y speaking all together swore they would scale the mountain of
Ialdabaoth, and hurl down the walls of jasper and porphyry, and plunge
the tyrant of Heaven into eternal darkness.

But a voice of crystal pierced through the sullen murmur.

"Tremble, ye impious, sacrilegious madmen! The Lord hath already lifted
his dread arm to smite you!"

It was a loyal angel who, with an impulse of faith and love, envying the
glory of confessors and martyrs, jealous and eager, like his God
himself, to emulate man in the beauty of sacrifice, had flung himself
in the midst of the blasphemers, to brave them, to confound them, and to
fall beneath their blows. The assembly turned upon him with furious
unanimity. Those nearest to him overwhelmed him with blows. He continued
to cry, in a clear, ringing voice, "Glory to God! Glory to God! Glory to
God!"

A rebel seized him by the neck and strangled his praises of the Almighty
in his throat. He was thrown to the ground, trampled underfoot. Prince
Istar picked him up, took him by the wings between his fingers, then
rising like a column of smoke, opened a ventilator, which no one else
could have reached, and passed the faithful angel through it. Order was
immediately restored.

"Comrades," continued Arcade, "now that we have affirmed our stern
resolve, we must examine the possible plans of campaign, and choose the
best. You will therefore have to consider if we should attack the enemy
in full force, or whether it were better, by a lengthy and assiduous
propaganda, to win the inhabitants of Heaven to our cause."

"War! War!" shouted the assembled host.

And it seemed as if one could hear the sound of trumpets and the rolling
of drums.

Theophile, whom Prince Istar had dragged to the meeting, rose, pale and
unstrung, and, speaking with emotion, said:

"Brethren, do not take ill what I am about to say; for it is the
friendship I have for you that inspires me. I am but a poor musician.
But, believe me, all your plans will come to naught before the Divine
Wisdom which has foreseen everything."

Theophile Belais sat down amid hisses. And Arcade continued:

"Ialdabaoth foresees everything. I do not contest it. He foresees
everything, but in order to leave us our free will he acts towards us
absolutely as if he foresaw nothing. Every instant he is surprised,
disconcerted; the most probable events take him unawares. The obligation
which he has undertaken, to reconcile with his prescience the l