ought he had ever read in Pindar's
page, and more sublime than even Homer's hymns. If these things were
true, he thought, he would gladly change places with the martyr on his
bier, if only he might exchange the torturing ambitions, strifes and
sins of time for the holy joys which that marvellous scroll revealed.

Then by loving hands the martyr's body was placed in its narrow tomb. A
marble slab, on which were simply written his name and the words,
"DORMIT IN PACE--He sleeps in peace," was cemented against the opening.
With a trowel, a palm branch, the symbol of martyrdom, was rudely traced
in the yet unhardened cement, and the little company began to disperse.

"O sir," cried the young Greek, clasping the hand of the venerable
Primitius, "teach me more fully this excellent way."

"Gladly, my son," replied the benignant old man. "Come hither to-morrow.
For here," he added with a smile, "my friends insist that I must remain
concealed till this outburst of persecution shall have passed.[20]
Hilarus, the fossor, will be thy guide. He will now conduct thee back
to thy friend Faustus, who is seeking thee."

By the dim light of a waxen taper which he carried, Hilarus led the
Greek to the entrance to the Catacomb, where they found Faustus waiting
in some alarm at the delay of his friend. In the bright moonlight they
walked back to the city. Isidorus thought well to evade giving an
account of his adventure in the Catacomb, and, to turn the conversation,
asked how the Christians had obtained the body of Lucius from the public
executioner.

"Oh, money will do anything in Rome," said Faustus, at which the Greek
visibly winced. "The Lady Marcella, in whose grounds the Catacomb is,
devotes much of her wealth to burying the poor of the Church, and her
steward had no difficulty in purchasing from Hanno, the executioner, the
mangled remains of the martyr. 'Tis like, before long, that he will have
many such to sell."

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES:

[19] For the details above given, see Bingham's _Origines Ecclesiastica_

[20] Liberius, Bishop of Rome, lay concealed in the Catacombs for a
whole year, during a time of persecution.

CHAPTER VII.

WITH HILARUS THE FOSSOR.

"No one becomes vile all at once," said the Roman moralist, and we would
be unjust to the fickle, fawning Greek Isidorus, if we concluded that
deliberate treachery was his purpose, as, at the invitation of
Primitius, he repaired next day to the cataco