me, despite the horror, the pity and the
sorrow, there was also in his heart a sense of happiness and even a
vague feeling of triumph.

What he saw there--with eyes that comprehended not--_that_ he knew _was_
because _it must be_; because it had been preordained and done by One
Whose will was mightier than death. Though with aching heart and seared
eyes he had watched every minute of the supreme agony, yet something
within him, even then, had told him that every minute of that agony was
a sacrifice that would not be in vain. And whilst in weakness he groaned
with the pathos of it all, yet did his heart thrill with strange
exultation, and from that Cross--even when all was silent--there rang in
his ear the last words of perfect fulfilment of a perfect sacrifice:

"It is finished!"

And even as the words rang once again in Taurus Antinor's ears, the
awful darkness of that momentous hour fell upon the dream-hill far away.
Golgotha, with its three towering crosses vanished from before the
visionary's gaze. Once more there rose before him the marble temples of
pagan Rome that crowned the Capitol--the gorgeous idols covered in gold,
these gods of mockery before whom the mightiest Empire in the world was
satisfied to bow the knee.

And that same sweet, sad longing rose in the dreamer's heart.

"Could I but have heard Thee speak more often!... Could I but have
touched Thy hands, methinks that I would have understood.... But now ...
now all is still dark before me ... and the way is so difficult."

And even as the sigh died upon his lips there came from behind him the
sound of prolonged and hoarse laughter, followed by snatches of a
drinking song and loud calls for slaves and litters.

Caius Nepos' guests were leaving the hospitable house at last. Drunk
with wine, smothered in flowers, replete with every epicurean delight
they were going home now, having, mayhap, forgotten that they had
plotted to murder Caesar and to raise themselves to power at all costs,
even if that cost was to be a sea of blood or the ruins of Rome.

The song and laughter soon died away in the distance. Taurus Antinor had
distinguished the voice of Hortensius Martius and that of Ancyrus, the
elder. The sigh of sadness turned to one of bitterness, his arms dropped
by his side, and a cry of harsh contempt escaped his parched? throat.

"Oh, Man of Galilee," he murmured, "didst die for such as these?"

CHAPTER XI

"Come unto Me, all ye that la