al, if the great
dialectician had exerted his powers of persuasion on Heraclian himself.'

'He did so, but in vain.'

'I don't doubt it. I know the sleek Count well enough to judge what
effect a sermon would have upon that smooth vulpine determination of
his.... "An instrument in the hands of God, my dear brother.... We
must obey His call, even to the death," etc. etc.' And Raphael laughed
bitterly.

'You know the Count?'

'As well, sir, as I care to know any man.'

'I am sorry for your eyesight, then, sir,' said the Prefect severely,
'if it has been able to discern no more than that in so august a
character.'

'My dear sir, I do not doubt his excellence--nay, his inspiration. How
well he divined the perfectly fit moment for stabbing his old comrade
Stilicho! But really, as two men of the world, we must be aware by this
time that every man has his price.'....

'Oh, hush! hush!' whispered the girl. 'You cannot guess how you pain
him. He worships the Count. It was not ambition, as he pretends, but
merely loyalty to him, which brought here against his will.'

'My dear madam, forgive me. For your sake I am silent.'....

'For her sake! A pretty speech for me! What next?' said he to himself.
'Ah, Bran, Bran, this is all your fault!'

'For my sake! Oh, why not for your own sake? How sad to hear one--one
like you, only sneering and speaking evil!'

'Why then? If fools are fools, and one can safely call them so, why not
do it?'

'Ah,--if God was merciful enough to send down His own Son to die for
them, should we not be merciful enough not to judge their failings
harshly!'

'My dear young lady, spare a worn-out philosopher any new anthropologic
theories. We really must push on a little faster, if we intend to reach
Ostia to-night.'

But, for some reason or other, Raphael sneered no more for a full
half-hour.

Long, however, ere they reached Ostia, the night had fallen; and their
situation began to be more than questionably safe. Now and then a wolf,
slinking across the road towards his ghastly feast, glided like a lank
ghost out of the darkness, and into it again, answering Bran's growl by
a gleam of his white teeth. Then the voices of some marauding party rang
coarse and loud through the still night, and made them hesitate and stop
a while. And at last, worst of all, the measured tramp of an imperial
column began to roll like distant thunder along the plain below. They
were advancing upon Ostia! What if they