en who to them were not lost but gone before; to anticipate the
moment when their own time should come. Above all, they looked every day
for that great final summons which should rouse the quick and dead, and
arraign all before the great white throne.

Thus Marcellus saw these dismal passages not left to the silent slumber
of the dead, but filled with thousands of the living. Wan and pale and
oppressed, they found even amid this darkness a better fate than that
which might await them above. Busy life animated the haunts of the dead;
the pathways rang to the sound of human voices. The light of truth and
virtue, banished from the upper air, burned anew with a purer radiance
amid this subterranean gloom. The tender greetings of affection, of
friendship, of kinship, and of love, arose amid the mouldering remains
of the departed. Here the tear of grief mingled with the blood of the
martyr, and the hand of affection wrapped his pale limbs in the shroud.
Here in these grottoes the heroic soul rose up superior to sorrow. Hope
and faith smiled exultingly, and pointed to the light of immortal life,
and the voice of praise breathed forth from the lips of the mourner.

CHAPTER IX.

THE PERSECUTION.

"Ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God
ye might receive the promise."

The persecution raged with greater fury. In the few weeks that passed
since Marcellus had lived here, great numbers had sought refuge in this
retreat. Never before had so many congregated here. Generally the
authorities had been content with the more conspicuous Christians, and
the fugitives to the Catacombs were consequently composed of this class;
it was a severe persecution indeed which embraced all, and such
indiscriminate rage had been shown only under a few emperors. But now
there was no distinction of class or station. The humblest follower as
well as the highest teacher was hurried away to death.

Until this time the communication with the city was comparatively easy,
for the poor Christians above ground never neglected those below or
forgot their wants. Provisions and assistance of of all kinds were
readily obtained. But now the very ones on whom the fugitives relied for
help were themselves driven out, to share their fate and become the
partakers instead of the bestowers of charity.

Still their situation was not desperate. There were many left in Rome
who loved them and assisted them, although they were not Ch