who, like most of
the mob that had collected, knew nothing whatever of the popular grudge
against Apollodorus and his house.

But words had already begun to be followed by deeds. Feet, fists, and
cudgels stamped, drubbed, and thumped against the firmly-bolted brazen
door of the darkened house, and a ship's boy of fourteen sprang on
the shoulders of a tall black slave and tried to climb the roof of the
colonnade, and to fling the torch which the sausage-maker handed up to
him into the open forecourt of the imperilled house.

CHAPTER VI.

The clatter of arms which Apollodorus and his guests had heard proceeded
not from the Jew's besiegers, but from some Roman soldiers who brought
safety to the besieged.

It was Verus, who as he was returning from the supper he had given his
veterans, with an officer of the Twelfth Legion and his British slaves,
had crossed the Canopic way and had been impeded in his progress by the
increasing crowd which stood before Apollodorus' house. The praetor had
met the Jew at the prefect's house, and knew him for one of the richest
and shrewdest men in Alexandria. This attack on his property roused his
ire; still he would certainly not have remained an idle spectator even
if the house in danger, instead of belonging to a man of mark, had been
that of one of the poorest and meanest, even among the Christians. Any
lawless act, any breach of constituted order was odious and intolerable
to the Roman; he would not have been the man he was if he had looked on
passively at an attack by the mob, in times of peace, on the life
and property of a quiet and estimable citizen. This licentious man of
pleasure, devoted to every enervating enjoyment, in battle, or whenever
the need arose, was as prudent as he was brave.

He now first ascertained what purpose the excited crowd had in view, and
at once considered the ways and means of frustrating their project. They
had already begun to batter the Jew's door, and already several lads
were standing on the roof of the arcades with burning torches in their
hands.

Whatever he did must be done on the instant, and happily Verus had the
gift of thinking and acting promptly. In a few decisive words he begged
his companion, Lucius Albinus, to hurry back to his old soldiers and
bring them to the rescue; then he desired his slaves to force a way for
him with their powerful arms up to the door of the house. This feat
was accomplished in no time, but how great wa