risto, condescendingly; "I
grant you that there have been several untoward affairs; we have had our
problem, but it's a thing of the past, it never can come again. I venture
to say that the power of the praetorians is at an end. That murder of the
two emperors the other day was the worst job they ever did; it has turned
the public opinion of the whole world against them. I have no fear of the
praetorians."

"I don't mean praetorians more than Goths," said Jucundus; "no, give me the
old weapons, the old maxims of Rome, and I defy the scythe of Saturn. Do
the soldiers march under the old ensign? do they swear by the old gods? do
they interchange the good old signals and watchwords? do they worship the
fortune of Rome; then I say we are safe. But do we take to new ways? do we
trifle with religion? do we make light of Jupiter, Mars, Romulus, the
augurs, and the ancilia? then I say, not all our shows and games, our
elephants, hyaenas, and hippopotamuses, will do us any good. It was not the
best thing, no, not the best thing that the soldiers did, when they
invested that Philip with the purple. But he is dead and gone." And he sat
up and leant on his elbow.

"Ah! but it will be all set right now," said Cornelius, "_you'll_ see."

"He'd be a reformer, that Philip," continued Jucundus, "and put down an
enormity. Well, they call it an enormity; let it be an enormity. He'd put
it down; but why? there's the point; why? It's no secret at all," and his
voice grew angry, "that that hoary-headed Atheist Fabian was at the bottom
of it; Fabian, the Christian. I hate reforms."

"Well, we had long wished to do it," answered Cornelius, "but could not
manage it. Alexander attempted it near twenty years ago. It's what
philosophers have always aimed at."

"The gods consume philosophers and the Christians together!" said Jucundus
devoutly. "There's little to choose between them, except that the
Christians are the filthier animal of the two. But both are ruining the
most glorious political structure that the world ever saw. I am not
over-fond of Alexander either."

"Thank you in the name of philosophy," said the Greek.

"And thank you in the name of the Christians," chimed in Juba.

"That's good!" cried Jucundus; "the first word that hopeful youth has
spoken since he came in, and he takes on him to call himself a Christian."

"I've a right to do so, if I choose," said Juba; "I've a right to be a
Christian."

"Right! O yes, right! ha,