ed and said,-"Thou
dost please me."

"This man is worth his weight in gold!" cried Tigellinus.

"Put thy liberality with my weight," answered Chilo, "or the wind will
blow my reward away."

"He would not outweigh Vitelius," put in Caesar.

"Eheu! Silver-bowed, my wit is not of lead."

"I see that thy faith does not hinder thee from calling me a god."

"O Immortal! My faith is in thee; the Christians blaspheme against that
faith, and I hate them."

"What dost thou know of the Christians?"

"Wilt thou permit me to weep, O divinity?"

"No," answered Nero; "weeping annoys me."

"Thou art triply right, for eyes that have seen thee should be free of
tears forever. O lord, defend me against my enemies."

"Speak of the Christians," said Poppaea, with a shade of impatience.

"It will be at thy command, O Isis," answered Chilo. "From youth I
devoted myself to philosophy, and sought truth. I sought it among the
ancient divine sages, in the Academy at Athens, and in the Serapeum at
Alexandria. When I heard of the Christians, I judged that they formed
some new school in which I could find certain kernels of truth; and to
my misfortune I made their acquaintance. The first Christian whom evil
fate brought near me was one Glaucus, a physician of Naples. From him
I learned in time that they worship a certain Chrestos, who promised
to exterminate all people and destroy every city on earth, but to spare
them if they helped him to exterminate the children of Deucalion. For
this reason, O lady, they hate men, and poison fountains; for this
reason in their assemblies they shower curses on Rome, and on all
temples in which our gods are honored. Chrestos was crucified; but he
promised that when Rome was destroyed by fire, he would come again and
give Christians dominion over the world."

"People will understand now why Rome was destroyed," interrupted
Tigellinus.

"Many understand that already, O lord, for I go about in the gardens,
I go to the Campus Martius, and teach. But if ye listen to the end, ye
will know my reasons for vengeance. Glaucus the physician did not reveal
to me at first that their religion taught hatred. On the contrary,
he told me that Chrestos was a good divinity, that the basis of their
religion was love. My sensitive heart could not resist such a truth;
hence I took to loving Glaucus, I trusted him, I shared every morsel
of bread with him, every copper coin, and dost thou know, lady, how he
repaid me? O