he stopped several times to speak to the
passers-by.

During the following day or two he heeded not the heat of the weather,
nor his own need of rest for his body, and quiet occupation for his
mind; morning, noon and night he was riding about the streets stirring
up the people, and setting forth in insinuating speeches that they must
perish miserably if they rejected the only means of deliverance which he
had pointed out to them. He was present at every meeting of the Senate,
and his inflammatory eloquence kept the town council on his side, and
nullified the efforts of the bishop, while he pressed them to fix the
day of the marriage of the Nile with his bride.

He knew the Egyptians and their passion for the intoxicating joys of a
splendid ceremonial. This festival: the wedding of the Bride of the Nile
to her mighty and unresting spouse, on whom the weal or woe of the
land depended, was to be as a flowery oasis in the waste of dearth
and desolation. He recalled every detail of the reminiscences of his
childhood as to the processions in Honor of Isis, and the festivals
dedicated to her and her triad; every record of his own experience
and that of former generations; all he had read in books of the great
pilgrimages and dramas of heathen Egypt--and he described it all in his
speeches, painted it in glowing colors to the Senate and the mob,
and counselled the authorities to reproduce it all with unparalleled
splendor on the occasion of this marriage.

Every man in whose veins flowed Egyptian blood listened to him
attentively, took pleasure in his projects, and was quite ready to do
his utmost to enhance the glories of this ceremonial, in which every one
was to take part either active or passive. Thousands were ruined, but
there was yet enough and to spare for this marriage feast, and the
Senate did not hesitate to raise a fresh loan.

"Destruction or Deliverance!" was the watch-word Horapollo had given
the Memphites. If everything came to ruin their hoarded talents would be
lost too; if, on the other hand, the sacrifice produced its result, if
the Nile should bless its children with renewed prosperity, what need
the town or country care for a few thousand drachmae more or less?

So the day was fixed!

Not quite two weeks after Paula's trial, on the day of Saint Serapis
the miraculous, saving, auspicious ceremonial was to take place. And how
glowing was the picture given of the Bride's beauty by the old man,
and by t