Dear God! How he had waited and watched and prayed for such a release! And how it had been delayed! But at last he had seen it in the promise of the tribune.

What else the great man's meaning?
And if the benefactor so belated should now be slain! The dead come not back to redeem the pledges of the living.

It should not be--Arrius should not die.

At least, better perish with him than survive a galley-slave.
Once more Ben-Hur looked around.

Upon the roof of the cabin the battle yet beat; against the sides the hostile vessels yet crushed and grided.