ted her kindly as she descended the steps that
led to the street: she heard him not; her mind was confused and lost in
the whirl of tumultuous thoughts, each thought a passion. She felt the
pure morning air upon her cheek, but it cooled not her scorching veins.

'Glaucus,' she murmured, 'all the love-charms of the wildest magic could
not make thee love me as I love thee. Ione!--ah; away hesitation! away
remorse! Glaucus, my fate is in thy smile; and thine! hope! O joy! O
transport, thy fate is in these hands!'

BOOK THE FOURTH

Chapter I

REFLECTIONS ON THE ZEAL OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. TWO MEN COME TO A
PERILOUS RESOLVE. WALLS HAVE EARS, PARTICULARLY SACRED WALLS.

WHOEVER regards the early history of Christianity, will perceive how
necessary to its triumph was that fierce spirit of zeal, which, fearing
no danger, accepting no compromise, inspired its champions and sustained
its martyrs. In a dominant Church the genius of intolerance betrays its
cause--in a weak and persecuted Church, the same genius mainly supports.
It was necessary to scorn, to loathe, to abhor the creeds of other men,
in order to conquer the temptations which they presented--it was
necessary rigidly to believe not only that the Gospel was the true
faith, but the sole true faith that saved, in order to nerve the
disciple to the austerity of its doctrine, and to encourage him to the
sacred and perilous chivalry of converting the Polytheist and the
Heathen. The sectarian sternness which confined virtue and heaven to a
chosen few, which saw demons in other gods, and the penalties of hell in
other religions--made the believer naturally anxious to convert all to
whom he felt the ties of human affection; and the circle thus traced by
benevolence to man was yet more widened by a desire for the glory of
God. It was for the honour of the Christian faith that the Christian
boldly forced its tenets upon the scepticism of some, the repugnance of
others, the sage contempt of the philosopher, the pious shudder of the
people--his very intolerance supplied him with his fittest instruments
of success; and the soft Heathen began at last to imagine there must
indeed be something holy in a zeal wholly foreign to his experience,
which stopped at no obstacle, dreaded no danger, and even at the
torture, or on the scaffold, referred a dispute far other than the calm
differences of speculative philosophy to the tribunal of an Eternal
Judge. It was thus