"Why, in the cellars of the palace at Antioch they've discovered
chests full of human bones ... and in the city of Karra, near Edessa,
the Christians have found, in a subterranean temple, the corpse of a
woman hanging by her hair with her body slit open.... Julian wanted to
inspect the liver of an infant for his cursed war."
"Eh? Gluturius! Is it true that human bones are found in the sewers?
_You_ ought to know!" said a shoemaker, a confirmed sceptic.
Gluturius, the scavenger, who stood near the door, not venturing in
because he smelt badly, being thus addressed, began, according to his
custom, to smile and to blink his inflamed eyelids:
"No, worthy friends," he answered humbly. "Newborn infants are
sometimes found there, or skeletons of asses and camels, but I never
yet saw a corpse of man or woman."
When Strombix resumed his speech, the scavenger listened religiously,
rubbing his bare leg against the door post.
"Brother men," cried the orator, with fiery indignation, "let us be
revenged! Let us die like ancient Romans!"
"No use bursting _your_ lungs," grumbled the shoemaker. "When we get
to that stage, you'll be the first to turn tail and let the others
die!"
"You're a set of cowards," chimed in a painted woman, dressed in a
poor and tawdry dress. She was a street-walker, nicknamed by her
admirers the She-wolf. "Do you know," she went on wrathfully, "what
the holy martyrs Macedonius, Theodulus, and Tertian replied to their
executioners?"
"No, She-wolf, tell us."
"Well, I've heard. At Myrrha, in Phrygia, three young men, Macedonius,
Theodulus, and Tertian, had burst into a Greek temple by night, and
smashed the idols to the glory of God. The proconsul Amachius had them
seized, stretched them on dripping-pans, and ordered fires to be
lighted under them. The three martyrs said: 'If you want to taste
cooked flesh, Amachius, turn us over on the other side, that we may
not be served up to you half-cooked!' and all three laughed and spat
in the face of the proconsul. And everybody saw an angel come down out
of heaven with three crowns! _You_ wouldn't have spoken so! You're too
fearful for your skins.... It's heart-breaking, just to look at you!"
The She-wolf turned away in disgust.
Cries rose from the street.
"Perhaps they're breaking up idols?" suggested the shoemaker
pleasantly.
"Forward, citizens! Follow me!" shouted Strombix, waving his arms; but
he slipped on the table, and would have fallen had not Aragaris caught
him.
Everybody rushed to the door. An enormous crowd was advancing down the
principal street and, filling the narrow cross-roads, brought up
before the baths.
"Old Pamva! Old Pamva!" the idlers were shouting. "He's come from the
desert to help the people; to pull down the great, and to save the
humble and poor!"