passage which led close to the emperor's own apartment, and then let him out by a little postern.

"No one," said Gallus, "knows this passage, save my master Dorotheus and myself. See you keep my secret."

He shut the door; and Lucius was once more walking a solitary man in the streets of Nicomedia.

CHAPTER III.

The Encounter.

Him in a narrow place he overtooke,
And fierce assailing forc'd him turn again:
Sternely he turn'd again, when he him strooke
With his sharp steel, and ran at him amain
With open mouth, that seemed to contain
A full good pecke within the utmost brim,
All set with iron teeth in raunges twain,
That terrified his foes, and armed him,
Appearing like the mouth of Orcus' grisly grim.

But Caledore, thereof no whit afraid,
Rencountered him with so impetuous might,
That th' outrage of his violence he staid,
And bet aback, threatening in vain to bite,
And spitting forth the poison of his spight,
That foamed all about his bloody jawes,
Though rearing up his former feet on hight,
He ramp'd upon him with his ravenous pawes,
As if he would have rent him with his cruel claws.

Faery Queen.

The

WHEN Lucius left the palace he walked on for a time, scarcely heeding in what direction he went. preparations which he had beheld, the scenes which he expected, swallowed up his thoughts. It might have been long before he recovered himself, had he not been hailed in a rough voice

"Master Lucius, how go your prospects at the palace?"

He turned round, and saw the coarse but friendly

features of the captain with whom he had come to Nicomedia. The sight nearly overcame him. With difficulty could he state what had happened. The blunt sailor listened with interest.

"If my vessel were ready for sea," he said, "I would take you back to-morrow for nothing; but it will be a month or more before my cargo is collected, and in the meanwhile the ship is laid up in dock."

66

"I scarce know where to go," said Lucius-" for my letter to Constantine was burnt in the palaceunless it be to the bishop of the Christians."

"That is not the safest of places just now," said the sailor; " but it may do for a while; and when my ship is ready, you shall be welcome to a passage back to Ostia."

Lucius thanked his rough companion; and though he remembered that for a pennyless man it was a long journey from Italy to Britain, he felt the 'gloom of his prospects somewhat abated. But how to bestow himself in the meantime? He determined to have recourse to Anthimus, and to try how far the charity of a Christian would extend itself.

A second time, therefore, he was at the house of Anthimus, who now happily was at home. He was shewn into the presence of a reverend-looking man of advanced age, whose countenance, displaying a blended look of kindness and of sorrow, at once affected and encouraged him.

"What want you, young man, with me?" said

Y

the bishop "from your dress, you seem to come from the palace. Are you the bearer of any order from the emperor?—you will find me as little disposed to resist as to fly."

Lucius hastened to declare that he was himself a fugitive.

"You come, my son, but to a poor place of refuge."

The young man, thus encouraged, told his tale, and that he was the bearer of a letter from the Bishop of York, which he had lost in the fire of the preceding night. Already, he said, he had been up to deliver it. Anthimus shewed deep interest in the fortunes of the Church in Britain.

66

'I would," he said, "that we could live with the same confidence here, which prevails under the mild sway of Constantius; but the Lord reigneth. My office, young man," he concluded at last, " is to shew hospitality to all men; and though not one of our own Christian family, yet you are welcome to such as I can give, and while I have it to bestow."

They were interrupted by a person who came to entreat the bishop that he might that day be admitted to the Holy Communion.

"You were publicly convicted," said the bishop, "of adultery only half a year ago; the sentence of our fathers, by which you would have been excluded from the Holy Communion during seven years, was shortened to three years, on your giving signs of a sincere repentance. For three years only are

you to continue with those without the church in daily fasting and penitence. This is for your own benefit, as well as for the sake of example; for if you were allowed at once to approach the holy table, you would be in danger of coming with a carelessness, which would increase your guilt. You need some severe lesson to remind you of the greatness of your crime. What reason, then, can you give why you should be admitted so early to absolution ?"

The penitent pleaded the danger of the times-the probability of a persecution—that he might be cut off without the sign of forgiveness or the bread of life.

"So much," said the bishop, "I am ready to allow, that in case of sickness or danger, any priest may reconcile you to the Church. But times of persecution are rather fitted to increase than to relax the rigour of discipline. For, whence comes this visitation upon us, but because our discipline has been allowed to languish? Is not God calling us by it to an increased watchfulness? Has He not sent this judgment upon us because our love has grown cold? Look at the times of our fathers, and you will find that it has always been when the Christian body has been exercised with the greatest outward trials that its inward life has been most vigorous and entire."

Lucius was surprised to find, from the rest of the conversation, that the man who was thus rejected was a person of wealth and influence, who voluntarily submitted to stand at the door of the Christian