he city had vowed themselves joyfully to aid him in his
frantic attempt.

Thus during the whole day he continued his labour of useless persuasion
among those in the city who had once been his friends. When the
evening came, he repaired, weary but not despondent, to the earthly
paradise that he was determined to regain--to the temple where he had
once taught, and where he still imagined that he was again destined to
preside. Here he proceeded, ignorant of the new laws, careless of
discovery and danger, to ascertain by divination, as in the days of
old, whether failure or success awaited him ultimately in his great
design.

Meanwhile the friends whose assistance Ulpius had determined to extort
were far from remaining inactive on their parts after the departure of
the aspiring priest. They remembered with terror that the laws
affected as severely those concealing their knowledge of a Pagan
intrigue as those actually engaged in directing a Pagan conspiracy; and
their anxiety for their personal safety overcoming every consideration
of the dues of honour or the claims of ancient friendship, they
repaired in a body to the Prefect of the city, and informed him, with
all the eagerness of apprehension, of the presence of Ulpius in
Alexandria, and of the culpability of the schemes that he had proposed.

A search after the devoted Pagan was immediately commenced. He was
found the same night before a ruined altar, brooding over the entrails
of an animal that he had just sacrificed. Further proof of his guilt
could not be required. He was taken prisoner; led forth the next
morning to be judged, amid the execrations of the very people who had
almost adored him once; and condemned the following day to suffer the
penalty of death.

At the appointed hour the populace assembled to behold the execution.
To their indignation and disappointment, however, when the officers of
the city appeared before the prison, it was only to inform the
spectators that the performance of the fatal ceremony had been
adjourned. After a mysterious delay of some weeks, they were again
convened, not to witness the execution, but to receive the
extraordinary announcement that the culprit's life had been spared, and
that his amended sentence now condemned him to labour as a slave for
life in the copper-mines of Spain.

What powerful influence induced the Prefect to risk the odium of
reprieving a prisoner whose guilt was so satisfactorily ascertained a