ppened that a superior
officer, who was an assistant to what may be called the military resident
of the place, a young man, on whom much of the duty of the day had
devolved, was with the soldiers. She had known him as a friend of her
brother's, and recognised him in the gloom, and at once took advantage of
the meeting.

"Help," she said, "gentlemen! help, Calphurnius! these rascals are
carrying me off to some den of their own."

The tribune at once knew her voice. "What!" he cried, with great
astonishment, "what, my pretty Greek! You most base, infamous, and
unmannerly scoundrels, down with her this instant! What have you to do
with that young lady? You villains, unless you would have me crack your
African skulls with the hilt of my sword, down with her, I say!"

There was no resisting a Roman voice, but prompt obedience is a rarity,
and the ruffians began to parley. "My noble master," said the constable,
"she's our prisoner. Jove preserve you, and Bacchus and Ceres bless you,
my lord tribune! and long life to the Emperor Decius in these bad times.
But she is a rioter, my lord, one of the ringleaders, and a Christian and
a witch to boot."

"Cease your vile gutturals, you animal!" cried the officer, "or I will ram
them down your throat with my pike to digest them. Put down the lady,
beast. Are you thinking twice about it? Go, Lucius," he said to a private,
"kick him away, and bring the woman here."

Callista was surrendered, but the fellow, sullen at the usage he had met
with, and spiteful against Calphurnius, as the cause of it, cried out
maliciously, "Mind what you are at, noble sir, it's not our affair; you
can fry your own garlic. But an Emperor is an Emperor, and an Edict is an
Edict, and a Christian is a Christian; and I don't know what high places
will say to it, but it's your affair. Take notice," he continued, as he
got to a safer distance, raising his voice still higher, that the soldiers
might hear, "yon girl is a Christian priestess, caught in a Christian
assembly, sacrificing asses and eating children for the overthrow of the
Emperor, and the ruin of his loyal city of Sicca, and I have been
interrupted in the discharge of my duty--I, a constable of the place. See
whether Calphurnius will not bring again upon us the plague, the murrain,
the locusts, and all manner of _larvae_ and _maniae_ before the end of the
story."

This speech perplexed Calphurnius, as it was intended. It was impossible
he could di