f an important see of the
Christian Church. Not to the prefect of the city, but to the bishop of
Ravenna, Isidorus, with his natural tact and shrewdness, betook himself.
The sign manual of the Emperor, which he confidently exhibited, did not
command that regard which he had anticipated; but a private letter from
Adauctus, commending Isidorus to all Christian bishops and presbyters,
procured for him a much more cordial reception. He was hospitably
entertained, and every possible assistance given him in his quest. The
bishop called together the deacons who had the care of the poor of the
Church, but none of them knew anything of Demetrius. The bishop had
ransomed many Christian slaves--prisoners taken in war, or captured by
pirates. A few years before, when the resources of the Church had been
completely exhausted by the exercise of this charity,[26] a company of
captives had been sold by pirates to a Jewish slave-dealer named Ezra,
and conveyed by him to the city of Mediolanum, or as we now call it,
Milan, as offering, next to Rome, the best market for his wares. And one
of the deacons remembered among this slave-gang an old man who resembled
the description given of Demetrius.

To Milan, therefore, crossing again the Appenines, and riding up the
broad, rich valley of the Po, went Isidorus. He was surprised to find a
city, almost rivalling in extent Rome itself, and with a history
reaching back to the times of the Etruscans, well-nigh a thousand years.
First he sought the Jewish slave-dealer, who kept a regular mart for the
sale or hire of human beings, just as one now-a-days keeps a
livery-stable for the sale or hire of horses. There was as much fraud,
too, in selling slaves then, as has been proverbially connected with
horse-dealing and jockeying in every age. The _ergastulum_, or slave-pen
of Ezra, was a large prison-like structure, surrounding the four sides
of a hollow square. There were no windows to the street, and only very
small iron-grated ones to the inner court; with heavy, iron-studded
doors to the stable-like stalls, where the slaves were chained to a
stout beam running along the wall.

A slave-auction was in progress when Isidorus arrived, so he had to wait
till it was over before plying his quest. A gang of slaves, unchained,
but guarded by keepers, armed with whips and spears, awaited their fate.
Stripped nearly naked, they were rudely examined, pinched, handled, and
made to stoop, lift heavy weights, w