he pile.

The ill-balanced, top-heavy mass of images and furniture of many
temples swayed, parted, and fell over against the gates and the wall on
either side of them. Maimed and bleeding, struck down by the lower
part of the pile, as it was forced back against the partition when the
upper part fell, the fury of Ulpius was but increased by the crashing
ruin around him. He struggled up again into an erect position; mounted
on the top of the fallen mass--now spread out at the sides over the
floor of the building, but confined at one end by the partition, and at
the other by the opposite wall and the gates--and still clasping the
image of Serapis in his arms, called louder and louder to 'the men of
the Temple' to mount with him the highest ramparts and pour down on the
besiegers the molten lead!

The priests were again the first men to approach the gates of the
building after the shock that had been heard within it. The struggle
for the possession of the temple had assumed to them the character of a
holy warfare against heathenism and magic--a sacred conflict to be
sustained by the Church, for the sake of her servant who had fallen a
martyr at the outset of the strife. Strong in their fanatical
boldness, they advanced with one accord close to the gates. Some of
the smaller images of the fallen pile had been forced through the bars,
behind which appeared the great idols, the broken masses of furniture,
the long robes and costly hangings, all locked together in every wild
variety of position--a chaos of distorted objects heaped up by an
earthquake! Above and further inward, the lower part of the Pagan's
robe was faintly discernible through the upper interstices in the gate,
as he stood, commanding, on the summit of his prostrate altar, with his
idol in his arms.

The priests felt an instant conviction of certain triumph when they
discerned the cause of the shock that had been heard within the temple.
One of their number snatched up a small image that had fallen through
to the pavement where he stood, and holding it before the people below,
exclaimed exultingly--

'Children of the Church! the mystery is revealed! Idols more precious
than this lie by hundreds on the floor of the temple! It is no demon,
but a man, one man, who still defies us within!--a robber who would
defraud the Romans of the ransom of their lives!--the pillage of many
temples is around him. Remember now, that the nearer we came to this
place th