castle. Now not a pebble must be thrown in vain,
for if our tower becomes the central point of the struggle the defenders
will need stones to fling."

These words were heard by several of the anchorites, and as now the
war-cries and the noise of the fight came nearer and nearer, and one and
another repeated to each other that their place of refuge would, become
the centre of the combat, the frightened penitents quitted the posts
assigned to them by Paulus, ran hither and thither in spite of the
Alexandrian's severe prohibition, and most of them at last joined
the company of the old and feeble, whose psalms grew more and more
lamentable as danger pressed closer upon them.

Loudest of all was the wailing of the Saite Orion who cried with
uplifted bands, "What wilt Thou of us miserable creatures, O Lord? When
Moses left Thy chosen people on this very spot for only forty days, they
at once fell away from Thee; and we, we without any leader have spent
all our life in Thy service, and have given up all that can rejoice the
heart, and have taken every kind of suffering upon us to please Thee!
and now these hideous heathen are surging round us again, and will
kill us. Is this the reward of victory for our striving and our long
wrestling?"

The rest joined in the lamentation of the Saite, but Paulus stepped into
their midst, blamed them for their cowardice, and with warm and urgent
speech implored them to return to their posts so that the wall might be
guarded at least on the eastern and more accessible side, and that the
castle might not fall an easy prey into the hands of an enemy from
whom no quarter was to be expected. Some of the anchorites were already
proceeding to obey the Alexandrian's injunction, when a fearful cry, the
war-cry of the Blemmyes who were in pursuit of the Pharanites, rose from
the foot of their rock of refuge.

They crowded together again in terror; Salathiel the Syrian, had
ventured to the edge of the abyss, and had looked over old Stephanus'
shoulder down into the hollow, and when he rushed back to his
companions, crying in terror, "Our men are flying!"

Gelasius shrieked aloud, beat his breast, and tore his rough black hair,
crying out:

"O Lord God, what wilt Thou of us? Is it vain then to strive after
righteousness and virtue that Thou givest us over unto death, and dost
not fight for us? If we are overcome by the heathen, ungodliness and
brute force will boast themselves as though they had