wn with him!' 'Cast him out! Carry him to the archbishop!' while
Philammon shook himself free, and Peter returned to the charge.

'I call all good Catholics to witness! He has beaten an ecclesiastic in
the courts of the Lord's house, even in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem!
And he was in Hypatia's lecture-room this morning!'

A groan of pious horror rose. Philammon set his back against the wall.

'His holiness the patriarch sent me.'

'He confesses, he confesses! He deluded the piety of the patriarch into
letting him go, under colour of converting her; and even now he wants
to intrude on the sacred presence of Cyril, burning only with the carnal
desire that he may meet the sorceress in her house to-morrow!'

'Scandal!' 'Abomination in the holy place!' and a rush at the poor youth
took place.

His blood was thoroughly up. The respectable part of the crowd, as usual
in such cases, prudently retreated, and left him to the mercy of the
monks, with an eye to their own reputation for orthodoxy, not to mention
their personal safety; and he had to help himself as he could. He looked
round for a weapon. There was none. The ring of monks were baying at him
like hounds round a bear: and though he might have been a match for any
one of them singly, yet their sinewy limbs and determined faces warned
him that against such odds the struggle would be desperate.

'Let me leave this court in safety! God knows whether I am a heretic;
and to Him I commit my cause! The holy patriarch shall know of your
iniquity. I will not trouble you; I give you leave to call me heretic,
or heathen, if you will, if I cross this threshold till Cyril himself
sends for me back to shame you.'

And he turned, and forced his way to the gate, amid a yell of derision
which brought every drop of, blood in his body into his cheeks. Twice,
as he went down the vaulted passage, a rush was made on him from behind,
but the soberer of his persecutors checked it. Yet he could not leave
them, young and hot-headed as he was, without one last word, and on the
threshold he turned.

'You! who call yourselves the disciples of the Lord, and are more like
the demoniacs who abode day and night in the tombs, crying and cutting
themselves with stones--'

In an instant they rushed upon him; and, luckily for him, rushed also
into the arms of a party of ecclesiastics, who were hurrying inwards
from the street, with faces of blank terror.

'He has refused!' shouted the foremos