But Dion's hand was firmly laid upon the speaker's mouth. "Nay, hold your breath, old man. If you give us much of it that way, this crowd will take the rest of it with the hangman's rope." Dion gently took the Jew's arm. "You must go back to your house. Come, I will see you safely within doors, if you will stay there." "No, I will go to the house of the Lord, and worship, for it is the ninth hour," replied the determined man. "That you cannot do," said Dion, kindly. "Don't you see that the Temple gate is burned, and that soldiers are guarding the opening? Your worship is no longer permitted there. Your sort of priests are all gone." "Then," said the patriot, "I will be my own priest. Surely the Lord will accept an old man's last worship on earth before he goes hence." "Nay, my good man, but the priests of the new religion are at the Temple. To-morrow they celebrate the feast of Bacchus. If you go there, they will crown you with ivy, and make you drunk in honor of the god. You must go home, and stay within doors." "Then let me go--to my own house! My God! Why was it not my sepulchre ere I saw what the Prophet foretold?" Captain Dion led him safely along the Street of David, the crowd giving way as it gazed upon the two and remarked the contrast between the half-mummied saint and the strong-limbed, festive-crowned youth. "Old Elkiah is about the last of this damnable race left in Jerusalem. It is a wonder that Apollonius has given him tether so long." "Perhaps Dion knows the Jew," responded some one. "The captain is as good a Greek as ever drew sword or loved a woman, but his nose isn't straight on a line with his forehead. See, it has a Jewish twist." "A fine observation," laughed another, "for one always follows his nose, and that may account for Dion's kindness to some of these rebels." "Don't insult Captain Dion!" said one. "He's close in with Apollonius. Besides, he's a good fellow. He always gives a weaker man his handicap in the arena without having it ordered." "True, or you would not have won yesterday. But I wish he wouldn't interfere with the sport of the men. I know that it is cruel, but the sooner the bigots are exterminated the sooner it will cease. Were it not for Dion's friendship for that Glaucon--as Elkiah's fool of a son now calls himself--we would soon find out what the old Jew's house has for us. They say his cellar is as good as a gold-mine." "Better kill off Glaucon, and let the old man die himself. You saw that his life is about burned out, and his old body only like a heap of ashes with a spark in it," was the humane response.