"Are you Christians?" he asked, his brow growing sombre. "Yes." "I should like to grant your prayer ... but how is it to be done? The land belongs to the god.... Nevertheless, your property shall be paid for." "No, no," cried out the old people, "we're rooted there by all our habits. We don't ask for money. But there everything is ours; we know every blade of grass...." "There everything is ours," repeated the old woman like an echo. "The vine, the chickens, the cow, the olives, the pigs--everything is ours. And there's the step too, on which in the evening we have warmed our old bones in the sun, side by side, for these twenty years." The Emperor, without listening, turned toward the startled crowd-- "Latterly the Galileans have overwhelmed me with demands for the return of lands belonging to the churches, and the Valentinians accuse the Arians of having robbed them of their properties. To cut short dispute I have given half of those lands to the Gallic warriors and the other half to the Imperial Treasury; and I am decided to act similarly in future. By what right, you ask? But is it not more easy for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven? You glorify poverty, Galileans? Why murmur against me? In taking property which you yourselves have taken from your brother-heretics, or from Olympian temples, I am only restoring you to wholesome poverty and the narrow way into the heavenly kingdom." An evil smile curled his lips. "We're injured unjustly," groaned the two old people. "Well, suffer the injustice!" answered Julian. "You should rejoice in persecution. What are these sufferings to eternal bliss?" The old man, unprepared for this deduction, stammered in dismay, as a forlorn hope-- "We are your faithful slaves, Augustus. My son serves on the military staff, in a distant fortress of the Roman frontier, and his superior officers think well of him...." "Is he also a Christian?" interrupted Julian. "Yes," sighed the old man, and was immediately dismayed at the avowal. "You have done well to warn me. As proved enemies of the Roman Augustus, Christians must not henceforth occupy high Imperial office, above all in the army. I am more of your Master's opinion than you are yourselves. How should disciples of Jesus do justice according to the Roman law, when He has said, '_Judge not, and ye shall not be judged_'? How should Christians rightly defend the Empire by the sword, when they were taught by Him '_He who shall take up the sword shall perish by the sword_'; and again, '_Resist not evil_'? Therefore, for the safety of your souls, we shall withdraw Christians from the law and from the army of Rome; that helpless, and disarmed, and free from frivolous earthliness, they may reach the kingdom of heaven!" Smiling inwardly, and so robbing his hatred of still greater bitterness, the Emperor strode rapidly toward the Temple of Apollo.