dus under
Moses had wandered--was peopled with ascetics of like mind, who gave to
their settlements the names of the resting-places of the chosen people,
as mentioned in the Scriptures; but as yet there was no connection
between the individual penitents, no order ruled their lives; they might
still be counted by tens, though ere long they numbered hundreds and
thousands.

The threat of danger had brought all these contemners of the world and
of life in stormy haste to the shelter of the tower, in spite of their
readiness to die. Only old Kosmas, who had withdrawn to the desert with
his wife--she had found a grave there--had remained in his cave, and
had declared to Gelasius, who shared his cave and who had urged him to
flight, that he was content in whatever place or whatever hour the Lord
should call him, and that it was in God's hands to decide whether old
age or an arrow-shot should open to him the gates of heaven.

It was quite otherwise with the rest of the anchorites, who rushed
through the narrow door of the watchtower and into its inner room till
it was filled to overflowing, and Paulus, who in the presence of danger
had fully recovered his equanimity, was obliged to refuse admission to
a new-comer in order to preserve the closely packed and trembling crowd
from injury.

No murrain passes from beast to beast, no mildew from fruit to fruit
with such rapidity as fear spreads from man to man. Those who had been
driven by the sharpest lashings of terror had run the fastest, and
reached the castle first. They had received those who followed them with
lamentation and outcries, and it was a pitiable sight to see how the
terrified crowd, in the midst of their loud declarations of resignation
to God's guidance and their pious prayers, wrung their hands, and at the
same time how painfully anxious each one was to hide the little property
he had saved first from the disapproval of his companions, and then from
the covetousness of the approaching enemy.

With Paulus came Sergius and Jeremias to whom, on the way, he had
spoken words of encouragement. All three did their utmost to revive the
confidence of the terrified men, and when the Alexandrian reminded them
how zealously each of them only a few weeks since had helped to roll the
blocks and stones from the wall, and down the precipice, so as to crush
and slay the advancing enemy the feeling was strong in many of them
that, as he had already proved himself worthy in def