?"

Vinicius began to pass his hand over his head, as if struggling with
himself or fighting with his thoughts; then, seizing Lygia by the
hand, he said, in a voice in which the energy of a Roman soldier was
quivering,--

"Hear me, Peter, Linus, and thou, Lygia! I spoke as my human reason
dictated; but ye have another reason, which regards, not your own
danger, but the commands of the Redeemer. True, I did not understand
this, and I erred, for the beam is not taken from my eyes yet, and the
former nature is heard in me. But since I love Christ, and wish to be
His servant, though it is a question for me of something more than my
own life, I kneel here before thee, and swear that I will accomplish the
command of love, and will not leave my brethren in the day of trouble."

Then he knelt, and enthusiasm possessed him; raising his hands and eyes,
he cried: "Do I understand Thee, O Christ? Am I worthy of Thee?"

His hands trembled; his eyes glistened with tears; his body trembled
with faith and love. Peter took an earthen vessel with water, and,
bringing it near him, said with solemnity,--

"Behold, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen."

Then a religious ecstasy seized all present. They thought that some
light from beyond this world had filled the hut, that they heard some
superhuman music, that the cliffs had opened above their heads, that
choirs of angels were floating down from heaven, and far up there they
saw a cross, and pierced hands blessing them.

Meanwhile the shouts of fighting were heard outside, and the roar of
flames in the burning city.

Chapter XLVIII

CAMPS of people were disposed in the lordly gardens of Caesar, formerly
gardens of Domitius and Agrippina; they were disposed also on the Campus
Martius, in the gardens of Pompey, Sallust, and Maecenas, in porticos,
tennis-courts, splendid summer-houses, and buildings erected for wild
beasts. Peacocks, flamingoes, swans, ostriches, gazelles, African
antelopes, and deer, which had served as ornaments to those gardens,
went under the knives of the rabble. Provisions began to come in now
from Ostria so abundantly that one might walk, as on a bridge, over
ships, boats, and barges from one bank of the Tiber to the other. Wheat
was sold at the unheard-of low price of three sestertia, and was given
gratis to the indigent. Immense supplies of wine, olives, and chestnuts
were brought to the city; sheep and cattle were d