succeeded in protecting the
anchorites from all damage, he had followed up the Blemmyes, who fled at
his approach, and cut them off from rejoining their boats. A battle took
place between the barbarians and the Romans, not far from the coast on
the desert tract dividing the hills from the sea, which resulted in the
total annihilation of the wild tribes and gave ground to hope that such
a lesson might serve as a warning to the sons of the desert. But if
hitherto the more easily quelled promptings of covetousness had led
them to cross the sea, they were now animated by the most sacred of
all duties, by the law which required them to avenge the blood of their
fathers and brothers, and they dared to plan a fresh incursion in which
they should put forth all their resources. They were at the same time
obliged to exercise the greatest caution, and collected their forces
of young men in the valleys that lay hidden in the long range of
coast-hills.

The passage of the narrow arm of the sea that parted them from Arabia
Petraea, was to be effected in the first dark night; the sun, this
evening, had set behind heavy storm-clouds that had discharged
themselves in violent rain and had obscured the light of the waning
moon. So they drew their boats and rafts down to the sea, and,
unobserved by the sentinels on the mountain who had taken shelter from
the storm under their little penthouses, they would have reached the
opposite shore, the mountain, and perhaps even the oasis, if some one
had not warned the anchorites--and that some one was Hermas.

Obedient to the commands of Paulus, the lad had appropriated three of
his friend's gold pieces, had provided himself with a bow and arrows and
some bread, and then, after muttering a farewell to his father who was
asleep in his cave, he set out for Raithu. Happy in the sense of his
strength and manhood, proud of the task which had been set him and which
he deemed worthy of a future soldier, and cheerfully ready to fulfil
it even at the cost of his life, he hastened forward in the bright
moonlight. He quitted the path at the spot where, to render the ascent
possible even to the vigorous desert-travellers, it took a zigzag line,
and clambered from rock to rock, up and down in a direct line; when he
came to a level spot he flew on as if pursuers were at his heels. After
sunrise he refreshed himself with a morsel of food, and then hurried on
again, not heeding the heat of noon, nor that of the