tion, be my guide. I will bridle my tongue, O Jehovah, not speak out at all concerning thee. For who are the heathen that I should speak out for them, and perish for their sakes? And who am I that I should proselytize unto thee, O Jehovah-I, but a worm in the dust? Canst thou not, if thou wilt, O Jehovah, and easily, convert- And emotion shall never rule me, but intellect alone. Come then, O trial! Let us go before the prefectus, thou and I, Ophidion. Let us go before Justus, and test our strengths together in the presence of the court and the world. Stand thou by me, O thou Lord of Abraham, and give me a mighty cunning in my tongue, for I shall need it on that day."

Now, in the courts of Simon of Cyrene, the servants said, with bated voices: "Our Master is under arrest.”

"Sarcogenes, erstwhile Ophidion, hath done this: he is a great gourmand." So said the chief of the bakers.

"It is true,' "said one of the sculptors, he that was making an image of Vita Longa for the Master's library. "I liked not the man, Sarcogenes, from the day I observed that his hair and his eyes matched not."

Then said Musculosus, one of the grossest of the slaves which turned the hand-mills and ground the flour for Simon's familia: “He seemeth ever so sad, our Master. When he laugheth he seemeth saddest of all times, so that, once, when I beheld his lips a-smiling, I but chanced to gaze into his eyes, and lo! then saw I that these were so deep melancholy with private grief that I became ashamed I had looked into them. He, the Master, observing my confusion, said: 'Musculosus, why seemest thou confused so?' I could but answer the Master the truth, being confounded. I said: 'Because thine eyes, O Master, are terrible in their sadness.' Then saith he unto me, "Thou knowest it not, O Musculosus, but I have been (and yet am) more of a slave than thou.' And he would have said more, but, methought, he could not. And I have often believed that he wished (but was not able) to tell me that all of the sadness in his life had a-grown out of this one very thing, that, on a certain day, he had borne the cross-'

"Come, hurry up," cried the master of the tables, as he entered the court. "Each man unto his own task. To it, O asses."

"Now what's the matter?"

"What do ye stand for, cooks? Be off at once, and see to the great cooking."

"But what is the matter?"

"Set up the tables in the new triclinium-there where all the later gods are-they will soon be here."

"The gods?"

"No, fool; not the gods, but the company. Hurry! Hast not heard? The Master giveth on this day a feast. In honor of Seneca, the moral philosopher, giveth he it."

"Then let us hurry indeed! Go, some this way and some that." "But not too swiftly either. Have ye not learned how haste maketh-"

"But why were we not told before that a feast cometh on this day?"

"Yea, answer us that."

"How can I tell? How can any of us tell until Conatus-” "Anyway, feasts and visitors are rare enough here."

"Our Master is a friend of Cæsar."

"Yea, he is a friend."

"But is Cæsar a friend of our Master?"

"Yea, the same kind of friend-hurry up, ye scrubbers of the pavement, yonder!-as a hand is which taketh a sponge, and, letting it suck its fill-hurry up, tablers-of golden water, taketh it then, and holdeth it over his own treasure-chest, and-"

"Squeezeth it liberally."

"Ye do say right: squeezeth it liberally."

"But ever the sponge is ready—”

"And hath good store of golden water in him at each and any several moment—”

"Hush, fool!"

"Why 'hush'?" "Conatus!"

"It is Conatus!"

Conatus came. Giving all most excellent words and tender smiles, he said unto them: "There will not be any feast. Seneca, the moral philosopher, hath sent his regrets, saying Cæsar hath invited him instead. Hence he goeth up today to feast with Cæsar."

"Will Seneca come tomorrow?" asked one of the boy slaves. Conatus reflected, and all the crowd were silent. Then said he, "Seneca will not come tomorrow; no, nor the day after. Yet he liveth and will prosper for a long time."

All the servants remained a good while silent.

Then some laughed, and one or two sobbed. But Conatus went into his private chamber. There he knelt and prayed fervently.

CHAPTER XLVI

LIFE ETERNAL

Now it was just about the time of the Roman Saturnalia (that period of the year when slaves were given their liberties for a week that they might be free in as great license as their masters) when the trial of Simon of Cyrene also drew a-nigh. A storm seemed ever impending. The weather, spite of the nearness of the winter solstice, was sultry, and men grew irascible. Frequent brawls took place in the streets and open spaces of the city, and in many a court the servants of great men quarrelled and fought, and their masters, behind drawn curtains, did deeds of greater darkness.

And, on that very day of days, but ere Simon had yet departed in fear and in trembling (yet also rejoicing because of his great strength) to the basilica wherein his trial was to be, he called unto him Conatus in the atrium, and said: "Where I go, ye may not be also. From the foundations it hath been ordained. Moreover, the time of the Saturnalia approacheth. Hie thee, therefore, out of mine insula, and get thee whithersoever thou wilt. Life is hard for thee, for everyone. Such pleasure be unto thee, therefore, as is possible or ere the end which soon cometh unto all shall reach even thee, O light of heart but overweary." He motioned him not to speak, but to be gone.

