Suddenly, as they march on, a low and awful growl is heard. It comes from
the booth of a servant of the imperial court. He is employed as a
transporter of wild beasts from the interior to the coast, where they are
shipped for Rome; and he has charge at present of a noble lion, who is
sitting majestically, looking through the bars of his cage at the rabble,
who now begin to look at him. In demeanour and in mental endowments he has
the advantage of them. It was at this moment, while they were closing,
hustling each other, staring at the beast, and hoping to provoke him, that
a shrill voice cried out, "Christianos ad leones, Christianos ad leones!"
the Christians to the lions! A sudden and dead silence ensued, as if the
words had struck the breath out of the promiscuous throng. An interval
passed; and then the same voice was heard again, "Christianos ad leones!"
This time the whole Forum took it up from one end to the other. The fate
of the day, the direction of the movement, was decided; a distinct object
was obtained, and the only wonder was that the multitude had been so long
to seek and so slow to find so obvious a cause of their misfortunes, so
adequate a subject of their vengeance. "Christianos ad leones!" was
shouted out by town and country, priests and people. "Long live the
emperor! long live Decius! he told us this long ago. There's the edict; it
never has been obeyed. Death to the magistrates! To the Christians! to the
Christians! Up with great Jove, down with the atheists!"

They were commencing their march when the ass caught their eye. "The
Christians' god!" they shouted out; "the god of the Christians!" Their
first impulse was to give the poor beast to the lion, their next to
sacrifice it, but they did not know to whom. Then they said they would
make the Christians worship it; and dressing it up in tawdry finery, they
retained it at the head of their procession.

CHAPTER XVII.

CHRISTIANOS AD LEONES.

By the time that they had got round again to the unlucky baker's, the mob
had been swollen to a size which even the area of the Forum would not
contain, and it filled the adjacent streets. And by the same time it had
come home to its leaders, and, indeed, to every one who used his reason at
all, that it was very far from certain that there were any Christians in
Sicca, and if so, still very far from easy to say where they were. And the
diffic