patriarch himself, was he not called from the caves of Nitria to sit
on the throne of Alexandria?'

Slowly the old man lifted his band, and putting back the thick locks
of the kneeling youth, gazed, with soft pitying eyes, long and
earnestly into his face.

'And thou wouldst see the world, poor fool? And thou wouldst see
the world?'

'I would convert the world!'

'Thou must know it first. And shall I tell thee what that world is
like, which seems to thee so easy to convert? Here I sit, the poor
unknown old monk, until I die, fasting and praying, if perhaps God
will have mercy on my soul: but little thou knowest how I have seen
it. Little thou knowest, or thou wouldst be well content to rest
here till the end. I was Arsenius .... Ah! vain old man that I am!
Thou hast never heard that name, at which once queens would whisper
and grow pale. Vanitas vanitatum! omnia vanitas! And yet he, at
whose frown half the world trembles, has trembled himself at mine.
I was the tutor of Arcadius.'

'The Emperor of Byzantium?'

'Even so, my son, even so. There I saw the world which thou wouldst
see. And what saw I? Even what thou wilt see. Eunuchs the tyrants
of their own sovereigns. Bishops kissing the feet of parricides and
harlots. Saints tearing saints in pieces for a word, while sinners
cheer them on to the unnatural fight. Liars thanked for lying,