wish to be admitted to the gaities." So he was let in by the porter, and on to the feasting-room.

And there was Skepticus a-revelling, but far too drunk to talk. And the Jew passed him by, and, being drawn by the music and the multitudes, and by mere human curiosity, went on farther into the room, a hall incredibly vast, in which were packed whole thousands of people, both men and women, some lying at table and others thronging up or down the aisles. And all were dressed in the gayest of costumes. Some in bright green, spotted with yellow moons and suns. Others in scarlet, studded with white or black death's heads. Still others in orange, with amethystine stars. The women were decked out even more grotesquely than the men-some being laced and frilled and padded and stuffed and painted and tinted and dimpled and dusted and beauty-patched and powdered, until they had lost all semblance unto human creatures. Some wore cherries of glass. Others, strings of dead birds. One was clad in a veil of tight gauze, through which her entire nakedness could be beheld, and round her neck clanked a string of poor men's bones. The woman boasted openly that the bones were the bones of the poor. "Those foolish fellows would surely have thrown away their lives in any case," said she; "what matter?" And the freak of gauze and nakedness and the bones of many toilers called forth the admiration of all the other women, who from time to time did press about her, shoving and elbowing mightily. "Hail to Madam Mos! Hail to the Domina, hail to the Madam! Her gown is by Monstrosus in Letitia!"

From time to time, too, the crowd was scattered by men bearing litters whereon were certain dead. Simon asked of a henchman, who were they that had died. The man said, Oh, certain ones that had perished in the duel, or else by assaults, or, it might be, in a drunken apoplexy, or else by their own hands.

"And where do they take those corpses?" asked the Jew.

"Into the Valley of Men's Bones," answered the henchman, "just out of sight of this castle-there to fritter away and finally to bleach out-as thou didst see, of a surety, when thou camest hither." "And worship these people no god?"

"No god!" exclaimed the man in deep amaze. "All men worship gods, and those in this castle worship mostly Venus, Bacchus and Phallus.-What art thou, as in religion?"

"I am a Jew," said Simon of Cyrene. "And I worship the one and only God, which is Jehovah. His name was before the beginnings, and shall be after all the ends, and I would that thou and

all these were, as in such matters, even as I (though only a stranger) am."

But the henchman said, "A certain learned man hath declared that every man should have some religion, and some god or gods, but that it mattereth not extremely what religion or what gods he hath, but only that he should feel some band of connection or relation with some higher power. He was a very learned man.'

And the Jew (before he had thought of the origin of his words) exclaimed, "By their fruits ye shall know them!"

The henchman said, "Thou shouldest be a Stoic. Get ye out of my way."

He went on farther, this Simon of the Curious Heart, coming, after a great while, unto an elevated, vast platform, whereon feasted Levitas himself-black-mustached and yellow and lantern-cheeked, flat-chested and fever-eyed, but shrieking insane delights in all that passed around him. And Simon beheld that the man was really young, although in his black mustachios were evil early hairs of white, while on his face were wrinkles as old as those which are seen on the face of the moon. And Levitas had with him up there birdlike singing girls, and wines which (as some of the henchmen said to Simon) were older than the years, and daring young men for companions in revelry, and hundreds of scattered perfumes, and hangings stained with strange oriental dyes, and feasting and fighting and dancing and jollity and death-for now and then some man did kill another.

And all the men and women, as they danced shamelessly before Levitas, sang foolish songs.

And when they had sung full many, then asked Simon of a man that was near and seemed half sober, but who had been, as he said, a goose-herd, and whose name (now that Levitas had raised him to some rank) was Lusor (or "sport-maker") Simon asked this fellow who the men or women were that had made these songs.

"The most of the songs were made," said the aforetime gooseherd, "by Porneius and Porneia, others by Frivolitas and Effeminatus. But best our Lord doth like the songs writ by Porneius and Porneia. The songs of Effeminatus and Frivolitas are full pleasant, but they go not deeply enough-so hath said our Lord. And he saith also, 'It is art that I want; what hath decency to do with art? Besides, I would have my songs be true to life, showing all its various sides, and there is no decent side. Morality is merely a lie whereby the truth is hidden; let us therefore not abide morality, but have art, which is truth.'"'

"But," said Simon, "are all the people of Gaul of the same opinion about such matters?"

"By no means," said the goose-herd, "I mind me of the time when I dwelt in a village, and there were in that place many little tender songs, touching and sweet, and like to make men better. But, truly, the people who know about such things have said that all those songs are no true art, being moral and therefore incapable of being true. There is nothing true (they say) that is not immoral.-As for me, I follow the judgment of my Lord. I can no other."

Then gat the Lord up, even hollow-chested Levitas, and himself did sing full many a foolish little song, and tell full many a little foolish tale, in both of which, forever, some husband was a donkey, and the seducer of his wife a man of high nobility and great courage till some one cried, "The bear! Cæsar! Let us have the play with the great bear, even Cæsar."

And the bear was brought, and placed within his pit, and a board with a hole in it set about his neck, and on the board was writ "Cæsar."

