"Cæsar! I entrust him to you.... Do not abandon him...."
"Be assured; I will do all that I can for the little one."
So Julian took under his protection one to whom not even a Roman Cæsar
could now do good or harm.
Gorgius let his hand remain on the head of Hepherion. Suddenly his
face lighted; he tried to say something, and stammered incoherently--
"Rejoice! Rejoice!"
He gazed before him with eyes wide open, sighed, paused in the midst
of the sigh, and his look faded. Julian closed the eyes of the dead.
Suddenly exultant songs were heard. The Emperor wheeled round, and saw
a long procession marching down the cypress-alley. A great crowd of
priests, in dalmatics of cloth of gold covered with precious gems,
deacons swinging censers, black monks bearing lighted tapers, virgins
and youths clothed in white, children waving palm-branches, and above
the crowd on a lofty car the relics of Babylas, in a glittering silver
shrine. They were the relics expelled, by Cæsar's orders, from Daphne
to Antioch. The expulsion had become a victorious march. The people
were singing the ancient Psalm of David glorifying the God of Israel--
"_He is clothed in clouds and darkness!_"
Above the moanings of the wind, and the roarings of the fire, soared
the triumphant chant of the Galileans to the lurid vault of the sky--
"_Clouds and darkness surround Him, fire tramples out His enemies
before Him, and the mountains melt like wax before the face of the
Lord, the Lord of all the earth!_"