th reverence. The Imperial
legate had not made his appearance; he had preferred to remain for the
present at the prefect's house, intending to preside, later in the day,
at the races as the Emperor's representative, side by side with the
Prefect Evagrius--who also kept aloof during the attack on the Serapeum.
After a brief colloquy, Romanus signed to Constantine, the captain of
the cavalry; the troop dismounted, and, led by their officer, marched up
the slope that led to the great gate of the Serapeum. They were followed
by the Comes with his staff; next to him pale and somewhat tremulous
came some of the city officials and a few Christian members of the
senate; and then the Bishop--who had preferred to come last--with all
the Christian priesthood and a crowd of chanting monks. The train
was closed by a division of heavy-armed infantry; and after them the
populace rushed in, unchecked by the soldiers who stood outside the
temple.

The great halls of the Serapeum had been put in order as well as
possible in so short a time. Of all those who, the day before,
had crowded in to defend the god and his house, none were left but
Porphyrius and those who were nursing him. After a long and agonizing
period of silence heavy fists came thundering at the door. Gorgo started
up to unbolt it, but Apuleius held her back; so it was forced off its
hinges and thing into the temple-aisle on which the room opened. At the
same instant a party of soldiers entered the room and glanced round it
enquiringly.

The physician turned as pale as death, and sank incapable of speech on
a seat by his patient's couch; but Gorgo turned with calm dignity to the
centurion who led the intruders, and explained to him who she was,
and that she was here under the protection of the leech to tend her
suffering father. She concluded by asking to speak with Constantine
the prefect of cavalry, or with the Comes Romanus, to whom she and her
father were well known.

There was nothing unusual in a sick man being brought into the Serapeum
for treatment, and the calm, undoubting superiority of Gorgo's tone
as well as the high rank of the men whose protection she appealed to,
commanded the centurion's respectful consideration; however, his orders
were to send every one out of the temple who was not a Roman soldier, so
he begged her to wait a few minutes, and soon returned with the legate
Volcatius, the captain of his legion. This knightly patrician well
knew--as did