"We  do  not,"  recommenced  Olinthus — "we  do  not  bind
you  to  secrecy;  we  impose  on  you  no  oaths  (as  some  of  our
weaker  brethren  would  do)  not  to  betray  us.  It  is  true,
indeed,  that  there  is  no  absolute  law  against  us;  but  the
multitude,  more  savage  than  their  rulers,  thirst  for  our
lives.  So,  my  friends,  when  Pilate  would  have  hesitated,
it  was  the  people  who  shouted  '  Christ  to  the  Cross ! '  But  we
bind  you  not  to  our  safety — no!  Betray  us  to  the  crowd-
impeach,  calumniate,  malign  us  if  you  will :  we  are  above
death,  we  should  walk  cheerfully  to  the  den  of  the  lion,  or
the  rack  of  the  torturer — we  can  trample  down  the  dark-


THE  LAST  DAYS  OP  POMPEII.  215

ness  of  the  grave,  and  what  is  death  to  a  criminal  is  eter-
nity to  the  Christian."

A  low  and  applauding  murmur  ran  through  the  assembly.
^'Thou  comest  amongst  us  as  an  examiner,  may  est  thou
remain  a  convert!  Our  religion?  you  behold  it!  Yon
cross  our  sole  image,  yon  scroll  the  mysteries  of  our  (Dsere
and  Eleusis!  Our  morality?  it  is  in  our  lives! — sinners
we  all  have  been;  who  now  can  accuse  us  of  a  crime?  we
have  baptized  ourselves  from  the  past.  Think  not  that
thiis  is  of  us,  it  is  of  God.  Approach,  Medon,"  beckoning
to  the  old  slave  who  had  spoken  third  for  the  admission  of
Apaecides,  "  thou  art  the  sole  man  amongst  us  who  is  not
free.  But  in  heaven,  the  last  shall  be  first:  so  with  us.
