hy it should not be
selected. At the lower end of the chapel was a rail extending across it,
and open in the middle, where its two portions turned up at right angles
on each side towards the altar. The enclosure thus made was the place
proper for the faithful, into which Agellius had been introduced, and
about fifty persons were collected about him. Where the two side-rails
which ran up the chapel ceased, there was a broad step; and upon it two
pulpits, one on each side. Then came a second elevation, carrying the eye
on to the extremity of the upper end.

In the middle of the wall at that upper end is a recess, occupied by a
tomb. On the front of it is written the name of some glorious champion of
the faith who lies there. It is one of the first bishops of Sicca, and the
inscription attests that he slept in the Lord under the Emperor Antoninus.
Over the sacred relics is a slab, and on the slab the Divine Mysteries are
now to be celebrated. At the back is a painting on the wall, very similar
to that in Agellius's cottage. The ever-blessed immaculate Mother of God
is exercising her office as the Advocate of sinners, standing by the
sacrifice as she stood at the cross itself, and offering up and applying
its infinite merits and incommunicable virtue in union with priest and
people. So instinctive in the Christian mind is the principle of
decoration, as it may be called, that even in times of suffering, and
places of banishment, we see it brought into exercise. Not only is the
arch which overspans the altar ornamented with an arabesque pattern, but
the roof or vault is coloured with paintings. Our Lord is in the centre,
with two figures of Moses on each side, on the right unloosing his
sandals, on the left striking the rock. Between the centre figure and the
altar may be seen the raising of Lazarus; in the opposite partition the
healing of the paralytic; at the four angles are men and women alternately
in the attitude of prayer.

At this time the altar-stone was covered with a rich crimson silk, with
figures of St. Peter and St. Paul worked in gold upon it, the gift of a
pious lady of Carthage. Beyond the altar, but not touching it, was a
cross; and on one side of the altar a sort of basin or _piscina_ cut in
the rock, with a linen cloth hanging up against it. There were no candles
upon the altar itself, but wax lights fixed into silver stands were placed
at intervals along the edge of the presbytery or elevation.

The ma