he fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."'

At that moment out broke again, from the illumined palace, the burden of
the reveller's song:--

We care not for gods up above us--
We know there's no god for this earth, boys!

Ere the words died away, the Nazarenes, moved by sudden indignation,
caught up the echo, and, in the words of one of their favorite hymns,
shouted aloud:--

THE WARNING HYMN OF THE NAZARENES

Around--about--for ever near thee,
God--OUR GOD--shall mark and hear thee!
On his car of storm He sweeps!
Bow, ye heavens, and shrink, ye deeps!
Woe to the proud ones who defy Him!--
Woe to the dreamers who deny Him!
Woe to the wicked, woe!
The proud stars shall fail--
The sun shall grow pale--
The heavens shrivel up like a scroll--
Hell's ocean shall bare
Its depths of despair,
Each wave an eternal soul!
For the only thing, then,
That shall not live again
Is the corpse of the giant TIME.

Hark, the trumpet of thunder!
Lo, earth rent asunder!
And, forth, on His Angel-throne,
He comes through the gloom,
The Judge of the Tomb,
To summon and save His own!
Oh, joy to Care, and woe to Crime,
He comes to save His own!
Woe to the proud ones who defy Him!
Woe to the dreamers who deny Him!
Woe to the wicked, woe!

A sudden silence from the startled hall of revel succeeded these ominous
words: the Christians swept on, and were soon hidden from the sight of
the gladiator. Awed, he scarce knew why, by the mystic denunciations of
the Christians, Lydon, after a short pause, now rose to pursue his way
homeward.

Before him, how serenely slept the starlight on that lovely city! how
breathlessly its pillared streets reposed in their security!--how softly
rippled the dark-green waves beyond!--how cloudless spread, aloft and
blue, the dreaming Campanian skies! Yet this was the last night for the
gay Pompeii! the colony of the hoar Chaldean! the fabled city of
Hercules! the delight of the voluptuous Roman! Age after age had
rolled, indestructive, unheeded, over its head; and now the last ray
quivered on the dial-plate of its doom! The gladiator heard some light
steps behind--a group of females were wending homeward from their