o be seen tearing open with his own hands the bleeding
victim to see if he could read inside the signs of success or failure.
They laughed at his writings in praise of the gods, where he
represented himself as receiving compliments from them all. They
laughed at his short stature, at his narrow shoulders and at the huge
steps he took in walking, as if, they said, he had been the near
relation of one of Homer's giants.

Julian revenged himself upon them in his writings satires in which
Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, was especially held up to
ridicule. The Galileans were at the bottom of this as of all other
contradictions, he declared, and continued to vent his spleen upon the
Christians. It was the last stand of ancient paganism before it died
out forever.

Chapter 10
THE LAST EXILE

IT was not safe for Athanasius to remain long in the neighborhood of
Alexandria, for the pagans were now having it all their own way. Two
of the bravest and most faithful of his clergy had been seized and
exiled, and Julian's troops were searching everywhere for the
Patriarch. Athanasius made his way to the Thebaid, where he was
received with all the old enthusiasm. Under cover of the night, he
came up the river to Hermopolis, intending to stay there for some time
to preach to the people. The banks of the river were crowded with
bishops, monks and clergy who had come out to welcome their Father.

Athanasius landed and, mounted on an ass led by Theodore, Abbot of
Tabenna, proceeded to the town escorted by a vast throng of people
carrying torches and singing hymns of praise. Here he dismounted, and
the monks asked him for his blessing.

"Blessed indeed and worthy of all praise are these men who carry
always the cross of the Lord," he replied.

After having stayed for some time at Hermopolis, he went with the
Abbot Theodore to his monastery of Tabenna, where he was already
beloved by all. He took the keenest interest in everything that
related to the religious life, even to the work of the humblest
brother. "It is these men, devoted to humility and obedience," he
would often say, "who are our fathers, rather than we theirs."

Round about him lay the great cities of ancient Egypt--"Thebes of the
Hundred Gates" and Memphis, the old capital of the kingdom--cities of
the dead whose glories had already passed away. The glory that these
men had come to seek in their humble monasteries was one which is
eternal. The things o