azing so intently now rose
upward and stood erect, still watching the scene below. Loud cries arose
from behind him which increased still louder, "Down," "down," "sit
down," "you obstruct the view!"

But the man either did not hear or else purposely disregarded it. At
length the crowd grew so noisy that the officers below turned to see the
cause.

Lucullus was one of them. Turning round he saw the whole scene. He
started and grew pale as death.

"Marcellus!" he cried. For a moment he staggered back, but soon
recovering he hurried away to the scene of the disturbance.

But now a deep murmur broke forth from the multitude. The tiger, who had
been walking round and round the boy, lashing himself to greater fury,
now crouched for a spring.

The boy arose. A seraphic expression was upon his face. His eyes beamed
with a lofty enthusiasm. He saw no longer the arena, the high
surrounding walls, the far-extending seats with innumerable faces; he
saw no more the relentless eyes of the cruel spectators, or the gigantic
form of his savage enemy. [See Frontispiece.]

Already his soaring spirit seemed to enter into the golden gates of the
New Jerusalem, and the ineffable glory of the noonday of heaven gleamed
upon his sight.

"Mother, I come to thee! Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"

His words sounded clearly and sweetly upon the ears of the multitude.
They ceased, and the tiger sprang. The next moment these was nothing but
a struggling mass half hidden in clouds of dust.

The struggle ended. The tiger started back, the sand was red with blood,
and upon it lay the mangled form of the true-hearted, the noble Pollio.

Then amid the silence that followed there came forth a shout that
sounded like a trumpet peal and startled every one in the assembly:

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? . . .
Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

A thousand men rose with a simultaneous burst of rage and indignation.
Ten thousand hands were outstretched toward the bold intruder.

"A Christian"--"A Christian"--"To the flames with him"--"Throw him to
the tiger"--"Hurl him into the arena!"

Such were the shouts that answered the cry. Lucullus reached the spot
just in time to rescue Marcellus from a crowd of infuriated Romans, who
were about to tear him in pieces. The tiger below was not more fierce,
more bloodthirsty than they. Lucullus rushed among them, dashing them to
the righ