The same night this man was again seen by some shepherds whom curiosity
led to visit the desecrated building, weeping bitterly in its ruined and
deserted porticoes. As they approached to address him, he raised his
head, and with a supplicating action signed to them to leave the place.
For the few moments during which he confronted them, the moonlight shone
full upon his countenance, and the shepherds, who had in former days
attended the ceremonies of the temple, saw with astonishment that the
solitary mourner whose meditations they had disturbed was no other than
Ulpius the priest.
At the dawn of day these shepherds had again occasion to pass the walls
of the pillaged temple. Throughout the hours of the night the
remembrance of the scene of unsolaced, unpartaken grief that they had
beheld--of the awful loneliness of misery in which they had seen the
heart-broken and forsaken man, whose lightest words they had once
delighted to revere--inspired them with a feeling of pity for the
deserted Pagan, widely at variance with the spirit of persecution which
the spurious Christianity of their day would fain have instilled in the
bosoms of its humblest votaries.
Pages:
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217