against which it was built, torches were blazing and threw their ruddy
light on a row of biers, on which under green palm-branches lay the
heroes who had fallen in the battle against the Blemmyes. Now the hymn
ceased, the gates of the house of God opened and Agapitus led his
followers towards the dead. The congregation gathered in a half-circle
round their peaceful brethren, and heard the blessing that their pastor
pronounced over the noble victims who had shed their blood in fighting
the heathen. When it was ended those who in life had been their nearest
and dearest went up to the dead, and many tears fell into the sand from
the eye of a mother or a wife, many a sigh went up to heaven from a
father's breast. Next to the bier, on which old Stephanus was resting,
stood another and a smaller one, and between the two Hermas knelt and
wept. He raised his face, for a deep and kindly voice spoke his name.

"Petrus," said the lad, clasping the hand that the senator held out to
him, "I felt forced and driven out into the world, and away from my
father--and now he is gone for ever how gladly I would have been kept by
him."

"He died a noble death, in battle for those he loved," said the senator
consolingly,

"Paulus was near him when he fell," replied Hermas. "My father fell from
the wall while defending the tower; but look here this girl--poor child--
who used to keep your goats, died like a heroine. Poor, wild Miriam, how
kind I would be to you if only you were alive now!"

Hermas as he spoke stroked the arm of the shepherdess, pressed a kiss on
her small, cold hand, and softly folded it with the other across her
bosom.