ianos ad leones" were thundered out by some ruffian voice, and a
thousand others fiercely responded.

Still no Christian was forthcoming; and it was plain that the rage of the
multitude must be discharged in other quarters, if the difficulty
continued in satisfying it. At length some one recollected the site of the
Christian chapel, when it existed; thither went the multitude, and
effected an entrance without delay. It had long been turned to other
purposes, and was now a store of casks and leather bottles. The miserable
sacristan had long given up any practical observance of his faith, and
remained on the spot a keeper of the premises for the trader who owned
them. They found him, and dragged him into the street, and brought him
forward to the ass, and to the idol on its back, and bade him worship the
one and the other. The poor wretch obeyed; he worshipped the ass, he
worshipped the idol, and he worshipped the genius of the emperor; but his
persecutors wanted blood; they would not submit to be cheated of their
draught; so when they had made him do whatever they exacted, they flung
him under the feet of the multitude, who, as they passed on, soon trod all
life and breath out of him, and sent him to the powers below, to whom he
had just before been making his profession.

Their next adventure was with a Tertullianist, who stationed himself at
his shop-door, displayed the sign of the cross, and walking leisurely
forward, seized the idol on the ass's back, broke it over his knee, and
flung the portions into the crowd. For a few minutes they stared on him
with astonishment, then some women fell upon him with their nails and
teeth, and tore the poor fanatic till he fell bleeding and lifeless upon
the ground.

In the higher and better part of the city, which they now approached,
lived the widow of a Duumvir, who in his day had made a bold profession of
Christianity. The well connected lady was a Christian also, and was
sheltered by her great friends from the persecution. She was bringing up a
family in great privacy, and with straitened means, and with as much
religious strictness as was possible under the circumstances of the place.
She kept them from all bad sights and bad company, was careful as to the
character of the slaves she placed about them, and taught them all she
knew of her religion, which was quite sufficient for their salvation. They
had all been baptized, some by herself in default of the proper minister,
a