of this cathedral caused them special sorrow, and they said that
Saint Cyprian had repeatedly appeared to devout souls in a dream,
comforted them, and announced that he would some day avenge the wrong
committed by the Vandals. This seems to me rather _un_saintly in the
great saint; we poor sinners on earth are daily exhorted to forgive our
enemies, and the wrathful saint ought to let his vengeful feelings
cool, and thus remain the holy Cyprian. The pious Catholics, thus
pleasantly strengthened and justified in their thirst for revenge by
their patron saint, had long waited, in mingled curiosity and anxiety,
for the blow Saint Cyprian was to deal the heretics. On this day it
became evident. The festival of the great Cyprian was just at hand; it
fell on the day following the battle of Decimum. On the evening before,
the Arian priests themselves had decorated the entire church
magnificently, and especially arranged thousands of little lamps, in
order to have a brilliant illumination at night to celebrate the
victory; for they did not doubt the success of their own army. By the
written order of the Archdeacon Verus,--he had accompanied the King to
the field,--all the church vessels and church treasures of every
description were brought out of the hidden thesauri and placed upon the
seven altars of the basilica. Never would these unsuspected riches have
been found in the secret vaults of the church, had not Verus given
these directions and sent the keys.

But we, not the Vandals, won the battle of Decimum. At this news the
Arian priests fled headlong from the city. The Catholics poured into
the basilica, discovered the secret treasures of the heretics, and
lighted their lamps to celebrate the victory of the champions of the
true faith. "This is the vengeance of Saint Cyprian!" "This is the
miracle of the lamps!" Through the city they went, roaring these words
and cuffing and pounding every doubter until he believed and shouted
with them: "Yes, this is Saint Cyprian's vengeance and the miracle of
the lamps!"

Now I have not the least objection to an occasional miracle. On
the contrary, I am glad when something often happens that the
all-explaining philosophers who have so long tormented me cannot
understand. But then it must be a genuine, thorough-going miracle. If a
miracle cannot present itself as something entirely beyond the limits
of reason, it would better not attempt to be a miracle at all; it isn't
worth while. And