difficulties in it, no doubt, and she skipped sundry unintelligible
passages, but the second chapter captivated her attention. It spoke of
the birth of the great Teacher whom the Christians worshiped as their
God. Angels had announced to the shepherds in the field that great joy
should come on the whole world, because the Saviour was born; and
this Saviour and Redeemer was no hero, no sage, but a child wrapped in
swaddling-clothes and lying in a manger.

At this she smiled, for she loved little children, and had long known
no greater pleasure than to play with them and help them. How many
delightful hours did she owe to the grandchildren of their neighbor
Skopas!

And this child, hailed at its birth by a choir of angels, had become
a God in whom many believed! and the words of the angels' chant were:
"Glory to God on high, and on earth peace, good-will toward men!"

How great and good it sounded! With eager excitement she fastened the
rolls together, and on her features was depicted impatient longing to
put an end to an intolerable state of things, as she exclaimed, though
there was no one but herself to hear: "Ay, peace, salvation, good-will!
Not this hatred, this thirst for revenge, this blood, this persecution,
and, as their hideous fruit, this terror, these horrible, cruel fears--"

Here she was interrupted by the clatter of arms and rapping of hammers
which came up from below. Caesar's Macedonian guard and other infantry
troops were silently coming up in companies and vanishing into the
side-doors which led to the upper tiers of the stadium. What could this
mean? Meanwhile carpenters were busy fastening up the chief entrance
with wooden beams. It looked like closing up sluice-gates to hinder the
invasion of a high tide. But the stadium was already full of men. She
had seen thousands of youths march in, and there they stood in close
ranks in the arena below her. Besides these, there were now an immense
number of soldiers. They must all get out again presently, and what a
crush there would be in the side exits if the vomitorium were closed!
She longed to call down, to warn the carpenters of the folly of their
act. Or was it that the youth of the town were to be pent into the
stadium to hear some new and more severe decree, while some of the more
refractory were secured?

It must be so. What a shame!

Then came a few vexilla of Numidian troopers at a slow pace. At their
head, on a particularly high horse, rode