idus.

'What could have been the cause?'

'Why, the priest was a gloomy and sullen fellow. He probably rated
Glaucus soundly about his gay life and gaming habits, and ultimately
swore he would not consent to his marriage with Ione. High words arose;
Glaucus seems to have been full of the passionate god, and struck in
sudden exasperation. The excitement of wine, the desperation of abrupt
remorse, brought on the delirium under which he suffered for some days;
and I can readily imagine, poor fellow! that, yet confused by that
delirium, he is even now unconscious of the crime he committed! Such,
at least, is the shrewd conjecture of Arbaces, who seems to have been
most kind and forbearing in his testimony.'

'Yes; he has made himself generally popular by it. But, in
consideration of these extenuating circumstances, the senate should have
relaxed the sentence.'

'And they would have done so, but for the people; but they were
outrageous. The priest had spared no pains to excite them; and they
imagined--the ferocious brutes!--because Glaucus was a rich man and a
gentleman, that he was likely to escape; and therefore they were
inveterate against him, and doubly resolved upon his sentence. It
seems, by some accident or other, that he was never formally enrolled as
a Roman citizen; and thus the senate is deprived of the power to resist
the people, though, after all, there was but a majority of three against
him. Ho! the Chian!'

'He looks sadly altered; but how composed and fearless!'

'Ay, we shall see if his firmness will last over to-morrow.' But what
merit in courage, when that atheistical hound, Olinthus, manifested the
same?'

'The blasphemer! Yes,' said Lepidus, with pious wrath, 'no wonder that
one of the decurions was, but two days ago, struck dead by lightning in
a serene sky.' The gods feel vengeance against Pompeii while the vile
desecrator is alive within its walls.'

'Yet so lenient was the senate, that had he but expressed his penitence,
and scattered a few grains of incense on the altar of Cybele, he would
have been let off. I doubt whether these Nazarenes, had they the state
religion, would be as tolerant to us, supposing we had kicked down the
image of their Deity, blasphemed their rites, and denied their faith.'

'They give Glaucus one chance, in consideration of the circumstances;
they allow him, against the lion, the use of the same stilus wherewith
he smote the priest.'

'Hast thou seen