h you had a dagger
in your hand; I would not resist you."

The artist's wound was frightfully wide and deep, but the blood had
flowed among his thick curls, and had clotted over the lacerated veins
like a thick dressing. The water with which Paulus now washed his head
reopened them, and renewed the bleeding, and after the one powerful
effort with which Polykarp pushed away his enemy, he fell back senseless
in his arms The wan morning-light added to the pallor of the bloodless
countenance that lay with glazed eyes in the anchorite's lap.

"He is dying!" murmured Paulus in deadly anguish and with choking breath,
while he looked across the valley and up to the heights, seeking help.
The mountain rose in front of him, its majestic mass glowing in the rosy
dawn, while light translucent vapor floated round the peak where the Lord
had written His laws for His chosen people, and for all peoples, on
tables of stone; it seemed to Paulus that he saw the giant form of Moses
far, far up on its sublimest height and that from his lips in brazen
tones the strictest of all the commandments was thundered down upon him
with awful wrath, "Thou shalt not kill!"

Paulus clasped his hands before his face in silent despair, while his
victim still lay in his lap. He had closed his eyes, for he dared not
look on the youth's pale countenance, and still less dared he look up at
the mountain; but the brazen voice from the height did not cease, and
sounded louder and louder; half beside himself with excitement, in his
inward ear he heard it still, "Thou shalt not kill!" and then again,
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife!" a third time, "Thou shalt not
commit adultery!" and at last a fourth, "Thou shalt have none other gods
but me!"

He that sins against one of those laws is damned; and he--he had broken
them all, broken them while striving to tread the thorny path to a life
of blessedness.

Suddenly and wildly he threw his arms up to heaven, and sighing deeply,
gazed up at the sacred hill.

What was that? On the topmost peak of Sinai whence the Pharanite
sentinels were accustomed to watch the distance, a handkerchief was
waving as a signal that the enemy were approaching.

He could not be mistaken, and as in the face of approaching danger he
collected himself and recovered his powers of thought and deliberation,
his ear distinctly caught the mighty floods of stirring sound that came
over the mountain, from the brazen cymbals struck by