verspread with serenity; he
gazed some time in silence, as if speechless from ecstasy, but after a
while they heard his voice,--

"Thou art here, O Lord, and dost show Thy ways to me. True, O Christ!
Not in Jerusalem, but in this city of Satan wilt Thou fix Thy capital.
Here out of these tears and this blood dost Thou wish to build Thy
Church. Here, where Nero rules to-day, Thy eternal kingdom is to stand.
Thine, O Lord, O Lord! And Thou commandest these timid ones to form
the foundation of Thy holy Zion of their bones, and Thou commandest my
spirit to assume rule over it, and over peoples of the earth. And Thou
art pouring the fountain of strength on the weak, so that they become
strong; and now Thou commandest me to feed Thy sheep from this spot,
to the end of ages. Oh, be Thou praised in Thy decrees by which Thou
commandest to conquer. Hosanna! Hosanna!"

Those who were timid rose; into those who doubted streams of faith
flowed. Some voices cried, "Hosanna!" others, "Pro Christo!" Then
silence followed. Bright summer lightning illuminated the interior of
the shed, and the pale, excited faces.

Peter, fixed in a vision, prayed a long time yet; but conscious at last,
he turned his inspired face, full of light, to the assembly, and said,--

"This is how the Lord has overcome doubt in you; so ye will go to
victory in His name."

And though he knew that they would conquer, though he knew what would
grow out of their tears and blood, still his voice quivered with emotion
when he was blessing them with the cross, and he said,--

"Now I bless you, my children, as ye go to torture, to death, to
eternity."

They gathered round him and wept. "We are ready," said they; "but
do thou, O holy head, guard thyself, for thou art the viceregent who
performs the office of Christ."

And thus speaking, they seized his mantle; he placed his hands on their
heads, and blessed each one separately, just as a father does children
whom he is sending on a long journey.

And they began at once to go out of the shed, for they were in a hurry,
to their houses, and from them to the prisons and arenas. Their thoughts
were separated from the earth, their souls had taken flight toward
eternity, and they walked on as if in a dream, in ecstasy opposing that
force which was in them to the force and the cruelty of the "Beast."

Nereus, the servant of Pudens, took the Apostle and led him by a secret
path in the vineyard to his house. But Vinicius