Thereupon, without a moment’s delay, Lysias rushed down attended by some centurions and a strong body of troops. The sight of the dreaded arms of the Imperial forces brought the multitude to their senses, and they left off _beating Paul_. The commandant then approached, and apprehending the Apostle, ordered him to be chained by each hand to a soldier[1079], suspecting that he was an Egyptian pretender[1080], who had lately caused a revolt, and had hitherto baffled the pursuit of the soldiers of Felix the governor (Acts xxi. 38). He then endeavoured to ascertain from the bystanders who his prisoner was and what he had done, but _some cried one thing, and some another_; and finding it impossible to gain any information amidst the tumult, he ordered him to be conveyed into the barracks within the fortress. Accordingly the soldiers proceeded to remove the Apostle, but so furious was the crowd pressing behind them with yells and execrations, that they had to bear him up in their arms up the staircase. Just as they reached the barracks, St Paul, addressing the commandant in Greek, enquired respectfully whether he might speak to him. Startled at being addressed in the Grecian tongue, Lysias in his turn enquired whether he was mistaken in supposing him to be the Egyptian rebel. St Paul replied that he was no Egyptian, but a Jew, a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, _a citizen of no mean city_, and requested permission to address the people. On which the commandant, influenced it may be by the aspect and manner of his prisoner, at once gave his consent (Acts xxi. 40). CHAPTER V. _THE IMPRISONMENT AT CÆSAREA._ A.D. 58. STANDING then on the stairs, and beckoning to the crowd with his chained hands to invite their attention, the Apostle began to address them in the Hebrew language. Charmed by the accents of their own beloved tongue, the multitude listened with the deepest silence while he tried to dispel their prejudices against himself. Beginning with the well-known circumstances of his birth and education at Tarsus and Jerusalem, he declared that he was a Jew like themselves, that he had been brought up according to the strictest requirements of the Law, and had hated, persecuted, and endeavoured to extinguish the sect of the Christians (Acts xxii. 3–5). He then proceeded to recount the wonderful circumstances of his conversion on the way to Damascus[1081], of his blindness, cure, and baptism (Acts xxii. 6–16), and how on his return to Jerusalem, as he was praying in the Temple, he fell into a trance[1082], saw that Saviour who had appeared to him on his memorable journey, and was commanded by Him to leave Jerusalem, and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts xxii. 17–21).