Still, out of sight, and hidden from general observation, a kingdom was growing daily in strength and numbers. Like the grain of mustard seed, like the little lump of leaven, the Church of the Catacombs was gathering force and extending its boundary, month by month, year by year. But if it requires a strong effort of the imagination to call back the individual life of the men and women who flocked to the resorts of pleasure and business in the Forum and the Circus, it is almost more difficult to realise the buried life of Rome at that time, which, nevertheless, was as a spark to be kindled into a light that should cast its bright beams over the world, when the splendour of the great Empire, with all its false brilliancy, should have sunk in gloom and darkness. The Christians grew and multiplied, and we are told that thousands were even now converts in heart, though held back by fear from confessing Christ openly. The persecution which was raging fiercely in 304 had, perhaps, the effect of driving timid ones into obscurity, but it was as a stimulant to many steadfast souls, who died with a smile of victory on their faces and a song of rejoicing on their lips. Anna, the British slave, lived in the Jews’ quarter, with old Ezra, and faithfully fulfilled her duties as his daughter. The old man was querulous and exacting; the desire of gain, which had taken him to the distant pearl-fisheries of Britain, was strong upon him. He found Anna’s skill with her fingers most useful to him, and she was now engaged in the embroidery of a quantity of rich velvet with gold and seed-pearls, which Ezra was to sell to a dealer, for the train of the Empress, and for which he was to receive a fabulous sum. But it was the gold, and not the advantages which the gold could bring, which was precious to Ezra. The Jews’ quarter, hidden under a spur of the Cælian Hill, was thickly populated, and the low square buildings where they dwelt were poor and overcrowded. They had one rather larger than the rest, which was set apart for their synagogue, and here the more devout worshipped the God of their fathers at the appointed seasons. The community was not a happy or particularly harmonious one; jealousies were rife, and Ezra was believed to have amassed riches, though he lived in a mean way, and professed to be poor. One of the Jewish women would often come and sit with Anna, while she bent over her embroidery, and she would talk of the expected deliverer of Israel, who was soon to come, “As a king, to reign,” she would say. And then Anna would tell of the King who _had_ come--whose dominion was to spread from sea to sea, and who was to put all enemies under His feet. Anna had been well taught by Amphibalus and Agatha, and instructed in the Scriptures, so that she could tell Rebekah many things of which she had never heard.