ll never get the curse off. Come
here, you priests of Cybele," he added, "and be his body-guard." And he
continued to keep a vigilant eye and hand over the old man, in spite of
them.

The ass, though naturally a good-tempered beast, had been most sadly tried
through the day. He had been fed, indeed, out of mockery, as being the
Christians' god; but he did not understand the shouts and caprices of the
crowd, and he only waited for an opportunity to show that he by no means
acquiesced in the proceedings of the day. And now the difficulty was to
move at all. The people kept crowding up the hollow road, and blocked the
passage, and though the greater part of the rioters had either been left
behind exhausted in Sicca itself, or had poured over the fields on each
side of Agellius's cottage, or gone right over the hill down into the
valley beyond, yet still it was some time before the ass could move a
step, and a time of nervous suspense it was both to Caecilius and the youth
who befriended him. At length what remained of the procession was
persuaded to turn about and make for Sicca, but in a reversed order. It
could not be brought round in so confined a space, so its rear went first
and the ass and its burden came last. As they descended the hill back
again, Caecilius, who was mounted upon the linen and silk which had adorned
the Dea Syra before the Tertullianist had destroyed the idol, saw before
him the whole line of march. In front were flaunted the dreadful emblems
of idolatry, so far as their bearers were able still to raise them.
Drunken women, ragged boys mounted on men's shoulders, ruffians and
bullies, savage-looking Getulians, half-human monsters from the Atlas,
monkeys and curs jabbering and howling, mummers, bacchanals, satyrs, and
gesticulators, formed the staple of the procession. Midway between the
hill which he was descending and the city lay the ravine, of which we have
several times spoken, widening out into the plain or Campus Martius, which
reached round to the steep cliffs on the north. The bridle-path, along
which he was moving, crossed it just where it was opening and became
level, so as to present no abrupt descent and ascent at the place where
the path was lowest. On the left every vestige of the ravine soon ceased,
and a free passage extended to the plain.

The youth who had placed Caecilius on the ass still kept close to him and
sung at the pitch of his voice, in imitation of the rest--

"Sporti