. Into this
apartment, soon as it was thrown open, poured a crowd both of Christians
and Pagans, of Romans and of strangers from every quarter of the world.
There was scarcely a remote province of the empire that had not there
its representative; and from the far East, discernible at once by their
costume, were many present, who seemed interested not less than others
in the great questions to be agitated. Between the two central columns
upon the western side, just beneath the pedestal of a colossal statue of
Vespasian, the great military idol of Aurelian, upon a seat slightly
raised above the floor, having on his right hand Livia and Julia, sat
the Emperor. He was surrounded by his favorite generals and the chief
members of the senate, seated, or else standing against the columns or
statues which were near him. There too, at the side of, or immediately
before, Aurelian, but placed lower, were Porphyrius, Varus, Fronto, and
half the priesthood of Rome. A little way in front of the Emperor, and
nearly in the centre of the room, stood Probus.

If Aurelian sat in his chair of gold, looking the omnipotent master of
all the world, as if no mere mortal force could drive him from the place
he held and filled--Probus, on his part, though he wanted all that air
of pride and self-confidence written upon every line of Aurelian's face
and form, yet seemed like one, who, in the very calmness of an
unfaltering trust in a goodness and power above that of earth, was in
perfect possession of himself, and fearless of all that man might say or
do. His face was pale; but his eye was clear. His air was that of a man
mild and gentle, who would not injure willingly the meanest thing
endowed with life; but of a man too of that energy and inward strength
of purpose, that he would not on the other hand suffer an injury to be
done to another, if any power lodged within him could prevent it. It was
that of a man to be loved, and yet to be feared; whose compassion you
might rely upon; but whose indignation at wrong and injustice might also
be relied upon, whenever the weak or the oppressed should cry out for
help against the strong and the cruel.

No sooner had Aurelian seated himself, and the thronged apartment become
still, than he turned to those who were present and said,

'That the Christians had desired this audience before him and the sacred
senate, and he had therefore granted them their request. And he was now
here, to listen to whatever