it! It is I, in good sooth!"

_Antony_, draws closer and inspects him--"Why, his figure was bright as
the dawn, open, joyous. This one is quite sombre, and has an aged
look."

_Hilarion_--"I am worn out with constant toiling."

_Antony_--"The voice, too, is different. It has a tone that chills you."

_Hilarion_--"That is because I nourish myself on bitter fare."

_Antony_--"And those white locks?"

_Hilarion_--"I have had so many griefs."

_Antony_, aside--"Can it be possible? ..."

_Hilarion_--"I was not so far away as you imagined. The hermit, Paul,
paid you a visit this year during the month of Schebar. It is just
twenty days since the nomads brought you bread. You told a sailor the
day before yesterday to send you three bodkins."

_Antony_--"He knows everything!"

_Hilarion_--"Learn, too, that I have never left you. But you spend long
intervals without perceiving me."

_Antony_--"How is that? No doubt my head is troubled! To-night
especially ..."

_Hilarion_--"All the deadly sins have arrived. But their miserable
snares are of no avail against a saint like you!"

_Antony_--"Oh! no! no! Every minute I give way! Would that I were one of
those whose souls are always intrepid and their minds firm--like the
great Athanasius, for example!"

_Hilarion_--"He was unlawfully ordained by seven bishops!"

_Antony_--"What does it matter? If his virtue ..."

_Hilarion_--"Come, now! A haughty, cruel man, always mixed up in
intrigues, and finally exiled for being a monopolist."

_Antony_--"Calumny!"

_Hilarion_--"You will not deny that he tried to corrupt Eustatius, the
treasurer of the bounties?"

_Antony_--"So it is stated, and I admit it."

_Hilarion_--"He burned, for revenge, the house of Arsenius."

_Antony_--"Alas!"

_Hilarion_--"At the Council of Nicaea, he said, speaking of Jesus, 'The
man of the Lord.'"

_Antony_--"Ah! that is a blasphemy!"

_Hilarion_--"So limited is he, too, that he acknowledges he knows
nothing as to the nature of the Word."

_Antony_, smiling with pleasure--"In fact, he has not a very lofty
intellect."

_Hilarion_--"If they had put you in his place, it would have been a
great satisfaction for your brethren, as well as yourself. This life,
apart from others, is a bad thing."

_Antony_--"On the contrary! Man, being a spirit, should withdraw himself
from perishable things. All action degrades him. I would like not to
cling to the earth--even with the soles of my feet."