g a way through the crowded streets to an
accompaniment of oaths and blows. After these came lictors bearing
the fasces on their shoulders; then a splendid chariot drawn by white
horses, and driven by a curled and scented charioteer. In it, that he
might be the better seen, stood a young man, tall, ruddy-faced, and clad
in royal attire, who looked downward as though from bashfulness, but
all the while scanned the crowd out of the corners of his dim blue eyes
shaded by lids devoid of lashes. For a moment Miriam felt those eyes
rest upon her, and knew that she was the subject of some jest which
their owner addressed to the exquisite charioteer, causing him to laugh.
Then a horror of that man took hold of her, and when he had gone by,
bowing in answer to the shouts of the people, who, as it seemed to her,
cheered from fear and not with joy, she asked Julia who he might be.

"Who but Domitian," she answered, "the son of one Caesar and the brother
of another, who hates both and would like to wear their crown. He is
an evil man, and if he should chance to cross your path, beware of him,
Miriam."

Miriam shuddered and said:

"As well, mother, might you bid the mouse that is caught abroad to
beware of the cat it meets at night."

"Some mice find holes that cats cannot pass," answered Julia with
meaning as they turned their faces homeward.

During all this time, although Gallus made diligent inquiry among the
soldiers who arrived from Judaea, Miriam could hear nothing of Marcus, so
that at last she came to believe that he must be dead, and with him the
beloved and faithful Nehushta, and to hope that if this were so she
also might be taken. Still amongst all this trouble she had one great
comfort. Under the mild rule of Vespasian, although their meeting-places
were known, the Christians had peace for a while. Therefore, in company
with Julia and many others of the brotherhood, she was able to visit the
catacombs on the Appian Way by night, and there in those dismal, endless
tombs to offer prayer and receive the ministrations of the Church. The
great Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, had suffered martyrdom, indeed,
but they had left many teachers behind them, and the chief of these soon
grew to know and love the poor Jewish captive who was doomed to slavery.
Therefore here also she found friends and consolation of spirit.

In time Gallus came to learn that his wife was also of the Faith, and
for a while this knowledge seemed