etch sat down by Philammon's side, and as the blood
dripped from his wounds upon the pavement, broke out into a bitter agony
of human tears.

There are times when the very intensity of our misery is a boon, and
kindly stuns us till we are unable to torture ourselves by thought. And
so it was with Philammon then. He sat there, he knew not how long.

'She is with the gods,' said Eudaimon at last.

'She is with the God of gods,' answered Philammon: and they both were
silent again.

Suddenly a commanding voice aroused them.

They looked up, and saw before them Raphael Aben-Ezra.

He was pale as death, but calm as death. One look into his face told
them that he knew all.

'Young monk,' he said, between his closed teeth, 'you seem to have loved
her?'

Philammon looked up, but could not speak.

'Then arise, and flee for your life into the farthest corner of the
desert, ere the doom of Sodom and Gomorrha fall upon this accursed city.
Have you father, mother, brother, sister,--ay, cat, dog, or bird for
which you care, within its walls?'

Philammon started; for he recollected Pelagia.... That evening, so Cyril
had promised, twenty trusty monks were to have gone with him to seize
her.

'You have? Then take them with you, and escape, and remember Lot's wife.
Eudaimon, come with me. You must lead me to your house, to the lodging
of Miriam the Jewess. Do not deny! I know that she is there. For the
sake of her who is gone I will hold you harmless, ay, reward you richly,
if you prove faithful. Rise!'

Eudaimon, who knew Raphael's face well, rose and led the way trembling;
and Philammon was left alone.

They never met again. But Philammon knew that he had been in the
presence of a stronger man than himself, and of one who hated even more
bitterly than he himself that deed at which the very sun, it seemed,
ought to have veiled his face. And his words, 'Arise, and flee for thy
life,' uttered as they were with the stern self-command and writhing lip
of compressed agony, rang through his ears like the trump of doom. Yes,
he would flee. He had gone forth to see the world, and he had seen it.
Arsenius was in the right after all. Home to the desert! But first he
would go himself, alone, to Pelagia, and implore her once more to flee
with him. Beast, fool, that he had been to try to win her by force--by
the help of such as these! God's kingdom was not a kingdom of fanatics
yelling for a doctrine, but of willing, loving, obedient