nds, at this moment. And my friend
Victorius, here, will enjoy, I do not doubt, a little wild campaigning
against marauding blackamoors.'

The old man bowed silently. The battle was won.

The young tribune, who had been watching his father's face with the most
intense anxiety caught at the gesture, and hurrying forward, announced
the change of plan to the soldiery. It was greeted with a shout of joy,
and in another five minutes the sails were about, the rudder shifted,
and the ship on her way towards the western point of Sicily, before a
steady north-west breeze.

'Ah!' cried Victoria, delighted. 'And now you will see Augustine! You
must promise me to talk to him!'

'This, at least, I will promise, that whatsoever the great sophist shall
be pleased to say, shall meet with a patient hearing from a brother
sophist. Do not be angry at the term. Recollect that I am somewhat
tired, like my ancestor Solomon, of wisdom and wise men, having found
it only too like madness and folly. And you cannot surely expect me to
believe in man, while I do not yet believe in God?'

Victoria sighed. 'I will not believe you. Why always pretend to be worse
than you are?'

'That kind souls like you may be spared the pain of finding me worse
than I seem.... There, let us say no more; except that I heartily wish
that you would hate me!'

'Shall I try?'

'That must be my work, I fear, not yours. However, I shall give you good
cause enough before long' doubt it not.'

Victoria sighed again, and retired into the tent to nurse the sick.

'And now, sir,' said the Prefect, turning to Raphael and his son; 'do
not mistake me. I may have been weak, as worn-out and hopeless men are
wont to be; but do not think of me as one who has yielded to adversity
in fear for his own safety. As God hears me, I desire nothing better
than to die; and I only turn out of my course on the understanding that
if Augustine so advise, my children hold me free to return to Carthage
and meet my fate. All I pray for is, that my life may be spared until I
can place my dear child in the safe shelter of a nunnery.'

'A nunnery?'

'Yes, indeed; I have intended ever since her birth to dedicate her to
the service of God. And in such times as these, what better lot for a
defenceless girl?'

'Pardon me!' said Raphael; 'but I am too dull to comprehend what
benefit or pleasure your Deity will derive from the celibacy of your
daughter.... Except, indeed, on one supposition, w