A few days afterwards Felix entered the audience chamber with his wife Drusilla[1108], daughter of the late king Herod Agrippa. Her beauty is spoken of as something marvellous, and she had been induced by the procurator to leave her first husband, Azizus king of Emessa, to become his paramour. The two now sent for St Paul, and desired to have the Christian doctrines explained to them. Accordingly before the Roman libertine and the profligate Jewish princess, the Apostle preached with his wonted faithfulness, and while he discoursed concerning _righteousness, and temperance, and judgment to come_, Felix trembled. But though he trembled, the profligate governor would not release his prisoner from confinement. _Go thy way_, said he, _for this time; when I have a convenient season I will send for thee_. He knew that the Apostle’s relatives moved in a respectable sphere, and he had heard him speak of sums of money[1109] intrusted to his care, and he wished it to be understood that his liberation was not hopeless, if bought with a suitable sum[1110]. Hence he frequently sent for the Apostle, and conversed with him. But St Paul was not one to stoop to such dishonourable means. He preferred to remain in confinement rather than purchase his freedom with a bribe, and at Cæsarea he continued upwards of two years, or from A.D. 58 to A.D. 60. During this long period of suspense from active labour, it is not improbable that the Gospel of St Luke was composed under the Apostle’s eye, and it is possible that “many messages, and even letters, of which we know nothing, may have been sent from Cæsarea to brethren at a distance[1111].” Meanwhile the government of Felix became more and more unpopular, and the disaffection of his subjects was increased by a serious quarrel between the Jewish and heathen population at Cæsarea, in which the troops sided with the latter, and committed gross acts of butchery and plunder[1112]. This led to the recall of Felix, A.D. 60; and anxious to conciliate the Jews, who had complained of his administration at Rome, he left Paul in bonds (Acts xxiv. 27). His successor was Porcius Festus, who like himself had probably been a slave, and was one of the emperor’s freedmen. Three days after his landing at Cæsarea he repaired to Jerusalem, and there was introduced to the high-priest[1113] and leading members of the nation. They instantly embraced the opportunity of renewing their machinations against the Apostle, and requested the new governor to allow him to be removed to Jerusalem, intending to assassinate him on the road (Acts xxv. 3). Festus replied that St Paul was in custody at Cæsarea, whither he himself was on the point of returning: the Roman Law did not allow an uncondemned person to be given up as a mere favour: he must have his accusers face to face, and be enabled to make his defence; if therefore they wished to bring any charges against him, they must come down to Cæsarea and there prefer them (Acts xxv. 4, 5, 16).