“I was delivered from death by Claudius, your noble-hearted friend, who bade me see my dear young mistress, and tell her that he had fulfilled his vow. But I have never dared to present myself at the temple, or the house of the vestals, for I might perchance bring trouble upon my dear young mistress, for I am a baptised Christian.” Casca started back-- “A Christian!” he exclaimed. “There is greater peril here than in Verulam. There is a fresh outbreak of persecution, and a number are to be thrown to the beasts this very day.” “I know it,” Anna said, in a firm voice. “The life that my Lord has given back to me I will guard, nor rashly deliver myself up. But, oh! my young master, why will you not accept the cross and bear it after Jesus? “He is rising over the world,” Anna continued, “like yonder light, which proclaims the near approach of the sun. He is coming to flood this sinful world with righteousness, even as the golden flood of sunrise is bathing the Alban Hills.” As she spoke, she pointed with her hand to the scene stretched out before them, as they stood under the shadow of the ilex trees, and looked down upon the prospect, which lay like a vision of beauty, rather than a reality of this lower world, in all its loveliness. For one by one the peaks of the Alban Hills rose from the plain, and a rosy flush touched the highest of all, where the old temple of Jupiter once stood, the common meeting-place and shrine of the early Latin race. Soon the Campagna smiled in the early level rays of the sun, and everything became imbued with life! Casca was strangely moved as Anna said-- “Here, or at Verulam in the caves, or in the forests of Britain, the Lord is the light. Oh! my noble Casca, I pray you bathe your soul in His light, and you will have peace and joy in His presence!” Casca folded his arms and looked out upon the shining landscape, wondering much that the slave-girl should have become a woman on whose face was written a high and noble resolve, the outcome of the reality and fervour of her faith. “Yes!” she continued, “I am now living in the Jews’ quarter, on the slope of the hill. I hear from them the words of their prophets and sibyls, and I know that these foretold the coming of the Saviour of the world. They did not know Him, and he was nailed to the cross, like a malefactor, by the Roman Governor’s order, in the province of Judæa. The Jews clamoured for His life, as the Romans clamour for the lives of the Christians. And He laid it down, to take it again, dying for Roman and Greek, Jew and Christian, Briton and Druid, alike.” “I would I could believe,” Casca sighed, “for there is a hunger of the soul nothing can satisfy. But, Anna, this may be a fable or a phantom, this Christ of whom you speak.” “Nay, dear master, He is no fable and no phantom. He lives in _us_ and we live in Him. But----”