easily and instantly accomplished,
and that whatever I might attempt to do in his defence would be no more
than a straw thrown in the face of a whirlwind. But here a new wonder
revealed itself. For no sooner was it evident, from the rage and
tumultuous tossings of the crowd, and their ferocious cries, that the
last momenta of Macer had arrived, than it was apparent that all in the
immediate neighborhood of the building, on whose steps he stood, were
either Christians, or Romans, who, like myself, were well disposed
towards that people, and would promptly join them in their defence of
Macer. These, and they amounted to a large and dense mass, at once, as
those cries arose, sent forth others as shouts of defiance, and facing
outwards made it known that none could assail Macer but by first
assailing them.

I could not doubt that it was a preconcerted act by which the Christian
was thus surrounded by his friends--not, as I afterward found, with his
knowledge, but done at their own suggestion--so that if difficulty
should arise, they, by a show of sufficient power, might rescue him,
whom all esteemed in spite of his errors, and also serve by their
presence to deter him from any further act, or the use of any language,
that should give needless offence to either the Prefect or his friends.
Their benevolent design was in part frustrated by the sudden, and, as it
seemed, unpremeditated movement of Macer in tearing down the edict. But
they still served as a protection against the immediate assaults of the
excited and enraged mob.

But their services were soon ended, by the interference of a power with
which it was in vain to contend. For when the populace had given over
for a moment their design, awed by the formidable array of numbers about
the person of Macer, he again, having never moved from the spot where he
had stood, stretched out his long arm as if he would continue what he
had scarcely as yet begun, and to my surprise the people,
notwithstanding what had occurred, seemed not indisposed to hear him.
But just at that moment--just as a deep silence had at length succeeded
the late uproar--the distant sound, in the direction of the Prefect's,
of a troop of horse in rapid movement over the pavements, caught the
ears of the people. No one doubted for a moment what it signified.

'Your hour is come, Macer,' cried a voice from the crowd.

'It can never come too soon,' answered the preacher, 'in the service of
God. But reme