fill you with
ecstasy."

It was as Vitricus had said; the solemn feast-days of Astarte were in
course of celebration; of Astarte, the well-known divinity of Carthage and
its dependent cities, whom Heliogabalus had lately introduced to Rome, who
in her different aspects was at once Urania, Juno, and Aphrodite,
according as she embodied the idea of the philosopher, the statesman, or
the vulgar; lofty and intellectual as Urania, majestic and commanding as
Juno, seductive as the goddess of sensuality and excess.

"There goes the son of as good and frank a soldier as ever brandished
pilum," said Vitricus to himself, "till in his last years some infernal
god took umbrage at him, and saddled him and his with one of those absurd
superstitions which are as plentiful here as serpents. He indeed was too
old himself to get much harm from it; but it shows its sour nature in
these young shoots. A good servant, but the plague's in his bones, and he
will rot."

His subordinate's reflections were of a different character: "The very air
breathes sin to-day," he cried; "oh that I did not find the taint of the
city in these works of God! Alas! sweet Nature, the child of the Almighty,
is made to do the fiend's work, and does it better than the town. O ye
beautiful trees and fair flowers, O bright sun and balmy air, what a
bondage ye are in, and how do ye groan till you are redeemed from it! Ye
are bond-slaves, but not willingly, as man is; but how will you ever be
turned to nobler purpose? How is this vast, this solid establishment of
error, the incubus of many thousand years, ever to have an end? You
yourselves, dear ones, will come to nought first. Anyhow, the public way
is no place for me this evening. They'll soon be back from their accursed
revelry."

A sound of horns and voices had been heard from time to time through the
woods, as if proceeding from parties dispersed through them; and in the
growing twilight might be seen lights, glancing and wandering through the
foliage. The cottage in which Agellius dwelt was on the other side of the
hollow bridle-way which crossed the hill. To make for home he had first to
walk some little distance along it; and scarcely had he descended into it
for that purpose, when he found himself in the front of a band of
revellers, who were returning from some scene of impious festivity. They
were arrayed in holiday guise, as far as they studied dress at all; the
symbols of idolatry were on their forehe