r, and knocking at the door, Olinthus said, 'Peace be with
you!' A voice from within returned, 'Peace with whom?' 'The Faithful!'
answered Olinthus, and the door opened; twelve or fourteen persons were
sitting in a semicircle, silent, and seemingly absorbed in thought, and
opposite to a crucifix rudely carved in wood.

They lifted up their eyes when Olinthus entered, without speaking; the
Nazarene himself, before he accosted them, knelt suddenly down, and by
his moving lips, and his eyes fixed steadfastly on the crucifix,
Apaecides saw that he prayed inly. This rite performed, Olinthus turned
to the congregation--'Men and brethren,' said he, 'start not to behold
amongst you a priest of Isis; he hath sojourned with the blind, but the
Spirit hath fallen on him--he desires to see, to hear, and to
understand.'

'Let him,' said one of the assembly; and Apaecides beheld in the speaker
a man still younger than himself, of a countenance equally worn and
pallid, of an eye which equally spoke of the restless and fiery
operations of a working mind.

'Let him,' repeated a second voice, and he who thus spoke was in the
prime of manhood; his bronzed skin and Asiatic features bespoke him a
son of Syria--he had been a robber in his youth.

'Let him,' said a third voice; and the priest, again turning to regard
the speaker, saw an old man with a long grey beard, whom he recognized
as a slave to the wealthy Diomed.

'Let him,' repeated simultaneously the rest--men who, with two
exceptions, were evidently of the inferior ranks. In these exceptions,
Apaecides noted an officer of the guard, and an Alexandrian merchant.

'We do not,' recommenced Olinthus--'we do not bind you to secrecy; we
impose on you no oaths (as some of our weaker brethren would do) not to
betray us. It is true, indeed, that there is no absolute law against us;
but the multitude, more savage than their rulers, thirst for our lives.
So, my friends, when Pilate would have hesitated, it was the people who
shouted "Christ to the cross!" But we bind you not to our safety--no!
Betray us to the crowd--impeach, calumniate, malign us if you will--we
are above death, we should walk cheerfully to the den of the lion, or
the rack of the torturer--we can trample down the darkness of the grave,
and what is death to a criminal is eternity to the Christian.'

A low and applauding murmur ran through the assembly.

'Thou comest amongst us as an examiner, mayest thou remain a conv