The emperor asked only for coarse bread, a morsel of fish, two figs, and a bit of cheese.
"My good friends," said he, in a low voice, when the wine was served, "we have with us an able officer in this young Manius, one of our assessors in Jerusalem.

I ask you to drink his health.

Though I can drink no wine, I can feel good sentiments." One could not help remarking his fixed serenity of face and voice and manner as he went on: "Some time ago it came to my ear that he thought me a tyrant wallowing in vulgar and ill-gotten luxury." There was a little stir in those heads around the table, and in every hand and face one might have seen evidence of quickened pulses.

The young officer was now staring through deathly pallor.
"My friends, it is not strange," said the great Augustus, mildly.

"To Jerusalem is quite two thousand miles; and, then he was very young when he left the home of his fathers.