furiously,--"Why dost thou mock me then with this false image of a
hope unrealized? ... Who gave thee leave to add more fuel to my
flame of torment? ... What means this symbol to thine eyes?
Speak.. speak! What admonition does it hold for thee? ... what
promise? ... what menace? ... what warning? ... what love? ...
Speak.. speak! O, shall I force confession from thy throat, or
must I die unsatisfied and slain by speechless longing! What didst
thou say? ... FIVE THOUSAND YEARS? ... Nay, by the gods, thou
liest!"--and he pointed excitedly to the sacred Emblem,--"I tell
thee that Holy Sign is as familiar to my suffering soul as the
chiming of bells at sunset! ... as well known to my sight as the
unfolding of flowers in the fields of spring! ... What shall be
done or said of it, in. five thousand years, that has not already
been said and done?"

Zuriel regarded him more compassionately than ever, with a
penetrating, mournful expression in his serious dark eyes.

"Alas, alas, my son! thou art most grievously distraught!" he said
in troubled tones. "Thy words but prove the dark disorder of thy
wits,--may Heaven soon heal thee of thy mental wound! Restrain thy
wild and wandering fancies? ... for surely thou canst not be
familiar, as thou sayest with this silver Symbol, seeing that it
is but the Talisman [Footnote: The Cross was held in singular
veneration in the Temple of Serapis, and by many tribes in the
East, ages before the coming of Christ] or Badge of the Mystic
Brethren of Al-Kyris, and has no signification whatsoever save for
the Elect. It was designed some twenty years ago by the inspired
Chief of our Order, Khosrul, and such as are still his faithful
disciples wear it as a record and constant reminder of his famous