all you can tell me?" asked Adauctus, with a smile. "Look
you," and unlocking an ivory cabinet, he took out a wax-covered tablet
on which were inscribed the names of several other conspirators against
his life, with the particulars of their plots.

"I have not sought one of these disclosures," he went on, "yet they have
come to me from trustworthy sources; sometimes from men who are
themselves Pagan, yet with honest souls that recoil from treachery and
murder."

"And you know all this and remain thus calm!" exclaimed the Greek in
amazement.

"With such a sword of Damocles hanging over _my_ head, I am sure I could
neither eat nor sleep."

"Have you never read the words," asked Adauctus solemnly, "'The very
hairs of your head are all numbered?' and not a sparrow shall fall
without your Father's notice. Have you never read of righteous Daniel
whom his enemies cast into the lions' den, and how God shut the lions'
mouths that they did him no harm. You have seen the pictured story in
the Catacombs. So will my God deliver me from the mouth of the lion,"
and a look of heroic faith transfigured his face--"or," he whispered
lower, but with an expression of even more utter trust, "or give a
greater victory and take me to Himself."

"Such stoical philosophy, my master," said the Greek with bated breath,
"neither Zeno nor Seneca ever taught."

"Nay," said the noble Roman, "it is not stoicism, it is faith. Not in
the Porch or Academy is this holy teaching learned, but in the school of
Jesus Christ."

"Oh, wretched coward that I am!" cried the Greek, with an impassioned
aspiration after a moral courage which he felt almost beyond his
comprehension, "would that I had such faith."

"Seek it, my brother," said Adauctus solemnly, "where alone it may be
found, at the Cross of Christ. Whoso apprehends in his soul the meaning
of the Great Sacrifice, will thenceforth count not his life dear unto
him for the testimony of Jesus."

"But is the way of the Cross such a thorny, bloodstained path?" asked
the Greek, with quavering voice. "Are those noble souls, the highborn
and beautiful Valeria, the good and gentle Callirho[e:], exposed to such
appalling perils?"

"We live in troublous times," answered Adauctus. "Christ came not to
send peace on the earth but a sword. Whoso will save his life by
cowardice and treachery shall basely lose it. Whoso will lose it for
Christ's sake shall gloriously and forever find it!"

These words burne