabled habitation was made in
the apartments of the sacred place. Or, when the multitude had
departed for their amusements and their homes, he would steal into the
lofty halls and wander round the pedestals of the mighty statues,
breathing fearfully the still atmosphere of the temple, and watching
the passage of the cold, melancholy moonbeams through the openings in
the roof, and over the colossal limbs and features of the images of the
pagan gods. Sometimes, when the services of Serapis and the cares
attendant on his communications with the Emperor were concluded,
Macrinus would lead his pupil into the garden of the priests, and
praise him for his docility till his heart throbbed with gratitude and
pride. Sometimes he would convey him cautiously outside the precincts
of the sacred place, and show him, in the suburbs of the city, silent,
pale, melancholy men, gliding suspiciously through the gay, crowded
streets. Those fugitive figures, he would declare, were the enemies of
the temple and all that it contained; conspirators against the Emperor
and the gods; wretches who were to be driven forth as outcasts from
humanity; whose appellation was 'Christian'; and whose impious worship,
if tolerated, would deprive him of the uncle whom he loved, of the
temple that he reverenced, and of the priestly dignity and renown which
it should be his life's ambition to acquire.

Thus tutored in his duties by his guardian, and in his recreations by
himself, as time wore on, the boy gradually lost every remaining
characteristic of his age. Even the remembrance of his mother and his
mother's love grew faint on his memory. Serious, solitary, thoughtful,
he lived but to succeed in the temple; he laboured but to emulate the
high priest. All his feelings and faculties were now enslaved by an
ambition, at once unnatural at his present age, and ominous of
affliction for his future life. The design that Macrinus had
contemplated as the work of years was perfected in a few months. The
hope that his father had scarce dared to entertain for his manhood was
already accomplished in his youth.

In these preparations for future success passed three years of the