"Glory to Augustus Julian! Glory! Glory!" and louder and louder yet
from outskirts of the hill, as far as they were covered by the
legions, arose a cry repeated by thousands of voices--
"Glory!... Glory!..."
Mountains, air, earth, and forest trembled with the voice of the
multitude.
"Look, look!" murmured the dismayed Christians; "the Labarum is being
lowered!" And in fact the holy banner was being veiled before the
Emperor. A military blacksmith came down from the wood with a brazier
and red-hot pincers.
Julian, whose face, in spite of the ruddy gleams of the purple and the
sun, was dark with strong emotion, wrenched the golden cross, with its
monogram of precious stones, from the staff of the Labarum. Pearls,
emeralds, and rubies were scattered on the ground, and the glittering
cross buried in the earth, stamped under the sandal of the Roman
Cæsar.
From a casket Maximus immediately drew forth a little silver statue of
the Sun-god, Mithra-Helios; and the smith in a few instants soldered
it to the staff of the Labarum.
Before the army had recovered from its astonishment and fear,
Constantine's sacred banner rose above the head of the Emperor,
crowned with the image of Apollo. An old soldier, who was a devout
Christian, turned away and veiled his eyes to avoid seeing the sight
of horror.
"Sacrilege! sacrilege!" he muttered, turning pale.
"Woe, woe, upon us!" groaned another; "Satan has entoiled our
Emperor!"
Julian knelt before the standard and, stretching out his arms to the
little silver image, exclaimed--
"Glory to the invincible Sun, king of all gods!... Augustus worships
the eternal Helios; god of light, god of reason, god of the gladness
and joy upon Olympus!"
The last rays of sunset lighted the bold beauty of the god of Delphi,
and rayed his head. The legionaries stood in silence, save that in the
wood the dry leaves could be heard falling. The conflagration of the
sunset, the purple of the sacrificial king, the withered woods, all
these breathed a magnificence as of sumptuous obsequies. One of the
men in the front rank muttered a single word so distinctly that it
reached Julian's ear, and thrilled him--
"_Anti-Christ!_"