and rebellion,' said Synesius, 'they are matters
unknown among as; for where there is no king there can be no rebellion.
Whosoever will help us against Ausurians is loyal in our eyes. And as
for our political creed, it is simple enough--namely, that the emperor
never dies, and that his name is Agamemnon, who fought at Troy; which
any of my grooms will prove to you syllogistically enough to satisfy
Augustine himself. As thus--

'Agamemnon was the greatest and the best of kings.

'The emperor is the greatest and the best of kings.

'Therefore, Agamemnon is the emperor, and conversely.'

'It had been well,' said Augustine, with a grave smile, 'if some of our
friends had held the same doctrine, even at the expense of their logic.'

'Or if,' answered Synesius, 'they believed with us, that the emperor's
chamberlain is a clever old man, with a bald head like my own, Ulysses
by name, who was rewarded with the prefecture of all lands north of the
Mediterranean, for putting out the Cyclop's eye two years ago. However,
enough of this. But you see, you are not in any extreme danger of
informers and intriguers.... The real difficulty is, how you will be
able to obey Augustine, by being content with your wages. For,' lowering
his voice, 'you will get literally none.'

'It will be as much as we deserve,' said the young Tribune: 'but my
fellows have a trick of eating--'

'They are welcome, then, to all deer and ostriches which they can
catch. But I am not only penniless, but reduced myself to live, like the
Laestrygons, on meat and nothing else; all crops and stocks for miles
round being either burnt or carried off.'

'E nihilo nihil!' said Augustine, having nothing else to say. But here
Raphael woke up on a sudden with--

'Did the Pentapolitan wheat-ships go to Rome?'

'No; Orestes stopped them when he stopped the Alexandrian convoy.'

'Then the Jews have the wheat, trust them for it; and what they have
I have. There are certain moneys of mine lying at interest in the
seaports, which will set that matter to rights for a month or two. Do
you find an escort to-morrow, and I will find wheat.'

'But; most generous of friends, I can neither repay you interest nor
principal.'

'Be it so. I have spent so much money during the last thirty years in
doing nothing but evil, that it is hard if I may not at last spend a
little in doing good.--Unless his Holiness of Hippo thinks it wrong for
you to accept the goodwill of an infidel?'