ry
part of the capital, the Christians are prohibited from assembling
together for purposes of worship, their churches are closed, and their
preachers silenced.

One day intervenes between this, and the first day of the week, the day
on which the Christians as you may perhaps know assemble for their
worship. In the meantime it will be determined what course shall be
pursued.

* * * * *

Those days have passed, Fausta, and before I seal my letter I will add
to it an account of them.

Immediately upon the publication of the Emperor's decrees, the
Christians throughout the city communicated with each other, and
resolved, their places of worship being all closed and guarded, to
assemble secretly, in some spot to be selected, both for worship and to
determine what was to be done, if anything, to shield themselves from
the greater evils which threatened. The place selected was the old ruins
where the house of Macer stands. 'There still remains,' so Macer urged,
'a vast circular apartment partly below and partly above the surface of
the ground, of massy walls, without windows, remote from the streets,
and so surrounded by fallen walls and columns as to be wholly buried
from the sight. The entrance to it was through his dwelling, and the
rooms beyond. Resorting thither when it should be dark, and seeking his
house singly and by different avenues among the ruins, there would be
little chance of observation and disturbance.' Macer's counsel was
accepted.

On the evening of the first day of the week--a day which since I had
returned from the East to Rome had ever come to me laden with both
pleasure and profit--I took my way under cover of a night without star
or moon, and doubly dark by reason of clouds that hung black and low, to
the appointed place of assembly. The cold winds of autumn were driving
in fitful blasts through the streets, striking a chill into the soul as
well as the body. They seemed ominous of that black and bitter storm
that was even now beginning to break in sorrow and death upon the
followers of Christ. Before I reached the ruins the rain fell in heavy
drops, and the wind was rising and swelling into a tempest. It seemed to
me, in the frame I was then in, better than a calm. It was moreover a
wall of defence against such as might be disposed to track and betray
us.

Entering by the door of Macer's cell, I passed through many dark and
narrow apartments, following the nois