horrid growls.

At this moment a loud shout was heard, and a soldier, clad in burnished
mail, and with his drawn sword in his hand, one of the body guards of
the Emperors, leaped from the tribune and bounded with clashing armour
into the arena. Striding across the sand, he hurled aside his iron
helmet and his sword, and flung himself at the feet of the aged priest,
with the words:--

"Father, your blessing; Callirho[e:], your parting kiss. I, too, am a
Christian. Long time have I sought you, alas! only to find you thus. But
gladly will I die with you, and, separated in life, we are united in
death and forever."

"_Nunc dimittis, Domine!_" exclaimed the old man, raising his eyes to
heaven. "'Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.'" And he
laid his hands in blessing on the head of his long-lost son.

"Ezra, my brother!" exclaimed Callirho[e:], folding him in her arms. "To
think we were so near, yet knew not of each other. Thank God, we go to
heaven together; and, long divided on earth, we shall soon, with our
beloved mother, be a united family forever in the skies. 'And God shall
wipe away all tears from our eyes; and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.'"

"Amen! even so, come, Lord Jesus!" spake the young soldier, as he
enfolded, as if in a sheltering embrace, the gray-haired sire and the
fair-faced girl.

The utmost consternation was exhibited on the countenance of the old
Emperor Diocletian. "What! have we Christians and traitors even in our
body guard? Our very life is at the mercy of those wretches!"

"I would feel safer with them," said the more stoical or more courageous
Galerius, "than with the _delators_ and informers who betray them," and
he glanced with mingled contempt and aversion at Naso, the prefect, and
Furca, the priest. "When a Christian gives his word, 'tis sacred as all
the oaths of Hecate. I want no better soldiers than those of the
Thundering Legion."[51]

Meanwhile the wild beasts, startled for a moment by the sudden
apparition of the mail-clad soldier, seemed roused thereby to ten-fold
fury. Crouching stealthily for the fatal spring, they bounded upon their
prey, and in a moment crashing bones and streaming gore appeased the
growing impatience of the cruel mob, who seemed, like the very wild
beasts, to hunger and thirst for human flesh and blood.

We dwell not on the painful spectacle. The gallant young soldier was