Said Conatus, "But I will speak. Thou goest to thy trial, it may be death. And I, O Master, have been remiss unto thee, not by any means a good servant. For behold, there was always-there was always—a thing of which I ought-to have spoken- Ah, Master! I have no more tongue than face." He stood in the fashion of slaves, and could not in any wise continue.

His master therefore pitied him. He stroked his hair, as was the way with masters in those times, whensoever they were specially pleased with their servants.

"Thou art much o'erwatched," said Simon, "and dost imagine ridiculous things." At this, he, looking up suddenly, cried aloud: "What was that?"

"Naught heard I," answered the steward. Then again: "The water is exhausted from the uppermost jar of the water-clock, and, with a gurgling sound, it starteth running from the nearest undervessel." Then the old slave that was sitting by the clock moaned, as he were a mere machine unmindful of the meaning of his solemn

words: "Be true, O all, be true! O all! That time shall come when time shall be no more.

Saith Simon to Conatus, "Heard ye not yet another voice, one which saith unto me: 'And when I am through with thee, I will break thee, and yet keep thee'?"

Conatus turned aside, and departed, weeping, to his room, while his Master, still in the atrium, said to himself: "Oh my soul, my soul! What is this that hath come over thee? Why, in these latter days, have I forgotten to hunt the mongrel, Trivialis, even as I once did promise me I would do, meaning to take sweet revenge? And lately I care not for revenges any more. Ever it runneth in my heart that any man upon which I might be revenged could have been my brother. An eye for an eye- No, no! Can I cause suffering and not suffer therewith? The deed cometh ever back to the doer, even as love cometh home eternally and bringeth again with it- Ah, poor Conatus, I may be, on a day, as stuttering, as unconvincing, as ineloquent, as thou art. Pray God, not upon this trial. Pray- But I must behold again mine other servants-they too are precious unto me-ere I do go."

He went out into the farthest courts where the revelry was of the Saturnalia, a feast held in honor of Saturnus, which is also Chronos, or Time, first of the kings of Rome. And lo, the men and the women were a-drunken together and calling upon the name of Saturnus. Most had cast their garments off, a many had fought, two or three of the men were dead and one woman.

And Simon departed for his trial, being helpless in both matters. Meanwhile, in the Forum, a multitude of commoner folk had gathered together, as it were with a mighty and common impulse. And Defectus, who was one of these, said unto Vulgus and Mobilis, his boon companions: "Glad to see you. Whither are ye bound?'' Say they: "To the Basilica, where Simon of Cyrene standeth upon trial this day."

Defectus: "I go thither also, and I hope we shall joyfully hear the prefect send that villain to the cross. I am of them that have secretly imparted information."

"Unto the cross will Simon surely go," quoth Mobilis, "and that most deservedly."

"Else to the mines," put in Vulgus. I think-" Now there came out of a clear sky a burst of thunder which rolled far away to the eastward. Defectus saith, "Let us hurry: we may get no place at the trial."

But he became separate from his friends, owing to the press, and

so went on into the Basilica as best he could. And there he climbed upon the pedestal of Jove's great statue, and looked out over the writhing sea of faces.

And the prefect came, whose name was Justus, and sate upon the high tribunal. Then appeared, tall, dark and majestic, the Accuser, Sarcogenes. After him, Simon of Cyrene.

Simon went and sate in the place among the subsellia appointed for criminals to sit in. Then opened the prefect the court. The judgment was set, the books brought.

But hardly had the prefect declared, "Let now the delation be read in the case of the World against Simon the Jew," when there arose a sudden cry of many loud voices: "Cæsar! Cæsar! Lord of All the World!"

And behold, from a side door, entered Cæsar. The multitude cried again, as it were a single speech of adoration: "Hail! Cæsar! Jupiter! Greatest of all the gods! See! We bow before thee, grovel in thy dust! Hail! Cæsar Omnipotens! We are wholly thine, Divinity!"

And Cæsar removed the cause from the hands of Justus, and sent Justus away.

And Justus went forth even from out the building and the very purlieus thereof.

Then said in his heart Defectus, "I thank thee, Mercury, even for this, that Cæsar hath taken up the case of Simon of Cyrene into his own hands. For now will Simon the Jew (whom I so envy) receive the punishment which I myself would long ago have inflicted upon him, had I been able. The cross! The mines!"

. And Conatus, on his part, when he had left his Master's domus, went forth in the streets and lanes of Rome, high sorrowful. He passed a certain wineshop, and said: "Not in there." And he passed another wineshop, but again he said: "Not in there."

And again, "Not in there, either."

For the man was aware of his weakness, and would not deliver himself unto temptation.

He came down past the cells of many harlots which were in the walls of the Circus Maximus. But again he said, "Not in there, neither."

And coming round through the Forum Boarium, and into the Street of The Travellers, he saw again a certain wineshop whence came the sounds of hilarity. He said, "This noise is what I need. And what does it matter that I go in, if truly I, being careful, do not drink?"