’Thou alludest to the Athenian.  Ay, to-morrow’s sun the fiat of his death will go forth.  The senate does not relent.  But thou mistakest:  his death gives me no other gratification than that it releases me from a rival in the affections of Ione.  I entertain no other sentiment of animosity against that unfortunate homicide.’

‘Homicide!’ repeated Calenus, slowly and meaningly; and, halting as he spoke, he fixed his eyes upon Arbaces.  The stars shone pale and steadily on the proud face of their prophet, but they betrayed there no change:  the eyes of Calenus fell disappointed and abashed.  He continued rapidly—­’Homicide! it is well to charge him with that crime; but thou, of all men, knowest that he is innocent.’

‘Explain thyself,’ said Arbaces, coldly; for he had prepared himself for the hint his secret fears had foretold.

‘Arbaces,’ answered Calenus, sinking his voice into a whisper, ’I was in the sacred grove, sheltered by the chapel and the surrounding foliage.  I overheard—­I marked the whole.  I saw thy weapon pierce the heart of Apaecides.  I blame not the deed—­it destroyed a foe and an apostate.’

‘Thou sawest the whole!’ said Arbaces, dryly; ’so I imagined—­thou wert alone.’

‘Alone!’ returned Calenus, surprised at the Egyptian’s calmness.

‘And wherefore wert thou hid behind the chapel at that hour?’

’Because I had learned the conversion of Apaecides to the Christian faith—­because I knew that on that spot he was to meet the fierce Olinthus—­because they were to meet there to discuss plans for unveiling the sacred mysteries of our goddess to the people—­and I was there to detect, in order to defeat them.’

‘Hast thou told living ear what thou didst witness?’

‘No, my master:  the secret is locked in thy servant’s breast.’

‘What! even thy kinsman Burbo guesses it not!  Come, the truth!’

‘By the gods...’

‘Hush! we know each other—­what are the gods to us?’

‘By the fear of thy vengeance, then—­no!’

’And why hast thou hitherto concealed from me this secret?  Why hast thou waited till the eve of the Athenian’s condemnation before thou hast ventured to tell me that Arbaces is a murderer?  And having tarried so long, why revealest thou now that knowledge?’

‘Because—­because...’ stammered Calenus, coloring and in confusion.

‘Because,’ interrupted Arbaces, with a gentle smile, and tapping the priest on the shoulder with a kindly and familiar gesture—­’because, my Calenus (see now, I will read thy heart, and explain its motives)—­because thou didst wish thoroughly to commit and entangle me in the trial, so that I might have no loophole of escape; that I might stand firmly pledged to perjury and to malice, as well as to homicide; that having myself whetted the appetite of the populace to blood, no wealth, no power, could prevent my becoming their victim:  and thou tellest me thy secret now, ere the trial be over and the innocent condemned, to show what a desperate web of villainy thy word to-morrow could destroy; to enhance in this, the ninth hour, the price of thy forbearance; to show that my own arts, in arousing the popular wrath, would, at thy witness, recoil upon myself; and that if not for Glaucus, for me would gape the jaws of the lion!  Is it not so?’