"The business upon which thy bishop came unto me having been carefully unfolded by him, the delay therein was caused by the necessity of sending far beyond Antioch for a fitting person to accomplish that upon which we had agreed as necessary for thy service; but it hath been done. The great fleet of the Emperor Licinius hath been so far neutralized that not a ship thereof will cross the sea to molest thy coasts if there should be war. On that thou mayst implicitly rely." "Tell me the means by which this most important work hath been accomplished; and spare thou no details of the business: my only wish now is to hear thee fully!" "It happened more than a year ago," said the bishop, "that I received letters from a presbyter at Chalcis, far beyond Antioch in Syria, concerning a most singular youth of that village, who was an epileptic--a devout Christian, but of strange fancies and of extraordinary appearance. This lad, the presbyter informed me, during the paroxysms of his disease seemed to be possessed by some sort of a spirit of divination, and the Church there had vainly attempted to exorcise the spirit; for thaumaturgy hath recently been lost. But the presbyter himself had little faith in his prophetic powers, because he had discovered that it was possible, by strongly impressing the mind of the youth, before the paroxysms came upon him, with some peculiar and striking thought, to anticipate the subject, and often even the very words, of his supposed prophetic ravings. Now, when the bishop unfolded to me what he desired to attempt for thy service, I at once thought of this Syrian youth, and judged that he might be advantageously used therein. The sending of a messenger to Chalcis for him wrought some delay, and, when the messenger reached that place, the youth had gone elsewhere; and it was a work of time to discover him, and might, indeed, have been impossible, but for a certain notoriety bestowed upon him by the strange misfortune under which he labored. And, after we had received the youth at Nicomedia, it was a work of time, and care, and patience, to secure his entire confidence, and train him properly for the business we had undertaken. Do I state the matter too minutely for thy patience?" "Nay," said Constantine; "it is wonderfully interesting. Thou need have no fear that thy narrative will weary me: I do desire to hear thee fully."