e church for the fighting men with the women and the men who remained
behind, he himself, accompanied by a guide and two acolytes, had gone up
the mountain to witness the battle.

To the other priests and his wife who sought to detain him, he had
answered, "Where the flock is there should the shepherd be!"

Unseen and unheard he had gained the castle-wall and had been a witness
to Paulus' vehement speech. He now stood opposite the Alexandrian with
rolling eyes, and threateningly lifted his powerful hand as he called
out to him:

"And dare an outcast speak thus to his brethren? Will the champion of
Satan give orders to the soldiers of the Lord? It would indeed be a joy
to you if by your strong arm you could win back the good name that your
soul, crippled by sin and guilt, has flung away. Come on, my friends!
the Lord is with us and will help us."

Paulus had let the bishop's words pass over him in silence, and raised
his hands like the other anchorites when Agapitus stepped into their
midst, and uttered a short and urgent prayer.

After the "Amen" the bishop pointed out, like a general, to each man,
even to the feeble and aged, his place by the wall or behind the stones
for throwing, and then cried out with a clear ringing voice that sounded
above all other noise, "Show to-day that you are indeed soldiers of the
Most High."

Not one rebelled, and when man by man each had placed himself at his
post, he went to the precipice and looked attentively down at the fight
that was raging below.

The Pharanites were now opposing the attack of the Blemmyes with
success, for Phoebicius, rushing forward with his men from their ambush,
had fallen upon the compact mass of the sons of the desert in flank
and, spreading death and ruin, had divided them into two bodies. The
well-trained and well-armed Romans seemed to have an easy task with
their naked opponents, who, in a hand to hand fight, could not avail
themselves of either their arrows or their spears. But the Blemmyes
had learned to use their strength in frequent battles with the imperial
troops, and so soon as they perceived that they were no match for their
enemies in pitched battle, their leaders set up a strange shrill cry,
their ranks dissolved, and they dispersed in all directions, like a heap
of feathers strewn by a gust of wind.

Agapitus took the hasty disappearance of the enemy for wild flight,
he sighed deeply and thankfully and turned to go down to the field of