rein by the great merchant's carriage, had asked him, pointing to
Constantine, whether that were his son.

"No," replied Porphyrius, "but I wish he were." At these words the
ship-master's son colored deeply, while Romanus turned his horse round,
laid his hand on the young man's arm and called out to the commander of
the cavalry of Arsinoe: "A soldier after Ares' own heart, Columella! Do
not let him slip."

Before the clouds of dust raised by the officers' horses as they rode
off, had fairly settled, Constantine had made up his mind to be a
soldier. In his parents' house, however, this decision was seen under
various aspects. His father found little to say against it, for he had
three sons and only two shipyards, and the question seemed settled by
the fact that Constantine, with his resolute and powerful nature, was
cut out to be a soldier. His pious mother, on the other hand, appealed
to the learned works of Clemens and Tertullian, who forbid the faithful
Christian to draw the sword; and she related the legend of the holy
Maximilianus, who, being compelled, under Diocletian, to join the army,
had suffered death at the hands of the executioner rather than shed his
fellow-creatures' blood in battle. The use of weapons, she added, was
incompatible with a godly and Christian life.

His father, however, would not listen to this reasoning; new times, he
said, were come; the greater part of the army had been baptized; the
Church prayed for, victory, and at the head of the troops stood the
great Theodosius, an exemplar of an orthodox and zealous Christian.

Clemens was master in his own house, and Constantine joined the heavy
cavalry at Arsinoe. In the war against the Blemmyes he was so fortunate
as to merit the highest distinction; after that he was in garrison at
Arsinoe, and, as Alexandria was within easy reach of that town, he was
in frequent intercourse with his own family and that of Porphyrius. Not
quite three years previously, when a revolt had broken out in favor
of the usurper Maximus in his native town, Constantine had assisted in
suppressing it, and almost immediately afterwards he was sent to Europe
to take part in the war which Theodosius had begun, again against
Maximus.

An unpleasant misunderstanding had embittered his parting from Gorgo;
old Damia, as she held his hand had volunteered a promise that she and
her granddaughter would from time to time slay a beast in sacrifice on
his behalf. Perhaps she had