When the road was clear again, Andreas pointed to the beasts, and whispered to his companion “Their blood will be shed in honor of the future god Caracalla.  He once killed a hundred bears in the arena with his own hand.  But I tell you, child, when the fullness of time is come, innocent blood shall no more be shed.  You were speaking with enthusiasm of the splendor of the Roman Empire.  But, like certain fruit-trees in our garden which we manure with blood, it has grown great on blood, on the life-juice of its victims.  The mightiest realm on earth owes its power to murder and rapine; but now sudden destruction is coming on the insatiate city, and visitation for her sins.”

“And if you are right—­if the barbarians should indeed destroy the armies of Caesar,” asked Melissa, looking up in some alarm at the enthusiast, “what then?”

“Then we may thank those who help to demolish the crumbling house!” cried Andreas, with flashing eyes.

“And if it should be so,” said the girl, with tremulous anxiety, “what universal ruin!  What is there on earth that could fill its place?  If the empire falls into the power of the barbarians, Rome will be made desolate, and all the provinces laid waste which thrive under her protection.”

“Then,” said Andreas, “will the kingdom of the Spirit arise, in which peace and love shall reign instead of hatred and murder and wars.  There shall be one fold and one Shepherd, and the least shall be equal with the greatest.”

“Then there will be no more slaves?” asked Melissa, in growing amazement.

“Not one,” replied her companion, and a gleam of inspiration seemed to light up his stern features.  “All shall be free, and all united in love by the grace of Him who hath redeemed us.”

But Melissa shook her head, and Andreas, understanding what was passing in her mind, tried to catch her eye as he went on: 

“You think that these are the impossible wishes of one who has himself been a slave, or that it is the remembrance of past suffering and unutterable wrong which speaks in me?  For what right-minded man would not desire to preserve others from the misery which once crushed him to earth with its bitter burden?—­But you are mistaken.  Thousands of free-born men and women think as I do, for to them, too, a higher Power has revealed that the fullness of time is now come.  He, the Greatest and Best, who made all the woes of the world His own, has chosen the poor rather than the rich, the suffering rather than the happy, the babes rather than the wise and prudent; and in his kingdom the last shall be first—­yea, the least of the last, the poorest of the poor; and they, child, are the slaves.”

He ended his diatribe with a deep sigh, but Melissa pressed the hand which held hers as they walked along the raised pathway, and said:  “Poor Andreas!  How much you must have gone through before Polybius set you free!”

He only nodded, and they both remained silent till they found themselves in a quiet side street.  Then the girl looked up at him inquiringly, and began again: