d the Euphrates; his army was received with
transport by the Syrian sectaries, insurrections in his favor everywhere
breaking out. In succession, Antioch, Caesarea, Damascus fell; Jerusalem
itself was taken by storm; the sepulchre of Christ, the churches of
Constantine and of Helena were given to the flames; the Savior's cross
was sent as a trophy to Persia; the churches were rifled of their
riches; the sacred relics, collected by superstition, were dispersed.
Egypt was invaded, conquered, and annexed to the Persian Empire; the
Patriarch of Alexandria escaped by flight to Cyprus; the African coast
to Tripoli was seized. On the north, Asia Minor was subdued, and for
ten years the Persian forces encamped on the shores of the Bosporus, in
front of Constantinople.

In his extremity Heraclius begged for peace. "I will never give peace
to the Emperor of Rome," replied the proud Persian, "till he has abjured
his crucified God, and embraced the worship of the sun." After a long
delay terms were, however, secured, and the Roman Empire was ransomed at
the price of "a thousand talents of gold, a thousand talents of silver,
a thousand silk robes, a thousand horses, and a thousand virgins."

But Heraclius submitted only for a moment. He found means not only
to restore his affairs but to retaliate on the Persian Empire. The
operations by which he achieved this result were worthy of the most
brilliant days of Rome.

INVASION OF CHOSROES Though her military renown was thus recovered,
though her territory was regained, there was something that the Roman
Empire had irrecoverably lost. Religious faith could never be restored.
In face of the world Magianism had insulted Christianity, by profaning
her most sacred places--Bethlehem, Gethsemane, Calvary--by burning
the sepulchre of Christ, by rifling and destroying the churches, by
scattering to the winds priceless relics, by carrying off, with shouts
of laughter, the cross.

Miracles had once abounded in Syria, in Egypt, in Asia Minor; there was
not a church which had not its long catalogue of them. Very often they
were displayed on unimportant occasions and in insignificant cases. In
this supreme moment, when such aid was most urgently demanded, not a
miracle was worked.

Amazement filled the Christian populations of the East when they
witnessed these Persian sacrileges perpetrated with impunity. The
heavens should have rolled asunder, the earth should have opened her
abysses, the swo