"Augustus! Augustus Julian!"
The soldiers charged with drawn swords. The old rag-picker was knocked
down, struggling and shrieking under the feet of the legionaries. Many
fled, and Strombix was the first to take advantage of the general
confusion. Stones hurtled through the air. The metal-founder,
defending old Pamva, hurled a large jagged flint at a legionary. It
struck the She-wolf, who fell with a slight cry, covered with blood,
and convinced that she was dying a martyr.
A legionary seized Gluturius; but the sewer-cleaner gave himself up so
readily (the prospect of becoming an admired martyr appearing so
enviable in comparison with his present occupation), and his rags gave
off such a stink, that the disgusted soldier immediately released his
prisoner.
In the midst of the crowd there was a market-gardener who had chanced
by, leading an ass laden with cabbages. Mouth agape, he had listened
to old Pamva from beginning to end. Noticing the danger, he now tried
to flee, but his ass starkly refused. In vain was the beast
belaboured. Buttressed against his forefeet, with ears lowered and
tail lifted, it uttered a deafening series of brays, drowning in its
triumphant stupidity the death-rattle of the dying, the oaths of the
soldiery, and the prayers of Galileans.
Oribazius, who was among the companions of Julian, came up to the
Emperor--
"Julian, what are you doing? Is it worthy of your wisdom?..."
The Emperor cast on him a stern look, and Oribazius was silent, not
daring to finish his protest.
In the last few months Julian had not only changed but grown old. His
worn face had the sad and terrible expression of those gnawed by some
long and incurable malady, or absorbed in some fixed idea akin to
madness. His powerful hands were unconsciously tearing to pieces a
roll of papyrus. At last he said in a deep voice, with eyes kept
steadily on Oribazius--
"Away! I know what I am doing.... With these scoundrels who have no
faith in the gods, one cannot deal as with human beings. They must be
destroyed like wild beasts. And for the matter of that, what harm
would be done if a dozen Galileans were slain by the hand of the
Hellenists?"