temple, and win back, in my age, the
honours that adorned me in my youth?'

'Assuredly!--at once--without delay!' stammered Vetranio, returning the
stern and inquiring gaze of the Pagan with a bewildered, uneasy stare.

'To mount over the bodies of the Christian slain,' continued the old
man, his sinister eyes dilating in anticipated triumph as he whispered
close at the senator's ear, 'to rebuild the altars that the Christians
have overthrown, is the ambition that has made light to me the
sufferings of my whole life. I have battled, and it has sustained me
in the midst of carnage; I have wandered, and it has been my home in
the desert; I have failed, and it has supported me; I have been
threatened with death, and it has preserved me from fear; I have been
cast into slavery, and it has made my fetters light. You see me now,
old, degraded, lonely--believe that I long neither for wife, children,
tranquility, nor possessions; that I desire no companion but my
cherished and exalted purpose! Remember, then, in the hour of
performance the promise you have now made to aid me in the achievement
of that purpose! Remember that you are a Pagan yourself! Feast,
laugh, carouse with your compeers; be still the airy jester, the gay
companion; but never forget the end to which you are vowed--the destiny
of glory that the restoration of our deities has in store for us both!'

He ceased. Though his voice, while he spoke, never rose beyond a
hoarse, monotonous, half-whispering tone, all the ferocity of his
abused and degraded nature was for the instant thoroughly aroused by
his recapitulation of his wrongs. Had Vetranio at this moment shown
any symptoms of indecision, or spoken any words of discouragement, he
would have murdered him on the spot where they stood. Every feature in
the Pagan's seared and livid countenance expressed the stormy emotions
that were rushing over his heart as he now confronted his bewildered
yet attentive listener. His firm, menacing position; his poor and
scanty garments; his wild, shaggy hair; his crooked, distorted form;
his stern, solemn, unwavering gaze--opposed as they were (under the
fitful illumination of the expiring lamp and the advancing daylight) to
the unsteady gait, the vacant countenance, the rich robes, the youthful
grace of form and delicacy of feature of the object of his steady
contemplation, made so wild and strange a contrast between his
patrician ally and himself that they scarcel