I beseech you in the name of
Christ!"

"I know what acts you commit in the name of Christ. Away with you!
Begone at once!" screamed Mardonius. The tribune gave the order to
retire, and only when the sound of the steps dying away assured
Mardonius that all peril was over did the old man forget his tutorial
dignity. A wild fit of laughter seized him, and he began to dance.

"Children, children!" he cried gleefully. "Glory to Hermes! We've done
them cleverly! That edict was annulled three years ago! Ah, the idiots,
the idiots!"

At daybreak Julian fell into a deep sleep.

_II.--Julian the Emperor_

Gallus had fallen at the hands of the imperial executioner, and Julian
had been banished to the army in Gaul. Constantius hoped to get news of
the defeat and death of Julian, and was horribly disappointed when
nothing was heard but tidings of victory.

Julian, successful in arms and worshipped by his soldiers, became more
and more convinced that the old Olympian gods were protecting him and
advancing his cause, and only for prudential reasons did he continue to
attend Christian churches. In his heart he abhorred the crucified
Galilean God of the Christians, and longed for the restoration of the
old worship of Apollo and the gods of Greece and Rome.

More than two years after the victory of Argentoratum, when Julian had
delivered all Gaul from the barbarians, he received an important letter
from the Emperor Constantius.

Each new victory in Gaul had maddened the soul of Constantius, and
smitten his vanity to the quick. He writhed with jealousy, and grew thin
and sleepless and sick. At the same time he sustained defeat after
defeat in his own campaign in Asia against the Persians. Musing, during
nights of insomnia, the emperor blamed himself for having let Julian
live.

Finally, Constantius decided to rob Julian of his best soldiers, and
then, by gradually disarming him, to draw him into his toils and deal
him the mortal blow.

With this intention he sent a letter to Julian by the tribune Decensius,
commanding him to select the most trusted legions, namely, the Heruli,
Batavians, and Celts, and to dispatch them into Asia for the emperor's
own use. Each remaining legion was also to be deflowered of its three
hundred bravest warriors, and Julian's transport crippled of the pick of
the porters and baggage carriers.

Julian at once warned Decensius, and proved to him that rebellion was
inevitable among the savage l