And Simon beheld that the bear had been starved nigh unto distraction. Men did tease and worry it exceedingly with long, strong poles whereon were fastened strips of bloody meat, and ever, as the bear did bite at the meat or seek to fasten on it with his paws, the men jerked suddenly the poles away and the meat with them.

Some one cried, "The hot honey! Bring the hot honey!" And honey, boiling hot, was fetched and let down into the pit before the bear. The bear, being ravenous, and smelling the honey, ran up thereunto, and, ere he had had full time to discover that the honey was boiling hot, gulped him down the most of it, and then ran screaming round his cage, patting his stomach with his insane paws.

Said Simon unto some one, "Surely the Gauls are loyal to Cæsar." But the man did shrug his shoulders, and pass on.

Then went some man down into the pit with a gleaming sword, saying: "Such and such contempt do people such as we have unto all the laws of this world, even as unto those of that which is yet to come."

He made a cunning pass or two, and slew the bear.

And the people cried, "So be it unto all law and all law-givers." But Simon did not rejoice at such contempt to Cæsar (albeit he had been in Cæsar's mines). So he asked of an officer that was coming straight toward him and gazing upon him steadily: "When do these festivities cease?"

Said the officer, "Not at all. Neither day nor night, not yet at the end of a year. But what art thou to ask me questions? I come to apprehend thee."

Whither the Jew was taken or how far the distance, he endeavored not at all to guess. For he said, "I am wholly at the mercy of these."

He was led down by slow-winding, many-gated galleries far beneath the castle into the heart of the mountain.

And was thrust into a stinking pit, being loaded with chains, and locked securely up in the deep darkness of the pit.

There he abode for many days, hearing and seeing no one, save when a fat-fed servitor did bring him water or food.

On a long distant day he was taken before a subordinate officer of Levitas for trial. And at that time the charges first were told to Simon by a Gaul who hight Mandubrath. This name meant "Man of Black Treason," and its wearer was he that had killed the bear which had been placarded "Cæsar."

The indictment being read, did inform the Jew that, first of all, he was a Jew (a fact of itself highly culpable) and second, that, having secured by a certain residence in the land, a knowledge of the fortifications of the Castle of Levitas, he had formed the intention of divulging such knowledge to certain foreign powers, as, to wit, the British and the Caledonians and others of the regions hyperborean.

And they brought forth forged documents, with the ink scarce dry upon them, saying that Simon of Cyrene had writ them.

And, further, he charged (this man which had worried the bear they called "Cæsar" and which had cursed all law both of this world and the next) that Simon of Cyrene was no true observer of the laws, and, in a word, was a traitor to Cæsar.

It was finally charged that Simon was a slanderer of all the gods, denying especially the divinity of Cæsar, and that he had talked great impiety unto the retainers of Levitas.

And they convicted the Jew by false testimony, and would have sent him to the Devil's Isle-a place like unto the Mines of the Wretched, but that the Lord raised up a certain friend unto the Jew, which fought for him valiantly.

CHAPTER XXXV

KRIEG, IN GERMANIA

In truth it was even as Skepticus had said to Simon about his two children, for that both of these had become Christians. At the

very foot of the cross, they had joined the company that followed Jesus. Yet Simon's eyes were holden, that he saw them not there. And, after Christ's resurrection, they were Christians more than ever. But Amahnah remained in the party of the synagogue.

Now, after a time, when neither Amahnah nor the children was able to learn from any man what had been done with her husband, then she and they took counsel together, at length deciding to go to the heart of the world, if necessary, in search of him.

So Amahnah sold the properties which she had, and sought out Parush and said unto him: "I have sold the properties I had, and now my boys and I would go in search of my husband. They indeed would make a Christian of Simon, but I would keep him ever as he was a Jew. Come with us, therefore, thou and thy wife, Thorah, and guide us unto Rome, and be there as a perpetual counsellor (should we find him) unto my husband-as well as unto many others of the Jews which be in Rome, and might, without thee, in time become Christians. I have moneys and will recompense thee."

So it was agreed. But, at sea, a storm sprang up, and Parush, being a headstrong man, took away the rudder from the helmsman's hands, with this result, that the ship was shattered in pieces.

And the children of Simon came together and safely into a certain isle.

And Amahnah, and Parush with her, and his wife, Thorah— whose name, being interpreted, meaneth "The Law"-were also saved, but upon a different and far distant island.

And the belongings of Berith were all in the sea. Therefore saith Parush unto her, "My spouse and I fare on to Rome alone. For thou didst say thou wouldst recompense me, but now thou art no longer able, having nothing. Yea, as more of glory can be had by me for my scholarship in Rome than in Jerusalem, and quite as much of wealth, I go not back to Jerusalem, but on to Rome. Yet, as for thee, get hence: I am done with thee."

So Amahnah, after many grievous wanderings and hazardous, was brought, on a day, before an under officer of Cæsar, in an obscure city, and there condemned. Even as Simon himself had been condemned, and most unjustly, so also now was condemned Amahnah, or Leah.

And Amahnah did labor in the Mines not far from her husband, but this knew he not, nor, in any case, would have been able to come anigh her. But, knowing it not, he, when the mountain had fallen apart, and he had, by his own strivings, attained to a certain escape, thought not at all to look about for her. Even so, he might have