nviction; as soon as they were
alone she poured out before them all the accusations she had to bring
against the adherents of their Faith: They had triumphed in ruining the
creations of Art; the Temple of Isis and the ship-yard lay in ashes,
destroyed by Christian incendiaries; their tears were not yet dry
when they flowed afresh for the sons of Porphyrius--Christians
themselves--who, unless some happy accident had saved them, must have
perished with thousands of innocent sufferers--believers and infidels
together--by the orders of the Emperor whom Constantine had always
lauded as a wise sovereign and pious Christian, as the Defender of the
Faith, and as a faithful disciple of the Redeemer.

When, at last, she came to an end of her indictment she appealed
to Constantine and Eusebius to defend the proceedings of their
co-religionists, and to give her good grounds for confessing a creed
which could sanction such ruthless deeds.

Neither the Deacon nor his pupil attempted to excuse these acts; nay,
Constantine thought they were in plain defiance of that high law of
Love which the Christian Faith imposes on all its followers. The wicked
servant, he declared, had committed crimes in direct opposition to the
spirit and the letter of the Master.

But this admission by no means satisfied Gorgo; she represented to
the young Christian that a master must be judged by the deeds of his
servant; she herself had turned from the old gods only because she felt
such intense contempt for their worshippers; but now it had been her lot
to see--the Deacon must pardon her for saying so--that many a Christian
far outdid the infidels in coarse brutality and cruelty. Such an
experience had filled her with distrust of the creed she was required to
subscribe to--she was shaken to the very foundations of her being.

Eusebius had, till now, listened in silence; but as she ended he went
towards her, and asked her gently whether she would think it right
to turn the fertilizing Nile from its bed and leave its shores dry,
because, from time to time, it destroyed fields and villages in the
excess of its overflow? "This day and its deeds of shame," he went on
sadly, "are a blot on the pure and sublime book of the History of our
Faith, and every true Christian must bitterly bewail the excesses of
a frenzied mob. The Church must no less condemn Caesar's sanguinary
vengeance; it casts a shade on his honor and his fair name, and his
conscience no doubt wi