Then there were moments when, after careful study of the manuscript which had been lent to him, he would be strangely moved, and St. Paul’s eloquent description of all those _who had died in the faith_ would fasten upon his imagination. Was not the same spirit of endurance abroad at that very time? Some two hundred and seventy years had gone by since St. Paul had made up that grand roll of names of those who esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than any treasure, and there was the same tale of suffering being told for the faith of which these men and women were the valiant defenders. They had received the promise, which promise reached beyond death to the life eternal. “If only,” Casca thought, “he could know that it was true, would he not have strength given him to confess Christ openly.” Then the natural disposition of the boy asserted itself, and he would turn back to the philosophy of the schools, and try to rest upon the hope rather than the belief that there was no beyond. Like many since that time, Casca could not surrender his heart, and, lost in the mists of human reasoning, he could not become a little child that he might be wise. Casca’s natural sweetness of disposition won him friends in that large and pleasure-seeking household, and the taunts and scoffs that he had at first to endure, for his pure living and dislike of over-indulgence and luxury, ceased. It was universally allowed that Casca, the son of Severus, must be left to go on his own way undisturbed, and as he never offended any one, it was by common consent conceded that no one should offend him. CHAPTER XI. JUNE, 313--THE FESTIVAL OF VESTA. Years passed swiftly by, in the fourth century as in the nineteenth! They brought with them as they came many changes, they bore away with them many hopes, and left behind the memory of many sorrows, and the soft radiance of many vanished joys! The persecution of the Christians had in great measure ceased, and, with the abdication of Diocletian, the edicts for their arrest and slaughter had been revoked. It was comparatively a time of peace, and the conflict between the old and the new faiths seemed for a season at rest. Constantius Chlorus had put a stop to the persecution of the Christians in Britain in the year after Alban had suffered, and now, in the year 313, Constantine was Emperor, and well known to favour the religion of Christ. But if the old faiths were shaken to their very foundations, every effort was made to put on an appearance of increased enthusiasm at public ceremonials, and to load the altars of the gods and goddesses with the choicest offerings and the most costly sacrifices. The great festival in honour of Vesta was to be celebrated this year with excessive pomp and circumstance. The preparations were organised on a very large scale, and enormous offerings were continually pouring in to the vestals’ house and the temple, some time before the great day, which fell on the ninth of June.