e day--multitudes were hastening into
the country, making for Gaul and Spain, or else embarking in vessels
long prepared for such service on the Tiber; that, unless instantly
arrested, there would be none or few for the edicts to operate upon, and
then, when all had become calm again, and he--Aurelian--were dead, and
another less pious upon the throne, they would all return, and Rome
swarm with them as before. Curio said that, when the Emperor heard this,
he broke out into a wild and furious passion. He swore by the great god
of light--which is an oath Curio says he never uses but he keeps--that
you, sir, Piso, had deceived him--had cajoled him; that you had
persuaded him to wait and hear what the Christians had to say for
themselves before they were summarily dealt with, which he had consented
to do, but which he now saw was a device to gain time by which all, or
the greater part, might escape secretly from the capital. He then, with
Fronto and the secretaries, prepared and drew up new edicts, declaring
every Christian an enemy of the state and of the gods, and requiring
them everywhere to be informed against, and upon conviction of being
Christians, to be thrown into prison and await there the judgment of the
Emperor. These things, sir, are what I learned from Curio, which I make
no secret of, for many reasons. I trust you will believe them, for I
heard the same story all along the streets, and mine is better worthy of
belief only because of where and whom it comes from.'

I told Milo that I could not but suppose there was something in it, as I
had heard the rumor from several other sources; that, if Curio spoke the
truth, it was worse than I had apprehended.

Putting together what was thus communicated by Milo, and what, as he
said, was to be heard anywhere in the streets, I feared that some dark
game might indeed be playing by the priest against us, by which our
lives might be sacrificed even before the day were out.

'Should you not,' said Julia, 'instantly seek Aurelian? If what Milo has
said possess any particle of truth, it is most evident the Emperor has
been imposed upon by the lies of Fronto. He has cunningly used his
opportunities: and you, Lucius, except he be instantly undeceived, may
be the first to feel his power.'

While she was speaking, Probus, Felix, and others of the principal
Christians of Rome entered the apartment. Their faces and their manner,
and their first words, declared that the same con