ng these heads in
triumph, while others were shouldering the limbs of broken statues of
Apollo, of Athene, or of Aphrodite, or carrying the fragments in baskets
to cast them into the flames in the Hippodrome after the wooden stock
of the great Serapis. The mob had broken off the noses of all the heads,
had smeared the marble with pitch, or painted it grossly with the red
paint they had found in the writing-rooms of the Sera peum. Every one
who could get near enough to the remains of the statue, or to a fragment
of a ruined idol, spit upon it, struck it or thrust at it; and not a
heathen had, as yet, dared to interfere.

Behind the oak block of the image of Serapis and the other trophies
of victory, came an endless stream of men of all ages, of monks and of
women, compelling a large carruca--[A four-wheeled chariot used in the
city and for travelling.]--that had fallen into their hands, and which
they had completely surrounded, to keep pace with them. The two fine
horses that drew it had to be led by the bridle; they were trembling
with terror and excitement and made repeated attempts to kick over the
pole or to rear.

In this vehicle was Porphyrius, who had fully recovered consciousness,
and by his side sat Gorgo. Constantine had not stirred from the side of
the convalescent till Apuleius had pronounced him out of all danger;
but then the young officer's duty had called him away. The merchant
had hailed the news of his daughter's, union with the companion of her
childhood as a most satisfactory and long-expected event.

A party of the Prefect's guards had been charged to bring the carriage
for Porphyrius to the door of the temple, and the abbot of a monastery
at Arsinoe, who was well known to the Prefect, undertook to escort them
on their road home and protect them from the attacks of the raving mob.
At the spot where the side street intersected the street of the Sun, and
where Marcus and Dada had been forced to stop, unable either to proceed
or to return, a troop of armed heathen had given the Christian rabble
a check at the very moment when the carruca came up, and falling on
the foe who had mocked and insulted their most sacred treasure, began
a furious fray. Quite close to the young lovers a heathen cut down a
Christian who was carrying the besmirched head of a Muse. Dada clung
in terror to Marcus, who was beginning to be seriously alarmed for her
when, looking round for aid or refuge, he caught sight of his broth