cried the Egyptian indignantly, as he cast an evil
eye on the demolished edifice. "They have reaped what they sowed; and
now every one in Egypt who does not believe in your One God--blessed be
the Saviour!--confesses the one sole nature of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You drove out the Melchite rabble, and then it was our part to demolish
the temples of their wretched Saviour, who lost His divine Unity at the
synod of Chalcedon--damnation wait upon it!"

"But still the Melchites are fellow-believers with you--they are
Christians," said the merchant.

"Christians?" echoed the guide with a contemptuous shrug. "They may
regard themselves as Christians; but I, with every one else great and
small in this land, am of opinion that they have no right whatever to
call themselves our fellow-believers and Christians. They all are
and shall be for ever accursed with their hundreds--nay thousands of
devilish heresies, by which they degrade our God and Redeemer to the
level of that idol on the stone pillar. Half a cow and half a man! Why,
what rational being, I ask you, could pray to such a mongrel thing? We
Jacobites or Monophysites or whatever they choose to call us will not
yield a jot or tittle of the divine nature of our Lord and Saviour; and
if the old faith must die out, I will turn Moslem and be converted
to your One Omnipotent God; for before I confess the heresies of the
Melchites I will be hewn in pieces, and my wife and children with me.
Who knows what may be coming to pass? And there are many advantages in
going over to your side: for the power is in your hands, and long may
you keep it! We have got to be ruled by strangers; and who would not
rather pay small tribute to the wise and healthy Khalif at Medina than
a heavy one to the sickly imperial brood of Melchites at Constantinople.
The Mukaukas George, to be sure, is not a bad sort of man, and as he so
soon gave up all idea of resisting you he was no doubt of my opinion.
Regarding you as just and pious folks, as our next neighbors, and
perhaps even of our own race and blood, he preferred you--my brother
told me so--to those Byzantine heretics, flayers of men and thirsting
for blood, but yet, the Mukaukas is as good a Christian as breathes."

The Arab had listened attentively and with a subtle smile to the
Memphite, whose duties as guide now compelled him to break off. The
Egyptian made the whole caravan turn down an alley that led into a
street running parallel to the riv