oment he seemed to them decrepitude and
weakness personified. With that a second voice began to complain,

"Executioners insulted my daughter, and Christ permitted them!"

Then a third,--

"I alone have remained to my children, and when I am taken who will give
them bread and water?"

Then a fourth,--

"Linus, spared at first, they have taken now and put to torture, O
Lord!"

Then a fifth,

"When we return to our houses, pretorians will seize us. We know not
where to hide."

"Woe to us! Who will protect us?"

And thus in that silence of the night complaint after complaint was
heard. The old fisherman closed his eyes and shook his white head over
that human pain and fear. New silence followed; the watchman merely gave
out low whistles beyond the shed.

Vinicius sprang up again, so as to break through the crowd to the
Apostle and demand salvation; but on a sudden he saw before him, as it
were, a precipice, the sight of which took strength from his feet. What
if the Apostle were to confess his own weakness, affirm that the Roman
Caesar was stronger than Christ the Nazarene? And at that thought terror
raised the hair on his head, for he felt that in such a case not only
the remnant of his hope would fall into that abyss, but with it he
himself, and all through which he had life, and there would remain only
night and death, resembling a shoreless sea.

Meanwhile Peter began to speak in a voice so low at first that it was
barely possible to hear him,--

"My children, on Golgotha I saw them nail God to the cross. I heard
the hammers, and I saw them raise the cross on high, so that the rabble
might gaze at the death of the Son of Man. I saw them open His side, and
I saw Him die. When returning from the cross, I cried in pain, as ye are
crying, 'Woe! woe! O Lord, Thou art God! Why hast Thou permitted this?
Why hast Thou died, and why hast Thou tormented the hearts of us who
believed that Thy kingdom would come?'

"But He, our Lord and God, rose from the dead the third day, and was
among us till He entered His kingdom in great glory.

"And we, seeing our little faith, became strong in heart, and from that
time we are sowing His grain."

Here, turning toward the place whence the first complaint came, he began
in a voice now stronger,--

"Why do ye complain? God gave Himself to torture and death, and ye
wish Him to shield you from the same. People of little faith, have ye
received His teaching? Has He promised