As they came nearer, he saw that one of them held an open book, that another carried a crucifix, and that others followed these two with clasped hands and drooping heads.

And then, after an interval, the fresh breezes that blew towards him bore onward these words, slowly and reverently pronounced:-- 'Know, therefore, that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
'Canst thou, by searching, find out God?
Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ?' Then the breeze fell, the words grew indistinct, but the procession still moved forward.

As it came nearer and nearer, the voice of the reader was again plainly heard:-- 'If iniquity be in thy hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.
'For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear; 'Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away: And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.' The reader stopped and closed the book; for now Numerian had met the members of the little procession, and they looked on him standing voiceless before them in the clear moonlight, with his daughter's head drooping over his shoulder as he carried her in his arms.
There were some among those who gathered round him whose features he would have recognised at another time as the features of the surviving adherents of his former congregation.

The assembly he had met was composed of the few sincere Christians in Rome, who had collected, on the promulgation of the news that Alaric had ratified terms of peace, to make a pilgrimage through the city, in the hopeless endeavour, by reading from the Bible and passing exhortation, to awaken the reckless populace to a feeling of contrition for their sins, and of devout gratitude for their approaching deliverance from the horrors of the siege.
But now, when Numerian confronted them, neither by word nor look did he express the slightest recognition of any who surrounded him.

To all the questions addressed to him, he replied by hurried gestures that none could comprehend.