'I should have mentioned,' he said, averting his look, 'that the
presbyter Andreas and his poor will not be forgotten. Moreover, many
of my slaves will receive their freedom.'

Leander murmured approvingly. Again he reflected, and again he
ventured an inquiry: Maximus would desire, no doubt, to rest with
his glorious ancestors in the mortuary chapel known as the Temple of
Probus, by St. Peter's? And seeing the emotion this excited in his
listener he went on to speak at large of the Anician house--first
among the great families of Rome to embrace Christianity, and
distinguished, generation after generation, by their support of the
church, which indeed numbered among its Supreme Pontiffs one of
their line, the third Felix. Did not the illustrious father of
Maximus lead the Christian senators in their attack upon that
lingering shame, the heathen Lupercalia, since so happily supplanted
by the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Mary? He, dying--
added Leander, with an ecstatic smile--made over to the Apostolic
See an estate in Sicily which yielded every year two rich harvests
to the widows, the orphans, the sick, and the destitute of Rome.

'Deacon,' broke from the hot lips of Maximus, who struggled to raise
himself, 'if I do the like, will you swear to me to use your
influence, your power, for the protection of my daughter?'

It was the voice of nature in its struggle with the universal doom;
reason had little part in the hope with which those fading eyes
fixed themselves upon the countenance of the self-possessed
churchman.