ess of our cause."

"Ah! teach us to hope once more," cried the musician. "That in itself is
half the victory; still, I cannot see how this delay..."

"It would give us time, and that is what we want," replied Olympius.
"Everything is in preparation, but nothing is ready. Alexandria, Athens,
Antioch, and Neapolis are to be the centres of the outbreak. The great
Libanius is not a man of action, and even he approves of our scheme. No
less a man than Florentin has undertaken to recruit for our cause among
the heathen officers in the army. Messala, and the great Gothic captains
Fraiut and Generid are ready to fight for the old gods. Our army will
not lack leaders..."

"Our army!" exclaimed Karnis in surprise. "Is the matter so far
advanced?"

"I mean the army of the future," cried Olympius enthusiastically. "It
does not count a man as yet, but is already distributed into several
legions. The vigor of mind and body--our learned youth on one hand and
strong-armed peasantry on the other--form the nucleus of our force.
Maximus could collect, in the utmost haste, the army which deprived
Gratian of his throne and life, and was within a Hair-breadth of
overthrowing Theodosius; and what was he but an ambitious rebel, and
what tempted his followers but their hopes of a share in the booty? But
we--we enlist them in the name of the loftiest ideas and warmest desires
of the human heart, and, as the prize of victory, we show them the
ancient faith with freedom of thought--the ancient loveliness of life.
The beings whom the Christians can win over--a patch-work medley of
loathsome Barbarians--let them wear out their lives as they choose!
We are Greeks--the thinking brain, the subtle and sentient soul of the
world. The polity, the empire, that we shall found on the overthrow
of Theodosius and of Rome shall be Hellenic, purely Hellenic. The old
national spirit, which made the Greeks omnipotent against the millions
of Darius and Xerxes, shall live again, and we will keep the Barbarians
at a distance as a Patrician forbids his inferiors to count themselves
as belonging to his illustrious house. The Greek gods, Greek heroism,
Greek art and Greek learning, under our rule shall rise from the
dust--all the more promptly for the stringent oppression under which
their indomitable spirit has so long languished."

"You speak to my heart!" cried Karnis. "My old blood flows more swiftly
already, and if I only had a thousand talents left to give..