Sad, solitary, thoughtful, as in the first days of his apprenticeship to the gods, he now roved in the same moonlit recesses where Macrinus had taught him in his youth.

As the menacing tumults of the day had aroused his fierceness, so the stillness of the quiet night awakened his gentleness.

He had combated for the temple in the morning as a son for a parent, and he now watched over it at night as a miser over his treasure, as a lover over his mistress, as a mother over her child! The days passed on; and at length the memorable morning arrived which was to determine the fate of the last temple that Christian fanaticism had spared to the admiration of the world.

At an early hour of the morning the diminished numbers of the Pagan zealots met their reinforced and determined opponents--both sides being alike unarmed--in the great square of Alexandria.

The imperial prescript was then publicly read.