las and in small towns of the Campania, and
also every kind of field-bird from near the sea and the surrounding
mountains, mistaking evidently the gleam of the conflagration for
sunlight, were flying, whole flocks of them, blindly into the fire.
Vinicius broke the silence first,--

"Where wert thou when the fire burst out?"

"I was going to my friend Euricius, lord, who kept a shop near the
Circus Maximus, and I was just meditating on the teaching of Christ,
when men began to shout: 'Fire!' People gathered around the Circus for
safety, and through curiosity; but when the flames seized the whole
Circus, and began to appear in other places also, each had to think of
his own safety."

"Didst thou see people throwing torches into houses?"

"What have I not seen, O grandson of AEneas! I saw people making a way
for themselves through the crowd with swords; I have seen battles, the
entrails of people trampled on the pavement. Ah, if thou hadst seen
that, thou wouldst have thought that barbarians had captured the city,
and were putting it to the sword. People round about cried that the end
of the world had come. Some lost their heads altogether, and, forgetting
to flee, waited stupidly till the flames seized them. Some fell into
bewilderment, others howled in despair; I saw some also who howled from
delight. O lord, there are many bad people in the world who know not
how to value the benefactions of your mild rule, and those just laws
in virtue of which ye take from all what they have and give it to
yourselves. People will not be reconciled to the will of God!"

Vinicius was too much occupied with his own thoughts to note the irony
quivering in Chilo's words. A shudder of terror seized him at the simple
thought that Lygia might be in the midst of that chaos on those terrible
streets where people's entrails were trampled on. Hence, though he had
asked at least ten times of Chilo touching all which the old man could
know, he turned to him once again,--

"But hast thou seen them in Ostrianum with thy own eyes?"

"I saw them, O son of Venus; I saw the maiden, the good Lygian, holy
Linus, and the Apostle Peter."

"Before the fire?"

"Before the fire, O Mithra!"

But a doubt rose in the soul of Vinicius whether Chilo was not lying;
hence, reining his mule in, he looked threateningly at the old Greek and
inquired,--

"What wert thou doing there?"

Chilo was confused. True, it seemed to him, as to many, that with the
de