azed," she said. "I am ready,
mother," Callista said, and she got up. "You have been very good to me,"
she continued; "I have been saying many prayers for you, while my prayers
were of no good, for then He was not mine. But now I have espoused Him,
and am going to be married to-day, and He will hear me." The woman stared
at her stupidly, as much as to make it evident that if afterwards a change
took place in her, as in Callista, that change too, though in so different
a soul, must come of something beyond nature. She had something in her
hand, and said, "It's useless to give a mad woman like her the packet,
which my man has brought me."

Callista took the packet, which was directed to her, and broke the seal.
It was from her brother. The little roll of worn parchment opened; a
dagger fell out. Some lines were written on the parchment; they were dated
Carthage, and ran as follows:--

"Aristo to his dearest Callista. I write through Cornelius. You have not
had it in your power to kill me, but you have taken away half my life. For
me, I will cherish the other half, for I love life better than death. But
you love annihilation; yet, if so, die not like a slave. Die nobly,
mindful of your country; I send you the means."

Callista was beyond reflecting on anything around her, except as in a sort
of dream. As common men think and speak of heaven, so she now thought and
spoke of earth. "I wish _Him_ to kill me, not myself," she said. "I am His
victim. My brother! I have no brother, except One, who is calling me."

She was carried to court, and the examination followed. We have already
given a specimen of such a process; here it will be sufficient to make use
of two documents, different in kind, as far as they go, which have come
down to us. The first is an alto-relief, which once was coloured, not
first-rate in art or execution, and of the date of the Emperor
Constantius, about a century later. It was lately discovered in the course
of excavations made at El Kaf, the modern Sicca, on the ruins of a church
or Roman basilica, for the building in question seems to have served each
purpose successively. In this sculpture the praetorium is represented, and
the tribunal of the president in it. The tribunal is a high throne, with
wings curving round on each side, making the whole construction extend to
almost a semicircle, and it is ascended by steps between the wings. The
curule chair is at the top of the steps; and in the middle an